Remember Daniel Avila, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops staffer who published a column blaming homosexuality on demonic activity in the womb? He screwed up.
Daniel Avila, an attorney who serves as policy advisor for the Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), has retracted a Boston archdiocesan newspaper column linking Satan with the origins of same-sex attractions.
Sadly, though, this withdrawal does not indicate any actual change in opinion. He merely failed to follow the proper technical procedure.
Statements made in my column, ‘Some fundamental questions on same-sex attraction’ of October 28, do not represent the position of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the column was not authorized for publication as is required policy for staff of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Deep down though—or perhaps not so deep down—he still believes that what he wrote has the potential to allow the Church to justify its continued discrimination against gays.
“If in fact this analysis of causation and culpability is correct, then it opens new perspectives on the Church’s teaching in this area,” he concluded. “Being born with an inclination which originates in a manner outside of one’s control is not sufficient proof that the condition is caused by God or that its satisfaction meets God’s purpose. Furthermore, a proper understanding of who is really at fault should deepen our compassion towards those who experience same-sex attraction and inform our response to the question of loneliness. Ultimately, an accurate attribution of responsibility for same-sex attraction frees us to consider more fully the urgent question of why sexual difference matters so much to God.”
Shoot, that last question’s an easy one. Sexual differences matter so much to God because they matter to the bigots who created Him in their own image. Everybody knows that.
Cause God forbid two people fall in love.
“Being born with an inclination which originates in a manner outside of one’s control is not sufficient proof that the condition is caused by God […]”
Well quite. Because you don’t have
sufficientany proof that God exists in the first place.The reason he wrote the original article, it seems, is to undercut the notion that “god created gays so they must be okay, because god doesn’t make mistakes”. This idea must upset the roman catholic wingnut cadre. So Avila tries to help the cause by saying that Satan did it. That way, god gets off scott-free. Mission accomplished. Unfortunately, the public outcry made them pull back. But they’ll just polish the idea and send it out into the world in new clothes at a later date. Betcha. PS: I love your sex comment at the end. The roman catholic church will never know what to do with sex. It will always be their Nemesis.
I think you may have misinterpreted the last question regarding why sexual differences matter to God. Sexual differences matter because if we were all the same sex, we’d have to have some form of cloning to continue as a species.
Of course, if he meant “sexual proclivity” differences…then your analysis is correct.
… that last question’s an easy one.
What last question? What question at all?
Everything quoted here was stated in assertive mode, exactly as if Avila knew what he was talking about.
The USCCB is not worried about Avila’s argument as applied to same-sex attraction. For those acquainted with scholastic reasoning, it’s obvious that with a few minor changes, the same argument can be applied to molestation of children. QED: all those guys with their collars on backward are Rosemary’s babies.
Oops.
“responsibility” “fault”
FU, buddy.
“Being born with an inclination which originates in a manner outside of one’s control is not sufficient proof that the condition is caused by God …”
So this “God” is not omnipotent and punishes people for things over which they have no control. Ri-i-i-ght, so I guess that throws the whole Just and Forgiving God thing right out of the window.