What is Truth?

There is only 1 cardinal sin in this modern era: claiming to hold an absolute truth.

"There shall be a time when they shall not endure sound doctrine but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers with itching ears, and will indeed turn away from the hearing of the truth... " - 2 Timothy 4:3-4

You can hold any opinion under the sun, & under this new dispensation, everyone of them must be held as absolutely equal, even sacrosanct - beyond questioning or criticism. What you cannot do, ever, is state that you are right & someone else is wrong.

I was flipping channels before heading out to Mass & I came across a catchy headline on a CNN news program: "Gay bishop speaks out," or something to that effect, apparently about Gene Robinson running his mouth about something. Always curious to see how legion are the misinterpretations & mis-presentations of Christian faith in the media, I stuck around long enough to hear Joy Berhar say to an openly-gay pastor she was interviewing, "What part of 'Love one another' do these people not get?"

This nerf dart of error is apparently aimed at mainstream Christians who take God - speaking through St. Paul - seriously when he says:

"Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Neither fornicators not idolaters nor adulterers; nor the effeminate nor liers with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor railers nor extortioners shall possess the kingdom of God. And such some of you were..." - 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

This is really a classic case of taking something you want to do - say, openly practice a sexual deviancy - & then use a fan dance of vague religious language & scriptural references to convince yourself & everyone else that God not only tolerates your sin, but that Jesus actually taught approval of it. Further, any church that does not embrace your deviancy is archaic & backwards & any person who does not support your cause is at best ignorant & prejudiced or at worst a hate-monger.

Note that it's not enough that these things be tolerated. We are required to approve of them. One doesn't have to have a very keen eye or razor-sharp insight to recognize the tremendous increase in overt sexual imagery in the media over the past 30 years or so. It should be clear that pornography has basically gone mainstream, & along with this culture of sexual license is the huge push for homosexuals & other sexual deviants to demand their "rights."

The problem is, you can't grant equality of truth to something that is false. St. Thomas tells us that truth is Nature in accord with right reason. Homosexuality is false prima facia. One cannot create their own reality. There is not, has never been, & will never be a child on this earth with 2 fathers or 2 mothers. It is simply not possible. If one brings up that male-female sex is no longer required in this age of test-tube babies, I refer you back to St. Thomas: you're barking up the wrong tree again.

Now consider this in the context of theology, where Christ is the bridegroom & the Church is his bride. In what sense can a priest - the tangible presence of Christ within the sacred assembly - be homosexual? What are we to make of the Bride receiving the Bridegroom in the consummation that is the Eucharist? Further, it is not even possible without overt blasphemy to discuss homosexuality in regards to the sacrament of Matrimony. Do you see how far reaching this issues goes into the life & nature of the Church, who she is before Christ Jesus? This is far beyond a matter of being "nice" or "fair" to a certain group. In a word, caving into our perverted society's pressure to accept homosexuality as some kind of state equal to the natural state between man & woman is really to deny the Christian Faith, to deny Christ himself. The Holy Faith is interlinked in such a way that denial of one truth of the Faith will inevitably lead to a collapse of all of them.

After saying all this, I, with the Church itself, advocate tolerance in the proper sense of the word - to deal with a known disorder by peaceful means, by persuading instead of coercing. The Church acknowledges that people are afflicted with same-sex attraction, but sees it as a symptom of our fallen nature & urges them to embrace continence - as all Christians are in their state of life - as the cross they must bear, but also as their path to holiness. We are all called to sainthood despite our brokenness. Paul continues his above statement with:

"But you are washed; you are sanctified; you are justified; in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God." - 1 Corinthians 6:11

The real key here is embracing Christ, not one's bodily urges, to be defined by the Man, the Risen Man, the Glorified Man, not by the craven desires of fallen man. It is a quest for holiness; the waging of a war against all that would keep us from God. Throwing out the stale canard of pedophile priests is not very helpful here; the Church sees this, too, as a grave disorder, the worst of which - mercifully - is in the past.

So, to paraphrase a famous saying, everyone is entitled their own belief, but not their own truth. There is only one truth & that is the One who is the Way, the Truth, & the Life. There really are no new heresies, just old ones dressed in today's fashions. When faced with a dilemma of how to handle them when they pop up, one should not try to rationalize them with today's woolly spiritualities, but instead return to the source: to Christ Jesus, to the Scriptures, to the sure teachings of the Church, & to penance & prayer. In the light of Christ's truth, all error evaporates.