Advertising and Christian Morality
Can the Catholic put up posters promoting LGBT rights?
Not if it is true that LGBT people are breaking divine law and will suffer
eternal loss if they fail to repent before dying.
Not if it is true that LGBT rights are not rights at all.
Not if it is true that LGBT people are only embracing misery at the price of
temporary joys.
The Catholic who does it is not respecting his religion. Rather than being
neutral, he is respecting another authority be it the state or a health body or
whatever.
The Catholic believes that God has the right to make laws that seem to make
little or no sense to us. That is simply because he sees the full picture and we
don't. Thus religion has to be based on dogma - and dogma will necessarily
involve a refusal to deal with any criticism of the dogma unless the criticism
is inadequate. The believing Catholic cannot put the posters up for the posters
show no concern for Catholic teaching.
According to some, hating the sin and loving the sinner means:
- You do not shun the sinner. Instead you encourage her to repent.
Jesus said that you must shun a stubborn sinner as a sign of how much they need
to get rid of the sin.
- You do not call the sinner names. Instead you curse the sin.
Jesus called the Jewish leaders all the names under the sun in Matthew 23. And
you cannot want to hurt a sin - it is only a person you can want to hurt.
- You avoid ill feelings for the sinner. But you must have the feelings of
intense dislike for the sin.
This contradicts Christian teaching that acting for the welfare of others
despite our feelings for them is all that matters.
Do you encourage the person not to sin for their own sake or because you hate
the sin? You may hate the sin but that is not necessarily because of her. For
the Christian, God comes first therefore it is the fact that he is being
offensively disobeyed that matters.
In any case, the account of how we are supposed to love sinners and hate their
sins proves that Catholics fail to hate the sin if they call for support for
LGBT rights by putting posters up. And even more so if the posters promote
same-sex marriage!
Leave the Church and be an honest man or woman and you could then be a true
supporter of LGBT rights.