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Seminar on Homosexuality
August 2003 By Kenneth Lau
The Seminar took place on Saturday 30 August 2003 from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Catholic Archdiocesan Education Centre, 2 Highland Road, in Singapore. It was jointly organized by the Family Life Society, the Catholic Medical Guild and the Catholic Lawyers' Guild. Read the Catholic Asian News article about the Seminar and the earlier Symposium on Homosexuality and the Church organised by Trinity Theological College in October 1998. Note: All references to the Church in this article refers to the Roman Catholic Church. Seminar on Homosexuality Brother Michael Broughton - Pastoral aspects Brother Michael spoke from the point of view of someone involved in pastoral care. He started by reminding everyone of God's inclusive love, and noted that we needed to provide pastoral care even though we don't have the answers to the issue at hand. Care for the person does not mean we necessarily condone the person's behaviour or actions, but this care does not come with any preconditions. He noted that currently the Church is not involved in dialogue with homosexuals, even though it dialogues with people who are of different faith traditions. Unlike in the U.S. where there are gay Catholic groups such as Courage, there is no dialogue with gay people in Singapore and Malaysia. Brother Michael implied that those serving in a pastoral function have different needs than those involved in theology. He said that we can discuss homosexuality in a seminary without needing to meet any homosexuals. However, those serving in pastoral care need to enter into dialogue with homosexuals, in order to understand the issues involved. Brother Michael once again noted that listening is not the same as condoning. He agreed that homosexuals need clear moral guidelines, but also stated that gay people "who are not called to celibacy" need options. He also brought up the point that the Church no longer viewed procreation as the only reason for marriage and said that Catholic marriage is valid even if barren. He felt uncomfortable with the language used in a recent Vatican document on same-sex marriages, which stated for instance that homosexual acts are "disordered", and that adoption by same sex couples would be tantamount to "doing violence" to children. Brother Michael pointed out that if the latter point were true, then single parent families and Catholic Sisters and Brothers running orphanages would also be "doing violence" to children. Homosexuals, he said, are not "those people out there" but our brothers, uncles, friends and colleagues. Loving the sinner and hating the sin sounds wonderful but there are practical difficulties with this approach when being homosexual is so much part of a person's being. Brother Michael said that being gay can be natural, just as being blind can be natural. But those who use the language of the Church, are labelled politically incorrect, while those who use more neutral language are termed spiritually incorrect. He believes we should stick to the teachings of the Church while remaining pastorally sensitive. Brother Michael felt that people deciding they are gay need to be old enough to come to this decision. He has come across instances of young children being persuaded to have same-sex experiences on the SGboy internet chatline and strongly feels this is wrong. He said however that the people doing this are a minority of any population, and cited the parallel example of older men preying on young girls. He concluded by saying that right now the situation in the Church is a case of the blind leading the blind, and that we need dialogue with homosexuals in order to provide genuine care to our homosexual brothers and sisters. In passing he said it seemed as if the Church were biased against all things sexual. Dr. Ian Snodgrass - Medical aspects Much of Dr. Snodgrass' material was taken from "The Negative Health Effects of Homosexuality" by Timothy J. Dailey, a handout given to the audience. Dr. Dailey is cultural studies senior writer and analyst at the Family Research Council. Dr. Snodgrass began by asking if homosexuality were the product of genes or the environment. He gave a short biological explanation of gender determination, then touched on various chromosomal defects such as Jacob's syndrome and behavioural disorders such as Alzheimer's. He said that the homosexual tendency could be due to a genetic predisposition. Thus far scientists have not been able to identify a gay gene. He cited a study of identical twins that showed that if one identical twin is gay, the other is gay 50% of the time. This showed that homosexuality "cannot be genetic", otherwise there would be a 100% correlation. Some scientists have found brain differences in gay people, but it is possible that these brain differences are the result and not the cause of homosexuality. For instance, he explained that weightlifters have large muscles because they train with weights, and that it is a fallacy to think they decided to lift weights because they had large muscles to begin with. Dr. Snodgrass also cited the role of upbringing in shaping homosexuals. According to him, 90% of homosexuals have a broken relationship with the same gender parent, ineffective bonding, and no same gender role model. He said that biological and social factors probably interact to pre-dispose a person towards homosexuality. However, being "born that way" does not mean being "designed that way". He believes that homosexual intercourse is a "sexual aberration with no procreative meaning", and that homosexuality resembles other "deviations" such as, among other things, abortion, sadomasochism, masturbation and contraception. Dr. Snodgrass then moved to the second part of his talk, which was about the health risks of being homosexual. Although homosexuals accounted for between 1.8% to 2.8% of the population, he said that data from Singapore's Ministry of Health showed that homosexuals accounted for 21% of the cases of HIV to date on a cumulative basis. He also said that some diseases more common among homosexuals than the general population, for example, HIV, gonorrhoea, syphilis, genital warts, gay bowel syndrome, alcoholism, suicides, are prone to a higher death generally apart from HIV. He concluded that genes and the environment combine to determine our characteristics or predispose us in a certain way, and that we need to recognise genes and/or the environment is sometimes bad and do what we can to overcome them. Mr. Thomas Aqbal - Legal Aspects Mr. Aqbal believes two things recently happened that will, in his words, affect the whole world. First of all, an Ontario court has allowed gay marriages to take place, basing its decision on human rights. He criticised this, saying the court was swayed by ideology, and noted that the recent Vatican document on same-sex marriages says "no ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman …". Judges, said Mr. Aqbal, are not elected yet are allowed to seize an issue and define what is to be done. He foresaw "terrible, unintended consequences" if same-sex marriages were allowed to happen and said that judges should not overturn "things that have been around for thousands of years of human history, convention and tradition." The second thing that happened recently is the case of Lawrence et al. v. Texas (June 26, 2003), a case heard by the Supreme Court of the United States. In a 6:3 vote that "split the court", some "unelected wise men" forbade the state of Texas from criminalising consensual sodomy based on principle of liberty. Mr. Aqbal noted that Anthony Scalia, an orthodox Roman Catholic, was one of the dissenting judges. Mr. Aqbal urged everyone present to get involved to prevent such a situation from happening in Singapore. Leslie Lung - Conversion Testimony Leslie Lung is the author of "Freedom of Choice", a collection of twenty accounts of people overcoming sexual struggles, including same-sex attractions, masturbation and transvestism. He talked about his book and about himself. Lung revealed that he was from a mission boys school, and had always felt girlish. At the age of 15 years, he decided he wanted a sex change, and lived as a woman for four years preparing for surgery. However, he had a spiritual encounter three days before surgery, and decided not to go through with the operation. He read out an excerpt from his book about a man who experienced same-sex attractions, but ended up getting married to a woman called Su Ling, and having two sons. That person is still attracted to persons of the same sex, but does not see a need to act on them. Father Garcia - Theological Aspect The first issue Father Garcia addressed was what the Church says about homosexual acts. Key passages in the Bible include those from Genesis where God is said to have created man in His image (Gen 1:27), and created woman from Adam's rib (Gen 2:22). Genesis also teaches us that a man will leave his parents and become one flesh with a woman (Gen 2:24). Father Garcia also referred to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19), calling the people there "Sodomites", and Leviticus 18:22, which prohibits lying with a man as one does with a woman. Passages cited in the New Testament include Paul's famous admonition in Romans 1:18-32, as well as 1 Tim 1:10 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. Interestingly, Father Garcia provided translations for "malakoi"as "soft effeminate boys who were kept for sexual use", and "arsenokoitai" as "those who go to bed with other males". He also suggested that the "one flesh" in 1 Cor 6:16 referred to the concept of male-female complementarity in Genesis. Father Garcia noted, however, that only the sin is condemned, not the person. The Church teaches that homosexual acts are sinful-"homosexual activity is not complementary, able to transmit life". These teachings are contained in the Roman Catholic Catechism, various addresses of John Paul II, various Chruch documents and letters. The inclination towards homosexuality is not a sin, but is however a strong tendency towards a "moral evil". Therefore the inclination is itself an "objective disorder". The second issue Father Garcia addressed was why homosexual acts were wrong. He noted that "we are our bodies" and that "I love you" is communicated via the sexual act, in which the "medium is the message". The Church teaches that sex can take place only within the context of a marriage. Father Garcia also used the analogy of a telephone to ask the rhetorical question: Now why can't you say "I love you with marital love" to person of same sex? Because you don't have the phone for that. Phones are male body and female body. Father Garcia also talked about the notion of chastity. He says there has to be a meaning to sex, otherwise it would just be gymnastics. Chastity is therefore also part of sex. He asked a provocative question-the Church has saints to cater to various segments, so why not have a "homosexual saint"? He ended up by stressing that ignoring sin is "false compassion and the road to perdition". Q&A The first few members of the audience to speak offered comments rather than questions. The organiser of the seminar said he felt that the percentage of homosexuals in Singapore was currently less than 2% but that the media was not on the side of the Church. He said the Church needs to be more activist otherwise this percentage will increase. Patrick Neo from Church of Our Saviour said he is part of citizen's consultative committee Yio Chu Kang. He reported that fellow committee members generally do not share his alarm regarding the statement PM Goh made recently. Neo's daughter says 3-5% of her classmates are "butches". He felt it was up to the Christians take a stand against homosexuality since Buddhist and Taoists do not seem to feel strongly about this issue. Panel member Thomas Aqbal said he had to deal with his own "homophobic rage", and that there are many attractive things about homosexuality e.g. friendship. He reiterated the need for the audience to give feedback to government. The Chairperson read a question submitted anonymously asking why gay sex is wrong and criticizing church for being "homophobic". Father Garcia responded by saying that it cannot express marital love. A person called Clarence (not from Safehaven) asked why churches are not addressing the gay issue. He said he has gay friends whom he admires who are in the arts, and asks why Catholics are not more involved in promoting art. Father Garcia replied by saying that homilys are to preach the Gospel, not talk about issues. Sermons are part of liturgy, so it is difficult to stray from the preset themes. However, he acknowledged the need to talk about this outside of mass. Brother Michael added that homosexuals "are our people", and that this issue has been with us for a long time. He repeated that need to enter into a dialogue. Finally he remarked that parents want good their children to show good academic results, relegating the arts to a secondary position. A French women from the audience stressed the need to differentiate between her view as a Catholic person and her view as citizen. For example, she said she opposed same-sex marriage but accepted the need for civil gay unions . Panel member Thomas Aqbal replied that same-sex marriages damage the traditional marriage model, and said the damage was akin to counterfeiting currency. The Chairperson asked us to teach our children to not taunt classmates with the word "gay", saying they did not know what it meant but were using it to tease their fellow students. Father Garcia closed in prayer. |
