Same-Sex Attraction

Last Sunday HBO’s show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” had a discussion regarding the Pope and his not watching TV and relating him to Walter White in Breaking Bad. This was partly in response to the Vatican’s Secretary of State common that this was “defeat for humanity” regarding Ireland’s vote that legalized same-sex-so-called marriage.

He of course goes down the checklist of opening remarks regarding the Church.

• Priestly abuse scandal ☑
• Crusades ☑
• Forced adoptions ☑
• Pope wears a silly hat ☑

Now as a fan of Breaking Bad I was wondering just how this comparison was made. Although as I expected the comparison wasn’t even comically insightful regarding the show or the Pope.

Here is the transcript from the section in response to the recent story about Pope Francis not watching TV for 25 years.

OLIVER: (audience laughs) Oh, I’m sorry, Pope – this isn’t for you? (audience laughs) This isn’t – actually, that’s a good instinct. This show is definitely not for you. (audience laughs) It’s why, in the little warning card at the top of every episode, it says ‘UP’ – ‘unsuitable for popes.’ (audience laughs)

But – but it is a shame, because it might have helped if the Pope had been watching TV over the last 25 years. TV shows have done a lot to acclimate people to same-sex relationships. There was Will and Grace; there was Ellen; Queer as Folk; SpongeBob SquarePants (audience laughs) Oh – oh, please! They hang out in a pineapple under the sea. Read between the lines. (audience laughs) I’m just saying, Pope – if you’d watched TV, not only would you have learned a lot, but there are shows that you might have really liked. If nothing else, I think you’d have loved Breaking Bad. (audience laughs) That’s a show you could really relate to. It’s a story about a man gradually losing touch with reality; overseeing a vast criminal enterprise; and yet, so powerful that no one’s brave enough to tell he’s wearing a very silly hat.

Transcript via NewsBusters

This part is actually insightful commentary. This is an acknowledgment about just how effective the propaganda put out by Hollywood has been in pushing same-sex-so-called marriage.

No it was not enough for the pope to have studied Natural Law and Revelation. That what he knows and has learned about the anthropology of the human person is not meaningful. No what he should have done is to watch TV where shows made a concerted effort to introduce sympathetic characters with same-sex attraction. This campaign of “acclimation” has been widely successful.

No intellectual argument is appealed to, but instead fictionalized characters. No treatise by St. Thomas Aquinas on will and grace matters, it is the TV show “Will and Grace” that trumps it all.

Objection 1: Same Sex acts are intrinsically disordered.

On the contrary: Ellen is very funny.

During WWII Hollywood were also successful in selling War Bonds with celebrities pushing them along with reels before movies also pushing them. Now we have that same concerted effort where most shows now must have to have sympathetic character with same-sex attraction. Is is any wonder Americans have come to believe that a large section of the population is made up of those with same-sex attraction? (Americans Have No Idea How Few Gay People There Are)

The wonderful thing about being Catholic is that we don’t leave our intellects at the door. That we can come to have a deeper understanding of the human person and love of our neighbor – all without even watching a sitcom!

CCC 2358: The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

Wealthy gay dad, Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, says he and his civil partner Tony will go to court to force churches to host gay weddings.

He told the Essex Chronicle that he will take legal action because “I am still not getting what I want”.

A Government Bill legalising gay marriage passed Parliament recently but it included measures to protect churches from being forced to perform same-sex weddings.

Challenge

Mr Drewitt-Barlow said: “The only way forward for us now is to make a challenge in the courts against the church.

“It is a shame that we are forced to take Christians into a court to get them to recognise us.”

He added: “It upsets me because I want it so much – a big lavish ceremony, the whole works, I just don’t think it is going to happen straight away.

“As much as people are saying this is a good thing I am still not getting what I want.” (source)

Cue Mick Jagger “You can’t always get what you want”

Although if you are part of political correct group now favored by the government, “you just might find” you force others “to get what you want.”

Just keep repeating “It can’t happen here” until of course “it does.”

Via Creative Minority Report and Big Blue Wave

LINCOLN, Nebraska, July 5, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) — Defying the recommendations of Nebraska’s top public health authority, the Nebraska Mental Health Practice Board has approved rules that could force Christian psychologists to refer clients with same-sex attraction seeking relationship therapy to professionals that support homosexuality. However, the chief medical officer has said she would not approve the new rules until a compromise is reached.

While still allowing psychologists to decline to offer services, the board followed the state Board of Psychology in rejecting a rules change that would allow psychologists not to refer clients to counseling encouraging immoral behavior.

Jim Cunningham, executive director of the Nebraska Catholic Conference (NCC), has maintained that it would be morally objectionable for a Catholic counselor to make such a referral.

“Our concern had to do with services that we would not be able to provide because they would promote or enhance or validate conduct that is contrary to our religious beliefs,” NCC’s Cunningham said. The NCC has also asked for conscience protection for for licensed counselors, social workers and marriage and family therapists.

But the issue has aroused stiff controversy within the Nebraska government: Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joann Schaefer has repeatedly stated that the needs of clients with same-sex attraction and the consciences of Catholic physicians may both be satisfied by a compromise, despite reluctance on the part of state licensing boards to consider one.

Until Schaefer approves the regulations, they cannot take affect, and Schaefer has promised to delay approval until a compromise is reached.

According to Schaefer, when a party claims that a regulation “is infringing upon our rights or certain parts of our business, or our freedoms,” Nebraska’s Health and Human Services department always seeks a compromise.

“At that point we are forced to try to accommodate and make our regulations better,” she said. “This is a large contingency saying that this rule is infringing on their religious freedom. It is a big deal.” [Source]

Just another cause of the government getting their claws in the consciences of religious believers. “If we allow you to keep your job believing as you do you must refer to people who violate your conscience.” So I guess if an alcoholic wants treatment and the psychologist believes that not only is getting drunk gravely sinful and that it damages his life they should refer them to a psychologist who believes alcoholism is linked to hereditary and really is a normal condition. Somebody with some degree of same-sex attraction needs help and that does not mean affirming their same-sex attraction. So much of modern psychology would never have helped someone like Ex-Lesbian Janet Boynes and would have worked to keep her miserable by affirming her as a lesbian.

The reality is that they want to force psychologists to refer patients to people who will not help them in the underlying cause of their problem and can even increase problems for that person.   Distractors of course will say opposition to this plan is hatred of those with same-sex attraction failing to see that is pure bigotry to always see someone’s motives as hatred.  I would totally disagree with those psychologists who  see same-sex attraction as perfectly normal, but I would not see this as hatred towards these persons even though they are not helping them.  We live in a time though where opposition to homosexual acts can only mean hatred and that justifies any clamping down on conscience claims.