Archdiocese NY Ministry: “anti-LGBTQ theology is violent”

On May 9, 2018, the LGBT ministry, Out at St. Paul, located at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church in New York City, posted to their official Facebook page the following quote:

When we say anti-LGBTQ theology is violent, it’s not an exaggeration. Actual LGBTQ people actually die as a direct result of those beliefs.
If you hold them, repent.
If you’re on the receiving end, protect yourself.
If you’re an ally, obstruct & disrupt them.

The quote came from a gay-affirmative Christian advocacy group “Queer Theology.” On their own Facebook page, citing a recent study, they claim:

Don’t let anti-LGBTQ Christians distract you with claims that Islam [is] an enemy… or that the “African American church” is the problem…

From the article: “Indeed, opposition to same-sex marriage is now limited almost entirely to white conservative Christians”

On their homepage, “Queer Theology” made the following statement:

Do you have this sense that there is more to being LGBTQ that simply what we are not. Not sick, not sinful, not what Leviticus is talking about, not dishonoring God with our transition. So do we.

That’s what queer theology is all about: uncovering and celebrating the gifts that LGBTQ people bring to the Church and the world and the ways in which Christianity has always been queer.

Within the Catholic Church, some would agree with them including Jesuit priest James Martin who says:

All these Bible passages that people throw at you; I think really need to be understood in their historical context. I mean Leviticus and Deuteronomy and even the stuff from the New Testament where Paul talks about it once or twice, has to be understood in their historical context…certainly in Old Testament times, they didn’t understand the phenomena of homosexuality and bisexuality as we do today. 

Concerning Catholic teachings with regards to homosexuality, Martin also argues that those same prohibitions against homosexual behavior directly contribute to a high rate of suicides among the LGBT community. He relayed the story of a mother with a “gay” son who once asked him: “Do people understand what that kind of language could do to a young person? It could destroy him…”

Martin added:

What does that mean? Can we listen to that mother? And its true. I mean LGBT youths are five times, five times more likely to attempt suicide than straight kids. Five times.

Part of this vehemence against anyone who disagrees with their radical reinterpretation of traditional Christian thought, is that by doing so – you are denying their humanity. Which is seen as an act of violence. This supposition is based upon the unproven theory that homosexuals are essentially born gay. During a Facebook Live interview, James Martin said:

That’s the way God created you. I think almost every psychologist and biologist and scientist would agree on that; and certainly LGBT people will tell you that’s the way they always felt – that they had been created that way.

Therefore, opposition to homosexual behavior is tantamount to other forms of prejudice based upon the way a person is simply born, including: sexism and racism. As a result, its arguable that mutual compassion, respect and love in the form of Christian charity is not required when dealing with such “anti-LGBTQ” persons. To prove their point, some who agree with this perspective often quote (out of context) a statement made by early gay-rights advocate James Baldwin:

We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.

In response to a very balanced article written by Austin Ruse, which primarily documented those past statements made by James Martin himself regarding homosexuality, Martin cut and paste (out of context) a section from Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation “Gaudete et Exsultate” which referred to “verbal violence.” But Martin essentially does what he accuses others of doing: labeling, marginalizing and pathologizing his critics. In a August 24, 2017 interview with the pro-gay San Francisco periodical “The Bay Area Reporter,” Martin stated:

Most of the vicious stuff has been from the far right. I think there are five reasons for this: 1) fear of the LGBT person as the ‘other,’ 2) hatred of LGBT people, 3) visceral disgust at same-sex relations, 4) theological opposition to welcoming LGBT people because that means church teaching might be changed, which is terrifying to them, and 5) most importantly is discomfort with their own sexuality, especially because a few of the critics from the far right are self-professed former gays.

In 2013, author and commentator Ben Shapiro, addressing the media firestorm concerning a comment made by “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson, expertly dismantled the argument that those who have moral reservations about homosexuality based on religious beliefs are de facto homophobic bigots:

The media set up a dichotomy in which you are either pro-homosexuality or someone who wants to brutalize homosexuals. This is not the view of the Bible, which makes clear that sin is common and ought to be condemned, but that human beings have the capacity for repentance. The left masks its distaste for the Bible’s condemnation of homosexuality in a straw man argument that Bible believers are violent bigots. They are not. Citing the Bible doesn’t make you a bigot against human beings — it makes you a bigot against sin, which is a good thing.