In chapter 8 of the Gospel of John, Jesus comes across a woman caught in the act of adultery. On one side of the dusty temple courtyard was the woman — still naked, fearful, alone. Standing by were the villagers, stones in hand, waiting to kill her.
Instead of judging the woman by her actions or her reputation in the community, Jesus stands up against the woman’s persecutors. He doesn’t dismiss the woman’s actions as inconsequential, but He risks Himself to affirm her intrinsic dignity and worth as a human being. He stood up against the bullies and let the woman know that she was first and foremost a human being created by God and worthy of respect.
Taking action does not mean watering down the universal call to holiness. We are all called to live chastely and have a right and a duty to defend God’s plan for human sexuality as an expression of completely self-giving spousal love.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, people who identify as homosexual should 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.”
It’s enough of a struggle to try to live out God’s plan for your life without being made to feel unwelcome and unsafe. There’s a difference between condemning unchaste acts and condoning homophobic bullying. Bullying, whether in the form of verbal harassment, physical attacks, isolating behaviour or online destruction, is wrong. Making fun of someone’s sexual or gender identity is never “just a joke.” It does not make you look cool or tough.
In the words of one of my friends, “I only hated the Church because I thought it hated me. I only hated God because I thought God hated me.” This friend returned to the Church after many years away, and her journey from gay activist to faithful Catholic was rough. Sometimes, she didn’t think she would make it.
As Catholic youth, we always seem ready to rally around protecting life from conception until natural death. Suicide and violence against homosexual youth are also life issues — and it’s time to break the silence and speak out to defend the intrinsic dignity and worth of all of God’s children.
(Lawrie, 20, is a creative writing major at the University of Victoria. Read more about her at youthspeaknews.org.)
We are all God’s children
By Bronwyn Lawrie, Youth Speak NewsOttawa teen Jamie Hubley, 15, recently committed suicide after years of struggling with depression and homophobic bullying. In September, American teen Jamey Rodemeyer, 14, did the same. In a YouTube video Rodemeyer said that “people would just keep sending me hate, telling me that gay people go to hell.”
Homophobic bullying has no place in our schools or in our lives as young Catholics. Not only should we not be participating in it, but our hearts should be “moved with compassion” for those who are being persecuted and oppressed. As Catholic youth, we need to step up and take a stand against violence and oppression — and we can do this in full loyalty to the Church’s moral teachings.
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