am i a true catholic?

Question

I consider myself and true dedicated catholic. but lately i have been thinking. in order to be a true catholic do you have to agree with EVERYTHING the bible says? I believe in most things but how it says being gay is a sin? i dont agree with that. god made them that way so how can it still be a sin. they didnt just wake up one day and say "i think i am going to be gay"

abrotion is another thing. i am 10000000000% against it if say a girl goes out and has a one night stand and gets pregnant. but there are other cases like if a woman get pregnant and want the baby but i forced to get an abortion becase the pregnancy is life threatning..is it still considered a sin?

Answer 1

Literalism has it's strengths, and it has it's weaknesses. The most important part of understanding the Bible is to understand when a passage is meant to be literal, and when it is meant to be metaphorical or symbolic.

Jesus said "I am a door". Literalists are forced to believe Jesus is a wooden barrier hanging on hinges. Absurd.

When Jesus said "this is my body, take it and eat it" it can be accepted as literal because immediately, they ask Jesus "how can we eat your flesh?" and Jesus makes it clear that it is his body by reiterating: "truly, unless you eat my flesh, etc". This of course is the basis of transubstantiation, which so many literalists reject and accept as metaphor.

Agreeing with the Bible in a literal sense is not necessary to understand the meanings behind the words. Understanding the moral of the story, and when something is indeed literal comes with wisdom and sometimes by epiphany.

Don't worry too much about whether or not the entire planet was entirely covered with water, and every species of animal was on a boat at the time. What's important is the moral of the story.

God bless

Answer 2

Catholics do not agree with everything the Bible says.

+ The Bible +

One example, in the Bible the following crimes deserved the death penalty:
+ Murder (Gen 9:6, Ex 21:12, Numb 35:16-21).
+ Abuse of father or mother (Ex 21:15).
+ Speaking a curse over parents (Ex 21:17).
+ Blasphemy against God (Lev 24:14-16,23).
+ Breaking the Sabbath (Ex 31:14, Numb 15:32-36).
+ Practicing magic (Ex 22:18).
+ Fortune telling and practicing sorcery (Lev 20:27).
+ Religious people who mislead others to fall away (Deut 13:1-5, 18:20).
+ Adultery and fornication (Lev 20:10-12, Deut 22:22).
+ If a woman has intercourse before marriage (Deut 22:20-21).
+ If two people have intercourse when one of them is engaged. (Deut 22:23-24).
+ The daughter of a priest practicing prostitution (Lev 21:9).
+ Rape of someone who is engaged (Deut 22:25).
+ Having intercourse with animals (Ex 22:19).
+ Worshipping idols (Ex 22:20, Lev 20:1-5, Deut 17:2-7).
+ Incest (Lev 20:11-12, 14, 19-21).
+ Homosexuality (Lev 20:13).
+ Kidnapping (Ex 21:16).
+ To bear false testimony at a trial (Deut 19:16, 19).
+ Contempt of court (Deut 17:8-13).

The biblically approved methods of execution in the Old Testament are stoning, burning, using a sword, spear or arrow (Lev 20:27, 21:9, Ex 19:13, 32:27, Numb 25:7-8).

From a Catholic point of view:

Jesus, in John 8:1-11, spares a women guilty of adultery whom the Mosaic Law said should be stoned to death.

If the guilty person's identity and responsibility has been fully determined then non-lethal means to defend and protect the people's safety from the aggressor are more in keeping with the common good and the dignity of the human person.

The Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives.

However in today's modern society, the capability of rendering the offender incapable of doing harm - without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent.

http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3sect2chpt2art5.htm#2267

+ Homosexuality +

Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity.

The Catholic Church believes there is nothing sinful about being homosexual. But homosexuals like all unmarried people are called to celibacy.

The Church specifically says that homosexuals "must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided."

Here is the text of the document, On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (1986): http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_df86ho.htm

http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3sect2chpt2art6.htm#2357

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 3

Put it this way, you have to agree with the Church's interpretation of what the Bible says. Most people make the mistake of taking Biblical texts for face value, thereby entirely missing the deeper Truths the Bible is meant to convey. In this respect, you need the Church's help in discerning what is and what is not Biblical Truth.

The term "Catholic" means "universal". This attribute functions on many levels. Dogma is not subject to line-item veto. We cannot decide for ourselves what dogma's we wish to accept and which we reject. Therefore, when one claims to be Catholic, one is professing belief in ALL that the Church teaches.

Most people struggle with certain elements of Catholic Dogma. That is okay - as long as you are making honest efforts to deepen your understanding of Dogma that you are questioning.

As far as homosexuality is concerned, merely being gay is not a sin. It's homosexual acts that are sinful, because they opppose the Christian Virtue of Chastity (not because of some ill-conceived anti-gay agenda).

Truth is, no one knows for sure why some people are gay. Some could be born with this disordered inclination. Others, as they claim, may very well be able to choose to be gay. In either case, homosexual acts still constitute a violation of the Virtue of Chastity.

You need to deepen your understanding of Catholic belief. Don't merely concern yourself with "what" Catholics believe. Dig deeper. Investigate the reasons WHY Catholics believe what they believe.

Do that, and you will find the answers you are looking for. I guarantee.

Answer 4

Just as not all alcoholics are damned, not all homosexuals are damned. Only the acts of getting drunk and gay sex are sinful.

As to your second question, in order to commit a sin three things must be carried out. 1 You must know that it the act is sinful. 2 You must consent to do the act. 3 You must know the way the act is performed (the means) is evil. In your example the woman was not intending to kill a child but to fix a life threatening problem, therefore the woman has not done anything wrong. There was no intention to kill the child and the means was legitimate.


Mike

Answer 5

First, the catholic Church does not teach that being gay is a sin any more than being straight is a sin. If a person has sex outside of marriage, then they commit a sin.

If taking a pregnancy to term threatens the life of a woman, such as a embryo in the fallopian tube, then an abortion is morally acceptable.

Answer 6

The Morality of Mass Immigration from a Roman Catholic Perspective



What are Catholics in the pews to make of their bishops’ costly, all-out commitment to a version of immigration reform that would swell today’s high legal immigration, undermine workers’ bargaining power and do little to curb future illegal entries?

The bishops’ lobbying goals for immigration are radical, expansive, and generous to a fault. They explicitly endorse the two guest worker programs, amnesty for illegals, and lavish increases in regular family and employment immigration in Senators John McCain and Ted Kennedy’s proposed legislation — the Safe America and Orderly Immigration Act (SAOIA). (Many of the provisions of this bill had been incorporated into other Senate immigration bills by early 2006.) The bill’s breathtakingly expansionist proposals, and its paucity of serious border control and enforcement measures, suggest that US Catholic Conference lobbyists did their work well in the drafting.

The bishops’ project offers us an illusory regime where traffic signals are always green, where violence and fraud are overcome by trust and good will, and where a cornucopian vision of the United States has no place for fears about job and housing shortages, overburdened schools, conservation of resources and overpopulation. But Catholic thought is not entirely cornucopian. Pope Leo XIII and other pontiffs have acknowledged that overpopulation can indeed occur, causing unemployment and other hardships justifying emigration. Yet there is no recognition that the United States, with the most rapidly growing population in the industrial west, acts legitimately when limiting immigration to deal with its own unemployment and wage stagnation.

Answer 7

All of us are tempted by the evils of the world. Some are tempted by a desire and sexual attraction to those of the same sex. It is a sin to act on those desires and surrender to temptation rather than be in God's will.

There are no circumstances where abortion is justified, even in the situation you stated where one innocent life is taken to save another innocent life. In this case God's will should be allowed to be done without intervention by abortion.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

Answer 8

God didn't make anyone homosexual. The disorder is a result of early childhood experiences. The Church does not teach that "being" homosexual is sinful, just committing homosexual acts. In any case, if the Church Christ founded teaches that something is sinful, then it is sinful. If you don't believe that, why believe anything the Church teaches?? Is the Church the one Christ set up as the final authority, telling it "whatsoever you bind upon earth is bound in heaven"? Or are you?

Answer 9

Sometimes being a Catholic means praying for perseverance and asking for patience. He'll answer your questions one way or other, sooner or later. People have to care for and cherish their faith more and more these days. One day, it will be a rare and beautiful thing.

Answer 10

Truth is what you make it dear--no matter what you do God will always be an image concieved in your mind. God will always be your own conception of a Great being. If that makes him accepting of homosexuals, so be it.