Thomas Griffin 6/30/23
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Target retail stores had included a clothing line for transgender kids and were promoting it at the front of their stores. Starbucks raised a pride flag above its headquarters and at the storefronts of many of its locations across the country while it sold a line of pride mugs and cups. Disney launched its Pride Collection celebrating rainbows behind Mickey and his cast of friends on their apparel and accessories. The Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated a group that promotes transgenderism through mocking the Catholic Church.
These are just a few examples of what Christians faced over the course of the month of June. Every June, things escalate, it seems. Many Americans who hold to traditional values of the family can feel at a loss regarding all of these promotions. How does a person respond to all of this? Is there anything that can be done if one disagrees with what is being presented to them?
Some are choosing to boycott Bud Light and Target. Others are vowing to no longer watch Dodgers games or attend them. Boycotting is important in order to raise awareness for issues as well as to make one’s problems with an institution or company known to them (and their wallets).
The real question for Christians, I think, is what are we doing to investigate these topics in connection with the truth? How are we explaining, cogently and coherently, the position of the Church on these sexual matters? Many stop practicing their faith because they disagree with the position of orthodox Christianity on the fact that marriage is between a man and a woman and that sex is a matter of biology. So, let’s take a look at both of these topics.
First, marriage has always been understood as a perpetual vow between a man and a woman. Marriage is about conjugal, sexual love. The type of love that is so powerful that it, by its sexual operation, produces new life. The love between a husband and a wife is so powerful that it cannot be contained between the two of them. Their love results in other immortal beings being produced. Their love has eternal consequences.
Two men or two women who claim to be married cannot produce new life through what they call “sex.” This is an important starting point because what two men or two women do in the bedroom is not sex, not according to science and the truth anyway. They might be using their respective reproductive organs, but it is impossible for two men or two women to have sex with one another.
That does not mean that a man or woman (in some cases) cannot experience true attraction towards members of the same sex. A person may actually have this attraction. That attraction does not make them a monster and it does not make them a person who is unlovable or rejected by the Church, or by God. This is the first misconception by the culture that needs to be clarified.
The Church asks for chastity in sexual matters because it upholds the value of the sexual act to such an elevated degree. Whether we are speaking of an 18 year-old who wants to sleep with his girlfriend, a 35 year-old who wants to sleep with someone who is not her spouse or a person with same-sex attraction who desires to sleep with someone of the same sex, the Church leans on chastity – not acting on it. Sex is reserved for marriage because it is only in this context that its depth and beauty is protected and able to flourish.
The difference is that the 18 year-old and the 35 year-old can (here I mean it is literally possible, not morally acceptable) have sexual intercourse. The person with same-sex attraction cannot. The human person is made in such a way that if they live out their biological condition, it will lead to their flourishing. There is a manufacturer’s design for human action that reason can aid us in discovering and same-sex marriage violates it. While that is not an easy law of nature it is undeniably a true one.
The Church also stands by biology. Human beings are male and female. Medical advances can get us to a place where reproductive organs are removed and changed but an individual’s DNA does not change: a person is either male or female and they cannot change the sex they were given at birth.
Again, this does not mean that some individuals do not have actual feelings of being in the wrong body or might not have a desire to be the opposite sex. In both cases, same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria, the real question is: should someone act on their feelings even if those actions are not aligned with truth (the correct conformity between one’s mind and reality)?
We should not defame an entire portion of society and we should not demonize individual feelings that are authentically real. However, we should not accept the thought process that leads people to act on their feelings without thinking about their actions or the consequences either. The Church calls for the middle ground: always uphold the value of the person, but always standing by the truth as well.
Jesus dined with and called sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors, but he never left the same – he radically transformed them. Jesus’ entire mission is encapsulated inside of his call to repentance and his invitation for us to be perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect. Jesus’ heart wants our heart to be conformed to his. His desire for us is conversion and holiness. Trusting him and the truth leads to a joy that this world simply cannot offer.
If we preach that in word and in deed, we are on the right path of giving the Church a seat at the table in the month of June – even if many would rather not do so.
Thomas Griffin is the chairperson of the religion department at a Catholic high school on Long Island where he lives with his wife and two sons. He has a masters degree in theology and is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Empty Tomb Project: The Magazine.
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