Let's Not Bash Catholicism--Or Any Other Religion
I'm responding to a post; sex-and-catholics">this one, in fact.
It's offensive, erroneous and blatantly anti-Catholic. To start 
san vitale apsewith, the poster asserts that within Catholicism "Masturbation or any kind of recreational sex is a mortal sin." No, it's not a mortal sin, not now, and not for the previous thousand years. Mortal sins are those that, according to the Church and St. Augustine "Dictum vel factum vel concupitum contra legem æternam," that is, a mortal sin is something said, done or desired "contrary to the eternal law." You have to choose to commit mortal sins; they involve the will. Mortal sins tend to be things like denying God, or the Church, or committing murder, or deliberate, knowing wrong-doing. Mortal sins must involve deliberate malice and a desire to do wrong. Mortal sins, by their nature, separate humans from God and must be confessed. Masturbation, when performed alone, is a sin of the flesh, of lechery. It is a venial sin.
Venial sins are those that do not separate humans from God, or deny caritas, the love of man for God, and God for man. Venial are reparable. They may be pardoned, upon confession, or admission and recognition of the wrong, if the transgressor makes reparations and is contrite. Venial sins, in action, thought or word, deny, or are not in accord with the laws of God. Venial sin is pardonable. Venial sins are committed without the intention of doing harm, and the person must do individual acts of charity, but does not, according the Catechism, even have to confess the sin.
The post asserts that "Any kind of homosexual sex is also a sin." Technically, yes, since it is sexual activity that is not intended to create progeny—however, homosexual sex is not considered to be a graver error than heterosexual sex that is not intended to produce offspring. Both of these are venial sins. Officially, the Vatican asserts that "Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disordered" ("Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual People" no.3, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. 1986). The Catholic church does not view queers as an üaut;ber group of sinners. Moreover, given the number of practicing and queer Catholics, and the existence of groups like DignityUSA, I suspect that queer Catholics can lobby the Vatican, if they feel so inclined.
"Birth control? You guessed it. Birth control is yet another sin," Well, actually, not necessarily. It depends on the reasons, and the methods. It is not at all a sin to abstain, for instance. It is not a sin to choose when to have sex. It's is artificial methods, including coitus interruptus, methods designed purely to prevent conception, that are forbidden, as clearly explained in Pope Paul VI 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae etc. I should note that this has not, at all, appeared to stop Catholics, particularly women, from using such means.
To conclude a post with offensive and inane commentary, including the statement that "While I am not a religious person necessarily"—and then criticize the faith she doesn't even practice, is the height of both ignorance and arrogance. Surely a non-Catholic can find something better to do with her time than complain about a religion that isn't even hers? The Catholic Church by its very nature must adhere to the law of God as expressed by the Bible and the Church fathers just as much as other religions of the Book. They can't say "we've decided not to obey these laws," and yet remain Catholic. Even within Protestant churches, there is a great deal of different attitudes towards these same issues. People in this country have freedom of religion; surely that includes the right to practice their religion as they see fit, without condemnation from others? If we wish to have our choices honored, we must allow others to make their own decisions and have their beliefs respected as well.
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But I do retort...
"Surely a non-Catholic can find something better to do with her time than complain about a religion that isn't even hers"
Non-Catholics have been subject to the judgement and rules of Catholicism (Inquisition anyone?) since it was made up hundreds of years after Jesus spread a pure and simple message of love. It has been added to by very Earthly men and twisted to serve everything from the rich, to Nazis, to homosexuals who still thrive in their hypocritical ranks (I'm not against Homosexuals, just hypocrites).
'The Catholic Church by its very nature must adhere to the law of God as expressed by the Bible and the Church fathers just as much as other religions of the Book. They can't say "we've decided not to obey these laws," and yet remain Catholic.'
Catholics pick and choose the rules they want to live by and ignore the Biblical ones that are actually quite immoral, stoned any homosexuals or adulteres to death lately? Its in the Good Book you must adhere to, right? The 'choosing' of rules is akin to abandonment of faith, the innevitable end to be reached in a few generations when the whole book will follow the absurd and disgusting scripture and the 'quaint', if not completely illogical, stories of Noah and his Ark and others that are already tossed aside for sanity's sake.
Differentiating between whether one masturbates as a married person or whether I'm going to Hell for having had premarital sex or with my wife just for fun is a landmine of illogical nonsense I am glad I don't have to navigate. STDs suck, avoid them with logic, they aren't magic. Pregnancies have a time and place, plan for them. Instead of telling kids to avoid sex and that they will go to Hell, just tell them they'll get herpes, or go to the prom pregnant, that should scare them enough. No fairytales, no lies, just the truth for your little human. If you take the 'sin' out of it, you can clearly see it is a disease that preys on humans and it is easily avoidable with KNOWLEDGE.
Perhaps the writer should cross her ps and qs a little better for respect of facts but Catholicism is excellent at spilling over its walls, so take a shot with grace, in the name of the One True Faith. The rest of us try to deal with you and your judgements (or lectures about the careful delineations of what are and aren't sins).
Then don't practice Catholicism
This is a specious response. If you're not a Catholic, why concern yourself with their rules? You don't have to follow them. They don't even affect you.
I note however, regarding the "Catholics pick and choose the rules they want to live by and ignore the Biblical ones that are actually quite immoral"--that's Old Testament stuff—and no, it's not applicable to Catholics, or a number of other Christian denominations. You might be able to legitimate that arguement with some Prostestant sects, but it's not going to work for Catholicism.
Again, if it's not a religion you favor, don't be a bigot.
And, by the way, I'm not Catholic. I don't even identify as Christian. But I'd rather see a modicum of accuracy, and a lot less malice.
Are you living under a rock?
There are constant election and court cases going on attempting to outlaw gay marriage. Gays are forbidden from adopting children in many states. I can't buy beer on a Sunday. Some health plans refuse to provide birth control.
I'm perfectly happy not practicing religion - but I care about religion because the religious have thousands of years of history of trying to force their laws on everyone else.
Also, it appears you are a woman. The Bible - and this is New Testament - tells you to be quiet, so get following!
I didn't intend it malicious
I didn't intend it malicious and was mostly inspired by another article that I read on another site. As a non-Catholic, I'm sorry if I misinterpreted anything that was written. As you know, the net isn't always the best source of information. -B
Debate on Mortal Sin
At first I read that masturbation was a mortal sin, http://forums.catholic.com/showthread.php?t=243471 but there seems it doesn't seem to be that clear as some are viewing it as a venial sin. http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00BDMw My intention wasn't so much to criticize Catholicism as it was to imagine a life growing up with the idea that something such as homosexuality or masturbation could be considered shameful.
Amends
I objected to this blog because it asserts that religion is this harmless cultural vestige left over from a quainter time and we should let it be. Religion is what directly led to the denial of rights for gays in California (LDS). Just one example of religion being aggressive and affecting the lives of those outside its belief system. I agree that outright bashing is not needed, but criticism is fair and needed.
Umm no
Nowhere do I assert that "religion is this harmless cultural vestige." My point, which seem to have been missed entirely, is that there's little value in a poorly informed non-Catholic bashing Catholics for obeying what they genuinely believe are the requirements of God--particularly when Catholics are not the ones typically waving signs saying "God Hates Fags." That's almost entirely a Protestant pastime, and a rather far right kind of Protestantism, at that.
Frankly, as a queer, I'm tired of straight people arguing against Christianity as anti-queer. Pretty much every religion, including Hinduism, Buddism, various Christian sects, Islam, Judaism, views homosexuality as undesirable, wrong, or an abomination because of prohibitions about sexual behaviors--behaviors, by the way, that are also forbidden to heterosexuals. I don't agree with them, but then I'm not practicing any of those faiths, either.
Regarding Proposition 8, yes, a lot of out of state funding came from the LDS. More than any other single trackable group. However, not only did the LDS actively campaign for a Yes vote, so did a passel of other religions, including the Eastern Orthodox Christians, the Orthodox Jews, large numbers of Evangelical Christians, and various right-wing Protestant groups.
I think rather than blaming Christians, who are attempting to follow their religious beliefs, it makes more sense to ask where were all these outraged straight people when we were trying to campaign against Proposition 8? In fact, where was the queer community? Our fund raising efforts were a lot more successful for Pride parades, than for voting No on Prop 8.
Frankly, I don't think the more obscure religious groups were the problem. I think the fact that a No vote meant "yes, let same sex marriages have the same rights as heterosexual marriages" confused people who really didn't much care either way; they weren't particularly religious, and they weren't queer.
I also think a lot of Christians thought that a No vote meant the State would interfere with religious / church weddings and beliefs, when all it meant was that the marriage license, which is always conferred by the state, would give the same legal rights to same sex couples.
Which is all a No vote would have meant. And pointing a finger at the Catholic church in terms of Prop 8 is particularly daft, given that they only marriage they care about is marriage as a Catholic sacrament--and that has nothing, at all, to do with Prop 8 or any civil law.