From CBS:
In an interview Wednesday with CBS News, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain described homosexuality as “a sin” and “a choice.” Appearing on the CBS News web program Washington Unplugged, Cain told CBSNews.com senior political reporter Brian Montopoli “I believe homosexuality is a sin because I’m a Bible-believing Christian, I believe it’s a sin,” he said. “But I know that some people make that choice. That’s their choice.”
Montopoli followed up, asking Cain if he thought gays and lesbians were making “a choice” to be homosexual:
Cain was asked: “So you believe it’s a choice?”
“I believe it is a choice,” he responded.
Liberals are going to shriek about this – while on the right there will be those who will be upset…either at the fact that Cain said this, or on grounds of disagreement with it. Over at Gay Patriot B. Daniel Blatt has a measured response – pointing out that how one feels about homosexuality does not necessarily determine whether a person’s political policies will help or harm. Which is very true – while liberals are the people who will have no problem with the gay pride parade, it is conservatives who are likely, by enforcing the constitution, to ensure that gay people are able to live their lives as they see fit…and not just in sexual matters.
It is a certainty that Cain does not wish any harm to gay people. It is equally certain that as far as what gay people do, Cain does not believe government has a role to play. But Cain – especially if he does start to get close to the GOP nomination, has touched off a firestorm. He has questioned a bit of modern, liberal dogma – that gay people, as such, have no choice in the matter. That a gay person cannot refuse homosexuality any more than a straight person can refuse heterosexuality. They are born that way, goes the assertion, and there’s an end on it.
As long time readers know, I adhere strictly to Catholic teaching on the subject of homosexuality. Briefly, that the number of people with a deep-seated, same-sex attraction is not negligible, that every sign of unjust discrimination is to be removed and that homosexual sex is inherently disordered. None of this enjoins upon me a requirement that I believe that gay people are born that way – and in as much as anyone claims that “born that way” means “must live as a gay person in sexual matters”, I believe such a claim to be false. If you wish to assert to me that you, as a gay person, have always felt same-sex attraction and you consider it natural to your self, then I cannot and will not dispute you on the assertion – it is no office of mine to make such judgments about how you believe yourself to be. But anyone who tries to assert to me that they must, in order to be fully themselves, engage in any particular type of sex, I will not only say, “false”, I will say, “fool”.
There is no physical act which, by doing or failing to be done, will make you more or less your self. You are not the mere sum of your physical actions – as C. S. Lewis put it: you don’t have a soul; you are a soul, you have a body. What is you, in the most complete sense, is what lies beneath the physical entity you are. What is most real about you is not your body or your sex acts, but what you, as a person, do on the inside…do you love, or hate? Do you care or are you indifferent? Do you lie, or tell the truth? If you were bedridden and incapable of any voluntary physical action, at all, you would be no less yourself than if you possessed full physical health. Whether or not you are inclined – even very, very strongly inclined – to engage in homosexual sex does not determine who you are…what determines your self is what you choose to do. A man who wants a dink very much is not a drunk – a man who has a drink, is. You are not homosexual unless and until you choose to engage in homosexual sex – that, most certainly, is a choice. No matter how much you may want to do it, you don’t have to.
The reason this will touch off a storm is because the basis of the gay rights movement – the justification for things like gay marriage and gay rights – is the assertion that homosexuals are born in a condition which requires them to be homosexual in practice. Not just an inclination to have a certain sort of sex, but an absolute requirement to engage in that sort of sex. Take that away and you weaken – probably fatally – the justification for gay rights. If you don’t have to do something then you cannot use your choice to do that thing as a basis for a claim of rights. Cain is kicking at that support for the gay rights agenda – and that will cause fury.
But it is good for Cain to have said it. We must not pick fights just for the sake of fighting, but we do need to resolve this issue and we can’t resolve it if elements of the debate are ruled out of bounds. I wish to be both just and merciful with my brothers and sister who are gay. I recognize, fully, that some of them are likely to be closer to God than I am. My American sense repels all thoughts of trying to interfere with what consenting adults do. My Christian duty requires that I not isolate people but, instead, engage them…and in each of them remember that there is a spark of God. If the circle can be squared – if there can be a place for homosexuality within the context of an overall conservative society – then can only be done if people of good will are free to air their views. Cain has opened the door – will anyone else step through it?
