The global heat is on and God's green Earth is threatened
If religious leaders aren't thinking about AI, they should be

Is the pope's recent statement about blessing gay couples progress?

As we begin another year here on the blog, I want to return to a story from last month -- the one about Pope Francis saying that priests in the Catholic Church, with certain limitations, now are allowed to bless same-sex couples.

Lgbtq-Xian-flagI first wrote about this as the second item of this recent post.

This Associated Press story described the change as "a radical shift in policy that aimed at making the church more inclusive while maintaining its strict ban on gay marriage."

In fact, it's tempting to think of this as a truly "radical shift," but it's really less than that. It is, for sure, welcome news for all people of faith who understand that it's wrong for any religious tradition to treat any group of people as, at best, second-class citizens because they are members of a particular group. (That's how we got slavery, antisemitism and other evils.) But institutional religion generally moves so slowly to make changes that when there appears to be a small step in a good direction, it's easy to overreact with joy.

I suggest we slow down a bit and -- even while recognizing that Pope Francis has made some progress here -- not forget that there still is much to be done not just in Catholicism but in all of Christianity (and not just in Christianity but in nearly all faith traditions) to make sure that people are not singled out for criticism or disdain merely because of who they are or how they happen to identify in terms of gender or sexuality.

There are, in fact, some branches of Protestant Christianity that identify as conservative, evangelical or fundamentalist that are nowhere close to taking the modest step that Pope Francis has taken.

For just one example, here is information from the Southern Baptist Convention on its views on homosexuality and how those restrictive views have been reasserted in different words over the years. And here is a not-dissimilar anti-LGBTQ+ position expressed by the Church of the Nazarene.

My own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), was among the churches that restricted its welcome to LGBTQ+ people until 2011. It was embarrassing but I thought it was worth staying inside the denomination to work for change rather than leaving. Members of the United Methodist Church, now in schism over LGBTQ+ issues, are facing the same choice. It's sad and unnecessary because much opposition to homosexuality is based on a misreading of scripture, as I point out in this essay.

Despite all the wonderful good that institutional religion has done over the centuries, a fair accounting of that history also must acknowledge that it has injured many people through its actions, doctrines and flawed leaders.

Still, the pope's recent statement allowing the blessing of same-sex couples should be welcomed, even as we all ask when all faith communities will treat gay people (and women and people of color and on and on) with love and inclusion. It's not yet time for a ticker-tape parade to celebrate, but a bit of applause for Pope Francis is in order.

* * *

THE MAJOR RELIGION STORIES COMING THIS YEAR

In some ways, good riddance to 2023 with its wars and arrests and disinformation and on and on. I thought you might want to know what the Religion News Service reporters think will be the big faith-related stories of 2024. It turns out that they've offered their thoughts about that here. Wondering what you think should be on the list that isn't there. You can tell me by email at [email protected]. And Happy New Year.

* * *

P.S.: A new survey suggests that Utah is no longer a Mormon-majority state. It says Mormons now make up just 42 percent of the population there. That's a surprise, as the RNS story to which I've linked you suggests -- partly because the survey was measuring something a bit different from what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was measuring in 2019 when it found that Mormons make up 60 percent of Utah's population. But as far as I know, Utah still makes up 2 percent of the states that are part of the U.S.

Comments

The comments to this entry are closed.