….in the rush to (rightly) condemn [his arguments], conservative responses have often overlooked the fact that Savage was on to something….<\/p>\n
Savage\u2019s original point….was not \u201cthe Bible is wrong;\u201d\u009d his incendiary remarks were meant to build up the over-arching concern of Christian non-response to the gay community. He recounts a hypothetical Christian who claims, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, we can\u2019t do anything about bullying, because it says right there in Leviticus, in Timothy, in Romans that being gay is wrong.\u201d\u009d Christians have appealed far too quickly to their traditional moral views to avoid offering support to gay people. Here, if nowhere else, Dan Savage has a point.<\/p>\n
In my own Roman Catholic Church, the teaching is clear that homosexual acts are immoral, but the presence of homosexual inclinations is not. Most (though not all) Christians of other traditions would agree. But if we make the distinction in theory, its practical application is far too rare. The all-encompassing rhetorical tool of the \u201clifestyle\u201d\u009d is used to reduce the entire identity of gay people to sexual activity, and thus our response to all concerns of gay people becomes an automatic \u201cno.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n