Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!rex!ukma!seismo!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: brendan@cs.uq.oz.au (Brendan Mahony) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Temptation and Impure Thoughts Message-ID: Date: 27 Mar 91 04:47:40 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 44 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article jhpb@granjon.garage.att.com writes: >Homosexual thoughts, ... CANNOT be engaged in, if one >wishes to enter the kingdom of Heaven. They're sins of the grave kind, >like murder, large theft. In fasano@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Cathy Fasano) writes: >Other people have dealt with this more substantively; I wish merely to >point out that this is *not* Roman Catholic teaching. (Catholic teaching >is pretty well summed-up as the assertion that homosexuals are called to >a life of celibacy (a "life of celibacy" being quite well-defined in >Catholic teaching.)) I am sure that Cathy means chastity as celibacy is merely the unmarried state, so most homsexuals do indeed practise celibacy and would thus gain a lot more approval from the church than they do. Note that celibacy is in fact the vow taken by RC priests and not chastity, though many religious orders do indeed require this of their initiates. >Whether one believes the (in this case homosexual) action immoral or not, >merely considering the action is not in itself immoral. As a general case >in moral theology, unacted-out temptation is never considered sinful -- in >fact, resisting temptation is considered a practical virtue to be prayed >for, studied and emulated. Perhaps a little over simplified. The (RC) church would definitely claim that there is sin in entertaining thoughts or fantacising about a sinful action. This is referred to as sin by Christ and the ten commandments. Notice that it is "thou shalt not covet..." rather than "thou shalt not take..." I wouldn't claim to know all of the reason for this but it does seem that fantasies are eventually either acted out on some level or else bring a feeling of unfulfilment and loss when not acted out. Consider the obvious unfortunate effects of racist and sexist thoughts and fantasies, even among those who try to lead a Christian life. In seeking to resist temptation one should really be aiming to clean your mind of impure thoughts as well as your body of actions. -- Brendan Mahony | brendan@batserver.cs.uq.oz Department of Computer Science | heretic: someone who disgrees with you University of Queensland | about something neither of you knows Australia | anything about.