Mental Illness: The Only Time Homosexual Inclination Is Not Internal Sin

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http://www.lisagraas.com/blog/archives/5875

THE GREAT AWAKENING

Please note that my post is directed toward those who consider themselves to be faithful Catholics. If you are not a faithful Catholic, there is probably a 100% chance that you will disagree with this post. I am not trying to convince you that I am right. Rather, I want to have a discussion with the faithful on this topic. By faithful, I refer to those who know what the term “Loyal to the Magisterium” means and would describe themselves as such.

After my post yesterday “How To Become a Saint Among Sodomites” someone emailed the link to another post on my blog to someone else who then visited that emailed link. The link that was emailed was my post “Mental Illness: The Only Time Homosexual Inclination Is Not Internal Sin,” which was written over a year ago on December 6, 2011. My recollection is that on that date, I was returning to blogging after a trip to the crisis unit for being suicidal. (I have a dual diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder and Asperger Syndrome.) That post was way too long and not well written as it should have been, so I want to cover the topic here again. Same-sex attraction is either mental illness or it is internal sin.

Catholics are to treat mental illness completely differently from sin. A mentally ill person is the image of Christ in the world, whereas a person in sin is in need of repentance. Further, we are not allowed to judge hearts. No wonder, then, that Satan is using this issue to attack the freedom of the Church to be herself in America. Satan is very sneaky, but he can be lazy with this issue, because it is so easy for people to be confused about it and for them to accuse those who speak the truth on this to be “judging” people who are often, in reality, just very sick in the sense of deserving our compassion.

For the Catholic.

1. Same-sex attraction is an objective disorder.

In the discussion which followed the publication of the Declaration, however, an overly benign interpretation was given to the homosexual condition itself, some going so far as to call it neutral, or even good. Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder. (Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.)

2. Disorder is never intrinsic. This is why we cannot accept that anyone is “gay.” No one is intrinsically inclined to homosexuality. Same-sex attraction is always something that can be healed.

3. People can experience unwanted same-sex attraction. Because same-sex attraction is objectively disordered, unwanted same-sex attraction is a mental disorder. Because of this, people with unwanted same-sex attraction who are seeking healing are the image of Christ in the world.

4. Demanding to be identified as “gay” is a rejection of the teaching that same-sex attraction is objectively disordered. It is a claim that same-sex attraction is intrinsic to the person experiencing it. Demanding to be identified as “gay” is equivalent to embracing the heresy of total depravity. (Council of Trent, Session 6, Canon 5.) Those who are teaching that it is okay to identify as “gay” are teaching heresy.

See why Satan loves this? If you experience unwanted same-sex attraction and are seeking healing, you are the image of Christ. If you experience unwanted same-sex attraction but demand to be identified as “gay” you are embracing heresy. Satan loves that. He loves when Catholic bloggers say people are “gay.”

The disorder of same-sex attraction is, in an important way, comparable to my Bipolar Disorder in that sometimes I experience delusion. Delusion is an inability to understand reality, and delusion sometimes involves thinking I should kill myself. My brain and my heart contradict each other completely during these times. On committing suicide, my heart says “No, no, no” and my brain says “Yes, yes, yes.” That is why, during those times, the only thing that keeps me from suicide is to force myself to think (in my brain) that God’s will, which I can be intellectually assured of through the teaching of the Church, and which is that I should notkill myself, trumps what I “think” in my head. Because of my journey in Christ prior to these delusions, my heart is with Christ. Provided that the people that I love and trust are telling me that my identity is in Him, not in what my brain is telling me to do, I will not commit suicide. If someone I love and trust tells me that my identity is in what my brain is telling me, I will commit suicide.

Delusion – being out of touch with reality – is mental disorder. It is a lack of free will because consent to the truth is not something that one can intellectually grasp. People with same-sex attraction, I presume because they have told me so, can experience that delusion, which is a lack of free will. That is not sin, because there is no free will involved. It is mental disorder. When the attraction is claimed as an identity, however, that is accepting a sexual disorder as “intrinsic.” It is saying that lust is intrinsic. It is the heresy of total depravity.

I hope this post makes more sense than the previous one on this topic. If it does not, I will try again…and again…and again…until you understand it.

By the way, medication helps people with Bipolar Disorder…especially Lithium which is a natural element and non-narcotic.

UPDATE: This post has been endorsed by Pope Francis. Okay, not specifically, but…

Posted by Lisa Graas
Category: Culture, Faith, Mental Illness, Spirituality
Tags: Asperger Syndrome, Bipolar Disorder, Catholic Teaching, Catholicism, Homosexuality, Lust, Same-sex Attraction, Suicide, Total Depravity