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Any Christian who accepts homosexuality goes against the original Christian teachings t<f 2z egarding the comments of M. Rénechtel (Aug. 6, Waterloo hronicle) aimed at the Pope, Catholic bishops and other "supâ€" posed Christians" who oppose same sex marriages: It seems very strange to me that my fellow Christian friend Knechtel can be a Christian and be OK with same sex marriages. The message of the Bible, whether a Protestant verâ€" sion or a Catholic. clearly conâ€" demns homosexuality. Knechtel seems to be inclined to accept Christianity on his/her own terms and not on the teachings of holy scripture. I would imagin : this is why Knechtel has a problem with the Catholic church. She Catholic church teaches that the truth remains unchanged and that the individual must change. This mesâ€" sage is not, nor has it ever been, politically correct, and in today‘s "if it feels good, do it" society, it is no surprise it isn‘t popular with the masses. P am a proud Catholic and also one of these supposed Christians Knechtel is so quick to trash and call "sexist" and "homophabic". I wasn‘t always a proud Catholic though, and 1 understand how one could be at odds with the Catholic church if they didn‘t take the time to really research and understand why the people of the church believe what they believe. Thad a number of issues with the Catholic church because I thought a lot of what I saw contradicted scripâ€" ture. Once I did my homework and really looked into what the church teaches and why, 1 soon realized how totally incorrect and ignorant of the facts I was. You see, the Catholic church is the only church FOLLOw DETOu R StenSs %F~@ ome S\wop in Wénler\og HabBa: ols »ltv’if. that completely honours the holy scriptures, and also studies very closely the writings of the church fathers who succeeded the apostles, beginning in A.D. 96, right up to the present day. These writings are not considered to be equal to scripture but they are very valuable in that they reflect the everyday teaching of the church as it unfolded throughâ€" out the ages. If one takes the time to study some of these writings (available for free on the Internet or book form)}, one can really get a feel for how the Catholic Catechism we have today was formed over the course of many centuries by many very holy defenders of the faith. Many of these heroes were put to death for speaking the original truth of the message of Jesus in the face of controversies much like this preâ€" sent one regarding same sex marâ€" mages. I‘d like to quote a few early church fathers on the topic of homosexuality in general: "It is well that they should be cut off from the lusts of the world, since ‘every lust wars against the spirit‘ and ‘neither fornicators, nor sodomites will inherit the kingdom of God." St. Clement of Rome ("First Epistle To The Corinthians," c. 96 A.D.) "Some polluted themselves by lying with males. The Greeks, O King. follow debased practices in intercourse with males, or with mothers, sisters, and daughters. Yet, they. in turn impute their monâ€" strous impurity to the Christians." St. Aristides ("Apology," c. 125 A.D.) "Oh, if placed on that lofty watchâ€"tower, you could gaze into the secret placesâ€"if you could open the closed doors of sleeping chamâ€" €ase O THE CHRONICL] Dort 1| dle 67 Defour af Detour COMMENT | Lbuanm * | bers and recall their dark recesses to the perception of sightâ€"you would behold things done by immodest persons which no chaste eye could look upon; you would see what even to see is a crime; you would see what people embruted with the madness of vice deny that they have done, and yet hasten to doâ€"men with frenzied lusts rushing upon men, doing things which afford no gratification even to those who do them." St. Cyprian of Carthage ("Letters" c. 250 A.D.) As you can see, the Catholic Church has never accepted homoâ€" sexuality and since it was the origiâ€" nal Christian church from whioh alirs the other denominations came, any Christian who accepts homosexualâ€" ity goes against the original Christâ€" ian teachings. My friend M. Knechâ€" tel is guilty of this. God does indeed love gays just as he loves all hurnan beings. Fortuâ€" nately for me, he is also extremely tolerant and patient with us, and very forgiving. God does, however, expect us to always strive for perfecâ€" tion and obedience. Homosexuality is a grave abomination in His eyes. He has made this clear via holy scripture. The Christian should treat the homosexual with the same respect Jesus showed sinners. He never put them down or belittled them, but he made them aware of their sinfulness and lovingly attempted to lead them in the way of righteousness. By accepting their behavior as OK, and denying them the truth, we only do them more harm. Thank God for the Vatican and for guys like Joel Corbeil who aren‘t afraid to speak the truth in the face of adversity. One Way al v From time to time, I‘ll read something so absolutely incrediâ€" ble (or just incredibly stupid) that I just have to look into it further to verify its accuracy. Occasionally, what I‘ve read turns out to be exaggerated, taken out of context or simply unverifiâ€" able â€" thereby confirming my initial skepticism. More often than not, however, it turns out that the excerpt that I‘ve read is 100 per cent accurate and truly reflective of the context in which it was said. Particularly due to the lack of meaningful discussion that most of these remarks generates, I‘ve been doing a lot of shaking my head. An example of this phenomenon occurred recently when I was perusing the website for The New Republic magazine. It contained an excerpt from George W. Bush‘s press conference of July 30, 2003. Bush was answering a question about the conâ€" tinuing stagnation of the American economy, and provided the following bit of historical revisionism: I located a full transcript of the To wl C | press conference on the New York | VIEW “ Times Web site and confirmed that, | 8 | yes, Bush actually did utfer those | | words. The fact that he was entirely | | responsible for this "not very conâ€" | § ducive environment" (not to mention . | #».~ | being implicated in many of the corâ€" | = BJâ€"C L porate scandals to which he also | ce | alludes) seems to be entirely lost on ‘ & *;}' | Bush. And, for all of his criticism of | \ * @4 ‘ the media, I didn‘t see anyone else ' C | pick up on this whopper of a stateâ€" SCOTT | ment.. Bush is being given as free a ‘ PIATKOWSKI | ride as any U.S. president SINCE Water . |l_oooncccccn_ J gate. Still, it‘s quite comforting to read Bush‘s reassurances near the end of the same press conferâ€" ence: "I take personal responsibility for everything I say." We‘ll have to remember that one when the impeachment proceedâ€" ings start. Did they really say that? "The stock market started to decline in March of 2000. Then the first quarter of 2001 was a recession, and then we got attacked on 9/11, and then corporate scandal started to bubble up to the surface which created a lack of confidence in the sysâ€" tem. And then we had the drum beat to war. I remember on our TV screens â€"â€" I‘m not suggesting which network did this, but it said: ‘March to war‘, every day from last summer until the spring: ‘March to war, march to war, march.‘ That‘s not a very conducive environment for peoâ€" ple to take risks when they hear ‘march to war‘ all the time." NTLILED Bush‘s hired help are hardly immune from making stateâ€" ments of this nature. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz is particularly adept at saying things that make me choke on my breakdfast cereal. In an in â€"flight interview granted to Associâ€" ated Press as he returned from a tour of Iraq, he stated: _ Ahem. This sudden disinterest in finding weapons of mass destruction wouldn‘t have anything to do with the fact that you haven‘t been able to find any, would it? â€" o0 "I‘m not concerned about weapons of mass destruction. I‘m concerned about getting Iraq on its feet. I didn‘t come (to Iraq) on a search for weapons of mass destruction... I‘m not saying that getting to the bottom of this WMD issue isn‘t important. It is important. But it is not of immediate conseâ€" quence." Of course, at this point, Wolfowitz must have sÂ¥ill been tinâ€" gling from getting away with his comments made the day before (while still in Iraq), in which he warned foreign counâ€" tries to stop meddling in Iraq‘s affairs. For the most part, the news media reported these remarks without comment or criticism. I couldn‘t find a single editorial in a U.S. newspaper that criticized or even noted the obvious double standard being employed by the Americans (who apparently do not consider themselves "foreigners" when they invade a country). Appropriately, the Reuters wire story did contain the word "hypocrisy", but it merely attributed the label to the Iranian government. It‘s a sad day for media analysis when it falls to a country that beats journalists to death to respond to such an obviously wrongheaded statement by a public official. "I think all foreigliérs should stop interfering in the mzernal affairs of Iraq. Those who want to come and help are wettome Those who come to interfere and destroy are not." Obviously, this kind of statement is not limited to the Iraq issue; nor is it limited to Americans. Around the world, politiâ€" cians, bad actors who aspire to be politicians, and business leaders seem to be adopting this penchant for making blatantâ€" ty false or misleading statements as part of their every day disâ€" course. Maybe they think we‘re not paying attention and they‘ll be able to get away with it. So far, they seem to be right. Let‘s hope that the media and the public wake up soon scoft.piatkowski@rogers.com | x\\()'}‘lilflRj _ view _ [a], ' "=@ll SCOTT PIATKOWSKI