The duty to discriminate.

Fear not the reproach of men; be not dismayed at their revilings. Isaiah 51:7

Homosexuality is overrunning Canada's legal agenda. Opposition to it is characterized as hate, now defined as a hate crime. People are being silenced. Businessmen feel that they must comply, while politicians hasten to join the politically correct. What is an individual to do?

The duty of Catholics is spelled out clearly. "The Church has the responsibility to promote family life and public morality of the entire civil society", the July 23, 1992, Vatican statement on discrimination against homosexuals says, "not simply to protect herself from the application of harmful laws." Even if the state "grants exceptions to the Church organizations and institutions," the document states, "it is inappropriate for Church authorities to endorse or remain neutral toward adverse legislation." What can be clearer than this?

Catholics cannot and may not be silent in the face of recent Supreme Court decisions and federal and provincial government legislation endorsing and enhancing the status of the homosexual lifestyle. We not only have the right to "discriminate", but the duty to do so. Therefore we had better know where we stand as Christians.

Discrimination

The word "discriminate", needless to say, works against opponents of the homosexual agenda. Unlike in earlier times, we are told that today it means exclusively "the morally unacceptable use of distinctions". That prejudges the discussion in favour of homosexuals. To correct this we resort to the use of the terms "just" and "unjust" discrimination.

Christianity rejects unjust discrimination in all circumstances, including that against homosexual persons. On the other hand, it practises just discrimination, i.e., the refusal to cooperate where necessary, to protect the common good from evils which threaten to undermine it. In private behaviour we therefore distinguish between sin and sinner: hate the sin but (continue to) love the sinner, as difficult as this may be in practice. For public policy, law, and administration, however, we must oppose erronous action as best we can and, failing our efforts, continue to resist it wherever possible.

Catholic teaching

In so doing we have a wonderful chance to uphold truth and the common good. Catholic teaching on homosexuality is simple and clear. The fundamental social unit of our society is the family. The family is not a product of human culture; rather it is the starting point of all human organization, created by God.

God willed that the biological functions of man and woman be transcended by the permanent social relationship called marriage. As anthropologists would say, through marriage the instinctive activities of sex and parenthood (which man has in common with animals) "are socialized and a new synthesis of cultural and natural elements is created in the shape of the family" (Malinowoski). The Church then elevates marriage further, to a sacramental covenant and union with God.

Throughout history the family has been defended by the strongest moral and religious sanctions in every society. The freedom from restraint projected in the minds of some 18th- and 19th-century thinkers is just a fabrication: such libertarianism has never existed anywhere. On the contrary, at the root of social life there have always been structures to restrain anti-social impulses. These restraints are painful, but also creative. The undisciplined, natural instinct must be channeled and the individual impulse must be harmonized with the social purpose of procreation and mutual assistance.

Catholic theology of the family, therefore, has nothing to do with ancient taboos, or medieval superstition, or any form of ascetism. The Church, states the historian Christopher Dawson, bases her teaching on marriage and sexual morality "not on her ideals of ascetism, nor even on her theological dogmas, but on the broad grounds of natural (moral) law and social function" (Enquiries into Religion and Culture, p. 271).

The assault

Today's homosexual activists have launched a direct attack on the heart of society, the overall thrust of which is a social disaster. Homosexual acts are abhorrent and unnatural and stand condemned in Scripture. The homosexuals' claim that God made them that way is false. In reality, the homosexual inclination is a disorder and homosexual acts are moral evils which a person can accept or resist.

When the Supreme Court "read" so-called sexual orientation into the Charter of Rights in 1995, it read in a moral disorder, to be protected by law. So, too, did the Ontario Court of Appeal when it ruled in favour of same-sex spousal benefits, the B.C. government when it accepted same- sex spousal benefits, and the Alberta government when it allowed homosexuals to adopt children.

If we cannot stop any of this legislation, we must oppose its effects in our own lives. This requires that we understand that no matter what judges or politicians may say, we have the right to "discriminate", indeed the duty to do so. In other words, there is a right to just discrimination.