Friday, December 26, 2008

The Left's Obsession with Sex

I read recently about Pope Benedict XVI's recent speech in which he briefly restated the Catholic Church's eons-old position on human sexuality. Apparently, he took about 50 words to make this pronouncement. He spent the other 3,450 words of his speech tackling issues like the environment, torture regimes, global poverty, and evangelism. What was the only issue addressed in the articles I read about the speech? The 50 words about sex. My wife and I were traveling from Chicago to NH and stayed at a Super 8 Motel in Clarion, PA. The scrolling marquee at the bottom of the TV screen in the lobby had a blurb about the speech, which only said, "The Pope tells people to respect gender roles." (Of course, that description itself is absurd. He said nothing about "gender roles", but about the unchangeable nature of human sexuality. A "gender role" is something you act out, something you do; your sex is something you are, something at the core of your being.)

But somehow it's the Catholic Church that's obsessed about sex? I join Rod Dreher in saying, "Give me a freaking break."
People who define themselves primarily in terms of their sexual desires insist that the rest of us have to see the world and judge others entirely through their monomania. [W]e know, of course, that to many American liberals ... what matters is not the empty stomachs and diseased bodies of the poor, but only their genitals. That's the standard by which good and evil -- and religion -- must be judged.
Don't believe him? Listen to Michael Winter:

The most unintentionally funny commentary came from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. As reported by Rocco Palmo, they issued a statement that read: "In a season in which the immorality of genocide, lawless governments, lust for money and power and the destabilization of the world’s economy are destroying the lives of hundreds of millions around the world, the Pope’s obsessive focus on gay, lesbian and trans people who simply seek the right to live and love is out of touch with what humanity needs right now from its religious leaders."

Who is obsessed about sexuality? One sentence in a long speech constitutes obsession? When was the last time the Holy Father spoke about anything to do with gays? When was the last time you heard a sermon that focused narrowly on sexual ethics? Somebody is obsessed with sex, but it isn’t the Holy Father or the Church he serves.

A report in Zenit shows what truly obsesses the Church: "Some 27% of health care centers that attend AIDS patients around the world are administered by the Church; 44% are run by governments, 18% by nongovernmental organizations, 11% by other religious institutions, and 8% by other groups." I commend all groups that help care for those who suffer, but before you write a check to the Clinton Global Initiative, you might want to think about how much the Catholic Church accomplishes for the poorest of the poor with much less money. But, we have something the NGOs do not have, the precious awareness that the poor are created in the image and likeness of God.

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