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Is homosexuality a sin? If so, why?
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MoonlessNight
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Disordered sexual acts (and that's the term I'm going to be using to emphasize that I am talking about sexual acts here, not necessarily limited to homosexual ones) seperate the the act of sexual intercourse from its purpose, and so glorify the pleasure involved and little else.
Another way you could look at is that sex without purpose is only about giving into pleasures. There is nothing else to the act. Therefore such acts will weaken the virtue of moderation; which is how we resist inappropriate pleasures; which will lead the person to a life in which it is harder to be moral.
On the other side of things you could say that such acts also strengthen the act of lust; which indeed is more or less the glorification of sexual pleaures in and of themselves, this will also make a moral life more difficult. And the vice of lust has its own daughters if strengthened too far.
Though I admit I have difficulty in explaining this particular area. The best that I can say is that a person who does not master his passions will in turn be mastered by them. Glorification of the pleasure of sex as an ends, even if it is a shared ends, certainly does not help in this manner. I think that this is especially true in the modern world, where sex is often encouraged entirely because people say that we cannot resist the urges toward that end.
But even having written that I don't think that I've said what I wanted to.
There is also the harm done to one's relationship with God, but I don't think you'll let me enter that into the equation so I won't discuss it further.
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MoonlessNight
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Well we are fair and say that even when a married couple decides that they want to have sex but destroy possibility of children, that is contrary to chastity too. Certainly there is a unitive aspect to sex (and whether that function of sex can still be expressed in a homosexual relationship is probably material for another discussion entirely; but unfortunately one that I admit that I am ill-equipped to discuss) but there is also the generative component. And there is also the pleasure, but that has nothing to do with the ends.
The basic position is, unless I'm mistaken, is that neither component of sex can be removed.
But yes, I will admit that this is a nuanced debate. Certainly it is much harder to argue from a completely secular standpoint, where many of the truths of Catholicism, and sources for inspiration, cannot be called upon.
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Jesus spent quite some time explaining that you should still do good on the Sabbath. I am not suggesting that you don't remember he Sabbath ... and I am not suggesting that you should not keep it Holy. What I am saying is that you should not allow your zeal for the law to cloud your understanding of what God intended the Sabbath to be about. Jesus systematically did 'good works' on the Sabbath, if you need to take care of your family responsibility God understands that you are not 'working' in the sense of 'gaining for the sake of gain', but are following the most important commandment...loving.
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Marz Blak
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In what dictionary did you find that definition? My sources define it principally as 'intense sexual desire.' I will grant that there may be connoations of illicitness to this desire, but not necessarily so.
Can you explain what this means? I do not understand it.
Overgeneralization, I think. I would say that emotional expressions tend to enervate some people and energize others, and some sorts of emotional expressions tend to energize people while others seem to drain people. I will grant that some religious people seem to be energized by the emotion of their faith, but other people get energized by their emotional involvement in other things that have no connection to religiosity.
Can someone explain to me what 'spirit' is?
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