Authentic Freedom and the Homosexual Person

Authentic Freedom and the Homosexual Person | Dr. Mark Lowery




The tragic impasse that exists in our culture on the issue
of homosexuality stems from two errors.



On the one hand, many moderns have
embraced an autonomous view of reality: "I can do what I want as long as it
doesn't hurt anyone else." According to such relativism, homosexual acts are
perfectly legitimate so long as they are between two consenting adults. In
stark reaction to such subjectivism, many others embrace a moralism that easily
turns venomous when it vilifies and demonizes: "Homosexuality is wrong because
God said so" (and nothing more). The distinction between the homosexual
condition and homosexual acts, if added at all, is added as an afterthought.
This view, opposite that of autonomy, could be termed heteronomy, because God's law is understood to be extrinsically
and somewhat arbitrarily placed upon man with a seeming lack of concern for
actual experience of the persons involved.



Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical Veritatis Splendor (art. 41), distinguishes the Catholic moral outlook
from these two erroneous positions. He labels the Catholic view a "participated
theonomy." If for autonomy there is no law, and if for heteronomy the law is to
be followed because God said so, for participated theonomy the moral law is
something friendly to our being, something built for our genuine fulfillment
and for our authentic freedom. The law is not true because God commanded it;
rather, God commands it because it is true. When we use our free will to align
our lives with this truth, we possess authentic freedom.



What does this mean for the debate on homosexuality?

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