faith and sexuality

I think it is time to clear something up about me and my faith. A few people are making some quite offensive assumptions about me just because I am catholic. My views have and always will be clear on certain matters. I class myself a as a progressive liberal catholic and my views may make me a bad catholic but they sure as hell make me a better person.

This is one which annoys the hell out of me and that is sexuality. People assume that because I am catholic that I have a problem with people who are gay, that I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. WRONG, TOTALLY AND UTTERLY WRONG!  The only time a persons sexuality has ever come into the mix was when that man was trying to force himself onto me. At that point I will and did use whatever methods and words that I wish to defend myself.  My firm belief and I have said this openly before is that just because a person is gay/bi doesn’t make them less of a person/christian/catholic than the rest of us. If you are a man/woman and your natural instinct or feelings are towards another man/woman that who am I to judge you?  Now admittedly if it was animals or children then yes I have a very serious problem with that and I am going to make it very clear what I think.  Someone correct me if I am wrong here but both a marriage and civil partnership are public declarations of love and commitment? A rose by any other name is still a rose.  

I would much rather a person be who they are than someone they are not. Yes I have trust issues and find it very difficult to let men anywhere close to me, I promise you though that has got nothing to do with my faith or the church. Read between the lines here and I am fairly certain you will understand what I am talking about. Being a catholic/christian isn’t just about toddling off to mass once a week and confession occasionally. It is about being open, tolerant and welcoming to all. It is about giving, being considerate and caring. A persons sexuality should never be a bar to the church.

I am a practicing catholic and yes I carry a rosary around with me. No this doesn’t mean that I am religious nut, no it doesn’t mean I am going to start bible bashing and preaching to people, no it doesn’t mean I am going to suddenly start to try and convert or change peoples views, beliefs or anything else.  I am certainly not going to  and never will treat someone different because they are gay, straight or bi.  

So would people kindly stop trying to judge me on their own narrow and biased views of catholics? As with the whole of society we are not all bad people with narrow and offensive views of others.