The latest
innovations of those departing from the faith once for all delivered to the
saints is to bless same sex unions. Not
to be outdone by the Church of England, which began this blessing of sin in
December, the Vatican has followed. The
different reasoning for this aside, both signal by such an action an approval
of a sin forbidden by the Church for two thousand years and by God’s people
long before (cf. Leviticus 18.22; 20.13).
In the Apostolic Constitutions of the Christian
Church from the late 4th century, same sex relations (sodomy) and transgenderism
(effeminacy) were condemned rather than blessed, along with activities of
sorcerers. The pertinent text reads:
He that is guilty of sins not to be named, a sodomite, an
effeminate person, a magician, an enchanter, an astrologer, a diviner, an user
of magic verses, a juggler, a mountebank, one that makes amulets, a charmer, a
soothsayer, a fortune-teller, an observer of palmistry; he that, when he meets
you, observes defects in the eyes or feet of the birds or cats, or noises, or
symbolic sounds: let these be proved for some time, for this sort of
wickedness is hard to be washed away; and if they leave off those
practices, let them be received; but if they will not agree to that, let them
be rejected (Apostolic Constitutions VIII.XXXII).[1]
The text groups
such sins together because they are examples of besetting sins. Such sins are often difficult to overcome,
though we recognise God’s power to transform the sinner’s desires beyond his or
her efforts through spiritual disciplines. Otherwise, the person is not only to repent and show contrition but to prove himself or herself over time as a person living in righteousness before our holy God.
Instead of
showing sinners the path to righteousness, the blessing of persons recognised
in their sin and for their sin affirms them in their sin and their continuation in it. The Apostolic Constitutions is a gracious document, allowing space for sinners to repent and be received back into fellowship, but it is clear
that those rejecting correction are to be rejected from communion. To bless a homosexual in a same sex
relationship or a transsexual identifying as a woman is equivalent to blessing
a person practicing sorcery and augury. The
Church has never considered either—until this present generation. In so doing, it shows itself not the be the
Church at all but a mocking imitation of the body of Christ.
[1] The translation may be found online: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/07158.htm
(accessed 5 February, 2024).
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