Imagine that you and a few friends are sitting in a restaurant together. You are laughing, chatting, and having fun. One of your friends is looking rather glum but has a look of determination about him. You ask him what seems to be on his mind. He at first is reluctant to say anything, but you reassure him that whatever he has to say won't cause you any distress. He looks up at you sadly and says, "I know I have to say this, but you and the rest of your friends may not like me anymore because of it." You say you're up for anything and for him to spit it out. 

"Alright then. I'm gay and always have been. I hope this doesn't change the way you feel about me. I'm still the same guy, just well..," There's an awkward silence around the table and everyone decides to leave the restaurant quickly after paying the bill. 

A few weeks pass and word gets around the office of your friend's coming out. Some people give him dirty looks in the hallway, while others avoid eye contact. Some of your own friends try to pressure you into not inviting your homosexual friend out the events and such. Eventually word gets around to the members of church and that is when things really start to head south. You realize that things are going terribly for him while at work and he has opened up to you about the problems he's had with his members of his congregation. So now you have a choice. Do you stand by your friend and lose most of your own friends at work and elsewhere or do you stand and do nothing and watch your friend struggle? 

The Catholic Church and other Christian denominations are at a loss as to what to do with a scenario such this. To accept the behavior of the individual would go against the tenants of the faith, while pointing out the behavior would drive otherwise faithful members away. At least in the Catholic Church, there are some people who are trying to get the word out that they do not hate gay people and that there is a place in the Church for them. Mostly the approach of most lay folks is to say nothing, avoid the topic altogether, or have priests and higher clergy say their thoughts on the subject which can end up coming across as harsh or cruel. 

When the Catholic Church and other Christian denominations say that acting on homosexuality is a sin, the people who are for marriage equality are often quick to point out as God being the one who put the tendencies in the person in the first place, or that religion was often created by straight men in a response to a need to keep the population in villages and such up. Both are very valid reasoning points but that's not the point necessarily. All at least, the Catholic Church is saying is that they hate the sin not the sinner and that there are alternative ways of expressing your sexuality than acting directly on homosexual fantasies. What those alternatives are I'm not exactly sure, but I imagine that prayer and getting closer to God in some way during temptation might be a possible solution. They could offer their trials in temptation as offerings to God, or prayers for loved ones or souls in need of salvation. Not everyone is a prayer warrior I understand, so these solutions may not work for all involved. I'm not a super prayer warrior. I'm more an action getting down into people's business type of evangelist so perhaps there are solutions that are meant for more people like me than the super prayer warrior route. What those solutions are, I don't know. Perhaps someone has come up with them. Maybe a quick Google search could find you some answers. 

And while it seems that there is a basis in the man/woman marriage in the Church, it's only a matter of the ideal picture of the image of God, which is either celibate or representation of man and woman in marriage and not man to man or woman to woman. It has more to do with the idea of the nature of the soul of how it reflects God best when it is either in the celibate state or between man and woman. Man to man and woman to woman only show one side of God. It is not, as advocates of marriage equality and people who don't know the Church's teaching on the subject have any bias that homosexuals are just "lesser" people or that they are somehow "unclean". God can still use these people to work towards creating the kingdom of God on earth. 

Some of our Christian brothers and sisters fail to realize that God has not given those people homosexual tendencies because he likes straight people more or has given them an unreasonable burden. Some Christians have taken the acceptance of behavior route to combat the "all gay people for being gay are going to hell" types. That's fine in my book, but that's not really what my denomination believes is the best thing to do. My Church, the Catholic Church, has to do a better job of promoting alternatives to acting on homosexual tempations, and the lay people have to do a better job of voicing their beliefs on the issue, even if it means going against what the Church says on the subject. Silence speaks louder than words and it is through the silence that God speaks to our very souls. In the silence, does he tell you to stand up for the Church's word or what your conscious tells you? I feel that the Church at least theologically is the most sound but perhaps needs to catch up to the times socially. That is partially what "The New Evangelization" is about. To revitalize the Church socially and present a new face to the world. 

Will the members of my denomination and others continue to treat homosexuals as social leproers, or will this be the era of social change in furthering God's work on earth? I certainly hope it is the latter, because the living Church cannot go stagnant or it will die from within. A little change is a good thing and without that the faith that was built to last will crumble.