From: bivalve (bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com)
Date: Mon Jan 20 2003 - 21:12:49 EST
>>The potential for same-sex covenant love to exceed heterosexual marriage in its capacity to generate personal devotion and self-sacrifice is clearly attested in story of David and Jonathan. Was their friendship "unnatural"? The Church replies that by "unnatural" it does not mean homophile affection as such, but the genital acts to which such affection may lead.<<
>For what its worth, I did not interpret the above as claiming that the relationship of David and Jonathan was homosexual.<
It does not explicitly say so, but the general context and the apparent equation of their friendship with homophile affection (which I am not sure whether it means friendship between people of the same sex or sexual attraction between them) that may lead to sexual activity would suggest that it is making that claim; the claim is also explicitly made by some advocates of homosexuality. The assumption that friendship is automatically a possible prelude to sex is silly. Is the church wrong to draw a line, allowing someone to have multiple friends of the opposite sex while not allowing them to have sex with all of them?
C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves, would be a good reference for distinguishing between friendship and sexual attraction. The posted essay seems to confuse the two in the excerpt quoted above. The two are not mutually exclusive; in fact, the proper setting for sexual attraction is within the intimate friendship of marriage.
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
University of Alabama
Biodiversity & Systematics
Dept. Biological Sciences
Box 870345
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
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