Homosexuality and the Reading of Scripture

I was reading an article in the liberal Catholic journal Commonweal about concerns by some conservative Catholics that the new Pope Benedict won't deal firmly enough with the homosexual issue in the Catholic church (in particular it was a reply to Richard Neahaus, once a liberal Protestant but now a neo-conservative Catholic writer), and I came across this paragraph:

It is true, however, that like many Catholics, Commonweal is engaged in the difficult task of discerning whether new understandings of homosexuality are compatible with the gospel and the church’s moral tradition. We look first to the church for guidance and instruction. But since God’s presence in the world is not confined to the church, we also look to the lives and testimony of our friends and neighbors. No one should pretend that reconciling homosexual love with the church’s teaching is easy or perhaps even likely; and no one should assume it is impossible. God, we are convinced, is both faithful and known to confound expectations...

Protestants, of course, would substitute "scripture" everywhere it says "church" (following Luther's admonition to follow sola scriptura). We look first to the scriptures for guidance and instruction... And it is true, of course, that it is not easy to reconcile the "practice" of homosexuality with the words of scripture. One needs to ask, of course, what was understood about homosexuality in its historical context. The Jewish and Christian writers certainly had no way of knowing that homosexual orientation could be genetically influenced.

But it is also helpful to remember that homosexuality is not the only issue that cannot be easily reconciled with scripture. The idea that we could organize society as a democracy, that slavery is morally wrong, that women might be equals in society and in church, all of these are ideas that cannot easily be reconciled with scripture. But somehow we have done it, because, as the Commonweal article suggests, God's presence is not confined to the church or to the scriptures. We have learned new truth beyond what is contained in scripture. We have learned to see the deeper insights in the scriptures that value each individual as a "good" creation and a child of God and that challenge us to practice love and justice in our homes, churches, schools, and communities.

It is this history of progress in human rights and spiritual insight that makes me confident that we will one day look back on the battle regarding homosexuality much as we now do regarding slavery. But the battle did (and does) have to be fought.