A Catholic Church behind the times
By Editorial
Last Friday's scandalous Drag Show was a true celebration of the fluidity of gender and sexuality. The controversy surrounding the sexy show, however, is related to more than just racy dances and revealing costumes. Santa Clara's Drag Show makes manifest one of the most contentious issues within the Catholic Church today: acceptance of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community.
It is only appropriate that a Jesuit university like Santa Clara should host an event with the ability to raise as many proverbial Catholic eyebrows as the Drag Show did.
Notwithstanding their allegiance to the powers that be in Rome who collectively determine modern church doctrine, the Jesuits have made fantastic efforts to liberalize Catholic teaching.
Santa Clara is a perfect testament to such Jesuit progressiveness. By declaring the university a safe space, listing course offerings in queer theory, including sexuality among other on-campus antidiscrimination policies and allowing events like the Drag Show and transgender panels to entertain and educate year after year, Santa Clara works to nourish the LGBTQ community.
But despite the strides both the university and the Jesuit community as a whole have made in the fight for acceptance of the LGBTQ community, much remains to be done.
Jesus, the kind of revolutionary who would strike fear in the hearts of today's staunch Catholics, dared to accept all in his midst. The modern Catholic Church has chosen to take a different route. Known neither for its cultural sensitivity nor its ability to change with the times, the Catholic Church has been quite clear in its condemnation of the LGBTQ community.
Catholic teaching maintains that homosexuality is not a choice. However, such teaching also holds that the decision to engage in homosexual activity is a choice. In the Catholic Church, homosexuality in itself is not a sin; homosexuality only becomes sinful when it is acted upon. Homosexual Catholics, while not persecuted for being gay, are barred from "expressing their sexuality," or, in other words, from having sex. How is one expected to express their sexuality without having sex?
But in a religion where sexual intercourse is meant to be enjoyed only by married people, where female sexuality is modest, at best, and where unions between people who cannot bear children together are deemed unholy, the Catholic Church's condemnation of the LGBTQ community is hardly puzzling.
After all, what could be more threatening than a group of people who have discovered who they are and have learned to accept diversity?
By disallowing certain "lifestyle choices," the Catholic Church is effectively ostracizing millions of its members. And at the same time, it is relegating both gender and sexuality to respective, mutually exclusive corners -- corners that confine the millions of the LGBTQ community who have embraced their (God-given) identities.
The Santa Clara community is also guilty of confining the LGBTQ community at times, although not in quite as overt a fashion as the Catholic Church. Inappropriate words and even hate speech are heard all too frequently on the suburb campus that is Santa Clara. And despite its popularity, the Drag Show elicits anything but praise from many students who are less-than-appreciative of SCCAP's efforts to raise awareness of LGBTQ issues.
Students must realize that such reductive attitudes are capable of perpetuating the cycle of hate against the LGBTQ community. We as a community at Santa Clara should set an example of acceptance and inclusion for a church, and a country, that both have a long way to go.