Real Christianity Stands with the Oppressed, Not the Oppressor

Last updated on: May 5, 2023 at 10:14 am by Julie Nichols

Real Christianity Stands with the Oppressed, Not the Oppressor 2023-05-05T10:14:01-05:00 Julie Nichols

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

If you read some of my previous posts, you will find that I wasn’t nearly as progressive as I am today. In fact, the involuntary progressive shifts I made started with Trump mocking the disabled reporter. As a disability practitioner, this is something I couldn’t stomach. From that point on, starting in 2016, difficult yet needed political and theological shifts, deconstruction, and reconstruction are still occurring today. The more ugly and further right the Religious Right/Catholic Right shifts, the more progressive in the opposite direction I become, both theologically and politically. Instead of hyper-focusing on the sexual ethics tradition of the Catholic Church as I once did, I am focusing more and more on the social justice tradition which is Catholic Social Teaching and the Gospel itself. This means, we love and stand by anyone who is oppressed without condition, regardless of who they are.

According to Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest who is a public figure in Catholic LGBTQ+ ministry and other justice-oriented ministries, he states that sexual ethics have permanently changed since the Sexual Revolution, and we must focus on other things. After seeing and knowing what I know today, I couldn’t agree more. According to a current study from Dating Advice, a surprisingly high number of 20% of Americans say they would wait to have sex until they are married. However, according to the Guttmacher Institute, 97% of Catholic women who are of reproductive age use artificial contraception. Also according to Guttmacher studies, 79% of Catholic women in their 20s have already had sex which is a similar percentage to the secular world statistic. In short, we cannot control someone’s sex life. Catholics know what the teachings on sexual ethics are, and it’s up to them individually to address them with a well-informed conscience. We also cannot force Catholic sexual ethics on other Catholics or the secular world for reasons of health, life, and human dignity. Any well-informed Catholic conscience in today’s modern world will most likely be in conflict with at least part of the Church’s teachings on sexual ethics in more cases than not. We must ask ourselves why. For many Catholics, there is a conflict with how the human body is designed, science, and the Church’s teaching. According to a study from Modern Intimacy and many others, sexual repression can lead to not only mental health problems and lasting psychological damage, but it can lead to suicide, especially for LGBTQ+ people. For this reason, I still honor the moral framework for sexual ethics as a guardrail, not as a weapon to harm, abuse, and even kill. According to my own well-formed conscience, I believe that Catholic Social Teaching should leave the individual private lives up to each person out of human dignity which is a tenet of Catholic Social Teaching. As I said above, forcing sexual ethics on anyone, even another Catholic, can potentially lead to harm and death.

I spoke of the dilemma for sexual ethics above because the hyper-focus on sexual ethics has near-destroyed the Catholic Church’s mission in many places to implement Catholic Social Teaching and act upon the Gospel as a Church. According to Pope Francis, Catholics are obsessed with contraception, abortion, and sexuality. The Holy Father also states that the Church must convert to a hospital because the state of humanity is in crisis, that the Church must help the poorest, not dissect theology.

As a Pope Francis Catholic, I couldn’t be more grateful to him and clergy like Father James Martin for showing me what reality actually is in the Catholic world and broader society. Many theologians and Church Fathers throughout the ages have spoken about standing with the poor, the marginalized, and the disenfranchised. If we do this, we will stand with who Hitler called, “The Impure.” After the hatred, attempted harm, and death wishes I’ve received from the Religious Right/Catholic Right for standing by transgender youth, who they wish to exterminate, I choose to stand with the oppressed, the marginalized, and the poor, the same people Jesus stood by, not the religious elite.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

May 2, 2023

Never Again--Why Germany and the German Catholic Church Are So Appealing to Me

Next Post

May 8, 2023 Why Almost Anything is More in Alignment With Jesus' Teachings than Pro-Trump Christianity/Catholicism

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month April 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 July 2025 May 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz