A family matter

Eve Tushnet correctly reminds us that Catholic moral teaching deserves great consideration. Like Luke Timothy Johnson, she examines experience concluding, "But our human experience, including our erotic experience, cannot be a replacement for the divine revelation preserved by the church." We respect this, and we are further moved by Tushnet's newfound love of the church, but we find Johnson's analysis more compelling.

In our own consideration of the church's stance, we found the teaching on homosexuality wrongheaded long ago. As with Johnson, however, none of our considerations has affected our consciences and minds the way the lives of our homosexual family members have. We will not "love the sinner and hate the sin" the way some have suggested. To the best of our abilities, we will love each family member unconditionally.

If not for our loved ones, we might have thought we should, as Tushnet says, "accept the sacrifices of Catholic life" and not try to "wriggle" out of them. We are convinced the church has been not only wrong, but sinful. The U.S. bishops' letter on ministering to homosexuals is a case in point. Wrapped in a gossamer of platitudes, it is a teaching that gives support to the injury, or even death, of homosexuals. In our long and painful grappling with the church's teaching on homosexuality, we have expressed much of what Johnson wrote. But he summarizes the case against any religious condemnation of homosexuality based upon Scripture or tradition better than anything we have ever heard or read elsewhere. We especially appreciate his case for judging homosexuals according to the same standards we apply to heterosexual morality.

JOHN & JUDITH NEFF

Knoxville, Tenn.

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