Rudy Giuliani was asked Sunday on the NBC program “Meet the Press” if he agreed with the statement made in 1992 by a rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Mike Huckabee, about homosexuality being “an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle.”
“No,” Mr. Giuliani replied, according to the NY Times. “I don’t believe it’s sinful.” But he then said something puzzling. “My moral views on this come from the, you know, from the Catholic Church, and I believe that homosexuality, heterosexuality, as a way that somebody leads their life is not, isn’t sinful,” said Mr. Giuliani,
He added: “It’s the acts — it’s the various acts that people perform that are sinful, not the orientation that they have.”
Agreed on that. But what did he think Huckabee was talking about? I fear that Giuliani’s theology (as well as his logic) is as assorted as his politics.
The biggest political problem of this kind of political double speak is that in his attempts to offend nobody he offends everyone.
Wayne Besen, the executive director of Truth Wins Out, a gay rights group, said that he hoped the campaign would clarify the statement, which he said “seemed to parrot the religious right’s cruel and empty ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’ rhetoric.”
And you can bet your bottom dollar that Christians across the country are still scratching their heads over his comments.
December 11, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Full disclosure: I find Rudy to be the least objectionable candidate (hard to call any of them a “favorite”).
I think his answer was actually pretty good. Fundamentalists, as usual, cannot make distinctions. They tend to condemn gays and leave it at that.
Catholic teaching is more nuanced. The “gay lifestyle” (excluding sexual acts) is not sinful. Rudy pointed out that sex outside of marriage (hetero or homo) is where the sin lay.
As far as I know, that’s right out of the universal catechism.
December 11, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Loving anyone while hating what they’re doing is not “cruel.” Depending on the offense, it can be a more caring attitude than the offender is showing for themselves. But what is careful reasoning in the face of “bullet-point” rhetoric when the cameras are rolling?
December 11, 2007 at 5:50 pm
We are all sinners. I agree with that. But Rudy’s comment has all the earmarks of saying what one truly feels and then coming to a screeching halt and changing his tune in mid-sentence.
There’s absolutely no reason to think that Huckabee was saying anything different than love the sinner while hating the sin.
Rudy’s entire campaign has been this way.