Revolution dressed in Gospel clothing

Here's the report that was released Monday ....

ROME (CNN) – Using strikingly open language, a new Vatican report says the church should welcome and appreciate gays, and offers a solution for divorced and remarried Catholics who want to receive Communion.

At a press conference on Monday to present the report, Cardinal Louis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines said Catholic clergy meeting here have largely focused on the impact of poverty, war and immigration on families.

But the newly proposed language on gays and civil marriages represents a  “pastoral earthquake,” said one veteran Vatican journalist.

“Regarding homosexuals, it went so far as to pose the question whether the church could accept and value their sexual orientation without compromising Catholic doctrine,” said John Thavis, a former Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service.

The Rev. James Martin, an author and Jesuit priest, called the report's language on gays and lesbians "revolutionary."

Well. Here's my thoughts. What is revolutionary to some, what is a pastoral earthquake to others is something I kind of like to call "the Gospel." To make a point that the church should welcome and appreciate (fill in the blank) is not revolutionary. It is what Jesus commanded before his last breath was taken. To say otherwise is simply not Christian, in my opinion.

"The synod said that gay people have 'gifts and talents to offer the Christian community.' This is something that even a few years ago would have been unthinkable," Martin added.

The Catholic Catechism calls homosexual acts “intrinsically disordered” and calls on gays and lesbians to live in chastity. Under Pope Benedict XVI, the church had tried to purge men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" from the priesthood.

But Pope Francis, while hewing to Catholic teaching, has signaled a gentler tone, famously saying in 2013 "Who am I to judge?" gays and lesbians.

At the United Methodist General Conference in 2012, Kansas megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton brought forth an amendment to the Methodist Book of Disciple. The book currently says the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christianity.  Hamilton and Ohio's Mike Slaughter introduced words  that would have said (or words to the effect) that there is disagreement on the book's doctrine on homosexuality.  Despite the seeming gentleness and in my opinion right-ness of the amendment, it was defeated.

Some less than united Methodists believe Paul's writings about homosexuality were never meant to be commentary on loving same sex monogamous relationships but rather opinions on male prostitutes   connected to the temple. Some believe, still, all homosexual relationships and the very act of same gender sexual relations are sin and will always be no matter what the law and culture of the day says.

My point is, well, the Pope's point. Who am I to judge? Clearly there is massive disagreement on the subject in my denomination and elsewhere.

But the language has been there for a couple thousand years. Jesus said love thy neighbor, love thy enemy and love God. That fairly well covers the whole thing, doesn't it?

The argument is about what constitutes sin, and according to Hamilton, what one believes about the Holy texts we call the Bible. That is where we have found ourselves mired in mud for quite a while.

Clearly this pope is willing to let love be the deciding factor in all arguments. That is not only sensible, it seems to me, but frankly it is Gospel-ish.

Can we do that? That is where the rubber will meet the road.