Quinn not accepting Jesus' forgiveness

There are clearly many people — at the Daily Herald, among the general public and a lot of politicians who claim to be Catholic — who don't really get it when it comes to Catholic Church teaching on gay civil unions.

However, to simply address a couple of the many points the Dec. 12 story raised, the Herald's own sub-headline in the article portrays a flawed understanding of the church structure — “Is U.S Catholic Church bowing to the Vatican?” Well, yeah, that's the way it works — the Catholic Church in the U.S. isn't some independent political entity — it's one church, hence the name “Catholic.”

Many people seem to think by putting a label of “U.S.” on the church here, that somehow suggests the ability (or should) to make all of our own decisions and interpretations about church doctrine.

To another more critical point, regardless of your take on the civil legal separation of church and state, if you're going to cite doctrine in defending your actions, you better get it right.

Governor Quinn, who says he is Catholic and is also going to sign the civil union legislation, said, “I follow my conscience. What would Jesus do?” This statement sums up the flawed interpretation many people have of God's forgiveness, and church teaching about it, whether it's gay sex, abortion, war and violence, discrimination, whatever. God loves us, no matter what. But he doesn't love what we do. Jesus constantly forgave people, like the story of the adulterous woman, but he also always concluded, “Go and sin no more.” So to answer Governor Quinn, what would Jesus do? He would say, if you are truly sorry for acting as you have, and show it by stopping, I forgive you. If you aren't really intending to change, I'll still love you, but you're not really accepting my forgiveness.”

Kent Schielke

Naperville