I came across this on Yahoo! News.
BOSTON (AP) — Gay rights groups say they’re pleased the oldest Roman Catholic newspaper in the United States has retracted an opinion column suggesting the devil may be responsible for gay attraction.
The column in the Boston archdiocese’s The Pilot newspaper was titled “Some fundamental questions on same-sex attraction.” It was written by an adviser at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. It said “scientific evidence of how same-sex attraction most likely may be created provides a credible basis for a spiritual explanation that indicts the devil.”
The 182-year-old newspaper withdrew the online column Wednesday and posted the author’s apology.
The gay Catholics group DignityUSA says the column was outrageous and inflicted “tremendous damage on the souls” of gay people.
The Human Rights Campaign said Thursday it’s a shame the archdiocese ran a column ignoring the science about sexual orientation.
The logic (if I may stretch the word a little) behind this sort of thing would be something like: the sin of same-sex attraction is caused by the devil. But if you were to ask: “how do you know it’s caused by the devil?” the only possible response is: “because it’s a sin.”
The assertion (that same sex orientation is caused by the devil) is presented as a conclusion, when in fact it is contained within the premises. To assert that same sex orientation is caused by the devil explains nothing. Besides, positing the devil in the context of “scientific evidence” suggests that the writer is not conversant with the nature of science.
At least they had the grace to apologize.