(LifeSiteNews) — In his recently published book, Father James Martin, SJ, has argued that Christ’s command for Lazarus to “come out” of the tomb is an “invitation” for individuals who identify as “LGBTQ” to “‘come out’ into the sunlight of God’s love.”
Published by HarperCollins on September 5, Come Forth: The Promise of Jesus’s Greater Miracle is the latest book offering from the notoriously pro-LGBT Jesuit Fr. James Martin. In an excerpt published on the website of his LGBT activist group Outreach, Martin presented his interpretation of the Gospel passage recounting the raising of Lazarus from the dead.
Martin revealed that he had originally intended to call the book Lazarus, Come Out!, in reference to Christ’s command to the dead man sealed in the tomb. But he did not choose this title, stating that “I was concerned that the reference to ‘coming out’ would be seen as a veiled comment on that earlier book [Martin’s 2017 pro-LGBT book Building a Bridge], thereby serving as an occasion for snide comments or distracting from this book, which is not focused on LGBTQ people but on everyone.”
Notwithstanding this, Martin argued that the “message” of “coming out” is “especially important for LGBTQ people.” The term “coming out,” he stated, “means to accept, embrace and love who you are, especially your sexuality and the way that God made you, and to reveal or share that part of yourself with others,” blasphemously suggesting that God makes people homosexual.
READ: Catholic leaders must stop pushing lie that God makes some people gay: Priest
The Catholic Church, however, teaches that the homosexual inclination is “an objective disorder,” as it is a “it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil,” sodomy.
Martin argued that “coming out” and identifying oneself by a practice of one of the many elements of the LGBT lifestyle, is “a critical step.”
Coming out is often a critical step for LGBTQ people, who are sometimes told, either overtly or covertly, that they should not accept or love themselves. Or that they are a mistake, less valuable than straight people or less worthy of love and affection. Or, worst of all, that God doesn’t love them.
He also made an apparent approval of same-sex activity, noting that due to anti-sodomy laws in some countries, individuals flee their home nations: “Sometimes, out of fear of being beaten to death or executed (same-sex relations warrant the death penalty in seven countries), they must escape their own countries.”
Such elements, claimed Martin, “can lead many LGBTQ people, especially youth, to reject an essential part of themselves [the disordered inclination to sodomy], fall into despair and even consider suicide.” He argued that “Churches need to be aware of the real-life effects of stigmatizing language about LGBTQ people.”
The process of “coming out” and, it appears, practicing an LGBT lifestyle, Martin called “a key step in both their emotional maturation and spiritual growth.” “It is a sign of a healthy love of self, which is sometimes a challenge for LGBTQ people,” he said.
As a result, Martin compared the words of Christ to Lazarus as a call for individuals with LGBT tendencies to “come out” or to “accept … your sexuality and the way that God made you.”
Martin has expressed the hope that his new book will help people “to hear God calling you to new life!”
Indeed, he has previously gone on record arguing that Catholics should convey to young people who announce that they are “LGBTQ” that “you know that God wants them to accept who they are.”
His latest book, advocating for people to embrace an LGBT lifestyle, is less surprising given his longstanding record of promoting LGBT ideology in dissent from Catholic teaching. Martin – described as “arguably the most prominent activist” in the Church for LGBT ideology – has gone so far as to describe viewing God as male as “damaging.”
His record of LGBT activism also includes promoting images drawn from a series of blasphemous works by homosexual artist Douglas Blanchard used to illustrate a book titled The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision. Martin has additionally promoted same-sex unions and called for openly homosexual individuals to kiss during the sign of peace at the Novus Ordo Mass.
Building a Bridge, the Jesuit’s previous work, also received criticism due to its promotion of anti-Catholic ideology on sexuality. Commenting on it at the time, Fr. Gerald Murray wrote in the National Catholic Register: “The real purpose of this book is to advocate for a relaxation of the Church’s teaching that sodomy is gravely immoral and that any attraction to commit acts of sodomy is an objective disorder in one’s personality.”
Despite Martin’s advocacy, the Catholic Church teaches that “‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered’ and “are contrary to the natural law,” adding explicitly that “under no circumstances can they be approved.”
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s (CDF) 1986 document “On the pastoral care of homosexual persons” also rebuffs the the Jesuit’s version of “outreach,” stating that a “truly pastoral approach will appreciate the need for homosexual persons to avoid the near occasions of sin.”