From KCCI, our local CBS affiliate:

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa —A local man said he was denied a teaching job because he is gay.Tyler McCubbin said the Dowling Catholic High School president made him an offer, but later revoked it based on his sexual orientation.

No. No. No. The offer was not revoked because he is gay.  Sexual orientation is not a sin. Acting on it is. Catholic teachers are expected to strive to live according to the doctrines of the Church.

If it could be assumed that Tyler McCubbin, as an unmarried person, was living a chaste life, no matter his sexual orientation, he would not have been denied the position.

But that is not the case. He is engaged to a man:

Tyler McCubbin said the Dowling Catholic High School president made him an offer, but later revoked it based on his sexual orientation. With a few clicks online, anyone can see McCubbin is in a same-sex relationship. “I said, ‘Yes it’s true. I’ve been engaged for almost a year now.’ And they said, ‘Because of that, we can’t offer you the contract,’” McCubbin said. Read more here…

Teachers at Dowling have to sign a contract which includes specific language that outline the expected code of conduct in accord with long accepted Church teaching. 

Surely McCubbin knew that he would have to sign a binding contract . Was he going to sign it anyway?  Further he must have known that the background check would include social media sites. What did he think was going to happen? At a Catholic School.

Yet McCubbin says that he is heartbroken.

“What’s so shocking is in an institution where they preach tolerance and love and respect for everyone, no matter what your background is, they don’t uphold to those teachings,” McCubbin said.

This young man simply does not understand what, according to the Church, real love is.  It is not love to leave people in sin. It is not love to say that it is possible according to 2,000 years of Christian teaching, for same sex couples to enter into marriage.

Christian love does not affirms us in our sinfulness. It calls us to let Jesus free us from the slavery of sin. Yes we are called to love others–even our enemies. That is unconditional love. But that does not mean that we are called to approve of their actions.

Love can’t be divorced from Truth.

This is all so deeply sad.  But there truly is a war on religious freedom heating up. It is spreading faster than a wild fire on a parched prairie.

State Attacks Church in San Fancisco

Rod Dreher posts on the culture wars here

We can’t say we haven’t been warned:

If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you,‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.  And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. John: 15:18-21

But we have reason for our hope. And we know the rest of the story. He is Risen Alleluia!