CV NEWS FEED // “To diminish God’s word is to undermine what God is capable of doing,” recent Catholic convert Nancy Charles posted on X, challenging Catholics who propose a more “accepting” outreach to same-sex attracted individuals.
Charles meant those words in reference to her own life, but she was also speaking about the fact that many Catholics don’t tell same-sex attracted people the truth about their sexuality.
“There seems to be this notion among liberal Catholics that in order for the LGBTQ community to feel welcome in the Church, that we must cater a new type of message for them,” she said on X. “We treat them as fragile and unable to hear hard truths.”
Charles, a Catholic recovered drug addict who lived a LGBTQ lifestyle for 15 years, shared on X that “the truth is the most loving that you can give to someone,” whether they want to hear it or not.
At one point, the only person who would tell her the truth about her life was her brother, Joshua. After years of substance abuse and rounds of rehab, Charles was living in a halfway home and making just enough money to maintain her spot in the home. It was a difficult time for her, and she even seriously considered suicide.
“I was extremely sensitive and emotionally damaged beyond what most people in my life would have considered repairable. As far as anyone else was concerned, I was a lost cause,” Charles said on X. “During that period of my life, the only person who told me the truth (albeit hurt like hell), was my brother.”
Charles’ brother Joshua wrote her a five-page letter telling her a truth that she didn’t necessarily want to hear.
“Nancy, you will never recover so long as you continue to reject your Creator,” Joshua wrote in the letter, which Charles shared on X. “You may say you believe in God, or a ‘higher power,’ but you really don’t. If you did, you would earnestly seek after what He requires of you, rather than inventing your own version of God to fit your own proclivities.”
“You have rejected the Bible, and you have rejected Christianity, and thus you have rejected the truth,” he continued. “No person who rejects the truth can thrive.”
Joshua affirmed Charles’ talents in his letter, but told her that there would be distance between them if she continued to live in denial of the truth.
“There will be distance between us, not because I stand in judgment of you, but because we will not even be speaking the same language, and this seeming endless pattern of destructive behavior will continue unchanged,” he said, continuing:
I must set healthy boundaries for myself, and in the process give others I love the permission to erect healthy boundaries themselves. Until you acknowledge your need for God and self-responsibility, there is absolutely nothing I or anyone else can do for you. I will no longer participate in your delusion to the contrary.
“I love you. I desire your highest good, which is why I have communicated these blunt truths,” her brother continued.
Charles said that the letter marked “one of the most painful yet pivotal moments” of her life.
“It took me 6 years after that letter to finally make it into the Church and surrender my life to God. But his patience and his sincere love for me planted a powerful seed in my heart that day,” she said.
According to Charles, the same hard truth about her lifestyle that was lovingly presented to her by her brother needs to be presented to other same-sex attracted Catholics. She said that this approach is generally discouraged by some Catholics in favor of a more “watered down message of truth,” which creates issues.
“The problem I take with that, is that words matter,” she said. “The precision of language is important beyond comprehension. It’s the difference between the clarity of truth or the fog of ambiguity.”
She continued:
God forbid, we tell them right off the bat that they are called to live a life of chastity; they may run for the hills and won’t ever feel welcome in the Church. I say, let them run then. Not because I don’t desire their coming to Christ, but because the Church’s job is to be the arbiter of truth. What good is their presence in the Church if we’ve misguided their soul?
“Our job is to deliver the truth to people,” she said. “Not to change language in order to trick them into coming into Church.”
