Martin Sheen's explanation on how he
reconciles his Roman Catholic faith and his support for gay marriage
has riled some Christian conservatives.
Sheen discussed his support with
Wilshire
& Washington, a blog hosted by Variety, last month
after playing Ted Olson in the Los Angeles premiere of 8,
which is based on the trial over the constitutionality of
California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8. The Catholic church
supported passage of Proposition 8 and is opposed to marriage
equality.
“My religion's highest standard is
conscience. Nothing can get between your conscience and God, not
even the church, because for 2,000 years, my church has been lifting
up as exemplary various men and women in their lives who have served
as inspiration to all of us over the centuries, and we call them
saints. By canonizing these people who we believe have lived
exceptional lives, we declare, or the church declares, that they are
in heaven, that they are with God. And yet over the same people of
time, the church has not condemned a single soul to hell because it
does not have the authority. It does not even have the authority to
condemn Hitler. There is no authority in the church and that has
never changed, and it cannot change; otherwise they lose their
authority. They do not have the authority to condemn anybody. They
can't say anybody is in hell. That is between [that person and] God.
The church is not God.”
“The church is a conduit, and it is a
spiritual journey, but it is not the end of the journey. Our lives
are about living honestly in the community, serving each other. We
carry our faith outside the church. The church is an institution,
primarily of men, at least they are the major authorities. And so
they are flawed, obviously. And so they are not authorized from
preventing any member from following their conscience no matter what
that is. You can't get between a person's conscience and their God.
Nobody can do that.”
Responding to Sheen, Steve Jalsevac, a
co-founder of LifeSiteNews.com, called Sheen's understanding of his
Catholic faith “infantile.”
“Sheen is representative of millions
of confused and lost, but well meaning, Christians suffering because
of their ignorance,” he
wrote.