Bit late, but I wanted to comment on this one. According to USATODAY.com, Archbishop Timothy Nolan (Grand Wizard head of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops) is putting pressure on President Obama to try and stop his senseless rush towards tolerance and civil rights for gays.
Dolan said the bishops are especially upset that the administration and opponents of DOMA are framing their argument as a civil rights issue, which he said equates “opposition to redefining marriage with either intentional or willfully ignorant racial discrimination.”
Right, because framing is something that only conservatives are allowed to do, for example by pretending to “defend marriage” and by refusing to address gay marriage as anything other than an attempt to “redefine” it.
Why can’t Catholic archbishops tell the truth about what they hate and what they’re doing to try and stop it? Simple: the Church is using sex to sustain Christianity, and they’re scared to death of losing control of it. That’s why they always refer to THEIR definition of marriage as THE definition of marriage. As soon as there’s any competition for the Catholic definition of marriage, the Church loses an important competitive advantage. They’ve spent literally thousands of years training people to assume that the Church controls their access to sexual fulfillment, and that only the church can provide them with a legitimate outlet for their sexual desires, through the “sacrament” of marriage. Break this monopoly, and disaster ensues, because without the threat of sexual frustration, what’s left to draw people into the faith? The Holy Spirit? Gimme a break!
To call the archbishop’s homophobia mere “bigotry” is to let him off easy. It’s bigotry, true enough, but it’s not just bigotry. This is all about control. The Church has had society’s genitals gripped firmly in its hand for a couple millennia, and they’re not inclined to let go. In a way, their own survival depends on it. They can’t just give in and accept gay marriage, even among non-Christians, because their power over society depends on sexual blackmail. As soon as people can find legitimate sexual fulfillment outside the Church, the Church loses its last remaining hold over society.
It’s a grave they’ve dug for themselves. By following the lead of their homophobic patriarchs and prophets, and identifying God as the source for their desire to wipe out homosexuality, they’ve committed themselves to a path of intolerant dogma that cannot be amended or improved without sacrificing the foundations on which the Church is built. Even when society is drifting away from them, even when rank-and-file Catholics are losing respect for the Church due to their obvious bigotry and duplicity, they can’t stop. The conflict is not between Church and State but between Church and society. A bigoted few, in positions of power, are promoting hatred and discrimination in the name of Jesus, and that’s not going to do God’s health any good at all.
As I said elsewhere about this: “Bring it, Bish.”
It is a civil rights issue. The bishops and other defenders of the “Defense of Marriage Act” wish to deny legal rights to a group of people because of sexual orientation. Marriage is not a religious act (no matter how hard the churches try to pretend it is), it’s a legal act. Two people getting married form a legal bond which is granted certain legal rights, privileges and duties. If I’m unconscious in a hospital, my wife has the legal authority to make certain decisions about my care. The DOMA partisans would deny couples that sort of legal right because of what they do in the privacy of their bedrooms.
The bishops try to justify their homophobic denial of rights because they claim “God thinks what GLBT folks do in bed is icky!” Christians and Jews get this from the same Biblical chapter that says God thinks eating shrimp is icky! The bishops and other homophobes claim that overturning DOMA will “destroy marriage!!1!!one!” When pressed for how this consequences will come about, they do the old “well everyone knows” and “marriage is an INSTITUTION!” and “God told us”* and various logical fallacies. But actual details about how marriage will be destroyed are always missing.
*I’ve noticed that whenever someone claims God talks to them, God has exactly the same opinions and prejudices as his mouthpiece.
Nicely put. I never thought of it quite like that… in part because, I guess, I thought of that separation as already accomplished. But that’s quite a recent development in historic terms, I suppose, and not everyone is on board with it yet.
I think they’ve also had centuries of nobody questioning the idea that they hold the moral high ground. They are finding it hard to accept that we are now pointing the finger at them and calling their ideas wrong, and their religion the cause of wrongness. We are no longer merely trying to argue that atheists can be good too. We really are equating beliefs they think are good with beliefs we all agree are bad, such as racism.
They now have to decide how to live with the kind of moral opprobrium they’ve bestowed on other people over the centuries (or give up their beliefs). They are not finding this easy to accept or deal with. Archbishop Nolan is pleading with us to say we don’t really mean it. I say if he really believes in his position, he will need to learn to live with disapproval.
… what’s left to draw people into the faith?
Crackers!
If he had given up hope of being with his partner to join the church he may indeed not be able to face the fact that he wasted his life. His drive to become Archbishop is a result of misdirection of his (homo)sexual energies. Being a part of the church requires denial, we just don’t realize how much denial. Virtually every aspect of their lives could be lies.
And what’s worse is that people are losing faith in the Catholic Church because of their rampant sexual assault of children. They see a church railing against the wiles of sexuality and the evil of homosexuality and as soon as they turn off the pulpit they’re raping some little girls and boys. They see the massive hypocrisy of the church.
Not just them, though, the most avidly homophobic pastors are coming out as having gay affairs in secret. The hypocritical actions can’t stay hidden for long, it will eventually come out, and as soon as it does, the house of cards will tumble down.
Unfortunately for those of us who are gay, the last breaths of these hypocrites and hateful monsters are going to be the worst.
IMO it’s all about their business model. A gay couple cannot produce children. If they are allowed to marry, that makes the statement that it’s ok to have a childless marriage. That in turn means that straight couples can then opt out of being catholic baby factories. Contraceptives would be ok because not having children would be ok. The end result is a major reduction in future customers.
I think we as opponents of discrimination often make the mistake of attributing religion, dogma, faith, jesus or the will of god or bigotry as the root cause and fight back only on that front. Follow the money! We need to fight on all fronts.
I entirely agree that it’s about control. Te desire to control the sexual act is one of the most dangerous and totalitarian aspects of many religions. On the other hand, there are plenty of flourishing religious communities (including Catholic ones) which are sexually liberal. I’m inclined to think that if the Catholic church pivoted, embracing liberal social views and emphasizing a social justice mission, it could revive its fortunes in the USA in some quarters.
Marriage is a civil contract, nothing more. If you don’t believe that get a divorce!!
And since it is a civil contract RCC Inc and the other woo-peddlers don’t get to define which persons may or may not become parties to such a contract. And since the fourteenth amendment guarantees the equal protection of law to all persons in a jurisdiction, I’d like Archbishop Dolan to STFU.
… if the Catholic church pivoted, embracing liberal social views and emphasizing a social justice mission, it could revive its fortunes in the USA in some quarters.
They’d have to pretty much abandon their present base and find an entirely new market. Just about all of the Republicans with which the RC Church currently shares a bed would leave if, f’rinstance, priests started emphasizing their (now nominal) opposition to the death penalty the way they go all out to fight abortion rights.
And once they followed the logic of your approach to re-open the early paths known as “liberation theology”, they’d find themselves at odds with the corporate oligarchy, with the likes of Bill O’Reilly and Chris Matthews getting on their case. How many in the present Catholic flock were drawn there by the appeal of becoming lion chow?
I’m always baffled by Catholics who are against gay marriage since, according to their doctrine, anyone who isn’t Catholic and who is not married in a Catholic church by a Catholic priest isn’t married anyway.
Shouldn’t they be protesting Protestant marriage? How about marriages performed by a judge or marriage commissioner? Maybe they should show up to protest at a Buddhist ceremony once in a while so that they can be at least intellectually honest.
I have a sneaking suspicion that they’re afraid that allowing gays to marry will take them off the market and there won’t be any left in the public washrooms at midnight.