Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Catholic Political Group Demands NO on 1 Ad Featuring Catholic Mom Be Taken Off the Air

Well, it looks like the new NO on 1/Protect Maine Equality ad featuring a Catholic mother supporting her gay son and his family has touched a nerve.



Read my post on the ad.


U.S. News and World Report blog God & Country is reporting that group Catholic Vote Action is demanding the ad be taken down.
CatholicVoteAction.org President Brian Burch said, "For decades gay and lesbian groups have attacked the Catholic Church for refusing to accept their skewed views on human sexuality and marriage. Having lost that battle, they have now launched this desperate and despicable attempt to curry favor with Catholics by pretending that the Catholic faith supports their radical agenda."

....

"Everybody knows the Catholic Church is opposed to counterfeit marriages . . . . For homosexual groups to suggest that the Catholic Church believes otherwise is disingenuous, dishonest, and an insult to the intelligence of Catholic voters in Maine," said Burch.

"We call on Protect Maine Equality to stop lying about our faith and to immediately pull this ad from the airwaves and from YouTube," said Burch.
Oh boy, where do I begin with this statement?

I guess first, that the LGBT population has attacked the church for decades because we don't agree with the church on sexuality and marriage. Sure, we don't agree, but attacks on the church? I can't account for all isolated events against the church for the last few decades, but the church is definitely in the history books of CENTURIES of attacks on LGBT. The Inquisition. A blind eye on the persecution of the Jewish people and LGBT during the Holocaust. And more presently, the attack on the existing right of gay and lesbians to marry in Maine. People in glass churches shouldn't throw stones. And I would hardly rate our defense of our rights an attack on the church.

Second, we're trying to curry favor with Catholics? Is the Catholic leadership unaware that their church members are the most supportive of marriage equality out of all Christian denominations? It's a shame that they must completely disregard their church members' personal beliefs because it doesn't line up with their political agenda.

Third, how is a legal marriage counterfeit? Counterfeit is by definition fraud. Not so in Maine. Marriage equality is legal. It's the Catholic church that's desperately trying to make same-sex marriage counterfeit.

Fourth, we're not suggesting the official stance of the church believes marriage equality is acceptable to them. But we are showing that many members of the church don't agree with their leadership, and that the issue truly is personal. That's a powerful message whether the leadership likes it or not. And other church members have a right to know this before they vote.

By what authority do they have to ask us to take the ad down? None. This ad contains no lies or "legal hypothesis", which litter the Yes on 1 ads.

My only conclusion is that they're scared this ad will work. The truth is difficult to bear sometimes.

Could these mean we're finally on the offense in this campaign?

I'm looking forward to hearing what Catholics for Marriage Equality will think of this statement.

2 comments:

  1. Yes, I think this does mean that the ad is effective. And think how much more attention the ad will get as a result of this attack. I hope that television stations will show the ad for free in order to report on this hate group's press release.

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  2. Clearly, Catholic Vote Action is convinced that their fellow Catholics, and their own beliefs, are fragile, too brittle to stand up to a little bit of discussion.

    ReplyDelete