The Catholic Church: Their Money and Their F***ed Up Priorities

Years ago, when I was young and struggling to determine what I believed in, I toyed with the idea of joining the Catholic Church. Boy, am I glad I didn't (nor do I believe in any organized religion). After what I've been hearing about how the church is actively harming advances in marriage equality, I'm relieved that there's no record of any connection between me and the hypocrites leading the church.

News broke recently that the Catholic Church in Maine has decided to close three parishes due to declining funds as less people attend church, all this under the watchful eye of Bishop Richard Malone. Yet, it's also been made public that this same Bishop donated $100,000 to anti-marriage equality campaign, Stand for Marriage Maine.

Maine's Portland Press Herald writes, "Good Shepherd Parish had a $48,000 deficit in the past fiscal year and projected a $170,000 deficit this year if no changes were made, according to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland."

Gee, imagine what that $100,000 could do. But nope, the Catholic Church has decided to stick to its priorities - stripping gays and lesbians of their right to marry, because if they do marry, it will somehow, though they don't know exactly how, but it WILL, destroy "traditional marriage," whatever that is.

It gets better. Reports have come in that the Church will somehow scrounge up $2 million to kill marriage equality nationwide. If I were a member and my Maine parish and its services were closing because of $170,000 deficit but heard about this, they would witness old-fashioned Biblical wrath.

It boggles my mind.

The Press also reported that weddings at the parishes were down, and these ceremonies where a good source of revenue for the church. I wonder if the parishes see the irony.

Now on to New Jersey. Yesterday, I reported that the Catholic Church has prepared sermons in advance of this Sunday's services for clergy across the Garden State to preach against marriage equality from the pulpit.

Why? Because this fall, it is expected that a marriage equality bill will hit the legislature floor for a vote after November's elections. Support is high and current Governor Corzine is an outspoken advocate.

But noooo, we can't have that! They must yet again stir the embers amongst the membership, telling them not to worry about how the economy is affecting their jobs and homes and families, and instead, place in the offering plate the little hard earned cash that they have in possession to go towards "God's work" of destroying any recognition of committed, monogamous same-sex relationships.

Now onto reports about the Catholic Church in Ireland. Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, has decided to focus his attention on a civil law recognizing civil, same-sex unions instead of the massive amounts of child abuse in Catholic children's homes and institution revealed in a government report earlier this year.

Speaking to the Catholic News Agency, the good Cardinal said, "The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady, spoke out last Sunday against recognizing civil unions for homosexuals during a homily at the Cathedral of St. John in Limerick. He said that natural law cannot be violated by legislative norms, and that natural law forms the basis for integral human development. The cardinal recalled that nature must be used wisely, as Pope Benedict XVI explains in his encyclical 'Caritas in Veritate.' . . . Cardinal Brady urged the faithful to oppose a measure being debated in the Irish Parliament that would grant legal recognition to same-sex unions."

Fellow blogger Michael-in-Norfolk response: "I would suggest that if the alleged 'natural law' is so important, then it must certainly dictate against celibacy which refutes the role of procreation just as much as same sex relationships."

I might add that taking advantage of children would also be against "natural law."

These developments within the Catholic Church makes me sad for the hundreds of thousands of good-willed members of the church. Polls have shown that they're more ambivalent about marriage equality than evangelicals. Many don't support their leaders' decision. However, for many members, Catholicism is tradition - it offers community, a sense of belonging and a constant through what can be at times tumultuous life. It will now be these people who suffer most from malevolence that the Church has for gays and lesbians as their parishes, which have been a staple in their community for generations, will suddenly close shop, sacrificing their services to strip a minority's rights away.

Instead of taking heed to the Episcopal and Lutheran Churches, the Catholic Church has lost sight of its priorities and is taking huge steps backwards, repeating the history of the Dark Ages and the Inquisition by persecuting those from whom they want abject supplication.

Explosion of Hate Mocks Christian Values

Part of Unite the Fight's mission is to identify the true opposition to LGBT rights. And by "true opposition", I mean the people who actively work hard against us and twist the truth to fit their agenda. This excludes many Christians.

Michael-in-Norfolk blog has done a great post titled, "Explosion of Hate Mocks Christian Values" which separates true Christian values that unfortunately have been mixed up with these "Christianist values" who have truly forgotten what Christianity is all about.

Here's the post:

Since the Iowa Supreme Court ruling a week ago, which was soon followed by the legislative triumphs for gay marriage in Vermont and Washington, D.C., the explosion of hate from Christianists and the dehumanizing and untruthful things that they are disseminating about LGBT individuals in my view are a travesty and make a mockery of Christ's message. After all, Christ said that the two great Commandments were to love God and to love thy neighbor as they self.

Moreover, the Gospels repeatedly show Christ as condemning the self-righteous and sanctimonious who smugly judged and condemned others in contravention to the command to love thy neighbor. The Christianists claim to believe the Bible is inerrant and must be followed verbatim as "the word of God." Why then do they pick and choose what they want to follow as if the Bible were an al carte menu?
More...

Let's be candid - from the National Organization for Marriage and it's bogus ad with paid actors pretending to be real ordinary citizens, to commentaries in National Review and statements by Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention - what we have seen is unbridled hatred for other humans merely because we do not subscribe to a particular set of religious beliefs. The statements are truly hate filled and - in my view - will provide another basis for more citizens to look at the Christian message and walk away shaking their heads in disgust.

Andrew Sullivan has it right when he says that these folks hold gay lives in contempt. Here are some highlights of the "love" being disseminated by professed Christians. I begin with the National Review comment:

Few social goods will come from recognizing same-sex couples as married. Some practical benefits may accrue to the couples, but most of them could easily be realized without changing marriage laws. Same-sex couples will also receive the symbolic affirmation of being treated by the state as equivalent to a traditional married couple — but this spurious equality is a cost of the new laws, not a benefit. One still sometimes hears people make the allegedly “conservative” case for same-sex marriage that it will reduce promiscuity and encourage commitment among homosexuals. This prospect seems improbable, and in any case these do not strike us as important governmental goals.

Then we have Richard Land at the SBC who is rapidly becoming as extreme a homophobe as Peter LaBarbera and Fred Phelps making Southern Baptists as a whole appear to be a most unloving crowd. Land's official title is "President of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention's official entity assigned to address social, moral, and ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on American families and their faith." Here are Land's incendiary statements:

Once again, it was the judiciary branch of state government rending the nation’s moral fabric, bent on rewriting our country’s social construct. With no residency requirements, the [Iowa] court’s opinion means at the end of April when the order goes into effect, same-sex couples will be free to travel from other states to exchange “vows” in the Iowa Heartland.

This ruling turns Iowa into a destination for same-sex “marriages.” No doubt there are weekend travel packages already being planned. Iowa will soon be the Las Vegas of same-sex “marriage” for America. And you know those folks won’t be resettling in the Hawkeye State, but will be heading back home–perhaps to your state.

The Iowa Supreme Court couldn’t have ruled that an amendment to the constitution is “unconstitutional.” If they had done that, then a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” would be imperiled. If the California Supreme Court does this in the case they are currently considering, then we’d have to say that our entire system of government is coming to a tragic end.

Another comes from the Baptist Press where Eric Schumacher pastor of Northbrook Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, maintains that gay marriage is more catostrophic than a 500 year flood and will"eternal damage" that cannot be repaired and which will "erode" civilization. Here are some highlights:

On April 3, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a state law limiting marriage to one man and one woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution. Licenses will be issued to homosexual couples April 27. It is not hyperbole to say that this ruling has the potential to be the worst disaster to strike the state of Iowa.

Flood waters destroy houses, ruin offices buildings and displace families. Yet, recovery happens. Houses are rebuilt. Businesses relocate. Families eventually find housing. Legalized "homosexual marriage," on the other hand, does far more pervasive and irrecoverable damage. Civilization itself is eroded as marriage, the central building block of culture and society, is redefined. Soon, our sons and daughters are confused about what it means to be male and female, as "homosexual marriage" gains both legal status and visibility in neighborhoods and the classroom.

Flood waters erode the soil. "Gay marriage" erodes the soul. A flood impacts for a decade. "Same-sex marriage" destroys generations. A flood draws a community together. "Homosexual marriage" tears the family apart. Communities recover from floods. The promotion of un-natural unions has an eternal consequence.

As I have said in prior posts over the nearly two years I have been actively blogging, messages like these are akin to how the Nazi regime dehumanized and denigrated Jews in the run up to the Holocaust. How many people will hear these messages and feel totally justified in violence against LGBT citizens. It is bigotry and religious based discrimination of the worst order.