Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Archbishop Dolan Whines About Marriage Equality In New York (Contribution)

It is amazing how the Roman Catholic Church will portray itself as being David to the Goliath of the LGBT Community, and even claim that they were outspent and dismiss where the LGBT Community is coming from by calling it “glitterati” and claiming that the money that passed New York’s marriage equality act came from “entertainment circles, political powerbrokers, and the media.” 

Of course, it should be pointed out that David won against Goliath, not lost.

Bishop Timothy Dolan of New York has decided that he is upset over what occurred in New York, but he does not grasp or understand the why it is occurring or even the fact that many Catholics support LGBT Rights- including marriage equality.

This is in spite of the fact that the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has continued to vilify and demonize lesbians and gays.

Dolan recently wrote “You will understand my special word of gratitude to people of faith — evangelicals, Mennonites, Jews, Moslem, Catholics, Amish, and so many more, led often by African-American and Latino believers — who simply believe that marriage is a given, at the very foundation of civilization, which the state has the duty to defend and protect, not to mutate.”

And yet, we live in a secular society that did not allow two people of different skin colors to marry as long ago as 44 years ago. In fact, our President’s parents could not get married or have their marriage recognized as being legitimate. 

In fact, beginning in 1948, the Catholic Church waged a war to redefine marriage, according to Blaise Zerega of the Huffington Post

He wrote “According to Reverend Scotty McLennan of Stanford University, author of Finding Your Religion, it was the Catholic Church that stepped forward to successfully challenge California’s anti-miscegenation law on behalf of a black-white couple in Los Angeles. At the time, 40 states had such laws in force. It wasn’t until 1967 that the Supreme Court struck down remaining restrictions on interracial marriage then being enforced by some twenty states.”

If that seems rather surprising, it is. After all, the Catholic Church has been said to be, according to the likes of Dolan, the stouthearted defenders of traditional marriage as it has been defined for centuries, and yet, under its watch, interracial and interfaith marriages began to occur, and the Catholic Church even fought for those.

Dolan continues by saying “the Church neither has nor wants political ‘clout.’ As Cardinal John O’Connor commented, ‘The only “clout” the Church really has is God’s Truth, the assurance of His grace, and the simple yet sincere conviction of our people.’ Blessed John Paul II again reminds us that ‘The Church never imposes, she only proposes.’ And as our current Holy Father has often observed, all the Church wants is its freedom to serve humanity by bringing the light of the gospel to the world.”

If this was true, why would the Catholic Church spend thousands of dollars going after marriage equality in Maine and California, among other places? Why would the Catholic Church help to fund groups like the National Organization for Marriage and have their own bishops lobbying for or against legislation in Congress? The reality is that the Church imposes all the time. 

They have threatened excommunication for anyone opposing their belief system- a practice that, incidentally, goes back to Henry II when Saint Thomas a Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury, interfered in the politics of England repeatedly.

It is the height of self delusion to say that the Catholic Church only proposes and does not try to impose. That is like saying that a person stabbing you in the back is not stabbing you in the back because you can’t see it.

The next two things that Dolan takes up belong together:
But, three, we do worry indeed about this freedom of religion. Editorials already call for the removal of guarantees of religious liberty, with crusaders calling for people of faith to be coerced to acceptance of this redefinition. If the experience of those few other states and countries where this is already law is any indication, the churches, and believers, will soon be harassed, threatened, and hauled into court for their conviction that marriage is between one man, one woman, forever, bringing children into the world.
“Four, the real forces of “intolerance” were unmasked here. The caricature, of course, is that those defending traditional marriage were the right-wing bigots and bullies. However, as one out-of-state journalist, who was following the debate closely, commented to me, “From my read of the columns, blogs, and rhetoric, it’s not your side that’s lobbing the grenades.”
A Catholic who wrote to criticize me for my defense of marriage still conceded, “But I must confess that I am sickened by the amount of anti-Catholic venom that has surfaced in this debate.” As one respected columnist has observed, the problem is not homophobia but theophobia — a hatred by some of God, faith, religion, and the Church.
And, it should be pointed out, that the Catholic Church and those who oppose same-sex marriage have often equated homosexuals with those who will prey upon the weakest and most vulnerable in society- children. 

While Dolan can whine about being demonized, at least what he is being portrayed as is accurate. 

Dolan and his cohorts have claimed to love lesbians and gays, but say that homosexuality is sinful despite a reading of the Bible that may not be accurate. 

Of course, those who believe that homosexuals are bad people who lie around all day and have sex just because it feels good, or go around creating gorgeous males with half a brain in order to have sex, and then toss them aside for the next fling, yes, what they are saying won’t seem bad even though it is.

As for religious liberty, no one is forcing the Catholic Church’s priests to do anything. Instead, they are doing it to themselves. It is ironic that Dolan states that in the other states and countries where same-sex marriage is legal, those opposed have been harassed and dragged into court because of their beliefs, when he cannot come up with more than a handful of examples. 

Certainly this is not happening in Vermont, where same-sex marriages and civil unions have been legal for ten years now. There have been a few cases in Canada and Great Britain, but usually those involve people who have a legal obligation to perform duties that they are saying they will not do because of their religious beliefs. If they cannot perform their duties under the law, they should find another job.

Dolan then tries to apologize for hurting anyone. Of course, “love the sinner and hate the sin” is just as hypocritical and damaging as calling lesbians and gays nasty things. It accomplishes the same thing without looking mean. He wrote
Five, though, if we did hurt anybody in our defense of marriage, I apologize. We tried our best to insist from the start that our goal was pro-marriage, never anti-gay. But, I’m afraid some within the gay community were offended.
As I replied recently to a reporter who asked if I had any message to the gay community, “Yes: I love you. Each morning I pray with and for you and your true happiness and well-being. I am honored that so many of you are at home within our Catholic family, where, like the rest of us, we try, with the help of God’s grace and mercy, to conform our lives to Jesus and His message. If I have offended any of you in my strenuous defense of marriage, I apologize, and assure you it was unintentional.
Actually, Dolan, it was intentional. 

Your defense of post 1967 marriage, and your constant attempts to portray marriage as if it is static and universally one man/one woman are damaging. 

Of course, you cannot see that because you cling to this antiquated and erroneous belief that marriage is only between one man and one woman like a lipid clings to a rock in a storm. 

Get over yourself, learn that marriage being between one man and one woman is not Biblical at all, and was imported from Greece, where it was the norm. 

Stop acting as if your beliefs were universal, or that they have Biblical support since the reality is that they are not universal, and even the prohibitions on homosexuality in the Bible seem directed towards a particular sexual act and not to all forms of homosexuality. 

There is even a passage in the Bible which indicates that Christ has no issues with same-sex couples.

The rest of what Dolan says is the usual crap about how the Roman Catholic Church will be unbowed in this whole thing. 

The reality is that the Roman Catholic Church lost five centuries ago, and has been desperately trying to cling to a 14th Century view of the world and their power. 

Where once, the Catholic Church could order kings and emperors to go to war on its behalf, today, it struggles for relevance in a world where their beliefs are being challenged piece by piece through science and through greater understanding of human life.

Finally, I am a Goddess worshiper, and my religious beliefs include that homosexuality is part of the natural order of things. 

Female and Male energies find their own balances without regards for the sex of the individuals involved in a relationship. 

What Dolan proposes is to put his religion above mine legally, something that is in violation of the Constitution.