Catholic LGBT
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Catholic Church Goes After Straight Allies of Marriage Equality
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Toward a Welcoming Catholic Viewpoint on LGBT Rights
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Pope Benedict XVI Would Like to Welcome the Tired, Hungry, Anti-Gay Huddled Masses
The Catholic Church's Program to Cure Gay People
Published November 17, 2009 @ 02:15PM PT
Psychologists around the globe have almost universally condemned ex-gay therapy programs -- rogue "treatment" sessions often sponsored by religious groups to try and change one's sexual orientation from LGBT to heterosexual. The American Psychological Association (APA) even adopted a resolution this past summer that said ex-gay therapy programs were inadequate and potentially dangerous, especially for the long-term mental health of those victimized by such programs.
It's just too bad that the Catholic Church isn't listening to the global health professional community. Case in point, take the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which through its Office of Marriage and Family Life is supporting a type of ex-gay therapy program that asserts homosexuality is both treatable and preventable.
The program is called Courage, and it "ministers" to people who have same-sex attractions, as well as their loved ones. Part of that ministry includes drilling into peoples' brains that homosexuality is a mental disorder, that people in same-sex relationships will never find peace, and that people attracted to members of the same sex suffer from "sickness."
And the really scary part is that not only is this program alive and well in places like St. Paul and Minneapolis, but there are chapters in roughly 116 cities around the country, and even more worldwide. Sure, it's long been no secret that the Church harshes on same-sex marriage. But their active investment in conversion therapy programs signals a whole new level of homophobia, and a whole other level of ignorance when it comes to psychology and human sexuality.
Catholic Church Ready to Throw Homeless Under Bus in Order to Stop Gay Marriage
Published November 12, 2009 @ 06:15AM PT
The Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. has issued an ultimatum to the District's city council: approve same-sex marriage, and the Church will stop serving the city's disadvantaged, including the homeless.
Guess that Catholic Church commitment to the poor is only skin deep. For the Catholic Church to threaten the lives of homeless people and others who depend on church social services just to gain political points on the issue of gay marriage is sad, sorry, and a sign that no religious instutition in the country is willing to stand in the way of civil rights for gays and lesbians more than the Catholic Church.
The temper tantrum being thrown by the D.C. Church is being portrayed as a direct threat to the Washington, D.C. City Council. Listen to us, the church says, or we'll throw this city's poor and homeless in front of the closest Metro train.
Hey Pope Benedict XVI: Fight Climate Change, Not LGBT People
Published October 15, 2009 @ 12:07PM PT
During an annual end-of-year message last year, Pope Benedict XVI made a very un-peaceful move in comparing the threat of climate change to homosexuality and gender identity. The Pope, usually not one to miss a beat when it comes to calling LGBT people sinful, said that homosexuality was about as much of a threat to the human race as climate change.
Clearly this Pope has never visited the Maldives, or he might come to think that an entire nation being swallowed up by a rising ocean might be significantly worse than two women sleeping together.
The Pope's address was a veiled attempt to say that gender theory -- the type of thinking about human sexuality that promotes tolerance and acceptance of LGBT people, and views sexual orientation as a much more complex issue than the church's black-and-white thinking -- would dismantle humankind. Gay rights groups justifiably blew a gasket.
Today, on Blog Action Day (http://www.blogactionday.org/), it seems critical to think back about Pope Benedict XVI's unfortunate comparison, and challenge the Pope not to fall into the same sort of destructive thinking. If this is a planet worth saving, it's going to take all walks of life -- from queer people to the most devout Catholics.
It's a good thing that Pope Benedict XVI sees climate change as a threat to humanity. The Catholic Church has some muscle, given that it's one of the largest religious denominations in the entire world, and it should be treating the issue of climate change as if it were a threat to humankind. It is. But to say that gay people are as much a threat to the world as climate change isn't productive. It's hurtful.
Two months from now, when the Pope gives another annual message, here's hoping he touches on climate change. And here's hoping he leaves the gay-bashing out.
Mormons and Catholics Waste Church Resources Fighting Marriage Equality
Published October 14, 2009 @ 04:57AM PT
Sen. Harry Reid is the highest-ranking member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints serving in Congress. His church was one of the biggest funders of the anti-gay ballot initiative in California, Prop 8, which rescinded marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples. Sen. Reid is now saying that as a whole, the Mormon Church has bigger fish to fry than fighting marriage equality.
According to the Salt Lake City Tribune, Sen. Reid regretted the divisiveness caused by the Mormon Church's involvement in Prop 8, and wished the institutional church would have spent resources on something much more productive to society.
"He said that he thought it was a waste of church resources and good will," LGBT rights activist Derek Washington told the Tribune. "He said he didn't think it was appropriate."
Sounds about right. Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to take away the civil rights of gays and lesbians doesn't sound like the type of investment anyone should support, let alone the Senate Majority Leader. Now let's see if we can find a Catholic politician to criticize that Church's behemoth money dump in Maine to do discriminate against gay and lesbian couples. Numbers were released yesterday in the state, and the Catholic Diocese of Portland donated $245,000 to fight marriage equality in the state.
Meanwhile, God was heard to say yesterday, "Do you know how many hungry people $245,000 could feed." Way to misplace your priorities, Catholic Church.
U.S. Catholic Bishops Plan to Attack Gay Marriage with November Statement
Published October 13, 2009 @ 08:57AM PT
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is planning a major statement on marriage in November, preparing to issue new language about how the church views same-sex marriage. Unfortunately, the new language is more of the same from the U.S. bishops -- hateful, tired, and representative of a theology that views people who are LGBT as less than.
The statement, "Marriage: Love and Live in the Divine Plan," (PDF) not only blasts gay marriage, but also tackles contraception and cohabitation. The statement calls all of them intrinsically evil.
But the harshest words are reserved for marriage equality, which the U.S. bishops see as one of the most troubling developments in contemporary society. They dedicate 42 lines of text to the issue.
"[Same-sex marriage] harms both the intrinsic dignity of every human person and the common good of society," the U.S. bishops write. "The legal recognition of same-sex unions poses a multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society, striking at the source from which society and culture come and which they are meant to serve."
They go on to write that LGBT people should live a life dedicated to chastity, and that male-female complementarity reigns superior to basic equal rights.
With this statement, the U.S. bishops just might have made the Catholic Church the most anti-LGBT religious institution in the country. Say what you want about the craziness of Focus on the Family, or the wingnuttiness of the Family Research Council, or the anti-gay dollars from the official Mormon Church. But this statement will be signed on by more than 300 U.S. Catholic Bishops, covering the entire country.
And it's yet another example of how the official Catholic Church is moving to the far end of the radical right spectrum.
Fortunate Families, a Catholic organization made up of parents who love and affirm their LGBT children, issued a newsletter last month with an article by David Boies (PDF), one of the lawyers leading efforts to challenge bans on gay marriage in federal courts. Boies wrote, "Countries as Catholic as Spain, as different as Sweden and South Africa, and as near as Canada have embraced gay and lesbian marriage without any noticeable effect -- except the increase in human happiness and social stability that comes from permitting people to marry for love."
Too bad the U.S. Catholic Church isn't listening to groups like Fortunate Families, or to this Catholic mother in Maine, or to this retired Catholic Bishop in Detroit when it comes to the matter of loving LGBT people.
African Catholic Bishops Call Homosexuality a Ruthless Form of Colonization
Published October 12, 2009 @ 12:39PM PT
There are plenty of American Catholic bishops who have long transferred from the religious train to the crazy train, as they pontificate around the country for Catholics to discriminate against LGBT people. Now a group of African Catholic bishops are joining in spreading global homophobia, by saying that homosexuality poses a direct threat to the stability of the African continent.
The bishops, members of the special Synod of Bishops for Africa, are meeting for a three-week gathering to talk about the role of the Catholic faith in Africa. Sadly, it looks like the bishops are all too eager to tie discrimination to their faith -- all the more tragic in a continent where many countries, from Sudan to Nigeria, still put people to death for being LGBT.
Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg, South Africa, may take the prize for most outrageously homophobic statement, by saying that homosexuality is a threat to the health of the African continent.
"[Africa's traditional cultural values] are threatened by the new global ethic which aggressively seeks to persuade African governments and communities to accept new and different meanings of the concepts of family, marriage and human sexuality," Bishop Tlhagale said, according to Catholic News Service. "Africa faces a second wave of colonization, both subtle and ruthless at the same time."
What a stupid statement. It's theologically inept, and worse, it's likely to result in violence. For a Church that's supposed to celebrate the concept of peace, the Bishop's statement is the furthest thing from it.
(Photo courtesy of ^@^ina {back from Africa}'s photostream on Flickr.)
The Exiling of a Gay-Friendly Catholic Leader
Published October 10, 2009 @ 10:13AM PT
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton is a lot of things. He's a former Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit. A founder of a peace and justice organization that a certain blogger used to work at. A leader in the peace movement since the 1970s up through today. And a Bishop who has challenged the concept that to be Catholic means to be anti-gay.
Because of those beliefs, he's being exiled from the Catholic Church.
The latest example comes from Marquette, Michigan, where a local group of peace activists invited Bishop Gumbleton to come and give a talk. Marquette's Bishop, Alexander Sample, issued a public letter saying that because of Bishop Gumbleton's stance that gay people should be treated as human beings, he's not welcome in the diocese.
"Given Bishop Gumbleton's very public position on certain important matters of Catholic teaching, specifically with regard to homosexuality and the ordination of women to the priesthood, it was my judgment that his presence in Marquette would not be helpful," Bishop Sample wrote.
Mind you, Bishop Gumbleton was coming to speak about peace -- not about gay rights or ordaining women. Yet this is what the Catholic Church has come to: censoring -- nay, banishing -- Catholics who won't toe the homophobic line of certain U.S. bishops and the Vatican.
Bishop Sample is a damn fool -- running a Catholic gestapo in charge of policing who comes in and out of his diocese lest folks hear a thing or two about equal rights.
Sadly, this isn't the first time Bishop Gumbleton has been told to keep out from a Catholic diocese. Tucson, Arizona's Bishop, Gerald Kicanas, also wouldn't allow Bishop Gumbleton to travel to his diocese to talk about peace and justice issues.
Apparently, censorship is more important to the Catholic Church than championing the cause of peace.
