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PDF versionFighting the Anti-Homosexuality Law in Uganda
by Michael Sean Winters on Dec. 07, 2009
The groups Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Faith in Public Life have been doing a variety of good works, showing the many and varied ways that faith informs public policy, organizing prayer services and press conferences on issues from health care to immigration reform. Now, they have given a very special opportunity to the Roman Catholic hierarchy. They have issued a statement, signed by a diverse group of religious and political leaders, about the anti-homosexuality law pending in Uganda. The law would, among other things, make homosexual acts punishable by death.
I say this is a gift to the Catholic hierarchy because the bishops have been engaged in some very high profile campaigns against gay marriage. Some of the more pastorally sensitive, and theologically sound, bishops have been at pains to state that their opposition to gay marriage is not rooted in anti-gay bigotry. Cardinal Sean O’Malley never discussed his opposition to gay marriage without taking the chance to affirm the Church’s teaching on the dignity of all people, including gays and lesbians. Recently, Archbishop Donald Wuerl issued a letter to gay and lesbians Catholics, writing that gay and lesbian Catholics expressing his hope that the Church’s opposition to a proposed gay marriage law in the District of Columbia would not alienate gays and lesbians from the Church.
Here is a chance for the bishops to show that their opposition to gay marriage has nothing to do with anti-gay bigotry. They should sign the statement written by the good people at CACG and Faith in Public Life. There are many theologians and other Catholic leaders who have already signed it, but there is, as yet, no bishops who have endorsed its call to oppose the outrageous Ugandan law. A blessing on the first bishop to step up to the plate.
I agree. The Bishops should
I agree. The Bishops should be in the forefront of this battle. 42% of the population in Uganda is Catholic. This is a no brainer for a church that claims all life is sacred to oppose such outrage against humanity.
Michael, what kind of bizarre
Michael, what kind of bizarre compartmentalization do use to write this stuff? What the Church is trying to accomplish with gay Catholics is to insist they agree to be neutered gay Catholics, not gay, but a-sexual with out intimate loving relationships, and gays are to 'enjoy' this state in total silence.
Please explain to me what the real difference is between letting the state kill any aspect of your orientation by legalizing Catholic teaching, or just letting the state kill you? As far as I can see, the only difference is the Church's position allows gays to keep breathing. Both deny gays equal rights to full life.
I haven't heard the pope
I haven't heard the pope personally coming out against this legislation, nor have I heard of any Bishop coming out against it. But when the Pope calls gay marriage "a threat to creation" right as Uganda, with her 43% Catholic population, is considering this legislation, it seems to be a callous disregard for the legislation being taken into considerations along with the dire consequences that harken back to the Nazi era.
This Pope has done nothing but foment hatred against homosexuals since he authored the Encyclical to the Bishops on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons on 1 October 1986, when he was serving as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In this letter he tacitly condones violence against homosexuals:"when civil legislation is introduced to protect behavior to which no one has any conceivable right, neither the Church nor society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational and violent reactions increase." In reaction against the sex abuse scandal that had rocked the church since the beginning of his pontificate, this pope waged a campaign to purge the clergy of all its homosexual priests. Ironically, it was a gay priest that helped me to come forth and admit that what I had suffered was indeed abuse!
When Vatican Health Secretary Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan of Mexico compares homosexuals to cockroaches, what can we possibly expect from the Catholic hierarchy except more of the same? You cannot expect protection from the very antagonists who are at the forefront of spewing vitriolic, hateful rhetoric against us. When the hierarchy sometimes couches its position supporting legislation that would curtail our rights with patronizing phrases concerning the need to respect our dignity and worth, the focus should always remain on their actions. "By their fruits you will know them!" As far as they are concerned, they are at war against us, and they are out to draw blood!
"Here is a chance for the
"Here is a chance for the bishops to show that their opposition to gay marriage has nothing to do with anti-gay bigotry."
What kind of blinders to you have on?
The Catholic Church is not opposed to same-sex marriage. It is opposed to same-sex marriage, civil unions, domestic partnership, second-party adoptions, gay adoption in general, workplace anti-discrimination law, decriminalization of gay sex, etc., etc.
There appears to be a rather
There appears to be a rather enourmous leap in reason here. There is nothing but circumstantial evidence to support the theory that homosexuality is a genetic occurance.
As that is the case, the church is not encouraging, or otherwise promoting any unreasonable lifestyle choices. Would you encourage a man who is attracted to children to re-direct his attractions elsewhere?
Would you encourage a woman who's attraction was to horses, to direct her attraction elsewhere?
Why is it such a crime to ask individuals who are attracted to the same sex, to direct their feeling elsewhere?
Now... just to cut this short...
If you don't want to, then don't. And be sure to recuse yourself as a Catholic while you are in the process. It's one thing to say that what you do in private is none of the churches business, it is another thing all together to claim some divine right to live in defiance of God's instructions to the church, and claim that the church is acting unfairly in some way.
Peace.
F.
F. When you feel the need to
F.
When you feel the need to end what you just wrote with "peace", please consider that what you intend is anything but peace. Your church is at war. Remember? There's a cultural war, and my partner of 15 years and I, together with millions of other gay people around the world, are the enemy. We fight for dignity, respect, equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, security, safety, and most of all, love! Your church fights to maintain its power and its authority as moral arbiter, in matters both religious and secular! It would be one thing if the Catholic Church limited herself to the pastoral care of those who freely choose to call her their mother. It is another thing entirely when she tries to impose her moral edicts on others by influencing public policy!
To this end, she will do anything. Being the sole definer and arbiter of morality, she makes herself above the law, both of God and of man, and she frequently violates both with relish through lies, deceit, cover-ups (in the case of the pedophile scandals), and hateful rhetoric towards homosexuals which bely her true regard for the "dignity" and "respect" of the "person hood" of the homosexual as being created in God's image. One does not get to claim to respect the "person hood" of an individual or group by comparing them to a cockroach, or say that legal recognition of their relationships constitute a threat to the continuation of the human race. Such rhetoric smacks of the anti Jewish propaganda put forth by the Nazis when Hitler's Germany denied Jews the right to marry gentiles!
I for one am infuriated by one who would wish me peace after comparing me to a pedophile or one engaged in bestiality, whose pope advocates violence against me ("Encyclical to Bishops on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons"), who, at the eve of Kenya's consideration o adopt a bill condemning homosexuals to death, calls gay Marriage a threat to creation, and whose pope identifies us with pedophiles by taking measures to purge the clergy of gay priests in response to the scandal which he tried so hard to cover up as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith!
As to your own absurd comparisons mentioned above, the difference between homosexuality and paraphilia (sexual feelings or behaviors that may involve sexual partners that are not human, not consenting, or that involve suffering by one or both partners)are obvious, and any comparison between the two smacks of the reductio ad absurdum fallacy that social acceptance of the one will inevitably lead to the other! Anyone of intelligence would be able to make the distinction! I will not question your intelligence, F, but I do call you on your duplicity! Jesus would do the same, I assure you! Considering my own abuse at the age of 12 at the hands of a pedophile priest who was then protected by our family priest who lied to us, this simply adds salt to the wound.
How many homosexual Catholics trying to reconcile their orientation to the teachings of the church when he offered his "Homosexual Solution" in the encyclical mentioned above, or who have suffered violence as a result of the hostile atmosphere created by the hateful vitriol spewing forth from his and his predecessor's faithful vassals since then, will only be determined at the end of time! The God who will judge us all in the end knows, and we will all certainly stand witness. God at least grants us all a day in His court!
Finally, I would like to comment briefly on our right to love and to be loved. Denial of our basic right to marry impedes that ability and leads to so many injustices that enumerating them would distract from the focus of my intended response. Again, the Vatican's vitriol and lies in reaction to Gay marriage by no means respects the dignity of our person hood that she so often claims to defend.
F, You signed off with the words "peace". I will be more truthful. May God who judges with a double edged sword judge our words, our deeds, and our hearts, according to His will. I may go to Hell - I have been hurt too many times in life and have too much hatred in my heart to deny that possibility, but I am reconciled to that reality; however, I won't be alone! Many popes and prelates will be right there with me! You, F, may end up being my cell mate!
War!
DEWSz
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