Comments on: Catholics really don’t want to be thought of as bigots

By: Matthew S

Matthew S — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 05:27:08 +0000

What the radical churches need to realize is that while freedom of religion gives churches the right to practice their religion, the prohibition on establishment of religion prohibits them from making their dogma the law of the land in the USA. You don’t have to like a group, but no one has the right to codify their fear in this country.

By: lurker

lurker — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 18:11:59 +0000

“He treats the belief in antimisegenation law as if it were a mere prejudice, as though it is motivated by a desire to cause harm to people. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. It is a legitimate moral belief that has informed our law throughout history.”

By: Amicus

Amicus — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 14:36:38 +0000

One could write a book on this, but one view is that most people, including Catholics, find the Church’s teachings on women to be irrational/biased, or, if not, then really of limited applicability, rather than universal in all respects.

So, why are the CC’s views on gays to be taken so much more strictly?

Last, they commit a grave error, if they are wrong in their moral judgement in this.

One would like to see the most fervent defense of those topics for which one has the strongest of moral insight. That might be, with limited exceptions, murder, theft, violence (assault), etc.

But, with the CC already admitting to a class of people who are invariably oriented toward the gay, one has to question that the wisdom of how they weigh their moral considerations, not just the logical consistency of the considerations themselves.

By: Regan DuCasse

Regan DuCasse — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:03:51 +0000

Oh and, is the CC complaining too that people who divorce and remarry compromise the CC’s rights in their stance to refuse ceremonies for the divorced and remarried?
Even those that don’t belong to their church?

What kinds of stupid people buy this crap?

By: Regan DuCasse

Regan DuCasse — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:02:40 +0000

Thanks for that quote, Chris.

Again with their ‘”We’re the VICTIMS here, if gay people are treated as equals.”

Or, “We’re the victims here if WE don’t want gay people treated as equals.”

They are washing themselves in the victim river every which way possible.

A person who believes that gay aren’t equal to them, nor deserve to be married by their houses of worship ARE free to feel that way.

It’s a no brainer that CIVIL LAW MUST treat gay citizens as equal and equally responsible as well as equally deserving of the same rights.

As I keep saying. Jehovah’s Witnesses are people who believe that blood and organ donation are immoral and impure.
But they can’t demand that others can’t receive it.
Nor complain that their rights are compromised because others use donated blood.

This complaint by the CC is as specious as a JW saying that blood donation contaminates the blood supply according to their religious teaching.

By: Throbert McGee

Throbert McGee — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:24:36 +0000

I could be mistaken, but I think the Vatican’s official position that (a) “obedient Catholics” should not politically support any form of legal recognition for same-sex couples — even Maine-type “domestic partnerships” that not only avoid using the term “marriage” but aren’t even close to being “marriage in all but name”; and (b) the Vatican would hew stubbornly to this position even if “one man, one woman” were written into the Constitution to prevent DPs from being “sneakily expanded” into gay marriage.

In other words — for the Vatican, not necessarily for rank-and-file clergy or the entire Catholic laity — it’s not simply about an opposition to “Same-Sex Marriage”, nor merely about avoiding slippery slopes that might potentially lead to “Same-Sex Marriage.” Any formal acknowledgment of gay housholds by the (secular) state is Too Much.

By: Chris McCoy

Chris McCoy — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:46:30 +0000

“It raises the concern that the Justice Department will treat believing Christians, Jews, Muslims and others as though they are the equivalent of racists”

They are. They should be treated as such.

The Truth is so damned inconvenient.

By: TonyJazz

TonyJazz — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:25:56 +0000

The catholic church’s moral stance should be that they don’t plan to support gay marriage in the church.

Civil marriage is a legal construct, and it has nothing to do with their religion-specific definition of marriage.

And the church should be morally concerned with fair treatment and opportunity for all capable people.