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News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJanuary 9th, 2012
Pope Benedict has started out the new year with one of his favorite themes: the superhuman power of gay couples to destroy all of civilization.
“This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself,” he said.
Perhaps it isn’t surprising that some of the things that Sen. Rick Santorum says sound downright idiotic. When the leader of your church predicates the survival of the human species on denying gay couples legal recognition, any nutcase theory can sound plausible. And he is, after all, under the watchful eyes of Papa Ratzi.
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Regan DuCasse
January 9th, 2012
It is an essential part of the most barbaric and primitive mindset, to be clannish and set one tribe against another. To take one’s cues from a civilization that murdered babies that were of another culture, or to maintain power after consulting a ‘seer’, is a sure sign that such cultural conflicts still exist, but from men wearing sweater vests and ornate robes.
The anti gay clearly want to delineate whose children matter more than other’s. What children ARE expendable and which ones can be neglected, distinguished only from who belongs to the Christian tribe and who doesn’t. Who is required to BE heterosexual, or simply a man and woman, as opposed to a GAY man or woman who has children they are raising too.
To continue the meme that only the fertile matter, that only the fertile are contributing anything to society, is willfully ignoring that those who are no parents, contribute a great deal.
Whether voluntarily or involuntarily to the common good and support of children and their welfare.
This is creating an artificial war between the fertile and infertile, by praising conception as if an accomplishment unto itself, but ignoring RAISING children. Asserting that ALL children in gay headed homes are in less than optimal conditions (judging only gay parenting and homes), without knowing at all WHAT kinds of conditions are less than optimal for op sex couples by choice (having a child within a poverty stricken or violent environment).
Dogs and roaches can procreate. Procreating isn’t so hard.
But marriage discrimination, among other things, is a line of demarcation that forces the children of gay parents to BE TREATED by less than this country and marriage would provide for them.
So this clearly points out the PHONY CONCERN and compassion for the needs of ALL children.
Their only concern is for the children in their tribe.
Truly barbaric and UNCIVILIZED, all their assertions to the contrary about what sustains and enables civilization.
Mary in Austin
January 9th, 2012
No, Mr. Pope, humanity itself is not threatened by teh gay. You prove yourself a self-serving nincompoop when you say that, and you should only feel lucky that a lot of other nincompoops are willing to listen to you. The way you are going, you will be Pope Benedict the Last, and very few will be sorry.
Hunter
January 9th, 2012
Let’s see — the world human population is somewhere around 6-1/2 or 7 billion? Yup — extinction is right around the corner.
Tobias
January 9th, 2012
@Huntr: Hey, I do believe he is mistaken on this. However, I feel it is unfair to just dismiss this as complete nonsense. You don’t truly believe he means that humankind won’t procreate enough anymore, do you? He talks about civilization and society. I’m no expert in Catholic philosophy and thinking but I think it is required to at least take it into account when you want to understand what he is saying.
Pope Benedict may be wrong in many ways but I don’t believe he is stupid. I believe that in his frame of thinking what he’s saying makes perfect sense. I suspect however, that there are fundamental errors in his presumptions and he never learned to think outside the box.
CPT_Doom
January 9th, 2012
@Tobias – It does not matter from which mindset Mr. Ratzinger may be dealing, his comments are bigoted and lacking foundation. They are the same kind of comments, in fact, that helped murder thousands of people during the Reformation, when the Church fought against any challenges to its authority (and, to be fair, the Protestants responded in kind when they were in power).
For anyone to claim that treating all human beings equally, OR that anyone is trying to end straight marriage or destroy the family (at least in trying to legally recognize LGBT families that already exist or may exist in the future) is grossly incorrect. There is no foundation for these beliefs and no data to back them up.
Meanwhile, the total number of Catholic leaders who have been held morally culpable by the Vatican for conducting the largest criminal conspiracy in the history of humanity remains 0.
Tim
January 9th, 2012
He is used to talking all sorts of nonsense and have people believe him.
Richard Rush
January 9th, 2012
Tim said, “He is used to talking all sorts of nonsense and have people believe him.”
Of course, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
(apparently erroneously attributed to P. T. Barnum)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_sucker_born_every_minute
Timothy (TRiG)
January 9th, 2012
I know that he’s an intelligent man with a subtle cast of mind. So why doesn’t he sound like it? I think bigotry interferes with intelligence. It’s something Fred Clarke has said a few times: bigotry makes you stupid.
TRiG.
Tobias
January 10th, 2012
@CPT_Doom: Actually I think it *does* matter if we do not just want to complain but actually help become change. There is a difference between somebody who is just stupid and somebody who is trapped in a wrong paradigm. It does *not* make his statements less wrong. It does not make them less dangerous. Indeed it makes them much more dangerous. I just wanted to state that I don’t think it helps to make this look like stupidity.
Ben in Oakland
January 10th, 2012
“There is a difference between somebody who is just stupid and somebody who is trapped in a wrong paradigm.”
I think that you have just defined stUpidity as clearly as it has ever been defined.
An ignorant person is someone who doesn’t know something, perhaps doesn’t know that he doesn’t know.
A stupid person is one who doesn’t know, doesn’t know that he doesn’t know, and doesn’t give a damn (although this pope is willing to hand out as many damns as it takes) because he is far more interested in believing what he thinks.
Frijondi
January 10th, 2012
What he’s alluding to is his belief that unless families continue to be (or revert to being) male-headed, with distinct and separate roles for the husband and wife, there will be dire consequences. He thinks that boys and girls who grow up in any other kind of family, or even live down the street from one, will fail to internalize their appropriate gender role, and society will descend into barbarism. Without a clear role as provider and protector, men will either become soft and lazy, or go to the opposite extreme and become savage thugs; without a clear role as nurturer and helpmate, women will turn into either sluts or unnatural, castrating, briefcase-toting Amazons with giant shoulder-pads.
BXVI’s objections to gay marriage are only incidentally about preventing icky, non-procreative gay sex. (Don’t get me wrong, I have no doubt he feels very strongly about that.) But if this were just about gays, I doubt he’d be so vocal, as we’re a rather small subset of the population. I’ve said this here before, but I will say it again: the crusade against gay marriage is about keeping heterosexuals in line. And above all, it is about keeping women in line. It’s no accident that the churches that have historically shown the most support for women’s liberation have also been the first to ordain gay people openly, and to give their blessing to gay relationships.
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