03 December 2008

Don't protect gays from discrimination

This is utterly appalling. How does a person find the words to react appropriately to this news item?:  Vatican attacked for opposing gay decriminalization
Gay rights groups and newspaper editorials on Tuesday condemned the Vatican for its decision to oppose a proposed U.N. resolution calling on governments worldwide to de-criminalize homosexuality....Archbishop Celestino Migliore said the Vatican opposed the resolution because it would "add new categories of those protected from discrimination" and could lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage.
If I write my true feelings it's going to sound like a rant.

I repeat my statement that I have made elsewhere on this blog here, here, and here: It is one thing to hold that homosexual acts are sinful for a Christian. It is quite another thing to condone or support the imprisonment of gay people in civil law, particularly in the knowledge that, in many countries, imprisonment for homosexuality means that a person's life is at risk.

Again, I ask the question that Cecilia asked: How is love made to grow by these actions? And I'm not talking about romantic love between two people either. I'm talking about the kind of love that says 'This is simply wrong'. The kind of love that builds the New Creation and works for justice and peace?

For the life of me, I do not understand this argument that many Christians, including the Vatican, are using that gay rights undermines heterosexual family life. But lets look at the practical outcome of this: We are saying that we are ready to deprive gay people of their civil rights and that we are even willing to deliberately place them in situations where their lives are at risk, for the sake of 'family values'? Doesn't anyone see anything wrong with this?  (If you're a Girardian, this is a great example of the scapegoating mechanism.)

Hat tip to
Sebastian for the Reuters article.

6 comments:

The Celtic Chimp said...

Pam,

Didn't your God command the stoning to death of homosexuals?

Yahweh even makes the catholic church look liberal :)

crystal said...

Yeah, I had a post about this too. There are times I'm embarrassed to be a Catholic :(

Unknown said...

I had not seen that article. Thanks for posting. Wonder if the Vatican has found a new straw dog. As in, they cannot get any more traction on the abortion or birth control issue, therefore they can set up the gay marriage issue and inflame folks, thus firing them up and reconnecting them to the church.

I have to keep reminding myself that I believe, as a Catholic, that the Holy Spirit guides the Pope. Whether he listens is a question.

PamBG said...

Judy - excellent points which hadn't occurred to me. Thank you for a very clear-headed response.

I expect that many of us have selective listening when it comes to the Holy Spirit.

PamBG said...

Anonymous, if you wish to extensively air your own views, then it is appropriate for you to get your own blog.

Your post is being removed on the basis that it appears to be a pre-written treatise.

Anonymous said...

Judy
I wouldn't want to be reconnected with a church that has a bottom line that says it IS ok to discriminate against people.

(gays or otherwise)

Yes it is quite likely that there will be some cases of reverse discrimination ... that's not right either ... but to say we (the church, the body of Christ) condones discrimination against homosexuals is not Christ like.

He died to set us free not to make us prejudiced!