While churches continue to reject the relationships of gay male couples and lesbian couples the momentum among young people is to reject churches because of the oppressive social stances that conservative churches promote as THE ONLY position of Christians. As a Christian and an individual who seeks social justice in the world I am literally appalled by the source of vitriol and suppression of certain peoples’ civil rights that comes from some Christian churches. The work Conservative Christians (including conservative Catholics) are doing to suppress Marriage Equality is a suppression of MY Freedom of Religion.
We (as Christians and Americans) have been having this discussion over and over again. We had this discussion when Abraham Lincoln emancipated and abolished slavery. We had this discussion when we worked our way through Suffrage. We had it again when we discussed the 1964 Voting Rights Act. And now we are having it again with the discussion of Marriage Equality. Biblical passages were used to maintain all of these traditions. We as a culture have come to breathe our own American freedom and reject the idea that I will vote a certain way “because my church tells me to.” The church was created in the times of feudal governments and American Freedom rejects monarchy as a legitimate form of government.
As Equally Blessed (a coalition of Catholic Organizations that are committed to full equality for LGBT people in the church and civil society) points out, The Knights of Columbus is spending millions of dollars to stop marriage equality. This effort by the “strong arm of the bishops” will only drive young people further from the Catholic Church. Its spill-over will broaden the culture-wide view that Christians are anti-civil-rights.
As Equally Blessed (a coalition of Catholic Organizations that are committed to full equality for LGBT people in the church and civil society) points out, The Knights of Columbus is spending millions of dollars to stop marriage equality. This effort by the “strong arm of the bishops” will only drive young people further from the Catholic Church. Its spill-over will broaden the culture-wide view that Christians are anti-civil-rights.
I must reiterate that conservative Christians are the one who are anti-civil-rights and they are dragging the name of Christianity. It is long past time for LIBERAL AND MODERATE Christians to speak out against this kind of “steeling the narrative.”
If you cannot stand up to your church it’s time to move on. If your church refuses to accept your gay son or lesbian daughter, gay grandson or lesbian granddaughter then it’s time to move on. You have the right and God has given you the conscience to stand up for what is right. God expects you to defend what is right even when the institution is wrong.
When the Catholic Church uses the Knights of Columbus and their money to put pressure on the General Assembly in Annapolis or to help gather referendum signatures to put a legitimately passed law onto the ballot they are expressing their rights as individual voters to do so. And yes this is legitimate. But is it ethical? Should they push their personal religious views onto a state-wide populous? I say no. And the reason I say no is because we all have a freedom of religion in Maryland and it is protected by both the US Constitution and the Maryland State Constitution.
Maryland is also a place of religious diversity. There are multiple religious organizations in Maryland who actually support civil rights, which include LGBTQ civil rights AND other social justice issues that the Catholic Church and other Radically Conservative Christian organizations reject. The time has long passed that Catholicism is the ruling power structure in the State of Maryland. Now, granted, those religious organizations have the right to their own point of view; and they have the right to practice their own religious perspective. But if I might say so, I am sick and tired of it being portrayed as THE only perspective. It makes me want to yell “Keep your own damn religion inside your own damn church.”
Why is it OK for the Catholic Church here in Maryland to constantly push their religion onto the rest of us? If we wanted to hear what they had to say we would go to their church, read the plethora of publications they print on paper, or publish to saturate the internet.
The reason attendance in Catholic Churches is dwindling is because the no longer have respect (if they ever did) for individual Americans.
It’s time for Catholics to open their eyes and stop being so passive. WE ARE AMERICANS. We believe in democracy. We believe that we should work for social justice. If your church doesn’t follow this program LEAVE IT. Find one that aligns with your respect for other human beings. If you cannot find one that does maybe that the point you realize that Christianity no longer works. But my personal perspective is that Christianity still works but the Giant Instructions are broken. If they will not let us fix them through a democratic process I say it is time they die. And they will die if you walk away from them.
Do you really believe that we are all Children of God? If so this should make you sick:
According to the report, which is based primarily on the Knights’ filings with the Internal Revenue Service, the organization donated $6.25 million to anti-marriage equality efforts between 2005-2012, with most of the money directed toward ballot measures aimed at banning marriage equality in 12 states. [as reported by Equally Blessed]
And they wonder why most European Catholic Churches are virtually empty. And Catholics in this country wonder why churches here have dwindling congregations. I will tell you why, young people are appalled by the homophobic-anti-civil-rights attitude that conservative Christian Churches exude. You make up your own mind.
This is about your Freedom of Religion they are trampling on.