Daniel Avila speaks at SPLC-certified hate group Family Research Council’s Values Voters Summit
a few weeks ago, at a symposium titled, “Straight Talk on Gay Marriage”
via New Civil Right Movement. He speaks at the 3:00 mark.
We here at the Milk Men have been tracking a story about the United State's Catholic Bishops Conference lobbyist Daniel Avila, that made some ill-advised theological ramblings in an Archdiocese newpaper. He essentially said LGBTQ people were not the way they are because God created them as such, but rather, because the Devil tinkered around in their mother's womb during pregnancy.
It didn't go over well.
Not only in the gay community but also within the Catholic community. The Paulist Center of Boston sent the publication The Pilot a rather stinging rebuke and circulated the same to the Catholic members of their own community. A retraction and apology soon followed.
Now, we're hearing a resignation has been proffered.
From the Washington Post:
Marriage adviser resigns over Satan-homosexuality column
A policy adviser to the U.S. Catholic bishops’ anti-gay-marriage initiative resigned on Friday (Nov. 4), a week after writing a column that blamed Satan for homosexuality.
Daniel Avila had been an on-staff adviser to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage since June.
Unofficially, Avila referred to himself as the “bishops’ marriage guy” and represented the USCCB’s stance on marriage in Washington.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, a spokeswoman for the USCCB, said Avila “willingly offered his resignation, and it was accepted.”
Avila could not be immediately reached for comment.
What the Devil got into Esquire Avila?
Truth Wins Out previously had some very harsh words for the Church on this topic. Executive Director of Truth Wins Out Wayne Besen said:
“Avila’s bizarre theories are unscientific and defamatory. Telling Catholic mothers with LGBT children that Satan entered their womb and caused their child’s homosexuality is spiritual abuse of the highest order.”
Added John Becker, Truth Wins Out’s Director of Communications and Development.
“It is outrageous for an official advisor to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to make such an appalling statement at all, much less in the approved newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston. The USCCB and the Boston Archdiocese must unequivocally condemn Avila’s bigoted remarks, or explain to LGBT Catholics and their parents why they refuse to do so.”
Truth Wins Out has released this press release:
BURLINGTON, Vt. – Truth Wins Out applauded the resignation of Dan Avila today from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, where he served as policy advisor for Marriage and Family. Avila resigned after receiving much criticism for a column he wrote for The Boston Pilot that suggested Satan might cause people to become gay.
“Daniel Avila’s column was hurtful and deeply offensive so we are grateful he quickly resigned,” said Wayne Besen, executive director for Truth Wins Out. “Demonizing never creates a healthy dialogue and Avila represented a major obstacle to the church’s claim to respect all people.”
The offensive column caused such an uproar that the Pilot, America’s oldest Catholic newspaper, retracted the screed. Avila was forced to offer a weak apology that said, “his column does not represent the position of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the column was not authorized for publication as is required policy for staff of the USCCB.”
“The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops were correct to accept Avila’s resignation,” said John Becker, director of communications and development for Truth Wins Out. “There is no place for such extremism and Avila’s poisonous remarks served to further alienate LGBT Americans from the Catholic Church.”
In his column Avila wrote:
“…the scientific evidence of how same-sex attraction most likely may be created provides a credible basis for a spiritual explanation that indicts the devil. Any time natural disasters occur, we as people of faith look back to Scripture’s account of those angels who rebelled and fell from grace. In their anger against God, these malcontents prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. They continue to do all they can to mar, distort and destroy God’s handiwork. Therefore, whenever natural causes disturb otherwise typical biological development, leading to the personally unchosen beginnings of same-sex attraction, the ultimate responsibility, on a theological level, is and should be imputed to the evil one, not God.”
At the time, TWO sent out a press release criticizing Avila’s remarks and commented further in a Washington Post blog. Earlier today, the LGBT advocacy group called for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to fire Avila. Last month, TWO filmed Avila’s anti-gay speech at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC.
David Badash at The New Civil Rights Movement has dug up some research on Avila, he surmises:
No one should be surprised that Avila invoked the devil to describe homosexuality. Of same-sex marriage, Avila is quoted as saying, “It’s like a nuclear bomb exploding in every home, and that explosion will reshape society itself. I don’t think we can even describe the frontiers of change that confront us.”
Avila has ties to
Southern Poverty Law Center recognized hate group Family Research Council and the
National Organization for Marriage. He is an extremist. His rhetoric is extremist. When the Catholic Church hired him, they knew they were getting an extremist.
Update: This story is as much a political story as it is a religious one. Avila was leading the charge to defend the Defense of Marriage Act from judicial and legislative challenges. From February 2011:
In part, the bishops of Massachusetts weighed in on these cases because the Obama administration provided a weak defense of DOMA by omitting rationale that was used in crafting the legislation, according to Dan Avila, the Massachusetts Catholic Conference’s (MCC) associate director for policy and research.
The defense maintains Congress’ authority on the matter but notes that the administration disagrees with it, favors repealing the law and questions legislators’ motives in enacting it.
“That’s hardly a full-fledged defense of DOMA,” Avila told The Anchor, adding that the administration is taking a “one hand behind the back approach.”
The Catholic and religious right have presumably lost a key person leading this battle. That is presumably, until he resurfaces. They usually do, there's good money to be made in hate-mongering LGBTQ people. It's a thriving industry.
Update: Human Rights Campaign weighs in via Dr. Sharon Groves, director of the Religion and Faith Program:
"Mr. Avila’s dangerous view that Satan causes people to become gay has no place in any credible news publication, whether it be mainstream or religious press. He ignored not only the widely accepted science that same-sex attraction is normal, but also the modern thinking of many religions. I am pleased the Conference of Catholic Bishops accepted his resignation and I ask them to speak up and denounce his dangerous rhetoric.”