Today a local bishop wrote a letter against marriage equality, and I want to respond.
His letter reads, in part:
And the real issue at hand is this: The church’s obligation to defend the truth that marriage is between one man and one woman, a truth that comes to us through sacred Scripture and sacred tradition, a truth that a teacher at St. Joseph’s School denies and so forfeits her position as a teacher at the school.
Rather than criticize church leadership so harshly, and offend many, many Catholics, the editorial staff of The Forum should applaud it for proclaiming “the bright light of truth,” even if the truth contradicts secular thought, ensnared by relativism.
What a bunch of bullshit. Anyway, I have just a few random thoughts for my letter and they are:
The bishop would have us enshrine his religious doctrine in civil law.
No thank you, bishop. Not in my country. What you propose is no different than what the Taliban attempted to do. Who gave you the right to "speak the Truth" for all of us?
In my country, we citizens live under The Constitution of the United States.
In our Constitution, every citizen is guaranteed equal protection under the law - and this includes civil marriage law.
In my country, we believe that discrimination in any form is wrong - and that includes gender discrimination.
And finally, bishop, in my country, we believe that civil rights belong to all of us. No exceptions.
So these are my random thoughts that I would enflesh in my letter. I am open to your suggestions.
Additional info: The bishop's letter was prompted by an editorial the the editorial staff of the newspaper wrote.
The young lady was fired because she put on her self-evaluation at the end of the year that she wanted an "open discussion" in the Catholic Church about marriage equality. She said she never spoke to anyone publically about her views about marriage equality, but she thought she had to be honest in her evaluation. She was fired for her view point in her self-evaluation.
Now, to my surprise, the newspaper criticized the school for firing her, saying she was fired for her private, and not public beliefs. They called the school the "purity police".
Then they asked, "how many priests and nuns subscribe 100 percent to Catholic doctrine, and fear getting fired if they make their views public?".
The other thing is that is that there is a lot of discussion about marriage equality here in Minnesota, because of the constitutional amendment vote this fall to define marriage as being between a man and a woman. This bishop, along with the others, are very vocal about how marriage equality is against "divine law", etc. So when this teacher was fired, the issue became not simply about her, but about the whole issue of marriage equality.
The point is, the bishops are using the argument of "divine law" to push a civil, constiutional amendment against marriage equality here in Minnesota, and religious doctrine should never be used as a basis for civil law