Recently, it was Pope Benedict who, from the comfort of his fancy gold hat and prada slippers, used his Christmas message to proclaim that same-sex marriage rights amount to the destruction of the "essence of the human creature."
Not satisfied to be outdone in bigotry by the Pope, British (Roman Catholic) Bishop of Shrewsbury Mark Davies decided to take his outrage over the British government's plan to pass marriage equality a step further. In his Christmas message. Because nothing is more appropriate in an annual Christmas message than issuing a call to deny loving gay and lesbian couples from getting married. Marriage equality is so heinous, in fact, that it's right up there with Nazism and Communism. You know, the political ideologies that sent millions upon millions of people to concentration camps, gas chambers, and gulags. Marriage equality is going to do that, too. Or something like that.
The man talks as if gay people weren't also victimized by the Holocaust and oppression in the Soviet Union. But never mind that, and never mind the fact that nobody has ever died as the result of a same-sex wedding. This threat to the sanctity of marriage is urgent, and peace on earth and good will do men be damned, this is what we need to talk about in the Christmas fucking message.
Here's what Bishop Davies had to say:
Past generations have gathered in this cathedral on Christmas night amid many shadows which seemed to obscure the future for them. We think of the ideologies of the past century, Communism and Nazism, which in living memory threatened to shape and distort the whole future of humanity. These inhuman ideologies would each challenge in the name of progress the received Christian understanding of the sanctity of human life and the family. Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, a man without clear, religious belief, saw in this deadly struggle nothing less than the defence of Christian civilisation.
Few of our political leaders today appear to glimpse the deeper issues when the sanctity of human life and the very identity of marriage, the foundation of the family, are threatened. This Christmas we are also conscious of new shadows cast by a Government that was pledged at its election to support the institution of marriage. The Prime Minister has decided without mandate, without any serious consideration, to redefine the identity of marriage itself, the foundation of the family for all generations to come. This is again done in the name of progress. The British people have reason to ask on this night where is such progress leading?
Well there you have it. Move over Hitler and Stalin,
this is what totalitarianism looks like:
There are no words to describe the asininity of what Bishop Davies is saying. So I won't even try. All I can say is, the Pope and Bishop Davies and every other religious leader stuck in antiquity had better brace themselves for the sweeping tide of progress--yes, progress--that has only just begun.