Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Journal November 10: Gay Marriage and the Catholic Church

I was raised Catholic.  For most of my life I internalized the shame and sinfulness I was taught to feel for being homosexual.  Now that I'm comfortable with my identity, I understand the absurdity of the Church's position, and I am perplexed and angered that the Church continues to so aggressively seek to influence the voting behavior of American people, even those who are not Catholic. 

[In my post dated Nov. 4 (Heartbreak From Maine) I expressed frustration that the gay marriage issue was being decided by popular vote. My thanks to Stanford University Daily Editorial Board for its wonderful piece today which perfectly expresses this view...]

Why does the Church wield so much political influence?  Money, I guess.  Although with its bald-faced appeal to Anglican Christians to join the Catholic ranks in protest against ordaining gay clergy, it would seem that the coffers of the Vatican may also be feeling the effects of the economic downturn.


A rather unnerving article today in Time... 

A friend returned from Rome and sent a marvelous photo of Mark and I, dropped into the middle of the Pope's garden at Castel Gandolfo:

It is as if His Holiness made a rare and special appearance to confront the two of us. 


Either that, or he heard about my world-famous pasta sauce and wanted the recipe...which should buy me a lot of indulgences.....

2 comments:

  1. I read an interesting report recently that said the more the Catholics do to enforce their views, the fewer of them there will become. Call it a trend toward individualism, but as a group we don't like being told what to do.

    As Christianity becomes associated with evangelicals and the religious right, the more Americans are disinclined to consider themselves Christian. Which means maybe there's hope for a more tolerant future after all.

    Wow, that must be some pasta sauce! LOL!

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  2. Stay tuned for the recipe!
    The Church is in trouble from falling membership and lack of candidates for the priesthood and convent. They must believe in following the example of Fox News, to be controversial and make more noise to draw the attention of the distracted and the fearful, and build "ratings". I hope you are correct in your assumptions about a tolerant future!

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