Last night, Wayne issued a press release calling for Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Francis George to step down after comparing the gay rights movement to the Ku Klux Klan in the following statement:
“[Some Catholic priest is] telling us that they won’t be able to have church services on Sunday if that’s the case [it’s about the Chicago gay pride parade happening earlier in the day]. You know, you don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.” George said. “So I think if that’s what’s happening, and I don’t know that it is, but I would respect the local pastor’s, you know, position on that.”
Pressed by Fox Chicago’s Mike Flannery and Dane Placko, George acknowledged that it was a strong analogy, but reiterated his sentiment.
“The rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan; the rhetoric of some of the gay liberation people — who is the enemy? Who is the enemy? The Catholic Church,” George said.
Oh, dear Bishop…
Yes, your church’s teachings and official rules are an enemy to entire minority populations around the globe, including the LGBT community.
THAT BEING SAID.
Most American Catholics are far more supportive of our equality than are the members of conservative Protestant denominations, and so your pronouncements are at best incidental, as a large number of American Catholics started to ignore these sorts of statements years ago. So these delusions of grandeur about gay pride parades somehow being a direct attack on the Catholic Church are too cute by half.
Most of us just wish that, rather than worrying so about what LGBT people are doing, y’all would do something about that whole child sexual abuse scandal that continues to rock pretty much every corner of your church, and by “something,” we mean something more than simply sending child-abusing priests to new colonies dioceses.
I know. Not convenient for your purposes.
As to the complaint from the Catholic priest that started all this off: you are saying that you will not be able to have your church services if the gay rights parade starts in the morning? Is this a parking problem, or are you just being a nuisance? Does the parade route go through the narthex and down the aisle and then around the altar in your church? Or are you just making hay because you think you have a right to excrete some sort of “religious freedom” claim, due to your desire to be free from the gays that day? Far be it from me to make assumptions about a priest I’ve never met, but I would imagine it could be uncomfortable, as a priest, to be greeting parishioners, only to have a passing drag queen on a float see you and scream out, “Hey, gurl! I mean, Father! Fathergurl! Gurlfather! Anyway, hey gurl!”
Again, I have no idea about this particular priest, but there is certainly a hell of a lot of precedent…
But, oh wait. If you read the whole article linked above, you’ll find that an arrangement was reached to move the parade start time back to the afternoon, which makes this entire issue null and void. And this arrangement was reached before Cardinal Needs To Resign spouted off, comparing gay people, who want nothing more than to be treated equally and not be bullied to death by religious dogma spouted by the likes of Catholic bishops, to the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan.
I dunno. Fundamentalist religious people, whether Roman Catholic or Pentecostal, have spent the last few years becoming the most absurd of Professional Victims. They cry “persecution!” when they have to wait in line at the grocery store these days. They’re just sad and whiny people, honestly. But yet again, every time I hear them bitching and moaning about whatever they happen to be going on about these days, I just can’t help but remember the names of the gay teenagers who have killed themselves over the past year because they were bullied, because they felt they had no hope, because the people who abused them wouldn’t have felt they had a license to abuse gay people if the Highly Religious of our society didn’t spout off more evil, hateful words on a regular basis than any fourteen year-old bully could muster…
So, you know, get over it, wingnuts, whether you be Catholic or Protestant. The Vatican may own your church building, but they don’t own the street in front of it, and there just might be a parade of gays and lesbians and bisexuals and trans people a-comin’ down that street. Even when you’re having church.
Deal with it, champs.
Go sign the petition demanding that Cardinal George resign, please.
