Catholic cake: how to have it and eat it.

You can have your cake and eat it too. The American Catholic upper management has figured out how.

How have GOT to read this: Church gay marriage stand: 'no harm meant', on this url: http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/2814

This piece of ecumenical bull-shine came over the wire yesterday from the National Catholic Enquirer, and it leaves you shaking your head in gob-smackedness.

Don't have time to click through and read it? Here's the gist of it:

LOS ANGELES -- In a message to homosexual Catholics in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and the six auxiliary bishops of the archdiocese said the recent vote in California defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman "does not diminish in any way (your) importance" nor "lessen your personal dignity and value as full members of the body of Christ."
The message said Catholic support for Proposition 8, the state constitutional amendment approved by a 52 percent to 48 percent margin Nov. 4, "was in defense of the long-standing institution of marriage understood as the lifelong relationship of a man and a woman ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of their children."
The church's support was not an effort to harm the homosexual community or to ban same-sex marriage, even though ballot information about Proposition 8 stated that was the initiative's purpose, the cardinal and bishops said.
"If we had ever thought that the intent of this proposition was to harm you or anyone in the state of California, we would not have supported it," they said. "We are personally grateful for the witness and service of so many dedicated and generous homosexual Catholics. We pledge our commitment to safeguard your dignity."

Say -- what?! On Day One they lie through their teeth, even though God hates a liar, in order to get Prop 8 passed. I've blogged about this before, so rather than reiterate, here's the link: http://mel-keegan.blogspot.com/2008/11/prop-8-catholics-mormons-and-why-they.html -- Prop 8: Catholics and Mormons, and why they lied.

Then, having lied through their teeth, on Day Two they pray away the sin (!), and now their souls are squeaky clean, they're free to do it again: "What, me? Hurt the GLBTI community? I wouldn't do that. Jesus loves you, and we're committed to safeguarding your dignity." Which is another big, fat lie. So -- Day Three, it's back to church to pray away this round of sin, in order to get their souls squeaky clean again. Ready to be Raptured at a moment's notice. God might hate a sinner (and there's some solid, reasonable doubt about that -- read the post I linked to, right above! You might be shocked), but prayer is the answer to everything, and if you told big fat lies in a good cause, well, apparently God will love thee all the more.

Barf.

This morning's post finds me trying to get over the perfidiousness of it all. The two-facedness. The outrageous manipulation of their own bloody Commandment.

And then, having twisted God, and the supposedly sacred word of same, into a pretzel to get the go-ahead to do what they want, they turn right around and quote scripture at you:

The churchmen noted that the understanding of marriage as a lifelong union of man and woman "is found in at least three major religious traditions which have described the origin, meaning and intent of marriage in their sacred writings."
The Hebrew Scriptures make explicit reference to marriage in 51 verses in 19 books, while the Christian Scriptures and the Muslim Quran each have 14 passages dealing with marriage, they said.
"Our faith communities have never understood this term to be applied to other types of relationships between people," the message added.
Support for Proposition 8 should not be seen as a disregard for civil rights "but as an effort to resist a redefinition of marriage," Cardinal Mahony and the bishops said. "Supporting marriage as it has always been understood diminishes none of us."

All of the above is fine and dandy; live by those rules and be happy ... if you're a Catholic, Mormon or fundamentalist Christian, Jew or Muslim. But if you don't happen to subscribe to the True Faith religions ... if you're an aetheist, pagan, or have your brains connected up right and the power turned on at the moment so that, even though you ARE a Jew or whatever, you can still SEE what's going on --

Beware the Ides of March, or words to that effect. The above piffle comes right from the mouth of the American Catholic Church ... and to absolve themselves of blame they're actually (!) quoting the Quran and the Talmud at you. Say -- what?! There was a time when Upper Management in their own corporation would have burned them at the stake for even reading these books, much less quoting them. In today's world, the same Management are trying to manipulate their audience by quoting from "the other side of the fence" in an attempt to make themselves look more reasonable, less self-centered, less hidebound. Less brainless and wicked?

Fact: There are Reform Jewish sects that have found Scripture in support of gay marriage. Fact: there are Reform Christian movements that approve of gay marriage. Fact: Islam doesn't want to come into the twentieth century, much less the twenty-first, and Sharia law is terrifying. If you once start quoting the Quran in order to buttress your moral position ... where do you stop?! Thas one is a dangerous door to open ... and the buggers have opened it, in the attempt to make themselves appear to be (!) part of the global community, and not separate from it, in a little cordoned-off area marked with a sign saying, "True Faithful and Rapure-Ready Only, Parking At Rear, $2/hour."

Beware. Seriously.



One of the comments left on the above piece of BS from the National Catholic Enquirer said it all, and I'm going to end on a quotation: "If the Catholic Church really wants to "espouse equal rights for all citizens," it's easy. Just speak up in favor of same-sex marriage."

Here, here.

PS: please remember to email URLs of posts you find interesting or useful -- the Google situation remains unresolved, and like that island in Pirates of the Caribbean, this blog can still only be found by people who already know where it is! Help us get around Google, which is 150% in error in this instance! Thank you kindly, guys.

Ciao for now,
MK