I could spend a lot of time dissecting this weird new screed from Maggie Gallagher, wherein she trumps up a whole bunch of nothing about a supposed anti-religious effort to ban male circumcision in Massachusetts, and then, of course, veers into a whine about how the Catholic Church in DC are victims of the big mean gays who now have equality there. I could stomp all over this passage:
What was the point of these kinds of government impositions on Christian institutions? The Catholic Church’s position on gay sex and gay marriage are well-known, or should be. Surely it should come as no shock to a potential employee to discover that a Catholic organization is not the right place to pursue their career if they want gay marital benefits? What gay person in D.C. is practically better off as a result of this mean-spirited and successful attempt to drive the Catholic Church out of the public square in key ways? If this were left up to ordinary gay people, I’m betting it would all turn out very different. Live and let live is the American impulse across ideological and moral disagreements.
Right, because Maggie’s career is so “live and let live” when it comes to marriage equality. And, um, all the loving gay couples that got married/are getting married? Their lives are practically better. And the Vatican is still standing!
But anyway, I could spend a lot of time on this, but I’m not going to, because Thers at Whiskey Fire has said everything I could say and more, so just go read him. Here’s a taste of Thers, reacting to the above passage:
The point was that homosexuals would have equal rights, even the ones who are not Catholic. Or, as St. Augustine once notably observed, “duh.”
And the gay person who is “better off” is the one who can say “I have publicly & officially celebrated my commitment to the love of my life.” Which is no small potatoes — I got to do that for the love of my life, and if I had been told I couldn’t, I’d have been pretty pissed off.
But this is a hilarious paragraph anyhow; savor the idea that Catholic organizations could possibly function without their gay employees. For instance, I am given to understand that in certain Protestant “faith traditions” it is possible to discover a heterosexual capable of arranging a competent liturgical musical program, but I have never personally observed the like in all my decades as an (admittedly annoyed) Irish Catholic.
Read it all, read it all, read it all. Especially the last passage.
Thers is my hero.
The real question is: should Catholic organizations be trusted with the welfare of children? Given the scandals from around the world – the Netherlands, this week being the latest – the closure of any organization with links to the Vatican is a deliverance.
What is interesting if you read the comment section of the article comment 8 clears up the original point of the post. The bill was written by a citizen and under MA law it must be admitted for consideration by his delegate. Maggie couldn’t even bother to get it right and either could any of her ditto heads judging from all the commentors who didn’t take the time to read the other comments.
Maggie’s whining about Catholic freedom of religion being “attacked”. The only freedom that’s being denied to her is the freedom to treat gays as second class citizens. That’s a religious freedom no religion deserves. Gays don’t have the right to treat her as a second class citizen and she doesn’t deserve the right to treat gays that way either.
Nobody is “driving” the Catholic Church out of the public square. They’re choosing to remove themselves because they don’t want to follow the laws everybody is required to if they want to keep taking public funds to provide services.
“Live and let live is the American impulse across ideological and moral disagreements.”
That’s all we want but they refuse to allow it. If the Maggie Gallaghers and other religious crusaders of the world would leave us alone there would be no problem. We’re not the aggressors here, they are. They’re not defending against anything. We’re defending against their unwarranted and indefensible attacks on our lives and families. They need to stop playing the victim.
Buffy, I agree with you. I am so sick and tired of these religious institutions whining about the loss of their religious freedoms. Yes, you are free to worship any religion and any god you want, however there is that little clause that says that we are free FROM religious persecution meaning you don’t have the right to persecute people for not believing as you do.
I say let them whine! Let them cry while the people they persecuted rejoice in the freedoms and rights they now have. I won’t shed a tear for them at all!
[...] Maggie Gallagher’ Latest Hypocritical Screed [...]