Progressive Christians Uniting

There They Go Again!!

My vote for most appalling news story of this past week goes to a piece appearing in The New York Times on April 24, “A Religious Push Against Gay Unions,” wherein David Kirkpatrick informs us that what is new and “striking” this time around is “involvement by high-ranking Roman Catholic officials, including 16 bishops. Kirkpatrick notes that in 2004 the push for an amendment to the U.S. constitution barring same-sex marriage–a push that brought huge numbers to the polls and gave the election to George W. Bush–was heavily dominated by evangelical and Fundamentalist Protestants. Dobson, James Kennedy, et al, are back at it again, but this time they are surrounded by lots of purple.

What does the Good Book say? “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers (sic) dwell together in unity?” Yes, indeed, how good and how very pleasant it is to see 500-year-old wounds from the Protestant Reformation healing over in a common urgent effort to smite those unclean and unworthy same-sexers. What is to me most interesting here is the boundless cynicism involved and the collusion between unjust powers (secular) and unholy powers (ecclesiastical). Because these brothers (and one or two sisters) of the cloth did not organize the new petition for an amendment entirely on their own under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Aides to three Republican senators–Frist of Tennessee, Santorum of Pennsylvania, and Brownback of Kansas–helped to plant the effort. And there was this extra-biblical spur to action as well, according to reporter Kirkpatrick: ”The campaign comes as many in the Republican Party are increasingly worried that their core supporters may stay away from the polls this year because they are demoralized by the war in Iraq and other matters…” Majority leader Frist will try to get a Senate vote on a constitutional amendment in June–timed just right to get conservatives “energized” (love that word) going into the November balloting.

Let us try to understand this clearly: The Catholic prelates who are part of this new drive against marriage equality (among them Cardinals Mahony of Los Angeles, Egan of New ork, George of Chicago, Keeler of Baltimore, McCarrick of Washington DC, and O’Malley of Boston) all stand foursquare against the Iraq war and all stand foursquare in support of worker rights and immigrant rights. Yet they are willing to play to the worst prejudice within the electorate in a way that will, if it succeeds, perpetuate the same Republican power that keeps the war going and that threatens fair treatment for immigrants and working people. They are joined in this by one or two Protestant leaders who have also distinguished themselves recently in the immigrant rights effort, such as the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Association of Evangelicals. These are not stupid men. They absolutely know that what they say they want to to do in support of immigrants is directly contradicted by what they are now doing, via their constitutional amendment campaign, for the Republican cause in 2006. I am looking for the “moral values” here and having trouble finding any. Can someone help me out?

                                                                             - Peter Laarman

Posted under: Director's Cut