Call for religious calm
A prominent Australian gay rights advocate has called for the gay and lesbian community to engage religious groups on the subject of gay marriage with an open mind.
The call follows recent written correspondence between Catholic Cardinal George Pell and Australian Marriage Equality (AME) in which Cardinal Pell said he was “open to considering” meeting AME representatives to discuss the issue if the lobby group publicly stated it does not believe opposition to same-sex marriage, in itself, is a form of discrimination.
Gay advocate Rodney Croome said AME is still waiting for a response from Cardinal Pell on the possibility of a meeting, but said respect for opposing arguments must be reciprocated.
“If people have a genuine belief that marriage is, or should be about procreation, or if they have a genuine belief that God ordained marriage in a particular way — and don’t think people should change that definition — then that’s not necessarily a homophobic view,” he told the Star Observer.
“Sometimes people who are homophobic can hide behind those beliefs, but if we’re to engage people of faith in this debate I think … we shouldn’t automatically assume that.”
The original letter to Cardinal Pell was send from AME’s national convenor Peter Furness following reports last month Catholic clergy and members had been instructed to actively campaign against gay marriage.
In response, Cardinal Pell said a letter circulated to parishes calling for marriage to be “protected” had been carefully worded “without encouraging prejudice or unjust discrimination”.
“It is precisely the false claim that opposition to same-sex marriage in itself is a form of prejudice or discrimination which has been so damaging in undermining freedom of thought, conscience and religion in those jurisdictions overseas where same-sex marriage has been legalise,” Pell said.
Croome said despite almost universal opposition to same-sex marriage from Church hierarchies, the gay and lesbian community should welcome discussion with church groups.
“Even if Cardinal Pell doesn’t change his mind, engaging him opens up a space for engagement for LGBT community and Catholics, and also debate within the church itself and that can only be a good thing,” Croome said.
“If we can show we’re willing to talk in a respectful way with these issues, then that opens up the space for others to do the same.
“This issue won’t be won by the view of a Cardinal, or the views of a community group, it’ll be won because of everyday conversations at a grass roots level both inside and outside churches.”
Yes, humanity got it wrong for a few thousand years but thanks to the arrival of a few incredibly gifted luminaries in the 21st century, with awesome powers to rewrite dictionaries and redefine societal constructs, we now have the chance to get it right. And having done so, we can start to address the bigger injustices, e.g., the arbitrary restriction on the cardinality of marital relationships, the unjust discrimination against trios, quartets, or any other ensembles that might want to form a marital union. And why should the partners be human, in any case? Why can’t I marry my dog? And why stop at relationships? Let’s legislate to allow squares to be circular and circles to be pentagonal. If all it requires is a simple piece of legislation that grants entity X possession of attribute Y, what’s stopping us, for heaven’s sake? Let’s not concern ourselves with why a few thousand generations were not savvy enough to recognize this obvious expedient for righting the wrongs of the world. The fact is we now have the opportunity for real reform. Let’s go for it!
I am incredulous that we should be giving ANY oxygen to an organization that has a 2000 year history of persecution of Protestants, ‘heretics,’ Jews, blacks, women and until recently a worldwide network of CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE!!!! You have got to be kidding me that this sicko group holds the moral upper hand when not a month goes by when another priest is reported having abused minor(s). I gotta say it’s a great gig. You get tax exemption from the state despite having scandal after scandal of child abuse and you get to hold high moral opinion over gay civil rights that have NOTHING to do with your Church since hell would freeze over should , god forbid you ever blessed a gay couples happiness. This is about secular civil rights.
It is a much better argument to argue there should be a separation of Church and State. We need to argue for Civil Rights. We need to be educated about what our rights are. If we wanto to be the land of a fair go then we must know our Civil Rights. They must be taught in every school, and protected in law.
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals’ freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one’s ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.
Denying us Same-Sex marriage is a violation of our Civil Rights. Those that seek to deny us this right are Civil Rights abusers. They are people who do not believe in Civil Rights. There is a strong argument to deny Civil Rights abusers money from Government or respect from the community, and to deny the public office to abusers like Julia Gillard. They all must be exposed for the lack of respect they have to our community.
You are never going to win arguing Church doctrine to Church leaders. The assumption that the Catholic Church, for instance, is some sort of democracy is mistaken. If it was I am sure the many good and decent Catholic people I know, would vote out Pell.
The Catholic Nazi Bishops will always remind me of why we need Pell and others to get out of politics. The bible was read once to support the killing of millions of Jewish people, and the killing of people like us.
The Same-Sex marriage debate exposes the deep hatred of some Church Groups manifesting in the denial of Nursing home placements, the denial of jobs in education and health.
This is an argument about our Civil Rights, and our need to be protected from the lifelong hate of some Church leaders. An understanding of Civil Rights is needed if we are win our freedom from oppression, and laws that are not just.
If people wanting same-sex marriage were demanding that Catholic clergy conduct the wedding on Catholic Church property then Pell and his cohorts would have a case.
However, as gay men and lesbians (for the most part) don’t want impose on the Catholic Church, Pell then should mind his business.
At any rate, why listen to an organisation that bangs on about how great marriage is but refuses to allow its priests to get married?