Crow is tough to swallow, Mr. Begnoche

The point of my article entitled “The maine problem with gay marriage” was that the Bible does not command Christians to defend the sanctity of marriage, but it does command them to help the poor, and that based on this standard, the Catholic Church has its priorities entirely backward.
   
The purpose of the Biblical examples that Brandon Begnoche objected to in his letter to the editor was to make a joke more than a point. As I will demonstrate, my point is made by the Church itself.
   
The fact that Begnoche isolated the anecdotes in his response could mean that he recognizes and accepts the greater problem within the Church, or that he is operating under the delusion that delegitimizing the Biblical anecdotes will undermine the legitimacy of the greater argument. I hope (“pray?”) for the former, but experience has taught me to suspect the latter.
       
It seems that the Church really does value Jesus’s nonexistent command to protect the sanctity of marriage over his actual commands to help the poor and follow the Golden Rule. At least the Catholics in Washington, D.C. do, according to the Washington Post article entitled “Catholic Church gives D.C. ultimatum.” I’ll quote directly: “The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn’t change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care” (Protip to Begnoche: that’s evidence).
   
So the main point of this article has been proven for me by Mr. Begnoche’s own church. Too bad those hungry people in D.C. aren’t in his position, because he’s lucky enough to be eating crow.
 
Cory Derringer, Opinion Columnist
 

2 comments

ludwig

Tue Nov 17 2009 18:48

I am sick and tired of religious groups especially the fundamentalists, Southern Baptists, Catholics, Mormons in particular inserting themselves into Civil Law. These is clearly unlawful in a Nation that is a Secular Nation founded upon the principle of being FREE from Religion and its influence upon the individual and the State. This is a clear violation of the Separation of Church and State. The Catholic Church is one of the most sinful hypocritical Churches I know of and espouses to anything but what the teachings of Christ have taught us. They have persecuted Jewss, boil and tortured people alive during the Spanish Inquisition (we should be grateful to Napoleon for putting a stop to this--one of the good things this despot did). IF I were President---we would be sending the Catholic Church, as a Government and as a religion packing, just as the founders sent the Episcopal Church packing during the Revolution and as Henry VIII did and the French Revolutionaries did. The Catholic Church seems never to learn the lessons of history. IT has engaged in slavery of native peoples, destroyed their culture et al especially in California from the early mission days to the 1860s. The Baptists and the Mormons are about just as bad. I find it particular infuriating when it comes to Mormons---here we have a Church whose members were persecuted when they were a very small band of religious minority and yet they have the temetry to do the same to other minorities.

Theo

Tue Nov 17 2009 17:45

I converted to Catholicism 6 months ago, baptized and confirmed. At the time I disagreed with the over-zealous way the Church has tried to force themselves into civil laws, particularly the gay marriage issue. However, I felt that the Church would soon find a more Christ-like approach to the subject. Unfortunately, it appears that the Catholic leadership is far more concerned with flexing political power and influencing state laws than it is with helping the sick and poor. I was willing to overlook the Church's history of shuffling child-molesting priest from one parish to another as a temporary failure in leadership and Christian responsibilities; however, with hate that has been spewed recently from the Vatican and Bishops over gay marriage I am now sorry I spent almost a year in RCIA and will be looking for a true Christian church.

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