Speaking to an international delegation of diplomats from 180 countries yesterday, the Pope made a truly insane statement—even for the Catholic church.
Employing the contagion argument used by narrow-minded parents in American towns who think the adoptive children of gay parents will somehow be turned gay and thus turn their own kids gay by proximity in schools, the Pope argued that future of humanity itself is threatened by gay marriage.
Insisting again that marriage is intended to be between a man and a woman, he said: “This is not a simple social convention, but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself.”
What the Pope is proposing here is that if gay marriage were sanctified globally, the world would transmogrify into a childless wasteland, sort of like the one depicted in “Children of Men,” except in this version there would be a reason no new babies are being born: because everyone has turned gay.
To take seriously the idea that gay marriage is a “threat to the future of humanity” requires one to assume that allowing gay people to marry each other would cause all men and women to stop having sex and producing babies. This is just another way of proposing that if left to their own devices everyone would be gay.
The church’s insistence on heterosexual marriage is usually characterized as just old-fashioned, but this is something else. At best it’s a hopelessly misguided worry and at worst a paranoid delusion on a scale so large that it comes across as completely insane. It’s easily as crazy-sounding as Scientology’s genesis myth. Then again, as Bill Maher has pointed out, every religion’s craziness somehow gets normalized after enough time goes by.
Crazy. And yet, did one member of the delegation from 180 countries stand up and call it crazy? Nope. It’s a scary world, folks—and not because it’s about to run out of babies.
January 10, 2012 at 11:49 am, Newsreader said:
Show me where did the pope mention ‘gay marriage’ or ‘same-sex marriage’? Show me where did the pope speak ‘against’ any of these? You are simply lying.
The pope talked about the dangers of social engineering when the oldest human institution – the union between man and woman, for the procreation and upbringing of children and mutual support of spouses, called marriage – is redfined from a child-centred institution into an adult centred institution. This is a major shift, which no one is alloowed to question or discuss, because he/she is immediately labelled as anti-gay. This utter sutpiditry is being repeated in this ‘article’.
January 10, 2012 at 2:58 pm, Anonymous said:
Catholicism has a problem with social engineering? I thought that was their main point for existing.
January 10, 2012 at 4:56 pm, Ned Nickerson said:
Your reasoning doesn’t make sense, but I love your new word. Sutpiditry has a nice ring to it.
January 10, 2012 at 7:42 pm, ldfrmc said:
An old man dressed up in silk robes and jewelry, heads an organization of unmarried men who rape and sexual abuse small children.
A definite threat to human dignity and the future of humanity.
January 11, 2012 at 8:13 am, Newsreader said:
Good, now all the bigots are out. Is this bigotry the staple of the brave new world?
January 10, 2012 at 11:52 am, Phil said:
The pope is an asshole. He condones so much sin, yet condemns people for who they are. Nice piece, Alex!
January 10, 2012 at 12:19 pm, Newsreader said:
And you are an idiot. Cheers
January 10, 2012 at 4:45 pm, RicRude said:
Yes he is.
January 10, 2012 at 2:27 pm, Annoyed straight said:
Hands off our institution, gays and homophiles. You’re still buggering each other to your hearts’ content without it. If “gay marriage” should be recognized, than so should polygamy. After all, they’re consenting adults too. Let’s be consistent here. And as for raising children: they may not go gay themselves, but they will usually have serious mental health problems and be extremely liberal, trying to force their perverted upbringing on the rest of society, as with that video that went viral on Facebook last month. Go away.
January 10, 2012 at 4:59 pm, Ned Nickerson said:
If annoyance could really turn someone straight there would be any gay folks left.
January 10, 2012 at 6:24 pm, CatholicButNotIgnorant said:
So being extremely liberal = having serious mental health problems and perverted?? Ah yes–the “institution” of the Catholic church—where the pedophile priests have run free for YEARS….and yet you have the unmitigated gall to call anyone who is gay perverted. I see polygamy has been brought into the conversation also….let’s compare that to a committed gay couple who has been together–with just their ONE partner–for years. Just so you are aware, Annoyed straight–NO ONE “goes” gay. No one chooses a lifestyle that is so subjected to hatred and bigotry; just like no one chooses to be black, or Hispanic, or Asian, or Irish or Italian or Jewish or any other race/creed/color that has been put upon. You do realize, don’t you, that the KKK hates Catholics also? That when John F. Kennedy ran for President, he had to defend his faith to all the WASPs out there who were so frightened he would “Romanize” this country? I’m sorry but the “institution” of the Roman Catholic church should be institutionalized itself for its’ backward thinking and its’ ignorance toward their fellow men and women. God created ALL of us….and He loves all of us equally. Amen!
January 10, 2012 at 8:08 pm, miss vin said:
what’s wrong with polygamy? historically, there are more societies which embrace polygamy than monogamy, either as a status symbol, for religious reasons, or economical. like making more babies. it’s even in the bible. what’s it to you if two or more people of whatever genders decide that they love each other enough to enter a theoretically lifelong legal contract (cause marriage is a LEGAL contract as defined by pick your favorite dictionary, created by multiple different societies for roughly the same legal purposes, usually combining resources, a hell of a long time before the catholic church)? how is that your business? you don’t have to live with them. or see them, probably. they don’t care who you marry, why should you? it’s rude and invasive and ridiculously narrow-minded and selfish and all sorts of fun things.
and how the hell are children raised by gay couples perverted and with serious mental health issues? perverted and mentally ill because they don’t agree with you?
“go gay”, he says. (i assume you’re male because as a female, i’d be insulted if we were the same gender.) cause, you know, genetics don’t have anything to do with it. homosexuality doesn’t run in families or anything. and of course, all the gays in the world just craved being hated and discriminated against and accused of perversion and mental illness and called sinners and being told they’re going to burn in hell because the ever-loving, magnanimous, all-forgiving, child- sacrificing supposedly existing god of a handful of faiths decided that they were excluded, SOOOOO MUCH, that they all decided to go gay so they could get some hate crimes flowing their way!
January 10, 2012 at 3:04 pm, Anonymous said:
Stereotypical gay pride parade marcher: Big hat, flowing robe, a cape, large jewelry, swept up in pageantry, surrounded by subservient men, never will marry, probably won’t have kids…
…anyone seeing where I’m going with this?
January 10, 2012 at 7:11 pm, praxis said:
Actually, flhume, I don’t know where you are going with this and would be interested in hearing the rest of it. I have a guess, but put it forward in order to hear better from your perspective where you were coming from:
It sounds as if you think that homosexuality itself is ultimately self-centered, as it doesn’t exist for the purpose of producing more children, and is evidenced by what you see as a stereotypical example of a homosexual (the gay pride parade marcher). Unfortunately that image does not stand in for the incredible variety of the homosexual community (let alone the entire variety of human sexuality). And even if it did represent it in a manner which a conclusion like yours could be made: it is in embracing the wild variety of human sexuality that we are in accord with our true lived experiences, not in shaming others for anything authentic they do (with exceptions for sexually transgressive acts: those which are not compassionate).
But I could be quite wrong in your estimation and I would be interested in continuing the conversation.
Cheers!
p
January 11, 2012 at 5:20 am, neil allen said:
He’s making it clear that tons of priests are gay. In fact, wikipedia says 33%, which surprises no one.
January 11, 2012 at 10:32 am, Anonymous said:
I thought by clearly including the word “stereotypical” that I was talking about, you know, the stereotype, one that I do not believe or endorse, and was using it to make an, admittedly, easy joke that my gay friends, real friends (not “I got a gay friend” friend; I worked in a theater for 5 years where only about 20% of the staff were straight), and I have at times riffed on.
January 11, 2012 at 1:16 pm, miss vin said:
dude, super fabulous. hella wish i could find some. lol
January 10, 2012 at 4:10 pm, Mail said:
“threat to the future of humanity”
Right that must mean all humans dieing, and it couldn’t be taken any other way.
January 10, 2012 at 6:16 pm, Billy Jacobs22 said:
Thats like saying all Catholic preachers are child molesters the Pope included
January 10, 2012 at 8:31 pm, Daniel said:
I’ve started a petition at change.org calling on the President and State Department calling on them to “Withdraw U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See”. I don’t see why one month after Secretary of State Clinton made a speech in front of the UN declaring the government’s support for LGBT rights, a US civil servant should sit in Rome and listen to the Pope’s anti-gay ranting. If you’re interested in signing the peition (an email is sent to the State Department’s press office to inform them of each new signature) please go look it up and spread the news.
January 10, 2012 at 8:50 pm, praxis said:
Daniel: great idea, and here’s the link for anyone who wants to sign: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-president-of-the-united-states-withdraw-us-ambassador-to-the-holy-see-miguel-daz
I think its another great addition to the activism that seeps to be picking up in all corners—perhaps the occupy movement would be another good source of allies.
Best to you!
p
January 11, 2012 at 5:16 am, neil allen said:
Thankfully, Bishop
Zavala has 2 teenage children, out of wedlock of course, as it was just discovered last week.
Of course, Zavala isn’t married, since Catholic priests
can’t get married, and he was hiding the two teenagers and his despicable scandal
for at least a decade. And this wasn’t
one mistake. There are two children, so
he must have liked sex enough to do it at least twice.
There is no word yet on whether he had sex with his own
children, like Father Maciel of Mexico, who had three children and had sex with
at least one of them, or Bishop Vangheluwe of Belgium, who had sex with his
nephew, starting at age 5 and until he was 18.
And he also had sex with his other nephew. Don’t worry – he says he isn’t a
pedophile/ Whew.
Back to Zavala.
Don’t worry, the church says they will pay for the children’s college
expenses, and of course, they haven’t asked the parishioners, who might want to
use the money for starving children or more deserving children.
Remember, Bishops are the best Catholics you have, and
they can’t follow the simplest rules.
Tens of thousands of Catholic priests raped over 100,000 children, and
bishops covered it up.
This is a message from God – the Catholic church is not
God’s church.
January 15, 2012 at 11:06 pm, Layron said:
the world’s population is heading for unsustainability, too many people and no farm in the world will be able to keep up, so i’d say the world needs to have a population decline. The pope just wants more parishioners to tithe into the church.
January 15, 2012 at 11:08 pm, ldm said:
and what about the “issues” the church has been having with priests and altar boys?
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