Posted on 01/04/2013 6:36:59 AM PST by NYer
.- An online petition asking the White House to designate the Catholic Church as a “hate group” for its views on marriage is drawing criticism for generating unjust animosity.
The petition reveals an “underlying agenda,” which is not simply to prevent violent crimes, but to “stigmatize any disapproval of homosexuality at all and essentially to silence us,” said Peter Sprigg, senior fellow for policy studies at the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.
He explained to CNA on Jan. 3 that applying the “hate group” label to organizations that are morally opposed to redefining marriage is simply “name-calling designed to cut us out of the public debate.”
Initiated on Christmas Day, a petition on the White House website had collected 1,640 signatures by Jan. 3.
The petition – which is aiming for 25,000 signatures by Jan. 24 – argued that Pope Benedict XVI’s 2012 Christmas address to the College of Cardinals “demeaned and belittled homosexual people around the world.”
“Using hateful language and discriminatory remarks, the Pope painted a portrait in which gay people are second-class global citizens,” it charged.
“Pope Benedict said that gay people starting families are threatening to society, and that gay parents objectify and take away the dignity of children,” the petition said. “The Pope also implied that gay families are sub-human, as they are not dignified in the eyes of God.”
It called for the Obama administration to recognize the Catholic Church as a hate group, as defined by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.
However, Sprigg argued that the petition is “distorting” the Pope’s words, which do not actually include hateful or discriminatory language.
In his address to the cardinals, the Pope did not directly reference “gay marriage” or “homosexuality” at all. Rather, he defended the Church’s understanding of sexuality and “the true structure of the family, made up of father, mother, and child.”
The Holy Father refuted the modern notion of sex as “a social role that we choose for ourselves,” rather than “a given element of nature” and “bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being.”
The complementarity of male and female is part of “the essence of the human creature” and is foundational to the nature of the human being and the family, the pontiff explained.
Sprigg argued that the petition is misleading and “clearly has political purpose.”
“The federal government does not designate hate groups. It prosecutes hate crimes,” he observed, explaining that a clear distinction must be made between moral opposition to homosexual acts and violent crimes against homosexual individuals.
Such labeling can also be dangerous, Sprigg said. Ironically, the hate group label can actually create hatred toward the group being designated, he explained.
He pointed to an incident last August in which a 28-year-old Virginia man entered the Family Research Council headquarters, made a comment about disliking the group’s politics and then opened fire, shooting a security guard before being disarmed.
Family Research Council had previously been labeled a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, said at the time that such reckless labeling may have led the gunman to feel justified in carrying out the shooting.
Sprigg reiterated this idea, highlighting the importance of allowing people to express their differing views peacefully in a democracy.
Suggesting that organizations such as the Catholic Church and the Family Research Council are hateful simply because of their views on human sexuality promotes “a dangerous misconception,” he said.
I suspect that this is ultimately the way he will attack the Catholic Church (and, in passing, any orthodox Christian church). What Obama would really like to do is to force a schism so that there will be a “Patriotic Catholic Church” that will do everything progressives want: “marry” gays, “ordain” women, support abortion, etc.
He suspects, probably correctly, that this would be the larger segment of the schism, and that the small remnant faithful to Rome would be powerless and without support. In addition, the Patriotic Church would get all the property and resources, and the members of the Roman remnant would probably be deprived even of their civil rights. For the Church, it would be like facing Henry VIII all over again, or perhaps a combination of Henry VIII and Mao.
Probably nothing. Heck, they’d even let her have an abortion - abortion is regarded as a good thing for non-Muslims, since it reduces the number of infidels. It’s strictly forbidden for Muslim women, of course, but then, so is speaking in public, showing their faces, etc.
bookmark
Enter “Knights of Columbus Hate Group” into a search engine and watch what comes up just from 2012 alone. There is a new Lesbian Senator who said she is out to get us. As is one of Obama’s Czars.
Georgetown will be ground zero for the “Patriotic Catholic Church”.
Ha I knew it was a hate group /bad sarc
Even "natural law" paves the way for non-Theistic moral standards.
so not the FOIA has a list of homosexuals?
Why not petition to have the Democrat Party declared a hate gourp and subject them to FBI investigation?
....Or the ACLU even. Just saying.
The attacking has begun.
No doubt about it.
Cool! I’m a member of a hate group within a hate group!
Let’s just have a war and get it over with.
The one White House Petition I would sign would be a Petition demanding that anyone who signs a White House Petition, debates a White House Petition, or is offended by someone elses White House Petition be executed.
ALL the Petitions from any source are meaningless, worthless, and irrelevant. All they do is give stupid people the illusion that they are doing something, which I think was the Administration’s intent when they set the whole thing up.
Okay, most the local readers here know where I stand on the errant theology of the RCC, but this is utterly ridiculous. The RCC is not a hate group and deserves to be left alone (except when it comes to doctrine).
Hey, in 20 years, we’ll have the pedos and the bestiality people and the necrophiliacs all getting “married” to the object of their lusts and there will be no disapproval, citizen.
So the Pope adheres to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Who’d-a thunk it.
I've had a running 'battle' on the Facebook page of one of the women from our parish for the past couple of months, but frankly, I'm not going to bother, anymore. Her oldest son had considered becoming a priest. I sure hope he decides against it; we don't need anymore 'progressive' priests. We're already dealing with the mess they've made for the past 40 years. I'm not going to change her mind, and most of her other FB friends already share her opinion, and I don't think I'm gonna change their minds either. They all love 'fairness' more than the teachings of the Church, and they firmly believe the Church isn't following Jesus's teachings, because he never said anything specifically against homosexuality, or abortion, for that matter, so why should the Church teach against either of those issues. Oh, and Jesus didn't like weapons, which is why they think all guns should be banned.
Yeah, it has gotten THAT silly.
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