Noted in passing

AP today:

BALTIMORE — The nation's Roman Catholic bishops, at an annual assembly Monday, gave two standing ovations to the Vatican's U.S. ambassador who was behind Pope Francis' controversial meeting with Kim Davis.

No one in the filthy Roman Catholic landscape is more disgusting than the US Council of Catholic Bishops. Appalling creatures, each and every one. If there is a hell (and of course, there isn't), that is where these men belong.

Fighting tooth and nail against the love of two people -- because Jesus. Ugh. Just ugh.

Lest you think

In case you thought I was off the beam in my expectation that the pope would trounce gay marriage in Philadelphia, know that I'm not alone in this.

Read this article in the NYT. Conservatives expected Francis to denounce gay marriage and stand up for every pinhead principle that the American bishops have identified in their hateful, pogrom-like reign in the United States. And to be fair, Francis did give tiny shout-outs to these principles, but in oblique language. He just wasn't having it -- at least not on this trip.

On a stage set for a blockbuster papal endorsement of the American bishops' religious liberty battle, Pope Francis didn't deliver. He side-stepped the bishops' most burning religious freedom issue — marriage — and spent more time greeting immigrants.

It's not just me.

UPDATE: Also, see this.

And this pope is just warming up

A hint of things to come?

In his homily Monday, Francis said he hoped the second meeting of bishops on family life, scheduled for October, would come up with “concrete solutions to the many difficult and significant challenges facing families in our time.”

“I ask you to pray fervently for this intention, so that Christ can take even what might seem to us impure, scandalous or threatening, and turn it … into a miracle.”

Gee, I wonder what he's referring to. Oh, wait. Let's see what the Vatican's main bigot has to say.

The Vatican spokesman, the incredibly bigoted Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Francis wasn’t referring to the gay or divorce issue specifically but was making a more general reference that he hoped the bishops would “help the church chart this path of leaving a situation of sin to one of grace.”

Well, that's reassuring. Thanks, Federico. You're a beacon of light in a dark and dingy world. (Hahaha, just kidding. You're a pig.)

Kinda makes you want to rush out and get gay-married

We won, kids. The decision just came down a few minutes ago.

WASHINGTON — In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a nationwide right to same-sex marriage.

Go celebrate -- and then enjoy the view as wingnut heads explode across the nation. I think of the latter as the after-party.

Woohoo! We're equal under the law.

What'd I tell ya?

Pope Francis is not a friend to gay people. He is and always will be our enemy. Here are a few of Francis' recent remarks, which will clear up any vagueness about his position on gay marriage. (Bolding is mine.)

On Sunday June 14, Pope Francis addressed more than 25,000 faithful on the importance of heterosexual parenting during his general audience -- just one day after thousands marched in Rome’s LGBT pride parade. 

Heterosexual marriage makes for happier couples, the pope said, and is essential for healthy parenting.

“Children mature seeing their father and mother [happy],” Francis argued. “Their identity matures being confronted with the love their father and mother have, confronted with this difference.”

The pope called the differences between men and women fundamental, and said these differences make heterosexual couples strong. “What great richness this diversity is, a diversity which becomes complementary, but also reciprocal. It binds them, one to the other,” he said.

I trust this ties up any loose ends for you. The Catholic church will always be one of the staunchest and most vicious enemies of gay people. Thus has it always been. And as I've said all along, the pope's upcoming tour to the United States is going to be a straight-marriage encyclical, brought to life. There is no room for gay people in the Roman Catholic world of Pope Francis.

Apparently, Francis learned nothing from Ireland's recent approval of gay marriage. This isn't surprising. You've got to be dense to be pope.

Also, too: this. Francis isn't on solid ground with his "hets are best for kids" routine. What a surprise.

More from Ireland

A friend who lives in Ireland wrote me the day after Ireland approved gay marriage. I loved what she said and asked her permission to post it here. She said yes, so here you go:

Today was historically significant here in Ireland. Ireland is often viewed as a reactionary, religious backwater; e.g. civil divorce has only been legal since 1996, and abortion is still not legal. Women in Ireland can travel to England for abortions, they can legally sneak around the law as a result of the X case.  A young girl, aged 13, became pregnant after rape. Social services wanted to send her to England for an abortion. Recently, Savita Halappenavaar, who was refused an abortion even though her life was at risk, died at Galway General Hospital.  Her husband said they were told that the pregnancy could not be terminated because "this is a Catholic country". 

While Ireland fought for independence, a glorious ideal, it developed into a theocracy after the war in 1921, and a subsequent Civil War that ended a year later. It did have some trappings of a democratic country, but the government always had to allow for control from Rome in family matters. It is said that in 1936, when then-President DeValera wrote the Constitution, that he modelled it on the much-admired American Constitution, but that although he had almost complete autonomy, he had to accept the input and the control of the archbishop, or as I refer to him, the "evil archbishop".The Constitution, while exalting the family, allowed for the state, in a multitude of situations, to show a lack of compassion for what amounted to state-sanctioned cruelty. The constitution was fundamentally unfair to women, to unmarried fathers, to orphans, to gay people, etc. The church apparatus, with the evil archbishop as its totem, destroyed attempts to socialise medicine here. The "mother and child" scheme threatened the Church's power. Interestingly, Ireland happily jumped on the fanatically anti-communist witch-hunt bandwagon in the United States in the 1950's.

However, today, Ireland should be proud of itself! The people have voted in a new Constitutional Amendment allowing gay marriage. Previously, gay couples could have some sort of civil contract, but now they can get married if they want. I think that rules on surrogacy will still have to be worked out but I am really happy about this new development - although it won't change the past for those who suffered through criminalisation, cruelty and bullying, it will certainly make for a happier future. 

Indeed. Thanks to my anonymous friend for allowing me to share this with readers. 

Just a note

People often arrive at this blog via the Amazon Kindle page for Xmas Carol. It includes a short bio of the writer (me, Keith O'Connor) and a link to this blog.

Sometimes I wonder what people think when they arrive here this way. I mean, there they were, on Amazon looking at a horror/sci-fi novel and wondering whether to buy it, and ZOMG! They're suddenly on a gay atheist blog.

So here's the thing. I am a gay man and there are churches out there who attack gay men, and consider anti-gay hatred to be a central tenet of their faith. How someone can believe that their god wants them to hate a group of people they've never met is beyond me. But Christianity in general -- and the Roman Catholic and Mormon churches in particular -- have made anti-gay animus a primary focus of their day-to-day religious practice.

Every time we gays try to achieve equality in a country, the Roman Catholic church charges in like a feral pit dog and says dreadful things about us. But all we want to do is love the person we, you know, love. How anyone comes to think that they have a right to attack us because of this is unclear. Their statements against gay people and gay marriage are literally incoherent. There's no argument there, just animus.

So I didn't choose this fight. I'm merely defending myself against hatred and discrimination. When someone keeps punching you, you fight back. Consequently, on this blog I point out all the horrible things that churches do in the name of their nonexistent gods.

Luckily, this fits well within this blog's territory because I go after anything that's batshit crazy. And religion is one of those things (along with fighting vaccinations for kids, believing the Earth is 6,000 years old, believing in ghosts, witches and demons -- and mushy thinking in general). It all gets pilloried here.

The point is that I don't attack religion without cause. I fight religion because it attacks me and mine. Nuff said.

Ireland did it!

It's been marvelous to see Ireland, a country that's 87% Catholic, approve gay marriage by public vote. That's tellin' em! I would love to be a fly on the wall in the Vatican -- or hell, even a fly on the wall of St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC -- to hear the gnashing of teeth up close and personal.

The Roman Catholic church fought this day with their usual psychopathic intensity but it was all for naught. Hahaha. That's the second best thing about this. (The first is that gay men and lesbians can marry in Ireland, of course.)

My favorite rundown was provided by Grania Spingies at Jerry Coyne's blog. Go read it if you want some joy.

Ireland, you did well. Very very well. I loved everything about the campaign and it was great to have Panti Bliss sprinkled on top. What a grand day this is.

(Let's laugh one more time at the Vatican: hahahahahahaha. Fun!)

Pope says stupid thing(s)

As if to prove that the devil sometimes takes over his body, Pope Francis said something evil.

Pope Francis said Monday that children have the right to grow up with a mother and a father, emphasizing traditional family values as he opened an interreligious conference on the "complementarity" of men and women in marriage.

And who did he say this to? Why, to a gathering of Evil Ones, of course:

[The conference] was organized by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose conservative prefect, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, helped lead the opposition to Francis' radical agenda of acceptance at the synod.

This is a reference to the recent synod where Francis' acolytes allegedly tried to encourage the acceptance of gay Catholics and divorced, remarried Catholics. Radical, eh? But to the Evil Ones, this is indeed radical. They want to keep on hating until they reach heaven, which is where they think hateful priests go when they die. Compounding the vacuity of his remarks, Francis said he'd attend a major hate meeting in the US next year. Sounds great, Frankie! Can't wait to hear what you come up with for that crowd. Public burnings of married gays? Could be. Anything to please the Dark One.

"I wish to confirm according to the wishes of the Lord, that in September of 2015, I will go to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families," he told the crowd, which erupted in applause.

The cave-priests always applaud when they hear the word "family". But this word doesn't mean what they think it means. And apparently the pope has no understanding of the term either. Consider what he said about the "right" of children to be raised by both dear old mom and dear old dad. And where do single mothers fit into this picture? Apparently they don't. They must be evil, huh? You gots to have a daddy. You gots to!

This is an ill church. It's sad that Francis got everyone's hopes up, only to dash them. Why is he trying to appease the low-hanging fruit in his organization? It doesn't make sense, given what he's said and done recently. Lord! You don't think the pope has become possessed, do you? Saints preserve us!

Misplaced modifier of the day

The fun thing about this is that it's on-topic. Here's a terrible sentence AP used as the lede for a story today:

ROME — The gay marriage debate arrived within walking distance of the Vatican on Saturday as Rome's mayor registered 16 gay marriages celebrated abroad in open defiance of Italy's government.

So...the marriages were celebrated abroad in open defiance of Italy's government? No. It's just a badly constructed sentence. You've got to watch your modifying clauses, people. I keep tellin' ya that. Here's how it should have been written:

The gay marriage debate arrived within walking distance of the Vatican on Saturday as Rome's mayor, in open defiance of Italy's government, registered 16 gay marriages celebrated abroad.

Note that I simply moved "in open defiance of Italy's government" closer to the word that it modifies (mayor). Yes, it requires you to set it off with commas, and I know this trick may be difficult for those of you who are punctuationally challenged. But it's really not that hard. (Of course, the whole sentence should simply be rewritten. It still stinks. But what can you do? It's AP.)

Luckily for us, the story is on-topic. Here's a bit more about this terrific Italian mayor.

Marino said Saturday was an important day in the fight for equal rights for all and that "the most important right is to say to your companion 'I love you' and to have that be recognized.

Sounds like a smart guy with a good heart. And of course, the biggest bonus is that this happened within shouting distance of the Vatican. Yay!

Echoes from the Vatican bishops meeting

So, what are the bishops saying in the closed proceedings going on at the Vatican? In case you haven't been following these priestly doings, this is a gathering designed to reexamine the church's positions on prickly things like gay marriage and contraception. It seems there are some good vibrations emanating from the group, possibly because of this move by good ol' Francis:

Significantly, Francis decided at the end of last week to add six perceived progressives to the synod leadership to help prepare the final document after some conservatives were elected to leadership positions.

Looks like the pope wants to load the dice, and since he's loading them to lean toward my people, that's fine with me. Here are some echoes AP posted this morning:

The bishops said gays had "gifts and qualities" to offer and asked rhetorically if the church was ready to provide them a welcoming place, "accepting and valuing their sexual orientation without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony."

For a 2,000-year-old institution that teaches that gay sex is "intrinsically disordered," even posing the question is significant.

I assume by "gifts and qualities", they mean the gays could be helpful in church redecoration, as well as with organ-playing. Seriously, what else could priests mean by this?

But it's not all flowers and confetti. The evil conservatives hate all this. Here's something from their side of the table:

Conservative groups rejected the report as a "betrayal" and even heresy.

"What will Catholics parents now have to tell their children about contraception, cohabiting with partners or living homosexual lifestyles?" asked Maria Madise, coordinator of the Voice of the Family, which counts pro-life and conservative groups as members.

"Will those parents now have to tell their children that the Vatican teaches that there are positive and constructive aspects to these mortal sins? This approach destroys grace in souls."

Aw, the poor conservatives. Who will these party-poopers hate if Francis has his way? Tch, tch, tch. My heart bleeds for them, doesn't yours? (Snork.)

But who knows what changes this event will produce, if any. I'm not holding my breath. On the other hand, it does seem somewhat hopeful, hearing these things. I didn't know bishops could say nice things. You learn something new every day.

Sunday's message of hate from five religions

Can you believe these gits?

The Mormon church and four religious organizations are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene and settle once and for all the question of whether states can outlaw gay marriage.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in a statement Friday, said it joined a friend-of-the-court brief asking the high court to hear Utah's marriage case.

Also taking part in the filing were The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Ethics & Religious Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Each teaches that marriage is between a man and a woman.

"The time has come to end the divisive national debate as to whether the Constitution mandates same-sex marriage," the brief states.

These religions are simply evil. How else could they do something like this? Lashing out at gay people is pretty much what these five religions are all about. Lest you have any doubt:

The religious groups urged the Supreme Court on the basis of tradition and religious freedom to uphold a state's right to disallow gay and lesbian couples to wed.

"Legal uncertainty is especially burdensome for religious organizations and religious believers increasingly confronted with thorny questions," the brief says. "Is their right to refrain from participating in, recognizing or facilitating marriages between persons of the same sex, contrary to their religious convictions, adequately shielded by the First Amendment and other legal protections? Or is further legislation needed to guard religious liberties in these and other sensitive areas?"

Aw, the poor dears! "Legally burdensome", eh? An abridgement of their "First Amendment" rights? Uh-huh. Never mind our marriages, our love, our lives and those of our children. That doesn't matter. For these folks, it's all about their god-given right to hate gay people.

Their own words condemn them to hell. At least, that's the way I see it. Too bad there is no hell, but that's just a minor glitch. What we need to do is see the hatred of their words. That's all. And then back away from these filthy religions, en masse. Their gods are vile.

And note how the virulently homophobic US Conference of Catholic Bishops is always in the mix. The Catholic church is, to my mind, the most dedicated enemy of gay people. Ask yourself why? There is no rational answer. It's just pure evil.

Why Roman Catholic priests hate gay sex

I always wondered why the Roman Catholic church hates gays. We're just people who are trying to live our lives according to the rules we were born with. So where does this intense animosity come from?

Yesterday, I got a clue when I read a post by PZ Myers at Pharyngula. It's about the church's insane view of sexual relations between married people:

Church laws teach that spouses must fight against or quiet libidinal pleasure when they have relations or else they commit a fault for seeking to enjoy the libidinal pleasure. In Her laws and practices the Church has condemned the belief that spouses can have relations for lustful pleasure and not commit any fault or sin. The March 4, 1679 Holy Office decree on the errors of various moral subjects condemns spouses who have relations for libidinal pleasure. Canon Law 1013 teaches that the secondary motive for the marital act is mutual aid but does not mention mutual love or indulging in libidinal/lustful pleasure. Pope Pius XI’s Enyclical Casti Connubii’s teaching on the quieting of concupiscence rules out seeking to enjoy libidinal pleasure. He teaches that the purpose of marriage is the procreation and rearing of children and that the secondary purpose is companionship and friendship through the struggle of life. He also says couples should pray in order for God to help them conquer temptations. The Church Fathers are unanimous on the necessity to fight against lustful pleasure during intercourse. The Church Fathers teach that spouses sin when they have relations for lustful pleasure.

Can you believe that? Even married people aren't allowed to enjoy sex! They have to fight against it, lest they sin. How ill is that? You know, as I read this sickening tripe, I remembered distant Catholic lessons learned in my childhood. I'd forgotten they were this crazy but it's all coming back now.

This explains why they hate gays and lesbians and transgender people with such ferocity, and fight gay marriage with verbal howitzers. Here it is in a nutshell:

Our sex is all about the fun. It's literally the reason why we have sex: to enjoy it. Wow, what incredible sinners we must be. Jeebus.

With this in mind, I can finally understand the outlandishly stupid argument priests always make when gay marriage comes up: it can't produce babies, so it's wrong. In light of the insanely ill position of the church, highlighted above, it finally makes a lick or two of sense (in their addled brains, anyway). If even married people are not allowed to enjoy sex, and it has to be only about making babies, then gay marriage truly is outside the tent.

So that's why they say such stupid things about gays and marriage! I finally understand. Their argument is as stupid as it ever was, but now I see the tattered strands of their warped logic. Oy. What an ill church!

HuffPo gets it all wrong

The headline on HuffPo's main page screams "Pope Francis takes huge step forward on gay rights". I'm surprised they didn't add three exclamation points.

When you click on the link, you arrive at a more subdued headline: "Pope Francis suggests gay civil unions may be tolerable by church". Now, isn't that just marvelous? Gay civil unions may be tolerable. The gratitude is swelling inside my heart. The Vatican could find my relationship tolerable. Praise jesus!

First of all, "giving" gay people civil unions is like the bus driver saying you can get on the bus, but you have to sit in the back. No thanks. In fact, you can stick those civil unions up your ass. We will not be tolerated -- we will be equal. And there's not a goddamn thing anyone can do to stop us.

The Catholic church is an evil joke that harms people throughout the world. It blinds them to their real lives, fills them with fear and guilt, and spends most of its mental energy wondering what penises and vaginas are doing. That's not a church, it's an illness.

We're gettin' married. Everywhere. And no one will be able to stop the gay tsunami of equality, including the two popes at the head of the Roman Catholic church. (Gives raspberry; exits stage-left.)

PS: Francis is really out of it on many issues, not just the gay stuff. Here's an outtake from the article:

"The Catholic Church is perhaps the only public institution to have acted with transparency and responsibility. No-one else has done more," Francis said of sex abuse. "Yet the Church is the only one to have been attacked."

Are you laughing? Crying? Oy, the blindness. It hurts.

Craven: the story of American conservatives

Over at John Aravosis' blog, I found this map of the United States. It shows what each state is worst at. Like "daily commute" for New York and "air pollution" for California.

So guess what Utah is worst at. You remember Utah, don't you? It's the place where they're fiercely "protecting traditional marriage". Turns out they have the highest rate of "porn usage". Gotta love them traditional marriages.

It seems that every conservative argument is hollow when you dig into it a bit. Doesn't surprise me at all.

Restive Supreme Court kills gay marriage in Utah

In the holy district of Washington, D.C., excitable members of the restive Supreme Court of the Booyah States of America reached out and touched someone -- actually, lots of someones -- by putting the kibosh on gay marriage in Utah. And nope, they didn't state a reason. I guess someone over there plain old got a bug up his or her ass.

So no more gay marriage in Utah for the time being. And if this should go the wrong way, the 900 marriages that were already consummated may be invalidated. That would affect (ahem) 1,800 people who, you know, love each other.

I wonder if Scalia or Thomas had anything to do with this. Nah, they're good, pious people. They would never harm anyone, especially for a spurious reason. Actually, the only name that appears in the linked article is dear, sweet liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Listen, kids. I'm a New Yorker and this is where she plied her trade before scoring her permanently-tenured, big-time gig.

Back in the day, I detested her. It seemed that whenever it really counted, she ruled the wrong way. So I'm not surprised by this news. And hey, Sotomayor is the one who just gave the nuns the stay against the Obama administration's evil socialist insurance plan. Because Jesus.

Now, I understand these aren't decisions. They mean little in terms of a final resolution. But still. 

(Blogger sighs, shakes head, returns to daily life.)

Roman Catholic church continues to demonize gays

Liberal Catholics adore Pope Francis. In their view, he is bringing long-needed change to the Roman Catholic church. But this view is based on impressions rather than real, doctrinal change. Perhaps their mushiest belief about Pope Francis is that, with a few simple words, he eradicated the church's horrifying stance on gays. Not so fast, says Frank Bruni.

Here's a bit of his opinion piece, but go read the whole thing if you have time:

The church’s treatment of gays and lesbians is especially rife with mixed messages and hypocrisy. In schools and congregations, many priests, nuns and other Catholics state or quietly signal that they see nothing sinful in the loving relationships of gay couples, only to have more hidebound Catholics swoop in to sweep such couples away. For a gay person who doesn’t want to be exiled, secrecy is smarter than honesty, which is supposedly a virtue. 

The weirdest thing, of course, is that kind Catholics disapprove of the church's continuing pogrom against gays. But it's hard to wipe away centuries (milleniums?) of anti-gay bigotry by the church. Let's hope the laggards catch up, and soon. It's time to accept gays and move on. And it's way past time for the church in all its forms to stop firing people for being gay.

God of love, my ass.

Catholic church spreads homophobia in Croatia

Things like this happen because...the Christian god is love personified. You may all kneel now.

Croatians on Sunday are voting in a referendum that could ban gay marriages after conservative groups, backed by the Roman Catholic Church, demanded that the country's constitution defines the matrimony as a union of a man and a woman.

Seeking to add something completely irrelevant, a cardinal said:

"Marriage is the only union enabling procreation," Croatia's Cardinal Josip Bozanic said in his message to the followers. "This is the key difference between a marriage and other unions." 

I'm sure all the old, childless, Catholic married couples agree. Marriage has nothing to do with loving another person and wanting to share your life with them. Nothing at all. Move along now; nothing to see here.

Thankfully, young people grasp what's wrong with arguments like this.

"I will vote against because I think that the referendum is not a festival of democracy, but a festival of oppression against a minority, which fights for its rights and which does not have its rights," Jura Matulic, a university student, said. 

Catholic conservatives are the worst of the worst -- and this hasn't changed with the installation of a new pope. Their attitude, I'm sure, is that popes come and go. I think they're waiting for Francis to die and be replaced by another gay closet case like Ratzi. They liked him a lot because he had the good sense to hide his awful gayness.

(Okay, so his love for the red shoes and his, you know, prancing, was a dead giveaway. But he didn't talk about it. That's the thing. He hated himself quietly while lashing out at gays all over the world and appointing anti-gay loons as cardinals in areas with large gay populations. Now, that's a pope!)

Bruni takes down Liz Cheney

Frank Bruni muses about Liz Cheney heaving family out the window so she can win an election. Go read it.

You know how Liz just said she's against gay marriage, right? She said this despite having a gay sister who's married to a woman and has two kids who used to think Aunt Lizzie loved them.

Here's a sample from the column:

Is any political office worth that? Would victory redeem the public message that Liz just sent to her niece and nephew? I’m imagining her awkwardness the next time that she goes to hug or kiss them (and I’m assuming that she’s a hugger or kisser, which may be a leap). If there’s not a knot in her stomach, then there’s nothing at all in her heart. 

I vote for "nothing at all in her heart". Liz seems to take after daddy. She's empty inside.

What did they expect?

The Methodist church is piling bricks on the head of a Methodist minister who officiated at the marriage of his gay son. Mind you, the church initially ignored the situation and the marriage probably would have fallen down the memory hole but for an evil parishioner who, long after the fact, filed a complaint against him. And now a full three-day "trial" will be held to decide if the Rev. Frank Schaefer should be defrocked for being kind and open and caring.

Today we are seeing the death throes of opposition to gay marriage. Although the die is cast, we will continue to see skirmishes, recurrent ugliness, and wingnuts screaming for their lives. But the game is over; gay marriage won.

The article includes this little tidbit (that I hadn't heard before):

Schaefer could have avoided a trial if he had agreed to never again perform a same-gender wedding, but he declined because three of his four children are gay. 

Duh. And you're going to defrock him for being kind and caring to his children. I guess Methodists, like Catholics, are mostly immoral, hateful creatures. But hey, you never know what religious people will do. Maybe they'll skip the defrocking and declare him a saint. Let's hope so.

In any case, good for you, Rev. Schaefer. At least you know that you did the right thing. It's just that your, you know, church is immoral.