A reader who blogs at AdoroTeDevote sent me a link to the following story.
Minnesota churches will soon see a sign of protest in collection plates.
Gay Catholics and their supporters plan to mark their donations to send a message to let the church know who exactly is giving them their money. Cash donations will be marked with a pink triangle around the pyramid on the back, while checks will have a notation in the memo field.
“If you want our money, then support us,” says parishioner Tom Degree. “They need to know how much they are receiving from GLBT congregants.”
Degree and others are concerned about several positions the Catholic church has taken recently, such as banning gay priests.
“I think that’s a bright idea,” says Rachel Dykosky. “I think they should let them know where the money is coming from. The church needs to know who is supporting them.”
Others think the protest is too political, and doesn’t belong in church. “It’s incomprehensible to me that they would do that. I don’t see any logic in it,” says Florence Pope.
Degree thinks the search for marked money will be similar to the church’s search for gay members in seminaries.
“This is gay money,” degree says. “If you don’t feel comfortable taking it, throw it away.”
My first reaction is shouldn’t they be using three dollar bills? Besides if the Church had a problem taking money from sinners we wouldn’t need collection baskets. The underlying thing I notice about protests by "Gay Catholics" is that the activism is not in any way Catholic. For example we have rainbow sashes, people receiving Communion and then spitting it out, and now this pink triangle money tactic. So the Church is suppose to abandon 2000 years of both scripture and Apostolic tradition and guidance by the Holy Spirit because somebody marks up money with a felt pen? The use of the triangle is fairly ironic considering that it is also a symbol of the Trinity. Though I guess you are going to substitute your opinion with the Holy Trinity it makes a certain sense. If you are going to say that the Church that Jesus founded has been wrong about something so basic for two-thousand years and has been teaching very severe error, I guess it takes the infamous narcissism of the homosexual culture to do just that. It is no coincidence that many homosexual events include the word pride in them.
Now if you truly believe that the Catholic Church is the one true Church and yet believe that the Church is wrong about homosexual acts then wouldn’t you be holding prayer services instead. How about prayer and fasting and encouraging others to join in. Threatening not to tithe or to disrupt the Mass is just profoundly un-Catholic. The Church must change because I don’t want to! Jesus welcomes everybody – just ignore those passage about repentance first and the possibility of going to Hell and sheep and goats, etc. Just ignore those passages condemning homosexuality – after all 10 out of 10 active homosexual exegetes find they don’t mean what they plainly mean. Oh by the way as part of a package deal you will have to drop the dogma on contraception also since homosexual sex is always contraceptive. Be fruity and don’t multiply.
39 comments
This madness has made its way too far into the Church so that now if you even bring in the Bible you are a homophobe. I am sick of this. Where is the call to holiness?
In one class I have on 21st Century Moral Issues, we are, currently looking at same-sex marriage. Sad to say I am the only one in the class vocally proclaiming the actual Church teaching on this matter. So now, if you are against SSM, you are a homophobe. There are no more distinctions being made. It is an all or none game.
And I will continue to proclaim the fact that the vast majority of sexual abuse accusations and convictions within the Church have been by priests with pubescent or post-pubescent boys/young men and not pedophiles! Why can’t people hear this truth? That is homosexuality without denial!
Isn’t defacing currency a federal offense?
No doubt about it, the center has disappeared. I really have nothing against homosexuals, other than what they do, which is a sin. Beyond that I am not afraid of them, nor do I hate them. Homosexual activists…that’s another story. They are the most obnoxious, emotional (read non-fact based) and plain dishonest bunch I’ve ever dealt with. They aren’t interested in anything or anyone that challenges their worldview. They certainly don’t care what the bible says. They only know what they “feel” is right.
“…shouldn’t they be using three dollar bills?”
“Be fruity and don’t multiply.”
HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!!!
That is the funniest thing I have read in a very long time! Practically in tears. I really enjoy this blog. Keep ’em coming!
Speaking of multiplying, I have a theory that if married couples don’t have at least 3 children, we’re not multiplying, we’re dividing!
“Be fruity and don’t multiply.” ….Now that’s funny…
If I were pastor, I’d be tempted to put a blurb in the parish bulletin saying that all such contributions would be donated to the Courage apostolate (http://www.couragerc.org/), begun by Father Harvey.
Our savior first came to us in a barn. If we become so poor that he has to come to us in barn for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, then so be it if that’s what it takes to maintain the integrity of the Church’s teachings. I doubt the money so marked will account for much. If it does, how many of them will sweeten (pun intended) the pot to make it look like they give more than they normally do?
If I were pastor, I’d be tempted to put a blurb in the parish bulletin saying that all such contributions would be donated to the Courage apostolate (http://www.couragerc.org/), begun by Father Harvey.
Brilliant! So much so I think you should pass that idea onto Minnesota’s bishop.
Three dollar bills in the collection plate
Jeff Miller, The Curt Jester, applies his trademark wit and perception to thoroughly take to task some homosexual dissenters from Minnesota.
My first reaction is shouldn’t they be using three dollar bills? Besides if the Church had a problem takin…
“…people receiving Communion and then spitting it out…”
They receive the Eucharist, Jesus Christ, the Lord God Himself, and then spit Him out???!! How dare they show such irreverance to their God! Though I suppose it wouldn’t be a problem for them because they have made themselves their own gods.
This doesn’t surprise me. I know a lot of Catholics who pick and choose which teachings of the Church they’re going to believe and which they’re going to discard.
And if we’re all supposed to accept homosexual acts as normal, then aren’t we obliged to accept ALL sexual deviancies ie: bestiality, adult child sex, bigamy etc?
This is the dumbest protest ever. In fact, it will probably backfire because then people will have to actually put something IN the collection basket in order to be counted.
Besides, having been a money-counter on occasion, I can tell you I wouldn’t notice if “Gift of Satan” was written in the memo line. I just added the numbers.
My first reaction is, shouldn’t they be using three dollar bills?
Jeff!
I used to say this same thing about the Church, that it had better be careful not to tick off its beiggest contributors . . . when I was fifteen. I wonder if the idea is to persuade themselves that we’d really be heartbroken if they swanned off and joined Gene Robinson’s church.
We’ve been having a little problem with fruitflies in the kitchen lately. I mentioned it to Cacciaguida, who asked how I knew – weren’t they multiplying? I replied, “If that’s the case, then that was an extremely disreputable establishment I busted up when I cleaned out from under the sink the other day.”
I wonder how much they think it would cost to buy their way into heaven?
What a terrible way to tithe! Using money that you are supposedly offerering to God as a protest is astonishing, another thing that leaves me “almost” speechless.
Dumb, dumb, and dumber.
and…
Isn’t this also a civil offense? (Or did my Dad make that up to keep me from putting mustaches on George Washington?)
If you are not gay yourself I hardly think you are in a position to speak in this matter. It just comes across as harsh judgement.
If you are not gay yourself I hardly think you are in a position to speak in this matter. It just comes across as harsh judgement.
Classic response. You cannot have an opinion if you are not exactly like me. Way to shut down dialogue and argument.
“If you are not gay yourself I hardly think you are in a position to speak in this matter.”
If your are not me you are not in a position to argue with me.
Jeff,
Brilliant exposition on the Reasonable gay activists’ latest attempt to institutionalize self-centeredness. Somehow, we’ve been here before though. In fact, the usual suspects have tried many headline-grabbing strategies for coercing the Catholic Church to enshrine their favored apostacy as dogma. Have any of them succeeded?
Hmmm. I believe friends of Bill and Lois define insanity as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.
But what else should we expect from the Reasonable?
“Yours Truly,” if you want harsh judgment of your lifestyle, read Romans 1:26-32.
That, not what you see here, is some judgment.
Hey, the opportunities for dissenters are endless.
For the wymyns ordination supporter in the pews: spraypaint your dollar bill with a few O+ signs (you have to look at that sideways!), fold it origami-style into a bishop’s mitre, and toss it in.
Want the Church to repeal Humanae Vitae and Evangelium Vitae? Grab your dollar note, scrawl “No Pills, No Bills” (or “No IUDs no IOUs”, or “No Plan B no Plan G(iving)”) across it, and in she goes!
We have overtly pro-abort public figures defiantly strutting up the aisle, rainbow sash-wearing communicants… and now this.
Yes, why not turn the whole Mass into a political statement!
“If you are not gay yourself I hardly think you are in a position to speak in this matter.”
If you are not faithful to the magesterium I hardly think you are in a position to speak on this matter.
It just comes across as intolerance.
Are you going to turn us in to the ACLU now?
From the article, the cone of the pink pyramid appears to bisect the motto ANNUIT COEPTIS on the back of the dollar bill. ANNUIT COEPTIS means “He (God) has favored our undertakings.”
In the Great Seal of the United States, the motto ANNUIT COEPTIS is placed above an unfinished pyramid, which indicates a reasonable assumption that the work of the pyramids must have been favored by God, for they stand today 4,000 years later, and “if the LORD doesn’t build the house, in vain do the builders labor”.
The Great Seal does not feature a smouldering ashheap, which is what God decided would be the fate that befell the civilization of Sodom and Gomorrah.
“If you are not gay yourself I hardly think you are in a position to speak in this matter.”
If you have not been executed, you are in no position to oppose/support the death penalty.
I was pleased to read on somebody else’s blog that there was an event at St. Thomas University in St. Paul the other day at which Archbishop Flynn was the celebrant. Three rainbow types with sash came forward to him at Communion and he just gave them his blessing. They weren’t happy.
I am hopeful that this will become the normal practice when the sash is worn for the entire Archdiocese.
“If you are not gay…”
I don’t think that I need to be gay to understand sexual temptation. There are many temptations that we strive everyday to hopefully resist, sometimes more successfully than others. Because I have my own personal weaknesses I would hopefully never judge though I would not accept my sinful actions as acceptable even if a part of me wishes they were. Dang, why is it gluttony to eat the whole tub of Ben & Jerry’s! And I know the temptations of the flesh are generally a lot stronger than some of the other appetites; I do not mean to offend but I don’t really want to post any other than my obvious sins.
Which brings me to confession. My priest is not a woman but I do believe that he can understand and through the grace that God gives him, hopefully show compassion and mercy towards me and my many human failings when I enter the confessional. If I have a confessor who I feel is not very good, I tend to think that it is the person and not the sex of the individual that makes him a bad confessor.
God gives us many graces to compassion and love. I hope that my sex, my sexual orientation, my faith or any other part of me would not exclude me from empathy with all my brothers and sisters.
Perhaps some of our readers from the twin cities could describe the climate there. From all that I read, I gather it is a rather liberal (both classically Democrat, and socially progressive) milieu. Please correct me if I am wrong. That said, I remember a story several years ago when I was in the twin cities for a seminarians conference. We went to visit the Basilica (or was it the Cathedral?) nevertheless, one of the two huge Churches built by Abp. Ireland, and a story was told about a young priest who was railing (from the pulpit) against the evil of contraception. After Mass, several collection envelopes and checks where found torn to pieces in the pews – the congregants thus registering their consternation with this moral truth. If this is true, then, it is also true that we don’t need their money, and if we become a poor church, but a faithful one, then so be it. But somehow, I don’t think that “gay catholics” are contributing that much to the church as it is.
Let me finally say that the “three dollar bill” bit may be perceived as lacking in charity, and the comment about having nothing to say if “you are not gay” certainly lacks coherence.
This is in fact the most ludicrously narcissistic bit of “protest” I’ve ever seen from the GLBT religious lobby. They apparently are unaware of the difference between the Catholic Church and, say, their local public radio station.
The Episcopal Church (Gene Robinson’s outfit) a year or so ago published a poorly-veiled threat to cut off funds to African churches if they didn’t stop calling Robinson’s consecration an abomination. One of the African archbishops responded, “Poverty? I grew up in a grass shack with a mud floor and they threaten me with poverty? The Gospel is not for sale.” … The tactic didn’t work there, either…
I’m posting the same thing I did on another blogsite that copied this….
I just got to the part about the pink triangles, and pretty much stopped reading.
Someone can correct me if my memory is wrong. But I heard the pink & black triangles had the same purpose (for identifying the lesbians and gays) as the yellow Stars of David (for identifying the Jews) in Nazi Germany.
I think it�s a pretty powerful symbol.
(I came to this site only because it was linked from the other site. So if you respond, I won’t see it.)
The sad thing here is that people think the Church’s teachings can be changed by political protest, as if the Bible and tradition are determined by the latest poll.
Wow, what a concept. Who needs a pope, when we can dictate faith and morals with the collection plate? Seriously, who would trust the eternal destination of one’s soul in a faith whose foundation is based on threats and bribery?
The atmosphere in the Mpls-St. Paul Archdiocese is one of …well, spiritual battle. St. Joan of Arc is our embarassment and some other parishes closely follow. The political lobby is extremely liberal and I’ve heard that Minneapolic rivals San Francisco and Atlanta for “gay” activism. Be assured, though, we are home to some wonderful and faithful parishes…Epiphany, Holy Family, St. Agnes (Latin High Mass every Sunday at 10 am), St. Augustines (Trinitine Mass 11 am Sun), Holy Spirit…there are many.
Every parish hosts dissidents and heretics as par for the course. The liberal media is a big fan of homosexual activism, especially if the Church gets to look like the “bad guy”.
I’ve noticed that KSTP channel 5 is always the first to post a story about Rainbow Sash or homosexual activism…so feel free to flood them with e-mail. http://www.kstp.com they have a “contact us” link somewhwere for Catholic activists.
I too had heard that the pink triangle was used by the Nazi regime to tag and classify homosexuals. The trouble is, I heard it from homosexual activists. It may be true, it may be something else. I do know that St. Maximilian Kolbe, who died at Auschwitz – he was imprisoned there on political grounds because of his opposition to the deportation of Jews – is often portrayed as wearing a pink triangle on hiw prison outfit. Whether the Nazi’s classified all celibate priests as homosexuals or whether the pink triangle was actually pinned on political prisoners and only later co-opted by the radical gay lobby, I do not know!
Nevertheless, I am kind of disappointed they stole the rainbow too! My mom used to drive a green Dodge Dart with a rainbow sticker in the back window – that was a long time ago, and it had nothing at all to do with “gay rights” How things change, even the term “gay” !
The Nazis used a system of (top-down)coloured triangles to categorize their prisoners in concentration camps. So if a man was sentenced because of homosexual behaviour (which was a criminal offense), he would be made to wear a pink triangle. A homosexual woman would be classified as “Asocial” and would have to wear a black triangle.
As far as I have heard, Priests had to wear red triangles, which marks them as political prisoners.
Would it confuse anyone if I said they were practicing witchcraft. They are trying to form a financial covanant with the church in order to pray(cast spells) thier will onto it. Its totally wiccan newagy so whatever. But its not just a threat they probaby are sitting around with artifacts, like the Eucharist itself, and trying to use them to make the church bend to this covenant they believe they have made.. Its kinda arrogant to think you can force God into a covenant and them make him obey it though.
These campaigns are really a cry for attention. These people are clearly hurting, and although the Church offers the Truth on moral behavior–we should do more to reach out to these people pastorally and show them Christ’s love. How often do we hear anyone speak out in a loving way on this issue–offering hope for the struggling homosexual in the pews?
The “Pride” comment is very true. To be a Christian we must humbly admit that we are broken and have a fallen nature. Christ is perfect–I’m not. My faith is in Him, not in myself. Unfortunately, people suffering from same sex attraction struggle to admit they have a problem–that they’ve been hurt–that they are emotionally wounded–like each and every one of us! (Read narth.com for more of an explanation about the roots of SSA. They persuasively argue that it is a symptom of deeper psychological pain from childhood–father rejection, peer rejection, etc.)
We all have our cross to carry, but some are heavier than others. Those with the heaviest crosses, if they pick them up and carry them–they will make the greatest saints. The devil tempts those he fears, but the light of Christ (received through the sacraments and prayer) is much stronger than him.
Well lets all be real-after 4 retranslations of the New American Bible (go to the vatican home site for the narrative) after Vatican II to make it “less offensive to Jews” like they were never there to begin with and have and had nothing at all to do with the death of Our Lord (even though Our Lord died for ALL of our sins), which the Vatican II liberal reforms promulgated for appeasement and to be PC-why not delete the homosexual references in the Bible. We have basically become a church of compromise these past 40 years, as we no longer hold to any truth or standards, anyone can get to heaven even if they deny our Lord, we should look at the Moslems with “high esteem”, etc etc.
The Vatican even refuses to ban them from the priesthood even after billions of dollars of payouts and innocent children ruined for life, as the latest is as long as they dont act out on their homosexual urges for 3 years! I guess 3 years is the magic number!
It is all one big farce and no one takes it serious, so leave the gays alone or head over to your nearest Traditional church where the Mass of all time is conducted, where true “Catholicism” is implemented, where the Baltimore Catechism is followed, and were no compromises are made. If one is a sinner, you must confess and expiate.
It is your salvation here at stake-as well as your children and society as a whole, the church used to be the standardbearer and it bore a lot of angry barbs for centuries but never wavered, now it has become a church of compromise and political correctness (was our Lord PC when he threw over the tables in the temples?)
God bless you on your journey to the truth
If people want to change the Faith so much, why don’t they go elsewhere? The Church won’t change, so protesting in this manner is futile. But NO, we absolutely HAVE to change the Church.
Why don’t they try to change God while their at it. They’ll have the same amount of luck.