We need to stop hurling names

Archbishop George H. Niederauer has written a letter in response to the aftermath of the passage of Proposition 8 in California which ends saying.

…Tolerance, respect, and trust are always two-way streets, and tolerance respect and trust often do not include agreement, or even approval. We need to be able to disagree without being disagreeable. We need to stop talking as if we are experts on the real motives of people with whom we have never even spoken. We need to stop hurling names like “bigot” and “pervert” at each other. And we need to stop it now.

For our part, we churchgoers need to speak and act out of the truth that all people are God’s children and are unconditionally loved by God. While we argue among ourselves, the people who need our help with hunger, unemployment, homelessness and other problems wait for us to turn together toward them. More particularly, we Catholics in the Archdiocese of San Francisco need to minister to the needs of all Catholics in this local Church. Whoever they are, and whatever their circumstances, their spiritual and pastoral rights should be respected, together with their membership in the Church. In that spirit, with God’s grace and much prayer, perhaps we can all move forward together.

The aftermath has been rather ugly including the keeping of blacklists on people who supported it. I guess in Hollywood blacklists are now okay and pretty soon we will have a House Committee on Un-Homosexual Activities

I like the basic thrust of the Bishop’s letter which as a pastoral letter is aimed at those with same-sex attraction. I do wish it was beefier on what the Church teaches.

The fact remains that, under California law, after the passage of Proposition 8, same sex couples who register as domestic partners will continue to have “the same rights, protections and benefits” as married couples. Proposition 8 simply recognizes that there is a difference between traditional marriage and a same sex partnership.

Though the truth is that Church also condemns so-called civil unions.

It is highly ironic that homosexual activists want to force people who believe that homosexual activity is sinful and are concerned for their souls should not have their opinion in public and should be forced into the closet. One video of a group of homosexuals following and shouting down a Christian group was also highly ironic. At one point one of them says “How dare they come into our neighborhood.” Tolerance has been turned into a blunt instrument forcing unanimity of opinion. A one way street is Tolerance Ave. Unfortunately any disapproval of homosexual acts is branded as homophobia and hatred and no other possible motive is allowed.

As then Cardinal Ratzinger wrote.

…There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law. Homosexual acts “close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved”

…Nonetheless, according to the teaching of the Church, men and women with homosexual tendencies “must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided”. They are called, like other Christians, to live the virtue of chastity. The homosexual inclination is however “objectively disordered” and homosexual practices are “sins gravely contrary to chastity”

Though praying for those who suffer with the heavy cross of same-sex attraction is now considered hatred.