Ya know, fellas, I can never forget that dark moment ten years ago when my late husband was hardly cold in his grave, and I read that Pope John Paul II, now Saint John Paul, so-called, declared that same-sex marriage was part of the "ideology of evil" - this at the very moment when I was suddenly left all alone in a tiny Texas town full of homophobes and bigots, with no rights whatsoever under the law, and had to leave what was only a few days earlier our home with a few clothes and my little dog in the middle of a bitterly cold night to seek a place of sanctuary. Under the laws of the great state of Texas, out of all our joint possessions I was not entitled to so much as a teacup, a pencil, or a shirt button. Because our relationship did not exist in the eyes of the law, and had no more significance than the coupling of two dogs or two cows.
The present pope seems like a kindly gentleman with a strong humanitarian impulse - but he just does not see or understand the enormity of the injustice and degradation that gay people have been put through by the teachings of his church, lo these many centuries.
Ms. Davis is a simple small-town woman who is hardly the devil incarnate, but as a deeply misguided zealot anxious for martyrdom she also has no idea of the real issue at stake here, nor of the harm she is perpetuating.
Your Head Trucker does not wish to require anyone to violate their own good conscience - but I would remind both His Holiness and Ms. Davis of Jesus's words:
Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,
and to God the things that are God's.
and to God the things that are God's.
Same-sex marriage is the law of the land here. Ms. Davis is being paid $80,000 per annum to conduct the taxpayers' business. If she has a problem with that, she is perfectly free to resign and go take some other job that will not burden her Christian conscience.
Otherwise, she had best get on with her duties. That's what she's being paid that big salary of Caesar's money for, right?
And if I had a chance to talk with His Holiness, I would just ask: where were you and your Church when I was homeless and alone, with not a friend in sight?
Update, 10/2/15: Turns out, it was all a set-up, and the Vatican says only private 'audience' in D.C. was with gay ex-student, not Kim Davis.
But you know all the Vatican denials are just the work of the magical, superpowerful Gay Gestapo. Of course. We control the entire planet! Oh Mary, don't ask.
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4 comments:
That is absolutely the most beautiful, respectful, balanced, sensitive, and heartfelt commentary on the subject I have read since this insanity began.
I can't help but think the Pope's staff were somehow duped into this meeting, unlikely as that might be. I was thoroughly incredulous, then extremely disappointed to learn of the meeting as I thought the rest of the papal visit was highly positive in many ways (despite the fact that conservatives and even liberals spewed vitriol toward him at every opportunity).
He spoke to "conscientious objection"(rightly or wrongly applied to this situation) in general terms so as not to comment on the particular. I believe that the significance of Francis' visit was as much revealed by what HE DID NOT SAY as by what he did say about various matters. So his clandestine meeting with the clerk was truly a disappointment and a slap in the face.
I have to think that Liberty Counsel put its own self-serving spin on the story, plastic rosary beads, notwithstanding.
Appreciate ya, Frank. You and my roommate M.P. (a former DRE, btw) are both cradle Catholics, and this Episcopal heretic has kept saying Francis is a nice man, but he's not your friend. I'm still not sure you or M.P. believe me. Oh well, time will tell won't it.
The blunder was that this so-called meeting (likely a receiving line where people were shuffled in for a brief face-to-face handshake and souvenir rosary beads) wasn't seen as an opportunity for political fodder. It is being used to claim Papal and RC support for Davis and her "case" - hopefully something that was not intended and now seems to have become the focal point for the entire Papal visit. I don't need Francis to be my "friend" but I do "pray" that he will steer the massive RC ship in a more loving direction. The backlash against Vatican II has had years to consolidate under Ratzinger and John Paul II/Benedict XVI and Francis ain't going to change it in his lifetime.
What's DRE?
OIC from this morning's news that Vatican finally wised up and clarified that the alleged "private audience" was just a reception line, and not a special endorsement of Ms. Davis's politics. Good.
And the rightwingers are all going "But, but, but . . . ." And Bryan Fischer the rightwing asshole has tweeted that "the gay Gestapo is so powerful it can intimidate even the Pope." Right.
Mwuhahahah!!!
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