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.
Matthew 5:11.
Acts 5:40-42
This crossed my mind 30 years ago when I first heard the term ‘homophobia’ in college. It is kind of obvious. If embracing sodomy is normal and not embracing sodomy is hateful, then guys like the Pope & Billy Graham become haters and leaders of hate groups. There is really no way around this. Embrace sodomy or embrace Christianity or do neither. You cannot embrace sodomy and Christianity...they are mutually exclusive.
The headline I want to see: “Pope declares Barack 0bama an enemy of God.”
Proverbs 18:2
“The headline I want to see: “Pope declares Barack 0bama an enemy of God.”
Do you get the feeling that this may be the ONLY petition at the wh “transparency” site that gets a comment from the king and then will have an executive order declaring it so?
Can't wait for the White House petition to label the Muslim Religion a 'hate group' since moose-lims specifically hate homosexuals and are centuries behind in women's rights.
Well we can safely say that adoptions from the third world to nice catholic ladies will skyrocket in numbers. Face it folks the libs know how to abuse people.
Well they do hate sin. I guess the communists are right about that.
Gee, I guess that some people don’t like the fact that the Church hates evil.
“Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.” Psalms
“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good” Romans 12:9
Sounds like a hate group.
Just sayin'..........
No kidding...crickets......
Homosexuality and pedophilia are not only tolerated but widely practiced in Muslim societies. What meets with disapproval is effeminate adult men who enter into relationships with others of their type. The dancing boys (who are essentially also boy prostitutes) of Afghanistan are fine, but they wouldn’t permit a dancing man, let’s say. However, actual prosecution of these people is usually a politically motivated procedure, meant to enforce the power of the imams or their henchmen, since adult effeminate gays are regarded as weak and disposable and are an easy target.
With Muslim males, anything they want to put their private parts into is fine in practice: another man, an animal (Ayatollah Khomenei’s first published writing was a fatwa announcing that it was okay for men to have sex with chickens but not to eat the chicken afterwards), and occasionally even a woman, whether she’s a foreign slave, one of his own stable or somebody with whom he has contracted the fifteen-minute “marriage” permitted under Islam. In many Muslim rural areas, a boy’s first sexual experience is actually when he is raped by his father at the age of 10 or so.
So I don’t think you’re going to hear any complaints about Muslims.
If it wasn’t for so many Catholics voting for Obama he would never have been elected in the first place.
Not a peep about this from the Mainline Socialist Media which (is what that group should be refered to as)and desperately needs a trashing. The idea that this eminates from a tax supported agency in the White House should leave no doubt in anyones mind the administration is at war with Christianity particularly the Catholics.
Hating isn't the issue, the object(s) of the hatred is. The Left hates rabidly, but are not called out on it because they hate the politically correct objects.
However, actual prosecution of these people is usually a politically motivated procedure, meant to enforce the power of the imams or their henchmen, since adult effeminate gays are regarded as weak and disposable and are an easy target.
With Muslim males, anything they want to put their private parts into is fine in practice: another man, an animal (Ayatollah Khomenei’s first published writing was a fatwa announcing that it was okay for men to have sex with chickens but not to eat the chicken afterwards), and occasionally even a woman, whether she’s a foreign slave, one of his own stable or somebody with whom he has contracted the fifteen-minute “marriage” permitted under Islam.
In many Muslim rural areas, a boy’s first sexual experience is actually when he is raped by his father at the age of 10 or so.
Gee, I wonder what Karin Johnson (Whoopie Goldberg) of "I killed six of my children in abortions" would have to say about this.
If it’s anyone thats doing the hating is the white house
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