Posted on 03/12/2008 7:03:14 PM PDT by pissant
ONE of Scotland's most senior Catholics has launched an attack on the "gay lobby" in Scotland, claiming there is a "huge and well-orchestrated conspiracy" against Christian values.
The Rt Rev Joseph Devine, Bishop of Motherwell and president of the Catholic Education Commission, said gay rights organisations aligned themselves with minority groups, such as Holocaust survivors, to project an "image of a group of people under persecution".
He warned that the gay lobby – which he labelled "the opposition" – had mounted "a giant conspiracy" to shape public policy.
He singled out the actor Sir Ian McKellen, who was given a New Year honour for services to gay rights, pointing out that Oscar Wilde was locked up only a century ago for homosexual acts. The bishop said he would "not tolerate" the "behaviour" of a child struggling to come to terms with his or her homosexuality. Last night his views were attacked by gay rights groups, which branded them "unChristian" and "deeply out of step" with the views of ordinary Scots.
In the fourth of the Gonzaga Lectures held at St Aloysius' College in Glasgow on Tuesday, Bishop Devine said: "The homosexual lobby has been extremely effective in aligning itself with minority groups.
"It is ever-present at the service each year for the Holocaust memorial, as if to create for themselves the image of a group of people under persecution. We neglect the gay movement at our peril.
"I want to ask you if you are able to see the giant conspiracy that's taking place before our eyes, even if we didn't see it at the time. I take it you're beginning to see that there is a huge and well-orchestrated conspiracy taking place, which the Catholic community missed."
He went on: "In this New Year's honours list, I saw actor Ian McKellen being honoured for his work on behalf of homosexuals, when a century ago Oscar Wilde was locked up and put in jail. "It's a very small group of people, but very active and organised – and extremely indulgent. The opposition know exactly what they're doing. We don't."
Calum Irving, the director of Stonewall Scotland, said the bishop was "deluded", pointing out that the Catholic Church had much greater wealth and political influence than the gay rights lobby. He said: "So Bishop Devine has decided it's time to have a go at lesbian and gay people again.
"I'm flattered that the bishop thinks we could mount a 'huge and well-orchestrated' conspiracy, but he is much deluded. After all, which 'lobby' really has the greater resources and political access?
"Such a continued attack on gay people is distinctly unChristian and deeply out of step with the views of most Scots today. There is no war on Christianity – just the bishop's own fevered paranoia.
"I would defend the bishop's right to practise his faith and yet he would deny me basic dignity and respect. Worse, he appears to hanker after an age when Oscar Wilde was put in jail for being gay. Worse still, he seems to infer that gay people have no right to be remembered as victims of the Holocaust."
After Bishop Devine's lecture, entitled Sectarianism and Secularism: Bugbears for the Catholic Church in Scotland, one audience member asked how Catholic parents should "come to terms with a child's mission to become homosexual".
The bishop replied: "This must be a nightmare moment for any parent. There are many days when I'm glad to not be a parent. I would try to handle it with a degree of compassion, but I would not tolerate (it]."
Bishop Devine also cited the battles over Clause 28, legalising civil partnerships and same-sex adoption.
He said prominence had been given to the "supreme moral values of liberty and equality" replacing "truth and goodness" as supreme moral values.
Bishop Devine continued: "It was bound to result in state-sponsored morality at war with Christian values. We must resist being corrupted by secularism."
Asked about how Christians could influence politics, he commented: "It was once thought that the Labour Party was a Christian democratic party. Sadly, it's not that anymore. Certainly in terms of leadership, the SNP are much more responsive to us."
He vowed to fight on against the "forces of secularism". He concluded his lecture stating: "Like Mel Gibson, who said, 'I'm going to pick a fight', so am I."
A Holocaust Memorial Day Trust spokeswoman said: "Holocaust Memorial Day is about remembering all victims: be they Jewish, gypsy, gay or lesbian.
"The day is also about learning the lessons from the past, encouraging society to tackle all forms of prejudice, such as antisemitism, racism and homophobia."
A spokeswoman for Sir Ian McKellen said the actor was out of the country and unavailable for comment.
OUTSPOKEN CHURCHMAN
THE Rt Rev Joseph Devine is no stranger to controversy.
Last year, he deal t a blow to Labour's hopes in the Holyrood elections by saying he would not be voting for the party on religious grounds, as it had a "morality devoid of any Christian principles".
He had previously branded the Labour administration as "moral vandals" and "politically correct zealots".
The year before, he became embroiled in a row with other senior figures in the Catholic Church after condemning the actions of a senior Church aide who, he claimed, had failed to express opposition to plans to let gay couples adopt.
In an unprecedented move, the Church's two most senior clerics, Cardinal Keith O'Brien and Archbishop Mario Conti, moved publicly to rebuff Bishop Devine by releasing a public statement backing the aide.
Previously, he became personally involved in a row with Jack McConnell, the former first minister, over plans for mixed-faith, joint-campus schools in Lanarkshire.
ping
Good grief.
Hummmmmm. Why does that sound familer?.....Oh, yeah they were two of the top three purported values of the French revolution. How did that turn out again?
That is most certainly not the case with American Blacks. They quite rightly resent the gays trying to make their bitching and moaning into the new civil rights movement.
So now we have to honor Ernst Rolm as a Holocaust victim?
Sounds like a real slugger!
Well, he’s absolutely on target. I guess that’s what bothers them.
How did we get to the point where radical homosexual activists are lecturing Catholic Bishops on what is "Christian"?
Sorry, Scottish gay dudes, but it’s not the function of the Church to be “in step” with normal public opinion. Quite the opposite.
Indulgent, indeed. The Bishop sees what's happening, and of course the homosexual lobby is going to go at him, hammer and tong. I hope his fellow Bishops don't run and hide from him.
I can certainly agree with the the most Catholic Bishop on this. Kudos! (From a former Episcopalian - Now a happy Evangelical)
There were Catholic victims too. The second largest group after the Jewish people were Catholics!
Homosexuals need to keep in mind, however, that the good news of the gospel is not about how God despises same-sex sexual relationships. In fact, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 indicates that certain members of that church had been slaves to such relationships but had been cleansed in Jesus' name. So these former homosexual had evidently repented and accepted God's grace to straighten their lives out.
John 3:16
Revelation 3:20
He is right. The same strategies are being employed worldwide.
I was at a highly ranked high school recently. Very few clubs were openly advertised, and I did not see any club advertised more than once. Yet, there were several ads pushing the GSA on each wall of the building.
The ads varied, with statements about how societies that “exclude” some people destroy themselves, ads around the water fountain talking about how wonderful the group was, promos for their weekly movie night, and quotes from famous people.
If I was a kid attending the school, it would be very clear to me that I would be labeled a close-minded bigot if I did not succumb to the pressure and join their group.
Tuesday’s Inside Track section of the Boston Herald reported that “Fun Couple” Tom Lang and Alexander Westerhoff hosted a 75th birthday party for Laurie Cabot, the “Official Witch” of Salem MA. The party was attended by Wiccans of all ages. Lang and Westerhoff founded Knowthyneighbor.org a web-site dedicated to the harassment of people who signed the petition to get a Marriage Amendment on the ballot. So they’re not just Gay, their Satanic as well. Too bad they didn’t make this known to all the “Christians” who felt bad for them and wouldn’t sign.
Sorry I cant see whats wrong with that.
After all, half of all Holocaust victims were non-Jewish and the Nazis famously targeted the German/Austrian homosexual community (Hitler had a particular hatred of the louche, openly sexual Weimar culture of the 20’s).
No.
But why shouldnt we remember all victims of 1933-1945?...
Jews,gypsies, Poles, anti-Nazis, gays, the mentally ill and handicapped, amongst many others.
There is something like almost two dozen different groups of people that the Nazis killed in the death camps...
Actually, that’s not entirely true, although gay activists have made it one of their talking points. Like Muslims and others in love with power and control, the Nazis often indulged in homosexuality and condoned it, as long as it was the “butch” homosexual. There was Homosexuality in the top ranks of the Nazi Party, among the Brown Shirts, and in the early Hitler Youth movement. It was OK as long as you were the “manly” homosexual.
Similarly, Muslims will say that homosexuality is outlawed, as I’manutjob recently did in Iran, and they will occasionally execute them—yet if you are a homosexual who wants to find a boy prostitute, there’s no place like a Muslim country. North Africa was a favorite hangout for famous British and American fags.
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