Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Chicago Cardinal under fire for defending pastor against gay rights groups

The Brown Shorts are at it again. The Chicago Tribune (via the Lexington Herald-Leader) reports that Cardinal Francis George of Chicago is "under fire" for "comparing gay movement with KKK."

The first question is "under fire" by whom? To which the answer is: gay rights groups. So why didn't the paper report that gay rights groups were under fire by the Church? To which the answer is: because the paper--like all newspapers anymore, doesn't even try to be non-partisan in its coverage of issues concerning gay rights. Any criticism of the gay rights movement, which holds itself out as the vanguard of tolerance, is not to be tolerated, a prohibition that is quickly acquiring the force of law.

This incident is only the most recent example of the growing intolerance of the gay rights movement. What the Cardinal actually said was this: "You don't want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism."

And he said it in defense of a pastor who complained that a gay rights march was going to cause his churches to have to cancel its mass.

"Cardinal George's offensive comments are further evidence of just how insensitive and out of touch the hierarchy is," said a spokesman for "Equally Blessed," an allegedly Catholic group that aggitates for "LGBT rights." (It's a strange thing about gay rights groups: the more Catholic they claim to be, the more anti-Catholic they become). The Cardinal's remarks, they said were "crude" and "demagogic."

He wasn't "comparing the gay movement to the KKK," he was saying it would not be good if the gay rights movement took on the anti-Catholic character of groups like the KKK.

According to the Tribune:
Truth Wins Out has launched a Change.org petition that calls for the cardinal's resignation. "It is outrageous that Cardinal George would place law-abiding, peaceful citizens in the same category as a notoriously violent hate group," Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen said to Change.org. "George's resignation is his only road to redemption, and if he has a shred of dignity and a sliver of class, he will immediately step down."
Historically, the KKK engaged in systematic misrepresentation of those it disagreed with. It also engaged in political intimidation of its detractors. So responses like this to Cardinal George are about as comforting as if they were to don pink hoods--or burn the double spear and shield on church lawns.

If gay rights groups really want to discourage any comparison to hate groups, then they should stop acting like them.

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