Unique For A Reason.org – An Effort to Promote & Defend Marriage
Baltimore provided the backdrop on Monday for a Catholic Bishops gathering at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) a new anti-gay marriage website was launched. At the meeting, 300 bishops came together for the newly appointed committee on religious liberty and announced plans to respond to legislation that it says comes between citizens and their Catholic beliefs.
The website the committee launched at MarriageUniqueForAReason.org was described as part of an effort to “promote and defend marriage as the union between one man and one woman.”
The website features a video showing good-looking childless heterosexual couple talking about how their bodies complement each other.
“Every time we make love, it’s like we’re making life. We’re giving life to one another. It’s not just sex. I come alive and there’s a sense of forever in that. And I don’t think a man can have that any other way,” The man says in the nearly 13 minute video.
According to On Top Magazine, the website uses the video to claim that, “True marital union is not possible without sexual difference.”
“This is why sexual difference is essential to marriage. Sexual difference is the necessary starting point for understanding why protecting and promoting marriage as the union of one man and one woman isn’t arbitrary or discriminatory. Rather, it’s a matter of justice, truth, love and real freedom.”
At their meeting, the bishops also endorsed ballot initiatives in Minnesota and North Carolina that would ban gay marriage in each state.
“In the midst of these various challenges, we continue to be mindful and pray for those efforts seeking to protect the definition of marriage,” Bishop Salvatore J. Cordileone told attendees. “These include the constitutional amendments protecting marriage in Minnesota and North Carolina, the continued effort to do the same in Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and efforts to repeal the redefinition of marriage in New Hampshire and Iowa. To all our brother bishops and efforts to protect marriage in these states, thank you for your courage and witness, please count on our continued support and prayers.”
Bishop William Lori, who is the leader of a new national religious liberty committee, condemned federal and state policies that he said interfered with the church’s ability to provide social services, from health care to immigrant support to international aid.
“We should not be obliged to provide services or other initiatives that are contrary to our conscience,” said Lori, bishop of Bridgeport.
“We don’t need the government forcing our hand.”
On the federal level, the bishops have been pressing the Health and Human Services Department during its public comment period for a broader religious exception to part of US President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul that mandates private insurers pay for contraception.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the bishops are not just reacting to Obama’s policies, but to a broader society in a “drive to neuter religion” and “push religion back into the sacristy.”
“That’s a cultural issue that the church has been concerned about forever, not just in the United States,” Dolan said.
Dolan also said he discussed the church’s concerns with Obama when the two men met last week in at the White House. The archbishop said Obama was “extraordinarily friendly” and “very ardent” in reassuring Dolan that the administration would look into the problems.
“I left there feeling a bit more at peace with this issue than when I entered,” Dolan said.
Dolan also said, “The church has nothing against compromise, but we can’t compromise principle.”
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing to stop the agency from making grants to groups who “impose religiously based restrictions on reproductive health services.”
“We should not be at a disadvantage competing for contracts because we bring certain convictions to the table,” Lori said.
Source: Reuters, AP, LGTBQ Nation
