Florida Agenda

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – In separate but coordinated pastoral letters to their respective flocks, the Roman Catholic and Anglican archbishops of Sydney condemned parliamentary efforts to legalize same sex marriage.

LGBT rights activists and marriage equality supporters accused the churches of utilizing fear-mongering tactics from pulpits for political purposes.

In a letter read Sunday to Anglican congregations, the Archbishop of Sydney, Rev. Dr. Peter Jensen said called gay marriage a “state-imposed idea,” and referred to “a blatant propaganda war fought on this issue, with what amounts to product placement and celebrity endorsements.” The Anglican prelate called on his flock to pressure their Members of Parliament to oppose marriage equality bills,” and to those lawmakers, he added, “my advice to people is to take this into account as you cast your vote.”

In a similar epistle to Roman Catholic congregations, Sydney’s Cardinal George Pell said that same-sex relationships are “contrary to God’s plan for sexuality,” and that the two proposed bills for marriage equality “will cause” “discrimination and injustice,” “instead of removing” them.

And the Primate of Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, Archbishop Stylianos Harkianakis, wrote “Our Orthodox view is contrary” to same sex marriage, “because the proposed alteration to the traditional form of marriage is diametrically against the sacredness of marriage and of the family, as taught by the Christian faith and Greek Orthodox Tradition.”

The prelates’ opinions will likely prevail, at least for now, because although a majority of Australians support marriage equality, a senior lawmaker said on Monday that MPs will likely maintain the ban on same sex marriage, when the issue comes to a vote later this year. Graham Perrett— who has two gay brothers and supports gay marriage—chairs the Australian parliamentary committee that examined gay law reform, and said that he believes a majority of lawmakers don’t share his views.

ST.PAUL, MN  – The Grace Community United Church of St. Paul says a “miracle” donation of $15,000 is keeping its doors open, after more than 70 percent of the congregation left the parish following its pastor’s endorsement of same-sex marriage.

The donation was a gift from the United Church of Christ in Dallas, a congregation consisting mostly of gay and lesbian members, in support of Grace Community’s pastor, Rev. Oliver White, who voted in 2005 to support the United Church of Christ’s endorsement of marriage equality. The minister says that his progressive interpretation of human rights has cost him and
his pulpit.

“Some young people maybe age 12 or so were walking by,” White recently told local station WCCO-TV. “I said why don’t you all come to Sunday school this Sunday, and their response was, ‘We heard you are a gay church and we can’t come here,’” White recalled.

The mostly African-American congregation is affiliated with the Congregationalist church movement, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs.
“We are not a gay church, we are church with a door that’s open to everybody,” White explained.

That sentiment cost White 150 members of his church, who said they could not support his belief that human rights and civil rights includes gay rights. “They take the bible very, very literally,” White noted of his former members.

By Cliff Dunn

Photo: Cardinal Francis George (Courtesy: CNS/Nancy Wiechec)

Gay rights groups in and around Chicago are condemning the city’s Roman Catholic leader for what they say is comparing the LGBT rights movement to the Ku Klux Klan.

The offending remarks from Cardinal Francis George were said during an interview on December 21 with Fox Chicago. Asked for his opinion about a local pastor’s complaints that the annual gay pride parade was forcing his parish to cancel its morning mass, George said he supported the priest’s position.

Said George: “You don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism,” an apparent reference to attempts by members of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party of America to march in nearby Skokie, Illinois in the late 1970s.

When pressed by the reporter, George admitted that his words were provocative, but repeated the acknowledged that it was a strong analogy, but stood by his reasoning. “The rhetoric of the KKK and the rhetoric of some of the gay liberation people — Who is the enemy? The Catholic Church,” George reiterated.

Organizers of Chicago’s annual pride parade agreed on December 21 to begin the event at a later start time after officials with Our Lady of Mt.

Carmel Catholic Church said that to the proposed route blocked access to their parish’s Sunday Masses.

Equally Blessed, a coalition of Catholic groups that advocate LGBT rights, said that Cardinal George’s remarks were “crude” and “demagogic.” In a statement, the group wrote: “Cardinal George’s offensive comments are further evidence of just how insensitive and out of touch the hierarchy is, and why opposition to its views is necessary.”

The embattled cardinal seemed to backtrack from his comments during a subsequent interview on Christmas Day, telling ABC in Chicago that “obviously, it’s absurd to say the gay and lesbian community are the Ku Klux Klan. But if you organize a parade that looks like parades that we’ve had in our past because it stops us from worshiping God, well then that’s the comparison. But it’s not with people and people – it’s parade-parade.”

Meanwhile, LGBT rights group Truth Wins Out called for George to step down from his pastoral duties in a full page ad that ran in The Chicago Tribune on New Year’s Day.