A letter I am writing to my home town newspaper (about my home diocese giving 10k to Maine race)

[dsc]

I read the other day about the Youngstown Diocese giving $10,000 to support the Maine People's veto of the marriage equality bill. I am presuming this was through some sort of special offering in the various Catholic churches. That $10,000 might well represent a thousand or so donors. Growing up I remember special offerings in my church. We had the offering for retired pastors, the one for missionary programs, the one for the local camp, and some others. We didn't have any for political races.

I know how bad the economy in Ashtabula county is. Double digit unemployment, thousands of forclosed houses, shuttered businesses, schools being cut to the bone, broke governments, people going hungry, and on and on. On my twice yearly drives home I often go through the area of East Liverpool up to Conneaut a trip I ruefully call the depression tour. In light of this, it amazes me that the Diocese of Youngstown decided to raise and spend 10,000 on a political campaign. That campaign didn't feed a single child, it didn't clothe a single naked person, it didn't save a single person's house, all it did was prevent gay couples in Maine from being treated like straight couples in Maine. Someone in Ashtabula went hungry so that someone in Maine could be denied the ability to be on his husband's health policy. Are those Christian values? Are those Ohio values?

I don't pretend to be either a Biblical scholar or a Catholic but it seems to me that Jesus was pretty clear what he was looking for in a follower. He gave what teachers call a rubric. Here it is:

Matthew 25:34-46 Then the King will tell those on his right hand, 'Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.' "Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?' "The King will answer them, 'Most assuredly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' Then he will say also to those on the left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you didn't give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you didn't take me in; naked, and you didn't clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn't visit me.' "Then they will also answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn't help you?' "Then he will answer them, saying, 'Most assuredly I tell you, inasmuch as you didn't do it to one of the least of these, you didn't do it to me.' These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Notice what is there. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, helping the needy. Notice what isn't, preventing gays from having their relationships treated like their straight brethern. Jesus was pretty clear. Taking money from an area in dire economic straights to spend to deny people relationship rights isn't what Jesus had in mind.

I don't live in Maine so on that level I don't have a dog in the fight. But I do hope, someday, to meet a nice man and settle down with him and maybe even have some children. Even if I don't meet a man, I still want to know that society values me as a person as much as it values you as a person. I just can't imagine how, in an area of such rampant unemployment, a church raised $10,000 to prevent people like me from having the same rights as people like you.

In the final analysis, I don't know why I wrote this letter. Afterall, it might not have even been your churches which ponied up the money. But those who attend Catholic churches I feel need to know what your money ended up getting spent on. I fail to see how two women or two men in Maine being afforded the rights that an opposite gender couple would get in any way, shape, or form impacts your marriage in Ohio. Surely not to the tune of $10,000 hard earned dollars and surely not when so many have so little.

[NanceGreggs]

1. Excellent piece of writing ...

:applause:

[enigmatic]

2. Great letter

spot-on :thumbsup:

[Mz Pip]

3. Wonderful

and to the point.

$10,000 could have been used to supply many food banks with much needed donations. So, in reality, there will be a child that will go hungry because the church chose to send its donations to support a political campaign that does nothing to help those in need.

[niyad]

4. a most excellent piece, and most accurate analysis of what that money could have done.

it will be interesting to see what sort of response you receive. please keep us posted.

[glinda]

5. hope they publish it

[Peace Patriot]

6. The Catholic Church has had a hard time getting over the end of the Middle Ages,

when its word was law. It has always been exceedingly uncomfortable with democracy, and very undemocratic in its own organization, and its fear of women and assignment of women to second-class membership in the Church has persisted from the 2nd-5th centuries AD to this day. Even the gospels that the Church selected as its canon (purging all the rest, circa 500 AD) make clear that this was NOT Jesus's view--all were equal in his eyes, women and men, rich and poor, beggar, prisoner priest and king. He said this again and again and again and again, in every way imaginable. Even in the Church-sanctioned gospels, he had none of this prissy, velvet-and-lace robed, sick fetish about other peoples' sex lives, that we see in the people who claim to be guardians of the "one and only true, universal, apostolic, Catholic Church" started by Jesus himself. It is ridiculous claim, on its face, and that damned lie reverberates down through the centuries and through two millennia, to this day, in the ridiculous lies and hypocrisies, and egregious violations of Jesus' actual teachings, that we see in this grotesque remnant of the Late Roman Empire.

We need to heed Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and other wise Founders of our democracy, and consign these meddling priests and preachers to SILENCE on political matters, or tax every dollar they receive and asset they hold. Jefferson and co. were well aware of the religious wars that had blighted European countries and England with centuries of war and other horrors. They meant to firmly and forever banish such poisonous divisiveness from our shores. We need to act on that vital principle once again, and forbid church interference in SECULAR government.

And while we're at it, forbid every kind of corporate organization from brainwashing our people and running our government.

(Ever notice how similar our corporate rulers are to the Church in the Middle Ages?)

[mitchtv]

7. thank you, for pointing that out

I always thought you lived in NC

[dsc]

8. I do but I lived in that part of the country from age 0 to age 36

with four years off for college and two years off for grad school.

[LiberalFighter]

9. I wonder if it is legal for the church to contribute to a political issue?

It is different if the members contribute directly to the issue instead of the church's PAC or fund.

[dsc]

10. sadly this apparently is legal

since it was widely advertised.

[Betty Karlson]

11. Kicked and recommended, sir.

Not a word too much or too few.