Back in 1997, when Steve and I were still living in the Charlotte, North Carolina, region after having been fired by Belmont Abbey College near Charlotte (Steve was let go at the same time the school fired some seven or eight faculty or staff widely thought to be gay or lesbian), I remember a series of letters in the Charlotte paper when President Clinton appointed James Hormel, an openly gay man, to the position of ambassador to Luxembourg. As well as I recall, the letters continued on into 1998, after we moved away from Charlotte, but at a time in which I continued to read Charlotte news to keep up with events there.
The gist of these letters—which were obviously written by a mix of evangelical and Catholic members of the political and religious right—was that the nation of Luxembourg would be appalled, just appalled, I tell you!, at having a gay ambassador. Because Luxembourg is Catholic, don’t you know.
It happened that Steve and I had just visited Luxembourg in 1998, when some of the letters in question appeared in the Charlotte paper. He has some roots there near the German border, and we had spent a delightful day with an elderly relative of his in Luxembourg, a multilingual man who had spent many years researching and writing about his particular branch of Steve’s family.
A Catholic man who didn’t turn a hair about extending hospitality to a gay cousin and his partner. Nor did I have any sense at all that anyone in the tiny and heavily Catholic country cared a whit about the gay bugbear issues of the American religious right. These are Catholics with a head on their shoulders and a bit of sophistication about issues having to do with sexual morality.
So I read the letters in the Charlotte paper screaming about what an insult it would be to the Catholic nation of Luxembourg if we sent a gay ambassador to them, how the Catholic people of Luxembourg would be up in arms at having such a demonic agent living among them. And as I read, I raised my eyebrows: these folks apparently had never been to Luxembourg, and obviously knew nothing at all about this and the other Catholic nations of Europe whose Catholic purity they were defending.
And then, in the final decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, one Catholic nation after another began to enact legislation permitting same-sex marriage or same-sex unions. Spain, Portugal, several Latin American countries. And now Ireland.
Box Turtle Bulletin is reporting today that Ireland’s Dáil has passed a bill providing for same-sex civil unions, and the bill will now go before the Irish Seanad.
Not only are the Catholic nations of Europe not up in arms over gay ambassadors (or gay artists, gay political leaders, gay teachers, gay hairdressers and florists, gay sports stars, gay you name it): they are in the forefront of the movement to accord simple justice to same-sex couples in the area of marriage rights. Far ahead of the United States, the nation with the soul of a church, in this regard, in the pursuit of fundamental human rights for LGBT people.
The Catholic nations of Europe hear the present pope fulminate about same-sex marriage as an incomparable threat to human existence, they listen politely, and then they go their own way. And as they go their own way, they enact legislation to protect LGBT people from discrimination and to protect the human rights of LGBT people.
Their sense of the crucial importance of human rights for all comes from precisely the same church that wants these nations to place LGBT people in a special category of lesser rights, simply because of their sexual orientation. These Catholic nations are exemplifying values centered in Catholic social teaching that the church itself has imparted to them, as they move to protect gay rights.
I have long known that the American religious right has been lying boldly when it claims that “Catholics” resist gay rights and scorn gay people. Much empirical data disprove that assertion and demonstrate, in fact, that American Catholics are far more willing to accept and protect the rights of gay citizens than are a majority of their Protestant neighbors.
The bishops are, of course, another story, as are the neocon Catholic political leaders on whom they continue to rely for advice—people like Deal Hudson, with his checkered marital past, or Newt Gingrich, with his multiple wives. And the Catholic nations of Europe certainly don’t fit neatly into the anti-gay box into which the American religious right wants to shove them.
With each new Catholic nation that enacts legislation granting marriage rights or civil-union rights to same-sex couples, the claim of the American religious right that Catholics are bitterly opposed to gay people, gay rights, and gay marriage grows more ludicrous. And the baseness of those using this Catholic argument to promote indefensible prejudice against a vulnerable minority becomes more apparent to more and more citizens of nations around the world.
It happened that Steve and I had just visited Luxembourg in 1998, when some of the letters in question appeared in the Charlotte paper. He has some roots there near the German border, and we had spent a delightful day with an elderly relative of his in Luxembourg, a multilingual man who had spent many years researching and writing about his particular branch of Steve’s family.
A Catholic man who didn’t turn a hair about extending hospitality to a gay cousin and his partner. Nor did I have any sense at all that anyone in the tiny and heavily Catholic country cared a whit about the gay bugbear issues of the American religious right. These are Catholics with a head on their shoulders and a bit of sophistication about issues having to do with sexual morality.
So I read the letters in the Charlotte paper screaming about what an insult it would be to the Catholic nation of Luxembourg if we sent a gay ambassador to them, how the Catholic people of Luxembourg would be up in arms at having such a demonic agent living among them. And as I read, I raised my eyebrows: these folks apparently had never been to Luxembourg, and obviously knew nothing at all about this and the other Catholic nations of Europe whose Catholic purity they were defending.
And then, in the final decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, one Catholic nation after another began to enact legislation permitting same-sex marriage or same-sex unions. Spain, Portugal, several Latin American countries. And now Ireland.
Box Turtle Bulletin is reporting today that Ireland’s Dáil has passed a bill providing for same-sex civil unions, and the bill will now go before the Irish Seanad.
Not only are the Catholic nations of Europe not up in arms over gay ambassadors (or gay artists, gay political leaders, gay teachers, gay hairdressers and florists, gay sports stars, gay you name it): they are in the forefront of the movement to accord simple justice to same-sex couples in the area of marriage rights. Far ahead of the United States, the nation with the soul of a church, in this regard, in the pursuit of fundamental human rights for LGBT people.
The Catholic nations of Europe hear the present pope fulminate about same-sex marriage as an incomparable threat to human existence, they listen politely, and then they go their own way. And as they go their own way, they enact legislation to protect LGBT people from discrimination and to protect the human rights of LGBT people.
Their sense of the crucial importance of human rights for all comes from precisely the same church that wants these nations to place LGBT people in a special category of lesser rights, simply because of their sexual orientation. These Catholic nations are exemplifying values centered in Catholic social teaching that the church itself has imparted to them, as they move to protect gay rights.
I have long known that the American religious right has been lying boldly when it claims that “Catholics” resist gay rights and scorn gay people. Much empirical data disprove that assertion and demonstrate, in fact, that American Catholics are far more willing to accept and protect the rights of gay citizens than are a majority of their Protestant neighbors.
The bishops are, of course, another story, as are the neocon Catholic political leaders on whom they continue to rely for advice—people like Deal Hudson, with his checkered marital past, or Newt Gingrich, with his multiple wives. And the Catholic nations of Europe certainly don’t fit neatly into the anti-gay box into which the American religious right wants to shove them.
With each new Catholic nation that enacts legislation granting marriage rights or civil-union rights to same-sex couples, the claim of the American religious right that Catholics are bitterly opposed to gay people, gay rights, and gay marriage grows more ludicrous. And the baseness of those using this Catholic argument to promote indefensible prejudice against a vulnerable minority becomes more apparent to more and more citizens of nations around the world.
