Sunday, July 10, 2011

John Mattras on Questions to Ask U.S. Catholic Bishops about Their Defense of Marriage



John Mattras at Huffington Post,* recounting his journey as a gay Catholic from self-denial to self-acceptance, and the questions he'd like to put to the head of the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Conference Archbishop Timothy Dolan now, as a gay man celebrating his God-given sexual orientation:

Why is the church throwing scarce financial resources at fighting same sex marriage and not at other challenges to more traditional notions of marriage if, in fact, all are of equal concern to the church? Do you expect that by prohibiting gay marriages there will be fewer gay people? Will perpetuating disapproval of gay relationships stop people from being gay? Is homosexuality a contagion that needs to be circumscribed with societal disapproval? And if we accept, as science, medicine, psychiatry and even church leaders have concluded, that homosexuality is something that is neither chosen nor changeable, how will the denial of marriage benefits to gay couples serve to advance heterosexuality?

*Thanks to Alan McCornick of the wonderful Hepzibah blog for pointing me to Mattras's article.

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