Many articles circulating in the gay press at the moment seam to be about the relationship between religious institution and the LGBT community. Between the Catholic Pope saying, “gay rights is an ephemeral social trend” and the Anglican Church about to split on gay clergy. I have started to question what religion means to me, as a young gay man.
As most people in Ireland I was raised a Catholic, baptised, made my communion, and my confirmation, but did I have a choice in this? No. My parents, family, and society forced it upon me in general. I was expected to believe everything in the bible as if I had chosen to sign on as a Roman Catholic and obey the Pope, but I did not.
Now that I’m older (some may disagree on wiser) I have come to see what the Church is really like. It is about preserving the vested interests of the Church. Protecting its role as moral guardian to the flock and setting social standards for all to follow. Unfortunately, the equalisation of rights for the LGBT community does not feature under any them.
As I was growing I learned to love my neighbour, this is a major lesson in the bible. But, it seams if I have a LGBT neighbour, he/she should be treated differently to me. They are not allowed marry the person they love or offered any protection for their relationship or any agreements they may have entered into as a couple.
Now does that not seam a bit hypocritical, or is the old case of the love the sinner, hate the sin?
Then you have religious maniacs like Fred Phelps over in the good ‘ole US of A. Now I’m the first to stand up to protect free speech but spouting out-right hatred is a bit much. According to Phelps all ‘gays’ will rot in hell. But I ask ‘is there a hell?’ Phelps also claims that Hurricane Katrina was Gods retribution on New Orleans.
Now people wonder why people seam to be disenchanted with religion with falling attendances across the developed world, but maybe people are beginning to get tired of the threats of fire and brimstone from the pulpit. Maybe their tired of following the Churches wishes and voting with their conscience not the religion with a dictator as it’s head.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
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Well, if you feel strongly about it, you can get out of the church... its easier than you think!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I grew tired of listening to the same old holier-than-thou rhetoric from the church. Frankly, listening to someone who once wore a swastika on their arm telling me that I am “evil” and my love for my partner is “weak love” turned my stomach.
Under Vatican II, you have a right to self determination of faith (given that the Vatican II was in 1965, one can only assume for the previous 1964 years you didn’t have that choice). The church refers this as “defection”.
Its quite simple, you mail the archbishop of Dublin, address below, and tell him under Vatican II, you wish to exercise your right to defect.
Reverend Dr Diarmuid Martin
Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland,
Archbishop's House,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9.
You’ll need to provide some additional information like where you were baptised, your parents names, godparents names, and of course the date you were baptised (and if you don't have this, your date of birth will do... I only submitted my date of birth, location of baptism, and parents names and it seemed to suffice)
You’ll get a letter back with some reasons why you shouldn’t do this unspeakable thing, such as not being able to get married in a church, yadda yadda… unless one intends running back into the closet, this really shouldn’t be an issue. I wrote back explaining I was gay, and within a few days, my amended baptism certificate was sent to me with “defection” written all over it, and that was that:- no longer a Catholic. I now have it hanging on my wall, it’s a smashing conversation piece.
I have to say, I felt a lot better for doing it too. I felt I was making a little, but personal stand against the endless oppression from the church, and I was no longer counted as one of their numbers. Maybe you will too.
cool! i might do that. thanks for the info!
ReplyDelete