Do Unto Others…
Posted by joyinhome on November 13, 2009
Okay. So I needed a day to cool off and reflect before writing this…
Let me preface by saying that I was raised in Catholicism. [For some reason, people feel better and believe you more credible if you belong to the group about which you are critical.]
I am APPALLED by the Catholic Church (and this of course is not the first time)! Yesterday, the Archdiocese of Washington threatened to pull its social service programs that serve D.C. residents if the D.C. Council approves the same-sex marriage law that is up for a vote next month.
Now, let’s put aside personal feelings on gay rights, how that makes you feel, your interpretation of whatever Holy Book you follow. The Catholic Church is playing politics and it is ugly.
The claim has been made that the Church does not want to provide partner benefits to its employees which would uphold something that goes against its belief system. Do not pee on my head and tell me it’s raining! Providing health benefits to employees has nothing to do with social services provided by Catholic Charities.
Social outreach is an important tenant of the Catholic Church which defines its mission as “spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity.” Catholic Charities of DC services about 70,000 residents, the majority of services dedicated to homeless individuals and families in crisis. Clients receive services at 88 locations throughout the District of Columbia and five Maryland counties.
The Church knows what impact this would have on the residents of a small city during a recession with high unemployment and budget shortfalls and cuts in services. These are strong-arm tactics and if they weren’t entrenched in hatred, I might be a bit impressed.
Honestly, I should not be surprised, the Catholic Church has never been inclusive- of women, people of color or anybody “different.” But to revoke much-needed support for people when they need it most belies the very core of what any church or religion should symbolize.
“Catholic” is derived from the Greek word meaning universal… oh, the irony.
Catholic Charities’ Open letter to the community.
Maybe It’s God ADW blog
Let the Catholic Church know that help should not come with the price of exclusion. Email Susan Gibbs of the Archdiocese at sgibbs@adw.org or send a message to Catholic Charities.
BPW Foundation's Women Misbehavin' Blog 
sherrysaunders said
Amen!
gansie said
totally totally agree
totally totally outraged
how dare they play politics with human rights work
Kimberly Bush said
As I was appalled to hear that the Catholic Church is willing to ‘steal’ certain conservative MARRIED priests from the Anglican/Episcopal Church. I guess that ‘thou shalt not covet’ ‘suggestion’ only applies to OTHERS.
As an Episcopalian (originally baptised Catholic), this debate has been well-publicized in our denomination for quite some time. Ours is more about the ordination of openly practicing gay clergy. I have met celibate male priests that I truly wondered about the sexual orientation of for like one half of one second. Sexual orientation was not pertinent to the subject matter at hand, which was usually of a spiritual nature. (I can get ‘expert dating advice’ from married men, who do not wear a collar to work.)
When I posed the question, however, “Are we against all gays or only against ordination of openly practicing gay clergy?”, I got no reply. I presumed the reply would be “We are not in favor of the ordination of openly practicing gay individuals (not an exclusively MALE group, btw), but we welcome ALL to our church services, in the hope that they will see the Truth of Scriptural teachings, including “Love thy neighbor as thyself”, AKA one of the Great Commissions of Jesus Christ.”
If you are hungry, I do not need to know anything about whom you sleep with in order to want to feed you. I may not allow you to sleep with them and engage in sexual behavior, while overnighting at my home. But this would be true if you were a straight 20-something couple. I worked hard to clean the house before your visit, and to prepare this meal. When I get to bed, I don’t really want to hear a thumping noise waking me up.
Somewhere along the line, we dragged ourselves from Civil rights for former slaves of all races, then zoomed right past females to gays of both genders.
No where in any version of the Bible that I have read (and the list is up to 5 different English versions now) have I found a passage that states, in any interpretation of the wording “Let them starve, and be homeless.”
And this is based on a group of nomadic peoples.