MN Catholics' new effort: Like Netflix, but with gays' love in the horror category

« Go back a post || Return to G-A-Y homepage || Haul tail to next post »

09/20/2010

by Jeremy Hooper

On numerous occasions we've asked you to pay some focus to Minnesota, where Maggie Gallagher and the rest of the National Organization for Marriage have so obviously been laying the exact same kind of framework for a potential ballot initiative that they did prior to launching efforts in California, Maine, and elsewhere. Speaking engagements have been booked. Salvatore Cordileone, the so-called "father of Prop 8," has been tapped. Local bishops have placed Op-Eds in local papers. NOM's been running ads telling citizens that they have the right to vote on marriage. NOM's also currently sticking their organizational nose into the state senate and gubernatorial elections, knowing that since there's no direct I/R procedure in Minnesota, they need to change the legislative and executive makeup as much as they can before they move forward. All of this in hopes of getting out ahead of the pro-equality side, should basic human rights every be put to a majority vote in the North Star State.

Now, via The Courier newsletter of the Diocese of Winona (no relation to Judd), we learn that the state's Catholic coalition is getting even more aggressive in gearing up their troops for a potential fight. In fact, they are actually sending anti-equality DVDs to every parishioner, turning many family movie nights into a cinematic call to arms:

Within the next week or so, you will receive a letter from me and a DVD. The bishops of Minnesota are alarmed by the continuing attacks on the institution of marriage, and we are taking action. First, we want every Catholic to know the church’s teaching about marriage. From the beginning, the church has taught that marriage is a lifetime relationship between one man and one woman. It is a sacrament, instituted by Jesus Christ to provide the special graces that are needed to live according to God’s law and to give birth to the next generation.

There are several current attacks on marriage. The most threatening now are efforts to legalize “same sex” or “gay” marriage, that is, marriage between two men or between two women.

The DVD provides more detail about the Church’s teaching on marriage and about the possible effects that a same sex marriage policy would have in our state. When they arrive, I hope that you will read the letter and watch the DVD. Then, I hope that you will become one of the thousands of Catholics who have contacted legislators and told them that marriage is a lifetime relationship between one man and one woman. Any other kind of relationship simply is not a marriage. This is our time to stand up and defend marriage as a unique institution that, from the beginning of human history and in every culture, is the union of one man and one woman for the propagation of the human family and the upbringing of children.

Same sex marriage [Diocese of Winona, MN]

In a way we gays and lesbians should be flattered. Our lives are just so important that a major religious group is seriously making movies about our benign existences. Andy Warhol predicted everyone's 15 minutes of fame -- The Catholic church of Minnesota is delivering as much to all gays.

But mostly, it's just creepy. If they asked to see our wedding videos, most of us gay folk would probably show them. But this feels like they snuck in our house and seized the footage, then re-edited it in a dramatic way that'd impress even the "Real Housewives" producers. It feels not only offensive, but also invasive. Like an underground game of telephone (or television, as it were), where propagandistic whispers have replaced actual discussion, religious condemnation has replaced religious freedom, and where "The Blind Side" in DVD players is anything but "Precious."

space