Pride & Opinions

In a bit of a follow-up to this post:

“Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, the head of Italy’s bishops’ conference, was under police guard after “Shame on you Bagnascoâ€? was spray-painted on the doors of his Cathedral of San Lorenzo over his comparison of gay rights to incest and pedophilia. He made the comments at a meeting of church workers over the weekend, according to a newspaper report.” - NY Times

Excuse me while I allow myself an immature little giggle and wonder if the spray-paint was pink.

Ahem. Yes. Now let’s put our adult caps back on and remind ourselves that vandalism is bad, kiddos. Very, very bad. So is saying such hateful things about homosexuals when one is supposed to be a representative of a faith that believes in one love under a benign God, but still. Vandalism is bad.

I’m really torn on what to say about this. Part of me feels a fiendish glee that Bagnasco now has a taste of what it feels like to be persecuted for his beliefs and/or lifestyle. I know it’s wrong to feel that way, and I’m shaking a stern finger at that devil on my shoulder even while it snickers at me mockingly. Mainly, though, I admire that someone had the courage to say something to the Archbishop, and that they chose to say something that had meaning–”shame on you”–rather than simply something vulgar and profane. It needed to be said–although I’d prefer that it had been said in the form of a letter or even a picketer’s sign, rather than through petty vandalism.

Nonetheless, someone needed to say it. Shame on you, Bagnasco. Shame on you for comparing the consenting love of two adults to acts of fornication that are lewd, obscene, and downright wrong. Pedophilia is a disease, my dear Archibishop. It’s a disease that causes unnatural and, most importantly, harmful desires. The actions of pedophiles can and do destroy the lives of children, and can affect them for the rest of their lives. Incest is a taboo act that may be somewhat acceptable in the animal world, but that has no place in the human world; at the very least, it’s wrong in the fact that generations of inbreeding can lead to deformities, mental retardation, and other defects caused by a closed gene pool with too many genetic similarities.

How does homosexuality destroy lives? How does it cause birth defects, or other physical repercussions? Homosexuality is not a disease, and it doesn’t harm anyone any more than heterosexuality does. For a woman to say “I love you” to another woman is as valid and wholesome as it would be for her to say it to a man. For a man to kiss another man is no less a healthy, acceptable expression of love or desire than it would be were he to kiss a woman. Love is love, no matter the gender of the people that share it. As long as it’s between two consenting (and unrelated) adults, there’s nothing unnatural about it.

Shame on you, Bagnasco, for not opening your heart and mind enough to understand that.

gay marriage, politics, catholic church, separation of church and state, archbishop bagnasco, gay rights