Don We Now Our Gay Apparel

Monday, 22 November 2010

Last week, when I listened to Truth to Tell’s program, they advertised the subject of today’s program: the Catholic Church’s mailing of anti-gay DVDs just in time for the election.

I was expecting the show to include one or two people who would strongly denounce the mailing and the church in general, and a couple of loyal Catholics who would discuss why such hate mail is warranted from their loving god. Instead…there was neither. Unlike last week, when host Driscoll said he was unable to get anyone from the hospital community to join in the discussion, this week there appeared to be no effort to even find people in support of the mailing. Instead, Driscoll began by listing off reasons why the Church is an out-moded, out-of-touch organization that needs to take care of its own problems instead of getting their fingers into politics. So, clearly he didn’t think the Church had any argument in their favor.

Instead, the four people who were involved in the discussion were all opposed to the mailings, yet still were members of the Church. One woman was interviewed because she invited people to mail their DVDs to her, and she made some artwork out of them. You can read about her art, and her subsequent dismissal from the Basilica HERE.

The people all had differing levels of animosity towards the Church. Some felt it is wrong for the Church to get involved in politics at all. Others said it’s fine if the Church wants to prohibit same-sex marriage within their organization, but shouldn’t try to stop it from being legalized on the secular front. One person said she felt it was a bad move because it was causing people to leave the Church (I’m sorry…why is this bad???). Two participants even disagreed about Jesus’ role in politics when he was on Earth; one lady said he was apolitical, a man countered that Jesus was strongly political. I understand their confusion at reading that clusterfuck known as the New Testament, but I gotta say that I think it’s great that Catholicism allows it’s members to hold such strongly dissenting opinions.

And that brings this up: one of the people in the discussion said that those who leave the Church due to differences are going about it the wrong way. They should stay in the Church and work to effect change from the inside.

Huh. I never thought of that.

I wonder how far we can take this…? Am I wrong to quit a job because the pay is bad; should I, instead, strive to get increased wages while remaining loyal to my employer? Would it be wrong to go AWOL from a military endeavor I disagreed with; should I try to convince my commanding officer to change his mind? I don’t know.

I think a few things need to be considered: Does the organization allow for freedom of expression? Does it have a means by which change can be instigated? How important is your grievance with the organization? How much of your life is consumed/controlled by the organization?

Of course, in order to change a problem, you need to be able to see it in the first place. ‘Father’ Michael Tageter (not my dad), rambled on about how wonderful Catholics are and even said, “Catholics are the most accommodating people as far as same-sex marriage.” Really? Maybe if everyone in the world was either Mormon, Muslim, or Catholic.

Another called was concerned that the Catholics lag in accepting the sexual mores of our day is leading to increased STDs and unwanted pregnancies. And for that, I have an idea:

If you wish to decrease the number of STDs and unwanted pregnancies, you simply need to take a condom, and fit it snugly over the Vatican.

Tuesday, 23 November 2010

I am an ardent non-fan of Christmas music, but every once in a while, one comes along that I like. This year, already, there are at least two.

The first is this one (You have to click the PLAY/PAUSE button to get it to start). It’s the precursor to Simon’s next album, titled So Beautiful or So What, slated to be released in March.

I also like this one, which I heard for the first time today: