Today In Christian Love: You Can Be Fired For Supporting Equality

As usual, there’s Good News and Bad News.

The Good News is that marriage equality has come to Florida … finally … while the Bad News is that the Catholic Church is so incensed over the idea of equality that the Archdiocese of Miami has threatened to fire anyone who works for the Church if they voice support for equality.

So, let me get this queer: the Catholic Church is anti-0marriage equality and anti-Freedom of Speech? How Christ-like, no?

Archbishop Thomas Wenski has sent out a letter warning employees that they could be fired for any conduct that is “inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church"  and that "because of the Church’s particular function in society, certain conduct, inconsistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church, could lead to disciplinary action, including termination, even if it occurs outside the normal working day and outside the strict confines of work performed by the employee for the Archdiocese.”

See, if you work for the Church and then go home and, say, get on the Facebook and support marriage equality, you’ll be fired; if you, say, Tweet to your cousin who just married his longtime partner because equality came to town, you can be fired. If you have a blog and show support for the rights of all Americans to be treated equally under the law, you’ll lose your job.

For having an opinion, and voicing an opinion, you can be fired.

And they like to say there’s a war on religion? It looks like religion is firing the first shots at anyone who supports marriage equality and voices their support.

Again, how f**king-Christ-like.

via NBC Miami

Papal Props ... Slight Papal Props

It’s no secret that I am not a fan of the Catholic Church, and it’s Pope. I have this thing where I don’t like people or organizations who harbor child rapists, who give child rapists pensions for life if they just go away, who pay off victims of child rape with millions and millions of dollars that they could use for the “Lord’s work” if they would only stop harboring, protecting, and pensioning child rapists.

And I am not so fond of this somewhat new though slightly tarnished Pope Frankie either. When he first came on the scene he was virulently anti-marriage equality, and while he has evolved — much like President Obama — on the issue, he hasn’t fully come around to joining the 21st century. And, sure, he has said some nice things about The Gays, about the Church welcoming The Gays, about how The Gays have “something” to offer — other than being a scapegoat for the Church — he mostly talks but does nothing.

I am kind of an “actions speak louder than words” kinda gay, but, for today, I’ll give Frankie some props.

See, last year Pope Frankie removed Cardinal Raymond Burke — a very conservative American cardinal who doesn’t seem to care for Frankie very much — off the Vatican's powerful Congregation for Bishops, which deals with appointments of bishops worldwide, and then last week Cardinal Burke was removed as the leader of the Vatican’s highest court and re-appointed to a ceremonial position — which, I think, means he gets to keep the wardrobe — as chaplain of the Knights of Malta, a charity group.

And that demotion — though I wonder if it involves a pay decrease — is rather significant because generally the position of Patron of the Order of Malta is given to a retired cardinal, or offered as a second task to an active cardinal.

Still, the move is no surprise to anyone who’s watched the Vatican since Frankie moved his Prada slip-ons into the Royal, er, Papal closet.  After Frankie suggested that The Gays not be treated as less than, as the scourge of the Church, Burke strapped on his heels and pushed hard for the Vatican to revise and water-down its tentative step — really a non-step since nothing happened — toward greater acceptance of LGBT people.

Then he criticized Frankie’s questioned Francis' denunciation of excesses of capitalism — meaning Burke was all about the Benjamin’s and the cushy lifestyle of Cardinal — and then he gave an interview in which he called Frankie’s leadership “a ship without a rudder.”

So, it was really no surprised that Frankie kicked him to a less desirable curb.

And, like I said, while I’m no fan of the Church and the Pope, I’ll give him props for attempting to clean house ... with a whisk broom.

Pope Francis Demotes Outspoken Conservative Cardinal

Hard-line US cardinal loses another Vatican job

I'll Hold Off On My Parade For The Catholic Church

Last week we got word from the Vatican that maybe, maybe, the Church was changing their stance on The Gays and before you could say, Ooh Pope Franky, where did you get the red Pradas, The Gays and The Gay Friendlies had broken out the Rainbow Flags and the Glitter Balls and the Mardi Gras Beads and were outside marching and cheering the Catholics.

All because we learned that the Church was thinking of including The Gays because, ahem, I paraphrase, we have gifts to offer the Church even though we are, ahem, I quote, “morally problematic.”

Morally problematic is a reason for a parade, Gays? Really? Morally problematic?

Luckily, we’ll never find out what that means because, right after that select group of Catholics thought about being nicer to The Gays, another group of Catholic bishops decided to say F**k it — or the religious equivalent thereof — and scrap their whole welcome to The Gays Plan.

In fact, they even skipped over a watered down version of The Welcome to The Gays and, rather than consider us — well, some of you, I guess, if you’re Catholic because I’m not — as someone who has gifts, or as my father called it, money, to offer the church, the newly revised non-welcome now refers to The Gays as one of the “problems” that Catholic families have to confront. Mind you, though, the Bishops said nothing about that other problem of priests who rape children because, well, I guess that’s not really a problem …

And we're stopping ...

Let me put that this way: say there was a very elite, rather expensive, worldwide boarding school. And say that the story broke that some of the teachers in that boarding school, in schools all over the globe, were raping children. No, what if you then found out that the headmaster, and all past and future headmasters, knew about the sexual abuse and did nothing. And in addition to doing nothing, they allowed those teachers who rape the opportunity to avoid prosecution by moving to another school, you know, where there are fresher choices to rape. Or, maybe they asked those pedophile teachers to quit their jobs but still receive a nice big pension. Would you sit idly by and let that happen?

And we’re back …

In addition to calling The Gays morally problematic, and deciding that they should still welcome us because we have money to toss in the collection plate — money to replace the tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars the Church has paid to rape victims worldwide — the Bishops have also decided not to be nice to divorced Catholics, even the straight one, and to civilly remarried divorced Catholics, though they were not dubbed morally problematic, in saying that they cannot receive Communion.

Yes, the Church has no problem with rapist and pedophiles; it has no problem with bigwigs in the company — and let’s face it, the Church is a business — from aiding and abetting those rapist, but God forbid, literally, you are a man-loving man or woman-loving woman, or have been divorced because, yeah, you’re not their kind of people.

So, the next time you hear Pope Franky mention one single word about The Gays and how times have changed, celebrate the fact that, at least, he’s talking about us in a somewhat positive way, and not in the framework of straight to hell or a blight on humanity or a moral problem, but let’s hold off on the parades and the celebrations until the Church actually does something.

And then does something about their rape problem.

Ow! I haven't ranted for over a week, and I should'a stretched first!

Today in Not Christian Love: Priest Demands Gay Couple Divorce

After that story this morning, of that parent, that very religious parent, that very religious parent who is a pastor no less, and his stance on having gay children, I was all tingly inside about religious folk, and hoping for a change.

Then I read this …

Paul Huff and Tom Wojtowick have been a couple for over thirty years, and have been very active in their local church, St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Montana for more than a decade. That may change now that they’ve gotten married, simply so that they can make medical and financial decisions for each other as they grow older.

Samuel Spiering, the new parish priest, found out about the marriage, and instantly sent his Flying Monkeys out to the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, as well as Bishop Michael Warfel, to fix this horrific situation.

Christian love, y’all.

Spiering, Warfel, and some big-shots from the Diocese decided that these two men would be forced to write a "restoration statement," declaring their support for the Church's teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman. Sadly, they agreed to make that statement, and Tom explained it like this

"It was not our intent to challenge that (concept), but to have the rights of civic protections in our old age." 

Oh, but that wasn’t all; it wasn’t good enough to force these two men, who loved one another for thirty years, to kowtow to antiquated Catholic thinking; no, Father Spiering also told them that they would need to stop living together at once and that they needed to get a divorce.

And that's when Tom and Paul said no. 

The couple has declined to comment further because they have a scheduled meeting with Bishop Warfel to, ahem, "discuss how church teachings apply to the situation." Tom and Paul seem to think the Bishop will relent on his decision, while I seem to think it's time to bend over and tell the Bishop, the Priest, and the whole Diocese to kiss their gay asses.

Bishop Warfel says he likes Tom and Paul, and likes that they kept their shameful secret, you know,  getting married and all, but once word got out about the two queers being married and being Catholic, he had no choice but to tell them to condemn their relationship, divorce one another and live separately because, well, God.

He then says he isn’t punishing gay folks, he’s simply taking a stand against same-sex marriage, something only gay folks can do, you know. He seems to miss the irony there.

Father Spiering, for his part, isn’t playing the Double-Speak Game of Love the Sinner, hate The Sin of Same-Sex Marriage, he’s just keeping his yap shut, saying it’s a private matter.

For their part, Paul Huff hasn’t returned to St. Leo’s though Tom Wojtowick attends half the Mass, leaving before Communion is offered, though they have consulted with lawyers who believe that St. Leo’s the Great Catholic Church may have violated canon law.

They certainly violated the laws of Christian love. Perhaps the Priest, the Bishop, and the whole damn Diocese needs to have a good long sit down with John Pavlovitz and listen to him speak about The Gays and religion.

On the up side? Well, attendance at St. Leo’s has plummeted since Tom and Paul were told to divorce, and the pastor at the local Episcopalian Church says the couple is welcome, married and all, to take Communion there … and even sing in the choir.

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Random Musings

So, the other night we were sitting in the living room and, as usual, MaxGoldberg likes to sit by Carlos. So he jumped in Carlos’ chair and sat for about a second and then jumped over to me, where he stayed for about a second, until jumping back over to carols for another second before … you guessed it … round and round.

So, when he went back to Carlos, Carlos told him to stop running around and sit still; and then he told MaxGoldberg that he wasn’t going to pet him. And Max stood there staring at Carlos until Carlos finally  looked away.

I said, “My god, you two are the biggest babies!”

And Carlos actually said, “No, Max is a baby.”

Then he turned around and refused to look at MaxGoldberg … a cat.

To the folks — mostly rightwingnuts and lard asses like Drug Limbaugh — who constantly berate the First lady on her appearance: grow the f**k up.

I mean, you’re nothing but a bunch of schoolyard bullies whose little teeny heads would explode if a Democrat ever said anything negative about a Republican First Lady.

Seriously, grow up and shut up.

So, Ricky Perry wanted to fire someone because she was arrested for DUI, and she refused to quit and then he decided to cut the funding for her office and found himself arrested for abuse of power.

Hmm, wanting someone to quit, and they don’t, so you cut the money off to their job and other’s jobs is an abuse of power? Even I knew that Ricky.

So, here’s to Governor Smugshot who just shot himself in the foot for the 2016 Presidential election. Asshat.

We’ve been watching Under The Dome this summer, after having seen the first season last year. It’s kind of what I would call Lost: Under Glass. That same kind of story; but it does have some nice man candy.

Mike Vogel [left] has been on this blog before but he is very hot, and has the kind of ass you could … use your imagination.

Eddie Cahill [middle] is just plain cute, with a twinkle in his eye.

And this week we met Max Ehrich [right], who plays a computer nerd. There is just something about a cute nerd that burns up my motherboard.

Just sayin’.

The other day I was chatting with my Dad on the phone and we were talking about everything from politics to rainforests to furniture. And then we started talking about Carlos and I getting married and my Dad said, “You’re doing it in New York?”

I said, “Yes.”

He said, “Well, I won’t be there. I don’t do big cities.” 

And he doesn’t; he and my mom used to live in an area of California called Blue Canyon — ninety minutes or more from anything you could call a city. Then they moved to Toledo, Oregon, hours away from a city.

After my mom died my dad moved to Sumas, Washington, in the far North West. It’s close to Bellingham, but Bellingham is a big town or small city.

But I digress.

After hanging up I started thinking. Sometimes you don’t really listen to people and you miss an important fact. When he said “I won’t be there … “ I missed the little glitch in his voice that seemed to suggest he wanted to be there. And then I thought about how my Dad was there when my sister got married and was there when my brother got married and, even though for a very long time, we never believed I could actually ever get married, I knew he wanted to be there for Carlos and me.

Cut to the chase: we’ll be getting married in Washington state rather than New York because we want Dad to be there.

Good on Mariela Castro, the daughter of Cuba’s president Raul Castro and niece of Fidel Castro, for making the first recorded vote against the government in a show of support for LGBT people.

The proposed update to Cuba's expansive labor code included explicit protections based on sexual orientation, but Mariela — who was behind the sixth International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association for Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Conference held in Cuba earlier this year — said that because it didn't also specify protections for people based on their gender identity and HIV status, it was inconsistent with her beliefs.

It is thought to be the first time that a government bill has been voted against.

Brava chica!

So, a few years back I saw a picture of hot model, hot gay model, Josey Greenwell, He was all over the internet and all over Pride festivals, singing and performing and being, well, openly gay. In fact, for a time he was publicly dating model Rodiney Santiago, former boyfriend Reichen Lehmkuhl.

Then suddenly he was gone; no Pride performances; no modeling jobs; no Rodiney. And no Facebook page and no more Josey Greenwell fan pages; even his Wikipedia profile was scrubbed clean.

But now he’s back … as Nate Green, straight country singer. And he wants to be seen as straight anywhere and everywhere and apparently even deletes any gay comments about him or any comments that say he is really Josey Greenwell and really gay.

And now, in interviews, he denies being gay or even being Josey.

Uh huh. Josey, honey, the gays never forget a pretty face, especially one that tries to re-closet himself.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has issued a call for all Catholics to refrain from participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge because it funds an ALS study that uses embryonic stem cells. 

People should suffer because, well, stem cells.

To date, however, the challenge has raised some $31,000,000.

Speaking of Carlos and me getting married, he was in downtown Smallville this afternoon and stopped in a jewelry store to look at wedding bands. The woman in the shop began showing him what they had, and then she asked that question:

“Your fiancé? What kind of ring does she want?”

Without hesitation, Carlos said, “It’s what kind of ring does he want.”

And the woman said, “Oh, okay, Here’s some other ones you both might like.”

Smallville, you never cease top amaze me.

Archbishop Nienstedt Accused Of Having A Case Of 'The Gays'

First, a little back story ….

In 2010 Archbishop John Nienstedt, one of the Catholic Church’s most vocal anti-LGBT opponents, ordered that communion would be denied to openly gay students because, well, gay; at the same time his archdiocese — in a blatant disregard for a little thing we have in this country called Separation of Church and State — sent out 400,000 DVDs to Minnesota voters urging that they support anti-LGBT candidate for governor, Tom Emmer.

In January 2012, Archbishop John Nienstedt ordered all of Minnesota's priests to keep their mouths shut if they opposed the coming referendum on same-sex marriage. And later that same year he wrote a letter to a mother, who’d asked what she might do about her gay son, and told her that if she didn’t reject her child she would be doomed to Hell. It was that story that spawned the LGBT advocacy work of former Minnesota Viking Chris Kluwe. [See my post HERE]

In September 2012, Archbishop John Nienstedt announced that Satan loves sodomy, and then he was accused of hiding a pedophile priest who is now in prison.

In December 2013, Nienstedt was accused of touching a boy’s buttocks while posing for a confirmation photo. He denied the allegation and took a leave while the county prosecutor investigated; no charges were filed and Nienstedt returned to his post in March.

So, that’s a little bit of Archbishop John Nienstedt; here’s more …

This week it was revealed that Archbishop John Nienstedt is being investigated for being, gulp, a big old boa-wearing, show-tune-singing, Liza-loving, P-town-going, man-f**king queer.

Indeed; the biggest homophobes are closeted homosexuals. ALLEGEDLY.

The investigation is being conducted by a Minneapolis law firm hired by the archdiocese after church officials received more than one allegation against Nienstedt.  Of course, Nienstedt has utterly denounced the allegations as “absolutely and entirely false” and says it was he who authorized the internal investigation in order to clear his name. He has dismissed the charges as a “personal attack against me due to my unwavering stance on issues consistent with church teaching, such as opposition to so-called same-sex marriage.”

Yeah, this, too, is all The Gay’s fault.

“The allegations do not involve minors or lay members of the faithful, and they do not implicate any kind of illegal or criminal behavior. The allegations involve events alleged to have occurred at least a decade ago, before I began serving in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.” — Archbishop Nienstedt

So, he’s saying he didn’t have sex with children or parishioners, but he doesn’t deny that he might have been schtupped, or been the schtuppee, with fellow members of the clergy and, anyway, it was all before he became Archbishop, so even if it’s true, whatever; or something.

It was during the investigation into Nienstedt’s ALLEGED hiding of pedophile priests that suspicions about his sexual relationships with other men came to light. And there are ALLEDGLY ten sworn statements from men who say that they had sexual relations with Nienstedt during his time as a priest in the Detroit Archdiocese, and there are also allegations that Nienstedt retaliated against men who refused his sexual advances or questioned his conduct.

And now lawyers are looking into whether Archbishop John Nienstedt had a sexual relationship with the Reverend Curtis Wehmeyer, a priest with a history of sexually molesting children in his parish, and whom Nienstedt named to head two different parishes. Nienstedt maintains that his relationship with Wehmeyer was “professional” and “pastoral” and preceded the reports of Wehmeyer’s abuse.

So, if they did the deed, it was before he knew the man was a pedophile. I can’t help but notice he never really denies the allegations, though he does seem to suggest that it’s coming from the LGBT community for his stance on The Gays; or that these are all things that happened, ALLEGEDLY happened, before he became Archbishop.

“Let us pray that the truth will come out as a result of the investigation.” — Archbishop Nienstedt

Yes, let us pray on that. Let us pray that the truth comes out, and you come out, and atone for all the sins you’ve tossed at our community. I think God would rather have you be an honest man, an honest gay man, that a lying, pedophile hiding, damnation spouting asshat.

But that’s just me.

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Archbishop Claims He Didn't Know Child Rape Was A Crime

Last week I posted what I thought, at the time, was the most inane argument to excuse a priest, as well as the Catholic Church, from any wrongdoing in the ongoing Pedophile Priest Scandal. A lawyer for the Diocese of Trenton said the priest, and the Church, were not guilty of any crime because the priest was “off duty” when he was raping boys — see post HERE.

Now, however, I have heard an even more ignorant excuse for priests sexually molesting children and why it went unreported.

See, back in 1984 when Archbishop Robert Carlson was merely an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and when he learned of a priest sexually abusing a child, he says he didn’t report it because, well, let’s hear the fool in his own words:

“I’m not sure whether I knew it was a crime or not. I understand today it’s a crime.”

Yes, he didn’t know, or so he says, in 1984, that it was a crime for a grown-assed man, not to mention a priest in the Catholic Church, to have sexual relations with a child. That’s his excuse for doing nothing.

And yet, he also appears to be a liar as well, because new documents released show that he did indeed know, even back in the Dark Ages of 1984, that child-rape is a crime. According to one document from that time, Carlson wrote to John Roach, the then Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, about one victim of sexual abuse and mentioned that the statute of limitations for the victim to file a claim against the church would not expire for more than two years. He also wrote that the parents of the victim were considering reporting the incident to the police.

And yet now he says he didn’t know it was a crime? How stupid does the Catholic Church think we are? Do they honestly believe that any sane person thinks a priest who rapes a boy on a weekend getaway that isn’t sanctioned by the church is somehow off-duty and therefore the Church is not liable in a damages suit? And do they really think we buy that whole “Oh, I didn’t know having sex with a child was a crime” bull?

I think another crime by the Church, other than allowing pedophiles to graze on children, is to allow pedophile protectors, enablers, like Carlson to continue on in the ministry.

He may not have physically raped a child, but he emotionally raped many.

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