So, Cardinal George of Chicago has concerns that the gay rights movement could
”morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan, demonstrating in the streets against Catholicism.” He says the rhetoric of the KKK and some in the gay rights movement involving the Catholic Church was similar.
“The rhetoric of the Ku Klux Klan; the rhetoric of some of the gay liberation people — who is the enemy? Who is the enemy? The Catholic Church,” George said.
Chicago Tribune
Perhaps it’s just my ignorance as a non-American, but I did not think that the characteristic feature of the Klan was its anti-Catholic rhetoric: I had the idea that far more significant, and more sinister, was its propensity to activities like this:
After the establishment of the Ku Klux Klan in 1867 the number of lynching of African American increased dramatically. The main objective of the KKK was to maintain white supremacy in the South, which they felt was under threat after their defeat in the Civil War. It has been estimated that between 1880 and 1920, an average of two African Americans a week were lynched in the United States.
In 1884 Ida Wells, editor of Free Speech, a small newspaper in Memphis, carried out an investigation into lynching. She discovered during a short period 728 black men and women had been lynched by white mobs. Of these deaths, two-thirds were for small offences such as public drunkenness and shoplifting.
Why did these crimes occur? The short answer is simple: intolerance. Bizarrely, the Klan leaders saw themselves as God-fearing leaders of their communities, protecting “white civilization” from the supposed threats posed by the “other” - especially where those others attempted to mix on an equal footing with themselves.
In addition to targeting Black people directly, the KKK also attacked and murdered civil rights activists who were fighting against the intolerance they symbolized.
In any comparisons between the KKK and the gay rights movement, where should we properly position the Catholic Church? Cardinal George was reflecting on the “rhetoric” of some gay activists. I want consider not the words, but the actions, of the Christian Church in history - and of some people acting in its name to this day.
Starting in about the fourteenth century, the Catholic Church was responsible for the executions of several thousand people for the offence of “sodomy”, frequently after trials in which the prosecutor was also judge and jury, and in which the only evidence had been extracted by torture. When these were not conducted by the officials of the church directly, civic authorities did so at their instigation. These judicial executions continued in Europe until the nineteenth century, revived again in the Nazi Holocaust, and in some formerly colonial territories criminal sanctions continue to this day, under the auspices of homophobia and hatred originally promoted by the Church.
Even where criminal sanctions have been abolished, and LGBT rights enshrined in law, homophobia, violence and even murder of sexual minorities persist. The perpetrators of this violence often claim to be motivated by their desire to defend what they perceive to be Christian values - just as the KKK murderers often claimed to be acting to defend their interpretation of Christian values.
These modern hate crimes are no longer perpetrated by the Church itself, which is clear in official documents that all forms of violence and malice, in words or in actions, are to be opposed - but there is far too little evidence of such opposition from the designated leaders of the Catholic Church. It is not the LGBT activists who resemble the KKK, but the playground bullies, the neighbourhood gay - bashers, and the hate-crime murderers. Has the Cardinal ever drawn that more obvious parallel, or made any public condemnation of their hatred?
It is true that LGBT activists at times have been harsh in their criticism of religion, and of some churchmen in particular. However, I am not aware of any Christians who have been murdered by gay activists.
All comparisons with the KKK, like those with the Nazis, are odious, and best avoided. However, if comparisons really must be made, I leave you with two questions:
- Should gay activists be more appropriately compared with the KKK - or with the civil rights activists who opposed them?
- Should the instituational Catholic Church be more appropriately compared with the victims of the Klan - or with the Klansmen themselves?
Other LGBT Catholics are as outraged as I am.
Equally Blessed, an umbrella group of four pro-LGBT rights Catholic organizations, today condemned comments made by Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George….
Equally Blessed charges in a statement that George “has demeaned and demonized LGBT people in a manner unworthy of his office. In suggesting that the Catholic hierarchy has reason to fear LGBT people in the same way that blacks, Jews, Catholics and other minorities had reason to fear the murderous nightriders of the Ku Klux Klan, he has insulted the memory of the victims of the Klan’s violence and brutality.”
The statement goes on to emphasize that they have “no fight with the Catholic Church,” noting that public opinion surveys show Catholics are more supportive of LGBT rights than other Christian denominations. Equality Blessed objects to “the positions of the Catholic hierarchy and the way it uses its influence to force its narrow theological understanding on the wider society. Cardinal George’s offensive comments are further evidence of just how insensitive and out of touch the hierarchy is, and why opposition to its views is necessary.”
Religion Dispatches
At Bondings 2.0, Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, writes:
The sheer ridiculousness and callousness of these comments show not only ignorance of the LGBT movement, but also bespeak an irrational fear.
What else can account for such vicious responses? Part of the fear may be due to the fact that the hierarchy senses they are losing the argument on LGBT equality. I do not think that these men are evil. I believe them to be motivated by good and trying to do good, but that pressure is getting the best of them and making them act in irrational ways. I am not excusing their behavior or statements at all, but I think it is important to understand what may be behind these statements.
Regardless of the motivation, an apology is needed in both cases.
DeBernardo goes on to endorse the very practical suggestion from the U - get in touch with the Cardinal, tell him how wrong he is.
“Get in touch with Cardinal George. Ask him to reconsider his comments and issue an apology.Above all else, approach this conversation with the greatest amount of love you can muster, lest we give credence to his beliefs that “the gay liberation movement” is full of angry hate-mongers. Our issue isn’t with Catholics — it’s with those leaders who use divisive, incendiary language and tactics to suppress an entire group of people and our families.
“You can leave a message for Cardinal George through his Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/FrancisCardinalGeorgeOMI “Or try the Diocese Catholic Information Line: 312-534-8204.”
Do it.
(UPDATE: At Change.org, there is a petition up, calling on Cardinal George to resign.
Related articles
- Lest We Forget: Remember the Ashes of Our Martyrs
- IDAHO: Remember the Modern Martyrs.
- Modern Martyrs of the Upstairs Lounge Fire Attack
- Cardinal George, LGBT People, and the Klan (newwaysministryblog.wordpress.com)
- Cardinal George: Chicago Gay Pride Parade Could ‘Morph Into Klu Klux Klan’ (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
- Advent, Hope, and the Current Situation of the Catholic Church (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
I left a message on his eminences Facebook wall, wrong post though OOPS! It strieks me as rather hypocritical to claim in his Christmas message “we cannot put individuals or entire peoples in
boxes in order to dismiss them from our lives. Likewise, if we climb into a box to separate
ourselves from others by our attitudes or actions, the Word made flesh cannot speak to us,
transform us or save us.”
You find this kind of rhetorical schizophrenia abounds from senior clergy. As you have pointed out before Terence, the church lays a very clear demand upon the shoulders of not just lay Catholics but the clergy, to love and cherish gay people. Outward signs of love and compassion, sincerity and humility, prove the inner workings of God… I’ll leave that one open.
Francis has been persecuting gay people for over 30 years. I was among his first victims. His involvement in the destruction
of my priesthood and ministry is documented in the book: Secrecy,
Sophistry And Gay Sex In The Catholic Church; The Systematic Destruction Of An Oblate Priest.
I apologize for the length, but there are things that I very strongly feel need to be put out in the open; particularly, I think that everyone needs to cool down.
1. I want to be upfront in saying that I would never dismiss a lack of knowledge of something in American history as a product of not being American. On the contrary, many non-American’s know more about American history and government than many Americans do. As far as KKK discrimination against catholics is concerned, it was in fact a characteristic feature of the group. African-Americans, Catholics, and Jews are the top three groups to exterminate on the KKK’s list (even among the remnants of the Klan left today). Actually, the anti-catholic activities of the Klan are more relevant to modern times than the mass lynching of African-Americans in the 1870-90′s, because the lynchings were reduced to single incidences and (mostly) stopped by end of WW1, whereas the KKK INcreased its anti-catholic activities after the first world war; a famous piece of ‘Klan Art’ from the late 1920′s entitled “The End” symbolized their goal of the eradication of the Catholic Church - it depicted a Klansman sitting on top of the body of a murdered pope. The lynching of African-Americans was defiantly its most visible characteristic, and was also the easiest for them to get away with, unfortunately. The main reasons why Catholics were not lynched in the same fashion is that they were not as easily identifiable to a flash mob, and they had stronger financial and political support to defend themselves with.
2. I have some cautious reservations about bringing up historical intolerance and executions. In the field of historical analysis, we are generally forbidden from importing historical events into modern issues unless you are looking at impartial cause and effect. Regardless, referencing even modern intolerance among some members of the Church does nothing to assuage his fears of the statements of some of the LGBT lobby, and so will do nothing to arrest similar comments or actions in the future.
3. While I agree that the Cardinal’s statements were short-sighted, ill advised, and should probably be apologized for, it is naive to think that he is completely fabricating such ideas. I have personally experienced discrimination by other LGBT people (despite being gay myself) for refusing to reject and denounce the Catholic religion. Fortunately, people like that are becoming increasingly more rare (as people on ALL sides become more educated), but the fact remains that polarization, hate, ignorance, and intolerance are not hierarchy things, they are human things: which means that LGBT groups and individuals are no less suspect to the same behavior towards the ‘other’; to think otherwise is hubristic. 4. I have lost some respect for ‘Equally Blessed’ for manipulating the Cardinal’s EXPLICIT use of the word ‘some’ into meaning ‘all’ LGBT activists. The response was irrational, because it (1) denies the real existence of anti-church LGBT groups, and (2) turns a clear expression of fear of a PORTION of the LGBT lobby into an aggressive insult to ALL LGBT people and individuals. Once again, I find myself having to take the side of the group who I am fighting against because people on my own side fail to exercise restraint or examine themselves for the same flaws of ignorance, intolerance, inability to engage in FAIR discussion, and ego-centrism that they so aggressively denounce the hierarchy for exhibiting. Is the proper response to fear condemnation and aggression? Any psychologist or (quality) pastoral figure will say NO. You If a child says that they are afraid to come to you for help because they are scared that you will be angry with them, and you respond by being angry at the implications of their fear, you will only validate the fear in their mind and push them FURTHER away from you. Responses like Equally Blessed’s HURT our cause more than they help.
5. I am disappointed that almost every reaction from progressives that I have seen (from blogs to comments to articles) has twisted the Cardinal’s statement in a similar manner; it is the product of an emotional, polarized, and ego-centric mindset. People discussing how the Cardinal equated the LGBT lobby with the KKK is spreading DISINFORMATION because he did not say that the LGBT lobby is like the KKK. He said that SOME of the rhetoric from SOME of the lobby is similar; those statements are not the same in meaning nor intent, and any attempt to blur the line between them is unjust and hypocritical to calls for “listening and dialogue”. What the literal meaning of the syntax and vocabulary of the Cardinal’s statement said is (objectively) not really disputable, but just because something is a fact does not mean that it should be said, particularly when it is a marginal fact: so, I am disappointed with both sides on this issue. 6. The proper response to the Cardinal’s statement, would have been to meet with him personally and apologize for the statements of radicals and explain to him that they are a minority that he needs not worry about. Any other reaction simply increases the divide and further diminishes any respect and understanding between the two groups. If someone is scared, it is the source of the fear that needs to be addressed before the symptom of the fear is dealt with. This reminds me of that horrible lesbian mother who forced her child against his will to embarrassed Michele Bachmann in public; the only thing that accomplished was to further solidify in her mind that LGBT people are evil and have no morals. I am VERY against Bachmann, but I seriously considered meeting her in person at her book signing to apologize for that woman’s behavior and to let her know that not all LGBT people are that degenerate. I am tired of having to clean up the mess caused by the actions of reckless members of our own cause. I am tired of having my rights further postponed by the damage inflicted by small-minded LGBT’s who cannot see the big picture beyond their immediate emotions and ego.5. My level of respect for and solidarity with New Ways Ministry/Bondings increased immensely, however, when I read the quote exploring the motives for such statments. I have been very vocal of promoting the understanding that there is far more than just bigotry going on behind the clergy’s statements, and that the people who say them (well, most of them at least) are not evil, hateful people; I have seen little in the way of understanding of this fact by progressives until now, and I am VERY excited about it; it represents the maturation of our movement which increases our chances of affecting the change that we want. However, I was disappointed when I read that the same author was guilty of the twisting of the Cardinal’s words into a reference to ALL rather than just some of the LGBT lobby; but his restrained tone (unlike the overreacting Equally Blessed response) and excellent previous observation more than made up for the distortion in meaning.