Pope Benedict Compares Saving Homosexuals to Saving the Rainforest from Destruction

Well, the latest religious leader to join the dust-up over gay and lesbian rights is none other that Pope Benedict. He said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behavior was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction. Really Pope Benedict? The survival of the rainforest is akin to saving a homosexual from destruction? Totally insulting and reprehensible on his part. Many homosexuals don’t see their choice as one leading to destruction. The last people who need to talk about ruining someone’s life is the Catholic church. Pope Benedict, how about those priests that literally destroyed the lives of innocent kids when they molested them repeatedly? Was saving them comparable to saving the rainforest?

“(The Church) should also protect man from the destruction of himself. A sort of ecology of man is needed,” the pontiff said in a holiday address to the Curia, the Vatican’s central administration. “The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less.”

The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. It opposes gay marriage and, in October, a leading Vatican official called homosexuality “a deviation, an irregularity, a wound.”

The pope said humanity needed to “listen to the language of creation” to understand the intended roles of man and woman. He compared behavior beyond traditional heterosexual relations as “a destruction of God’s work.” He also defended the Church’s right to “speak of human nature as man and woman, and ask that this order of creation be respected.” Source: Reuters

I agree with him to a point, but the Roman Catholic church managed to conceal thousands of cases of homosexual acts of many priests, so to compare being a homosexual to saving the rainforest is actually an insult. Personally, the only thing I agree with him on is the issue of marriage. If it ever comes up for a vote in Georgia, I will most definitely vote against gay marriage. Sorry, folks, as a Christian, I just can’t bring myself to see marriage as anything other than between a man and a woman. He needs to apologize to these people for that comparison. Since when is the rainforest on par with humanity for the same attention and compassion? Isn’t he stoking homophobia from his comments?

Filed under: Heterosexual, Homosexuality, Marriage, Pope Benedict XVI, Rainforest, Same-Sex Marriage

Barack Obama Now Opposes Proposed Ban on Gay Marriage

This is deja vu! I specifically recall Barack Obama stating that marriage was between a man and a woman, but he has suddenly had an epiphany and now thinks otherwise. This will be a real problem for him with the evangelicals. It seems as though he is talking out of two sides of his mouth. Apparently gay rights moved to the forefront of the presidential campaign after Democratic Sen. Barack Obama’s announcement that he opposes a November ballot measure in California that would ban same-sex marriage in California.

In a letter to San Francisco’s Alice B. Toklas Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Democratic Club, the presumptive presidential nominee said he opposed “the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution” and similar efforts in other states. Obama’s position on Proposition 8 was announced at a club event Sunday after a move by Arizona Sen. John McCain, the expected GOP standard-bearer in November, who last week told officials of Protect Marriage, a coalition that gathered 1.1 million signatures for the California measure, that he backs their efforts “to recognize marriage as a unique institution between a man and a woman.” At least John McCain has not vacillated on his position where this is concerned.

For both campaigns, the decision to get involved in the same-sex marriage debate carries political risks. This will be a big problem for Barack Obama who was talking about faith-based initiatives and trying to woo evangelicals.

California is one of three states with same-sex marriage bans on the November ballot. While the state is seen as Obama country, and Arizona is McCain’s home state, Florida, the third state seeking to limit marriage to a man and a woman, is a swing state that will be a major prize in the November election.

Herein lies the problem–Barack Obama has said repeatedly that he believes marriage should be only between man and a woman. When the California Supreme Court overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage in May, Obama released a carefully nuanced statement saying he respected the court’s decision, believed states should make their own decisions on marriage and “will continue to fight for civil unions as president.”

But civil unions, gay activists argue, aren’t the same as marriage, and they say his earlier stance would put Obama on the wrong side of what’s increasingly seen as a civil rights issue.

The Obama campaign didn’t go out of its way to announce the senator’s position on a controversial California ballot measure that will have repercussions across the nation. Instead of a splashy public endorsement ceremony, complete with beaming supporters of same-sex marriage, Obama announced his support midway in his letter, which was read at the club’s annual breakfast. Doesn’t that seem out of the norm for his campaign?

Prop. 8 supporters have accused Obama of trying to have it both ways by coming out publicly against same-sex marriage, but opposing any efforts to ban those unions. “His position makes very little sense,” said Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage, California. “If he’s opposed (to same-sex marriage), he should just say so. Instead, he’s trying to appease the wealthy elite who support gay marriage.”

Early polls show that while the Prop. 8 race is likely to be a close contest in California, many of the young and liberal voters who back Obama are strongly opposed to the same-sex marriage ban. But those groups of voters don’t have nearly as much clout elsewhere in the nation. A CBS poll taken early in June showed that only about 30 percent of American voters favored legalizing marriage for same-sex couples.

The country’s economic woes and the war in Iraq take more precedent than that of same-sex marriage. I do believe, though, that marriage should be between a man and a woman, but I have no real issues with what these people do. They are free to make their own choices and live their own lives. But the bottom line is that two men or two women cannot procreate, so it is quite obvious that that’s not the natural order of things. If I had to vote on such a ban in Georgia, I would vote in favor of it based on my beliefs.

Obama’s position on same-sex marriage can be used against him in a few states, like Ohio and Pennsylvania. But I don’t believe it will be a major issue.Barack Obama is talking out of boths sides of his mouth and he should be called on it, plain and simple. Just my thoughts, you be the judge…..

Filed under: Barack Obama, John McCain, Proposition 8, Same-Sex Marriage