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Pope Benedict XVI, in helping everybody prepare for Christmas and the New Year, decided to make an announcement via a sermon. In it, he asked for people of other faiths to see beyond their religious differences and join together to battle a common enemy. What is this enemy, you ask? Famine? War? Women’s oppression? No. Though each of these are problems across the world, none of them are important enough to warrant the Pope Benedict putting aside his faith. There is only one thing in this world that could possibly unite people of all faiths (and by all faiths I think the Pope means Christians, Jews ,and Muslims, because I honestly don’t believe he’s heard of Hindus or anything else just yet). What is that one uniting principle? Homophobia, of course. I guess this is one of those “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” deals. Feel free to read this recent article from Yahoo News in order to follow along: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/pope-signals-inter-religion-alliance-against-gay-marriage-134816225.html

The Pope suggests that “key figures of human existence” will vanish: “father, mother, child – essential elements of the experience of being human are lost”. How? He doesn’t really tell us. I mean, are all heterosexuals going to suddenly become gay and stop procreating? I’m not sure how letting gay couples get married will cause fathers, mothers, and children to vanish, nor how it will cause the elements of being human to disappear. People didn’t stop buying Big Macs just because McDonald’s started selling chicken sandwiches. Some like chicken sandwiches, and others like Big Macs. The existence of one doesn’t equal the disappearance of the other (though I’m sure chickens and cows alike are hoping for a dip in popularity for both sandwiches).

The Pope draws on an argument by Rabbi Gilles Bernheim, which suggests that homosexual rights groups “will use gay marriage as a Trojan Horse” in an effort to “deny sexual identity and erase sexual differences” and “undermine the heterosexual fundamentals of our society”. Apparently, there was a meeting of all homosexual rights groups, you know, kind of like the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion, where all the Jews met up together to discuss how to take over the world. For more on that, check out the Wikipedia article on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion You’d think a person of Jewish ancestry would be aware of the flaws in this approach, or of the maliciousness of spreading such propaganda. And what is this plan that the homosexual rights groups have put together? A Trojan Horse? Presumably, homosexual rights groups will present some sort of gift to the heterosexual world. Then, as the heterosexual world falls asleep after acceptance of this gift, a whole bunch of homosexuals will come out of the gift and open up the gates, letting hordes of homosexual warriors into to the heterosexual city, burning it to ground and killing everyone except Cassandra, whom Agamemnon will take as a war trophy? I’m not sure how this analogy applies. I mean, the Trojans were literally at war with the Greeks. I don’t know any homosexual person who has declared war on the heterosexual world (though it seems clear that many heterosexuals have declared a war of sorts on homosexuals). As for the fundamentals of our society, I have never identified them as inherently heterosexual. My values are not defined by my sexual preference. If I think it is wrong to kill, that is because it is wrong to kill; it is not because I am heterosexual that I believe that.

I’ve read the Bible. I remember Jesus talking about loving our neighbours. It’s in Matthew, 22:39: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is also this bit in there: judge not lest ye be judged. Matthew again, chapter 7 verse 1. There’s also something in Proverbs about judging: “Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy” (Prov 31:9). Pope Benedict might want to note that God asks us to plead the cause of the “poor and needy.” Yet while people are suffering through war and starving all across the world, the Pope, rather than thinking on the “poor and needy” as God asks, is judging others: the very thing God instructs against. Far from loving his neighbour, he is trying to take rights away from him. On the basis of something as trivial as sexual preference, he is trying to promote disharmony among the peoples of the world. But what can we expect, after all, from a man who takes money from the poor to fill up his own coffers, and who was brought up as a member of the Hitler Youth program? Not to mention that he will not allow women to be ordained as priests. Apparently, a penis is necessary to do that kind of work. Still, I must say I am shocked that the Pope has taken such a strong stance against homosexuality when there are so many homosexuals working within the church. One might assume as much, since 4,392 priests have been accused of sexually abusing children in their congregation and 81% of the reported victims were male (whilst 100% of the perpetrators were male – I’m sure you can do the math). For more details on sexual abuse perpetrated by the church, feel free to check out the Wikipedia page on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_sex_abuse_cases

Perhaps the Pope ought to focus more on eliminating child abuse within the church. And if following that he has any time left, it might be better to help starving children, victims of war, and women around the world who still do not have the same rights as men (though the Catholic Church is one of the institutions guilty of women’s oppression), rather than worrying whether two consenting adults, who likely aren’t even members of his church, should be allowed to marry. I’m sure the abuse perpetrated by priests has done more damage to family life than the forward-thinking laws that give homosexuals rights and freedoms on par with those of heterosexuals.