US Congressperson Patrick Kennedy says discrimination against gays in marriage is "bigotry." The Rhode Island representative's comments came last week, after Pope John Paul II signed off on a Vatican document that calls on Catholic politicians to fight against secular laws that would allow same-sex marriage and labels GLBT relationships evil.
A member of the country's most legendary Roman Catholic political family, representing the most Catholic state in the nation, Kennedy said he refuses to follow the Vatican's edict, issued last week, imploring Catholic lawmakers to oppose same-sex unions."I see the policy of opposing same-sex marriages or unions, whatever you call it, as bigotry or discrimination," Kennedy said yesterday in an interview.
"We are talking about the law here and whether the law is going to treat people equally here. I don't see where the church or anyone else dictates what the policy is going to be with respect to treating people equally," he said.
Kennedy is the most vocal member of the Rhode Island delegation in both his support for same-sex unions and his willingness to defy the Catholic Church on the issue.
Kennedy dismisses the distinction between civil unions and gay marriage as merely semantics. But other members of the delegation say it's a significant difference in the eyes of many Americans, saying marriage should remain exclusively between a man and a woman. ...
Kennedy sent out a news release last week, announcing his position. Other delegation members, while supporting same-sex unions, said the debate in Washington should focus more on high unemployment and the war in Iraq than a divisive issue such as gay marriage. ...
On the issue of gay rights, Kennedy said the church has strayed from its teachings. "The church has its doctrines. I don't agree with this doctrine. I don't agree with many others," he said.
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Article comments
1 - Paul
There are over 1 billion Catholics in the world and only a few million of them live in America. Of those few million, only a small percentage are Anglos. The Catholic Church is speaking to and for the other billion in the faith, most of whom are traditionalist and suspicious/resentful of those whom they see as a cancerous tumor in the faith.
I doubt the Pope or the Church are much concerned with what a few Westerners think. The future's in the Third World. The faith is in the Third World among the poor, the starving and the oppressed. You know, the type of people Christ came from and ministered to. Everyone knows that except for those living in the West who are too busy thinking about themselves and accumulating wealth to bother with the feelings and concerns of the billion other Catholics who do not enjoy Caesar's life.
2 - Natalie Davis
Well, my life (which includes doing ministry) is certainly closer to that of those in underdeveloped nations than to a Kennedy's.
I take it, then, that you stand in disagreement to the congressperson's remarks and to those parts of the billion who, like him, love people over rules.