Blogs For Victory

My goodness, has Carl Paladino stirred up a firestorm. Tremendously useful, I’d have to say – nothing like forcing Catholics to do their thing. At the center of the matter is this – from Allahpundit:

“‘I unequivocally support gay rights. Unequivocally,’ said Paladino, clutching an American flag and marching up Fifth Avenue in New York’s annual Columbus Day Parade. But Paladino repeated his view, expressed earlier Monday on ABC and NBC, that children should be shielded from gay activities, especially their parades.

“‘Those guys in the gay pride parade who like to wear the little Speedos and do their grinding motion up there — children should not see that,’ Paladino said, wagging his finger for emphasis and calling his opponent, Democrat Andrew Cuomo, ‘wrong’ for taking part in New York City’s gay pride march and letting his children watch it.

“He denied that his comments Sunday night to Orthodox Jewish leaders — saying children should not be “brainwashed” to believe the gay lifestyle is ‘valid’ — amounted to homophobia or insensitivity toward gays. They simply mirror the teachings of the Catholic Church, the Catholic candidate said, adding that if Cuomo disagreed, ‘he should go see a priest.’”

And if Andrew is too busy to check with his parish priest (love to see a reporter ask him the name of his parish priest, but we’ll leave that aside), the Catechism of the Catholic Church has been handily placed on line:

The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

While Paladino’s use of the word “brainwash” was ill-considered, what he was saying was just the plain and simple truth. He was, moreover, adhering to the teachings of the faith he belongs to. If Carl Paladino’s statements are homophobic, then Christianity and the Catholic Church are homophobic. But such is not the case.

Homosexual sex is objectively disordered. It is not a kind of sex people should engage in – no more than a heterosexual person should engage in adulterous sex. If you want to really cut down to the bone here, you should understand that a married man who has sex with another woman has actually done something worse in degree than a homosexual man who has sex with another homosexual – because the married man has not only engaged in objectively disordered sex, but has also broken solemn vow. Such a married man has not, however, done anything different in kind. While there are different degrees, wrong is always wrong – sex outside of the bounds of matrimony is wrong. Always and everywhere.

You can attempt to argue the point, but you’re never going to get around the truth here. “But Paladino can’t be in favor of gay rights – he’s opposed to gay marriage”. Well, marriage isn’t a right – nothing is a right if it takes more than one person to do it. “But I can’t be happy unless I express my sexuality as a homosexual”. If you really believe that, then I pity you for a fool – sex is not that important in the life of a man in full possession of his faculties and thus able to differentiate between true happiness and transient, physical pleasure. “But I want to love whom I choose”. Then love – indeed, you are commanded to do so; but love and sex are not the same thing.

Tolerance means I won’t go butting in where I’m not wanted. It is no office of mine – or of any Christian’s – to dictate to anyone what they shall or shall not do in the privacy of their own home. But tolerance is not the same as moral approval – and no Christian can approve of homosexual relations. We cannot, ever, agree to any action which would tend to instruct society that homosexual relations are morally the same as heterosexual relations. A “gay pride” parade does just that sort of thing – and more and more in our public schools there is pressure to instruct the children that homosexuality and heterosexuality are morally the same. This sort of thing isn’t a demand for tolerance, but an attempt to enforce a world view we reject.

Now, perhaps this world view will be enforced in spite of us. Maybe the solid majority of our fellow citizens will reject Christian teaching and we’ll continue to run riot in a morass of sexual excess…and then, eventually, our civilization will go senile and die. Like the ancient, pr-Christian world, we’ll attempt to stab ourselves out of stupor by getting more and more depraved; but death will the lot of that civilization, and after it dies, it will be found that we Christians are still there, and we’ll rebuild civilization again, just as we did before.

Meanwhile, we’re just going to keep right on going. We’ll continue to speak the truth. We’ll attempt to do so with love and mercy in our hearts (and thus Paladino really should regret the word “brainwash”), but we will speak it – now and forever. It is our duty – we can’t escape it.

UPDATE: Newsbusters notes the MSM is trying to tie Paladino’s comments to an entirely un-related attack on some gay men. Typical of the MSM: don’t think, just lob whatever anti-GOP bomb the DNC tells you to throw…

UPDATE II: Politics on the Hudson has this:

“I unequivocally have no other reservations about homosexuality and I abhor discrimination in any form. I enjoy a close relationship with my nephew who is gay and I certainly consider him to be a functional child of God,” said Paladino, whose nephew is working on his campaign.

Time for people to start to understand that failure to agree with the gay rights agenda does not equal hatred or fear of homosexuals.

UPDATE III: Michael Gaynor wonders if Cuomo will either back Paladino’s Catholic views, or cease to call himself Catholic? It is an important point…

UPDATE IV: Ace of Spades comments:

The gay community has to understand that, contra their desires, they will not likely be wholeheartedly embraced by traditionalists, and should stop insisting that that be the goal or the bar for “tolerance.” Unless they gay community thinks that 70% of the country is “anti-gay” (and a lot of the gay community does think that, of course), this goal has to be considered perhaps one to shoot for one day, but it can’t be made the standard for determining who’s “anti-gay” or not.

UPDATE V: Gay Patriot figures this dooms Paladino –

In various “red” states, most (but alas not all) Republican candidates are pretty much ignoring gay issues (save to say they support traditional marriage), so what purpose does it serve for a candidate in a “blue” state to talk about it on the campaign trail? Well, it does antagonize those fiscally conservative voters in the suburbs who, last fall, voted Republican in local elections.

I’m not so sure – it was always, of course, a very uphill fight for Paladino, especially as he is not a professional politician and thus is going to be gaffe-prone. But that, again, is part of Paladino’s appeal…and a bit of honesty, even if considered outrageous in some quarters, might come in handy.