Rhode Island Roman Catholic bishop calls for war on marriage equality

In Rhode Island, progress is being made towards marriage equality. Right on cue, Roman Catholic Bishop issues a clarion call to "defend marriage"last Sunday (emphases mine).

I submit that today, in the State of Rhode Island, we are faced with a challenge to our baptismal promises to renounce the modern day evil works of Satan and confess our belief in Christ and His holy Catholic Church. …

This challenge takes the form of an attempt to grant to same sex couples that recognition reserved for the oldest and the only institution God created in His own image: Man as male and female united in marriage. ... there can be no vocation to an immoral partnership that contradicts God’s own Word!

There are many reasons to oppose as equal to marriage the recognition of unions between people of the same sex… .

However, for the sake of brevity, permit me to confront the essence of this problem. Let’s be frank about it; namely, it stems from the desire of some to grant to homosexual relations the same validation given to relations between men and women. In short, many are seeking public approval of homosexuality. Yes, when all is said and done, that is the crux of the problem and it must be said that according to God’s revelation homosexual acts are deviant. …

There is much more that can be said about this issue but unless we confront it from God’s point of view, then we will continue to be confused about a matter that is being portrayed either as harmless to the rest of society or a matter of equal rights or an issue of privacy or an effort to eliminate discrimination—and it is none of these. ...

With regard to the duty of elected officials and jurists, they must be sensitive to the fact that civil laws are the principles that structure society, for good or for ill. The right to make laws does not mean that the laws so made are right!

Furthermore, to accord a recognition to same sex unions that equates immoral activity with the sanctity of marriage is to expose young people to erroneous ides about sexuality and marriage, and confuses young minds by sending the signal that an evil tolerated is an evil approved and legalized.

Remember the title Jesus gave Satan: “The father of lies.” Many lies will be told in this campaign to distort the first creation of God. To accord the same recognition we give to marriage to unions between people of the same sex is to distort God’s plan for a civilization based on obedience to His commandments and love for His law. Mark well that we will pay the price, as did Sodom and Gomorrah, whether that destruction comes from moral rot within our society or a weakening of our will as one nation under God in whom we claim to trust.

In this battle, there is no neutrality, no demilitarized zone. If our baptismal promises mean anything to us, then we know clearly which side we are on, for it is the side that God is on. And do not think for a moment that God forgets!

Holy war, anyone?

You'd think in the wake of the hyperbolic rhetoric around the Giffords attempted assassination, he might have toned it down a bit (he gave his sermon on Sunday 1/7). Still, we've been warned…and we'll know who they are by their words of violence.


(H/T Prop8 Trial Tracker)