WTF of the day: Pope Benedict XVI says same-sex marriage is a threat to humanity

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      Is Canada helping to undermine humanity's future?

      Apparently yes, if you believe the pope. And it's not because we pulled out of the Kyoto accord.

      According to news reports, Pope Benedict XVI told diplomatic corps (from 180 countries) accredited to the Vatican that "pride of place goes to the family, based on the marriage of a man and a woman" in a new year address.

      "This is not a simple social convention," he went on to explain, "but rather the fundamental cell of every society. Consequently, policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself."

      The Vatican and Catholic officials have opposed the legalization of gay marriage.

      The Netherlands became the first country to legalize gay marriage (in 2001), followed by nine other countries, including Argentina, Belgium, Canada, South Africa, and Spain.

      Several countries are moving towards legalizing gay marriage (possibly approving it this year), including Denmark, Finland, and Nepal.

      Last month, however, former Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien warned Liberals that with Canada having withdrawn from the Kyoto accord and the long-gun registry abolished, same-sex marriage or abortion may be the next target of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.

      Meanwhile, as the same-sex marriage debate continues on south of the border, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum continued to be dogged by questions about gay issues.

      On Thursday (January 5) at the College Convention 2012 in Concord, New Hampshire, he responded to a question (and became rather testy) about same-sex marriage by equating it with polygamy.

      The session reportedly ended with him being booed.

      You can follow Craig Takeuchi on Twitter at twitter.com/cinecraig. You can also follow the Straight's LGBT coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/StraightLGBT.

      Comments

      25 Comments

      john smith

      Jan 9, 2012 at 3:30pm

      Wow, what a dinosaur. Biggest threat to humanity is the other kind of marriage & its results... 7 billion & counting

      Mark Fornataro

      Jan 9, 2012 at 3:33pm

      The Vatican is 'helping to undermine humanity's future' by their ever-regressive ways. When this Pope-in-a-dress puts down same sex marriage-while the Vatican has only same sex priests, something doesn't add up. But the scariest stuff about the Vatican can be read in David Yallop's best seller In God's Name(which I read thanks to a Straight staffer's recommending it some months back) which outlines his convincing allegation that Pope John Paul1 was murdered in 1978 after serving as Pope for only 33 days- because he had imminent plans to clean the Vatican of its criminal ways. This book could be a blockbuster movie.

      Bill Brady

      Jan 9, 2012 at 3:59pm

      The biggest threat to world peace is religion. Plain and simple.

      Urbanelf

      Jan 9, 2012 at 4:07pm

      Maybe the reason no one is listening to Rick in this clip is that he is being an idiot.

      The discussion is not "does one person have the right to marry several people" the discussion is "does one person have the right to marry another person regardless of sex". He is clouding the issues, as he often does, trying to fluff his way through another self righteous speech.

      Mr Santorum is a bigoted, self serving, narrow minded, and ugly hearted individual. Church and Government should be kept separate. One has nothing to do with the other for the many, like me, who don't believe in God or religion. So please, stfu already.

      All one has to do to understand the history of marriage is to do a little reading. The church has very little to do with regulating marriage, and the church should just stop whining about how they know what's good humankind. Not everyone gives a damn what "God" will think of two men, or two women, getting married and raising children.

      If there is, indeed, a God and a heaven, then Steven Harper and his one sided government are the devil, and they will destroy Canada, one issue at a time.

      Gentleman Jack

      Jan 9, 2012 at 4:41pm

      The threat gay marriage poses to humanity is that societies that do not acknowledge the traditional definition of marriage _may not_ (not are _will not_) recognize the traditional definitions of other terms: justice, law, jurisprudence.

      I don't buy it, but I think that's a reasonable way of putting the concern that many religious people have about gay marriage. If society can change the meaning of this term, why can it not change the meaning of any other term that was, up until very recently, considered beyond question to mean _____?

      A good example of this is "law of nature."

      "9 Edw. 4, held by the Chancellor and Judges, that it is required by the law of nature that every person, before he can be punish'd, ought to be present; and if absent by contumacy, he ought to be summoned and make default." (Fort. 206)

      So, if we can change what "marriage" means, can we not change what "the law of nature" means? And one should note that such is basically not acknowledged any longer in terms of what the Liars-errr, lawyers---call "administrative law." Where God, even the omnipotent God Herself, had to say "Adam, where art thou?" before punishing Adam, where God, even the omnipotent God Himself, gave Adam an opportunity to defend himself against the charge laid to him, Administrative Law no longer requires an oral hearing due to a series of wrong-headed judicial decisions that suggest written letters (everyone knows how to write as well as they talk?) are sufficient.

      I don't have any problem with gay marriage---but I am not so thick and slow as to think that some people who support gay marriage also support radical changes to other facets of society: justice, law, jurisprudence.

      Rob Roy

      Jan 9, 2012 at 4:59pm

      How absurd.

      The head of a church whose priests have degraded and ruined the lives of thousands of children through its sexual abuse of them has no moral standing whatever in this matter.

      Celibacy is an unnatural state. It is contrary to who we are as a species, and to the intimacy we require as persons. As Christopher Hitchens famously put it, any doctrine pushed by "a cult of sinister virgins" has no credibility with anyone.

      Compared with the catastrophe of priestly abuse suffered by children, gay marriage is a non-issue. Or should be.

      And to quote a happily apocryphal Italian grandmother re this or any other Pope's views on sex, "He no play the game, he no make the rules."

      bdubblut

      Jan 9, 2012 at 5:11pm

      in other news Hate Inc stocks are down and the shareholders " out " their secret weopon.

      eminem202321

      Jan 9, 2012 at 6:49pm

      if you want to experience real spirituality, the church is one place you gotta avoid. real spirituality and the truth can be experienced within yourself, look up meditation

      Dianne G

      Jan 9, 2012 at 7:02pm

      Hmm so the Pope continues to be unwilling to accept new definitions of family eg 'two or more people related by blood, marriage, adoption or commitment to care for one another', and the Haredi orthodox Jews in Israel are demanding strict separation of the sexes on the sidewalks and public transit, and openly expressing their desire that women stay at home and be invisible everywhere. There is even a small group of ultra-Orthodox Jews who prevented some women from voting in recent local elections.

      And of course there's Sharia law.....

      It is easy to conclude that beliefs like these are the work of backward religious fanatics. Will Harper send in the troups to defend women and 'democracy' like in Afghanistan?

      Beware

      Jan 9, 2012 at 11:30pm

      Same sex couples might be a threat to humanity in the future ,but Roman Catholic s and especially cat.priests have killed millions of innocent people in the dark ages thru inquisitions, religious wars, and recently hurt thousands of boys and women in their church.