Taboo topics

This post will be about all those things you should never talk about--religion, politics, and homosexuality.  It's no secret that I am a liberal Catholic.  I try to think of myself as an example to others that you can regularly attend church on Sundays and still be normal.  While watching my trash television and catching up on the news, I read in the Seattle Times that this Sunday the Catholic church will have petitions and be gathering signatures for Referendum 74, the initiative to repeal gay marriage.

I felt sick to my stomach when I read this.  Now I just feel sad and empty. Yes, I am quite aware that the Catholic Church believes that marriage is between one man and one woman.  It also is against contraception, another topic where we don't see eye to eye.  I have spent my adult years functioning under the belief that I could be a Catholic in good conscience while occasionally disagreeing.  I think what is so much more disappointing to me is that this, in my opinion, flies in the face of the separation of church and state.  I strongly believe that the separation of church and state is what keeps us from becoming a theocracy.  I believe it's possible to have a morally functioning society without being a "Christian" nation.  To those who wish there was no separation of church and state, I also want to ask how they would feel if suddenly Islam become the dominant religion (not that there is anything wrong with that).  Would they still feel that we should be ruled by one group's religious beliefs?

A few weeks ago a guest speaker gave the homily at mass.  An elderly woman, she tried desperately (and failed) to connect with the congregation.  I tried to be a polite listener, gleaning for pertinent understandings, and was suddenly taken aback when after talking about martyrs like Oscar Romero, she brought up Tim Eyman, as an example of someone we should all strive to be like.  I was shocked, speechless.  Eyman is hardly a shining example of someone who exemplifies social justice. Her point was that we should use the initiative system to evoke moral societal changes.  Did I mention that I am for the separation of church and state?

I love gay people and believe that should be entitled to the same civil rights as anybody else, free of discrimination.  They should be able to be in the hospital room with a sick spouse, file a joint tax return, and have the state recognize a committed relationship.  God doesn't hate fags and I'm pretty sure that as a group that is regularly discriminated against, Jesus would have hung out with them.

I don't know where I am going with this.  I just feel so let down. I regularly donate time and money to the church.  I know people are scared, the world can be a scary place, but I don't think that hiding behind religious conservativism is going to make the world a better place. The world didn't end and family values weren't destroyed when mixed race couples were finally legal.  I just hope that some day soon, society can look back at this time and think how ridiculous we all were to even have to have the discussion.  Catholic church--I think you and I need to have a "come to Jesus" talk and figure out where we stand.