E.D. Kain passes on this bit of information regarding the campaign against gay marriage in Maine:
“The Catholic Church was a leading supporter of the repeal campaign, even asking parishes to pass a second collection plate at Sunday mass to help the cause.”
E.D. sums up my thoughts on this tidbit:
I support religious institutions’ beliefs, however wrong-headed I think they may be, but I wish they’d afford the same dignity to others. Nobody is trying to force the Church to support gay marriage, to allow gays to be married in its churches or by its priests. What business did the Church have interfering with civil marriage laws – passing out second donation plates to oppose equality?
Especially when they’d do better to raise money for the victims of the abusive priests they’ve spent decades protecting.
Most importantly, though, nothing about this law would’ve required the Catholic Church, or any religious institution, to recognize or solemnize same-sex marriages. All it did was create equality in a civil institution that has nothing to do with religion. Why couldn’t the Church just leave it alone instead of going down the same sad path the Mormon’s did in California last year ?
