Too many activists, it seems, are going off on tangential facebook rants about Barack Obama’s lackluster non-support of gay marriage. This ignores the culpability of Congress in not passing legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which Bill Clinton signed into law not too long ago. DOMA is an unconstitutional law because it dictates standards for marriage to all of the 50 states – a power that the Federal Government cannot have. The United States Constitution says verbatim:
Amendment 10 - The powers not delegated to the United States by the
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States
respectively, or to the people.
Since marriage is not one of the enumerated powers of the Federal Government, it MUST belong to the States or the People. It is the responsibility of the Congress to admit their mistake and pass a repeal law. When they do this, it will be Obama's responsibility to sign the repeal law as he did with repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT). Many people in Congress are failing us right now because they are disobeying the Constitution every moment that they do not repeal DOMA.
One such person is former Senator Rick Santorum who frequently cites the Constitution of the USA in other debates. He relies on his Catholic upbringing for his argument against gay marriage, however.
Interestingly though, Santorum’s allegiance to Catholicism might be his downfall in his current run for President of the United States. Why? It is because in the process of campaigning, he has already committed two mortal sins.
In 2008, The Holy See under leadership of Pope Benedict XVI added seven “new sins” to the list of mortal or “deadly” sins to make a total of 14. While such a decision strikes non-Catholics as somewhat arbitrary, the Holy See is not to be disrespected or defied by practicing Catholics and the rules stand. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into Hell”.The Vatican made it quite clear that “promoting torture” is a mortal sin because “torture, which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity.” Thus, in respect to the 5th Commandment, the verbal promotion of torture or cruel experiments by a Catholic media person or politician creates what the church calls “scandal”.
Scandal, in Catholic terms, is about as bad as it gets – it means that you are “wolf in sheeps clothing”. The Bible says of one who creates religious scandal that they’d be better off to tie a stone around their neck and drown themselves than to deal with the Lord himself.
Here is a link to Rick Santorum being disingenuous about and promoting torture: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55140.html
Another mortal Sin that Santorum has flippantly ignored his culpability in is promoting pollution of the environment.
According to Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti of the Holy See, “environmental blight” is a particularly grave sin because it affects so many people globally who cannot defend themselves. The Archbishop cited climate change specifically on this matter.
Here is a link to Rick Santorum shamelessly denying that Climate Change (Global Warming) even exists at all:
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/06/24/253389/santorum-theres-no-such-thing-as-global-warming/
Now, obviously, some will argue that the mere promotion of policies which may or may not lead to such sins is a murky area in moral law and that the Santorum should not be held religiously accountable for his words… Its fine for a non-Catholic to hold that opinion but the Catholic leadership totally disagrees.
It goes back to the Holy See’s staunch refusal to support Scandal… Sins which are promoted on a mass scale via media or social networking are considered Scandal and for a Catholic to commit these acts… Well, there’s always the stone-around-the-neck routine…
Catholic Democrats have been denied Communion in the United States on more than one occasion due to their perceived “promotion” of abortion and stem-cell research. Being denied Communion is basically the Catholic Church’s way of saying “Go to hell”. John Kerry, a Presidential candidate like Santorum was one such person in 2004.
Santorum might get reprimanded, but if his pastor hasn't already said something, then I doubt that it will happen. Let's not forget that priests can think for themselves, regardless of how cohesive the catholic church remains.
ReplyDeleteThe first person I "came out" to was my priest. We were alone in his office, and I during the conversation I broke down in a mess of tears. He, on the other hand, stayed very calm. He shared with me a story of a past parishioner who ended up committing suicide. Then he went on to tell me the position of the church. Just when I thought that conversation couldn't go worse, he confided in me. In his opinion there's nothing immoral about a same-sex relationship between two gay people, because God has expressed a desire for people to have meaningful companionship, unless they have a calling for celibacy.
My point is that although it appears as if the Vatican passes down "interpretational orders" to the rest of the hierarchy... individual members of the clergy will still interpret the bible for themselves, and apply/promote their personal interpretation when they think no one else is looking.