New Jersey Catholic Church Says Gay People are a Threat to the Public Good

Another state, another round of Catholic leaders urging discrimination toward gays and lesbians.  Maine's Catholic Church has been busy channeling tens of thousands of dollars toward efforts to ban gays and lesbians from civil marriage (meanwhile, the Maine Catholic Church is closing parishes because they can't afford to keep them open).  Now the Catholic Church in New Jersey is ramping up efforts to deny gays and lesbians the same rights as straight people.

The Catholic Church in New Jersey has long opposed efforts to grant gay and lesbian couples the same rights as straight couples.  But in recent days, they've stepped up their campaign.  Last Sunday, Catholic Churches throughout the state handed out flyers during mass that argued that gays and lesbians in committed relationships were intrinsically evil, and that same-sex marriage should be defined the exact same way by both the government and the Catholic Church.

The flyer, signed by bishops from Newark, Metuchen, Trenton, Paterson and Camden, said that gay and lesbian couples threaten children, and threaten the public good. According to the letter, "As Catholics, we must not stand by in silence in the face of the many challenges that threaten marriage and, in turn, children and the public good."

It also says that same-sex marriage is not a civil right.  On the contrary, the flyer argues that some rights should only be granted to straight people since only they are worthy of the concept of marriage.

Wow.  And the Catholic Church wonders why it's declining in popularity in this country.  One can only wonder if they need to hire a public relations firm to tell them that these type of actions make them sound more like bigots than pastors.

And now the Catholic Church in New Jersey is preparing for a post-Labor Day series of sermons in which numerous churches throughout the Garden State will see pastors preaching about the evils of marriage equality.

This ramped up campaign by the NJ Catholic Church likely has to do with the fact that New Jersey could very well become the next state to enact marriage equality.  Debates on marriage equality are set to start during a lame duck session after November's election.  And current Gov. Jon Corzine - who is running for re-election this year - has vowed to support marriage equality if he's re-elected.

That's gotta be a threat to the Catholic Church, who would rather relegate gays and lesbians to a second class status.  But it's that second class status that deserves to be uprooted.  In December 2008, a bipartisan commission in New Jersey looked at the state's current civil unions laws, and found them inadequate in providing equal rights to all of New Jersey's citizens.  The commission said that only full civil marriage rights would give gay and lesbian couples the same rights that straight people are entitled to in the state

Equal and fair rights.  Now there's a concept that the Catholic Church could really use a hand in understanding.  Instead, they pen a flyer that says gay people are a threat to children and the public good.