Two Religious Zealots Condemn Homosexuality and Gay Marriage

Two States Considering Gay Marriage Won’t Get Archbishops’ Votes

If St. Paul’s Archbishop John Clay Nienstedt, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, has his wish, Minnesota will not have gay marriage after November 2012 or ever! The Most Reverend Nienstedt has repeatedly asked parishioners to vote and pray against marriage equality.

The Bible Tells Him (and others) So…

Archbishop Nienstedt defends his position by quoting paragraphs 2357, 2358, and 2359 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, rooted in Scripture and based on the Natural Moral Law. He goes a step further and says that Catholics are bound in conscience to believe this teaching and if they don’t, then they “ought not to participate in the sacramental life of the Church.”

Letter to Mother in 2010 SAYS IT ALL

Nienstedt’s views are not new. In 2010, he wrote to a mother who pleaded for acceptance for her gay child, in which he tells the woman she must reject her son according to Catholic teachings, or she might go to Hell as well. “I urge you to reconsider the position that you expressed in your letter. Your eternal salvation may well depend upon a conversation of heart on this topic.”

Catholic Teachings Vs. Mother’s Love of Gay Son

Minnesota Viking and GLBT ally Chris Kluwe wrote an open letter to the Archbishop and Pope Benedict XVI, a rebuttal to Nienstedt’s gay marriage views that appeared in the Star Tribune. Here’s an excerpt from Kluwe’s letter:

“ …It fills me with great sadness and regret that a steward of the Catholic Church on this Earth feels the need to take a stance of oppression, intolerance, and fear.Nowhere does Jesus preach hate or intolerance or loathing.”

“Millions of children grow up raised in the Catholic faith. Some of these children will be gay, through no choice of their own, but because of how God created them. What will these children think as they are belittled and tormented due to teachings you espouse?

“ What purpose does the Church serve attempting to influence the affairs of a secular state? The federal benefits under law currently denied gay couples certainly fall under the realm of Caesar, don’t they? No one is forcing the Catholic Church to marry gay couples if that is not the Church’s wish.”

“All I ask from you, Archbishop Nienstedt, and from you, Pope Benedict XVI, is to practice the most basic teaching found in the Bible – empathy. “ To read the entire letter from Kluwe, see

“Chris Kluwe Tackles Archbishop Who Told Woman to Reject Gay Son or Burn,” Queerty, 10/10/12.

Catholic Church Soldiers On Against Marriage Equality

Bishop Joseph Tyson of the Catholic Diocese of Yakima, Washington, has been urging his parishioners to vote against  the ballot measure Referendum 74 for marriage equality.  Why? Tyson espouses the following:

  • R 74’s concept of marriage is wrong: any two consenting adults desire.
  • It’s offensive to Basic Human Rights and Equality.
  • It redefines marriage and ignores the significance of the human body as well as sexual difference and complementarity, understood in spiritual, biological, psychological, and emotional fullness.
  • As a law, it conditions our society to forget or ignore basic human rights and equality and leaves children the most vulnerable.

Gay Marriage will Endanger Religious Liberty

In his pastoral letter dated October 6, 2012, Bishop Tyson says that gay marriage endangers our religious liberty and the right of conscience. Once marriage is redefined as a genderless contract, it will become, according to him, legally discriminatory for public and private institutions such as schools to promote the unique meaning of marriage…

“The acceptance of R-74 means that so-called same-sex “marriage” will replace real marriage – the union of a man and a woman – as the legal frame of reference for all public discourse.”

From The Pulpit to You: Preserve Marriage

Experts, political analysts all agree that marriage equality has sharply divided the state’s Catholicism. Catholics for Marriage Equality have delivered rebuttals by issuing letters and videos opposing marriage equality to Tyson and his fellow bishops in Seattle’s Archdiocese of Seattle and Spokane.

The Right Reverend Tyson has asked worshippers in his 41 parishes to donate money to defeat Referendum 74. Washington, has received, to date, nearly $6 million for its Washington United for Marriage whereas Preserve Marriage Washington has received less than $500,000 in donations.