Stand by the truth

Earlier this month the British gay organization Stonewall gave out its annual Bigot of the Year award. This year the moral gargoyle of a prize was given to Scotland’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien. The Scottish Catholic Media Office summed it all up rather well.

“Stonewall’s decision to award their Bigot of the Year award to Cardinal O’Brien reveals the depth of their intolerance and their willingness to attack and demean those who don’t share their views. Stonewall and others have promoted terms like ‘bigot’ and ‘homophobe’ relentlessly, in order to intimidate and vilify anyone who dares oppose their agenda. It is an agenda which the wider public does not endorse and which their excessive language has undermined. Numerous public bodies give sizeable financial donations to Stonewall including the Scottish government. These intolerant and intimidatory tactics should mean that this funding is now questioned and examined as a matter of urgency.”

Well of course it should be, and of course it won’t be. Cardinal O’Brien is in fact a sensitive, gentle, holy man who has always coated his criticism of gay marriage and aspects of the homosexual lifestyle with compassion and love. That, of course, hasn’t mattered in a very long time. We now have the concept of “The Other,” of condemning, libelling and marginalizing anybody who says anything contrary to an increasingly militant and confident gay agenda.

Of course, my mere use of terms such as gay agenda will lead to similar abuse of me, as has already happened. The attacks also come from some of the influential bodies and people in contemporary society. Regarding the Stonewall event, for example, it is heavily supported in the United Kingdom by the Nationwide Building Society, one of the country’s most respected and prestigious financial institutions and the largest building society in the world. The Nationwide symbol can be seen on the shirts of leading soccer teams and at national sports and cultural events. It is an essential part of the British fabric, a quintessential symbol of what is accepted and established.

So one would have assumed that it would attempt to reflect the views of all of its patrons and not just a vociferous minority. Not so. It insists on giving financial aid to Stonewall and Bigot of the Year, where the contenders and winners are not bigots of course, but people who oppose Stonewall’s demands, including same-sex marriage. The people listed each year include mainstream journalists, Christian leaders and anybody else whom the group thinks should be labelled as hateful and ignorant. The Nationwide directly sponsors the dinner during which these critics of same-sex marriage are condemned and mocked, even though enormous numbers of its members share the views of these alleged bigots.

It’s a phenomenon which we see replicated throughout North America and Europe, where otherwise apolitical institutions with vast financial, cultural and media influence suddenly become affiliated with groups fighting bitterly against any criticism of same-sex marriage, thus libelling informed and peaceful people and making them appear at best freakish and eccentric, at worst a positive danger to society.

The challenge is especially pertinent to Roman Catholics as sexuality is one of those nonnegotiable aspects of Christian theology. God has a plan for procreation, humanity, marriage and gender compatibility. It is a fundamental of creation, and no amount of sliding around truth and slipping through the obvious will change any of that. It’s always tempting, but seldom righteous, to adapt one’s views to find a comfort zone within the status quo.

Empathy always, understanding always, warmth and kindness always, but Catholicism always. It is, if you like, our stonewall of defence against all that is wrong and allows us to properly grasp the plan that God has for us; as such it really should matter not a breath how many times we are called bigot — or far worse. It’s not going to become any easier proclaiming the truth, and will likely become far more dangerous, but if you are looking for an easy time of it I could recommend something, almost anything, other than Roman Catholicism