And he’s such a self-righteous and arrogant individual that he does this prior to anyone being arrested for the crime in order to determine whether it had anything to do with the owners being homosexual. Some people are looking for every opportunity to bash Christians. One of his most dishonest – and fraudulent - statements is: “A religion or ideology simply cannot preach against a group of people for centuries but claim to be innocent when such preaching leads to violence against that group.” (I add more comment below the excerpt below.)
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National Post – November 18, 2010
P.E.I. churches share responsibility for homophobia
By Jackson Doughart
The bishop for the Diocese of Charlottetown, Richard Grecco, responded to a recent homophobic attack in Prince Edward Island in an interview with The Guardian Friday, Nov. 5. The incident involved a gay couple from the community of Little Pond whose house was set on fire during the night of Oct. 18. In the months leading up to the arson, the couple says that it was subjected to a series of disturbing events, including an anonymous letter condemning the sexual orientation of the men as sinful.
In the article, Grecco was quick to announce his support for the victims of the attack, but was even quicker to absolve religion of any responsibility for the incident. According to the story, Grecco said his church preaches love for everyone, even (for) those with whom it disagrees.
In mentioning that his church accepts those who disagree with it, one can presume that Bishop Grecco maintains that the Catholic Church’s position against homosexuality is correct but that the church is not responsible for homophobia because it does not officially sponsor homophobic violence or hate speech.
What Bishop Grecco purports is actually quite false. In reality, religion is indeed responsible for homophobia because churches have great power to influence the opinions and actions of those who subscribe to their teachings. Church doctrines are the most important parts of morality for devoutly religious people and as such, religious contempt for homosexuality can manifest itself as hatred toward gay people. Even though Bishop Grecco’s priests may not discuss homosexuality in their sermons, Catholics know that the larger institution is against homosexuality and that this position is supported by the Bible.
In the arson case, it appears that those responsible were religiously motivated because of the language used in the anonymous letter received by the victims, which specifically addressed the sinfulness of homosexuality. Sin is a uniquely clerical concept and the religious connotation in the letter is clear. To suggest that religious opinions against homosexuality had no connection to the committing of this crime is not taking responsibility in any adult sense.
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This secularist position is militantly state-ist (socialist) and, therefore, aggressively hostile to liberty. It’s an implicit denial of the principle of separation of church and state because it denies any room at all in society for church: all of life is subsumed under a centralist/totalitarian state.
So where is the author saying this? In his infantile and dishonest assertion that speaking against something necessarily will lead to violence. This is an extremely dangerous terroristic mentality. It is true that just about everybody other than Christians have embraced this vigilante mentality: animal rights activists, environmentalists, anti-free traders, Muslims, pro-aborts/feminists who assault pro-lifers and try to rip up their signs, etc. At many of these rent-a-mob protests you see placards for socialist, marxist and communist organizations. This vigilante ethic flows out of humanism.
It is not surprising that atheists and humanists think that opposition to people’s behaviour will necessarily lead to violence. This is the ethic they have embraced. This is what they see all around them. But Christians have demonstrated throughout history that we do not behave this way. We live Biblically, recognizing that disagreement must not lead to violence. This is because we believe in sphere sovereignty. The state has a sphere of jurisdiction that includes the use of force, but individuals have their own sphere of jurisdiction that does not allow them to take civil punishment into their own hands. As democratic and responsible people, we allow the state to be responsible in its sphere. But again, humanists don’t recognize any more than one sphere – the sphere of the state – so they have no philosophical basis to condemn vigilante behaviour. Don’t let them play games and impose that ethic and ideology onto you as a Christian. If it’s not fraudulent, it’s pathetic dishonesty that is inexcusable in a political science university student. Hopefully Jackson Doughart will abandon his kneejerk bigotry. The sooner the better…