At Salon, Mary Elizabeth Williams takes on the bulletin insert attacking marriage equality that the U.S. Catholic bishops have decided to place in the bulletins of Catholic parishes throughout the nation in May and June. It's "quite a corker," Williams finds.
Williams takes on the claim of "nearly 500 unwed, celibate men" that marriage is marriage is marriage, and has always been ipso facto and per omnia saecula saeculorum the union of a man and a woman oriented to procreation and has nothing whatsoever to do with triangles posing as squares:
It bears repeating that if the idea of two men or two women pledging themselves to each other in a manner that grants them legal protection and societal validation ticks you off, that’s your thing. But for heaven’s sake, stop pretending that marriage isn’t a man-made institution, one that we humans have defined in different ways throughout the course of history. Stop forgetting that if you’re looking for “traditional” marriages, the Bible itself is chock-full of them — defined by incest, rape and bigamy. Stop conveniently ignoring that the church says that matrimony is for the procreation of children but doesn’t restrict the elderly or infertile from enjoying the benefits of religiously sanctioned unions.
And don’t repeat the flat-out vicious untruth that “Redefining marriage in the law says many false things: women — mothers — are dispensable; men — fathers — are dispensable; what adults want trumps what a child deserves and has a basic right to.” Because I have to tell you, that’s what grasping at straws looks like. I’ve yet to find anything from anyone – except the opponents of marriage equality, that is — suggesting that anybody is out to make either mothers or fathers “dispensable.” Trust me. I’m a mother. And every time two dudes get married, I still keep my job. Did my heterosexual dad eradicate fatherhood when he left my mother before I was born? OK, then. Think it through. It’s embarrassing how you’re not even trying to make sense here. And when you say that “Redefining marriage serves no one’s rights, least of all those of children,” you’ve revealing a stunning amount of ignorance about gay and lesbian families, their offspring and their rights. Stunning.
And she's right. Especially about the viciousness of the lies the "pastoral" leaders of American Catholicism continue wanting to tell about their brothers and sisters who have been made gay by God, and about our relationships.
