THE "OLD ORDER" SEEMS AWFULLY MODERN:

The pope and the president: In 44 years we have gone from the fear that a Roman Catholic president might take orders from the pope, to a Protestant president who asks the pope to order his bishops to help him get elected. Even as Roman Catholic bishops wield access to Holy Communion as an antigay political weapon, this clergyman asks, “What would Jesus do?” (Archbishop Bruce J. Simpson, Benedictine Order of St. John the Beloved (an Old Catholic order), July 8, 2004, Advocate.com)

The Pilgrims fled Europe and came to Plymouth to escape the intolerance and hatred of religious persecution. Almost four centuries later a very disturbing trend is taking place in America that is the very antitheses of what this country is supposed to stand for and be about. Religious persecution has once again reared its ugly head.

In recent weeks we have seen the president of the United States ask the head of a worldwide religious organization—the pope, who is also the head of a foreign state—to help him win reelection (actually, it would be his first win for president at the ballot box). That not being enough, this same White House occupant has now asked the largest Protestant denomination in the United States to help him win his first election. These actions have effectively blended church and politics to an unprecedented level in American life.

It’s no oversight that the Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist churches are among the most aggressive opponents of equal rights for gay Americans. The battle cry of this appointed president is “Protect the sanctity of marriage!”

We know what Jesus would have done, he'd have cured them. But is the Archbishop really claiming that homosexuality is a religion rather than a disorder?

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 12, 2004 11:17 AM