Thank GOD someone is looking out for the safety of my marriage

[rolanni]

Those who have been playing along at home will recall that Maine recently allowed as how gay people are human, too, and ought to be able to partake of all the rights and responsibilities attendant to that state. This, of course, brought a whole buncha Right Thinking People out of the woodwork in opposition, and from countries as far away as New Jersey and Colorado.

The Right Thinking People have raised just oodles of money in defense of my marriage, which I don't recall EVER asking them to defend. It's a good marriage; it has its twitters and tangles, like anyybody's marriage, but it's not endangered or threatened in any way. Especially not by other people getting married.

But, I digress. This article talks about the various fund raising efforts of the Right Thinking People and Those Other People and it comes to light that, along with funds flowing in-state from Planet Jersey and the nice folks at Focus on the Family, $100,000 has been donated by...

...wait for it...

...deep breath...

No, deeper...

The Portland Roman Catholic Diocese.

So, Momma Church is paying taxes now, is she?

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Just remember what happened with the "bottle bill" -- lotsa outside money poured into defeating bottle deposits, Maine voters got turned off by the ad campaign, we still pay deposits on drink bottles . . .

[n6vfp.livejournal.com]

Oh, it sounds so familiar, as we in California had so much help defending marriage from all the 'Christian' folk and the Mormons too. Wait till the Mormon Church donates millions... they did in California. The 'right people' screamed when the donor lists (filed with the secretary of state) became public and people started picketing outside businesses and churches..

[shweta-narayan.livejournal.com]

This, yes.

I really want to start a campaign to protect marriage from the people who want to turn it back into a sign of bigotry.

[n6vfp.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd leave a comment saying I had to comment on the news article.... I always get a bit upset when someone I don't know tries to tell me how to live. I'm not gay but I do agree they should have the right to marriage. I tried marriage once, it lasted for 5 years.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

is that the Maine or the Oregon Portland? because if its the Oregon one, I need to contact the state here .. seems our Diocese is bankrupt (in more ways than one) because of sex abuse settlements and lawsuits. If they can give 100K then they got money.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

is that the Maine or the Oregon Portland?

Portland, Maine.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

is that the ME Portland or the OR Portland? the OR Diocese is in bankruptcy due to sex abuse lawsuits, so if they have a spare 100K our state needs to know about it.

We have the same problem with our bottle bill.. but we finally passed a deposit on water bottles this year.

[lornastutz.livejournal.com]

I have never understood why people can't just "live and let live" without inflicting their "religious" and "moral" belief systems on others.

I am a living, thinking adult and I don't need someone legislating my morality.

Lorna

[(Anonymous)]

If our marriage needed defending by outsiders, it wouldn't be worth having. (it's been going on for 32 years - but it takes constant maintenance!)

And I don't understand why our going to the courthouse to sign a contract was/should be any different than any other two people going into a contract.

OTOH - my gay friends pay less in payroll taxes than I do. and have criss-cross powers of attorney for medical and other issues.

[aprilhenry.livejournal.com]

The same folks who went bankrupt because they had so many sex abuse lawsuits? Truly the arbiter of right.

[sickmomma.livejournal.com]

Grrrrr!

No one has ever been able to explain to me how gay marriage is a threat to the institution of marriage or anyone's personal marriage.

Back in my reporter days, when I covered the issue here in the other Portland during the few weeks they were giving out marriage licenses to same-sex couples, there were all these right-wingers (primarily from outside of our very liberal town) frothing at the mouth over how this was going to destroy marriage and lead to us all going to hell or something.

I mean, c'mon. The divorce rate is allegedly 50 percent or higher among hetero couples. Are hetero married folk doing such a great job making marriage into a holy thing? (And yeah, I'm half of one of those hetero married couples. I like being married, but I don't consider it a religious sacrament.)

Sorry. Don't mean to rant here. Thanks for posting this. :-)

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, "values issues" have been left aside from the requirement that churches not meddle in politics.

Likely we can thank Fat Tony and his buddies. He shoulda gone hunting with Dead-eye Dick Cheney more often. Really.

[elbales]

STABBITY.

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

*stabbity stabbity stabbity*

[(Anonymous)]

I'm just glad that I live in Canada. We settled the issue of gay marriage several years ago, and the sky hasn't fallen nor has amagdoen appeared.
Annemarie S.

[jimsmyth.livejournal.com]

Yup. The Diocese my Mom supports. (Well, not all by herself. And she supports other things, too. A fair number of them.)

As of yesterday, opponents of the new law have raised $400,000, some of which they're using to hire the Prop 8 marketing guy to make ads. Feh.


I started volunteering with the Maine Freedom to Marry coalition. It helps me cope. (And the police mind it much less than the stabbity.)

Are we talking about...

[ligeia-bm.livejournal.com]

...the same people who betrayed the trust of their flock by protecting pedophiles for decades?

Are we talking that people who didn't fulfill their duty as law abiding citizens, by not denouncing rapes to Justice, as they were obliged by law to do?

Are we talking of the same people who rotated rapist priests and pedophiles around, to deceive and evade justice?

Are we talking about the same people who went (and still go, because these abuses happened all around the world, not just in the US) to Court, trying to discredit the victims of rape and abuse, victimizing them again, for the sake of protecting "their" money?

Are we talking about the same people who urged their parishioners not to go to secular Justice, and instead to rely in them, while they did NOTHING but hide the culprits, giving them new opportunities to break the law (and many children in the process)time and time again?

I am just asking, because I need to make sure who are the individuals/organizations that say they are the moral compass of society, and want to do the right thing for us.

If they are this same people, I think the best way to show the wrongness of their campaign is expose them for what they are.

I still cannot forget or forgive them for the role they played looking to the other side or even encouraging the murders the military dictatorship carried out in my country between 1976 and 1983.

Now, the Inquisition (sorry, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith) is investigating the American nuns. They think that for teaching and working and living among the common people, they have gone astray. The horror! They are no longer being slaves/maids to the priests! They are no longer secluded in convents, embroidering the regal clothes for mass... Awful creatures that they are. Of course, they are WOMEN! Need to be brought back to the right path.

Here is the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/us/02nuns.html

And don't get me started with the other groups, please. Many of them consider "a little torture" fine, and have supported an administration that stomped on International Law and human rights. As someone who lived under a dictatorship who killed 30,000 people on the basis of war on terror decades ago, I can only despise people who think any kind of torture, even the smallest abuse, is fine.

Now, this same people says they are concerned with the family. Their history shows that they aren't concerned with family. At all. Unless it's to force the families to serve them.

First thing Maine should do (and all other states, to avoid a situation like the one in California) is ban individual funds coming from out of the state, or from out-of the state organizations (that should include their offices inside the state). If this is an issue of Maine people, it should be decided by Maine citizenry, without outside influences.

How can this be happening? It's outrageous! Doubly so, because outsiders are trying to influence locals, and because the outsiders are totally immoral people.

People who protects criminals should be exposed for the scum they are. And when I say this, I don't only mean the gangsters that protected criminals at the helm of the Catholic Church. I mean the ones who support kidnappings and torture and denial of rights, human rights and civil ones, too.

Stabbity indeed

[pakwa26.livejournal.com]

If the head of the Church of England in England can cope with, and even congratulate same-sexers on their marriages, where do lesser mortals get off? How does two people of any gender wanting to spend their lives together have anything to do with superstition and ignorance?