Pope Benedict XVI has said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.
He explained that defending God's creation was not limited to saving the environment, but also about protecting man from self-destruction.
The Pope was delivering his end-of-year address to senior Vatican staff.
His words, later released to the media, emphasised his rejection of gender theory.
Speaking on Monday, Pope Benedict XVI warned that gender theory blurred the distinction between male and female and could thus lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.
Gender theory
Gender theory explores sexual orientation, the roles assigned by society to individuals according to their gender, and how people perceive their biological identity.Gay and transsexual groups, particularly in the United States, promote it as a key to understanding and tolerance, but the Pope disagreed.
When the Roman Catholic Church defends God's Creation, "it does not only defend the earth, water and the air... but (it) also protects man from his own destruction," he said.
"Rainforests deserve, yes, our protection, but the human being ... does not deserve it less," the pontiff said.
It is not "out-of-date metaphysics" to "speak of human nature as 'man' or woman'", he told scores of prelates gathered in the Vatican's sumptuous Clementine Hall.
"We need something like human ecology, meant in the right way."
The Catholic Church opposes gay marriage. It teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are.
Rev Sharon Ferguson, chief executive of Britain's Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, described the Pope's remarks as "totally irresponsible and unacceptable".
"When you have religious leaders like that making that sort of statement then followers feel they are justified in behaving in an aggressive and violent way," she said.
'Rock festival'
The pope uses his traditional end-of-year speech to offer his Christmas greetings and say a few words about what he considers the important issues of the day.
This year, Pope Benedict also deplored the tendency to depict the Catholic church's World Youth Day, which he attended in Sydney earlier this year, as mere spectacle.
He stressed that the event should not be considered a "variant of modern youth culture, as a kind of ecclesiastical rock festival with the Pope as the star," but as the fruition of a "long exterior and interior path".
More bullshit from the Pope, not too surprising
The Catholic Church opposes gay marriage. It teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are.
What is that supposed to mean - that it's ok to be homosexual, until you enage in homosexual acts?
Basically it means "Love the person, hate the deed".
"Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too—ready to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth." M.A.A.A
The Catholic Church opposes gay marriage. It teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are.
What is that supposed to mean - that it's ok to be homosexual, until you enage in homosexual acts?
It's an odd sort of acknowledgment that homosexuality is inherent and not changeable, but that you must resist acting on homosexual impulses. I alluded to a similar outlook in another thread about same-sex marriage, that even if homosexuality is biological there are those who feel that you should nonetheless not "give in" to it.
But yeah, basically it's OK to be a homosexual but not to act like one.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Screw all this "we love you but hate what you do" Bullshit... The church does NOT "love" gays or a whole host of other people and it pisses me off that they use this whole "We love you" excuse.
The church doesn't love "You", they love your soul... All they care about is making sure to convert you to the glorious ways of god so on Judgment day there is one less soul for Satan to gobble up. It pisses me off when i hear people talk about how the church "loves" everyone. Yeah, that's a load of crock. The fact that people bye into it pisses me off more. Broomstick? its NOT ok to be homosexual in the eyes of the church, no matter how much they say the love you. Because in the end of the day, your just another unholy, unclean filthy sinning sodamite.
Praying is another way of doing nothing helpful
"Congratulations, you get a cookie. You almost got a fundamental English word correct." Pick
"Outlaw star has spaceships that punch eachother" Joviwan Read "Tales From The Crossroads"! Read "One Wrong Turn"!
When the pope gives an end-of-year address mere days before Christmas, you'd think he'd deliver a 'peace on earth and goodwill to all men' sort of message. Instead, it's a rant about gender roles and homosexuality... I'm not exactly surprised, but to see time and again just how deep-rooted the Vatican's blind obsession with sexuality is, is really rather saddening.
Yeah! Screw war, poverty and starvation! The real threat to mankind is what people do with their naughty bits!
I remember reading an op-ed piece that said nothing causes an obsession with sex like supposedly healthy abstinence does.
Maybe if the Vatican didn't mandate celibacy, they'd see sex really isn't anything to worry about. The only real consolation I can draw from this is that they'll hopefully continue to alienate the rest of the world with such behavior.
Crossroads Inc. wrote:Screw all this "we love you but hate what you do" Bullshit... The church does NOT "love" gays or a whole host of other people and it pisses me off that they use this whole "We love you" excuse.
The church doesn't love "You", they love your soul... All they care about is making sure to convert you to the glorious ways of god so on Judgment day there is one less soul for Satan to gobble up. It pisses me off when i hear people talk about how the church "loves" everyone. Yeah, that's a load of crock. The fact that people bye into it pisses me off more. Broomstick? its NOT ok to be homosexual in the eyes of the church, no matter how much they say the love you. Because in the end of the day, your just another unholy, unclean filthy sinning sodamite.
OK, let's try to grasp an unpleasant fact - for most Christian sects, including the one the Pope runs, we are ALL sinning bags of evil shit and the only thing between us and eternal flames is God's Love(TM). If your personal worst sin is homosexuality well, that's just your flavor of damned-to-hell - someone else's might be greed or gluttony or anger or whatever.
You're right, the church doesn't love people, it loves souls, and tries to gather as many as possible for Heaven Points.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
He explained that defending God's creation was not limited to saving the environment, but also about protecting man from self-destruction.
And how, pray tell, are homosexual and transsexual acts "self-destruction"?
If everybody turned gay there would not be more happy families with babies. The small, almost insignificant but not quite flaw in his reasoning is that even if all other men in the World turned gay I would still be here, ready to do my Christian duty of inseminating all (reasonably good looking and beyond) women into the next generation.
Colonel Olrik wrote:
You can thank me later, ladies.
You will fail if they were all poisoned by homosexual ideas and turned lesbian!
Mike once said that the very idea that propaganda can turn straight men is completely preposterous to anybody who is not sexually frustrated ; I happen to agree with this statement, especially since the Church and its hierarchs seem to confirm this to a T, as sexually frustrated old men living in fear of homosexuals taking over the world
Yeah...funny how they spend so much time thinking about cock with all this killing and hunger and death and climate change, eh? I guess pope Benny just needs a good fuck.
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
So the sexual frustration felt by the hierarchy is more or less the same thing felt by Burly Navy Seamen and Hardboiled Prison Convicts who are in male-dominated environments, where the only release they can get is through steamy man-sex?
Hrm, the fact that unlike Burly Navy Seamen and Hardboiled Prison Convicts, these priest peoples actually take themselves seriously and mostly don't engage in recreational man-sex, yeah, that's why they're so crazy over this thing.
They're not worried about people in general becoming gays. They're worried at themselves, and it's some kind of massive institutionalized projection!
"I'm no fag! Hahaha! Ain't like you, girly man! No way, I don't like the cock! That's just dumb, I'm a man!" *slaps ass*
Maybe that's why those Protestant denominations are gaining ground. They don't have to worry about developing weirdo neuroses since they can actually get married. To women.
"DO YOU WORSHIP HOMOSEXUALS?" - Curtis Saxton (source) shroom is a lovely boy and i wont hear a bad word against him - LUSY-CHAN! Shit! Man, I didn't think of that! It took Shroom to properly interpret the screams of dying people - PeZook Shroom, I read out the stuff you write about us. You are an endless supply of morale down here. :p - an OWS street medic Pink Sugar Heart Attack!
Maybe that's why those Protestant denominations are gaining ground. They don't have to worry about developing weirdo neuroses since they can actually get married. To women.
It would be a nice theory, if the US wasn't chock-full of neurotic Protestants with a thing against homosexuality.
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
loomer wrote:Basically it means "Love the person, hate the deed".
Well as I understand it, the old policy was "hate both", so I suppose we should be glad of some progress .
Not really. Think about it honestly here for a second. By their claim, homosexuals don't deserve condemnation by us. But they are still going to hell. Where they will be tortured and burned for all eternity.
If that isn't hate, I don't know what is.
بيرني كان سيفوز
*
Nuclear Navy Warwolf
*
in omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nusquam inveni nisi in angulo cum libro
*
ipsa scientia potestas est
Crossroads Inc. wrote:Screw all this "we love you but hate what you do" Bullshit... The church does NOT "love" gays or a whole host of other people and it pisses me off that they use this whole "We love you" excuse.
The church doesn't love "You", they love your soul... All they care about is making sure to convert you to the glorious ways of god so on Judgment day there is one less soul for Satan to gobble up. It pisses me off when i hear people talk about how the church "loves" everyone. Yeah, that's a load of crock. The fact that people bye into it pisses me off more. Broomstick? its NOT ok to be homosexual in the eyes of the church, no matter how much they say the love you. Because in the end of the day, your just another unholy, unclean filthy sinning sodamite.
OK, let's try to grasp an unpleasant fact - for most Christian sects, including the one the Pope runs, we are ALL sinning bags of evil shit and the only thing between us and eternal flames is God's Love(TM). If your personal worst sin is homosexuality well, that's just your flavor of damned-to-hell - someone else's might be greed or gluttony or anger or whatever.
You're right, the church doesn't love people, it loves souls, and tries to gather as many as possible for Heaven Points.
Damn, from the way that sounds it almost appears like a very bad anime plot, but with unfortunately very real life negative effects as a matter of course...
Maybe that's why those Protestant denominations are gaining ground. They don't have to worry about developing weirdo neuroses since they can actually get married. To women.
It would be a nice theory, if the US wasn't chock-full of neurotic Protestants with a thing against homosexuality.
Depends on which brand of protestanism you are talking about. Are you talking about the Lutherans who already allow celebate homosexual clergy and are moving towards non-celebate gay clergy? Are you talking about the Episopalians/Anglicans who ahve multiple gay bishops? Are you talking about the United Church of Christ which is basically deism plus Jesus without the anti-gay message?
If you are talking about any of those groups then your statement is foolish. If you are talking about Southern Baptists and the unaligned "Bible" churches then sure the US is chock full such Protestants.
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"I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of god. I have seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. "
-Kingdom of Heaven
Colonel Olrik wrote:If everybody turned gay there would not be more happy families with babies.
Yeah, it reminds me of the conservitard nutsos I see on places like SB who lament the low birth rates of places like Europe, constantly insinuating that's a sign of how those places are sinfully decadent and the people there are just too shallow and selfish to have children. Because Heaven knows if there's anything this world needs its more unrestricted population growth.
I'm not a big fan of Steven Dutch, but it reminds me of something he said about what he calls thar cultures.
But the reality is that much of the world's overpopulation is driven by the thar mentality. In thar societies manhood is measured more or less directly by the ability to father children. I confess I have always found this attitude a bit puzzling - gerbils can mate at the age of 90 days, so procreation isn't exactly a high-order skill.
Emphasis mine.
Personally I suspect deep down it comes down to sexism: if the womenfolk are kept really busy popping out, taking care of, and cleaning up after the vessels of your DNA they will be less likely to have the energy to do such annoying things as start to imagine they should have rights. Plus there's probably some magical thinking involved: not having kids shows you're just not MANLY enough to have strong seed.
WHAT!? THE POPE IS CATHOLIC!? *Le Gasp!* Who knew?
In all seriousness is anyone still surprised by this?
Does anyone actually expect there to be change?
Anyone?
"The real ideological schism in America is not Republican vs Democrat; it is North vs South, Urban vs Rural, and it has been since the 19th century."
-Mike Wong
There is change in the Catholic church alright, small, minor and slow change that will take several centuries to see the real effect.
Afterall, the Church did put a stop in regards to burning people in Europe.
No you fool. Church would hapilly burn and torture people if allowed to. What has changed is that through secularisation of society and govenrment, church just does not have the leeway to persecute people like it used to have.
That is all but due to secular pressure,not that church is getting more tolerant.
And that is again through long process at beginning of which some "enlightened" monarchs limited church power in favor of secular power and that again because some of ideas of "enlightement" scholars gained popularity. (Like the one that torturing people is ultimatelly bad thing.) (And ultimatelly because said monarchs liked the idea to not have church interferring with their olotics) That is called "Humanism". Didn you got it in the school? Ever heard about baroque era?
Fact that some things are socially unacceptable does not stop church thinking they are good idea - aparently they have no qualms to SAY it aloud, to the point of what is "politically correct" and there is no doubt that they actually restrain themself when going out to the public.
Their tax extemption status should be immediatelly threatened every time they go out and push politicall agenda.
Invictus ChiKen wrote:WHAT!? THE POPE IS CATHOLIC!? *Le Gasp!* Who knew?
I believe the appeal is that it's another show of idiocy from an obsolete group of useless old men.
Invictus ChiKen wrote:Does anyone actually expect there to be change?
Well, yeah. Surely the people down in church marketing would have explained to the leadership that by changing some of these policies, they can regain some ground in these lucrative European markets.
"Oh no, oh yeah, tell me how can it be so fair
That we dying younger hiding from the police man over there
Just for breathing in the air they wanna leave me in the chair
Electric shocking body rocking beat streeting me to death"
- A.B. Original, Report to the Mist
"I think it’s the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."
- George Carlin
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