June 9, 2013

The Vatican's homophobia is based on misogyny

I believe the Roman Catholic church's appalling view of women is the ultimate source of its homophobia. Let's take this step by step.

But first, a backstory. Years ago I watched a documentary about the Irish Magdalene Laundries where unmarried, pregnant women were abused by the Roman Catholic church. I'll cut to the chase. There was a segment where a woman who had been imprisoned there spoke about the abuse the women suffered. She said it was commonplace for priests to hear the confessions of these "fallen women" and then request a blowjob.

I could never put this together in my head. How could someone who calls himself a priest do such a thing? But I think I understand it now.

The Roman Catholic church does not see men and women as equals. The male is "made in the image of Christ" -- the females, not so much. Women exist to "service" men, produce babies, cook and clean. They are not allowed to enjoy sex. As far as the church is concerned, the only sexual activity women may engage in is when they submit joylessly to the sexual whims of their husbands. Now, combine this with the Irish laundy story. Those women got pregnant without marriage. Horrors! That means they didn't have the kind of soulless sex that wives are supposed to have; they had fun. And that means they were damaged goods, unfit, unclean. The priests who abused these women believed they were merely demanding their due, as men, from fallen women. It's sickening, but tell me this doesn't have the ring of truth.

Now let's consider the church's homophobia. I believe it arises directly from the church's split view of humanity, where men are seen as full, valid, "authentic" human beings, while women are mere chattel.

"Of course women can't be priests," these men think. "They're not fully human! They cannot represent Christ, who was, let us recall, a wondrous, lustrous, fully manly man." Oh, how virtuous these men are! And they didn't have to earn their laurels. This manly virtue comes from, uh, being men. From the day of his birth, a man is a member of the chosen sex.

Enter same-sex relationships. Why, they go against god's plan! And why is this true (in the church's eyes)? Because these relationships involve true equality. I alluded to this in a post a few days ago. The church says there can be no "authentic" marriage for a same-sex couple. After all, how could it be a marriage when there is no god-approved inequality? There is no suffering woman; there is no dominant man. Such a thing couldn't possibly be a marriage.

The female must suffer in the process of the sexual act in order for it to be god-approved "authentic" sex. I'm using the Vatican's own terminology here -- and it suddenly makes (sick) sense. This must be how they think.

In a male-male or female-female relationship, no one suffers. They're just a happy couple, having a good time, enjoying sex and living their lives as they see fit. This disturbs the Vatican tremendously. There's just something wrong about that, in their eyes. Where's the suffering? There is none, so the relationship is obviously sinful!

I truly believe this is why the church is so opposed to marriage equality. It's all about the equality.

PS: Remember the nitwit church that put a graphic on its signboard? The one that showed a cross, a larger-than sign (with the larger end pointing toward the cross), and an equals sign. It meant "Christ is greater than marriage equality". Think about this. That truly is their message: there can be no marriage if there is equality. It's a contradiction in terms for the church.

And this whole stinking mess arises "naturally" from their religious-caveman view of women. This also explains why the church can't state clearly the basis of its venomous opposition to gays and gay marriage. As I've said many times on this blog, they just babble when the question is asked. And now we understand why. To explain their opposition adequately, they'd have to admit how the church views women. Such a revelation would bring about the total collapse of Christianity (except in countries where women are literally chattel under the law; in such areas, they'd probably be fine with it).

The Roman Catholic church hates women. That's the whole story, right there.

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