What Part of Jesus' Invitation to "Be Not Afraid" Don't the Bishops Get?

One of the most interesting (and hopeful) aspects of Cardinal Francis George’s recent apology for comparing the gay rights movement to the Ku Klux Klan, is his admission that his remarks were “motivated by fear.” Specifically, the cardinal is afraid that the “Church's liberty” will somehow be compromised or threatened if civil marriage rights are extended to gay couples.

Where does such fear come from? Does Cardinal George really believe that gay couples are going to sue the church for not marrying them? Like it or not, the Roman Catholic Church is free to choose who it will and will not marry. That’s its right. A straight couple in which one or both parties is divorced cannot sue the church for not marrying them. And neither can a gay couple. This seems so clear. And yet the cardinal remains fearful. We know this because he is yet to say he will no longer work against the efforts of others to secure civil marriage rights for gay couples. Still, I’m impressed by his apology and consider it genuine.

Here in Minnesota I would very much like to see our own Archbishop Nienstedt issue an apology for his activism against the LGBT population of the state, and for aligning with groups such as Minnesotans for Marriage which state that same-sex parents are harmful to children. As with Cardinal George, Archbishop Nienstedt’s anti-gay rhetoric and activism are rooted in fear. Yet unlike Cardinal George, Archbishop Nienstedt is yet to admit it. But it’s there. Unmistakably so.

In his recent message to the priests and deacons of the archdiocese, for instance, Nienstedt says that those who support marriage equality are out to “eliminate the need for marriage altogether,” and that November’s vote on the marriage amendment will be the “one chance . . . to make things right.” “The stakes,” he insists, “could not be higher.” Fear is a great motivator for the uninformed and the already fearful, and I think the Archbishop knows it.

Perhaps all this fear about gay people should not be surprising, given that Pope Benedict himself models it. In a recent address to the Vatican’s diplomatic corps, for example, the pope said that gay marriage was one of several threats to the so-called “traditional family” that undermined “the future of humanity itself.”

Oh, really? How so? We don’t know because no explanation was offered by the pope. That’s because there is none. Consciously or unconsciously, it’s all fear-mongering with no grounding in reality.

For you see, in reality, no church will be forced to marry gay couples.

In reality, children flourish when raised within a loving family regardless of whether this family is headed by an opposite-sex couple or a same-sex couple.

In reality, humanity is blessed when the circle of inclusion and love and justice is expanded to include LGBT people.

In reality, the storm the bishops fear is of their own making.

Their fear of this storm, however, is, I believe, a genuine experience for many of them. In The Art of Being and Becoming, Sufi teacher and author Inayat Khan observes that “fear is an outcome of long-collected, unsolved problems. . . . Fear comes from weakness in facing the consequences of one’s condition, attitude and deeds.” I contend that the majority of those who comprise the Roman Catholic clerical caste have unresolved issues around their own sexuality. This generates all sorts of unfounded fears within them which they then project out onto others.

My prayer is that all who are fearful find the strength to face their “condition, attitude and deeds,” and discern the ways in which such things are expressions of fear and thus hurtful and harmful to themselves and others. As daunting as it may seem for those seemingly entrenched in their fears, the first steps of this journey of healing and transformation can be made, as evidenced by Cardinal George’s recent acknowledgment.

I also pray that each of us hear and trustingly respond to Jesus’ invitation to “Be not afraid.”

Only then will we no longer allow fear to motivate and determine our words and actions.

Only then will we be wholly receptive to being vessels of God’s transforming Love.

And as such living vessels we will, like Jesus, be boundary-breakers, transcenders of all forms of "authority-thinking" and joyful, not fearful, in our words and actions.

May it be so.


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Be Not Afraid, You Can Be Happy and Gay
• Catholic Church Can Overcome Fear of LGBT People
• What Is It That Ails You?
• The Many Manifestations of God’s Loving Embrace
• Compassion, Christian Community and Homosexuality
• Trusting God's Generous Invitation
• The "Wild Gaiety" of Jesus' Moral Teaching
• Keeping the Spark Alive: An Interview with Mystic Chuck Lofy
• Doug Mataconis on the Bishops, Religious Freedom, and Living in a Civil Society
• Responding to Whiny Catholic Bishops Who Cry Victim
• Responding to Bishop Tobin's Remarks on Gay Marriage
• Progressive Perspectives on Archbishop Nienstedt's Ant-Gay Activism

Recommended Off-site Links:
In 2012 Bishops Join Fight to Repackage Discrimination as ‘Religious Freedom’ – Sarah Posner (ReligionDispatches.org, January 2, 2012).
Catholic Bishops Claim Laws Allowing Gay Adoption Violate Religious Liberty – Doug Mataconis (OutsideTheBeltway.com, December 29, 2011).
Did the Pope Claim Gay Marriage as a Threat to Humanity or Didn't He? – Peter Mongomery (ReligionDispatches.org, January 11, 2012).

Opening image: Artist unknown.