Catholic Church bars children of lesbians
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I’m always of two minds when I read about the horrendous discrimination faced by queers in homophobic institutions like the Catholic Church or the US military. On the one hand, I think: That’s so wrong. On the other I think: What the hell are you doing trying to be part of organizations that hate you?
Case in point: a nice lesbian couple decided to enroll their two children in the Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Denver, CO. The children enjoyed their first year there, but were barred from re-enrolling because their parents are lesbians. According to the Archbishop, Charles J. Chaput:
The Church does not claim that people with a homosexual orientation are ‘bad,’ or that their children are less loved by God… But what the Church does teach is that sexual intimacy by anyone outside marriage is wrong; that marriage is a sacramental covenant; and that marriage can only occur between a man and a woman. These beliefs are central to a Catholic understanding of human nature, family and happiness, and the organization of society. The Church cannot change these teachings because, in the faith of Catholics, they are the teachings of Jesus Christ.”
Funny, but I don’t recall Jesus railing against lesbian parents or unmarried sorts. After all, Jesus’ mother was pregnant from someone other than his father and his best friend was a whore. I also rather doubt that the school is kicking out all divorced parents or unmarried heterosexual ones.
But I digress, the real question is not what would Jesus do, but why do queers want to be part of institutions that hold so firmly to the belief that there are straights and gays and gays are sinful or bad for army morale or not full citizens? In other words, what would make queers send their kids to Catholic schools, join the military, or try to get access to marriage?
I will leave it to the psychologists to discuss internalized homophobia and a deep need to be accepted by those who hate us. Being a sociologist, I suggest we keep our eye on something else: social power.
In purely economic terms, there are reasons to join the military, get married and send our children to parochial schools that are much less expensive because they are religious. In a country where income distribution is by far the most unequal in the industrialized world, where access to higher education involves huge amounts of debt for the majority of Americans, and where jobs that pay a livable wage are few and far between without a university degree, the military is one of the few promised paths to future financial well-being. Of course, it’s a promise that is rarely realized- but nonetheless, it is a promise. The same holds for the benefits of marriage- health insurance, property transfer, etc. As for Catholic schools, they’re cheaper than most private schools and the level of education can be quite a bit better than our underfunded public schools.
But it’s not just about money. It’s about privilege and status. It’s also, more fundamentally, about a sense of being a good person. Good people love their country enough to kill and die for it; good people are married people; good people do everything in their power to ensure their children have as many opportunities as possible.
Good grief. Good people should love their country enough to resist illegal wars of aggression, insist that civil rights not be distributed on the basis of marital status, and fight for excellent public education for all our children.
I’m no Christian, but even a sinner like me knows that’s what Jesus would do.
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The catholic church has lost its moral underpinnings with scandals in nearly every country…even the pope’s brother has admitted slapping around children in Germany’s abuse scandal. And in the aftermath of child abuse here in America, the church has decided to steer right and join the moral majority and split their own congregations by supporting right wing abortion tactics, condemning choice politicians while ignoring politicians who support the death penalty, another church cause.
Now they are after gays because they want to attach pedophilia to gays. regardless of the facts that child lovers are straight.
I was raised and schooled (till they threw me out) and found much of their discipline seeped in ridicule and cruelty. I tried to be a good catholic but not one who took lightly to being bullied and humiliated. Nothing they do surprises me any longer.
Laurie, I know your post asks a different question, but I am just, to use my six year old’s favorite word, flabbergasted by this story. So if children conceived in “sin,” as defined by the church, cannot attend their schools, does that mean kids born to rape victims cannot attend? I could go on and on, but you said it best. Joseph wasn’t Jesus’ father, and Jesus befriended all kinds. What happened to the Christ in Christianity?
Isn’t this a civil rights violation? Where is the ACLU on this?
Anyway, as to your other question about why people would want to belong to an institution that denies their very identity: I think it’s a matter of faith, which is something I don’t question. It’s not something I share, but I have seen many people struggle over that particular church after the sex abuse scandals, and there is something that goes deeper than disgust with abhorrent acts like hurting children. Check out Andrew Sullivan, who is publicly wrestling with this question. It’s much deeper than politics for some, and I don’t envy people who feel spiritually attached to an institution while disapproving of its policies. I don’t understand it, but I try not to judge.
Thanks for pointing out this outrageous story.
People of all orientations find themselves engaged with the very institutions that vilified them in futile hopes of recapitulating the experience with a transformative and hence “liberating” themselves. The irony is just more obvious with gay people trying to face down Christoid religion. Practicing heteros engaged in the same psychic drama do not as clearly illustrate the authoritarianism that drive these institutions. People should only attempt to humanize these institutions if in doing so they can humanize themselves. That was the message that Jesus offered when taking on the Pharisees, whose sort of doubled-speaking hypocrisy is amply displayed by Archbishop Chaput, above.
“What the hell are you doing trying to be part of organizations that hate you?”
First, people are not only their sexual orientation; as you know, each of us is much more complex than that. Besides, organizations founded on the premise of an ideal attracts by that ideal, not necessarily by what some % of membership might believe.
Second, you might have asked that same question of Rev Martin Luther King Jr and his followers, or Ghandi and his. And what do you think either might have answered?