Think the new Pope couldn’t possibly be as anti-gay as the outgoing one?
Think again: Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, considered by many to be the top contender to replace Pope Benedict, is hella homophobic.
Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, defended Uganda’s odious”Kill the Gays” bill and other legislation oppressing LGBT people.
Just as there’s a sense of a call for rights, there’s also a call to respect culture, of all kinds of people. So, if it’s being stigmatized, in fairness, it’s probably right to find out why it is being stigmatized.
He even chastised U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for calling on African countries to end the criminalization of homosexuality:
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[The Church pushes] for the rights of prisoners [and] the rights of others, and the last thing we want to do is infringe upon the rights of anyone. But when you’re talking about what’s called ‘an alternative lifestyle,’ are those human rights? [ Ban Ki-moon] needs to recognize there’s a subtle distinction between morality and human rights, and that’s what needs to be clarified.
Turkson is also way off the mark when it comes to combating the AIDS epidemic in Africa: He claims condoms should only be recommended for married couples when one partner is infected, and that abstinence was the key to fighting the epidemic. He also believes that funding for condoms would be better spent on anti-retroviral drugs for those already infected. (In case you’re wondering, it’s not an either-or proposition.)
Should Turkson get the nod, it will be a great tragedy that the first man of color to be named Bishop of Rome will be an inveterate bigot and ally to oppression.
Then again, when you’re talking about Catholic hierarchy, could it be any other way?
niles
He’s a pig just like all the rest.
Dionte
There is a pit of fire brewing for you Peter Turkson.
MikeE
Regardless of who is chosen, there will be no change in the Roman catholic church.
There may be progressive-thinking priests, bishops and whatnot in the group, but none of them will ever be in line for the top job.
There is a “gool ol’ boys” club effect at play here, as there is in ANY long-standing organization (see: “Boy Scouts of America”). The bigoted old boys of the church will only allow to advance men who think as they do. It’s a self-perpetuating circle of bigotry and hatred.
Quite honestly, the very best thing that could happen to the vatican is a meteorite (or some other massive disaster) obliterating it during the papal conclave. Getting rid of ALL of the old generation is the only thing that will allow the roman cult to move forward.
Rock Star
This Bishop will never be elected to being the Pope In The Pizza. Even though most of the other Cardinals probably agree with him to some extent, they also realize that there is already enough bad press about the Catholic official position on this issue and they will choose someone more eloquent than this man who offends even conservative Catholics by approving of or sympathizing with those who would murder gay people just because they are gay.
Jesus himself never advocated anything remotely similar to what the undereducated people of Ghana propose. This man should be ex-communicated for advocating and approving violence against the LGBT community.
Nowhere in the Catholic doctrine is murder recommended for being yourself. Jesus himself said some folks are born gay and Jesus himself approved a gay relationship in the New testament in the parable of The Roman Centurion. I won’t site references here as these facts are widely available online for anyone who cares to look them up.
BigDaddy007
Quite right, Rock Star. Then again, religion has always been a tool used to control the masses instead of giving them the knowledge of what is needed to love your fellow man as well as be loved in return. If you want the truth, go to a child raised by wolves. If you want justification of vices, self-interest and self-promotion, it’s as easy as finding a church in your local area and directly proportional to its size. The politics of power…pardon my redundancy…
MikeE
Queerty, PLEASE please fix your filters so that innocuous comments are not consistently flagged for moderation.
MikeE
ROFLMAO… the filter for this forum must be run by Republicans!
the word soci-a-list (hope the breaks fool the filter) auto-flag comments for moderation!!!
nobleham
To be fair, he’s a bit less reprehensible than a lot of the possibilities. Unless you’re the Pope, you can’t really go against established doctrine, especially if you ever want to become the Pope, so he can’t advocate condom use or gay rights. He’s made some comments that suggest he would like to be more liberal, though.
Someone should point out to him, however, that human rights include the right to be immoral.
1EqualityUSA
Holy, holy, holy moly, kill, kill, kill, hate, hate, hate, leaving the ones who propagate. (And Jesus wept.) Blinded by hate they operate, saving only those who propagate. Holy, holy, holy, thou shalt not kill, unless it is warranted by a man-made bill. Vote for a Pope and lay the ground for another decade of man-mad sound. Kill, kill, kill, hate, hate, hate and grieve for this pitiable fate as the Pope is new, the doctrine grew to hate another and you and you (and you.)
erikwm
He doesn’t sound like a deep thinker. His logic there is very shallow.
murphy0071
He is an outright liar. Cross-cultural studie of the numbers of homosexduals show their numbers to be the same among and between national, ethnic, and geographic areas (See Whitam, F.L. & Mathy, R.M. (1991). Childhood cross-gendered behavior of homosexuals females in Brazil, Peru, the Philippines, and the United States. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 20(2), pp. 151-170). Numerous scientific studies show that homoseuality is a caused by neurohormonal factors that either feminize or masculinize sex and/or gender of the brain to be opposite sex of assignment.
Just how much ignorance and dismissal of scientific research is possible among Roman Catholics and Evangelicals?
AndrewIB
Well he’s a real Prince, what a charmer, actively supporting the murder of gay people..Saints preserve us from this man and any other bigot. Whilst I don’t want or require the church to accept me as a gay man I would prefer not to be on their hit list of hate. It has always struck me as odd that an organisation that advocates love and compassion has so much hate in it..why would I ever want to be associated with a group of people so consumed with hatred and bigotry. I loathe religion of all kinds, it brings nothing but misery to so many good people who don’t fit a certain criteria.
Kieran
Cannibalism was deeply ingrained in African tradition too until quite recently. I wonder if this Ghanian primate would
consider the boiling and eating of Christian missionaries understandable given that it’s part of the culture?
1EqualityUSA
I have a good recipe for Christian Missionary Bourguignon… Over noodles or mashed potatoes, but don’t forget to sprinkle parsley into the gravy for color.
Reverend_Sean
As a priest, I am appalled that an ordained minister and candidate for Pope would say such a thing.
I was taught that as a priest, you are to love unconditionally and Leviticus 19:18 says …”You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”
If you are Catholic, tell your churches or the diocese to tell the College of Cardinals that the view of papal candidate Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana views are unacceptable as a priest and definately, not the view of a canidate for Pope and should be removed from selection.
bmwblonde
Too bad his cannibal forebears didn’t eat up his direct ancestors. Unga bunga. Instead of a ring in his nose, this pathetic clodhopper has a ring through his brain. Hardly worth the notice of anyone in the 21st century — beneath contempt. (Oh dear, am I being Politically Incorrect?) Sob.
bmwblonde
Reverend_Sean — whoever “taught you to be a priest” apparently knew little indeed about first century Christianity. Jesus (who ever he actually WAS) arrived to pull his Jewish brethren out of a bureaucratized, totally dogmatized — rulebound “religion,” which is what Judiasm had become, having lost sight of much of its own core spirituality. (Centuries later the rabbis of the Talmud era worked on this problem again for Judiasm — re-infusing real divine (versus “rule-bound”) values and mysticism). For someone “taught by priests,” to be quoting Leviticus regarding ANY TOPIC shows ignorance about what Jesus was actually up to. He came to replace and correct the Old Testament. And in particular – Leviticus was the book of the HOUSE OF LEVI– the priest class, who benefited $$$ from infinite traffic violations so they could get PAID. (Religion as the Ultimate Speedtrap.) Sounds kinda like selling indulgences, which shows the Roman Catholic Cult has learned nothing from history. “Christian” religious apologists could stop cherry-picking their quotations from THAT (or any) Old Testament book, in a silly effort to “prove” their current prejudice.
Reverend_Sean
Who said I was a christian…
1EqualityUSA
“Not only were the Jews expecting the birth of a Great King, a Wise Man and a Saviour, but Plato and Socrates also spoke of the Logos and of the Universal Wise Man ‘yet to come’. Confucius spoke of ‘the Saint’; the Sibyls, of a ‘Universal King’; the Greek dramatist, of a saviour and redeemer to unloose man from the ‘primal eldest curse’. All these were on the Gentile side of the expectation. What separates Christ from all men is that first He was expected; even the Gentiles had a longing for a deliverer, or redeemer. This fact alone distinguishes Him from all other religious leaders.”
? Fulton J. Sheen, Life of Christ
Garth
I wonder how many of them would change their outlook if they were allowed to have a partner ?
1EqualityUSA
I was under the belief that the Church chose celibacy, not for holiness, but rather, to save the church from having to foot the bill for the clergies families. Given all of the millions of dollars in child molestation law suits, it seems that they would have been better off funding fam’s. (There are thousands of children who would likely agree with this notion) Molesters of children should be thrown in jail, collar or no collar.
Chad Hunt
Would never happen. They would never elevate an African to that post before a latino. Latinos comprise almost 50% of the Catholic populace. Besides the fact, like in the United States Government , we are talking about a very Old, White, Rich, Bigot Club here.
PARKAVMAN
How can a so called Holy Man condone killing anyone?
LadyL
Saw it coming. Why did I see it coming?
*
Know what’s also “ingrained in Africa” and “commensurate with tradition”? Female Genital Mutilation, a totally non-medical “procedure” performed on women and girls ranging in age from infancy to puberty. It involves cutting away part or all of a girl’s genitalia, sometimes with a razor or a knife–and often without anesthesia. It has been and in some quarters continues to be defended as a cultural practice. And it is–one primarily meant to keep women in their place by “preserving” her pre-marital virginity and “discouraging” extra-marital sex. The wound is fused or sewn with only a small opening left for passing urine or menstrual blood. Only for marital intercourse and to accommodate childbrith is it re-opened.
I’ll bet Turkson has no problem with that, either. (Although I wonder how he responds to the revelation that in some African countries where proper penetration of their wives is not possible husbands having anal intercourse with other men is seen as a logical and acceptable alternative.)
Billysees
This is all to typical of Christianity’s “dark side”.
And that is to clothe some of its spokesman in the costumery of tall hats and sticks in hand and expect that divine utterances are possible.
1EqualityUSA
Is this why lightning hit the Vatican exactly 1 hour after the Pope resigned?
Billysees
@1EqualityUSA: 9
Gee…..really neat poetry you wrote.
With some meaning too.
1EqualityUSA
off the cuff stuff. Billysees, did you google lightning bolt hits Vatican? They have film footage of the lighting bolt zapping the dome just 1 hour after Ratz quit. Amazing. We ate with the boys tonight and they showed me the footage of it. So completely amazing.
schlukitz
@Reverend_Sean:
Unfortunately, those Christians who insist that “not all Christians are like that” are, more often than not, drowned out by the loud and odious shrill hue and cry of the homophobes calling for the criminalization of homosexuality with execution as the penalty.
I hate to be the one to deliver this news, but it is they, the believers, who are much to blame for this horrible state of affairs, as those in power, like the Pope, who perpetrated the horrendous brain-washing in the first place.
If enough Christians simply turned their backs on Christianity and walked away from it, the Pope and all of his henchmen would preaching to a non-existant choir.
And, that would be a good thing.
schlukitz
@PARKAVMAN:
http://www.openbible.info/topics/human_sacrifice
Billysees
@1EqualityUSA: 28
Your comment reminded me that I had forgotten to read about this event.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/12/lightning-strikes-st-peters-basilica-rome-photo_n_2668850.html?utm_hp_ref=religion
Really interesting too.
Well….you know what they say don’t you ?, “the Lord works in mysterious ways”.
This could be such a “way”.
As a believer in all kinds of “interventions” or “miracles” by the work of the “spirit”, I think it’s a neat happening.
I think too that this is typical of the way the spirit works to thrill us.
Here’s another example of this power —
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/alyssa-talk-backwards_n_1241450.html
It may seem like an absurd thing to say, but I’ll say that we have a “fun” God as our friend who likes to show-off his power and greatness in a fascinating way at times.
1EqualityUSA
Show off? No. Communicate effectively, sure. I don’t believe in accidents. Symbolism is a definitive means of communication. Ears to hear sotto voce.
Billysees
@1EqualityUSA: 32
I agree.
Show-off was a poor choice of wording.
I like what you said better —
Communicate effectively, sure ……. Ears to hear sotto voce.