It’s bad enough when you have Cardinal Dolan trying to spin Pope Francis’s comments on gay priests. Now we have Rick Santorum as the papal interpreter. The failed Senator and presidential candidate insists that the pope’s “who am I to judge?” remarks were taken out of context, which is politician-speak for “you heard it right the first time.”
“I’ve read the whole transcript, and what he said early on was that ‘I don’t know anybody who puts gay on their identification card.’ He said it in that context,” Santorum told Buzzfeed. “I think all believers need to understand that we need to respect and love everybody and treat everybody with dignity and respect. There’s no room for harshness in respect to this issue — but that doesn’t mean the church doesn’t have the right to believe what is right and wrong.”
Now getting a lecture on how not to be harsh to gay people from Santorum is like getting a lecture on fidelity from Anthony Weiner. And Santorum is probably right that the pope’s remarks shouldn’t be seen as a shift in policy. Still, the antigay standard bearers of Catholicism really do seem worried about the shift in tone that the pope’s comments suggest. They’ve got so much invested in their homophobia that they will have a real problem on their hands if it’s not as central to the Church’s rhetoric. Whether or not there is a real tampering of the Church’s stance remains to be seen. But it sure is fun to watch the hardliners squirm when they consider the possibility.
rcs831
Go wipe yourself
murphy0071
In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality as a mental disease or personality disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.88 Ego-dystonic homosexuality, unwanted homosexual urges in natural homosexuals, is psychopathological. Many psychologists and psychiatrists see homophobes as pathological with disordered personality traits.89 Using psychophysiological instruments, many homophobes become sexually aroused when viewing homoerotic materials. They are either unaware of the arousal or deny it.90 Homophobia is an important issue and often needs to be addressed to preserve the self-esteem of homosexuals.91 Through stigma management, some homosexuals establish personal growth and better self-esteem.92 Many researchers show self-accepting homosexuals are as psychologically healthy as heterosexuals.93 Particularly when introduced to materials about the biological basis for sexual orientation, attitudes toward homosexuals can be changed.94 Religiosity and level of education are negatively correlated with attitudes toward homosexuals and women and those who know sexual minority individuals appear to have more positive attitudes toward homosexuals and bisexuals than do men.95 Homophobia in some appears to be a developmental issue related to defensive styles used to manage a range of psychosexual developmental anxieties in boys and men.96 Homophobic males appear to have difficulty relating to males in general.97
stfallon1028
I despise this man and everything he stands for
Mike
Why do people post long comments and wtf are all those numbers in there? We all know Santorum is an idiot. Who cares what he says anymore?
chip_in_ga
Mike, if you don’t know what the numbers are in the article, you are not educated enough to comment on it. Kudos to the Pope for at least leaving some room for interpretation. Thank you murphy0071 for your “references” supporting the normality of homosexuality and the abnormality of homophobes. i.e. proof the real sickos are the haters.
Kieran
Pope Francis was only paraphrasing one of the core teachings of Jesus Christ: “Judge not lest you yourself be judged” This is a teaching that a lot of bloviating, self-righteous Christians of the Santorum ilk would do well to remember and reflect upon. Take that log out of your eye Ricky.
chip_in_ga
I have no issues with Santorum’s comments, I did not think he was being judgmental and the author’s obvious hard on for him clouded his accurate assessment of his statements. Do not take this as my being a fan to Santroium, but at least give credit when credit is due. As far as Anthony Weiner goes, if it were not for his last name this would hardly be an issue at all. The internet if filled with people who enjoy on line sex, tens of thousands from all different walks of life. Does that define them as a person? There is entirely too much nosing in to the private lives of individuals and not enough scrutiny on the things that actually matter to the performance of their jobs or office held. If we want to keep government out of the bedroom, we need to keep out noses out of others bedrooms.
hf2hvit
@chip_in_ga: chip_in_ga: “I have no issues with Santorum…” in my bed!
Bob LaBlah
I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. I got up at 3am, walked down the hallway to the bathroom, urinated, walked back down the hallway and got back in bed and went back to sleep. HOW COME I DON’T GET AN ARTICLE BUT HE DOES?
*
Michele Bachmann, Pat Robertson, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum………Queerty, I do hope you are sending these people a bill for the publicity that you are giving them. It is painfully obviously they are ignored by the overall mainstream media when they make their idiotic comments (especially Rev. Robertson) but for some reason they make it here, big time. For the most part even the Fox Noise Channel passes they by. Every now and then I look at that garbage of a network just to see what foolishness is being said and notice that EVERY TIME one of these imbeciles open their mouth almost NEVER is the audience shown, which to me is a strong indicator not very many are listening and its all for publicity. The people who are in the audience are silver haired and still think the Iron Curtain is in place. Have no doubt they ALL Google their foolish comments to see who carries them and that motivates them to NOT sit their asses down somewhere and shut up.
*
I’ll bet by this time next week America’s most frustrated lesbian, Michele Bachmann, will be on this site with more idiocy.
Eiswirth
He’s too much of an idiot to comment on; his response made zero sense.
dvlaries
By now, doubtlessly, every one of the Santorum kids has been asked by friends, “Does your dad ever talk about anything besides gay sex…?”
1EqualityUSA
dvlaries, I’m sure his wife is asking this.
SteveBmke
Always the same. Homosexuals are welcome in the Church, just Homosexual acts are a Sin. They say the same for sex outside of Marriage for the Heterosexual. Please. Just a way to get money from everyone, have us lead the choir, teach in their schools all the while they rape children. Enough of the Church. When will people learn that it is a hoax and the biggest money scheme on the planet?
SteveBmke
@Bob LaBlah:
Keep your Friends close and your enemies closer…..
scotshot
@chip_in_ga: It’s great to have self appointed arbiters to call people stupid. Bitch.
scotshot
@Bob LaBlah: You need to go to other sites Than Fox News to see what’s actually being said or “discussed”. These people are all followed and listened to. To not report what they’ve said in gay oriented media would be a disservice. If they are quoted here it doesn’t mean that the publicity is positive, correct?
scotshot
I need to leave now. I have to wash sheets that have Santorum all over them.
RJ
the judgemental people are exposed as judgemental by the Pope’s humble statement “Who am I to judge gays?” now they are trying to save face.
steveleong
He speaks for “GOD” … he speaks for “The Pope” … he drops more credibility every time he opens his mouth. He has joined that club of “wacko-ness” with Palin and Bachman.
nevereclipsed81
And he treats everyone with love and respect, except gay people. but who care’s he’s been unemployed since 2006.