Daniel Avila, a recent Douche of the Week recipient for his stunning insight that homosexuality is caused in utero by the Devil, has come out with the “real” reason he was forced to resign.
Somehow we think it’s gonna have to do with Satan.
On November 4, Avila stepped down as a marriage advisor due to his Boston Pilot column that said, in regards to homosexuality, “the ultimate responsibility, on a theological level, is and should be imputed to the evil one, not God.”
Now, in a letter to the National Catholic Register, he claims he resigned because the furor over his essay was so “radioactive,” it was distracting the Church from its main mission: stopping gay marriage.
How about we take this to the next level?
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He also says he wasn’t wrong about old Nick Scratch making sissy fetuses, he just didn’t explain himself well enough.
Is this gonna be one of those “I’m sorry you feel that way” apologies?
In the letter, Avila explains:
” …I offered to apologize and resign voluntarily based on my own conscience and assessments. I was in a hole that I dug all on my own, and it was time to stop digging. My superiors and colleagues treated me with understanding, compassion and prudence. My resignation was not offered nor do I believe that it was accepted because anyone involved thinks that the Church’s role in the definition-of-marriage debate should be reduced. Instead, there is unanimity that the Church’s involvement should be strengthened without distraction.
My column touched inexpertly and incompletely on speculative matters (see e.g. the online critique by Jeff Mirus; see also Proverbs 12:1), on which the USCCB has taken no position, and yet which were related to the issues of marriage and family that were within the ambit of my official concerns. USCCB must advance the Church’s policy positions recognizing the inviolable dignity of every human being and the inalterable nature of marriage as the union of one man and one woman. These are not matters of speculation for the Church, but risked being obscured by the aftermath from my own speculations…
Unfortunately, some will take away from this the opposite and erroneous lesson that the Church and people of faith should refrain altogether from speaking out to influence policymakers and recede entirely from the arena of debate, or else risk being hounded from the podium as if the Church’s teaching on marriage itself harmed the common good.
So, Mr. Avila was a victim, not a bigot. Shame on all of you!
Source: National Catholic Register via The New Civil Rights Movement
o
“Speculative matters.” Here’s a new speculation: Avila is possessed by the devil, who masquerades as an angel of light.
One of the CA 36,000
Oh. My. Gawd.
A religious fundamentalist who justifies anti-LGBTQ bigotry using his religious delusions, gets called on his bigotry and receives his just desserts, and then whines that HE’S the victim of hatred?
I could NEVER have predicted that kind of reaction from a religious fundamentalist.
That surprises me as much as when someone here at Queerty told me that water is wet. Who knew…?!?
Mervin
All I have to say is, they aren’t gay babies. Their just babies. These people, other than needing to understand the definition of SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, need to understand that putting “gay” in front of everything and making it worse is absolutely childish. Can someone tell me why people with a 3rd grade understanding of everything they don’t deal with trying to act like they know everything? Sorry, I got a bit out of hand. Lol
Zerei
This pisses me off so bad. For one thing, the church and the state dont even belong in the same catagory. The constitution clearly states freedom of religion. We /do not/ have a national religion. Therefore anything any church says regarding laws is utterly /irrelevant/. Until we flush everything this country stands for down the toilet and make christianity the national religion, the church needs to shut its damn mouth. Furthermore, okay, lets say theoretically that marriage /has/ to be between a man and a woman. It does not say between a cis-male and a cis-female. I, a cis-female could just decide that I am a man and marry another cis-female so long as she decides that she is a woman. The same could be done between two cis-males. Or trans females or males, for that matter, because ‘man’ and ‘woman’ are identities. I see no problem with this compromise.
TomMc
Next headline… ““The Devil Makes Gay Babies” Columnist Daniel Avila Comes Out”
Caliban
Jesus may want you for a sunbeam but the rest of us are sick of your shit.
Ronny
@caliban what?
DannyB
The church’s main mission to stop gay marriage?
I thought Jesus told the church what its main mission was right before he ascended into heaven.
I don’t seem to remember gay marriage being mentioned.
Make believers of all, baptizing them, etc.
Jim Hlavac
The church’s administration’s mission is to eliminate gay folks — face that reality. Alas, the Catholic bishops are very Democrat — urging their lay folks to vote for ObamaCare (minus the abortion and gay couples provisions.) They are against “greed” — just like the “Occupiers” are. They are “for” the poor, while keeping their wealth, clearly. Massachusetts, with gay marriage, is the most “Catholic” state in the nation. Louisiana, without gay marriage, is #2 in Catholics. New Mexico neither for nor against gay marriage (the only state without a prohibition or a recognition,) is #3 — but a former Republican governor who is for gay “civil unions” at least — Gary Johnson, running on the Republican ticket — well, as I keep saying — neither Party is “for” us – but some against us, some for us, on either side — Catholics included.
Please stop trying to make this “Democrats” are for us and “Republicans” are against us — and realize, we gay folks — especially we gay men (for the nation seems enthralled with Lesbians, and the mainstream media fixated on transsexuals whom are really heteros in the wrong body,) – we gay men are so different, so scary (to them,) so out of the bounds of “normalcy” that our argument with America is neither D or R or Catholic or anything else — but simply as gay men versus all who wish us gone.
And the list of people who wish us gone include Catholic and non-Catholic, religious and non-religious, Left & Right, Democrat and Republican — (oh don’t tell me Democrat Ruben Diaz is a friend of us after his Democrat filled rallies in the Bronx where he called us “worthy of death.”)
No, as I have maintained for decades — we gay men are so different, so out of the realm of “left” and “right” that our quest must be to deal with all of these people – and not within the “Left” “Right” paradigm in which our nation is engaged. We must seek succor with both sides — and anyone in between. Gayness is beyond Left or Right, Catholic and non-Catholic — we are thing a part. Face that, and it shall get better.
LazyJay
” as if the Church’s teaching on marriage itself harmed the common good”
But it does, Daniel, it does. Including heterosexuals. Especially heterosexuals. LGBT folk are practically collateral damage, compared to the havoc your kind wreak on your mainstream audience.
Mav
You know who should be most outraged by douchebags like Avila?
REAL Christians.
Until they rein in “their own” and begin putting forth the true message of Christ, the influence of Christianity will continue to decline in the Western world as it has during the last century until the only gods left are technology and science.
xander
The Catholic church can set policy for their own members if it likes, but when they step into legislation that extends beyond their own parishes and flock and into law, that’s when they need to be reined in.
Advice to Avila : You’re in hole. Quit yer digging.
Drake
Catholics need to be reminded that plenty of religions supports gays and same sex marriage. Episcopalians, reform Jews, Unitarians, plenty of Methodist Churches, etc. We are a country of many diversities, and the Catholic hierarchy seems to think that it can call the shots for everyone.
Henry
@Drake: You’re full of shit. Those are sects, not religions, and Judaism and Christianity are inherently anti-gay. Those are the religions that told us being gay was unnatural, which is strange, because both Judaism and Christianity are deeply suspicious of the goodness of the creation. That focus is natural law gave us a “church doctor” like Thomas Aquinas who said masturbation was more sinful than rape.
Philip
Just like the old greeting card: Jesus loves you…..everyone else thinks you’re an asshole.
Michelle
@Henry: Calm down a little bit. What Drake said is true except for the fact that he used the word “religion” instead of “sect”. Its a pretty common mistake.
We (the whole gay community) also shouldn’t make the sweeping generalization that the whole of Judaism and the whole of Christianity are anti-gay. I would put money on it that there is at least one church/synagogue from every sect of both religions that is pro gay rights and gay marriage. Episcopalians, Presbyterians (USA), United Church of Christ (and most other Unitarian sects) have all made public statements from their national organizations that they are supportive and accepting of homosexuals and have also given the mandate that their priests/pastors are allowed to preside over marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples. True, the majority (or at least the loudest members of both religions) are still anti-gay but I don’t think that we can realistically expect all of them to change that stance. In the same way that there are many churches and religious fundamentalists who need to realize that their religious beliefs are not law, I think that we have to realize that the most we can hope for from some religious people is that they simply allow us to live our lives while we allow them to live theirs.
Perhaps I’m leaning a little bit too far toward utopia here, but in dealing with coming out to my DEEPLY Christian fundamentalist family, this is the lesson that I have learned, haha.
andy
I’m so sick of religious hocus pocus! Gay Christians and Log Cabin Republicans are all in the same flawed and sinking boat as far as I’m concerned. If we can just get our heads out of the clouds and start taking responsibility for the reality on the ground we would all be much better off.
B
No. 14 · Henry wrote, “@Drake: You’re full of shit. Those are sects, not religions, and Judaism and Christianity are inherently anti-gay.”
Not exactly – all religions evolve and whether you use the phrase “different sect” versus “different religion” is not much different from using “different dialect” versus “different language.” Some early versions of Christianity had multiple gods – a lot more than three. What made it monolithic for a while was that Constantine wanted to make it the Roman Empire’s official religion, so what was really a scraggly bush had to be trimmed into something that could fit in a garden – i.e., you needed a set of beliefs and rituals that everyone would agree on to increase a sense of community, not so much for religious as for political reasons. That’s where doctrines such as “The Holy Trinity” come from – it’s not much different that those Hindu gods with multiple head (everyone had their own version and when communication and travel improved, they merged their images together so people wouldn’t feel that their version was being slighted).
Since they evolve – the process is really more like a random walk – there is nothing inherently anti-gay in any of them (“inherently” as in “set in concrete”). When it becomes obvious to them that their anti-gay garbage doesn’t work, they’ll figure out a way of explaining it away.
Basically, the ability to change follows from a result in logic – if you have axioms that are contradictory, you can prove anything (hence proof by contradiction – you assume something is true and then show that this assumptions allows you to prove something that is false, thus showing that your assumption itself was false). So, one of the ways religions evolve is that, as contradictions in their “sacred texts” are discovered, they paper them over in some way. E.g., they’ll claim that two apparent contradictions are some manifestation of the same “whole” in “a higher plane” or use a number of other tricks for resolving the conflict.
If you want to see the same process at work in the “real world”, I’ll simply point you to the U.S. Income-Tax Code, which Albert Einstein supposedly called “the most complicated thing in the universe.” Or (to update this), some Microsoft products (heard horror stories about some of the source code from someone who knew someone who used to work there).
o
@Henry: As long as we have shit-faced Jews who work for the people who hate them as long as those people provide petting, and shit-spewing Christians (especially Southern Baptists) who think America is God’s vehicle for the 1,000 year reign, there will never really be any changes with those religions, will there? After all, a religion has no “history” as such. It’s not like a country. It has a holy text and it has inerrancy, two deadly combinations.
o
I guess that was a silly thing to say. It’s a deadly combination.
AxelDC
At least he recognizes that you are born that way, although demonic influence is no longer a recognized medical diagnosis.
nonyourbusiness
DANIEL AVILA IS A SICK, IGNORANT, ILLITERATE, BRAINLESS AND DISTURBING PERSON WHO SHOULD BE LOCKED UP IN AN MENTAL INSTITUTION FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE!
JAY
ALEXIDC..NOBODY’S BORN “THAT WAY”…YOU WERE BORN WITH OUT A BRAIN!!!