A Report from the Front Lines of the Culture of Marriage War

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Brian McNeill, head of Dignity, a homosexual advocacy group in Minnesota, posted the following on the blog of the Progressive Catholic Voice. He has written, I have been told, a fairly accurate presentation of the presentations of Fr. Peter Laird and Dr.Teresa Collett a professor at the UST Law School.

On the evening of Tuesday, December 1, 2009, I attended a symposium sponsored by the Office for Marriage, Family, and Life of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The event was held in the undercroft of Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church in St. Paul, in the neighborhood where I lived as a child; home turf. The archdiocese titled the event: “Understanding the Cultural and Legal Battle. . . .”

Using examples of current legal cases, many still being litigated, Dr. Collette lists eight consequences for straight people if LGBT citizens gain the right to legal, civil marriage in this country.

1) Public resources will be used to promote the “moral equivalencies” of same-sex marriage.

2) Public officials will deny access to public facilities, funding, and programs to those who disagree. This point illustrated with several instances of the Church refusing to agree to observe laws protecting LGBT citizens and then losing public social service contracts as a result. How dare they do that to us?, Collette stormed?

3) The Church’s tax exempt status will be challenged, and may be revoked.

4) Public employees will be disciplined, demoted, and even terminated for their refusal to recognize same-sex unions.

5) Private businesses will be fined for violating laws that are based on marital status.

6) Private landlords, including religious colleges, will be required to treat same sex couples the same as married couples.

7) Students will be denied admission to professional schools, and professionals will be subject to professional discipline, or denied licenses. Dr. Collette provided the example of Julia Ward, a social work student in Michigan, expelled from a social work program after first refusing to provide marital counseling to a gay couple, and then refusing training on the needs of LGBT clients. Ms. Ward argued that her evangelical Christian faith prohibited her from providing such counseling. Dr. Collette failed to mention in her presentation that the National Association of Social Workers in 1996 stated as policy that “The social worker should not practice, condone, facilitate, or collaborate with any form of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.” Who is the victim when a social work student tells a gay couple that she cannot help them because her religion forbids her from working with gay couples?

8) Private universities and colleges may lose their accreditation. . . . [Read the entire interesting post here]