Shameful Sean Sunday

Twisting the loving teachings of Jesus for personal, economic or political gain is nothing new. Local Archbishop Sean O'Malley is raw in today's version, which he and anti-gay groups call Protect Marriage Sunday.

The lead editorial in today's Boston Globe calls him on it, for all the good that will do. Parishioners who see it for what it is will not only not sign, but they have yet another reason to question to wisdom, sincerity and Christianity of their increasingly politicized bishops.

As far as we are concerned in this blog, a key point that threads throughout the editorial is that marriage in this commonwealth is a civil contract. Most marriages here have zero religious component. The current effort to introduce a Christian aspect in law spits on our history of religious freedom and has no basis in current law.

The anti-SSM and anti-gay forces who scream, "Let the people decide!," hate the comparison to our anti-interracial laws. They like to pretend that this is not a civil-rights issue.

Yet, as the editorial notes:

Opponents of marriage equality often complain that gay marriage in Massachusetts was driven by a slim 4-3 decision of the Supreme Judicial Court. In 1948, a California high court ruled that laws banning interracial marriage were unconstitutional -- also by a 4-3 margin. Opponents say ''the people" should decide whether to approve gay marriage, and national polls show that somewhere between 55 and 60 percent are now in opposition. In 1948, nearly 70 percent opposed interracial marriage, and it took another 19 years before the US Supreme Court affirmed the California case. Yet few today would argue that prohibiting adults of different races from marrying would be anything other than discriminatory.

It also points out what other trends were going to destroy marriage, according to fundies and other regressive types. That includes contraception, interracial marriage, and women being allowed to inherit and to have their own credit. Each was sure to redefine marriage in a bad way and each would in fact be the end of marriage as we know it. Hooey then and hooey now.

And there you have it. O'Malley has secularized every parish in Massachusetts today for politics, disrimination and hate. He doesn't have to wait to die to go to limbo.