Chronicle of the Damned, part 11

The Rainbow Sash Movement

Their Mission:

"The Rainbow Sash Movement is an organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender Catholics, with their families and friends, who are publicly calling the Catholic Church to conversion of heart around issues of human sexuality."

Translation:

It is an organization of very confused people who are publicly defying the teachings of the Church to which they claim allegiance. They are calling on that Church to reverse teachings and beliefs on homosexuality that pre-date Christianity itself.

Their Mission:

"Members of the movement are committed to bringing the gifts, the witness and the challenge of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people into the heart of the church. Through our public, prayerful, visible presence at the Eucharist and in the ongoing life of God's People, through our work for justice, through speaking the truth of our lives and our loving, we call the whole church to build with us a future of liberation, reconciliation and joy for all people."

Translation:

They are committed to flaunting their deviant behavior and lifestyle choice to the Church's flock by insisting that their grave sin is no sin at all. They are committed to using sacred worship as a setting to advance their own cultural agenda. Through their public defiance of Church teaching, presence at the Eucharist made visibly scandalous by wearing "rainbow sashes" as symbols of that defiance, their public encouragement of others to join their activities, and through their public dissent and advancement of moral relativism, they are calling on the Church to defy the teachings of Christ and build a "future of liberation" from Truth and the Gospel.

Their webpage contains links to other shameful groups such as Dignity USA and the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries, and even comes with a listing of "Lesbian and Gay-Friendly Parishes."

The "Rainbow Sash Movement" is one of sundry dissent groups that openly challenges the Church's authority on matters of faith and morals, yet bizarrely insists on calling themselves Catholic. Chock another batch of souls lost to poor or nonexistent catechesis (way to go "Spirit of Vatican II"!).

Tradition, Scripture, and natural law are unequivocally clear on the immorality of homosexual acts. Yet this group of miscreants would ask us to overturn all that and embrace their twisted notion of tolerance and charity. It is a tired song, sung in every age. In the good ol' days we called it heresy, but now so many milquetoast bishops and priests refuse to confront this group and call it for what it is.

It should come as no surprise that the Rainbow Sash Movement has another spectacle in store for Pentecost. They plan to present themselves for Holy Communion at cathedrals across the nation, and by the way they'll be wearing their rainbow sashes to make sure everyone knows what they're doing. That's rather amusing, considering they oppose bishops denying Holy Communion to various dissenters on the grounds that doing so constitutes using the sacrament to make a political/cultural statement.

Let's take a look at some quotes from Joe Murray, "U.S. Convener" (whatever the hell that is) of the Rainbow Sash Movement.

"It is our hope that you will welcome the gifts and insights we offer to the Church. If you don't accept these gifts and insights, than [sic] the Church will suffer; the Church will lack something that is very important."
-From a 2004 letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory, then president of the USCCB

"Gifts"...You mean a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature and the Christian vocation? Yeah, that's something the Church should promote. "Insights"...You mean different ways to sodomize and defile? The Church will suffer if we don't accept these gifts and insights? That's like saying a garden isn't thriving unless there are weeds growing in it.

"We wish to belong to Church, and you have to open the doors, not only physically, but in every other way so that we will have a tremendous sense of belonging. It's our Church as much as yours."
-Ibid.

It's not 'your' Church, and it's not 'my' Church, IT'S JESUS CHRISTS'S CHURCH. It's not about following my beliefs and my ways of doing things. The same applies to you. If you want play-doh religion, try the Episcopalians. If you want to belong to the Catholic Church, then obey her teachings and act in communion with her.

"January 17 through the 25 of 2005, is the week when various Catholic and Christian denominations pray for Christian Unity nationally and internationally. We are puzzled why Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender (GLBT) Catholics and Christians GLBT Churches and organizations are being excluded?"
-From a 2005 Rainbow Sash Movement press release

You're puzzled? What !#$%& planet do you live on? This isn't exactly rocket science. You were excluded because you are an organization in open defiance of the Church, in open defiance of teachings that virtually every Christian church holds. Unity isn't about pretending that we're all in the same boat. It's about actually being united in core beliefs. Christ taught a lot of things, but he did not say that it's ok to bat for the other team.

"The Church has been well served by gay priests for centuries. Who can cast the first stone when it comes to gay priests?"
-From a 2005 Rainbow Sash Movement press release

Umm, let me see, an independent group found that 80% of clergy sex abuse cases were situations where a priest had a sexual encounter with an adolescent/early teen boy. They're not pederasts, they're homosexual predators. Need someone to cast the first stone? Where do we sign up? I'm sure there have been some priests who served the flock well while they struggled with homosexual sickness. But the point is they struggled with it, knowing it's a grave disorder. The foul ones embraced it and led lives of scandal. That's why there's a clergy abuse crisis in the Church.

Like many of the Damned, those donning rainbow sashes will be spread throughout the Inferno. Their primary and obvious place of repose will be Circle Seven, home of sodomites. Their odious acts also merit a lower place in Circle Eight, where their fraudulent rhetoric, divisiveness, and falsification will surely be rewarded in the fire that dieth not. Rainbow Sashers will also be splattered across Circle Six, home of heretics, and Circle Two, dwelling place of those ensnared by lust. Their final resting places are far and wide, as befits their crimes against God, nature, and man.

In somma sappi che tutti fur cherci e litterati grandi e di gran fama, d'un peccato medesmo al mondo lerci. Know, in a word, that they were scholars all, great men of letters, clerks of wide renown, made filthy in the world by the same fall (Inferno, Canto 15, 106-108).