THE POPE IS A SINNER (AND HE WOULDN'T SAY OTHERWISE, SO NEITHER SHOULD WE)
Of all the messages pouring out of the dirigistes, this is the one that seems (to my ears) to be making headway, as a slogan that is somehow 'intuitive'.
"While the Catholic Church rejects unjust discrimination against homosexual men and women, there is no question that marriage by its nature is the union of one man and one woman,” Richard E. Barnes, the executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, said in a statement.
Countering its imperfection is hard, because people look around and mostly see what? Non-gay marriages. It's self-reinforcing (and self-congratulating?).
There are a number of ideas, including that this one-man, one-woman "dogma" (?) is not scriptural, at least not fully suggestive of all the scriptures say.
Clearly, the fallacy is that one-man, one-woman is suitable for non-gays but not for gays. It's really that simple. All marriage is 'intrinsically good', to borrow their phrase, so long as it comes with certain social understandings. Marriage for gays is just another shelf in the same bookcase, that's all.
Of course, I've yet to distill all that into a slogan, which means I'm missing a key communication tool, still.
WHAT THE HOLY SEE CANNOT SEE RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS NOSE
Offhand, here is a more provocative scriptural start for the CCers. On the death of Johnathan, David laments the event as "the beauty of Israel" slain. He goes on with this provocative statement:
I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. 2 Samuel 26
There is a love for men that surpasses marital love? That's got to be scripturally problematic, for the "activist acolytes" and apologists who believes gay love is sinful and that non-gay marriage is the epitome, right?
In any case, it refocuses the debate on the things that the Church would rather ignore, as it pursues misleading people. Nor is it anti-marriage. It just suggests that there is more in the scriptures than is dreamt of in their "philosophy", Horatio.
