Call and Response

So the US Conference of Catholic Bishops just released a letter on marriage.

Some choice quotes:

One of the most troubling developments in contemporary culture is the proposition that persons of the same sex can "marry." This proposition redefines the nature of marriage and the family, and as a result harms both the intrinsic dignity of every human person and the common good of society. ...

The legal recognition of same-sex marriage poses a multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society ... not only at the fundamental levels of the good of spouses, the good of children, the intrinsic dignity of every human person, and the common good, but also at the levels of education, cultural imagination and influence, and religious freedom.

Reading that made me throw kind of a theological hissy fit, but that's beside the point.

It also says birth control is intrinsically evil. As I was reading that line, my cell phone alarm reminding me to take mine went off. I found this amusing.

Meanwhile, Episcopal Bishop Spong (who I gather is something of a thing? I'd never heard of him, but apparently he's pretty popular) released a manifesto about how he's so over this arguing about gay people bullshit.

I make these statements because it is time to move on. The battle is over. The victory has been won. There is no reasonable doubt as to what the final outcome of this struggle will be. Homosexual people will be accepted as equal, full human beings, who have a legitimate claim on every right that both church and society have to offer any of us. Homosexual marriages will become legal, recognized by the state and pronounced holy by the church. "Don't ask, don't tell" will be dismantled as the policy of our armed forces. We will and we must learn that equality of citizenship is not something that should ever be submitted to a referendum.

While I really wish I could take a page out of Bishop Spong's book and just not dignify the Conference of Catholic Bishops with a response, they're kind of influential... that bullshit about gay marriage undermining the inherent dignity of every person is going to be official doctrine, to be read and preached and provided as an answer to difficult theological questions.

We may know how the battle is going to end, but I think there's still some fighting left to do.