Pope Benedict condemns gay marriage in Christmas speech on family values

@Gearoid, you mis-stated my point. You wrote that I "attribute the Judaic or Christian understanding of marriage to ancient pagan fertility cults." NO, Gearoid, I wrote that the POPE had a pagan idea of GOD when he said during his address, "According to the biblical creation account, being created by God as male and female pertains to the essence of the human creature. This duality is an essential aspect of what being human is all about, as ordained by God." He forgot that we are created "in the image of God ... male and female." Genesis is clear on this point and puts these two descriptions, "male and female" and "the image of God" together in the same sentence. If male/female is an essential duality in the godhead of which we are an "image," that god is not a unity, not ONE, and the pope is not a monotheist but a pagan bi-theist or polytheist! He got so carried away with his demonic notion that homosexuality is not built into creation, not "normal" sexuality, that he reduced the Judeo-Christian God to dual male-female fertility gods! Maleness and femaleness do not belong to the 'essence' of humans in a Christian view, as Paul wrote to the Galations in my quotation below.

An elderly male virgin in a dress who is constantly escorted by a good looking priest chooses December to spew some hate filled bile about gays into the holiday season. Yep it's Herr Ratzinger's Christmas Message. Nothing like a bit of sneering from the balcony to keep the faithful focused away from the goings on under the golden dome in Rome.

Virtually every psych and the AMA and the American Academy of pediatricians say that gay is natural and built in. The Church must know this, but the pope simply uses lies to try to mask his attempt to have religion masquerade as medical science..............He's just an old fuddy who helped hide the endless molestation of children, and still he doesnt get it - May he live much longer and he will finish destroying Bennies form of the church and let us bring it back to what Jesus will be proud of...........In England where the battle rages , you cannot imagine the horror show of hate that spouts from his bishops. Things like nazi, commie etc about gays and marriage equality.............Conveniently forgetting how he UNexcommunciated Bishop Williamson- a holocaust denier in 2009. who had been living in Argentina and got kicked out of the country - then Argentinians voted in marriage equality in 2010.........The man is hates himself for his disasters after disasters. And like so many other situations *** throws out his hate on others.................it's kind of like how so many vicious homophobes - not the people who simply oppose marriage equality but the loudest and most verbally violent - turns out they are gay. YOu might get a flavor for this kind of thing by going to gayhomophobe dot org, and there are other lists. as well. In my NE state in the USA the two chief homophobes of our state house are well known - one of them in a love triangle 15 years ago, the poor man jumped out a window. the other this past summer got drunk and nearly killed another boat load of people. (his wife left him last spring and one of the equality groups found her - int4eresting story how she found out so the rumor mill says ........Bottom line - gay marriage under civil law helps promote the insittuion of marriage, and the church knows very well that it has - I support- the absolute right to limit its ceremonies and membership to whomever it chooses.

@ Gearoid4: PLEASE , if your going to respond to ME....spell my name RIGHT.....and STOP FORCING people to live according to religion IF they choose NOT to.......and NOT every person is SUITED for children....in fact, some parents SHOULDN'T be parents to begin with....and NO i'm NOT talking about GAYS.....hell, they probably are BETTER at parenting then hetero parents. alisa

booby- The Truth hurt you son?

Norman Shut up

Grow up Ireland

Whether you like it or not, Eiriamch, Jesus specifically referred to male and female when he spoke about a couple leaving their families to mate and marry. He unambiguously spoke about this in Matthew 19:5-".."For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh?.. Nothing there about same-sex couplings and to attribute the Judaic or Christian understanding of marriage to ancient pagan fertility cults is so ignorant of the reality of how this teaching developed. Even ancient pagan societies situated governed by Rome or the Greek city states recognized the naturalness of marriage as consisting of the relationship between a man and a woman and open to procreation.

@Ailsinn, Many chose not to have children by blocking the natural-occurring fertility of the woman, but that is their choice. But in doing so they are deprived of the beauty of procreation which is a gift from God and their stance is anti-life. Some couples are infertile and not by choice and would love to have children. So contrast and compare as some disrupt God-given fertility deliberately by artificial contraception while others would love to have children but unfortunately cannot. The consequences of widespread conception for the Common Good of society are negative on a number of levels. The rise in divorce, abortions etc are not coincidental with the increased use of the Pill over the last 40 years but have been facilitated by it. There has also been a dramatic fall in the demographics of nations across the western world NYCsheridan, you are wrong on both accounts about me and your idiotic comments on our current pope is not worth commenting on, except to say that it shows a person who does not seem to think very deeply. @Eiriamach, I acknowledge that Augustine certainly did use Plato's thought in relation to his Christian formulations, but it was Aquinas who brought this relationship between Greek-inspired Reason and Christian Faith to their Zenith in the High Middle Ages. Consequently his influence is still very much with us today. The Catholic Faith has integrated his legacy and modern-day scholars are still using his conclusions to approach modern day problems.

Actually, Gearoid, it was not Aquinas but Augustine who brought Plato's philosophy into Christianity by placing the Platonic Forms or Ideas in the mind of God. When Aquinas referred to "The Philosopher," he was writing about Aristotle and restored some balance in Christianity's appropriation of the ancients. The work of the Medievals is bequeathed to all Christians, and no other age has approached their ecumenism (Jewish and Islamic philosophers debating Christians at the medieval universities).

Gearoid4, you sound like a nasty old drunkard.

The Religion of Hate. RATzinger is the AntiChrist

Benedict is merely the biggest marketeer of the catholic religion (er way of life) With gays they see no future as they can not produce children and new members. He is no doubt in need of a new marketing plan. People are beginning to see that his ethics work for him but not the rest of us. Why do you need some men in dresses to tell you how to interpret the bible. remember that this pope is trying to rewrite the bible with his current rendition of how Christ lived. THis is important to notice becasue it tells us how can we believe this great book if it is re-written by humans constantly. Sorry but his interpretations are historic and not true. He is the seller of vaporware and so many have been fooled (yes even I was once).

@darao, the pope's "fixed essences" rejection of same-sex marriage violates the most basic principles of our Western tradition of natural law, which includes Jesus' social justice. The equality of all is basic; civil law respects equality when, as in the US Constitution, it mandates equal treatment under human law--no discrimination on the basis of race, sex, class, national origin, degree of handicap, age, sexual orientation, etc. Christ's "Love your neighbor as yourself" means love each "as equal to" you. King adds that civil law should nurture the human personality and not degrade it; laws that exclude gays from social institutions are therefore unjust. It is a perversion of justice also for a numerical or power majority to pass laws that impose burdens on a minority group while exempting the majority, or that provide benefits (such as legal marriage) to the majority while excluding a minority. Jesus was firmly in this tradition; he noted that God makes his rain to fall and sun to shine on everyone, regardless of whether we consider them good or wicked; so must we ensure that the benefits of civil society are equal for all. The pope's theology removes him from this natural law tradition and even from a coherent reading of the purposes of the creator in Genesis. He renders the "image of God" polarized into two distinct "essences" of male and female--an attribute of ancient fertility religions, paganism, not Christianity: "Because all of you are one in the Messiah Jesus, a person is no longer a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a male or a female" (Galatians 3:28).

Gearoid4: MANY couples CHOOSE NOT TO HAVE CHILDREN.....and SOME women are PAST that stage in life, if they remarry ( after a death of their spouse or something.) ; SHOULD those couples be KEPT from MARRYING and having the SAME RIGHTS & BENIFITS as those who DO want to have kids?...i say, YES, they DO......try living OUTSIDE YOUR BIBLE WORLD....you might enjoy life MORE.....marriage is about LOVE and kids ( if wanted) are a BONUS....and if someone only gets married because of kids, that's the WRONG reason.....GOD MADE GAYS, THE WAY THEY ARE.....JUST AS HE MADE BLACKS, ASAINS, ETC. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE. ALISA