Tony Blair on Gay Rights | 04/08/2009 7:50 am
Tony Blair: Vatican, Pope Need to Rethink Gay Rights
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Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair took on the Vatican in a recent interview with gay magazine Attitude.
Describing the Vatican and the Pope’s prohibitive stance on gay rights, Mr. Blair, who converted to Catholicism in 2007, insisted that the Catholic powers-that-be must rethink their politics, which he described as "entrenched."
The Vatican must find a way to bring itself in line with the changing times, just as if they were a political party. Via the Belfast Telegraph:
Organized religions face the same dilemma as political parties when faced with changed circumstances. You can either A: Hold on to your core vote, basically, you know, say ‘Look let’s not break out because if we break out we might lose what we’ve got, and at least we’ve got what we’ve got so let’s keep it’. Or B: You say ‘let’s accept that the world is changing, and let us work out how we can lead that change and actually reach out’.
Mr. Blair also speculated that rank-and-file Catholics — and younger adherents — most likely have less conservative views of same-sex love. "If you went and asked the [ordinary Catholic] congregation," said the statesman, according to the Guardian, "I think you’d find that their faith is not to be found in those types of entrenched attitudes." These remarks will no doubt cause a stir among Catholic circles, but we wonder whether Mr. Blair will also speak out against homophobia springing from another religion: Islam.
The New York Times reports today that anti-gay violence in Iraq has reached a fever pitch. An estimated 25 men have been killed in two months in Sadr City, an area once dominated by right-wing Clerics and militants. While death squads are to blame for some of the deaths, most, the paper and police say, are being carried out by individuals’ families, who are so ashamed of their gay sons that they refuse to claim the bodies after the deed’s been done.
Since leaving office in 2007, Mr. Blair has acted as a special envoy to the Middle East. If he’s serious about advancing — or normalizing — gay rights, perhaps he will speak up in the Middle East?
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23 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
YAY! Way to go Mr. Blair.
Speaking of LGBT Equality, this has been an incredible week as Iowa and Vermont give equality to all its citizens. D.C. will honor same-sex marriages performed outside of D.C. and hopefully soon the CA Supreme Court will do its job and defend the State Constitution.
4 States down, 46 to go! Then make it Federal so same sex marriages receive the 1,138 Federal Rights and the protection of Article IV, Section 1 or the United States Constitution. It’s the 21st Century and I can’t believe people still need to fight for equality in the country but it’s coming fast and furious.
Tony Blair, a 2007 convert to Catholicism, is telling the Vatican how to do their job??? What CHEEK (as the British would say)!
First of all, a religion is not a political party. Religion is based on faith and interpretation of religious dogma. It is not there to be guided by the masses and their opinions, but to guide the masses and their opinions.
Second of all, homosexuality is specifically and repeatedly called out as abhorent in the Bible. The interpretation of the Catholic opinion about homosexuality is very specific. The interpretation of pre-marital sex is very specific. In fact the opinions within the Catholic religion regarding any type of sex without the benefit of marriage is very specific: it is WRONG. This has been a major part of the Catholic dogma for hundreds of years.
Now, please let me explain that I am not a Catholic. I do not believe in their interpretation of the Bible on some matters. That is why I am not a Catholic! I find their opinions toward choice and birth control to be ridiculous and dangerous (especially in the Third World where AIDS is running rampant). I also think their stance on homosexuality to be hypocritical in light of the sex scandals that have nearly flattened it (especially financially) in the last few years.
But it is not the job of me, or Tony Blair, to define a religion’s dogma. If I am not comfortable with a part of the religion, I have to, as a human, make the decision whether or not to stay a member of that religion. Mr. Blair has recently undergone a conversion to Catholicism, he went in knowing what the Catholics believe. I find it ridiculous that he would then give an interview like this. If this was a hundred years ago, he could have well have faced excommunication.
"Second of all, homosexuality is specifically and repeatedly called out as abhorent in the Bible." Actually, that is not entirely true. Yes, the Old Testament does but neither Jesus nor the New Testament specifically mentions anything about homosexuality. If we are going to look to the Old Testament and things like Leviticus as an argument against homosexuality then they should apply it consistently and also ban Shrimp Cocktail and stone people like Bristol Palin to death.
Then again, I’m not a Christian and could care less what their storybook says. However, I am an American and as such I don’t want my life run by the picking and choosing misinterpretations of their storybook.
Again, please let riteterate :"Now, please let me explain that I am not a Catholic. I do not believe in their interpretation of the Bible on some matters. That is why I am not a Catholic!" The point of my post is that I cannot control Catholic dogma, which is why I am not a Catholic. If you had bothered to read through my entire post, you would have seen that.
And for someone who says" I don’t want my life run by the picking and choosing misinterpretations of their storybook." you seem pretty sure of the fact that Jesus and the New Testament DON’T call homosexuality out specifically. Maybe you don’t think it’s such a "storybook" after all?
F P: you said it when you said, "I’m afraid they never did". One of the most important "revolutions" in World History was the revolution (s?) started by Martin Luther.
Martin Luther, as we all know, was a German Roman Catholic (in those days, you didn’t have any other choice, really) monk who discovered after reading the Bible thoroughly that the way to Heaven (grace) was in his opinion, through FAITH and not by works. With the Protestant revolutions that insued from the (at that time scandalous) teachings of Martin Luther, our world was drastically changed, both in terms of what and how we believe, and in how our governments are ran (separation of church and state, indeed most of the US Bill of Rights is based on events that happened as a result of the Protestant revolution).
My point is that Tony Blair CHOSE to become a Catholic. To become a Catholic, he had to undergo a conversion/educational program where he was instructed in the teachings and beliefs of the Catholic religion. This includes stances on homosexuality.
Mr. Blair has/had many other religions he could have converted to. He could have converted to the Church of England (a direct result of the Protestant Revolution, and/or Anne Bolyn, depending on who you talk to), he could have converted to Lutheranism (which actually supports gay/lesbians as clerics and performs gay/lesbian weddings and has for 25 years), he could have converted to Buddhism, the list goes on and on.
However, Mr. Blair chose to convert to Catholicism. And in doing so, he promised to stand by the tennants of that faith. Now, less than two years later he wants to change it? It sounds kind of "cheeky" to me!
And again, I am not Catholic. I am actually a Lutheran. And I have two family members who are gay clerics. I believe that Jesus gave us freedom to choose, and I choose not to be a member of the Catholic religion. But that doesn’t give me the right to tell them what to change, I can only change myself. Mr. Blair had other choices. I wonder why he even chose Catholicism to begin with, if all he wants to do is change it.