More Christian Love
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
A Gay Employee at a Catholic Church Is Resigning After Threats to His Family
Aaron Bianco is a married gay man who also happens to be a devout Catholic. I have plenty of questions I’d love to ask him — all of which he’s surely been asked a million times before — but the point is he’s attempting to create change from the inside rather than abandon the Church altogether. I don’t think that’s possible, but more power to him for his unwarranted optimism.
The problem is that plenty of conservatives are furious that he’s involved with the Church at all. Bianco serves as a “pastoral associate” at St. John the Evangelist Parish in San Diego, California. Unlike a priest, Bianco’s same-sex marriage is permitted in his role, but that doesn’t mean everyone accepts it, and the backlash recently went from frustrating to dangerous.
Last week, someone spray-painted the phrase “no fags” on the inside of the building on an office wall. It happened after conservative Christian websites began going after him:
… The Rev. James Martin, a Catholic priest who is a friend of Bianco’s and has worked for LGBTQ inclusion in the church, detailed some of the actions in a Tuesday Facebook post.
“Aaron’s tires have been slashed; he has received threatening emails (some 60 over the last two months), including death threats; letters on his car have been left, one saying, ‘Sodomites not welcome in the church.’ One man physically attacked him at the end of Mass, and had to be prevented by other parishioners from hurting him. This is what hate does, especially the kind of hate whipped up online.”
Martin blamed right-wing websites such as Church Militant and LifeSite News for encouraging homophobia. One Church Militant article, for example, accused Bianco and the San Diego diocese of promoting an “LBGT agenda.” Another said “faithful Catholics” at Bianco’s parish “are suffering persecution by a homosexualist cabal” and that the church is being corrupted. LifeSite News has urged readers to sign a petition calling for Bianco’s firing. A far-right Catholic group called the Lepanto Institute has also objected to the parish’s employment of Bianco and called Bianco’s husband his “sodomitical partner.”
Typical Christian love right there.
The websites say they weren’t directly responsible for the vandalism, but does anyone think their articles had nothing to do with the culprit?
In any case, Bianco has now submitted his resignation “out of fear for my family and myself.” He did it after those same “pro-life” websites posted images of his family (including his dead mother) and revealed his home address.
In an Oct. 17 media statement about “the vandalism at the parish St. John the Evangelist in Hillcrest and the social media attacks against one of its staff members,” [Bishop Robert] McElroy condemned the vandalism as “vile and reprehensible” and pledged “solidarity with the staff and community of St. John’s Parish at this moment.”
“The hatred that lies behind them constitutes a dark and vicious corner in the life of our Church that every member of the Catholic community must reject,” he stated.
It would be easier to reject if the Church’s top leaders didn’t spend so much time condemning homosexuality and suddenly “heard from God” that it’s fine… Still, it’s a strong statement given the Church’s own dogma. It’s just unfortunate that haters were able to bully a devout Catholic out of the Church because he committed a “sin” they think is worse than all the other ones.
Bianco may be filing charges against the websites that he says posted the “slander.”
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It is still a mystery to me why anyone who is gay would choose to be religious.
He should offer to get divorced. Then the church can make him a priest.
Being gay doesn't make a person any less likely to want to be excepted by a community, to want an explanation for how things came to be and to explore what possible purpose there could be for mankind, regardless of the veracity of the religious conclusions. Being gay doesn't inoculate you from parent and peer religious indoctrination. In fact, it can be all the more real for a child who is realizing they don't fit what their parents are telling them is righteous or holy or what an invisible wizard expects from them. They often end up internalizing that desire for acceptance, struggling and fighting against their own biology telling themselves they're evil, worthless, tainted by the devil, all the things their parents and peers have told them about those they call "queers".
Sadly, that far too often leads these young people to take their own lives before just leaving the social safety net they were born into which in their case wasn't so much a safety net as a dark caged closet, closed off from those who are supposed to love and care for them the most. Was it their fault for being born that way? Of course not, they are the last ones we should lay any blame on. The ones truly culpable for the increased suicide rate of LGTBQ teens are the parents and peers who cast bitter hate and vitriol at that community, even if not directed at them. Many religious conservatives think they're just preaching to the choir ranting and raving about how much they hate gay or transgender Americans, often not realizing someone in their own circle may be struggling with those feelings. And now, instead of coming out and dealing with it, they're more likely to silently suffer or even take their own lives because they just heard how their mom, dad, grandparent, brother, sister, cousin or close friend feels about them. And who do the religious conservatives continue to blame? Never themselves, its either the victim or some fantasy Satan that gets the blame.
It reminds me of a black person signing up the KKK. At least Clayton Bigsby had an excuse.
Classic Dave Chapelle. The blind black white supremacist.
Loved it when the Klu Klux Klanner's head exploded when his hood came off.
When he found out he was black he divorced his wife for being a ni...er lover.
In a way it's a lot like that. While the fictional Clayton was blind, the blindness is on the part of the peers and parents who refuse to see. It's like if black Americans were just randomly born into bleach white racist families but they were the only ones who could see their own skin color. All their parents and peers start ridiculing and telling racist jokes about the lazy "n^%$$#*" (they don't have to pretend they don't use that word because they looked around and didn't see any black people in the room so they believe it's okay...) and their son or nephew is sitting there realizing "They're talking about me, wow. And Uncle Jimbo just said if any black person hit on him in a bar he'd kill 'em, that sure makes me feel like telling them I'm black...".
Or why anyone would choose to be religious period.
after reading this - i can think of a couple religious conservative minded members of NT who would (unfortunately in my opinion) wholeheartedly support the actions against this homosexual male (causing him to resign) and cheer those actions on.