Catholic Conference: Marriage Equality Bill Against Religious Liberty

Before writing this post I had to take a deep breath. The audacity of those who have aided and abetted child rapists to make the disingenuous statement that allowing CIVIL law marriage to same sex couples makes my blood boil. If there is any threat to so-called religious liberty, it is embodied in the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy and their allies in the Christianist Protestant denominations who seek to impose - is inflict a better term? - their religious beliefs on all. All the while as they - or at least the Catholic hierarchy - ought to be standing trial for obstruction of justices and/or as accessories to crimes against children and youths. These people truly have no same and they have no credibility as leaders on moral issues. Indeed, they are morally bankrupt. Again, why does anyone listen to these men, a significant number of whom are basically little better than criminals? A lead spokesman for this attempt to subordinate the CIVIL laws to sectarian religious doctrine is the corpulent and disingenuous archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan who looks like he's living very high on the hog off the offerings of the ignorant and intellectually lazy. It's time that this red herring of "religious liberty" be exposed for the total lie that it is. The Advocate has details on this bullshit. Here are highlights (try not to vomit):
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The New York State Catholic Conference, which is lobbying to stop the state Senate from voting on the marriage equality bill, argues that support for the bill as currently worded would constitute “a vote against religious liberty and against the very ministries and services that New Yorkers cannot do without.”
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“Do they really want to close adoption and foster care agencies and other religious ministries?” asks the New York State Catholic Conference. “Are they seeking to label faith-based institutions as unlawful discriminators? Will they go after the tax-exempt status of these ‘discriminating’ institutions? Can the Church trust assurances from the same lawmakers who forced Catholic schools and hospitals to pay for contraception insurance or who are trying to make Catholic hospitals allow abortions? Who's kidding whom?”
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[Governor] Cuomo has indicated no inclination to negotiate the language, which New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg described as adequate after his meeting with Senate Republicans in Albany Tuesday.
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However, even with the addition of more religious exemptions, it it difficult to imagine any marriage equality bill that the Catholic Church would not lobby to defeat. A spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference was not immediately available for comment.
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As I have argued before, either the Catholic Church stops meddling with CIVIL law legislation or it needs to lose its tax exempt status. No longer should the Church be allowed to act like a PAC yet receive indirect tax payer subsidies via tax exempt status.