Minnesota Archbishop to Mother of Gay Son: You're Going to Hell

For any regular readers of this blog, it is no secret that I view Minnesota Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, John Nienstedt (pictured at left), is a complete homophobic asshole.  In his warped view, anyone who is supportive of LGBT individuals or, worse yet in his view, supports LGBT equality is at risk of being damned to Hell.  Nienstedt further proved his asshole status when he told a mother than she needs to reject her gay son and get back in line with the Vatican's anti-gay jihad.  The New Civil Rights Movement looks at this latest example of Nienstedt's deep anti-gay animus.  Here are highlights: 

John Nienstedt, the Minnesota Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, told a mother who asked him for acceptance for her gay child, that she might go to hell if she does not embrace the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings on homosexuality.

“Your eternal salvation may well depend upon a conversation of heart on this topic,” Nienstedt told the mother via a letter. ”Catholics are bound in conscience to believe in this teaching. Those who do not cannot consider themselves to be Catholic and ought not to participate in the sacramental life of the Church.”

The Star-Tribune profiled the anti-gay marriage debate in Minnesota, one of four states that will have marriage on the ballot in November. Minnesota is the only state seeking to ban same-sex marriage in its constitution, whereas Washington, Maine, and Maryland are seeking to legalize marriage equality.

“Nienstedt is not a new disciple to the traditional marriage campaign,” the Star-Tribune reports:

In 2006, as bishop of the diocese of New Ulm, he mobilized Catholics to send postcards to lawmakers urging them to support a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.

Not long after he was promoted to archbishop in 2008, Nienstedt ordered an end to the gay pride prayer service at St. Joan of Arc Church in Minneapolis. Before the 2010 election, he led a move to send DVDs opposing same-sex marriage to 400,000 Catholics in Minnesota, in which he gave a six-minute introduction.

Earlier this year, a Catholic priest under Nienstedt leadership hosted a mandatory assembly at a Minneapolis high school where seniors were told gay marriage is akin to bestiality, and adopted children are not normal.

 I hope  the mother who received Nienstedt's letter which can be found here does the right thing: walk away from the Catholic Church and shake the dust off of the soles of her shoes as she exits the door.