Comments on: Outing Gay Priests in Washington, D.C.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:59:39 +0000

I too would like to join the chorus of voices that agree that this is a bad idea.

For one, many of the people that buy into the anti-gay rhetoric propagated by the Church and other conservative Christian organizations are more likely to commit acts of violence against homosexuals. I don’t think it is a big stretch of the imagination to conjure up a scenario where some wackjob that was part of an outed priest’s congregation feels so betrayed that they would brutalize or kill the man. Being a hypocrite is bad, but death isn’t the punishment — especially if it was brought on by simply being a homosexual.

My second thought is that this could turn into a situation where straight priests are “outed” based on rumor or outright lie. Whether or not you accept their beliefs about homosexuality is irrelevant; they were playing the game the “right” way according to their beliefs.

Third, I’m pretty much against anyone publishing any personal information on the Internet about any private citizen. I don’t think it should be illegal, but I still don’t think it should be done.

By: Vas

Vas — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:39:46 +0000

No big surprise here I support this. I support the exposure of anyone who enables discrimination and bigotry whether they are passive enablers or active participants. There is no issue of free association, they may associate with whomever they like but I won’t be a keeper of their secrets and no one else should be honor bond to keep their secrets, including those who they associate with, after all, the information is coming from somewhere. Same goes for the people who hide them and support their lies. People have a right to lie and try to conceal their lies and other people have a right to expose their lies. It may not be pleasant but that’s the way of it. If you want to present a false face to the world you are free to try and if you are clever and well practiced in deceit you may even pull it off, but the truth has a funny way of coming out.

By: Moxiequz

Moxiequz — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 23:04:42 +0000

I agree with and strongly second what Richard Wade posted. I’m saddened to see that Hemant is promoting this idiocy which (as Allison above points out) can easily turn into a witch hunt.

So much for being a “friendly” atheist.

Hear, hear.

By: grazatt

grazatt — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:15:49 +0000

I think for some it is a chance to strike back at a hated enemy.

By: Allison

Allison — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:01:30 +0000

I think this website is going to turn out to be a bad idea. It’s probably just going to turn into somewhat of a gay priest witchhunt, with the priests able to deny everything as being the propaganda of anti-Catholics. The church has had no problem simply absorbing hypocrisy for hundreds of years, why do you think exposing hypocrisy will suddenly cause them to change now? This is a stupid move.

So much for being a “friendly” atheist.

By: Jen

Jen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:31:39 +0000

What an awful, awful idea. I would like to remind everyone that lgbt people are killed everyday for being gay. According to the FBI, these crimes against sexual minorities are the third highest group of hate crimes. While I am not going to claim that I don’t laugh a little every time a gay Republican gets caught with his pants down, it should be up to the individual to leave the closet. Period, end of story, etc, etc.

I can appreciate that they might want to change the attitudes of those in the church, this is not even a little bit the way to go about it.

By: Ron Gold

Ron Gold — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:58:50 +0000

Whether I would feel bad for the outed priest depends on what the individual priest is like. If they condemn homosexuality yet secretly practice it, then they are a hypocrite and deserve what’s coming to them. But no doubt some cases will be more nuanced. Ideally, only the “bad priests” will get outed. Ultimately, though, I’ll judge this idea based on its impact, and that’s yet to be determined.

By: Richard Wade

Richard Wade — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:24:00 +0000

Hypocrisy is not the issue.
The church’s anti-gay policies and beliefs are the issue. The hypocrisy of some secretly gay priests who spout anti-gay rhetoric is just an opportunity for vindictive action against a few individuals. It will do nothing to change the true source of human suffering, the church’s backward attitudes.

Helping them to find and weed out their secretly gay priests will just allow the Church to “clean up its act” and continue their anti-gay campaigns without the embarrassment of hypocrisy. The overall effect would be worse.

Add to that the inadvertent implication that there is something wrong with being gay, and this just keeps adding up to an assinine idea.

Are the people behind this so filled with hatred that they are willing to seriously hurt some individual priests just for the indulgent pleasure of briefly embarrassing the Catholic Church? The RCC will not even feel it, but some real people’s lives will be ruined.

By: Neon Genesis

Neon Genesis — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:31:01 +0000

Speaking as a gay man myself, I think it’s a bad idea to out gay priests who aren’t promoting anti-gay messages. For one thing, we don’t know what the whole situation is with their lives. Like maybe they want to change the church from within but are scared to speak up. I also think this could backfire and reinforce the stereotype that the godless LGBT liberal agenda is persecuting the church. We already have Christians like Carrie Prejan claiming there’s a liberal bias that’s trying to silence her and that the gay agenda is actively seeking out dirt on hypocrites. I don’t think we need to be adding to the problems by reinforcing this claim. It’s one thing if the person ends up exposing themselves through their own actions, like Ted Haggard getting caught cheating on his wife, but for us to go after innocent priests who aren’t spreading hate for a political agenda would make us no different than the Catholic church weeding out gays for their political agendas.

By: Aj

Aj — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:58:32 +0000

If they say anything against homosexuals I wouldn’t hesitate in outing them as hypocrites. One less priest spouting hate can’t be bad. At the very least I’d hope that homosexuals would find out and avoid them.

Some priests could have been naive, stupid, and hateful, get trapped into the worthless profession, and have genuinely changed their minds, so I’d withhold on outing those that are silent on the issue. Those priests deserve help not retribution.