I've never been to Maine, so I couldn't tell you why I think it should be one of the more progressive states, sort of a "Why should I care what you're doing behind closed doors?" kind of place. California was slightly less surprising, only because there are so many crazies living there, you never really know what to expect. It could really go to either extreme. But Maine... it really seems like a place where people would not only be more socially progressive but just more laid back. A place where you can do whatever you want, be whoever you want to be, as long as you're not hurting anyone else.
As a former Catholic, I think Matt has been most upset by the Catholic church's involvement in the campaign to repeal the marriage law in Maine. For me, though, it's not much of a surprise. Organized religion is pretty much like any other organized group governed by a central authority. Take this analogy - although I hate to make comparisons like this, I think it works. If I had more than two readers, I think I might lose some here, but no worries... Think of the church as a larger, more civilized version of a mob. Let's say one or two members of this mob start to commit a crime, maybe beating the hell out of a passerby. Now you'd expect someone to break up the fight, or at the very least yell "Stop!" - but mob theories abound about how often that is just not the case. All the members of this mob are friends, no one wants to become an outsider by sticking up for the poor guy getting beat up. So you'll have some in the mob cheering on the thugs, some actually helping out by blocking the victim from running away, and maybe even some who feel bad about this poor guy getting beat up, but hey, maybe he deserved it. I know this is a really negative way to view the church, and I know the church does a lot of good works, charity and so on, and provides a refuge and all that. But sometimes it just acts like a big bully, and in this case, the big bully thinks it should have the power to decide who gets to marry in the state of Maine. Unfortunately, if there are any progressive, fair-minded Catholics living up there, not one yelled "Stop!" - at least not so we could hear it down here.
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The theory underlying mob-action is that the members would not act the same way individually. Here, I am not sure this is the case. I think, sadly, the majority of most congregations would have opposed legalizing gay marriage, regardless of the church's stance. I think this may be as much about appealing to parishioners and trying to attract new ones.
ReplyDeleteThat is not to say, the church changing its position wouldn't influence a large number of members. However, it would also likely mean losing a large number of its members.
ReplyDeleteI think you're missing my point. I don't think we can ever find out what each parishioner thinks because the church doesn't exactly encourage them to think for themselves. It's a top-down organization. So what the Pope says filters down to the members and whatever their individual position is does not matter. If they want to be good Catholics, they need to follow church teachings. If the Pope were to say homosexual marriage was ok according to an interpretation of the Bible, I'm sure there would be many angry Catholics, but I think there would be just as many that would soften their views as well.
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