The Pope’s anti-gay marriage statements made it to the set of ABC’s The View on Tuesday. Despite their mixed bag of terminology and examples, they at least seemed put off by Joseph Ratzinger‘s insinuation that gay marriages threaten “the future of humanity.”
Barbara Walters discussed the Elton John and husband David Furnish‘s son, Zachary, who was born in December 2010 via a surrogate mother. Walters said people are struggling everywhere to define what’s a family, and mentioned her friends’ grandchildren which were conceived with the help of a sperm bank. Her conclusion was that Ratzinger was claiming that if you get married and don’t procreate, it will “wipe out humanity.”
Joy Behar, who was recently married at 68, joked that she was indeed married to procreate. She added that despite the existence of homosexuality “since the Neanderthals,” and there have been billions of people nonetheless.
Elizabeth Hasselback, the shows Republican host, said the possibility of divorce affected her marriage, not gays. She said the condemnation of gay marriages seemed “inhumane.”
Whoopi Goldberg pointed out that non-Christians may have views different than the Pope’s, and that people have had children other than the expected “normal way.”
Sherri Shepard said that she had suffered from infertility before, and then said she had a problem with religious leaders hadn’t yet “cleaned house themselves” — specifically metioning the Catholic’s molestation scandals and others’ homosexual infidelity scandals.
Baylor University, a Baptist college in Waco, Texas, is rescinding a $643,000 grant it received to study the inclusion of LGBTQ people and women in the church.
The grant, awarded to Baylor’s Center for Church and Community Impact in the School of Social Work, came from the Eula Mae and John Baugh Foundation, which funds progressive, faith-related initiatives focused on church-state separation, interfaith projects, and social justice.
The money was intended to "help foster inclusion and belonging in the church" by funding research into "the disenfranchisement and exclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals and women within congregations," with the goal of encouraging more inclusive practices.
A fundamentalist church in Indianapolis is defending a June 29 sermon in which a lay preacher urged congregants to pray for LGBTQ people to die and suggested they kill themselves.
The remarks, delivered by Stephen Falco during a “Men’s Preaching Night” at Sure Foundation Baptist Church, included multiple homophobic slurs, biblical references, and rants against Pride Month, LGBTQ rights, and what he called “disgusting” and “evil” behavior, according to TheIndianapolis Star.
"Why do I hate sodomites, why do I hate f****ts? Because they attack children," Falco ranted in the sermon, video of which was posted to Sure Foundation Baptist Church's YouTube channel. "They're coming after your children, they are attacking them in schools today, and not only schools, in public places, and they're proud about it!
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