The View’s Sunny Hostin: Jesus would attend a Pride parade
Hostin was responding to a Catholic bishop who tweeted that Pride events are "harmful for children"
The View co-host Sunny Hostin has slammed an anti-LGBTQ bishop who told Catholics to stay away from Pride events, saying she believes Jesus would attend a Pride parade.
Hostin made the statement during Monday’s episode of The View, where the panel discussed Bishop Thomas Tobin, of Providence, R.I., who this week tweeted that Pride events are “harmful for children.”
“A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ ‘Pride Month’ events held in June,” Tobin said in his highly criticized tweet. “They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children.”
Hostin was one of many on social media who disagreed with the bishop’s anti-LGBTQ comments.
She slammed the bishop in a tweet, saying, “This practicing Catholic will be supporting and attending LGBTQ Pride events. And so will my Catholic children. You should be ashamed.”
This practicing Catholic will be supporting and attending LGBTQ Pride events. And so will my Catholic children. You should be ashamed @ThomasJTobin1 🏳️🌈 https://t.co/tqsyp137Fg https://t.co/RgGeoufXxR
— Sunny Hostin (@sunny) June 2, 2019
But Hostin went further during Monday’s show, saying she believed that Jesus would attend Pride.
“I tweeted out that my Catholic children will be attending Pride events as this Catholic will,” she said to the other co-hosts. “And you know, my faith always taught me, ‘What would Jesus do?’ And I know Jesus would be attending that Pride parade.”
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg added, “With pride,” to which Hostin echoed, “With pride.”
Hostin then echoed a sentiment that many on social media had also shared — mainly that it was hypocritical for a Catholic Church official to claim Pride is harmful for children, given the church is currently plagued by child sexual abuse scandals.
“I also know that God is love, Jesus is love, love is love,” Hostin said. “For a Catholic bishop to come out and say something like that given the history of pedophilia in the Catholic church, given what the Catholic church has hidden about the abuse of children, some would say that being at a Pride parade would be much safer for a child than it has been to be in a Catholic church for many years.”
Watch the segment below, where the co-hosts also discuss Donald Trump’s heavily criticized tweet recognizing Pride Month:
The Catholic Church has wrestled with LGBTQ issues in recent years, particularly since Pope Francis ascended to the papacy.
Some LGBTQ people expected Francis to be a more moderate voice on LGBTQ issues, but his record has been somewhat mixed on the issue.
And in America, the Catholic Church has been embroiled in a number of LGBTQ-related controversies of late, including last month when a New Jersey church demanded that a private charter school remove a pro-LGBTQ mural from the school building, which is owned by the church.
In March, a transgender man in California announced he was suing a Catholic hospital after they canceled gender confirmation surgery at the last minute, and refused to reschedule the operation.
And last year, the Archbishop of Philadelphia said that the is “no such thing as an ‘LGBTQ Catholic.’“
Archbishop Charles J. Chaput also said that the phrase “LGBTQ” should not appear in any Church documents.
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