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Exposed: The Catholic Church’s Anti-Gay “Marriage Guy” Daniel Avila

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No one should be surprised that Daniel Avila invoked the devil to describe homosexuality. If anything, we should be surprised it took him so long to do it.

Who is Daniel Avila, the Catholic Church’s self-professed “bishops’ marriage guy,” who has been making headlines the past week for his outrageous comments that the devil creates homosexuals in pregnant mothers’ wombs?

One of Avila’s seemingly-many hats was the Associate Director for Policy & Research of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, before becoming the Policy Advisor for Marriage and Family for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Before we take a look, first, a reminder of what Avila said, before he and The Boston Pilot – America’s oldest Catholic newspaper which serves as the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston — issued retractions and apologies. Avila claimed that God does not cause homosexuality, rather, there is “a credible basis for a spiritual explanation that indicts the devil.”

No one should be surprised that Avila invoked the devil to describe homosexuality. Of same-sex marriage, Avila is quoted as saying, “It’s like a nuclear bomb exploding in every home, and that explosion will reshape society itself. I don’t think we can even describe the frontiers of change that confront us.”

Let there be no mistake: Avila sees his crusade against same-sex marriage equality as a religious holy war.

Avila last year wrote he had an “idyllic feeling” during his visit to a NOM, the National Organization For Marriage event in Rhode Island, where, “[o]ver two hundred people gathered under the trees of the Capitol’s south lawn to hear speeches, get their marriage tour t-shirts, and prepare for an upcoming legislative battle in that state over the definition of marriage.” he also called the pro-same-sex marriage supporters “insurgents.”

In August of 2010, Avila penned, “Marriage and Civil Rights: The Anatomy of a Social Institution from a Constitutional Perspective,” in which he writes, “given the institutional nature of civil rights, an individual rights claim should not gain civil rights status without democratic approval.” In other words, Avila advocates for a plebiscite, a referendum, on same-sex marriage, along with, assumedly, all civil rights, in direct conflict with the Founding Fathers’ wishes.

Avila also claims, “there is no abstractly conceived civil right of equal protection that guarantees marital status for all comers,” in direct contradiction of the 10th and 14th Amendments, and “concludes that the United States Supreme Court should reject a same-sex marriage constitutional claim.”

Many of Avila’s arguments you’re probably familiar with. He, in legalese, essentially rails against activist judges, pulls a Newt Gingrich about how undemocratic it is for a Supreme Court judge to be the final say in issues like marriage equality — which he likens to “extraordinary judicial protection for gays and lesbians” — writing of “the supposed power of just one individual, acting in concert with the judiciary, to redefine what is right and just and thereby change longstanding social institutions.”

Avila falsely claims “in a democracy the people play an essential role when it comes to creating and shaping civil rights.” Again, the Founding Fathers knew, and created the Bill of Rights for the very reason of protecting the rights of there minority from the will of the majority.

Avila also, foolishly, in my opinion, attacks the Supreme Court, claiming, “the judiciary is ill-equipped to change the social institution of marriage,” and adds, ” the courts lack the institutional capacity and necessary democratic warrant to declare same-sex marriage to be a civil right.”

Really? Why?

Perhaps most offensively, Avila claims “all couples consisting of both a man and a woman offer, through the reality of sexual difference, a fundamental and unique social diversity that society and the law should celebrate.” In other words, diversity is good only when it suits his (religious) purposes.

Unsurprisingly, the “it’s always been that way” is one of Avila’s arguments, as he states, “the federal courts should presume that limits grounded in tradition and democracy are rational because of their popular support…” The logical questions would be, “Just like it was before slavery was ended?”

Short-sightedlty, Avila writes that,

Reshaping rights without democratic warrant will expose citizens to unfair threat of punishment and other disadvantages. For this reason, the people should be allowed to vote on whether to recognize personal claims as civil rights and, in particular, whether to redefine the civil right of marriage.

The day will come, most likely, soon, when the majority — which poll after poll after poll already shows us — will vote for marriage equality. What will Avila fall on then to support his feeling that homosexuality, as he has suggested elsewhere, is a “natural disaster”?

Sadly, Avila has not seen, evidently, any of the polls. He writes, falsely there is “..widespread democratic support for traditional marriage policy…” In reality, we know that there are more than a half-dozen nationwide polls over the past 15 months that all show a majority of Americans support same-sex marriage equality.

Bottom line, Avila is the embodiment of the Catholic Church’s unrepentant and unyielding fight against same-sex marriage equality. The Church is pouring time and money and support into doing everything it can to stop the march of progress. And when you’re doing “God’s work,” apparently, any and all tactics are justified.

Finally here’s Avila delivering a speech at the SPLC-certified hate group Family Research Council’s Values Voters Summit a few weeks ago, at a symposium titled, “Straight Talk on Gay Marriage.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lflvv0-uoOg%3Fversion%3D3%26hl%3Den_US%26rel%3D0

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

Far Right Christian Nationalist Brags His ‘Biblical Worldview’ Group Is Behind Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Anti-Trans Law

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March 24, 2023

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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation Tuesday prohibiting transgender people from using public school facilities that match their gender identity. Later that same day, Jason Rapert, a former Arkansas state senator and founder of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, posted a video crediting his organization for the legislation.

Rapert, a longtime religious-right activist and ardent Christian nationalist, bragged that this piece of legislation was first proposed by Arkansas school board member David Naylor during an annual NACL meeting, endorsed by the organization, and finally brought to the Arkansas state legislature by state Rep. Mary Bentley, who serves on the board of the NACL.

“The NACL has seven working committees,” Rapert said. “Those committees actually debate and discuss every major policy issue in this country, all from a biblical worldview.”

“We make model laws,” he continued. “Do you know that just recently Rep. Mary Bentley of Arkansas passed a model law that the NACL adopted at their last meeting in the state of Texas?”

“Rep. Mary Bentley, [who] is our chair of the National Legislative Council, she went to the Arkansas legislature, took that concept that came from Dr. David Naylor that was then adopted by the full body of the NACL, and guess what? It’s already been placed into law in the state of Arkansas,” Rapert crowed. “That’s the difference the NACL can make in your community.”

“This is what the NACL does every day all across this country,” Rapert bellowed later in the video. “We are fighting for the lives of little babies. We are fighting against the people that are putting the queer books into your school libraries and trying to groom these children into homosexuality. We’re standing up. We’re pursuing school board policies to save the nation. We are standing up and have our members running bills in the halls of the state legislatures to stand up against this woke ideology, to push back against the things of the devil in our country.”

In December, Rapert declared that right-wing Christians must rise up and “take authority” over everything from their local school boards to the federal government. The National Association for Christian Lawmakers seeks do just that, advancing legislation that fits their narrow conservative biblical worldview in statehouses throughout the country. The group’s advisory board includes politicians like Mike Huckabee and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick as well as influential religious-right activists like Tony Perkins of Family Research Council and Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel.

This article was originally published by Right Wing Watch and is republished here by permission.

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Jim Jordan Busted for Helping Trump ‘Tamper’ With Probe: ‘Beyond All Bounds of What’s Legal’

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March 24, 2023

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Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg rebuffed a Republican House demand for a peek inside an investigation involving Donald Trump as “unlawful,” and MSNBC’s Al Sharpton agreed it amounted to “tampering.”

Bragg’s general counsel denied a request for documents and an interview with the district attorney by Judiciary, Oversight and Administration Committee chairs Jim Jordan (R-OH), James Comer (R-KY) and Bryan Steil (R-WI), calling the congressional inquiry an “unprecedented” intervention into a pending local prosecution undertaken at Trump’s request.

“Any man that is up in the middle of the night, that is going with this kind of language, is scared to death,” Sharpton said of Trump, who has been posting highly provocative online attacks against Bragg. “The problem, though, is that he is inciting people, no matter how small they have become as a crowd, to do something. Add that to him having the photo of the bat at a sitting prosecutor, I mean, it’s unimaginable. You’re right, we’d be arrested for that.”

“We have chairmen of committees telling a prosecutor, who is in the middle of an investigation, to come and give us the evidence,” Sharpton added. “I mean, they’re really tampering with an investigation. This is not an investigation that’s concluded. Before we know whether there is an indictment or charge, they’re saying bring us the evidence? I mean, this is unheard of. What is Jordan talking about? They’re in the middle of a grand jury proceeding. You want the prosecutor to leave the proceeding and tell me the evidence you’re giving, and we’ll put it on national television so the target can understand the evidence? I mean, we are going beyond all bounds of what is legal, what is respectful, and we have a man who is scared to death, that is up in the middle of the night inciting violence, having a photo with a bat, because he’s scared to death he’s going to have to face this prosecution.”

READ MORE: Trump is ‘out of his mind scared’ after late-night outburst : Morning Joe panel

Watch the video below or at this link.

 

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Lindsey Graham Admonished by Senate Ethics Committee

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March 23, 2023

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U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been formally admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee for violating ethics rules and standards by repeatedly soliciting campaign donations during an interview at the Capitol.

The bipartisan committee issued Graham a Public Letter of Admonition after the South Carolina Republican solicited donations for Georgia GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker.

“Based upon all available information, the Committee concluded that on November 30, 2022, you conducted a media interview with Fox News in the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building and that your interview was slightly over nine minutes, with over four minutes devoted to a discussion of the 2022 senatorial run-off election in Georgia. The Committee further concluded that during your discussion of the senatorial run-off election, you directly solicited campaign contributions on behalf of Mr. Walker’s campaign committee, www.teamherschel.com, five separate times.”

The letter notes that Sen. Graham had previously violated the same standards when he solicited campaign donations in a federal building in October of 2020, but said it was an “unplanned media interview.” When a reporter had asked him about fundraising, Graham “directly solicited campaign contributions” for his re-election campaign.

READ MORE: Watch: GOP Lawmaker Orders Grieving Parkland Parents Removed From ‘ATF Overreach’ Hearing

The Committee noted “mitigating” circumstances and did not cite him for that violation.

“The public must feel confident that Members use public resources only for official actions in the best interests of the United States, not for partisan political activity,” the letter concludes. “Your actions failed to uphold that standard, resulting in harm to the public trust and confidence in the United States Senate. You are hereby admonished.”

CNN’s Manu Raju posted the letter to social media.

You can read the letter below or at this link.

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