Connect with us

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

Published

on

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

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

COMMENTARY

‘I’m Broke’: One Day Before Shutdown and With No Plan McCarthy Says He Has ‘Nothing’ in His ‘Back Pocket’

Published

2 days ago

on

September 29, 2023

By

Just 30 hours before his own Republican conference likely will have succeeded in shutting down the federal government of the United States, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy candidly admitted to reporters he’s run out of ideas.

Earlier Friday in an “embarrassing failure,” 21 House Republicans killed legislation from their own party, a short-term continuing resolution, that would have kept the federal government open.

Later on Friday afternoon, swarmed by reporters, McCarthy was asked if he was going to tell them what his plans are. He sarcastically replied, “No, I’m going to keep it all a secret.”

When pressed, he said he would “keep working, and make sure we solve this problem.”

“What’s in your back pocket, Speaker?” another reporter asked, pressing him for an answer.

“Nothing right now. I’m broke,” he admitted, apparently referring to options and ideas to avoid a shutdown.

READ MORE: ‘Bad News’ for Sidney Powell as First Trump Co-Defendant in Georgia RICO Case Takes Plea Deal: Legal Expert

But another reporter asked Speaker McCarthy the main question: Would he partner with House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to put the Senate’s bill before the House.

He refused to answer.

Just before 5 PM CNN’s Manu Raju reported on the ongoing House Republicans’ closed-door meeting with the Speaker, a meeting where the 21 Republicans who will likely be effectively responsible for the shutdown reportedly did not attend.

“McCarthy is telling [Republicans] now there aren’t many options to avoid a shutdown, according to sources in room. He says they can approve GOP’s stop-gap plan that failed, accept Senate plan, put a ‘clean’ stop-gap on floor to dare Democrats to block it — or shut down the government.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

He adds, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) largely responsible for the impending likely shutdown and the impending possible ouster of McCarthy said: “We will not pass a continuing resolution on terms that continue America’s decline.”

At midnight Saturday Republicans will likely have succeeded in furloughing 3.5 million million federal workers – two million of them service members in the U.S. Armed Forces – and countless contractors, while financially harming untold thousands of businesses that rely on income from all those workers to keep running – unless Speaker McCarthy puts a bipartisan continuing resolution approved by at least 75 U.S. Senators on the floor, legislation every House Democrat is likely to vote for.

Should he do so, many believe he will have also signed his own pink slip.

But whether or not the government shuts down, and whether or not McCarthy puts the Senate’s CR on the floor, according to The Washington Post the far right extremists in his party are already moving to oust him “as early as next week.”

The Biden campaign is making certain Americans realize the blame for the impending shutdown sits at McCarthy’s feet.

At 6:23 PM Friday evening, Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman wrote on social media: “HOUSE REPUBLICANS HAVE NO PLAN TO KEEP GOVERNMENT OPEN.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

Continue Reading

News

‘Bad News’ for Sidney Powell as First Trump Co-Defendant in Georgia RICO Case Takes Plea Deal: Legal Expert

Published

2 days ago

on

September 29, 2023

By

The first of 19 co-defendants in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO and election interference case against Donald Trump has pleaded guilty in what is being described as a “plea deal.”

“Under the terms of an agreement with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s office, Hall pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit election fraud, conspiracy to commit computer theft, conspiracy to commit computer trespass, conspiracy to commit computer invasion of privacy, and conspiracy to defraud the state,” NBC News reports. “Under the terms of the deal, he’s being sentenced to five years probation.”

CNN previously reported “Hall, a bail bondsman and pro-Trump poll-watcher in Atlanta, spent hours inside a restricted area of the Coffee County elections office when voting systems were breached in January 2021. The breach was connected to efforts by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists to find voter fraud. Hall was captured on surveillance video at the office, on the day of the breach. He testified before the grand jury in Fulton County case and acknowledged that he gained access to a voting machine.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a professor of law and frequent MSNBC contributor, says Hall “was in the thick of things with Sidney Powell on Jan 7 for the Coffee County scheme involving voting machines. If he’s cooperating, it’s a bad sign for her.”

Hall’s plea deal “spells bad news for, among others, Sidney Powell,” says former Dept. of Defense Special Counsel Ryan Goodman, an NYU Law professor of law. Goodman posted a graphic showing the overlap in charges against Hall and Powell, which he called “alleged joint actions.”

See the graphic above or at this link.

 

Continue Reading

News

Far-Right Republicans Kill GOP Bill to Keep Government Running in ‘Embarrassing Failure’ for McCarthy: Report

Published

2 days ago

on

September 29, 2023

By

With a shutdown less than 36 hours away, far-right Republicans in the House of Representatives Friday afternoon voted against their party’s own legislation to kept the federal government running. Democrats opposed the content of the bill and voted against it. Just 21 far-right members of the GOP conference were able to effectively force what appears to be an all but inevitable shutdown at midnight on Saturday.

“HARDLINE HOUSE RS take down stopgap funding bill. 21 GOP no votes. 232-198,” reported Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman just before 2 PM Friday.

NBC News reported that a “band of conservative rebels on Friday revolted and blocked House Republicans’ short-term funding bill to keep the government open, delivering a political blow to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and likely cementing the chances of a painful government shutdown that is less than 48 hours away.”

READ MORE: Will McConnell and Senate Republicans Use Feinstein’s Passing to Grind Biden’s Judicial Confirmations to a Halt?

“Twenty-one rebels, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a conservative bomb-thrower and a top Donald Trump ally, voted Friday afternoon to scuttle the 30-day funding bill, known as a continuing resolution or CR, leaving Republicans without a game plan to avert a shutdown. The vote failed,” NBC added. “The embarrassing failure of the GOP measure once again highlights the dilemma for McCarthy as his hard-liners strongly oppose a short-term bill even if it includes conservative priorities. It leaves Congress on a path to a shutdown, with no apparent offramp to avoiding it — or to quickly reopen the government.”

A bipartisan group of at least 75 U.S. Senators has passed two bills this week that would keep the government running. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has refused to allow it to come to the floor for a vote.

 

 

 

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.