General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Pope Francis describes ‘ideological Christians’ as a ‘serious illness’ within the Church [View all]Tigress DEM
(7,887 posts)What I tried to point out is that the church has learned to be more tolerant, maybe some people here could learn to do the same.
THE whole gist of the OP was that the New Pope's positions are HELPFUL in the here and now to the LGBT community.
NOW that I've seen the sources, I can understand your concern.
STILL the Pope's behavior now shows he understands that the Church loses when it tries to crush people who really aren't much of a problem in the grand scheme of things... except when they are being crushed and abused. Does the Church benefit from trying to prevent gays from legally marrying outside of the church? NO. Can they give up that fight and encourage tolerance? It looks like it. Does it mean gays are going to get Catholic Church weddings any time soon? Probably not.
BUT if Pope Francis steps away from the intense political fray AGAINST gays, then maybe 36 more states will have the courage to support the legal rights of gays which is first and foremost important. Because better laws mean less discrimination and then we can have higher level discussions once the foundational discrimination issues are addressed.