Far-right Christians want a priest publicly shamed for leading LGBT+ ‘souls to hell’
The Virgin Mary poster displayed in Poland to draw attention to LGBT+ inequality. (Amnesty International)
A far-right Christian news site has started a petition to have a priest publicly shamed for saying that the Virgin Mary “is for everyone, including LGBT+ people”.
Three women in Poland are currently facing charges of “offending religious beliefs” after for sharing posters of the Virgin Mary with a rainbow-coloured halo.
Jesuit priest James Martin shared the story on Twitter, and wrote a thread explaining why “Mary is for everyone”.
He wrote: “In Poland, where homophobia is rampant, LGBT+ people are on trial for “desecrating” a copy of the Black Madonna.
“But Mary is for everyone, including LGBT+ people, and there is a long history of portraying her as part of different faith communities.
“She is especially important to communities that have been persecuted or marginalised.”
She is especially important to communities that have been persecuted or marginalized. For example, Father John Giuliani, who died recently, often portrayed her as a Native American woman, with Native American references and symbols prominent in his paintings…. pic.twitter.com/YuCMSZMBXQ
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) January 19, 2021
Martin gave examples of how the image of the Virgin Mary or Black Madonna had been adapted by many different cultures, and insisted that the rainbow-haloed LGBT+ version should be viewed in the same way.
“The LGBT+ community has few images like this,” he added.
“So it is not surprising that they would add their own symbol, the rainbow, in a respectful way, to a beloved image of their mother.
“How appropriate that she is weeping, for it is her son who suffers whenever an LGBT+ person is persecuted.”
The LGBT community has few images like this. So it is not surprising that they would add their own symbol, the rainbow, in a respectful way, to a beloved image of their mother.
How appropriate that she is weeping, for it her son who suffers whenever an LGBT person is persecuted pic.twitter.com/BlpYTMMBp8— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) January 19, 2021
But right-wing Christian news site LifeSiteNews has started a petition against Martin, calling for him to be publicly shamed.
The news site insisted: “Catholics from around the world are asking the Jesuit Order to publicly censure one of its most prominent members, US priest Father James Martin, for promoting a bastardised pro-LGBT+ version of one of the world’s most revered images of Our Lady – the Black Madonna.”
The petition, which has been signed more than 20,000, states: “When James Martin, SJ, promoted an image on Twitter of the Blessed Virgin and Our Lord with sodomite rainbow-halos around their heads, he deeply offended Polish religion, history, culture and tradition.”
Michael Hichborn, president of Lepanto Institute which opposes “abortion, birth control, homosexuality and Marxism”, told LifeSiteNews: “Depicting Our Lord and Our Lady with halos symbolising one of the four sins which cry to heaven for vengeance is so far beyond sacrilege and blasphemy that it’s downright satanic.
“Our Lady is the summit of all purity and all humility, and the LGBT+ movement is the abysmal trough of filth and pride.
“The attempt to wed the two is an insult of infinite proportions… How many souls will this man be allowed to lead to Hell before [Martin] is finally censured?”
LifeSiteNews has previously pushed the idea that conversion therapy bans will make Christianity illegal, that gay people shouldn’t celebrate Thanksgiving because they’re “simply ungrateful”, and said that by encouraging people to be vaccinated against COVID-19, governments were using “unwitting citizens… as guinea pigs for New World Order ideologues”.
