People criticize the Mormons as "outsiders from Utah" who interfered with a California election. I suppose you could pin the same thing on Catholics, "outsiders from Rome" who interfered. But this page (click) shows that there were half a million Mormons in California in 1990 (I couldn't find more recent statistics). This page says that in 2005, 11.1 million of California's 36.6 million people were Catholic.

Like the Mormons, the Catholic Church in California took a fairly strong stand in favor of Proposition 8. As stated above, the Catholic Knights of Columbus gave $1.25 million in support of the measure, and I think the Catholic bishops gave $200,000. I see I'm in a very small minority, with my "Another Christian Voting NO on Proposition 8" bumper sticker. This week the Sacramento Bee's poll says 32% of the California electorate attend church services weekly, like I do - and only 16% of us voted "No" on Propostion 8. Guess I should feel lucky my car didn't get vandalized in the church parking lot.

I work with a number of nuns, at a women's center and at a retreat house - all of the nuns I know joined me in voting "no" on Proposition 8. I'm sure many of the priests I know also voted "no." One Irish-born priest who's an old friend gave his sermon last week and explained what the bishops had instructed him to say in support of Proposition 8, and then ended his sermon saying, "But I don't think it's right for me to tell you how to vote, so you make your own decision." Catholics don't applaud sermons very often, but my friend got applause for that sermon. [But hey, that parish applauded ME for a sermon once.]

On election night, I had dinner with about six nuns and our newly-appointed bishop, who is Hispanic and just over 50 years old, and an outspoken proponent of Proposition 8. Before the bishop arrived, we agreed it might not be a good idea to dicuss the election, so we didn't.

In our parish, we have a priest from Rwanda who's about 40 years old. He is a very fair-minded and gentle person, but he told gay marriage was something he couldn't accept at all. He said the taboo against homosexuality is very deeply ingrained in his culture, and homosexual marriage is completely unthinkable in Rwanda.

It seems to me that homosexuality is not well-accepted in African-American and Hispanic culture in the United States. I suppose you could write this off as narrow-minded prejudice, but I think I'd prefer to call it a cultural taboo. When I've heard people talk against homosexuality, it usually doesn't seem to be from a position of hatred. It's more a deep sense that "something just isn't right" about homosexuality. Oftentimes, people seem to have a fear for their children mixed in with their own feelings.

I can't say I'm all that comfortable with the idea of gay marriage, but my sense of fairness tells me I don't have a right to interfere with the right of people to do what they believe they should do. A gay marriage has a profound effect on the two people getting married, but I can't see how it has any significant effect on society as a whole. But other people seem to have a real dread of the effects of gay marriage, and I think we need to have an understanding of that deep-seated fear if we are to have any hope of changing the cultural taboos that brought about this ban on gay marriage.

Personally, I don't think it will be long before gay marriage is legal again in California - but I think it's important for us to understand that those who oppose gay marriage may not be horrible bigots. It may just be that they're afraid and uninformed, and understanding and patience may be a far better way to win their votes than aggression and condemnation would be.

-Joe-