Over the weekend Vice-Presidential candidate Tim Kaine told a roomful of LGBT activists that the Catholic Church’s traditional opposition to same-sex marriage would change because God approves of homosexuality.
The Virginia senator, who describes himself as a “traditional Catholic,” spoke at the national dinner of the Human Rights Campaign on Saturday, assuring them of his “full complete, unconditional support for marriage equality.”
While acknowledging that his position on gay marriage “is at odds with the current doctrine of the church that I still attend,” Kaine went on to say, “But I think that’s going to change, too. I think that is going to change.”
Playing the armchair theologian, Kaine said that his support of homosexuality is rooted in the teaching of the Bible, and specifically the Book of Genesis.
“I think it’s going to change because my church also teaches me about a Creator, in the first chapter of Genesis, who surveys the entire world, including mankind, and says: It is very good. It is very good,” Kaine said, in an apparent reference to God’s alleged nod of approval for homosexual practice.
Kaine then suggested that opposition to gay marriage means to “challenge God.”
“I want to add: ‘who am I to challenge God for the beautiful diversity of the human family?’ I think we’re supposed to celebrate it, not challenge it,” Kaine said.
Same-sex marriage is not the only issue where Kaine parts ways with the Catholic Church. He has called himself “a strong supporter of Roe v. Wade,” and his perfect pro-abortion voting record in Congress earned him a 100% rating from abortion giant Planned Parenthood and high praise from the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL).
While the abortion lobby has showered Kaine with praise, several U.S. Catholic bishops have challenged Kaine’s claim to being a faithful Catholic by citing his open dissent from essential moral teachings of the Church.
In a Facebook post titled “VP Pick, Tim Kaine, a Catholic?” Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence noted that Kaine “has been widely identified as a Roman Catholic” while at the same time “he publicly supports ‘freedom of choice’ for abortion, same-sex marriage, gay adoptions, and the ordination of women as priests.”
“All of these positions are clearly contrary to well-established Catholic teachings; all of them have been opposed by Pope Francis as well,” Tobin wrote, dashing the left’s spurious claim that Kaine is some kind of “Pope Francis Catholic.”
“Senator Kaine has said, ‘My faith is central to everything I do.’ But apparently, and unfortunately, his faith isn’t central to his public, political life,” Bishop Tobin concluded.
Similarly, in a recent column, Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput also took issue with Kaine, as well as with the sitting Vice President, Joe Biden, the two most visible Catholics in American politics.
These two “prominent Catholics,” the Archbishop said, “both seem to publicly ignore or invent the content of their Catholic faith as they go along.”
Anyone who claims the Catholic label while not actually believing what the Catholic faith holds to be true and letting it guide their thoughts and actions “is simply fooling himself or herself — and even more importantly, misleading others,” he added.
Before introducing Kaine Saturday night, Human Rights Campaign’s president Chad Griffin called Republican nominee Donald Trump the “gravest threat” the LGBTQ community has ever faced in a presidential election.
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome
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