Bishop Faces Three Years in Jail for Defending Marriage

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For using a verse from Leviticus as evidence for the Bible’s opposition to same-sex relationships, Bishop Vitus Huonder found himself charged with a hate crime by a group called “Pink Cross.”
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On Friday, July 31, 2015, the bishop spoke at a symposium in Fulda, Germany, entitled “Marriage: Gift, Sacrament and Commission.” In the context of explaining the background of the Christian moral teaching, he referenced two passages from Leviticus (Lev. 18:22, 20:13). He used them as examples of Scripture’s rejection of same-sex relationships and proof that same-sex marriages were an attack on creation.
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Because the second half of the second passage instructed Israel to put to death people who have sexual relations with someone of their own sex, Pink Cross claimed that Bishop Huonder was sowing hatred and inciting violence against homosexual people. He violated both German and Swiss law, they declared, as well as the European Convention on Human Rights.
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Bishop Faces Three Years in Jail for Defending Marriage
 
Out of curiosity, I wonder how often the Pink Cross attacks rabbis for reading from the Torah?:confused:

One wonders if the Old Testament is going to be a banned book someday.
 
“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.”
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~ Francis Cardinal George​
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Exiled_Child said:
One wonders if the Old Testament is going to be a banned book someday.
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If you remove rational thought and follow it literally word for word, you’d probably go to jail. I’m going to miss eating Bratwursts.
 
DaddyGirl said:
I wouldn’t say the group “attacked” the Bishop; they filed a complaint.
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It is my understanding that they also called for his punishment by means of jailtime. That seems like an attack to me, if that’s correct.
And I can understand why.
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The complaint isn’t about reading from the Christian canon, it’s about the specific words he read that are out of date with the ethics, morals, and law of society today…and* how* he read them.
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First, Leviticus is part of the Christian canon, unless we’re using the term to mean different things. Second, the penalty that Leviticus issues is not morally permissible in ordinary cases, but Leviticus itself isn’t applicable in ordinary cases. I don’t think it’s objectionable to quote Leviticus as it stands and call it the teaching of the Church, because the verse in question does not imply that it is okay to execute practicing homosexuals, except in the circumstances in which it was written. And it indicates that those circumstances are temporary in Leviticus 26:10-12, which speaks of a coming New Covenant where things will be different.
If someone–be they a priest or a rabbi–was in a public forum and quoted Deuteronomy–saying that disobedient children should be taken to the center of town and stoned to death…and then he or she told the audience those words are the position of the Church (which the Bishop did)
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I was about to ask you to quote the words of the bishop where he said anything about this being the position of the Church. But now I think you are basing that on the words of the Pink group’s leader: “he said the words should be applied to real life.” Is that what you are basing your claim on? Because I don’t think that’s sufficient. First, it may not be true: the Pink group may have simply made that up. Second, supposing the bishop did say something like, “This is the position of the Church,” we would need to examine when he said that. Was it in the context of the quote from Leviticus, or not? Third, supposing he did quote the Leviticus verse about executing practicing homosexuals, and supposing he did say that it is the position of the Church (which I doubt he said), still, the fact is that you can endorse that verse in Leviticus without implying that nations other than ancient Israel should execute practicing homosexuals, because Leviticus itself does not imply that when you read it in context.
 
It is clear that they were twisting the message that he was trying to send.

From the article;

"Here is What Really Happened

On Friday, July 31, 2015, the bishop spoke at a symposium in Fulda, Germany, entitled “Marriage: Gift, Sacrament and Commission.” In the context of explaining the background of the Christian moral teaching, he referenced two passages from Leviticus (Lev. 18:22, 20:13). He used them as examples of Scripture’s rejection of same-sex relationships and proof that same-sex marriages were an attack on creation.

“There is no plurality of models for marriage and family,” he told the conference. “To even speak of such is already an attack on the Creator, as well as on the Savior and Sanctifier, that is, on the trinitarian God.”

In the presentation the bishop had also explained that “pastoral care must orient itself according to the divine order. Its mission, undertaken in awareness of the salvation of souls, that is, in pastoral love … is to free mankind from the condition of a fallen nature and raise it to life as children of light.”

Showing pastoral care for those who struggle with same-sex attraction, he said, “The Faith is to everyone, even to those with homophile tendencies, a source of comfort and can lead to a redirection of such an orientation, to a governing of sexual urges, and to an ordering of one’s own life according to the divine command.”"
 
I’m completely unsurprised that those attacking the bishop would lie about what he was really saying.

And sadly the bishop has caved into the PC police and apologized for speaking and presenting Christian teaching.

thelocal.ch/20150813/bishop-apologizes-for-anti-gay-speech

The bishop, well known for his ultra-conservative views, kicked up a storm when he quoted passages from the Old Testament saying that homosexual behaviour was an “abomination” and should be punished by death.

In a three-page letter sent to 800 of his colleagues, including priests and employees, on Wednesday night, Huonder apologized “to everyone who felt injured by my speech, in particular those of homosexual persuasion”, reported Swiss news agency ATS on Thursday.

The 73-year-old said it was a “mistake” to write his speech purely “on a theological and academic level”.
 
zz912 said:
The 73-year-old said it was a “mistake” to write his speech purely “on a theological and academic level”.
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We have entered an age where feelings, no matter how nonsensical and devoid of reality, trumps logic.
 
iDdraig said:
If you remove rational thought and follow it literally word for word, you’d probably go to jail. I’m going to miss eating Bratwursts.
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It happened in Switzerland too - don’t forget chocolate and cheese!
 
Yes, Europe has real problems with denying Christians their right to religious freedom of speech. I think it is worse there than in the US. Any controversial teaching that violates the secular human rights mentality is pretty much the end of the story. Unless you are Muslim of course. This is scary. I don’t see the Chrisitanity in Europe as strong enough to fight back and defend the faith in any sort of meaningful way. It has accommodated mainstream culture too long to stop now.
 
Initially I thought he was actually going to serve time. :eek:

He still needs to be convicted, which I doubt will happen.
 
And this is the problem of attempting legislating decency or decorum vis a vis hate speech laws.

Hopefully the European countries well one day accept that there should be no right not to be offended.
 
iDdraig said:
If you remove rational thought and follow it literally word for word, you’d probably go to jail. I’m going to miss eating Bratwursts.
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No, I agree, you’re right. If the words were taken literally it would be an incitement to violence or murder.

Christians and Jews understand those words are not to be taken literally, and when someone does act out those injunctions, as happened recently in Jerusalem, they go to prison.
 
This legal complaint may just be a publicity stunt by the group making it.
Nothing may come of it, and this news may disappear from sight.
This news makes it seem he has already been found guilty and is on his way to jail.
 
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