Religious Honcho Reveals Gigantic Anti-Catholic Plot

Or not.

[TW: LGBT bigotry]

In Chicago, the city and organizers of the LGBT Pride Parade planned to move the parade to a different route and time, because it had outgrown its old route and because residents in the neighborhood also had expressed concern about emergency vehicles not being able to enter some streets during the parade.

But, that's not how Cardinal Francis George saw things.

His remarks suggest that he feels that the change is part of a sinister LGBT plot to persecute Catholics. You may have heard that in reaction to the parade route change, George inexplicably compared the LGBT rights movement to the KKK. In defending his statement, he then elaborated:

“Organizers (of the pride parade) invited an obvious comparison to other groups who have historically attempted to stifle the religious freedom of the Catholic Church. One such organization is the Ku Klux Klan which, well into the 1940s, paraded through American cities not only to interfere with Catholic worship but also to demonstrate that Catholics stand outside of the American consensus. It is not a precedent anyone should want to emulate.”

What a guy.

Now, there is much that reasonable people could criticize and demonstrate against with respect to the Catholic Church. But, notice the emotionally manipulative, Guilt By Association fallacy that George employs against a movement that tends to be critical of Catholic teachings on homosexuality and gender:

The KKK, which is anti-Catholic, has paraded in front of Catholic churches. The LGBT Pride Parade, which is composed of some people who are really critical of the Catholic Church, was about to parade in front of a Catholic church too. Therefore, the LGBT rights movement is totally like the KKK!

This comparison is reprehensible not only because it is paranoid and intellectually immature, but because it invites readers to attach the same animus toward the LGBT movement that many reasonable attach to a group as odious as the KKK. As though there just is not enough hatred, bullying, and violence toward LGBT people to go around these days, so George has to fan the flames a little bit more.

And they call this man a religious leader?

Sure.