When it's Sunday on National Public Radio, it must be time to announce the Catholic Church is out of step with modern times. On Weekend Edition Sunday, NPR granted a soft-soap eight-minute interview to New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the front-runner to succeed Michael Bloomberg as Mayor. NPR touted: "Christine Quinn has a notable biography. She's from an Irish family, she's Catholic and gay."
She's so "Catholic" that her "wedding" to Kim Catullo last year featured her walking down the aisle with her father to Beyonce's "Ave Maria," which is just another love song, not the actual Hail Mary hymn in any way. Her partner marched down the aisle with her dad, too...to Bruce Springsteen. NPR anchor David Greene asked as one of the "most powerful gay women" in America, if she shouldn't just leave the church that won't accept her homosexuality:
GREENE: Your Catholic faith and your family, I wonder on a personal level how you sort of deal with that in your life and also, you know, deal with being gay - not only gay, but one of the most powerful gay women in politics in this country.
QUINN: Well, it's just who I am. I mean, I'm Catholic and I'm gay. There's not much to deal with. It's who I am. It's how I wake up every morning.
GREENE: But your church, obviously, doesn't, you know, officially accept that.
QUINN: Right. That's kind of their problem, not mine. I mean, I just don't dwell on it. I'm not really sure what the upside of me dwelling on it would be. I mean, I was raised Catholic, I take a lot of comfort and inspiration and motivation and support from my faith. I get what they kind of see in some political issues. They get that we're not in agreement on that. But that doesn't make me not who I am. It's still who I am.
GREENE: Do you ever wake up and think I need to leave this church, I need to leave this faith, I...
QUINN: No. Well, how can you leave a faith? A faith is who you are. It's what's inside of you. It's how you see the world. It's what inspires you. It's what comforts you. It's what uplifts you in the dark days. You can't leave a faith. The faith is who you are. It's what you have. Why should I leave the church? It's my church. They're the ones who have the wrong perspective. I'm not going to leave. If I leave, it's as if they won. I'm going to go into any church any time I want to, whenever I want to. It's my church. And no one's ever asked me to and no one ever will.
GREENE: Speaker Quinn, thank you so much for speaking with us.
This is the ultimate snit fit of "identity politics" -- I'm Catholic, and no one can say that I'm not....even though I refuse to agree with church teaching on any number of things (including being a NARAL darling on abortion).
