Leonard Link

NJ Civil Rights Division Finds Probable Cause in Ocean Grove Civil Unions Dispute

J. Frank Vespa-Papaleo, Director of the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights, issued a "Finding of Probable Cause" on December 29, concluding the Division’s investigation of a public accommodations discrimination complaint filed by Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster against the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, which had refused to allow them to rent the Boardwalk Pavilion in Ocean Gove for their civil union ceremony. The probable cause finding terminates the investigative part of the case, signaling that the matter is appropriate for a public hearing, the next stage of the administrative process in enforcement of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination.

In addition to banning sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination, the New Jersey Law also specifically forbids discrimination against civil union couples by entities that provide goods and services to the public. The investigation showed that until this controversy arose, the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, which owns all the land in the town of Ocean Grove, had allowed couples to rent the Boardwalk Pavilion for their wedding ceremonies, without regard for religious affiliation or even the religious nature of the ceremony being planned. Within days of the Bernstein-Paster application, the Association adopted a defense posture of discontinuing its policy of renting the pavilion for wedding ceremonies, although some ceremonies that had previously been booked were still held.

A few days after the Bernstein-Paster application was rejected, another couple, Janice Moore and Emily Sonnessa, also applied to hold their civil union ceremony at the pavilion. They were told that the pavilion was no longer available for private ceremonies, and filed their own discrimination complaint. Along with the Dec. 29 probable cause finding in the Bernstein-Paster case, the Division issued a "no probable cause" finding in the Moore-Sonnessa case, on the conclusion that since the pavilion is no longer being rented for any wedding ceremonies, there is no discrimination in refusing to rent it for a civil union ceremony.

Responding to the Bernstein-Paster complaint, the Association, a non-profit "ministry organization" that describes itself as "rooted in Methodist heritage," argued that as a religious association its property should be exempt from the requirements of the Law Against Discrimination, and that failing to exempt it would violate its First Amendment rights of freedom of association and free exercise of religion.

Director Vespa-Papaleo rejected both of these contentions. Significantly, the Association had enjoyed a special real property tax exemption for the pavilion that is provided by the state for properties that are open to the public as places of public accommodation. As part of that exemption process, the Association had certified that when the pavilion was not being used for the Association’s own religiously- based programs, it would be open to the public on "an equal basis," which explains the practice of not inquiring into the religious nature of wedding ceremonies that were held in the pavilion.

This same certification and established practice of inviting the general public to use the pavilion was found by the Division to support the conclusion that it was a place of public accommodation, and it is well established that religious ownership of a place of public accommodation does not exempt the place from the anti-discrimination law.

The more significant question was whether the decision could be squared with the First Amendment precedents created by the U.S. Supreme Court in two gay-related cases, Hurley and Dale. In Hurley, the court held that First Amendment rights of the organizers of a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Boston must prevail over the non-discrimination rights of a gay Irish group that wanted to march with its own banner in the parade. In Dale, the court held that New Jersey’s interest in eradicating anti-gay discrimination had to bow to the expressive association rights of the Boy Scouts of America, which was privileged to deny a troop leadership position to an openly gay man.

In both of these cases, the crux of the case was the right of the organization to control the nature and content of its message. The Court found that a parade is a quintessentially expressive exercise, and the organizers have a right to decide whether inclusion of a particular group would dilute or contradict their message. The Court relied on the parade case in its ruling in the Boy Scouts case, finding that the Scouts was an expressive association, formed to inculcate certain values, and that requiring it to refrain from sexual orientation discrimination would improperly intrude on its own control of its message.

The Division found these precedents distinguishable from the Ocean Grove case, finding that the pavilion’s non-religious uses were not intended to send any particular message, and that the Association had voluntarily characterized itself as a public accommodation open to all without discrimination when it sought the property tax exemption. "The Boardwalk Pavilion is not primarily used to convey a message," wrote Vespa-Papaleo. "As described above, the Pavilion is put to a variety of uses, and they are not bound by the underlying conveyance of a united message. All members of the public are invited to travel through the pavilion, whether to rest, eat ice cream, engage in private conversation, or to pray." He also found that holding a civil union ceremony with invited guests "itself conveys no message and is not expressive association."

As to the free exercise of religion argument, Vespa-Papaleo noted that although the Association did conduct some religiously-connected activities in the pavilion, "that was not its exclusive purpose," and this it was "not a religious facility. As such, when it invites the public at large to use it, the Association is subject to the Law Against Discrimination, and enforcement of that law in this context does not affect the Association’s constitutionally protected right to free exercise of speech." He also concluded that "any incidental burden on a particular religious belief or practice does not raise free exercise concerns," and that "the State’s interest in protecting people from discrimination based on civil union status would justify the minimal impact of the LAD on Respondent."

In a symbolic sense, the Bernstein-Paster ruling is a preliminary victory. However, the simultaneous ruling on the Moore-Sonnessa complaint suggests that it may be no more than a symbolic victory for anybody other than the individual complainants. If they prevail before an administrative judge and, if need be, a reviewing court, Bernstein and Paster may win some damages for the violation of their civil rights. But the decision by the Association to get out of the wedding rental business entirely led the Division to conclude in the Moore-Sonnessa case that there was no longer actionable discrimination as between weddings and civil unions, and thus no role for the Law Against Discrimination. Which means the final outcome of the case, even if the Division prevails before an administrative judge and subsequently in court, will not be an order to open up the pavilion for civil union ceremonies. Of course, the Association could conclude that it must allow civil union ceremonies in the pavilion if it wants to resume booking weddings there. Since it lost its real estate tax exemption over this issue, it may end up bowing to reality in order to begin earning rental income and to regain its favored tax status.

Tom Cruise in Valkyrie

You go in expecting a historical thriller and you get a movie that seems entirely focused on Tom Cruise, its star.  And that's the problem.  A Hollywood star is dropped in the middle of a serious war thriller with an expert cast of British theatrical types.  They decided not to try to harmonize accents, either. 

On the one hand, it seems an expertly made historical film, based on real events, with authentic settings and a fine script.  On the other, Tom is the center of attention and on screen almost the entire time, and I agree with the NY Times critic for once -- he really doesn't fit in.  It's not anything he does wrong.  I think he plays the part well.  There is just a sort of disconnect between Cruise and everybody else.  He's the jaunty Yank and they are the theatrical Brits.  Maybe any attempt for them all to do German accents would have seemed fake, I don't know...

I've seen the trailor for "Defiance" so many times now... there it seems we have Brit and American actors impersonating Polish Jews, and they all put on accents together - which harmonizes the Brits and the Yanks to seem like they could plausibly be brother raised in the same place and time...  I guess that's a critical decision the filmmaker makes, and they made it wrong for Valkyrie.  Nonetheless, the picture is quite watchable.

Songs of War: Was My Brother in the Battle? Stephen Swanson, baritone

I've just heard an extraordinary song recital on Albany Records, titled "Was My Brother in the Battle? Songs of War," performed by baritone Stephen Swanson and pianist David Gompper.  Swanson recounts in the enclosed booklet that he was motivated to put this recital together when his son enlisted in the Air Force.  "This recital grew out of my frustration and anger with the build up to and coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom," writes Swanson, who found media coverage of the war to be "jingoistic and trite."  Since he is based at the University of Iowa, one is not surprised with this criticism, assuming he is reading the local press and watching the pathetic mainstream media.  (Assuming media embraces all media, I think coverage of the war in "The Nation" has been anything but jingoistic and trite, and I encourage Mr. Swanson to start reading it now...)

At any event, the recital is truly inspired.  Swanson and Gompper have been performing it since 2004, and finally had an opportunity to record it for Albany, which released it recently.  I was quickly drawn to it by its inclusion of the three songs Charles Ives wrote in connection with World War I, and for an opportunity to hear fresh new performances in good sound (by a singer with a real voice) of Tom Lehrer's great "So Long, Mom, I'm Off to Drop the Bomb" and "The Wild West is Where I Want to Be."  But the whole recital works wonderfully well, the sequence of songs is great, the mix of genres (Steven Foster, Ives, Lehrer, Flanders & Swann, and various modern composers writing about Vietnam) is provocative and stimulating, and the performances are heartfelt.  Mr. Swanson has an excellent baritone voice and he knows how to use it, and Gomppers plays the accompaniments with great spirit.  Gompper is also responsible for arranging piano accompaniments for some of the songs drawn from contemporary material that was not originally conceived for the art song recital format, and for a musical setting of a touching letter that Abraham Lincoln sent to the mother of five young men slaughtered fighting for the Union in the Civil War.  Despite the destruction, death and tragedy described in some of these songs, the recital as a whole is not a downer, but rather a call to empathy and concern for the waste of war and the impact that participating in war has on the common military personnel, which is the focus of many of these songs.

Albany Records is a very valuable independent label that just seems to spew out an endless supply of recordings of contemporary American music.  It does a valuable service making these kinds of productions available, and doesn't get all the attention it deserves.  While it may be that there is an occasional "vanity" project mixed among the professional efforts, this recording strikes me as fully professional and worthy to stand with the best.  I checked out Mr. Swanson's website and saw that he and Mr. Gomppers are continuing to take this program on the road in 2009.  Too bad NYC is not on the list, as I would love to hear it in concert.

Terrific Ives Song Recital on New World Records from Susan Narucki and Donald Berman

There is a wonderful new recital of songs by Charles Ives on the New World Records label, performed by soprano Susan Narucki and Donald Berman.  This is done the way such productions should be done: The booklet has a lengthy, thoughtful and insightful note about Ives's songs, full texts are given (with translations, if needed), sheet music sources for the songs are identified, a bibliography is included -- and, most importantly, the performances are superb and superbly recorded.

Earlier this year I gave a rather tepid reception to the first CD of a projected five in a project to record the complete songs of Charles Ives on the Naxos label.  This project has been completed, and I've found that the following discs were all generally better than the first.  A rather large group of singers, pianists and others (contributing instrumental obligatti when called for by the composer) were assembled for the project, which emanated from New Haven, many of those involved having apparently some connection with Yale University, Ives's alma mater and the repository of many of his papers, although I don't think this was an official project of the Yale music department.  At any event, it turns out to have been a useful exercise, as there is now an inexpensive source of recordings for all of Ives's songs, and finding a particular song is easy because they were released in alphabetical order by title.  But listening through any single disc can be a bit of a chore, because alphabetical order does not necessarily yield an interesting sequence in terms of a musical experience, and because the singers and pianists vary in terms of the persuasiveness with which they perform the material.

By contrast, the Narucki/Berman recital presents Ives songs in an excellent context, as they have put together a sequence that works as a program.  Ms. Narucki is an excellent Ives singer, with spot-on intonation and pronunciation of text, and real insight into phrasing and dynamics resulting in a very convincing musical presentation.  Berman meets the virtuosic demands of Ives's idiosyncratic piano writing in high style, showing great sensitivity to nuance that is lost in some other recordings of this repertory.  I can't recommend this one highly enough, especially to anybody unfamiliar with Ives's songs who is interesting in beginning to explore the repertory.  The Naxos series may be inexpensive, but they will not provide a good introduction because the quality of Ives's song output (almost 200 in all) varies.  Narucki and Berman have selected a sequence of excellent songs here, and have rendered them to the highest musical standard.  Hurrah!

Hail Ormandy: The Great Sibelian

One of the tragic blunders of the classical recording industry was the failure to record Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in all of Jean Sibelius's orchestral music during the stereophonic heyday of Ormandy's directorship of the Philadelphia Orchestra from the late 1950s to the early 1970s.  For Ormandy was an expert Sibelian, who began making distinguished recordings of this composer's music during the 78 rpm and mono-LP eras, and whose recordings earned the encomia of the composer.  (Of course, there are reports that Sibelius was so eager to have his music recorded that he hailed every recording, no matter what, so the significance of this point may be overstated.)

In any event, Columbia Records, with whom Ormandy/Philadelphia recorded through the early stereo years, considered Bernstein their main Sibelian and recorded him in the complete symphonies with the New York Philarmonic.  Those are fine recordings, but I think the handful of pieces that Columbia allowed Ormandy to record with his Philadelphians have a special quality worth hearing, a richness that compares favorably with the leaner sonorities of the NY Philharmonic, and a stricter devotion to forward movement than the more romanticized approach of Bernstein.

I remember as a young classical record collector during that period having generally avoided the recordings that Ormandy and the Philadelphians made after they were dropped by Columbia and started recording with RCA.  The word in the record review magazines was that RCA had a hard time figuring out how to record the Philadelphia Orchestra effectively, insisting on bringing recording sessions back to the Academy of Music from the various unconventional venues where Columbia had been recording them due to the acoustical problems of making decent-sounding recordings in the Academic auditorium when it was empty of an audience.  Those first RCA recordings were reputedly sonic disasters.  Then in the mid-1970s the word was out that Ormandy was superannuated and sleeping through recording sessions, so I wasn't likely to buy those RCA recordings, even if they had solved the acoustical problems.  And finally, in his last few years at the helm of the orchestra, RCA dropped the Philadelphians, and there were a handful of EMI recordings, including Sibelius's Lemminkainen Suite and some Hindemith.  I ended up buying these recordings due to good reviews as well as my long-standing desire to have an Ormandy recording of Lemminkainen, having grown up with a mono Columbia LP that they had made which was in my father's small LP collection.   I don't think that excellent mono recording has ever surfaced on CDs and it should be a prime candidate for a historic reissue from somebody, although EMI has kept its recording in the catalogue and it features some spectacular playing and sound.

What brings on all this chatter is that I've discovered that Arkivmusic.com has been reissuing Ormandy's RCA Sibelius recordings, licensing them from SONY BMG in their current Japanese incarnations.  They offered as a weekend special last week the recording of the 4th and 7th Symphonies with Pohjola's Daughter and The Oceanides.  Pohjola's Daughter was a famous Bernstein/NYP recording, made as filler for their single-LP release of the 5th Symphony, and so celebrated that Columbia never let Ormandy record it during that prime period in the early 1960s when they made other Sibelius tone poem recordings. (Indeed, a SONY Essential Classics series Sibelius tone poem release from the 1990s featured Ormandy's 1960's recordings of various Sibelius tone poems but interspersed the Bernstein Pohjola, confirming my undertstanding that they never let Ormandy record it back then.)  So I was curious to hear those glorious Philadelphia strings in the 4th and Pohjola and decided to buy this new Arkivmusic release. 

The program notes in the booklet are in Japanese (c'mon Arkivmusic, why bother?) but the identifying material is in English, showing that by the mid to late 1970s RCA had given up on the Academy of Music as a recording site and was using the Scottish Rite Cathedral.  And this recording sounds incredibly good.  Ormandy's 4th is powerful stuff, the Philadelphia strings come through in high style in these recordings made in the period 1975-1978, and the remastering has great presence and a relatively quiet background.  The woodwinds come through with startling clarity and the winds are well balanced with the strings.  If Ormandy was sleeping during this recording session, you could have fooled me.  The 7th is also strong, as are the tone poems.  Ormandy's approach, despite his age, strikes me as more akin to Toscanini, from whom a broadcast of the 4th Symphony survives, than Bernstein.  Ormandy was a true Toscanini disciple, in the sense that he valued the forward motion of the music and tended to avoid distending the tempo to make interpretive points.  This led some to consider Ormandy a bland and too-fast conductor, but I've found that his readings of much of the core repertory stand up over time due to their technical proficiency, rhythmic liveliness, and gorgeous sound.  I don't find them "faceless" at all.

This Sibelius reissue discovery led me back to Arkivmusic.com to find that they have also licensed two other Ormandy Sibelius recordings from RCA, the 1st Symphony and the 5th Symphony, each accompanied by other orchestral pieces.  Due to the celebrity of Bernstein's Columbia recording of the 5th, Ormandy was not given an opportunity to record it by Columbia in stereo, but RCA made up for it, and I can't wait to hear this one, as well as the Karelia Overture and Suite.  I have Ormandy's Columbia 1st Symphony but will be interested to hear it in the mid-1970s incarnation.  So, orders placed with Arkivmusic.com, and thanks for their initiative in making these recordings available. 

Now, will somebody license, digitize and release that old recording of the Lemminkainen Suite from the mono LP era?   And are there any recordings by Ormandy of the 3rd and 6th Symphonies?  Did RCA fill the gap left by Columbia and make recordings of all the major Sibelius pieces with Ormandy/Philadelphia during the mid-1970s.  I would love to hear them if they exist.

Louisiana Must Issue New Birth Certificate for Child Adopted by Gay Couple

Lambda Legal has won a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Jay C. Zainey (E.D.La.), requiring Louisiana officials to issue a new birth certificate for a Louisiana-born child who was adopted in a New York State court by a gay male couple now living in San Diego, California.  The December 22, 2008, decision does not provide many human interest details about the case, other than to note that two men, Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith, jointly adopted the child in New York and currently live in San Diego.  Because the child was born in Shreveport, Louisiana, they applied to Louisiana authorities to obtain a birth certificate with the child's new surname, identifying the two men as the child's legal parents.  They alleged that the refusal by Louisiana officials to issue the certificate has already caused problems for them in getting the child included as a beneficiary of an employee-based group health insurance plan as the child of one of the men.

Relying on an advisory opinion from the Attorney General of Louisiana, who appears to have allowed politics to interfere with objective legal research in forming an opinion, the State Registrar refused to issue the certificate.  The purported basis for the objection was that Louisiana does not allow unmarried couples to adopt children, so it would violate the public policy of the state to issue a birth certificate showing two men as the parents this child.  The state argued that it may invoke a "public policy exception" to the obligations imposed by the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the federal Constitution to honor court judgments (including adoption decrees) issued in other states.

Judge Zainey pointed out that the state's position violates the plain language of its own statute governing the issue.  Louisiana's statute on out-of-state adoptions specifies that state officials are to issue a new birth certificate for any Louisiana-born child who is adopted out of state, upon being presented with official documentation of the adoption.  The new certificate is supposed to list the adoptive parent or parents, and to be issue under the adoptive name of the adoptee.  The statute does not refer to any exceptions.

The Attorney General tried to argue that other statutes that would make this adoption impossible in Louisiana provided a basis to refuse to issue the certificate, but Judge Zainey disagreed, pointing out that although there have been cases where states have been upheld in refusing to give effect to statutes from other jurisdictions on grounds of public policy, there is no recognized public policy exception for lawful judgements by the courts of other states.  U.S. Supreme Court decisions were summoned in support of this point, as well as the important recent ruling in Finstuen v. Crutcher, 496 F.3d 1139, 1153 (10th Cir. 2007), which although not binding on Judge Zainey, was nonetheless held to be an instructive precedent.  In Finstuen, the appeals court invalidated an Oklahoma statute that barred the state from recognizing out-of-state adoptions by unmarried couples.

Given their determined opposition, it seems likely that the Louisiana officials will appeal this ruling to the 5th Circuit, but the case law on Full Faith and Credit for adoption decrees is solid so such an appeal could certainly be deemed frivolous.  Judge Zainey's opinion granted the plaintiff's motion for summary judgment, ordering the state officials to issue the birth certificate, but did not discuss the plaintiffs' alternative legal argument that the refusal to issue the new certificate violated their right to equal protection of the laws.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Just back from seeing the first matinee performance (10 am) at Loewes Lincoln Square in Manhattan.  The house was pretty much full, rather astonishing for a 10 am show on a holiday, but presaging that this film will be a big monster hit, I think.  And deservedly so.  I felt like I was at the unveiling of a new screen classic.  This was just wonderful and should be seen by everybody.  The story really revolves around Cate Blanchett's character as much as Brad Pitt's.  I don't think it's giving anything way to mention the basic idea driving the plot - two characters whose lives are intertwined over a long, long time are living their lives in reverse order from each other.  Pitt is born a tiny, shriveled, wrinkled old man and lives in reverse chronological order.  Blanchett is born the normal way.  Although their lives are intertwined almost from the beginning, at some point that "sweet spot" is reached when they are simultaneously at the exactly right age to be together, and then the sweet spot has passed and things move on in interesting ways.  It is just so wonderfully done - especially what the make-up artists have done to put the two lead characters into the appropriate ages at various times.  I just loved it.

Zamir Chorale Chanukah Concert at Merkin Hall

What more appropriate place for a nice Jewish boy to spend Christmas Eve than at the Merkin Concert Hall in Abraham Goodman House on the Upper West Side of Manhattan attending the program "The Zamir Chorale Celebrates Hanukkah" conducted by Matthew Lazar?   And how refreshing to hear an entire program of music appropriate for Hanukkah without "I have a little dreidel." 

This is a terrific group.  What a beautiful blended sound, what fine precision, what extraordinary spirit in their singing!  The program was particularly interesting in presenting alternative settings of the same texts, frequently by composers from vastly different times and traditions.  There was classic Jewish choral music of the great 19th century composer Lewandowski, and there was the most up-to-date stuff, like two premieres of pieces by David Burger and Aharon Harlap.  There were soloists from the choir (including my own CBST cantor David Berger, whose message about this concert drew me to attend).  And there was even a glimpse of Handel's Hanukkah Oratorio - Judas Maccabaeus, which they sang stunningly.

Certainly an evening well spent... to dispel those Christmas blues that a nice Jewish boy can get.  Of course, it helps that this year Hanukkah and Christmas overlap so beautifully!

A profound observation about the inhumanity of what Ken Starr is doing...

In his brief filed in the California Supreme Court in response to the petition to set aside Proposition 8, Dean Kenneth Starr of Pepperdine Law School argues on behalf of the Official Proponents that Proposition 8 should be construed to invalidate the approximately 18,000 same-sex marriages that were performed in California prior to election day this year.

A radio news report about this argument prompted a letter to the editor that appeared this morning in a New Hampshire newspaper.  I was so moved to read it that I wanted to bring it to the attention of readers of my blog.  Here it is:

Concord Monitor (NH)

December 24, 2008

Agony in California

Driving home from work tonight, I heard on the radio that opponents of same-sex marriage in California are filing a lawsuit to annul the marriages of 36,000 gay people in that state.

I am not gay. I am straight and have been married happily for a little less than five years. As I sit near the window watching the snow falling tonight, it is impossible for me to begin to imagine the agony of the married couples in California, watching helplessly while the legal machinery is put in motion to destroy their dreams.

All these 36,000 lives are quite without recourse or defense in a state of 36 million citizens, whose collective will has turn against them and is moving to strip them of dignity and legal protection.

I am not gay, but my love for my wife is no different than any Californian's love, as my marriage is no different than any Californian's. We share this. It is a human thing. I feel in my heart the suffering and humiliation of this piece of humanity because I am human. We are all demeaned by this cruel madness. Our private affairs should not be trifled with this way.

The snow is piling coldly against the window, the lights of the house down the street have gone out. I don't know when this storm will stop.

DAVID BATES

Warner

Thank-you, David Bates, of Warner, N.H.  You show the true spirit of this Holiday Season.

Pope Desperate to Preserve the Catholic Church

What is one to make of this news report?

"Pope Benedict XVI spoke out Monday against homosexual behavior, calling it a violation of the natural order. In an address to the Vatican hierarchy, the pope called for an ''ecology of man'' to protect man from ''the destruction of himself.'' He added, ''The rain forests deserve our protection, but man as a creature indeed deserves no less.'' The Vatican opposes same-sex marriage and considers homosexual acts sinful." - NY Times, Dec. 23, 2008.

It is perfectly understandable, from an institutional point of view, that the Roman Catholic Church is alarmed at the spread of gay rights in the world.  As more and more countries decriminalize homosexual conduct, extend legal recognition to same-sex partners, and ban sexual orientation discrimination, the Roman Catholic Church loses one of its main devices for recruiting new priests.  In an intensely homophobic society, the priesthood, with its purported ideal of the celibate life lived in a unisex environment, has served for centuries as a sheltering environment for self-hating homosexual Catholic men, fleeing societal and family pressures to marry and have children.  Speculation that a high percentage of the Catholic priesthood consists of repressed homosexuals seems confirmed by anecdotal evidence whenever gay men get together and talk about sexual experiences with priests. The sharp decline in new enlistees for the priesthood in societies that have become tolerant of homosexuality is entirely logical.  If a young gay Catholic man sees a way to live openly as gay in society, to have a partner, to have a career, what need is there to flee to the sheltering arms of the allegedly celibate priesthood?  I think the Pope's position is entirely pragmatic.  Rainforests can die and the Church is not really affected (or so this benighted anti-environmentalist seems to believe), but as gay rights advance, the business model of the Church collapses.  As CEO of the organization, he must continuously speak out against social trends that undermine the Church's business model.

I am not contending that the Pope is not speaking out of religious conviction.  But I am suggesting that leaders of the church in recent decades since the modern gay rights movement has taken root in the Western Democracies have made this a high visibility item on their agenda at a time when so much else in the world calls out to be addressed.  Where is the passionate objection to capital punishment?  Where is the passionate objection to despoiling the earth?  Where is the passionate championing of the needs of the poor for health care, nutrition, sanitation, etc.?  Why is the Church obsessed with fetuses and homosexuals?  Of course, there are religious doctrinal reasons backing up the Pope's statements, but as an entirely pragmatic matter, if Catholic women can restrict their reproductive activity without need to restrict their sex lives and Catholic men can live a happy life as gays, the Church's business model collapses.