The White House has started a cockamamie procedure where regular citizens can launch petitions and if they get 25,000 signatures the White House will respond.
Some are serious, like the one to exempt Hobby Lobby from the HHS contraceptive mandate. Some are silly, like the one asking for Joe Biden to be in a reality show. There is a petition for the arrest of NBC’s David Gregory for showing a magazine clip on his Sunday morning show, something that is illegal in Washington DC.
A new petition has gone up, on Christmas Day no less, asking for the Catholic Church to be labeled a hate group.
In his annual Christmas address to the College of Cardinals, Pope Benedict XVI, the global leader of the Roman Catholic Church, demeaned and belittled homosexual people around the world. Using hateful language and discriminatory remarks, the Pope painted a portrait in which gay people are second-class global citizens. Pope Benedict said that gay people starting families are threatening to society, and that gay parents objectify and take away the dignity of children. The Pope also implied that gay families are sub-human, as they are not dignified in the eyes of God.Upon these remarks, the Roman Catholic Church fits the definition of a hate group as defined by both the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.
As of this writing, only 1700 have signed.