Confused?

Former EU Commission candidate Rocco Buttiglione is apparently actively working to reduce the political damage caused by his remarks about homosexuality being a sin. Yet his strategy seems a little erratic. After reaching out to the social right last week by declaring his desire to build an influential conservative Christian political movement in Europe, like evangelical Christians have done in the US, he now gave the Italian gay website gay.it an interview (in Italian). According to the English This entry was posted on Thursday, November 18th, 2004 at 8:56 pm and is filed under A Fistful Of Euros, Governments and parties. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

1. Vance Maverick Says:
   November 18th, 2004 at 10:32 pm

   The gloss is only partly correct. Buttiglione isn’t “den[ying] that gay people are sinners.” He says we’re all sinners, and homosexuality is not the worst sin — indeed, in itself (he says at one point), it’s not technically sinful but “objectively erroneous”.

   The other line is translated nearly right. He’s trying to clear up what he said that caused the scandal. I would translate it:

   I defend the right to be able to think that homosexuality is a sin, but in the world of politics the concept of sin does not exist.

   This, he claims, was misquoted, leading to all that misunderstanding.

2. Vance Maverick Says:
   November 18th, 2004 at 10:40 pm

   Sorry, not “defend the right”, but “claim the right”.

   While it’s clear Buttiglione was an unsuitable choice for this post, I don’t see a whole lot to mock here. Rather I see someone with rigid, even far-out views (”Democracy is expanding in the world under the guidance, let us be honest, of the Catholic Church”), but also a sane sense of how they can be integrated (or not) into a lay polity.

3. Mrs Tilton Says:
   November 19th, 2004 at 11:03 am

   I’d agree with Vance here. The idea of the Vatican as patron of democracy might be, let us say, bracingly original. But clumsily put as Buttiglione’s statement re: ‘Homosexuality=sin, but sin is not a concept politically’ is (or maybe it’s not so much clumsy as cast in an idiom that doesn’t work well for me), the underlying concept is exactly right. An individual may firmly believe that homosexuality (or eating pork, or showing disrespect to a statue of Ganesh, or whatever) is sinful; but in the eyes of a non-confessional liberal democracy, that belief should be deemed neither right nor wrong so much as invisible. It is entirely possible to have strong and definite religious beliefs and at the same time to believe firmly that those beliefs belong in the personal sphere, not the public political sphere.

   It will now remain a matter of conjecture whether Buttiglione would have been able to put this separation of spheres into practice. Perhaps he wouldn’t have done; but his statement at least is spot on.

4. Tobias Says:
   November 19th, 2004 at 5:10 pm

   Vance, Mrs. T,

   >An individual may firmly believe that
   >homosexuality (or eating pork, or showing
   >disrespect to a statue of Ganesh, or whatever) is
   >sinful; but in the eyes of a non-confessional
   >liberal democracy, that belief should be deemed
   >neither right nor wrong so much as invisible.

   Of course. It’s just not in the - English - statement I quoted…

   >Buttiglione isn’t “den[ying] that gay people are >sinners.” He says we’re all sinners, and >homosexuality is not the worst sin —

   As I said… translation matters. If that’s in the Italian, fair enough.

   I just found it very strange/confused to say someone *IS* not a sinner (denying the sinful nature in general, not just politically) while reserving the right to “THINK” someone is a sinner - for purely liturgical reasons or whatever. Doesn’t work conceptually, in my opinion.

5. Non Tibi Spiro Says:
   November 19th, 2004 at 7:32 pm

   My objection to Buttiglione was not his personal opinion on gays but that he uttered this opinion in the European ‘parliament’ (if I am not mistaken). He made his opinion political and that was his biggest mistake, as he apparently recognizes now. As Mrs Tilton says:

   “It is entirely possible to have strong and definite religious beliefs and at the same time to believe firmly that those beliefs belong in the personal sphere, not the public political sphere.”

   I think that Mr Buttiglione tried to score a few cheap points, or simply underestimated the impact of his statement.

6. IanJ Says:
   November 19th, 2004 at 8:51 pm

   Non Tibi Spiro,

   did he really say it in Parliament? I must confess that I haven’t followed this debate particularly closely, but I was under the impression that he was asked by a journalist what his view of homosexuality was, and gave the answer we all have heard. I don’t think he uttered this opinion in any political capacity, let alone parliament. Anyone able to confirm?

7. Tobias Says:
   November 20th, 2004 at 12:58 am

   IanJ,

   the row began when he stated his point of view in his Parliamentary confirmation hearing as candidate designate for the European Commission.