CatholicVote says controversial video sparked outpouring of thanks

Chicago, Ill., Jul 2, 2015 / 15:02 pm

After last week's Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage, one Catholic group released a short video on tolerance – a clip that's gotten both fierce criticism and profound thanks from viewers.

"The response to our video has been overwhelming. Literally tens of thousands of people are emailing saying: 'thank you for speaking up for me. I don't agree with the Supreme Court decision, but I don't hate anyone,'" said Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org.

Burch's organization is a lay-led movement of American Catholics with around 600,000 members in the U.S. The group's video, titled "Not Alone," mirrors a gay "coming out" perspective and features six young adults who vocalize their belief that marriage is meant to be between one man and one woman.

In response to the "Love Wins" hash tag used after the Supreme Court ruling, CatholicVote created their own hash tag of "Speak Truth With Love."

The six adults interviewed discussed the fear of being treated differently because they do not support gay marriage; and they professed to have gay friends who are wonderful people and are loved.

The two-and-a-half minute video, however, was swiftly pounded with profanity-laced comments and aggressive jeers towards those in the video who claim to "love their gay friends" and yet do not support same-sex marriage. The video has over 670,000 views and counting.

"Gays deserve dignity and respect, and so do Christians," Burch said. "We as a country are going to have to expand our definition of tolerance and learn to accept that there is nothing hateful about believing in the uniqueness of male-female marriage, as people have for thousands of years."

Another article on CatholicVote.org, links to several websites criticizing the video are posted to directly display intolerance that is currently happening in the secular media. Some headlines accused the six adults to be "anti-gay," while other sources describe the adults as "bigots."   

"Where real hatred and bigotry has occurred, it deserves to be condemned," Burch said. "LGBT advocates are right to call out people who behave reprehensibly in defense of marriage."

"But likewise, and to be consistent, they should condemn those that are intolerant of anyone that disagrees with the same-sex agenda. Andrew Sullivan, one of the founders of the same-sex marriage movement, has warned his friends against becoming a movement that hates its opponents."