Pastor says gay marriage ‘like having 365 wives’
By Will Stroude
A Protestant German priest has defended comments which compared gay marriage to having 365 wives or marrying a pet.
Pastor Dr Günter Weigel has come under church investigation after publishing the comments in a letter to church magazine Nemmersdorfer Kirchenbote, which compare gay marriage – or “marriage for everyone” to sodomy, Gay Star News reports.
“How decadent and perverted do individual members of our politics and society actually have to be, to come up with such ideas and demands?” he wrote.
“Don’t be surprised if I get myself a harem of at least 365 wives (one for each day of the year) soon. Careful: I’m joking.”
An investigation has been launched by the Evangelical-Lutherian Church of Bavaria legal team, after a same-sex couple complained to church officials about the comments before reportedly leaving the parish.
But Weigel, who didn’t expect to attract such extensive German media attention, said his comments were largely satirical, were not intended to be read seriously and should be “investigated theologically”.
“I didn’t want it shared, really, it was only written for my parish. I didn’t share it outside, and I didn’t think it would go this far,” he said.
In the letter, Weigel referenced German politician Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who was slammed for comparing marriage to incest earlier this year.
“The ‘marriage for everyone’ would, as a consequence, indeed mean that the marriage between close relatives (eg between parents and children or siblings) would then be possible, too,” the letter reads.
“Or the “marriage” between a human being and his beloved pet (eg his dog, his cat, his horse, his sheep, his cow and so on).”
Weigel claims his intention was to highlight the differences between the Christian model of marriage and others, but he didn’t want to say gay marriage was the same as sodomy.
“I didn’t want to insult or hurt anyone. I don’t have anything against lesbians or gay people. They can live the way they want. I only depicted the Christian lifestyle,” he said.
“This has all been very much misunderstood. It wasn’t meant to be defamatory or hurtful.”