Keep phones away from any generation in the Gibson clan as members seem genetically prone to bigoted outbursts when placed in proximity. It was first apparent in a collection of high-spirited phone calls made by Mel Gibson to baby mama Oksana. Not wanting to be left out of the family tradition, Mel's father, Hutton Gibson, unleashed his own tirade over the phone while on air with a U.S. radio show, basically to claim that the Vatican is full of a bunch of sissies. 

When hosts of the Political Cesspool Radio Program (charming) asked Hutton if he thought the Vatican was successfully confronting "the issue" of homosexuality, he responded, "It's not willing to do so because half of the people there in the Vatican are queer."

When asked...

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In a reference to the late Senator Ted Kennedy, Vatican Archbishop Raymond Burke emitted some controversial remarks, even for the Catholic Church.

“Neither Holy Communion nor funeral rites should be administered to [politicians supportive of marriage equality]. To deny these is not a judgment of the soul, but a recognition of the scandal and its effects,” he said in an address to roughly 200 people.

So now anyone who supports love should be excommunicated? So much for the tenets of Christianity, Mr. Burke.

I like things shaken, not stirred, and the latest developments in religion v. gay rights certainly make for a stunning martini, darlings.

Jeffrey Lax and Justin Phillips, in a not-yet-published study for Columbia University, have found that states with higher Catholic populations offer more gay rights. That’s right, you read it correctly – more, more, more.

The study found that Catholic majorities favor health benefits, as well as hate crime and discrimination protections for their GLBT neighbors, but -- sad face -- oppose marriage equality and adoptions.

However, as Mark Silk from Spiritual Politics points out, recent numbers out of the American Religious Identification Survey might challenge the aforementioned aspect of the...