Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York has sent a letter to President Obama warning him that same-sex marriage, and particularly his administration's decision to end its legal defense of the Defense of Marriage Act, could "precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions." Archbishop Dolan wrote that he and other Bishops have a "growing sense of urgency about recent actions taken" by the Obama Administration that "both escalate the threat to marriage and imperil the religious freedom of those who promote and defend marriage." He then goes on to criticize those who frame same-sex marriage in the context of a civil rights struggle, saying that it is "especially wrong and unfair to equate opposition to redefining marriage with either intentional or willfully ignorant racial discrimination." This is is not the first time that Archbishop Dolan has made controversial statements regarding gay rights. In an April 2009 interview with The New York Post, Dolan defended his opposition to gay marriage by saying "hard-wired into us is a dictionary, and the dictionary defines marriage as between one man, one woman for life, please God, leading to the procreation of human life." In a March 2011 interview on 60 Minutes he said that gay marriage is akin to marrying one's biological mother. In June 2011, Dolan compared the legalization of gay marriage in New York to living in a totalitarian state such as North Korea.
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