Of Bishops and Hypocritical Scoundrels
December 29, 2003
I heard from my liberal pal Jesse the other day, with some of his usual screed.
Now, before you jump on me about “What the heck are you doing having a leftist for a friend!” let me state that my definition of a friend is someone who is there for you when the chips are down. Jesse does do this, even though there are times when I swear he is a little to the left of Chairman Mao. I hope one day to make him see the error of his ways, but let’s face it, so long as he can continue to drive a Lexis and still spout anti-capitalist dogma, this is a slim hope for me. On the upside, he does keep coming back for more of my verbal ass-whuppings so maybe he does find some measure of illumination there.
His latest outrage is that a Catholic Bishop, the Most Reverend Raymond Burke of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, has dared to publicly rebuke politicians who take political stands contrary to their membership in the Catholic Church. I’m used to Jesse. And I know what is guaranteed to set him off. So, in my usually diplomatic way, I went ahead and did it. I sent an email back with a laconic, “Yeah. So what?”
I’m telling you, there are times when it is like grenade fishing in a barrel.
Predictably, Jesse went ballistic, accusing the Church of crossing the line between separation of Church and State, meddling in politics, and his usual secularist hogwash about Rome trying to dictate to Washington. I thought about writing him back, but instead I think I’ll send him a link to this, and let him – predictably – browse through some of the other stuff here. Maybe he’ll become enlightened, more likely he’ll blow a gasket. Either one will be entertaining. And I’ll have more grist for the mill.
Hi there, Jesse, you tofu and granola eating hippie! Yoo-hoo! George Bush Loves You!
Sorry, but I gotta be me. Anyway. You know, I don’t think I’m going to have to look long or hard to find pictures of high profile liberals who wear their religion on their sleeves because it makes good PR. I think I can find a snapshot or two of Bill Clinton praying in the White House with the Reverend Jesse Jackson. Ted “The Drowner” Kennedy piously walking into church carrying his Bible. Politicians on podiums with two or three people in clerical collars standing behind them as they intone how moral their latest proposed piece of socialist tripe is going to be good for the “children.” Certain Texas Hispanic Clergy denouncing enforcing the immigration laws.
Somehow, this isn’t objectionable. Somehow, when a so-called clergyman is spouting the latest fad of Liberal Secular Pseudo-Theology, he’s just exercising his right as a good citizen. Let them stray from the marching orders of the Left Coast, though, and they are plu-perfect sons-of-bitches who need to be silenced.
One word: Hypocrisy.
It’s fine and dandy for some liberal pol to list on their resume and bona fides that they are a member, a deacon, and on the parish council of a church, or in some faith based charitable organization. But (Unnamable and unfit for public mention name of a deity) forbid that they actually practice what they preach. Oh, woe is me, some religion is going to say to someone, “Look, pal. You’re quick to use us for a campaign button, so it’s time to do more than lip service to the tenets of the faith.” (Unnamable and unfit for public mention name of the Afterlife.) It’s the end of the Republic.
Fact is, Bishop Burke is doing more to be true to the “separation of church and state” than any politician who goes about proclaiming his piety and holiness. As a matter of canon law, for having helped in the procuring of abortions, the politician in question, Wisconsin state senator Julie Lassa, has already incurred an excommunication Latæ Sententiæ. Sorry there, Julie baby. We don’t have a State Church. You don’t have to be Catholic. And they don’t have to have ya either, darling. Disciplining the flock, last I heard, was the prerogative of a religious leader, and if you don’t like it, quit. Your legal sanctions are exactly zero, though you’ll have to stop listing your membership in the church as a qualification for your moral fitness for office. And to argue that a political leader should somehow be exempt from obeying the tenets of a faith they voluntarily profess is fascist in the extreme.
Where was the outrage when Al Gore went about giving political speeches from the pulpits of churches? Where was the outrage when Jimmy Cater was professing his faith? Why is it, pray tell, that such things are fine and dandy so long as it is concurrent with Party Line, but an abomination when you find yourself at cross purposes?
Jesse, you picked the wrong topic to go off on here, bubby. And threats of the removal of tax-exempt status are also fascist in the extreme, not to mention nowhere near the mark, or for that matter even credible threats. (I’ll deal with that later) It’s precisely to prevent government intimidation of churches and faithful people that the 1st amendment was enacted, not to mention the right to free speech. Let me go about giving pro-abortion speeches, and I’d be excommunicated too. I’d be surprised if I didn’t have Sister waiting for me before Mass so she could administer a paddling. Holding our citizen lawmakers to the same standard is good old American egalitarianism at its finest, and is as patriotic as Mom and Apple Pie, unless, of course, you hold that they are some aristocratic and noble class of people who should be exempt from equal treatment? If you are, do tell, comrade. I’m all ears.
Didn’t think so. Probably very wise of you there. That’s a can of worms you do NOT want to open with me, as I am sure bitter experience has taught you better.
I can hear it next, “But you’re a Libertarian, Pete, so how does your pro-choice position square with your Catholicism.” Okay. So, in the first place it’s a leap to assume that I am “pro-choice” in the first place. Morally, I find it an outrage. I’d not have a damn thing to do with it, and in so far as I am concerned, if I find some woman hemorrhaging in the street from a botched abortion she better talk quick or do something to have me call an ambulance for her. I’ll call a priest, maybe you can confess to him after he calls an ambulance for you. The fact that I don’t think the government is fit or capable of making a moral decision for you, or because I support your choice to be both wrong and stupid, most assuredly does NOT mean I am willing to lift a finger to rescue a person from their own stupidity, or vote a plug nickel of public funds to do so.
Free will and free choice are my guideposts for life. It’s hardly meaningful to assign virtue to a moral choice if there was no ability to choose contrary to it, which is quite probably the main reason the good Lord allows evil in the world. And being subject to suffering for immoral choices should probably, at least by mature people, be regarded as a cosmic two-by-four smack between your eyes. Well, by mature people, as I said. Some people take a while to wake up.
So in anticipating your objection, I trust you see it not all inconsistent with my statement that as a Bishop of the Church, Reverend Burke is doing a job that sadly enough, few other Bishops have had the cojones to do. Why in God’s name the NCCB hasn’t come out square on his side is a sad statement to me about the spinelessness of the American Episcopate. People more worried about pew counts need to seriously, in my opinion, spend a few hours in discourse with the Man Upstairs, and get some courage going. Jesus is coming, baby, and once he’s on the scene it’s going to be a little late to look busy.
Okay, Jesse. Let’s just say for instance, that you’re going to push to have tax-exempt status revoked for the Catholic Church. (did you think I forgot? Or were you hoping?) Want to know what I say? You ain’t going to like it.
Bring it on, pork chop. Just in case it has slipped your mind, the church got started meeting in warehouses, in caves, in donated buildings upkept and maintained by the faithful, in people’s houses, with priests put up, sheltered and fed by their flocks. Oh, please, please, don’t throw us in that briar patch, B’rer Bear. I don’t know what we’d ever do, what with being a martyr to political correctness and insuring that for statistical purposes every Catholic and probably a boatload of other religions would be galvanized into foursquare opposition to your policies. You go right ahead, my good man. By all means. You feel froggy, jump. Better than you have tried and failed, and gotten hold of a really short end of a stick. Do you really think you are going to play political chicken with the Vatican and not wind up with your butt-cheeks around your ears? Politics in the College of Bishops is played for keeps with a lot higher stakes than you are used to. These people make Niccolo Machiavelli look like a piker.
You want religion out of your politics? You remove your politicians from my pulpits first, then come back and see me. Until then, you’re just another hypocritical scoundrel and fascist, trying to censor every opinion that disagrees with your own.
