The Last Acceptable Prejudice

On April 3, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints compound was raided. Its founder, Warren Jeffs, was convicted last year of being an accessory in the rape of a teenage girl. This past Friday, April 11, Bill Maher made the following comments on his HBO show, "Real Time with Bill Maher":

"I'd like to tip off law enforcement to an even larger child-abusing religious cult..Its leader also has a compound, and this guy not only operates outside the bounds of the law, but he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats. That's right, the Pope is coming to America this week and, ladies, he's single."

"If you have a few hundred followers, and you let some of them molest children, they call you a cult leader. If you have a billion, they call you 'Pope.' It's like, if you can't pay your mortgage, you're a deadbeat. But if you can't pay a million mortgages, you're Bear Stearns and we bail you out. And that is who the Catholic Church is: the Bear Stearns of organized pedophilia -- too big, too fat."

"When the current Pope was in his previous Vatican job as John Paul's Dick Cheney, he wrote a letter instructing every Catholic bishop to keep the sex abuse of minors secret until the Statute of Limitations ran out. And that's the Church's attitude: 'We're here, we're queer, get used to it,' which is fine, far be it from me to criticize religion. But just remember one thing: If the Pope was -- instead of a religious figure -- merely the CEO of a nationwide chain of day care centers, where thousands of employees had been caught molesting kids and then covering it up, he'd be arrested faster than you can say 'who wants to touch Mr. Wiggle?'"

Can you imagine if Maher, or anyone else, made similar comments about a Muslim leader, or a Jewish leader, or any other leader? The outcry would be deafening. Consider Don Imus' comments about a black women's basketball team. He insulted a few women and was fired. During Rush LImbaugh's short-lived stint as a color man for ESPN, he comment that Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb was over-rated because the media wanted to see a successful black quarterback. He was fired almost immediately.

So, what will happen to Maher? If the past is any indication, nothing will happen to him. The Catholic Church is an acceptable target. You can attack it with virtual immunity. If that doesn't make you angry, then I'd say the Church faces more danger from within, than from without. Our failure to demand that this Catholic-bashing stop makes us just as culpable as the brain-dead commentators who make the inflammatory statements.

Here are some facts that Maher conveniently ignores.

Pope Benedict was never a Nazi. In pre-war Germany, every young man was forced to join a Nazi-sponsored youth group. The young Ratzinger got out as soon as possible. If he were, in fact, a Nazi, Jewish groups would be screaming for his head. In fact, the Pope has been exonerated by virtually every important Jewish group.

Cardinal Ratzinger had nothing to do with the child abuse crisis. It just wasn't his job. There was never a letter written by anyone in the Vatican instructing Bishops to cover up abuse cases. In fact, Pope John Paul II, was firm in his condemnation of priests who abused children.

If you aren't outraged by this idiot's calling your Church a "child-abusing religious cult" and " the Bear Stearns of organized pedophilia" then you need a reality check. This isn't an isolated incident. Maher has made similar comments in the past, and he's not the only one doing it. The longer we remain silent, the worse it's going to get. If we don't stand up for our faith, and for our leaders, we are facing a future of more intense persecution, perhaps the worst in history. It's only a matter of time before some psychopath is motivated by the likes of Maher to assassinate a priest or bishop.

In preparing this post, I searched Google News for the terms "Bill Maher" and "Catholic". There wasn't one single reference to a major news outlet. Only Catholic News Service has covered the story online. Conservative talk radio has publicized Maher's comments, but NBC, CBS, and ABC are conspicuous by their absence.

According to Bill Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, HBO's response to two earlier cases of Catholic-bashing by Maher was that "it's a free country" and that Maher's remarks are "a matter of creative freedom." Since when does libel equal "creative freedom"?

It IS a free country and you have the freedom as a subscriber to cancel HBO.

You can contact HBO's CEO, Bill Nelson, at bill.nelson@hbo.com

Hate Speech

Here in St. Louis, it seems like the Catholic Church has been largely spared from the kind of hate-filled anti-Catholic propaganda that has existed for decades in other parts of the country. I may be naive, but the first time I ever saw actual printed anti-Catholic rhetoric was in 1999 when the Holy Father visited here. I don't know if it's because of the large Catholic population of the area or the general laid-back nature of the Midwest, but in my world, religious tolerance seemed to be the rule.

For some reason, recently the Catholic Church, particularly our Archbishop, Raymond Burke, have been subjected to some of the most vile rhetoric I've ever seen, not from some fringe hate group, but from the so-called mainstream media, particularly the daily newspaper, the St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Rather than spend a lot of time establishing the background for these attacks, especially since it's all based on lies, I'm just going to take a look at what's been said and printed in the last ten days or so. The events that supposedly sparked these attacks have been widely covered and anyone interested can easily find the details using a Google search.

First, on November 15, J.C. Corcoran, a worn-out shock jock on a local radio station and occasional commentator on KTVI, the local Fox TV affiliate, pontificated why he thinks that the Archbishop is doing a terrible job, in spite of admitting that he dropped out of the Church years ago because he thinks religion is "silly". Among other things, he said, "What I see, again from the outside, is the Catholic Church pretty much at the end of its public relations rope. The sex scandals continue to mount, the flock is thinning, and young men and women aren’t exactly knocking down the doors of seminaries and convents trying to get in. And locally, instead of a respected spiritual leader in the community, you have a guy who’s been stomping around, alienating, threatening, intimidating, excommunicating and carrying on since the day he got off the plane from Wisconsin.”

You can see the rest of his rant here, if your stomach can take it. His words were so offensive that they attracted national attention, including a response from Bill Donahue of the Catholic League who said in part, “They have some serious problems at Fox 2 in St. Louis. They have a commentator whose insulting remarks are matched only by his ignorance of his former religion, and they have a news director who is equally irresponsible."

For the record, I emailed the station and several of Corcoran's radio sponsors. To date I've received no response. Note that November is "Ratings Sweeps" month, when the stations set their future advertising rates based on the number of viewers during the month. Channel 2 and Corcoran, desperate to improve their ratings numbers have attempted to attract some attention by stirring up a hornet's nest. Sadly for them, this stunt, if it has any affect at all, won't move them out of the ratings basement. Anyone interested in seeing the video can do so on the Internet and TV advertisers don't pay for Internet clicks.

But, Corcoran's tirade was only the beginning. On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, our daily paper published not one, but two rants against Archbishop Burke. First, Deb Peterson, the paper's "gossip columnist" wrote the following:

"TURKEY TIME: It is the somewhat anticipated, somewhat dreaded time of the year for this columnist to hand out her "Turkey" awards for Thanksgiving 2007. If your particular gobbler's carcass didn't get picked over, don't stew. We'll just have to try it again next year. But for now, the winners are:....

The Archbishop of Perpetual Turkey, Raymond Burke, had another year of ill-planned press and recognition. He threatened to excommunicate more local Catholics; caused a ruckus by publicly protesting a fundraiser to benefit the Bob Costas Cancer Center because it was going to include pro-choice supporter Sheryl Crow; and warned Rudy Giuliani that he would not give him Communion because the GOP presidential hopeful is pro-choice. Hopefully someone can persuade Burke to keep his gobbler down and out of the spotlight for the upcoming year. Nothing would make me more thankful than to not to have to give him this recognition again."

Some facts: The Archbishop did not threaten to excommunicate anyone. In a private letter to two women who were recently "ordained" to the priesthood, he warned them that if they followed through on their plan, they would automatically be excommunicated. The two women made the letter public.

He did not warn Giuliani of anything. He did state that he would not give communion to so-called pro-choice Catholic politicians, and that no one else in his Archdiocese should either. The original remarks were not made to Giuliani, or specifically about Giuliani. Rudy's name was brought up by a local reporter.

For the record, this is not the first time that Peterson has been caught "embellishing" the facts. By the way, is a "gossip" column really needed in the twenty-first century?

Finally, at least for today, another Post Dispatch columnist, Sylvester Brown attacked the Archbishop in the same newspaper. Brown, also a non-Catholic, is the paper's token black columnist. His columns usually follow the theme that any problem in St. Louis is the result of racial discrimination. If there are potholes in the street, or if it's been unseasonably cold or hot, he manages to find a way to make it racial. His attack on an individual white man is somewhat unusual. Yesterday's rant was actually the second time this month that he's played the anti-Catholic card. In a list of things to be thankful for, after suggesting that we "kick the mayor out of office, he wrote:

"Lastly, we must humbly acknowledge the one, true, wise and omnipotent decider of all things pure and holy — be they political or pedestrian …

Here's to Archbishop Raymond Burke, who tells Roman Catholics how to vote and warned new board members of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church that they could be excommunicated as part of a property and asset dispute.

Thank you, Archbishop Burke. You've helped many non-Catholics appreciate their religions.

Amen!"

There's been more, but you get my drift. What concerns me, and should concern everyone in this town, whether they're Catholic or not, is the logical result of this vicious rhetoric, whether it's leveled at the Church or at any group. If the quasi-official voices are mouthing these things, how long is it before the "man in the street" decides to join the fun. How long will it be before some priest or nun is physically attacked, before some Catholic Church is torched, or before burning crosses start to show up on individual Catholic's lawns?

Freedom of the press and freedom of religion are important parts of our American culture. But you can't yell "fire!" in a crowded theater and you can't publish bigoted rants against minority groups, unless of course they're Catholic. This kind of trash would never be allowed if it was directed at women, or racial minorities, or other religious groups. The P-D recently refused to publish the cartoons that pictured Mohammed for fear of offending Muslim sensibilities. But if it's the Catholic Church or it's spiritual leader, all bets are off.

I wonder how long Catholics in St. Louis are going to continue putting up with this? C'mon people. Take note of who the sponsors are. Refuse to patronize the advertisers who pay for this nonsense. Stop your subscription to the paper. Write to the editors, print and broadcast. When your child or grandchild comes home with a bloody nose because some bigot's kid attacked him or her for being Catholic, then it will be too late.

We have to stand up for ourselves and our leaders!