Time Will Tell

It's a gamble. But probably not much of one.

On Wednesday, Rush Limbaugh commented

I ran across this -- I don't even know what it's called, the latest papal offering, statement from Pope Francis. Now, I'm not Catholic.  Up until this, I have to tell you, I was admiring the man.  I thought he was going a little overboard on the common-man touch, and I thought there might have been a little bit of PR involved there. But nevertheless I was willing to cut him some slack.  I mean, if he wants to portray himself as still from the streets where he came from and is not anything special, not aristocratic. If he wants to eschew the physical trappings of the Vatican, okay, cool, fine.  But this that I came across last night totally befuddled me. If it weren't for capitalism, I don't know where the Catholic Church would be. 

Now, as I mentioned before, I'm not Catholic.  I admire it profoundly, and I've been tempted a number of times to delve deeper into it.  But the pope here has now gone beyond Catholicism here, and this is pure political.  I want to share with you some of this stuff. 

"Pope Francis attacked unfettered capitalism as 'a new tyranny' and beseeched global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality, in a document on Tuesday setting out a platform for his papacy and calling for a renewal of the Catholic Church. ... In it, Francis went further than previous comments criticizing the global economic system, attacking the 'idolatry of money.'"

I gotta be very careful.  I have been numerous times to the Vatican.  It wouldn't exist without tons of money.  But regardless, what this is, somebody has either written this for him or gotten to him.  This is just pure Marxism coming out of the mouth of the pope.  Unfettered capitalism?  That doesn't exist anywhere. Unfettered capitalism is a liberal socialist phrase to describe the United States.Unfettered, unregulated. 

At 1:00 p.m. Pacific time- 4:00 p.m. Eastern time- on Wednesday, Digby brilliantly responded

Ok, now I'm starting to really enjoy this. Has anyone alerted Wild Bill Donohue to the fact that Rush Limbaugh is calling the pope a Marxist? If Donohue were anything other than a broken down right wing hack, he's be bringing forth the anti-gay, drug addict slurs right about now. (After all, the guy usually defends everything the Church does, including priest pedophilia.) Nothing? Chirp??? 

She could not know for sure at that time that Donohue would not react to Limbaugh's remarks.  But, recognizing his allegiance to politically conservative ideology, she probably does know that the website of the organization "Wild Bill" heads, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, recently argued on its website

The board of directors at Time Warner cannot distance themselves from Bill Maher any longer. On Friday night, Maher teed up Dan Savage, another anti-Catholic bigot. What happened was particularly vicious.

Maher commented on gay couples who adopt children, alleging that a Hawaiian bishop said these kids had a greater chance of committing suicide. Here is how Savage responded: “That’s total bulls***. He’s confusing children of gay parents with children who are raped by Catholic priests. Sorry, I am just done being lectured about children and their safety by Catholic-f***ing bishops, priests, cardinals.” Shortly thereafter, Savage again remarked about “kiddie-f***ing Catholic priests.”

We are sending to every member of Time Warner’s board of directors a copy of 54 anti-Catholic statements made by Bill Maher on TV [click here to read the report]. Friday’s show concluded the season. The time has come to close this show once and for all.

And now, for what you probably hope is the last time, the clip in which not Bill Maher but a guest of Bill Maher made the remark which set Donohue off:





Donohue's silence- if it remains- is particularly telling given an article published in the hard-right Daily Caller approximately an hour and a half before Limbaugh's rant.  In it, the Catholic League head maintained "Pope Francis is neither liberal nor conservative. He's simply Catholic, and a towering champion of its many causes."

Now a towering figure on the right has criticized Pope Francis for "regurgitating this stuff" about rapacious capitalism and has charged him with being "totally wrong , I mean, dramatically, embarrassingly, puzzling wrong."   The next 24 hours will test whether Bill Donohue is committed to his faith in Catholic Christianity or little more than a "right wing hack."



                                            HAPPY THANKSGIVING


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Bill Donohue Defends His Faith

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League says many silly things, though he deserves credit for consistency, having said many silly things for many years. In October, he wrote (link directly to the column comes later in this post) in The Washington Post

The ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State harbor an agenda to smash the last vestiges of Christianity in America.... From banning nativity scenes to punishing little kids for painting a picture of Jesus, the zealots give Fidel a good run for his money.

Catholics were once the mainstay of the Democratic Party; now the gay activists are in charge. Indeed, practicing Catholics are no longer welcome in leadership roles in the Party: the contempt that pro-life Catholics experience is palpable.

Not only are the aforementioned organizations out to destroy Christianity, they are Communist, or at least Communist-lite. And the banishment of practicing Catholics from leadership of the Democratic Party must have come as a surprise to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Or the Vice-President (then vice-presidential nominee of the Democratic Party) of the United States.

On March 30, The New York Times printed an advertisement in which Donohue criticized what he views as biased reprting by the most famous and revered newspaper in the country. An attack upon a newspaper I do not regularly read is of limited interest to me. Not so, however, of a fervent defense of the largest religious denomination in the U.S.A. on a matter of great social concern, even though I am a non-Catholic. Donohue's most interesting, and controversial contention, in defense of his church's behavior and response:

The Times continues to editorialize about the "pedophilia crisis," when all along it's been a homosexual crisis. Eighty percent of the victims of priestly sexual abuse are male and most of them are post-pubescent. While homosexuality does not cause predatory behavior, and most gay priests are not molesters, most of the molesters have been gay.

On the April 4 edition of CNN's Reliable Sources, Sally Quinn (in whose Post's column On Faith Donohue's piece had run in October), addressed Donohue's viewpoint:


KURTZ: … the good thing about your reporting is that it’s built on these documents. Now Bill Donohue of the Catholic League took out an ad in which he said, “The Times continues to editorialize about the pedophilia crisis, when all along its been a homosexual crisis. Most of the molesters have been gay.” He was asked about this on CNN a couple days ago. Let’s take a look.

(PLAYING CLIP)

BILL DONOHUE: If your group is over represented in a particular problem area, you ought to explore it. Yes, there’s a connection between the Irish and alcoholism. And yes, there’s a connection between homosexuality, and — and sexual abuse of minors.

(END CLIP)

KURTZ: Homosexuality is the problem?

QUINN: Well, that’s a whole different issue. And I don’t think this has anything to do with homosexuality. I mean, this has to do with abuse of children regardless of what sex you are.


Uh, no. The abusers of the children are/were male, not "whatever sex you are." Most of the victims are/were male; Donohue claims 80 percent. (The likelihood that female piests would be less inclined to abuse young boys is an issue for another day.) Probably "most of them are post-pubescent"; if not, Quinn, and others of like mind, haven't told us.

Of course, Donohue was correct when he stated "most gay priests are not molesters." If he had acknowledged, as he probably believes, that most homosexuals of whatever vocation are not molesters, it would have been even better. (If he had stated that the vast majority of gay men are not molesters, that would have been even better.)

But have "most" of the molesters "been gay?" From what I can tell, there has been little discussion of this, from Quinn or otherwise, and understandably so. Either they believe, oddly, that the question is irrelevant or they are aware of the answer and want to tiptoe around it. (Or both.)

Is it an irrelevant question? Donohue, an ardent and predictable defender of the Church, surprisingly is one individual who believes it is not. Asked the obvious, unavoidable (except that many journalists have found it avoidable) question last week by CNN's Rick Sanchez of what the scandal suggests about the policy of requiring priests to be celibate, Donohue rose to the occasion: he implied that the requirement should be reconsidered.

Yes, Bill Donohue. While individuals eager to criticize the Roman Catholic Church have been shocked! shocked! at the apparent tolerance shown for priestly pedophiles, Donohue, perhaps inadvertently, has pointed the way. (Kudos to Sanchez for asking a question the answer to which should have gotten more airplay.) Consider the vow of priestly chastity. If few inside or outside the church are willing to challenge the requirement that its spiritual leaders eschew legitimate sexual involvement of any kind, the institution will have little incentive to change.

No doubt the Roman Catholic Church will muster moral outrage to pedophilia roughly equivalent to that of the general public and of its parishioners. And change will be implemented in its approach to accusations of sexual misconduct. Those will represent significant and positive reform. And admittedly, the Church needs to consider other issues, of a more theological nature, before changing policy. But it does no good for the Fourth Estate to avoid discussion of the Elephant in the Room when expressing (justifiable) outrage over the pattern of abuse.

No Choice But McCain


The man whom everyone seemed to agree would be the strongest Repub presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, was speaking at a town hall meeting in Richardson, Texas on February 28, 2008 when, according to abcnews.com's Jake Tapper, he stated "I am a proud conservative, liberal Republica--- conservative Republican," he said, catching himself. "Hello?" he said as the crowd laughed. "Easy there."

Now, I don't think John McCain is a liberal. He has become a favorite of The Wall Street Journal, and the Wall Street crowd is quite comfortable with a President who pledges to extend the tax cuts for the wealthy. And if he chooses to keep American troops in Iraq for up to a hundred years, it should make Japanese bankers and the mainland Chinese government happy. And there is no telling the impact high spending coupled with low taxes, a budget underpinned by the Chinese, could have on our national debt, the value of the dollar, even national security.

Now comes word that Reverend John Hagee of the 17,000 member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas has endorsed McCain. In a news release, bombastic director of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights Bill Donahue alleges the Christian Zionist Leader has called the Roman Catholic Church "the great whore," an "apostate church," "the anti-Christ," and "a false cult system." In its press release on Sadie Hawkins Day, the Democratic National Committee sets out some other views held by Rev. Hagee:

Hagee on Hurricane Katrina
"All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]

Hagee on Islamic Beliefs
Fresh Air host Terry Gross asked if Hagee believed that "all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews," to which Hagee replied, "Well, the Quran teaches that. Yes, it teaches that very clearly." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]

Hagee on African-Americans
The San Antonio Express-News reported that Hagee was going to "meet with black religious leaders privately at an unspecified future date to discuss comments he made in his newsletter about a 'slave sale,' an East Side minister said Wednesday." The Express-News reported:

"Hagee, pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church, last week had announced a 'slave sale' to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, 'The Cluster.'

"The item was introduced with the sentence 'Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave." [San Antonio Express-News 3/7/96]

Hagee on Catholicism
"Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews." [Jerusalem Countdown by John Hagee]

Hagee on Women
"Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist." [God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, Sarah Posner]

"[T]he feminist movement today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the family." ["Bible Positions on Political Issues," John Hagee]

Hagee on LGBT Americans
"The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades. So I believe that the judgment of God is a very real thing. I know that there are people who demur from that, but I believe that the Bible teaches that when you violate the law of God, that God brings punishment sometimes before the day of judgment." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]

Hagee on Iran
"The coming nuclear showdown with Iran is a certainty," Hagee wrote [in 2006] in the Pentecostal magazine Charisma. "Israel and America must confront Iran's nuclear ability and willingness to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons. For Israel to wait is to risk committing national suicide." [The Nation, 8/8/2006, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060814/new_christian_zionism]

So John McCain jokes about being a liberal, is revealed likely to have had an "inappropriate relationship" (romantic or otherwise) with a lobbyist, and now accepts the endorsement of a man who appears to hostile to women, Roman Catholics, blacks, Muslims, and gay people. And all this after Mitt Romney (who as a Mormon himself failed to rally Republicans around his candidacy) drops out of the race. This leaves to challenge John McCain only a Southern Baptist clergyman who is (to the base) embarrasingly anti- abortion rights, anti- gay rights, pro- public education; and- worse yet to the economic conservatives who dominate the Republican Party- anti- greed. Which of course leaves the the GOP faithful with.... Senator John McCain.