| It Just Doesn't Get More Repulsive Than This |
| by Deal W. Hudson |
| 11/21/09 |
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When I was in 6th grade I got in trouble for cussing. In an effort to clean up my language, I asked my teacher what the worst thing was you could call someone. "Repulsive," he replied. I have always remembered that word, but have used it sparingly. What I am about to report is, indeed, repulsive. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, released a statement yesterday morning -- "Gay Activists Bully DC Priests." The instrument being used to bully is a Web site, ChurchOuting.org, which encourages people to report any priest, gay or straight, who may be "romantically involved," but only if that priest has supported the Church's position on same-sex marriage. Any priest who wants to insure he will not be reported on the Web site can go ahead and sign a "Declaration of Religious Support for Marriage Equality." This atttempt to destroy the reputations of priests for supporting the teaching of the Church they represent could best be described by Dante as inhabiting some remote circle of Hell. In addition, the people behind this Web site are exposing themselves to significant legal consequences if a priest's name is listed by someone who simply wishes to injure him without any real evidence. Perhaps these legal consequences, and the civil damages that will follow, will shut the site down before anyone is hurt. Need it be said there are better ways to convince others of your point of view?
Readers have left 19 comments. The politics of personal destruction is a disappointingly consistent attack of the left on orthodox Christian teaching - and you're absolutely right about it being repulsive. The trouble is, a tactic like this will almost always net the perpetrators more than it costs - because the good guys won't fight dirty. Kamilla  Written by Kamilla Why is it always websites, too? It just seems strange. Written by Nick "which encourages people to report any priest, gay or straight, who may be "romantically involved," I don't get it. Our priests aren't supposed to BE 'romantically involved'---gay OR straight. So if they are following church teaching and doing what they are supposed to do, then what do they have to worry about? Isn't churchouting.org doing the church a big favor in outing 'bad" priests??? Written by suzanne What good, holy priests who are following all the Church rules have to worry about is the unsupported accusations that might be posted because someone is vindictive. Things are not always as they seem from a casual glance. Once a name is posted, it is a very long and difficult process to get that name off of the list. The fact that the poster can remain anonymous further complicates the matter. This website is NOT doing the Church a favor. Written by Texandon This information begs us Catholics to fervently pray for these souls, who are obviously struggling with hatred. Only through deep prayer, and communion with the Lord, may we aid these people; however, we must also aim to protect devout priests from this form of slander. Written by Elizabeth Excuse us, Suzanne, for thinking you are naive. Sure there are priests who sin. BUt this "outing" campaign will encourage some persons of questionable ethics to slur almost any prist they want. "I saw Father Good hugging a womAn as she left Mass." "I saw Father Fine in a car with a woman, they went into her house together." Yes, his sister. Don't you get it that they are out to lie about orthodox priests? Tom Written by tom ryan It's terrible that innocent priests would be tarred with the same brush, but the real problem is the tarring itself. Even if a priest is engaged in a sexual relationship that he oughtn't, he still should not be "outed". Priests who sin ought to be treated like all other humans who sin - with faithful compassion. Not to say we ought to make up excuses for them, but the way to treat the situation is to remember how we treat everyone else we know who is living in sin (especially sexual sin), not to vilify ("bad priests"), demonize (assuming perversion or pedophilia), or cast out. Assume the best, pray for them, and when the sin is confirmed rather than just suspected, don't encourage the sin but love the sinner charitably and attempt forgiveness. Written by Becca Balmes Homosexual militants achieved a significant victory in 1973 when they succeeded in terrorizing the American Psychiatric Association (APA) into removing homosexuality as a mental disorder from the APA’s Diagnostic And Statistical Manual On Mental Disorders (DSM). Homosexuals had lobbied the APA since 1971 and began disrupting APA meetings, grabbing microphones and shouting down any psychiatrist who considered homosexuality to be a mental disorder. The tactics of 60s anti-war protesters worked. The APA caved and homosexuals have used this victory to proclaim that homosexual behavior is normal. Pro-homosexual psychiatrist Dr. Ronald Bayer, writing in Homosexuality And American Psychiatry: "the APA decision was a political one, not a scientific one" Written by Mark "I don't think merely being involved in a gay relationship is very damaging anymore, to a priest or anyone else. Almost everybody has evolved beyond that...Most parishioners would be relieved to know that their parish priest had an appropriate sexual outlet and wasn't prowling around after their adolescent sons." Maybe in liberal California they have "evolved" (i.e. been corrupted), but not in my neck of the woods (and I live in Canada). Priests take vows of celibacy, and the fact is, that actively homosexual priests have done such a huge amount of damage to the Catholic Church with their abuse of mostly teenage boys. These priests who are attracted to teenage boys are not pedophiles. Pedophiles are attracted to pre-pubescent children. These are gay priests who apparently think like you do. That breaking their vows is no big deal. If the militants who are outing gay priests really focused on gay priests as opposed to committing slander against orthodox priests, then maybe it would be a service they were doing to the Catholic Church. Written by Roberta Young If Gay activists are willing to go to this extreme for their agenda then why should they be trusted in the military, politics, business, etc.? If they are going to betray the sexual privacy of their fellow homosexuals for not supporting their agenda what fate awaits military, business and political people and their secrets if they refuse to be cowed by that agenda? What gay activists know what secrets about the Democrat party and it's members? You better give in to the extortion or risk having your plans and private lives exposed. Written by Dim From the ChurchOuting website: "This is a campaign to collect information about closeted gay Catholic priests, as well as heterosexual Catholic priests who secretly engage in romantic or sexual affairs, yet are unwilling to speak out against the church leadership's antigay political campaigns. Once a story is verified, we will be contacting the priests involved to help them make the right choices." (Italics mine.) Perhaps I'm mistaken, but this whole scheme sounds terribly like blackmail to me. "Help them make the right choices"? That sounds like an offer the priests can't refuse: Submit to our will, or we'll turn you over to the Archdiocese. I'm curious to know exactly how these people intend to "verify" that their victims are in illicit relationships. What an execrable lot. I hope these enemies of the Church realize that they are potentially opening themselves up not only to potential libel litigation but also to much more serious criminal charges. Written by Corey F. Sounds as if the gay activists are taking a page from the extremist Religious Right playbook: smear, smear and smear. It's sure worked for the religious right-wingers who never let objective facts or personal integrity get in the way of their partisan agenda when they call pro-choicers "baby-killers." It's always tough being on the receiving end of extremist actions and words. Written by Abe Morrison Sounds as if the gay activists are taking a page from the extremist Religious Right playbook: smear, smear and smear. It's sure worked for the religious right-wingers who never let objective facts or personal integrity get in the way of their partisan agenda when they call pro-choicers "baby-killers." — Abe MorrisonIt's always tough being on the receiving end of extremist actions and words. Of course, there's no difference between calling a spade a spade and coercing others into endorsing political views by threatening to reveal potentially damaging information, right? Oh, wait, no, there is a difference: the former is legitimate activism; the latter is blackmail. What ChurchOuting proposes to do strays dangerously close to criminal activity and extends far beyond the sometimes-incendiary rhetoric of the pro-life movement. Indeed, the "smearing" that ChurchOuting desires to undertake could ruin lives, careers, and congregations. Calling someone a "baby killer," as you put it, probably tells the intended target nothing that he doesn't already know. That you suggest an equivalence between the rhetoric of pro-lifers and the actions of ChurchOuting seems to me disingenuous at best--not to mention more than a little myopic. Written by Corey F. Could you please give your definition of "the extremist Religious Right"? I'd really like to know. Written by VR Abe, Can you explain how someone can deliberately choose to terminate a human pregnancy without killing a baby...? Written by John Campbell ![[smiley=happy]](http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/components/com_jreactions/custom/templates/blog/smileys/smiley_happy.gif) Thr Catholic league is only able to provide this protection to Preits becuase of the donations of its members. Please join and help Protect our Faith. Written by Wayne The Modernists/progressives/ in the Church have always targeted Traditional Priests. TrueRestoration blogspot.com has an interview with a Priest and how the Parish forced this young Priest to leave because of his interest in learning about Tradition by surfing Traditional websites. Written by jcdrexel Blackmail is an ugly thing but I'd rather know which priest in my diocese that I need to keep my nephew away from. Written by dymphna Obviously if every priest in America registered as a "sinner" on this website it would steal all of their thunder and render the website useless. Similar to the the movie "Spartacus" where everyone stood up all yelled "I am Spartacus!" |
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