Today’s guest voice is Bill Donohue of the Catholic League:
There are many ways cultural nihilists are busy trying to sabotage America these days: multiculturalism is used as a club to beat down Western civilization in the classroom; sexual libertines seek to upend the cultural order by attacking religion; artists use their artistic freedoms to mock Christianity; Hollywood relentlessly insults people of faith; activist left-wing legal groups try to scrub society free of the public expression of religion; elements in the Democratic party demonstrate an animus against Catholicism; and secular-minded malcontents within Catholicism and Protestantism seek to sabotage their religion from the inside.
Donohue works his way through the usual enemies list- radical gays, Jesse Jackson, secularist, Hollywood jews, Democrats, etc.
I’m too lazy to go through Donohue’s list of appalling behavior, as it is too long and ugly to recount it all, but most recently he was heard comparing Obama to David Duke. There really is no one too crazy or vile to get an op-ed printed at the Washington Post.
Napoleon
That Op-Ed is beyond vile. The WaPo is little better then Townhall or Hot Air.
Ash
My favorite part is when he said secular people are too busy walking their dogs and aborting their children to go forth and multiply like evangelicals.
It made me laugh, a lot.
jayackroyd
via atrios
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2009/10/21/95344/254
BooMan documents the presence of Catholics in the Democratic leadership.
Irony Abounds
And yet every time the wingnuts rant about the mainstream liberal media they always include the Washington Post as one of their targets.
ericblair
…and secular-minded malcontents within Catholicism and Protestantism seek to sabotage their religion from the inside.
This caught my eye. Oh goody, it’s pogrom time for the wingies. Always fun to watch. I’ll get the popcorn: it’s the good organic stuff.
The rest of it is the usual Downfall of Civilization due to the moral failings of the usual suspects. I must have missed the part about buggering generations of little boys and covering it up. Just an oversight, I’m sure.
Silver Owl
Donahue needs to acquaint himself with Proverbs 12:22,
Lying lips are abomination to the LORD:but they that deal truly are his delight.
Donahue does not strike me as delight. lol
catclub
And yet, virtually all of the comments are anti-Donohue.
Either this is Hiatt’s version of trolling his readers for hits,
or he really does not know who his readers are.
Maybe both.
ericblair
By the way, I badly misread the post title and now have to haul out the brain bleach and have a good soak. Also.
geg6
As a militantly anti-Catholic ex-Catholic, I don’t believe in heaven or hell. But if I’m wrong, I hope Donohue finds himself in hell being molested by all the pervert priests he so bravely defends in the media all the time.
With Fred Hiatt playing catcher right along with him.
Kryptik
John, you’re a bit disingenuous with your last sentence.
Of course there are people who are too crazy to be allowed a Washington Post Op-Ed. You just have to remember that the operative definition of crazy at the Washington Post is ‘assertive liberalism’ and or ‘aggressively factual’.
Chuck
Don’t forget the satanists with their Dungeons & Dragons. And rock and roll music, that’s bad too.
I pissed away my childhood believing this crap. And people wonder why ex-christians are bitter?
mistersnrub
Notice how he conveniently ignores all the “sexual libertines” in the GOP and the Catholic church.
Comrade Jake
I’m sure Jesus Christ would approve of such a loving, caring article that seeks to spread good will to people of all backgrounds and walks of life. /sarcasm
Savage Henry
I thought that this was the best part:
He says this without irony. Aren’t we all aware that literally thousands of Catholic priests sexually abused tens of thousands of children over the last couple generations? And the Catholic heirarchy engaged in a massive cover-up rather than addressing the problem?
Doesn’t this perfectly describe everybody in the Church involved in the sex scandal?
Kryptik
@Chuck:
I’m a bitter Ex-Christian/Lapsed Catholic. However, my bitterness lies not with the religion itself, but rather that Organized Christianity, especially as it’s represented in the public sphere by its self-appointed leaders, has absolutely ignored the whole philosophy of Christianity, instead wrapping themselves in the brutal god of the Old Testament.
“What you did for the least of them” and “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” holds less purchase for them over the fire, brimstone, pillars of salt, Walls of Jericho stuff they rhetorically masturbate to.
EvolutionaryDesign
Like these asshats don’t try to scrub the public square of anything secular
MikeJ
And soon we’ll hear from Hiatt and Donohue and all the regular columnists about how mean those people from the internet are.
Rheinhard
Oh sure there are. The WaPo will never print an Op-ED by PZ Myers or Richard Dawkins. Those fire-breathing aggressive atheists are just too mean!!
Michael
In the end, it’ll all come down to evil Space Jews ruining everything – that’s where guys like Donohue invariably go, but are afraid to state it openly from the start.
EvolutionaryDesign
@Kryptik: This.
Half my family are practicing Christians, but they’re all pretty decent, tolerant people. It really is the power structure that is fucking everything up.
Bulworth
Donohue doesn’t like freedom very much…
phoebes-in-santa fe
Glad you found your cat, John. It’s really scary to have a missing pet!
As for Donohue and his (normal) hate-filled message, he was certainly rebuked in the comments section below his diatribe. Also lambasted was the WaPo for printing this crap.
One of the more interesting comments was the one about Donohue not exactly following his dictum to Catholics to breed and multiply. It pointed out he is divorced and has “only two children”.
There’s something deeply wrong with Bill Donohue. He seems to hate everybody…
Brick Oven Bill
Re: There really is no one too crazy or vile to get an op-ed printed at the Washington Post.
Today is the deadline for the America’s Next Great Pundit competition. I eagerly await the outcome.
People have asked for clarification on the nature of Natural Law. One way to explain it is as follows:
Assume a room full of men, without order. These men, in time, will establish an order among themselves. If there happens to be a short Jewish ballerina among the room of men, he will not be the one in charge.
Svensker
No offense, but I’m not in the mood to think about Fred Hiatt’s nuts. At least until after lunch.
(Vote for Bitsy)
The Grand Panjandrum
From the title of this post I expected this thread to be about teabagging. The OTHER teabagging. But alas its just another crazy fucker getting a chance to rant in the WaPo … yawn.
Hey, how ’bout them Yankees?
Keith
It’s much funnier hearing Donahue *speak* this stuff. His written words are pretty hilarious themselves, but when spoken, he comes off as something Dana Carvey would do.
PeakVT
What motivates them most of all is a pathological hatred of Christianity.
This is sort of the xtian version of “they hate us for our freedoms.”
Also, what would be a non-pathological hatred of Christianity, in Donohue’s mind?
Bulworth
@Ash:
Too busy walking their dogs…
Fortunately, nothing about us cat liberals dragging down civilization.
Violet
@EvolutionaryDesign:
If you just read the words of Jesus, he was a commie pinko soshulist – help the poor, feed the hungry, hang out with prostitutes and thieves. But they formed a religion and got all organized with leadership and power and whatnot. I don’t think Jesus himself would like any of that stuff, based on what he said in the Bible.
Walker
I am convinced that is WaPo’s modus operandi.
Bulworth
This guy’s complaints about freedom and secularism are essentially the same as those we would expect to hear from the islamacisticradicalfascistnazi types in Iran/Taliban.
Comrade Dread
I think that what bothers me (as a Christian who is probably more left-leaning than most of my evangelical friends) is that when self-appointed spokespeople make complaints like this about the culture mocking us or casting our ideals aside, that there is defense given for those ideas. There is no argument for our ideals presented to try and convince people that our views are correct and they should adopt them. There is no hint of an attractive evangelism which may actually make a marked change in at least one life.
There is simply a complaint that the world is against us.
To which most of us should reply that the Roman Empire’s society was truly against the early Christians and they accepted that, but continued to work to convince people, through argument, courage, and benevolent deeds, and see lives changed by faith in Christ one at a time.
If the American culture starts doing worse things to Christians than chucking us to lions or crucifying us, then I think we might have a right to complain.
mistersnrub
Future WaPo op-eds
“On the Homosexual Problem” by Pat Robertson
“Obama & the Infanticide Brigade” by Alan Keyes
“Breaking the Rothschilds Grip” by John Hagee
“Obama’s Failed Afghanistan Policy” by Ayman al-Zawahiri
Scott
So how does one get on op-ed in a major newspaper? Can anyone call up Fred Hiatt and ask for a column? Do you have to pay for the privilege? Does someone have to sponsor you?
I get about as many daily readers on my comic book weblog as there are members in Donohue’s Catholic rage club — can I have a WaPo op-ed to talk about how cool Plastic Man is?
Randy P
@Savage Henry:
Donohue has “addressed” that issue. Media Matters has the video.
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200910160005
So there is no problem with the Catholic church because if you’re past puberty you’re not a minor. Or something.
DougJ
That’s more Jon Meacham’s baby than Fred Hiatt’s.
Kryptik
@Scott:
Plastic Man is underrated and overpowered. Enough said. :P
Brick Oven Bill
You win the America’s Next Great Pundit competition Scott. But you missed the deadline. You need better situational awareness.
R-Jud
@mistersnrub:
“Reptilians: The Power Behind The Throne” by David Icke.
Bulworth
The comments at the Post site for this article really are pretty special.
PhoenixRising
Dog walking. He’s against leashes. The Post will just print any damn thing these days…
Violet
@Brick Oven Bill:
BOB, LauraW posted to you below in the open thread. She was wondering if any of your Beckites could be persuaded to vote for Bitsy. Here’s the link
Ash
Well if you read the comments section of the article, you would know that all the homosexuals in the Catholic Church are faking it and they’re all really Satanists and atheists. They only infiltrated the ranks so they could be closer to young boys.
catclub
Randy P @35
Actually, most of the children victimized were girls.
Unfortunately, most of the ones that make the news were boys.
I learned this from Roman Polanski threads.
Brick Oven Bill
I have previously addressed this Violet.
Bitsy received one vote from me. In exchange for additional votes from me, or from those who I control who surround you, LauraW needs to change Bitsy’s name to Glenn.
MikeJ
There a serious lack of infallibility when it comes to picking non-kiddy fiddling priests, as well as bishops and cardinals that won’t become accessories after the fact by conspiring with child molesters.
New Yorker
Bill Donohue has some….anger issues. Watch him TWICE challenge Christopher Hitchens to a schoolyard brawl here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeS0MHl5xTM
“You’re not likely to be anyone’s professor”. Classic.
Also, Donohue’s mask slips in his WaPo rant. Note, he defends Mel Gibson, who is part of a church that is in opposition to the modern Catholic Church. Donohue can’t have it both ways: he can either be an advocate for the modern Catholic Church under the current Pope, or he can join Gibson in their quest to restore the Church to its days of crackpot anti-semitism.
Leelee for Obama
@ericblair: Yeah, I had the same first impression-waited to get context. But, the brain bleach was handy, just incase!
His line about Evangelicals reproducing like bunnies bothers me because that is the exact argument used by the righties about Muslims-they’re gonna breed us out of existence. Yet another commonality to be mentioned about theocrats.
Tsulagi
Given the predictability of our holier than thou family values stratergeric strike force for God, looking forward to Donohue’s future repent press conference. Hopefully it’ll have some wow factor. Haggard’s “I did not bang nor was bunged by my gay hooker boyfriend, and certainly did not snort the crystal meth I bought from him” press conference was pretty good setting a standard.
But never forget that unsung trailblazer who dropped jaws across the country…the double wetsuit, single dildo Patriot Pastor. He gave his press conference in the sky. I’m guessing Donohue won’t disappoint.
ibid
To be fair, it seems that Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham are more responsible for the On Faith forum than Fred Hiatt is, but I can’t say I know whether Hiatt would play any direct part in deciding to publish this. And it’s important to remember that they aren’t just promoting some random fringe commentator, the guy is the president of the Catholic League. I don’t think that necessarily excuses publishing such ugly comments, but this guy is, more or less, an official spokesman of U.S. Catholicism. On its face, giving the president of the Catholic League a chance to comment on a forum about religion in America would seem to be pretty reasonable, and the fact that the result is so offensive reflects more on the Catholic League than on the WaPo. One could argue (and I’m not sure if I would, need to think about it more) that just letting the guy speak and hang himself with his own rope is the right thing to do. But knowing how the WaPo operates in general, I doubt that was their reasoning, regardless of whether it’s Hiatt or some other villager making the call.
The Moar You Know
@Irony Abounds: It’s just reflex at this point; they’re still bitter about Nixon.
EvolutionaryDesign
@Ash:
Aha! It’s always the same with these people. Persecution! More like Paranoia. Aren’t like 85% of Americans some form of Christian/Catholic? And yet they rage against ANYONE who might sully their names with logic and truth. Shows how confident they are in their message.
MikeJ
Funnily enough, it was the line used by anti-catholic bigots in the US when Italians and the Irish weren’t considered “white”.
Citizen_X
Or scouring the neighborhood for their wayward cats. Kidding, John, kidding! I’m glad Tunch is okay!
slag
John’s just pissed that somebody FINALLY called out America’s dog-walkers for being the heathen culture saboteurs that they are.
That’s right, John, Bill Donohue’s got your Lily-loving number and you’re going down, sucka!
Leelee for Obama
@Kryptik: A fellow-traveler I see. There’s nothing like a solid Catholic School education to create a dedicated agnostic. Nothing works better or faster.
These days, the xtianists would be looking for longer, stronger nails and sharper spears and praying Jesus wouldn’t come back, cause he’s screw up their gig. Not being judgmental? Take care of the lest among them? Love thy neighbor? That’s just not how they roll.
Tom
Newspapers generally try to cover all angles in the “national debate.” Which is interesting these days as one-half of the equation has gone bat-sh*t insane. Which brings up an interesting dilemma: Do newspapers take it upon themselves to shut them out of the conversation or print them and let people make up their own mind?
different church-lady
The problem with freedom of speech is that everyone gets it.
Violet
@Brick Oven Bill:
Figured your response would be something along those lines. Just thought I’d mention it.
ppcli
That may have been the worst op-ed I’ve ever read. Just a long evidence-free, spittle-spraying rant. One preposterous, hateful accusation after another. If a student handed me this in an intro course I would give it back for complete rewriting. What kind of an editor would green-light this kind of stream-of-raving-consciousness tripe?
The Post can’t go out of business soon enough for my liking.
Sad_Dem
“It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”
–Jesus
New Yorker
Er, my mistake. Donohue only challenges Hitchens to a schoolyard brawl once. He tells Hitchens that an Englishman has to be quiet when an Irishman talks twice (as if Donohue was born in Dublin).
slag
@different church-lady: But not everyone gets it in the pages of the WaPo. That’s the problem with freedom of speech.
Brick Oven Bill
Change Bitsy’s name.
Think Logically LauraW.
We can do this.
slag
@Brick Oven Bill: I’m sure Glenn Greenwald would be happy to have a dog named after him.
geg6
@ibid:
I can’t believe I’m going to defend the Vatican in any way here, but this is simply NOT TRUE. His organization is not a Church affiliate nor is it funded by the Vatican. Yes, he has ties to some of the more virulently rightwing American clergy, but he is decidedly NOT the official spokesman for U.S. Catholicism.
Violet
@Brick Oven Bill:
Laura doesn’t own Bitsy. You might want to appeal to Sylvia, Bitsy’s owner. A problem with the name Glenn for Bitsy – Little Bitsy is a female dog. Or maybe that’s not a problem?
Brick Oven Bill
He probably would slag. But you, me, and LauraW would know the truth.
joes527
@geg6: True dat. This guy is the chairman of the “more Catholic than the Pope” committee in America.
geg6
@Leelee for Obama:
Me three. Though I am more of a deist.
And add my five brothers and sisters to the club, too.
Laura W
@Brick Oven Bill:
Kay. As soon as you start thinking sanely.
Bill, I offered “Little Becksy” in a thread yesterday.
Is nothing ever enough for you? I try so hard to please you.
Brick Oven Bill
Obama’s mom was named Stanley. ‘Glenn’ is fine for a female dog.
We can do this LauraW. Use your influence. I can tell you have it.
ppcli
@ppcli:
Rereading my comment, I want to emphasise: yes, the worst. That isn’t hyperbole. I mean it. Normally even the most aggressive hate-spewers (or perhaps: *especially* the most aggressive hate-spewers) make an effort to mask their diatribe in a superficial appearance of “giving reasons” based on “evidence” and “argument”. The reasoning is generally full of holes, of course, but at least there is the gesture in the direction of the idea that wild claims require justification. This is just a lunatic rant that you’d expect to have come from a homeless self-appointed prophet of the apocalypse.
GReynoldsCT00
I feel like I need a shower after reading that
MikeJ
Since the baby blue Beelzebub killed it with a link, I’ll venture a guess that the vice-president of the United States might count as a practicing Catholic who is a Democrat.
Violet
@Laura W:
Little Becksy has quite the ring to it. It even sounds cute.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
@geg6:
This is true. It would be more meaningful, though, if it differed from rants from actual members of the catholic hierarchy (bishops, etc) in content rather than just diction. It’s pretty common to hear actual members of the catholic hierarchy rant about “culture of death”/”death cults” of secularists oppressing them. I find one of the more surprising developments of the last 15 years to be the Catholic hierarchy’s torrid love affair with the right wing, despite the fact that Catholics are still nominally a swing-voting demographic.
Oh, and off topic: the Speaker of the House, Vice President, and Senate Majority Whip (Durbin) don’t count as Catholics in the Democratic party leadership?
Brick Oven Bill
None of this is negotiable.
Glenn.
ibid
@geg6:
Fair point, that’s sort of what I meant by “more or less,” in that I certainly don’t think he speaks for most Catholics. “Official” was not the right word choice though, “prominent” or “influential” would have been better.
Kryptik
@Leelee for Obama:
Oddly enough, I had a very liberal Theology teacher in highschool (he was arrested twice, I believe, during protests on the School of the Americas). That helped me on the path to questioning the doctrine (though I was well on my way there anyways). I really don’t think any of my classmates ended up more religious coming in than they did coming out.
Funny how Catholic Schooling does that, huh?
Mike G
Edit:
There really is no
oneright-winger too crazy or vile to get an op-ed printed at the Washington Post.DFHs need not apply.
Leelee for Obama
@geg6: Most of my family, too.
The comments on this were fabulous! Hiatt and Meachem must have qvelled over the fact that people actually read it. Prolly figured that page would go direct to the litter box, not realizing most secular cats wouldn’t poop in it cause they’d consider it redundant. h/t Robin Williams.
Kyle
Close political allies of the “Israelis are anti-Semites” American rabies-neocons.
Cat Lady
My favorite comment there was “Report Offensive Columnists”. LOL.
There really is no one in charge of standards there anymore. It’s time to put the WaPo out of its misery. Sorry Ezra.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
Also, off the top of my head, Catholics in major leadership positions in the Democratic party:
Speaker of the House (Pelosi), Vice President (Biden), Senate Majority Whip (Durbin), Chairman of the DNC (Tim Kaine)
Although, I have a feeling there’s a “no true scotsman” fallacy operative here, where these don’t count as Catholics because they belong to a party that protects reproductive rights, and therefore by definition there can be no Catholics in the Democratic party leadership.
The Moar You Know
@geg6: Gotta agree with you here – kinda like saying James Traficant is the representative for all Democrats.
Entertaining as that would be, it’s just not true.
Ash Can
Bill Donohue is to Catholicism what John Hinckley is to the Jodie Foster Fan Club.
R-Jud
@Leelee for Obama: Yep, another lapsed Catholic here, thanks to Sister Thomas Aquinas and Sister Raymond Mary, et alia.
I have an aunt who’s hard-core: framed pictures of herself and the last two Popes on the walls. My mom visited her recently, and Aunt Cathechism prayed over dinner for “the conversion of our President.”
It is all about being in the Club. Jesus doesn’t even enter into it. I am halfway convinced that if you are going to be properly Christian and feel compelled to join an organized sect, your best bet is the Society of Friends.
And, for fun, an apropos strip from “Hark, a Vagrant!”
Jamey
Yes, multiculturalism is bad.
America was a better place when the Papist Brideys were scrubbing our floors, Paddys were shoveling our manure, and the rest of their heathen ilk were outside our borders looking in.
Fuck you, Donahue. With a condom-covered crucifix.
Leelee for Obama
@Cat Lady: That is my favorite as well. I laughed right out loud!
Just Some Fuckhead
@Ash Can:
lolz
Kryptik
@geg6:
@The Moar You Know:
The problem isn’t that he’s an official spokesman. The problem is that he’s the de facto spokesman for Catholicism, as far as the news outlets and public discourse go. Much like Falwell, Robertson, Perkins, etc. are for Protestantism, so Donahue is for Catholicism.
They are the public face, not because they were appointed, elected, or pushed up as stalwart examples by those of the faith. They are the public face, because they say so, and they get the news media and the like to give them face time to justify that assumption.
Ken
Sorry, I’m still having trouble with the post title. Is the apostrophe-S here the contraction, or the possessive? That is, are you going for:
Fred Hiatt IS nuts – look what he allows in the paper
or
Fred Hiatt OWNS nuts – and he’s added a new one to his collection
The evidence doesn’t allow distinguishing between these.
Shell
‘Catholic League’ , my ass. He makes it sound like he’s got legions behind him.
When Kathy Griffin got slammed by Donahue over something she said at the Emmys, she at first felt a little freaked. As if the Pope was coming after her. Then she realized that ‘Catholic League’ was pretty much one guy and a computer.
Tsulagi
That pretty much happened with my SO. She even went to a Catholic university in her home country. Said it really went over well in class one day when she called bullshit on immaculate conception. Said if Joseph wasn’t the father, then Mary just came up with an original excuse: God did it.
The Saff
@geg6: I was a public school kid but had to go to mass every weekend with the ‘rents. I finally wised up to the Cat-lick church after a history class my sophomore year in college. That helped to make me a dedicated agnostic.
Even after all these years, the ‘rents still wonder where they went wrong with me.
kay
I felt like it had sort of a pleading tone, like the culture war is over and we won, but he’d like to get one started again.
It’s almost a list of reasons why someone somewhere might want to start a fight.
God knows this guy is too angry and unhinged to handle that. Maybe a call for some younger, happier warrior-type?
It’s a little pathetic.
Leelee for Obama
@R-Jud: That cartoon was hilarious!
Remember Jon Stewart when Benedict was first elected? He was praising how Ratzinger made the Nazi thing work for him? I had to be mopped up off the floor!
Shell
The authors of Freakanomics are on NPR right now.
liberal
@Violet:
My best friend claims that if you take Paul’s writings and replace “Church” with “Empire,” it makes much more sense.
Joe Vegas
What does this post have to do with Hiatt’s genetalia?
Skepticat
Awww, the poor victims. I guess when you’re a nail, everything looks like a hammer.
Leelee for Obama
@liberal: Constantine and his Cross is where the Empire/Church part really started to take shape. That’s when Mary Magdalene suddenly became a whore and God had Rome in the hollow of his hand and all that. Wonder how his legions felt about not being credited with victory when they were the blood and guts. Seems not honoring the troops has a long history. But, your friend isn’t wrong about Paul. He had ideas of Empire before most anyone else, because he knew the Kingdom of Israel wasn’t coming back anytime soon, and he was a world power kind of guy..
An Outhouse
This is the same thing Donahue prints any time he has the chance, changes the date and submits the same drivel.
SenyorDave
I canceled our subscription to the WaPo about 5 weeks ago, and my wife is getting sick of hearing me talk about what a great decision it was on a daily basis. Occasionally, she will read one of the offending op-ed pieces online, and then she usually agrees with me.
Donahue surprise me, he is pretty much openly anti-semitic
slag
@Ken: I thought the ambiguity was the best part of the title.
Svensker
@R-Jud:
As a converted (as opposed to a born) Quaker, I thank you.
katiemc
@Brick Oven Bill:
hahahahahahah! whew.. ok that just cracked me up
An Outhouse
“but this guy is, more or less, an official spokesman of U.S. Catholicism”
The Catholic League is an official representative of the Catholic Church as much as the Catholic Worker is, that is, not at all.
CalD
Unlike most Liberals, I actually am at war on people of faith. So in my particular case, this isn’t just another paranoid delusion on their part. I really am out to get them. Muah-ha-ah. Seriously. I’m not kidding. And their little dogs, too. They started it.
carolatl
@geg6: A Southern Baptist, hellfire-and-brimstone upbringing works well, too.
Ash Can
@R-Jud: That cartoon is adorable. :)
R-Jud
@Svensker: You’re welcome. Any group that includes Jane Addams and Edward Murrow and disowns Lyndon LaRouche is OK with me.
And, um, how exactly did that conversion happen?
SiubhanDuinne
@ericblair: I found the title deliciously ambiguous. Hmmm, lessee, is John saying that Fred Hiatt IS nuts, or is he talking about the nuts of Fred Hiatt? Is a puzzlement.
ibid
@Kryptik:
I agree that “de facto” would also have been a better word choice than my original “official.” I can’t say I know how representative Donohue’s views are of the Catholic hierarchy, but he is the most prominent media spokesman for Catholicism in the U.S. And since the Catholic hierarchy neither denounces Donohue nor promotes more rational Catholic voices (at least not in ways that are discernible to me as a media consumer who is not Catholic), it does reflect poorly on them, even if he is not “official.” The media’s anointment of certain people to speak for an entire religion is part of the problem as well, and as I said before, I don’t think he speaks for individual Catholics, but the Church doesn’t seem to have much of a problem with him portraying himself as their representative in the media.
catclub
Tsulagi@95
Immaculate conception is not the conception of Jesus.
It is the idea that MARY was conceived without sin.
The Episcopal prayerbook has a phrase describing Jesus
as “our only mediator and advocate”. It is a poke in the eye
to Catholics who consider Mary as mediator and advocate.
The conception of Jesus would be the Incarnation.
SiubhanDuinne
@Violet: Glenn Close?
fraught
Does anyone know: is Bill Donahue married? Does he have children? Why no info in his bio?
asiangrrlMN
Someone floated the idea that this was a satire, which I found plausible. I find it hard to believe he would use the phrase:
At any rate, most of the comments I read excoriated him, so I feel marginally comforted.
Mark S.
@asiangrrlMN:
If I had never heard of Donahue, I might think it was satire as well, but I’m well aware of the asshole. Since my parents are hardcore traditional Catholics, I’m used to assholes like Donahue. They are every bit as crazy as the evangelical knuckleheads who get more attention, except more anti-Semitic and they love womb babies a lot more (post-womb babies, not so much).
Shygetz
@fraught: I believe he has two children from a previous marriage.
That’s right…this Catholic scold is divorced.
Leelee for Obama
@Shygetz: The divorce thing is Okey dokey. He just cannot re-marry, especially in the Church. For that, he’d need an annulment. One of those is what led to my turning my back on the Church very early. Pop got one to marry Mom. The nuns said my half-sibs were illegitimate. I called BS, I think I was 9? Vewwy popular I was, after that.
asiangrrlMN
@Mark S.: Oh, I’ve heard of him before, but I thought maybe it was like the Yes, Men imitating whomever they were imitating. I thought perhaps someone not Donahue wrote this and submitted it under his name.
asiangrrlMN
@Leelee for Obama: Good for you!
Anne Laurie
@Leelee for Obama:
I checked the byline, because I thought Tim was going to share photos of some tiny perfect microcrystalline structures!
My late grandmother always insisted my cousins were illegitimate because my aunt hadn’t been married “in the Church” and a mere civil ceremony didn’t count. And I got in trouble in my very first day of parochial school, for disagreeing with Sister Jane Edward about the inspirational qualities of the Jacob-v-Esau story. I credit a certain part of my early adoption of feminism to those nuns who spent the next twelve years telling me “Too bad you weren’t born a boy, you’d have been a great Jesuit!”
Wile E. Quixote
Suck on this Bill Donahue, you worthless, drunken, Irish Catholic piece of shit.
Sm*t Cl*de
religious conservatives continue to breed like rabbits
It was a misprint. He meant to say “read like Babbitts”.
skippy
ok, but what about fred hiatt’s nuts?
pseudonymous in nc
Who died and made him Pope?
(Last time I checked, the Catholics weren’t lacking hierarchy.)
Thadeus Horne
@CalD: Sounds reasonable to me. Where do I enlist?
Except the dog part…I’ll adopt the dogs.
chrome agnomen
humor is our secret weapon. as long as there are more people in a society that are humorists, rather than scolds, there is an inherent advantage to our side, since more people would rather laugh than be preached to.
just sayin’
Cheryl from Maryland
Way too late, but too good to not share: I was discussing this entry with my spouse this am, and in reference to the Marquis de Sade, he called the Marquis a “good Catholic pervert” who wrote about doing it with nuns.
Not able to get through Justine, I say, if you want to know about nihilism, watch the Big Lebowski, and if you really want to know anything about Bill Donovan, watch the South Part episode with the Hair Club for Men.