New York City's Speaker of the Council Christine Quinn with Mayor Bloomberg and members of the band U2 during a ceremony to name a street after the band. Speaker Quinn, a democrat and out lesbian, has a cause in common with Bill Donahue, and no it's not U2.There are times when irony and/or hubris are just so blatant one has to smile. Following are two such examples. One involves Deal Hudson in a major case of the pot calling the kettle black, and one involves Bill Donahue in a case of Enemy Mine. (Enemy Mine is one of my all time favorite movies.)
Deal Hudson warns of future ‘anti-Catholic storm’ in U.S.
An “anti-Catholic storm” is looming in the United States, Deal Hudson has claimed, because of the Church’s stance against “postmodern ideologies” and because well-funded Catholic supporters of President Obama provide cover for Catholic politicians who dissent from Catholic teaching. (Deal, you should be flattered. Your entire successful political strategy for co opting the Catholic right is being copied by the left. Maybe too successfully for your tastes.)
Hudson, who has served as an advisor to Republican leaders on Catholic issues, wrote at InsideCatholic.com that a “relentless barrage” of reporting in the mainstream media is intended to force changes demanded by dissenting Catholic groups. (It's a shame. That used to be space the right wing religious faction mostly controlled.)
Revelations of clerical sexual abuse in Europe have provided “Catholic bashers” the opportunity to attack Church teachings about abortion and same-sex “marriage,” he added. A call to arrest Pope Benedict XVI in the United Kingdom should have been regarded as “a crank call” but has led to speculation about whether the papal trip to Britain should be canceled. (There we go, abortionsamesexmarriage.)
While Iraqi Christians are being expelled from their homelands, this only receives “occasional mention” in the New York Times, whose reporters “dig through Vatican documents” hoping to link the Pope with clerical sexual abuse, Hudson objected.
“The use of courts and commissions to harass and threaten Catholics and other Christians has already been auditioned in Canada. And the expansion of hate-speech laws signed by President Barack Obama last October sets the stage for similar tussles here when a minister, priest, or voluble layperson too heatedly denounces homosexual sex.” (Imagine the tussles if ministers denounced illicit heterosexual sex as the intrinsically evil expression of objectively disordered heterosexuals. If that were the case, Deal Hudson, for instance, might appreciate those hate-speech laws.)
While the Church is not the only institution insisting on universal moral standards, it is the largest and therefore stands in the way of “postmodern ideologies achieving complete dominance in the West.”
Those who hold the “postmodern” belief that all truth is power “don't hesitate to use the power of the media, government, and the courts to attack any institution thwarting their influence.” (Maybe they learned that from observing the activities of the abortionsamesexmarriage crowd.)
According to Hudson, political donors have combined resources with labor unions, which once had a “vital” relationship with the Church, to support “faux Catholic groups that provide cover for politicians who don’t vote Catholic.” He suggested that it is these groups’ fault that the majority of candidates who oppose abortion and same-sex marriage are Republican. (Hmmm, and here I thought the Republican party purposely sought out cultural conservatives because they were the party of cultural values. I guess the truth is they were only the default party.)
“The coming anti-Catholic storm will be linked, sadly, to the reelection campaign of President Barack Obama,” he predicted. Though the president is out of favor at the moment, his supporters will “quickly recover” enthusiasm in the face of a Republican opponent.
“There will be a furious and well-funded effort by Catholic Obama supporters to keep Obama in office. By 2010, the storm will be felt throughout the Church, and those who blithely claim that the Church and politics are not connected will be as helpless as a fallen leaf caught in a tornado,” Hudson’s commentary concluded. (This is too funny. I hope the bishops in his pocket read this one as they are the one's who keep saying the Church and politics are not connected.---as if anyone or anything connected to Deal Hudson isn't all about politics.)
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The above comments from Deal Hudson are worthy of Keith Olberman's "Worst person in the world" designation. Deal must truly believe his ardent followers are blind and deaf or have poor memories. Either that or he is really scared the Republicans truly are about to self destruct and he and his fellow manipulators have been out manipulated by the Tea party faction---the faction he helped create. Perhaps Deal should meditate on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
In the meantime his fellow Catholic neocon, Bill Donahue has had enough sense to stir up ardor without seemingly resorting to politics. He and his Catholic League cronies have created the Empire State Building vs Mother Theresa controversy. What's funny to me about the current status of this 'dispute' is one of their most vocal and politically placed proponents is the Democratic Speaker of the NY City Council, Christine Quinn. Who just also happens to be an out lesbian. Hmm, what to do, what to do. I'm guessing Bill will be in a moral quandary all the way to the bank.
I do think it's telling that even Bill Donahue is politically astute enough to create some other controversy rather than to continuously recycle abortionsamesexmarriage. The general trend in American Catholicism is moving beyond abortionsamesexmarriage. The inherent conflicts between absolute adherence to religious dogma and Christ like pastoral compassion are becoming very evident. I like to think it really is the rare Catholic who prefers slavish obedience to rules over humane compassion. Christ certainly modeled in His life that humane compassion trumped slavish obedience to rules.
Maybe this is the lesson that clerics like Olmstead and Burke, and political operatives like Deal Hudson are teaching American Catholics. As far as the Holy Spirit is concerned, it doesn't matter what you think you are teaching. What matters is the lesson your audience gets. So I say keep it up boys. You really are doing the work of the Holy Spirit.
