Psychotic Anti-Catholic Bigotry Published at EdBlog

Not in a freakin' million years would anything like this be run were it about Jews or Muslims.

Somebody named John Chamless, who I'm sure feels he hasn't a bigoted bone in his body, ran the following message from a correspondent today (Biotech, Oct 21, 10:52 AM) at EdBlog:

Many thanks for your willingness to label the anti-scientific attitude of the new "moralists" for what it really is, Luddism. Now, I'll go one step further — and no doubt earn your distance and disapproval — and comment on another aspect of this organized Luddism that people are unaware of, have failed to realize, or simply afraid to state aloud. Namely, there is in this country a well funded movement by arch conservative Roman Catholics to infuse papal doctrine into the public policy and laws of this nation. Nowhere is it more evident than in the area of biotechnology. Your Rod Dreher exemplifies this movement at the DMN. Fox News Channel and its almost solidly arch Catholic line-up of conservative anti-science zealots (Hannity, O'Reilly, Cavuto, et. al.) leads the national effort, as befits a media outlet owned by Rupert Murdoch, who was anointed a member of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great, a papal knighthood awarded to individuals who "promote the interests of society, the [Catholic] Church and the Holy See". Buckley's National Review, on the other hand, is the breeding ground for the movement in the print media. There is a real and substantial conflict at work, here. The Roman Church is an absolute monarchy. As such, it is fundamentally at odds with a country founded on the principles of decentralized democracy, which, yes, is the distinctive development of schismatic prone Protestantism. It is false to dismiss the persecution of the likes of Galileo as a quaint artifact of past Catholic "mistakes". That spirit persists today, most actively in the Murdoch-Buckley Axis. (Well, I'll bet this is one reader comment that never makes it to the blog page. Fox News has already made a pre-emptive attack on critics of papal policy, labeling us all bigots and haters.)

That's only because you are a hate-filled bigot.

The same John Chamless, who I'm sure feels he hasn't a bigoted bone in his body, ran a response from another correspondent (Re: Biotech, Oct 21, 2:47 PM):

Your reader's take on "biotech" obviously has nothing at all to do with biotech but is simply an excuse to rehash the oldest of anti-Catholic canards, namely that Catholics want to impose a theocracy ruled from Rome upon their fellow Americans. Such views were commonly held by our slave-owning founding fathers, were a cornerstone of the propaganda of the Know-Nothings and the KKK, and have been on the wane over the last century — but apparently not completely on the editorial board of the DMN. The views posted on the blog are plainly an example of an attempt to silence Catholics and marginalize their views in public debate and discourse. After all, why listen to what a Catholic might say or think since they are supposedly dictated to by an "absolute monarchy." (Gee, that "absolute monarchy" doesn't seem to be able to control most Catholic politicians, though...) Thinking people recognize your blogger's statements for what they are — sheer ignorance and bigotry. Indeed, anyone with even the slightest passing knowledge of the encyclicals and statements of John Paul II would know better than to endorse the view that he or the Church is "anti-science" or that the opposition to cloning is somehow based on a fear of scientific progress. It is not but is rather based on an unflinching and consistent respect for the intrinsic value of human life at all its stages.

The Blog from the Core doesn't use the word "psychotic" very often. Perhaps not often enough. But this time it's warranted: in a country where artificial contraception, divorce, and abortion are not merely legal everywhere, but rampant everywhere, the idea that "papal doctrine" is, or is being, "infused" here is simply... psychotic.

Oh. Somebody let me know when that John Chamliss fellow runs a reader's message attacking Jews or Muslims that way, okay?

P.S. See also extreme Catholic.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 10/21/03 09:13:51 PM
Categorized as Media.