Sunday, September 30, 2007

Just wondering...

if the Speaker of the House would have been so
flippant and dismissive were it Islam, Judaism, or Buddhism that were subjected to such mockery.

I agree with her that the usual hateful diabolical attacks on Jesus and the Church by simpletons and sexual deviants of this sort cannot harm Christ and His Church (Matt 16:18). However, I wouldn't be so sure that she, as a Christian, is equally unscathed. Refusing to even speak a word of rebuke is not much of a Christian witness - especially when one has something to gain by one's silence: political peace with deviant anti-Christian voters (see Matt 10:32-34).

Will Archbishop Niederauer be condemning this attack on the holy faith? Will he be excommunicating Mrs. Pelosi for her ambivalence and cowardly tolerance of attacks on Jesus and the apostles by her political constituents?

Is anybody in the Roman hierarchy even listening?

3 comments:

Lawrence said...

The damage is done to those who perpetrate such mockery, and to those who refuse to speak against it.

Rev. Larry Beane said...

I've written to the archbishop at info@sfarchdiocese.org and asked him about this. I'll post any reply I get, and I would urge other folks (especially Roman Catholics) to write to his grace as well.

I know the bishop is a Benedict appointee, but I also know there are some strange pictures of him on the internet surrounded by dancing girls at the altar. He has also called Brokeback Mountain a "powerful" film. I'm trying my best to watch the 8th commandment, so I'm giving the archbishop a chance to respond.

It seems like the diocese of San Francisco requires pastoral oversight from a man with a spine of steel and an unflinching commitment to the order of creation. We'll see.

Rev. Larry Beane said...

Update: In a press release, Abp. Niederauer said:

"Discrimination and prejudice have varied targets: race, ethnicity, gender, religion, etc. Hence we believe that people who ridicule the religious symbols and expressions of others have much in common with those who trade in social or ethnic slurs."

I find his statement to be anemic, wimpy, and politically safe.

I'm reminded of the joke Dr. Marquart told about a man and his son watching an episcopal consecration. At the moment of the laying on of hands, the little boy asked what was happening. The father replied: "Well, son, this is where they remove his spine."

Too bad.