Hypocrisy and the Catholic League

[smartestnumber5]

A few days ago a controvery broke out after the Catholic League's president Bill Donohue accused two of John Edward's newly hired campaign bloggers of anti-Catholic bigotry in posts (written long before being hired by Edwards) on their personal blogs.

I can see how some of these (largely satirical) posts were less than PC (though people on this board seem to despise PCness, so that shouldn't be a problem) and could be seen as offensive. Some of what Donohue objects to, however, is ridiculous. He is upset, for instance, that one blogger has a post discussing the use of a particular offensive word for female genitalia. Also, he finds a post which points out that many prominent Christian leaders have actively supported discriminatory legislation against gay people offensive. Huh?

Anyway, I was shocked (in a happy way) to see that an ABC News article (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2871447&page=1) reporting that one of the bloggers has resigned, Donohue's own apparent history of bigotry was mentioned:

Donohue, it might be noted, has a history of inflammatory comments himself, having referred in the past to the "gay death style" and having called gays "queers." In 2004 he said: "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular…Hollywood likes anal sex. They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children. They like abortions. I believe in traditional values and restraint. They believe in libertinism. We have nothing in common. But you know what? The culture war has been ongoing for a long time. Their side has lost."

Here's another beauty not mentioned in the article:

Another beauty was when he accused an alleged sexual abuse victim of "allowing" himself to be molested:

"As for the alleged abuse, it’s time to ask some tough questions. First, there is a huge difference between being groped and being raped, so which was it Mr. Foley? Second, why didn’t you just smack the clergyman in the face? After all, most 15-year-old teenage boys wouldn’t allow themselves to be molested. So why did you?

http://www.catholicleague.org/06press_releases/quarter 4/061004_Mark_Foley.htm

Now the question is, how come no one has been clamoring for Donohue to resign?

 

[JoeEpcotRocks]

A few days ago a controvery broke out after the Catholic League's president Bill Donohue accused two of John Edward's newly hired campaign bloggers of anti-Catholic bigotry in posts (written long before being hired by Edwards) on their personal blogs.

I can see how some of these (largely satirical) posts were less than PC (though people on this board seem to despise PCness, so that shouldn't be a problem) and could be seen as offensive. Some of what Donohue objects to, however, is ridiculous. He is upset, for instance, that one blogger has a post discussing the use of a particular offensive word for female genitalia. Also, he finds a post which points out that many prominent Christian leaders have actively supported discriminatory legislation against gay people offensive. Huh?

Anyway, I was shocked (in a happy way) to see that an ABC News article (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=2871447&page=1) reporting that one of the bloggers has resigned, Donohue's own apparent history of bigotry was mentioned:


Here's another beauty not mentioned in the article:

Another beauty was when he accused an alleged sexual abuse victim of "allowing" himself to be molested:

http://www.catholicleague.org/06press_releases/quarter 4/061004_Mark_Foley.htm

Now the question is, how come no one has been clamoring for Donohue to resign?

He certainly wasn't the only one to find those bloggers offensive.

Why are you shocked in a happy way about Mr. Donahue? Is non-PC a problem for you or not? When does non-PC equal bigotry for you? I ask because you say the bloggers were non-PC for their comments but Mr. Donahue was a bigot for his comments.

I would comment that a man of Mr. Donahue's position should choose his words more carefully. Also, Mr. Donahue's words don't excuse the bloggers from their words. Independent events.

 

[goofygirl]

Donohue is a jerk. I remember him making the rounds and sucking up the spotlight during the "DaVinci Code" craze.

 

[Fitswimmer]

I've been a Catholic all my life and William Donahue does NOT speak for me or for anyone that I know.

 

[Cool-Beans]

Probably because nobody cares about him.

Most Catholics don't even know who he is.

Any idiot on any website can say what they want.

If he were actually representing Catholics, I'd care about what he said, but he isn't. So, I don't.

Lots of loopy people out there. Should we call for all of their resignations?

Ann Coulter, I demand that you resign!

 

[smartestnumber5]

Probably because nobody cares about him.

Most Catholics don't even know who he is.

Any idiot on any website can say what they want.

If he were actually representing Catholics, I'd care about what he said, but he isn't. So, I don't.

Lots of loopy people out there. Should we call for all of their resignations?

Ann Coulter, I demand that you resign!

Now that you mention it, I don't know how in the heck Ann Coulter can say the things she does and still get on news shows and such.

Yeah, I mean I know he's a crazy and not really worth the time and he really doesn't speak for most Catholics. But apparently someone is listening to him because enough trouble has been caused that Edwards had to make a statement and condemn what the bloggers said before he hired them and now both bloggers have resigned.

Of course, both say Edwards did not force them out. But who knows what happened behind the scenes? At the very least it seems clear that there was enough of a poo-storm that it might have really hurt Edwards for them to stay. Plus with the lovely death threats and hate mail they seemed to be receiving from people who claim to be religious and offended, I'm guessing there wasn't much incentive to stay. I'm not saying that Donohue was encouraging the hate mail, but I don't know how anyone would have known about the whole situation if not for him making it a huge deal.

So of course it makes perfect sense that people haven't gotten up in arms about getting Donohue to resign because, as you say, he's loopy. But he's a loopy guy who has managed to make a whole lot of trouble for Edwards and cost some people their jobs. So he's a very effective loopy guy.

 

[smartestnumber5]

He certainly wasn't the only one to find those bloggers offensive.

Why are you shocked in a happy way about Mr. Donahue? Is non-PC a problem for you or not? When does non-PC equal bigotry for you? I ask because you say the bloggers were non-PC for their comments but Mr. Donahue was a bigot for his comments.

I would comment that a man of Mr. Donahue's position should choose his words more carefully. Also, Mr. Donahue's words don't excuse the bloggers from their words. Independent events.

I was shocked in a happy way that the ABC news article actually pointed out Donahue's hypocrisy. Usually the media is perfectly happy to let people who get all righteous about these kinds of moral issues to be as hypocritical as they want. I was happy that in this case, they actually pointed out that Donahue himself does exactly what he accuses the bloggers of doing, yet he hasn't called for his own resignation.

Regarding the PC and bigotry issue, I should have been more clear. I do think Donahue's calling gay people names is clearly bigoted. I think some of what the bloggers wrote could not in any shape or form be thought of as bigoted except by someone who is crazy. And then I think some of what they wrote is in the gray area since, though they are likely to be offensive to Catholics, they were trying to make a particular criticism which I largely agree with, and which I don't think is in itself objectionable. I don't necessarily agree with how they made those criticisms; the way they made them might be bigoted, but I'd like more context for some of the quotes (especially given that I have read one of the blogs pretty often and I don't recall seeing such things before).

In any case, surely Donahue's past statements don't excuse the bloggers (and Edwards did come out when this whole thing broke and condemned the bloggers statements, but that wasn't enough for Donahue). But they do make him a hypocrite because he condemns them for doing the same thing he does and he has essentially forced them to resign for doing what the same thing he does.

 

[Fitswimmer]

I'm surprised Edwards responded to him, frankly.