Infamous Catholic Party media ho and gadfly Bill Donohue and a gang of liquored up middle aged, some closeted, Irish Catholic types tried to mob their way into a peaceful art exhibit on W 57 Street in midtown Manhattan recently.
The object of their media publicity quest was a rather outdated piece of decorative art “Immersion” by New York Artist Andres Serrano. Apparently the twenty fifth anniversary showing of a commodity piece of decorative art got the Friday Irish Watering Hole guys over at Rosie O’Grady’s to get upset that somebody under the first amendment could portray the image, a photograph in fact, of a crucifix in a jar of the artist’s urine and call it art.
And all within walking and drinking distance of his bar and his Eminence’s Pink Palace Bishop’s Townhouse over by St. Pat’s Cathedral. It was enough to make a grown drunk divorced Irish Catholic man like poor sensitive Bill Donohue to cry.
Gallery owners were expecting a protest on Thursday night and were
relieved when only about 30 people turned up, Ms. von Mueffling said. Things
became heated, she said, when the group tried to push pass the four guards at
the entry. She said that the gallery called the police, who dispersed the
protesters.
Mr. Donohue called that version of events an “out-and-out lie.”
“We didn’t push past anybody,” he said. “There were no police
there, none at all.”
Only he was blocked from entering, Mr. Donohue said. He left and
went with some friends to Rosie O’Grady’s, a nearby bar.
Detective Marc Nell, a spokesman for the New York City Police
Department, said that officers were aware that a protest was going on and went
by twice to check, but not in response to a call. During the first visit in the
evening, at 6:22 p.m., “there was no interaction with the protesters,”
Detective Nell said. He added: “Police talked to security and security said
everything was fine.”
One of the pluses of hanging out on this blog for
the past four years has been an almost daily education of the finer details of
Catholic and Christian theology or the approach to the concept of the abstract
G*d thing.
I am, many times. a day or two late and more than a
few dollars short on the subject of theology BTW.
But I am reminded of two things as the religious
parasite crowd in this country wants more and more handouts of cash from the
government for its charity and education rackets.
Lori, Harrison, Mitchell - A Catholic, A Lutheran and A Baptist go into a Bar and demand Free Whiskey...
I am not anti-religion. I am Areligionist - without dogma and or religion, with a background dose
of Cultural Christian in my everyday mindset.
The two things are related to a third thing – the civil
rights issue of marriage equality.
I am reminded of the Bishop of Denver sanctioning
the turning out of two small children from their catholic school in an affluent suburb
because their parents were an unmarried lesbian couple living together. Apparently it is not legal for the "Spouse One" and the "Spouse Two" boxes on many marriage certificate applications in America
to be filled in with the names of people of the same gender in Colorado, a wild west territory until 1876.
Modern Invented Definition - Homosexual - Source: Dictionary.com
Beyond that there are too many stories of gay men
and women who are not openly, but covertly, fired from jobs in Catholic and
probably Christian education as well because they dare to walk out of the shadows of a
lie that society builds around the misunderstanding of human sexuality, built
on invented terms, many of which were invented in Victorian England and in
reflection of the obsessive compulsive disorder of the German Prince Consort
Albert and other compulsive Victorians.
I am reminded of the Mormons who had to give up
their socially designed redesign around the marriage thing in the form of one
man marrying many women and calling his concubines "wives" and married in Mormon
Temple etc. That the Mormons had to abandon polygamy in order to gain statehood
in the United States as the state of Utah.
Zion Ranch Texas - Mormon Wives - 2008
That I am reminded that it is the Mormons who raised
the most cash to turn back the California law allowing civil, not religious,
marriage for taxpaying gay citizens, male and female.
This spiteful Mormon deal carries over onto the
Catholic landscape where the latest hate campaign against gay catholics is at a
fever pitch and in obedience to monies paid to the RC church from the
fundamentalist Christian Right and the Mormon Church to introduce American
society over a period of decades to the concept that it is alright to openly
hate the gays in the form of disqualification from marriage (sorry, failed the religious litmus test as defined precisely by G*d hisself) and eventually other
civil rights as well.
And not just for gays but eventually all people of
free conscience in a once free land that was founded to protect people from the
dark shadows of things like Catheofascism among other dark religious beliefs
and laws in Europe.
The second thing is the firing of a catholic school
teacher in June in Minnesota for saying that she believed in the concept of
same-sex marriage on her self-filled out evaluation. The story made all the
papers for a day or two. The teacher, Trish Cameron, no doubt could not live with the
hypocrisy of a lie that so many of the majority of the closeted gay clergy can
live with every day to protect their meal-ticket lifetime jobs with the
Vatican.
I pray that one day we gain back the morality and
integrity of a non-majority Catholic United States Supreme Court to state that yes, Catholic Clergy are
employees of an international corporation and that Headquarters in Rome can be
sued for hate, fraud and buggery as part of that worldwide organization.
It may be me alone and too many people may be too lazy to
notice it but expelling children from Catholic Schools, children from Bishop
Chaput’s diocese school for their parents beliefs and sexuality and the firing
of teachers and theologians and others from Catholic institutions reminds me an
awful lot of the early days of the National Socialist Regime in Germany in the early
1930s.
"Kauft Nicht" - Don’t Buy...
In fact the recent story, greatly upset me, of the Catholic Church
in Germany wanting, demanding its 8% income tax on German citizens for accident of birth
and or accident of baptism in one particular faith, as a financial burden for the
rest of their lives of these catholic victims by birth, whether they believe in the faith or whether they attend
church or not.
That I have to wonder when did this right of
Catholic Church taxation of German citizens begin – the German/Vatican Concordat of 1933?
Signing Away German Catholic Civil Rights for Vatican Privilege
No doubt Ross Douthat of the NYT, Michael Sean Winters
of NCR, Raymond Arroyo of EWTN and Bill Donohue of Timbo Dolan NYC Inc. will soon be churning out the
Catheofascist propaganda PR about how what a great and efficient idea a
Catholic Tax in America will be, to have it imposed on all the population etc., Catholic or not.
With more and more overlapping of church and state
in America, with faith based “charities” handouts to foreign religious
corporations, with school vouchers and other indirect subsidies to the Catholic
education system that is allowed by right of some mythical God that they cannot
prove to me exists, and are therefore exempt or want exemption from other secular
humanist laws like laws against discrimination, well you think about it.
How long before the Catholic Church surcharge on
your state and national income taxes must be paid under penalty of the law –
which law – secular law or the religious laws of the new American Catheofascism?
Father Coughlin - Radio Voice of Catheofascism in 1930s America - "They're back!"
With the government getting out of the government
business in America, charity for the poor will fall on the Churches who now
need cash and taxes to dole out soup to the poor.
In Germany, the RC Church is asserting its rights to
collect taxes from “catholics” baptized at birth against their will and who now
must support all the charity work and all the lawyers fees of all the buggering of children leisure hobby of the clergy there.
"This decree makes clear that one cannot partly leave the
Church," Germany's bishops' conference said last week, in a decision
endorsed by the Vatican.
Unless they pay the religious tax, Catholics will no longer be
allowed receive sacraments, except before death, or work in the church and its
schools or hospitals.
Without a "sign of repentance before death, a religious
burial can be refused," the decree states. Opting out of the tax would
also bar people from acting as godparents to Catholic children.
"This decree at this moment of time is really the wrong
signal by the German bishops who know that the Catholic church is in a deep
crisis," Christian Weisner from the grassroots Catholic campaign group We
are Church told the BBC.
I
just read on another blog how two gay friends got a frosty reception in some
Catholic houses of “worship” on a trip though Minnesota which used to be a kind
liberal place for all humanity. The
church pews were full of Politically Correct RC cookie cutter Bishop’s
Republican propaganda on who good catholics should vote for.
That
and everything but a NGNA (No Gays Need Attend) sign over the front door of
these tax free houses of religious “whoreship”.
Go
away to some spiritual Limbo? Send them all to a Spiritual Auschwitz dear
bishop(s)?
On
top of that Archbishop Cordileone trying to sober up and hopefully in a 12 step
addict’s recovery plan as he plans to take over the Gayest City in America –
San Francisco. Oy Vey!
He
gave some rambling interview recently, no doubt being out of focus on de-tox and
gave what appears today in the Roman Catholic Church as acceptable PC Hack Theology –
the Attention Deficit rambling kind of Theology being pushed as the “New Evangelism”
by Numero Uno Chicago Kick Kiss-Ass theologian Father Robert Barron.
. . .in a
recent interview at the headquarters of the Oakland diocese, where he has
served as bishop for three years, Cordileone was more direct: Gays and lesbians
who are in sexual relationships of any kind, he said, should not receive the
sacrament of Holy Communion, the central ritual of Catholic life.
“If
we misuse the gift of sexuality, we’re going to suffer the consequences,” he
said, “and I firmly believe we are suffering the consequences.”(And what is
an acceptable definition of Sexuality from a so-called Celibate? .. wink – nod)
Cordileone, who was arrestedlast month on drunk
driving charges, then elaborated, puzzlingly appearing to blame same-sex
couples for the problem of absentee fathers in the inner city: (the 47% - ?)
Oakland's Lake Merritt - On a clear day you can see forever and unfortunately the poor too (47%) as well.
The
prelate’s light-filled office overlooks Oakland’s Lake Merritt. Just beyond the
graceful urban estuary, he said, are “100 blocks of inner-city neighborhoods.
Those are fatherless children.” (How charming. The Po’ People spoil his
Ivory Tower view of reality?)
German Exchange Student Visa - Point of Entry - Calexico Calif.
Against a backdrop of
art, architecture and past history, Father Robert Barron, a protégé of Chicago
Cardinal George has compiled a bootlegged style schlock imitation piece of Sir
Kenneth Clarke’s Civilisation series but on "religion" - what religion I was unable to decipher.
"Catholicism" is a series of segments of art film, travelogue and incoherent religion
lectures that ramble all over creation’s time line and imagination.
BUT - Where is the
real Roman Catholicism Father Barron?
I ran into two
episodes of Robert Barron’s “Catholicism” on PBS on one of those raising cash
on a rainy Sunday afternoon deals and offering a full five DVD set of ten
episodes for a $250 tax deductible contribution to the local PBS station.
Media expert Barron’s
independent, independent film which has no traceable roots in IMDb (Internet
Movie Data base) that I can compare the credentials of people using terms and
titles like Director or Cinematographer to see if Cardinal George and or his
cronies got their three million dollars worth in this vanguard media vehicle of “the
New Evangelism” and or “Getting the old MoJo Nostalgia Thing going for the
pre-Vatican II Medieval Church”.
Father Robert Barron
is a polished articulate wordsmith but a third rate theologian as any PC
theologian in the RCC is these days. Though he wears glasses and a wristwatch,
I guess the appearance of intelligibility is allowed on occasion with
permission in its certified authorized theologians mixing with the little
people through the firewall of the media. Is allowable to a certain extent in
the desperate marketing and sale of this “New Evangelism” thing?
Walks like a
duck. Sounds like a Duck. It must be the
New Evangelism thingy. Frozen concentrated grape juice in a frozen concentrated
orange juice container I fear. What’s
the difference? Catholicism – one size fits all. Right? One fruit juice is as good as another.
Whatever. Enough on tangents.
Three million bucks
does not go very far these days even in terms of a non-union made film.
I will say that most
of what I have seen could have been shot with stock footage and much of it with
scenes of happy heterosexual couples holding hands in the streets and parks and
all the running happy children in these parks added to strike a “I want that
too” chord in the viewer – the illusion of temporary happiness at least.
Viewing these two
propaganda pieces on PBS I wanted to learn something I did not already know
about Catholicism. Many of the PBS series Ihave seen illustrating topics such as Baseball, the Civil War or even Judaism have been informative and thought provoking.
Not once in these two
episodes do I once hear what the Roman Catholic Church is all about or what it
believes in.
I did watch these two
episodes:
“Amazed and Afraid:
The Revelation of God Become Man”
“That Than Which
Nothing Greater Can Be Thought: The Ineffable Mystery of God”
The first episode is a pile of 10, 15, 30 second sound bites against a backdrop of the all the art of
churches, the Sistine Chapel ceiling paint job etc. And while it is sometimes exquisite to encounter
a sixteenth century Spanish cathedral alter piece covered in icons and gold, one like me
after one too many shots of such decadence and with a Protestant conscience, I am
reminded of all the slave labor and ruined lives of millions of enslaved peasants
and Indians in South and Central America that went into the creation of this “art”.
It is here where the
sound bites and the 90 second and two minute polished homilies struck me of the
whole disjointed mess of this propaganda film. That beyond art, the RCC is idolatry
and love of the idol – the thing – its own thing. That an ignorant illiterate serf in medieval
Europe may have learned his bible stories from the stained glass of the
Cathedrals.
I thought I recognized
the style of Barron’s polished 90 second and two minute focused homilies which
remind me of the finishing punch line statements after many long agonizing boring religion classes I remember in catholic high school. I also feel for his seminary students mucho.
But looking at and
listening to Father Barron blather on with so many rambling, disjointed, bunch
of little phrases, thoughts, opinions, against the backdrop of medieval art,
happy couples in parks etc. that I am reminded of the possibility of some drunken monk in some medieval theology class in a cathedral pointing to a stained glass
picture of Noah’s flood and then telling the story of Adam and Eve. Some serfs
may have gone to their graves confused on the finer subtle points of that theology lesson etc.
The second episode
mentioned continues the rambling sound bites against the backdrop of stock
footage. The drunken medieval monk acting gig in the cathedral medieval theology class
gets more polished and starts into an alphabet soup of disconnected ideas without any spellable words
produced in the consumer’s spoon.
But
defining or understanding God is a really big subject and I have heard better
explanations of the vastness and mystery of God from Muslims on video tape and
filtered through a coarse sieve of translation.
One very disturbing scene
in this second episode has Father Barron doing his theology schtick against the
backdrop of Auschwitz and rambling about how evil can be done in life etc. How
can God let that happen?
He even concedes that
the idea that God letting evil happen for a greater good is a tad bit too much
for human understanding.
He slips into a story
about the old testament story of Job and rambles on a bit. Jumps to a Seurat
pointism painting in a museum. And finally ends on a cute story of the American
Philosopher William James and his dumb dog who cannot read.
Then he slips back to
the Auschwitz scene without an answer to the mystery of God letting the Shoah
happen.
No apology for what so many
Catholics in the Nazi Party did to the Jews.
I guess by episode eight or nine Father Barron will be explaining why
God’s intentions at Auschwitz were so obtuse and why it is perfectly clear why the
Jew hating(?), Jew/humanity ignoring Pius XII must be made a modern saint
according to the new, modern, retro-Medieval “New Evangelism”
Being the hack
seminary teacher and dog trainer that Barron appears to be and in grand favor
of his mentor and patron Cardinal George of Chicago, I think that no
intelligent person has anything to fear from this waste of three million
dollars that disappeared off the ledgers somewhere. No threat I think to any
higher order of primates here at least.
This new untried Attention
Deficit, all over the map non-map, approach to the heart of Christianity that the RCC has become, much like a
millstone tied around the rest of Christianity’s legitimate attempt to follow
the simple teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, is sad.
No doubt like Fox
News which attributes its high ratings to being the only channel playing in
most nursing homes in America, the canned Catholicism DVD treasury will appeal
to the long term only memories of the inmates there who hopefully still have
control over their estates before they part this earth and leave their wealth
to the “New Evangelism” of the Roman Pagan Catholic Church.
No hidden Picasso
here. Perhaps though just another encounter with a resurrected Elvis painted on
velvet kind of decorative art thingy.
Sir Kenneth – rest in
peace. Your reputation on art history remains safely intact.
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