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Bad Boys, Big Mouths
Now that Don Imus has been booted from the airwaves, you might be lulled into thinking that the media will clean up its act on bigotry and prejudice. That might be so in the cases of people of color or those with a different sexual orientation, but apparently the ban on bias does not apply to anti-Catholicism.
No sooner was Imus gone than the airwaves were filled with more vitriolic hatred towards Catholics and Church beliefs. Our friends at the Catholic League for the Religious and Civil Rights were right on top of the situation and have supplied us with a checklist of what was on the air last weekend.
“In the wake of the Imus controversy last week, CBS chief Les Moonves said that Imus ‘has flourished in a culture that permits a certain level of objectionable expression that hurts and demeans a wide range of people. In taking him off the air, I believe we take an important and necessary step not just in solving a unique problem, but in changing that culture, which extends far beyond the walls of our Company.’ It was a great statement, but no sooner had Moonves spoken when Catholics learned that his words represented wishful thinking.
For instance, on Friday evening, the HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the so-called comedian, showed a picture of guitarist Keith Richards and said, “New rules, snorting your father isn’t crazy” — a reference to Richards’ hoax about snorting the ashes of his dead father. Maher then showed a picture of a Catholic priest giving Communion, saying, “Eating your father, that’s crazy.”
The next day on “Saturday Night Live,” Seth Meyers read a news story wherein he remarked, “For the second consecutive year the number of sex abuse claims against the nation’s Catholic priests had dropped. Undisputable proof that fewer kids are going to church.”
Even the TV Guide Channel got into the act on Sunday when John Henson questioned why anyone would want to blow himself up to get into heaven just to be with 72 virgins when you could have “72 naughty Catholic schoolgirls.”
“It is one thing when comedians like Maher label all religions ‘childish, destructive and nonsense’ (as he did on ‘The View’), quite another when the Eucharist is mocked and priests are slandered,” commented Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League. “The Catholic schoolgirls’ remark was not offensive, per se, but it was entirely gratuitous in both forum and context. All in all, it goes to show that Catholic bashing will survive in a culture that penalizes race and gender bashing.”
If Imus can be banished because of his crude remarks, shouldn’t Maher and Co. be equally entitled to such punishment? Where’s the prejudice-free atmosphere that we should expect during a national debate on what can and what cannot be said on the public airwaves?
Discrimination against Catholics, indeed against all peoples of faith, is one the last biases that seems to be socially acceptable. As far as we’re concerned, the media hasn’t cleaned up its act until bad boys like Bill Maher have learned that even Catholics are not fair game for their vile and vicious mouths.
Not Masters of Our Destiny
We have been confronted with a tragic lesson in the reality and mystery of suffering. The Lord was confronted with it in an incident in Luke’s Gospel when a group of people came to Jesus with the news of two disasters. It seems that Pilate poured blood on the sacrifices of a group of Jews. The blood would pollute and defile those sacrifices and make them unsuitable for offering — a great misfortune for Jews. The second calamity was a construction accident at Siloam, where a tower collapsed, killing 18 Jews.
Jesus cites the two misfortunes and asks whether either was an indication of the wickedness of the victims. He says clearly that they were not, but were only signs to his audience of their need to repent. So much for anyone who would interpret either as an example of the wrath or punishment of God.
Last Monday, all television cameras were poised to report on the disastrous floods that were inundating the tri-state area, destroying property and homes. Then word came of the awful slaughter on the campus of Virginia Tech University.
How could these things happen? The homes of good people destroyed by nature out of control was bad enough, but then there was the killing of innocent students.
Why? Could not these things have been prevented? Where was the hand of God? Were we somehow being punished?
The fact is that we are not gods, but limited and fragile human beings. We are subject to tragedy just as were the Jews in the Lord’s time.
One of the disasters in biblical times was due to human destruction, but one apparently was an accident.
The floods came from nature and the campus killings resulted from a deranged student. There is no ready answer and those who would suggest one is foolish. The fact is that we are not total masters of our destiny and it is for us to live under the providence of a loving Father and to be guided by His Incarnate Son.
Our prayers go out for the killed and wounded students, in fact the entire Virginia Tech college community. Our prayers go out to the families suffering from the floods.
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