Hail Soros, Full Of Cash. MoveOn.org Is With Thee.
By Mitch Berg
For the past couple of years, we’ve gone to the Minnesoros Monitor and “Independent” for shrill, frequently inaccurate, often risible lefty propaganda.
Fastidious fact-checking? Naaah.
Now, as I’ve noted before, I’m not Catholic. I’m a committed Protestant.
But when I see Paul “Not The Dumbest Writer The Mindy Has” Schmelzer writing a story with a hed like “Vatican body: Minnesota professor’s sin worse than genocide“, I figured it was “worth” a read (where “worth” equals “barely”, and “read” means “mining for fisking material”); emphasis added by me:
While Catholic bishops and priests can hear confessions about sins as severe as murder or genocide, the Vatican’s 830-year-old Apostolic Penitentiary is “reserved for crimes which are viewed by the Church as even more serious,” writes the UK’s Telegraph. In Rome this week, this secretive “tribunal of conscience” held a two-day panel to discuss what it does and how it works. Crimes so grave they can only be absolved by the pope include attempting to assassinate the pontiff, directly participating in (or funding) abortion or desecrating the Eucharist. The inclusion of that last sin seems to put University of Minnesota professor PZ Myers in a worse class of sinner, in the eyes of Catholics, than genocidal dictators. The Telegraph even mentions the atheist biology professor, who blogged about his desecration of a communion wafer last summer, although it’s not clear from the article whether his case was specifically discussed by the Apostolic Penitentiary:
So in other words, the headline creates a misleading impression that there’s a connection between Myers’ act of sophomoric vandalism and the Vatican’s discussion…
…but no matter. It’s not unknown for “local” news sources to dig too hard for the local angle.
But here’s the real question – and I’m gonna need your help, especially were “you” are Catholics. As when the Mindy tries to “report” about guns, economics, history, crime, money, or facts, their reporting about religion has always been not only one-sided, but usually wrong. Schmelzer’s graf tickles my “stink test” sensor, but I don’t know why – because, again, I’m a Protestant.
So I’ll open this up for a group fisk by the assembled commentariat. How does Schmelzer (or, one might reasonably presume, his overlords in DC) get this wrong?
January 19th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Thhey, for whatever reason, seem determined to extend Meyers’ 15 minutes. I have no idea why.
And having Birkey on the “Religion beat” (not sure why he didn’t write this tripe) such as it is, is kind of like assigning David Duke to cover Harlem.
Yes, I just compared a Sorosnet “reprter” to David Duke. Suck it.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:18 am
Actually, that was a simile, not a comparison. Eh.
And I actually meant to spell “reporter” that way. Mindy employees don’t deserve the second ‘r’.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Foot is right – there’s no real reason to keep talking about PZ Myers, but they keep picking at it. Personally, I think the Sorosphere does it for the same reason the anti-8 people keep attacking Catholics and Mormons — it’s an easy way to demonstrate their own moral vanity. I’m sure they believe they are speaking truth to power or something. But it’s boring as hell. And all it really demonstrates is cowardice. If they really wanted to demonstrate courage, they’d poke their secular stick in the eye of people attending a mosque.
As for the doctrine, since Catholics believe that a consecrated Host is the Body of Christ, obviously desecrating a Host is a very big deal. But the business about it being worse than genocide is misleading. God isn’t going to look kindly on either act. Both would be mortal sins. Not that Myers cares, anyway.
January 19th, 2009 at 10:15 am
For many people in concentration camps, Christ’s promise was the thread that held not only their hope, but the conection to their human dignity.
To desecrate the body of Christ is to take a stab at that which makes us human.
To a Christian, it is worse than desecrating the Torah would be for a Jew or desecrating the Koran would be for a Muslim.
We can deny one an other freedom, or comfort, or even our right to life…these are attacks upon flesh which it transitory and shorted lived.
But to attack our faith is to attack our souls, which are immortal.
For those secularists out there, it is similar to why killing the President is a higher crime than killing a mailman. It’s not that as human beings one is more valuable that the other, it is that the one represents our Democracy itself.
The bufoons at MiniSoros are just enjoying Myers’ self-debasement too much to let it go….that sewer water is sooo warm!
January 19th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Luke 12:10 “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.”
Short version: you can do anything to any other person and upon repenting get absolution. Utterly rejecting Jesus, however, gets you unpardonable damnation, and remember that Catholics view the Eucharist as the actual body of Christ so defiling that is as base as an act can get. Not even the Pope can help you there.
I don’t know of any Catholic dogma that says certain sins can only be forgiven by the Pope. For Catholics, the Act of Confession is an important part of the faith and the Confessor does help the penitent come back to Christ, but the absolution comes from turning to God, not the priest. I suspect that the MinionsOfSoros are making it up from whole cloth as usual.