If Bill Donohue Says You're Going To Hell, You'd Best Put On A T-Shirt And A Pair Of Shorts
It's going to get warm where you're going, knowhutimean?
For at least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols.
Aldous Huxley, Complete Essays, Vol. I: 1920-1925
It is only because of their stupidity that they are able to be so sure of themselves.
Franz Kafka
I’ve long held Bill Donohue, President of the Catholic League, in moderate contempt. Not exactly the poster boy for Christian love and compassion, Donohue has become the Catholic face of everything wrong with modern Christianity. Where love is warranted, he manifests only disdain. Where charity would be appropriate, he happily pours salt into wounds. In short, he’s not the person you’d want to put forward as a spokesman for anything even faintly Christian.
And yet Bill Donohue, blessed with the visage and demeanor of a pitbull, is invariably the human face of the Catholic League. And as far as I can tell, the Catholic League is Donohue and his laptop. And perhaps his financial support comes from the membership of 350,000 unsuspecting old ladies, afraid they’re going to Hell if they don’t send him money.
To call Donohue a homophobe would be to insult actual homophobes. No, Bill Donohue takes bigotry and hatred of the LGBTQ community to lengths few would be willing to admit to, all in the name of Catholic doctrine.
It’s what Jesus would do, don’tchaknow??
Now Donohue is employing the “moral force” of the Catholic League to weigh in on the validity of Secretary Of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s marriage. Yes, straight out of downtown Nunyadamnbizniss comes Bill Donohue wielding…well, I’m not sure what the Hell he’s wielding anymore.
It’s certainly not Christian love and charity.
It is true that Bill Donohue is a Catholic, but that is a legal fiction.
Of course, I have no idea if Donohue is a lawyer or just a crank pretending he possesses something he believes to be moral authority.
The truth, of course, is that Buttigieg’s marriage is not a legal fiction, but Donohue is saying that he’s legally married AND that it’s a legal fiction. So, which is it?
James Martin, a Jesuit priest and the editor-at-large of America Magazine, came to the defense of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg after the Catholic League claimed in a tweet Buttigieg's marriage to his husband—educator, author and activist Chasten Buttigieg—is a "legal fiction."
Earlier, the Catholic League published a tweet claiming the Transportation Secretary is indeed "legally married, [but] that is a legal fiction."
The organization linked to an article in which it criticized Buttigieg for defending his marriage in a recent interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who suggested Buttigieg should not have taken his husband as part of an official delegation to the Netherlands for the Fifth Invictus Games.
Bill Donohue, the Catholic League's president, said Buttigieg doesn't actually "have a husband" because he "has been disqualified by nature."
Of course, if we’re using Donohue’s moral standards as definitions for anything, we’re gefickt, but thankfully both he and the Catholic League enjoy the moral standing of Andrew Dice Clay.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
At least Fr. Martin had the decency and honesty to stand up for the teachings of Jesus Christ, whose teachings he’s sworn to honor. And, to his credit, Fr. Martin has been attending to this calling for many years.
An actual authority on the teachings of the Catholic Church lowers the boom on Donohue, who, on this occasion as on so many others, isn’t nearly as intelligent as he’s convinced himself that he is.
What’s surprising is why Donohue insists on attempting to imbue his bigotry and homophobia with the weight of Church teachings when there are those such as Fr. Martin ready, willing, and able to deservedly stomp on his toes.
I may be an atheist, but I admire Christians like Fr. Martin, who are honest and committed to living their faith as best they can. They’re deeply committed to being better people, making a difference, and making the world a better and more peaceful place…and who can’t get behind that? Religion, when lived honestly and in its purest form, is invariably a force for good, and though I might not believe the doctrine, I support the goals.
What are Bill Donohue’s goals? Who knows, but it likely involves his outraged visage, dangerously high blood pressure, and volcanic rage. Yeah, the man’s a real man of God, ain’t he??
There was one response that I thought asked the perfect question:
Indeed. What IS a marriage? And who decides what a marriage should mean for someone else? I know what marriage means to me, and I try to live that daily, but that definition will invariably differ for someone else. There is no one-size-fits-all definition, and that’s where Bill Donohue runs into trouble. He seems to believe that marriage IS one-size-fits-all and that to be morally acceptable, a marriage must color only within those lines- HIS lines. Anything out of bounds is immoral and thus unacceptable to him and, therefore, the Catholic Church, whom he presumes to speak for.
That’s a pretty arrogant way to define marriage, especially by someone who appears so thoroughly intolerant of any deviations that it’s difficult to imagine anyone putting up with him. Especially for someone who believes marriage isn’t about “love” or “making people happy.” To Donohue, marriage has a singular purpose- creating a family. “Happiness,” “fulfillment,” and “personal growth” are just fuzzy Liberal buzzwords that have nothing to do with cranking out babies.
Ah, but what do I know? Except that, for every pot, there's a lid, though Donohue seems to have somehow escaped that. Divorced and with two children, one might wonder how he didn’t run up against the Church's teachings against divorce.
Ah, but he’s special- rules are for thee, not for me, perhaps?
Whatever degree of hypocrisy may or may not apply to Bill Donohue, he has no moral standing to pass judgment on Sec. Buttigieg's (or anyone else’s) marriage. Marriage is not for Donohue to define, and if Pete and Chasten Buttigieg are happy, which appears to be the case, then more power to them. This world needs all the stability and happiness it can find. And who is Donohue to piss in that sandbox?
Every time I see Donohue on television, he seems as if he’s about 10 seconds away from a rage-induced myocardial infarction. Indeed, that much rage and homophobia can’t be good for anyone, much less someone who seems so desperately unhappy.
Then again, if he’s chasing happiness by working furiously to deny contentment and peace of mind to others, he’s digging his grave with his blood pressure pills.
How sad and pathetic is that?
Presumably he hot divorced *before* he became a priest? Is he actually a priest, or does he just like to play dress up?