This is in regards to the posts about phone calls I made to Bishop R. Walker Nickless's office after reading THIS DIARY
From that diary - Meet Bishop R. Walker Nickless, of the Sioux City, Iowa diocese, who's here to set you straight:
You know, the power of evil is going to try any way that it can to get a hook into our world and the values that we hold as so dear and so important to us believing people. And the power of evil—the devil—can certainly look—is looking everywhere to find places where they can—where the power of evil can make a difference. To tear us apart, to get us to just look at the worldly values and forget about—you know, that there’s something more important than the values of the world. And that’s why we’ve got to stand up and violently oppose this. We cannot let darkness overshadow us. We’ve got to be men and women who proclaim the light, and we’ve got to tell the truth, and we’ve got to be transparent, and we’ve got to say that government cannot do this to us.
Well, yesterday I called his office with the following question:
"Hi, in regards to Bishop Nickless's call to "violently oppose" this Contraception Mandate, what methods of violent opposition does he prefer we use?"
Needless to say, I was connected with their communications person, the Bishop's assistant but she was unavailable at the time and so I left my name and number for a call back. I really didn't expect one.
But one I got, today, just a while ago.
As some of you in the comments, and responses to my comments, in the above mentioned diary called it, she said the Bishop did NOT mean to say "Violently" he meant to say "Vehemently."
She said when she heard the Bishop say that during the Skype interview, she wanted to run in and interrupt the interview but didn't think that was a good idea. She intimated that it was a real "facepalm" moment.
She also told me that the Bishop was spending the day and the next few days trying to explain this and get the word out that that was not what he "meant."
I told her that in this day and age, all it takes is one wrong person to hear that - to hear those words "Violently oppose" and they can be set off to do something nasty and it would be the Bishop's fault.
She said she totally agreed with me about that. She said if I knew the Bishop personally, I would know he is a very peaceful man and feels horrible about the word he chose to express his self.
I said, "Seeing as laws like this have been on the books in New York and California foir the last 10 years and the Church hasn't made so much as a peep about it till Obama was in office, that it smacks of political opportunism in an election year - and seeing as over 95% of Catholics polled enjoy their access to birth control, this issue is nothing more than a tempest in a teapot."
I asked her to pass that along to the Bishop and to have him please watch his rhetoric. She said she would, thanked me, and we ended the conversation.
I ask all of you to help in finding any info if you can about the Bishop walking back this statement if he does at all.
I had written an earlier diary about calling the Chief of Police during the violent attack of Occupy protestors at Berkley. I like calling these people. Anybody can do it and I wish you all would. There is nothing to be afraid of.
Be nice, don't curse, be angry but don't be belligerent, use humor if possible to call these people out with (and this is most important) THEIR OWN WORDS. I have called, but not written diaries about Stacey Campfield in TN (Don't Say Gay Dude) and that prick Rep. Steve King on his calling janitors at the capitol "Stasi" for changing his fucking lightbulbs. I called the stupid homophobe preacher that opened Congress and many others. They sure get flustered and hate it when people dial them directly.
I encourage you all to take a few minutes and go right to the source. Maybe I'll make a habitual diary out of this a la Mike Stark, one of my personal heroes.
Anyway - Discuss his assistants response at length. I kinda feel that she is probably correct - yet I don't think anyone will hear a PEEP about walking it back. My opinion.
ADDED : THANKS RECCERS!!!! 2 Rec'd Diaries in a short lifetime on Kos - I am honored!