I have been a frequent reader of this site since some time just after the 2004 General Election. I have very rarely stepped in and shared my own thoughts because, most of the time, I feel as though I would simply be echoing a view already expressed by others far more eloquently than I could have hoped to myself.
I cannot remember another issue on which I have felt so strongly at odds with the general consensus of the diarists here and so have decided to put my thoughts down for the record.
What if Mary had taken Plan B after the Lord filled her with his hot, white, sticky Holy Spirit? You’d have to justify your misogyny with another ancient mythology.
I have trouble understanding how one could construe that sample as having been written innocent of any intention to offend. Whatever the intent, it is offensive.
Of course I am not writing to defend the vile Bill Donohue, a man who has repeatedly shown his own bigotry and intolerance. I'm also not writing to make any sort of demand that Amanda Marcotte or Melissa McEwan be relieved of their duties on the Edwards campaign.
While I maintain that their dismissal would have been the appropriate action from a political standpoint, I find Marcotte and McEwan to be very enjoyable reads save a few choice quotations and I certainly wouldn't allow the personal insensitivities of two fairly low level campaign staffers to affect my view of John Edwards as a candidate anyway.
What bothered me about this story was the reaction it received on DailyKos and elsewhere from fellow liberals. Because these religious insensitivities only saw the light of day due to another right-wing-smear-campaign-hit-job, the knee jerk reaction was to defend the quotes themselves.
I've seen many defenses presented in blogs and op-ed sections, most centering around the idea that the underlying commentary on the policies of the Catholic Church was warranted. Still, this is no excuse for the repulsive rhetoric used to frame the point.
You know as well I do that if prominent conservative bloggers made similarly in-your-face and revolting remarks about, just as an example, Muhammad, even if in the process of making some sort of potentially valid point about Islam, we would call them on their religious intolerance.
It's my fear that the conservative political hijacking of Christianity in America, despite how liberal the social views actually expressed in the Bible are, has led to Christianity and devout Christians (Catholics included, of course) being considered "fair game" for ridicule by liberals much more so than their Jewish or Muslim brethren.
There are tenets in near all major faiths that definitely go against some of the liberal beliefs we are most passionate about and it is important to fight regressive, unjust, and intolerant ideas wherever we find them, in religion or elsewhere. It is, however, important to do so with careful reason and level headed thought -- not with intolerance of our own.