Something I'm Not Glad About
Tonight I was flicking through the stations - my first mistake, because MythBusters was on, and I should have just stuck with it. Anyway, I turned on VH1 and came accross the 17th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. What is GLAAD, you ask? Well, here's their mission statement:
Now, the existence of such an organization is not what I am upset about. What I am upset about is this awards show.
When I turned on the channel, they were doing a "Weekend Update" routine from SNL, with two female cast-members (lesbians, maybe, I don't know) giving commentary on all sorts of gay news with the traditional risque humor. At the time, I wasn't sure what I was watching, and was perplexed by the overabundance of gay jokes. For example, they announced Elton John's "engagement" and said that the couple was registered at Liberace's yard-sale. The closing joke of the sequence, though, was directed at Pope Benedict XVI. It made reference to his first encyclical having been written on the topic of love, but pointed out that he held with the traditional Catholic view against homosexuality and the homosexual lifestyle. Then, the ancor quipped about him putting on his red Prada shoes and traipsing about Rome with his cardinals. In other words... they insinuated that the Holy Father was a homosexual.
Now, leaving aside the joke itself for the time being, I'd like to look closely at the premise, which was a false portrayal of Catholic teaching. That is, the lead-in essentially asserted that Catholic teaching on homosexuality was a double-standard of the Gospel law of love. That, despite his encyclical being about love and social justice, Pope Benedict's view on gays implies hypocrisy. This is balderdash. In fact, the opposite is true. Love is truth, and Benedict witnesses to both simultaniously in upholding the Divine and natural law on this matter.
But actually, what ticks me off most is the joke itself. The Pope is the successor to Peter, and he deserves respect. And I don't like when a room of liberal stars takes a crack at him. For that matter, I think Hollywood is generally plagued by a lack of decorum. Look at the movies coming out in the theatres: two of them parody the President of the United States quite closely. Now, yes, I'm for free speech, blah, blah, blah. But where is the decorum, anymore? Where is the "with all due respect" caveat to criticism that used to be a defining characteristic of civility? But even worse than insulting the President, this is the Vicar of Christ. Let arguments about there having "been bad popes" abound, they still don't justify foolish ad hominem attacks, even against those bad popes themselves. And besides, this isn't one of those bad popes!
And here's what I really don't get: How are these type of jokes in keeping with the GLAAD mission statement? How is making gay jokes going to stop defamation? In fact, how is insinuating that a religious leader is a homosexual - with knowledge that homosexuality is offensive to that person's creed - how is that not itself defamation? Where's the practice of plurality that you preach? Where's the "cultural sensitivity" you raised hell about during the Passion of the Christ? Weren't you the ones asking us to learn something from the whole Mohommedan cartoon nonsense? It's a great irony that this tasteless joke was premised by an accusation of double-standard; for, in fact, GLAAD seems to have the double standard. I guess I should expect as much from a room half-full of Hollywood transvestites.
I sometimes wish that Opus Dei really were the crazy group of merciless gendarmes the liberal leftist media makes them out to be, because maybe they could knock Moloch from his perch upon the "Hollywood" sign. Anti-Catholicism, the last popularly accepted prejudice in American society... Lady Liberty weeps with the women of Jerusalem for her generations of children.
The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.That's who GLAAD is.
Now, the existence of such an organization is not what I am upset about. What I am upset about is this awards show.
When I turned on the channel, they were doing a "Weekend Update" routine from SNL, with two female cast-members (lesbians, maybe, I don't know) giving commentary on all sorts of gay news with the traditional risque humor. At the time, I wasn't sure what I was watching, and was perplexed by the overabundance of gay jokes. For example, they announced Elton John's "engagement" and said that the couple was registered at Liberace's yard-sale. The closing joke of the sequence, though, was directed at Pope Benedict XVI. It made reference to his first encyclical having been written on the topic of love, but pointed out that he held with the traditional Catholic view against homosexuality and the homosexual lifestyle. Then, the ancor quipped about him putting on his red Prada shoes and traipsing about Rome with his cardinals. In other words... they insinuated that the Holy Father was a homosexual.
Now, leaving aside the joke itself for the time being, I'd like to look closely at the premise, which was a false portrayal of Catholic teaching. That is, the lead-in essentially asserted that Catholic teaching on homosexuality was a double-standard of the Gospel law of love. That, despite his encyclical being about love and social justice, Pope Benedict's view on gays implies hypocrisy. This is balderdash. In fact, the opposite is true. Love is truth, and Benedict witnesses to both simultaniously in upholding the Divine and natural law on this matter.
But actually, what ticks me off most is the joke itself. The Pope is the successor to Peter, and he deserves respect. And I don't like when a room of liberal stars takes a crack at him. For that matter, I think Hollywood is generally plagued by a lack of decorum. Look at the movies coming out in the theatres: two of them parody the President of the United States quite closely. Now, yes, I'm for free speech, blah, blah, blah. But where is the decorum, anymore? Where is the "with all due respect" caveat to criticism that used to be a defining characteristic of civility? But even worse than insulting the President, this is the Vicar of Christ. Let arguments about there having "been bad popes" abound, they still don't justify foolish ad hominem attacks, even against those bad popes themselves. And besides, this isn't one of those bad popes!
And here's what I really don't get: How are these type of jokes in keeping with the GLAAD mission statement? How is making gay jokes going to stop defamation? In fact, how is insinuating that a religious leader is a homosexual - with knowledge that homosexuality is offensive to that person's creed - how is that not itself defamation? Where's the practice of plurality that you preach? Where's the "cultural sensitivity" you raised hell about during the Passion of the Christ? Weren't you the ones asking us to learn something from the whole Mohommedan cartoon nonsense? It's a great irony that this tasteless joke was premised by an accusation of double-standard; for, in fact, GLAAD seems to have the double standard. I guess I should expect as much from a room half-full of Hollywood transvestites.
I sometimes wish that Opus Dei really were the crazy group of merciless gendarmes the liberal leftist media makes them out to be, because maybe they could knock Moloch from his perch upon the "Hollywood" sign. Anti-Catholicism, the last popularly accepted prejudice in American society... Lady Liberty weeps with the women of Jerusalem for her generations of children.
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