Editor's Note: This is the first post in a series I'm starting, where I find people who claim to be Christian acting in extremely un-Christian ways and, rather than resort to the usual namby-pamby language used by Christians on the left side of the spectrum, actually call them out for heresy.

I'm actually a bit surprised I haven't written about Bill Donohue, president of the ultra-right-wing Catholic League, in the past. It's not like he hasn't taken every opportunity available to act like a horse's ass and offend - well, really, anyone who isn't also a right-wing Catholic.

But if he wasn't guilty of the deep heresy and sacrilege of misrepresenting Christ before, he most certainly is now. Here's the story:

Recently, a student at the University of Central Florida - a public school - removed the Eucharist from the campus Roman Catholic church instead of eating it as he was supposed to. Now, I know what the Eucharist means to Catholics, and I understand why the church would get a bit upset about this, but at this point it's a local issue - church calls up kid, kid says "okay," returns Eucharist, problem solved. Right?

But wait - here's Bill Donohue! He wouldn't let any opportunity pass to make some (mostly) innocent kid's life a living hell! He and his "Catholic" League (real Catholicism, while problematically sexist and homophobic, still shouldn't be characterized by Donohue's asshattishness) decided that this kid hadn't been punished enough and made a big case out of it.

“We don’t know 100% what Mr. Cooks motivation was,” said Susan Fani a spokesperson with the local Catholic diocese. “However, if anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it.”

A hate crime? I mean, I know you're all trying to play the victim here because that's what you pathetic people do, but a frakkin' hate crime?

The kid is receiving death threats now! Bill Donohue's "Christians" are trying to get him kicked out of school (and Fox News, true to asshat-enabling form, tells people in the article exactly how to file a complaint against this kid, no matter whether they have any connection to UCF or not) for taking a wafer out of church. Seriously, I know Roman Catholics believe that it's the actual body, but I think the "Catholic" League has forgotten exactly whose body it is - the body of a man who preached forgiveness, reconciliation, and love, not vengefulness, bitterness, and hate.

So that's it, right? Wrong. A University of Minnesota professor named PZ Myers blogged about this - very irreverently and offensively, I'll admit - on his personal website, as is his right as a human being with the right to free speech. Bill Donohue, who can't let an opportunity pass to (a) make another person's life a living hell, and (b) convince even more people that he's a flaming asshole who has no earthly clue who Jesus Christ actually is, decided that he has to go, too.

Now Prof. Myers is receiving death threats and hate mail as well - most of which are, typical of the kind of mouth-breathing Neanderthals who send death threats to people for writing on the Internet, characterized by poor spelling, grammar, and no evidence of rational thought - and, what's worse, his university president is receiving demands that he be fired. For posting on his personal website.

So I'm going to do two things here:

A. I'm going to ask my readership - all three of you - to please send an email to UMN president Robert Bruininks supporting Prof. Myers's right to free speech (even if you disagree with what he said, which I do, at least with the offensive part in question). Please be respectful, use your full name, and do all those spelling and grammar things that death-threat-sending Neanderthals haven't quite mastered yet.

B. I'm going to call out Donohue and his merry band of haters for what they are - heretics and blasphemers. If it is heresy and blasphemy to add an iota to a single word in a creed, then surely it is heresy and blasphemy to represent the Christ of love and reconciliation with words and actions of hate and vengefulness. It's time to be bold and say that Bill Donohue and the "Catholic" League are, in fact, acting against Christ, and need to repent of their hatefulness.

Okay... Seminary hat off now.

Labels: Bill Donohue, Catholic League, Politics, Religion