No, he didn’t!!
Shut up!!
No way!!
Orrin Hatch did not just compare John Roberts to my Lord and Savior, did he?
Did he?
‘Cause if he did, it’s really bad timing. I am fresh out of outrage today.
I’ve been struggling to keep up ever since Justice Sunday I, and now I hear there’s a Justice Sunday II? What is this, Farm Aid, only less cool? Are they going to trot out washed-up Republican celebs like Jaci Velazquez twice a year for the next forty years? I’d whack myself, but I can’t even work up the energy.
It’s all washed over me like a wave: the Filibuster fight, the criticism of the UCC for its support of same-sex marriage, the burning of a congregation in Virginia, the adoption agency in Mississippi that refuses Catholic clients, the huffing and the puffing on potential SCOTUS picks. I’m probably forgetting 10 or 14 other outrages–let’s see, what has Rick Santorum been up to lately?–oh yes, blaming the pedophilia crisis in Boston on liberals and telling women to get back in the kitchen.
Sigh.
Didn’t have the time to make so much as a pissy comment on that crap.
And now this. It’s a cascading outrage failure. My circuits are officially fried.
If I had the initiative, I’d explain to Sen. Hatch, James Dobson, etc., that just because a person has faith doesn’t mean that he isn’t full of crap. I’d explain that being a practicing Catholic isn’t an automatic pass to being on the Supreme Court.
Oh, wait. Scratch that one. If Roberts is confirmed, that’ll make 5 papists on the SCOTUS. Maybe it is a free pass…
Well, anyway: if I had some gumption, I’d explain that Democrats are not Pharisees simply because they’d like to know something about what this nominee might do on the court, and that “advise and consent” does not mean “sit down and shut up”.
I’d explain to them that there are people of faith–lots of faiths–who don’t happen to agree that Roe v. Wade should be overturned, or that homosexuals should get back in their closets, or that the New Deal needs to be deconstructed, or that corporations should be welcomed as our new overlords, and we just be happy we have a damn job…I’m a person of faith–I’ve got big, official pieces of paper that say so–and I don’t agree with those things. Neither do a lot of people I talk to. And guess what? It doesn’t invalidate my faith, you pinheads!
And then, of course, I’d explain to them they can kiss my grits. I’m a Christian, and no amount of disagreement with the radical right-wing of the Republican party can change that. If they don’t like it, they can take it up with God.
And if I really had the initiative–and if Mrs Pastor wasn’t ready to unplug the DSL and beat me over the head with my desktop for overuse–I’d explain the notions of blasphemy and idolatry, that making a person (no matter how good) the equivalent of the second person of the Trinity is really, really, really not a good idea. Not in politics, not in religion. “For when the complete is revealed, the partial shall fall away,” as Paul says.
I’d tell them–
Sigh…
[Sound of head banging on keyboard]
Tired. So very tired…
I just don’t have the time or energy for this. I’m supposed to be working, dammit. I haven’t written my sermon for the week yet, the yard needs attention, we need groceries, the dogs need to be walked…
I think that I am going to have to let someone else finish the rant. Who better than the prophet Isaiah, that great defender against idolatry and injustice everywhere? From the opening chapter of the book attributed to him:
Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly, who have forsaken the LORD, who have despised the Holy One of Israel, who are utterly estranged! Why do you seek further beatings? Why do you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds; they have not been drained, or bound up, or softened with oil.
…
Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah! What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts!
…
(Oh, this is fun. I could keep this up all day.)
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
…
How the faithful city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her– but now murderers! Your silver has become dross, your wine is mixed with water. Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not defend the orphan, and the widow’s cause does not come before them. Therefore says the Sovereign, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: Ah, I will pour out my wrath on my enemies, and avenge myself on my foes! I will turn my hand against you; I will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy. And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
Shorter Isaiah: I have lifted you up in the palm of my hand, but you have chosen to oppress the poor and the powerless! Must I turn my hand over and smite you again?!
Shorter Schultz: don’t f*ck with YHWH. He will mess you up. Do not use him in your partisan games. He is a badass: he brought you into the world, and he can take you out of it.
And now go away, you egregious offenders. You are resting on my last nerve…
Isaiah was a badass too. Social justice AND lots of smiting, and swordplay. And perhaps, the originator of the rant?
Originator of the rant–I love it! 😉 I’m only starting to become more aware of the prophets and how they “spoke truth to power”. So many people shorthand the Hebrew scriptures as being about the angry, smiting, judgemental God, that this part gets overshadowed. Mind you, God does get angry at times in these stories, but angry at whom? Pretty much the rich and powerful.
Wrote a bit about this in my diary covering a Dom Crossan lecture in Columbus:
http://renee-in-ohio.mydd.com/story/2005/5/18/225046/968
and, FYI, my latest diary…
Communing with the saints
However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I’m frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C,’ and ‘D.’ Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of ‘conservatism.’
— Sen. Barry Goldwater (R)
Amen to that pastor. I’m a practicing Catholic like Roberts and all this pandering B.S. is really starting to piss me off. I am a student of the prophets and have been offended countless times by this so-called values Administration. Thx for the rant, I join you in your outrage.
go get em pastor!!!!!
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute — where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote — where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference … I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish — where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source — where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials.” – President John F. Kennedy.
but not in a sac-re-ligious way.” –hunger-striking Homer Simpson.
Well, Roberts is the greatest person in the world, and of course he’s being persecuted like all Christian Republicans.
So, yeah.
I am so with you on this . . . until the “five papists” line.
I am not a Catholic anymore, but I am a person of faith who respects other persons of faith — so I do not use slurs on their faiths (a catcall I had to grow up hearing from you Prots:-) and wish you would not do so either.
As for five, I read that it would be four. Even so, it just is a stunning number out of nine justices. Maybe it’s because I grew up so outnumbered by Protestants . . . but still, aren’t Catholics only 11 percent of the country’s population or something? Frankly, aren’t practicing persons of all and sundry faiths still a minority? Why is the high court then so filled with so many religious folks — counting those who say they are practicing Protestants and Jews, too?
Isn’t it, well, sort of weird that the court is so unlike the rest of America? Or does being a practicing person of faith, any faith, really convey such rewards?!
Catholics make up 23 percent of the total U.S. population according to the Kenedy Directory that was for 2004.
The breakdown of Justices and their Religion:
William H. Rehnquist Lutheran
Stephen G. Breyer Jewish
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Jewish
Anthony M. Kennedy Catholic
Sandra Day O’Connor Episcopalian
Antonin Scalia Catholic
David H. Souter Episcopalian
John Paul Stevens Protestant
Clarence Thomas Catholic
so if this list is accurate? Don’t see the problem
http://www.adherents.com/adh_sc.html
with a public that is 23 percent Catholic (thanks for that state — far more than I knew) and a Supreme Court that is 33 percent Catholic.
And if Roberts is confirmed, it would be a Supreme Court that would be twice as Catholic as is the public.
As for whether that’s a problem, that calls for not a factual statement but an opinion. I don’t know your opinion on it. Mine is that it’s probably not a problem . . . but it does seem darn surprising.
Of course, that the Supreme Court is 22 percent Jewish also is disproportionate.
Perhaps both statistics are proportionate, though, for the more relevent universe, i.e., lawyers — since I have read that both Irish Catholics (my heritage, btw, lest this be misread) and Jews (my husband’s heritage) were and are more likely to go to law school than are college graduates in many other ethnic groups.
More surprising is Stevens being a “Protestant,” since there is no such faith. It is a general term for many faiths, from Lutheranism (and all the many kinds of Lutherans!) forward. I wonder if he opted to list it that way or is simply a lack of info on the part of the website.