Today I was listening to NPR's The Talk of the Nation. I usually enjoy this show, but today, ugh, they were talking about people's objections to Sonia Sotomayor. Great, I thought, I really want to hear this, I think more needs to be said about her. After a few minutes of intelligent discussion, they took calls. The first caller that they allowed on the air, as I'm sure these things are screened, gave her reason for not wanting Sotomayor, she's Catholic. The caller, a older woman went on to complain about how there are already 5 Catholics, and how 6 would make a majority. The commentator reminder her that Sotomayor is not known for her orthodoxy. The caller reminded him that she was raised in a Catholic home and schooled by the Church, and couldn't be trusted. She kept going, Catholic believe in having too many kids, and are causing population problems, Nice, huh.
There are plenty of reasons to have concerns about Sotomayor, but her faith as a reason should not be one of them. So what she is Catholic! If anyone said she cannot be trusted because she is a woman, Hispanic, went to Yale, etc. it would be completely unacceptable, as it should be. However, being a baptized Catholic makes one open to bigotry. Why is it okay?
My Grandfather was raised Southern Baptist, his family disowned him when he married my Irish Catholic grandmother and converted. His family was taught to not trust Catholics, they kept guns in their churches waiting for a signal from the pope to take over the U.S. They sent their kids to Special schools to get them ready for this. Okay, this may have been slightly less bad in the 1940's, but now, we are far beyond this, right?
I guess that not much has changed in nearly 2000 years.
3 comments:
we are far beyond this, right?
Register at Ann Coulter's messaage board and start a thread defending the Pope. See what happens. I was banned from that site in 2005 for being a Catholic. It's not like that any more -- once Coulter, whose beloved father was Catholic, learned of all this, she fired the admin and all the mods -- but tons of Fundies and Baptists still hate us.
My late great-grandmother, a Baptist from Missouri (God rest her soul) told my mom when she converted to marry my dad this: "On their wedding night, Catholic grooms are chained to the altar while the priest has his way with the bride."
Yes, chained. LOL.
Wow, banned from Ann Coulter's board, that's quite an honor!
Chains, huh, I never heard that one! The irony of my Great-grandparents disowning their son, my grandpa, is that his only brother's only child, converted to marry another Irish girl! Their son works for the diocese of Arlington Virgina. My grandfather had 8 kids, and kept the family line alive, if he had not been Catholic, I doubt he would have had so many kids.
The irony, and good news, is that certain segments of Protestants are finding they have more in common with Catholics than they would have dared to think several decades ago. You did say it was an older woman that expressed this prejudice. What should bother us most is that the commentator only said that Sotomayor isn't really Catholic, as if that makes her okay!
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