As a faithful Catholic, this sort of news always strikes a chord with me:
Nashville Bishop Faces Backlash
Diana Rigg
(Nashville) Roman Catholic bishop George Lazenby is facing a public outcry over his support of controversial rhythm and blues guitarist Peter "Blackjack" Hunt. Hunt, who is currently slated to headline at an annual fundraiser for impoverished youth, has sparked much outrage with several racially charged public statements and alleged ties to the Tennessee chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.
"Mr. Hunt has made no secret of his dislike of ... excuse me, his hatred of African Americans and Hispanic Americans, his intolerance of other beliefs and lifestyles," said Nashville Mayer Harry Saltzman. "His presence at, not to mention his headlining at this event, is reprehensible, and Bishop Lazenby should be ashamed of his support of this poisonous ideology."
Group organizers have promised that Hunt will not play any of his more controversial work at this event. Unsatisfied, however, many public leaders are encouraging a boycott of the event. Bishop Lazenby, who has overseen the organization of the Catholic-based event, is unwavering in his support of Hunt.
"This is not about ideology, but about helping children. Mr. Hunt will draw significant support for this cause," Lazenby said in a release, "and it is unfortunate that many in this community cannot put their differences aside in order to help the less fortunate."
With whom do you side?
Hopefully not the bishop. At least in this story.
First off, let me say that there is no Bishop Lazenby and there is no rhythm and blues guitarist named Blackjack Hunt. In fact, I made up the whole story to illustrate a point and to get your gut reactions to another situation that is happening here in Missouri.
Archbishop Raymond Burke, of the archdiocese of St. Louis, is actually the one under fire, but not because he is bringing in a controversial speaker whose public activities are contrary to the goals of the fund raiser. Rather, he is the one opposing such an action.
In this case, unlike in my make-believe story, the bishop is the good guy, but you wouldn't know it with the biased news coverage in recent weeks.
Sheryl Crow, an outspoken advocate of abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, has been selected to headline a fund raiser for the Cardinal Glennon Children's Foundation. Archbishop Burke has privately appealed to event organizers for some time to reconsider this decision, and after being met with silence, he finally felt obligated to speak out publicly against the decision to invite Crow.
And, according to most major news outlets, the public is outraged. I have a hunch, though, that if the story I had made up was true, that same public would be rallying against the fictional Bishop Lazenby. After all, what person who really cared about helping the less-fortunate would really tolerate bringing in a hate-filled bigot to further that cause?
Does the fictional Lazenby's rationalization that it is not about ideology, but about helping children really fly, considering how destructive Hunt's rhetoric is? Yet this is almost word-for-word the excuse that the St. Louis organizers used in expressing their support of Crow.
Cardinal Glennon is a Catholic organization, which means that part of "helping children" is keeping them from being killed in the womb. Just as Hunt, in the made-up story, might not play his racially-charged lyrics at the event, Crow will most likely not advocate abortion while there. However, in either case, the mere presence of such a headliner is sending the message that the end justifies the means. No matter how much money might be raised by bringing in Crow, the fact simply remains that she actively campaigns against the efforts of pro-life groups (such as in her recent appearance in ads supporting embryonic stem cell destruction and cloning).
As for me, I am extremely proud of Burke for having the integrity to stand up for life in this instance. He is a bright enough man to know how the general secular, celebrity-worshiping public would react, but defending the unborn was more important to him than catering to the whims of society.
And let's not forget the fact that the Cardinal Glennon event is an insult to the public because the assumption is that the only way that they will give to this wonderful organization is if they are properly entertained.
ps. Some of you might be big enough James Bond aficionados to have caught that the name of the Bishop of Nashville is really that of the one-time star of the James Bond series, appearing between Connery and Moore in the series (the names of everyone else in the story come from the cast and crew, as well).
"Mr. Hunt has made no secret of his dislike of ... excuse me, his hatred of African Americans and Hispanic Americans, his intolerance of other beliefs and lifestyles," said Nashville Mayer Harry Saltzman. "His presence at, not to mention his headlining at this event, is reprehensible, and Bishop Lazenby should be ashamed of his support of this poisonous ideology."
Group organizers have promised that Hunt will not play any of his more controversial work at this event. Unsatisfied, however, many public leaders are encouraging a boycott of the event. Bishop Lazenby, who has overseen the organization of the Catholic-based event, is unwavering in his support of Hunt.
"This is not about ideology, but about helping children. Mr. Hunt will draw significant support for this cause," Lazenby said in a release, "and it is unfortunate that many in this community cannot put their differences aside in order to help the less fortunate."
With whom do you side?
Hopefully not the bishop. At least in this story.
First off, let me say that there is no Bishop Lazenby and there is no rhythm and blues guitarist named Blackjack Hunt. In fact, I made up the whole story to illustrate a point and to get your gut reactions to another situation that is happening here in Missouri.
Archbishop Raymond Burke, of the archdiocese of St. Louis, is actually the one under fire, but not because he is bringing in a controversial speaker whose public activities are contrary to the goals of the fund raiser. Rather, he is the one opposing such an action.
In this case, unlike in my make-believe story, the bishop is the good guy, but you wouldn't know it with the biased news coverage in recent weeks.
Sheryl Crow, an outspoken advocate of abortion and embryonic stem-cell research, has been selected to headline a fund raiser for the Cardinal Glennon Children's Foundation. Archbishop Burke has privately appealed to event organizers for some time to reconsider this decision, and after being met with silence, he finally felt obligated to speak out publicly against the decision to invite Crow.
And, according to most major news outlets, the public is outraged. I have a hunch, though, that if the story I had made up was true, that same public would be rallying against the fictional Bishop Lazenby. After all, what person who really cared about helping the less-fortunate would really tolerate bringing in a hate-filled bigot to further that cause?
Does the fictional Lazenby's rationalization that it is not about ideology, but about helping children really fly, considering how destructive Hunt's rhetoric is? Yet this is almost word-for-word the excuse that the St. Louis organizers used in expressing their support of Crow.
Cardinal Glennon is a Catholic organization, which means that part of "helping children" is keeping them from being killed in the womb. Just as Hunt, in the made-up story, might not play his racially-charged lyrics at the event, Crow will most likely not advocate abortion while there. However, in either case, the mere presence of such a headliner is sending the message that the end justifies the means. No matter how much money might be raised by bringing in Crow, the fact simply remains that she actively campaigns against the efforts of pro-life groups (such as in her recent appearance in ads supporting embryonic stem cell destruction and cloning).
As for me, I am extremely proud of Burke for having the integrity to stand up for life in this instance. He is a bright enough man to know how the general secular, celebrity-worshiping public would react, but defending the unborn was more important to him than catering to the whims of society.
And let's not forget the fact that the Cardinal Glennon event is an insult to the public because the assumption is that the only way that they will give to this wonderful organization is if they are properly entertained.
ps. Some of you might be big enough James Bond aficionados to have caught that the name of the Bishop of Nashville is really that of the one-time star of the James Bond series, appearing between Connery and Moore in the series (the names of everyone else in the story come from the cast and crew, as well).
4 comments:
Hi,
I liked your take on the situation and I am a St. Louis Catholic and fully support Bishop Burke.
However, I thought you might like to know that Beliefnet is a fairly large and well established website. I know that you are not referring to that website, but thought you should know that it exists.
Sorry, no dice. The analogy is weak. Try this, would a Catholic Archbishop serve on the Board of Directors named in honor of a racist like your Blackjack?
Crow's contribution of her time and talent to a pro-life institution says nothing about Glennon Hosptial's pro-life bona fides but shows she is not as absolute and rigid in her views as you suggest.
And certainly it is impossible to concur with Burke's twisted logic without also saying that an association with Glennon is an endorsement of the racism Glennon practiced.
The above poster "Katherine" seems to have missed the point that, in the fictional story, the Board of Directors was not "named in honor" of a racist like Blackjack. Rather, Blackjack was an invited guest, just like Crow, and he was going to keep his views out of the fundraiser, just like Crow. "Katherine" assumes that Crows's contribution shows she is not as absolute and rigid as I suggested. Sorry, but one only needs to read Crow's website to see that isn't the case: http://feministcampus.org/vote/whatsatstake.asp. No, what's really happening here is that the integrity of the Catholic mission to protect the unborn is being sacrificed in the interest of celebrity idolatry. Crow's presence at the event, considering the "time and talent" she puts into making sure babies can still be aborted is an insult to the work that the hospital does to keep them alive.
I agree with you completely that Burke is doing the right thing. Katherine was referring to John Cardinal Glennon as an actual racist. Glennon did not (according to some) do enough to promote racial integration of Catholic schools in St. Louis. Considering the time in which he lived, it is not clear that he could have accomplished this; though his successor was able to integrate the schools. That does not, however, necessarily make Glennon a racist.
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