You wouldn’t think an experienced journalist like Greg Kandra would get punked by anti-gay rabble-rousers. But he did. I just don’t see the point in being a piece of tissue paper in the internet maelstrom. Supposedly, if a story moves from the Fox to CNA that adds to its bona fides. I can’t agree. Opinion pieces and mob mentality masquerading as news. Michael Schuttloffel of the Kansas Catholic Conference:
As far as religious institutions, that will depend entirely on what sort of exemption – if any – is put in place (by the city council) … If there is none, then you could conceivably have a Catholic church that is forced to host a ceremony that violates Catholic beliefs.
Right.
If the Church’s responsibility to determine readiness for marriage is really so flimsy, determined engaged couples or parents would have overrun us by now.
On the other hand, maybe Fox is on to something. Hundreds of millions of gay Americans are going to force all heterosexual couples to divorce and remarry someone of their own sex. Can’t you just see it now?
Seriously, the problem discrimination laws attempt to address is, at root, unfairness. One set of sinners gets the thumbs down; others go scot-free. A Catholic parish might be allowed to look the other way on its standards for marriage, if, for example, there was enough money to persuade the priest to violate his principles. No doubt this has happened. But I don’t think it’s a widespread problem. For a Catholic business owner, there might be a problem in different treatment for a gay couple and, lets say, a Catholic couple in an irregular marriage. One might question (and I would) why one type of sin catches the moral attention of a believer, and not another. Maybe the day before a gay couple wants to rent a social hall there was some sort of moral conversion. Or maybe not.
25 April 2012 at 1:34 pm
I demur on your expectation regarding Deacon Kandra: for a while now, he has struck me as pretty uncritical about drumbeating news cycle stories of this sort.
25 April 2012 at 3:36 pm
Sometimes I wonder if he posts things to be a devil’s advocate or to get blog traffic.
25 April 2012 at 5:56 pm
Could it just be that what he posts truly reflects his thinking and biases?
25 April 2012 at 8:12 pm
As someone who knows Deacon Greg in the flesh, I will say this much – no, the post does not reflect his thinking. In fact, I can readily assure you that he does not think that way at all.
Which is why it is so maddening to me. I actually commented on that post and we have had some correspondence on it.
I’m not really sure why that stuff gets posted; I do know that it upsets me.
26 April 2012 at 8:18 am
Well, from this reader at his blog, all I can say is that his choice of when to be critical or non-critical of material he posts appears more opportunistic than he might realize. The Catholic News Agency is as flawed and biased a source of stories as any out there, and pretending it’s not is a cognitive blindspot.
27 April 2012 at 6:25 am
Liam, for good or ill, he is trained as a news person, and a lifetime of trying to attract eyeballs to TV or to a blog likely drives choices. Whether those choices are always good is another story.
I’m not defending him, but even if I disagree with his choices, he is still my friend.