People asking EWTN to pull their contributions. It looks like a promising tack in response to the sacking of Gloria Purvis. Mark Shea wants the network to go whole hog on him:
I hope others involved with the EWTN Empire will do the same and the donors of conscience will stop supporting this network. Michael Warsaw, if you are listening, I demand you take down every one of my appearances in the archives… Same with your radio franchise. Take them all off the air. I object strongly to having my name associated with a network that now promotes persecution of a sister in Christ for no cause other than speaking the truth of the gospel about race in America.
An outsider might remark this is about a split in the Catholic Right. I think that is a naive view. It looks to me that it’s a sorting of sorts. Crisis and injustice have a way of separating out people of principle from others beholden to selfish interests. Ideology has little to do with it.
I’m with Mark! I am in atheist!
Its entirely about ideology in my opinion. Any time a black person is fired its because of racism (never because she’s contentious and annoying). Anytime a black criminal dies its because of racism. Anytime anything negative ever happens to a black person its because the white man did it to him. But seriously anyone who thinks a radio station must keep a host on who is very unpopular with its audience is a moron.
Well, not “any time.” But in this instance, the one I am talking about, yes. It looks like racism. I think EWTN can self-describe as a business and put that ahead of the Gospel. And that might be the truth. On the other hand, if they were to brand themselves as a Catholic apostolate, this behavior would be contrary to that intent.
What about it looks like racism and not the firing of a contentious and annoying radio host? Thats why I’m glad she’s gone. It was annoying to hear her argue and harp on her favorite topic so often. The sanctimoniousness around it is almost as bad: “She’s not a contentious shrew who got fired for being annoying..She is a job martyr, a victim of racism!”
I think a person, even a good Christian, can find another person, even a good Christian “contentious and annoying.” You are describing the pharisee and scribe reaction to Jesus. The thing is, Ms Purvis backed her stance up with church teaching. Some people find harping on abortion sanctimonious. I think it takes careful discernment, especially on the part of the people who are bothered by crimes like abortion or racism or sexism. The Lord would have us look at these matters as an opportunity for an interior examen.
As for EWTN, the optics are very bad. They pink-slipped a host they hired in good faith. They bowed to pressure from outside the organization. As a business decision it reveals poor character. It also shows the hierarchy of this communications medium extends to outside the organization. And we’re not talking magisterium.
We’ll see the fruits of the decision to the extent EWTN continues a discussion and exploration on racism in the future. If contentiousness is really the issue, perhaps their Latino replacement will bring more serenity to reporting on immigration and detention issues.