Larry Doyle and the Game of "Spot the Idiot."

I agree with this column by Harold Ficket in the Catholic Exchange, which argues that Catholics shouldn't ask Larry Doyle to apologize, rather they should thank Doyle for his honesty and hold his honest opinion up for all to see:

Should we be shocked and appalled by this? Hardly, it only means that today’s Catholics are getting back to being authentic Christians in an increasingly pagan society. “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad,” says the Lord (Matt 5:11-12a). Jesus does not say, Kindly ask them to mind their manners and treat the faith as too precious for open discussion.

In a subsequent posting Doyle mocked the pro forma apology being required of him, and frankly, I don’t blame him. He said what he said because he hates Catholicism for standing in the way of a secular agenda. I’d much rather have frank and honest hatred exposed for what is it than Orwellian expressions of “respect” for religion that are really just a smoke screen for the tyrannical imposition of secular values.

When we ask for apologies from such people, we are asking that faith enjoy a privileged status where it’s largely treated as out-of-bounds for frank criticism, and therefore, in fact, irrelevant to public issues.

If we want to reintroduce the Christian vocabulary into the conversation, then we are going to have to let criticisms, even vicious attacks, flow freely. Do I really need to point out that Doyle’s commentary–and anything else like it–does more to expose the vile nature of anti-Catholic prejudice and its prevalence in our society than anything Bill Donohue and The Catholic League could possible do? (For the record, I admire Donohue and The Catholic League’s work tremendously.)

It’s time to grow up and mix it up, rhetorically. The best satire–much better than Doyle’s, in fact–has always come out of Christianity, because satire as a form depends on a consistent moral viewpoint. See Jonathan Swift and the wonderful work in the last decades of the twentieth century of Walker Percy. The first a devout Anglican priest and the latter a devout Catholic.

Larry, you are wrong, and if you’d like to talk about it, we’re ready. That’s all that needs saying. Put away the calls for apologies and group pressure tactics in favor of censorship. As Catholics we are here, we are relevant, and we are totally unafraid of debate or crude and self-refuting jokes.

Exactly.

Doyle looked like an asshat with his claim that it was okay for a liberal secularist to indulge in a bigoted screed in order to parody things that no one other than a liberal, secularist bigot had said.

The irony of that bit of circular reasoning speaks volumes about the intellectual poverty of the world in which Doyle lives.

What also speaks volumes is the silence on the Left that has followed Doyle's bigoted anti-Catholic screed.

Playing "Spot the Idiots" has never been easier.

Because, apparently, humorless, asshat, secular liberal bigots never write ignorant, humorless, secular, liberal bigoted anti-Catholic screeds...

...and Larry Doyle proves it by writing an ignorant, humorless, secular, liberal bigoted anti-Catholic screed.

I mean, it's not like Catholics ever have ignorant, humorless, secular, liberal bigoted anti-Catholic screed written by ignorant, humorless, secular, liberal bigoted anti-Catholic asshats.

Such as the ignorant, humorless, secular, liberal bigoted anti-Catholic screed written by Larry Doyle.

Because, apparently, by virtue of simply being a liberal secular asshat you are immune from ever being a bigot when you write ignorant, humorless, secular, liberal bigoted anti-Catholic screeds trying to show that everyone else is, in fact, the real bigots, which you show by being a ignorant, humorless, secular, liberal bigoted anti-Catholic asshat.

Get it?

If you don't, then you don't get "Post-modernist irony," which is what makes the really smart, ignorant, humorless, secular, liberal bigoted anti-Catholic asshats better than everyone else.

This article provides Larry Doyle's explanation of his "reasoning" for his bizarre anti-Catholic rant and some of the fall-out of same:

Doyle's column was roundly criticized and he wrote a follow-up on Tuesday saying he would not apologize and doesn't care if anyone is offended.

"My criticism took the form of a ridiculously over-the-top broadside against Roman Catholicism, a demonstration of the type of vicious religious ignorance and intolerance I too often see coming from too many so-called Christians, especially Santorum," he writes.

"I hope (Catholics who are offended) will now think twice before they question the faith of progressive Christians, or Mormons or Muslims. I doubt they will."

"Bigots like Doyle think they can hurl the most contemptible insults towards Catholics ('Jesus eaters') and when called out, claim it was just a joke. What cowardice. What a double standard," reads the letter to Huffington.

"If such an article was written concerning the Islamic or Jewish faith, the public outcry would be overwhelming, and rightly so. But anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable form of bigotry, and The Huffington Post is taking advantage of that bigotry for all it's worth," they continue.

As for Doyle's claim it was satire, the group writes that "intelligent readers and the millions of faithful Catholics" who read the article "don't buy such equivocating nonsense for a minute."

The group warned that such sanctioning by the media of anti-religious rhetoric has enabled the Obama administration to try to institute mandates like the recent contraceptive rule that forces religious institutions to provide insurance coverage to employees that "violates their most sacred teachings."

The group concludes that if Huffington doesn't delete Doyle's piece and issue an apology, "your so-called news outlet cannot be seen as anything but an anti-Catholic talking piece."

The letter is signed by Brent Bozell, founder and president of the Media Research Center; Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage; Brian Burch, president of Catholic Vote; Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List; Richard Viguerie chairman of ConservativeHQ.com; and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

Here is the ignorant asshat's explanation:

Dear Catholics: I Am Heartily Sorry, etc.

Actually, I'm not sorry at all, but I suppose an explanation is in order.

Last week, I wrote a piece with the somewhat provocative title "The Jesus-Eating Cult of Rick Santorum." The purpose was to take Santorum to task for his persistent and opportunistic attacks on the faith of others, in particular his dog whistle references to President Obama's "phony ideology" and his assertion that it is impossible to be a Christian and liberal. My criticism took the form of a ridiculously over-the-top broadside against Roman Catholicism, a demonstration of the type of vicious religious ignorance and intolerance I too often see coming from too many so-called Christians, especially Santorum.

Apparently, a lot of Catholics are willing to accept that other people believe they are cannibals. (Bill Donahue, the official fake spokesman for the Church through his League of Extraordinary Catholics or whatever it's called, quoted that section in his weekly hissy fit today.) I had thought that the gratuitous references to NAMBLA, or tying the Church to terrorism based on their behavior during the Inquisitions, would have been a tip-off.

I won't say that Catholics need to lighten up or learn to take a joke, because the piece wasn't intended to be light-hearted or funny. It was satire, meaning... well, you can look that up. (It was probably a mistake to put it in the Comedy section; the editors wanted readers to know it was not to be taken literally.)

It's traditional at this point for me to half-apologize, to say that I'm sorry if anybody was offended, but I really don't mind if anybody was offended. I hope they will now think twice before they question the faith of progressive Christians, or Mormons or Muslims. I doubt they will.

Some points:

First, the "heartily sorry" is, of course, a parody of the Act of Contrition.

Second, if the asshat doesn't think that the cannibalism charge is seriously leveled at Catholics by anti-Catholics then he needs to get out more.

Third, jeepers, it turns out that he wasn't "joking."

He was serious.

He seriously hates us and/or has contempt for all of us "Jesus-eaters."

Well, thank for the information.

I'm boycotting his books and movies from here on out.

I won't be missing much. According to Wiki, his move "I Love You, Beth Cooper" - what's the word - sucked:

A film version of I Love You, Beth Cooper, starring Hayden Panettiere as Beth and Paul Rust as Denis, opened in the summer of 2009 to scathing reviews [1] and quickly flopped.

Well, Jeepers, as long as it's written by a "former" Irish-Catholic, then a column that puts on a minstrel show for the amusement of the liberal, secular elite must be all in good fun.

Of course, needless to say, it helps if something labled "humor" is, well, you know, humorous.

This Huffington Post by Larry Doyle, author of "I Love You, Beth Cooper," is bizarre. He seems to be mocking both Catholics and Anti-Catholics, but he's definitely selling out the good name of his fellow Irish-Catholics for the applause of elite secularists, who will congratulate him for being so "transgressive."

The Jesus-Eating Cult of Rick Santorum

It's time to take a good hard look at Rick Santorum's faith.

Many of you will be shocked to learn what our possible future president believes, who he answers to, the bloody jihads his so-called church has carried on for centuries, and its current role as the tactical arm of the North American Man-Boy Love Association.

As a former member of same sect (an Irish-Catholic, the worst kind), I have read the texts, participated in the rites, and even seen behind the curtain, as it were, as a one-time altar boy, so help me. I managed to escape, but then, Santorum is in much deeper than I ever was.

Unlike Christians, Santorum and his fellow Roman Catholics participate in a barbaric ritual dating back two millennia, a "mass" in which a black-robed cleric casts a spell over some bread and wine, transfiguring it into the actual living flesh and blood of their Christ. Followers then line up to eat the Jesus meat and drink his holy blood in a cannibalistic reverie not often seen outside Cinemax.

Roman Catholics like Santorum take their orders from "the Pope," a high priest who, they believe, chats with God. Santorum has made no secret of his plans to implement his leader's dicta on allowed uses of vaginas and anuses, but has said little about what additional dogma he will be compelled to obey. Will child killers and terrorists go unexecuted on the Pope's say-so? Will we be able to conduct our wars as we see fit, or only the "just" ones? If Santorum is a good Catholic, and he appears to be among the very best, our real president with be Benedict XVI (a "former" Nazi, by the way).

Santorum has also remained silent on his religious organization's various reigns of terror, in which good protestants and others were tortured and killed in imaginatively grisly ways. Even more chilling is a possible connection between the Roman Catholic Church pedophile program and NAMBLA, which I discovered after conducting some research on the internet.

Ordinarily I would be loathe to discuss all this, feeling that issues of faith and religion should be kept out of politics. But it's far too late for that, and I have an obligation to expose this phony theology that threatens to supplant Christianity as our official national religion.

Need I remind you that only once in our great history has a Roman Catholic been elected president, and how tragically it ended?

You're either part of the team, or you're not.

If you're part of the team, then you get to use derogatory slurs about the team in an ironic way.

That's why black rappers can talk about "niggahs" and whites can't.

If you aren't part of the team, you ain't being ironic when you use derogatory slurs against a group.

You're just being a humorless, boorish sell-out putting on a "minstrel show."