Catholics Are At It Again

[Skeptical Greg]

O'Reily asks:

What Would Jesus Do? (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,96542,00.html)
In the "Personal Story" segment tonight, a disturbing report out of Eugene, Oregon. A four-year-old girl is not able to attend the O'Hara Catholic School because her parents are lesbians. The girl was adopted by the women, but church authorities out there say the lifestyles of her guardians are not acceptable to them.

I have problems with a lot of O'Reily's crap, but I believe he's right, in jumping on this...

[Cristina]

Why would they want their daughter to be taught that homosexual behaviour is a sin and that homosexuals are deviants?

What will this do to the little girl? She will be made to choose between God and her parents. Oh my.

I know your question was about whether the school has a right not to admit her. I agree that Jesus would welcome the little girl. But what Jesus would do and what Christians do are rarely related, or so it seems to me.

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

[Crossbow]

It reminds of the time Ian McKellen was on SNL and during his monologue, he pointed out that gays were not allowed to participate in the annual St Patrick's Day Parade, however they did not have any problem with all those Catholic Preists!

Go figure!

[Tmy]

Im sure they allow children of divorced parents to attend. Thats just as much as a sin as being gay.

I went to catholic school and I dont ever remember the nuns talking about homosexuality. Sure we had the whole Soddom and Gamora story, but catholic schools are know for avoiding anything having to do wh sex.

[Skeptical Greg]

Originally posted by Cristina
Why would they want their daughter to be taught that homosexual behaviour is a sin and that homosexuals are deviants?

What will this do to the little girl? She will be made to choose between God and her parents. Oh my.

I know your question was about whether the school has a right not to admit her. I agree that Jesus would welcome the little girl. But what Jesus would do and what Christians do are rarely related, or so it seems to me.

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

You make some excellent points..

I have also questioned why people who want a same sex marriage ceremony are so intent on having a Church ordain their union.. If we seek legitimacy from an institution that does not share our beliefs, what does it say about the strength of those beliefs and what our motivation is?


We have two sides here, that are putting their agenda above the welfare of this child..

[Upchurch]

Originally posted by Diogenes
I have problems with a lot of O'Reily's crap, but I believe he's right, in jumping on this... I heard him talking about this on his radio show. His advice to the mothers was that they should have never labeled themselves as lesbians and there would have never been a problem. Basically, he told them to stay in the closet.

What one of the mothers tried to get across to O'Reilly was that they hadn't explicitly told anyone at the school that they were gay, it was just fairly easy to figure out since the there were two women listed as the girl's parents. And the girl calls one "Mom" and the other one "Mama". It was my impression that O'Reilly was trying to blame the mothers for the issue because they were being open about their relationship.

He then talked about he doesn't flaunt his sexuality in public. I wonder how pissed his wife must be if he never holds her hand in public or brings her flowers, etc. :rolleyes:

[shemp]

O'REILLY: Why would they do that? My aunts live together. They never married. And they weren't lesbians.

Bill, how do you know they're not?

[hgc]

Originally posted by Upchurch
I heard him talking about this on his radio show. His advice to the mothers was that they should have never labeled themselves as lesbians and there would have never been a problem. Basically, he told them to stay in the closet.

...O'Reilly has an ongoing problem with this concept, and he's not amenable to training.

I've heard him address the gay marraige issue with the dismissal that what people do in their bedrooms is their own business, but why do they have to make it our business. He misses the point that in order for a couple to live their lives normally, they present themselves to the world as a couple in a million ways, big and small, and what goes on "in the bedroom" as nothing to do with most of it. A good example is putting a child in school. If straight parents together take their child to register for school, they're not considered to be flaunting what goes on in their bedroom. Why can't gay couples get the same pass?

[Tony]

Are they butch dykes, or hot lesbians?

[RSLancastr]

[offensive joke]
Catholics are always at it, and without birth control!
[/offensive joke]

I heard O'Reilly interview the priest who is the principal of the school. O'Reilly asked him if turning the girl away is What Jesus Would Do, and the priest said yes, Jesus would not want the girl in that situation.

I read most of the bible some years ago, and I don't seem to recall the passage where Jesus said "Suffer the little children to come unto me, but not if their parents are big fans of Xena, Warrior Princess."

Also, the Catholic church believes that homosexuality is not a sin, but acting on it is. I wonder if they bothered to ask the mothers whether or not they engage in sex?

Their doctrine also teaches that divorce is not allowed, and remarriage is even worse (unless you are a king), and yet they let children from families in these situations attend the school.

They mentioned on the show that since it was a private school, they could admit and reject anyone they wanted. Is this true? Could they (for example) say "only white kids allowed", and get away with it? Then again, I guess they can say "only Catholic kids allowed."

[hgc]

Originally posted by RSLancastr
... and remarriage is even worse (unless you are a king),... ... or a Kennedy.

[Tony]

Originally posted by RSLancastr
They mentioned on the show that since it was a private school, they could admit and reject anyone they wanted. Is this true? Could they (for example) say "only white kids allowed", and get away with it? [/B]


It's called a private school for a reason.

[RSLancastr]

Originally posted by Tony
It's called a private school for a reason. Understood, but even private businesses are bound by federal equal opportunity laws, aren't they?

[Tmy]

Lots of people send their kids to catholic school because its a better education. The religious part is really minimal. We had religion class, and prayers before school and lunch but that was about it. Most of the schooling is secular subjects. As students we were never that much into the religion. Its not like we hung out in the schoolyard talking about Jesus. LOL we played football instead.

[Malachi151]

The rate of homosexuality within the Church is higher than among the normal population, go figure.

[Upchurch]

Originally posted by shemp

Bill, how do you know they're not? He mentioned the aunts on the radio show too. Interestingly, he mentioned that people didn't know if they were lesbians or not.

[hgc]

Originally posted by Upchurch
He mentioned the aunts on the radio show too. Interestingly, he mentioned that people didn't know if they were lesbians or not. Great. He's practically outing his own aunts on national radio. I hope they pull him by the ear at the next family gathering.

[Grammatron]

Originally posted by RSLancastr
Understood, but even private businesses are bound by federal equal opportunity laws, aren't they?

As far as I know, a school can claim to be part of a church and through "Freedom of Religion" can exclude whomever they want.

[Tony]

Originally posted by RSLancastr
Understood, but even private businesses are bound by federal equal opportunity laws, aren't they?


Yes, but they shouldn't be. I dont know if there are simular laws for schools though.

[RSLancastr]

[anecdotal]

I went to a public high school, but my senior year I participated in a city educational project where all but two of the fifty students in the program were were from the local Catholic high school.

The kids from the catholic high school were drinkingest, most sexually active kids i had ever met.

My guess is, it was from all that oppression/repression that they were under at school. When they were away from it, they went wild.

This was ONE of the reasons I didn't let my kids attend catholic school, as my then-wife wanted.

[/anecdote]

[hgc]

Originally posted by RSLancastr
[anecdotal]

I went to a public high school, but my senior year I participated in a city educational project where all but two of the fifty students in the program were were from the local Catholic high school.

The kids from the catholic high school were drinkingest, most sexually active kids i had ever met.

My guess is, it was from all that oppression/repression that they were under at school. When they were away from it, they went wild.

This was ONE of the reasons I didn't let my kids attend catholic school, as my then-wife wanted.

[/anecdote] Where I come from, Jewish kids with drug or discipline problems were sent to Catholic school by their parents. Maybe they got a little more structure in school, but out of school... oy vey.

[whitefork]

Bill's Aunts: Boston Marriage (http://womenshistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa073099.htm)

[Tmy]

Thisis why I laugh at the prayer in school crowd. In Catholic school we prayed all the time and you know what? We were just as evil as our public school counterparts. And the girls all turned into whores.


They also taught us evolution. Isnt that kinda blasphameous?

[hgc]

Originally posted by Tmy
...

They also taught us evolution. Isnt that kinda blasphameous? Even the pope will grant you evolution. You've got to be a Pat Buchanan type of Catholic to have a problem with that.

[Andonyx]

Originally posted by Tmy
Thisis why I laugh at the prayer in school crowd. In Catholic school we prayed all the time and you know what? We were just as evil as our public school counterparts. And the girls all turned into whores.


They also taught us evolution. Isnt that kinda blasphameous?

Yeah in general Catholic, and Episcopelian (sp?) Tend to take a more figurative / metaphorical approach to the bible, with the exception of the transubstantiation thing.

Protestant sects are more likely to take a literal approach or fundamentalist approach to the word.

[Malachi151]

Every person in America and Europe should be forced to watch the Magdaline Sisters, in theaters now.

http://www.miramax.com/the_magdalene_sisters/

Drawing on one of the darkest secrets of Irish society -- which might almost be said to be built upon dark secrets -- "The Magdalene Sisters" is a rip-roaring feminist yarn that should offer relief to viewers anxious for an alternative to the boys-with-guns flicks of summer. This drama about the girls and women incarcerated in a convent laundry has the advantage of historical veracity, and it provides a useful object lesson in what can happen when an entire nation becomes hypnotized by one particular vision of religious virtue.

What really matters, though, is that writer-director Peter Mullan has crafted a classic crowd-pleaser, a neo-Gothic tale whose appealing heroines are unfairly oppressed but finally find the strength to set themselves free. With its nearly all-female cast and its story of a community of women poisoned and embittered by an atmosphere of sexual hostility (with a dash of lesbian sadism thrown in), "The Magdalene Sisters" will seem slightly familiar to any connoisseur of trashy genre films. (I'm not saying that's what it is, at least not exactly.) Basically, we're talking women-in-prison message movie, with the added touch that the prisoners aren't guilty of anything -- except being women.

[Skeptic]

Why would they want their daughter to be taught that homosexual behaviour is a sin and that homosexuals are deviants?

There are two possiblities I can think of:

1). Less generous: because the alternative is going to the local public school, so they figured that hearing "Mom, they told me you're a sinner today" is better than "Mom, I was mugged today".

2). More generous: for the same reason some black students wanted to go to U. of Mississippi in the 1960s despite knowing in advance that they'll be hated there.

I know your question was about whether the school has a right not to admit her.

Yes, they do. The school principal also has the right to join the KKK. It's a private organization. But, then again, just because they have a right to be jerks doesn't mean they aren't jerks.

[nightwind]

This is just another example of a moronic decision, made by possibly one moron, who has his head where the "moon does not seem to shine".

It's cases like this, that really hurt religion. :mad: