When my father would come across a bigot or someone small minded and full of hate for someone he'd call them "mental midgets". I think he got that from watching Archie Bunker, but I can't be sure. It's a fitting expression for what I see happening very often today here in America and currently sweeping Australia. The mental midgets are the protesters who are passionately obsessed with disrupting Catholic youth who wish to celebrate their faith at World Youth Day. These mental midgets are not only handing condoms to Catholic youth, but mailing them to the housing places the youth are staying at. They are "gifting" Catholic youth with coat-hangers to show opposition to the Catholic faiths views on abortion. They are having "kiss-ins" where gays are going to make out in front of Catholic youth because these mental midgets say the Pope and Catholics are "homophobic" because we believe God created woman for man and instituted marriage between a man and a woman. They are also handing out gay stickers calling the Pope a "homophobe" and altering photos of the Pope to give him horns on his head. A well known brothel in Sydney is offering a 10% discount to any WYD Catholic who shows their WYD accreditation card and is encouraging them to "commit their sins before the Pope leaves Australia". And the list goes on with the anti-Catholic attacks and hate that our Catholic youth and all Catholics suffer daily from these people simply because we are Catholic and live our faith. Is this fair? Let's imagine for a minute that Muslims were having a WYD. What would happen if anti-Muslim protesters were handing out pork to Muslims? Or lets say Jews were having a WYD and protesters were handing them shellfish? How would the world view it if anti-Muslims or anti-Jews were being intolerant and forming coalitions to "annoy" them? "A newspaper ran a competition for the best anti-Catholic T-shirt. And an ABC host urged men to bait Catholics by going naked, but for a condom." (quote from Australian Andrew Bolt-more below) Would the world be appalled at such a display of intolerance for other faiths? Yes! But where is the outrage for Catholics? Barely a blip in the media over the "cracker" mental midget last week desecrating the Eucharist and taking great pleasure in belittling Catholics and our faith, and same now with WYD in Australia. I did find one guy, a non-Christian defending not only Catholics but the entire Catholic Church against the bigotry of these mental midgets. His name is Andrew Bolt and he's a columnist with the HeraldSun in Australia (link below). He not only sees the bigotry but he went a step further to write about it and call it what it is. Thanks Andrew Bolt! These gays, atheists, and other anti-Catholic groups demand their rights to "freedoms" for themselves (gay marriage, abortion, etc.), but they don't want Catholics to have the freedom to be Catholic and keep our faith. They want Catholics to change our faith to accept condom use, accept gay marriage, accept abortion and anything else THEY decide for us. Where are OUR rights to freedom of religion as WE believe? They are trying (but will never succeed) in forcing the Catholic Church to change its doctrines/beliefs to allow for gay marriage, condom use and abortion. They want to force THEIR beliefs on us, then tell us "Now you can be Catholic and we'll leave you alone because you've caved in to our demands." Where is tolerance for the Catholic faith? Why are non-Catholics demanding that Catholics accept their beliefs? Is this not the stuff of intolerant bigots? Who are they to dictate what our faith should be? What nerve! What intolerance! What mental midgets they are.
If you don't believe they want to force their beliefs on Catholics see what they are saying:
"We will say to them [Catholic youth], 'Take up the campaign within the Catholic Church to promote condoms.' We're not planning to get into any trouble. We don't want to condemn Catholic youth for being Catholics. We want to condemn the Pope for being homophobic and anti-condom. He [the Pope] is clearly a bigot ... many in the Catholic Church are also raising these issues, condemning the Pope for his hateful ideas."-Rachel Evans, from NoToPope Coalition and Community Action Against Homophobia
"Wearing a political T shirt, promoting safe-sex - pre-marital or otherwise and criticising the World Youth Day (WYD) 08 'code of ethics' will all be showcased at our highly annoying fashion show" noted Evans. "Criticising WYD ethics includes promoting contraception, access to abortion and conducting any criticism of the reactionary views of some Catholic Church leaders", said Evans."We will hand out condoms at our rally to young Catholics" said Anthony Englund. "The annoyance laws will not stop us. Young Catholic people are quite capable of distinguishing what they want from their church's theology and what they don't want. By providing them with a token number of condoms we're reminding them they can make up their own minds about what they believe is appropriate behavior in terms of their personal sexual health, "he concluded.
So where's all this tolerance they are screaming about? Where's the right to Catholics to be Catholic? Where is the outrage at these anti-Catholics for trying to force their demands into our doctrines? Don't Catholics have the right to our faith as other groups do? Just how do anti-Catholics define "tolerance"? I can't tell because I see so little from them. They scream tolerance but never show any. When will Catholics see the tolerance anti-Catholics are screaming about? And when will the world see the bigotry against Catholics that Andrew Bolt saw and spoke of? Those yelling for tolerance need to practice tolerance themselves.
Sources:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/sydney-condom-protest-against-pope/2008/06/24/1214073209465.html
http://www.notopope.com/news.php?item.5
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24036598-5000117,00.html
