Gardez battle intensifies; Bush caves in to State Department; recession over, House passes “stimulus package”; Blair faces cabinet mutiny over Iraq war.
THE NON-EXISTENT ANTI-WAR LEFT: Funny, isn’t it, that a movement that many have told us doesn’t really exist seems to be gaining strength. The Nation, for example, has seen its circulation grow to a record 112,000 since September 11, up from 95,000 in 2000. “The magazine is thriving,” Katrina vanden Heuvel, socialist heiress and editor, tells a fawning Earth Times, “in the context of too few independent voices.” She adds that “we are on the threshold of a permanent war economy which has little to do with fighting terror.” Best not to read this piece before breakfast.
LIFE IMITATES THE ONION: First there’s this story. Then there’s this one. Yeah, I know. I support the Bush position – and Mickey Kaus explains why (third item). But the Onion story is still priceless.
IS BUSH GETTING CLINTONIZED?: The steel decision was a terrible one – bad economics, short-sighted politics, and bad geo-politics. One aspect of it that has been short-changed is its devastating blow to Tony Blair. Blair has already been embroiled in a scandal taking campaign money from a steel company that wanted the Bush tariffs. He’s beleaguered in his own cabinet for his support for the war on terror. He’s the most important ally in Europe. And what does Bush do? Kick him in the teeth by pandering to the voters of Ohio and West Virginia. You think Karl Rove thought of that? And now there’s the ritual sending of a “peace” envoy, following the classic State Department line in favor of mollifying the Arab “street” and the unelected thugs of the Arab League. What is Zinni supposed to do? What on earth is there to negotiate? I know the violence is horrifying. But rescuing these parties – especially the murderous terrorism of Hamas and the PLO – from the consequences of their own decisions will not help. In fact, this safety net is partly what keeps the Palestinian terror growing. If they believe they can kill their way toward American intervention, they will kill again and again. If they believe a settlement can be imposed, and they can again shirk any responsibility for its success, then they will not negotiate a real deal. This Powellite decision is worthy of Bill Clinton – and it will have the same consequences of postponing a real peace, ratcheting up the incentives for the Palestinians to kill more Israelis and lead to yet more meaningless discussions with the Arab satrapies we prop up with oil money. So the cycle goes on. And to think I’d hoped Bush could end it.
TWO GAY CATHOLIC VOICES: I’ve been hearing a lot lately from gay catholic priests, by email mainly, frightened at what they may soon endure, horrified by the smears leveled at them by their own church, aware that they are on a knife-edge. Most seem to believe that if they keep their heads down, the sane leaders of the American Church will protect them. I’m not so sure. What really amazes me is how many seem to believe that coming out is not an option. Although there is no doctrinal reason for barring openly gay priests, the current church practices, in the view of many of its gay clergy, brutal discrimination against them. If they come out, they say they will effectively be shunted aside, removed from parishes, taken away from real missions, and so on. Compare that treatment – of honest, celibate gay priests – with the treatment meted out to closeted non-celibate pedophiles. There is no theological basis for this, no doctrinal or pastoral justification. It’s reflective of a syndrome that prefers lying to truth, secrecy to candor, and bigotry to faith. But if gay priests don’t put their careers on the line to oppose this syndrome, who will? Here’s one email that struck a chord from one gay priest:
I believe that there is much in the culture of the Church that deserves to die and which will die as a longterm effect of the exposure now occurring. That is what gives me some paschal hope amid this horror. If cover-ups are now bound to fail, it is all to the good, and that realization should give everyone the courage to read the horrific revelations head-on each day. After all, Jesus did talk about proclaiming truth from the rooftops and I think that should extend to the bad as well as to the good news. I keep sharing your links with some other gay priests. We are really outraged by the attempt to blame the crisis on us and hope you will continue to hammer away at that on your site. I think only a news media holding the hierarchy’s and the Vatican’s feet to the fire has any chance to make them change. We really don’t have many canonical rights if the Vatican is truly determined to remove us. In fact, one aspect of this situation that is very much overlooked is the Church’s need to have its own bill of rights for all members.
And here’s a reminder that there are many gay lay people serving the church as well. These people are under threat now too:
Your postings today are particularly insightful. You are right that gay priests should come out and declare who they are. As a gay layman who serves as a Catholic school principal, I also feel the same way at times since I know with certainty how many fine gay priests there are! Yet I wonder sometimes if I would have the courage to “come out” beyond the small circle of friends that know about me. What a tremendous amount of courage would be needed; perhaps we gay Catholic leaders are at a moment in our history which DEMANDS such courage? It is certainly worth praying over.
I’m not going to sit in my privileged position and tell gay priests or principals to come out. My sympathy and solidarity belong to them – and other conscientious Catholics caught in this mess – whatever they decide to do. But I do think, for what it’s worth, that something important is at stake now. And courage is needed to resist the forces that are thinking of a purge.
The Dish 