Taunting the taunters; or is intimidation really the all-American way of life?

By now, I’m sure everyone inclined to care (and probably even many who don’t care) have seen the photo of that smug teenager feeling compelled to taunt an American Indian activist who was partaking in a march to celebrate his culture.

Will this boy's image from Saturday become as well-known … 

The event was the Indigenous Peoples’ March that took place in Washington, D.C., and we’ve now seen the group of protesters from Catholic schools who felt compelled to have their anti-abortion protest at the same time and place.

WHICH RESULTED IN the confrontation that included students getting in the faces of those people wishing to celebrate their American Indian cultures. There even are the pictures of teens doing that silly Atlanta Braves-like gesture with the tomahawk – as though they are clubbing the activists and mocking their culture as well.

But the image that most will stick in the public mindset will be that of the kid wearing one of those Donald Trump-style red caps with his “Make America Great Again” slogan. Even though the way we’d really make this country great again would be to have the indigenous activists put a boot or two up the behind of every single one of these snot-nosed brats.

What bothers me the most is the fact that these kids claimed they were expressing themselves (which they have a right to do in our society) as some sort of religious gesture.

The Catholic school these kids attend, to their credit, has already denounced their conduct and hinted they could face some sort of official discipline for their garish behavior.

… as that of this teenage girl from mid-1950s Little Rock, Ark.?

BUT I SUSPECT these kids are going to grow up into adults who, on some level, will take great pride in the fact that they acted like a batch of twits. Perhaps on some level like all those Southern whites of some 60 years ago who protested against all those black Civil Rights activists.

Who may well have held their greatest contempt for those white people who sided with the blacks in their desire for equal treatment!

As much as many of us would like to think this Age of Trump is just a silly fad that will die off once the man is removed (one way or another) from the presidency, these kids are likely to grow into adulthood carrying on such attitudes.

Intimidation was the intent, both now and back then

They may well try to pass them along to future generations. They certainly are going to resent anybody who tries to remember them as behaving like a batch of brats this past weekend.

IT WAS TRULY an embarrassing sight for us to have to see such tacky behavior in public. Even though we’re officially going to regard it as such, there also will be many who will want to defend it.

As though they think they have a right to harass and intimidate those in our society who aren’t exactly like themselves.

So yes, I can comprehend that when it comes to racial and ethnic relations, things are better now than they were a half-century or so ago because we no longer have the letter of the law reinforcing the attitudes of the more ignorant amongst us.

Does this man who protested in Boston against school busing think using the flag as a weapon makes him a "real" American?

But there are those individuals determined to cling to the past, and take it on as some sort of crusade to restore the narrow-minded ideals of the past. Which may well be the most contemptable aspect of the Age of Trump – his existence gives those people aid and comfort to support their ignorance.

PARTICULARLY SINCE THE kids in question come from a Catholic school in Kentucky – meaning these kids made a special trip to the national capital and felt compelled to express their xenophobic hang-ups.

I guess they’ve never heard that old cliché about remaining silent and be thought of as a fool, rather than speaking out and removing all doubt. Then again, they probably think Mark Twain was just a guy who wrote a boring book they’re forced to read in English classes.

Which also makes me suspect they’re going to be inclined to think of Monday’s Martin Luther King, Jr., birthday commemorations as something that brings them mixed feelings.

They get an extra day out of school, but they’re not about to do anything meaningful to acknowledge their day off!

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Some in Catholic church want to attach “exorcism” label to homosexuality

An exorcism, of sorts, took place just last week in the Avondale neighborhood.

A 'Page One' controversy

There, officials with the Resurrection parish held a ceremony where they burned a decades-old banner; as part of their desire to express their opposition to homosexual behavior of any sorts.

THE BANNER THAT was burned is one that belongs to the church. It’s their own property, which means that the letter of the law says they can do what they want with it.

The banner is one that used to be prominently displayed in the church – it incorporates a Christian cross with a colorful rainbow. It most likely was intended to be a peaceful image. As in, “Love of Christ” and all that kind of talk.

But in today’s mentality, the ideologues determined to put a hostile spin on just about everything see a similarity between their banner (which had been in storage in recent years) and the multi-colored rainbow-motif flags that gay rights activists often unfurl on behalf of their own cause.

Which led church officials to hold the ritual of exorcism to chase the demonic influence away from their church building.

SERIOUSLY!

Church officials said they viewed their peaceful banner as having evolved into something by which pro-gay propaganda was trying to express itself within their allegedly hallowed halls.

To me, I can’t help but see the activity at Resurrection Church as bordering on grotesque. People with far too much free time on their hands trying to come up with yet more ways to taunt those who aren’t like themselves.

CUPICH: Being challenged by his priests

I’d be willing to dismiss it as too petty to be taken seriously, except that it seems these church officials are eager to look to their past to find ways of justifying their backward thoughts.

ALL THE MORE reason why I find the idea of “Make America Great Again” to be inherently false. I suspect these parishioners think they’re merely making their church ‘great again’ by seeking out absurdly-outdated ideology.

Then again, these people probably are the same ones going about wearing their red caps in hopes of intimidating others around them. It’s embarrassing that too many church officials have the same mentality of the schoolyard bully of old.

What scares me is that this rhetoric, which officially is being denounced by Chicago Archdiocese Cardinal Blasé Cupich, is too similar to the acts back in 2013, when the Bishop of the Springfield, Ill., Catholic diocese decided to express his opposition to then-Gov. Pat Quinn approving the law that made gay marriage legitimate in Illinois by holding an exorcism on behalf of the whole state.

Are we literally going to have church officials holding their ritual to chase the Satanic spirits they see around every corner? Which to the masses merely brings up tacky memories (Ragen’s head twisting completely around?) of that 1973 horror film, “The Exorcist.”

I SUSPECT THAT most people don’t understand a thing about what exorcism really was. Just as many people probably have the whole of their religious knowledge coming from scenes of the 1956 film “The Ten Commandments.”

Extent to which most comprehend exorcisms

Is actor Charlton Heston really their vision of a holy man?

My comprehension of exorcism is that it was often used in olden times as a way of dealing with ailments we now comprehend as evidence of mental illness. It’s not a process anybody turns to these days, unless they’re desperately determined to live in the past.

Although I suspect many of those who approved of the banner burning that took place last week are amongst those who would be grossly offended if the banner had been the Stars and Stripes, and who have holy-like visions in this Age of Trump when they think of our nation’s current commander-in-chief.

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Death penalty proponents may view Papal pronouncements as fightin’ words

It has been a few hours since Pope Francis’ comments Thursday about the death penalty being “inadmissible” in all instances, and I’m still trying to figure out why anyone should view this as a radical change.

FRANCIS: Church to more actively oppose death

As a reporter-type person who has, on several occasions (although none since 2001 when the federal government put Timothy McVeigh to death), covered the process leading up to executions, one of the standard pieces of the story is that the Catholic Church is opposed.

THE POPE HIMSELF invariably will make statements about how cruel the concept is of putting someone to death as a form of criminal punishment. As though it is Homicide, committed in the name of Justice.

I know church officials I have spoken to have always tried to describe capital punishment as something obsolete – something that there’s just no need for in the modern-day world.

There are provisions in Catholic teachings that were taught in the past to justify an execution as a form of public protection. Meaning that the criminal in question was so violent and such a risk to society that putting the person to death was the only way to ensure that nobody else was hurt by his acts.

The governors who did away … 

Modern-day prisons and life-without-parole prison terms are considered sufficient protection – thereby eliminating the need to take away an individual’s life.

ONE THOUGHT I always was taught was that execution as a form of providing someone with vengeance for a criminal act was wrong – if not a sinful thought to have itself.

Almost as though someone who is eagerly awaiting another person’s execution ought to be making a trip to their priest to perform confession of their sin – and seek penance so as to avoid the pains someday of Hell and eternal damnation.

… with death penalty in Illinois, … 

But now, Pope Francis is proclaiming that execution “attacks” human dignity, even in those who have committed violent criminal acts. A thought that is not going to be a popular one amongst those who publicly proclaim their desire for more executions – and those who think that one of Illinois’ drawbacks is that we had the sense to do away with the state’s capital crimes statutes nearly a decade ago.

… and the governor who hints at bringing it back

To the point where Gov. Bruce Rauner’s political re-election strategy has included making pronouncements implying he’d like to see executions restored in this state (there hasn’t been an execution in Illinois since the 1999 date when Andrew Kokoraleis was put to death by lethal injection at the now-shuttered prison in Tamms).

IT WOULD SEEM that instead of papal pronouncements against execution every time a death row inmate comes close to an execution date, it’s now going to be an active part of Catholic teaching to publicly support abolition of execution.

Catholics are now going to have to become truly “pro-life” in their views on mankind and society, instead of using the label to define their opposition to abortion being a legal medical procedure.

As for those political people who happen to be Catholic, I know there are those who happen to think they’re obligated to follow their religious faith over all when it comes to abortion-related questions. There are some clergy who like to make overly public pronouncements of excommunication for any government official who doesn’t rigidly support viewing abortion as a criminal act.

Are we bound to see government officials now facing a conflict with regards to capital punishment? Or could this become the ultimate reason why we should view a government official’s religious faith as a personal view, rather than one controlling their public policy actions?

YOU’VE PROBABLY FIGURED out that my own leanings go against capital punishment. I was supportive back when Gov. George Ryan effectively ended the death penalty in Illinois (although there are those who view his actions as the most heinous of his record – more so than any of the offenses for which he was convicted and incarcerated), and thought it a good day when Gov. Pat Quinn signed the legislation that abolished the death penalty altogether.

GACY: For some, he didn't die painfully enough

I still remember the day I came to my leanings – it was May 10, 1994. That was the date John Wayne Gacy was put to death for the dozens of slayings of young men he committed in the 1970s.

I was at the Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet when the execution was performed. There was nothing about the execution procedure that was particularly gruesome (Gacy essentially was put to sleep). But I was most offended by the sight of a trio of nuns and a priest who gathered at the prison to pray for Gacy’s soul – only to be harassed, jeered and taunted by the hundreds of people who gathered outside the prison to cheer on Gacy’s death.

A sight I suspect we’re going to see much more of in coming years as the Catholic Church attempts to show compassion for all of mankind.

  -30-

On abortion, Rauner will be damned if he does, or even if he doesn’t

Gov. Bruce Rauner officially received a bill on Monday that I’m sure he wishes could just wither away – a measure related to an issue that tends to piss people off no matter what is said or done.
 

An ad abortion rights-types will soon send us

The issue being the termination of pregnancy and who, if anyone, has a right to make such a decision.

RAUNER IS GOING to have to put himself firmly on the record on this issue, and he’s going to have the entirety of Illinois’ electorate watching his every move.

If he just goes ahead and signs into law the bill approved by the Illinois General Assembly this spring, he’s going to get many of the social conservatives all riled up – in that they’re the kind of people who long for a past era when abortion could be considered a criminal act.

But if he uses his veto power to kill the measure, he’ll get a large share of Illinoisans outraged – largely the kind of people whom Rauner is hoping don’t take his defeat in the upcoming 2018 election cycle as some sort of crusade to be achieved by turning out to vote in strong numbers.

This particular bill was one approved by an urban Democratic majority in both chambers of the state Legislature of people concerned about social trends in our society that might try to push for a time when abortion would no longer be a constitutionally-protected idea as it has been since 1973.

BACK IN THE 1970s when that happened, Illinois government officials approved measures meant to bring Illinois law into compliance, while adding clauses meant to imply that if the Supreme Court ever changed its mind, state law would automatically revert back to its old status.

Some legal experts argued that such language was actually too vague to be taken seriously. But those people who strongly back the notion of abortion being a legal medical procedure didn’t want to take any chances.

Should Catholic Vote message include an "(or else!)"

They pushed for changes to be included in measures meant to clarify when public funds in the form of Medicaid can be used to cover the cost of a woman’s terminating a pregnancy.

That is the measure Rauner now has to decide upon. Backers in the General Assembly tried delaying the legislative process until Monday, hoping they could avoid sending him the bill until they could work out an agreement he would sign it.

BUT NOW, IT seems Rauner is going to be put on the spot – and he has hinted that a veto is a possibility.

But if he does that, it will outrage one segment of our society. Signing it, however, will also arouse the ire of those individuals who think they have a right to meddle in whether a woman terminates her own pregnancy.

The Catholic Vote group is calling the bill “electoral suicide,” while some conservative activists are saying this bill is an “integrity test” for Rauner. They say he will have broken their promises to him, and they just might have to vote against his dreams for re-election.

But the more urban segment of the state could wind up turning on him if he makes those individuals happy. A new poll by the Normington, Petts & Associates group that has 66 percent saying Chicago is on the “wrong” track also says more people blame Rauner (only a 19 percent “favorable” rating) for that moreso than any other government official.

THIS COULD BECOME merely another reason for people to be upset enough with Rauner’s gubernatorial term to want to vote for whichever Democrat manages to win the primary next March.

Now aside from the Capitol Fax newsletter in Springfield confirming that Rauner received the bill on Monday, I don’t know how quickly he’ll want to act. This may be a measure he’ll wait for as long as he can (60 days) before doing something.

It may even become a moment that makes him ponder why he was ever foolish enough to want to be governor. Oh, the headaches!

Why do I fear this will come up late in the day some Friday afternoon, or maybe in the days leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Hoping we’ll be too pre-occupied with our family food fests to want to complain publicly.

  -30-

Not exactly a father/son experience; I helped my father prepare for Bar Mitzvah

I’m partaking of an experience on Saturday that I suspect most people would never get the opportunity to do – my father is becoming a Bar Mitzvah.

There are slim pickings for Bar Mitzvah holiday cards

Considering that most people who are Jewish engage in this experience around age 13 when their children are some future experience whose conception hasn’t even been thought about yet, I wouldn’t be surprised at how unique this opportunity was.

IN MY CASE, my father is 72. While he and my step-mother, Cathy, have been married for 31 years, it was only about five years ago that my father converted to Judaism.

With my own niece being 13 and going through her Bat Mitzvah, the fact that my father is doing the male equivalent was seen as a gesture of support for his grand-daughter, and also a way of affirming his new identity.

So on Saturday, both my father and niece are affirming that they’re now adults, insofar as the church is concerned. They’re now fully capable of participating in their synagogue’s activities. They can no longer claim to be too young to comprehend what is taking place about them.

Which is why I actually spent some time earlier this week reviewing the speech that my father will present on Saturday to the synagogue, one in which he explains how he gradually fell away from the Catholic faith in which he was born (and which I was baptized as a mere baby and have never formally done anything to renounce).

BUT ALSO HOW he feels there are similarities to what he was taught as a boy by his grandfather so that the jump doesn’t feel like a massive earth-shattering moment.

How many people can claim to have copy-edited their father’s statement; touching up his grammar just a bit? One which I felt contained a certain honesty about his thoughts while also stating where he stands in life.

Not that I expect him to recite a batch of Hebrew on Saturday. My understanding is that the rabbi assigned him to English-speaking parts (and even a bit in Spanish). While my niece, Meira, is the one who will take on the challenge of showing she can read from the Torah and actually comprehend its meaning.

I HAVE TO admit that shopping for a Bar Mitzvah gift for one’s father is an odd experience. Even trying to pick out a card for the occasion was unique, although mostly because I came to realize how many stores that overly stock every stupid expression of holiday joy in greeting cards usually have, at most, a card or two for the Jewish holidays.

One store I stumbled into literally had only two options – one for Bar Mitzvah and one for Bat Mitzvah, and of the types of cards that were specifically designed to stuff cash into. Which strikes me as a tacky stereotype.

Although my father, himself, jokes that he expects to clean up financially at his Bar Mitzvah, perhaps regaining a share of all the cash he had to spend on me during my lifetime. A part of me is inclined to give him a card with a note in it saying I’ll try not to cost him so much money in the future.

But on a more serious note, I have to admit to trying to think about the experience from his perspective. I have to admit that the statement behind doing a Bar Mitzvah at his age is quite a commitment – particularly since I saw the amount of time he had to spend with a rabbi in preparation.

TIME THAT I’M sure he would have preferred to spend elsewhere.

I’m not sure I’d be capable of taking on such a commitment. In fact, I’m sure I wouldn’t be capable of doing this. I have to admit to having some respect bordering on pride for the man for being willing, and able, to do this.

Considering that this also is a big day for my niece, I’m sure this will be one of those days in the family history that will long be etched in our memories

It definitely will be one I will remember for the rest of my life when I think of my father. To whom I wonder if “L’chaim” is the all-too-appropriate toast for this day.

  -30-

If only Rauner would listen to himself, let alone thoughts of Catholic church

“The unfortunate truth is the longer we take to resolve our issues, the more painful the choices we must face will become. The cuts we will have to make become deeper, and what we ask of taxpayers will be steeper” – Gov. Bruce Rauner, in a letter to the Illinois Legislature concerning the lack of a state budget.

  -0-

RAUNER: He should listen to himself

I couldn’t agree more with the statement that Gov. Bruce Rauner made this week with regards to the ongoing delay in putting together a state budget. Even if for not the same reasons he intends with it.

It has been just over two-and-a-half months since Illinois Fiscal 2016 began, and we’re no closer now to resolving the split that keeps state government officials from approving the Constitutionally-required budget for government to operate properly.

THE REASONS FOR the split haven’t changed – Rauner was interested in gaining political power because he wants to use it to ram through a series of measures meant to undermine organized labor in Illinois. He wants to blame it for society’s ills, or the fact that it hurts the financial bottom line of the corporate interests of he and his business colleagues.

Meanwhile, the overwhelming Democratic Party-majority of the General Assembly is taking up the cause of the labor unions, particularly those who represent the employees of state government.

Both sides are clinging steadfast, which is why there isn’t a budget in place and no sign that there will be one approved any time soon.

I still wonder if we’re destined for Fiscal ’16 (ending June 30, 2016) to be the year without a budget – which would be a financial disaster for so many entities, as Rauner conceded this week.

MADIGAN: As stubborn as the governor!

BUT LET’S BE honest; his intent in making that statement was to try to scare his political opposition into thinking they are the ones who need to concede. That just won't happen!

Then again, it would be equally arrogant for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, to think the Rauner opposition will suddenly “come to its senses” and back off.

This really is about compromise – something we haven’t seen any signs of during this political brawl. Which is why we could go for the fiscal year without a budget unless we get a catastrophe that forces the two sides to come together.

Although I can’t conceive now of what catastrophe would achieve such a goal – I could envision both sides being more interested in assessing blame on the other.

CUPICH: Will anyone listen?

WHICH IS WHY I found it intriguing that Catholic Archbishop Blasé Cupich felt the need to get himself involved (and also invoke the names of Pope Francis and former Cardinal Joseph Bernardin) in the mess.

For the pope made it clear the Catholic church is siding with the labor unions, while adding that business, government and organized labor need to cooperate for the good of Illinois. “In the church, we call that solidarity, a word I know is very familiar to union members,” Cupich said when speaking to the Chicago Federation of Labor.

Whether anyone in government will be swayed is questionable. A part of me would fully expect certain people to think (if not tell him outright) that the church ought to mind its own business.

WHICH IS CURIOUS. The ideologues of our society seem to approve when the church tells people (such as on abortion) what they must do. But call for cooperation, then they think the church should shut its mouth.

So I don’t expect that anyone with the governor is going to be swayed by the archbishop. Both sides are entrenched so deeply that the governor’s words come across as mere lip service.

Not even the Pope’s emissary in Chicago can change their mind. For all I know, God himself could speak on the issue, and nobody would be swayed.

That’s how stubborn the state of Illinois has become these days!

  -30-

What does it take to achieve literal sainthood – do Serra, Clemente qualify?

What does it take to become an officially-recognized saint of the Catholic church? It seems the criteria are ever evolving to the point where future saints aren’t going to be universally recognized.

With our current society being in a mode of wanting to turn every possible issue into a politically partisan brawl, how long will it be until our choice of saints becomes an issue to pick a fight over?

WHAT MOTIVATED ME to think about this was a pair of stories I stumbled across last week – one about the fact that Father Junipero Serra will be canonized as a saint. The other about the fact that certain people want to make a saint of one-time Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Roberto Clemente.

For those who are scratching their heads at the mention of Serra, he’s a character most of us encountered briefly in elementary school history classes. He was a Catholic friar who helped create the settlements that have evolved into California’s major cities.

Which means he helped create the first European settlements in what is now the United States. Although my own memories recall being in a fifth grade class in which none of my classmates could even fathom how to pronounce Serra’s name.

Serra helped to bring the Catholic church and European ways to the indigenous peoples who previously had called the west coast their home. We certainly wouldn’t have our modern-day society if not for his efforts.

OF COURSE, THE Los Angeles Times reported that is what ticks some people off to the point where they’re going to resent the fact that Pope Francis has given the 18^th century friar the highest recognition the church can bestow upon his memory.

Because the Catholic church, in its desire to spread its influence and “save the savages” from eternal damnation, imposed such pressure to assimilate that the tribal influences were devastated – along with many of the individuals to whom foreign diseases brought by the church’s individuals wound up being deadly.

Serra – the saint who created our society, or some sort of Catholic killer?!? I’m sure there are those who can come up with even more over-the-top rhetoric when expressing their contempt for the lack of a native presence in California.

Then again, there are those who are all too eager to believe that California – and just about everything west of St. Louis – was a vast land of emptiness until the white settlers came along in the 19^th century.

I’M SURE THEY’LL be the ones who will aggressively push Serra’s sainthood because it fits their notion of what the world ought to be.

Although I wonder what they’ll think of the notion of slugger Sammy Sosa’s idol also being recognized as a Catholic saint? It hasn’t happened yet – and may never happen. These kinds of things take time.

But the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported how the producer of a documentary film about Clemente’s life now wants to document the “miracles” he performed so that he can get official Catholic recognition.

Clemente was a ball player from 1955 until 1972 and is likely the best ball player the Pittsburgh Pirates ever had – whose career, and life, came to a sudden end when the airplane he was riding while filled with goods for victims of a Nicaragua earthquake crashed into the ocean near San Juan.

CLEMENTE’S BODY WAS never recovered. Although his memory became all-the-more elevated. Baseball gave Roberto its highest honor when it eliminated the five-year waiting period and immediately inducted him into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Apparently, that isn’t good enough for some.

Richard Rossi, who made the documentary and is trying to build actual support for sainthood, cites evidence of Clemente’s knowledge of pressure points and how they could be used to help ease pain. Does that amount to the ability to heal the sick? By that definition, just about every chiropractor qualifies for sainthood!

But how many chiropractors could win the World Series MVP (in 1971, against the Baltimore Orioles) while also inspiring the Latin American community? Or create a culture along the West Coast?

  -30-

EXTRA: Some people just stubbornly desperate for negative attention

I’m not sure who is out-of-touch with the real world these days – the Catholic bishop of Springfield, Ill., or the Indiana House of Representatives.

PAPROCKI:  The disciplinarian?

Both of them this week made it clear they’re not about to go along with anything that is about recognizing marriage as being a legitimate concept for gay couples.

THE INDIANA HOUSE gave its approval on Tuesday to a measure that puts a ban on gay marriage into the Indiana state Constitution. Although it still needs approval from the Indiana state Senate, and another round of Legislature approval in 2015 – before it can go on the ballot for Indiana voters to decide in 2016.

Meanwhile, Bishop Thomas Paprocki – who heads the Catholic church in Springfield and surrounding parts of central Illinois – gave an interview to a religious-oriented website in which he made it clear he’s standing by the prayer ritual he did last year on the day that Gov. Pat Quinn signed gay marriage into Illinois law.

You remember the exorcism? He tried to drive out the demons, so to speak, that caused our political people to approve the change in law!

If anything, Paprocki bothers me more, and not just because he’s actually a Chicagoan who used to be a priest in the Chicago archdiocese before he moved up in the Catholic church ranks by moving down in terms of location.

IN HIS INTERVIEW, Paprocki claimed that being opposed to gay marriage is equivalent to disciplining a misbehaving child. You do it to teach a lesson, while expressing love and caring for the child.

“You really have to understand what love is all about. Love is really to seek the best for people. By being opposed to the redefinition of marriage and being opposed to things that are sinful, that’s actually a very loving thing,” he said to the Lifesitenews.com website.

They were dealt a blow Tuesday!

What a batch of bull!?!

Too many of the people who are pushing for a rejection of marriage for all are doing so because of their desire to want to look down, so to speak, upon others. For Paprocki to get so worked up in his desire to offer aid and comfort to that segment of our society is what makes others amongst us convinced that the church structure becomes the source of our problems.

HE STIRS UP more resentment, and makes it more difficult for rational thought to prevail.

Whereas the Indiana General Assembly’s behavior was just so predictable. With other states taking on the gay marriage issue, the Republican leadership decided that not only was it NOT going to go along, it was going to take a spiteful response.

Hence the writing of the concept of a marriage ban for non-traditional couples into their state Constitution. Which makes it all the more difficult for the issue to be addressed seriously.

It becomes all too similar to many of the southern states that, in the years after the Civil War, created state constitutions that included restrictions on black people and made it near-to-impossible for future Legislatures to erase them.

THOSE POLITICAL PEOPLE were determined to maintain a segregationist mindset and prevent some foolish (to their mentality) pols of the future from doing away with it.

Just as it would seem some want to ensure that no “gay marriage nonsense” ever taints the Hoosier state!

PHILIP: Showed restraint?

When Illinois, back in 1996 when Republicans ran everything, altered state law to make it further clear that marriages between gay couples were NOT permissible, they never went so far as to go to the state Constitution amendment route.

Even the legislative era of James “Pate” Philip managed to show a little bit of restraint in its ideological maneuvers.

  -30-

Can we exorcise the Exorcist? Gay marriage opposition borders on silly

I fully expect there will be protesters outside the UIC Forum on Wednesday when Gov. Pat Quinn uses the University of Illinois at Chicago arena to stage a huge-scale rally of people who watch him as he signs into law the measure that makes Illinois the 16^th U.S. state to allow gay couples to marry.

The site of the upcoming gay marriage celebration

 

But it seems the real level of disgust will be expressed at the churches that want to believe their opposition is really about compassion.

I CAN’T EVEN really get too worked up over the Catholic church’s actions, which amount to the bishop for Springfield, Ill., saying he’s going to have a special prayer service at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in the capital city to coincide with Quinn’s overly-elaborate bill-signing ceremony.

Formally, it is a “prayer of supplication and exorcism” for same-gender couples who try to marry in Illinois.

The latter word is what is stoking the fire. Bishop Thomas John Paprocki is going to have an “exorcism!!!” He’s trying to demonize the issue – literally.

We’re getting a lot of bad jokes being spewed (like the pea soup that passed for vomit) about the 1973 film featuring a teenaged Linda Blair as the Satan-infested Regan MacNeil.

The Springfield-based center of the opposition

 

IT IS GOING to allow all people to overhype the significance. Then again, having him say he’s going to pray for people would sound kind of blasé.

Because it shouldn’t be shocking at all that church officials are not going to just wither away in their opposition. The Catholic church has people who remain vehemently opposed to the concept of abortion being treated as a legitimate medical procedure – even though the Supreme Court of the United States resolved this issue the same year that Blair’s head rotated a complete 360 degrees on the silver screen (and continues to do so on DVD every day since).

The film we're hearing too much about!

Heck, it should be noted that one of the few black caucus members in the Illinois House of Representatives who voted “no” on the issue – state Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago – made a point of saying she thought God would always object to such marriages, no matter what state government did on the issue.

There are those who cite the fact that Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, paraphrased Pope Francis when he expressed his own belief that the law should not interfere with gay couples.

WHILE PAPROCKI, EARLIER this week, cited a written statement from 2010 by the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio when the issue was contemplated in Argentina.

In part, he wrote, “The life of so many children who will be discriminated beforehand due to the lack of human maturity that God willed them to have with a father and a mother is in jeopardy.”

QUINN: A hero, AND a villain?

Which, to me, comes across as wanting to side with the bully who wants to pick on people who aren’t exactly like themselves. It’s good that the Pope has experienced a change of heart, of sorts.

Now if only people like Paprocki could experience the same. And it’s not like Paprocki is isolated from the realities of Chicago. He is a native of our fine city, a one-time pastor at St. Michael Church in the South Chicago neighborhood and St. Constance parish on the Northwest Side, in addition to having held several administrative posts within the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese – before going to Springfield in 2010.

THEN AGAIN, I’M very aware there are more than a fair share of Chicagoans who aren’t enthused about what is happening on this issue. It may be a regional split in Illinois, but it’s not a perfect urban vs. rural split.

MADIGAN: Too powerful to threaten?

There are two points in the aftermath of the legislative approval for gay marriage that does approve me. When the General Assembly acted earlier this month, it was reported that Illinois was the 15^th state to do so.

Yet because Quinn did not immediately sign the measure into law, officials in Hawaii were able to slip by and pass a gay marriage law into effect. We, in Illinois, can now chant, “We’re Number 16!”

Then, there is the fact that some people have reacted by suggesting that Pat Quinn be ex-communicated from the Catholic Church for expressing constant support for the issue.

BEING KICKED OUT of the church is the worst thing that could happen to some people. Yet it amuses me to know that NO ONE has had the nerve to suggest publicly that Madigan, also a Catholic, be ex-communicated.

These people may say publicly that they place their faith in the lord, our God. Yet perhaps they comprehend all too clearly what Madigan could do to them politically if they dare attack him!

Keep that in mind as the allegedly-religious pray for OUR souls in protest of Illinois advancing with the times. We should pray for them that they develop a true sense of compassion.

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