Well, Dorothy Day might actually organize a boycott of that radio station instead of weeping.
It seems the Good Catholics who run "Lies, Racism and Hate, Inc." (oops, I meant "Immaculate Heart Radio" or "Ave Maria Radio" on the channel number on every friggin' bumper sticker around here) have noticed the goings-on in Ferguson.
I only caught a whiff. Enough to nearly make me puke. (And I'm speaking as one who was born and raised Catholic for a good chunk of my life.) Rant below.
At about 11:30 this morning I tuned in to hear a man on "Immaculate Heart Radio, the voice of Catholics" quietly talking about Ferguson. Specifically, he spoke about the racial tensions that had been there for years, as well as the history of abuse by authority figures, and the militarization of the police in Ferguson.
I was … stunned, to put it mildly. After hearing this station's nonstop misogynistic, homophobic, and racist pontificating by the stammering, gagging gaggle of men in authority (and their obsequious Quisling female helpers), I blinked in disbelief. Oh my God, I thought, so Catholics remember their roots in social justice after all! Pope Francis' emphasis on economic and social injustice was starting to trickle into their consciences. This sounded a lot more familiar to me - these were like the Catholics I remembered from my youth in the 1970s, more familiar with the workings of a soup kitchen than a megachurch.
I sighed with relief too soon.
Because seconds into this man’s quiet talk, as he was about to bring up another instance of racial injustice, he was interrupted. Loudly. By two other men. Two high-voiced (dare I say hysterical? Shrieking?) men talked over him, over and over, LOUDLY – even as he quietly kept trying to say “You’re interrupting me,” or “You’re not letting your guest speak.”
They finally silenced him with “You clearly don’t understand the situation here, you’re not letting us speak, God love you,” and they hung up on him. (Note the neat use of the Karl Rove tactic of accusing your opponent of what YOU YOURSELF are doing – as well as that GODDAMNED passive-aggressive Gawwwd Bwesssss Yewww used by hateful Christians everywhere as self-acquittal for their filthy rhetoric preceding that phrase.)
Turns out the still small voice of reason was a caller in to the station's show, which featured a stammering, gagging man (why do these radio guys all sound like they're trying to choke down a quart of yogurt while they talk?), and his special guest - a police chief. After they'd hung up on the caller who'd gotten something out other than the right-wing MSM's standard take on Ferguson, Officer ToughDad spent the rest of the program talking earnestly about Giving Authority to Government and God Is Justice Not Merely Mercy, and Blessed Are the Peacemakers Unlike Those Vicious Looters and Rioters Throwing Molotov Cocktails at Our Poor Helpless Men in Blue Who Aren’t Religious Enough and Don’t Pray Enough. Cop was punctuated repeatedly by the adoring “Uh huh,” “Amen!” and “You’re SO right” by the asslicking Beta Male in the room approving radio host. Dickie the Catholic Lickspittle agreed with Mr. Policeman that the Rioters and Looters (never “protestors”) were in the wrong and that police ought to be able to follow Biblical injunctions to impose fatherly authority over wrongdoers (and that cop sounded like the kind of father who was a big believer in The Belt). They whined and whimpered over secular, political forces that didn’t allow them to jail the other shoplifter seen in the store video, because Those People were irrational and hated the law.
I had to change stations or I was going to run into a stoplight, I was screaming so loudly at those smug, fatuous pricks.
Why listen in the first place? Because I was a Catholic once - and I keep hunting for some sign that the church I remembered from the 70s was anywhere around. This is not the faith I grew up in, that I'd loved and respected for so long. This was bigotry wearing a cross, Falwell's filthy brand of Christian fascism with the serial numbers filed off and rewritten in Latin.
Pope Francis has spoken more about the sins of economic and social injustice than about sexual sins. If Catholics are such good authoritarians, why aren't they listening to il Papa now?
I thought about Dorothy Day, and what she'd say if she was on that program. But then I bitterly realized that if she WAS on that program, the first thing the men would do would be to remind her that she was, after all, a mere female and must still submit to male authority, even laymen in a radio booth - and they'd do it with that joking misogyny that’s such a trademark of Catholic males that even lapsed Catholics such as George Carlin and Bill Maher exhibit(ed) it.
I didn't hear anything that sounded like Christianity, except for the one person they drove away at the very beginning.
I switched to listening to a CD of Linda Rondstadt singing a Leonard Cohen song. After listening to that vile bag of racist lies disguised as a show about God's love, I needed some spiritual uplift.
UPDATE: 9:00pm PDT: Changed the title, upon request and upon reflection, as it misrepresented what Dorothy Day was about. She would get spitting mad, but would turn it into positive action.