Religion
A snapshot of America: The mayor with principles, the president with a porn star, a proud homophobe, a judge-moralist, and spanking
By Mel Seesholtz, Ph.D.
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Mar 21, 2006, 01:01

A man of principles: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. A life-long Catholic, Mayor Newsom �cancelled a trip to Rome for the installation of the city�s former archbishop as a cardinal reportedly after learning the church is considering a ban on gay adoption in San Francisco. . . . He was to have attended the ceremony elevating Archbishop William Levada to cardinal and head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.�

The renamed �Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith� was formerly headed by �God�s Rottweiler,� Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. What�s in a name? For centuries the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was known as The Holy Office of the Inquisition. Despite the name change its function remains the same, as do the anti-gay views of Joseph Alois Ratzinger.

Mayor Newsom cancelled his trip when he learned that the San Francisco archdiocese -- like the Boston archdiocese -- was considering a change in its policies to bar gays and lesbians from adopting children. �The idea, the principle that two loving parents of the same sex can�t be great parents and that this church is now going to start attacking gay adoptions in this country and around the world was,� in the mayor�s words, �wrong-headed.� He�s correct. The scandal-ridden Catholic church has sunk to a new low: using children to promote their campaign of hate and degradation against homosexuals.

George W. Bush: the �values voters� president.� He supports an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to legalize discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans who want to get married. He supports banning adoption by same-sex couples, and he works behind the scenes to further discriminate against gays and lesbians. But he certainly doesn�t have any problem hanging out with a porn star.

A WorldNetDaily article brought us up-to-date on Bush and his porn star: �Mary Carey [real name, Mary Ellen Cook], the buxom, XXX movie star who caused an uproar last year for dining with President Bush and her pornographer, apparently still has a hunger for the nation�s capital.� She again dined with values-president Bush on March 16 at the United to Victory event. The $2,500-per-plate dinner was expected to raise $7.5 million for Republican candidates in the congressional midterm elections in November.

Mary Carey also had lunch on the Ides of March 2006 �at a related event . . . where Bush adviser Karl Rove was the guest speaker.� The multi-talented porn star �says she�s taking part at the invitation of the National Republican Congressional Committee, which is organizing the events.�

As WND reported,

The NRCC [National Republican Congressional Committee] is the same group that accepted $5,000 from Carey and her pornographer, Mark Kulkis of Kick A-Pictures, and allowed the pair to take part at the 2005 Flag Day Dinner.

Asked by WND last year about the propriety of the Republican Party collecting $5,000 from a pornographer and the example such an appearance set for the moral climate of the nation, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said: �I think you need to direct those questions to the committee itself.�

When WND contacted the NRCC about the Flag Day event, Forti said, �They�ve paid their money. No matter what they do, the money is going to go to help elect Republicans to the House.� [link added]

So much for Bush�s Republican Party�s real �values.�

The far-right�s �real values� were also given clear voice in Don Laigle�s March 9 article:

I was BORN to be a homophobe, I am proud of it and I am COMING OUT!

Oh Lord, it feels so good to get that off my chest.

Oh, no, that�s not ALL I have to say on the subject, not by a longshot.

Mr. Laigle continued his �proud to be a bigot� rant and invited other bigots to join him: �It�s ok to come out now and be all you can be. I invite you to stand with me, unafraid.� But Laigle need not form a new bigotry-based, homophobic organization. There�s already one custom-made for him and his kind. It�s called the Klu Klux Klan. But Mr. Laigle might also want to join Iraq�s most influential Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is calling on his followers to kill gays. But if Iraq is too far for Laigle to travel, he can head to Ohio and work for Merrill Keiser, Jr., a candidate for the U.S. Senate who �wants to make homosexual behavior a capital crime punishable by the death penalty.� No doubt Laigle, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and Mr. Keiser would call that �moral justice.�

And speaking of �moral justice,� according to a March 15 Associated Press article, �Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia railed against the era of the �judge-moralist,� saying judges are no better qualified than �Joe Sixpack� to decide moral questions such as abortion and gay marriage� [link added]. Having said that, Scalia then went on to be a �judge-moralist� and decry �his own court�s recent overturning of a state anti-sodomy law [Lawrence v. Texas].� Scalia was certainly playing �judge-moralist� in his dissent of that decision when he wrote �Most Americans do not want persons who are openly engaged in homosexual conduct as partners in their businesses, as scoutmasters for their children, as teachers in their children�s schools, or as boarders in their home.�

And what would blatant homophobia be without a mention of Don Wildmon and his American Family Association -- and the other 18 anti-gay groups -- that have begun a boycott of Ford Motor Company for its egregious sins of supporting equality and advertising in gay-related publications. Not surprisingly, Rev. Don Wildmon is a member of the theocratic, ultra-conservative star-chamber known as The Council for National Policy.

Wildmon wants to economically spank any company that treats its gay and lesbian employees equally. Another member of The Council for National Policy, Christian child psychologist Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family -- an organization that does everything it can to hurt families headed by same-sex parents -- advocated the same punishment for �misbehaving� children: �The spanking may be too gentle. If it doesn�t hurt, the child won�t be motivated to avoid the consequence the next time. �Be sure the child gets the message,� Dr. Dobson says . . ."

Perhaps Mr. Bush, who claims to read the Bible and pray daily, should remember Dr. Dobson�s advice when he hangs out with Mary Carey, someone the Christian Right would undoubtedly call a �misbehaving� Christian, despite that fact that she says �I read the Bible and pray every night�:

�I�m really excited to be going back to Washington D.C. to see the president again,� said Carey. �Everyone thinks that politicians are stuffy, but we all had a great time last year, and I had fun signing a lot of autographs. Wait till they see that I have lost 20 pounds since the last time they saw me. Watch out, Mr. President!�

Apparently some GOPers noticed and remembered that John Melllencamp song, as WorldNetDaily reported on March 17:

Triple-X porn star Mary Carey, who last night dined for the second year in a row with Republican bigwigs at a fund-raiser featuring President Bush, says some drunken GOP activists �hit on her� at such events. . . .

Asked how the Republicans treat her personally, she replied: �Well, the women were kind of snobby with me on the phone. They were like, �I understand that Mary Carey wants to attend the dinner.� But, the guys in the NRCC are very, very nice. I signed autographs for the Secret Service last time I was there. I�ve gotten hit on by lots of drunk Republicans.�

She declined to provide names.