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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWriting to my Bishop about RW priest
I wrote earlier this week about my RW priest who equated the Left and progressives with Nazi Germany. I called the Archbishop about the priest, and the secretary said I should write a formal complaint. The priest would then have a chance to confront the accuser (me). If not, the complaint would be in his folder.
The priest said the left is like Nazis because they want everything, including your minds. He also said that homosexuals hve no gene to ID them as such, only a combination of genetic and environmental triggers, like what alcoholics have! (Articles say that environmental triggers are also similar to male pattern baldness. Is male pattern baldness a sin too? But I digress). The priest also said the left closed down caterers about not serving homosexuals.
Does anyone have some advice for me in this letter, or what to tell the priest?
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)Idk
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,898 posts)Staying in is implied consent to this crap.
And tell everyone you know about this idiot priest.
onetexan
(13,061 posts)Lets see if they cover this up like theyve covered up the sexual predator priests.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,436 posts)Dirty Socialist
(3,252 posts)onetexan
(13,061 posts)Your complaint? Always strength in numbers.
Dirty Socialist
(3,252 posts)Fr. Andrew Smith, Sunday, 12th week, ordinary time. 15 minutes in
onetexan
(13,061 posts)other social media sites. Christ knows no skin color. Many on the RW conveniently forget Jesus was a Person of color, and a Jew.
leftieNanner
(15,152 posts)Write the first one and let all of your anger out. Make it long and fierce. Say everything you want to say. Then put it aside for a little while and don't think about it.
Pick it up and then edit it. At that point, you can put on your more thoughtful hat and remove the phrases (especially the ones that include the word 'fuck') that are not likely to get anyone's attention.
I am not Catholic (Episcopalian here), but there may be some doctrinal things you can use, or scripture, that might help get your point across. There's not a lot in the Gospels about Jesus saying the kind of things your priest said.
Good luck! And good for you in following up with the diocese.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Christ wasn't particularly interested in politics. He did go to the tax collectors home for dinner. He basically said that he came for the sinners, not the saved. He saved the prostitute. He healed the roman soldier's ear. He engaged with the sinners and approached them with love. He did not expel them or rail against them. If fact, the most angry he ever got was throwing the money changers out of the temple. Christ was pretty intolerant of people conning people through his fathers name.
Jim__
(14,083 posts)If not, I would raise that in the letter as a very pertinent point. If he has not given specific criteria to identify who he is talking about, then he can use these accusations against anyone and everyone by adjusting his definitions as the need arises. Once he does specifically identify them, it will probably be easy to refute his accusations. If he is raising these accusations against you, you can just ask for evidence that you are want his mind whatever that may mean.
Broad brush accusations like this usually fall apart the minute they have to be held against particular individuals. Make him identify exactly who he means.
maxsolomon
(33,400 posts)Like you?
mahina
(17,697 posts)Thats what they care about.
His behavior has abused (!) the church members remaining.
He puts the church at risk of losing its tax exempt status by politicking from the pulpit.
He is wasting the time and opportunity the congregation has provided him to bring the teachings of Jesus into their lives when they really need them. Instead he has misused the authority given him by the church to promote hate and lies.
He should be replaced.
Id change churches or find another way to serve. Good luck. Dont be discouraged. And cc the Cardinal.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)When you're done, read your letter over like you were a Fox News anchor trying to please his overlords. Take a critical eye to it, knowing that even the slightest thing will be seized on to deflect the controversy. When you express your feelings, make it plain you take sole ownership of those feelings (disgust, alarm, sorrow), but encourage the Bishop to feel them, too.
Keep it short, if you can.
demosincebirth
(12,543 posts)Me, i would have a little talk with him.
jcgoldie
(11,646 posts)You don't need to debate those ridiculous right wing talking points. I would focus on how politics and religion should be kept separate. That was the message of Americas founding fathers and I doubt if most Catholic churches would want to run off half of their parishioners by allowing right wing zealots to talk about politics rather than scripture. In short, your priest is incredibly unprofessional to broadcast his personal political opinions into your place of worship. I teach high school kids, for example, and as passionate as I am about liberal ideas and having a captive audience ready to suck up anything you say proselytizing about politics has no place there anymore than it does in your church.
DonaldsRump
(7,715 posts)Sunlight is truly the best disinfectant and ending your letter saying you are considering all your options, including informing the media about this, usually gets folks' attention.
Squinch
(51,014 posts)He doesn't. You are making a complaint. The Archbishop can go scratch with his arbitrary rule.
Write your letter. Put his hatefulness on the record. Talk about love and kindness. Talk about how the homily was diametrically opposed to the teachings of Christ.
And when the Archbishop tells you you have to sit down and take it while the priest confronts you, tell the Archbishop to go fuck himself.
Honestly. These guys.
yewberry
(6,530 posts)I would look at the Barmen Declaration. See contemporary Lutheran commentary here: https://elca.org/JLE/Articles/1292
"One of the acute and enduring failures of the church in the exercise of its teaching office has been the inability to make clear the distinction between the worship of God in Jesus Christ as our ultimate loyalty and the service of one's nation as a penultimate loyalty. For example, we in the United States have failed miserably in differentiating between following Jesus Christ as a way of life and the requisites of American civil religion. This is so much the case that many church members continue to conflate Christian faith with nationalistic patriotism."
"A contemporary analogy would apply to efforts by the church to focus its efforts in charity and advocacy exclusively on its own members and interests, while neglecting to intercede on behalf of endangered neighbors who are not necessarily Christian: Muslims, immigrants, refugees, indigenous people, homosexuals, and others. Today the church is summoned by God in Jesus Christ to pray for all endangered groups (including in the intercessions at worship), and to advocate for just policies, minister to the victims of state injustice, and, when these measures fail, participate in peaceful civil disobedience against state injustice on their behalf.
My understanding of Jesus is not one that condemns pursuit of justice, peace, and love for our neighbors--it requires pursuit of justice, peace, and love for our neighbors. Your priest should be asked what, specifically, he believes "the Left" wants and how it may violate the teachings of Christ. His desire to derive a "cause" of homosexuality is rooted in a need to judge, and that is not his purview. Judging people is quite specifically left to God.
But that's just random thoughts from a non-dogmatic Uni-Uni .
hunter
(38,328 posts)My parents used to live in a place that was Rotten Republican. The majority of people were the sorts who vote for guys like Devin Nunes (The Cow Guy), or Darrell Issa (The Car Thief), or Trump. The parish had a right wing priest who seemed to fit in.
Whenever we were visiting my parents, attending Mass was always a wretched experience, so we usually didn't. (My parents had quit going to church by then.) The few times we did attend Mass the odds were good we'd hear some rant about abortion, homosexuality, and all the other usual right wing hate radio crap. This was ironic in a way. I doubt 90% of the people in that church had had sex in the past decade, and nobody was likely to get pregnant or engage in homosexual behavior. The average age of people attending Mass seemed to be about eighty, though some of them may have been a hard-worn sixty.
My great uncle lived in the same parish and was very popular in town and on the golf course. When my great uncle passed away this priest was horrible. He clearly thought my great uncle was burning in hell. I don't know what their feud was but I'm sure it was something vain and possibly related to golf. The priest made a perfunctory stop at my great uncle's wake, but skedaddled out of there once it became clear nobody was buying his bullshit. That was when the party really started.
I thought the parish would be stuck with this priest forever because his political beliefs were so similar to theirs, but eventually the parish turned against him, mostly because he had a mean streak they couldn't tolerate. He was transferred a year or two later to some other unfortunate parish, maybe because all the older parishioners who'd been taught to grin and bear and accept the authority of any priest assigned to a parish were dying off, and younger Catholics simply quit going to Mass. I'd wager the local Bishop was paying more attention to attendance than any complaints by parishioners.
My wife's parents live in a completely different sort of place. Their parish has a large population of old hippies, artists, and social justice activists. People of all ages attend Mass and it's a very cheerful and accepting church community. There's a few right-wing Catholics in the parish whose feathers are always ruffled by various sorts of Social Justice issues, who clearly do not want to love their neighbors, especially their LGBTQ neighbors, but they grit their teeth and generally keep quiet, afraid to leave the Catholic Church for some much less tolerant Protestant denomination.
My wife and I live in a city that's predominantly Catholic. The English speaking Masses are attended by people like my wife whose parents or grandparents were farm workers. Social Justice is a big deal. Cesar Chavez walked here and we meet people in church who knew him.
My own relationship with the Church is rocky. Everyone knows I'm some kind of heretic, but I'm not going to get into any fights with a bishop, which is something I once saw my mom do. (It was horrible, like a girl fight you'd see on a middle school playground...)
My mom has a history with the Church, and sometimes a chip on her shoulder. When she was a young woman she wanted to be a nun. She imagined some purity in the Church until she encountered a leering, smoking, hard-drinking priest she did not think Godly. My mom is a highly reactive person so she immediately abandoned that dream, met my dad, got married, got pregnant, and became a Jehovah's Witness, in that order. But the Witnesses eventually lost all patience with my mom, who tends to say whatever she happens to be thinking at inappropriate times, and kicked her out of their Kingdom Hall when I was in the fourth grade. Then we were Quakers.
As an adult, my own religious journey has been equally turbulent.
If you can say so in good conscience tell the bishop you will stop attending Mass in this church because the priest is preaching politics. Here in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic there are quite a few Catholic Churches streaming Mass online. Check them out. If you find a Mass that inspires you, compare it to the dreadful political rants your local priest is delivering.