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The Real Side | Commentary by Joe Messina
| Monday, Apr 15, 2013

mug_joemessinaNot all religions are under attack. It seems the emphasis is on Christian-based religions. Let’s review a couple of examples.

According to the AP and other news sources, an LGBTQ group (for the uniformed that stands for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer”) has asked that a priest be removed from George Washington University. They want Father Greg Shaffer removed from campus over his anti-gay and anti-abortion views.

Damian Legacy and Blake Bergen want the university’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion to investigate the priest and are calling for the student government association to de-fund the Newman Center on campus.

News reports indicate they were particularly offended by a blog post the priest wrote calling gay relationships “unnatural and immoral.”

Interesting. This doesn’t sound like they really care to have someone with a diverse thought process to be included. In fact, it doesn’t sound at all like they want to understand why he believes what he does. Isn’t that intolerance? And does the priest not have a right to express what the Catholic Church teaches? The church that he works for and pledged an oath to is dedicated to upholding the truth according to God’s word (as laid out in the Bible), and it’s what he believes.

Did they not know what the Catholic Churches believe and teach? Did they not know what 99.9 percent of Catholic priests believe? A testimony to how deeply the left does its homework.

This is one of the few cases where the school has shown some spine. School officials have said it protects the right of religious freedom and is defending the rights of all religious beliefs to express themselves.

Newman Center, the building in which the priest was teaching, is a Catholic-based center. The have Catholic mass in there and teach the principles of the Catholic faith. No one is forced to go and participate.  So what’s wrong here? I’ll tell you. It’s all about hate. Period.

The people who complained about a Catholic priest teaching Catholic principles in a Catholic hall are just hateful.

This shows the real hypocrisy of the left. If I say I don’t believe in gay marriage and I don’t believe same-sex couples should be allowed to be married, then I am, or will be, labeled a “homophobe” and “gay hater.” They say we should be silenced and not allowed to teach in our churches what the Bible clearly states about marriage, abortion and so on. They say it’s hate speech.

When they speak against Christians, it’s considered freedom of speech. But when Christians speak against LGBTQ lifestyles, it’s hate speech. Really. How disingenuous can one be?

Then, there is the kid who asked the teacher for a Bible. No way, you say? Yes. Another news source posts, “The teacher’s trouble started last October when he was standing by a door waiting on middle school students to enter the building. One student trailed behind the rest.”

“Just remember, son,” he told the tardy student, “The first shall be last but the last shall be first.”  A few days later the student asked about the origins of the quote. The teacher “told him it was in the Bible.”

There’s that nasty word, and being uttered in a school, oh my. Doesn’t sound like the teacher was pushing his views, but let’s continue.

“On Oct. 12, the teacher was eating lunch in the cafeteria when the student approached and brought up the Bible verse. So the teacher took out his Bible and showed the student the verse.

“At some point the student mentioned that he did not have a Bible. The teacher, who also serves in Gideons International, happened to have a spare book.

“The teacher basically said, ‘would you like mine?’ said a friend of the teacher and a fellow Gideon. The student said yes, and so the teacher gave him his personal New Testament.”

Still doesn’t sound to me like pushing his religious beliefs. So what happens next? He is fired. What did he do wrong? They hand out all kinds of fliers and books on sex and how to and where to and with how many to the kids who didn’t ask for them, but a teacher, who is asked specifically about a book the student is curious about, is forbidden from sharing? Just outrageous.

There are so many examples of these kinds of incidents happening more and more in our schools. Only a dishonest person would say there is no attack on religious liberties in this country.

 

Joe Messina is host of The Real Side (TheRealSide.com), a nationally syndicated talk show that runs on AM-1220 KHTS radio and SCVTV [here]. He is also an elected member of the Hart School Board. His commentary publishes Mondays.

 

 

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5 Comments

  1. Lee Morrell says:

    Let me first state that the “Q” in LGBTQ stands for “questioning,” as in “questioning ones sexual identity,” not the anti-gay epithet “queer” that you chose. But I certainly don’t expect someone who clearly disapproves of that lifestyle to research to make sure that a word with such negative connotation would be included in a self-description.

    The problem with the ultra religious and anti-gay set railing against people who want to deny them their rights is that the hypocrisy you claim is the hypocrisy you deliver.

    There is no attack on religion, Joe…there is an attack on people using religion as a reason to deny people their rights. Can’t tell you how many times I have heard “I have no problem with gay marriage…it’s the Bible that does.” Stop hiding behind your religion and speak for yourself…YOU think homosexuality is an abomination. The Bible may say it is, but there are a lot of nonsense beliefs the Bible espouses that are clearly hardly worth mentioning. Those are your beliefs. Have the courage of your hate-ridden convictions to back them.

    As for the teacher in New Jersey, he broke two school rules about distributing religious items on campus…if it had been the Torah or the Koran it would have been treated the same. I respect the fact that the young man asked the teacher about the phrase and wanted to know more…but the teacher should have simply told him where he can get a Bible and move on. Religion doesn’t belong in public school…there is such a diversity of beliefs that to single out one – even if it is in the majority – flies in the face of the freedom of religious practice this nation was founded on.

    Joe, it is people like you, who try to shroud their hate in the American flag and call it freedom, that make me nervous for the future. your hate is blinding…your hate is nauseating…your hate is yours. Keep it. And keep it away from the rest of us.

    Lee Morrell
    Saugus

  2. Joe Messina says:

    Well Mr Morrell, How typical of some go right for the “HATER term” good job! I would not have expected less, actually I took the term “Queer: which I though was wrong but checked out several LGBTQ sites to find its commonly referred to as queer. BUT just to show a fact as opposed to an opinion… From Wikipedia “The term LGBT is intended to emphasize a diversity of sexuality and gender identity-based cultures and is sometimes used to refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.[2][5] To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer and/or are questioning their sexual identity as LGBTQ, recorded since 1996” not my words.

    ALSO
    http://www.depts.ttu.edu/scc/Virtual_Library/lgbtq.php
    another and I could list many.. will you be calling them
    out as haters also?

    As far as hiding behind the bible not a chance, You want to have a real conversation on this, I am on the air 5 days a week. I would love to discuss this with you and show you incident after incident where you are wrong sir, there is an attack on religion ANY type of religion. and ITS wrong. PERIOD. We should all be able to get along. ALL of us,

    • Lee Morrell says:

      It’s kinda like the N-word, Joe…if you are “in the fold,” you can use it…but you clearly aren’t, so you probably shouldn’t.

      I don’t listen to your show, Joe…nothing personal, but your beliefs aren’t mine and – much like in my personal life, I choose to try and spend my time with people who mirror my beliefs as much as possible. While i have many rightie friends, I tend to stay away from Bible thumpers…they tend to make me tear my hair out.

      The problem with Bible thumpers, Joe, is that you discount all of the other religions as blasphemy or heresy. I was raised as a cultural Jew, but I fully respect that there are other religions and other beliefs…but I would never discount those religions because they aren’t mine.

      You absolutely hide behind the Bible…unless you are saying that your disapproval of the gay lifestyle is not based in religion…but if it isn’t, what IS it based in?

  3. thatone08 says:

    Well put Lee, but I have heard Queer used as well. That is why LGBT seems to be the preferred term, the Q is usually dropped entirely. It’s not even in the wikipedia title.

    As a fellow SCV raised guy, I’d like to see more love be preached everywhere, but SCV especially. We always need to focus on the positive and avoid negativity. To that end, here is a nice graphic I saw today with positive thoughts from a Christian pastor which I hope will inspire other pastors. http://i.imgur.com/yt3bX92.jpg

    There isn’t a war against religion, but there is a movement keep the separation of church and state strong, and prevent laws created because of religious objections.

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