The Observer, March 31, 2006
Volume XXXVIII, Issue 22
Free Speech Zone: Conservatives confused on Christian privileges
To the Editor:
Christopher Thomas' article about the liberal agenda was disingenuous at best, but more like an outright lie. He fails to make clear that the State of Massachusetts said Catholic Charities could not use state funds to help run its adoption program if it continued its discriminatory practices against potential gay adoptive parents. This would not be a "culture war" debate if Catholic Charities was discriminating against non-Catholics or certain ethnicities, but because it's gay people, conservatives are outraged.
To bring up the image of poor orphans caught in this culture war was a pathetic cheap shot. The fate of those children is Catholic Charities' fault and responsibility, no one else's. It was Catholic Charities' decision to (literally) throw out the baby with the bathwater. It does not have to abandon its ideology, mission, or operations. There's nothing stopping them from continuing on without the government's support. If they can't because they otherwise lack the funds, how telling is that? Where are all those neoconservatives and the Christian Right? Why aren't they putting their money where their mouths are if they feel so strongly about it? Is Chris the conservative Christian sending Catholic Charities a check? I didn't see him imploring readers to send economic support to Catholic Charities during his rant against "the liberal agenda." Why not? Because neocons want the government to support their religious ideology at the expense of other citizens' rights. That's called religious privilege, not religious rights. Taken to an extreme, it's religious tyranny.
Conservatives are deliberately confusing the loss of Christian privilege with discrimination. Christian organizations enjoyed this privilege for so long, becoming so entangled with the government bureaucracy without having to adhere to the same principles demanded of other organizations, that they now scream "We're the victims!" when the government tells them, "You can't discriminate anymore on our dime. We have to serve everyone, equally. We serve everyone, in part, through funding various organizations like yours." It's similar to the rant against the loss of white privilege and labeling it "reverse racism."
Bigots are like a bunch of spoiled brats. They whine when held to the standards they reserved for themselves by those they consider beneath them. Waaaah! Shut up, you big babies; grow up and join the rest of the universe.
It would help if you understood what a theory was as well.
Cheshana Marshall
Graduate Student
