Catholic "League's" Bill Donohue defends Mel Gibson and calls Leno a bigot

[Ian David]

This week in Catholic: Catholic League president Bill Donohue is offended again. This time, he takes the time out of his protests of the Empire State Building, Comedy Central, Lady Gaga, and comedian Louis C.K. to defend Mel Gibson and call late night talk show host Jay Leno a bigot.

Radar Online has been releasing tapes of Passion of the Christ director Mel Gibson ranting and raving to his ex-girlfriend. On the tapes, Gibson shows just how racist, homophobic, and anti-women he truly is. These rants along with his anti-Semitic portrayal of Jews in his film and his drunken anti-Semitic rant to a police officer in 2006 really paint Gibson as a pretty hateful and villainous person. Some people like Christopher Hitchens and Frank Rich claim that this is a reflection on Gibson’s religious views (voice your vote).

Mel Gibson belongs of to splinter sect of the Catholic Church run by his father who denounces the changes made by the Second Vatican Council. Still, Gibson is a Catholic and this has prompted Bill Donohue to come to his defense. In a press release by the Catholic League, Donohue implies that Gibson is the victim of anti-Catholic bigotry. He goes on to blame “Secular Jews” for “fomenting anti-Catholicism” and trying to equate any and all criticism of the actions and beliefs of the Catholic Church with anti-Semitism and racism.

What Bill Donohue has to realize is that there is a difference between hating someone because of their race and criticizing someone’s actions and religious beliefs. We can change our religious beliefs (a fact that Donohue himself admits in the press release) and we can choose to take different actions, but we can’t choose what race we were born into.



More:
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-8928-Philadelphia-Atheism-Examiner~y2010m7d19-Catholic-Watch-Donohue-defends-Mel-Gibson-and-calls-Leno-a-bigot

[humblebum]

1. there is simply no defense for bad behavior by Gibson and if Donohue

defends such behavior, shame on him. But as to your statement," there is a difference between hating someone because of their race and criticizing someone’s actions and religious beliefs" - naturally there is a vast difference between hating and criticizing. And yes, religious beliefs can certainly be changed, however, true believers of a certain religion or theology cannot change if they truly believe, and hating someone because of their religious beliefs is no different than hating them because of their race or ethnicity. Atheists commonly assert that, but religion and race are still listed as being the subjects of bigotry. To say differently is rationalization and nothing more. It does not matter whether or not one person considers such belief as nonsense.

[darkstar3]

3. Lot of bullshit there...

1. Beliefs change all the time, so you're pissing in the wind attempting to compare faith to race.
2. "true believers"? Really? Do they put sugar on their porridge?
3. You make the same mistake Donohue does of conflating harsh criticism with hatred. That persecution complex just ties you all up in knots doesn't it?
4. Your post boils down once again to special pleading. Your ideas in particular have shown themselves to be ridiculous nonsense, and you have no right to expect that such ideas will be exempt from ridicule.

[ZombieHorde]

4. +666 nt

[struggle4progress]

2. Billy Donohue's got a fairly unoriginal rightwing shtick: he's angry

and conservative and an old white guy

Folk, who lean heavily on this shtick, launch into angry old conservative white guy mode when other angry old conservative white guys are criticized

To ensure himself a niche, Billy adds "Catholic" to his routine: he launch into angry old conservative Catholic white guy mode when other angry old conservative Catholic white guys are criticized

[JerseygirlCT]

6. Gotta have a gimmick, right? nt

[JerseygirlCT]

5. Donohue is not going to get that distinction

In large part because he, himself, is a bigot as well.