For Mr. O’Keefe: too much, too soon, too fast, I’m afraid.  Pray for all the gifts of the Holy Spirit for him!

Yeahhh… Innocent until proven guilty, but c’mon man. Some of this poor-judgement you could see in his very early stunts, like the great condom caper, but I thought my reservations about that were just me getting older. Maybe this is the future of things. But maybe it’s like what they say about the candle that burns twice as bright burning half as long. Still time to pull out of the death spiral as far as I’m concerned, though.

The ACORN thing was classic, though.

Well said. I fear this tribalization of politics, religion, and ideas in general, coupled with a dodgy enconomy, terrorism, and “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” blindness, is looking more and more like the run-up to the Thirties in Europe, where Catholics and conservatives downplayed the evils of fascism, or even supported it in various forms, because it had declared war on communism, perceived as the greater threat. And the other way around among seculars & liberals.

I have liberal and progressive friends who know in their guts that abortion is wrong, but are hesitant to even mention it, because such an admission would seem to attack their “side.”  Just as I’ve heard few voices of late on “our” side speaking to the evils of bullying and public nastiness because the most recent victims were gay teens, and decrying it might look like sympathy for homosexuality.  Few Catholic commentators have (as far as I can tell) tried to make any sense of Mel Gibson’s embarrassing public kerfuffles, even though we were all over the case when all the nastiness seemed to be on the “other side.”

And as I recall, yours, Mark, was one of the few voices raised, on Just War terms, against the Bush admin’s Iraq war, because Bush was “our pro-life” president.

Spot on Mark!

As I said in the comment section of the Ink Desk:

As I see it, politics is not the problem. Replacing the Church’s vision with the platform of the fractured divisions contained in American politics is the problem. These alien principles have generated a civic (political) religion which, while resembling our faith very closely, rivals the truth contained in the teaching authority of the Church.  I would argue this debacle over O’Keefe is partially the result of this civic religion, which in our times parallels the era of St. Thomas More in more ways than one.

Our failure to view the Church as She sees Herself, is of our own making. And this has come at a very high price to the faithful. Our reliance on intuition to grasp Her political, social, and economic teachings has led to these very real, catastrophic consequences. I say “intuition” because Catholics have relied on their own imagination in constructing the social vision of Holy Mother Church. What’s more, the volume of Catholics (with political opinions) who have neglected ANY reading of the social encyclicals is deplorable. We must study these questions from Holy Mother Church’s perspective and submit to Her authority. Instead we’ve placed our faith in middlemen; middlemen notably funded by one political end of the spectrum or the other; commentators trusted perhaps in one field of Catholic thought and just assumed to be equally reliable in other areas.

Reading this brought to mind a story posted on the front page here - where Florida Senator Mr. Alan Grayson is recorded calling Christian opponent, Mr. Dan Webster, “Taliban Dan”.  If you follow the link over at www.standardnewswire.com you get two pieces - one from CNN and the ad posted at youtube.

The bombastic namecalling notwithstanding, Mr. Grayson states Mr. Webster both promoted and voted for some harsh legislation including pieces against battered women.  This is pretty caustic stuff and seems very un-Christian in nature.  However, the truth of that accusation by Grayson is not being criticized or even examined by any Christian sites (as far as I can tell) just the name calling.  Attempts to seek clarity on the issue of legislation he has supported (such as denying health insurance for battered women as a preexisting condition) have gone unanswered by sources such as the Orlando Sentinel.

This seems like an unacceptable double-standard.  If Mr. Webster wants to be known as a Christian politician his actions must be Christian in nature.  Much like Mr. O’Keefe, saying you are a Christian does not allow you to do whatever you want or allow you a free pass on acting in a charitable and just manner - in fact, it calls you to a higher standard. 

As Christians in the public square - we must be sure to strive to act with the highest of ideals - Jesus Christ himself.  Of course, we will all fall short but we should at least try.  Doing anything less just gives our critics ammunition against us and, ultimately, against Christianity itself.

Let it be said clearly: you have written three paragraphs not preventing, but instead directly supporting the claim that “Planned Parenthood and ACORN are the victims of self-aggrandizing kooks.” without once mentioning the truth of what the “self-aggrandizing kooks” uncovered - nationwide patterns of Planned Parenthood covering up statutory rape, and ACORN committing Federal housing fraud while the mortgage market melted down.

Somehow that ACORN and PP crimes aren’t lessened at all by the character of those who exposed them.  What’s important is that these crimes were exposed.  It’s appalling that you focused the entire column on O’Keefe’s nuttiness rather than these crimes.  And the fact that you “protected” O’Keefe by only linking critiques of him doesn’t balance the fact that you gave no links or reference or judgment to the widespread crimes that “kook” uncovered.

Note that O’Keefe is hardly the only one exposing Planned Parenthood - people have been doing the same thing for years, but the smoking gun was never smoky enough for prosecutors or reporters.  Luckily Fox News finally picked up on this after 30 years of strict media silence.  Are you voting to reimpose that silence because O’Keefe is a “kook”?

Andrew:

You have exposed my hidden agenda.  Clearly, I refer to PP as “Murder Inc.” because I secretly support them.  My interest is not at all in the integrity of the witness of the prolife movement so that it can maintain a credible image in the eyes of the public.

Although I don’t like hidden camera “stings”, even when they are done legally, I will say that I thought the ACORN work this fellow did was devastatingly brilliant. Nothing else he has done since is defensible.

Mark,
You seem to be spending a lot of time letting everyone know you don’t agree completely with George Bush or Glenn Beck or James O’Keefe. I thought I understood but you seem to be spending a great deal of time making sure people know you’re not “like those CRAZY conservatives”. Interesting.

Why shouldn’t Mark make sure he is not like a crazy “conservative” or “liberal”? I would certainly hate to be “crazy” anything.

This is National CATHOLIC Register. Not National Republican Register. Unless we are saying that Republican politics are synonymous with the Catholic Church. And that is the crux of my comment (above). Catholics in this nation have resorted to private judgment and failed to view the Church as She sees Herself.

In his comments, Mark is responding as a Catholic, not a partisan.

To Jeff and others worried that Mark is spending too much time attacking the loony side of the “right”: I for one, am extremely glad he’s doing this. 

The loons are unfortunately a massive problem. 1) They drive away would-be supporters who don’t want to be associated with such craziness. There are thousands of pro-life people who won’t have a bar of the movement because every organisation seems to get quickly taken over by nutcases. (I’m not from your neighbourhood, I’m pretty sure, so I’m not criticising any particular organisation that you probably know) 2) They kill any credibility our arguments could have in the wider community, which we do, unfortunately, have to reach out to.

And yes, occasionally a Catholic IS called upon to make it very clear that he doesn’t completely agree with every tiny little instance of unjust war, torture, lying, corruption and even just plain craziness!

Mark,

I’m having trouble seeing your point of view. PRECISELY what was it that James did wrong? Your post simply claims he did wrong. It doesn’t specify what he did that was morally wrong.

Thanks,
Burnicus

Mark,

I am not sure of any logical connection between O’Keefe’s other antics and the truth about what was exposed at Planned Parenthood or ACORN or anywhere else.  How are these “antics” related to the validity of what was exposed there?  You seem to be engaging in a sort of fundamentally ad hominem mode of thinking.  And following from this you are explicitly arguing that anyone who wishes to contribute to the conversation on an important issue must be scrutinized personally.  That seems rather off-the-mark to me.  I would say that O’Keefe and Lila Rose are realizing some accolades for taking the time and devoting energy to laying bear some hard truths about Planned Parenthood as well as other organizations.  These are truths that Planned Parenthood works hard to keep under wraps.  For doing what they did, even in the face of well funded agenda driven organizations, I think they should be commended.  To suggest that one should be perfect in order to contribute (or even to receive praise) is to preclude us all from the conversation.

Jason:

This isn’t that complicated.  I’m happy that O’Keefe exposed Murder Inc. and ACORN’s corruption.  However, when he goes on to engage in kinky antics, he endangers the credibility of the prolife movement with Joe Blow who only sees the headline “Prolife Weirdo Engages in Kinky Antics”.  If somebody wants to be taken seriously as a moral voice that means they need to act, you know, morally.  It’s exactly the same logic that Paul employs when he says, “You then who teach others, will you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For, as it is written, ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you’” (Romans 2:21-24).  Prolifers who defend O’Keefe’s antics because he is part of the Tribe only make themselves look bad.  The goal is to show that Planned Parenthood *is* bad.

It’s one thing to believe but quite another to credibly defend the faith and associated issues and behavior, especially in our current hollow society.  The essence of the ACORN caper is what ACORN is doing and the behavior revealed as, indeed, actions that seriously affect our lives and country.  The media loves to expose the bizarre, the sensational, without any concern for the real consequences being brought about by the behavior of those involved in the action.  A politician or a Catholic that attempts to provide detail of what they believe should be done or of some critique of other’s actions only receives a superficial rebuff based on an unsound extreme exaggeration, not a dialogue designed to arrive at some reasonable conclusion or understanding.  From the Catholic point of view, one does not receive any understanding, teaching or “learned” guidance regarding what a Catholic should do from his parish priest based on going to church on Sunday.  If he is to learn, it must be from some other resource.  We are, in many ways, in an era very much like that of the 1930s and we will be in deep trouble, as a country (and as Christians) if we don’t wake up and start taking this current administration and democrat congress to task.

I agree,that when all you are interested is in the narrative you support and the truth falls by the wayside of political expediency your side always-looses.
ACORN is not a story about Pimps nor Prostitutes Child Pornography or any of the other prurient things that draws so much attention. ACORN is the story of poor people,low income and marginalized people who were looking for a way to access the system without money or committed allies. The only way they could access the system was through their commitment and their drive. Afterall,the poor, low income have no lobbyist. Unfortunately, they were used by a group of people who were power hungry. But the core issues which are a permanent underclass, entrenched poverty and lack of access to a good education, healthy food and health care and still not being addressed. It’s a simple silly game of gotcha you instead of let’s tackle the issues. A way to explain that the single greatest determinate of how long you live is your zip code is shattering.  This was the core of ACORN’s mission and that is why we have fought ACORN for 2 years and stepped down from positions of power within the organization to return it to it’s core mission, of empowering people in their local communities to have a better life.

Marcel Reid
President, ACORN8, LLC
ACORN-8.net

The ACORN thing was not “classic” or “incredible” as some other editors have posited here. It was a sleazy stunt reliant almost wholly on heavily and selectively doctored tapes. O’Keefe’s refusal to appear on any other program besides FOX shows he is not remotely a journalist or even a journalist wannabe because that is what true journalism is about, not preaching to the converted or the cerebrally atrophied.

Let us pray that all true Catholics can have the courage to take up the work of ACORN, to help the poor. What would Jesus do? Mr. O’Keefe has a lot to account for on Saturdays. He sure needs the help of a priest. Eternal damnation awaits.