In what is being described as a rant, comedian Tracy Morgan has apologized for intense anti-gay comments that he made during a comedy routine. As the usual course of events happened, people were offended and he apologized. You can expect some sort of firing to happen, if the usual course of events continues. Already on Twitter people are making comments on how they will never watch 30 Rock or anything else with Tracy Morgan again.
However, when the rant is anti-Catholic the response is radically different, there is just silence or praise with an occasional protest from the faithful. An example of this is Kathy Griffin who labels priests a term that cannot be written in this blog.
There are those who will protest Griffin, others such as myself will leave her to her own devices. She is just one of many in Hollywood who hate Catholics priests.
Obviously, the outrage is the same in Catholic circles, but the response is not. The next question is should it be?
First, Tracy Morgan's rant may have not been "homophobia" which literally means fear of homosexuality; it can be best determined as completely out of line. There is nothing funny about stabbing your son because of any inclination. I am not sure that is homophobia; it is closer to genocide. No one should support that for any reason.
Yet, those who demand that he stop are demanding not to be insulted.
Catholics can demand not to be insulted, but first that won't happen, and second we need to ask, who are the insulters.
Jesus warned us that we would be hated, and you can rest assured that the anti-Catholic hatred which has always been prevalent in this country will greatly increase. No one will respond. As a "victim" of vicious anti-Catholic persecution in Massachusetts with the passive and in some cases active support of many of our elected officials from both parties, I see no end to the persecution because it has been institutionalized as well as personalized.
You have to remember that Catholics stand in the way of billions of dollars in industries that look on humanity in the most materialistic terms. There will always be an industry that supports anti-Catholicism because we cost people money in their quest for products that improve the lives of some people at the expense of others. For example, product using tissues from unborn children.
The clash is because our anthropology is different from the world's. We not only believe in a higher being but we believe in a destiny that is the fullness of creation. The world believes that the future is determined solely in terms of one earthly lifetime and, therefore, it believes that humanity must live by each individual's standards to get the most out of life now. Anyone who stands in the way, in the thoughts of the world, must be annihilated. This is the reasoning behind holocausts. It is also the goal of the mentality of the world. When it is allowed unbridled development, it ends in the most evil of humanity showing itself.
One of the great parables of this reality is actually in the end of the sixth chapter (3rd movie) of Star Wars Return of the Jedi. Remember the Emperor knew how to destroy Luke, by allowing the Jedi's own anger and hate to consume him. So he told Luke that he wanted his hate. However, it was the son's love for his father that led Luke not to give in completely to the emperor's temptation. The emperor was destroyed by Luke.
Our response to the likes of Kathy Griffin must be different than those who protested Tracy Morgan's rants. Our goal does not involve being accepted fully in this world, God help us if we are. Our goal is to seek the reality of being fully human and fully alive that comes from our growth into the fullness of humanity led by Holy Spirit. Our hatred would consume us as the hatred that others have for us will consume them.
We listen to the words of St. Paul in Romans "Bless your persecutors" "Do not curse them." "Do not return evil for evil." St. Paul reminds us that vengeance is God's. We must respond to our persecutors in loving obedience to God not in hateful retribution for ourselves. St. Paul teaches that this is our weapon against our persecutors. We grow in holiness and they fall into destruction but not by our hand. The grace of God leads us to the fullness of humanity to which we are called. If we on the other hand allow ourselves to be driven by hatred as our persecutors are, that hatred will consume us, as it will consume them. We lose and end up not only like them, but with them.
Tracy Morgan's rants cannot be described ever in the terms of entertainment nor comedy; neither are Kathy Griffin's which likewise are hateful and genocidal. What I have read of Kathy Griffin's rants, I have found painful and slanderous. However, if we try to silence her, then we enter into her pool. If, however, we look to draw closer to God and seek to become holy, we can see just how destructive her pool is and we leave it and her alone.
Since we are Catholic we will always deal with the Kathy Griffins in the world, until Jesus returns. Let us, therefore, instead seek to be counted among the communion of the saints through prayer, perseverance and in the words of the corporal works of mercy: bearing wrongs patiently.
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