Earlier this year, on Holy Thursday, school administrators at Bishop Watterson High School in Columbus, Ohio, celebrated their religious holiday by practicing the Catholic tradition of persecuting, embarrassing and firing a person for being herself.
Carla Hale is 57 years old, a law-abiding citizen and by all accounts a good physical education teacher.
She is gay, and— thanks to the do-unto-others, love-your-neighbor administrators— jobless.
Hale was only a toddler when John F. Kennedy ran for president, so she probably doesn’t remember much of the public outcry against the man who would become the first Roman Catholic president.
Perhaps those at Bishop Watterson, a Catholic school, remember the widespread prejudice he endured during the 1960 campaign. The fear was expressed that, among a country of Southern Baptists, Protestant Christians and the scores of other religions, Kennedy would relinquish executive power to the whims and fancies of the Pope.
Never ones to trust the history books, it sounds like those at Bishop Watterson have forgotten that time period after all. Those were the days where it was Catholic ideology which was persecuted, Catholics whose beliefs were thought to be detrimental to society and Catholics who, if in charge, would rule America as if it were the Vatican.
A lot of Catholics and other columnists like to quote the Bible. So allow me to do the same.
Regarding pigs, “Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.”
That comes from Leviticus chapter 11, verse 8, in the same book with the solitary line warning not to “lie” with another man as you would a woman.
You’ll be shocked to learn that Bishop Watterson’s cafeteria menu listed pulled pork sandwiches to be served on April 8. Egads.
Somebody give Campbell’s Soup a call, because that school’s dietician is totally getting canned … right?
Nothing?
The Catholic Church wonders why they have a problem drawing in younger members. The church wonders why people are leaving it in waves, as poll after poll repeatedly confirms.
The church wonders why attendance is down at masses, why 46 percent of Catholics polled in March say the pope should “move the church in new directions,” why telling Americans to favor archaic texts and social policies more than loving their fellow man isn’t working.
It wonders why stories like Carla Hale make us shake our heads.
The Catholic Church isn’t the only one with these problems.
As a country, it’s time to move on.
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