For those of you who actually believe in separation of Church and State
a reader brought this to my attention. I pass it along to any Catholics, or Christians, or even any Americans wondering how the state of Connecticut arrogates to itself the authority to tell the church how to govern itself. The following paragraph is from the Laura Ingraham blog.
The Judiciary Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly is considering outrageous legislation designed specifically to target Catholic parishes with the bogus aim of "restructuring" them for the public good. Senate Bill 1098 is a frontal assault on the autonomy of the Roman Catholic Church in Connecticut. Among other things, it would force parishes to set up "lay boards" to oversee the management of Church-owned property, cutting priests and the Archbishop out of the process altogether. The legislation is scheduled for a public hearing on Wednesday, March 11th, at 12:00 noon, in Room 2C of the Legislative Office Building in Hartford. Please tell all your friends to attend and lodge an impassioned protest. More on the story here.
From the Knights of Columbus here:
The measure has been put on a legislative fast track, with hearings scheduled for Wednesday, March 11, less than a week after its introduction. Knights of Columbus, and all concerned Connecticut Catholics, are encouraged to attend the hearing that day and express their opposition to the bill. They may also call or write the committee co-chairmen, State Sen. Andrew McDonald (800-842-1420 or McDonald@senatedems.ct.gov), and State Rep. Michael Lawlor (800-842-8267 or MLawlor99@juno.com.
Here I believe, is the actual legislation being discussed.
In a possibly unrelated story, Canadian film-maker Villeneuve in his new film POLYTECHNIQUE recounts the events of the Montreal Massacre. For those of you unfamiliar with the event, a lone gunmen born Gharbi (his father was Muslim) went into a classroom. "The professors and the men in that classroom, who, ordered to leave by the lone gunman, meekly did so, and abandoned their female classmates to their fate—an act of abdication that would have been unthinkable in almost any other culture throughout human history. The ‘men’ stood outside in the corridor and, even as they heard the first shots, they did nothing. And, when it was over and Gharbi walked out of the room and past them, they still did nothing."
Columnist Mark Steyn makes this remark:
“I wanted to absolve the men,” Villeneuve said. “Society condemned them. People were really tough on them. But they were 20 years old . . . It was as if an alien had landed.”
But it’s always as if an alien had landed. When another Canadian director, James Cameron, filmed Titanic, what most titillated him were the alleged betrayals of convention. It’s supposed to be “women and children first,” but he was obsessed with toffs cutting in line, cowardly men elbowing the womenfolk out of the way and scrambling for the lifeboats, etc. In fact, all the historical evidence is that the evacuation was very orderly. In reality, First Officer William Murdoch threw deck chairs down to passengers drowning in the water to give them something to cling to, and then he went down with the ship—the dull, decent thing, all very British, with no fuss. In Cameron’s movie, Murdoch takes a bribe and murders a third-class passenger. (The director subsequently apologized to the first officer’s hometown in Scotland and offered 5,000 pounds toward a memorial. Gee, thanks.) Pace Cameron, the male passengers gave their lives for the women, and would never have considered doing otherwise. “An alien landed” on the deck of a luxury liner—and men had barely an hour to kiss their wives goodbye, watch them clamber into the lifeboats and sail off without them. The social norm of “women and children first” held up under pressure.
At the École Polytechnique, there was no social norm.
Anyone who reads these words, and does not take the time or trouble to protest the rape of the Church in Connecticut, is in the same supine moral posture as one who abandons the women to a gunman when so ordered. The social norm in America, the one thing all Americans of every stripe held sacred, was the First Amendment. Or so I thought. Do we retain a social norm?
Here is more information for those in Connecticut.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
