Hannity Solo
I put off commenting about the whole Hannity/priest/contraception thing for awhile and by now it's totally old news. But I finally realized why it reminded me of the first Star Wars, and by the first I mean the first one that guy made and now says is the fourth one, not the fourth one he made and now claims is the first. I saw it when it first came out, so there. Please don't interrupt my mid-life crisis, OK?
In short, Hannity was wrong on contraception, the church is right. Television being probably the wrong place to have an argument about it is beside the point. It's too bad because Hannity is a popular figure in the media and in the culture and as a Catholic, he should at least be quiet and more respectful if he dissents from this important teaching. So I want to make sure I'm clear on this point; this is Lesson 1, if you will, to take away from the interchange. I don't want to be accused of defending Hannity, he's not my fave radio talker (although not my least favorite either); I think that whole "you're a great American" thing chafes me at the taste level.
Remember the robots... OK, droids.... the droids are playing some kind of chess-variant game where the pieces are monsters which beat the crap out of each other when the players move them. Ostensibly, R2D2 and Chewbacca -- probably the two most famous non-verbal film characters since Harpo Marx -- are engaged in playing the game and Chewbacca is whining because he's not winning. Han Solo, the only person who understands the wookiee, and C3PO, the only robot who understands R2D2...
...I meant droid. According to the experts, C3PO is a droid. You have to admit though, C3PO looks like a gold-plated robot. R2D2, OTOH, looked like a tank vacuum cleaner to me the first time I saw him. (Uh.... ShopVac is a brand name, doofus. That's why I wrote tank vacuum cleaner, FYI.) Now kids think tank vacuums look like R2D2. Life is funny.
Some of you are no doubt thinking "man, this post is getting long. Where is this going? I don't even like Star Wars and jaws was never my scene either, come to think of it." You ought to hang in there because this might be as close as I get to bashing the Catholic clergy on this blog.
Anyway, Solo and C3PO have a conversation which everyone remembers:
3P0: He made a fair move. Screaming about it won't help you.
Solo: Let him have it. It's not wise to upset a Wookiee.
3PO: But sir, nobody worries about upsetting a droid.
Solo: That's 'cause droids don't pull people's arms out of their sockets when they lose. Wookiees are known to do that.
3PO: I see your point, sir. I suggest a new strategy, Artoo. Let the Wookiee win.
Hannity is the droid in this case; nothing really is going to happen to a priest or bishop who goes after him. He may be a bit egotistical and annoying, but I don't think he poses any threat. I'd be willing to bet that a good portion of Hannity's Catholic fans even agree with the priest, even if they think his tone and manner might have been more pastoral.
But has that priest gone after Nancy Pelosi or other major public officials who support abortion in the same way? Good for him if he has. Father said that he was concerned about Hannity being a public heretic. I think this statement from NP might tip the needle on the heresy meter into the red zone: "I believe that my position on choice [i.e., abortion] is one that is consistent with my Catholic upbringing, which said that every person has a free will and has the responsibility to live their own lives in a way that they would have to account for in the end." (source Matt Abbott)
I know that the "concern about sanctions against Catholic public officials" House Speaker Pelosi mentions doesn't necessarily lead to "pulling people's arms out of their sockets". Further to the point, I don't even think the pro-abortion politicians would even show up for this kind of candid discussion. So is it possible that the clergy in the Catholic Church do go after these high value political targets all the time and I just miss it because I don't watch much TV?
No! Are you kidding? Sean Hannity argues for 6 minutes with a priest and it's news for a week! Can you imagine what would happen if a priest did stand up to a major abortion supporter on the left and go head-to-head with him/her on national television? John McG rightly points out that this kind of thing is the dream of many Catholics. I get stuff all the time (not in comments here, but in email lists I'm on) asking me to help pressure the Vatican to call for dismissal of Bishops (which by the way has been proven to be counterproductive) who won't challenge pro-abort Catholic politicians. What I do agree with those well-meaning folks on is that this is a matter which needs more clarity and attention regardless of general statements issued in the past.
Therefore I conclude with Lesson 2: The calling out of Hannity in regards to a heterodox position establishes a fortiori the case for calling out elected political leaders, of all political parties, who do not follow the Catholic Church's teaching on Abortion.
Maybe it will console members of the Catholic clergy that Chewbacca turned out to be an all around good fellow, despite the hairiness and poor sportsmanship. In fact, in the second movie... yes, episode 5, whatever... he reassembles C3PO after some other nasties rip him apart. He doesn't do a perfect job, granted; probably about as good a performance as Pelosi or Kucinich might deliver if asked to recite the Ten Commandments or maybe this prayer.
"Does that sound arrogant?"
ReplyDeleteHan Solo said it best: "Don't get cocky."
Euteneuer was technically "right", but that's as far as i'll go. he was also unduly obnoxious in his first Hannity-baiting article, mocking him for his meat-eating apology. and he was REALLY obnoxious in his second article about Hannity. i'm grateful that the memory is now faded. frankly, the priest gave me the shivers.
ReplyDeletein any case, it's wrong of a priest who would no doubt complain about the church's lousy catechizing to (rather gleefully) bait someone who has been lousily catechized.
of course, if you accused me of being not competely persuaded on the church's teaching about birth control, you'd be correct ... and yes i've read the relevant stuff.
Euteneuer could have handled this better. So could Hannity. So could the Priest who kind of came to Hannity's defense. The whole situation was ridiculous, but Hannity probably came out looking like the bigger doofus, as he usually does. Seriously, I know the guy's got a good heart and he is on the right side of most issues, but I just can't take him anymore. And sorry Sean, but you are indeed wrong about contraception.
ReplyDeletePauli's right, though. It's one thing to go after Hannity - and it was right to criticize him, even if it could have been done more tactfully - but how about going after the people who make the laws? I cringe when I read some of the firebreathers who seemingly want the Church to come out blazing with uzis in hand against all the dissenters, but how about a Supersoaker at least.
One reason I waited so long in responding is that complexities abound in this case. If you go to HLI you can see a letter that Fr. Tom wrote to Pelosi which is rather forceful. This was from 2004 before she was speaker, though, and the Hannity thing is splattered all over their site's front page like it's a major victory.
ReplyDeleteThe more I think of it, the more Han Solo's line to Luke seems to apply. "Great, kid, don't get cocky!" HLI took out a fighter, but the Death Star is still looming large.
I firmly believe that the contraception issue is related to abortion in several ways, but the church has reiterated time and again that the two sins are not equivalent. Abortion by nature involves the taking of a human life, i.e., it's murder.
YEAH! SUPERSOAKERS ROCK BABY!!
ReplyDeleteI think that Hannity's dissent is likely to have more of a detrimental effect on true- believing Catholics. Serious Catholics don't take Pelosi's so-called Catholic witness seriously, but the same are more often fans of Hannity. I'm not, not that it matters, and Pauli I think you're wrong to hold Michael Savage in greater contempt than Hannity. At least Savage is interesting. Hannity is a dullard and a shill with no original thoughts whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, something that has always bugged me about the scene in question in STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE (Episode 4). Remember when the Millenium Falcon escapes from the Death Star? They get attacked by TIE fighters and Han and Luke team up to shoot town the TIEs (Luke is enthused after he gets his first, but Han cautions him not to get cocky). Then after the battle, Leia says that they must have been tracked; it's the only reason they let them go-- so the Empire can know where the Rebel base is.
Well, if that were so... then why did the Empire send out TIE fighters to try to shoot them down at all? Unless I am missing something, this is a huge continuity error, perhaps the worst Lucas ever committed.
i'm trying, but i STILL don't get the star wars metaphor. who's the wookie? ack forget it
ReplyDeleteHan knows cocky when he sees it, but he is a cocky bastard. He especially is devoted to his ship, though, and that's kind of his redeeming value. You see the same thing in the Pirates of the Caribbean films with J. Depp.
ReplyDeletecan i just add one more thing: the priest on Hannity's show (further) hurts his credibility by saying that "contraception leads to 60% of abortions." that number is unknowable, since it should be offset by the number of abortions *prevented* by contraception, and that is totally unknowable (but one can reasonably argue is significant).
ReplyDeletethere is nothing catholic about propaganda
LOL, Kathleen. The analogy requires a warped mind to invent it, I'm sure. The "wookiee" represents the Aborto-Catholics who don't take very kindly to criticism about their faith. Hannity, IMHO, is basically harmless, he says stupid defensive things also (I was in seminary, I learned Latin, blah, blah), but there seems to be some fear of attacking the Wookiees publicly because they might start pulling out arms. The right really has not demonized that priest the way the left would -- that's my contention.
ReplyDeleteThe Star Wars stuff is mainly to bait Bubba, anyway.
But I'm checking out that second photo of Chewbacca. There's a serious Yorick think going on there. Didn't Hamlet say he rode on Yorick's back? A few scenes later you see 3PO on Chewie's back. Lucas is so Shakespearian.
Andy, I don't know any Catholics who march around saying "Yay, Hannity", so YMMV. In theory, a public correction of this type might be good. But there is a television orthodoxy that seems unbreachable. I mean, come on, what if you had Father E doing his thing to an Aborto-Catholic politician on Hardball or one of those cable shows? Wouldn't that be good for ratings? But it ain't. Gonna. Happen.
ReplyDeletePauli, I'm confused. You almost always seem to want to defend the American bishops/priests against charges of loss of nerve against the Pelosis and Kennedys of the American political scene and all that they represent, yet in this post you seem to bemoan the fact that they haven't been more aggressive against such "Wookies" and that they're picking on a "droid" like Hannity instead. So, which is it?
ReplyDeleteI still maintain that conservative Catholics are more likely to like Hannity, and thus may be seduced into buying into his dissent, than they are with someone like Pelosi, whom every loyal Catholic true to the Magisterium knows is beyond the pale.
Bubba, if the Empire WANTED the Millenium Falcon to get away so they could track it and thus find the Rebel base, then why send ANY TIE fighters after it at all? It just doesn't make sense. I realize that four TIEs aren't a lot, considering the Empire's full aresenal, but why send ANY?
ReplyDeleteMr. Hannity's rationale for his views on Birth Control is no different than those Liberals who say they are personally opposed to Abortion but do not want to impose their values on the rest of the people. The most famous example of this marginalization that Mr. Hannity advocates was practiced in 1960 by JFK in West Virginia. In order to get that state behind him Mr. Kennedy engaged in one of the most massive incidents of pandering known at that time. Mr. Hannity is no different.
ReplyDeleteAndy, you're the one who has painted me as always wanting to defend the clergy. The things I'm most against are jousting windmills and yelling at brick walls.
ReplyDeleteFr. Tom posts here that he's picking up the slack left by Hannity's pastor and bishop. He mentions that Hannity ignored his first letter from 2004. Well, the Pelosi letter is from 2004 too, so it's on to the Death Star next. I really think he might do it, and I hope he does.
But my main point here is that I think this will be brand new territory, it "ain't like dusting crops, kid" or however the quote goes. I watched a good priest get taken out of public ministry (i.e., placed on "indefinite administrative leave") by lies, gross exaggerations and the application of zero tolerance. He was never even charged with abuse, but "child endangerment" because wine was served at a church dinner where minors were present. However much a jerk Hannity is, he's not going to unleash anything like that. On the other hand, I wouldn't put that past certain people who know how to work the system.
Pauli, with respect, your tone hasn't usually been along the lines of "yeah, the bishops are disappointing, but what can ya do--no use tilting at windmills," and more along the lines of "the bishops aren't so bad-- they do a lot of nice things, like visit sick people and so forth-- and people who complain about them are tiresome, humorless bores or worse." (present company excepted, I'm sure;))
ReplyDeleteBubba, but why did they send the TIEs in the first place? Wasn't there a chance that the TIEs could have destroyed the MF, thus scotching Grand Moff Tarkin's grand scheme to find the Rebel base and destroy it?
ReplyDeletePretty cool, Bub. And by the fricking way, my wife and I checked out "Ghost Rider" last night, cool. I liked the burning skull effect and his psychological weapon of showing people the horror of their sins. And, as Dylan famously said, "We all like motorcylces to some degree."
ReplyDeleteStill got to check out "Serenity".
Dude, give me a call.