A Response to the Catholic Bishop Of Memphis on Racism and Obama

I saw that Whispers in the Loggia had a post on remarks Bishop Terry Steib of Memphis made on Obama and racism. See On Race... and "Racism"

First let me say I very much like Bishop Steib.

I have many times highlighted his Diocese as a place where the Church is getting it right. I also have met some of the staff up there that work for the Diocese. They all love him. Is is of some pride as a Southerner that a Black Bishop is heading up such a historic Diocese in the South. It also seems that looking at the success he has had that a good many of his white flock have embraced him in a major way. The success he has had would not have happened if the opposite was the case. That makes me very proud.

It is one of those Diocese I am screaming for people in charge to go too to see what in the world they are doing right

Still I don't agree with some of these remarks. But I think we get a glimpse of why people think Obama is subject to unheard attacks and how it must be race. That is what I will comment on in detail.

The portion Whispers has quotes part of a news article . So we should keep in mind that we don't actually have a full transcript of what the Bishop said in complete form. So we shall go off the paper's account.

The main thrust of the pastoral was evangelization, Bishop Steib emphasized. “The Catholic Church is universal, there is room in the sanctuary for everybody, and it is our responsibility to work within our community and lead others to our faith which we believe in,” he said. “That’s what evangelization is all about.”

The relative dearth of black Catholic leadership in the Church at the time the pastoral was issued was due to “subtle racism,” he charged(let me say yes there was racism. But also many of a time the most liberal unorthodox Priests would be put in African American parish's. The typical Catholic Social Justice priests. Big on certain items of Social Justice but not big on Orthodox thought elsewhere. Thus many African Americans Catholics left a watered down faith)

.Since that time tremendous strides have been made, and he cited the election of Barack Obama as president as an example.“Most of us probably believed that would never happen in our lifetimes,” he said. “To say the world has not changed is to dishonor all of those who fought the battles for us.”

Some racism still exists, he said, and cited the recent furor in Catholic circles over the honorary degree awarded by Notre Dame University to Obama, who supports abortion on demand.

Other presidents have had disagreements with the positions of the Catholic Church, for example, in war policies and capital punishment, but have received honorary degrees without similar objection, he noted. I(I am going to hit this as my major point. But let me point out the good Bishop knows the Church views those issues different from abortion.)

It is the subtle racism that still exists which contributes to the lack of priestly vocations among young black men because “it leads to a mistrust of the Church among young black men and women,” he said. “Let’s acknowledge that.”

In the Bishops remarks though I think we see the issue. That is compared to other Presidents Obama is really getting it.

I am not shocked to see this statement because we see it all the time. In a Bishops case I can tell even more why he would have that attitude. The issue is not Bill Clinton versus Obama. The issue is technology and the Internet. Catholic Bishops are still way behind the curve in understanding the potential of the Web. Thus I am not shocked when they don't consider the ramifications.

This week something amazing happened. For years and years people have been complaining about the corruption in the powerful ACORN organization. Nothing for the most part has been done. This week a filmmaker and a young lady through a new website brought down one of the most political powerful organizatins in the Country. All this happened in one week and without the help of the MSM.

Bryon York observed in part:
Although Republicans had long fought against ACORN, it is not an exaggeration to say that none of this would have happened now without the BigGovernment undercover videos. Democrats who in the past had reflexively supported ACORN ran for cover after seeing ACORN employees encouraging tax evasion and prostitution. The BigGovernment videos mark an important moment in the development of alternative media sources, and official Washington responded before most of the establishment press did. This is truly an extraordinary series of events.

Bill Clinton never had to deal with this.

In Catholic circles the same thing was happening. It is hard to recall but before the Bush era, the first President that had to deal with this world wide web creature creature in its full glory, Catholic media and Catholic levers of political power were mostly liberal.

Conservative and Orthodox Catholics though the snail mail Crisis Magazine that had just been introduced was the greatest thing ever. It was about all we had during the Clinton years.

The Catholic media that often echoed Democrat talking points were seen in such publications as the National Catholic Reporter, America, Commonweal, Salt, US Catholic, and others. Occasionally the free Sunday weekly that is passed out Our Sunday Visitor would pop out a contrary view but it mostly remained it's meek self.

Catholic Political power was very much a liberal affair. It is no accident that over the decades we have seen people that work in many of the social justices offices of Bishops graduate on up to important powerful positions in Democrat politics. This of course had horrific effects because it gave the wrong perception that Catholic Social Justice was just a political left affair. Thus other contributions were shunned and froze out. Which has caused problems to this day.

There was truth to the joke that the United States Bishops were the "Democrat Party at Prayer". Add to this the Catholic influence in big labor that started taking more liberal positions and a migration of Catholics to the GOP that was occurring and we have a whole different political landscape.

The Internet changed all that. Every Catholic could have a blog. Orthodox Catholics were fighting a battle for the Church on many fronts. It was liberating. I think a good many people in the Church looked up and said who are all these folks!!

At the same time political conservative Catholics were making their voices known on the net. They were organizing. They were fact checking and holding people's feet to the fire. President Clinton when he received his Honorary degree did not have to deal with millions of emails and online petitions and angry Catholics going this is not right!!

Clinton was able largely to find political cover from the usual Catholic allies. President Obama is finding that the usual suspects cannot mute the criticism as they usually do. It is a whole new day. When Archbishop Chaput speaks out on life Catholics now here about it within a day. Catholics are aware in vast detail the background of certain administrative officials hostile to the Catholic faith.

In other words the liberal American Catholic establishment whose main contribution has been overseeing formally pro-life Catholic politicians become pro-choice has some competition.

Thus while it might seem that President Obama is getting unheard opposition it is more complex than that. The opposition was always there but was not just heard.

It is not racism it is technology.