To each his own obscenity

Jonathan Rossing’s column titled “Offending Offensive” (IDS, Sept. 20) described how Catholic League President Bill Donohue, a spokesperson for the League’s version of “For Religious & Civil Rights” found comedian Kathy Griffin’s “Suck it, Jesus” comment to be “obscene.” I say, “to each his own obscenity!”\nWhat I find offensive is the following information taken from an article “An Introduction to Michael Novak’s State-Based Faith” by Frank Cocozzelli. This was originally posted at the Talk to Action blog as part of the series, “The Catholic Right.” According to the piece: \n“A Catholic Ethic can be viewed in the light of the earlier project of the late Catholic Father John Courtney Murray. Sometimes Father Murray seemed to be whimsical about it, but at other times he was dead earnest in suggesting that a day might come when the proponents of the founding and defining Protestant tradition of the American experiment may, for complex reasons, tire of the experiment or turn against it. Then, said Murray, it might be up to Catholics to provide a moral and theological rationale for the constitutional order of a free society. That time may have come. And of course it is not up to Catholics alone.” Rest assured, when neoconservative Catholic Richard John Neuhaus states “And of course it is not up to Catholics alone,” he isn’t talking about mainline Protestants, but ultra-conservative Evangelicals also. The offensiveness to me here lies not in their constitutionally assured right to their beliefs but rather their efforts to establish a “constitutional order” designed to see that all Americans shall live according to their particular brand of Catholic orthodoxy.