Notwithstanding a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him, his machinations to end the career of his ex-wife's boyfriend, and his attempts to consign his wife to eternal damnation, Bill O'Reilly is a devout Catholic who is always willing to defend the anti-abortion position of his church. That he's fully on board with the Church's belief that gay sex is also a ticket to eternal damnation was shown during last night's discussion about the Catholic chaplain at George Washington University who is the subject of controversy because of his Catholic views on gays - views which some students feel is a form of harassment and thus, a reason for the school to remove the priest from campus. The Catholic right, spurred on by O'Reilly's evil twin Bill Donohue, are incensed; so it's not surprising that O'Reilly would take up the cross for religious free speech. But in 2010, O'Reilly, in supporting the father of a fallen soldier who was suing the homophobic Westboro Baptist Church, didn't support their free speech. Obviously, in O'Reilly's world, not all God hates fags churches are created equal!
On his "Impact Segment," O'Reilly reported the backstory about two George Washington University students "who say that they are homosexuals." (Note the use of the old-school pejorative "homosexual" and not the neutral "gay.") Bill looked perturbed as he reported that the students are "demanding" that the Catholic chaplain, "be thrown off campus" because he has said that "homosexual acts are sinful."
As usual, there's far more to the story and as usual, O'Reilly didn't bother providing the full context such as Fr. Greg Shaffer's blog commentary that "every single rational person knows that sexual relationships between persons of the same sex are unnatural and immoral." (So Shaffer is also insulting religious denominations and non-believers that support gay marriage!) Shaffer also claimed that when the president came out in support of same sex marriage he was being duplicitous because "he knows in his heart that a marriage is between a man and a woman." After this 2012 blog post, a student LGBT group demanded that the chaplain resign because his comments went against the school diversity code. One of the students, cited by O'Reilly, alleges that after Shaffer found out that he was in a gay relationship, Shaffer told him that he was "wicked and faithless."
O'Reilly then began his discussion with Sally Kohn, a GWU graduate and LGBT advocate. Kohn supported the priest's and the students' right to free speech and noted that even Catholic teaching is evolving on gay issues. O'Reilly defended the church teaching as "the church teaching." He said that Shaffer declined the invitation and hoped that he would change his mind as Jesus would. (OMG, O'Reilly is so full of himself that he thinks Jesus would go on the Factor, ROFLMAO!!!!!) O'Reilly continued to defend the church's teaching that "homosexual acts" are as sinful as heterosexual acts outside of marriage. (Bottom line, if you're gay, you can't have sex because you're not married but unlike straight couples you can't get married so you have to be celibate like Catholic priests[?!])
In typical "macho" bully mode that Bill uses when he speaks with women, Bill refused to listen to what Kohn was trying to say because he didn't "have time for this BS." Bill played "gotcha" as he tried to get Kohn to pick a side with his question of whether she would fire the priest which, for Bill, is a violation of his free speech. When Kohn tried to make some points about changing Catholic views, Bill continued to demand that she respond to the question of whether the priest "should be kicked off campus." Bill claimed that because she supports the priest as well as the students, she couldn't support the demand for the priest to be "booted off." When she managed to work in the comment that the school shouldn't have a chaplain that refers to students as "unnatural and immoral," finger waving, Bill lectured that the protesters were engaging in a "fascist" act by "demanding that a college move a chaplain because you don't like what the chaplain says." Kohn responded that the priest's comments, about the immorality of the students, are "disruptive."
So would O'Reilly accuse Christian students of being fascists if they demanded that the head of a student atheist group, who referred to Catholics as being superstitious idol worshipers be "booted off campus." I don't know. But what I do know is that Bill O'Reilly did say this about the Westboro Baptist Church: “you can’t have intentional, emotional infliction at the level they did to you and your family. You just can’t have it in America." The students make the legitimate claim that this chaplain is denigrating their humanity and if that ain't "emotional infliction," I don't know what is. There is obviously a rational discussion, about free vs. religious hate speech to be had here. Accusing gay people of being "fascists" because you don't like what they say isn't the place to start!
Any clergy working at a university ought to be more sensitive to their ‘audience’ and its sensibilities. Anti-gay doesn’t work for most young people. And as far as they are concerned it is their right to have an opionion on the pastors serving their community.
I know this will fall on deaf ears, but "Bill, inform yourself! Get out of your bubble. Go out into the world and learn things about other people. Don’t assume that you already know it all. "