Todd "Toddles" Starnes might be Jesus' BFF; but that doesn't stop him from lying his copious, Southern fried ass off whenever the opportunity presents itself. And despite his problem with truthiness, he had no qualms over accusing President Obama of lying about the Affordable Care Act. Toddles' sources? Anecdotes posted on his Facebook! Yesterday, in yet another example of Toddles' less than honest reporting, he provided his drooling Twitter followers with information that was pulled straight from the aforementioned posterior. According to Toddles, the evil Muslim, Marxist, atheist, Kenyan born, communist, Satan worshipping president "won't let 50 Catholic military chaplains celebrate Mass today." Bet ya didn't know; that but thanks to all the Christian and right wing blogs who hang on everything said or penned by Starnes, lots of people now do!
While Starnes' Tweet makes it look like Pres. Obama targeted 50 priests, the reality is, as with anything Toddles says or tweets, very different. According to Starnes' very own linked Fox "News" October 5th article, "the U.S. military has furloughed as many as 50 Catholic chaplains due to the partial suspension of government services, banning them from celebrating weekend Mass." The bishop for the Catholic Archdiocese for Military Services told Starnes that because there is a shortage of active duty chaplains, military bases utilize the services of local priests. In other words, these guys are contractors just like all the other contractors who service our government and military and according to the law, are not allowed to perform their jobs unless they are "essential." (And if there are local non-military priests and parishes to fill in for the official military priest/contractors, then how "essential" are these furloughed priests?)
Bishop Broglio told Starnes that some of the priests have been forbidden to say Mass while they are not getting paid. As usual, Starnes quoted an anonymous source who claimed a furloughed Air Force (ground zero for alleged persecution of Christians) chaplain was told he couldn't go to his office and barred from any religious activity. Toddles didn't mention that according to Air Force Lt. Col. Laurel Tingley “any civilian employee who volunteers their time to the government while furloughed is violating the Anti-Deficiency Act, as is any supervisor who allows an employee to do so."
While Starnes claims that 50 priests are forbidden to say Mass, the Military Times reports that whether the 374 contracted military priests "are working during the shutdown depends on how they are funded." If they are paid with public funds, they are not working. So we can't say for sure how many priests are not working. But Toddles' Tweet says, without providing a source other than Friday's article, that the president "won't let 50 Catholic military chaplains celebrate Mass" on Sunday."
Starnes' claim, that President Obama (who is not responsible for the shutdown) "won't let 50 Catholic military chaplains celebrate Mass," has no basis in reality. But as reinforcement for Christian claims of persecution by the evil Obama administration, it's vintage Starnes.
It gets a biscuits on fire rating!
And one more thing. Toddles obviously thinks that it is OK for priests to break the law, but not the Pentagon and that priests are more "essential" than the Department of Defense?
So, the fact is that the Obama Administration did block Catholic Priests from preforming Catholic Services.
“The Wausau, Wis. School District says it’s okay to jingle bells and don gay apparel but lay off the Baby Jesus stuff – and that has parents and students ready to deck somebody’s halls.
I suspect Toddles really digs donning gay apparel.