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JUNE 25: SEXUAL VIOLENCE & OFFENDERS - Part I: REPRESSION DRIVEN?

Just what’s the big deal about sex? What DON’T we know about sex and sexual violence? This will be Part One of a series getting at the biological, emotional and political conflicts around attitudes and policies towards sex and sexual behavior. Sexuality in American society is always the hot topic, but is it deserving of the attention? And is the kind of attention it’s getting keeping it the forbidden fruit everyone wants to pluck from the tree? Is its forbidden nature driving repression, sexual violence and the politics of lifetime incarceration? What is so tempting about throwing away the key? TTT's ANDY DRISCOLL and LYNNELL MICKELSEN ask some of those close to the issue just what is going on in our culturally confused notions of sex and sexual asault.

Also: A special TTT Commentary: Andy asks some questions of Archbishop Nienstadt and his erasure of St. Joan of Arc’s annual Gay Pride celebration. The text of this message follows below:

GUESTS:

• DONNA DUNN – Executive Director, MN Coalition Against Sexual Assault

• PHILIP VILLAUME - Criminal Defense Attorney

COMMENTARY:

A Question for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

Let us digress for a moment to ask this question of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis: what in God’s name is going on with you people that you feel compelled to impose some Neanderthal view of sexuality and sexual orientation as if Jesus Christ himself would condemn all who don’t reproduce, never mind their deep devotion to their Lord and their church? What earthly, let alone, heavenly, harm - other than Archbishop John Nienstadt’s personal and professional disgust with gays and Lesbians, could possibly be driving this idiotic intervention over St. Joan of Arc’s annual celebration and worship of Gay Pride week in the Twin Cities? Is the Church so insulated from public view that it doesn’t sense the rank hypocrisy of this unwarranted authoritarian exercise in light of its own clergy’s sexual history?

Now, I haven’t practiced pure Catholicism in 50 years, but I’ve watched my former faith take ten steps backward recently for every inch gained in behalf of the seriously wanting human condition over those years and cannot help but wonder if Christ himself isn’t turning over in his heavenly home over this prehistoric return to religious fascism.

St. Joan of Arc has been a model of Vatican II principles, providing an overarching cover for all Catholics, including the disaffected, welcoming all of God’s children under its large umbrella. That congregation and others of similar bent are getting hammered into submission by a theoretically celibate male hierarchy which apparently believes that a return to the catacombs is the only way to maintain its iron-fisted authority over purely personal choices to somehow stave off the devil’s entrapment.

What nonsense. And a truly sad commentary on a religious government that was showing such promise that it could live up to its name: Catholic. The name literally means universal, all-encompassing. Universal includes everyone exercising their free will under the teachings and example of their Lord himself. So. Since when did a few men with robes assume the authority to define that term for their own narrow application?

Shame on you, Your Excellency. This will backfire big time, as it has for so many years in other arenas of dicta, driving many Catholics into exile and cynicism.

©2008 Andy Driscoll

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