ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, a homosexual group)
[*]
"DEATH TO THE CHURCH"
"CARDINAL O'KILLER"
"CHRIST WAS A HOMOSEXUAL"
"ADOLPH HITLER — A CATHOLIC LEADER"
"F— THE CHURCH"
"SEX FOR FUN"
"CURB YOUR DOGMA"
—
Typical placards carried by activist homosexuals and pro-abortionists belonging to the groups ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and WHAM (Women's Health Action Mobilization), as they stormed New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral on December 10, 1989, assaulting parishioners, disrupting Cardinal John O'Connor's Mass by screaming and shoving people, and desecrating the consecrated Host by throwing It on the ground and stamping on It. Outside, hundreds of screaming homosexuals burned Cardinal O'Connor in effigy and attacked passersby, all because the Cardinal had refused to toe their immoral "safe sex" line. As described in E. Michael Jones. "The Pope and the Condom Worshippers." Fidelity Magazine, October 1987, pages 32-44. Also see Just Out Magazine, January 1990, page 10.
[*] "He [O'Connor] was a bigot and he was very aggressive about promoting his bigotry."
—
Ann Northrop of the homosexual group AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP), during a May 8, 2000 CNN interview just one hour before the funeral Mass for John Cardinal O'Connor [NOTE: Northrop was one of the ACT-UP members who broke into St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1989 to disrupt Mass and desecrate the Eucharist]. Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 2000 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
Allen, Douglas (columnist)
[*] "It's clear to everyone in this country that there is a problem with race among us citizens of the good old U.S. of A. And it seems that no respectable solution exists. Either you're for majority superiority or for minority superiority. You favor whites, or you favor blacks. ... This is, of course, as it ought to be. ...
"To judge the individual as an individual is pernicious. ... The oppressed peoples of the earth will never know true freedom until they can use the lever of government to pry power away from their white overlords. ... Only be radical reconstruction of American society — only by restacking the societal deck — will we ever see freedom in our land. ... Let bigotry continue — only let it be redemptive bigotry. Let it smash that evil race which wielded it so effectively for so long."
—
Columnist Douglas Allen. Oakland Tribune, July 22, 1996. Also quoted in William Norman Grigg. "Fanning the Flames of Rage." The New American, December 9, 1996, pages 4 to 8.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
[*] "Justice Thomas is an anti-Christ, a Hitler, and it's like having a serial murderer debate the value of life. ... "There's a chance, even a likelihood, that a lot of people might like his views."
—
American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii member Eric Ferrer, objecting to a debate between Thomas and the ACLU's national president, Nadine Strossen, in the Davis-Levin First Amendment Conference. Quoted in Robert M. Rees. "The Annals of Liberalism: The Local ACLU Board Rejects a Honolulu Debate Between Its National President and Right-Wing Justice Clarence Thomas. Why?" Downloaded from the Web site of The Honolulu Weekly at http://www.honoluluweekly.com/ on July 2, 2001 [NOTE: Former ACLU President Roger Fonseca, who, as a member of the subcommittee had twice voted to extend the invitation to Thomas, suddenly changed his mind. As Fonseca said to the board on May 21, 2001, "I didn't want to invite him then, and I still don't. If not Hitler, he is a Goebbels. Thomas is an asshole"].
[*] "Faye Kennedy, Eric Ferrer and I are the only African Americans in the Hawaii ACLU chapter. We strongly object to ACLU bringing and sponsoring Clarence Thomas to Hawaii. Bringing Clarence Thomas sends a message that the Hawaii ACLU promotes and honors black Uncle Toms who turn their back on civil rights. I have the inside scoop on [Thomas]. Anita Hill wasn't the only one. When he came [to Hawai'i for a visit], he went to strip clubs. ... He's married to a white person."
—
American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii member Daphne Barbee-Wooten, in an April 9, 2001 letter to the First Amendment Conference subcommittee of the American Civil Liberties Union, objecting to a debate between Thomas and the ACLU's national president, Nadine Strossen, in the Davis-Levin First Amendment Conference. Quoted in Robert M. Rees. "The Annals of Liberalism: The Local ACLU Board Rejects a Honolulu Debate Between Its National President and Right-Wing Justice Clarence Thomas. Why?" Downloaded from the Web site of The Honolulu Weekly at http://www.honoluluweekly.com/ on July 2, 2001 [NOTE: Nadine Strossen herself said that "Some of the attacks on Thomas — that he is dumb, that he doesn't write his own opinions — are racist, the same things I used to hear about [former Supreme Court Justice] Thurgood Marshall. I suspect I know Thomas better than anyone on the [Hawai'i] board. My students absolutely adore him, and they know it's important to have a dialogue with those with whom you disagree. ... I am disappointed in our [Hawaii] organization"].
American Humanist Association (AHA)
"This is probably the first time that this august body [The American Humanist Association] has been addressed by someone under indictment on two counts of first-degree murder.
"The Inquisition is still alive and well. The only difference is that today it's much more dangerous and subtle. The inquisitors don't burn you at the stake anymore; they slowly sizzle you. They make sure you pay dearly for what you do. In fact, they kill you often in a subtle way. My situation is a perfect example of it.
"This is not self-pity, understand. I don't regret the position I'm in. I'm not a hero, either — by my definition, anyway. To me, anyone who does what should be done is not a hero. And I still feel that I'm only doing what I, as a physician, should do. A license has nothing to do with it; I am a physician and therefore I will act like a physician whenever I can. That doesn't mean that I'm more compassionate than anyone else, but there is one thing I am that many aren't and that's honest.
"The biggest deficiency today and the biggest problem with society is dishonesty. It underlies almost every crisis and every problem you can name. It's almost inevitable; in fact, it's unavoidable as you mature. We feel that a little dishonesty greases the wheels of society, that it makes things easier for everybody if we lie a little to each other. But all this dishonesty becomes cumulative after a while. If everyone were perfectly honest at all times, if human nature could stand that, you would find many fewer problems in the world.
"When we (my lawyers, sisters, medical technologist, and myself) first started this work [physician-assisted voluntary euthanasia], we didn't expect the explosion of publicity that followed. The mainstream media tried to make my work look very negative — they tried to make me look negative — so that they could denigrate the concept we're working on. They said I should not be identified with the concept, yet they strived to do just that. They insulted and denigrated me and then hoped that it would spill over onto the concept. It didn't work, however; according to the polls, people may be split 50-50 on what they think of me, but they are three-to-one in favor of the concept, and that's never changed.
"Now isn't it strange that on a controversial subject of this magnitude — one that cuts across many disciplines — the entire editorial policy of the country is on one side? Even on a contentious issue like abortion, there is editorial support for both sides. And our issue — death with dignity — as far as we're concerned, is simpler than abortion. So why is every mainstream editorial writer and newspaper in the country against us on this? Not one has come out in wholehearted support of us, even though public opinion is on our side.
"As I surmise it, they're in a conspiracy, which is not a revelation to many people. But with whom? Well, let's take a look at who's against this: organized religion, organized medicine, and organized big money. That's a lot of power.
"Why is organized medicine against this? For a couple of reasons, I think. First, because the so-called profession — which is no longer a profession; it's really a commercial enterprise and has been for a long time — is permeated with religious overtones. The basis of so-called medical ethics is religious ethics. The Hippocratic oath is a religious manifesto. It is not medical. Hippocrates didn't write it; we don't know who did, but we think it's from the Pythagoreans. So if you meet a physician who says "Life is sacred," be careful. We didn't study sanctity in medical school. You are talking to a theologian first, probably a businessperson second, and a physician third.
"The second reason that organized medicine is against physician-assisted voluntary euthanasia is the money involved. If a patient's suffering is curtailed by three weeks, can you imagine how much that adds up to in medical care? And a lot of drugs are used in the last several months and years of life, which add up to billions of dollars for the pharmaceutical industry.
"This is what is so dismaying to me, what makes me cynical. You have to be cynical in life when you read about a situation that's so terrible and so incorrigible. There are certain ways to deal with it: you can go along with it, which is hard to do; you can go insane, which is a refuge (and some do that); or you can face it with deep cynicism. I've opted for cynicism.
"In responding to the religious issues, I ask this: Why not let all the religious underpinnings of medicine apply only to the ethics of religious hospitals and leave the secular hospitals alone? The doctors who work in religious hospitals can refuse to do abortions, they can refuse assisted suicide or euthanasia, they can do anything they want. But they have no right to impose what they call a universal medical ethic on secular institutions.
"Besides, what is ethics? Can you define it? My definition is simple: Ethics is saying and doing what is right, at the time. And that changes. Seventy-five years ago, if I told you that for Christmas I was going to have a truck deliver 10 tons of coal to your house, you would have been delighted. If I told you that today, you would be insulted. Doing the right thing changes with time.
"That's true of human society also. There is a primitive society — I don't know which one exactly — whose members were shocked to learn that we embalm our dead, place them in boxes, and then bury them in the ground. Do you know what they do? They eat them. To them, it's ethical and moral and honorable to devour the corpse of your loved one. We're shocked at that, right? It's all a matter of acculturation, time, where you are, and who you are. If I visited this primitive society and I was a real humanist, I'd say, "Oh, that's interesting." And if the so-called savage in turn said "Gee, that's interesting what you do," then he or she would be a humanist. I used to define maturity as the inability to be shocked. So I guess in some ways we're still immature. But if you're truly mature, and a true humanist, you can never be shocked. If they eat their dead, so be it — that's their culture. But you know what our missionaries did, don't you? That's immoral action.
"I think you get the gist of my position."
—
"A Modern Inquisition: Jack Kevorkian Talks Back." The Humanist, November/ December 1994. This is the adaptation of the speech given by Kevorkian when he received the 1994 Humanist Hero Award from the American Humanist Association (AHA).
Anonymous or Unnamed Sources
[*]
•
"The bitch had it coming to her. I'm glad he killed her. Too bad he'll probably spend the rest of his life in prison getting his little butt pounded, but still, I'm glad he killed her" [a San Francisco man on Yahoo].
•
"The woman who did such great evil is dead, but unfortunately the evil and the church and the society which creates it is not, and it will continue to destroy Nicholas Gutierrez and many others. I shake, safely sitting here at home, fully understanding, and fully familiar with, the horrible impact her words must have had for a man already so terribly damaged by his society, and his own mother" [homosexual James Wagner].
•
"Maybe [Stachowicz's murder] will strike fear in the hearts of a few fundamentalists. Where do I send a check for his (Gutierrez's) defense fund?" [James Wagner's "boyfriend," Barry].
•
"If she would have been minding her own [expletive] business instead of attempting to ram her religion where it didn't belong, none of this would have ever happened. "I really don't feel sorry for her. She paid a very steep price for being an arrogant religious fascist. Too bad for her" ["Iris," in a posting on the ACLU Online Forum].
•
"Quite frankly, if anyone in this case was being 'persecuted' it was Mr. Gutierrez. Unfortunately for the victim this was a lesson that she learned too hard and too late. Maybe this will give pause to other people who similarly try to 'help' homosexuals" ["Silence Dogood," on the ACLU Online Forum].
•
"It's Sad Someone Was Murdered, BUT ... I do wish the Religious Wrong would learn to mind their own business."
•
"The RCC [Roman Catholic Church] is responsible for continuing to put forth a silly, stupid and factually wrong doctrine of 'objective disorders' and 'intrinsic moral evil' regarding homosexuality. For all the evil that that doctrine has done and continues to do, they have a lot to be held accountable for" ["JodyW," on the Naked Writing Web log].
—
Web postings by people supporting and applauding the brutal murder of 51-year-old Mary Stachowicz by homosexual Nicholas Gutierrez, quoted in Allyson Smith. "'Gay' Reaction to Mrs. Stachowicz's Murder: Silence to Applause." Concerned Women for America Web site at cwfa.org, December 4, 2002 [NOTE: Gutierrez murdered Stachowicz on November 13, 2002. According to Chicago police, an argument broke out when Mrs. Stachowicz lectured Gutierrez about his lifestyle and his lack of direction in life. Gutierrez later told police that he had issues with his mother and that the way Stachowicz was talking to him gave him flashbacks of his mother that angered him. When Stachowicz asked him, "Why do you [have sex with] boys instead of girls?," Gutierrez punched, kicked, stabbed and strangled the 51-year-old wife and mother of four. He then stuffed her body into a crawl space under the floor of his apartment, where it remained for two days until he confessed to police. Predictably, no formal condemnations of Mrs. Stachowicz's murder have been issued by leading homosexual groups such as the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, or the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). We wonder if homosexuals would approve of Catholics slaughtering 'gays' if they perceived that they were being persecuted by them].
"It's always the same with these papist bastards. They want to take over the f—ing country. Do these pricks think they can run my life?"
—
Unnamed policeman commenting on a picket of the Henry Morgentaler abortion mill in Toronto, Canada. Quoted in Michael W. Cuneo, Catholics Against the Church: Anti-Abortion Protest in Toronto, 1969-1985 [Toronto: University of Toronto Press], 1989, page 65.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's just a bunch of Catholics making a—h—s of themselves again."
—
Comments made by an unnamed reporter outside the Henry Morgentaler abortion clinic in Toronto, Canada. Quoted in Michael W. Cuneo. Catholics Against the Church: Anti-Abortion Protest in Toronto, 1969-1985 [Toronto: University of Toronto Press], 1989, page 65.
"The term wacko right-winger is redundant. For example, they're the only people who don't like being called compassionate. Someone remarked that many now defend the tobacco industry because its products kill people early, saving us dollars in having to care for aged people."
—
Anonymous contributor to "Larry King's People" in USA Today, March 8, 1999.
[*] "Does Cardinal 'The Criminal' O'Connor deserve this nation's highest civilian honor. No friggin way. He should be sent back to Ireland with all of you Irish criminals."
—
Anonymous e-mail message sent to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in March 2000. Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 2000 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
[*]
HEY KIDS!
IF YOU ARE A BOY, HAVE YOU EVER HAD STRONG FEELINGS FOR ANOTHER BOY? OR IF YOU ARE A GIRL, HAVE YOU EVER HAD STRONG FEELINGS FOR ANOTHER GIRL? WELL IF YOU HAVE THEN THATS HOMOSEXUALITY, AND YOU KNOW WHAT? - IT IS OKAY! THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT!
TELL YOUR MOM AND DAD THAT YOU DON'T MIND HEARING ABOUT GAYS AND LESBIANS AT SCHOOL, BECAUSE YOU HAVE THEM IN EVERY CLASS!
THERE IS SOMETHING CALLED MEASURE 9 THIS ELECTION. IF IT PASSES GAYS AND LESBIANS COULD BE HURT - EVEN KILLED! MAYBE EVEN YOU! TELL YOUR PARENTS TO VOTE NO ON MEASURE 9. TELL THEM THAT IF THEY DON'T THEY ARE FULL OF HATE, AND WE DON'T WANT THAT!
NO ON 9!!!
—
A flyer passed out at Portland, Oregon grade schools by homosexual groups during the Ballot Measure 9 campaign in Oregon in 1992.
Arthur, Joyce (Pro-Choice Action Network)
"Along with most other pro-choice groups, we do not engage in debates with the anti-choice ... Simply put, the right to abortion is not a debatable issue. Access to legal, safe abortion is a fundamental human right, one that should be safeguarded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Would you have a debate on whether people have the right to freedom of religion? Or the right to equal protection under the law? Or the right not to be held in slavery or servitude? ... Debating anti-choicers would be an abdication of our responsibility to support abortion providers and help women. Simply having a debate with the anti-choice lends legitimacy and credibility to the so-called 'pro-life' position. And it provides a platform for dangerous anti-choice propaganda. We do not recognize as legitimate a position that is characterized by falsehood, hypocrisy, small-mindedness and intolerance. Why should we give the appearance of legitimacy to the anti-choice position, when we have our hands full just trying to counter anti-choice misinformation, lies, threats and violence? Would a Jew debate a Nazi? ... Being pro-choice is the reasonable, moral, middle ground on which most people stand. The pro-choice position is inherently democratic and protects everyone, because whether you like abortion or not, you're responsible for exercising your own choice. The right to choose abortion should not be subject to the whim of the electorate. ... In North America, the 'debate' over abortion happened decades ago in our courtrooms, and the anti-choice movement lost. The debate is over — the task of the pro-choice community now is to protect and enhance the legal right to abortion, and educate people on the necessity of legal abortion."
—
Joyce Arthur of the Pro-Choice Action Network. "Why Pro-Choice Supporters Do Not Debate the Anti-Choice." Quoted in "To Debate or Not to Debate." The Caleb Report [Life Decisions, Inc.], July-August 1999, pages 3 and 4.
Baird, Bill (pro-abortion activist)
"We are in the midst of a "holy war" ... Many of these "Army of God," Ayatollah Khomeini-like clones are firebombing clinics. ... Our freedom is under full-scale attack. We are in grave danger of losing our hard-earned rights. Freedom is neither free nor a spectator event! If you believe in fighting for freedom and dignity, we ask you to consider writing letters, picketing, voting, donating money, and inviting Bill Baird to speak in your area."
—
Excerpts from Bill Baird's cover letter for a Summer 1986 American Atheists fund-raiser, printed on stationary with the letterhead "From the desk of BILL BAIRD, father of the abortion movement."
Barr, Roseanne (actress)
[*] "You know who else I can't stand, is them people that are anti-abortion. F— them, I hate them. ... They're horrible, they're hideous people. They're ugly, old, geeky, hideous men. ... They just don't want nobody to have an abortion 'cause they want you to keep spitting out kids so they can f—ing molest them."
—
Rosanne Barr, quoted in TV, Etc., October 6, 1992.
Bond, Julian (Chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP))
"Their idea of equal rights is the American flag and the Confederate swastika flying side by side. They've written a new constitution for Iraq and ignore the Constitution here at home. They draw their most rabid supporters from the Taliban wing of American politics. Now they want to write bigotry back into the Constitution."
—
Julian Bond, Chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), at the 2004 Take Back America conference, which was also attended by George Soros and Hillary Clinton, quoted in "Hate Speech." End of Day [American Values], June 3, 2004, and in "NAACP Loses Presidential Addresses by Hateful Anti-Bush Rhetoric." LifeSite Daily News, July 16, 2004. [NOTE: Gosh — we never knew that the Confederate flag had a swastika on it! The very inclusive, tolerant and nonjudgmental Bond also called Republicans "neo-fascists," "the white-people's party" and "a crazed swarm of right-wing locusts"].
Bowen, Jerry (CBS)
"There are some who say he would have been more comfortable in the 5th century, but some theologians say that really, some of the 5th century Popes were more progressive than John Paul II."
—
CBS reporter Jerry Bowen on visit of Pope John Paul, August 15, 1993 "Sunday Morning."
British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS)
[*] "It is also a shame that by banning a party political broadcast, the BBC also forces some of us who consider the Pro-Life Alliance to be vile scum to defend their right to put their case in the way they choose. ... [Alliance members are] dishonest, manipulative, irrational, ignorant fanatics who patronize women."
—
Ann Furedi, Director of Communications of the pro-abortion British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), quoted in "Pro-Life Alliance Are "Scum," Say Pro-Abortionists." Catholic World News Service, Daily News Briefs of May 31, 2001 [NOTE: When questioned by reporters, Furedi said that she stands by "every word" of her attack on the Alliance, which she termed "quite moderate." She said that "I actually think that's quite a moderate way of describing people who are standing on a ticket of trying to prevent women their right to end pregnancy." One wonders what she would consider an "immoderate" attack on pro-lifers. Furedi made her comments on the online political web site "spiked!" in response to the successful BBC Wales court challenge to the Alliance's plans for a party election broadcast featuring graphic images].
Carhart, LeRoy (third-trimester abortionist)
"In the last quarter of a century, twenty percent of our buildings have been destroyed by arson and bombs. Terrorists have murdered our policemen and guards, as they tried to come to the aid of the innocent victims of the attacks. They have murdered nearly 0.2 percent of our community, in their homes, in front of their children and friends and at their places of work.
"Some mainstream religious groups support our domestic terrorists. While their religious leaders preach salvation, they fund terrorists to commit arson and murder. Like the September 11th terrorists, domestic terrorists live and work amongst us, as 'sleepers' in our communities. They send their children to our schools, they work out in our gyms and they live a 'normal' life while awaiting their assignments."
—
Third-trimester abortionist LeRoy Carhart, in a letter to President George W. Bush, cited by the California Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL) and quoted in "News." Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, December 2001, page 13.
'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC) (pro-abortion organization)
"The Catholic religion makes the fetus into an icon, a figure of religious veneration, which I think is sick, really sick. ... It's not the abortion issue that's at question. The question is: How do we get the Church to acknowledge that women can be trusted to make good decisions? That is what we are trying to do on the abortion issue, to trust women."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC), quoted in Ron Brackin. "'Sister' Frances Kissling: Cardinal of Death." Liberty Report, January 1987 [NOTE: Notice the standard pro-abortion attempt to divert attention away from prenatal child lynching. Of course, for pro-abortionists, it is never abortion that's the issue].
"[Ruth] Riddick says the purpose of the right-to-life movement "has been to deny women opportunity, to deny women choice, to deny women a moral existence." She added, "they are only interested in women in a negative sense."
—
Mary M. Sullivan. "Defying Tradition: One Irish Woman's Struggle for the Right to Choose." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), September-December 1987 [Volume VIII, Numbers 5 and 6], pages 20 and 21.
"I view the abortion debate in similar historical and philosophical fashion. Coffin-carrying outside hospitals and doctors' offices, arsoning of women's clinics and excommunicating Catholic women are forms of Cromwellian fanaticism. ... What, we ask, nourishes in "religious" people the stridency, even the criminality we read and observe? ..."
—
Annie Lally Milhaven. "Fatherly Fanaticism." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), July/August 1988 [Volume IX, Number 4], page 6.
5.
Just as all forms of artificial birth control go against the natural purpose of conjugal relations — namely procreation — so the use of all form of man-made anti-biotics interferes with the God-given design of bacteria and viruses and how He intends them to interact with the human body.
6.
Further, in light of this knowledge of the proper moral order between bacteria-and-viruses and the human body, the church calls man back to the observance of the norms of the natural law, and teaches that each and every bacteria-body interaction must remain open to the transmission of infection. ... The faithful are admonished to remember that inside the Holy Father's head, he hears not only his own voice but also the voice of God (vox Dei). ...
9.
Respect for God's order by reason teaches us that it is immoral to impede development of a natural process. That is why we have so exhaustively spoken out against artificial birth control and now anti-biotics. ...
11.
We cannot wait to get to the developing countries and stop them from using anti-biotics.
13.
Syphilis. God created syphilis to infect sexually immoral people, and cause them suffering and eventual death, In no way should a man-made anti-biotic interfere with this God-given process. ... It is especially sinful to use anti-biotics to block the natural path of syphilis as intended by God."
—
Christopher Durang. "The Lost Encyclical Against Penicillin: Written after reading Humanae Vitae, with a nod to Swift's "Modest Proposal." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Winter 1993/1994 [Volume XIV, Number 4], page 33. This article is part of the commentary "Tarnished Silver Anniversary: Reflections on Humanae Vitae" [NOTE: The "credits" at the bottom of this satire say "Christopher Durang, a playwright, won the Tony Award for Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You." This is a virulently anti-Catholic play which mocks the most basic beliefs of Catholics].
""However, the family they [the "radical right"] project for us is fascist, sexist, and racist. So too is their state." Since Maguire wrote those words, the Catholic right has emerged publicly in support of this agenda."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC), and Denise Shannon. "Who's Right?" Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Spring 1994 [Volume XV, Number 1], page 3.
[*] "If your delegation represents the Vatican state, an antiquated and decorative monarchy in Italy, you are entitled to your quaint worldview on motherhood and women's complementarity, which you expressed at the European preparatory meeting and in your "country report" for the conference. No one will care! After all, at a time when the Vatican state has become an outdated, picturesque tourist spot you are at liberty to hold on to fuzzy romanticism, be it that associated with the Swiss Guard or that undergirding the philosophy of the "eternal woman."
The fantasy of the heavenly, eternal feminine fits such a state of affairs. It still warms the lonely hearts and empty days of a celibate bureaucracy that is slowly dying out. I have no problems with that, as long as it remains what it is: a romantic dream. Any good psychiatrist could help you more that I am able to do by uncovering the roots of your fear and of your desire for motherly protection.
However, if you dare to speak for Catholic women worldwide, your legitimacy must be challenged. ... Catholic Christian women see their life and dignity as centered in G*d, rather than in heterosexist marriage and motherhood. ...
In short, during the past decades women have struggled valiantly to secure civil rights and protections from the death-dealing powers of violence perpetrated by heterosexist, patriarchal family structures. ... It is more than ironic that in the name of Jesus Christ, who rejected all loyalty to patriarchal family, Vatican representatives should confess allegiance to such family values and proclaim the patriarchal institution of the heterosexist family as "the community of love" which guarantees the rights of women. ..."
—
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza. "Memorandum to the Vatican Delegation to the Fourth World Conference on Women." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Spring/Summer 1995 [Volume XVI, Numbers 1 and 2], page 5.
"Would you trust a chef who never eats food? Or a car mechanic who never drives a car? Or a swimming coach who's never been in the water? It's an old liberal complaint, of course — sexual morality being dictated by a celibate, male clergy. But old complaint or not, that sure is a loony place to look to for wisdom and guidance on sexuality. ... I don't have an interest in any way in anything the Vatican is likely to say. ... When I was fourteen, I witnessed a very dramatic example of the sad and illogical tyranny of the Vatican view of sexuality and how it has affected all of us, especially women. ... Alanon teaches that you can't control another person's behavior. The pope might consider attending Alanon. Is it available in the Vatican State, I wonder? ... For centuries the church has allowed killing in so-called just wars, but allowing an impediment to pregnancy during intercourse? Heavens, no! Christ would not want it. Christ would accept killing — sure, bomb Hiroshima, Christ would say. ... But I do feel anger at the church's incredible pig-headedness. ..."
—
Christopher Durang. "Natural Law and Disorder." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Spring/Summer 1995 [Volume XVI, Numbers 1 and 2], pages 7 and 8.
"The Vatican also recommends that Catholics reconsider their support for UNICEF. It's a new low in Vatican behavior. ... the Vatican is prepared to hold every good thing hostage to its dirty little war against family planning and abortion. ... It's time we sent a clear signal to the church hierarchy that we are sick and tired of this single-minded obsession with abortion and family planning. We want to get on with the church's mission to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the sick, and shelter the homeless. Especially the children."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC). "The Vatican's Cheap Shot at UNICEF." Conscience, Winter 1996/1997 [Volume XVII, Number 4], pages 36 and 37.
[*] Frances Kissling and other CFFC leaders, while pleading for tolerance, have variously referred to the Pope and the bishops as "absolutist," "angry," "anti-woman," "arrogant," "blind," "bullies," "callous," "coercive," "confused," "cruel," "dangerous," "dogmatic," "dumb," "embarrassing," "fanatical," "hard-hearted," "harsh," "hypocritical," "illogical," "imperialistic," "irresponsible," "liars;" "loony," "mean," "misogynist," "nasty," "narrow-minded," "obsessive," "obstructive," "pathological," "pernicious," "pig-headed," "prattlers," "rigid," "ruthless," "sanctimonious," "self-righteous," "simplistic," "slippery," "terrible," "totalitarian," "tyrannical," "unjust," "unkind," "vehement," "virulent," and "vituperative," and even "betrayers of Christ" and "the seed of Satan," among many other labels.
—
"Mean" [Frances Kissling, President of Catholics for a Free Choice, on John Cardinal O'Connor. Quoted in E. Bumiller. "As Pope's Important Ally, Cardinal Shines High in Hierarchy." New York Times, October 8, 1995, page 41]; "terrible" [Frances Kissling's talk during the National Abortion Federation (NAF) 16th Annual Meeting, theme: "Abortion: Moral Choice and Medical Imperative," April 12-15, 1992, in San Diego, California, closing session: "Cooperation and Competition"]. The following are all from Conscience Magazine: "Absolutist" [Winter 1996/1997, page 5]; "angry," "dogmatic," "harsh" and "unkind" [Winter 1996/1997, pages 14 and 17]; "angry," "dogmatic," "hard-hearted," "harsh" and "unkind" [Winter 1996/1997, pages 14 to 17]; "arrogant" [Winter 1993/1994, page 27]; "betrayers of Christ" and "the seed of Satan" [Spring 1997, page 4]; "blind" and "hard-hearted" [September-December 1987, page 8]; "bullies" [Spring 1996, page 32]; "callous" and "coercive" [Summer 1999]; "confused" and "narrow-minded" [January/February 1996, page 9]; "cruel," "ruthless," "vehement," "anti-woman," "slippery, a clerical Barbie Doll" [referring to Bernard Cardinal Law], and "rigid" [September-December 1987, pages 40 and 41]; "dangerous" and "nasty" [Summer 2000, pages 10 to 13]; "dumb" and "hypocritical" [September-December 1987, pages 29 to 37]; "embarrassing," "misogynist" and "pernicious" [Winter 1993/1994, page 38]; "fanatical" [September-December 1987, pages 22 and 23]; "harsh" [Winter 1996/1997, page 24]; "illogical," "loony," "pig-headed" and "tyrannical" [Spring/Summer 1995, pages 7 and 8]; "imperialistic" [Winter 1996/1997, inside front cover]; "irresponsible" [September-December 1987, page 27]; "liars" [Winter 1995/1996, page 8]; "mean" [Spring 1996, page 32]; "obsessive" [Winter 1996/1997, page 5]; "obstructive" [Winter 1995/1996, page 12]; "pathological" [Winter 1993/1994, page 32]; "prattlers" [September/October 1989, page 3]; "self-righteous" and "sanctimonious" [Autumn 1996, pages 29 to 34]; "simplistic" [Spring/Summer 1993, page 9]; "totalitarian" [Autumn 1998, page 3]; "unjust" [Spring/Summer 1993, page 18]; "vehement" [Spring/Summer 1995, page 27]; "virulent" [Spring/Summer 1993, page 16, and Winter 1999/2000]; and "vituperative" [July/August 1989, page 8, and January/February 1996, page 5].
[*] "The financial demands made on Catholics are atrocious. Churches are extremely wealthy institutions. I see what Churches have because I work in a bank. I work hard for what I have, and I need what I have for myself. I can't afford to support a priest. Let the priest support me once in a while. The Pope sits over there and makes all the rules and shakes his head, "Yes, no, yes, no." He's got all those jewels. Who does he think he is? Did he ever sit down and talk to a woman who got into a jam? I'd like to say to him, "If I had this child, would you take care of it? Pull a few of those rocks off that habit and take care of it for me? Give up your jewels ...'"
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'Catholics' for a Free Choice. Booklet entitled "My Conscience Speaks: Catholic Women Discuss Their Abortions" [NOTE: This is one of CFFC's "Abortion in Good Faith" series of anti-Catholic tracts that bear titles like "I Support You But I Can't Sign My Name," "We Are the Mainstream," and, amusingly, "Morality Reborn." Quoted in William McGurn. "Catholics & 'Free Choice.'" National Catholic Register, February 14, 1982, pages 2 and 6].
"Specifically, having grown up and long outgrown the Catholic church, I still have a deep concern for the matters of meaning and value which that institution claims to be concerned about, heinous efforts to outlaw reproductive freedom notwithstanding ... In a hostile environment overrun with the platitudes of antichoice religious fanatics, religion itself, understandably, develops a bad name ... the toxic atmosphere created by antichoice activists at [abortion] clinics means that patients now, more than ever, need competent, caring people to accompany them through the decision making and medical procedures necessary to deal with unwanted pregnancies ... While hospitals have chaplains, few if any clinics have regular spiritual advisors as part of their staffs. This needs to be rethought and remedied."
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Mary E. Hunt (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER)). "Secular Spirituality: Asking Questions About Abortion." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Summer 1994 [Volume XV, Number 2], pages 31 to 33.
[*] "Dear God, forgive the pope, because he does not know what he is doing. ... While laughing at someone can be cruel, sometimes people in power do need to be ridiculed."
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Hasse B. Gaenger and Mary Pellauer, quoted in "... and a Time to Uproot." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Summer 1997 [Volume XVIII, Number 2], page 45.
[*] The time of the church as an agenda-setter is gone. The hierarchy, with its focus on abortion and sexuality — things they know nothing about — they aren't in touch. To survive, the message of the church has to be positive. They have to start listening to people and paying attention to normal life. Otherwise, there will be other religions .... It's hard to go to church. As a young person, you don't want to be in an old people's home. And that's what the church today is. Older fat priests led by a big Catholic dictator.
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Tobias Raschke of Germany's We Are Church Movement, quoted in Ruth Riddick. "Setting Tomorrow's Agenda." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Summer 2002 [Volume XXIII, Number 2], pages 22 to 25.
Center for Democratic Renewal (CDR)
"There's only a slippery slope between conservative religious persons and these that are actually doing the burning [of Black churches]."
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Rev. C.T. Vivian of the Center for Democratic Renewal (CDR), quoted in The Associated Press. "Agents Join Probe of Church Destruction." Northern Virginia Daily, June 19, 1996, pages A1 and A7.
Cronkite, Walter (former CBS News Anchor)
"It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. To do that, of course, we Americans will have to give up some of our sovereignty. ... Time will not wait. Democracy, civilization itself, is at stake. Within the next few years we must change the basic structure of our global community from the present anarchic system of war and ever more destructive weaponry to a new system governed by a democratic U.N. federation. ... Our failure to live up to our obligations to the U.N. is led by a handful of willful senators who choose to pursue their narrow, selfish political objectives at the cost of our nation's conscience. They pander to and are supported by the Christian Coalition and the rest of the religious right wing."
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Excerpts from a speech by former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite to the World Federalist Association on October 19, 1999, and published December 3, 1999 in The Washington Times.
Daly, Mary (dissenter)
"Thank goodness for Mary Daly, who is still 'sinning big,' as she herself might put it. ... Daly, who refused to admit a man into her feminist ethics class at Boston College (BC), where she's been a professor for 33 years, is being threatened with a suit by a conservative Washington, D.C.-based foundation, the Center for Individual Rights (CIR). ... "Dickheads" is how Daly characterized her current enemies during a two-hour interview ... in courses in feminist ethics, she has come to believe that the presence of men changes the dynamic, draining of energy and becoming the focus of female attention. Men, she says, tend to whine about how they, too, are oppressed, and they end up being nurtured and cared for by the female students. "Many young women at Boston College today are pathologically hooked on sex, on footballs players. There are forces working to stunt their lives. I was just about the only radical voice left for them," she [Daly] insists. ... From her lectern in the classroom, Daly deconstructed the male God and Western civilization, using her theological training to reveal and uncover what she views as the lies, reversals, distortions, and madness that have stripped female divinity from women and from creation and that, she believes, now threaten all life as we know it. ... "Every time women have created, men have erased," she [Daly] says. ... Her biggest fear is that the [Daly's] books will go out of print, that she will be erased by a women-hating, women-destroying patriarchal culture. As [Frances] Kissling points out, Daly "is far more motivated by a feminist perspective than by a religious perspective. She's beyond religion. She uses religion as a tool, a metaphor, a symbol, a construct to be critiqued. She's a radical who thinks 'Get rid of the priesthood.'"
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Maria Karagianis. "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary." Ms. Magazine, June/July 1999, pages 56 to 59.
"Don't Close The Adult Clubs" (Yahoo! sex club)
"To Whom It May Concern:
"It has come to our attention that your company is associated with the American Family Association's online shopping website entitled "Kingdombuy.com." This organization, while claiming to be "pro-family," is actually in effect pro-censorship who's [sic] tactics include, but are not limited to, activism which promotes the creation and/or changing of state and national laws which severly [sic] limits individuals' rights of free choice. We find this organization's viewpoints and tactics extremely narrow-minded and oftentimes underhanded.
"We have done numerous purchases of products from your business in the past. Your company is, of course, free to support, associate and align itself with whatever organizations it sees fit. However, we, in good conscience, choose not to do business with or purchase products from a company that chooses to associate itself with an organization so adamant in their desire to strip people of their freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of individual choice. Therefore, we have decided to cease purchasing items from your business until such time that you decide against allying yourselves with such organizations. This is an issue we feel strongly about, and we hope you will take this letter into consideration."
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Suggested Yahoo! sex club named "Don't Close The Adult Clubs" letter sent to the J.C. Penney's and Nordstrom's department stores in a successful effort to get it to sever ties with the American Family Association's KingdomBuy.com, a Christian online shopping mall, quoted in "JC Penney Drops Online Christian Mall: Targeted by Yahoo! Sex Club Members, JC Penney Bolts." American Family Association Action Alert dated May 23, 2001. Downloaded from http://www.afa.net/activism/aa052301.asp on June 1, 2001 (no longer available).
Donahue, Phil
"The [Catholic] Church has always thrived on ignorance and oppression."
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Phil Donahue, interviewed by Pat Buchanan on CNN's Larry King Live, May 31, 1988.
Earth First! (radical environmentalist group)
PREGNANCY: JUST ANOTHER DEADLY SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE
ANOTHER MORMON ON DRUGS
DARWIN (Picture of a Christian fish with feet)
HAYDUKE LIVES! [Hayduke destroyed logging equipment]
I'D RATHER BE MONKEYWRENCHING [destroying logging equipment]
LOVE YOUR MOTHER, DON'T BECOME ONE
VISUALIZE INDUSTRIAL COLLAPSE
THE VARIEGATED LOUSEWORT HAS A RIGHT TO LIVE
NO MORE BABIES!
OUR FORESTS DO NOT OWE THE TIMBER INDUSTRY A LIVING
DREAM BACK THE BISON, SING BACK THE SWAN
THE EARTH DOES NOT BELONG TO US — WE BELONG TO THE EARTH
MORE WILDERNESS LESS PEOPLE
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These and other bumperstickers were advertised in the Earth First! Journal ("The Radical Environmental Journal"), Brigid (February 2), 1993, page 37 [NOTE: The last bumpersticker mentioned above featured a picture of a newborn baby with a slash through it, advertised as "Send a message to the breeders"].
Durang, Christopher (anti-Catholic 'playwright')
5.
Just as all forms of artificial birth control go against the natural purpose of conjugal relations — namely procreation — so the use of all form of man-made anti-biotics interferes with the God-given design of bacteria and viruses and how He intends them to interact with the human body.
6.
Further, in light of this knowledge of the proper moral order between bacteria-and-viruses and the human body, the church calls man back to the observance of the norms of the natural law, and teaches that each and every bacteria-body interaction must remain open to the transmission of infection. ... The faithful are admonished to remember that inside the Holy Father's head, he hears not only his own voice but also the voice of God (vox Dei). ...
9.
Respect for God's order by reason teaches us that it is immoral to impede development of a natural process. That is why we have so exhaustively spoken out against artificial birth control and now anti-biotics. ...
11.
We cannot wait to get to the developing countries and stop them from using anti-biotics.
13.
Syphilis. God created syphilis to infect sexually immoral people, and cause them suffering and eventual death, In no way should a man-made anti-biotic interfere with this God-given process. ... It is especially sinful to use anti-biotics to block the natural path of syphilis as intended by God."
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Christopher Durang. "The Lost Encyclical Against Penicillin: Written after reading Humanae Vitae, with a nod to Swift's "Modest Proposal." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Winter 1993/1994 [Volume XIV, Number 4], page 33. This article is part of the commentary "Tarnished Silver Anniversary: Reflections on Humanae Vitae" [NOTE: The "credits" at the bottom of this satire say "Christopher Durang, a playwright, won the Tony Award for Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You." This is a virulently anti-Catholic play which mocks the most basic beliefs of Catholics].
"Would you trust a chef who never eats food? Or a car mechanic who never drives a car? Or a swimming coach who's never been in the water? It's an old liberal complaint, of course — sexual morality being dictated by a celibate, male clergy. But old complaint or not, that sure is a loony place to look to for wisdom and guidance on sexuality. ... I don't have an interest in any way in anything the Vatican is likely to say. ... When I was fourteen, I witnessed a very dramatic example of the sad and illogical tyranny of the Vatican view of sexuality and how it has affected all of us, especially women. ... Alanon teaches that you can't control another person's behavior. The pope might consider attending Alanon. Is it available in the Vatican State, I wonder? ... For centuries the church has allowed killing in so-called just wars, but allowing an impediment to pregnancy during intercourse? Heavens, no! Christ would not want it. Christ would accept killing — sure, bomb Hiroshima, Christ would say. ... But I do feel anger at the church's incredible pig-headedness. ..."
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Christopher Durang. "Natural Law and Disorder." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Spring/Summer 1995 [Volume XVI, Numbers 1 and 2], pages 7 and 8.
Elders, Joycelyn (former United States Surgeon General)
"They love little babies, as long as they're in somebody else's uterus."
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Former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, describing pro-life groups, quoted in "Surgeon General Sound Bites." Redbook Magazine, August 1994, page 50.
Feldt, Gloria (Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA))
Greta Van Sustern: "Gloria, your organization has been dealing with this type of terrorism for a number of years."
Gloria Feldt: "But as you say, domestic terrorism is not new to us, and we all need to work together to stop this kind of hatred and bigotry that creates the mindset and the social climate in which this kind of behavior can occur."
Richard Dietl: "Then you got the nuts. You got these people across America who are anti-abortion, anti-everything. And they're just jumping on the bandwagon and they're using this now as a cover. So they're sending white powder around to all these corporations."
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Gloria Feldt, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), during CNN'S "The Point" with Greta Van Susteren during its October 25, 2002 episode entitled "Tracking The Terrorists." "Planned Parenthood Exploits Fear Climate to Accuse Pro-Lifers of Terrorism." LifeSite Daily News at http://www.lifesite.net, October 31, 2001. Richard Dietl, retired from the New York Police and currently running a security company, was the other guest. No pro-lifers were on the show.
Fieger, Geoffrey (Jack Kevorkian's lawyer)
Geoffrey Fieger called his incumbent opponent for Governor of Michigan, John Engler, "the product of miscegenation between humans and barnyard animals," and also suggested that Engler's triplet daughters had corkscrew tails, like pigs. He said that Engler was "dumber than Dan Quayle and twice as ugly." No anti-lifer criticized him for these bigoted and vicious attacks, because Fieger supports abortion, homosexual rights, and euthanasia.
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Rock Hampson. "Election Year Was Truly Off." USA Today, November 6, 1998, page 6A.
Finkel, Brian (abortionist)
[*] "This is my abortion machine, where I do the Lord's work. I heal the sick with it.
"My mother's dead, but I'm looking forward to being an orphan. I can't wait for that nasty son of a bitch [my father] to die, so I can go piss on his grave.
"I'm the prince of the pelvis, the disciple of Elvis! The uptight, out-of-sight, feeling-all-right Dr. Brian Leslie Finkel.
"And you know what? I like myself. And that's what these other f—ers here in town don't understand. I like myself."
"I meet all these weirdoes that want to give me s—, all because I like doing abortions for women. I help women doing abortions, that's my job, I'm really good at it. ...
"You know, Filipinos have absolutely drop-dead gorgeous chicks. We used to call them LBFM. Little Brown F—ing Machines. Want to see a picture of an LBFM? I just happen to have one right here. ...
"Got a Tech 9 [gun]. Every gynecologist needs a Tech 9, so I could have more rounds, 'cause they were bringing me more Christians. There's a Smith and Wesson .40 and a few rifles, for crowd control down at the [abortion mill] office. Ya ever looked down [the barrel of] a gun? C'mon, it's fun. ... Pretend the Catholic hordes are after you."
"You know, I'm clean, I'm sober, I'm not doing drugs, I'm not stealing money, I'm trying to go to work. And I meet all these weirdoes that want to give me s—, all because I like doing abortions for women. I help women doing abortions, that's my job, I'm really good at it. I've learned from the best, and I've seen the worst. And I keep running across these people who abuse their position of trust and under the call of authority try to ruin my life."
"I give all these guys [pro-life picketers] names, 'cause that personalizes it. We had this one guy that was stalking my office with his family. I called him 'Beer Belly,' he was a fat Mexican, stuff hanging over his belt. I go, 'Hey, Beer Belly, I want you to know that if your wife ever needs an abortion, I'll do one for free. Not because I'm a nice guy, but just because I want to get between her l-e-e-e-e-gs.'"
"I have this law firm that works for me, I call them the eight gnawing Jews — Sacks Tierney — and they just ... bit their ass for me ...
"Children of the Rosary is usually a very virulent, malicious group of harpies for Jesus. Kathy Sabelko [leader of the group] is a double-butt ugly mean-spirited bitch. It's reasonably apparent that she's physically challenged. She's just unattractive. Really, really unattractive. And I don't understand why she has this hatred for women, but she's one of these really mean-spirited Catholic misogynists who doesn't like women.
"Now you just have a bunch of Wal-Mart shoppers showing up out front. Retirees — it's obvious just looking at them they're retirees. They're on a budget, they don't have a lot of money, they have a lot of free time. And they're looking for an ego feed. 'Somebody tell me I'm important, please.' They've never been important in their lives at all. So they come down here to my office, and they prey on people.
"I believe in the eternal darkness of death. My Garden of Eden and my heaven is right here on earth.
[Reverend Donald Spitz, director of Pro Life Virginia] has wrapped himself up in this mantle of moral superiority, but when you strip it off his shoulders you find his swastikas. He's a fascist. He's a religious zealot. ... Well, it's obvious that this man has a very obvious ongoing anti-social personality disorder, and I think he needs to increase his medication. ... The FBI needs to follow him around."
"My enemies would tell you that I'm a media whore. My enemies would tell you that I seek out publicity, and my opponents would tell you that I deserve it. ... I think of myself as a crime victim. A crime victim while I'm taking care of disenfranchised women. Disenfranchised women who don't have lobbyists. Disenfranchised women that don't own their legislators, 'cause they're not making payments to them for their positions. And I got tired of getting pilloried in the media."
"I just said, 'F— it. I'm smarter than the pro-lifers, I can form abstract thoughts. I'll talk to the media and explain to them what's going on.' You know, I don't call the media, the media calls me. ... I'm just a world-traveled, world-trained, world-class physician who speaks up for the little woman. That's all I am. And you know what? I do real good when I have no competition. ... I go after the big guys, honey. I don't like abusive men. I don't like abusive men who come after me and tell me that I'm worthless. I just won't take it. From anybody. Not from the ejaculator that inseminated the cow that birthed me, to any one of these dysfunctional, hate-filled religionists that I'm forced to interact with. ... If you let these cocksuckers get away with this on me, you're next.
"I will not interact with Planned Parenthood at all. That's unfortunate, but they're such a bunch of disingenuous miscreants, [and] I really don't want to have anything to do with their alternative-health-care universe that they run. They're taking advantage of their patients, and they're taking advantage of their tax-exempt status, and I don't want to lower my health care standards to theirs."
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Arizona abortionist Brian Finkel, quoted in Amy Silverman. "The Terminator." Downloaded from the online edition of the weekly Phoenix New Times, on June 21, 1999 [NOTE: Finkel calls his abortion machine the "Super Sucker" and his abortion mill the "Vaginal Vault." In addition to killing preborn children, Finkel sells rugs in his abortion mill. He owns 30 guns, including one with armor-piercing shells. He and his wife Diane named their first aborted child "Ernie the Embryo," and laugh about it. Finkel passes out cards to pro-lifers that read "Jesus loves you. The rest of us think you're an a—h—." Despite his obviously unbalanced nature, Finkel has full support from all pro-abortion groups. For example, Bruce Miller, executive director of Arizona Right to Choose, says that "I think a part of Brian's desire for publicity is in some ways because Brian is genuinely an unrecognized hero in our community, and I don't think that Brian has gotten the accolades that I think he should get or that Brian thinks he should get"].
Fiorenza, Elisabeth Schüssler (dissenter)
[*] "If your delegation represents the Vatican state, an antiquated and decorative monarchy in Italy, you are entitled to your quaint worldview on motherhood and women's complementarity, which you expressed at the European preparatory meeting and in your "country report" for the conference. No one will care! After all, at a time when the Vatican state has become an outdated, picturesque tourist spot you are at liberty to hold on to fuzzy romanticism, be it that associated with the Swiss Guard or that undergirding the philosophy of the "eternal woman."
"The fantasy of the heavenly, eternal feminine fits such a state of affairs. It still warms the lonely hearts and empty days of a celibate bureaucracy that is slowly dying out. I have no problems with that, as long as it remains what it is: a romantic dream. Any good psychiatrist could help you more that I am able to do by uncovering the roots of your fear and of your desire for motherly protection.
"However, if you dare to speak for Catholic women worldwide, your legitimacy must be challenged. ... Catholic Christian women see their life and dignity as centered in G*d, rather than in heterosexist marriage and motherhood. ...
"In short, during the past decades women have struggled valiantly to secure civil rights and protections from the death-dealing powers of violence perpetrated by heterosexist, patriarchal family structures. ... It is more than ironic that in the name of Jesus Christ, who rejected all loyalty to patriarchal family, Vatican representatives should confess allegiance to such family values and proclaim the patriarchal institution of the heterosexist family as "the community of love" which guarantees the rights of women. ..."
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Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza. "Memorandum to the Vatican Delegation to the Fourth World Conference on Women." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Spring/Summer 1995 [Volume XVI, Numbers 1 and 2], page 5.
Fundamentalists Anonymous (FA)
"And since fundamentalist Christians marry earlier and have bigger families, the demographic forecast is an increasingly fundamentalist America as we move into the 21st century. And ignored by most of the media and public, the Christian theocracy movement has become the vanguard of fundamentalism. It teaches that America was ordained to be a fundamentalist theocracy. That democracy is a heresy. That women can only be housewives and mothers. That Jews, Catholics, and mainline Christians do not have the right to practice their religion outside their homes and synagogues/churches. That abortion, even in rape and incest, should be punishable by death. That "adultery" and "blasphemy" are capital offenses. That civil liberties should be enjoyed by "real Christians" only. That slavery should be brought back."
—
Richard Yao, president and co-founder of Fundamentalists Anonymous (FA). "WANTED: 1,000 People to Save America from Religious Fascism." The Human Quest, January-February 1991, page 9.
Furedi, Ann (British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS))
[*] "It is also a shame that by banning a party political broadcast, the BBC also forces some of us who consider the Pro-Life Alliance to be vile scum to defend their right to put their case in the way they choose. ... [Alliance members are] dishonest, manipulative, irrational, ignorant fanatics who patronize women."
—
Ann Furedi, Director of Communications of the pro-abortion British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), quoted in "Pro-Life Alliance Are "Scum," Say Pro-Abortionists." Catholic World News Service, Daily News Briefs of May 31, 2001 [NOTE: When questioned by reporters, Furedi said that she stands by "every word" of her attack on the Alliance, which she termed "quite moderate." She said that "I actually think that's quite a moderate way of describing people who are standing on a ticket of trying to prevent women their right to end pregnancy." One wonders what she would consider an "immoderate" attack on pro-lifers. Furedi made her comments on the online political web site "spiked!" in response to the successful BBC Wales court challenge to the Alliance's plans for a party election broadcast featuring graphic images].
Gartner, Michael (NBC)
"Why does anyone take Rush Limbaugh seriously? ... He's entertaining. But, come on, he is to truthfulness as President Clinton is to faithfulness — he has but a passing acquaintance with it. He's toying with you, folks, getting you all riled up with a stew of half-truths and non-truths. He's making fools of you, feeding you swill — and you're taking it in. ... So keep listening if you want. But just remember that he's a charlatan."
—
Former NBC News President Michael Gartner in a USA Today column, July 12, 1994.
Gaylor, Anne Nicol
[*] "Chronically, antiabortionists represent abortion as involving an elephantine fetus about to walk and talk, when, in truth, the typical abortion has more in common with a menstrual period."
"That gentle Dr. Edelin ever should have found himself a defendant against a charge of manslaughter beggars belief. ... That card-carrying, dues-paying Catholics ever should have been allowed to serve on a jury deciding a charge of abortion-related manslaughter is a travesty of justice."
—
Anne Nicol Gaylor. Abortion is a Blessing [New York City: Psychological Dimensions, Inc.], 1975, pages 8, 42, 81 and 84 [NOTE: Edelin strangled a late-term baby that he aborted. It did not seem to occur to Gaylor that her statement was equivalent to saying that no Jew should ever sit on a jury judging an American Nazi accused of committing hate crimes].
Gibbs, Nancy (Time Magazine)
"Under pressure he [Gingrich] reverted to the pompous thug of late-night cable, the backbencher lobbing grenades on C-SPAN about sick Democrats who were enemies of normal Americans. ... [Voters have] learned how far he is willing to go to achieve his larger goals: Shut the government down to make a point with the President; invite lobbyists not just to lobby, but to draft the laws themselves; and give a huge tax break to his party's allies at the expense of services for the poor, with the explanation that this is what it takes to keep his Republican coalition together."
—
Time Magazine Senior Editor Nancy Gibbs and Washington reporter Karen Tumulty, December 25/January 1, 1996 "Man of the Year" cover story on House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Goodgame, Dan (Time Magazine)
"Demagogues don't yell 'nigger' or 'Jew boy' anymore. They've learned better. ... [Duke] traded in his bigoted rhetoric for a slick new glossary of coded appeals to racial resentment, market tested over the past two decades by mainstream conservative politicians."
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Time Magazine Washington reporter Dan Goodgame, November 25, 1991 news story.
Gorey, Hays (Time Magazine)
Hays Gorey, Senior Correspondent: "Well, (Republican Senator John) McCain has got this ad hoc group of superpatriots that he's organizing."
Jerome Cramer, NASA & Technology Correspondent: "They wear brown shirts and march around. Small potatoes."
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Exchange from February 8, 1991 Time Magazine Washington bureau meeting aired on C-SPAN.
Greider, William (PBS)
"The election returns start with a stark fact so disturbing that no one in the media wants to state it plainly: The U.S. House of Representatives is now to be led by a world-class demagogue, a talented reactionary in the vengeful tradition Gov. George Wallace and Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Like Wallace before him, Newt Gingrich evokes the nation's boiling anxieties as a rancid populism of 'us vs. them,' though he is too shrewd to make the racial resentments explicit. Like Joe McCarthy, Gingrich depicts his adversaries not simply as mistaken in their political views but as sick, traitorous people who are invidiously subverting the national character. ... We shall soon find out if there is a kinder, gentler Newt lurking beneath the rock. Somehow I doubt it. His hatred seems to be from the heart."
—
William Greider, past producer of PBS "Frontline" shows and former Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor, in the December 29, 1994-January, 12, 1995 Rolling Stone Magazine.
Gumbel, Bryant (NBC)
"This test is not going to tell you whether you're a racist or a liberal."
—
Bryant Gumbel, previewing his prime-time special "The Racial Attitudes and Consciousness Exam (RACE)," on the September 5, 1989 "Today" Show. Described in "Anthology of On-Air "Gumbel Stumbles"." Downloaded from the Media Research Center's Web site at http://www.MediaResearch.org on August 2, 2000.
"In the wake of the somewhat new hostilities bred in the Reagan '80s, how do you assess the state of race relations in this country today?"
—
"Today" show co-host Bryant Gumbel, to National Urban League President Hugh Price, July 28, 1994.
"You're aligned to a party which owes many of its victories to the so-called religious right and other conservative extremists who are historically insensitive to minority concerns. That doesn't bother you?"
—
"Today" show co-host Bryant Gumbel, to black Republican U. S. Rep.-elect J.C. Watts, November 9, 1994.
"By being so nice to Pat Buchanan and treating him as a good guy with bad policies, are we not all guilty of legitimizing his views and putting a smiling face on a hateful voice?"
—
The "Today" show's Bryant Gumbel on what he asked the show's political roundtable off-air, quoted by Peter Johnson, February 22, 1996 USA Today.
"Have you any doubt that Kenneth Starr and his deputies are pursuing an agenda that is purely political?"
"Bobby McDaniel, you said that your client is being used as a political pawn. Have you any legal recourse but to sit there and watch this unfold?"
"Given that you think this is all just a Republican witch hunt, do you expect the pressure to ease somewhat after the election?"
—
Some of Bryant Gumbel's questions to former Clinton business partner and convicted felon Susan McDougal and her attorney, September 17, 1996 "Today" Show.
[*]
Gumbel: "Is scouting any safer or purer today by the decision to exclude gays?"
Knight: "I think it's a little safer, but I do worry that the Scouts now will be under fierce attack by people who think homosexuality is OK for boys to engage in and they'll be pushing the Scouts out of public buildings."
Gumbel: "All right."
Knight: "And the public ought to be defending the Scouts fiercely. They have a right to treat this issue that seriously."
Gumbel: "Robert Knight, I got to let that stop there. Thank you."
Knight: "Thank you."
Gumbel: "What a f—ing idiot!" [heard clearly off-camera].
—
Bryant Gumbel, host of CBS's "The Early Show," and Robert Knight, director of Cultural Studies with the Family Research Council, discussing the June 28, 2000 United States Supreme Court ruling that the Boy Scouts have the right to exclude homosexuals as scoutmasters. This exchange took place on June 29, 2000, and is described in Lawrence Morahan. "Gumbel 'Unable to Disguise Contempt' for Conservative View." CNSNews.com, June 30, 2000.
[*] "An excellent way to respond to the Pope's visit would be to display its absurdity. You might laugh at his costume, his gestures ... laughter is a very helpful weapon. ..."
—
Article in the Winnipeg, Canada-based feminist journal HERizons, ridiculing the Pope's visit to Canada. Also quoted in Betty Steele. The Feminist Takeover: Patriarchy to Matriarchy in Two Decades [Richmond Hill, Ontario: Tercet Publishing], 1987, page 24.
Hern, Warren (late-term abortionist)
[*] "[Pro-lifers] are, with few exceptions, vicious, irrational, absolutely ruthless, unscrupulous, pitiless, and driven by hatred. They are willing to accept any level of violence, not to mention social disruption and imposition of emotional pain to reach their goals.
"This is no longer about free speech. It is about behavior that is meant to inflict pain, terror, and, in some cases, death. It is no longer tolerable to have any form of political protest in front of my clinic or any other abortion facility in the United States.
"A face-to-face conspiracy to commit political crimes is no longer necessary. All the leaders have to do is use the airwaves to identify the targets. [The Federal government] should not allow the exploitation of First Amendment rights for authoritarian and terrorist purposes."
"Every anti-abortion demonstrator must now be considered armed, dangerous and a potential assassin until proven otherwise. The anti-abortion movement must be considered the source and spawning ground of a violent, terrorist movement which threatens the social fabric and civil society of laws of the United States."
—
January 1995 report of abortionist Warren Hern of Boulder, Colorado, to Janet Reno and Joanne Harris, quoted in William Norman Grigg. "Soviet-Style "Choice"." New American, April 15, 1996, pages 17-19.
"Governor Owens has brought the spirit of the Taliban to Colorado. If women are not free to make decisions about their own bodies and reproductive decisions, how are they free? Bill Owens has used a dishonest political shell game to cut off family planning funds for Planned Parenthood and Boulder Valley Women's Health Center in order to get right-wing anti-abortion votes, and the poor women of Colorado will suffer."
—
Third-trimester abortionist Warren Hern, director of the Boulder Abortion Clinic, criticizing a decision by the state Health Department to cut taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. Quoted by Fox News on January 21, 2002, and "Colorado Abortionist Compares Governor to Taliban." Steven Ertelt Pro-Life Infonet at http://www.prolifeinfo.org, January 22, 2002.
"I saw a lot of problems between Christianity as a theology and how it was applied in the real world. Sectarian strife and violence. Oppression of non-believers. The Catholic Church was exactly 350 years behind the times, because that's how long it took the church to get over Galileo saying that Copernicus was right: The sun does not revolve around the Earth, and the Earth was not the center of the solar system. Whoa. Lock him up, the heretic ... Meanwhile, the Pope is living in luxury in a palatial setting telling poor people to strip their lands bare and reproduce as much as possible [NOTE: We challenge Hern to document this claim, which is just more stupid pro-abortion anti-religious propaganda]
"I loved delivering babies. It was the happiest thing in the world a miracle. I love babies and I love children. ... [Albert] Schweitzer would probably be horrified at what I do now. It took me some time to be reconciled to that. ... What I do is disreputable, repugnant. Even those people who agreed with me in principle didn't want me around them on a personal basis. ... I was the very devil to some people for trying to say that abortion was a medical procedure that greatly affected the health and well-being of women. That made some people afraid ... especially men who fear they can't compete with women on a level playing field in the first place. The reaction to fear is anger and hatred [NOTE: Not once does Hern concede that pro-lifers might be motivated by higher feelings than fear, anger or hatred — say, by concern for the viable and healthy babies he dismembers].
"It was muddle-headed liberal nonsense to let that Nazi son of a bitch [Joe Scheidler] into the meeting [the 1984 National Abortion Federation National convention]. Joe Scheidler looks like a Nazi, talks like a Nazi, thinks like a Nazi and behaves like a Nazi ... He's obviously not a duck. He's in league with all the tyrants of history. ... I shuddered and thought, 'Boy, here's the enemy. This man will stop at nothing, because this isn't about abortion; it's about power. ... I have a short list of things that scare me — lightning, sharks and grizzly bears among them ... He didn't make the cut. ... Mr. Scheidler incites violence in his followers and then disavows it. Mr. Scheidler has contempt for women, he has contempt for American laws, and he has contempt for the American tradition of fair play. ... In reality, [Randall] Terry [of Operation Rescue] is just another fascist demagogue who motivates a lot of vicious people to be violent. He's driven by power and hatred and rage. He claims to be nonviolent but then urges other people, unbalanced people, to kill and destroy. And the Republican Party made it possible. ... This week, I began wearing a bullet-proof vest to work. I am not a policeman setting out to raid crack houses. I am a doctor who does abortions. The reason I wear body armor is that Pope John Paul II is visiting Denver, attracting legions of anti-abortion activists. The Pope and his bishops have so harshly attacked abortion for so long, it has created a climate of permission for the most radical activists. Now, the church does not wish to take responsibility for the unpredictable, violent consequences of its rhetoric. ... Because of the Boston killings, we must assume all anti-abortion demonstrators are armed and dangerous and will kill anyone seen entering or leaving the building [NOTE: This is what most pro-abortionists think but are afraid to say out loud, and is the most extreme form of stereotyping imaginable]. ... Anti-abortion activity has long since passed the level of peaceful demonstrations of people expressing their point of view. This is no longer about free speech. It is about behavior that is intended to inflict pain, terror, intimidation, and, in some cases, death ... There being no deterrence ... authorities must recognize that the only protection at this point is self-defense, and many of us are prepared to shoot back. This is a prescription for civil war, which is what is happening, except that one side is still holding its fire [NOTE: When certain pro-life leaders have said exactly the same thing — that abortion will lead to civil war — pro-abortionists have loudly condemned their language is "inflammatory"]. ...
"The Mafia has more decency and ethics than these people. At least they keep their 'hit list' secret. They don't torture people for months or years before they kill them. ... The only difference between this and the slaughter of the Jews in Venice is a thousand years. The only difference between this and the Islamic jihad is 8,000 miles. This isn't about abortion. This is about people who think that they can tell everyone else how to think and what to believe. Once they've outlawed abortion and locked up abortion doctors, who will they go after next? People who right for newspapers? People who read books? Blacks? Jews? They hate freedom. They hate secular thought [NOTE: Oh, please! Does Hern really believe this nonsense, or is he just grandstanding?]
"My practice matters to women and their families. And now these people, from Reagan to Scott and that son of a bitch Arrington, want to make it a crime against the state.
"The crime is freedom."
—
Excerpts from quotes by third-trimester abortionist Warren Hern of Boulder, Colorado, quoted by Steve Jackson. "The Fight of Their Lives." Westword [Denver, Colorado], February 13-17, 1997, pages 17 to 31 [NOTE: As can be expected from the mainline media, the article could be a case study in propaganda and biased reporting. It paints Hern in the best possible light, as a caring, compassionate doctor who only wants to help people, and Kenneth Scott as the usual caricature of a fanatical, Bible-beating nut case. The article never mentions that Hern commits third-trimester abortions. Naturally, the photos show Scott only in police mug shots and Hern caring for Shipibo indians, to help further prejudice the reader. The article also mentions that Hern repeats the tired old pro-abortion lie, in an article entitled "Biological Tyranny" in The New Republic, that 800 to 5,000 women died of illegal abortions every year before Roe v. Wade. Hern also bemoans the fact that most of them were minorities, ignoring the fact that the great majority of women who currently die of 'safe' and legal abortions are still minorities. Hern also slips up and says that "It felt good to get back to medicine" when he leaves his abortion mill and goes to the Amazon to treat Indians. The article goes even further and directly lies in order to cover up the bloody business of the abortionists. It describes the partial-birth abortion thusly: "[Barry] Arrington [Republican assembly man from Arvada] described a near-term fetus delivered feet-first up to its neck, at which point the doctor collapses its head. He did not mention that the antiquated procedure is rarely, if ever, performed, and then only to save the life of the mother"].
Hitchins, Christopher (Newsday)
[*] [NOTE: The media and others, of course, attempt to abuse the 'Seamless Garment' to condemn every pro-lifer — no matter how sincere or holy, or no matter how much they do in other areas — if they dare to oppose abortion in any way. For example, Christopher Hitchins, editor of Newsday, who refers to Mother Teresa as "the ghoul of Calcutta," discusses his visit to one of her hospices];
"I was about to mutter some words of praise, when M.T. [Mother Teresa] announced, "You see, this is how we fight abortion and contraception in Calcutta." M.T.'s avowed motive somewhat cheapened the ostensible work of charity, an exercise in propaganda for the Vatican's heinous policy of compelling the faithful to breed, and denying where it can the right of non-believers to get hold of birth control. After this experience with the leathery old saint, I kept up an M.T. watch of sorts.
"I wasn't surprised to see her turn up in Haiti a few years later, as a kind of paid confessor to the Duvalier gang ... in August 1989, she made an official visit to the worst of all Stalinist tyrannies (Albania). ... Having prostituted herself for the worst of Communism, it was an easy and worldly step to embrace the worst of capitalism."
Hitchins also recommended that Governor Edmund Brown of California "couldn't make a better move than dropping the old hell bat over the side."
—
Christopher Hitchins, editor of Newsday, quoted in Henry V. King. "Left-Wing Columnist Unleashes Vicious Slurs Against Mother Teresa." The Wanderer, September 24, 1992, pages 1 and 8.
Hunt, Mary E. (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER))
"Specifically, having grown up and long outgrown the Catholic church, I still have a deep concern for the matters of meaning and value which that institution claims to be concerned about, heinous efforts to outlaw reproductive freedom notwithstanding ... In a hostile environment overrun with the platitudes of antichoice religious fanatics, religion itself, understandably, develops a bad name ... the toxic atmosphere created by antichoice activists at [abortion] clinics means that patients now, more than ever, need competent, caring people to accompany them through the decision making and medical procedures necessary to deal with unwanted pregnancies ... While hospitals have chaplains, few if any clinics have regular spiritual advisors as part of their staffs. This needs to be rethought and remedied."
—
Mary E. Hunt (former member of the 'Catholics' for a Free Choice Board of Directors and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER)). "Secular Spirituality: Asking Questions About Abortion." Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Summer 1994 [Volume XV, Number 2], pages 31 to 33.
Joyce, Brendan (homosexual activist)
[*] "History has proven that the Catholic Church has been the biggest persecutor of homosexuals for the last two thousand years. There is not a force on earth that has committed more injustice and violence to homosexuals than organized religion. The Catholic Church is guilty of cold blooded murder.
"Formal religions grew as a result of fear of the unknown and the laity simply left all those unanswered questions of life and morals to the authorities — people like your stupid pope ... I will live to see your church punished and fined for all the atrocities committed against me or I will not live. That part of my mind that relates to my sexuality has been destroyed by the hate of your church ...
"I am asking you for money and I shall receive it. I feel no shame at all in asking your church for money. No shame! This is the last time I will make an effort to reach out to you. If you continue to ignore and deny my requests, do not be shocked, surprised or alarmed when I appear at your doorstep with weapon in hand ... "
"It is now time for this christ of yours to pay and he will pay plenty ... ask your church to take away this terrible stigma that has been placed on us by your church because of the activities of a few ugly, callous, dirty-minded men and the misinterpretation of your goddam bible written thousands of years ago by a bunch of asinine fools ...
"I learned that this ugly rash manifested itself on my body from the inner turmoil and struggle and emotional and mental conflicts going on inside me from trying like hell not to be what your goddam church said I goddam well better not be - a goddam faggot - a word so cleverly coined by the goddam Catholic church to further degrade, disgrace, and humiliate me.
"Your goddam mythical jesus god will pay for that rash. It saddens me to say that so powerful is the goddam Catholic church and the cult of your jesus that the church has convinced many gay people that they are really filthy and immoral and they spend their lives practicing self-hatred with feelings of worthlessness ...
"There are "virgin births" all over the place and each one of the dirty little bastards turned out to be a goddam god and in every case the name of the goddam mother was always Mary ..."
—
A serial rant by homosexual activist Brendan Joyce. "Revealed." New York City News, February 2, February 17 and March 3, 1982.
Kaplan, David A. (Newsweek Magazine)
"Even the velociraptors of the far right found little to lament, besides her apparent support for at least limited abortion rights."
—
Newsweek's David A. Kaplan and Bob Cohn on Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg, June 28, 1993.
Keeton, Kathy
"For all the noise and violence we're hearing from the antiabortion forces today, it's clear that these people do not represent the majority and should have no right to force their opinions on others."
—
Kathy Keeton. Woman of Tomorrow [New York City: St. Martin's Press], 1985, pages 172 and 173.
Kestenbaum, David (NPR)
"Two of the anthrax letters were sent to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, both Democrats. One group who had a gripe with Daschle and Leahy is the Traditional Values Coalition, which, before the attacks, had issued a press release criticizing the Senators for trying to remove the phrase 'so help me God' from the oath. The Traditional Values Coalition, however, told me the FBI had not contacted them and then issued a press release saying NPR was in the pocket of the Democrats and trying to frame them. But investigators are thinking along these lines. FBI agents won't discuss the case, but the people they have spoken with will."
—
NPR's David Kestenbaum, during the January 22, 2002 "Morning Edition." Media Research Center Press Release. "NPR Must Apologize for Tying Traditional Values Coalition to Terrorist Attacks." January 31, 2002 [NOTE: NPR admitted that the report was "inappropriate" but did not apologize. Kestenbaum interviewed Planned Parenthood's head of security, Ann Glaser, during the show].
Kevorkian, Jack
"This is probably the first time that this august body [The American Humanist Association] has been addressed by someone under indictment on two counts of first-degree murder.
"The Inquisition is still alive and well. The only difference is that today it's much more dangerous and subtle. The inquisitors don't burn you at the stake anymore; they slowly sizzle you. They make sure you pay dearly for what you do. In fact, they kill you often in a subtle way. My situation is a perfect example of it.
"This is not self-pity, understand. I don't regret the position I'm in. I'm not a hero, either — by my definition, anyway. To me, anyone who does what should be done is not a hero. And I still feel that I'm only doing what I, as a physician, should do. A license has nothing to do with it; I am a physician and therefore I will act like a physician whenever I can. That doesn't mean that I'm more compassionate than anyone else, but there is one thing I am that many aren't and that's honest.
"The biggest deficiency today and the biggest problem with society is dishonesty. It underlies almost every crisis and every problem you can name. It's almost inevitable; in fact, it's unavoidable as you mature. We feel that a little dishonesty greases the wheels of society, that it makes things easier for everybody if we lie a little to each other. But all this dishonesty becomes cumulative after a while. If everyone were perfectly honest at all times, if human nature could stand that, you would find many fewer problems in the world.
"When we (my lawyers, sisters, medical technologist, and myself) first started this work [physician-assisted voluntary euthanasia], we didn't expect the explosion of publicity that followed. The mainstream media tried to make my work look very negative — they tried to make me look negative — so that they could denigrate the concept we're working on. They said I should not be identified with the concept, yet they strived to do just that. They insulted and denigrated me and then hoped that it would spill over onto the concept. It didn't work, however; according to the polls, people may be split 50-50 on what they think of me, but they are three-to-one in favor of the concept, and that's never changed.
"Now isn't it strange that on a controversial subject of this magnitude — one that cuts across many disciplines — the entire editorial policy of the country is on one side? Even on a contentious issue like abortion, there is editorial support for both sides. And our issue — death with dignity — as far as we're concerned, is simpler than abortion. So why is every mainstream editorial writer and newspaper in the country against us on this? Not one has come out in wholehearted support of us, even though public opinion is on our side.
"As I surmise it, they're in a conspiracy, which is not a revelation to many people. But with whom? Well, let's take a look at who's against this: organized religion, organized medicine, and organized big money. That's a lot of power.
"Why is organized medicine against this? For a couple of reasons, I think. First, because the so-called profession — which is no longer a profession; it's really a commercial enterprise and has been for a long time — is permeated with religious overtones. The basis of so-called medical ethics is religious ethics. The Hippocratic oath is a religious manifesto. It is not medical. Hippocrates didn't write it; we don't know who did, but we think it's from the Pythagoreans. So if you meet a physician who says "Life is sacred," be careful. We didn't study sanctity in medical school. You are talking to a theologian first, probably a businessperson second, and a physician third.
"The second reason that organized medicine is against physician-assisted voluntary euthanasia is the money involved. If a patient's suffering is curtailed by three weeks, can you imagine how much that adds up to in medical care? And a lot of drugs are used in the last several months and years of life, which add up to billions of dollars for the pharmaceutical industry.
"This is what is so dismaying to me, what makes me cynical. You have to be cynical in life when you read about a situation that's so terrible and so incorrigible. There are certain ways to deal with it: you can go along with it, which is hard to do; you can go insane, which is a refuge (and some do that); or you can face it with deep cynicism. I've opted for cynicism.
"In responding to the religious issues, I ask this: Why not let all the religious underpinnings of medicine apply only to the ethics of religious hospitals and leave the secular hospitals alone? The doctors who work in religious hospitals can refuse to do abortions, they can refuse assisted suicide or euthanasia, they can do anything they want. But they have no right to impose what they call a universal medical ethic on secular institutions.
"Besides, what is ethics? Can you define it? My definition is simple: Ethics is saying and doing what is right, at the time. And that changes. Seventy-five years ago, if I told you that for Christmas I was going to have a truck deliver 10 tons of coal to your house, you would have been delighted. If I told you that today, you would be insulted. Doing the right thing changes with time.
"That's true of human society also. There is a primitive society — I don't know which one exactly — whose members were shocked to learn that we embalm our dead, place them in boxes, and then bury them in the ground. Do you know what they do? They eat them. To them, it's ethical and moral and honorable to devour the corpse of your loved one. We're shocked at that, right? It's all a matter of acculturation, time, where you are, and who you are. If I visited this primitive society and I was a real humanist, I'd say, "Oh, that's interesting." And if the so-called savage in turn said "Gee, that's interesting what you do," then he or she would be a humanist. I used to define maturity as the inability to be shocked. So I guess in some ways we're still immature. But if you're truly mature, and a true humanist, you can never be shocked. If they eat their dead, so be it — that's their culture. But you know what our missionaries did, don't you? That's immoral action.
"I think you get the gist of my position."
—
"A Modern Inquisition: Jack Kevorkian Talks Back." The Humanist, November/ December 1994. This is the adaptation of the speech given by Kevorkian when he received the 1994 Humanist Hero Award from the American Humanist Association (AHA).
[*] "The pope has his hands on our neck. He's wringing it. I think he has a grip on the government, and I know he has a grip on the Michigan Supreme Court."
—
Jack "The Dripper" Kevorkian, during his October 1996 trial for murder. Described in Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. 1996 Report on Anti-Catholicism, available on-line at the Catholic League's Web site here.
King, Larry (CNN)
"I saw a Hillary Clinton that I'd never seen before. She was funny, charming, sexy — yes, gang, sexy. We are both Scorpios, which tells you a lot. She's informal — called me 'Larry' and told me to call her by her first name. ... Meanwhile, she's earned the respect of everyone except the wackos with her handling of the health care issue. Indeed, she has gotten everyone except the wackos to agree that we need health care for everyone. This is a very formidable idea, ladies and gentlemen."
—
CNN/Mutual Broadcasting talk show host Larry King on his October 2 interview with the First Lady, quoted in an October 4, 1993 USA Today column.
"When I heard the quote it sounded to me like it was Limbaugh or Liddy or Ollie North. It was like wacko talk radio. It didn't sound like Brinkley. In other words, Brinkley's always been irreverent, but always kind of classy."
—
CNN's Larry King on David Brinkley's election night comments that Clinton is a "bore" and his speech delivered "more goddamn nonsense," November 7, 1996 "Larry King Live."
Kissling, Frances (founder, 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC))
"The Catholic religion makes the fetus into an icon, a figure of religious veneration, which I think is sick, really sick. ... It's not the abortion issue that's at question. The question is: How do we get the Church to acknowledge that women can be trusted to make good decisions? That is what we are trying to do on the abortion issue, to trust women."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC), quoted in Ron Brackin. "'Sister' Frances Kissling: Cardinal of Death." Liberty Report, January 1987 [NOTE: Notice the standard pro-abortion attempt to divert attention away from prenatal child lynching. Of course, for pro-abortionists, it is never abortion that's the issue].
""However, the family they [the "radical right"] project for us is fascist, sexist, and racist. So too is their state." Since Maguire wrote those words, the Catholic right has emerged publicly in support of this agenda."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC), and Denise Shannon. "Who's Right?" Conscience (newsletter of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice), Spring 1994 [Volume XV, Number 1], page 3.
"The Vatican also recommends that Catholics reconsider their support for UNICEF. It's a new low in Vatican behavior. ... the Vatican is prepared to hold every good thing hostage to its dirty little war against family planning and abortion. ... It's time we sent a clear signal to the church hierarchy that we are sick and tired of this single-minded obsession with abortion and family planning. We want to get on with the church's mission to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the sick, and shelter the homeless. Especially the children."
—
Frances Kissling, President of 'Catholics' for a Free Choice (CFFC). "The Vatican's Cheap Shot at UNICEF." Conscience, Winter 1996/1997 [Volume XVII, Number 4], pages 36 and 37.
[*] Frances Kissling and other CFFC leaders, while pleading for tolerance, have variously referred to the Pope and the bishops as "absolutist," "angry," "anti-woman," "arrogant," "blind," "bullies," "callous," "coercive," "confused," "cruel," "dangerous," "dogmatic," "dumb," "embarrassing," "fanatical," "hard-hearted," "harsh," "hypocritical," "illogical," "imperialistic," "irresponsible," "liars;" "loony," "mean," "misogynist," "nasty," "narrow-minded," "obsessive," "obstructive," "pathological," "pernicious," "pig-headed," "prattlers," "rigid," "ruthless," "sanctimonious," "self-righteous," "simplistic," "slippery," "terrible," "totalitarian," "tyrannical," "unjust," "unkind," "vehement," "virulent," and "vituperative," and even "betrayers of Christ" and "the seed of Satan," among many other labels.
—
"Mean" [Frances Kissling, President of Catholics for a Free Choice, on John Cardinal O'Connor. Quoted in E. Bumiller. "As Pope's Important Ally, Cardinal Shines High in Hierarchy." New York Times, October 8, 1995, page 41]; "terrible" [Frances Kissling's talk during the National Abortion Federation (NAF) 16th Annual Meeting, theme: "Abortion: Moral Choice and Medical Imperative," April 12-15, 1992, in San Diego, California, closing session: "Cooperation and Competition"]. The following are all from Conscience Magazine: "Absolutist" [Winter 1996/1997, page 5]; "angry," "dogmatic," "harsh" and "unkind" [Winter 1996/1997, pages 14 and 17]; "angry," "dogmatic," "hard-hearted," "harsh" and "unkind" [Winter 1996/1997, pages 14 to 17]; "arrogant" [Winter 1993/1994, page 27]; "betrayers of Christ" and "the seed of Satan" [Spring 1997, page 4]; "blind" and "hard-hearted" [September-December 1987, page 8]; "bullies" [Spring 1996, page 32]; "callous" and "coercive" [Summer 1999]; "confused" and "narrow-minded" [January/February 1996, page 9]; "cruel," "ruthless," "vehement," "anti-woman," "slippery, a clerical Barbie Doll" [referring to Bernard Cardinal Law], and "rigid" [September-December 1987, pages 40 and 41]; "dangerous" and "nasty" [Summer 2000, pages 10 to 13]; "dumb" and "hypocritical" [September-December 1987, pages 29 to 37]; "embarrassing," "misogynist" and "pernicious" [Winter 1993/1994, page 38]; "fanatical" [September-December 1987, pages 22 and 23]; "harsh" [Winter 1996/1997, page 24]; "illogical," "loony," "pig-headed" and "tyrannical" [Spring/Summer 1995, pages 7 and 8]; "imperialistic" [Winter 1996/1997, inside front cover]; "irresponsible" [September-December 1987, page 27]; "liars" [Winter 1995/1996, page 8]; "mean" [Spring 1996, page 32]; "obsessive" [Winter 1996/1997, page 5]; "obstructive" [Winter 1995/1996, page 12]; "pathological" [Winter 1993/1994, page 32]; "prattlers" [September/October 1989, page 3]; "self-righteous" and "sanctimonious" [Autumn 1996, pages 29 to 34]; "simplistic" [Spring/Summer 1993, page 9]; "totalitarian" [Autumn 1998, page 3]; "unjust" [Spring/Summer 1993, page 18]; "vehement" [Spring/Summer 1995, page 27]; "virulent" [Spring/Summer 1993, page 16, and Winter 1999/2000]; and "vituperative" [July/August 1989, page 8, and January/February 1996, page 5].
Kropp, Arthur J. (People for the 'American' Way (PAW))
"Wildmon can find an anti-family conspiracy in a test pattern."
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Arthur J. Kropp, former president of People for the 'American' Way (PAW), attacking Rev. Don Wildmon of the American Family Association for testifying against pornography. Quoted in Tom Shales. "Wildmon Denies He's Acting As Censor." The Oregonian, June 22, 1989, page D9.
Landers, Ann (syndicated advice columnist)
[*] "[Pope John Paul II] looks like an angel. He has the face of an angel ... Of course, he's a Polack ... They're very anti-woman."
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Ann Landers, New Yorker Magazine of November 29, 1995, and "The People Column." The Oregonian [Portland, Oregon], December 1, 1995, page A2.
Landsberg, Michelle
[*] "Seems these evangelicals feel all shook up unless the state enforces their form of belief. Their idea of social stability, however, is just what threatens us all. It creates the kind of parents who teach their children to hate and taunt their schoolmates who are children of lesbians or gay men. It gives licence to the kind of thugs who would beat a Matthew Shepard to death because he was gay. It breeds the toxic intolerance that drives gay youths to a 30 per cent higher suicide rate than other teens."
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Extract from a June 2, 2001 Toronto Star column by radical pro-abortion feminist Michelle Landsberg regarding a proclamation by the Mayor of Regina of Heterosexual Family Pride Day. "Toronto Star Feminist Columnist M. Landsberg Found Unfair to Evangelicals: Ontario Press Council Upholds Complaint." LifeSite Daily News at http://www.lifesite.net, June 12, 2002 [NOTE: Landsberg said that the Mayor's motives were "to try to enshrine one Christian or 'missionary' brand of sexuality as the only official and legal style of union." Naturally, Landsberg thinks it is just fine if a mayor proclaims a "Homosexual Pride Day." The Ontario Press Council upheld a complaint by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) against the Toronto Star. The Council said that "The Ontario Press Council is on record as declaring it believes columnists deserve wide latitude in expressing their opinions, no matter how controversial or unpopular. But, despite the newspaper's contention that the column was using the word "evangelicals" to mean "zealots" and was not intended as criticism of "any formal religious body," the Council regards the term in the column's context as an unnecessarily hurtful reference to an identifiable group and upholds the complaint"].
LaPierre, Laurier L. (Canadian Senator, Liberal Party)
"Honorable senators, first, I must admit to my own sexual orientation. I am a gay man, living in harmony — harmony conditioned by human nature — with a kind and gentle man and whose silver ring I wear with comfort on the ring finger of my right hand.
"The Church made a woman the property of her husband and subject to him, thus controlling her to the largest possible degree. The Church forced her to hide her femininity under yards of cloth and contrived with the men of her family and with her husband to keep her ignorant and chained to the stove — a state that has been the fate of women in every conceivable church and religion we believe in and which have all been established by men wearing skirts. ... The Taliban, who also wear skirts, were only following the dictates of tradition. ... To achieve the end of the subjugation of women it was necessary for the promulgators of marriage to launch a horrible campaign of discrimination against homosexuality — a campaign that coincided, oddly enough, with what became the compelling obsession of most religions: Anti-Semitism.
"In the long and cruel campaign against homosexuals of either sex, but particularly gay men, many have been discriminated against in the name of the gods and their lives ruined to maintain the hegemony of a fragile orthodoxy. They died in the dungeons of the princes of the churches and of the states or burned at the stake by order of the churches or stoned in the public square of Imams. They died as well in the concentration camps of the Nazis. They died abandoned; they were denied comfort; they were reviled in the pulpits during the first days of AIDS, a moment in our history that I know much about; and they still die in the dark streets and parks of our cities. Moreover, while they lived and live, they were and are discriminated against — an abuse of human rights too often blessed by the silence or the conspiracy of the churches."
Speaker pro tempore: "Will Senator LaPierre take a question?"
Senator LaPierre: "No, honorable senators. I am close to my emotions."
Speaker pro tempore: "Senator Cools may ask a question."
Senator LaPierre: "I said no."
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Liberal Senator Laurier L. LaPierre, appointed to the Canadian Senate in 2001 by Prime Minister Jean Chretien, dur
