Comments for Voice of Love, Hand of Repression at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 16 out of 16 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Tue, 21 May 2013 22:05:08 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-6248 Thank God(!) Hadley Arkes has tenure. Writing or speaking out against gay marriage in the Happy Valley of western Massachusetts is a FIREABLE offense with prejudice; no pun intended. Now that he's converted to Catholicism, one can imagine how precious his tenure must be. This is what it's intended for, not as a guarantee of x number of decades one can teach for sans fears of bad economic times leading to layoffs. Rather it's intended to protect teachers from ideological bullying; a practice which the so-called "progressives" in ultra-liberal New England college towns are known to use with rapid and delightful vigor. - Steven Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:05:44 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-5555 If you think this form of oppression is bad wait until military chaplains try to give Biblical sermons on anything having to do with same-sex sex. They will be given dishonorable discharges or forced to affirm that which they believe God teaches is wrong. - Vincent McCarthy Thu, 30 Dec 2010 07:55:15 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3445 You are first to acknowledge Peter's intent;he said "I couldn't be happy for her." Peter is a devout Catholic and you narrate the event as if you were there or know him well. I further suspect the event was orchestrated, because I question the discrepancy in the dates between the event and release of story. The other party in the story has not been seen or heard from since. Hopefully, Peter will move forward in his chosen career without excess residual damage to his reputation Great Insight. - kal Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:10:54 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3438 Since a same-sex "marriage" is not in fact a marriage, whenever the adjective "same-sex" is followed by the word "marriage," the word "marriage" should be in quotation marks. - John Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:31:39 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3434 The forces of same-sexedness in Maine have behaved like totalitarians: before the vote they demonstrated at our churches in bizarre and mocking costumes (an attempt to intimidate, not to persuade), and afterwards with taped mouths (as if losing a free vote violates their free speech); they actually drove across my lawn to run over a sign favoring traditional marriage; in the past week there have been death threats phoned in to marriage supporters. And they accuse us of being "hateful."! - peregrinus septrionalis Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:49:02 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3431 The right to run a private business or organization entails the right to hire or fire employees for one's own reasons. - Marriage Defender Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:47:14 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3429 I am delighted that sense has prevailed and that now those unions are not legal in Maine, but the gap it is too little, it seems to me. Just an 8% more on the rejection side when something like this, if society is sane, should reach a 90% of no voters, at least. We can breathe now but I would be very worried that the chance exists that the next time the question is posed the yes may be majoritary. Something is very wrong when so may people is in favour. - Pilar Royo Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:28:27 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3417 Yes companies, and for that matter, churches can set their own policies within the boundaries of the law, even if they trump common sense. We associate with them of our own free will and are free to leave them too. This year, the archbishop of Cincinnati fired a nun from a 40-year teaching career for publicly supporting women's ordination. Where is the room for common sense and her liberty/conscience? - Bradley Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:55:44 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3415 What does "presumably" mean? That if Brookstone had some bizarre set of rules that they would justifiably trump commonsense? That any company may establish rules that not only squash dissent but punish even uncomfortable silences? That unless an employee tacitly embraces any and all personal decisions made by other employees he may be fired? So much for liberty and conscience. - Brad Miner Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:14:16 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3414 As a small business owner I have my employees wear blank masks and refer to each other by their payroll numbers. Just to make sure I fine them $2 for every word uttered in the store. I won't have any idle prattling in MY used car lot! By the way, we haven't had a sale in ten years. This is clearly Obama's fault - Jeremy Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:02:01 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3411 Presumably Brookstone's employment policy not only covered harassment, but also had some vague mention that employees are actually paid to do work, not discuss someone's wedding or to debate the social issues of the day in front of retail customers. So, as a business person, I would have fired them both. I did see a picture of Mr. Vadala on the web protesting in front of the store after his firing, so despite Professor Arkes' concern, the First Amendment is alive and well. - Bradley Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:52:05 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3410 Prof. Arkes: An excellent column all-around, and an especially fine point on the hypocrisy of same-sex marriage advocates who profess bewilderment and indignation at the position of those who defend marriage but who apparently take no offense at our laws against sibling marriages or parent-child marriages. Then again, there are already growing numbers of same-sex marriage advocates who advocate doing away with all such laws and stamping every erotic connection with the name of marriage. - Marriage Defender Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:51:25 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3403 53-47 isn't very comforting and you know that it will be back on the ballot again some day, and eventually pass. Or some judge will rule the vote illegal on a technicality. Likewise in Wisconsin, where same-sex marriage was narrowly defeated, legal challenges are under way. The propagandized masses always yield mixed results at the polls. The Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday lost soundly in Arizona but eventually prevailed. Unrelenting media pressure sways voters in the name of "tolerance." - Joseph Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:13:37 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3402 I wish Prof. Arkes would write for the small city newspaper 50 miles up the road. Please, Professor Arkes. We need your voice up here. Wouldn't it be nice, however, if we could retire the word "gay" in this context (which it isn't) and use the word "homosexual" or "same sex" (which it is). Let's not try to make it fun when there is nothing fun about it.. - Maggie Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:12:57 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3399 Professor so aptly noted 1984, big brother, hate crimes etc. Forget those Judeo-Christian principles of male and female union and the abomination of homosexuality. Such principles are now hateful and a punishable offense. Never before in this Republic has morality been dictated by so few. How did we get to the point that all that is unholy has become all that is holy? Well we have chased God out of school, the courts and the public square. Aristotle noted that the state needs virtue to exist! - Willie Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:12:21 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2009/voice-of-love-hand-of-repression.html#comment-3398 At the most basic level, this horrific confusion negates the significance of our life-transmitting power. The biological material of fatherhood and motherhood can be donated or sold. What are the consequences to children born of such abandonment? At the very first moment of their lives, they are profoundly orphaned by those who people from whose bodily integrity and ancestry they came. - Ars Artium Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:47:06 +0100