Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Politics and Religion
You Don’t Have to Support Religious Demagogues. You can say No.

You Don’t Have to Support Religious Demagogues. You can say No.

Last updated on: September 13, 2020 at 5:06 pm by Rebecca Hamilton

You Don’t Have to Support Religious Demagogues. You can say No. 2020-09-13T17:06:22-06:00 Rebecca Hamilton

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Source: Flickr Creative Commons by Lewis Satini https://www.flickr.com/photos/lewis_satini/

A few years after my knock-me-flat-in-the-middle-of-the-road religious conversion, and many years before I entered the Catholic Church, my husband and I were church hunting.

Hubby got the idea that we should look at a big ole rompin’ stompin’ charismatic church that is not too far from where we now live. So, one fine Sunday, we left the kids with my Mama and gave it a go.

My grandmother had been a Pentecostal Holiness preacher, so I kind of knew what happened in charismatic church services. My husband did not. But neither of us expected the religious horn-swaggling we were about to witness that day.

Except for liturgical churches like the Episcopalians, most Protestant services don’t have the extensive Scripture readings that the Catholic mass does. The “text” for the sermon of the day is often just one verse, and the choice of that verse is whatever hits the preacher’s fancy.

If a Protestant preacher wants to preach on the verse, “My brother Esau is a hairy man, while I am a smooth man,” that’s their call. The “text” and topics of sermons are whatever fits the preacher’s purposes on that given day.

On this given day, this particular Protestant preacher had decided to let loose on one of the fave texts of misogynists everywhere, which is to say either the verses in Ephesians or I Corinthians where St Paul tells wives to “be subject” to their husbands. I don’t remember which of these two verses this particular preacher chose for his text.

All I know is that St Paul wrote some of the most wonderful things that have enriched the faith for two thousand years. But in the midst of these soaring sentences of love and faith, he dropped a few bombs that have been used by haters to exempt themselves from every good thing he ever exhorted them to do, as well as the Gospels themselves.

There are a couple of verses in St Paul’s letters that people who want to bully and abuse other people pull out and use as weapons to nullify the Gospels and everything that Jesus said. These verses have been used to deify the satanic abuse of women and homosexuals throughout the history of Christianity. They are quoted as the justification for discrimination, hazing, bullying, battering, baiting and even murder.

I don’t think for one minute that St Paul foresaw that what he wrote would be used to justify and empower evil. After all, he also wrote “There is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus.”

But there it is. These few verses have been used to justify centuries of sinful mistreatment of over half the human race. They are used that way today.

The truth is that Scripture can be used to empower and ennoble all people, including women. Or, it can be used to diminish, control and dehumanize them. It depends on whether it is preached as the leaven that brings the Kingdom, or as the club that enforces hell on earth.

To their everlasting shame, male preachers and clergy have spent 2,000 years using Scripture as a weapon against the female half of the human race. They especially love to use a couple of verses St Paul wrote. They use these verses to deny women’s full humanity and to justify every sort of double standard and discrimination against them. They bully women into accepting this by telling them they will go to hell if they don’t “submit.”

This particular preacher we heard that day was one of the Scripture-justifies-misogyny crowd. He got started and proceeded to wind himself up into a true blue shouting performance. My husband, who had attended gentler churches when he was a boy, was put off by the phoniness of this, by the obvious fact that the preacher was performing and doing a routine.

“I don’t like it when the preacher puts on an act,” he told me later.

I don’t know how this church service ended up. We sat there and listened to the misogyny for a while, then I said, “That’s it. I’m leaving.” Hubs and I got up and walked out.

My husband was more than a little amused by how angry I was. He entertained the kids for months afterwards with stories about how their Mama walked out of that church in a flaming wrath. Each telling got more colorful and comical. “Let me see if I can throw this chair and hit that fool in the head,” he’d say in the high squeaky voice he uses when he imitates me.

The kids and my family would rock with laughter. My Daddy in particular loved to hear these stories. My Mama was not so amused. She basically thought that someone should have hit this fool preacher on the head with something, maybe common sense and decency.

In all the years I’ve been Catholic, I’ve only heard one homily that said anything about women that I found truly offensive. It was a single remark from a fill-in priest in support of the sexual double standard.

If he had said more, I would have been outa there. The only reason I stayed was because it was over so fast. I didn’t leave, but I remember. I avoid that priest. I will never take his advice about anything. If he or someone like him is appointed pastor to our parish where I have been happy for over 20 years, I will leave the parish.

That leads me to the point of this post. The laity does not have to take crap from their priests and bishops. We owe them gratitude for the way they extend themselves for us. We owe them our support in their work and respect for their kindness. We owe them an honest acknowledgement that almost all of them are good guys who try hard.

But every silver lining has its cloud. If your priest is standing up at the front of the church preaching hate, you not only have a right to walk out, you pretty much have a responsibility to walk out.

Father James Altman has been blowing and going in his Wisconsin parish, blasting the faithful with political hate that is lifted straight off the back pages of the worst of the extreme right wing web sites. He’s the king of demonizing and calling down judgement on people from the pulpit. He’s a vicious racist who denies the existence of racism and does not stop at belittling barbaric violence such as lynching.

But what of his followers?

What of the people who download his YouTube videos and post them on their Facebook pages with comments such as “God bless this holy priest,” or “Thank God for this brave priest,” or some other endorsement of his hate-filled ranting?

The power of a demagogue comes from his followers. People who deliberately push the hateful message of clergy who preach racism, misogyny and discrimination share in the guilt of their religious leaders.

When a preacher or priest preaches hate, you can walk out. If you post their garbage on your FB page with holy attaboys and say you agree with and support their hate, you are making yourself their co-conspirator in sin.

You become culpable precisely because you are a free agent. You have a choice.

You can say “no.”

You can call foul.

God gave you a brain and free will. He must have intended for you to use them.

You are a free moral agent. You can do good. You can do harm.

Stop backing demagogues.

Violence Against Women

Women's Rights

Previous Post

September 9, 2020

La Crosse Bishop to Correct Racist Priest Who said 'Catholics Can't Be Democrats'

Next Post

September 11, 2020 Don't Be Afraid. Pray.

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 10 Commandments 2012 Election 2016 Election 2020 Election 2022 Election 2024 Election Abortion Addiction Adult Day Care Advent Africa AI Alcoholism Alex Pretti Renee Good America American Citizenship American Fascism Announcement Anti Semitism Anti-Semitism Apologetics Archbishop Coakley Argentina Armenian Genocide Ash Wednesday Ballot Box Salvation Biden Big Beautiful Bill Bishop Black Mass Blasphemy Boko Haram Book Review Brainwashing Breast Cancer Bribery Calling Evil Good calling good evil Cancer Canonize Caregiving Catholic Catholic Vote Cause for Sainthood Chaos child abuse Child Labor Child Rearing Child Sacrifice Christian Bashers Christian Leadership Christian Persecution Christian Solidarity Christianity Christmas clergy Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal Climate Coakley Common Good Communion Communism Computers concentration camps Conclave Confession Consecration to Our Lady Conversion Coptic Christians Coronavirus Corporatism Corruption COVID Crisis Pregnancy Centers Culture D Day Death Death Penalty Dementia Democracy Designer Baby Destruction of the Family Dictator Dignity of Work Divine Mercy Novena Divine Mercy Sunday Divorce Doubt Drug Addiction easter Ebola Economics Education Egg Harvesting El Salvador Elderly Epiphany Epstein eternal life Eternal Life Eucharist Eugenics Euthanizing Children Euthansia evangelization Excommunicate Biden Extraterrestrial Life Failed Clergy Faith False Gods Family Fascism Fatherhood Feast of the Assumption First Amendment Flood the Zone Following Christ forced conversion Forgiveness Fortnight4Freedom fourth amendment Fr James Altman Fr Stanley Rother free press Freedom Freedom of Conscience freedom of religion Freedom of Speech Freedom of Worship vs Religious Freedom Geek Stuff Gender Theory Genocide God the Father Good Friday Gossip GQP Greenland Grief Gun Control Gun Violence Hate Blogs Health Health Care Heart Attack Heaven Hell Herod HHS Mandate History of the Crusades Holy Father Holy Father' Holy Father's Tweets Holy Matrimony Holy Saturday Holy Spirit Holy Thursday Holy Week Home Homeschooling homosexual Hospice Human Dignity Human Rights human trafficking Humor ICE Idolatry Immaculate Conception Immigration Incest Infertility Inspiration Iran War ISIS Islam Islamic Brotherhood Israel JD Vance Jesus Jobs Jordan Judas Judicial and Legislative Murder Judicial Murder July 4 Just War Justice Kavanaugh Ketanji Jackson Brown Laity Latin Mass Leadership Lent Less of Me Lying Lying for Trump Mad King MAGA Magnifica humanitas Mama Marriage Marriage Protection Amendment Martyr Media Bias Medicaid Men and Abortion Mercy Military Dictatorship Misogyny Motherhood Movie Review Murder Music National Catholic Register Nazi Clergy Neo Nazis New Category New Evangelism New Evangelization News Headlines Nigeria No Kings Novena for the Persecuted Church Nuns Obama Oklahoma Oscar Romero Our Lady Our National Embarrassment Pakistan Palm Sunday Papal Conclave Papal G8 Pedophile piano political priests Political Whore Clergy Politics Polygamy Pope Francis Pope Francis Visit United States Pope Leo XIV Pope's Prayer Intentions Pornography Post Christian West Poverty Prayer Prayers for the Persecuted Church Pro Life Prophecy Prostitution Purgatory Putin Quack Medicine Racism Rape Religious Freedom Renee Good Republican Republican priests Rerum Novarum Retirement Risen Lord Roe v Wade Rosary Sacrament Sacred Heart Sacrilege Saints Salvation Same Sex Marriage Sanctity of Human Life Satan Save Our Democracy scandal Scripture Shroud of Turin Sisters Slavery Social Justice Social Security Solidarity Cross St Michael the Archangel stations of the cross Stop Late Term Abortion Stroke Suicide Supreme Court Surrogacy Surveillance State Synod Syria Taliban Tariffs Taxes Technology Thanksgiving The Ascension The Cross The Locust Class The Political Heresy The Resurrection The Tomb The Transfiguration The Trinity The War on Girls Tornado Trauma Trump Trump Coup Trump Destroying America Trump's Coup Trump's War on the Rule of Law Trumpism Ukraine Uncategorized USAID USCCB Vatican Vatican Reform Violence Against Women Violence in America Vocation Voting Rights Wages Walk for Life War Weight Loss White House Why Aren't You a Feminist Too? Woke Women Leaders Women's Rights Worker's Rights World Hunger World War I World War III World Youth Day Worship Writing Year of Faith

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 March 2024 February 2024 November 2023 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 October 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 August 2016 May 2016 April 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 January 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the official state church of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Pentecostal Catholic Lutheran Orthodox