"Complicated Feelings" about Blasphemy
During the month of June, one can become so overwhelmed by the annual absurdity that is “pride month,” that one can easily and understandably respond either by being desensitized to it or by tuning it out altogether. The dizzying onslaught of rainbow-colored merchandise, shopping bags, and banners, as well as commercials in grocery stores, post offices, and various media, takes place as corporate America offers its annual sacrifice to the rainbow gods. All this could easily cause one to tune out the rainbow ads, if only as a way to keep one’s sanity. Yet, in spite of this, some particularly egregious instances still stand out.
One such instance came from Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers. Recently the Dodgers made the decision to honor and celebrate at their “Pride Night” a drag group that calls itself “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.”
The “sisters” in question are not, of course, actual Catholic religious, but a group of depraved men dressed to mock both the Catholic faith in general and real Catholic sisters in particular. The outcry from decent, ordinary people was tremendous: so much so that the Dodgers initially withdrew their invitation to the drag group. Both Senator Marco Rubio and CatholicVote’s Brian Burch both denounced the display. Brian Burch called the group “a blatantly perverted, sexual and disgusting anti-Catholic hate-group,” and said that the decision to honor them “signals an alarming and dangerous normalization of anti-Catholic bigotry that should not be tolerated.” I will not link to any detailed description of the “sisters” behavior and provide only the briefest description: their motto is “go forth and sin some more;” on Easter, they host a “hunky Jesus” contest, where men dressed as Jesus perform crude dances.
Well, perhaps predictably, the Dodgers ended up bowing to the rainbow gods, and re-invited the drag group. Many Catholics were horrified, and even normally mild-mannered bishops took notice. Bishop Barron called the group an anti-Catholic hate group and called for a boycott. Archbishops Gomez and Cordileone both raised their voices against the Dodgers, Cordileone even saying that the Dodgers worshiped other gods.
Yet, if most Catholics (and decent people) were disgusted and horrified by the Dodgers decision and the group they chose to honor, some took another view. An article published in the Jesuit-run America Magazine is called “Drag Nuns Will Be Included in LA Dodgers Pride Night. I Have Complicated Feelings About It.” In the article, the author downplays the drag group’s blasphemy and mockery of the Catholic faith as merely a “man in a silly costume telling bawdy jokes.”
One can be forgiven for thinking that the magazine has gone mad, or at least, madder than usual. What complicated feelings are there to be had about blasphemy: about trying to deny God the glory due Him, about insulting His Holy Name, about rejecting the truths of the Catholic faith? This is not a case of satire that goes too far, as the article tries to claim. It is not “irreverent humor” meant to make a point. What defensible point is made by some of their crude and graphic portrayals of Our Lord? What mockery, blasphemy, and contempt for God can be justified in the name of “satire”?
The only point of such actions is to show their eminent hatred of and contempt for God. This is not humor or genuine laughter; it is mere sneering, the sneer of the nihilist. G.K. Chesterton once said of the nihilist Friedrich Nietzsche that “he could not laugh, he could only sneer.” The drag group’s blasphemy is only the sneer of the nihilist against the God who would be a check on his own ego and will, the will to power, lust, and to be a god unto oneself.
There are no complicated feelings to be had about such evil, but there are lessons, and resolutions. America Magazine should take their absurd and offensive article down and apologize for it. Catholics and all people of good will should boycott the Dodgers, and perhaps other teams as well. And Catholics themselves must commit all the more to a rejection of “Pride Month” and all that it entails. June is not pride month: it is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the “Heart that so loved men that it has spared nothing.” More than ever we must be devoted to the Sacred Heart, to pray to and make acts of reparation for the sins against it and the Holy Name of God.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.