Hat's off to Harry Knox

[Photo of Harry Knox from ProjectAtlanta.com]

According to Jeffrey Weiss of Politics Daily, there is a petition going around, signed by the House minority leader, weepy John Boehner, to have Harry Knox excised from the Obama administration.

"Knox," says Weiss, "is the director of the Religion and Faith Program of the Human Rights Campaign. He's a former licensed Methodist pastor. He's gay. He's a member of the Obama administration's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships."

So why do Weepy and the bunch of Catholic nogoodniks at the Media Research Council (that's the group that sent out a news release about this tempest-in-a-teapot with a link to the petition) want Knox tossed out of Obama's administration?

Well, they say Mr. Knox is a bigot, and anti-Catholic to boot. Evidently Knox once had the gall to question the pope's judgment. He said, "The pope's statement that condoms don't help control the spread of HIV, but rather condoms increase infection rates, is hurting people in the name of Jesus."

Wow! But there's more. Knox also said "The Knights of Columbus do a great deal of good in the name of Jesus Christ, but in this particular case [Proposition 8], they were foot soldiers of a discredited army of oppression."


Heh, heh! Hey, the pope is wrong and the Knights are wrong and Knox is right! And that's just part of it. The Roman Church has been wrong on thousands of issues for the last 2,000 years and it continues to "hurt people in the name of Jesus" every day!

Nothing wrong with being anti-Catholic! If you're going to be Catholic and believe all the crap the Roman church stands for, then be prepared to get blasted and be ready to be offended. You deserve it!


But let's move on. Let's look at this Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships that has found a seat in the Obama administration. Obama, as I recall, promised to get rid of this faith-based challenge to our Constitution. Evidently, he hasn't done so...just relabeled it a bit to include the innocuous phrase, "Neighborhood Partnerships." What the hell does that mean?

Many of us so-called "liberals" were appalled with G. W. Bushy's outright attack on the doctrine of the separation of church and state when he instituted these faith-based groups. We were angered even more when our tax dollars were found to be funding a bunch of phony christianist fundy operations where the emphasis was not on service but on conversion.

There should be NO faith-based operation in any White House or any administration, be it Democratic or Repugnican! No tax monies of any kind should be given to any religious group under any guise for any reason! I don't care what "good" these religious groups do in a community! They do not deserve tax dollars and must not receive them. That's in our Constitution!

If religious groups of whatever stripe want to serve their communities in non-religious ways, more power to them. But the members of those groups should cough up the bucks necessary, not the U.S. taxpayer!


So, while I say "Hat's off to Harry Knox" for his willingness to stand up and tell the truth about the old celibate prelate in Rome who wobbles about in colorful dresses, I'd also say get rid of the faith-based "Advisory Council" altogether! Which would mean Harry would no longer be part of the Obama Administration, but he could continue with his day job, say what he wants to say, and not worry about offending some religious devotees of what is essentially Christian paganism.


There's more on Harry Knox here.