Defenders of the Faith

They’re everywhere, and their presence wounds the Spirit. There are bishops among them, and bishops who give them succor, and also bishops who fear them like the secret police. Their cranky, hateful letters in the newspaper were bad enough, but their nasty blog comments are even worse. They are relentless, bullying, eager to pounce and to pull every conversation around to their singular obsessions, which are either homosexuality or free market economics. They boast an invincible certainty, coupled with an utter lack of compassion. And boy do they have time on their hands.

I ran into one of these lamentable creatures today on the America blog. There was an innocuous post titled, “We are all adopted,” the gist of which was that we are all God’s chosen children, and lamenting the fact that the people of Haiti have yet to be adopted by the human family. The word “adoption” set off this jerk’s radar—evidently it says to him gay parents and test tube babies—and he posted in response a gratuitous defense of birth parents that insisted on attacking and demeaning adoption.

I was sorely tempted to hit him with a blistering response—went so far as to draft one, in fact, but thought better of sending it. Then I resented the time and energy he had taken from me, the anger and hatred he had stirred. It does no good to trade punches with these troglodytes, of course. And I could summon no real charity for his sad and stunted soul locked away in its loveless prison.