About the victims? SNAP's Barbara Blaine teams with Rev. Barry Lynn
More proof has just emerged that the anti-Catholic group SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) is really more about advancing a left-wing agenda than fulfilling its purported mission "to provide support for men & women who have been sexually victimized by members of the clergy."
This past March, Barbara Blaine, the founder of the SNAP, was a featured speaker at the "Women•Money•Power Forum" hosted by Feminist Majority, a powerful, radical, pro-abortion activist group.
Other speakers at the event included radical liberal voices such as Eleanor Smeal, Sandra Fluke, and Dawn Laguens (a VP at Planned Parenthood). (See screenshot outlining the event.)
The Feminist Majority says it promotes causes including "non-violence," "reproductive health," and "non-discrimination on the basis of sex, race, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, religion, ethnicity, age, marital status, nation of origin, size or disability."
One might ask what these issues have to do with Catholic Church abuse victims. The answer: Nothing.
The upcoming 2012 SNAP Conference
Another speaker at the Feminist Majority's March gathering was Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the rickety high-profile president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Lynn is an avowed leftist who, despite the "Reverend" title, appears to criticize just about any public expression of traditional Christianity. While Lynn has repeatedly blasted conservative religious leaders for participation in public policy matters and political life, such participation is reportedly O.K. in Lynn's book when it involves those who are aligned with his far-left causes.
Apparently, Lynn made such an impression on SNAP President Blaine in March that she invited him to speak at SNAP's upcoming annual conference in July in Chicago.
How does Lynn tie into the issue of healing for those who have been harmed by Catholic clergy? The obvious answer: He doesn't. Lynn is simply parroting the same left-wing political and social agenda of the top leadership at SNAP. (Reminder: SNAP National Director David Clohessy worked for nearly a decade with the notorious, left-wing activist group ACORN.)
Is SNAP really about its stated mission "to provide support for men & women who have been sexually victimized by members of the clergy"? SNAP's actions speak louder than its words.
[See also: "SPECIAL REPORT: Facts About SNAP That Will Shock You"]
Did anyone ever think that SNAP really cared about sex abuse anyway?
Walter,
YES.
How absurd to say that the 10,000+ SNAP members, all sexual abuse victims, do not care about sexual abuse. Makes no sense and shows an uninformed bias on your part. SNAP is not the enemy. Don't shoot the messenger just because the message is one you don't want to hear.
I’ve always felt that the general principle should not be Separation of Church and State but rather Separation of Ideology and State.
Because the true danger to a democracy is not from ‘religion’ but from ‘ideology’; not from the genuinely religious mindset but rather from the ‘ideological’ mindset.
That ideological mindset comes in both a religious and a secular variant. Thus the American religious fundamentalist is actually closely akin to the ideologically secular fundamentalist: both are opposed to actual critical thought and analysis and also to democratic deliberation and genuine public consensus-building because both are convinced that they already have the True Knowledge (whether Christian or Marxist or otherwise), both therefore see no need to discuss with those who ‘just don’t get it’, and both are supremely convinced that they are deputized to the Cause of making sure that their True Knowledge is established – even if by imposition – upon everybody else.
Ideology and the ideological mindset pose the profound and lethal threat to genuine democracy and to genuine religion. The Church-State brouhaha at this point is a distraction. And a continually stoked distraction.
Catholic thought in this area offers such densely and acutely rich examples as Luigi Sturzo and Courtney Murray, both of whom sought to more fully engage modernity in the full challenges of a world and a humanity that seeks both democracy and a sufficient grounding in humanity’s demonstrated need for and awareness of a supernatural and, in all respects, a fuller comprehension of what it means to be human.
Walter: Nope.
Rev. Lynn, like Obama's "mentor," is a United Church of Christ minister. The UCC ministers who preach near me shouldn't be tarred with their association with him, though.
My question would be what has Media Report done to support victims of clergy abuse?
I teach journalism and often present samples of poor and bias reporting. Sad to say I often use Media Reoprt as one example.
To Professor Rhonda
:
In the first place, 'supporting the victims of clergy abuse' is not the purpose – as far as I can see - of this site. This site's purpose is to investigate the accuracy of the charges against the Church. Why then would a professor of journalism hold the site responsible for not covering a topic that it is not set up to cover in the first place? How does that work, exactly?
Since you are a professor, it should take you no time to consult your notes and give us some cogent examples of "poor and bias reporting" right here and now. In fact, I'm a little suprised that a competent professor would not have done so at the outset, in the comment that made the charge of "poor and bias reporting".
Surely a professor would not make a charge of "poor and bias reporting" simply because the site did not follow the professor's preferences?
Waitng to see what the professor gives us here.
I hope it won't be neccessary to conclude that "sad to say" this commenter – whether a professor or not – has no evidence to provide to back up the charge made against this site.
A journalism professor uses as an example OF poor and biased reporting a site that TRACKS poor and biased reporting,. No wonder journalism is in such a sad state.
@Rondre
'My question would be what has Media Report done to support victims of clergy abuse?
I teach journalism and often present samples of poor and bias reporting. Sad to say I often use Media Reoprt as one example.'
By the above statement does the writer demonstrate the bias of what he is commenting on or his own bias? Discuss.
His own bias.
Shame on you people who belong to SNAP. You may think that you are doing a good thing. However, you may want to think twice about the FACT that one day you will answer to the loving God who CREATED you for your false accusations involving HIS Priests and your harassment of them. May God have mercy on your souls.
Shirley, you are why SNAP is so important. Not only do abuse victims need support after being abused by priests, but also after being abused by people like you. Instead of worshipping a religion, perhaps you can open your mind and worship the Power that created all of us.