The Blinders of Another Culture War Bishop

Bishop Richard Malone of Portland, Maine, has endorsed his state's version of, and association with, Texas Governor Rick Perry's "The Response USA" which, according to the website, aims to pray for an "historic breakthrough for our country and a renewed sense of moral purpose."

I wonder if the good bishop looked around that Web site a bit more thoroughly. This event is being co-sponsored by the Family Research Council, the rightwing evangelical outfit based in Colorado Springs that is led currently by Tony Perkins, an alumnus of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University and the most effective advocate of religious-political fusion since Falwell.

Another one the "endorsers" listed on the Web site is the Rev. John Hagee, whose bitter anti-Catholic sentiments forced that notorious leftie John McCain to refuse Hagee's endorsement in 2008. And, there, too, is retired Bishop Rene Gracida, who has made a habit of attacking Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley for presiding at the funeral of Sen. Edward Kennedy and, most recently, for permitting a Mass designed to reach out to gay and lesbian Catholics.

Bishop Malone has decided to put himself in some mighty strange company and I can only conclude that he is so buried in the idea of fighting a culture war, he has missed the forest for the trees on this one.