Was she denied Communion because she’d been chewing gum — or because she’s transgender? https://t.co/cm8rjukgYx— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 27, 2018
With all the really challenging things going on in the world around us right now, my choice to focus on this story might appear baffling. It's a "little" story, perhaps, compared with ones like the raging fire gobbling up a big portion of California, or the (shocking but unsurprising) revelation that the parents of many children snatched from their parents by the U.S. government at the nation's borders cannot be located and there are reports that some of these children are being sexually abused.
Still, little stories are important, too. And what constitutes big and little is relative, isn't it? Here's a series of tweets I posted earlier this past week when news broke that a Catholic church in Charlotte, North Carolina, had denied communion to a transgender teen, and then was backed by the Charlotte Catholic diocese, who claimed that the reason the teen was denied communion was . . . wait for it: she was chewing gum during Mass! My thoughts about this story:
1) Wait, what? The diocesan spokesperson David Hains says some priests tell him they deny communion to parishioners every few weeks because these parishioners are chewing gum during Mass?!— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 27, 2018
2) This claim raises some mind-boggling and very embarrassing about the kind of Catholic church that has been established in the diocese of Charlotte, doesn't it?— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 27, 2018
3) a. Priests celebrating Mass whose minds are supposedly fixed on Jesus' sacrifice on Cavalry are simultaneously slewing their gimlet eyes around the church to spot anyone chewing gum? Do tell.— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 27, 2018
4) b.And said priests are mean enough to use the Eucharist as a weapon to deny communion to someone they've spotted chewing gum (How do they know it's gum the person was chewing? How do they know it wasn't sugarless?)?— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 27, 2018
5. c. And the diocese proudly points to this hateful priest-as-gum-cop behavior and the ostensible enforcement of a fasting rule re: communion to justify what happened in this case — denying communion to a transgender teen?— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 27, 2018
6) I'll take "They've lying, big-time, about what really went on in this case" for $1,000, Alex. I lived in this travesty of a Catholic diocese for about six years and know what it's capable of.— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) July 27, 2018
As you read this story and my response to it, please keep in mind that Belmont Abbey College, a Benedictine Catholic college in the diocese of Charlotte, has explicitly told the federal government that it wants a right-to-discriminate exemption from federal non-discrimination regulations as it receives federal funds, and that Belmont Abbey College explicitly states that it wants a right to discriminate against transgender members of the campus community. And keep in mind that the diocese of Charlotte has announced it is partnering with that same "right-to-discriminate-against-transgender-people" Catholic college, Belmont Abbey College, as it establishes a minor seminary on the Belmont Abbey campus.
Keep in mind as you read this story and my response to it that, as New Ways Ministry's commentary on it states, "there have been repeated anti-LGBT actions in the [Charlotte] diocese." Though this diocese with a very ugly track record of attacking LGBTQ human beings would like you to imagine this is a story about chewing gum in church — nothing to see here, move on — if you have a modicum of intelligence, you'll quickly see it's about something else altogether. Something more than a little sordid, in fact.
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