ESPN to Manny Pacquiao: Stop Defending 'Cruel, Untrue' Catholic Church
ESPN's Grantland website jumped on the bash Manny Pacquiao bandwagon on Thursday by giving a platform to a homosexual activist, who predictably trashed the Catholic Church as she took the Filipino boxing sensation to task for defending traditional marriage.
Writer Laurel Fantauzzo ripped the "the Church's cruel, untrue dictates about me," and promised if he didn't "evolve" like President Obama, "I'll simply have to sigh wearily and turn away from you, the way I've turned away from all of the idiotic bigots I've come across in my life, carrying a cross or a heavy book or a Constitution."
In her post, "An Open Letter to Manny Pacquiao From a Gay Filipina American," Fantauzzo wasted little time before targeting the traditional Christian teaching against homosexual acts. Even as she dropped many references to the strong Catholic culture in the Philippines, she all but admitted that the Church was her enemy because of what it taught:
...I know, though, that you [Pacquiao] also don't want me to be married. I know you think this is a perfectly reasonable, justified stand to take against me. You're like a lot of Filipinos: Catholic. Powerfully, post-colonially Catholic.....
I've stood in front of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo Church that you pray to after each fight...I've felt the power and the grace of it. I get it....When you grow up Filipina — or Italiapina, as I did — your parents give you Catholicism as a kind of heavy gift. A centuries-old guide for every life transition a human can go through. Birth, death, the burden of any wrongdoing, and, yes, marriage. But as I grew older and realized the dreaded word applied to me — lesbian — I realized the Church was what I'd have to feint and duck; the Church's cruel, untrue dictates about me were what I'd have to dance with and defeat....
...When I faced Proposition 22, Proposition 8, DOMA, Amendment 1, and too many dictates from the Church, and relatives, and leaders like you, who called me disordered, dangerous, diseased, doomed, how did I survive?...
I don't have a wife yet...but I hope one day I will....why would you deny this of me? In those quiet moments I imagine for you, when you ask yourself how you survived, I believe that your wife, more than anyone, is the one who helps to lessen the loneliness of your greatness. Ask yourself: Could you have survived all of this without her?
I'm glad I didn't die...and that I survived to this day, when more people in my life decry you than support you for wanting to prevent my marriage in the name of some cold, removed Church and God. Every day I am amazed by the wealth of my survival. I'm as amazed as you must be, or have forgotten to be, about yours.
So I'm going to extend an invitation to you...Manny, that I don't think a lot of gays would extend to you these days. I want to invite you to spend some time with me and my friends....I know there's a better heart in you...that would beat with more than the repetitive ill will you bear toward us in the biblical abstract. If you spent some time with us — if you saw the specific sweetness that makes up our human pursuit of love and marriage — maybe you'd think, you'd feel, you'd change. The way my parents have changed toward me. The way my President has changed toward me. The way I've changed toward myself....
But maybe you never will. Maybe you'll simply reopen your Bible, find those selective passages, and recite them to me again. Maybe I'll simply have to sigh wearily and turn away from you, the way I've turned away from all of the idiotic bigots I've come across in my life, carrying a cross or a heavy book or a Constitution.
Grantland's article followed quickly on the heels of a Wednesday post on Yahoo's ThePostgame.com online sports magazine, which badmouthed Pacquiao as a "homophobic boxing superstar" and a "bigoted boxer."
The website's editor noted in their short bio of Fantauzzo that she was a "2011 Fulbright Scholar to the Philippines. She's currently an Arts Fellow at the University of Iowa Master of Fine Arts in Nonfiction program." Shamelessly, the unnamed editor added, "Ladies, she's also currently single." But Grantland completely left out the radical activism in her background.
Astraea Lesbian Foundation For Justice gave a $10,000 grant to the writer in 2009-2010, and disclosed that she "has contributed to AfterEllen and Go Magazine, among other publications. She also founded the popular We Are Not the Enemy photo blog in response to California’s Proposition 8." In September 2011, she wrote an article for the online magazine The FilAm ("a magazine for Filipino Americans in New York"), where she promoted the so-called RH ("reproductive health") bill in the Philippines, which would legalize abortifacients and contraceptives, and is staunchly opposed by the Catholic bishops in the country.
Back in July 2011, Catherine Maggio of the MRC's Culture and Media Institute documented how ESPN was siding with left-wing homosexual activists on its main website.
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Comments
There can be no doubt about it now:
Submitted by motherbelt on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 10:30am.
the Catholic Church is under direct attack.
It started with the HHS mandate, and this is Round 2.
When even ESPN starts attacking the Church and badgering her members to excommunicate themselves, it's all-out war.
Fr. Hollowell made this video in response to the HHS mandate,
but tarting at the 5:30 mark, his remarks are equally applicable to this situation.
The leftist "gay rights" movement has joined Planned Parenthood as a "sworn enemy" of the Church.
No one needs to break their faith for the faithless like her.
Submitted by drsamherman on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 10:31am.
If she does not want to be a Catholic, so be it. If she wishes to live a lifestyle which is abhorrent to the values of the Church, so be it. The Church teaches a very simple premise: love the sinner but hate the sin. That message is over 2,000 years old and still resounds with hundreds of millions of observant Catholics throughout the world. The whining, petulant and immature brat wants everyone else to change to suit her demands, and her expectations for doing so are driven entirely by her sexual orientation and not on any monumental theological revelation. Her faith is in her genitals, which is the lowest anyone can go.
This is no longer about
Submitted by motherbelt on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 10:40am.
This is no longer about "Catholics" who disagree with Church teaching and whether they should remain members, or even about their personal lifestyles.
It's gone WAY beyond that.
This is about direct attacks on the Church from the left, and what I see as an attempt to paint it as a "fringe cult," ostracize it as an agent of "hate" and drive it out of the public square altogether.
I believe it's deeper and
Submitted by ontheright on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 11:36am.
I believe it's deeper and more sinister than that - I think it's a full frontal assault on the 1st ammendment to the US Constitution. I'm puzzled though, I would have thought they (our internal socialist enemies) would complete their "under the radar" attempt to repeal the 2nd ammendment first - fast & furious et.al. But then again, I'm convinced the stories of Obowmaolinksy and his ilk's brain power have been much over rated. And it would appear that they've run up against an abutment (the previously sleeping silent majority) and they don't know how to react - there will be blood in the streets. Because the radical left has nothing but violence left in their woefully under stocked bag of tricks...
@ on the right, i agree
Submitted by right of way on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 2:42pm.
it seems that after j edgar hoover died and we stopped going after commies, the commies who are secular have gained momentum in attacking religion. notice she (by the picture, i thought it was a man at first) said she hates the bible and the constitution, i love both.
The purpose of the Church is
Submitted by rbosque on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 10:32am.
The purpose of the Church is to save her soul, the purpose of the Constitution is to keep her free. A heavy price was paid for both. She's free to reject them but that would make her the only idiot in the room.
Um, Laurel?
Submitted by UpNorth on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 10:42am.
The pres(id)ent didn't change, he was for gay marriage all along. He just lied to get elected.
And, if we don't agree with you, and support you, we're one "of the idiotic bigots I've(sic) come across in my life, carrying a cross or a heavy book or a Constitution"? Sorry, I don't accept your twisted, warped worldview of anyone who doesn't immediately fall in line with the quest for acceptance of an aberrant life.
This woman
Submitted by misterbee241 on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 10:47am.
needs to join the Pelosi Catholic Church. I had no idea the RC church was waging a personal vendetta against HER.
"...the Church's cruel,
Submitted by rbosque on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 10:49am.
"...the Church's cruel, untrue dictates about me,"
Yes it's ALL about you isn't it? The Church isn't there to make her feel good about her lyfestyle choices.
The Church is not "untrue" but the pillar and foundation of truth... "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." 1 Timothy 3:15.
classic example
Submitted by right of way on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 2:46pm.
classic example of someone trying to change the rules to fit their sinful behavior.
Amen!
Submitted by almostacowboy on Mon, 05/21/2012 - 12:14pm.
.
I am getting sick and tired
Submitted by ricklail on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 11:37am.
I am getting sick and tired of ESPN and their politics. Shut the hell up and report the sports or call the action.
Laurel, I invite you
Submitted by RESTLESS 1 on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 12:01pm.
So I'm going to extend an invitation to you...Laurel, that I think a lot of Catholics would extend to you these days. I want to invite you to spend some time with me and my friends....I know there's a better heart in you...that would beat with more than the repetitive ill will you bear toward us in defense of your sexual abstract. If you spent some time with us — if you saw the specific sweetness that makes up our human pursuit of love and marriage — maybe you'd think, you'd feel, you'd change.
I don't have a wife yet...but I hope one day I will....
Submitted by CJohnson on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 1:12pm.
Where slavery is banned, having a 'wife' is a must. I wonder if dipwit read the job description. Every full time employee I know wishes for a 'wife'.
Grantland sucks!
Submitted by NJRightWinger12 on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 1:13pm.
Juast like liberal sports net ESPN!
Kenny Mayne, ESPN Employee & Palin HATER
Submitted by djwolf12 on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 5:22pm.
http://www.fireandreamitchell.com/2011/08/26/espn-owned-by-abc-warns-pau...
ESPN has gone total Progressive in their writings and politics. They have truly become an extension of ABC (the All Barack Channel).
homosexual marriage?
Submitted by truckinmann on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 1:57pm.
Seeing as this person detests the idea of the churches position on homosexuality, shouldn't her view of marriage, which was originally instituted by God as between a man and a woman, be that she doesn't want any part of it? What the homosexuals truly want is for people not to follow God, so they can feel better about the aberrant lifestyle they choose to live. Why wouldn't a homosexual be ok with a civil union which has all the benefits of marriage? Because they want God to accept their sinful union between two of the same sex? God will never do that. Homosexuality is an abomination according to God. Homosexuals are trying to redefine marriage so they can say "God approves of what I'm doing." They are only fooling themselves by pushing this agenda, not God.
Hay, Laurel... You're a coward!
Submitted by CobraMan on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 2:13pm.
Hay, Laurel, anyone can stand before a microphone and preach. The real courage comes from a face to face confrontation. Why don't you tell Pacquiao how "bigoted" he is TO HIS FACE! I don't think you have the guts. I'm quite sure that, if you ever did meet him face to face, you wouldn't "turn away," you'd RUN AWAY! You're a coward, pretending to be a hero.
And why do I believe this? It's because you have no conviction, no sense of righteousness. That's obvious, since you claimed to have stood outside the Church in disapproval, but never had the courage to ENTER it and state your beliefs to the congregation. You were too afraid to "enter the lion's den," as they say. It's no wonder you can't find a wife. No one wants a coward for a husband.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
A babbling moronic idiot,
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 4:47pm.
A babbling moronic idiot,
The Bible predicted this
Submitted by ohio granny on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 8:33pm.
The Bible predicted Christians would be persecuted and that is exactly what is happening all over the world, not just in Muslim countries. Even though this country was founded on Judeo Christian principles, the left mocks christians and tries to drive God out of public life everywhere. Shame of them.
Also predicted
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 8:44pm.
A falling away, where men call good evil, and evil good.
So many lies by omission...
Submitted by fadeinlight on Sun, 05/20/2012 - 12:16am.
Think back, long and hard, to all of the media coverage you've seen on organized Christianity. When was the last time you saw a piece that detailed the amount of -good- these organizations do for society?
For many, that last statement comes off as laughable...and that shows precisely how bad things have gotten. We all know that churches organize drives and feed the homeless (often in countries that are the hardest hit by famine and/or poverty). In fact, the Salvation Army and Feed the Children (the 2nd and 3rd largest charitable organizations in the United States, respectively) are both Christian organizations. But when was the last time you heard that reported?
There is so much good that churches do, that is going completely unheralded by the press. Instead, you hear only about these constant attacks on what is surely the non-issue of our time: gay marriage.
I would take the millions of people fed over the thousands of people frustrated any day.
Me to ESPN:
Submitted by djwolf12 on Sun, 05/20/2012 - 5:07pm.
Stop with the "schtick", report the scores and show some highlights. Your comedy routine has gotten old.
I can't believe there's such a thing as a homophobic boxer.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Sun, 05/20/2012 - 5:29pm.
After all, pugilism and homosexuality go together like a _____________ and a _____________.
Okay
Submitted by panzerakc on Sun, 05/20/2012 - 11:40pm.
"I'll simply have to sigh wearily and turn away from you, the way I've turned away from all of the idiotic bigots I've come across in my life, carrying a cross or a heavy book or a Constitution."
I'm guessing Manny (and many others) wish she'd get on with the "turning away from you" aready.