If I Were King

Early this week I got a message from John Hall, the congresscritter from New York’s 19th district. The subject line read, “The Hall Report: I Want to Hear From You”. John, I doubt that very much, you lowlife spamming weasel.

The message was addressed to one of my administrative accounts with the name Brian Guerra. For all I know, Brian is one of Hall’s constituents. I haven’t corresponded with Brian for years, the address that Hall sent his newsletter to was, in fact, once Brian’s address at Quotes of the Day. I bought that site from Brian in 2000. As Hall has only been in office for a year, there’s simply no way that he legitimately got that address with that name associated with it. There’s no way that he legitimately got that address at all.

So I went to Hall’s website to share a piece of my mind. The mailing was political speech, and I adamantly oppose any attempts to limit or censor such communication. I also think that any elected official that demonstrates his sense of ethics and concern for the electorate by sending spam to people 3,000 miles outside his district should be promptly defeated, and I told him that in a feedback form.

He wasn’t impressed. In fact, he didn’t get the message. Within two minutes I got this in my e-mail:

Thank you for contacting my office and/or subscribing to my e-newsletter. You have received this automatically generated reply because the House computer system has been unable to confirm that your address is in the 19th Congressional District of New York. Unfortunately, Congressional rules prohibit me from using official Congressional funds to initiate communications with anyone outside my district.

That compounds his sin. He not only feels he has the right to interrupt my day with his message, but he has a system that makes sure he doesn’t get interrupted by my message to him.

If I were king, there wouldn’t be any congress, but there’s no reason to wait for that happy day to get this loser out of any position of responsibility. If you’re in the 19th district of New York, come September you’ll have the chance to bounce him in the primary, and if that fails, come November you’ll have the chance to retire him in favor of someone from another party. I hope you do, it will give him time to pursue a career more in keeping with his intelligence. Something along the lines of stocking paper clips in an office-supply warehouse.

Sometimes you have to wonder about the Roman Catholic Church. Facing many challenges in a world where millions welcome the Gospel message but aren’t quite so willing to swallow the male-dominated hierarchical church, Rome selected the head of the Inquisition to be their new leader in April 2005. (The Roman church has never had a branch formally called “The Inquisition”, but the current name of that body is the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Cardinal Ratzinger led prior to his election.) More recently, the Archdiocese of Saint Louis may have topped that.

In an AP story that appeared in the New York Times last month, “Two Faiths Divided on Women’s Ordination Ceremony”, the Rev. Vincent Heier, director of the archdiocesen office for ecumenical and interreligious affairs is quoted as saying, “This is not a lack of forgiveness, but we have to stand for something. It’s a matter of principle.” And what is this core principal? That other religious bodies not offer assistance to women who wish to be ordained as priests.

In this particular story, a Jewish congregation made their sanctuary available for an ordination service for two women. The archdiocese was not in any way involved. Out of courtesy, the rabbi let Rev. Heier know of their plans. The archdiocese responded, according to the AP story they vowed never again to work with the congregation.

In times past, the archdiocese and the Central Reform Congregation were involved together in advocacy for the poor and immigrants. They doubtless provided support for some of the same soup kitchens. I guess that all stops now.

Reverend Heier, let me tell you something: As representatives of Jesus Christ in the third millennium at Saint Louis, support for the hungry and the foreigners in your community is a core principal. Choosing to not make use of women who are called to ordained ministry within your parishes is an organizational fetish, it’s not a principle. Refusing to work with others in the community who don’t share this fetish isn’t a principle, it’s an absurdity.

If I Were King, or even Bishop of Rome, I’d send Rev. Heier to his room for a while to think about what his core principles are.

(Another gem rescued by the WayBack Machine, originally filed on 31 October 2004)