The scripture squawkers from Westboro were venting their hatred of gay people which they seemed to believe the US Military should be shooting rather than commissioning into its ranks.
It is not just gays that religious zealots have in their sights: women too are frequent targets for the hatred of the religious, in particular those who assert women's rights in the face of clerical opposition.
Since the brutal killing of Ashling Murphy last week vigils have taken place all over the country and beyond in tribute to the dead primary school teacher. From what I have observed the vast bulk of people turning out are women. At the weekend, a Stand For Ashling Vigil was taking place in Limerick’s Bedford Row. Some of those behind it were feminist activists from the group known as ROSA, asserting the right of women to live free from the threat or fear of femicide. Perhaps that is what enraged the religious male mob known as the Men’s Rosary Group who assembled nearby and decided to pollute the street with the noise from the chanting of their rosary. As women tried to speak at the vigil the god squad increasingly pumped up the volume on their electronic sound system. While Stefanie di Croce was reading out the names of murdered women "the PA seemed to be growing louder and louder. It was shocking." According to the Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan the rosary was amplified each time a woman moved to address the vigil. Hardly unintentional or pure coincidence.
The religious of course should be allowed to pray, even in public so long as it does not disrupt the daily lives of others. There is a worrying trend in UK universities where devout Catholics are being institutionally pilloried for holding viewpoints at odds with the secular consensus, at times being the target of cancel culture. This ignores the crucial democratic and secular concept that freedom of religion is as crucial as freedom from religion.
However, the Limerick rosary rant seems to have been more about preying than praying. The Rosary group has been meeting at a different location in Limerick since 2017 but on this occasion, seemingly, the attempt to steal a bit of the thunder from Fred Phelps’ Hate Theology proved irresistible. Ominously, it came against a backdrop described by the Guardian:
Even as thousands stood against gender-based violence over the past week, a Men’s Rosary group tried to drown out female voices at one vigil, a female journalist received a threat warning her against soliciting “negative comments about men”, a man is reported to have masturbated at an online vigil, and male “patriots” with links to the far right stoked xenophobia over the potential nationality of the killer.
about 70 per cent of the same faces (in the Rosary group) from the recent anti-vax protest organised by the Irish Freedom Party in Limerick. The people on Saturday had no compassion for the women who were trying to speak about their own experiences or what happened to Ashling Murphy. One of the speakers was a very shocked fellow student of Ashling’s. They just continued louder and louder with this demonic chanting of the Hail Mary. It was the most un-Christian act I have ever witnessed.
Why the councillor should describe such behaviour as un-Christian is puzzling. Hate Theology has come to be part of the staple diet of many evangelical Christians. And while I may find the sight of adult bead babblers risible, Mary Cahillane, is probably closer to the mark in her observation that "at a time when men are supposed to be listening to women's fears about their safety, they just say the rosary to drown you out."
And when they can't drown you, they burn you. As Dan Foster wrote, "There is No Hate Like ‘Christian’ Love."
⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
And there's few less tolerant of others than true believers.
ReplyDeleteA woman TD should take a leaf out of Jess Phillips' book and read out in the Dail every year the names of femicide victims in Ireland (if this is not already been done).
ReplyDelete'Forgive them, for they know not what they do'
ReplyDelete