I just can't get worked up over it.

So, in the news this week:

A reality television star whose reality is that of a rural Evangelical nut case says some offensive things about gays, says some even more offensive things about African Americans, and everyone clutches their pearls.

To the conservatives:  Free speech means you can indeed say what you want.  It means the government cannot imprison you or prevent you from speaking. It  does NOT mean you can say what you want and remain employed. And it applies to left as well as right.  As Juan Williams says

“The right goes after Martin Bashir, they wanted Martin Bashir fired,” Williams said. “Remember Dixie Chicks, or Tim Robbins, or Bill Maher? All of that, the right says get them out of here. But then they want to cry foul when people are intolerant of them.” 

“The reason that the right is so strongly backing this is because they think this is a potential wedge issue, especially with older, white, evangelical voters,” Williams said. 

“When I got fired, it was part of an honest debate about terrorism in our society. My employer didn’t like it and fired me. But this is not about honest debate. What was said actually shuts down debate. It was ugly language about homosexual acts. It invites bigotry. It invites people to hate people who are gay. And this is amazing, because it is not in the Christian tradition to make judgments about them and to put them in a box.”

Hypocrisy, much?

Then there was another Roman Catholic purge of a gay teacher  who got married, this time in Washington state.  (I've told you about many of these before).

This time, however, the students are responding strongly.  The students staged a walk out, which spread to other Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese.  And, they took it to the office of the Archdiocese chanting "Change the Church."  Remember, there's a huge fall-away of young Catholics from the church in this country.  This is why. These kids are standing up for what they think is right.  And, hearteningly, many of their parents are right behind them.