The patron saint of rage, self-victimization, intolerance, and bigotry

When CNN’s Chris Cuomo opened up his interview on Tuesday morning with Bill Donohue, the President of the Catholic League, it seemed likely that Donohue would at least somewhat echo the sentiments of the Pope. Not quite. “Do you feel like apologizing to the LGBT community?” said Cuomo…. “No,” said Donohue. “As a matter of fact, I want an apology from gays! I’ve been assaulted by gays. I’ve never assaulted a gay person in my entire life!”…. And it got worse from there. Donohue recounted a story about, “being assaulted by lesbians,” and demonstrated an unwillingness to accept 100% of what Cuomo perceived as Pope Francis’ point. The rest of the conversation devolved into some sort of sarcastic shouting match that featured Donohue rattling off his accomplishments of just how much he has helped the disenfranchised in his life….”I don’t want to have a lifestyle thrusted in my face though!” he said at one point about the gay community…. “How are they putting their gay on you?” Cuomo retorted for clarification.

On Planet Bizarro, The Catholic League’s Bill Donohue would be a sainted avatar of Christian love and compassion. People would look to him as a model for leading a Christ-like life and ministering to those less fortunate.

Here on Earth, though, Donohue has repeatedly demonstrated himself to be a “Christian”…if your working definition is “rage-addicted bigot and homophobe who models acceptance and tolerance in the same way Timothy McVeigh modeled a lifelong commitment to nonviolent conflict resolution.” Perhaps I have an unfortunate habit of catching him on terrible, horrible, very bad days, but it seems as if every time I see him being interviewed on television, his face is red, the veins in his forehead are throbbing, and he’s spewing spittle in every direction. Simply put, Bill Donohue seems the very definition of someone who couldn’t lead a Christ-like life if Jesus His Own Self handed him an instruction manual (you might know it as a “Bible”).

Given his homophobia and predilection for demonizing the LGBT community, his claims of being victimized by gays are unsurprising…if wholly inaccurate- unless by “victimized,” he means “they’re breathing the same air I am.”

What tripped Saint Bill’s trigger on this occasion? How about the Pope having the temerity to show a modicum of compassion and kindness to the LGBT community:

I believe that the church not only should apologize to the person who is gay whom it has offended, but has to apologize to the poor, to exploited women, to children exploited for labor; it has to ask forgiveness for having blessed many weapons.

Perhaps Donohue was incensed the Pope didn’t apologize to the oppressed White Christian majority, whose morality and religious freedom are constantly under attack by militant, godless Liberals (and gays) who want nothing more than to Make America Gay Again ©.

Then again, when your very existence is informed by white-hot rage directed at those Not Like Us © for having the audacity to believe they possess the right to breathe the same air and exist in the same world you do, what you get is a model rage-addicted ball of hate Christian like Bill Donohue.

And people wonder how I can be good without God….