{"id":8382,"date":"2005-12-01T10:12:44","date_gmt":"2005-12-01T17:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/12\/01\/mary-mary-mary.html"},"modified":"2005-12-01T10:12:44","modified_gmt":"2005-12-01T17:12:44","slug":"mary_mary_mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/01\/mary_mary_mary.html","title":{"rendered":"“Mary, Mary, Mary …”"},"content":{"rendered":"

DOF rightly takes Bill O’Reilly to task<\/a> over — well, his Bill O’Reillyness.<\/p>\n

Watching Bill O’Reilly talking-points memo this evening, he was mad at a Florida newspaper that blasphemed (or so he thought) the Virgin Mary.<\/p>\n

The newspaper printed an editorial which took the side of a teacher in a Catholic grade school who was fired for being pregnant and unmarried. They concluded by asking if Jesus would have fired the woman, noting; “…after all, His own mother once found herself pregnant and unmarried.”<\/p>\n

“How could they insult Mary like that?!” demanded O?Reilly. “And the elite media didn’t even cover it! If they’d insulted Islam, it would have been front-page news!” He went on to say the paper was either anti-Christian or ignorant of Christian doctrine, and that “…either is unacceptable – don?t buy their paper.”<\/p>\n

Calm down, Bill.<\/p>\n

I didn’t know that being knowledgeable of Christian doctrine was, in fact, a criterion for being a worthwhile newspaper. Live and learn.<\/p>\n

But if so, and if that extends to talking heads and pundits such as Bill O’Reilly, “You gotta a lot of ‘splainin’ to do, Lucy.” Because, to some degree, the paper is right — Mary did <\/em>find herself pregnant and unmarried<\/a>. Her fiancée was ready to break things off, but was going to do so quietly so as not to shame her (or set her up for a stoning). Nevertheless, Mary was almost certainly tut-tutted over by the local folks, along with Joseph (whether folks thought that she’d been sleeping around on him, or that they’d jumped the gun before marriage). Had he been a rabbi at the local temple, yes, he’d probably been fired. <\/p>\n

To answer both the paper and <\/em>O’Reilly, though, Jesus (positing his agreement that unwed motherhood was behavior not to be codoned) would probably<\/a> have looked at the school administration and said, calmly, “The person among you who has not done anything that could get his or her ass fired from this school if it were known, you step right up and sign the termination papers. I’ll just sit here and watch you while you do it. Looking you in the eye the entire time.”<\/p>\n

And to the teacher, he would have said, “Now go, and sin no more.”<\/p>\n

Jesus wasn’t about letting folks off the hook — just about letting them know (a) there was a way <\/em>off the hook, and (b) they couldn’t get off the hook by being self-righteous about others’<\/em> hookedness.<\/p>\n

To be sure, I’m inclined to side with the school in this case, as a private employer and as an educational institution that espouses and teaches a certain moral philosophy, . If they believe that this sort of behavior does, indeed, constitute immoral behavior that might send a bad lesson to their pupils, then that’s their prerogative. It’s not really different from business conduct policies that go beyond the strict letter of the law. I might or might not agree with it, but folk don’t generally ask me to approve of their moral stands before they’re allowed to act on them (which, on the balance, is probably a good thing). <\/p>\n

I just hope, for the sake of the Fellow they all (one assumes) expect to look in the eye one of these days, that the school administrators have been as determinedly forgiving and non-hypocritical as they’ve been determined to act in this matter. And one might offer the same hope toward Bill O’Reilly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOF rightly takes Bill O’Reilly to task over — well, his Bill O’Reillyness. Watching Bill O’Reilly talking-points memo this evening, he was mad at a Florida newspaper that blasphemed (or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26810,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/03\/bill-oreilly-circles-his-wagon-around-rush.html","url_meta":{"origin":8382,"position":0},"title":"Bill O'Reilly circles his wagon around Rush","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 3-Mar-12 1:04am","format":false,"excerpt":"O'Reilly maintains that supporting contraceptive coverage for women -- married or unmarried -- is just covering their \"social life\" (nudge-nudge, wink-wink) at the expense of insurance companies (who, somehow, are equated to \"government\"). (Note to Bill: on the assumption that your own \"social life\" was paid for by your touted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50065,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/14\/hillary-clinton-has-a-big-advantage-bill-oreilly-says-so.html","url_meta":{"origin":8382,"position":1},"title":"Hillary Clinton has a big advantage. Bill O'Reilly says so","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 14-Apr-15 8:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently because it's \"open season\" on Christians and white men in the USA, Hillary Clinton has an advantage in the 2016 election.I have to confess, as a white man who's a Christian, I haven't noticed myself under fire, literal or figurative -- or, at least, no more than anyone else\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31518,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/27\/bill-oreilly-and-the-case-of-the-destructive-demographics.html","url_meta":{"origin":8382,"position":2},"title":"Bill O'Reilly and the Case of the Destructive\u00a0Demographics","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 27-Nov-12 8:54am","format":false,"excerpt":"This was from last week, but we finally watched it last night on DVR, and it's a classic, as \"Bill O'Reilly celebrates America's greatest tradition -- a fevered ruling class lamenting the rise of a diverse new class that will destroy the American experiment.\"Lots of (amusing) lessons in perspective here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30236,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/09\/12\/bill-oreilly-supports-government-funding-for-planned-parenthood-sort-of.html","url_meta":{"origin":8382,"position":3},"title":"Bill O'Reilly supports government funding for Planned Parenthood (sort of)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 12-Sep-12 2:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Bill O'Reilly supports government funding for Planned Parenthood (sort of)Well, not really. In fact, he says he opposes it, \u00a0In fact, he \u00a0says PPA should \"be funded like Catholic charities.\"By which he really meant, as he further explained, \"by individuals who believe in Planned Parenthood's mission,\" rather than by tax\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129368,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/06\/dear-nra-when-youve-lost-even-bill-oreilly-youve-got-a-problem.html","url_meta":{"origin":8382,"position":4},"title":"Dear NRA: When you've lost even Bill O'Reilly, you've got a problem","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 6-Jan-16 9:18am","format":false,"excerpt":"Quoth O'Reilly, \"The NRA and the gun owners should be reasonable. The FBI should background check anyone buying a firearm in America. That just makes sense. If you are paranoid and believe the government is stockpiling information so they can come to your house and take your guns, that\u2019s your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17130,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/04\/15\/bill-oreilly-needs-better-researchers-yes-fox-news-claimed-lack-of-insurance-jail-time.html","url_meta":{"origin":8382,"position":5},"title":"Bill O’Reilly needs better researchers: yes, Fox News claimed lack of insurance = jail time","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-Apr-10 9:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Here you go -- Bill O'Reilly calling Sen Coburn on the carpet for claiming Fox News asserted (incorrectly) that if you don't buy insurance care under ObamaCare, you'll go to jail. Papa Bear then proclaimed boldly that nobody at Fox New had ever said such a thing -- and his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fourth Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}