Well, as I said before: Whenever we lump all members of a group together and condemn them all for the misdeeds of a few, that's bigotry. And yes, that happens frequently here. Certainly, it's not in every message and it's not expressed by every Mudcatter, but there certainly IS a lot of bigotry here, and it often overwhelms attempts to discuss issues rationally.

There is plenty of valid criticism, and I have no quarrel with that whatsoever. Almost countless incidents of sexual and physical abuse of children took place in the Catholic Church, and that is indeed worthy of criticism and serious, probing discussion. I was critical of Catholic handling of child molestation as far back as 1985, maybe earlier. But I question the criticism when it strays from the facts and the actual misconduct that took place and drifts into accusations that have little or no factual basis, or when it results in broad generalizations, or when it ridicules my religious faith. I found the "imaginary friend" posts of a while back to be particularly bigoted.

ollaimh, if you want to criticize what I say, that's fine - but point to an actual statement I made and THEN discuss it. I have said many times that I agree with most of the criticism posted here, and there are very few incidents discussed here that I deny. What you've said about me so far is just a damn insult, because you have not given any factual basis for your accusations.

-Joe-