NOT THE SHARPEST KNIFE IN THE DRAWER: Cast Out First The Beam Out Of Thine Own Eye
The Rev. Tony La Torre of St. Philip the Apostle Church was apoplectic over a local novelty store selling merchandise he considered offensive to Catholics - such as Jesus pencil erasers and "Beware of Nunzilla” wind-up toys - so he retaliated by asking parishioners to boycott the Jew-owned store and to "be sure to poke your head in ... and tell them why,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle:
He may be the Second Coming to many San Franciscans - but [La Torre] wants a popular prayer candle with President Obama's picture on it pulled from a local gift shop saying it "mocks Jesus" and "depicts our beloved saints in a not so saintly way." …
The candles feature the president's halo-adorned head plastered onto the crucifix-clutching body of St. Martin de Porres, the Peruvian-born friar regarded as one of the first black saints in the Americas. …
Store owners Robert Ramsey and David Eiland [who are not Jewish] say they've sold more than 700 candles since putting them on display over the Christmas holiday. …
[T]o La Torre, the candles featured in a big window display were "the final straw" for a store "that feels the need to mock and ridicule the Catholic/Christian faith."…
The San Francisco Archdiocese … contact[ed] the priest to express its concern over his "Jewish" reference. La Torre has since retracted the reference, saying he only meant that the owners - if Jewish, as he says he was led to believe - "should know what it feels like to be mocked and ridiculed."
Leaving aside that two wrongs don’t make a right, had La Torre a sense of humor, he might have realized that the votive candles are not mocking Jesus or St. Martin de Porres, but those whose love of Obama has trespassed into idolatry – that is, worship of a false god (second item). Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.
[Hat Tip: The Heel, an Ivy-educated attorney with a prestigious New York firm, and occasional contributor to this blog.]
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