The Creep of the Week column runs next to this editorial each week, but we felt it necessary to deem our own “creeps” this week — two local “leaders” whose recent actions have proven them anything but: Archbishop Charles Chaput and U.S. Sen. Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.).
The first has been at the center of controversy following the firing of a gay religion teacher from a local Catholic school. While the archdiocese initially sought to distance itself from the decision, Chaput added fuel to the fire, and salt to the wound, when he released a statement this week, commending the sisters of Waldron Mercy Academy for terminating longtime educator Margie Winters, a decision he said showed “character and common sense.” Chaput went on to seem befuddled as to the fervor and furor over the decision. His position of authority has either drastically catapulted him out of touch with his constituents or he is feigning ignorance so honest dialogue can be avoided — and to kick any culpability under the carpet.
Either would be believable from the man who congratulated a school in his former Denver diocese for kicking out a kindergartener because of her lesbian parents and whose statements on LGBT identity — and many other topics — reflect a serious lack of understanding of and appreciation for, willful or not, the diversity of the human experience.
Joining Chaput on the anti-LGBT bandwagon was Toomey, who rejected a measure to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the classes of student characteristics protected from discrimination in public schools. Federal law currently bans discrimination stemming from such traits as race and national origin and, with the pervasive — and well-documented — anti-LGBT harassment ongoing in American classrooms, it’s only “common sense” to expand the law to protect as many youth as possible. However, Toomey and dozens of other Republicans inexplicably closed ranks for no seeming reason other than party politics.
While Toomey orbits legislative circles and Chaput religious, the two are undoubtedly linked — and both depend on the public for sustenance. Toomey is up for re-election next year, with LGBT ally Joe Sestak gearing up for a primary challenge. If the LGBT community is fed up with his brand of leadership, it should mobilize to put an end to it. And, Chaput’s hierarchy is held up by donations from faithful; maybe it’s time to cut the money flow until the Catholic leaders in our city acknowledge the tangible harm their closed-mindedness is having on their followers.
Character and common sense can trump people undeserving of positions of power.