This one is on an oldish thread, and I wouldn’t want anyone to miss it, because it’s so…choice. It’s from someone indignant about my thoughts on the Vatican’s attitude to “radical feminist” nuns, so presumably from a devout Catholic, who presumably thinks that he is therefore A Good Person. [Compassion is at the heart of every great religion. - Karen Armstrong]
Here’s devout good Phil’s pious comment:
What a bitter and twisted immoral egotistical imbecile you are. No one wants your obedience, they would prefer your absence, permanently. No doubt you’ve found yourself a comfortable little billet where you can open your big mouth as wide as you like as often as you like with impunity. Bully for you. Lesbian narcissist. Go back to kissing your reflection.
Doncha just love the virtue of good Catholics like that?


21 comments
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Gnumann, Tyhpos is my motor
June 21, 2012 at 7:20 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Ah, the good all Christian charity and love. It never gets old.
This sounds exactly like something Mother Theresa would have said.
(The last sentence here is actually not snarky, the first is of course. I apologize for any confusion this might lead to.)
Sastra
June 21, 2012 at 7:45 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Whoa, that’s just so bizarre. How did Pope Ratzinger’s private email — one cc’d to all the individual leaders of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious — get leaked in the form of a blog comment???
Relax, Ophelia. Must be some sort of internet glitch. That wasn’t supposed to be directed at you: it’s strictly an internal ecclesiastical matter.
John Kruger
June 21, 2012 at 7:50 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Ah, name-calling. How else could somebody morally superior respond? He must be right.
*end sarcasm*
Brownian
June 21, 2012 at 8:25 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
There’s something special about Catholic defenders of the faith. An extra willingness to let you know they’d lay down your life in defense of the Church’s right to be free of plebian criticism.
Muslims may take umbrage at insults to their god or their prophet, but Catholics seem unique in their blind allegiance to something as mundane as a worldly organization. Even the most ardent fan of a failing sports franchise will claim they love The Game most of all as they hope next year’s draft will change everything, but Catholic defenders never seem to have anything so lofty in their minds. There is a man at the head of an organization, and he and it will not be sullied by rumor and gossip, no matter how truthful it is, and—oops, that reminded me of something else, and I lost my train of thought.
Josh Slocum
June 21, 2012 at 8:27 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
In my mind you will forever be known as “Ophelia Benson, Lesbian Narcissist.” It belongs on a business card.
Lyanna
June 21, 2012 at 8:35 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Religion is compassion!
Didaktylos
June 21, 2012 at 9:01 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
He should be nicknamed IMAX on account of the scale of his projection …
hyperdeath
June 21, 2012 at 9:10 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
He has the audacity to call you bitter?
He’s more bitter that denatonium benzoate.
Blueaussi
June 21, 2012 at 9:22 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
“In my mind you will forever be known as “Ophelia Benson, Lesbian Narcissist.” It belongs on a business card.”
Or as the title of a web comic!
I like how they think being called a lesbian is an insult. When I’m inevitably called a lesbian or a dyke for being too uppity with a penis-bearer, I generally thank them for the compliment. Some of the finest women I have ever known have been lesbians, and some few have done me the honor of calling me friend, so I’m rather pleased to be tarred with that brush.
Ophelia Benson
June 21, 2012 at 9:27 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I know, same here.
I have a not very secret longing to be an honorary Dyke to Watch Out For.
Vicki
June 21, 2012 at 10:18 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Would changing my handle to “Vicki, Bisexual Narcissist” (Pharyngula-style) be infringing on anything here?
Ms. Daisy Cutter, Gynofascist in a Spiffy Hugo Boss Uniform
June 21, 2012 at 10:21 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
“And if there were any justice in this fallen world, that billet wouldn’t exist, and the church fathers would have you burnt at the stake as you so deserve.”
CT
June 21, 2012 at 10:21 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
“but Ah’m not that way so you can’t say it’s true because not all of us are like that”
/snark
Emrysmyrddin
June 21, 2012 at 10:34 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Anyone that comments on a thread that old should be double-tapped just as a precaution – this Patient Zero could set off a zombie-thread avalanche and before you know it every thread becomes TZT…
Alyson Miers
June 21, 2012 at 10:35 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
bitter and twisted immoral egotistical imbecile
That describes an awful lot of Catholic bishops and cardinals, actually.
clarysage
June 21, 2012 at 10:36 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Gnumann, don’t be so quick to assume that Mother Teresa is a paragon of virtue. She took money from the Duvalier family in Haiti and praised his bloody regime, for one thing. Read what Hitchens has said about her.
Ophelia Benson
June 21, 2012 at 10:41 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Vicki, no, feel free.
Steve Bowen
June 21, 2012 at 10:51 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I want to be a lesbian narcissist when I grow up.
Nentuaby
June 21, 2012 at 1:10 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Clarysage,
I think you misread Gnumann’s comment. The antecedent of “this” is the original nasty post. It was not complimentary of MT at all.
Nentuaby
June 21, 2012 at 1:18 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Didaktylos,
Oh snap. That’s one for the quote files.
'Tis Himself
June 21, 2012 at 4:10 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Why do I get the idea that Phil doesn’t quite approve of Ophelia?