Parrish: Stay silent or get bashed?
I asked a pregnant woman if she had spoken with Rick Majerus about family planning. She hadn't. She'd never heard of Rick Majerus, and seemed disinterested about discussing her reproductive rights with a total stranger.
I was relieved. So, I would imagine, is Archbishop Raymond Burke.
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| If the good Archbishop wants to complain on something, how about Saint Louis' stinky play? (AP) |
In other words, the good archbishop has created a new firestorm around the already crispy local basketball coach over the genuinely preposterous notion that any human being on the planet could be influenced by Majerus' opinion of reproductive rights.
For one, Majerus, as near as anyone knows, has never fathered a child or even a potential one. He is a Catholic, and a thinking human being, but as he pointed out to the astute interviewer, he is not a woman. If he were ... nahh, let's let that go.
For two, he was not hired at Saint Louis based on his knowledge of or adherence to church orthodoxy, and I would cheerfully bet he was never asked about it during his interview: "Rick, we'd like you to speak about recruiting the greater St. Louis area, but first, let's tackle transubstantiation. Your thoughts?"
And for three, are you kidding?
Majerus was asked principally about stem-cell research, and he came out in favor of alleviating suffering through science. He did not pass himself off as an expert on the issue, which of course leads to questions about why anyone would ask him in the first place, but we'll let that go, too.
Then the interviewer asked what his opinion of abortion was, and he said with his usual reticence, "I don't want to go there (half-second pause) ... I'm pro-choice myself."
Why the interviewer thought Majerus was a worthwhile subject for an abortion question escapes me, except he apparently wanted to find out if he was an orthodox Catholic. One must assume he will next ask Gary Pinkel the same thing as part of his ongoing series, "Stuff I Ask People Whose Opinions On The Subject Aren't Really Useful."
In any event, Majerus spoke his mind, and rightly or wrongly, someone who isn't even his boss spoke out against that right. To speak his mind, that is, not reproductive rights.
And now Majerus is back in the stew because Archbishop Burke wants him to be.
