Why I can't respect...

law professor Ann Althouse as the sole "First Amendment: Law and Religion" teacher at the University of Wisconsin Madison.* It becomes obvious that she's unable to maintain viewpoint neutrality, as evidenced in this post:

"Voodoo priest linked to Flatbush blaze is one of many scammers, predators, say neighbors."

What a ridiculous headline from the Daily News! The man's link to the fire is that he was the source of a candle.

A voodoo priest whose ritual candles sparked a deadly fire in Brooklyn last month is just one of a cadre of supposed mystics who prey on women for money and sex.

The women - most of them African or Haitian - sought good fortune, fertility, love, employment and sometimes revenge....

"It is very discreet," said Father Jean-Miguel Auguste, who heads the St. Jerome Catholic Church about a block from the E. 29th St. fire. "No one really talks about it."

Auguste, who came to the parish in 2004, said he's counseled hundreds of women who were taken advantage of by the smooth-talking con artists.

So you have rival religions, and a representative of one portrays the other as preying on people. Why not portray the Catholic priests as "smooth-talking con artists"?

"In this community we have people who are desperate," said Auguste, 51, a Haitian immigrant. "When you are desperate, you will believe anything."

Ahem. Listen to yourself, man.
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Later, responding to commenters who object, she adds:

If adult women choose to have sex with the men they choose as their spiritual advisors, that is a matter of individual choice and no kind of outrage for some other man to complain about.

Now if you have sex with minors, that's another matter. The Catholic Church has had a special problem there.

But adults having sex? That is a a question of personal freedom, and the priest sticking his nose into it implies a patronizing, infantilizing view of the women.

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My comments, after reading her post today (which I'm sure will be soon deleted. If you challenge her p.o.v., you become a harrassing troll and all...)

Right Professor.

Because everybody Educated knows, those Catholic aid groups are just out to scam immigrants, and get in their childrens' pants...

Let's say, there really IS a voodoo con artist preying on these women. Is it acceptable to point this out, someone close enough to the population to observe such practices? (or just leave them alone to individually learn on their own, the hard way?)

If so, who exactly is that going to be do you think? The Educated ones, mostly who can't be bothered to interact at any great length with such subgroups? The sociologists, professionally studying the newcomers, at a distance? Or maybe the paid, secular government social workers, with such great track records?

You maybe mean well, but historically and even today, the Church has probably helped immigrants more in reality -- educations, medical care, charity groups -- than the Educated ilk who stand on the sidelines with cynical scorn...

And the minority of pervert priests does not change those facts. Stick with what you know? Or is there something you know personally about Fr. Auguste that makes you want to smear his reputation like that?

If so ... please do talk about it, and don't be so subtle.

Re. "If adult women choose to have sex with the men they choose as their spiritual advisors, that is a matter of individual choice and no kind of outrage for some other man to complain about."

Sounds like later, they all believed they'd been duped. Vulnerable newcomers and all...

The Priest seemed to be in a position to observe a pattern. And you know what they say about those observable patterns ... often, even in retrospect, they're telling.

Sunshine Cleans. Out in the Open. Good mottos for all faiths.

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* It comes across in the classroom, man.
Her Educated contempt. Believe me...