Chicago Priest Calls for Murder of Gun Shop Owner

[legion]

www.isra.org

Chicago Priest Calls for Murder of Gun Shop Owner

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., May 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following was released today by the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA):

Nobody expected Saturday's Operation PUSH protest at Chuck's Gun Shop & Range to be anything other than a circus of the bizarre. However, nobody anticipated that an address by a Chicago priest would include a call for the murder of a suburban gun shop owner and legislators who oppose gun control.

During an address at an anti-gun rally in front of Chuck's, Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina's Church, exhorted the crowd to "drag" shop owner, John Riggio, from his shop "like a rat" and "snuff" him. Rev. Pfleger went on to tell the crowd that legislators that vote against gun control legislation should be "snuffed" as well. As many know, "snuff" is slang for especially violent murder.

The ISRA has a recording of Pfleger's remarks in MP3 format.

"Certainly Fr. Pfleger has offered Absolution to a murderer or two during his tenure as a priest," commented ISRA Executive Director, Richard Pearson. "That's why it's shocking to hear him actually advocate the murder of a gun shop owner who has never committed a crime in his life. He then compounds the problem by calling for the murder of legislators who disagree with his personal political views -- something I suspect is a felony in this state. Pfleger's comments were disgusting and dangerous. And, I seem to remember that the Fifth Commandment frowns on murdering one's neighbor."

"This week, I'll be penning a letter to the Archbishop, expressing my concerns over Rev. Pfleger's comments," continued Pearson. "I would hope that the Archbishop would reply with words of comfort for Mr. Riggio, his family, state legislators, and all others who were injured by Rev. Pfleger's thoughtless, inflammatory remarks."

The ISRA is the state's leading advocate of safe, lawful, and responsible firearms ownership. Since 1903, the ISRA has represented the interests of over 1.5 million law-abiding firearm Illinois firearm owners.

Do something like this in front of an abortion clinic, and it's national news. Do it in front of a gun shop, and it gets ignored.

[cool_chick]

nice....

NOT.

WTF, man?

[Superman]

Chris, Chris Chris....... Would you agree that your starting point for the remark above is a paraphrase and interpretation of someone's remarks......by an organization that has a political agenda? Did you notice that the priest's remarks are not provided in this story? A word. A phrase. And an interpretation.......

And I guess you just take it from there and build on that?

[nostatic]

the religion of peace my arse. We should kick out all Catholics...

[legion]

Supe, an MP3 of the priest's remarks are available in the link in my first post. Nice try casting doubt without all the info, though.

[Superman]

I've been a Catholic now for more than 45 years. More often than not, priests' remarks do not include calls for murder.

[notfarnow]

Originally posted by nostatic
the religion of peace my arse. We should kick out all Catholics...

From Chicago, no less

[legion]

Originally posted by Superman
I've been a Catholic now for more than 45 years. More often than not, priests' remarks do not include calls for murder.

So what you are saying is that because of your personal experience with different priests in a different part of the country, it is impossible that another priest you have never met could have acted this way?

[cool_chick]

Originally posted by notfarnow
From Chicago, no less

Good idea. Catholics are nothing but a crazy cult anyway. Bwwwaaa

[Jim Richards]

It's not national news unless FOX covers it.

[Superman]

Originally posted by legion
So what you are saying is that because of your personal experience with different priests in a different part of the country, it is impossible that another priest you have never met could have acted this way?

It's possible. If this priest's remarks did in fact seem as though they were condoning murder, there are at least two possibilities. His remarks deliberately condoned murder or his remarks were unfortunately unclear enough to leave the impression he were condoning murder when in fact his intended meaning was otherwise. Either way, the Church will find the remarks, and/or their interpretation, regrettable.

Or perhaps the Catholic Church condones murder. Ever think of that? Maybe the Church approves of murder. Is that your conclusion, Chris?

[legion]

Supe, I've pointed you towards a primary source that you refuse to use. You seem to prefer to guess about what is or is not in the recording and then cast doubt based on your assumptions. Then, you want to deflect the argument by creating the straw man that this some sort of anti-Catholic post. Finally, you completely ignore the point that this was ignored by the media. Three noble attempts at derailing this thread.

[nostatic]

yeah, but if it had been a local Muslim mullah that called for the murder of the gun shop owner, the news (especially Fox) would have been all over it.

Hey, you opened the door...

[thrown_hammer]

Originally posted by nostatic
yeah, but if it had been a local Muslim mullah that called for the murder of the gun shop owner, the news (especially Fox) would have been all over it.

Hey, you opened the door...

What if the Muslim was a conservative republican? Just thinking about that makes my head explode...

[Jeff Higgins]

Catholics have proven, throughout recorded history, to be better shots than Muslims.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally posted by Jeff Higgins
Catholics have proven, throughout recorded history, to be better shots than Muslims.

+1 (I was an altar boy )

[TimothyFarrar]

Supercatholic,

Three hail maries, repentance, and all will be forgiven...

Is that your conclusion

Here is my conclusion,

Actually reporting something like this on broadcast TV news defeats the purpose of entertainment. Entertainment is meant to make you feel better, to support the fantasy bubble of laziness which makes your life easier---paying the government to pass laws and solve problems---the natural easy way to avoid any responsibility. The more repressed guilt you feel about your lacking to take responsibility, the more money you throw at something with the hope that someone else will simply fix it. Also crucial to this bubble is the fantasy that somehow life can be made fair and equal for everyone, so any use of objective thinking in combination with statistics to single out a group of individuals by credit score, race, gender, religion, nationality, job status, etc (and actually target the source of a problem) has to be strictly avoided and instead you must equally suppress all individuals and thus not actually solve anything (ie gun laws).

Given that the market for broadcast TV news is mostly lefties, it would be anti-capitalistic to do anything that might burst the fantasy bubble, make them angry, cause them to stop watching, and thus through loss of viewers, loose the advertising revenue which keeps the machine running.

So seriously, this has nothing to do with the Church. No need to go on the defensive about the Catholic religion over a few bad apples, which statistically is going to happen given human nature. The objective thing to do is to accept this fact and instead of being defensive and trying to make excuses for someone, say it how it is.

[legion]

Welcome to OT Tim, don't say I didn't warn you...

[nostatic]

Originally posted by TimothyFarrar

Given that the market for broadcast TV news is mostly lefties

yeah, just like reality tv.

oh wait...

[jluetjen]

If the priest broke the law, then he should be punished accordingly. I personally don't have any problem understanding the concept that you can't judge a group by an individual -- any more then you can judge individuals by the group. To do otherwise would be to stereotype. It seems pretty obvious to me that others here have difficulty with that distinction.

The priest should be held responsible for his words and actions. If he broke any laws, then the judicial process should determine the punishment. If he were merely excercising his right of free speech, then deal with it and lets move on.