A Short Rant

Since I've just started school, and have less time to devote to my comments on some of the Holy Father's works, I'm going to preach to the choir, so to speak, and stand on my soap-box here for a little rant.

For those of you who don't know, (which is hard to imagine considering the world-wide attention this story has got) Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller, who is also a Toyota dealership owner and movie theater owner here in Salt Lake, has pulled the movie "Brokeback Mountain" (or "Bareback Mountain," as I've come to unaffectionately think of it) from his movie theaters.

Of course, we first have to address the issue of hypocrisy which has come from the liberal bastion here in Salt Lake. For instance, isn't is hypocritical for Mr. Miller to show such films as "40 Year-Old Virgin" while at the same time banning "Brokeback Mountain" from his theaters? Well, sure. I can't disagree with that sentiment. But here's the rub: Is the hypocrisy of Mr. Miller really the problem for these folks? I would have to say, "No."

You see, many people, without really recognizing it, see the banning of a movie as a threat to their agenda. Is it really that hard to see a correlation between the hypocrisy of Mr. Miller and the same hypocrisy exhibited by liberals with their outcry of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ?" Were these not the same folks who criticized the "bloodiness" of Mel Gibson's film out one side of their mouth while they were crying for "freedom of expression" out the other side?

In short, the liberal cry for "tolerance" and "freedom of expression" only is applicable when it suits their agenda. If the banning of a movie gives people the right to "give the finger" to Christian "freedom of expression" then, and only then, does intolerance become acceptable. Open-mindedness becomes merely a phantom when the business decisions of a theatre owner become labeled as "bigoted," "immature," and the like. The only things that are truly bigoted and immature are the rejection of values with no honest discussion of the implications that the homosexual lifestyle, and the movie that glorifies it, have for society as a whole.

Patrick Morris