A follow-up to incitement to religious hatred

 

 

Thank you, Patrick, for your post on Mr. Damian Thompson’s report of the Peter Tatchell production that will soon air on British television. Mr. Thompson correctly takes to task those responsible for not only the production but also the distribution of a terribly flawed propaganda exploit that is being passed off as a documentary.

 

In the past I have been critical of some elements of the media because of what I saw in particular reporting as a disservice to the truth—not my truth, but the objective truth that surrounds us and to which our merciful God leads us. The Tatchell production is one further illustration of a concern that I share with others. So, what interest does Catholic legal theory have in this? One item quickly surfaces: if public discourse is vital to our society and the legal norms that it develops, do contributions such as the Tatchell production foster or suppress authentic dialogue vital to the democratic experiment? As John Courtney Murray reminded us a half century ago, “Civility dies with the death of dialogue.” The Tatchell documentary is counterproductive to dialogue. The harm to civility that welcomes the Church’s contribution to civil society may just be around the corner.

 

RJA sj