The DC reports:
The gay advocacy group that launched a pressure campaign to block comedian Bob Newhart from speaking at a Catholic summit is funded by progressive billionaire George Soros and has close links to President Obama’s new White House counselor, records reveal.
Newhart, 84, pulled out of speaking at a Christmas Week conference in Orlando organized by the Catholic networking group Legatus[…]
Newhart backed out after the gay rights group GLAAD launched a targeted campaign to pressure the legendary comedian and his representatives to disavow his association with Legatus, a supposedly homophobic group that believes in traditional marriage .GLAAD double-teamed Newhart with the gay Christian activist group Faithful America, which launched a petition to force the “Elf” star off the stage[…]
Soros’ Open Society Institute awarded two grants, each totaling $400,000, to Faithful America during Obama’s election year in 2008, according to the institute’s calendar year 2008 990′s.
Soros’ West 59th Street New York City institute enabled Faithful America to join in coalitions pushing for health-care reform and to pressure American Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan to “crack down on partisan political activity in his parishes” during the 2012 election year, an effort that was supported by The New York Times.
Hungarian-born billionaire Soros “identifies himself as an atheist” according to the FAQ’s page on GeorgeSoros.com[…]
“For those who don’t know, I currently serve as chairman of GOProud, an organization of right-leaning gays and their allies. I am very disturbed by the group-think that dominates the Gay Left (heck, the Left in general). They’ve made it their mission to publicly shame anyone who associates with any Christian/Catholic groups or teachings,” wrote conservative activist Lisa de Pasquale in an op-ed for Breitbart News.
“At no time did Newhart endorse any specific beliefs of this organization, yet he was publicly maligned for accepting a gig with a Catholic organization. What’s next? Shaming hotels for hosting their event? Printers for accepting their business?,” de Pasquale wrote.
According to Catholic.org, Legatus, a faithful Catholic organization of Chief Executives, was founded by former Domino’s Pizza CEO, Thomas Monaghan. Membership is only available to top level executives who are faithful Catholics.
CO also reports:
A lifelong Catholic, actor Bob Newhart has a history of working with homosexual people and story lines which include homosexual and lesbian matters. One example is that “The Bob Newhart Show” featured an episode in 1976 with an openly gay character.Newhart also was in the film “In & Out,” in which he played a principal dealing with the coming out (openly declaring himself to be homosexual) of one of his teachers, played by Kevin Kline. Most recently, Newhart won an Emmy Award for his guest appearances on “Big Bang Theory,” opposite of openly gay actor, Jim Parsons.
These stretches of connections between individuals and politically incorrect views is simply absurd. Every day we all deal with people based on specific transactions, and don’t pry beyond that. The grocery store down the street from me is run by a guy from Dubai. He smiles and is always polite to all his customers. I have no idea what his political or religious views are. I doubt he is a libertarian. I am simply glad that he always has on hand the grocery items I need.
My laundry is run by an Asian woman. She is quite ucommunicative. I am not sure if she is shy, depressed or hates Caucasians, but she takes in my clothes gets them washed quickly and cheaply, that’s all I care about.
There is a lesbian at the local Kinko’s that is so sharp and efficient that if I need any printing, shipping or anything else done that is a bit complicated, I will go to the store when she is there. Not because she is lesbian but because she is competent.
That’s the way the world generally works. The world would get pretty crazy, if we had to start examining peoples views before we conducted any transactions with them.
Newhart is a comedian. I’m sure that he would be more than willing to perform/speak to a group of gays, lesbians or transvestites. In fact, what Newhart should have done, instead of cancelling his gig, is told GLAAD and Faithful America that he is a comedian and speaks before any group that pays him and he would be more than happy to speak before any conferences/conventions they have.
Of course, if Newhart wants to only speak to groups that are in line with his views on issues (regardless of what those views may be), then that’s up to him and the groups that want to hear him speak. I don’t see a role for GLAAD and Faithful America at all, in such private transactions. It strikes me that they are running intimidation tactics that border on pure evil. Further, anybody attempting to shut down speech is never going to win.
It is also noteworthy that these Soros-type funded organizations are very selective in who they target. You don’t ever see them make the stretch and call for NYT to fire Paul Krugman despite his regular support on the theories of the anti-Semite John Maynard Keynes.
Reprinted with permission from Economic Policy Journal.
