“What is more troubling is the current editorial regime at First Thoughts.”
Again, I had been commenting on FT for only a couple of years so I don’t know much of the past. By the time I was participating, David Nickols and Boonton had already infested the comments with their liberal/homosexual agenda – with clear and full support of the editor(s) and writer(s). While conservative commenters were systematically censored, Nickols and Boonton just blabbered away. I began to notice a pattern – a conservative article would be posted and immediately Nickols would comment on it attacking the conservative point endlessly. If you tried to argue back, you were often censored. It completely skewed the “debate” because the arguments were being censored on one side only. A rigged political site pretending to be conservative while letting its professed conservative viewpoints to be demolished in the comments – by outright censorship.
What was also suspicious was the timing – Nickols was often the first to post a comment on every article dealing with homosexuality/sexuality. (Did he sit 24 hours in front of his computer? or did he know in advance that the post was going to be published? One or both of the Matthews (writers) just gush over Nickols- aside from the fact that I see plenty of articles written by people acknowledging they are homosexuals on FT – why are they given so much space and others are not?)
And then there were other FT blog posts that were clearly very liberal/pink oriented – one example: saying men wearing tights and being metrosexuals was all very Normal. A post by a man promoting men wearing metrosexual tights -on FT? On Slate, the New Yorker Mag, sure – but what is FT about then? Some people have a very steep homosexual/liberal agenda in the FT ranks – and I bet it’s because they have a homosexual problem. My bet is on the Matthews.
Very recently – maybe a few weeks back? – they changed their commenting policies once again. First they limited the comment length – thankfully – and it seems they might be limiting the number of times that a person can respond to others. Although there was again one thread where Nickols just went off his homosexual agenda claptrap – so maybe not.
Another suspicious comment from Nickols was when I first got banned posting as “Alessandra” – he used to insist in his comments that FT was not promoting a homosexual agenda because no one ever got banned – and the editors obviously wouldn’t let anyone who had been banned confirm they had been banned!
Then I started commenting under another name “Heather” – and Nickols acknowledged he knew Alessandra had been banned. But how could he know? Given how the editorial staff just privileges his comments, just how much of a friend is he with the editing staff- especially some of the “men”? (I just saw today some awful new commenter using the name Heather btw)
Douglas Johnson, a commenter you might have noticed at FT, although he doesn’t post that often, tried to get a forum started where only socially conservative commenters would come together and discuss topics without the comment section being infested by the likes of Nickols, Boonton, and to some extent Ray Ingles. And where socons wouldn’t be systematically censored – but the forum didn’t take off.
Yet, I think such a space is sorely needed.
Kind of like “Public Discourse” with a comment section only for socons. That would be one wonderful site.
…………………………………………
April 4th, 2013 | 4:23 pm
Dear Mrs. Selmys:
In a comment to your earlier article, Mr. Voris’s staff asked you to specify any of the errors you said you saw in his “FBI” program.
Have you done so? If so, please share them here. If not, why didn’t you?
They also invited you to appear on their Internet radio show. Did you accept?
Pax Vobis.
April 4th, 2013 | 6:04 pm
Mr. Voris’s staff asked you to specify any of the errors you said you saw in his “FBI” program. . . .
ChrisinVA,
I really don’t want to watch the whole program, but here is the first serious distortion I ran across. From the script:
Sadly, even the Catholic Church has been severely affected.
The 2004 John Jay report recorded over four thousand cases of priestly sexual abuse … confirming the terrible problem.
For many people, Catholics and others … it was their first glimpse at the immense scope of the gay assault on society. Catholics realized that the previously timidly whispered-about gay subculture had become a driving force in the world.
The authors of the John Jay Report certainly did not claim to be documenting “the gay assault on society.” In fact . . .
. . . the researchers found no statistical evidence that gay priests were more likely than straight priests to abuse minors — a finding that undermines a favorite talking point of many conservative Catholics. The disproportionate number of adolescent male victims was about opportunity, not preference or pathology, the report states.
What’s more, researchers note that the rise in the number of gay priests from the late 1970s onward actually corresponded with “a decreased incidence of abuse — not an increased incidence of abuse.”
Now, you can lift statistics out of the John Jay Report and draw your own conclusions from them, but to imply that your own conclusion is somehow justified by the John Jay Report is false and misleading. And it is preposterous to claim that the sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church is somehow a product of the “homosexual agenda…
April 4th, 2013 | 7:52 pm
Hi ChrisinVA,
I’m going to put together something dealing with the factual difficulties, and I’ll post it as soon as I can. I would like to be clear that I do think that the production was produced in good faith — I’m pretty sure that I know the precise sources for most of the problematic claims, and I will readily admit to having made the same mistakes myself when I first got into this racket. It might take me a while to get something together: I’ve been out visiting the kind folks who raised my son’s Autism Assistance Dog-Guide when he was a puppy, so I’ve only just become aware of the response.
Cheers!
Melinda
April 4th, 2013 | 10:19 pm
Thank you. I recall that the John Jay report included the striking finding that over 80% of the crimes committed in the scandals the JJLS studied were “homosexual in nature.”
Dr. Brian Clowes published a lengthy series of articles in Homiletic and Pastoral Review indicating that, depending on the number of homosexual priests and their ratio to heterosexual priests, the homosexuals were between 100 and 1000 times more likely to abuse.
A later JJLS report had the audacity to claim that the crimes, while “homosexual in nature,” were not committed by actual homosexuals, but by heterosexuals acting like homosexuals.
These findings should influence your views, perhaps.
April 5th, 2013 | 1:40 am
A later JJLS report had the audacity to claim that the crimes . . .
ChrisinVA,
You are proving my point. Voris cites the John Jay report as evidence of “the immense scope of the gay assault on society.” But that is not the conclusion of the John Jay report. That is Voris’s conclusion. The John Jay researchers explicitly deny it. Voris is misusing the John Jay report. He is also not accurately reporting the statistics. He says, “The 2004 John Jay report recorded over four thousand cases of priestly sexual abuse … confirming the terrible problem.” Presumably his number of “over four thousand” is based on the fact that 4,392 priests were accused. But of those, 3.6% were accused of sexually abusing both boys and girls, 22.6% of abusing girls only, 64% of abusing males only, and for 9.8%, the gender of the accuser was not known to those who compiled the report.
It apparently seems obvious to some people that a person who commits a homosexual act is “a homosexual.” But of course prison rape is a homosexual act, and homosexuals are most likely to be the victims of prison rape, not the perpetrators. Men who commit prison rape are overwhelmingly heterosexual before they enter prison and heterosexual after they get out. Does entering a prison turn some men into homosexuals and exiting it turn them back into heterosexuals? The Greeks, who had sexual affairs with adolescent boys, were married to women. Is a man who is married and has children a homosexual if he also has sex with adolescent boys?
April 5th, 2013 | 12:54 pm
Thank you for your self-congratulatory reply, which unfortunately evades the facts. Permit me to elaborate:
1) John Jay lawyers worked for the USCCB. The USCCB was their client. They would beguilty of malpractice if they did not defend their client.
2) The USCCB desperately wants the issue of homosexuality off the table as a non-factor because, as USCCB president Wilton Gregory admitted when the scandals broke, the bishops had ordained so many homosexuals that it was a challenge to keep the priesthood from becoming a gay-dominated profession
3) You trivialize the issue of homosexuality and its connection to abuse, affirming the bishops’ desire, to be sure, but ignoring the findings of Dr. Clowes that I referenced
4) The figures you cite indicate that homosexuals are more likely to abuse more frequently – did you even notice?
5) Your own assertions indicate that homosexuality is a chosen behavior, not a naturally-determined factor (e.g., the “homosexual gene”)
6) After which observations, there’s nothing much left of your assertions, other than that you apparently have had a hard time over the years coming to terms with reality.
7) which might indicate why you did not answer my question, have you agreed to appear on Mr. Voris’s program to make these assertions directly.
Pax vobis. I wish you well.
April 5th, 2013 | 5:35 pm
ChrisinVA,
You seem to have confused me for David Nickol. I’ll let David speak for himself, which he does rather well.
I have contacted ChurchMilitant.tv, and I’m waiting for them to get back to me w/r/t appearing on their program.
I have also posted a full analysis of the problems that I see with Voris’ documentary here: http://sexualauthenticity.blogspot.ca/2013/04/answering-michael-voris.html .
Pax,
Melinda
April 5th, 2013 | 7:53 pm
David,
I think Christin is correct about the John Jay study. Also, in prison where all males are kept together with no females, it may be more likely that eventually, even heterosexual men will engage in sodomy.
However, priests are not locked away with no access to women. If a priest was going to engage in sexual activity, he could easily find a woman if he was straight. No- only a homosexual would have sex with a teen-age boy, unless perhaps if he was locked away in prison.
I read the John Jay study and I could not believe that they came up with that conclusion that it was not homosexuality when the figures in the report showed differently. I mean come on, use your head.
April 6th, 2013 | 5:37 pm
ChrisinVA and Joan,
The more misguided you believe the John Jay study to be, the more deceptive it is of Voris to cite it as if it bolstered his case. And let me quote from it again:
For many people, Catholics and others … it was their first glimpse at the immense scope of the gay assault on society. Catholics realized that the previously timidly whispered-about gay subculture had become a driving force in the world.
First, the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church was not part of a “gay assault on society.” Priests who abused minors were not part of the “gay subculture.” They did not subscribe to gay publications, hold positions in gay-rights organizations, and march in gay parades. They were individuals acting alone, not a part of any movement or subculture. Also, even regarding the abuse scandal in the Church, 2004 was rather late for getting a “first glimpse.” The Boston Globe won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for its investigative reporting on the abuse scandal. The John Jay Report wasn’t an exposé of the sex abuse crisis. It was ordered by the USCCB as part of their response to the abuse crisis. By the time the John Jay Report came out, the sex-abuse crisis was practically old news (particularly since the report covered 1950 to 2002).
April 7th, 2013 | 8:37 am
You are mistaken, David. Take a look at the National Lay Board appointed **by the bishops themselves**!!
Cardinal Mahony, now disgraced and likely to face criminal charges (unless that famous “statute of limitations” gets him off the hook), insisted that the board’s Chairman, Frank Keating, be fired because Keating, a former FBI agent, recognized a vast cover-up attempt by the bishops.
John Jay worked for the **bishops.** They did indeed gather accurate information, which Voris uses. But did you notice that they did not break it down by diocese?
Under orders, the second round of JJ studies refused to **analyze** the data correctly.
Got that? Correct data, but carefully protected from proper and thorough analysis.
When Bishop Bruskewitz made a motion (Dallas June 2002 USCCB meeting) to investigate the causes of the scandals, he didn’t even get a second!
About John Jay:
A lawyer who does not protect his client is guilty of malfeasance and could be disbarred.
Draw your own conclusions.
Voris relies on JJ’s **data**, but in his analysis he is relying on authoritative findings by independent experts like Dr. Brian Clowes, and guided, frankly, by the candor (nowadays called a “gaffe” — truth uttered mistakenly) of Abp. Gregory, who acknowledged that the bishops had ordained so many homosexuals that the priesthood itself was threatened.
Remember Abp. Gregory’s successor, Bp. Skylstad, acknowledged the gay problems himself — and then attacked the truthtellers for conducting a “witch hunt”! (Did he include Abp. Gregory?)
John Jay, obeying its client, refused to draw the obvious conclusions from its own data. Heterosexuals “acting like homosexuals!”
Well, perhaps that represents a bow to natural law – that homosexuals are indeed perverted, rather than “gay” by nature. Intriguing, no?
So too does Virtus — **owned by…
Censored at First Things - First Thoughts (this blog has been discontinued - Aug 2018) 
And here we go again.
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/05/17/the-destinations-of-love/
I would comment, but they no longer approve anything I offer.
Sorry to hear that. FT is nothing but a farce when it comes to any issue related to homosexuality – I bet there is a pink mafia within the editing room/hierarchy. It’s just ridiculous how they promote a homosexuality agenda through the comments and by censoring most people who disagree.
I was planning to start a moderated blog to discuss articles from the Public Discourse site, but it could also be broader, for example including FT discussions from people that are being censored there. Not that I think it will draw enough interest but at least it would be a space for discussion.
In another age, Mrs. Selmys, Mr. Nickol and their diabolical helpers would receive excommunication from the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. Today they receive some mixture of neglect or outright endorsement. It is quite sad to witness the collapse of First Things as a puppet for the forces of modernists – enemies of the Church – who try to work inside it to destroy it.
Yet I am confident that in the next two decades people such as Selmys and Nickol will be on the losing end, as the Roman Catholic Church gradually becomes more traditional in the hands of a more confident more orthodox younger generation of priests who will eventually replace its current confused “baby boomer” hierarchy.