Jim Naughton’s Shame

from Stand Firm by Matt Kennedy

The ever-bitter Jim McNaughton's recent attempt to smear Bishop-elect Dan Martins (of all people) as a hatemongering homophobe reduces Naughton's "reporting" to tabloidish levels. He claims that Martins' use of the word "shame" to describe the actions of the most recent General Convention was some kind of coded attack on gay people. Here's Naughton in his own words:

he used the word "shame", the word that LGBT people have had thrown in their faces for most of their lives, the word that has rung in the ears of LGBT teens who have ended their own lives prematurely. It is a word meant to intimidate and to wound, a word meant to set one's self above and apart from those one is describing.

There is room in the church for bishops who do not believe that it is right to bless same-sex relationships. There is not room in the church for bishops who stigmatize LGBT people to score debating points or in self-indulgent dramatization of their own distress.

Okay, now compare Naughton's reporting of what Martins+ said to Martins' actual words as I taped them at Convention:

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If you'd like to read the transcript, Tim Fountain+ has it here. Obviously Martins was not even speaking about homosexual people at all but about the actions of the convention which, he believed, would result in a broken Anglican Communion. He considered such divisiveness a "shame".

Bearing false witness is a sin Jim. You've just lied in public about a bishop-elect. If you have any integrity, you'll recant your words and issue a public apology.

We won't hold our breath.

Update: Here are some of the other responses to Naughton's shameful smear
James Coder: A Reply to Jim Naughton
MCJ: Jim Naughton: Do you know what would be made out of awesome?