"Bigots and Bullies Galore'"

The words of the day are “bigot” and “bully.” To break it down logically, Every bigot is a bully, but not every bully is a bigot. I first learned the etymology of the term “bully” some years ago while listening to a Sunday sermon. My priest proceeded to tell me that in medieval times a man would “bully” his girlfriend into accepting what was in a “papal bull.” “Bull” is from the Latin bullum, and means “seal.” When a pope would issue a papal bull, the bullum was the round, wax impression which certified the document as being legitimate. The Latin noun, bulla, is “anything rounded by art.” The noble youth of ancient Rome would wear the golden bullae around their necks; rounded clasps which represented some military victory, or good fortune, or even freedom in case of emancipated slaves.

Much like the term “bully,” “bigot” was originally a religious term. Gaining a wider usage in 18th century France, bi-got, means “two gods.” One interpretation is “by-God.” The term most likely referred to those French Calvinists -or even the English Elizabethan heretics during the reign of Henry VIII- whom the Catholics considered “bigots.” The French Calvinists, like the Elizabethan Protestants in England, would sometimes carry their rosaries, profess some of the truths of Catholicism, attend Catholic weddings and funerals, while at the same time rejecting Catholic dogmas. Hence a bigot was one who, on the outside, showed himself a faithful Catholic, while on the inside, was a heretic. A bigot is one who pretends to be one thing, while in fact is another; a bully never pretends to be anything other than he is. I once dated a woman and she called me a bully, as she smiled. But she never called me a bigot. Every woman will gather a certain satisfaction in the fact that her man is a bully, but she will never, if she is a truly Catholic woman, find satisfaction in him being a bigot.

A modern-day example of a bigot is Joseph Biden. He carries a rosary and says he prays it; but all may be assured that he does not pray the rosary, and probably has not done so in a good many years. He feigns being a good Catholic. Biden is what the poet T.S. Eliot calls “a hollow man, a man of straw.” He will convince the world of his being a good Catholic, even though he knows the contrary to be true.

A writer for the magazine Atlantic - by no means a conservative publication - wrote an article titled “Bigotry and the English Language.” Ta-Nehisi Coates framed his article around the alleged bigotry of Alec Baldwin, who made some homophobic remarks. Ta-Nehisi quotes another author on the subject of bigotry:

In fact, the primary function of a word like ‘bigot’ is to very precisely exclude more conflicted, doubtful states of mind, as in: a bigot is ‘a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially: one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance’ (Merriam-Webster). The obstinate devotion to certain avowed, intolerant beliefs is critical to the way that “bigot” traditionally has been used. The word has its origins in the general notion of close-mindedness: the idea is that a bigot is someone who is un-persuadable, who cannot be argued out of their beliefs. But accusing someone of being close-minded and un-persuadable requires that they adamantly hold the beliefs in question in the first place: it cannot be the case that they’re conflicted or akratic – that for example they sincerely favor gay rights as a matter of principle yet betray this principle during bouts of homophobic rage. Having unsavory impulses and poor impulse control is simply not the same thing as being closed minded and systematically intolerant. To extend the word “bigot” to someone like Baldwin is just to pervert it in order for the sake of exploiting its toxicity to his reputation.

Years ago I taught a Logic class, and a woman in the front row asked the definition of “murder” because the word ‘murderer’ appeared in a syllogism. Rather than give her the definition myself, I had her look up the definition using an online dictionary. She read aloud to the class from her cellphone, “Murder is ‘the intentional destruction of the life of an innocent, living thing.’” I told my students, “Oh, so according to this definition I am a murderer if I cut down the oak tree in my back yard, because it is both innocent and living?” The class looked at me with disgust because they knew the online definition was gravely flawed. They were aware of two facts: 1. The online dictionary was dishonest, and 2. The definition of murder had been narrowed to include only human beings. I told the young lady, “As you leave class do one of two things, either find another dictionary or throw your cellphone in the garbage can.” She was not amused.

And now to explain the picture associated with this article. The late Irish priest, Fr. Denis Fahey (d. 1953) authored over ten books. He was often accused of being insensitive, anti-Semitic, mean-hearted, hateful - a “bully.” Fr. James Wathen once told us years ago in a sermon, “It was because of their lack of diplomacy, their lack of sensitiveness, their lack of a democratic spirit, that all the Apostles were put to death.” Sometimes barking out the truth is a little unpopular, a little sensitive, if you will. Especially if you are a bully.