"Catholic Warrior" Charges Dropped

If anybody out there still believes that Christians are oppressed in the United States, I draw your attention to this story. Remember Susan Hemeryck, the "Catholic Warrior" who destroyed a holiday display put up by The Satanic Temple? Even though Hemeryck admits that she deliberately destroyed the display, and there's even security footage of her doing it, prosecutors dismissed all charges against her on the basis of "lack of evidence."

Hemeryck in a statement said "I am very grateful to God for giving me the grace to take a stand against Satan and those who invoke his name even if they do not fully know what they are doing."

"I was not afraid of going to trial," she added. "I wanted the jury to know that I did not act criminally as wrongly portrayed, but a devout Catholic following the Church's teaching for non-violent and peaceful opposition of evil."

No, Hemeryck did commit a crime - a hate crime. She destroyed a symbolic display belonging to a religion that she just didn't like, and the fact that she apparently has gotten a free pass is a complete travesty. Can you imagine what would have happened if a non-Christian had destroyed a nativity scene, or I suppose for that matter even made fun of one? You don't have to, because thanks to this story we have a pretty good idea.

As you all know by now, a 14-year-old boy from Pennsylvania has been the subject of a lot of media attention over the past few weeks because he took pictures with a local Jesus statue as if he were getting a mock-blowjob from the Lord.

He was facing up to two years in prison for this supposed desecration, a charge that was wildly out of proportion for what he did. As I said before, I don’t condone his actions, but bad taste and immaturity aren’t crimes. And this blasphemy law had no business being in the books in the first place.

The good news is that the boy managed to escape prison, but he was placed on probation for six months and ordered to perform 350 hours of community service. He did no damage whatsoever to the statue, he just took some stupid photos with it and shared them on social media. And this is the sentence he received from juvenile court, so had he been tried as an adult he likely would have gone to prison.

This is always the way situations like these go, and that's why I make so much fun of the Poor Oppressed Christians. They totally don't get that they can get away with all sorts of stuff that members of minority religions can't, and as long as they claim to be "acting on their beliefs" they get free passes to commit whatever sort of criminal mischief they find appropriate against members of other faiths.

That's not oppression, that's privilege, plain and simple.

UPDATE: I have been informed by a friend on Facebook who is a defense attorney that prosecutors commonly use the phrase "lack of evidence" as a catch-all for various behind-the-scenes deals and so forth, even when said evidence does exist. So it may be that there's more to this story, and I'll keep you all posted if I learn that something of that sort went down.

I still contend, though, that had Hemeryck been a Satanist who wrecked a Christian display, she would have been treated with far less leniency.