This telegram story says a lot deletion of the ick factor.
I reread an extraordinary interview Polanski gave to the novelist Martin Amis in 1979, the year after Polanski went on the run.
The interview originally appeared in Tatler and is collected in Amis’s excellent book Visiting Mrs Nabokov.
Here’s a section of the first quote it contains from Polanski.
“If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!”
I have always maintained that the war on Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular is all about justifying one’s own sins. Andrew Sullivan doesn’t leave the Church for one that accepts gay marriage because deep down as a Catholic he still has the grace to KNOW what sin is and needs to have it justified by the Church.
This is all about trying to normalize behavior by an elite group of people who do not want to be judged.
“But DaTechGuy how can you possibly suggest this could happen?” Let me remind you of a post back near the start of my blogging days here:
Personally on a religious level I can’t support gay marriage but this is not a valid argument for a non-religious person. On a non-religious level it seems to me you can not rationally say that gay marriage is ok and should be legal without also allowing either polygamy and incest between consenting adults. Both have a longer and more accepted cultural history worldwide.
And PLEASE don’t give me the “ick” factor argument about these other things being accepted. Ick is just an argument about culture. It is the same argument that one would have heard concerning gay marriage less that 20 years ago.
Anyone familiar with the vast cultural change promulgated over the last decade and a half can’t be surprised by the elites reaction to the Polanski stuff without considerable idiocy. After all:
The idea that when you can’t always live up to your values you drop the values is the path of the coward and the fool. As the saying goes:
“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried.”
I’m sure the author would like to leave it untried. A lot easier to do what you want when there are no rules, isn’t it?
It’s all about allowing the sin. And nobody described sin better than Warren in his interview with Curry last year:
Mark my words this case and the elites reaction to it and the media’s reaction to the elites will be either a turning point or a breaking point in the culture wars, and No I’m not surprised we have reached this point, I just didn’t think it would happen this fast.
What’s that from? The Mullah Omar Guide To Healthy Relationships? Personally, I prefer ’em a little older than 13, but no doubt that explains why I’m not as “grown-up” (in Polanski’s word) about this as his pals.
More interestingly how many of the people on the list that signed are women under the age of 21? That would be an interesting stat.
Update 2Michelle and Driscoll comment. This is going to explode in a lot of people’s faces.
Imagine if the Knight of Columbus decided to give an award to a pedophile priest who had fled the country to avoid prison. The outcry would be universal. Victim groups would demand the award be withdrawn and that the organization apologize. Religion reporters would be on the case with the encouragement of their editors. Editorial writers and columnist would denounce the knights as another example of the insensitivity of the Catholic Church to sexual abuse.
And they would all be correct. And I would join them.
But why is there not similar outrage directed at the film industry for giving an award to Roman Polanski, who not only confessed to statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl but fled the country prior to sentencing? Why have film critics and the rest of the media ignored this case for 31 years? He even received an Academy award in 2003. Are the high priests of the entertainment industry immune to criticism?
Via ABC and hotair. If the case is so clear even Fr. Reese can’t justify it then the defenders of Roman Polanski have a problem on their hands. If James Carroll agrees then it’s all over.
Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda and other Polish filmmakers appealed Monday to U.S. and Swiss authorities to free Roman Polanski, decrying his arrest as a “provocation.”
Their appeal came as the Polish and French governments wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and called up Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey about the case.
The fact that this is even debated illustrates the culture wars more than anything else I can think of.
Quick question: On the Morning shows the reportersseem to be beating their breasts over this. What do you think Sarah Palin would say on it? Would she even have to think 10 seconds?
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