Anti-Catholicism in Eastern Oregon?

Baker City, Oregon

Anti-Catholicism in little ol’ Baker City, where never a discouraging word is to be heard? See what you think.

My husband, Jerry, recently wrote a letter to the editor of our local newspaper regarding the controversial topic of wind farm development – an issue with local importance here in our county and surrounds.  

Here’s his letter as it appeared in the paper:

County officials should deny wind farm developers

I agree fully with Bill Harvey and others who oppose wind farm developments in Baker County. If the two proposed sites are approved they won’t be in my view corridor like the monstrosity in Union County is. The blight on the landscape created by wind farms is not, however, my main objection. They are but another example of how the bogus climate change and green energy scams have influenced our nation’s policy makers and at great expense to us as taxpayers.

One of the leading corporations which packages funding for prospective wind farm developments brags that up to 80 percent of the capital costs of such developments can be paid by government grants. That’s our tax money. Further, such developments once built qualify for significant tax credits for every megawatt of electricity produced. There is another negative impact on an already struggling economy folks.

Looking at the big picture: appearance; negative impact on wildlife and the environment; and the fact that without substantial subsidies these projects are economic losers it is clear that the Board of Commissioners should not approve these projects. Approval by the Commissioners will contribute to the developers making money, but at the expense of the rest of us. The Commissioners’ responsibility is to the majority, not companies or individuals who will benefit at taxpayer expense.

Jerry Boyd

Baker City

Seems to me that he made his point, fairly objectively, for the “con” side of the wind farm issue. Of course, we would expect someone from the “pro” side to step up and rebut. And someone did, but I was a little taken aback by his approach. Here’s a response to Jerry’s letter:

Denying climate change runs counter to science

Jerry Boyd is a firm believer in showing obedience to Catholic Church doctrine. (See Baker City Herald letter of April 11, 2012.) If Boyd had lived in Galileo's time, would he have denounced Galileo, as the Catholic Church did, for saying that the Earth is not the center of the universe? Probably.

That's exactly what he does in his letter to the Herald of July 12, 2013, in which he denounces "climate change and green energy" as "scams." Boyd claims he's "looking at the big picture," when he argues against government subsidies to wind farms. That view is decidedly nearsighted, according to the world's scientific community.

The costs to counter human-caused global warming are going to be much more, the longer people like Boyd and Congress keep denying the obvious effects on the livability of our planet. As the Fram Filter man says, "Pay me now, or pay me later."

Jerry, how's the climate down there in the sand where your head is stuck?

Gary Dielman

Baker City

There is so much wrong with Dielman’s letter, I hardly know where to begin. And I believe the newspaper editors are a little remiss in allowing ad hominem attacks like this, but they’ve done so before.

I will say, though, that Dielman quite unintentionally pays my husband a supreme compliment: “Jerry Boyd is a firm believer in showing obedience to Catholic Church doctrine.” Yes, indeed he is! And he’s not afraid to say so! The previous letter, to which Dielman refers, was one regarding the HHS contraception mandate. It said, in part:

[A previous writer] is absolutely wrong when she states that a position regarding contraception is not a part of Church dogma. The encyclical (document) of Pope Paul VI (“Humanae Vitae”) makes the Church’s position crystal clear.

…[I]t is indisputable from a factual perspective (rather than “opinion” and convenience) that the Church’s position on contraception has not changed before, during, or since the Second Vatican Council. What has changed is that Bishops and Priests have, to a large extent, failed in their obligation to show obedience to the Holy Father (Pope) and support what the Holy Father decrees to be the official position of the Church. Such failure to obey, and the failure of many Bishops and Priests to teach in conformance with Church doctrine on this and many other subjects, is precisely what has led to so many Catholics believing and acting in ways contrary to the Church’s official position.

Yep, my husband is a true Catholic, and not afraid to speak the Truth of the Church.

Dielman, however, is using my husband’s faith as a "red herring". The fact that Jerry is a Catholic and is faithful to the Magisterium has absolutely nothing to do with this letter about wind farms, nor with the assertions he made about the untruth of global warming ideology. In fact, this recent Forbes article doesn’t mention the Catholic Church once, and puts the lie to Dielman’s argument. Dielman wants to deny any evidence that the “global warming” scare is a scam – and there are plenty from the scientific community who acknowledge that such evidence does exist. There's nothing explicily "Catholic" about that.

In addition, Dielman, by throwing in the “Galileo card”, implies that there’s something wrong with the fact that Jerry practices his Catholic faith. We all know, he seems to say, that Galileo was a champion of scientific thought while the Church was hopelessly mired in the dark ages of non-scientific thought. WRONG, Mr. Dielman. The fact is, the Church was concerned that Galileo could not adequately defend his scientific theory – not with the theory itself. Others, prior to Galileo, had voiced the same theory with better evidence. Galileo was remiss in his scientific efforts. Those who like to hold up Galileo as the poster child for anti-Catholic sentiment simply persist in believing and promoting the myths rather than the facts about Galileo’s disagreement with the Church. See this article for one example.

I think “global warming” and “climate change” are political machinations that have nothing to do with Truth, but that issue is not my main concern with the debate about wind farms. Rather, the most concerning thing, for me, is Dielman’s blatant disparagement of Jerry’s faith. I believe we’ll see more of this, and that it will be tolerated where demeaning comments about other faiths (and secular idolatries, like homosexual “marriage”) will not.  I predict there will be little outcry from the local Catholic community in response to Dielman’s comment, though you can bet I will respond!

And if any of you outside the community would like to send a little note to the editor of the Baker City Herald, feel free!  You can submit a letter here, though I have found that is not always a reliable pathway to the editor.  I usually send an email to editor Jayson Jacoby at jjacoby@bakercityherald.com.