What do Pope Francis and NHL hockey have in common? The woke-or-else social media culture, for one thing. Larry O’Connor and I take a look at the nontroversy of Pope Francis’ remarks on homosexuality last week and the real controversy most of the media missed. At one point, Larry quips, “I’ve made this whole Off the Beaten Path a a Catholic bitch session,” but as I point out, that’s still a lot better than what happened to an NHL player who bucked the idea of “compelled virtue” — which reminds both of us of a Seinfeld episode, too.
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Grab a cup of coffee and step Off the Beaten Path, our VIP show featuring my friend Larry O’Connor! The Townhall columnist and Salem News Channel host starts off our week by discussing stories and ideas that may fly under our radar, in culture, politics, sports, and more. Plus, Larry previews tonight’s SNC show!
The entire episode with Ivan Provorov reminded me of the Seinfeld episode in which Kramer refuses to wear a ribbon to support AIDS, although I confused it in our discussion with a different episode about Puerto Rico. “It’s tedious and it’s annoying because — guess what? — hockey fans don’t give a crap about this,” Larry says, adding, “especially Philadelphia Flyer fans, because they can’t even spell LGBTQ.” That leads us both to take a couple of shots at our friend, colleague, and Eagles fanatic Storm Paglia … while our teams are not included in any Super Bowl preparation, of course.
We start off with some extended discussion about Pope Francis’ remarks about homosexuality and Catholic doctrine, which neither of us sees as remarkable. We talk about how this is more relevant to battles within the Catholic Church and Vatican between African bishops, German bishops, and the pontiff stuck in between them. Is social media a church of wokery with its own “death penalty” for any apostasy or heresy, no matter to what degree it takes? I bet you can answer that, and you can guess where Larry and I fall on that as well.
Be sure to join the conversation in the comments!
