Every Sunday, sermons are preached from church pulpits. Though not liturgically a part of the Mass, the Sunday sermon is an integral part of imparting moral teaching to the congregation. But what if it isn’t? What if it is used as a manipulative tool, a control tactic? What if the priest uses it as a weapon to silence dissent -- to slander innocent people?
This is precisely what has happened at St. Gertrude the Great Church in West Chester, Ohio. At SGG, Pastor Daniel Dolanand his assistant, Anthony Cekada, preaching to their captive audience, have used the pulpit to slander and slam anyone who innocently gets in their way – as has Donald Sanborn, the imperious rector of their affiliate MHT (Most Holy Trinity) Seminary in Brooksville, Florida. In addition, they have used the sacraments as weapons of control and manipulation. Their business is not about saving souls; it is about material gain; it is about empire building; it is about money.
Well, we are captive no more. That mute audience now has a voice: we now have a pulpit – this website, appropriately calledLay Pulpit -- from which to be heard. Initially, we will be voicing our concerns against the same group that a companion website (VoVWatch) targets – that unholy, unwholesome SGG triumvirate: Daniel Dolan, Anthony Cekada, and Donald Sanborn -- the Vipers of Vaudeville.
Lay Pulpit will truly be a pulpit in the sense that this site will not be a “forum,” where the audience can post comments. It will instead be an “information only” site, just as SGG’s pulpit is. Just as their pulpit is restricted for their use only, so will oursbe. If anyone wants to send comments, he or she may do so by sending them to our site’s e-mail address. We will then decide what to post, and when. This time, we will control feedback.
Although this site will – at least in the beginning – deal primarily with SGG, it is by no means restricted to them. Anyone, clergy or lay, who emulates SGG’s predatory lust for material gain, anyone who condones their sanctimonious hypocrisy, is fair game – so, vipers of any stripe, beware! Also, reticent wimps who aid these vipers by your silence, beware! We, the sheep, are no longer going to be bamboozled and intimidated either by bullying double-speak from predatory shepherds, nor will we any longer tolerate cowardly inaction by acquiescent wimps.
So let’s get started. For now, we’ll start with three categories: “News and Views” (short quips and current news items), “From the Pulpit,” (longer articles), and – just as RC-Corner has taken a cue from the SGG bulletin – how about “Poetry Corner”! Our poetry, however, will (hopefully) be a little meatier (and spicier) than the effeminate slop that usually comes from Danny’s pen.
