Bill Donohue comments on last night’s episode of the Fox TV show, “Mulaney,” starring comedian John Mulaney:

Mulaney, mimicking Seinfeld, offers typical sit-com fare blended with occasional stand-up appearances. But unlike Seinfeld, who managed to be funny without taking cheap shots at Catholicism, Mulaney can’t pull it off without getting raunchy. He also fails to entertain.

The story line is silly: Mulaney dupes his mom into thinking he’s a practicing Catholic, and even asks a priest to lie to his mom about going to church. He doesn’t succeed in his quest, but not before telling the priest that he is not like other comedians. On his knees in prayer, he says, “I would like to point out that I never did jokes about priest molestation during that whole thing—even though a lot of stand-up comics did and I totally could have.” So kind of him.

While still on his knees, Mulaney’s girlfriend walks in, asking, “Are you praying?” Mulaney grabs his crotch and says, “No, I’m just masturbating.” They had to pipe in the laughter.

Five shows into the season, Fox has already decided to go with 13 episodes instead of 16. Let’s hope there won’t be a 6th. If this is what passes as humor at Fox in 2014, the network is in trouble.

Contact the show’s publicity agent, Todd Adair: Todd.Adair@fox.com

A New Hampshire Catholic woman was recently fired as a ballot clerk for saying “God bless you” as voters left the polls. To read Bill Donohue’s letter to New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner, click here.

Contact Gardner: wgardner@sos.nh.gov  

Bill Donohue comments on the 2014 election results:

Just two years ago, Catholics voted for President Barack Obama by a margin of 50 percent to 48 percent. On Tuesday, they abandoned Obama’s party: 54 percent voted for Republican candidates and 45 percent went for the Democrats (60 percent of white Catholics chose GOP candidates). What is most startling about the Catholic vote is that it represents an exact turnaround from 2008: 54 percent voted for Obama and 45 percent cast their ballot for Senator John McCain.

Catholics are pragmatic. Until the McGovernization of the Democratic Party in 1972, they were among the most reliably Democratic voters in the nation. Since that time, they have been politically homeless, which is why both parties vie for their vote so aggressively. Catholics are a bellwether: whoever wins their vote, generally wins the election. By contrast, Protestants vote Republican and Jews vote Democrat.

Asians are another group to watch. Not only are they the fastest growing minority in the U.S.—they constitute 3 percent of the electorate—they are up for grabs by both parties. In the last presidential election, Obama captured 73 percent of their vote. But not this year: Asians voted 50 percent to 49 percent, choosing Republicans over Democrats. This is a huge turnaround in just two years.

Some things never change. Most Americans are either high school graduates, have attended college, or are college graduates: they voted Republican, by a wide margin. So who voted for the Democrats? High school dropouts and postgraduates. That would make for a great “60 Minutes” segment: Why is it that those who know nothing have so much in common with those who think they know everything?

One final note: Sandra—I—want—you—to—pay—for—my—contraceptives—Fluke got whipped by 22 points in her bid for a state senate seat in California.

Bill Donohue comments on fundamentalist Christians attacking Catholics in the D.C. area:

Over the past several weeks, a wave of crazed Protestant activists attacked Catholic churches in Washington and Maryland. They shouted anti-Catholic slogans with their bullhorns, passed out vile literature attacking the teachings of the Catholic Church, harassed parishioners going to Mass—they even stormed churches prior to the beginning of Mass.

These Nazi-like tactics, carried out by fundamentalists, should be widely condemned by everyone, including, most especially, evangelical and fundamentalist leaders.

Aside from the Washington Post, the media have shown no interest in this story. Why is that? Are those on the left unmoved because they greet anti-Catholicism with aplomb? Are those on the right unmoved because they do not want to rupture the Catholic-evangelical relationship? Neither reason is persuasive. Bigotry must be condemned, and this is doubly so when the basic right to attend religious service without intimidation is jeopardized.

It is sad but true that there are still pockets of anti-Catholicism in the Protestant community, especially among those aligned with conservative causes. No alliance in the culture war is worth looking past this problem, and that is why Catholics need to stand fast against attempts to brush instances like this aside.

Bill Donohue comments on last night’s episode of the Comedy Central show “@Midnight”:

“Jesus Christ Superstardust” was the name of the game where contestants had to guess if the person pictured was a hot priest, or an unemployed actor working at a restaurant. In the first round, they were asked to guess if the depicted person was a “servant of God or a server of french fries.”

Host Chris Hardwick: “The priests were taken from the 2014 hot priest calendar which features 12 actual Vatican priests sexy enough to be a Mister January through December. GLORY HOLE-LELUJAH!” [For the unacquainted, a “glory hole” is a hole in the wall of a men’s bathroom stall where homosexuals insert their penis, hoping for oral sex.]

In the second round, the show’s performers took a gratuitous shot at Jesus; they also played their anti-Semitic card. Jeff Ross, one of the contestants, said, “I’m not even gay and I want to nail him like Jesus to the cross.” To which Hardwick replies, “Listen, don’t worry, Jeff is a Jew—he did nail Jesus to the cross.”

We’re not sure who is watching Comedy Central at midnight on weekdays. No matter, it would take a really twisted individual to get a kick out of last night’s show.

As usual, when it comes to bashing a religion, the corporate boys and girls at Comedy Central steer clear of offending Muslims. We all know why.

Contact Steve Albani, Senior VP for Communications at Comedy Central: steve.albani@cc.com

Bill Donohue comments on the 2014 Report on “Religious Freedom in the World” published yesterday by Aid to the Church in Need, a Pontifical Foundation entity:

Aid to the Church in Need monitors religious liberty around the world. Its latest report covered the period October 2012 to June 2014. It concluded that of the world’s 196 countries, changes in the condition of religious liberty were noted in 61 of them: in only six countries did things improve; conditions worsened in the other 55.

In 81 countries, or 41 percent of the total, religious freedom was recorded as either impaired or in decline. Muslim countries were the worst offenders: no group was persecuted more than Christians; also, Jews and other Muslims did not fare well. Secular authoritarian regimes, e.g., North Korea and China, also have a horrible record.

Comparatively speaking, religious liberty in the U.S. is in good shape; there is little outright oppression. However, conditions are deteriorating, thanks to the efforts of left-wing activists. Issues such as “faith schools, homosexual marriage and euthanasia” are driving the conflict between “progressives” and traditionalists. The report observes that “where the rights of homosexuals or gender equality campaigners conflict with the rights of conscience of religious believers, the former groups usually take precedence.” What is particularly outrageous about this situation is the fact that religious liberty is enshrined in the First Amendment.

In other words, it is open season on Christians: in nations run by Muslims and communists, they are being murdered and oppressed in record numbers; in democratic nations, they are being discriminated against by militant secularists. This is where religious extremists and secular extremists come together. Both are a menace to religious liberty.

 To read the executive summary of the report click here.

Bill Donohue comments on the latest example of intolerance for the religious rights of military personnel:

A Latino Colonel writes a tribute to his mother in an Air National Guard newsletter, the Stinger, and learns that he has violated rules set by the U.S. Air Force; the Air National Guard is governed by Air Force rules. His crime? He mentioned his mom’s reliance on Jesus.

It would be instructive to know if the Stinger would allow a reprinting of the Declaration of Independence. After all, it has four explicit references to God.

To read my letter to military officials, click here. 

Bill Donohue comments on Walmart’s decision to pull offensive Catholic Halloween costumes:

Walmart has deleted from its website the three offensive Catholic Halloween costumes we objected to last week. Store officials made the right decision, albeit it took a barrage of angry Catholic patrons to trigger the outcome; they responded to our two news releases last week.

On October 29, we stated that most of the Catholic Halloween costumes were not problematic: for example, priestly garb was not offensive. But we did object to three costumes that crossed the line: a “Scary Mary Adult Halloween Costume” that showed Our Blessed Mother with blood dripping from her eyes; “Adult Evil Religious Nun Scary Men’s Halloween Costume” that depicted a nun in habit with a skeleton face; and an “Adult Confessional Costume” that featured a priest with a mock confessional unit over his head. We maintained that since Walmart had pulled “Fat Girl Costumes,” it should pull these three as well.

On October 30, after Walmart treated complaints lightly, we issued another news release, asking those who subscribe to our news release list to contact the store again. They did.

On October 31, we had collected many comments from Walmart responding to angry emails. The responses were varied: some were merely apologetic, while others were much more pointed: “This never should have been on our site. It is unacceptable, and we apologize. We have removed it and ensure this never happens again.”

We didn’t issue a news release on Halloween because when we left for the weekend, the offensive costumes were still available online, despite a statement to the contrary. But all three were subsequently taken down.

The heroes in this victory are all those who let Walmart know of their outrage. Congratulations to our base of supporters!