The New York Times recently ran a macho-sounding editorial, “Speaking the Truth to the Vatican” in which the editorial board found some nuns they actually admire. Naturally, they are the dissident ones.

Though the internal affairs of the Catholic Church are no more the business of the Times than it is the business of the Vatican to police the newspaper’s personnel matters (the Vatican would never show such chutzpah), if they are going to stick their nose in, they should at least be accurate.

It is not true that there are no “serious doctrinal problems” or “radical feminist” issues in the ranks of some orders of nuns. Want proof? Just pick up a copy of the National Catholic Reporter where they are celebrated.

It is not true that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious represents most of the 57,000 nuns—only 1,700 pay dues.

It is not true that “much of the Roman Catholic laity has registered outrage” about Vatican inquiries into rogue nuns; most could care less.

It is not true that there is a “pedophilia scandal” in the Church: there was a homosexual scandal, but its heyday, the mid-60s to the mid-80s, is long gone.

If the Times wants to meet nuns who have never been the subject of Vatican concerns, it should do a story on any one of the orders that comprise the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious; all are loyal daughters of the Church. For that reason alone, though, they are not likely to attract the applause of the New York Times.

The Pew Research Center recently published a survey on religious affiliation. The results of which signaled a bad omen for society’s neediest.

In the last five years, Americans who are unaffiliated with any religion have grown from approximately 15% to 20%, the largest single block of which are young people under 30 (one-third of young people fall into this category). But the atheists have nothing to celebrate: only 6% of Americans identify themselves as atheist or agnostic, while 14% reject those labels. Indeed, almost seven in ten (68%) of all the unaffiliated overall say they believe in God. One stat that has not changed since 1987 is the percent of Americans who pray daily, 76%.

The spike in the ranks of the “nones” (those who say they do not identify with any religion) is particularly noticeable among white, affluent, college grads who are single. It is not without significance that two-thirds of the “nones” say churches “focus too much on rules.” Young and single. White and affluent. We would expect this demographic to have an aversion to rules. Which explains why they favor abortion, gay marriage, and the Democratic Party.

The tendency toward self-absorption among the “nones” is a social liability. We know from the work of Arthur C. Brooks, and more recently from Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, that the most charitable Americans are the religiously affiliated; the most miserly are the “nones.” To this extent it does not bode well for the dispossessed that the “nones” are on the rise.

A more religiously affiliated nation is in the best interest of everyone, especially the needy.

Pope Benedict XVI was lucky to leave Lebanon unharmed during his September trip to the turmoil-ridden country. Mobs of mad Muslims took to the streets of Tripoli condemning him. One person was killed. So why didn’t we hear anything from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about this religious intolerance? Is it because she was too busy telling us what a “great religion” Islam is?

At a briefing with Morocco’s foreign minister at the State Department, Clinton criticized the anti-Islamic film that was being tied to Muslim violence in the Middle East. She didn’t mince words, saying, “It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose: to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage.” To which Melinda Henneberger of the Washington Post said, “Amen.”

Similarly, the editorial desk of the New York Times had these words of wisdom from Roger Cohen: “Since when was extreme bigotry that portrays the followers of one of the world’s great religions as child molesters an American value?”

This kind of sick tilting to Islam, all the while feeling free to bash Catholicism, is operative on the other side of the Atlantic as well. Roger Bolton, who ran religious broadcasting for the BBC for 12 years, recently said that the BBC is afraid to mock Islam but delights in bashing Christianity.

Ever since 9/11, those who claim to be horrified by religious extremism have shown nothing but deference to Islam—even though those responsible explicitly carried out their carnage in the name of their religion—while showing nothing but contempt for Christianity. When was the last time Christianity was called a “great religion” deserving of respect?

On the same day we addressed this issue, the Times’ website featured a story about the pope’s visit to Lebanon saying, “In a dark moment in his papacy in 2006, Benedict angered Muslims when on a visit to Germany he quoted a Byzantine emperor who had called Islam ‘evil and inhuman.’” Dark moment or moment of courage?

On October 17, FX aired the first episode of the series, “American Horror Story: Asylum.” It depicts an evil Catholic home for the criminally insane where a promiscuous nun—in habit, of course—beats inmates; a Catholic doctor tortures them.

We submitted an ad [click here] to both The Hollywood Reporter and Variety to criticize the new series; it was rejected by both. The Hollywood Reporter’s publisher, Lynne Segall, said the ad “was not appropriate.” However, she did not say the Catholic-bashing show “was not appropriate.”

The ad met the same fate at Variety because of the alleged “mudslinging” title, “FX Trashes Nuns.” No one at Variety said the show was guilty of “mudslinging.”

On October 15, two Los Angeles radio stations carried several 30-second taped statements by Bill Donohue condemning Hollywood’s latest assault on Catholicism: KFI is one of the biggest stations in California, and KTLK has a loyal liberal audience. The following is the text of the commercial:

“I’m Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League. On Wednesday, the first episode of FX’s ‘American Horror Story: Asylum,’ will air. The entire series portrays an evil Catholic home for the criminally insane where inmates are beaten and tortured by nuns and doctors. I recently sought to place an ad critical of the show in The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, but was turned down by both because of the ad’s content. In other words, not only does Hollywood delight in bashing Catholicism, it seeks to censor objections to it.”

We received a number of grateful responses—including some from members of the Catholic hierarchy—thanking us for exposing this latest example of Hollywood’s foul treatment of Catholics.

We are happy that our message was heard by thousands in the Hollywood area. Both KFI and KTLK stand in stark relief to the bigots at FX and the censors at The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.

Obama in faux feces

Bill Donohue presents his magnum opus

Bill Donohue addresses media at a press conference outside the Edward Tyler Nahem Gallery