Local gadfly Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, has joined French leftists in their outrage over the lowering of flags to honor Pope John Paul II. Gaylor says:

"The pope was the world's leading sexist," Gaylor said in a statement issued today. "Why should Wisconsin women be expected to revere his anti-woman, antediluvian teachings?" The pope also had been critical of gay marriages, the statement noted.

"Let's reserve the honor of half-staff for true American heroes," Gaylor said.

On Monday, the Freedom From Religion Foundation issued a lengthy criticism entitled "the pope has no vestments." That statement assailed his position against abortion, contraception, sterilization, women's rights, divorce, stem cell research and gay rights.

"Sure, he finally admitted Galileo should not have been condemned by the church, some 350 years too late," the foundation's statement said.

"True, he opposed capital punishment, as most freethinkers do. But think of the capital punishment, slaughters, the witch-burning, purges, tortures and inquisitions committed by the Roman Catholic Church and its followers through history."

Let's see, Gaylor is personally blaming the Pope for:

• Galileo's persecution
• the Salem witch trials
• the Spanish Inquisition
• the Crusades
• assorted purges and slaughters (where? she doesn't say)
• the entire human history of sexism
• and, one can only assume, the high price of buttermilk in China

Wow. The Pope was awful busy. With a hand that evil, I'm frankly afraid not to lower the flag in his honor. He's likely to claw his way up from the bowels of hell (which, of course, don't really exist) to smite us if we don't.

In any case, the Pope is the religious leader of 26% of Americans [1], and 31% of Wisconsinites. Lowering the flag in his honor doesn't endorse Catholicism, but rather acknowledges that a large percentage of Wisconsinites lost a man we consider as our spiritual leader. It shows respect for the Pope, but it also shows the State's empathy to its Catholic residents. Empathy is not an endorsement. Rather, it's a natural human reaction that too many of my city's liberals lack.

[1] Reader Bonnie points out that my original 60% number is totally wrong. She's right. I must have been blinded by my annoyance at typical Madisonians. Here's a look at some statistics on Catholics in America.

Update: I titled this post in French to poke fun at Madison liberals aligning themselves with their fellow cheese-eaters in France. But, thinking about it more, using French illustrates an important point. The title translates to "Freedom From Religion in Wisconsin". In English, freedom FROM religion and freedom OF religion (which, ahem, is what we're guaranteed in the Constitution) sound a lot alike. In French, you more easily see that they are two completely different concepts. "Freedom of religion in Wisconsin" translates to this: "Liberté religieuse dans le Wisconsin". "Absence" vs. "Liberty", that sounds about right to me.