The K of C. Growing up indoctrinated in a catholic family, of course I had some passing familiarity with the Knights of Columbus. Mostly, as a meeting hall I occasionally saw the inside of, or perhaps the basement, with its pool table and bar and TV, shooting pool while my relatives watched the game. At the time, I thought nothing of it.
Funny what happens, though, when an organization like the K of C grows so large as to have hundreds of millions of dollars to throw around. Interesting what happens, when a catholic-minded organization has that much of catholics' money to fool around with. What's a million here, or a million there going to social conservative causes?
Oh, and you better not miss the next spaghetti dinner/fish fry/pancake breakfast...
Now, I'm sure that if I were to inquire of my family, I'd definitely hear about the first half of this statement from ThinkProgress, they'd heartily agree. The second part? Not so much.
But while much of the Knights’ charitable efforts in recent years have supported purely altruistic causes such as the Special Olympics and Habitat for Humanity, millions of their charitable dollars have funded a very socially conservative ideological agenda: opposing abortion, LGBT rights, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and pornography, while supporting public funding for religious organizations.
It's a
very socially conservative agenda, sure. It's also very catholic, in that it matches up with the church's position on these issues. I have my doubts that anyone in my family -- nearly all catholics, however fervent or lapsed they might be -- agrees with much of that. But as their support, their money, goes places like the K of C, that's what they end up doing, supporting the conservative agenda of the church.
Just as well that I'll be spending xmas alone; this would be miserable talk around the holiday dinner table if I were back home with the family, wretched apostate that I am. They wouldn't want to hear about this.
K of C at the 2006 March for Life
The Knights also operate a legally-separate but affiliated charitable arm called the Knights of Columbus Charities Inc. That tax-exempt non-profit organization made about 57 percent of its annual grants in 2013 to efforts to “promote matters affective life family, marriage and similar priorities in building a culture of life.” More than $1 million of that went to support “Crisis Pregnancy Centers,” a network of facilities that dissuade women from choosing to terminate their pregnancies, often by sharing misinformation.
What with the catholic hierarchy of sins, I'm sure they mollify whatever pricked conscience they might suffer over lying to pregnant women in difficult circumstances, just for the chance to preserve a fetus they won't give a tinker's cuss about once it's born. Not when such valiant K of C members as John Boehner go back to not-work in Congress, having thoroughly failed to internalize the church's humanitarian impulses and efforts, and set about snipping more holes in the frayed social safety net.
And when the K of C isn't working to erode the separation of church and state, or to promote a more conservative judiciary, they're donating millions to repulsive anti-gay organizations like NOM, joining the rest of the religious right in fighting against same-sex marriage. I see their money has made it out here to the desert! Would my family be proud of what this catholic organization is up to here in cr-AZ-y?
In 2012, the national organization sent $450,000 to the ballot committee pushing to block Maryland’s marriage equality legislation, $300,000 to block marriage equality in Washington, $100,000 to oppose same-sex marriage in Maine, and $250,000 to support a proposed constitutional ban in Minnesota. All four efforts were unsuccessful. The national group and local chapters also contributed more than $1.3 million in 2008 toward the passage of California’s Proposition 8, $100,000 to Arizona’s 2008 constitutional amendment, and $100,000 to Kansas’ 2005 amendment effort.
K of C spokesman Joseph Cullen spoke with ThinkProgress about the organization's activities. His somewhat laughable defense seemed to be that, however bad these things were, they do so much more for causes you might like! Asked about the millions spent attacking same-sex marriage,
this is what he had to say:
Cullen noted that this spending needed to be considered in the context of the organization’s other donations, including $500,000 for the Center for Dialogue and Prayer at Auschwitz, “more than $1.7 million for relief in Haiti,” “more than $660,000 for African AIDS orphans,” and “more than $10 million to the reconstruction efforts” after Hurricane Katrina.
Seems a bit much to cite donations for AIDS orphans in Africa, really, considering the church's ongoing, active role in
making those children orphans in the first place. Another prick to the conscience, perhaps? Would a condom help with that prick, or would that be another intrinsic evil?
So with a tip of the hat to MB and his oft-quoted sig, I can tell what they believe, what matters to them, by what they do. The extent to which they seek to obfuscate what they're doing just shows their understanding that the flock might not approve, if they only knew.