Last week a Catholic priest drew nationwide attention – and outrage – after taking to Twitter to urge women to cover their shoulders to protect men’s “purity.” The responses were what you might expect, mostly outrage and accusations of misogyny.
Father Kevin Cusick of of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. didn’t back down. He went on to suggest no one should challenge his decree because, as he tweeted, “I’ve prayed about it.”
Naturally, those who disagreed were not about to take direction from the misogynistic Man of God. They attacked.
But rather that try to participate in a discussion about why he felt so strongly that women are responsible for controlling men’s impulses, Father Cusick compared his plight to that of Jesus on the cross.
He later went on a days-long anti-LGBT rant, as if the whole problem, perhaps, was caused by gay people?
Needless to say, it left many scratching their heads – and angry about his vicious homophobic and transphobic attacks.
In response, Father Cusick, a retired Navy chaplain, has now scrubbed or, as he describes, deactivated his Twitter account.
And he’s decreed that Twitter is “demonic.”
Listening to Father Cusick tell the story, one might surmise he were still in the Navy, battling evildoers – and evil – on the high seas, not people who are more enlightened than he, from behind a keyboard.
“Twitter has a dark, demonic side, raging against God and the Church,” the victimized priest declared in an opinion piece at The Wanderer, entitled, “When The Twitter Mob Came After Me.”
“That brood of vipers and braying, bloodthirsty hounds lurking in readiness was visited upon me with nearly unrelenting fury and incredible magnitude last week,” Father Cusick wrote.
“Wave after wave of calumnious, blasphemous, and obscene memes, gifs, and messages were posted with comments, likes, and retweets ranging up to the tens of thousands. Those who styled themselves my enemies crowed with pleasure that I had been ‘ratioed’ — when negative comments outnumber likes and retweets. Many called for me to delete my account when they weren’t wishing a more horrible fate upon me. Blue check mark accounts with nearly 200k followers piled on.”
The way Father Cusick describes the events, he was entirely innocent.
No mention whatsoever of his attacks on LGBT people in his op-ed.
Cusick goes on to say that his Twitter “account disappeared on Wednesday, June 5,” and “many wondered if Twitter had banned me, which was not the case. I was informed the previous evening that some of my account features would be limited for roughly twelve hours,” which sounds like Twitter may have suspended him temporarily, possibly over some of his tweets, which included at least one that may have violated their policies.
Father Cusick then tries to position himself as a social media expert, telling supporters, “Rapid consumption of large volumes of data does not lend itself to reasoned discussion of sensitive subjects,” while, again, neglecting to be honest with them by admitting he had gone on an anti-LGBT rant over a period of at least two days. He was enjoying attacking his opponents – some of whom it can be assumed were hurt and offended by his remarks – so much that at the end of the first day he literally tweeted, “Guess I triggered ‘em. What button should i push tomorrow?”
Apparently he came to his senses, and finally pushed the button marked “delete.”
Father Cusick may believe Twitter is “demonic,” but he doesn’t appear quite done yet.
“A Google search for ‘Kevin M. Cusick’ on Thursday, however, revealed a newly created Twitter handle ‘Nova bella elegit Dominus‘ — taken from the Hebrew Scriptures’ Book of Judges 5:8 —which means ‘God chose new leaders,'” according to a report in the National Catholic Reporter.