When people make light fun of their own religion, race or ethnic group in the company of like persons, that’s one thing. It’s quite another when someone who doesn’t belong to the group does so. It was in this vein that we greeted Marie Osmond’s remark about Catholic guilt.
In a segment on Larry King, the Mormon singer replied to a comment that King made on how Mormons love children: “Well, they say Catholics and Mormons love kids, but, see, we have kids without guilt.” Maybe she should just keep on trying to sing.
Talking about guilt, we couldn’t help but notice that in a Vanity Fair piece on actor Ben Affleck (of “Dogma” fame), it was said that Affleck is ever conscious of his millionaire status. Sometimes, he admits, “I feel that maybe I should just keep $50,000 and give everything [else] away.” It was the next line that threw us: “His healthy Cambridge-liberal guilt is hard to miss.”
So when Catholics experience guilt, there’s something wrong with that. But when well-heeled liberal brats experience guilt, that’s “healthy.” By the way, if Affleck wants to unburden his healthy guilt, we’d be glad to help him wind up with $50,000.
