There is a notable tendency for the far right to turn on itself in schisms over who is the most authentically reactionary.

I have commented on the “Marie Bain” incident before: a drama teacher at a Catholic high school was fired after someone located photos of her volunteering at an abortion clinic before she was hired at the school and forwarded them to the Bishop with a complaint. Later, a student at the high school posted a widely-disseminated blog entry disparaging the teacher, quoting the absurdly draconian school rules about abortion (students are immediately expelled not merely for advocating abortion rights, but even for saying they know someone who had an abortion), and exulting at the teacher’s firing. It quickly turned out that this student was the daughter of the woman who had crusaded to get the teacher fired.

But the plot continued to thicken: shortly thereafter, this student was herself expelled from the school! Today, the Sacramento Bee quoted the explanation from school officials:

“The family continued to meddle in the administrative affairs of Loretto High School by making demands and threats that created an atmosphere contrary to the mission of Loretto. The malicious language, taunts, threats, abuse towards members of our school community, gossip, rumors, unkind language and behavior continue.”

(The family denies this, of course.)

Apparently the family was on some sort of aggressive anti-abortion kick that included a systematic campaign of complaints about things or people they found insufficiently dogmatic on the issue, until finally even the other anti-choice Catholics couldn’t stand them.

It may be somewhat unfair to comment without detailed knowledge of the incident, but I will say that the school - which addresses even mentioning abortion punitively, and fired a popular teacher for having previously had a dissenting opinion - can hardly be surprised that there are people in their midst with a vindictive attitude about the issue. What is grimly amusing is to see all this maliciousness turn so quickly into a moral purity contest - something that, I think, the Inquisition or the Salem witch-hunters could have told them about. (To be fair, it is not only religious persecution that has this tendency: it was seen among the leaders of the French Revolution, the Soviet Communist Party, and the US Republican anti-Communists of the 50s. It is the behavior of vicious and intemperate ideologues freed from the obligation of liberal tolerance. It is the reason why those who know the complete and exclusive truth should never be allowed to act on it. But they’re teaching it to the students awfully early at Loretto High School, aren’t they?)

Hat tip: De Civitate Dei