Jay Leno and the One about the Nude Jogging Priest

Jay Leno truly enjoys bashing the Catholic Church.

I'm not drawing that conclusion. Leno said so himself.

As an introduction to his latest anti-Catholic joke, he said something about being sorry to bring this story up. Then, he turned around and laughed and said that he actually loved mentioning this news item.

This is a very strange story:

FREDERICK -- A Catholic priest faces an indecent exposure charge after police said he went jogging in the nude about an hour before sunrise.

The Rev. Robert Whipkey told officers he had been running naked at a high school track and didn't think anyone would be around at that time of day, a police report said.

He told officers he sweats profusely if he wears clothing while jogging.

"I know what I did was wrong," he said in the report.

Whipkey did not return telephone messages.

His attorney, Doug Tisdale, told the Longmont Times-Call that Whipkey had no comment.

...An officer said he saw a naked man walking down the street at 4:35 a.m.

The U.S. Naval Observatory Web site said sunrise that day in Frederick was 5:31 a.m.

The officer said when he shined his flashlight at the man, he covered himself with a piece of clothing he was carrying.

The Archdiocese of Denver said it takes the incident seriously but is awaiting the outcome of the case.

Anyone walking down a street naked should be arrested.

It's against the law.

On any given day, how many people in the U.S. are arrested for indecent exposure?

Probably pretty many. It's a big country.

Of course, this case is being singled out for national attention because the nude jogger is a priest.

I don't think that's entirely unreasonable. With the scandals that have surfaced regarding priests behaving badly, I can see why this story would be of interest.

As the set-up for his joke, Leno told the story of what the priest had done. It got some laughs even before he delivered the punch line.

It was something like, "The good news is the altar boy he was chasing got away."

Leno takes such delight in joking about priests and abuse. It's creepy.

As a Catholic, it's been very difficult to deal with the scandals that have plagued the Church.

I wonder if Leno considers how his jokes about priest abuse go over with the victims and their families.

It must not be very pleasant to be relaxing and watching TV and then get blindsided with a joke that dredges up such an awful experience. Leno obviously doesn't care about that.

I'm not saying that the nude jogging priest isn't fair game for a joke. The problem is Leno's incessant Catholic-bashing stereotypes Catholic priests as a flock of molesters and perverts.

That's terribly unfair.

Molesters and perverts and nude joggers should be punished for their crimes. I'm not defending them.

I object to Leno's characterization that such behavior is commonplace within the Church.

Not true.
____________________________

Watch the clip from Leno's monologue here.

LENO:I hate to keep doing this stuff. Actually, I love to keep doing this stuff because it keeps coming up again.

But some more bad news… in Colorado, a Catholic priest arrested for jogging naked around a high school track. I’m not making that up – Catholic priest jogging naked around a high school track.

That's the bad news. The good news… the altar boy he was chasing managed to get away.