There’s been some concern that the election of Barack Obama would send the right-wing fundie wack-job crowd (a.k.a. Sarah Palin voters) over the edge and trigger off a wave of violence. Indeed, right here in Massachusetts, on the day after the election, a black church in Springfield was deliberately set on fire and local officials have termed it a likely hate crime. Many news outlets are reporting a huge surge in the sale of automatic weapons, especially in “red” communities. The Secret Service has reported a marked increase in threats against Barack Obama’s life and says they may be attributable to the effect of those Sarah Palin campaign rallies. And earlier this week there was a story from the college town of Rexburg, Idaho, where a bus-load of school children were seen and heard chanting for the assassination of Barack Obama.

But who would have expected that among those spreading the hate would be Catholic priests?

One priest, Father Jay Scott Newman of Greenville, SC has told his parishioners that they’d better not stand up to receive Holy Communion in his church if they voted for Obama. He even posted this in an open letter to his parish on the church’s website.

Another priest, Father Sebastian Mayer of Fairfield, CA, publicly humiliated one of his parishioners in front of the assembled congregation at Mass for having Obama campaign signs on her vehicle, which was parked in the church parking lot. Then, on Wednesday morning, when contacted by a newspaper reporter about the story, the priest became verbally and physically abusive with the reporter.

Niiiiiiiiiice.

Oh, wait, I just remembered who would be all for this kind of bullying behavior from his minions…