That parallel gains force, also, given recent scholarship demonstrating not just complicity but also enthusiastic participation, by German religious leaders and theologians during Hitler's rise to power and establishment of the 3rd Reich. Recently, prominent leaders in American Judaism have publicly acknowledged the parallels:
Continued efforts by the American Christian right ( and beyond US shores, on a worldwide level - see Talk To Action contributor Matt Thompson's Orthodox Anglicans' Akinola: 'Five Years in Jail if You are Gay in Nigeria' ) to limit same sex civil rights have been characterized by Bob Moser, writing for The Southern Poverty law Center, as "Holy War" : Holy War: The religious crusade against gays has been building for 30 years. Now the movement is reaching truly biblical proportions and in the recent 20th Century history past, there is disturbing precedent for such efforts. ![]()
So, here, we have Christianity under attack. Intellectuals like to rap it. And then we're called whiners. Now, you just try to do this with blacks. Can you imagine if you had eight books that are bestsellers right now, saying that blacks are natural-born killers, or that gays are naturally born to be moral slugs, or that Jews are taking over the world? Could you imagine if somebody then said about blacks and Jews and gays were whiners because they were complaining about this intellectual assault? No. William Donahue, it would seem, has rendered such questions very easy to imagine. Meanwhile, as Media Matters For America summarizes its chronicle of controversial statements Donahue has made on MSNBC :
William A. Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has made 23 guest appearances on TV news programs in 2004. Donohue uses his appearances primarily to attack gays and progressives. He has referred to the "gay death style," remarked, "God forbid we'd run out of little gay kids," claimed that Senator John Kerry "never found an abortion he couldn't justify," and claimed that "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular ... Hollywood likes anal sex." Donahue is known for dishing out accusations of "anti-catholicism" but also seems comfortable emitting televised rhetoric many would characterize as hate speech and which - beyond its historical resonance with antisemitic and anti-gay rhetoric common in Germany during Nazi era - also resembles a milder, or coded version, of conspiratorial, antisemitic, and/or Christian supremacist rhetoric and ideology typical of the Christian Identity movement. As Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst for The Public Eye ( and Talk To Action contributor ) writes, in CHRISTIAN IDENTITY, SURVIVALISM & THE POSSE COMITATUS : A New Face for Racism & Fascism:
Many Posse and Identity adherents believe Jews, Blacks, Communists, Homosexuals and race-traitors have seized control of the United States. They refer to Washington, D.C. as the Zionist Occupational Government (ZOG). They read the novel "The Turner Diaries" in which an underground white army leads a revolution against ZOG.....
Now, none of this is suprising to to those who track statements by leading figures on the American Christian right. But what is noteworthy is this: William Donahue is the head of an organization that claims to fight for civil rights and religious liberty, and against Anti-Catholicism. In that capacity, and as a prominent pundit, has appeared over twenty times as a guest on a MSNBC network television show to emit such statements as the following:
![]() ( MSNBC transcript ) "Who really cares what Hollywood thinks? All these hacks come out there. Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It`s not a secret, OK? And I`m not afraid to say it. That`s why they hate this movie. It`s about Jesus Christ, and it`s about truth. It`s about the messiah.
No, Donahue did not cite "The Protocols of The Elders Of Zion" - but allegations of "Jewish conspiracies" against Christianity have a long and reprehensible history that long predated the Holocaust, and a credulous citation of the "Protocols" - as fact - shows up in third place in a Google search on the term "Protocols". Given the way Google produces search results, by popularity ( # of links pointing to a page with any given search term ) this would indicate that Jewish conspiracy myths have not died out and possibly are gaining more cultural prominence. Meanwhile, one would imagine Mr. Donahue might rightly be a bit more concerned with attempts to forcibly convert Catholics to Protestant Christianity, or by the refusal - on the part of US state funded agencies - to deny adoption services to catholic couples. Bill Donahue's "Catholic League" seems to have a nose for the more prurient aspects of antireligious expressions his organization labels as hate speech, but the League seems bizarrely unconcerned with run-of-the-mill varieties of anticatholicism: preliminary results of a simple Google search reveal that the "Catholic League" seems to be less than fully engaged with the sort of blatant discrimination against Catholics represented by the denial of adoption services to Catholic couples seeking to start the sort of "traditional" families the League advocates : instead, the Catholic League appears to be intent on one major related issue - preventing same sex couples from adopting children.
William A. Donohue, president of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has made 23 guest appearances on TV news programs in 2004. Donohue uses his appearances primarily to attack gays and progressives. He has referred to the "gay death style," remarked, "God forbid we'd run out of little gay kids," claimed that Senator John Kerry "never found an abortion he couldn't justify," and claimed that "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular ... Hollywood likes anal sex."
How does the Catholic League describe its mission ? Well, Donahue's organization, in its FAQ, does not mince words:
The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. Founded in 1973 by the late Father Virgil C. Blum, S.J., the Catholic League defends the right of Catholics - lay and clergy alike - to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination. Oh No, Mr. Bill! It's hate Speech! Run Away!
![]() As Talk To Action contributor Frank Cocozzelli writes, in installment five of his ongoing series on the Catholic Right:
By most objective standards, the League actually spends little time on defending the rights of ordinary Catholic individuals. Their definition of protecting Catholic civil and religious rights is increasingly limited to defending hierarchy and dogma: a self-evident fact that plays out in the Church's pedophilia scandal. [ emphasis mine ] Will the Catholic League, or Donahue take a principled stand on hate speech that falls outside of its appointed ideological franchise ? Coccozzelli - in the sixth installment of his series - asks the question :
Related stories : see the following Talk To Action topic categories
Militant Religious Militarism On American Judaism and the Christian Right :
Evangelicals and U.S. foreign policy by Esther Kaplan
"The Catholic League", mighty champion of ....gay bashing and anti-semitism ? | 0 comments ( topical, 0 hidden)
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Left Behind: Eternal Forces: Installments of Jonathan Hutson's Talk To Action expose series
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