{"id":13958,"date":"2019-05-14T11:11:19","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T17:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=13958"},"modified":"2019-05-14T11:11:19","modified_gmt":"2019-05-14T17:11:19","slug":"pfleger-farrakhan-and-trains-run-on-time-ism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2019\/05\/pfleger-farrakhan-and-trains-run-on-time-ism.html","title":{"rendered":"Pfleger, Farrakhan, and Trains-Run-On-Time-Ism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"
https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Rev._Michael_Pfleger_(19380451809).jpg; Daniel X. O\u2019Neil from USA [CC BY 2.0 (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0)]<\/figcaption><\/figure>First, an update on the fallout from the Farrakhan speech at St. Sabina\u2019s Church in Chicago, as I originally wrote about last week<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As a do-over for the mealy-mouthed statement on May 9th<\/a>, in which the Archdiocese generically denounced \u201cdiscriminatory rhetoric,\u201d a new statement<\/a> appeared on the Archdiocese website on May 10th, directly by Cardinal Cupich, in which he explicitly acknowledged and denounced Farrakhan\u2019s vile antisemitism, including his labelling of Jews as \u201cSatanic.\u201d<\/p>\n

There still appears to be no consequence with respect to Father Pfleger, however.\u00a0 Cupich\u2019s statement reads as if he\u2019s merely an outsider, a powerless observer:<\/p>\n

Without consulting me, Fr. Michael Pfleger invited Minister Louis Farrakhan to speak at St. Sabina Church in response to Facebook\u2019s decision to ban him from its platforms. . . .<\/p>\n

I encourage Fr. Pfleger to accept the invitation of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center to meet with their leadership and dialogue with survivors.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But, of course, Cupich is Pfleger\u2019s employer.<\/p>\n

Perhaps there\u2019s something going on behind-the-scenes?\u00a0 Maybe Cupich is working out a deal with Pfleger that would allow him to save face?\u00a0 I doubt it.<\/p>\n

And Pfleger is unrepentant, by which I mean that his Facebook page<\/a> seems to be his primary means of public communication and the only item posted since the May 9 speech (other than a generic Mother\u2019s Day greeting) is a picture of a banner at a church that reads, \u201cDiscipleship will cost.\u00a0 Are you willing?\u201d A further scrolling down of his page reveals all manner of commentary on racism and justice issues, but not the profusion of pictures and memes, which certainly indicates that this was a very intentional message \u2014 and his supporters took it that way, expressing their support for him specifically.\u00a0 (His twitter feed generally consists of links to facebook posts.)<\/p>\n

Pfleger\u2019s defense has repeatedly that Farrakhan had been a force for good among young black men in Chicago.\u00a0 In the CNN article<\/a> from immediately subsequent to his speech, he\u2019s reported as having said,<\/p>\n

\n
Farrakhan \u201chas been a bold voice against injustice done against black people in this country and his voice deserves and needs to be heard.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And this is where we see the trains-running-on-time-ism.<\/p>\n

Mussolini famously \u201cmade the trains run on time.\u201d\u00a0 (Many) Germans who may have otherwise been squeamish about Hitler\u2019s totalitarianism felt the improvement in their standard of living, the unemployment rate drop, and the Kraft durch Freude vacations should be credited to him for a balanced assessment.<\/p>\n

And Father Michael Pfleger appears to believe that, however much it may be less than ideal for Louis Farrakhan to call Jews \u201cSatanic,\u201d since he does such a bang-up job helping young black men, eh, on the balance he\u2019s a net force for good.<\/p>\n

Now, I admit I\u2019m not sure entirely how to interpret this.\u00a0 Perhaps he believes that Jews are \u201csafe\u201d and at no particular risk of any harm coming to them so that Farrakhan\u2019s words are simply not a big deal.\u00a0 Perhaps he believes that Jews, as \u201cwhite people,\u201d have an obligation to put up with a few mean words for the greater good.\u00a0 Maybe Pfleger\u2019s constant railing against racism (which can all too easily shift from calling for justice and working for the greater good to preaching hatred and anger against perpetrators or even though who are not deemed \u201callies\u201d) has allowed antisemitism to creep into his own mindset.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

And even if one wished to make the case that Pfleger might best dissuade Farrakhan from his antisemitism by working together, that\u2019s still a far cry from giving him a platform, let alone calling him \u201cprophetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, again, Pfleger should have been called out by one cardinal or another for his preaching and publicity stunts long ago, but if Cupich lets his actions here truly fade away, it really (further) calls into question Cupich\u2019s own judgement, and Cupich\u2019s commitment to Catholic doctrine versus merely the political and social activism that Pfleger and Cupich share.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, an update on the fallout from the Farrakhan speech at St. Sabina\u2019s Church in Chicago, as I originally wrote about last week: As a do-over for the mealy-mouthed statement on May 9th, in which the Archdiocese generically denounced \u201cdiscriminatory rhetoric,\u201d a new statement appeared on the Archdiocese website on May 10th, directly by Cardinal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[69,1247,1244],"class_list":["post-13958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archbishop-cupich","tag-farrakhan","tag-pfleger"],"yoast_head":"\nPfleger, Farrakhan, and Trains-Run-On-Time-Ism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"First, an update on the fallout from the Farrakhan speech at St. Sabina's Church in Chicago, as I originally wrote about last week: 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