{"id":106632,"date":"2018-12-05T00:02:25","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T07:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=106632"},"modified":"2018-12-04T17:27:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T00:27:16","slug":"simcha-fisher-on-the-growing-tolerance-of-anti-semitism-among-catholics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2018\/12\/simcha-fisher-on-the-growing-tolerance-of-anti-semitism-among-catholics.html","title":{"rendered":"Simcha Fisher on the growing tolerance of anti-semitism among Catholics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

She\u2019s perfectly right, of course<\/a>. Anybody with a drop of Jewish is right to be worried. And any Catholic not actively fighting this filth should be ashamed.<\/p>\n

Antisemitism is in the Church.
\nCatholics who aren\u2019t antisemites are obligated to reject even the smallest hint of it, whenever it turns up.
\n<\/strong>
\nEven if it was unintentional; even if it seems minor; even if it seems to gentiles like an isolated, meaningless incident that can be explained away if everyone would just calm down. Even if the antisemite does other good things or is an effective fundraiser for Catholic causes.<\/p>\n

If we don\u2019t step up and say something every single time, then those who really are malicious become more bold, and ideas that once pushed the envelope become commonplace.<\/p>\n

A few months ago,\u00a0the Catholic News Agency published an article about Franciscan University\u2019s response to allegations of mishandling sexual assault<\/a>, which was uncovered by freelance journalist Jenn Morson and published in the\u00a0National Catholic Reporter.<\/em><\/p>\n

CNA named George Soros as the originator of the funding, and then devoted\u00a0eight paragraphs<\/em>\u00a0of their article to the funding angle. But the funding was not, in fact, from George Soros, and even if it had been, Morson was unaware of the grant and did not receive it until after the story was published.\u00a0Her editors clarified<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The grant was made eight years before Morson started writing her story. The putative connection to George Soros was, in short, imaginary. Moreover, even if it had existed, it would not have been newsworthy, much less deserving of eight paragraphs.<\/p>\n

But Morson is a Catholic of Jewish origin, and\u00a0\u201cSoros\u201d is shorthand in the United States for \u201cevil Jewish influence.\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Note:\u00a0 I chronicled Austin Ruse\u2019 vile anti-semitic dog-whistling at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Simcha continues:<\/p>\n

So, maybe the CNA reporter, and the editor who okayed the story, simply didn\u2019t know the name \u201cSoros\u201d is an anti-semitic dogwhistle. That happens.<\/p>\n

But after Morson and several others told them what \u201cSoros\u201d means to so many people, they defended their story.<\/em>\u00a0They added a paragraph noting that Morson was not aware of the origin of the funding; but they retained the eight paragraphs noting the alleged source of funding. It\u2019s hard to understand why that information was relevant unless CNA wanted readers to believe the source of funding affected the reporting itself.<\/p>\n

Well. Still. Why is this worth bringing up? Why can\u2019t we just give the benefit of the doubt to Catholics who do good work otherwise? Why are Jews so damn touchy?<\/p>\n

Because there\u00a0are<\/em>\u00a0so many Catholics of bad will. Because anti-semitism\u00a0is<\/em>once again gaining ground in the Church, just as it is everywhere else.\u00a0Anti-semitic attacks in the U.S. have surged 57% in the last year alone<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0If you think those attacks only happen outside the Church, just ask any public person with a Jewish-sounding last name. Stroll by the wrong hornet\u2019s nest, and the anti-semitism comes swarming out, sometimes disguised as piety, sometimes proudly acknowledging itself for what it is.<\/p>\n

Does anti-semitism exist only in Catholic circles? Of course not. But when it does exist there, it\u2019s every Catholic\u2019s job to stamp it out in horror. Catholics of good will are obligated to be especially careful to utterly reject even the hint of antisemitism, before it gains strength.<\/p>\n

But they\u2019re not. They\u2019re not stamping it out, and they\u2019re not learning to be careful. And when they\u2019re not careful, those without good will consistently amplify dogwhistles, whether they were originally intentional or not. The Catholic\u00a0Crisis<\/em>\u00a0Magazine followed Catholic News Agency\u2019s \u201cI spy George Soros\u201d cue and gleefully doubled down on the imaginary Soros-Morson connection with an article titled \u201cThe Soros-Funded Attacks on Orthodox Catholic Universities<\/a>.\u201d The word \u201cattacks\u201d is plural because the author, Austin Ruse, included\u00a0my Christendom articles<\/a>\u00a0in this category of attack. It is common knowledge that I am Jewish.<\/p>\n

My articles were, of course, in no way funded by George Soros, and were in no way part of a coordinated attack.\u00a0But that\u2019s not relevant, if you know your readership. And\u00a0Crisis<\/em>\u00a0does.<\/p>\n

The Remnant Magazine used a similar tactic in their strange, rambling article about me: They called my work<\/a>\u00a0\u201csatanic\u201d and then devoted two paragraphs to my Jewishness and how I convey it, even though my articles has nothing to do with Judaism.<\/p>\n

In other words, they said:\u00a0We are not antisemitic. But you should know that this evil article was written by a Jew.<\/em><\/p>\n

Because this kind of thing is tolerated, because people want to pretend it\u2019s not happening, the authors grow more bold.\u00a0Austin Ruse, the author of the\u00a0Crisis<\/em>\u00a0article fallaciously linking Morson to Soros, recently said this on Twitter of his nephew,\u00a0who is an \u201cElder\u201d in the Proud Boys.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ruse, who has received numerous awards from mainstream Catholic organizations, including Franciscan University, has repeatedly insisted that Proud Boys are\u00a0\u201cmostly a men\u2019s drinking club<\/a>\u201d and \u201cnot an extremist group nor or they even remotely white nationalist<\/a>.\u201d According to the\u00a0ProudBoysUSA.com<\/span>:<\/p>\n

Men have tried being ashamed of themselves and accepting blame for slavery, the wage gap, ableism, and some fag-bashing that went on two generations ago, but it didn\u2019t work. So they\u2019re going with their gut and indulging in the natural pride that comes from being part of the greatest culture in the world. It\u2019s very freeing to finally admit the West is the best. That\u2019s because it\u2019s the truth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jason Kessler was a member of the Proud Boys when he helped organize the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville<\/a>\u00a0where tiki torch-wielding marchers chanted \u201cJews will not replace us.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the organization that brings Austin Ruse such familial pride.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s John Zmirak, who in 2016 reissued his\u00a0Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism<\/em>. He\u2019s gone on the record rejecting anti-semitism, which is bold. Was that before or after he worked for the white nationalist publication VDARE, including\u00a0this Christmas essay, which is essentially a chattier<\/a>\u00a0version of the\u00a014 words<\/a>? Before or after he recorded at least one giggly interview, now mysteriously vanished, with neo-Nazi Richard Spencer? If he\u2019s repented, the man has some public reparation to catch up on.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t like guilt by association. I don\u2019t like punishing people for failing to expunge every possible hint of unsavory connections from their public past.\u00a0But I\u2019m also no fool. I know that evildoers count on the cover given them by the naivet\u00e9, the timidity, the mistaken charitable intentions of decent people.<\/p>\n

Jewish writers will tell you that anti-semitic insults and threats from people calling themselves \u201cCatholic\u201d are commonplace. Gentiles have told me they have no idea such a thing happens. So I\u2019m telling you:\u00a0It happens all the time.<\/em>My family has received numerous explicitly anti-semitic threats of violence from people calling themselves Catholic. After years of writing for Catholic publications, it doesn\u2019t even raise eyebrows anymore. It\u2019s routine.<\/p>\n

Guys, the Catholic people and publications I named are only ones I happened to have come into contact with recently, and so their names popped into my head. They are the tip of the iceberg.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By all means, go and read the rest of it.\u00a0 This is important.\u00a0 And it is a massive scandal that the backbone of the white supremacist and anti-semitic Freak Show that is the Cult of Trump known as the GOP is white conservative Christians, both Catholic and Protestant.<\/p>\n

Former readers keep asking why I spend my time talking about the Right Wing Freak Show and not Catholic apologetics.\u00a0 \u201cWhy don\u2019t I defend the Faith anymore?\u201d they ask.\u00a0 They are stone blind to the fact that the biggest threat the Catholic Church faces in our time is the subculture that still brags that they are the Greatest Catholics in All of Time, Space, and Eternity.\u00a0 This white, racist, anti-semitic cult of Trump-adoring, Pope-hating weirdos are convinced they have been sent by God to save the Church from the Magisterium.\u00a0 And the danger, of course, is that unwary and ignorant may believe them and be scandalized away from the gospel or, just as deadly, believe them and embrace their antichrist cult and become twice the sons of hell that they are.<\/p>\n

Either way, it is vital that this Cult be fought till they inevitably destroy themselves.<\/p>\n

Bravo to Simcha for speaking out against them.<\/p>\n

By the way, here\u2019s a nice takedown of the stupid George Soros Bogeyman thing that only the Cult of Trump takes seriously:<\/p>\n