Tuesday, November 22, 2005
THE ANTI-SEMITISM CHARGE
It seems to be thrown around a lot more often than is warranted in Catholic circles these days. It was indicated by a commenter not long ago that I would fall into anti-Semitism if I continued in the direction I am going. Why the poster thought that was never revealed.
In the November issue of "Culture Wars" Thomas J. Herron discusses it in his article titled "Perfect Fear Drives out Love" in which he claims that the revelation of the sexual abuse scandal is somehow a plot of the Jews to deflect our attention from Cardinal Rodriguez's "Jewish Conspiracy Theory." The article also states that "The ADL has no plans to abandon its jihad against Cardinal Rodriguez any time soon." Excuse me...?!!
The article left me feeling as though I had completely missed a nuclear detonation in my front yard. Yet in looking out the window I fail to detect even a small dip in the ground where this explosion supposedly took place.
The sexual abuse scandal is hardly an invention of a conspiracy. It has always troubled me as to why it burst into the headlines at the particular time that it did, but the reality of it cannot be denied. It had to surface at some time. Yet Herron seems to think that the Boston Globe and the Dallas Morning News ala Rod Dreher were somehow in league with the Jews in deciding when that time would be.
There is a 50% chance Herron is right, just as there is a 50% chance that he is wrong. I could say the same thing about the United Nations, the Masonic Lodge, the Liberal Catholic Church, and my grandmother if she were still alive. Maybe, Mr. Herron, but you have to present some facts to back up the charge; and calling the Philadelphia D.A., Ms. Lynne Abraham, a "short, fat, rather ugly Jewish woman, whose career has gone as far as it will go" sort of tips the ball of innocence into the court of the folks you oppose. The body type of the D.A. has exactly no bearing on the matter under discussion; and in fact, the picture of Ms. Abraham which accompanies the article is a picture of a rather attractive older woman who looks likable.
I don't know who Thomas J. Herron is. That may be a shortcoming on my part that would explain this article if it were rectified. The charge that the scandal was manufactured to injure the Church is not a new one. Laying the charge on the Jews, however, is--or at least is to me. It brings up an issue I've wrestled with for some time.
The Holocaust did not give the Jews a "get out of sin free" ticket. Jewish people have no more escaped the human condition than Irish people or Indian people or French people. Some Jews will sin. Some Jews will join together to further mutual interests. It is not anti-Semitic to point it out when they do. Some Jews may even target the Catholic Church, and that too should be pointed out if evidence of it is uncovered. But I didn't find convincing evidence in Herron's article. All I found was a lot of words about activities unrelated to the present topic--a lot of ancient history which is supposed to bear upon present circumstances.
You have to do better than that if you want to be taken seriously.
