Catholic League President’s Anti-Semitic Remarks on “Scarborough Country”
Posted by James Joyner - Outside the beltway blog
The blogosphere is all abuzz (see Andrew Sullivan, Josh Marshall, and Jeff Jarvis) about some anti-Semitic comments made by Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, on the December 8 edition of MSNBC's "Scarborough Country" in the presence of guest host Pat Buchanan.
"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 [Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ]. It's about Jesus Christ, and it's about truth. It's about the messiah. Hollywood likes anal sex. They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children. They like abortions. I believe in traditional values and restraint. They believe in libertinism. We have nothing in common."
There's little doubt that Hollywood, compared to American society as a whole, is comparatively anti-religious, pro-homosexual, pro-abortion, and Jewish. Donohue's remarks are offensive, though, because of the gratuitious baiting of anti-Semites. Had he said "secularists" rather than "secular Jews," the remarks would have said exactly the same way in a more defensible manner.
Sully is right, though, that even aside from the anti-Semitism issue, Donohue is engaging in hyperbolic pandering. Marshall, though, takes it a bit far:
Maybe the conservatives who go into paroxysms with charges of anti-Semitism any time the word "neoconservative" is uttered, will spare a moment to take notice of this . . .
I would note that it has been some time since Buchanan was part of the mainstream of American conservatism, having long gone off on a rather bizarre nativist-protectionist tangent. Donohue is prominent in the "anti-anti-Catholicism movement, with some rather significant endorsements. I hope he is taken to task for the comments. |
