Catholic League Removes Wannabe Influencer From White House's Religious Commission
An update to what I wrote about this yesterday, which you can read here. Bill Donohue, President of The Catholic League, issued this statement:
In a separate statement, Donohue blasted Carrie Prejean Boller, a new Catholic, for hijacking a discussion about American Christians to talk about Gaza:
To be sure, it is possible for someone to oppose Zionism yet not be anti-Semitic. But the fact is that those who are activists for the anti-Zionist cause invariably harbor an animus against Jews. And yes, this would include self-hating Jews.
Prejean Boller is a former Miss California and a convert to Catholicism. She does not run a Catholic organization, has no Catholic credentials as an author or instructor, and indeed represents no one but herself. For her to say, without qualification, that “Catholics do not embrace Zionism,” is presumptuous and arrogant.
In reply to Prejean Boller, fellow panelist Rabbi Meir Soloveichik said, “This is an incredibly diverse country, and the one thing we should be careful about is speaking on behalf of all members of a religious community, even if one is a member of that religious community. I certainly wouldn’t claim to speak for all Jews on all subjects.”
He is too kind. Her audacity is stunning. I have run the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization for over three decades, and never once have I said that I represent all Catholics. I represent the Catholic League, period. Hopefully, I also represent many others who share my convictions.
Zionism is a movement that promotes Jewish self-determination in a homeland. There are millions of Catholics like myself who, even if they do not identify themselves as Zionists, recognize the Jewish state of Israel. Prejean Boller apparently does not—she is more comfortable showing up at the Religious Liberty Commission wearing a Palestinian flag pin. So telling.
I can’t imagine converting to a faith and then suddenly appointing myself the uninformed spokesperson for it. It seems like a failed op.
Good on the Catholic League for handling this so swiftly and definitively.
Donohue has alwaus struck me as a good, good man. God bless him and tge Catholic League.
I distinguish parishioners from the authorities of the institutions of faith. No one believes the whole texts of whatever faith they claim, otherwise there would be no division. For example, a peace loving Muslim does not believe in jihad, even though jihad is a fundamental core belief of Islam. It is the peaceful Muslims who are extreme, not the jihadists. That said, Carrie Boller is simply speaking consistently with the one of the core tenants of her faith: anti-semitism. Catholicism is institutionally anti-semitic, until recently. Catholicism is also institutionally anti-Islam, until recently. It wasn't until the Nostra Aeatate of 1965 that the Catholic Church began to respect other religions. From the Council of Laodicea through the Fourth Lateran Council, various Diets, Councils, pogroms, and wars support the institutionally sanctioned anti-semitism of the Catholic Church. The most famous King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella used the Reconquista (of Muslims out of Spain) as his excuse for not financing Christopher Columbus' journey. It was Santangel, a jewish member of King Ferdinand's court who financed it. Why? Because of the Alhambra Decree of March 31, 1492. In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue because the mandate by Ferdinand was leave or die. All done with the blessing of the pope. Carrie Boller is most likely ignorant of all this. She seems to just pick what faith to respect outside of her own, and what faith to deride. None of these faiths are true: Judaism, Islam, Catholicism, Mormonism, Protestantism. You can't cut up The Book and believe what you want, or add your own book, and expect to be consistent with the truth. So there's a meeting on religious freedom. Why? Probably because people of all faiths agree that Governments doing things like Governor Bogg's Haun Mill Massacre and the Battle of Crooked River in 1838 is a bad idea, and they could be next.