Creed and Prejudice
Collins, Bob
The New Anti-Catholicism is not what I expected, thank Heaven. I envisioned nothing more than a litany, so to speak, of anti-Catholic outrages. There are some eye-popping examples, to be sure—like...
...There are some eye-popping examples, to be sure—like the incident above, in Montreal in 2000, drawn from an account by Mark Steyn in THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR...
...John Walker Lindh is both American and anti-American...
...I think a wide spectrum of Catholics would give another explanation: Catholic teaching comes from God, who told us that "my ways are not your ways...
...As Christ said in the Beatitudes, "Blessed are you when men reproach you, and persecute you, and, speaking falsely, say all manner of evil against you, for my sake...
...First, prejudice is demeaning...
...He describes how gay rights groups see the church's stand against condoms as costing lives, but does not mention how Catholics think church teaching could save lives...
...Some may even find reassurance...
...Catholic Church to squelch anti-Catholic messages in the media...
...Catholic positions on social questions, the conduct of priests and bishops, and other issues of public interest are subject to vigorous public scrutiny and debate...
...Wills's] agenda for the Catholic Church is a call to institutional suicide...
...The "new" antiCatholicism Jenkins focuses on comes from the Left and focuses on issues of gender and sexuality...
...But the give-and-take should apply to everyone...
...And prejudice is even more demeaning to those who hold its views...
...Jenkins's book will be an eye opener to many Catholics who tend to brush off outrageous portrayals of Catholics in popular culture...
...So is anti-Catholic prejudice really a problem...
...Jenkins's conclusion is that many selfproclaimed Catholics hold positions that are in no meaningful way Catholic...
...But more fundamentally, prejudice damages social discourse...
...My own reaction to The New Anti-Catholicism was less offense or outrage than embarrassment for the supposedly intelligent people who make fools of themselves parroting caricatures of Catholic belief...
...That said, Catholics who defend and promote the role of their church in American life should do so with eyes wide open to the nature of the opposition...
...Sometimes the point seems to be that Catholics should not be subjected to virulent prejudice just because they hold misguided ideas...
...As Jenkins notes: "Many observers would explain the crisis of American liberal Protestantism in terms of the lack of any distinctive values that distinguish the mainline churches from secular liberalism...
...The pivotal year was 1968 when Pope Paul VI issued Humanae Vitae, including a reaffirmation of the church's opposition to artificial contraception...
...Even if they did cave in, as Jenkins points out, prejudice against the church would hardly go away...
...Similarly, Jenkins discusses the natural hostility of Americans to a hierarchical organization and undemocratic decision making, and suggests that the Roman Catholic Church, as a global body, cannot be expected to reflect the views of American Catholics...
...Instead, he calls for not less but more rough-and-tumble debate, arguing that society has become too timid about challenging the views or actions of protected groups—pretty much everyone but Catholics, it sometimes seems...
...issues of sexual morality on which the American press naturally lines up against "repression...
...If religion doesn't bring a unique perspective to the public square, it really is nothing more than a country club...
...It's simply not right for people who have never met the good man who is pastor of my parish to assume he's a repressed (or maybe not so) pervert...
...Yes, for two reasons...
...Indeed, as his subtitle suggests, Jenkins argues that the kinds of prejudice expressed toward Catholics would never be tolerated against other religions or social groups...
...If Catholics are among the church's critics, Jenkins asks, can the criticism really be "anti-Catholic...
...And, indeed, what good is religion that merely reflects society...
...To many Americans caught up in the political and social upheavals of that time—Catholics included—the encyclical seemed to call a halt to the reforms ushered in by Vatican II...
...Amen...
...The new "progressive" anti-Catholics might be surprised to know that they are merely repeating hoary nativist calumnies, from secret allegiance to a foreign power to priestly seductions in the confessional...
...The answer Jenkins finds is often—though by no means always—"yes...
...After the Montreal attack, he notes, "Quebec police announced that the province's stringent hate-crime law would not be invoked against people who 'in good faith' attempt `to establish by argument an opinion on a religious subject:" But Jenkins also argues that such laws are "already far too wide ranging and ill defined...
...I'd suggest a simpler argument...
...Is violence toward other faiths an integral part of Islam...
...Just because a "Catholic" says something doesn't mean it's not anti-Catholic...
...These kinds of issues should be no more out-of-bounds than Catholic Church teaching on abortion...
...Most Catholics see this as a strength, not a weakness—that the truth they embrace is not subject to the whims of contemporary opinion...
...Jenkins makes this point in responding to critics such as Garry Wills, who would reform the church to fit contemporary sensibilities...
...If I was frustrated by The New Anti-Catholicism, it was because it never seemed to suggest that the Catholic Church does in fact have something worthwhile to say—although, in fairness, that is not Jenkins's purpose...
...and a loss of clout by the U.S...
...I'm embarrassed that these people can be played like a violin by "artists" who substitute shock for creativity, with the latest tired derivative of Piss Christ...
...As Jenkins explains, advocates of abortion or gay rights explicitly incite anti-Catholic sentiments to advance their causes, thus warping serious debate about issues on which Catholics have something worthwhile to say...
...That's the rhetorical trump card played by those who attack the church, its clergy, or its teachings...
...But Jenkins—a professor at Penn State and a self-described former Roman Catholic who left "without any particular rancor" and is now an Episcopalian and "a small-c catholic"—cites three forces that make the new anti-Catholicism more powerful: voices of dissent among Catholics themselves...
...Can arguments against the Roman Catholic Church, its hierarchy, its clergy, and its moral teachings really be considered antiCatholic prejudice...
...How about just enforcing ordinary laws to protect the rights of worshipers and owners of church property from violence...
...What about the breakdown of nuclear families among African Americans...
...He explains anti-Catholic views in opposition on abortion or contraception, for example, but never why thechurch teaches as it does...
...The conclusion Catholics should draw from this book is neither to nurse grievances against anti-Catholic prejudice nor to hand their church over to its opponents...
...But Philip Jenkins's book is much more: a serious effort to understand current anti-Catholic ideas in the context of historical prejudice and contemporary social and political battles...
Vol. 36 • August 2003 • No. 4
