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KARL KEATING'S E-LETTER
TOPICS:
JOHNNY HART, CARTOONIST AND CHRISTIAN
IMAGINED ANTI-SEMITISM
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
Sunday was the traditional Columbus Day, and yesterday most government workers and some private-industry workers had the day off.
I know this may irk some groups, but let me say it: Although I'm not Italian, I like Christopher Columbus, and I'm glad he took his three small ships westward. If he hadn't, I might be writing this from a fogged-in village in Lower Slobovia instead of from sunny San Diego.
Yes, yes, I have heard the arguments of those who attack Columbus and the other early explorers. Neither he nor they were angels, but to my lights they were better men and more worthy of public honors than are the other individuals who have been given a holiday of their own, whether at the state or national level.
Besides, I'm a Catholic, so I'm biased toward any sailor who names a ship the Santa Maria!
PREDICTION: POPULAR CARTOONIST ABOUT TO BE VILIFIED
Did you catch the "B.C." comic strip in yesterday's newspaper? My guess is that cartoonist Johnny Hart is going to catch some flak.
Hart is a Christian--an Evangelical, I think--who occasionally puts overt religious references in "B.C." In the past some folks (secularists and liberal Christians) have squawked, perhaps because they believe in the principle of separation of church and comics.
In yesterday's edition of "B.C."--the strip features cave men, thus part of the reason for the title--there was but one panel. It showed a desert, with blazing sun, two cacti, several rocks, and a fellow crawling through the sand. Looking up, he says, "Lord, if you love me, give me a sign." At the right side of the panel, just out of the man's line of sight, is a rock on which is scrawled "Jesus saves." Nice touch, that.
But it will be too much for some people. Oh sure, you can have a comic strip that deals with politics (left-wing only, please) or with controverted social issues (again, with a Hobson's choice in viewpoints), and no one complains about it. But if you make a low-key reference to the religion that is subscribed to by the large majority of Americans, you're out of bounds.
"B.C." has been running for many years, and I presume Mr. Hart, like other cartoonists, has brought out book-length collections of his best offerings. I propose to him that he now produce another sort of collection.
I'd like to see him put between two covers all of the "B.C." strips that had a Christian theme. I think there would be a market for such a book. At least I hope there would be. If nothing else, such a book would tweak certain noses again, and that in itself would be a good thing--sort of a cartoon version of instructing the ignorant.
THE ANTI-SEMITISM THAT ISN'T THERE
Once upon a time I read every letter that arrived at Catholic Answers. I no longer have that luxury. Even if I wanted to read all the letters that come to us, I couldn't, since the volume has grown by orders of magnitude. Still, I see some of the letters (and, nowadays, e-mails) and think I have a sense of our correspondents.
One thing that struck me in the early years--and this holds true today--was how few were the oddball letters.
Organizations that deal with ideas are targeted by folks who are sure they have The Answer to life's every problem, and such folks have a real urge to write--to anyone who will listen. In most cases their ideas are quite benign. If a correspondent tells you that the Church's troubles will go away if women go back to wearing mantillas at Mass, you answer politely and then go on with your work.
Contrary to what some secular and even some Christian writers say, there seems to be remarkably little prejudice among believing Catholics. At least that is the sense I get from the correspondence that comes in.
I remember only one fellow who expressed anti-Semitic sentiments, for example. Every few months he would send me a long, handwritten letter that attempted to demonstrate that everything from the Johnstown Flood to the latest economic turndown was the fault of the Jews. From his handwriting I took him to be elderly, and from his unusual name I took him to be an immigrant from Eastern Europe.
I don't know whether he still writes to Catholic Answers. Maybe not, since I long ago instructed the staff not to bother to answer his letters, lest he be encouraged to send more of the same. He is the only anti-Semite I recall hearing from. Perhaps I have forgotten similar letters from others, or perhaps such letters arrived but never crossed my desk.
However that may be, the proportion remains true: one such letter out of tens of thousands that arrive in our mail box. This suggests that the vice of anti-Semitism is hardly known among Catholics in America. I am not saying that no Catholics suffer from that failing, but the number must be very much smaller than what some groups allege.
You know which groups I mean: They have garnered headlines in recent years by claiming that Pius XII favored the Nazis or, at best, lacked solicitude for persecuted Jews. Or they find anti-Semitism in Mel Gibson's new movie. Or they find it in Vatican statements that explain that all salvation is through the merits of Jesus Christ. That sort of thing.
Such groups need to make ill-founded claims because, unless they have a bogeyman, they can't raise funds and would go out of business.
Please don't complain that I am being unfair and that the leaders of these groups are convinced that anti-Semitism is rampant in the Church. If they were dolts, I might make allowances, on the principle that stupid people tend to believe stupid things. But they quite obviously are not dolts. In fact, they are too clever by half.
Worse than being clever, they are manipulating. They have proved skillful at manipulating public opinion. The man on the street thinks a notable minority of Catholics (and other Christians) is anti-Semitic, but I don't see any evidence for that. Quite the contrary. Nowadays, anti-Semitism is like smallpox. It almost has ceased to exist in America.
Among the 192,000 people on Catholic Answers' mailing list, are there any anti-Semites? No doubt a handful, but they likely are outnumbered by people who think they have been abducted by extraterrestrials or who believe themselves the rightful heir to the Spanish throne.
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