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D r a g n e t
ANTICHRIST WATCH
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 5
 May 1994 
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Lots of Fundamentalists think they've pegged
the Antichrist as the office of the papacy, using various combinations
of selective Scripture quoting and dubious numerology. Now a series
of fliers from the Tract Evangelistic Crusade goes one better,
identifying the Antichrist as Paul VI, pope from 1963 to 1978.
Although we could imagine certain dissenters from Humanae
Vitae making this claim, what reason does Tract Evangelistic
Crusade give for this charge?
"Could Pope Paul Sixth be the Antichrist?" asks the title
of one tract. "I believe Pope Paul Sixth could be the evil Antichrist
for the following reasons. He was the number six king in Revelation
17:10 and he was the first beast in Revelation 13:12 and soon a new
Pope will take his seat in Rome, Italy and he will be the second beast
in Revelation 13. He will be called Pope Paul Seven and he will be
Satan's false Prophet. Revelation 20:10."
Wait a minute. Paul VI has been dead since 1978. How effective an
Antichrist could he have been? The tract goes on to explain: "After
the rapture of all born-again Christians from earth, Pope Paul Seven
will have the power of the first beast and he will use this power
to bring Pope Paul Sixth back from the dead! When Pope Paul Sixth
comes back to life, he will then become Pope Paul Eight, but he was
of the Seven just as we read in Revelation 17:10-11. Pope Paul Sixth
was the number six king in Revelation 17:10-11 and he is Satan's son
who will give the mark of the beast after the rapture! Revelation
13:18."
This all seems so unnecessarily complicated. Why not just say that
the future Paul VII will be the Antichrist, and avoid all the confusion
about Paul VI dying, being raised, becoming Paul VIII, and then giving
the mark of the beast? Another thing: One flier proclaims that its
purpose is to "warn all born-again Christians that the Antichrist
was Pope Paul Sixth," presumably so they can be on guard against
him. But if all the born-again Christians on earth are to be "raptured"
away before the Antichrist reveals himself, why should they care?
"Once Upon a Time: Gay Catholic Marriage
Rites" was the title of a recent editorial from the San
Jose Mercury News . The author, Deb Price , recounts
the story of two homosexual men, one of whom pulls out a ring while
at a dinner celebrating the anniversary of their first "date,"
and asks, "How would you like a spring wedding?" Well, the
spring didn't work out, but the following autumn the two men were
"wed" by a Catholic priest (at an Episcopalian church) in
what Price describes as a "traditional Catholic wedding ceremony."
How, you wonder, could a priest allow, much less perform, a ceremony
so blatantly contrary to natural law, scriptural evidence, and Church
tradition, an affront to the sanctity of Christian marriage, an occasion
of egregious blasphemy? And what journalist, whatever her agenda,
could deign to call it "traditional"?
The justification for all this is found in a book called Same-Sex
Unions in Pre-modern Europe . Its author, John Boswell ,
contends that "for at least 1,000 years, the Catholic
Church had special, approved rituals for joining two men or two women
in wedlock," thus "establishing that Catholic gay marriages
are astoundingly traditional."
Price apparently has not read the book nor seen the evidence
(all references to it are in the future tense), but she seems absolutely
convinced of its veracity, so much so that she believes Boswell's
"discovery" is "guaranteed to rock assumptions about
Christian animosity toward homosexuality."
She envisions the pope losing sleep over the matter, as if long-buried
skeletons in his closet had finally been revealed. "Pope John
Paul II, obviously, will have to attempt to discredit Boswell's findings,"
she writes. Note her words: The pope "obviously" (no ignoring
this!) will have to "attempt" (vainly) to "discredit"
(not disprove--this would not be possible--but merely cast
aspersions upon) Boswell's scholarship.
Price ends her editorial by hinting that gay unions are
not only equal to, but might be in fact superior to heterosexual marriages:
"In studying the Catholic rites performed over the centuries,
Boswell finds services for mixed couples stressed multiplication--'the
wife shall be as a fruitful vine'--while those for same-sex couples
had a much simpler calculus: 'a very beautiful emphasis on love.'"
A World Youth Day reunion pilgrimage
is being planned for the West Central Wisconsin area. Last year's
WYD participants are invited to the August 6 pilgrimage, which will
include a five-mile hike, Eucharistic adoration, prayer sessions,
and an evening program of music and witness. A music festival featuring
Tony Melendez will follow on Sunday. A fee of $15 includes a commemorative
tee-shirt and button and two meals. For more information write to:
WYD Anniversary Pilgrimage, Route #1, Box 160, St. Mary's Ridge, WI
54619.
Baptist Biblical Heritage ,
a newsletter distributed from Pasadena, Texas, claims that fellow
Fundamentalist and anti-Catholic Peter Ruckmanand the staffers
at Evangelical organizations such as the Christian Research Institute
are all closet Catholics. The targets of the newsletter only pose
as "Bible Christians," the better to infiltrate the ranks
of real Fundamentalists. In the April 1994 issue editor Bob L. Ross
reveals that Catholic Answers is in on the subterfuge:
"KEATING TO THE RESCUE---We were written
up by Romanist Karl Keating's Catholic Answers magazine This Rock ,
September '93, but the purpose was to re-assure people that 'Possel'
Peter Ruckman is not 'a Catholic Stooge.' Ever since Ruckman's Romanism
was exposed, efforts have been made to restore Possel's 'cover,' and
you know he is really hurting when his 'debating buddy' (Keating)
has to step in to patch-up the 'sheep's clothing.' He even goes so
far as to allege that Possel believes the KJV 'has been inspired,'
contrary to what I heard him say on the floor of his church on April
1, 1992. I asked Keating for documentation, but so far he has said
nothing. Possel says the 'Scriptures' were 'given by inspiration,'
but you can't say the Bible is 'inspired.' Just more 'convolution.'
Sorry, Karl, Possel's 'cover' has been shredded!"
Your tax dollars are funding anti-Catholic
exhibits and slanted history at Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian
Museum of American History. One exhibit chronicles the Spanish
exploration and settlement of New Mexico (mostly a Bad Thing).
"Coexisting with Catholicism" is the title of one
sign, which reads: "Spaniards forced the Pueblos to live with
Catholicism by beating and shaming resisters and by imprisoning or
executing leaders of Pueblo religious groups. Some Pueblos never converted,
and those who did rarely gave up their traditional beliefs."
There is no suggestion that such incidents, if they occurred at all,
might have been aberrational or that most Indians were willing converts.
Another sign tells how Spanish Franciscans "attempted
to destroy objects and shrines sacred to the Indians and banned native
religious rituals." The hardy natives drove out the imperialistic
missionaries in 1680, the sign goes on to explain, but twelve years
later they returned, and, aided by Spanish soldiers, disease, and
conflicts within the tribe, were able to set up 21 missions by 1776.
For a more balanced account of the Spanish (and other) settlements
in the Americas, see Newman C. Eberhardt, C.M., A Survey of American
Church History , which should be available at your local library.
A different exhibit at the Smithsonian
details the "progress of science." One wall is dedicated
to the development of the birth control pill. Such an exhibit would
not be complete, of course, without explaining how birth control had
prevailed despite "the power of the Catholic Church," which
nearly managed to stop the pill even though, as numerous signs remind
us, a majority of Catholics are "openly defying the Pope"
on the issue. A tribute to birth control, abortion, and eugenics pioneer
Margaret Sanger(and her newspaper, The Woman Rebel ,
with its slogan, "No Gods, No Masters") completes the atrocity.
Just for the record, Sanger was a racist who wanted to reduce the
country's black population through "selective breeding"
and who apparently held similar distaste for the American Indians.
This is "progress"?
Megalomaniac Fundamentalist crank and one-time
country-western singer Tony Alamo has been convicted of three
counts of tax-evasion charges and is awaiting his August 26 sentencing.
Alamo could receive up to six years in jail and $550,000 in fines.
It looks like the long arm of the IRS has finally caught up with the
man whose sensationalistic tracts, such as "Fugitive Pope,"
depict Romish plots and government persecutions against his "Holy
Alamo Christian Church, Consecrated." Alamo, whose real name
is Bernie Lazar Hoffman, had been on the run from authorities of different
states since 1988.
Churchwatch is the quarterly newsletter
of the Chicago-based Call to Action , an organization dedicated
to Church "reform" (see "Dragnet," February 1994).
The May 1994 issue reports on Vatican opposition to the upcoming U.N.
Conference on Population and Development , at which implementation
of a worldwide policy for providing abortion and contraception will
be high on the agenda.
Some 20 groups within the CTA-founded Catholic Organizations for Renewal,
including the Women's Ordination Conference, Dignity, and Catholics
for a Free Choice, and spearheaded by Catholics Speak Out, hope to
diminish the Church's pull in opposing the conference proposal by
publishing an "Open Letter to John Paul II." The letter,
bearing thousands of endorsements from individuals and organizations,
will appear in The New York Times in late summer.
According to Churchwatch , "the letter will state bluntly
what a majority of Catholics believe: the pope is wrong when he calls
contraception 'intrinsically evil.' This teaching lacks legitimacy
because it has never been embraced by the faithful and represents
a marginalized minority view in our church, defended largely by a
male celibate hierarchy."
Note to CTA: The Church's teaching on contraception had been
"embraced by the faithful" for nineteen centuries; only
in our time has it been ignored by many Catholics. But the proportions
are unimportant. Even if it were a perpetual minority view, it would
still be true.
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