Dave ... let's try to put things into perspective

I am amazed at the feigned outrage in the response to these images, for what is absolutely a minimal amount of photo enhancement, certainly in response to some not-so-good-natured ribbing, richly enhanced with exaggerations and enhancements of its own. But Roman Apologists will make every excuse to maintain Roman infallibility, while excusing "the Church" for any and every one of its officially egregious behaviors over the centuries.

[Note: I have consulted with a number of people, including my Pastor, and the general sense was to remove the item in question; I have removed it, while leaving everything else the same. Both Scripture and Francis Schaeffer were quoted: Romans 12:17-20 "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head."


"We must not minimize this love we are commanded to have to all men as our neighbors, simply because there is a clear distinction in the Bible between our love to all men, as neighbors, and our love to our brothers in Christ...This love for men is not to be just a banner, not just a slogan, but it should show itself in practical ways in our lives.  Our acts and our utterances in our contacts with men should show this love.  We should show it by kindness in the small and large things of our daily living.  The rule is that we should do to others as we desire that they should do to us.  This should show itself in our dealings with those in our own organizations, in our dealings with those of other organizations with which we do not agree, and with unbelievers as well.  We should deal fairly with men, including those who are our enemies for the Gospel's sake.  True love results in fair dealing, in care that we deal with scrupulous honesty toward all men, both in the ordinary walks of life and in the field of Christian battle.  Our walk should be such that even a blasphemer must know inwardly that we have dealt fairly with him.  Rightness and love must go hand in hand or there is no real power." - Francis Schaeffer


There were some questions on Dave's blog as to why I would put a mustache on a woman. The photo above is reproduced exactly as it appears on Dave's site. Maybe God has his own sense of humor. As far as the "Good Pope John" quote is concerned, see the actual source below.]

Roman Catholic evasiveness is truly staggering. Some time ago, I ran a series, discussing David Kertzer's "The Popes Against the Jews", which itself was a response to "The Holy See's" document "We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah"; in order to wash its hands of any guilt with respect to the Jewish people, (which it can’t do), it must hang its hat on the nonsensical distinction between “religious anti-Judaism,” which is the term Rome uses to define its own posture toward the Jews over the centuries, and a “racially-motivated anti-Semitism,” which is says are “based on theories contrary to the constant teaching of the Church”.

Links to this Post

The Popes against the Jews, Part 1, links to and provides long selections from William Rubinstein’s review of David Kertzer’s work by this title, in “First Things”. Rubinstein does not contest the factual nature of what Kertzer presents. “Kertzer skillfully and not unsubtly traces the differences in attitude towards the Jews among the Popes between about 1740 and 1940,” he says. Rather, Rubinstein faults Kertzer’s piece for being ”The Case for the Prosecution”. In other words, “he wasn’t nice to us.”

Quick: What's the difference between "anti-Semitism" and "anti-Judaism? See how one well-respected Roman Catholic writer absolves Rome completely of the former, while shifting any official blame for anti-Jewish attitudes to "the sons and daughters of the Church", in The Popes against the Jews, Part 2. Even though the Catholic Church had for centuries rounded up the Jews, forced them to live in ghettos and to identify themselves by wearing yellow badges on their clothing, and even though this activity conditioned 20th century Europeans not to be alarmed when Jews did get rounded up and herded off in this way, at least official Roman Catholic teaching never specifically identified ‘a final solution’.

The Popes Against the Jews, Part 3: Positing the “Big Lie,” and getting people to believe it. The Vatican reports: "in the 19th century, a false and exacerbated nationalism took hold. In a climate of eventful social change, Jews were often accused of exercising an influence disproportionate to their numbers. Thus there began to spread in varying degrees throughout most of Europe an anti-Judaism that was essentially more sociological and political than religious." But what the Vatican fails to report is that it was a pope, and a work sanctioned by a pope, (approved of and distributed by the Vatican’s own theological journal – and reprinted with the explicit approval of the pope at the time) and a report by the “Holy Office of the Inquisition”, that made these charges, that led to this “sociological and political” anti-Semitism.

The Popes Against the Jews, Part 4: Church Councils Against the Jews. Read actual Roman Catholic Conciliar Documents, written at the height of papal religious and political power, in which "we decree that such Jews and Saracens of both sexes in every Christian province and at all times shall be marked off in the eyes of the public from other peoples through the character of their dress."

The Popes Against the Jews, Part 5: “You will recognize them by their fruits.” "Unfortunately for the Jews, one of Carnival’s [that is, the public celebrations prior to Lent] most popular features was the ritual degradation of the people of the ghetto. Among the first historical references we have to such rites is a description from 1466, when for the amusement of the Romans, in festivities sponsored by Pope Paul II, Jews were made to race naked through the streets of the city. A particularly evocative later account describes them: “Races were run on each of the eight days of the Carnival by horses, asses and buffaloes, old men, lads, children, and Jews. Before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them, and at the same time, more amusing for the spectators. They ran from the Arch of Domitian to the Church of St. Mark at the end of the Corso at full tilt, amid Rome’s taunting shrieks of encouragement and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily. Two centuries later, these practices, now deemed indecorous and unbefitting the dignity of the Holy City, were stopped by [Pope] Clement IX. In their place the Pope assessed a heavy tax on the Jews to help pay the costs of the city’s Carnival celebrations."