Catholic bishop likens Obama to Stalin, Hitler
This is quite a hysterical screed, and by hysterical I do not mean that it is funny. It is not funny in the least.
It is hysterical because is driven by hysteria. It is also historically ignorant and irresponsible.
The speaker is Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, head of a Catholic diocese in Illinois. Here’s what he had to say during a weekend Mass:
“The Church survived barbarian invasions. The Church survived wave after wave of Jihads. The Church survived the age of revolution. The Church survived Nazism and Communism. And in the power of the resurrection, the Church will survive the hatred of Hollywood, the malice of the media, and the mendacious wickedness of the abortion industry.
The Church will survive the entrenched corruption and sheer incompetence of our Illinois state government, and even the calculated disdain of the president of the United States, his appointed bureaucrats in HHS, and of the current majority of the federal Senate.
May God have mercy especially on the souls of those politicians who pretend to be Catholic in church, but in their public lives, rather like Judas Iscariot, betray Jesus Christ by how they vote and how they willingly cooperate with intrinsic evil.
As Christians we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, but as Christians we must also stand up for what we believe and be ready to fight to defend our faith. The days in which we live now require heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism. We can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead be Catholics by conviction.
In our own families, in our parishes, where we live and where we work – like that very first apostolic generation – we must be bold witnesses to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We must be a fearless army of Catholic men, ready to give everything we have for the Lord, who gave everything for our salvation.
Remember that in past history other governments have tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches like those first disciples before the Resurrection locked together in the Upper Room.
In the late 19th century, Bismark waged his “Kulturkamf,” a culture war against the Roman Catholic Church, closing down every Catholic school and hospital, convent and monastery in Imperial Germany. Clemenceau, nicknamed “the priest eater,” tried the same thing in France in the first decade of the 20th Century.
Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.
In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, President Obama – with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.
Now things have come to such a pass in our beloved country that this is a battle that we could lose, but before the awesome judgment seat of Almighty God this is not a battle where any believing Catholic may remain neutral.”
I was raised to believe that religious leaders deserve a great deal of respect and even deference, and I hope I have raised my children with those same values. Jenky, however, deserves neither respect nor deference, because he is talking like a fool.
After all, only a fool would try to equate insurance coverage for contraception to the brutalities that were inflicted upon tens of millions of people by the likes of Stalin and Hitler. The bishop’s comments are deeply insulting and disrespectful, less to President Obama than to the many victims of the tyrants to whom Jenky attempts to link him. His comparison trivializes true human horror.
St. Peter, after all, was crucified upside down by the Romans, who also fed Christians to the lions. Hitler attempted the physical eradication of an entire religious tradition. Stalin starved millions to death in an attempt to force them to worship the state rather than a God of their own choosing.
And “President Obama, with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path”?
The suggestion is obscene.
(Given the bishop’s claims, it is also relevant to point out that the Catholic Church did not fight heroically against the evils of Naziism. To a large degree, it legitimized, collaborated and cooperated with it. While individual clerics of conscience sometimes spoke and acted with heroism, the church as an institution did not. It stood in silent acceptance of the murder of Jews and voluntarily surrendered its moral credibility. By that behavior, it did no worse than many other human institutions in that time and place. But it also did no better.)
While Jenky has seemed to abandon all sense of proportion, it’s important to keep in mind what’s really at issue here. The administration does not propose and has never proposed that the Catholic Church or other religious groups be forced to provide insurance coverage for contraception to their staff. Church staff members are expressly excluded from such a mandate out of respect for religious liberty.
The law does, however, require that church-affiliated institutions that perform secular functions in the secular world — schools, universities, hospitals, etc. — provide such coverage to their staff, many of whom are members of a different faith, just as every other provider of such services must do.
You would never know it from the hysteria offered by Jenky, but many Catholic-affiliated institutions have been offering contraceptive coverage to their secular staff for decades without controversy. For example, Georgetown University, which drew national attention through the Sandra Fluke controversy, is a Jesuit college that already offers contraception coverage to its faculty and staff, but not to its students. Many states, including Georgia, have also had similar laws on the books mandating such coverage for decades, again without controversy.
The administration proposal is also well within the constitutional confines established by the Supreme Court. As Justice Antonin Scalia, himself a stalwart Catholic, wrote in “Employment Division v. Smith” (1990):
“We have never held that an individual’s religious beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the state is free to regulate. On the contrary, the record of more than a century of our free exercise jurisprudence contradicts that proposition.”
Jenky, on the other hand, argues that church law must take precedence over civil law even when the church is operating in the secular arena, and he seems eager to engage in battle to ensure that happens. He would apparently classify Scalia as just another Judas Iscariot, ready to “betray Jesus Christ by how they vote and how they willingly cooperate with intrinsic evil.”
As I said, he has exposed himself as a fool.
– Jay Bookman
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803 comments Add your comment
Lyman Hall
April 19th, 2012
8:13 am
The comparison of Obama to Hitler/Stalin IS stupid.
.
As evil as Hitler and Stalin might have been……..they were not puppets.
Mick
April 19th, 2012
8:15 am
pea
So, does that make you the stereotypical georgian?
Peadawg
April 19th, 2012
8:16 am
“So, does that make you the stereotypical georgian?”
What’s a stereotypical georgian?
Normal, Plain and Simple
April 19th, 2012
8:17 am
Mick,
the whole Christian belief system is based on ritual cannibalism and reincarnation…
Christians vs Mormons
April 19th, 2012
8:17 am
Organized Religion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFP6VUGwmAg
cranky old man
April 19th, 2012
8:19 am
May God have mercy especially on the souls of those priests who pretend to be Catholic in church, but in their public lives, rather like Judas Iscariot, betray Jesus Christ by how they molest children, and upon the souls of those in positions of authority within the church who cover it up.
MiltonMan
April 19th, 2012
8:20 am
So… you assume I’m Catholic because I was offended by the assertion you’d made about RCC members?
Uh no. I “assume” that you are Catholic because you stated so. Should I not take you on your word?
Mick
April 19th, 2012
8:20 am
normal
What really gets me is that before the europeans invaded these continents, the people were doing just fine without christianity. Religion is of man, the spirit is of god…
pea
Do you want me to spell it out?
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:21 am
Peadawg
April 19th, 2012
8:16 am
“So, does that make you the stereotypical georgian?”
What’s a stereotypical georgian?
__________
A dumb redncek who votes GOP and does not believe in evolution, any kind of change, education, social progress, or any intelligent thought. Ask any northerner and they will agree on that.
Doggone/GA
April 19th, 2012
8:22 am
“What’s a stereotypical georgian?”
I think the answer is yes
James Thomas
April 19th, 2012
8:22 am
Ok…Off topic but I gotta say it somewhere. Look at the graft and scandals our elected representatives get away with. Look at how many congressman and senators come out of office multimillionaires. You don’t get there earning their $150k salaries. They survive all but the most heinous scandals. Some secret service agents hire a prostitute and congressman have the gall to demand they be fired.
Utterly ridiculous.
MiltonMan
April 19th, 2012
8:22 am
“So, does that make you the stereotypical georgian?”
What’s a stereotypical georgian?
Yes. I can hardly wait also.
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:24 am
Utterly ridiculous
________
I think that is spelled “udderly”
Mick
April 19th, 2012
8:24 am
OK, are you a pick-up truck driving, budwiser beer swillin, confederate flag flying redneck who has one too many prejudices?
gm
April 19th, 2012
8:26 am
President Obama why did you have to do your job so well? you should have not killed bin ladin, you should have let your security down the way GW did and let more terrorist come and attack our country.
President Obama why did you have to do your you job so well? Americans like being scared to fly on airplanes and having security alerts and different colors of risks the way it was when you took office.
President Obama why did you have to do your job so well? Americans loved the way wall street crashed, banks not lending, housing , to crashed, the right did not and do not want your help.
President Obama why did you do your job so well? Americans love Kadafi and his rule, why did you work with our allies, Americans love to fight along and have more of our American troops die like Iraq.
President Obama why did you do your job so well? 5 trillion in debt Americans did not want any of this money going to other Americans who were out of work and you tried to feed their families and support health care for the 31 million women and children without it, Americans rather you have continue to build up Iraq with our money.
President Obama why did you do your job so well? you brought this country back from life support, when you should have let it die then maybe just maybe you would have been appreciated:
MiltonMan
April 19th, 2012
8:27 am
“A dumb redncek who votes GOP and does not believe in evolution, any kind of change, education, social progress, or any intelligent thought. Ask any northerner and they will agree on that.”
So the indigenous people who lived here & also voted democrats into office for 130+ years after reconstruction were what exactly???
And who cares what northerners think??? They are all moving down here anyway.
James Thomas
April 19th, 2012
8:27 am
Oscar @8:21…
As offensive as your definition of a Georgian is, I’d gladly claim that before admitting to be anything like you or your “northern” brethren.
carlosgvv
April 19th, 2012
8:28 am
Jay, if you ever want to be a panelist on such shows as Meet The Press and Face The Nation, you’re going to have to get a better grade of bloggers. If producers of shows like these ever review this site, they will think the majority of posters here are either middle school Christian Academy students or high school dropouts.
Lyman Hall
April 19th, 2012
8:29 am
gm=government-schooled mentality……….or……………lobotomy patient.
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:29 am
James Thomas
April 19th, 2012
8:27 am
————–
I was born in a small rural county in Georgia and lived here all my life, so far. Just answering the man’t question.
Mick
April 19th, 2012
8:29 am
carlos@8:28
Couldn’t disagree more, what you read is what you get, ain’t that america?
MiltonMan
April 19th, 2012
8:30 am
“President Obama why did you have to do your job so well? you should have not killed bin ladin, you should have let your security down the way GW did and let more terrorist come and attack our country.”
Here’s your sign.
I guess the 60% who do not approve of his job performance are clueless??? Last time I checked even the liberal media reported that the Navy seals took out OBL & not OHB.
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:31 am
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:29 am
James Thomas
April 19th, 2012
8:27 am
————–
I was born in a small rural county in Georgia and lived here all my life, so far. Just answering the man’t question.
________
Bye the way, that’s what people in Atlanta still think of people from rural Georgia.
massachusetts refugee thug
April 19th, 2012
8:32 am
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/18/world/asia/india-missile/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
and we’re not having kittens over this because???
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:34 am
assachusetts refugee thug
April 19th, 2012
8:32 am
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/18/world/asia/india-missile/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
and we’re not having kittens over this because???
_________
India was never branded as one of the “Axis of Evil” by one of our presidents?
MiltonMan
April 19th, 2012
8:34 am
President Obama why did you have to do your job so well? Your secret service entourage building goodwill among the local women in Colombia was brilliant.
Wow. This is a really neat & fun game. Your turn.
gm
April 19th, 2012
8:36 am
Thanks President Obama for giving the order for taking out bin ladin, we had a President who said he was not looking for bin ladin any more. Thanks President Obama for still believing in America despite the Aniti Americans on the right who despise you.
Doggone/GA
April 19th, 2012
8:36 am
“and we’re not having kittens over this because???”
Go ahead, tell us why you aren’t
Peadawg
April 19th, 2012
8:37 am
“A dumb redncek who votes GOP and does not believe in evolution, any kind of change, education, social progress, or any intelligent thought.”
If that’s what a stereotypical Georgian is in your opinion, then no. I’m not a stereotypical Georgian.
MiltonMan
April 19th, 2012
8:37 am
massachusetts refugee thug
April 19th, 2012
8:32 am
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/18/world/asia/india-missile/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
and we’re not having kittens over this because???
Obama has a team on the ground – last seen in Mumbai preparing dog meat & entertaining the local women.
MiltonMan
April 19th, 2012
8:38 am
“A dumb redncek who votes GOP and does not believe in evolution, any kind of change, education, social progress, or any intelligent thought.”
Pretty tolerant are you???
Peadawg
April 19th, 2012
8:39 am
What’s the difference between a “Yankee” and a “damn Yankee”?
Yankees only visit.
Doggone/GA
April 19th, 2012
8:39 am
“If that’s what a stereotypical Georgian is in your opinion, then no. I’m not a stereotypical Georgian”
Now someone refresh my memory, who was it who said stereotypes are mostly true?
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:40 am
Peadawg
April 19th, 2012
8:37 am
————
Neither am I. And that’s not my opinion. That’s my experience as to what people in other parts of the country think of when they think of people from Georgia.
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:42 am
MiltonMan
April 19th, 2012
8:38 am
“A dumb redncek who votes GOP and does not believe in evolution, any kind of change, education, social progress, or any intelligent thought.”
Pretty tolerant are you???
________
Tolerent of some things. Not tolerant of the way people outside the south think about southerners as a type.
Peadawg
April 19th, 2012
8:42 am
“who was it who said stereotypes are mostly true?” – I did. But pay attention to the word “mostly”. I’m sure there are some Georgians who fit that description. But not all.
gm
April 19th, 2012
8:42 am
Thank you President Obama for keeping America safe, we did not lose 4500 American troops and we did not have 3500 Americans die under your security.
President Obama thank you for bringing respect back around the world, Americans are safe to go visit other countries now, once the southern conservative idiots learn they are not God gift to the world and we need the rest of the world America will be great again.
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:42 am
Doggone/GA
April 19th, 2012
8:39 am
“If that’s what a stereotypical Georgian is in your opinion, then no. I’m not a stereotypical Georgian”
Now someone refresh my memory, who was it who said stereotypes are mostly true?
________
Good point. I noticed that too.
Joseph
April 19th, 2012
8:44 am
I wonder of Obama will come out with a campaign fundraising cookbook for dog meat???
massachusetts refugee thug
April 19th, 2012
8:44 am
doggy – who said i was, or wasn’t – i actually thought the brouhaha over n korea was – to use jay’s term – hysterical. my opinion is all soveriegn nations have a right to defend themselves and develop whatever means that defense requires. in this case, india is a buddy, so nary a peep, although i suspect there’s some chattering in the chinese “press”.
and wasn’t “oscar” so clever by leaving off the ‘m’ when he copied and pasted my handle.
Joseph
April 19th, 2012
8:45 am
Or horse meat…. He did authorize the slaughter of thousands of horses a few months back…
Doggone/GA
April 19th, 2012
8:47 am
“I’m sure there are some Georgians who fit that description. But not all.”
So in other words, you want people to THINK…instead of using sterotypes?
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:47 am
nd wasn’t “oscar” so clever by leaving off the ‘m’ when he copied and pasted my handle.
———————
Sorry, did not do that on purpose. That was an accident. I’m not that clever and did not meant to call you a mass without the m.
massachusetts refugee thug
April 19th, 2012
8:51 am
no worries – just as a “northerner” (i’ve only been in georgia 21 years) i guess i’m a little sensitive. oh, and pea, to me, a damn yankee is the kind wearing pinstipes.
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:53 am
massachusetts refugee thug
April 19th, 2012
8:51 am
no worries – just as a “northerner” (i’ve only been in georgia 21 years) i guess i’m a little sensitive. oh, and pea, to me, a damn yankee is the kind wearing pinstipes.
__________
I grew up a Yankee fan, the kind in pin stripes. Yogi and Mickey, Whitey Ford and Billy Martin. Not so much a fan of theirs any more. Especially since Wohler threw that handing slider in the fourth game of the world series a few years ago.
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:54 am
hanging slider
stands for decibels
April 19th, 2012
8:54 am
I “assume” that you are Catholic because you stated so.
Milton, you obviously are recalling this incorrectly. I have never stated that I was Catholic.
But feel free to link to the post you’re speaking about; since you obviously recall it so well, it should be no problem for you to find it with The Google.
Normal, Plain and Simple
April 19th, 2012
8:55 am
Mick,
“Religion is of man, the spirit is of god…”
EXACTLY!!!!
————————————–
…and as to the dog and horse meat posts from our new troll….
Back when the movie “The Patriot” was in the theaters, A few of my fellow ‘Nam vets went to see it. There is a part where the patriot captured a couple of Great Danes belonging to Cornwallis. The argument was whether to eat them or not. The patriot’s son was astonished, but the father and his other companions all agreed that dog was a good meal. All of us vets, said out loud in the theater, “yeah it is”! And it is too.
—————
As to horse meat, if you ate at an Arby’s in the early eighties, you probably ate horse meat thinking it was beef… ’nuff said.
stands for decibels
April 19th, 2012
8:55 am
Stereotyping…because most of them are true. Don’t like a stereotype? Do something about it instead of whining.
You mean like my presumption that anyone whingeing about loss of religious liberty doesn’t give a rat’s ass if American Muslims choose to (say) draft wills or settle private property or domestic disputes in accordance with their belief system, are specifically persecuted by all those anti-Sharia laws being passed across the fruited plain?
That these right wingers are generally all friggin’ hypocrites, unwilling to stick their neck out for religious freedom unless it’s THEIR OWN religion being targeted?
That’s ok for me to just assume? That’s what you seem to be saying here.
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
8:58 am
April 19th, 2012
8:55 am
Stereotyping…because most of them are true. Don’t like a stereotype? Do something about it instead of whining.
You mean like my presumption that anyone whingeing about loss of religious liberty doesn’t give a rat’s ass if American Muslims choose to (say) draft wills or settle private property or domestic disputes in accordance with their belief system, are specifically persecuted by all those anti-Sharia laws being passed across the fruited plain?
That these right wingers are generally all friggin’ hypocrites, unwilling to stick their neck out for religious freedom unless it’s THEIR OWN religion being targeted?
That’s ok for me to just assume? That’s what you seem to be saying here.
______
He should speak for himself, but I’m pretty sure that’s what he meant.
Woodstock Mike
April 19th, 2012
8:58 am
Democrat Senator Mark Warner on CNBC now. He just said 47% of Americans pay zero federal income taxes. Funny how most liberals on this blog don’t believe that. They don’t believe a fact.
Peadawg
April 19th, 2012
8:59 am
“That these right wingers are generally all friggin’ hypocrites, unwilling to stick their neck out for religious freedom unless it’s THEIR OWN religion being targeted?”
I would go a step further and say that is probably ALL RELIGIONS.
Matt
April 19th, 2012
8:59 am
It’s not like a Secret Service agent is gonna burst through your bedroom door and forcefully strap a condom on you. If you don’t agree with contraceptives, you don’t have to use them. It’s called Freedom of Choice, and it is one of the liberties this country was founded upon. Look it up in the library, religious nutcases. That is, if you have any left after you’re done burning all the books you don’t agree with.
Adam
April 19th, 2012
8:59 am
I guess the 60% who do not approve of his job performance are clueless???
I don’t suppose you have a link to the poll that has this number….
Doggone/GA
April 19th, 2012
9:00 am
“Funny how most liberals on this blog don’t believe that. They don’t believe a fact”
Sure we do, why wouldn’t we?
stan sheppard
April 19th, 2012
9:00 am
You are the fool Jay Bookman with your excessive liberal thoughts and ideas. Hopefully come November, we can vote this liberalistic fool out of the Whitehouse.
Mick
April 19th, 2012
9:02 am
milton
Yes, I’m quite sure president obama told his advanced secret service detail to get the led out before he arrived…
Are YOU registered to vote?
April 19th, 2012
9:02 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP6Mcvgdrtg&feature=related
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
April 19th, 2012
9:02 am
Joseph
April 19th, 2012
8:44 am
I wonder of Obama will come out with a campaign fundraising cookbook for dog meat???
joseph you big silly – he can just use the BBQ dog recipe created by Romney money man Fred Malek
DawgDad
April 19th, 2012
9:03 am
Jay, as respectfully as possible under the circumstances, I disagree with your assessment.
Adam
April 19th, 2012
9:03 am
The reason stereotypes exist is because of personal, anecdotal experience (and all of their eye witness bias included) of whoever happens to have the microphone at the right time. It’s the reason for things like “welfare queens” (who all drive Escalades, talk on their iPhones, and buy STEAKS with food stamps while buying cigarettes with $100 bills) and other unfortunate stereotypes.
See here for more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologist’s_fallacy
It’s a human fallacy – coming from the idea that everyone thinks like you or is otherwise just so far outside of “normal” as to be impossible to analyze.
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
9:03 am
stan sheppard
April 19th, 2012
9:00 am
_______
I am not necessarily defending Jay, he can do that himself, but when you call someone a fool you should probably spell Whitehouse as White House. Not to do so makes you look , well, foolish.
stands for decibels
April 19th, 2012
9:04 am
I “assume” that you are Catholic because you stated so.
Never mind, Milton, I found the posts you surely meant…
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/02/15/gop-follies-continue-with-contraception-issue/?cp=all#comment-865506
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/02/15/gop-follies-continue-with-contraception-issue/?cp=all#comment-865565
So you assume that because I implied that I had, at some point in my life, attended a Mass, that equals “I, sfd, hereby state that I am Catholic?”
Rightwing Troll
April 19th, 2012
9:05 am
Hmmm…
Federal Income taxes were about the same this year as they have been for the last 4 years.
State went UP again, just as they have for the last 4 years.
Who controls the state government? Why are Georgia wingnuts redistributing my wealth? And why do you tards keep falling for their “lower taxes” BS?
Gale
April 19th, 2012
9:06 am
“liberalistic” Is that a word?
Adam
April 19th, 2012
9:06 am
Sorry, this link works better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologist%27s_fallacy
Rightwing Troll
April 19th, 2012
9:07 am
““liberalistic” Is that a word?”
I guess in the idiots vernacular…
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
9:08 am
Gale
April 19th, 2012
9:06 am
“liberalistic” Is that a word?
___________
Is that the opposite of “conservatistic” New words keep popping up every day. Nice ring to it though.
BADA BING
April 19th, 2012
9:09 am
Barry’s Hot Dogs
Come in, “Sit”, and “Stay” a while
Next time you want to “Go Out”, give us a try
We will soon become your favorite “Spot”
Our food is ‘Off the Chain”
sam
April 19th, 2012
9:09 am
are you sure it wasnt sean hannity dressed like a bishop ?
Adam
April 19th, 2012
9:09 am
stands: What I don’t understand is fascination with needing to find out things about people like what is your religion, age, educational background, where did you go to school, where did you grow up, etc etc. It’s like they think they can understand you more by knowing all that, or something.
I have yet to actually see someone ACTUALLY have a better understanding of me when they learn any of that information. Most of the time I just get “Oh, well now I understand” as a sort of write-off of anything I have to say, as though they weren’t already doing that.
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
April 19th, 2012
9:10 am
I have excessive liberal thoughts too.
Boy do they feel good.
killerj
April 19th, 2012
9:12 am
Goly Gee Jay,were you ever in the choir?,you seem to know a lot about it.
Normal, Plain and Simple
April 19th, 2012
9:12 am
sam
April 19th, 2012
9:09 am
Now that was funny!!!
Paul
April 19th, 2012
9:14 am
gm
“Thank you President Obama for keeping America safe, we did not lose 4500 American troops and we did not have 3500 Americans die under your security. ”
That rather trivializes, but its omission, the 1200 or so Americans who died in Afghanistan under the President’s watch -
Oscar
April 19th, 2012
9:14 am
sam
April 19th, 2012
9:09 am
are you sure it wasnt sean hannity dressed like a bishop ?
_____________
He seems more like a pawn.
Todd - Dacula
April 19th, 2012
9:19 am
Points:
1. Somehow Catholic kids seem to find a way to survive molestation’s by Catholic Priests. The Catholic religion should be disbanded. It’s amazing how the congregations set back and practically do absolutely nothing.
2. Our country under the leadership of President Obama somehow surviives from the careless decisions made by President George Bush. Perhaps the citizens should demand the millions in return from the Bush\Chaney administration. That alone would help the economy in recovery.
barking frog
April 19th, 2012
9:21 am
No matter what he says
about the Bishop,
I will never believe the
assertion that Jay was an
altar boy.
Glass House Rocker
April 19th, 2012
9:30 am
I noted that the Bishop called on a “fearless army of Catholic men” to step to the fore. Does he have a problem with Catholic women and their opinion? Reminds me of a scene in a Monty Python movie where contraception is discussed..
Bill Orvis White
April 19th, 2012
9:41 am
…and he’s right. Freedoms taken away = oppression, not only like Stalin + Hitler, but also like Hussein Obama’s friends Ahmadinejad, Castro, Chavez and Um.
Amen,
Bill
bookman parrot
April 19th, 2012
9:41 am
so Jay regarding “..Obama, with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda .. the suggestion is obscene.” you are saying he is not radical, pro-abortion and extremely secular. well he is and so are you sir propagandaist. I’ll agree equating Obama to Hitler and Stalin is a bit much; but Obama’s legacy/level of destruction has not been fully measured yet. And you do remember he does fully support murder of unborn on a daily basis. Millions… You can not argue otherwise as it is public record. You will say he supports “choice”, but ultimately the “choice” to terminate the unborn is done with great frequency and if you support something, you support the outcome. i.e. you support the termination (killing, … whatever you want to call it) of innocent unborn. now go ahead libs and play your game of symantics; but abortion is scientifically the termination of a living being. if you argue it is not, you refuse to accept a fact
JamVet
April 19th, 2012
9:43 am
He just said 47% of Americans pay zero federal income taxes.
Including nearly 5 million households that make somewhere between $50,000 and more than $1 million.
4.3 million make between $50,000 and $100,000.
Another 485,000 make between $100,000 and $500,000.
And the remaining 18,000 make $500,000 or more.
Good job, Mike. Obsessing about the millionaires who pay nothing in federal income taxes in any given year rather than the schmucks with a family of four making $32K per year.
DwayneL
April 19th, 2012
9:47 am
He’s right, obama should scare everyone in this country. His vision for changing America into some European, socialistic utopia is disgusting!
The Fox
April 19th, 2012
9:55 am
Jay, I can think of several reverends on the left that answer your question…Wright, Sharpton, Jack…sonnnn… How about Mr. X?? He is Muslim though we are not allowed to talk bad about them..
williebkind
April 19th, 2012
10:04 am
Jay’s blog just another soiree of liberal atheists who wants to change the constitution to legalize their particular behaviors and pushing a Demogorgon belief to replace Christainity. Atheists fllourish at the AJC.
sam
April 19th, 2012
10:05 am
well played oscar
sam
April 19th, 2012
10:21 am
i didnt realize there were millions of abortions performed daily? imagine the over-population that would exist if it was banned. one more reason to support a womans right to choose. thanks parrot
Bhorsoft
April 19th, 2012
11:46 am
Another retired Catholic here. Me thinks the bishop doth protesteth too much. Then again, I’m too young to remember the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the imprisonment of Galileo as a heretic…
Joe
April 19th, 2012
12:32 pm
Jay:
You would be wise to heed the bishop’s warning.
You would be wise to stop and think that both Hitler and Stalin were heroes in their own countries in the beginning. Only when it became too late did they see the truth.
There is more truth to his word’s than you want to believe. Remove the scales from thine eyes.
Joe
Pizza
April 19th, 2012
2:23 pm
So, the Dixie Chicks’ “Just so you know … we’re ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas” caused an outrage a few years ago. Hard to imagine a double standard.
Adam
April 19th, 2012
3:56 pm
You would be wise to stop and think that both Hitler and Stalin were heroes in their own countries in the beginning
Guess we have no problem then, seeing as half the country has seething hatred for the man.
Deb
April 19th, 2012
7:00 pm
And what little boy or girl has this creep violated. They need to mind their own business. God gave us freedom to chose and this little man cannot take that away from us.
Renee Crevelli-Gross
April 19th, 2012
7:21 pm
This guy is scary. His comments the we must be: ” . . . ready to fight to defend our faith” and “We must be a fearless army of Catholic men, ready to give everything we have for the Lord” almost sounds like he’s endorsing some sort of “holy war”. He says, “May God have mercy especially on the souls of those politicians who . . . betray Jesus Christ by how they vote and how they willingly cooperate with intrinsic evil.” That’s HIS opinion. I’m a Christian – a church going Episcopalian (x-catholic). My beliefs are as valid as his. Of course, my understanding of the bible is different than his – but that doesn’t make him right. This man sounds more like a militant extremist than a religious man. The author said he was taught to perceive priests with “deference”. Me too. I think we have both learned that priests and bishops don’t deserve that unless they earn it. Jenky doesn’t have my respect or my deference.
John
April 19th, 2012
10:06 pm
Bookman is wrong. If he would drop his hysteria and seriously and objectively analyze Jenky’s comments, he would find that Jenky is dead right on. Jenky is not in any way diminishing the Holocaust. He is drawing an eerie parallel between certain actions of Stalin and Hitler against the Church and what Obama is doing. While Jews suffered mightily at the hands of Hilter and Stalin and while Hitler did not target Catholics, the sad reality is that 3 million Poles who happened to be Catholic were killed by Hitler. Stalin destroyed the Catholic Church in the Baltic States while killing 20 million, many of them Gentiles.
Sam
April 20th, 2012
9:24 am
Actually, the contraception supported by the HHS mandate includes abortifacients (as admitted by the HHS’s own Cancer Research Institute), and could result in the murder of thousands, just like Stalin and Hitler. Not only is the principle of the mandate tyrant-esque, but the results will also result in death. Likewise, the bishop pointed out the pro-abortion agenda of this President, which also has resulted in the genocide of millions. I think this is a foolish over-reaction by this blogger who calls the bishop a fool.
Californian
April 20th, 2012
12:25 pm
Wow, there’s a lot of idiots in Atlanta. Well, what can one expect from Southerners. Please, never enter enlightened states. “He has exposed himself as a fool,” and that fool is Jay Bookman.
Californian
April 20th, 2012
12:31 pm
Here’s is the complete text of the homily, which Jay Bookman abridged and manipulated to serve his point above (and if you cannot conceive of the relationship between abortion and genocide, then you really are a fool):
[It]’s not supposed to be easy! The world, the flesh, and the devil will always love their own, and will always hate us. As Jesus once predicted, they hated me, they will certainly hate you. …
For 2,000 years the enemies of Christ have certainly tried their best. But think about it. The Church survived and even flourished during centuries of terrible persecution, during the days of the Roman Empire.
The Church survived barbarian invasions. The Church survived wave after wave of Jihads. The Church survived the age of revolution. The Church survived Nazism and Communism.
And in the power of the resurrection, the Church will survive the hatred of Hollywood, the malice of the media, and the mendacious wickedness of the abortion industry.
The Church will survive the entrenched corruption and sheer incompetence of our Illinois state government, and even the calculated disdain of the President of the United States, his appointed bureaucrats in HHS, and of the current majority of the federal Senate.
May God have mercy on the souls of those politicians who pretend to be Catholic in church, but in their public lives, rather like Judas Iscariot, betray Jesus Christ by how they vote and how they willingly cooperate with intrinsic evil.
As Christians we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, but as Christians we must also stand up for what we believe and always be ready to fight for the Faith. The days in which we live now require heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism. We can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead be Catholics by conviction.
In our own families, in our parishes, where we live and where we work – like that very first apostolic generation – we must be bold witnesses to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We must be a fearless army of Catholic men, ready to give everything we have for the Lord, who gave everything for our salvation.
Remember that in past history other governments have tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches like the first disciples locked up in the Upper Room.
In the late 19th century, Bismarck waged his “Kulturkampf,” a Culture War, against the Roman Catholic Church, closing down every Catholic school and hospital, convent and monastery in Imperial Germany.
Clemenceau, nicknamed “the priest eater,” tried the same thing in France in the first decade of the 20th Century.
Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.
In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.
Now things have come to such a pass in America that this is a battle that we could lose, but before the awesome judgement seat of Almighty God this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral.
This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries — only excepting our church buildings – could easily be shut down. Because no Catholic institution, under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the instrinsic evil of killing innocent human life in the womb.
No Catholic ministry – and yes, Mr. President, for Catholics our schools and hospitals are ministries – can remain faithful to the Lordship of the Risen Christ and to his glorious Gospel of Life if they are forced to pay for abortions.
Californian
April 20th, 2012
12:38 pm
Please forgive the double “is” above. I can’t edit my prior comments.
This bears repeating:
Actually, the contraception supported by the HHS mandate includes abortifacients (as admitted by the HHS’s own Cancer Research Institute), and could result in the murder of thousands, just like Stalin and Hitler. Not only is the principle of the mandate tyrant-esque, but the results will also result in death. Likewise, the bishop pointed out the pro-abortion agenda of this President, which also has resulted in the genocide of millions. I think this is a foolish over-reaction by this blogger who calls the bishop a fool.
Dr Gene Colombini
April 20th, 2012
2:27 pm
Re Bishop Jenky:
The underlying principle evidenced by documents and lettes of the founding fathers was to create a wall between Church and State. Although the First Amendment on its face appears to place the burden of sepration upon the state not to create laws that abridge religious freedom, the principle was to keep church and state apart from each other. The absured Bishop should keep this principle in mind before runing off at the mouth about our government.
Furthermore, you hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of your own eye; and then shall you see clearly to cast out the speck out of your brother’s eye. King James version 200 Mathews 7.5. The bishop’s rethortic would best be served by elimiating the pedofiles in his own church and praying to God to save his own soul and soul of his preist for all the damage done and continues to be done to the many young children of this country rather than railly against our governmnet and present administration. I did not heard such roof chatter over the illegal wars created by the Bush-Chaney administration.
Third, this willfully blind ignorant Biship should praise God that we live in country that protects all religions, Budism, Protestantism and all others. Otherwise we may have a country, like North Korea or the Old Soviet Union where religion is something to be abolished or where religion is pitted against religion.
Fourth there is dangerous precedent in this country to turn our political system into a theocratic government that in the Bishop’s view would be a catholic form of government, as if they have possession of the untimate truth.
Finally more people are leaving the Catholic church than ever and that says more about the Chuch than the people.
Fifth, this bishop should see a psychiatric and be on prozac for his sake and for the sake of us all.
Brighton
April 21st, 2012
6:26 am
Well sir, you unfortunately wrote an article that although vaguely citing impressive historic references, does not hide the fact that you are truly another aMERICAN with his head buried deep in the sand. There is a movement going on in this country. Some call it the precursor to a revolution. Others just admit that they can feel a sense of impending urgency in our leaderships brazen disregard to the pillars of our nations architecture. See, it is those like you who are unsure of what the problem is, so you try to finger the easy scapegoat which almost always happens to be religion. Now I am in no way defending the HUMAN, ill-actions that any form of spirituality is likely to come across, but to say that our problems are BECAUSE of men like this priest is just ignorant. This man was simply trying to inform his congregation of the unchecked evil actions of our government that are taking place every day, unfortunately, with almost every new piece of legislation. It is no accident that our financial situation in America is out of control. Only a child could believe that the American government, could ACCIDENTALLY be sh*tting the bed so badly with it’s bookkeeping. No, our heritage and sovereignty is being DELIBERATELY mishandled for purposes much too complicated to get into in this comment. The point is, Obama may not deserve to be likened to Hitler just yet, but that does not mean that his actions are any less despicable. He has been the ultimate prank on the American people who, with good intentions (as most despicable things are done with) voted him into office expecting him to be the revolutionary “CHANGE” that his campaign had painted him to be. Instead, his true nature was quickly revealed as he boldly showed just how eager he was to do the exact OPPOSITE of all those promises made just weeks before. So those of us who saw through his charisma and plastic smile had the opportunity almost instantly to boast with our “I told you so’s”, but at the chilling reality of our boys continuing to be slaughtered overseas, we just couldn’t. One quote of yours that I would like to point out the ignorance of was this: “less to President Obama than to the many victims of the tyrants to whom Jenky attempts to link him. His comparison trivializes true human horror.” My question is this… Where is the horror lost to those unborn children as the cold knife dismembers their tiny beating hearts? I am sick of people “trivializing” as you put it, the fact that abortion is premeditated murder. No less. Go ahead and call it a FETUS if that helps you sleep at night. Dr. Ron Paul, who is also a Texas Congressman, currently running for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, puts it in very clear terms. As a doctor who has delivered thousands of babies, he pointed out how he is liable for any injury to a baby throughout the pregnancy, yet in some places, a child can be killed a day before the delivery date. How does this make sense if it is not a living human being huh? Ok I will get off my soap box now, but just be more careful next time you start pointing fingers in an arena that you are clearly in the dark when it comes to recognizing who is the true domestic threat to freedom. They are the very ones we have entrusted with our fragile, soon to be the last of the “once great nation” cliches.