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[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]
The West has retreated from the Judeo-Christian tradition. Atheists and Marxists demonize that tradition. Their new worldview is not an absence of religion; humans cannot live without religion. All humans believe in dogma; practice rituals; quote scripture; embrace a tribe; elevate teachers, healers, and saviors; model themselves after saints; interpret patterns from apparent chaos; and insist on a larger meaning.
A new religion practiced by many in the West is distinguished by several features. Genesis and Talmudic commentary insist that we are all equally made in the image of God; and we all equally descend, literally or spiritually, from the first couple, Adam and Eve. That is, the Judeo-Christian God did not create better or worse versions of humanity. In Christianity, all humans are flawed because all humans have free will and use that free will to choose away from God. Thus, we are all responsible for the problem of evil. All humans are in need of the salvation offered by Jesus. All humans benefit from humble self-reflection, confession, and repentance. Through God’s grace, we are all capable of manifesting God’s love in a broken world, no matter how low we have fallen.
In the West’s new religion, equality is rejected. Some are good and some are bad based on their ethnicity, sex, or skin color. Guilt, shame, and the problem of evil are assigned to the West. Beneficence is found as far from the West as possible. Non-whites are better than whites. Jews are better than Christians and Muslims are better than both. Human value is relative and depends on context. A black Christian is of greater value than a white Christian and of less value than a white Muslim. Islam is prioritized because it is recognized as a greater threat to the West.
Those influenced by this new faith view moral questions through the lens of relativism. Relativism is applied selectively. Relativism is used, for example through whataboutism, to excuse atrocities committed by Muslims. “Sure, the Muslim Conquest of India is estimated to have resulted in the deaths of eighty million people, but what about the Europeans killing Native Americans?” Leftist relativism, which appears to be a flexible system that encourages open-minded tolerance of human failing, is in fact rigidly intolerant. Leftist Atheists never use relativism to relativize the West’s failings. Followers of the Church of the Anti-West never say, “Sure, the arrival of Europeans in the Americas resulted in the deaths of Native Americans, but what about the Muslim Conquest of India that is estimated to have killed eighty million people?”
Atrocities committed by non-whites are often attributed to whites. The Rwandan genocide is all the fault of the white man. “The Rwandan Genocide must first be seen as the product of Belgian colonialism,” insists the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. In contrast, the same institution’s page devoted to the Armenian Genocide never mentions the word “Muslim” and mentions “Islam” only once – as a great monotheistic religion, but not as a factor in the genocide of Christian Armenians, as well as Christian Greeks and Assyrians, by Turkish Muslims.
The Hindu caste system, one of the worst human rights abuses in history, is rooted in the myth of Purusha in the Rig Veda, composed over three thousand years ago. Anti-Western voices, though, blame the Hindu caste system on British colonialism. Again, the reverse process never takes place. No one points out that, for example, whites in North America committed atrocities against Native Americans after the whites’ loved ones were kidnapped, killed, or tortured by Native Americans. Similarly, if you mention antisemitism, you must pair it with “Islamophobia.” You can, though, mention Islamophobia without mentioning antisemitism.
The Church of the Anti-West renders judgment taboo. One must not judge – non-Westerners. Cannibalism, clitoridectomy, tribal warfare, child marriage, honor killing, and, perhaps most ironic of all, unquestioning adherence to irrational dogma, are all excused with “don’t judge,” and, of course, with relativism. I’ve been told numerous times that clitoridectomy is comparable to the Catholic confirmation ceremony.
The Judeo-Christian tradition addresses the problem of evil with the process of confession, repentance, and reintegration. The Old Testament king David sinned grievously, murdering Uriah to gain sexual access to Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David. David confessed, was punished, repented, and was reintegrated. The new religion rejects confession, repentance, and reintegration for whites and for the West. Muslim terrorists can be received back into society. White men must always remain outside the circle of community.
I had three encounters recently on social media that demonstrated these features of the West’s new religion. I title these encounters “The Keffiyeh and the Rainbow,” “George Takei and Japanese Internment,” and “Candace Owens and Catholicism.”
First encounter. The Keffiyeh and the Rainbow.
On May 1, 2024, a photograph came through my Facebook feed. A man is standing in front of closed New York City subway doors. His bare right arm is outstretched and his hand clenches a metal support. His inner forearm is heavily tattooed. His left hand is holding his cell phone, at which he is staring. Both of his hands end in long, pointy, sky-blue fingernails. The man displays the disturbing thinness of someone in the final stages of a deadly disease, possibly anorexia. He’s wearing large headphones over his head, and stylish eyeglasses. His tight, sleeveless top exposes his bare midriff. Jeans cover his skeletally thin legs. Slung over his shoulder is a large rainbow-striped tote bag. Slung around his neck is a keffiyeh.
You can see the photo here, where it is captioned “The utter incoherence of the bourgeoisie left in one picture.”
The man’s appearance can be interpreted as announcing: “I am biologically male, but I identify as a woman, or maybe just as an effeminate, and physically vulnerable, gay man. I am wearing a symbol used by those who committed vile terrorist attacks against Israel on October 7.”
At least ten Muslim nations punish homosexuality with death. Many other Muslim nations treat homosexuality harshly; see map here. To support this hostility to homosexuals, Muslims cite sharia and hadith Sunan Abu Dawud 4462.
In 2022, the severed head and torso of gay man Ahmad Abu Murkhiyeh were found near his family home in Hebron. “Palestinian youths” shared footage of the corpse on social media. A friend reported that the man’s entire family and village wanted to murder him because of his sexual orientation. He was one of many gay Arabs who seek safety in Israel. Their Arab co-religionists “hunt” them in Israel and transport them to Muslim-majority areas to kill them.
In 2022, an anonymous gay man whose father is in Hamas described being imprisoned and tortured for being gay. He saved for years to escape. He now resides “thousands of miles away” from Gaza but still lives in fear that Muslims will hunt him down and torture and kill him. In short, “Gays for Hamas” is often interpreted as “Chickens for KFC.”
That the keffiyeh is a symbol of terror against Jews and other non-Muslims is beyond dispute. A hundred years ago, the swastika was primarily associated with Hinduism and Buddhism. Nazism adopted it and this ancient symbol will never again be seen as an innocent Pagan solar symbol. Catholic Spanish penitents have been donning a capirote, or pointed hood that obscures the face, for hundreds of years. The Ku Klux Klan adopted a capirote-like pointed hood-and-mask combo, and pointy white hoods and face masks are now the Klan’s trademark.
A hundred years ago, the keffiyeh was worn by Bedouins, desert nomads, not by settled people like those who today call themselves “Palestinians.” Wadi Rum Nomads say that the keffiyeh “is a sign of male status. A man who wears it is assumed to be able to uphold the obligations and responsibilities of manhood.” That is no longer the case. Keffiyehs are now made in China. Leila Khaled, a terrorist member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the first woman to hijack a plane, wears a keffiyeh.
Wafa Ghnaim is a senior research fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ghnaim sketches the history of the keffiyeh as a political symbol in a December 6, 2023 NPR report. The keffiyeh began to have political meaning around 1936, when Arabs rebelled against the British. One of the demands of that action was for “an end to Jewish immigration.” From its first use as a political symbol, the keffiyeh represented Muslim hostility to Jews. “The fighters used the keffiyeh to hide their features,” just as Klan members used the hood/mask combo to hide their features. “The revolution’s leaders issued an order for men to wear the keffiyeh to express solidarity with the revolutionaries and so that the British could not distinguish the fighters from others.” The keffiyeh, then, was associated with subterfuge and pressure to participate in a “revolution.”
Sixty years ago, terrorist Yasser Arafat indelibly cemented identification of the keffiyeh with antisemitism and terrorism. “The apocryphal story among many Palestinians is that Arafat folded his keffiyeh in a way that reminded him of the Dome of the Rock … and let the side panel drape in a way that resembled the historic map of Palestine… [terrorists] conducted guerrilla operations while wearing the keffiyeh.”
Since October 7, the keffiyeh “has been associated with the Hamas spokesperson known only … as Abu Obeida … the ‘masked one’ … his face is always covered by a red and white keffiyeh that shows only his eyes.” The “masked one” “praised the Oct. 7 attack … as a victory for the Palestinian cause.” Abu Obeida is celebrated in Paterson, NJ. A young Muslima wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with his image was recently seen strolling through a Paterson park.
In 2010, the peer-reviewed Journal for the Study of Antisemitism published “Keffiyeh As Swastika.” Also in 2010, the keffiyeh came up in an exchange between David Horowitz and Jamanah Imad Albahri, a Muslim Student Association member at the University of California-San Diego. When Horowitz invited her to do so, Albahri, who was wearing a keffiyeh, refused to condemn Hamas. Horowitz asked Albahri if she supported the Hezbollah call for Jews worldwide to gather in one place, making them easier to annihilate. She voiced support for that planned Muslim genocide of all the Jews on the planet. Horowitz identified Albahri’s keffiyeh as a “terrorist neckerchief.” On October 13, 2023, Jim Treacher referred to the keffiyeh as a “hipster swastika.”
The keffiyeh’s new identity as trademark of hate, violence, and terror is demonstrated multiple times daily. In mid-April, 2024, Elisha Baker, a Jewish Columbia student, was greeted with chants of “Kill yourself! Kill yourself!” Baker was kicked in the stomach by Tarek Bazrouk, a keffiyeh-wearing attacker. Baker’s shirt was also set on fire. Why did the keffiyeh-wearers attack Baker? He was carrying an American flag. In late April, 2024, someone disguised with a red-and-white keffiyeh used a hammer to break into Hamilton Hall on Columbia University’s campus; see here. Some interpret red-and-white keffiyehs as a statement of Marxist identity. On May 5, 2024, Dahlia Kurtz posted video of a Jewish man walking down a quiet street in Canada. He is suddenly surrounded by antisemitic thugs, who mask their faces, and their crimes, with keffiyehs. The keffiyeh-clad thugs shout antisemitic slurs and attempt physically to harm the Jew. This video records just one of countless assaults against Jews and others by those wearing keffiyehs.
There are “Queers for Palestine,” “Fatties for Palestine,” and even Jews for Palestine. I shared the photo to share the point that many who wear keffiyehs and voice support for Hamas seem not to be aware of the full import of the position they are taking.
“Ethel” has not talked to me in years. This saddens me, as we had some friendly back-and-forth when we first “met” on social media. I had hoped we might become friends. I have commented on her posts, to praise her photos or to offer sympathy after a death in her family. I get no response. Ethel did respond to the photo. She wrote, “This is just a person expressing themselves in their own way. Good for them!” Note Ethel’s use of the plural pronoun to honor the man’s apparent trans identity. Ethel’s meaning is clear. She understands my posting the photo as a criticism of the man for his effeminate appearance. Ethel did not say a friendly “Hi, it’s been a long time,” or even ask why I had posted the photo before preaching at me. Friendly human interaction, the most basic building block of ethical behavior, is less important, in the new religion, than alienating virtue signaling.
“Jake,” a prize-winning poet and retired university English professor, also does not post on my page much, but he did post in response to this photo. Jake asserted that he knows how to “accept people who were considered different. Gay? Black? Puerto Rican? Jewish? Smart? Poor? Crippled? Addict? Christian? No problem.” Jake, like Ethel, concluded that I need to be taught how to be tolerant of gay people. They assigned themselves priest function. They would punish me for my sin.
In fact I have been in touch with Jake via the internet for over twenty years. In that time, in multiple internet environments, I have repeatedly expressed my support for equal rights and respect for homosexuals. I have broadcast and published on this topic. Jake appears unaware of this. Jake and Ethel want to preach. Jake and Ethel don’t care about the individuality or the humanity of the person to whom they are preaching. The public pose, the rush to virtue signal, transcends any deeper spirituality, any genuine connection with, or respect for, a fellow human. Jesus did not behave this way. He addressed people as individuals. Have a look at his longest conversation, the one with the Woman at the Well. It’s clear that he knows her before he preaches to her.
I explained to Jake, “1.) He is wearing a badge associated with genocidal antisemitism.
2.) He himself is a target of the very same murderous ideology he appears to endorse.”
In spite of my making this clear, Jake responded that my motive for posting the photo was to “criticize” the man in the photo and “hate him” and encourage others to hate him “for being gay.” There were in fact no posts whatsoever mocking the man for being gay. Jake’s lack of connection with actual facts and his repeated clinging to counterfactual dogma declares loud and clear Jake’s adherence to his new religion.
In an attempt to explain the photo to Jake, I posted links to the Hamas Charter, that calls for a genocide of Jews. I also posted links to material on the persecution of homosexuals in Muslim countries. Jake ignored these links. Jake said that the keffiyeh is merely “a square scarf, usually made of cotton.” Jake was quoting Wikipedia’s page on the keffiyeh. Jake’s quote was selective. He did not quote Wikipedia’s extensive coverage of the keffiyeh as a symbol of terror, so much so that its use has been banned or otherwise sanctioned in England, France, and Germany.
Jake then claimed that the keffiyeh is an “anti genocide” symbol. “The dude in the pic might be anti genocide,” because of “Israeli genocidal practices.” I invited Jake to adduce facts supporting his allegation that Israel is engaging in genocidal practices. As of this writing, no such support has appeared. Again, in Jake’s adherence to his dogma, facts don’t matter. In fact, they intrude, so they are ignored.
Jake publicly identifies as an atheist and a leftist. Jake is not without religion. Humans can’t be without religion any more than they can be without politics. Jake expresses his atheist, leftist, Christophobic religion in various ways. After the October 7 atrocities, Jake voiced a common, false, atheist religious dogma.
On November 4, 2023, as part of a post addressing the October 7 atrocities, Jake alluded to the Good Samaritan parable. This parable expresses a distinctly Christian ethic. It is found in chapter ten of the Gospel of Luke. A legal expert asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. Jesus and the expert both affirm verses from the Old Testament, that is, Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
After Jesus and the expert both agree on the value of these verses, the expert complicates the question. He asks Jesus about something that has challenged humans for as long as humans have existed. “Who is my neighbor?” That is, to whom do I owe loving, ethical behavior? Jesus gives a radical answer, an answer that calls upon Christians to love even people who are not members of their tribe.
Many religions, possibly most, have answered the expert’s question like this. The believer owes ethics and loving behavior to his own tribe. This approach is codified in Hinduism’s caste system, in Confucianism’s guanxi and also in the Chinese shao guan xian shi (see here). Islam’s differentiation between Muslims, “the best of peoples,” (Quran 3:110) and kufar, “the worst of creatures” (98:6) has had massive world impact in the tens of millions of non-Muslims who have been killed in jihad. Sharia codifies the difference between the value of a Muslim and a non-Muslim. Blood money paid to relatives of a victim of a killing is calculated based on the identity of the dead. An heir of “a Jewish or Christian male … is only entitled to receive 50 percent of the compensation a Muslim male would receive; all other non-Muslims (Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Animists, Atheists) are only entitled to receive one-sixteenth of the amount a male Muslim would receive.”
Jesus and Mohammed do not differ only in the words they spoke and the lessons they taught. They differ in the behavior they modeled as an ideal pattern for their followers. Christians believe that Jesus was divine. Jesus “gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being,” see Philippians 2:7. Christians believe that Jesus voluntarily submitted to excruciating torture, that of scourging and crucifixion, in order to save us. The visual reminder of a crucifix hung on a wall or worn around the neck urges us to honor Jesus’ sacrifice by following his difficult teaching of “love they neighbor,” as he loved us (John 3:16; John 13:34; Luke 23:34).
Mohammed, in contrast, was a warrior, a torturer, a caravan raider, an enslaver, an owner of sex slaves, an adult man who married a six-year-old child, and a murderer. Roman Emperor Constantine, a convert to Christianity, banned crucifixion in 337 AD. Mohammed, in the Quran, adjures his followers to crucify non-Muslims (Quran 5:33).
Jake and other leftist Atheists insist as a matter of dogma that the Judeo-Christian tradition is worse than other traditions. They also insist that anything positive in the Judeo-Christian tradition is found in other traditions. In these contradictory positions, leftist relativism and condemnation of the West combine in one toxic brew. Jake voiced this explicit leftist Atheist dogma less than a month after the October 7 atrocities. Jake insisted that Jesus is “not the only one” who told his followers to love God, love their neighbor, and treat others unlike the self with an equal ethic. “Almost every religion has that phrase or something like it at its core,” Jake says, voicing leftist Atheist relativism.
Of course the facts directly refute Jake’s relativism. Islam isn’t about love – Muslims themselves insist as much. It’s about unquestioning submission to Allah’s extensive demands, right down to the elaborate, regimented gestures one performs when repeating, by rote, in Arabic, five daily prayers. If Muslims don’t perform assigned tasks just right, Allah promises that he can destroy them and replace them. “He could destroy you, and in your place appoint whom He will,” Quran 6:133; “If anyone from you turns back from his Faith, then Allah will bring a people whom He loves,” 5:54; “If you were to turn away from Him, He would just replace you with another people, who will not be like you,” 47:38.
Jake, to prove that all religions contain a version of the revolutionary Good Samaritan parable, to prove that there is nothing special about the Judeo-Christian tradition, grasps at a verse from the Quran. In verse 4:36, the Quran advises Muslims to “do good” to “those whom your right hand possesses.” Those who have bothered to educate themselves about Islam recognize this verse’s ugliness. “Those whom your right hand possesses” is a Quranic euphemism for the Mohammed-mandated practice of capturing women in war, killing or enslaving the women’s male relatives, and using the women as sex slaves. Mohammed demanded this of his followers; Mohammed practiced this, for example, in the case of the Jewish Safiyya, whom Mohammed had sex with after killing her father and her brother, and torturing her husband to death.
But there’s more. Had Jake read the entire chapter, he would have read 4:34, just two verses above 4:36. Quran 4:34 says that since Allah made men superior to women, men should beat their wives if the men so much as suspect that the wife is “disobedient” to the man. The key relationship in most people’s lives, that between spouses, is based, not on love, but on the man’s superior power and an inferior woman’s submission. This dynamic of domination and submission is reflected in humanity’s relationship to Allah, who does not love much: see 3:32, 2:276, 2:190, 3:140, 4:107, 8:58, 9:73, and 48:29. In that final verse, contrary to the Good Samaritan parable, Allah tells his followers to be “hard against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves.” Jake’s fallacious insistence that the Judeo-Christian tradition has nothing special to offer humanity, and his marketing of Islam, less than a month after October 7, was liked and shared multiple times.
Jake has stated in his poetry that “I’m Jesus” – that’s a direct quote. “This town ain’t big enough for both of us,” goes a threat from an old Hollywood Western. There’s only room enough for one Jesus. Men who can’t handle something bigger than themselves, holier than themselves, more salvific than themselves, need to invent a new religion that assassinates Jesus, and elevates the self.
Second encounter. George Takei and Japanese Internment.
On April 20, 2024, NPR broadcast laudatory coverage of George Takei’s new children’s book, My Lost Freedom. Takei played Helmsman Hikaru Sulu on the beloved 1960s TV series, Star Trek. In recent years, 87-year-old Takei has developed a puckish and political social media presence. He’s been called “the funniest guy on Facebook,” where he has over nine million followers, and his catchphrase, “Oh my,” is part of the culture. When he was a child, Takei was one of the Japanese-Americans interned in camps. NPR pointed out that Takei had published twice before about this experience.
In the NPR broadcast, Takei said that internment was “degrading” and “humiliating.” The broadcast focused on how his family made the best of a bad situation by, for example, braiding rugs for the household and capturing polliwogs and watching them develop into frogs.
Listening to NPR’s coverage of My Lost Freedom, I felt irritated. I was shocked at my own irritation. I was clearly not having the “I’m ashamed to be an American; isn’t Takei’s family so admirable” reaction prescribed by NPR. I feared that I was turning into some kind of monster. That’s how you feel when you resist a powerful narrative. Powerful narratives work to divorce you from your own transgressive thoughts, your own taboo questions, your own gut feelings.
I silenced the internalized Big Brother accusing me of thought crime. “What am I really thinking and feeling? Why are charming George Takei and NPR’s pious, didactic drone annoying me?”
I recognized that when Takei talked about how “humiliating” and “degrading” it was to live in an American internment camp, my mind immediately flashed images of my peasant relatives in Eastern Europe occupied by Imperial Japan’s allies, the Nazis. Families wiped out. Villages razed. Resisters tortured. Starvation allowances of calories per day. Education denied. I thought of my father, a first sergeant in the Pacific Theater, fearing that any creak of bamboo meant oncoming Japanese.
I remembered a classroom thirty years ago. My Japanese students were wealthy visitors. They were every bit as charming as George Takei. Even their pencils were decorated with cute images of “Hello Kitty” style graphics. They gave a classroom presentation on how to make origami peace doves. “Japanese are peaceful,” they told us. “America bombed us at Hiroshima and Nagasaki and so we are ambassadors for peace.” Pearl Harbor went unmentioned.
My Chinese students fumed silently. The Chinese students were poorer than the Japanese, and they looked it. Their clothing was threadbare, they were often work-grimed, and they rarely smiled. One, Fred Chen, told me he slept in a windowless storeroom above a restaurant with ten other immigrant men. The Chinese were too polite to say anything during the origami presentation; they expressed their rage to me privately.
My Chinese students didn’t want the Japanese students, who were telling a skewed narrative, to suffer. My Chinese students just wanted the truth to be told.
As Takei spoke, I thought of a New York Times article that is seared in my memory. I was an adult; I had been taught all about what the Nazis did. Somehow at no point in my education had anyone taught me what the Japanese did. This Times article, that I read by chance, detailed horrors committed by Japanese against Chinese, Koreans, Filipinos, POWs, and others. I learned about the Japanese resistance to so much as admitting these crimes, never mind apologizing for them. Iris Change exposed the rape of Nanking in her 1997 bestseller. Chang eventually killed herself. She had many challenges, not least of which was exposing herself to overwhelming horror combined with resistance to her exposure of that horror.
There are many reasons why Nazism’s atrocities are better known than those of Imperial Japan. I note, though, that leftist Atheists exploit Nazi atrocities as an anti-Western talking point. They conflate Nazism with Christianity. In fact Nazism was overtly and murderously anti-Christian, especially anti-Catholic. Dachau, as “Germany’s largest monastery,” attests to that.
Conversely, Brian Victoria‘s work exposing the relationship between Zen Buddhism and Imperial Japan is not part of popular consciousness. If it were, New Agers would be much less likely to use the word “karma” as if “karma” were a beneficent concept. It is not. The Buddhist concept of karma was used to excuse atrocities. If victims suffer, compassion is misplaced. Bad karma causes suffering; the sufferer is just getting what he deserved from his actions in a previous life.
At least one Zen abbot, Kubota Ji’un, felt it necessary to issue an apology to a Dutch child survivor of Japanese atrocities. “Whenever I hear such stories, I feel great pain in my heart as a member of the nation that once initiated that horrible war; I sincerely apologize … to all people who had to go through such excruciating experiences.” God bless this abbot for recognizing that Buddhism itself was exploited to advance Imperial Japan’s atrocities. That awareness has not penetrated American popular culture, though. Accurate knowledge of Zen Buddhism’s role in advancing Imperial Japan does not serve the anti-Western, anti-Judeo-Christian narrative.
No, I’m not accusing George Takei’s family of contributing to that horror. Rather, I’m asking that George Takei and his team do something I do. I’ve published about Polish-Jewish relations. Even though I attempt to dismantle prejudices against Poles, and I attempt to disseminate information about Poland’s victimization at the hands of the Nazis and the Allies’ repeated betrayals of Poland, I do one more thing. Every time I address these issues, I acknowledge that Poles were also victimizers. I acknowledge Polish crimes and acknowledge that those crimes are part of any complete narrative.
I ask Takei to use his considerable celebrity to acknowledge, “Yes, internment was hard. And, yes, America faced an overwhelming threat and challenge when Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, and fascist Italy all declared war on the US.”
Here’s another fact Takei and NPR would need to acknowledge if they are honest and want to contribute to, rather than detract from, historically authentic narratives. Takei is disseminating a narrative that only American white supremacy dictated the internment. The New York Times offered a different take in a May 22, 1983 article. “Before interning 120,000 Japanese-American citizens and alien residents in World War II, President Roosevelt and some of his top advisers may have seen decoded Japanese diplomatic cables boasting that ethnic Japanese had been ‘utilized’ for espionage … ‘Anyone reading this flow of messages during 1941 could easily conclude that thousands of resident Japanese were being organized into subversive organizations,'” according to David Lowman, a retired special assistant to the director of the National Security Agency.
Here’s more that Takei didn’t mention in the NPR broadcast. German-Americans and Italian-Americans were also interned. And one more thing Takei and NPR did not mention. Canada interned Japanese between 1942 and 1949 – internment ended only four years after the end of the war. Because America, to the left, is the great Satan, Canada, being “not America,” is perceived as superior. Canada’s interment is rarely mentioned.
None of these facts running through my head as I listened to, and was irritated by, George Takei make his internment right, or diminish the suffering he and his family endured. Here’s the point of all these facts. Takei isn’t just telling his own personal story. He’s reinforcing a narrative. In this narrative, white Westerners are the racists. White Westerners, like German Nazis and Americans, do bad, racist things. Americans generally don’t know about Imperial Japan’s war crimes, or its sick racism, or tortured Chinese or Korean women reduced to sex slavery. Takei and NPR didn’t mention any of this. Doing so would certainly cast American fears of Japanese-Americans in a different light. Simply mentioning that Germans and Italians were also interned would crack the “white supremacist American” narrative that Takei and NPR serviced.
I mentioned all this on Facebook. And I was spanked. Japanese people are peaceful and are not racist! I was told. One poster blamed Americans for Japanese atrocities. Her logic was so serpentine I’m not even going to try to recapitulate it. Another poster’s “whataboutism” move was to bring up the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She also insisted that Imperial Japan was not racist. Another friend, who is researching World War II, tried to talk some sense into her. His post is fact-fact-fact-fact. She never responded to it.
Third Encounter. Candace Owens and Catholicism.
Candace Owens is a 35-year-old, movie-star-pretty, black conservative commentator. In December, 2018, at a Turning Point UK conference, Owens made a public comment about Hitler; video of her comment is here. I was put off by Owens’ Hitler comment. I regarded her work with caution.
On June 3, 2020, as America was being torn apart by riots, Owens released a video. In this video, Owens said that she rejected the elevation of George Floyd as a role model or martyr for black people. She also made very clear that she did not believe that Floyd deserved to die. I thought her statement was clear, courageous, and correct, and I said so. On October 12, 2022, Owens released The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM. I published a review praising the documentary as, again, clear, correct, and courageous.
In recent years, Owens has made public comments that many, including me, assess as antisemitic. Many websites catalogue these comments; I won’t rehash them here. Rather, I’ll talk about how her comments sounded to me.
Back in the 1970s, I began to travel to my ancestral homelands in Poland and Czechoslovakia. I met relatives and friends, rescuers and survivors, who had lived under Nazi and Soviet occupation. These encounters seared me for life. The fear in my elders’ eyes made me weak. I met two elderly Polish peasants who had been slave laborers under the Nazis in Germany. The stories they told beggar the imagination. Soviets, once the Nazis’ allies, offered a tainted “liberation.” One of my aunts was gang-raped by Red Army soldiers. I could go on but you’ve no doubt heard similar stories before.
We must resist antisemitism not just because a decent person and a livable society stand up for the vulnerable. Those of us who are Christian must resist antisemitism because too many Christians have, wrongly, used Christianity as a weapon to harm Jews. We must resist antisemitism out of interest in our own self-preservation. My loved ones who suffered and died under Nazism were all Catholics. The haters may start with Jews. They never end with Jews.
Candace Owens’ inept 2018 comment about Hitler was incoherent enough that I cut her some slack. Her more recent antisemitic comments have been, to this listener, not just “clear as a bell.” They also sound an unambiguous air raid siren.
Owens began to use the phrase “Christ is King” to troll Jews. Those who use this phrase to bully Jews offer a disingenuous defense, and they falsely paint themselves as the victims. “How dare you tell me that affirming that ‘Christ is King’ is antisemitic!” This “defense” is a straw man. No one is saying that affirming Christ’s kingship is antisemitic. It’s the use of the phrase to bully Jews that is sinful, disgusting, and dangerous. Hammers are great; they are irreplaceable when I need to pound a nail. Using a hammer to bash a skull is a very bad thing to do.
You can find video online of Nick Fuentes and his followers chanting “Christ is King.” These videos go back years. If Candace Owens is a worthy, informed commentator, she knows that open antisemites have adopted “Christ is King,” not as a statement of faith, but as a taunt to Jews. A prominent influencer advancing antisemitism raises an air raid siren for me. An influencer using Christianity as a shield to defend antisemitism breaks my heart.
We don’t have to imagine how badly using “Christ is King” to troll Jews hurts Christians of Jewish ancestry. On March 22, 2024, conservative commentator and Jewish convert to Christianity Andrew Klavan released a poignant, passionate, faithfully Christian video. The video is also respectful to Judaism, the faith and culture into which he was born and raised. Klavan addressed antisemites’ use of “Christ is King” to troll Jews. Klavan’s depth, wisdom, and faith uplifted me.
Then I went to the comments section. Now, see, when I was growing up, America was pumping out liberation movements. We had saved the world in WW II and now we were jettisoning Jim Crow and the glass ceiling and the world was going to be a better place. And there in the comments section I found the kind of antisemitism I naively thought that mainstream Americans had overcome, or at least found too embarrassing to express publicly.
On April 22, 2024, Candace Owens tweeted that she had converted to Catholicism. “Christ is King,” she wrote in her announcement. A Catholic Facebook friend celebrated Owen’s public identification with Catholicism. I could have remained silent. See the above history. I am all too aware of the consequences of “nice” silence. I pointed out that Owens has made public statements that many, including me, assess as antisemitic, and that she closed her post with “Christ is King,” words expressly and repeatedly used to troll, bully, and silence Jews.
Catholics responded to me in a very interesting way. They deployed the very relativism and whataboutism that is used by Atheist leftists to discredit the West. Sure, I was told, Owens has sinned but you’ve sinned. We’ve all sinned. What about that? I was told I should not judge.
Yes, the Bible does include a verse that says “Judge not,” but those two words are taken out of context and misunderstood. There’s more to the story; see here. Christians are to judge with the same measure we wish to be judged. If I made antisemitic statements, I would want my fellow Christians to correct me. Further, the Bible expressly prohibits us from association with people who habitually and publicly sin, including those who commit the sin that Owens is guilty of. “I am writing to tell you that you must not associate with those who call themselves believers in Christ but who sin sexually, or are greedy, or worship idols, OR ABUSE OTHERS WITH WORDS, or get drunk, or cheat people. Do not even eat with people like that,” 1 Corinthians 5:11.
Again, the Judeo-Christian tradition offers a route to reintegration: confession and repentance. Ever since her inept and notorious comment about Hitler, Candace Owens has received ample warning that her rhetoric raises alarms. Rather than confession and repentance, Owens persists, including the defiant “Christ is King” in her conversion tweet. The Bible counsels, “As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear,” 1 Timothy 5:20. Owens has been rebuked. She persists in sin. Bizarrely, the Catholics on Facebook insisted to me that Owens didn’t need to confess anything to anybody.
Owens, a notorious antisemite, posting a photo of herself in a Catholic Church, next to a priest in full regalia, and captioning that photo with a phrase she knows to be used by antisemites, taints the Catholic Church with scandal. Christians believe that faith saves. When someone with Owens’ influence associates the Church with antisemitism, she discourages nonbelievers from accessing the Church’s salvation. I don’t know if any Catholic clergy have addressed this. Meanwhile, I will use my puny voice to say that Owens can and should demonstrate real Christian, not relativist, not arrogant, worldly values. She should publicly confess, repent, and reintegrate herself into a faithful community where hate has no place.
To those Catholics who insisted to me on Facebook that I had no right to mention Owens’ antisemitism, I say, let the Atheist left keep its perverse moral code. We Christians must conform to a higher authority.
Danusha Goska is the author of God Through Binoculars: A Hitchhiker at a Monastery.
Floyd Looney says
Amen. As a non-Catholic (I’m not going down that road) I agree with pretty much everything you’ve written here. You’ve expressed a lot of things that I think and feel, but I could never put it in words without making myself mad and start ranting.
Mo de Profit says
“ In Christianity, all humans are flawed because all humans have free will and use that free will to choose away from God.”
That wisdom from thousands of years ago required zero university education. Think about it.
Mo de Profit says
“ One of the demands of that action was for “an end to Jewish immigration.”
ANYONE today who demands an end to muslim immigration is locked up in Europe.
Nate says
See how you feel when your town is forced to listen to the call to prayer 5 times a day
Mo de Profit says
Terrific observations as usual Miss Goska.
I watched a Netflix short series called “Hitler” it shows his rise to power and is terrifying in its portrayal of how people become sheep.
He (Hitler) used the words “THREAT TO OUR DEMOCRACY” yes, Hitler used the words that the left accuses Trump of being the fascist.
There are several scenes where the actions of the German government were the equivalent of the World Health Organisation’s enforcement of lockdowns and censorship.
DR Wills says
A little known verse from the Bible states: “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you” (1 Corinthians 11-19). How are those who are “approved”, then, revealed? They are “made manifest” in order as they confront and expose both heresies and heretics. Real Christianity is not for cowards. Keep shining the Light, Danusha.
rd says
This is over the top. The kefiyeh is a very old traditional Arabic men’s garment. The Jewish people have their own version called the “”sudra.” Jews had to stop wearing them in the 15th century in North Africa and Europe because
it identified them as Jews thus targets for Jew-hate. Sadly, since Arafat, the kefiyeh has been associated with terror
and jihad. While many youth wear them today to show their “solidarity” with the genocidal jihad, the truth is the garment is very old and traditional for Middle Eastern peoples, Jews and Arabs alike. There are sudras, the Jewish version available today, often in blue and white with stars of David or “Am Yisrael Chai” in Hebrew. (the people of Israel lives).
whraglyn says
your point was the writers starting point of the keffiyah discussion.
D’Oh!
That you missed that recounting, and how that history has been hijacked into _the_ intl symbol of moozSCUM terrorSCUM, from ’70s airliner hijackings, rt thru 10/07/24.
D’Oh!
that ‘…many youth wear them today to show ‘solidarity’ with genocidal jihad…’ is the essence of the problem of societal decay into _precisely_ the ignorant savagery among ‘students’ which you herein _defend_ so willfully ignorantly.
D’Oh!
you, and all your ignorant ilk, are the root of the very topic under discussion, lol.
D’Oh!
learn to read, then learn to read your room before your next self own, lol…
Aslan says
Talking about pro-Hamas and anti-Hamas people:
Historic debate. UK Britisher Piers Morgan,a New World Order,Great Reset journalist,has a show where he often has two debaters. Very recently he had ABBY MARTIN,pro-Hamas Leftist, and MOSAB HASAN YOUSEF,anti-Hamas,and an UNCONDITIONAL supporter of Israel.
1. Mosab had ACCESS to insider information. Mosab is the son of one of the seven founders of Hamas. His father spent 30 years in Israeli prison. Mosab was a spy for Israel for 10 years (1996-2006). Gatherer of intelligence. From 2000 to 2004 was the Second Intifada where 1000 Israelis were killed by suicide bombers,of which 300 were Israeli soldiers. In 2005 Mosab became a Christian.
In 2019,his brother,SUHEIB YOUSEF,also left Hamas,and appeared on Israeli TV denouncing Hamas,and urging his father to resign from Hamas.
In a video of his in 2023,Mosab several times authorized Israel to KILL his father.
2. Mosab had access to the Hamas suicide bomber plans,where it would take place,when,by who. The claim is he saved hundreds of lives, of Israeli civilians ,from 2000-2004.
3. Abby Martin,in the historic debate, made claims that Mosab Yousef did NOT deny.
She accused Mosab of being CREDITED as being the one who had MARWAN BARGHOUTI arrested.Twice she said it.Mosab never denied it. Never. Barghouti was a PLO leader who has always been against killing Israeli civilians.
He was only for killing Israeli soldiers, who are legitimate targets in an occupied territory,according to the UN rules of war. Bargouti opposed killing civilians during the 1st and 2nd Intifadas,as a PLO leader both times.And he has been in prison for 22 years, accused by Israel of having killed 5 Israeli civilians,which he denies.
Barghouti had left the PLO,founded his own party and Abby said to Mosab that Barghouti had participated in protest marches with ISRAELI peace activists AGAINST Hamas. Mosab did NOT deny it. Barghouti was on Mosab’s side.Mosab is anti-Hamas,so is Barghouti.
Aslan says
4. To my astonishment,Mosab,with ACCESS to Hamas plans and conversations,never in the debate said,” Barghouti was LYING,in private conversations Hamas leaders told me Barghouti was pretending he was against killing civilians, anti-Hamas. He is secretly with us. My brother SUHEIB can confirm it.”
If TOMORROW Mosab says that yes,Hamas told him Barghouti,and his brother can confirm it, was a liar on being against killing civilians, it would be too late. The fact he ,an UNCONDITIONAL supporter of Israel, did not say it when it first came up, shows he never heard it.
The leading Liberal Zionist intellectual of Israel, Haaretz journalist GIDEON LEVY,has publicly said that Barghouti is a personal friend of his and believes him to be sincere. That they have participated in marches for peace. Abby also told Mosab that polls show Barghouti is the most popular Palestinian
in the WEST BANK,that in an election he would defeat
Hamas.Mosab never counter argued .Is Mosab a hero?
Did he really save hundreds of civilians,or is it a lie? I believe he was manipulated and lied to in 2002 by Israel to capture Barghouti. And that he saved lives,and that his conversion to Christianity was sincere, but today doesn’t have the moral integrity to publicly admit he was duped about Barghouti.
Aslan says
What more to say? MARWAN BARGHOUTI is the Nelson Mandela of the West Bank,the most popular Palestinian there. In the Abby Martin-Mosab Hasan Yousef debate she said he is for a TWO STATE solution.
And Mosab did NOT deny it.
Remember ”From the river to the sea,Palestine will be free”?
Barghouti is against it. From the river to the sea means the disappearence of the Israeli state. In the debate Mosab said Barghouti had cheated on his wife,and has a secret son. And repeated that he had killed 5 people.
There has been a meeting of ALL the Palestinian groups in Moscow to create a united group. Barghouti is on the SHORT LIST of all the Palestinians that Hamaswants to be freed. That shows it is willing to have him as a leader, and to go where? Go the way of the terrorist organizations ETA (Basque) and the Irish Republican Army. To stop killing civilians,as Barghouti has always preached.
Here is the debate between then 2 days ago,and 1.3 million have watched it ,on Piers Morgan,it begins at a little past minute 11:
Aslan says
Somebody at the bottom said,”I am sorry to read that Candace Owens has converted to a false Christianity! The Catholic religion is not true Christianity. Catholics believe in
replacement theology meaning that they believe the Church has replaced Israel. They believe that the promises that God made to Israel are no longer valid.”
REPLACEMENT theology is based on SOMETHING,
there is a prophecy given by Jesus in the Parable of the WIcked Tenants in Matthew 21:33-46 where Jesus tells the Jewish leaders
”Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the SCRIPTURES:
‘The very stone which the builders rejected
has become the head of the corner;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 Therefore I tell you, the KINGDOM of GOD
WILL ( not,might, would,but will be )
be TAKEN AWAY from
YOU
and given to a NATION producing the fruits of it.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. ”
The Parable talks about God sending his son, and his son is killed by the ones in charge of God’s property. The Kingdom of God is taken from the Jews and is given to a NATION, a non-Jewish group.
Aslan says
Just for the record,not to be polemical,just to say what exists. First,ONCE a year, during Good Friday,day when Jesus was crucified, until it was eliminated after Vatican II,
during the Catholic mass, a prayer for the Jews was said. It said ”perfidious Jews” and that God ”remove the veil from their hearts so they would know Jesus the Messiah”. It should never have used the word perfidious but the rest is a prayer for their SALVATION.
Now since the end of the first century AD mainstream Judaism,the Judaism of the Pharisees,which was the ONLY Judaism until the middle of the 19th century,
made it OBLIGATORY for Jews to not once, but THREE times a day say the 18 Blessings or Benedictions. It is prayed 3X a day by Orthodox Jews, 20% of the Jews of Israel. The 12th is the Birkat ha Minim.
It is not a blessing but a CURSE on the NAZAREANS (Christians).
Three times a day, where Orthodox Jews pray for Christians to be ”erased form the Book of Life and not be mentioned as being among the holy,the just” and are all called ”evil”.
A prayer for Christians not to go to heaven.
Technically,again,not to be be polemical,just stating the logic of it,
it is a phobia of Christians,or CHRISTIANOPHOBIA, the equivalent of Judeophobia,antisemitism. Against people,persons, not their ideology (Christianity ) but the person.
Lightbringer says
You clearly do not have an accurate translation or commentary on the 12th Benediction, the Birkas haMinim. This refers primarily to Jews who inform on other Jews, lying to the Roman (and later European) authorities and getting people killed, usually in creative and, for the Romans, entertaining ways. It has nothing to do with Christians. Stop making everything about yourself.
Hannah says
Yeah, well, in December your “Palestinian Mandela” went on record calling his followers to join in repeating the Hamas horrors of October 7 – which he hailed as “liberation”:
“O our great Palestinian people, our people in the West Bank, the winds of liberation are growing in the skies of Palestine… Do not be mere witnesses, but rather active soldiers in this decisive battle.”
“The current war does not exclude anyone, so our action as a united uprising will make a difference in this fateful battle for the history of our people.””
“Let the anniversary of the first intifada, December 8, be a turning point and the beginning of an escalating state of engagement with the Israeli enemy in every place that it expects and does not — and with whatever tools and capabilities are available, whether small or large.”
“We call for a complete rally behind the option of comprehensive resistance and for activating it in all the occupied Palestinian territories.”
The above was sent by Barghouti to Quds Press and was published approvingly in English by Middle East Monitor (Dec. 9).
Yep, they guy shows great potential for peacemaking — by “escalating” what Hamas started and repeating Oct. 7 in the PA.
No wonder Hamas is demanding his release.
Irene Muus says
Things look very, very bleak. Thankfully, there is hope in Jesus Christ. Choosing to follow Him is the most Jewish thing one can do. His coming was prophesied in so much of the Old Testament, especially Isaiah 53.
The law was handed down to Moses for the purpose of showing mankind that because of our sinful nature, not one of us can keep it. Blood atonement using animals was available until the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Jesus was the final blood sacrifice.
You can’t work your way into heaven. As God has said in scripture, our “good works” are like filthy rags to Him. None of us can stand before Him without a blood sacrifice.
The Eve of Battle says
Amen … well and Truly said, IM.
Chaya says
Jews do not share that belief. You have your belief. Mine is very different. And is immutable.
sue says
Hello Irene – and didn’t the Seventy Weeks prophecy in the Book of Daniel tell the Jewish people the year the Messiah would arrive, as well as warming what would happen afterwards?
But re going to heaven, didn’t Jesus say that the meek would inherit “the earth””? And when he said that wasn’t he confirming the truth of the similar promises in the Hebrew Scriptures?
I am hoping to live forever on this beautiful planet that floats like a blue and white jewel in an immense and awe-inspiring universe. I hope you will. I hope we all will!
Lightbringer says
Sorry, but Jews have never gone for human sacrifice. It was very popular with other faiths, but we rejected it when G0d told Abraham not to kill Isaac.
Miranda Rose Smith says
You want to find out about Japanese crimes in World War Ii? Start with Agnes Newton Keith’s book, Three Came Home.
SPURWING PLOVER says
The Rape of Nanking the Bataan Death March s citizen in our down now deceased was a survivor of the Death March
TruthLaser says
I saw the movie in theater.
sue says
Hello Miranda, Have you read J.G.Ballard’s “Empire of the Sun”? As a child the author and his parents were interned in a Japanese prison camp, in Shanghai, for the duration. He writes so powerfully – and truthfully – about the child’s experience of war – softening nothing.
He certainly does not minimise what the Japanese did. He very definitely does not. But his writing is so truthful that you feel as much for the young Japanese soldier, attacked and left dying on the riverbank in the chaos and revenge that follows war, as you do for everyone caught up in it.
.
Miranda Rose Smith says
I’ve read Empire of the Sun and seen the movie. The experience left Ballard with a lifelong awareness of how thin the veneer of civilization is, how quickly and easily it falls apart. Have yoU read his novel Higrise? An even grImmer memoir of a childhood in prIson is
Pyotir Yakir’s A Childhood in Prison
sue says
Hi Miranda, No I haven’t read Highrise, though it was highly praised. I can’t read his novels I don’t know why. But clearly they are informed by his childhood experiiences.
Miranda Rose Smith says
I read Highrise and found it GRPPIMG. My mother , may she rest in peace, read a chapter or two, said “Why do you keep this here?” and drpped it, gingerly, into the trash.
THX 1138 says
You really are strident today Danusha Goska.
Religion, mysticism, supernaturalism, unreason, magical thinking, irrationality, have always been the root of evil and totalitarianism since the very beginning of mankind, and always will be.
Reason, rationality, and logic are the root of all good, and always will be.
Nazism is irrational. Communism is irrational. Islam is irrational. And Christianity is irrational.
Christianity was the cause of the one-thousand years of the Christian Dark and Middle Ages.
“I have said that faith and force are corollaries, and that mysticism will always lead to the rule of brutality. The cause of it is contained in the very nature of mysticism. Reason is the only objective means of communication and of understanding among men; when men deal with one another by means of reason, reality is their objective standard and frame of reference. But when men claim to possess supernatural means of knowledge, no persuasion, communication or understanding are possible. Why do we kill wild animals in the jungle? Because no other way of dealing with them is open to us. And that is the state to which mysticism reduces mankind—a state where, in case of disagreement, men have no recourse except to physical violence.” – Ayn Rand
Otto K Gross says
Welcome back, but you are so wrong. So is Ayn.
I’d suggest you’d read a book titled “The Religion of Technology” by David Noble. The start of science and technology and human enlightenment starts with Judeo-Christian philosophy/religion. Both are closer than either side are likely to consider. After the fall from grace nd the loss of perfection, humanity attempts to find a path back to salvation and perfection.. Education and understanding the nature of the creator – God or nature. Not dissimilar goals.
It’s a good book and well-written. Thought provoking.
THX 1138 says
Thank you for the welcome.
Miranda Rose Smith says
Read C.S.. Lewis’s Mere Christianity.⁸
Intrepid says
Bitter, table for one. Even when followed by a Randy quote.
Karen A. Wyle says
Another enlightening and thought-provoking piece.
R.J. says
What a pleasure for me to read another’s thoughts where
“critical thinking” is woven throughout!
Thank you for sharing our thoughts.
SPURWING PLOVER says
Violence against the Jews will doon be violence against Christians those Muslims have not progressed much past their 8th Century AD start
Buddy the Cat Meow says
People fall for myths, like to believe in sentiments and don’t like to admit when they are wrong.
Race is a myth. Your flesh tone is only a phenotype. It doesn’t mean you are better, smarter or more trustworthy. It only means you have a certain amount of melanin in your epidermis.
Marx didn’t invent anything new; he just made a monopolistic system into an absolute monopolistic system without realizing it (I can actually prove this with math, sort of.) When you have such a system that is all powerful, of course it’s going to be totalitarian.
There’s also the myth of green energy. (Too long to get into here.)
There are so many of these that people believe in, or feel are true. As for me, I used to be a Marxist, atheist that thought abortion was okay. I just couldn’t explain why.
Good essay though by Dr. Goska.
Meow.
THX 1138 says
Okay, I got it, everybody else’s tall tales are myths, but Adam and Eve, Garden of Eden, A Talking Snake, Original Sin, Noah’s Ark, Immaculate Conception, Virgin Birth, Resurrection, are not myths.
Buddy the Cat Meow says
You don’t think the story of creation could be true in essence? There’s not a lot of detail in Genesis. and the Bible uses metaphors from time to time. For instance, the parables Jesus told to His disciples. Or do you take Jesus literally when He said, “This is my body, take and eat” and “This is my blood, take and drink.”?
Back then, people didn’t have science books or even science, but the story of creation made sense. The Bible tells about God and man. and how important we are to Him. That’s the message of the Bible in a nutshell. Is that so hard to see.?
THX 1138 says
I would love to answer your question in a serious, intellectual, and philosophical manner as I do 99.99% of the time with almost everyone here but lately my comments are either not being accepted or deleted.
Already today several of my comments on this article have not been accepted and not posted even though they were written in a serious, intellectual, and philosophical manner.
Frontpage Magazine is changing for the worse. It is becoming more and more defensively religious. It is becoming a religious conservative website and when that happens no criticisms of religion will be allowed.
Intrepid says
……….lately my comments are either not being accepted or deleted.
Po’ baby. Why everybody be pickin’ on me? But you always were a whiner.
Maybe you should take the hint and take a hike. Maybe it is you who is getting more strident, intolerant, frustrated and just plainly bigoted. It is clear that no one is taking you seriously. We aren’t sitting around to see what THX has to say on any given topic, even when you aren’t even on topic.
Believe it or not the world is not waiting with baited breath to hear your silly opinions.
Intrepid says
Maybe your criticism of religion will not be allowed.
Vic says
“Answers in Genesis” amazing website. Go, learn…
Lightbringer says
You might like Nathan Aviezer’s little book, “In the Beginning”. Professor Aviezer is a physics professor and former chair of the physics department at Bar Ilan University in Israel. He is also an observant Orthodox Jew, and he writes about how the science proves Biblical narrative.
Intrepid says
Always have to drag out your list of horribles, don’t you. It’s so easy to believe in nothing and then you get to ridicule everyone else, as you hide in your kitchen clacking away on your keyboard.
sue says
Hello THX. I did want to say that Genesis is not written as a creation myth, it is written as history, the history of us. For centuries, generations of faithful Jewish scribes recorded the generations down from Adam.
And if Genesis is true, then every one of us on the earth today is descended from one of the three sons of Noah. And have we ever forgotten the events of the Deluge?
The book The Worship of the Dead points to this origin: “The mythologies of all the ancient nations are interwoven with the events of the Deluge . . . The force of this argument is illustrated by the fact of the observance of a great festival of the dead in commemoration of the event, not only by nations more or less in communication with each other, but by others widely separated, both by the ocean and by centuries of time. This festival is, moreover, held by all on or about the very day on which, according to the Mosaic account, the Deluge took place, viz., the seventeenth day of the second month—the month nearly corresponding with our November.” (London, 1904, Colonel J. Garnier, p. 4)
The Immaculate Conception however, which I remember from my convent schooldays, is not a Bible teaching. Mary, while being a good Jewish girl, was a damaged child of disobedient Adam, as we all are.
donna jo says
Really sneaky essay.
Give us the red meat of the homosexual philosophy of support for hamas that hates them.
Give us the red meat of our self-righteous justification of WWII internment camps.
Then wham! lower the boom on Owens for daring to violate the golden rule of journalism “Thou shalt not make ANY public comment that anyone anywhere (including the author) could squint their eyes and see antisemitism”.
THX 1138 says
This essay is one of the worst I’ve read by Danusha Goska but not because of Candace Owens. What a mess of contradictions, inconsistencies, and I’m sorry to say possibly intentional dishonesty this essay contains.
Defend Christianity at all costs even if you have to make the most glaringly dishonest evasions.
I don’t know if Candace Owens is an antisemite or not, but she does strike me as intentionally poking the hornet’s nest for attention and bait clicks like Ann (‘Won’t vote for you because you’re an Indian’) Coulter does. Ann Coulter does it much better though.
Intrepid says
Too bad the world never really takes your advice. Of course you would never poke the hornets nest, except when you criticize altruism, Christianity, Judaism. the “Christian dark ages”, the United States, because, after all, you are just so much smarter, and better than the rest of us poor unintellectual slobs. You would never defend Objectivism at all costs even when “you have to make the most glaringly dishonest evasions” and criticisms
You will always be a bitter emotionally needy narcissist.
Oh yeah, she still won’t date you, even when you try the “tough love” approach. Neither will Ann Coulter.
Allan Goldstein says
I recommend Michelle Malkin’s book “In Defense Of Internment” to get the full story.
Lightbringer says
Excellent book. Quite well researched and written.
Annie45 says
The followers of the new Woke Religion that Ms. Goska refers to must
adhere to the narrative of DEI (diversity-equity-inclusion) in everything
they espouse – no matter what – especially remembering to always
incorporate a scapegoat into the mix. That scapegoat being the group
perceived as threatening to the sameness and equality of everyone
else.
They will preach from their bully pulpit to attempt to inspire and sway
others to their perennial condemning way of thinking. And that is their
idea of a lofty, spiritual pursuit of truth and justice for all. With love –
as preached by Jesus – having nothing to do with any of it.
Hence we have the keffiyeh – so enamored by Muslim terrorists –
strongly and dumbly defended by Jake. And White America bashed
by Takei while ignoring Japanese atrocities. Plus Owens twisting of
the truth – to fit that scapegoat narrative – that Christians are good
while she trolls Jews as bad.
May God – who Jesus said loves each and every individual uniquely –
help us all.
Otto K Gross says
Excellent essay.
I see there’s mention of the Japanese. Anyone interested in Japanese atrocities should also read about Unit 731 ( warning for the squimish, though. Not for the sensitive ).
Japanese Americans were part of the plan to invade America and Canada as they successfully did throughout Asia.. I’ll point anyone interested to primary source material and some really good secondary sources. Unit 731 did research on live Chinese, Koreans, Russian, Americans; civilian and soldiers with biological and microwave weapons. Look up Kogu and Unit-731. The Battle of Los Angeles positioned nine to twelve I-boats off the American and Canadian coastline. They attacked Canada in a similar fashion ( the city slips my mind but I think it’s something like St. Andrews or St Stephens ). Unit 731 tested bacterilogical weapons on the Chinese in pens, dissecting them alive. They sent Fugo ( Blowfish ) balloon bombs over the US with incendiary bombs. The plan seems to have been to launch Fugo with bacteriological/ viral payloads ( plague, etc. against the population and food supplies. ditto for Canada. The German Captured documents at the Library of Congress Manuscript room is a good start but limited. Unlike the Germans, the Japanese had time to destroy records and cover up thing until the 80’s. I spent time in Korea over the years and went to the Comfort Women demonstrations in Seoul. There is a precedent for thinking that Japanese would attack America this way. Check out the Zimmerman Telegram – Japanese “tourists” in Mexico prepared to attack when the time was right during WW1. I can go on but the point is that if you look at the facts and not the emotions, you’ll see it was warranted.
The difficulty in talking about whether the Japanese numbers were much greater than Germans or Italians is that Germans were sent across the border to Canada or deported back to Germany outright, even if natural born. I went to Mc University last year looking for records but they seem lost ( for now). There are some good books on Canada’s role in WW2 that describe the concern about Japanese heritage people. Don’t fall for the people playing the emotions cards – “In God we trust, all others provide data” – Demming.
The Eve of Battle says
Excellent info. Thank you!
CHARLES R DISQUE says
Over-generalizing, for instance, about Japanese Americans and their role in WWII is ill-advised. Japanese-American units that fought in the U.S. Army were highly decorated, fought bravely, proved themselves and their patriotism and their Americanism.
The great majority of Japanese Americans were loyal.
johnhenry says
A well thought article by Dash. A long one, but I got the gist ( I think). She is saddened for the Jews and deplores the depredations visited upon them by monsters. Am I wrong?
Just yesterday, I was wondering and prayed what I, a non-Jew supporter of Israel could do to help their noble race when – LO!! – what should appear in my mailbox for the first time ever but an envelope from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews appealing ( mainly to the former) to HELP FEED ELDERLY JEWS STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE (capitalization in the original).
So this month, I honor that charity for the first time ever and intend to do so again each year, God being my helper.
Shooter Six says
I used to wear one of many of my keffiyeh scarves everyday. Hot or cold. I’m pissed now, because now, if I wear one I am assumed to be an ally of the dumb, elite agitators and dirty university student squatters we have to endure everyday lecturing us on what they don’t know. History, for students, begins on their birthday. Anyway. Now I won’t wear one at all. Bastards.
carpediadem says
Ever since the 1960s it’s been a symbol of terrorism.
Lightbringer says
What in the name of the Seven Mad Gods of the Sea were you thinking, wearing a keffiyeh? That’s just silly, especially for a grown man.
Azzu says
The puritan progressive priesthood has attacked the moral standing of the old world for 200+ years. They win by destroying it. Nothing new with Takei / NPR / the Japenese internment issue. The equivalence between what happened here and what happened is Europe during WW2 is ridiculous.
Now with campuses “on fire”, with people yelling “from the river to the sea”, Jewish students harassed, etc are Candace Owens indirect antisemitic “dog whistles” (they need to be explained at length) part of the spat with Ben Shapiro our biggest problem? She may have bought into some antisemitic ideas and that’s not good but isn’t that the same kind if moral equivalence (“look at the antisemitism on the right”, it’s all the same etc).
Kynarion Hellenis says
Andrew Klavan is wrong. “Christ is King” has been the Christian understanding and claim even before the crucifixion. The Messiah is a King forever, and must come from the line of David. David, writing in the power of the Spirit of the LORD, refers to this greater son in Psalm 2 and Psalm 110:1. Zechariah 9:9 prophesies this about Messiah: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Jesus did exactly this, riding upon the foal of a donkey while the Jews and all the “{People} took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting: “Hosanna!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!”
To say, “Christ is King” is distinctively Christian, and has not one whiff of anti-semitism to it.
Furthermore, Klavan believes that his friend, Ben Shapiro, should not convert to Christianity because it would “cost him too dearly,” and that “God has Shapiro exactly where He wants him to be.” This is universalism – a heretical teaching. Jesus’ says He alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no one comes to the Father but by Him (John 14:6). Speaking the truth is loving, and not hateful.
But yes, it would cost Ben Shapiro to become a Christian, probably both relationally and financially (at first, at least). The Bible speaks of this plainly, and sets the cost against the reward that “No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no heart has imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love Him.” See 1 Corinthians 2:9
We must not be afraid to tell the Truth. Doing so is loving, and never hateful.
TruthLaser says
Muslims can claim that shouting their Allah is the greatest is just an affirmation of their faith, but in fact this is done before terrorist acts. The pure innocence of a religious statement is belied when the context is aggressive, used to despise others, or violence.
Kynarion Hellenis says
Context matters, of course. But the naked statement “Allah is great” is a statement of religious conviction. There is no crime in stating it and it is not criminal to speak it.
If a Christian says, “Christ is King” while assaulting someone, the crime is not in the words, but the assault. If a Muslim says “Allahu Ackbar” while assaulting someone, the crime is the assault, not the words. If a Jew says the Shema while committing an assault, the Shema is not the crime, but the assault.
If you find yourself beginning to think, “…but a Jew would never do that!”, then you are a hypocrite and ignorant of human nature.
Vic says
Candace reached a fork in the road. Two gates. One narrow, one wide. Sadly she took the wide gate. Pray she sees the cliff befoe it’s too late.
Bobby says
I am sorry to read that Candace Owens has converted to a false Christianity! The Catholic religion is not true Christianity. Catholics believe in replacement theology meaning that they believe the Church has replaced Israel. They believe that the promises that God made to Israel are no longer valid. The problem is they listen to the higher ups in the Catholic Church instead of reading and studying what God’s Word says. They have taken many of the prophetic passages in the Scriptures and allegorized them. God still has a plan for Israel. One day when Christ returns they will be ruling and reigning with Him in the kingdom of God on the land that was promised to Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and succeeding generations.
Kynarion Hellenis says
We are not saved by our views regarding Israel. We are not saved by reading or studying the Bible. We are not saved by what earthly church we attend. We are saved by faith in God alone in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
Howard says
I have always maintained that atheists simply embrace a different rigid dogma. These types have no self-awareness. I frequently paraphrase G. K. Chesterton’s notable quote–that when people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything.
Also, I was a huge fan of the original Star Trek. Always thought Sulu’s first name was Mister.
Chaya says
I had no idea that “………king” statement was being used to further attack Jews. Ive seen one statement about “a throne” which I have a funny association for. These silly people think a quote harms Jews? Well, it may tell us who to avoid, But then, I am not on face book or x. Such platforms will never be free of hate as theres not much real world consequence as long as the hate is for Jews.
Today, the hierarchy of hate has changed and once again Jews are most hated. It is such a cheap trick to target Jews again. But it works due to residual anti-Semitism within the Christian faith and tradition. Its yours. Own it.
I believe it’s all too human to hate. It is the highest spiritual experience to live hated. But some people will hate themselves and convert. I do understand but I, of course, will not laud them. You can. I don’t.
Kynarion Hellenis says
You are right. Christians are not immune from the human tendency towards hate. Neither are Jews or Muslims or Buddhists, or Atheists.
I do not judge Jews by their spitting on Christians in Jerusalem, nor by the continuation of the ancient practice of cursing of the Christian heretics (done three times a day, no less). I am westernkind, and I judge each man as an individual, whether he be Jew of Christian.
Kynarion Hellenis says
My “Parting of the Ways” link did not translate through the post process. Anyone interested go to “Israelmyglory.org” and use the search box to find “The Parting of the Ways” by William Varner.
commonsense says
These attacks on Christians are not only despicable, but cowardly, as the expectation is that the Christians, unlike the Muslms, are unlikely to fight back when attacked. However, note that these attackers are fanatics, who have attacked Jews as well for their nonobservance of the Sabbath. And the Israeli government will not tolerate such actions. Measures will be taken.
By the way, I have had a Jewish upbringing and attended Hebrew school in an orthodox synagogue from ages ten to thirteen, and have never been taught anything anti-Christian. I know nothing whatsoever about Hebrew prayers condemning Christians (or any extant non-Jewish groups, for that matter). My grandparents, who immigrated from Eastern Europe before the first world War and who were raised Orthodox, never recited prayers of this kind either. All of these Christophobic prayers were and are unknown to my Jewish family, friends, and the hundreds of Jews (both religious and secular) I have known in my long life. The antisemite who posts as Aslan licks his chops at the opportunity to report the beliefs and actions of Jewish fanatics, describing these as commonplace and mainstream. Well, I’m writing to tell you that this is not only a lie – it’s arguably a form of blood libel.
commonsense says
Here is a 2012 article addressing the accusation that Jews curse Christians.
https://forward.com/culture/151035/do-jews-curse-the-christians/
Lightbringer says
How many times a day do we say, “We have no King but You” in our prayers? It seems more than enough to accept only the Almighty as our King and our… well, as our everything.
George says
Heaven, purgatory, and hell in the afterlife are the Christian equivalents to karma. They say the law of karma is exact, the same as the judgement of God.
Vic says
There is no purgatory!
Jason P says
Your article’s main emphasis, in my humble opinion, is a plea to stay engaged even if respectfully disagreeing. Of course, there are obvious exceptions–those that don’t proceed in good faith but descend into close-minded hate, and you end with such an example.
While I respect that Catholicism is important to you & your worldview, I wish you’d show more appreciation of the secular influences of our liberal order.
Both Jefferson & Adams viewed Cicero & Aristotle as foundational to the moral & political underpinnings of a liberal order. The post-war revival of classical liberalism was spearheaded by two agnostics (Hayek & Friedman) and an atheist (Ayn Rand).
Frank Meyer (an ex-communist inspired by Hayek) would create American conservatism by a fusion of classical liberalism with Buckley’s Catholic-influenced traditionalism. (You see, I can acknowledge multiple cultural currents!)
Lastly. our patron saint, David Horowitz is (unless this has changed) an agnostic but he is very protective of his fellow religious conservatives and even champions Martin Luther (this I’d have to read to believe!)
The non-Christian secular influences that are key to our civilization are individualists, not to be confused with the collectivist atheists. If I can distinguish between theists who believe in the Golden Rule & those who hear God command them to wage jihad, why can’t FPM make distinctions between non-believers?
THX 1138 says
Professor Goska, unfortunately, stereotypes and lumps all pagans into one category of debauchery, hedonism, and evil, something she would never do, I hope, with any other group. But since Christianity wiped out all the pagans (with violence and bloodshed) there are no actual direct descendants of the pagans to speak up for them.
Dear Professor Goska, the pagan, stoic, philosopher Seneca had a profound influence on the Christians and Christianity. He was one pagan that the Christians strongly admired.
“The early Christian church believed that [Seneca] had known Saint Paul and therefore granted his works legitimacy and preserved them. Seneca’s works were read by Medieval scholars and his tragedies—with their gloominess, ghosts, and witches—had a powerful influence on Elizabethan drama….
Seneca, the Roman philosopher, had a significant impact on early Christianity. Let’s explore some aspects of this influence:
Parallel Lives of Seneca and Jesus:
Seneca and Jesus both lived during the same period, despite being separated by geography, culture, and social status. They were both born around 4 BC. Tacitus, a Roman historian, wrote about both of them. Seneca’s brother even appears briefly in the Bible.
Their teachings overlapped in some ways, as seen in their similar messages:
Seneca: “You look at the pimples of others when you yourselves are covered with a mass of sores.”
Jesus: “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?”
Stoicism and Christianity:
Stoicism, the philosophical school founded by Zeno, was popular during the period before Christianity. Seneca was a prominent Stoic philosopher.
Early Christian Church Fathers admired Seneca and considered him a moral exemplar. Tertullian even referred to him as “our Seneca.”
Seneca’s writings reveal deep philosophical thought and reverence for divine Nature, which resonated with Christian teachings.
Seneca’s Influence Beyond His Time:
Seneca transcended the shift from pagan to Christian Europe. He appeared in the works of medieval writers like Dante, Chaucer, and Petrarch.
Later, neo-stoic philosophers, including Justius Lipsus, were influenced by Seneca’s works.
In summary, Seneca’s Stoic philosophy and moral teachings left a lasting impact on both his contemporaries and subsequent generations, including early Christians. His ideas continue to resonate today.”
Pearl says
I am disappointed in your insistence on misinterpreting Candace Owens and, more troubling, your casting the statement “Christ is King”as antisemitic. “Christ is King” is foundational to Christianity. Any Christian who cannot affirm that statement is not a Christian at all. And Candace Owens defense of nationalism is in no way an endorsement of Hitler. If anything, she was drawing a line between nationalism, love and support for one’s own country, and Naziism. It is disingenuous to suggest otherwise and betrays a serious dishonesty on your part. Your article started out strong and then devolved into just another claim of Jewish supremacy and victimhood.
Kynarion Hellenis says
I agree that Candace did not in any way endorse Hitler, and that she distinguished Hitler as a poor nationalist because he had designs to subjugate other nations in service to his expansionism.
THX 1138 says
“Why Nationalism is Bad, But Patriotism Can Be Good: Nationalism is Collectivism, But Patriotism Can Be Individualist” – Eric MacIntosh
Ron Kelmell says
This new time of anti Judaeo Christian attitudes is very encouraging. Genuine Christians will be filtered and therefore strengthened. We’re finding out just how real our Lord is. Opposition tests me and makes me more aware of the Lord’s presence.
To the WOKEs, Marxists, and anti Bible/God ilk I say, “Bring it!”
THX 1138 says
” Humans can’t be without religion any more than they can be without politics. ”
Religion is an early form of philosophy. Humans can’t be without some form of philosophy.
“Philosophy is the goal toward which religion was only a helplessly blind groping. The grandeur, the reverence, the exalted purity, the austere dedication to the pursuit of truth, which are commonly associated with religion, should properly belong to the field of philosophy….
But you must remember that religion is an early form of philosophy, that the first attempts to explain the universe, to give a coherent frame of reference to man’s life and a code of moral values, were made by religion, before men graduated or developed enough to have philosophy. And, as philosophies, some religions have very valuable moral points. They may have a good influence or proper principles to inculcate, but in a very contradictory context and, on a very—how should I say it? — dangerous or malevolent base: on the ground of faith….
Religion’s monopoly in the field of ethics has made it extremely difficult to communicate the emotional meaning and connotations of a rational view of life. Just as religion has pre-empted the field of ethics, turning morality against man, so it has usurped the highest moral concepts of our language, placing them outside this earth and beyond man’s reach. “Exaltation” is usually taken to mean an emotional state evoked by contemplating the supernatural. “Worship” means the emotional experience of loyalty and dedication to something higher than man. “Reverence” means the emotion of a sacred respect, to be experienced on one’s knees. “Sacred” means superior to and not-to-be-touched-by any concerns of man or of this earth. Etc.
But such concepts do name actual emotions, even though no supernatural dimension exists; and these emotions are experienced as uplifting or ennobling, without the self-abasement required by religious definitions. What, then, is their source or referent in reality? It is the entire emotional realm of man’s dedication to a moral ideal. Yet apart from the man-degrading aspects introduced by religion, that emotional realm is left unidentified, without concepts, words or recognition.
It is this highest level of man’s emotions that has to be redeemed from the murk of mysticism and redirected at its proper object: man.” – Ayn Rand
Lightbringer says
Interesting that the kufiyahs worn by hipsters today are probably being made by Muslim slaves in the labor/extermination camps of Xinjiang Provence. I suppose that this irony would be lost on our passionate young fools in America and Europe.
CHARLES R DISQUE says
Thank you, Professor Goska! Such an interesting and insightful essay. And it obviously struck a nerve, or a whole bunch of them. Never have I seen such engaged and impassioned comments.