Slandering the President (Jesuit Priest upset at Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh)

America Magazine via Ripenet ^ | NOVEMBER 23, 2009 | Fr. John F. Kavanaugh, S.J.

[Coleus]

Slandering the President
John F. Kavanaugh S.J. | NOVEMBER 23, 2009
America Magazine

On Oct. 29 Glenn Beck ended his program on Fox TV with the words of Thomas Jefferson: “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” Beck himself certainly has not been silent. In lectures, best-selling books, a radio program and his television show, he has warned America of the coming tyranny under a conspiratorial president. Armed with videos and quotations ranging from the mindless and amoral behavior of some members of Acorn to reckless statements made by associates and appointees of President Obama, Beck connects dots to draw a web of radicals who are out to destroy America as the founders intended it.

The exposing of unethical practices or foolish statements as well as reasoned critique of health, economic and international policies are essential to our civil discourse. I, for one, am troubled by the administration’s policy in Afghanistan, its reliance on many of the financial wizards who led us into our present mess and its disorganized, sometimes tepid approach to health care reform.      

But defamation by innuendo is something else. Glenn Beck and his radio twin, Rush Limbaugh, have since the president’s inauguration imputed tyrannical intentions to the man. Whether inflating episodes such as children singing a song about Mr. Obama, claiming that the president is a racist with a “deep-seated hatred of white people and white culture” or characterizing “Obama’s America” as an offspring of Maoism or Nazism, Beck and Limbaugh are stoking a fire of fear and anger against the president of the United States.  If you search the Internet for the phrase “Obama is…,” the top six possibilities offered are, “antichrist,” “idiot,” “racist,” “liar,” “Hitler,” “socialist.” A search for “Obama” and “destroying America” yields 719,000 sites.

Obama the destroyer has been a recent theme of Limbaugh. On June 4, Newsmax.com (a news partner of The Washington Times) reported that Rush Limbaugh, on the previous night’s news, told Sean Hannity that “like Osama Bin Laden, the president is trying to destroy America.” What Limbaugh really said was, “If Al Qaeda wants to demolish the America we know and love, they’d better hurry because Obama is beating them to it.” In an “On the Record” interview with Fox’s Greta Van Susteren on July 23 and 24, Limbaugh claimed that the president, who is “purposely destroying the economy,” wants “as little liberty and freedom as possible” for the American people. He wants to determine who is born and when we die. Bent on remaking the country, the president is allegedly causing joblessness on purpose. After saying that the “greatness of this country’s people is under assault,” Limbaugh concludes that the president “has contempt for the American people.”

As if that were not enough, on Nov. 1 “Fox News Sunday” gave Limbaugh 30 minutes to lob unchallenged assertions that Mr. Obama is an immature narcissist, an extreme radical intent on destroying the economy.  We have here the suggested embodiment of Glenn Beck’s tyrant, a president who wants to destroy America and its economy and to seize total control over our lives. These accusations should not be passed off as the musings of crackpots or satirical entertainers. No matter what the motives behind this demonizing, the act amounts to the highest of slanders. Limbaugh professes how much he loves this country, a Christian country, he insists. But does he realize that the Christian tradition holds calumny to be a serious sin?

Slander has emerged as a new genre for the Internet. I’m sure I am not the only one receiving “forward it on” e-mails from people alarmed at the coming downfall of our country, often with allusions to Hitler as a precursor to our present president.

Whatever our political leanings or fears for the future may be, let us hope that there is not someone out there who, having been seduced by slanderous innuendo, really thinks Barack Obama is as bad as Bin Laden and as tyrannical as Hitler. It is painful to consider what could happen in the face of such imagined tyranny. And let us pray that such actions are not inspired by John Wilkes Booth or Timothy McVeigh, with their shared motto, “sic semper tyrannis.” If a terrible assault on the president should occur, will Christians who advanced the slander of him be contrite? And will those of us who were silent be shamed?

[Coleus]

why are you turning this into a Catholic-bashing thread.

[Publius6961]

But defamation by innuendo is something else. Glenn Beck and his radio twin, Rush Limbaugh, have since the president’s inauguration imputed tyrannical intentions to the man. Whether inflating episodes such as children singing a song about Mr. Obama, claiming that the president is a racist with a “deep-seated hatred of white people and white culture” or characterizing “Obama’s America” as an offspring of Maoism or Nazism, Beck and Limbaugh are stoking a fire of fear and anger against the president of the United States. If you search the Internet for the phrase “Obama is…,” the top six possibilities offered are, “antichrist,” “idiot,” “racist,” “liar,” “Hitler,” “socialist.” A search for “Obama” and “destroying America” yields 719,000 sites.

There is a profoundly important reason why religion and secular government must be kept separate. This silly, naive view of reality is a great example.

Before continuing, let me state that most of my education was Jesuit induced, and I shall be grateful to my dying day for the gift of critical thinking, reasoning, and courage that I learned from so many teachers I shall always remember.

This "priest" is not one of them. Fortunately.

To return to the paragraph I quote above, my overall reaction is, "if the shoe fits --- wear it."

From the beginning, the meaningless word, "change." gave the banal nature of this man away. Cancer is change. The sort of change that we have seen so far is all destructive, thoughtless and oppresive, to all but the parasites of society. Certainly not the ones who matter, and upon whom the continued health of our society depends : Hard working, Middle Class Americans.

The continued devastation of our economy, both actively and passively, has caused damage that must persist for a generation if we're lucky, several generations if we're not.

This priest must have forgotten the meaning of Fascism, if he feels we have libeled Obama by painting him with that brush. Jesuits everywhere must be cringing. I can't think of a better example than the last ten months of the inept, inexperienced Obama administration.

Racism? respectfully, Fr. Kavanaugh, you are an idiot. This great "uniter" has shown every indicator of racism of the worst sort. The White House looks like a bling version of the acolytes of Idi Amin.
I'll make it easy for you.

Show me one instance of Obama defending a white person not in his administration, or its supporting goon squads --- ISEU, ACORN, etc.

Just one.

If it walks like racism, talks like racism and quacks like racism...

By the way, I do not consider myself "white."

I have no idea what prompted you to write such a banal article.

A.M.D.G.

Respectfully,

Publius8961

[Desdemona]

30 years on and Kavanaugh hasn’t changed. Ignore him.

[Publius6961]

Have you ever met a Jesuit priest that was not part of the radical left?

Yes I have.
I was educated by sevral dozen of them.
And I never felt the pressure of leftism or rightism. Of course, my recent (last 30 years or so) exposure to my alma materes have suggested a marked list to port.

[Publius6961]

why are you turning this into a Catholic-bashing thread.

Because it requires no thinking, and anyone can do it.

Cheap shots would be easy for me; but the worst experience I can recall is that one Jesuit was an alcoholic, 24/7; but in his defense, he was an excellent Geomery and Trig teacher, and that's what I remember.

Imagine that. A Jesuit priest with human failings.

[mountainfolk]

I think that Catholic priests from any order can be found who are conflicted and perhaps confused about the differences between justice and charity and mercy. I have had two conversations over the years with priests who leaned socialist because they saw no injustice in requiring the productive person to supplement the resources of the deliberately unproductive person. Another priest from a foreign country was quite upset when I said that I could not reconcile his socialist attitude and behavior, which impacted on his pastoral decisions, with the fact that he had come from a country which he chose to leave because it had destroyed the very freedom he was now taking advantage of in America. I believe all of the priests were dedicated to their vocations and sincere in their spiritual lives but were ignorant of the political world which creates chaos and enmity among the population by means of pitting them against one another for the purpose of amassing power to themselves. Obama is the current face of the socialists who are engaged in doing whatever they can to overthrow this Republic which has sheltered the religions of the world. If these socialists thought they could get better results with a white person they would have gone that route. I am grateful for Rush, Beck, Hannity and many others who have endeavored to inform, educate, and alert the citizens of the USA to the ongoing war against our very existence as a free nation.

[gman992]

I know tons of right-wing Jesuits. One of them married my brother and sister-in-law. And, if you think that I’m a conservative, you should my brother and sister-in-law. Anyway, we were at the rehersal dinner for my brother’s weddding—I know, I know, like we don’t know how to eat—and someone mentioned Bin Laden, and the radical priest said that he would have no problem killing Bin Laden himself. But, there are tons of conservative and liberal priests.

[denydenydeny]

Slander has emerged as a new genre for the Internet. I’m sure I am not the only one receiving “forward it on” e-mails from people alarmed at the coming downfall of our country, often with allusions to Hitler as a precursor to our present president.

Where was this clown from January 2001 through January 2009? One can only imagine.

[Coleus]

Have you ever met a Jesuit priest that was not part of the radical left?

Fr. Robert Spitzer is one of the more orthodox priests I have seen on EWTN; he's conducted many series on ethics, suffering and proving the existence of God.

[Nosterrex]

I do not doubt that if you looked long enough you can find one, but the order as a general rule is very radical left. Maybe after the Pope gave them a swift kick in the arse they have changed, and I hope that is true.

[Coleus]

Back in 1981, Pope John Paul II, appointed a more orthodox priest to be the leader of the Jesuits.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922654,00.html

And a few yrs. ago Pope Benedict xvi fired the editor of America Magazine for his liberal catholic views that went against church teachings.

It’s going to take a generation or two to clean things up; there are still many, many liberal priests around from the old school and this order as well as a few others, draw the liberals in.

[AliVeritas]

I’m real glad I saw this.

Better late than never... i’ll take care of this one in person.