Posted on 08/31/2009 4:09:22 PM PDT by Mrs. Frogjerk
Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on last night’s edition of Penn & Teller’s show. The program aired on Showtime which is owned by CBS:
The Nazis couldn’t have done better. Having been in this job for over 16 years, I have never seen a more defamatory, obscene and vicious show on TV. And I mean about any religious or demographic group—not just Catholics. The lies about the Catholic Church, to say nothing of the vile language used by Penn Jillette, were positively astounding. Moreover, it never attempted to be comedic—from the very beginning it advertised the show as payback for 2,000 years of alleged crimes. This was Julius Streicher back from the grave.
In this half-hour show, the Catholic Church was blamed for every evil in history. Jillette said the “intolerance, greed, paranoia, hypocrisy and callous disregard for human suffering” was the hallmark of the Catholic Church. Others on the show branded the Church an “amoral” and “power hungry” institution that is just worried about its “cash flow.”
Jillette lied about the Vatican’s reaction to Sabina Guzzanti, an Italian foul-mouthed comedian who staged an assault on the pope in 2008: the pope never sought to throw “her sexy ass in jail” and never once sought any punitive measure against her—it’s all a bald face lie! Jillette lied about a 1962 Vatican document—it was a statement about penalties for priests who used the confessional to solicit sex: it was not a cover-up for sexual misconduct! He lied about Pope Benedict XVI—he had absolutely nothing to do with overseeing cases of priestly sexual misconduct in the United States! And so on.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicleague.org ...
I don't even know what to say, and that really says something.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Mt 5:11-12)
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I am surprised at Penn - I recall he seemed to be pretty level headed.
This is disgusting.
Hey Froggy, All I have to say on the matter is:
“it advertised the show as payback for 2,000 years of alleged crimes:
REMEMBER, the common calling card of ALL fascist movements is ‘historic justice’ And Obama is marked by that as well.
Mr. Donohue needs to read his Church history. I love the Catholic religion....but the history of the Church is horrifying. I rationalize it as the human flaw factor. The true faith has nothing to do with the heinous acts and crimes against humanity of which the men of the Church were horribly guilty.
Oh OK...In the meantime, what the heck happened?
I would love to see Penn Jillette criticize Islam and it’s barbaric past.
****I would love to see Penn Jillette criticize Islam and it’s barbaric past.****
Lets add Marxism and Fascism to the list too. Some people like to say that religion is the cause of all suffering of man, but it is an outright lie. Man is the cause of all suffering with a lot of it coming from Marxist and Fascist governments.
Well, since islam also has a barbaric “present” and a barbaric “future”, yeah, I guess talking about its barbaric “past” might be, ah, not a good career move.
I missed this particular episode, but I’ve long had a strong distaste for the needling, snide humor of Penn Jillette. Though our politics overlap well, he seems a nasty piece of work.
Sometimes, I feel like I’m living through a strange version of The Stand. The lines have been drawn. Evil is being drawn forcefully in one direction. The rest of us are being drawn in another direction. There isn’t much middle ground.
On the other hand, Teller had nothing bad to say about the church.
I didn’t see the episode in question, but will say that P&T are equal opportunity offenders. They have taken on many sacred cows of the left, including global warming, gun control and others. My personal favorite episode was about breasts.
FWIW, P&T’s long running show in Vegas is the only show in Vegas that is suitable for a 5 year old. They save the bad lanquage for Showtime.
Yes there were and are some people from the Catholic Church that are evil. You can say the same thing about all of humanity as a whole. And yes it is a human flaw factor that is involved.
I have never nor will I ever say that I am a perfect human being because I am Catholic. To the contrary, I grapple with my demons on a regular basis. The people serving the church are the same. Sometimes we fall.
But to keep holding the church(and that includes worshiper’s like me) accountable for things done in ages past is unfair.
I do not worship Pope Benedict. I do not worship the Bishop’s and the Cardinals, but I do worship Christ as a Catholic. I do not do this because I am ordered to or because I am brainwashed. I can leave at anytime, and choose not to despite the fact that the people running the show at the Vatican are not perfect. They aren’t supposed to be.
Donohue was not addressing all of the church’s dark history. Just the usual lies and garbage spewed about by the haters.
Thanks for the post. Bookmarked to read later.
Penn has zero tolerance for hypocrisy. He is a Libertarian and an Atheist. So, he’s half right. ;-)
A great many people, and institutions have done much harm masquerading by purpose or ignorance as Christians.
If we dare call ourselves Christians, we ought to pray that we honor God in all that we do and say. We’ll mess up of course, but God’s Grace is sufficient.
Continuing... Penn seems to know very very little about Christendom. His facts are wrong. But his distaste for the Catholic Church does have REAL roots in actual bad things done by leaders in the Catholic Church.
We need to stop giving him fodder by growing more mature in Christ every day.
Please, check out this very interesting video of Penn describing an encounter with a Christian that Penn describes as a “good, good man.”:
“Penn Says / A Gift of a Bible”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM
It’s touching. Penn was moved deeply (He’s still an atheist, though.)
I hope it is an encouragement to you to see what God can do.
I am a protestant, and very grateful to Christ that my salvation is His hands, not in the hands of any mortal man.
Remember, the Bible tells us there will be a time when people call good, evil, and evil, good. We have entered such a time. You shouldn’t be surprised at this. Liberals hate Christianity.
No, there isn’t. Years ago that very thing was prophesied, that there would be a dividing line between Christianity and unbelievers. It’s not black, white and grey any longer.
Amen. Excellent post.
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