Iconoclasm in St. Louis: How Identity Politics Became Identity Theft

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Iconoclasm in St. Louis: How Identity Politics Became Identity Theft

The battle over the statue began as an exercise in identity politics, and before long it degenerated into an example of identity theft. The main protagonist in this story is Umar Lee, who was born Bret Darran Lee in 1974 to a southern Presbyterian family and grew up in Florissant, Missouri just outside St. Louis. Lee may or may not be Black, which is an ideological marker based upon but independent of biological fact, because he claims, according to The Jerusalem Post that he “has two younger siblings who are half African-American.”[1]

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Nazi Hunters and Their Catholic Proxy Warriors - Part II

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Nazi Hunters and Their Catholic Proxy Warriors - Part II

Bishop Rhoades was inspired to write his statement after attending a “Violins of Hope” inter-faith prayer service at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, celebrating the arrival of “violins that were played by Jewish prisoners at concentration camps during the Holocaust.” Listening to those violins brought tears “of both sadness and joy” to Bishop Rhoades’ eyes. He felt “joy at the love we share as brothers and sisters, drawn together by a common spiritual patrimony” but sadness at the “rise in recent years of anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic rhetoric in our society,” as well as “incidents of violence incited by hateful speech about Jews.”[15]

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Are Jews Our Friends?

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Are Jews Our Friends?

On February 19, 2020, Bishop Kevin Rhoades wrote a statement for his Fort Wayne-South Bend, IN diocese regarding how Catholics are to relate to Jews. Seeking collaboration in human affairs, however, often spills over into religious issues about which Christians and Jews are naturally at odds. It is a tough road for those who are seeking human friendship to wade through the rough waters inherent in spiritual matters. Over the last 70 years or so, various Catholic and Jews have attempted to forge these deep waters. Unfortunately, they find the pathway strewn with the dead bodies of compromise, contradiction and confusion. As a case in point, let us delve into the bishop’s efforts to give it another try.

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Dead Letter Office

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Dead Letter Office

Your correspondent (Culture Wars, November 2018) is pleased to see letters printed in the magazine from countries outside the USA. Well, perhaps I can assist still further in this endeavor on a subject mentioned frequently in Culture Wars, namely the Jewish question.

There are four supposedly Catholic weekly papers in England. The Universe, and the Catholic Times are pretty anodyne, and the Tablet, although having a fine earlier history, long ago left the integral Catholic fold with much of its contents. This is so much so the case that its dissenting approach in the sixties to the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae led to its becoming known as “The Pill” (a pretty unsubtle pun!).

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