By Michael Hoffman
1. Traditional Lutheran Newspaper Reprints our Column
2. David Irving’s Speech July 24 in London, England
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1. Traditional Lutheran Newspaper Reprints On the Contrary column
Even though I am a Catholic, Rev. Herman Otten, editor of the traditional Lutheran (LCMS) newspaper Christian News, frequently publishes my columns in his newspaper. My writing is not considered for publication in “traditional” Catholic newspapers such The Remnant and Catholic Family News. The online “traditional” Catholic blog Rorate Caeli has blocked us from even re-tweeting their material. The American Conservative magazine, with a preponderance of Catholics on its editorial staff, refuses to carry paid advertisements for our book Usury in Christendom: The Mortal Sin that Was and Now is Not. The John Birch Society, led by “traditional” Catholics John McManus and Bill Jasper, will not allow us to advertise our books in their magazine or on their website.
The only occasions that I have spoken in public on the subject of usury have been at Protestant-sponsored meetings. Judith Sharpe in Virginia, who does not publish a newspaper or magazine, but helps to organize a yearly Catholic forum, is one of our few contacts in the “traditional” Catholic world who does invite us.
I’m not complaining — I consider all of these boycotts and bans self-indicting and in some respects, comical, in light of the red meat rhetoric these groups dispense to their naive supporters. The supposed "leaders of the Conservative movement in America” are too timid to accept our advertisements or to print our columns. Certain Lutherans possess that courage, among them Pastor Otten. Without courage we are lost. Otten knows it. Many conservative Catholic publishers do not. Should I conceal this fact?
The On the Contrary column that was reprinted by Christian News, “The Biggest Failure in America is the Establishment Church” authored by Chuck Baldwin with a lengthy Afterword by yours truly, appears in the August 10 issue, pp. 14 and 15.
Over the years the conservative Lutheran Christian News has regularly reprinted columns by Catholic pundit Joseph Sobran and Catholic Bishop Richard Williamson. Furthermore, his newspaper has published some of the most extensive critical analyses of the Babylonian Talmud (by the late Charles D. Provan, a brilliant and tireless Scripture scholar), and of the claims of homicidal gas chambers in Auschwitz. Pastor Otten has been severely persecuted by elements of the hierarchy of the Lutheran church in America. Yet, his base of support among Lutheran people and other Christians of good will, is intact. His parishioners in Missouri have also maintained their fidelity to him. He operates a large summer Bible camp attended by dozens of youths. All this is testimony to the fact that if we are courageous in a cause for God, we have nothing and no one to fear. That is a lesson many “Christian Conservative leaders” have yet to learn.
2. David Irving’s Speech in London
77-year-old British historian David Irving gave a speech July 24 in London to an audience of 120 at the four-star Rembrandt hotel. His subject was the perfidy of Winston Churchill and a correction of received opinion concerning the standard account of the Nazi bombing of Britain, Rotterdam and Guernica. I have had the privilege of being acquainted with Mr. Irving since 1985 and have heard him speak many times. His London talk last month is among his best. He was more relaxed and his mischievous sense of humor was spontaneous and refreshing in light of what he has endured (more than a year in prison in Austria for a speech much like the one he gave July 24; impoverishment, physical assaults and relentless libel in the media).
The meretricious movie industry is doing a film on his famous legal battle with Judaic academic Deborah Lipstadt. She will be portrayed by the beautiful gentile Hollywood movie star Hilary Swank. To say that Lipstadt looks nothing like Swank is the understatement of the year. (This fits a long-standing Hollywood pattern of having Judaic heroines played by non-Judaic actresses). The part of Mr. Irving will be played by Tom Wilkinson.
In the course of his speech last month Irving commended the RAF crews that flew the bombers over Germany and even advocated honors for the RAF’s Chief Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris. I disagree with Mr. Irving’s admiration for Harris. Nevertheless, he furnished important facts that deflate the historical myth that Churchill was “reluctantly goaded” by Harris into the criminal saturation bombing of German cities. In fact, as Irving shows, this titanic war crime was Churchill’s brainchild. David provided revisionist information on the German bombing of Guernica and Rotterdam and the Allied incineration of Dresden, the German city which was the subject of one of his early bestsellers.
The malicious British press, which makes the Wall Street Journal look like Little Bo Peep’s gazette in comparison, dripping with venom, lied with customary indifference to reality concerning what Irving said. The odious Daily Mail, in a headline in its Sunday edition, stated: “David Irving tells secret rally ‘the RAF are war criminals.” Actually, Irving said precisely the opposite. Moreover, the “rally” was only “secret” (private) out of concern for the need to evade attacks by Communist or Zionist terrorists.
It is gratifying to see Irving is still at it, wittier and feistier than ever, obviously having a ball defying the enemies of truth and still with something important to say. The astoundingly obtuse, Churchill-as-Sage-of Western-Civilization folderol remains a fixture of the American Right in bastions like Hillsdale College. We may disagree with Irving on any number of historical subjects but when it comes to the Churchill legend, he is the most effective demolition expert living. Though they often contest Irving’s opinions, the sight of the continuing insubordinate truculence of elderly fighters for World War II veritas in addition to Irving, such as Professors Arthur Butz and Robert Faurisson, sustains an incandescence in what would otherwise be darkness. Can we do any less?
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