Calls for Chicago Priest’s Removal After Church Hosts Speech by Louis Farrakhan Critical of the Talmud
— Rabbi Abraham Cooper
Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago has condemned liberal Catholic priest Fr. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina church for hosting a speech on May 9 by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. The Cardinal says he is “shocked” by Farrakhan’s criticism of the Babylonian Talmud. Cupich is horrified that Farrakhan dared to: “suggest... that ‘Talmudic thought’ sanctioned pedophilia and misogyny.”
All of the statements concerning the Talmud of Babylon which Minister Farrakhan made were accurate. Truth is not an issue in the controversy.
Before being elevated to his post in Chicago by Pope Francis, Cupich was Bishop of Spokane, Washington. There Cupich allegedly assisted members of the Jesuit order in hiding priests credibly accused of child molestation — with what is said to be the connivance of then-Bishop Cupich they were placed in secret at Cardinal Bea House, a Jesuit residential facility located on the campus of Gonzaga University and near St. Aloysius elementary school [see here and here].
Farrakhan spoke at the Chicago church as part of a community protest against his having been banned by Facebook and Instagram. In his address at St. Sabina, Minister Farrakhan valiantly defended Jesus and the Blessed Mother Mary from the Talmudic hate speech which is the basis of the halacha or law of Orthodox Judaism. No other national Islamic or Christian leader has been willing to sound the alarm and educate the public concerning this institutionalized, scurrilous vilification of the Messiah of Israel and His Mother. Farrakhan also made reference to the Talmud’s ghastly doctrine concerning sex with children.
According to Chicago’s ABC News outlet (abc7chicago.com), “Pfleger invited Farrakhan to speak at St. Sabina a week after he was permanently banned from Facebook and Instagram for what the platform deemed hateful and even dangerous. Farrakhan spoke for about an hour to a standing room-only audience. Many in the church streamed his remarks live on Facebook.”
Cupich said in a statement, "Without consulting me, Fr. Michael Pfleger invited Minister Louis Farrakhan to speak at St. Sabina Church in response to Facebook's decision to ban him from its platforms.”
CNN reports, “Farrakhan made several anti-Semitic statements during his speech, accusing Judaism of promoting pedophilia and saying that Jews do not like him because he ‘exposes their hatred of Jesus.’ He also said that he had a divine mission to ‘separate the good Jews from the Satanic Jews.”
How is truth a "statement of anti-Semitism”? If the Talmud does indeed grant permission, under certain circumstances, for the sexual molestation of young persons, how does the articulation of that fact constitute an offense against Semitic people? Is this not a salutary warning to them to defend their children against this dogma?
When investigators speak of the molestation of children by Rome’s Catholic clerics, are they making an “anti-Italian statement”? How would Italians or Judaic people —or anyone else for that matter — be harmed by a truth which helps to shed light on the exploitation of children?
"Such statements shock the conscience," Cupich replied. “I apologize to my Jewish brothers and sisters, whose friendship I treasure, from whom I learn so much, and whose covenant with God remains eternal," the cardinal continued.
He’s apologizing because a prominent black leader told the truth in a Catholic Church. This is apparently a grievous offense necessitating groveling of the most obsequious ignobility.
Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Orders Fr. Pfleger’s Removal
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has called on the Archdiocese of Chicago to remove Fr. Pfleger: "How is it that (Farrakhan) was invited to use a prominent Catholic church to denounce 'Satanic Jews' from the pulpit," asked Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center's director of social action. "It is now up to the leaders of the Catholic church to remove their prominent priest from his hallowed post," Cooper continued.
Apparently there is either no such thing as a Judaic person who is Satanic, or, it is grounds for another ban, this time on Fr. Pfleger, for his guest speaker having called certain Satanists to account. Here we observe an expectation of special immunity, a derivative of Talmudic exceptionalism. When it is not conceded by Farrakhan and Pfleger, then enforcement is demanded.
We live in an era when, to defend the indefensible Talmud from exposure, activists, scholars and religious leaders must be forbidden to speak on social media, officiate at churches or publish on Amazon. The watchword of the “tolerant” is “ban, ban, ban,” because that’s all they’ve got. The facts are on Farrakhan’s side, so instead of debate they suppress. How is human knowledge advanced by such a reactionary process? What we are witnessing is a new inquisition.
It’s an irony missed that a meeting called to protest the censorship and removal of Minister Louis Farrakhan from Facebook may result in the censorship and removal of Father Michael Pfleger from his parish church. There’s no end in sight to the megalomania of the censors who, from their lofty perch of self-righteous rectitude, presume to obstruct knowledge and freedom of speech in the name of “fighting hate.”
The Anti-Defamation League has called Farrakhan, who has led the Nation of Islam since 1977, "quite possibly America's most popular anti-Semite." For the ADL one of his most extreme thought crimes is that "Farrakhan has alleged that the Jewish people were responsible for the slave trade."
CNN and the rest of the corporate media neglect to report that the Nation of Islam’s erudite history, The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, a three volume revisionist trilogy on the black slave trade and the Leo Frank case, was banned in February by Amazon, during Black History Month.
According to CNN, “Pfleger, who has long worked with African-American leaders in Chicago, said Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam are respected locally for their anti-violence and anti-drug campaigns. ‘Nobody has done more in the saving of young black men's lives and turning around lives than the Nation of Islam. His respect in the African-American community has been consistent."
“This is a free-speech issue," Fr. Pfleger told CNN. "I don't agree with everything Minister Farrakhan has said. I don't agree with anyone on everything, but we are in a dangerous time when we can no longer have dialogue without demonizing one another."
Before the address, Pfleger said Farrakhan "has been a bold voice against injustice done against black people in this country and his voice deserves and needs to be heard."
Fr. Pfleger reports that e-mail and phone calls have poured in denouncing him for hosting Farrakhan and threatening to withdraw donations to the church and its programs. "If you would have heard and seen the stuff sent and spoken to me over this last week," he said. "I was shocked — and I have gotten a lot of hate in my life. People have told me that they will destroy me."
It is worth noting that reports of Farrakhan’s speech at St. Sabina by CNN, the ADL, the Wiesenthal Center, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, all avoid using the word “Talmud” to describe Minister Farrakhan’s criticisms. For the word Talmud they substitute the phrase, “Jewish writings.” It appears that they have a sense that the Talmud has an unsavory reputation in the minds of many Americans, and for that reason they avoid mentioning it in connection with Farrakhan’s fact-finding.
“It is dangerous to me when we begin to stop free speech and seek to silence prophetic voices. There are many who say they do not like Minister Farrakhan because all they have heard is various sound bites. Perhaps that is why Facebook wanted to ban him — to keep people from hearing his whole talk, his entire message and the truth that he seeks to teach us.” - Fr. Michael Pfleger
Cardinal Cupich’s Statement
Without consulting me, Fr. Michael Pfleger invited Minister Louis Farrakhan to speak at St. Sabina Church in response to Facebook's decision to ban him from its platforms. Minister Farrakhan could have taken the opportunity to deliver a unifying message of God's love for all his children. Instead, he repeatedly smeared the Jewish people, using a combination of thinly veiled discriminatory rhetoric and outright slander. He suggested that "Talmudic thought" sanctioned pedophilia and misogyny. He referred to Jewish people as "satanic," asserting that he was sent by God to separate the "good Jews" from the "satanic Jews."
Such statements shock the conscience. People of faith are called to live as signs of God's love for the whole human family, not to demonize any of its members. This is all the more true of religious leaders, who have a sacred duty never to leverage the legitimacy of their ministry to heap blame upon a group of persons, and never to deploy inflammatory rhetoric, long proven to incite violence. Antisemitic rhetoric - discriminatory invective of any kind - has no place in American public life, let alone in a Catholic church. I apologize to my Jewish brothers and sisters, whose friendship I treasure, from whom I learn so much, and whose covenant with God remains eternal.
I encourage Fr. Pfleger to accept the invitation of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center to meet with their leadership and dialogue with survivors. And I pledge to continue our work with our city's religious leaders and all people of good will to promote tolerance, respect, and nonviolence. As the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Hate is too great a burden to bear." (end quote from Chicago Cardinal Cupich)
Michael Hoffman is the author of Judaism’s Strange Gods: Revised and Expanded, and eight other books of history and literature.
For further research:
Rally for Farrakhan to protest Facebook Censorship at St. Sabina Church, May 9, 2019
(Complete at 1 hour 44 min.)
(Complete at 1 hour 44 min.)
Excerpts from Minister Farrakhan’s Remarks on the Talmud
Another clip is here:
Another clip is here:
Video clip: See why Zuckerberg banned Louis Farrakhan from Facebook. Minister Farrakhan says what your pope, priests, preachers and TV evangelists have never dared to say in defense of the Holy Name of Jesus, contra the hatred for Him in the Talmud—hatred approved by the System. pic.twitter.com/4AEP3vfd3G
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment