Bill Donohue's Jewish Problem
Promoting Mel Gibson's 'Passion of the Christ,' Catholic League head claims secular Jews run Hollywood and 'Hollywood
likes anal sex'
Oscar nominations will be announced on January 25, and Bill Donohue, passionately seeking multitudes of Oscars for Mel
Gibson's ''The Passion of the Christ,'' can hardly wait. While you'd not likely recognize him on the subway, Donohue,
the president of the New York City-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, will get more ink this holiday season, and more face-time on talking head television, than all the Catholic priests
involved in all the child molestation suits, put together.
Since the beginning of the year, in League-issued press releases and in his television appearances, the Catholic
League's top spokesperson has been all over the map: accusing MoveOn.org of slandering Christians during the election;
claiming that there's an "anti-Christian explosion under way at the Village Voice"; calling the environmental advocacy
group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), "Catholic bashers [who] put their bigotry on public
display"; and recently, maintaining that "Hollywood likes anal sex."
Bill Donohue has a gruff, grating and irritating television persona and he's prone to making outrageous comments, all of
which makes him the perfect guest for cable television's talk fests. Aside from accusing anyone critical of the Catholic
Church of being a Catholic-basher, and grousing about how the ACLU and their Christian-bashing partners won't let
Christmas into the public square, Donohue has his eyes on Hollywood and the myriad awards coming down the pike. (For
more on the anti-Christmas conspiracy, see Frank Rich's December 19, New York Times column entitled "2004: The Year of 'The Passion'.")
A staunch supporter, and defender, of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," Donohue is appalled, but not surprised,
that the film was recently snubbed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the people who determine the winners of
the Golden Globe awards:
"Mel Gibson releases the most significant blockbuster movie of the year, but it's not good enough to make the cut for a
Golden Globe. That's because his film promotes Christianity, and the Hollywood crowd will have none of it. The only
movies they like to make about Christianity these days are ones that demean it.
"But one movie that did make the cut in the foreign-language category was 'The Motorcycle Diaries,' a film that
shamelessly lies about the notorious Cuban communist, Che Guevara. According to the Christian Science Monitor, the movie
'paints Guevara as an amiable guy who doesn't appear to have an aggressive bone in his body.' A.O. Scott of the New York
Times concurs, saying the film views Guevara 'as a quasi-holy figure' who turns away 'from the corruptions of the world
toward a higher purpose.' This may explain why Jack Mathews of the New York Daily News says that director Walter Salles
'comes close at times to posing Guevara as a Christ figure.'
"In other words, because Mel gives us a faithful rendition of Christ's Passion, he is shunned by the Hollywood elite for
doing so. But a movie that whitewashes a ruthless tyrant... making him into a Christ-like figure… gets the nod. The
message that is being sent is unmistakable: there is no room for Jesus in Hollywood's inn, but there is plenty of room
for communist thugs portrayed in a Christ-like manner."
Donohue recently told fellow defender-of-the-faith, Pat Buchanan -- subbing for host Joe Scarborough on MSNBC's
"Scarborough Country" -- that the reason "The Passion" wouldn't get its just due is because Hollywood "is controlled by
secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular."
Here's part of their conversation:
BUCHANAN: ... Bill Donohue, what do you think about "The Passion of the Christ"? And as a practical matter, even if
Hollywood hated the film, it seems to me as an artistic work of art, a smashing triumph, a film of great controversy and
interest, it ought to at least be nominated for best picture. It pulled in more money than any other picture all year.
DONOHUE: I spoke to Mel a couple of weeks ago about this. And I don't think it really matters a whole lot to him. It
certainly doesn't matter to me. We've already won.
Who really cares what Hollywood thinks? All these hacks come out there. Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate
Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It's not a secret, OK? And I'm not afraid to say it. That's why
they hate this movie. It's about Jesus Christ, and it's about truth. It's about the messiah.
Hollywood likes anal sex. They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children.
They like abortions. I believe in traditional values and restraint. They believe in libertinism. We have nothing in
common. But you know what? The culture war has been ongoing for a long time. Their side has lost.
You have got secular Jews. You have got embittered ex-Catholics, including a lot of ex-Catholic priests who hate the
Catholic Church, wacko Protestants in the same group, and these people are in the margins.
In the first quarter of the year, during the run-up to and in the aftermath of the premiere of "The Passion of the
Christ," the Catholic League issued 43 press releases, slightly more than half (22), dealing with Gibson's film. In
addition, a special section of the League's "2003 Report on Anti-Catholicism" was devoted to the film.
A typical press release during the period (February 26) was entitled "Saint Mel." While excoriating the film's critics
for their intolerance, Donohue thanks them for bringing "the pus... to the surface," in the cultural debate. A week
earlier, the highly principled Donohue refused to comment on the outrageous anti-Semitic comments made by Mel Gibson's
father Hutton during a radio interview: "Make no mistake about it, those obsessed with killing this movie will not
manipulate Bill Donohue into berating Hutton Gibson."
The Catholic League, which claims to represent more than 350,000 members, is, according to its website, "the nation's
largest Catholic civil rights organization." Founded in 1973 by the late Father Virgil C. Blum, S.J., the Catholic
League defends the right of Catholics -- lay and clergy alike -- to participate in American public life without
defamation or discrimination.
"Motivated by the letter and the spirit of the First Amendment, the Catholic League works to safeguard both the
religious freedom rights and the free speech rights of Catholics whenever and wherever they are threatened... In
essence, the Catholic League monitors the culture, acting as a watchdog agency and defender of the civil rights of all
Catholics."
The League's Board of Advisors is filled with high-powered longtime conservative leaders and activists including Brent
Bozell III, the head of the Media Research Center, Linda Chavez, President of the Center for Equal Opportunity, Dinesh
D'Souza, the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Alan Keyes, the failed
Illinois Republican Senatorial candidate, Thomas Monaghan, the founder of Dominos Pizza and a big donor to various right
wing causes, Michael Novak, Kate O'Beirne, and George Weigel.
"When even phenomena as innocuous as Oscar nominations or the lighting of a Christmas tree can be inflated into divisive
religious warfare, it's only a matter of time before someone uncovers an anti-Christian plot in 'White Christmas,'" the
New York Times' Frank Rich pointed out in a recent column. After all, "it avoids any mention of religion and it was, as
William Donohue might be the first to point out, written by a secular Jew."
Responding to Rich's column in a press release dated December 17, Donohue claimed that the columnist had a vendetta
against him "for years" because of his "attacks on anti-Catholicism." Donohue added: "Whether it is my objections to a
play that portrays Jesus having sex with the apostles, or my complaints about a dung-stained portrait of Our Blessed
Mother, count on Rich to damn me for protesting the bigotry while he defends the offending work. As for Mel's epic film,
Rich characteristically dubbed it 'a porn movie.'"
And in the oft-heard "some of my best friends" cry of the bigot, Donohue pointed out that "Jews who know me know that I
have long fought anti-Semitism. They also know that I will not be intimidated by Frank Rich."
To hear Bill Donohue tell it, if it was the Grinch who stole Christmas, he must have been a secular Jew; the same
secular Jews who are plotting to rob "Saint Mel" of his awards.
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For more please see the Bill Berkowitz archive.
Bill Berkowitz is a longtime observer of the conservative movement. His WorkingForChange column Conservative Watch
documents the strategies, players, institutions, victories and defeats of the American Right.