Bartholomew's Notes

Roving Russian ambassador and Moscow Patriarch Alexy II has been having a love-in with comb-overed Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko:

“There is no doubt that Belarus is an Orthodox nation. We shall strictly follow the chosen line because the people want it,” Lukashenko told Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II in Minsk on Friday…”A great merit of the Church is that there is no inter-faith enmity in Belarus,” he said.

It’s a laugh to see Lukashenko talk about what the people supposedly want. Interfax has further details of Alexy’s meeting:

“I hope for the unity between Russian and Byelorussian people. We need to keep the unity of the holy Orthodoxy,” the primate of the Russian Church told journalists in Minsk.

“Unity will allow us to find common features and solve problems and difficulties the world has faced in time of the economic crisis.”

Also:

“Spiritual unity remains a cornerstone of mutual understanding [between the peoples of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine]. I believe it will not exhaust, and no circumstances can undermine this spiritual bond,”

This need for unity is in order to oppose both “the secular world and unorthodoxy”. Apparently the visit included “a round-table conference on Christianity in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus”.

The background, of course, is that with democracy and nationalism in Ukraine there is now a strong Orthodox church there which does not want to be linked to Moscow; a pro-Russian strongman in Minsk means that a similar situation will not occur in Belarus.  In 2002, Alexy awarded Lukashenko the Order of St. Sergius of Radonezh “for strengthening unity of Slav peoples”; the year before that, it was a prize from the “International Foundation for Unity of the Orthodox Peoples”.

Alexey also praised the development of Minsk:

He said that the Belarusian capital city had changed much since his last visit six years ago. “It has changed much, decorated with new significant buildings and the magnificent National Library.” “Its numerous visitors are a sign that people still love books and are not vanishing in the virtual world,” he said.

A recent report in the Irish Times takes a more jaundiced view of this:

Extraordinary buildings keep appearing around Minsk – such as a new national library that looks like it has just landed from Mars – despite the country’s deepening debt to Moscow and fears for the future of the cheap Russian oil and gas that have fuelled Belarus’ steady economic growth.

These landmarks are monuments to Mr Lukashenko’s power, self-aggrandising gifts from “Batka” [“Father”] to a nation that is allowed no say in how he spends their money, or on whether someone else would do it better.

(Above: banned cartoon of Lukashenko)

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Francis Rice, chairman of the National Black Republican Association, decides it’s a good idea to make people afraid of Obama on ethnic grounds:

Where did the claim that Sen. Barack Obama is an Arab originate?  It came from Obama himself.  That’s right.  Obama made this startling confession in his book “Dream From My Father” that can be viewed on the Internet

A “startling confession” of being an Arab? Here’s the quote – prepare to be underwhelmed:

“What did Marcus call you just now? Some African name, wasn’t it?”
“Barack.”
“I thought your name was Barry.”
“Barack’s my given name. My father’s name. He was Kenyan.”
“Does it mean something?”
“It means ‘Blessed.’ In Arabic. My grandfather was a Muslim.”
Regina repeated the name to herself, testing out the sound. “Barack. It’s beautiful.” She leaned forward across the table. “So why does everybody call you Barry?”
“Habit, I guess. My father used it when he arrived in the States. I don’t know whether that was his idea or somebody else’s. He probably used Barry because it was easier to pronounce.”

Rice pounces on this:

Although Obama confesses in his book that his name, Barack, is Arabic, on the campaign trial, he is telling the American people that his name comes from the African language known as Swahili.

Why is Obama being so dishonest?  Why is he trying to hide his Muslim roots from the American people?

She then goes on to quote apocalyptic Christian fundamentalist Walid Shoebat as further evidence that Obama is “really” a Muslim.

OK, so to risk stating the obvious: (1) in the quote from the book provided by Rice Obama does not in fact claim to be an Arab (let alone “confess” to such a “startling” thing); (2) an Arabic name does not denote Arab ethnicity; (3) the word “Barack” is derived from Arabic via Swahili; (4) the fact that Obama has a partly Muslim family background has not been “hidden” by anyone; (4) the fact that Obama says “My grandfather was a Muslim” implies strongly that he does not identify himself as such.

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The latest pensées of James Hutchens, of the Jerusalem Connection:

Senator Barack Obama has declared that, if elected, he would be willing to sit down and talk to Iran “without preconditions.” What a contrast between Obama and Iran!  Not only is Obama politically naive but he is a walking security time-bomb looking for a place to explode.

I brought this to the attention of Richard Silverstein, who asks:

But how is it possible that this group retains its 501c3?  Just because they don’t explicitly say “Vote McCain” they’re slid in under the tag and are home free?  If so, isn’t there something wrong with IRS regulations?  The truth is that this is flagrant political partisanship, something prohibited under non-profit guidelines.  Will the IRS make such an organization pay the price?  Don’t hold your breath.

I noted a previous example of this kind of thing from Hutchens’ website here.

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A few days ago I blogged once again on Alan Harvey and the London Swinton Circle. Harvey has apparently been suspended as chairman and member of group due to what he claims are the machinations of extremists. Harvey writes:

As you are probably aware, a quite scurrilous attack has been made against me in the so-called London Swinton Circle Members Circular No.69, which contained many factual errors…The question before you therefore is whether you wish the LSC to become a mere appendage of the BNP – or whether like me you wish it to remain loyal to true Conservative and Unionist principles. I trust that I can rely upon your support.

Harvey is not going quietly, and it looks as though he maintains control of the Swinton Circle website. He’s also claiming that certain events taking place at the Springbok Club, which he also runs, are in fact “joint” events with the “official wing” of the Swinton Circle. There was one just the other night:

The Springbok Club/ELC staged a special joint meeting with the official wing of the London Swinton Circle in October 2008, at which the guest speaker was Mr. Bob Vinnicombe. Mr. Vinnicombe is a leading NSW official of the Australian One Nation party, and stood as an independent candidate for the Bankstown Municipal Council earlier during the year, receiving a very creditable vote. In his extremely well-received speech Mr. Vinnicombe detailed much about the current Australian political and sociological situation, emphasising specifically the great problems caused by ethnic minorities (particularly Muslim Lebanese)  being allowed to enter Australia. He also laid great stress on the importance of Australia remaining a monarchy, and that links between kith and kin from the core Commonwealth should be strengthened.

Vinnicombe is an odd choice of speaker from someone who wants to contrast “true Conservative and Unionist principles” with the far right, but hardly surprising if you investigate what the Springbok Club really stands for, which is a return for white rule over Africa (see Johann Hari’s article here). The One Nation Party is notorious for its anti-immigrant views, and Vinnicombe has complained in particular about Africans in Australia:

“They are too different to us. The culture they come from is too different to ours. We don’t know their background. They could have diseases. They could have T.B., they could have AIDS. They could have criminal records. They come from war-torn countries,” Vinnicombe said. 

Asked where people like these should go, Vinnicombe says countries where the people are similar to them – other black African countries, for instance.

On the other hand, though, while Harvey is in ardent supporter of the invasion of Iraq and deposing of Saddam Hussein, Vinnicombe is more of a paleo-con:

The truth is we should have left the Sadaam Hussein regime in power. The Sadaam Hessein was a bulwark against islamic fundamentalism. When Hussein was in power, all the fundamentalists were either dead or in jail, he wouldn’t tolerate them. There were no car bombs going off in Baghdad when he was in power. I understand workers weren’t even allowed to take time off during the day for muslim prayers. The Christians in Iraq had freedom to practice their religion.

Previous speakers at the Springbok Club have included “Master of the Black Arts” John Pope-de Locksley, and right-wing sociologist David Marsland. Some other speakers, for whatever reason, are not identified by name on the Springbok website.

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22 November will see the London “Global Peace Festival“, one of several events that have been held around the world over the past few months. The Festival’s slogan is “One Family Under God”, and it is being organised by the Universal Peace Federation. The UPF, as I’ve noted in the past (and chronicle on my spin-off blog, Ambassadors for Moon), is an initiative of Rev Sun Myung Moon, who considers himself to be the “True Father” of this “One Family”. The UPF has succeeded in tapping into the enthusiasm of groups and persons from a range of religious backgrounds, and it has also sought to gain political credibility by endowing “Ambassador for Peace” awards to various high-profile figures.

The UK Global Peace Festival has an official blog, which explains why one of its representatives was at Downing Street:

They say that “opportunity knocks” and hence it came to be that we were knocking on the door of the Primeminister, Gordon Brown, one very wet and unexpected London evening. GPF Social Impact Project partner, Rev. Canon George Ausah, was invited to attend the Peace Week event at the Primeminister’s residence that same very morning and kindly agreed to meeting up with me there.

Networking events like this are vital to the ongoing process that is Global Peace Festival and it is encouraging to know that individuals, peace activists and NGOs are being invited and recognised at the highest level.

Once again the value of working in partnership is clear!

“George Ausah” is actually Canon George Ansah, a Church of England clergyman based in South London. Apparently he is an “Ambassador for Peace”, which means that he has been given a certificate signed by Rev Moon – a man who believes that Jesus failed and that churches should remove crosses.

Here’s a video from the recent Washington D.C. Festival, including a speech by Rev. Moon’s son:

And just for fun, here’s Rev. Moon’s famous 1997 Washington Times address:

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Dark Christianity draws attention to a curious email, supposedly from Jim Bramlett:

Dear friends:THIS IS EXTREMELY SERIOUS.

Minutes ago I spoke with friend Dr. Norman G. Marvin, M.D. and he is so concerned at what he has learned about Barack Obama’s family in Kenya that he is calling a special prayer meeting in his home to pray against the witchcraft curses attempted by them against John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Dr. Marvin sent me the below e-mail from Flo Ellers. Flo is credentialed with the International Fellowship of Ministries which is based in Washington State. She is also a member of EndTime Handmaidens and Servants of Jasper, Arkansas.

IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DO SPIRITUAL WARFARE, PLEASE PRAY TODAY AND CONTINUALLY THAT ALL SUCH CURSES BE BROKEN AND SATAN’S PLAN FOR AMERICA BE DEFEATED, IN JESUS’ NAME. PRAY AND COVER MCCAIN AND PALIN WITH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW HOW TO DO SPIRITUAL WARFARE, IT IS TIME YOU LEARN!!!”

and:

“Bree Keyton went and visited Obama’s tribal people and she found out Obama is 75% Arab and his family are Muslims. Odinga is strill trying to become the President of Kenya. If he does, he will make a law forbidding all public preaching and institute Sharia Law. Bree K. said Odinga has made a pact with satan.

Bree K. also said when Obama visited his tribe in ’06 and as late as Jan. ’08 he went to every elder’s home which has a “shrine” inside to worship the genie and asked for their blessing. She was told Obama and Odinga were both “destined” before they were born to be president/leader of their nation. They say “he is the chosen one”. She said Obama’s grandmother sacrificed a black and a white chicken to the “goddess of the river” so both whites and blacks will vote for Obama. All Islam loves and worships Obama. The world is mesmerized by him. Oprah’s 200 million followers are out to elect Obama. Also, Dick Morris of Fox News was sent to Kenya to help Odinga run his campaign! I find that unbelievable.

The occultists are “weaving lazy 8’s around McCain’s mind to make him look confused and like an idiot”. Bree K. said we need to break these curses off of him that are being sent from Kenya.”

So who are these characters? Bramlett is an associate of Pat Robertson and the late Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ; he has been preaching that “we are in the the last days” for nearly forty years now. Norman G. Marvin is an exponent of “glyconutrients” (Corpus Callosum casts a sceptical eye over these here). I’ve blogged on the “EndTime Handmaidens and Servants” previously; the organisation has links with “Mama and Papa Olangi”, two Congolese evangelists whose church has been linked to the exorcism of “child witches”, and with C. Peter Wagner’s “Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders” (the Council is discussed in an interesting article a few days ago at Talk to Action). Ellers has her own website here; she is of Native American background (Tlingit from Alaska), and in 2005 she was among a group of Pentecostal Native Americans who presented a “Proclamation of Forgiveness” to a White House official. She explains:

Dr. Ellers was asked to be the Native American representative during the “2nd Washington for Jesus” rally in 1996, where 500,000 Christians gathered at the Washington Mall in WA. D. C., to pray for this nation. She was given, along with the other speakers, 10 minutes to address the nation. As she prayed, the Holy Spirit inspired her with what later became known as the “Proclamation of Forgiveness”…Recently, Flo sensed the prompting of the Lord to present this document to President Bush so she worked with State Senator Greenleaf of Pennsylvania and he helped facilitate a presidential appointment with Mr. Rubin Barrales to present the “gift of forgiveness” to the Nation’s Chief. She, along with her team believe once the President of the United States accepts the forgiveness, heaven will record this prophetic act and as a result revival will break forth in America.

She has also been endorsed by Morris Cerullo. Bree, meanwhile, has had a career which includes appearing

on the television program “The 700 Club,” at the National Right to Life Convention, TBN, the International Counter-Cult Conference, the National Full Gospel Businessmen’s Convention, and the international TV show “It’s Supernatural” with Sid Roth.

Looks like another job for Bishop Thomas Muthee…

(Hat tip: Bulldada Newsblog)

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A press release announces The Judeo-Christian View:

Over 325,000 rabbis, priests and pastors in every Jewish and Christian congregation in America just received the award-winning documentary Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West on DVD, according to the publisher of a new periodical for clerical leaders, The Judeo-Christian View, which included the film inside the first issue…Dr. O’Neal Dozier, General Publisher, said the next issue will be The Judeo-Christian View on “The Free Exercise of Islamic Violence.”

As expected from Dozier, the “periodical” is not exactly the most nuanced publication out there:

“Same-Sex Unions and Child Sacrifice” are, of course, the two vices of Barack Obama; “Child Sacrifice” is abortion (the publication puts a picture of Anne Frank next to a fetus), while gay rights, rather than being a mark of western freedom, undermine the fight against Islam:

Our nation faces a fork, a divergence between the high road and the low road — and you and your congregation could very well determine the direction we take. The high road upholds America’s peaceful tradition of Judeo-Christian tolerance and morality. The low road marches us toward militant secular-paganism, militant Islam, or both…the Free Exercise Clause means anything, religious leaders indeed must freely exercise those rights to inform their congregations where both the Bible, Judeo-Christian tradition and the politicians stand on matters of ethics, morality and public policy. If we do not, the “Mullahs of Secularism” – or perhaps the mullahs of militant Islam — may one day forbid Torah references to the Children of Israel as G_d’s Chosen, Gospel preaching of the Messianic hope, or Judeo-Christian teaching on tolerance and morality…The USA, Israel and other western societies simply cannot afford to promote sexual immorality, venereal disease, infanticide and population decline.

According to the press release, there is also a petition:

“Full embrace of homosexual unions by our nation and the next administration would tell violent Islamists that the infidel USA has expressly rejected once-shared Abrahamic, Mosaic and Christian teaching regarding ‘sodomy’. So too would flagrant ‘gay integration’ of our overseas military forces [a policy Obama supports]. We advocate “love the sinner, hate the sin”; militant Islamists would murder our fellow Americans for sexual error, as well as us for offering them hope and forgiveness!”

This is of course humbug: we know that Dozier doesn’t really care less if “violent Islamists” think less of the west due to liberal sexual mores.

And actually the “Judeo” part of his View is bogus, too. Here’s Dozier last year, explaining why a mosque should not be built in Florida:

…”I said that Jesus Christ is the only Way,” says the pastor. “I quoted the verse there [John 14:6] … Therefore one cannot be saved outside of Jesus Christ. I said that Islam cannot get one to heaven.”

Surely, then, this must also apply to Judaism?

However, despite the crudity, obvious opportunism, and muddled thinking, Dozier can boast a number of signatories to his anti-sodomy petition:

Clerical signers include: Rabbi Herzel Kranz from The Jewish Center of Silver Spring, Maryland; Rev. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, Jr.; Father Frank Pavone, Roman Catholic head of Priests for Life; Rev. Rosemary Schindler, San Francisco Board of the Anti-Defamation League and member of the Oscar Schindler family (of Schindler’s List); Dr. James M. Hutchens, Brigadier General and Deputy Chief of US Army Chaplains (Ret.); Rev. Ben Kinchlow, former co-host of The 700 Club; Dr. Bruce Fong, president, Michigan Theological Seminary; Dr. Kenneth L. Hutcherson, Antioch Bible Church, Kirkland, Washington; Dr. Erwin Lutzer, senior pastor of Moody Memorial Church, Chicago; and Rabbi Yehuda Levin of the Rabbinical Alliance of America of Torah Loyal Jews and The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada.

I’ve come across a few of these names previously: James Hutchens runs the Christian Zionist outfit “Jerusalem Connection“; Kenneth Hutcherson has links with anti-gay Christian militants in Latvia, and he addressed a church there under the guise of the US’s “Special Envoy for Adoptions, Family Values, Religious Freedom, and Medical Relief”; and Yehuda Levin has complained bitterly about gay pride events in Jerusalem (“Israel will be the Holy Land or the homo-land”), and about the Washington Holocaust Museum’s inclusion of a display about gay victims of the Nazis.

Dozier himself was kicked off Charlie Crist’s Florida campaign committee in 2006 when his enthusiasm for anti-Muslim comic strips came to light; this was despite Dozier having a received a message from God approving Crist’s candidacy for governor.

Meanwhile, we might ask where Dozier got the funds for his mass mailout, as well as 325,000 copies of Obsession.

(Hat tip: Richard Silverstein)

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Two Daily Mail articles appear to have gone missing, concerning links between two British politicians and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. I suspect strongly that the reason is nothing to do with the main story about the politicians (which is being widely reported), but rather because of some of the background material about Deripaska and his former associate/present opponent Mikhail Cherney.

The first article, with a headline best not repeated, has disappeared altogether, while links to the second – “Mandelson heads to Moscow to meet Russia’s business leaders” –  now re-direct to a similar article entitled “Top Tory Osborne admits he met Mandy’s Russian tycoon five times – but denies he asked for a dodgy donation”. I’ve seen bits of the first article reposted elsewhere, and it repeats serious – albeit old – claims about the period during which Cherney (or “Mikhail Chernoi”) and Deripaska worked together.

As is widely known, Cherney and Deripaska have been locked in a bitter feud for some time, with the Israel-based Cherney pursuing Deripaska through the London High Court. However, back in the 1990s the two men were allies, and they became preposterously rich in the “Aluminium Wars”. This was during a period in which ruthless gangsters were making fortunes, and by bad luck the two honest businessmen came into contact with some rather dubious characters. Also unfortunately, a journalist who had written pieces critical of Cherney and his brother was killed by persons unknown in 1997. Inevitably, this kind of thing has led to questions; Cherney now has some visa problems with the USA, and he has been the subject of many investigations, all of which have floundered (in one case, Israeli police investigator Moshe Mizrahi was forced to resign amid claims of a “witch-hunt” of wealthy Russian-Israelis). Cherney is a generous philanthropist, and among other causes he sponsors an organisation called the “Jerusalem Summit”. This outfir brings together brings neo-conservatives like Daniel Pipes and Baroness Cox with Christian Zionists such as Mike Evans and members of the Israeli right like Benyamin Netanyahu, and this is why he caught my attention. I have a fuller profile here.

It looks to me very likely that one or other of the two men made a complaint to the Mail, and it’s probably over old stuff which has long been in the public domain and reported in other newspapers. However, given that the Mail had a £4 million libel bill back in March, one can appreciate the paper’s caution.

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A bit of politics for a change: Hugh Muir of the Guardian has a third diary piece concerning members of the Swinton Circle (see my previous entries here and here for background):

… They have looked at their group as led by Alan Harvey, a former National Front activist and founder of the Springbok Club. Many just don’t like it. “Alan Harvey was removed as chairman by the committee in August as he brought a personal feud into a Circle meeting on 22/7 and his conduct was deemed unbecoming of that of a chairman,” says the latest newsletter. “He has subsequently been suspended as a member as he attempted to sabotage the meeting held on 3rd September as he contacted the speaker to say that it had been cancelled which was manifestly untrue. He has also sabotaged the Circle’s website. Fortunately his attempts to stop the meeting going ahead were unsuccessful. AGM should have a discussion on all these events and decide on further action.”

This announcement has been reposted on a discussion board run by a group of Harvey’s political opponents (my previous postings on the subject have also reappeared there, although with certain bits of information curiously removed – in particular my reference to the location of a Right Now! conference as being at the Mark Mason HQ in Piccadilly).

Harvey himself has a rather different take, and he claims that he was trying to keep extremists out. His lengthy account appeared in the comments section of my blog and elsewhere. Here’s an abridgement:

As you are probably aware, a quite scurrilous attack has been made against me in the so-called London Swinton Circle Members Circular No.69, which contained many factual errors. I believe therefore that I have the full right to defend myself in this matter.

I have been a member of the Committee of the London Swinton Circle for the past four years, being elected Chairman following the resignation of Sean Pearson in January 2007. During that time I have steadfastly endeavoured to uphold the Constitution of the LSC and to advance its cause. I have, however, become increasingly concerned by the fact that no proper AGM has been held for the past couple of years, and neither were Committee members being replaced when they died or resigned. If I have made an error as Chairman then it is that I never voiced my concerns in this regard strongly enough. For the past couple of years, therefore, the LSC has been run basically by the only two remaining active members of the Committee, Mr. Allan Robertson, the Organiser, and myself. This arrangement seemed to be working very efficiently however, and as no-one raised any objections there seemed no reason change the situation…All this was to change alas at the last LSC meeting of 22nd July 2008, which was addressed by Cdr. John Muxworthy RN of the UK National Defence Association. Incredibly all three of the undesirable individuals who we thought we had got rid of turned up – completely uninvited and unwelcome…The question before you therefore is whether you wish the LSC to become a mere appendage of the BNP – or whether like me you wish it to remain loyal to true Conservative and Unionist principles. I trust that I can rely upon your support.

Yours sincerely,

( Alan Harvey – Chairman, the London Swinton Circle )

The Swinton Circle website, which, as inferred by Muir’s piece, remains under Harvey’s control, carries a notice that

…The planned Emergency General Meeting of the London Swinton Circle, at which the crisis resulting from events of July 22nd will be discussed and appropriate decisions taken, is now planned for December 2008. After this EGM it is anticipated that normal regular activities of the organisation will be able to be resumed.

Just last night the Springbok Club (which is profiled by Johann Hari here) held a “joint meeting with the London Swinton Circle, at which the guest speaking will be a visiting long-standing overseas supporter” (for some strange reason,  a number of Springbok speakers are not identified by name on the website). Untangling the Swinton Circle from the Springbok Club will prove difficult without Harvey’s cooperation – indeed, the Swinton Circle website url contains the phrase “~springbok”.

According to a posting on a second discussion board, a Swinton Circle meeting was planned for September with a certain Christopher Luke replacing Harvey as chair. He writes that “I can assure Ken and others that the Committee of the London Swinton Circle have taken action against Mr Harvey to hopefully prevent him misbehaving again.” Luke, by the way, is an exponent of British-Israelism (here: “the Union Flag is no ordinary flag: it has a profound Biblical significance and is the banner of God’s Covenant People: Israel Britain”) and, although based in the south of England, he identifies strongly with Northern Ireland Unionism (although he was recently expelled from his Orange Lodge, an incident which moved him to poetry).

Meanwhile, there is no news on Michael Keith-Smith’s threatened libel suit against Alan Harvey, details of which remain obscure.

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Jewcy has an article by Karl Pfeifer which draws attention to a development in Hungary that doesn’t appear to have made the English-language press:

The right wing daily “Magyar Hirlap” reported on 10.10.2008 on the unveiling of a statue of catholic bishop Ottokár Prohászka (1858-1927): one of the leading ideologues of the “Christian course”  in the years  after the 1st World War. Prohászka  advocated antisemitic discrimination, the so called numerus clausus restricting the number of Jews admitted to institutes of tertiary education to 6 percent of all matriculants.

The current vice president, Sándor Lezsák, apparently took the opportunity of the unveiling to complain that discussion of Prohászka had been suppressed due to “spiritual terror”, and that he had simply “raised his voice to drive back the cosmopolitan-parasite class”. The Archbishop of Kalocsa- Kecskemét, Balázs Bábel, shares Lezsák’s enthusiasm:

According to the catholic daily “Magyar Kurir” the catholic archbishop Balázs Bábel said in his speech when unveiling the statue of Prohászka, that he was educated in the doctrine of Ottokár Prohászka, and that as seminarist, he was “witness to the shameful event when in 1945 at the instigation of Mihály Károlyi (democratic Hungarian politician) the poet György Faludy and his communist comrades destroyed the statue in the Karolyi park”….

According to the catholic daily a journalist asked the bishop whether he found it acceptable that in the Budapest Holocaust museum the picture of Prohászka is located near the picture of Hitler accompanied by the text: “one of the leading persons of the antisemitic ideology”.

Archbishop Bábel answered that he “will not visit the Holocaust museum until they change the text and the setting”.

Pfeifer points out that Bábel was born in 1950, and that Faludy only became communist at a later date. And that the original statue was removed in 1946, not 1945.

Bábel’s regard for Prohászka has been known for a while; it is addressed in a 2006 interview in English here:

Recently, three intellectuals – Peter Buda, Csaba Fazekas and Gyorgy Gabor, accused you in the literary weekly Elet es Irodalom of opposing freedom, because you praised Bihsop Ottokar Prohaszka at a commemoration, who at the beginning of the 20th century talked of the Jews as “a rats’ army,” and an “immoral, infiltrating minority.”

The writers know neither me nor Ottokar Prohaszka, and I did not say any of the things they accuse me off. Furthermore, I emphasised that Prohaszka opposed the representatives of the feudal Church of the time. Further, the antisemitism of the early 20th century is not comparable to that of the 1940s. Criticising the Slovaks, the Vlahs, the Jews and the Hungarians was part of the public discourse of the times. I know Prohaszka well from his books, and he would have opposed the inhumanity committed against the Jews during World War II. So it is ahistorical and false for the Holocaust Museum to present Prohaszka as an ideologist of fascism.

Moshe Y. Herczl’s Christianity and the Holocaust of Hungarian Jewry (p. 235) gives us a representative diatribe from Prohászka’s works:

Jewish morality is anathema to Christian civilization, and this curse will completely obliterate Christian civilization if the latter does not succeed in removing the poison…there is no such thing as Jewish morality, and consequently Jews have no knowledge whatevet of the concept of “moral values.” Thus, the main qualities of the Jew are unlimited egoism, crushing his fellow man – pressuring him mercilessly and drinking his blood. A Jew is unable to distinguish between good and evil…The Christian nations must not give the Jews equal rights; they must defend themselves from them and must constantly get rid of them, at every opportunity and in any way they are able.

Gosh, how could anyone confuse this kind of “criticism” with something from the 1940s?

Having said all that, though, there is – as with Martin Luther – probably rather more to Prohaszka’s long-term popularity than simply his anti-semitism; a Hungarian museums website describes him as the “apostle of Hungary”, who “made his diocese well known in Hungary as the location of the bishop’s new social and spiritual movements”, and as “the man who dedicated his life to serve people by doing a variation of social work, serve church and do scientific work.” The scholar Leslie László apparently assesses him as a paternalist motivated by “passionate love for his own Christian Hungarian people”. Of course, the fact that he was anti-Communist has probably helped his reputation in recent years as well. The circumstances around the unveiling of the new statue, though, do not look encouraging.

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