The Quiet Conservative February 1, 2008
Hatred, Prejudice, and Cowardice
The school children attending Mass from Saint Joseph’s Catholic Elementary School in Olpe, KS.
this morning found out first hand the hatred that still exists for Catholics in America. In the church
missals were small cheap black and white comic books from Chick Publications. Someone had
snuck into the unlocked church and placed them throughout the stack of books. One that was turned
in was labeled “The Death Cookie.”
Teachers were noting the children found these comic books and some were reading them. They
collected them and we obtained one. It was amazing to read this vile little propaganda booklet. We
was aware that there existed a viral hatred of Catholicism, people had even heard of the fringe hate
monger Jack Chick. But in our country currently such fundamental prejudice is usually not so out in
the open. It is more subtle. There was nothing subtle about “The Death Cookie.“ The booklet was
black and purple on the outside with a round “cookie’ with a skull and crossbones on it.
Hatred, Prejudice, and Cowardice
The school children attending Mass from Saint Joseph’s Catholic Elementary School in Olpe, KS.
this morning found out first hand the hatred that still exists for Catholics in America. In the church
missals were small cheap black and white comic books from Chick Publications. Someone had
snuck into the unlocked church and placed them throughout the stack of books. One that was turned
in was labeled “The Death Cookie.”
Teachers were noting the children found these comic books and some were reading them. They
collected them and we obtained one. It was amazing to read this vile little propaganda booklet. We
was aware that there existed a viral hatred of Catholicism, people had even heard of the fringe hate
monger Jack Chick. But in our country currently such fundamental prejudice is usually not so out in
the open. It is more subtle. There was nothing subtle about “The Death Cookie.“ The booklet was
black and purple on the outside with a round “cookie’ with a skull and crossbones on it.
The inside, well, the inside was pure Nazi Germany of the 1930’s. The booklet starts with the devil
and the pope in hell devising ways to bring people to damnation. The faces are drawn with long
noses and balding unshaven faces. Replace “Pope” with “Rabbi” and the publication would look the
same as something from the Third Reich. The principles are the same. The purpose is the same. It
wouldn't’t be surprising if the inspiration for these books were written in German and emanated from
the SS camps. The text is the most vile, disrespectful, deceitful, and venomous attack on the
Catholic Church and the principles of Christianity imaginable. It equated the Eucharist with a tool of
Satan to draw people to hell.
Reading the full booklet of purposely drawn, written, and distributed hate filled distortions one
would be hard pressed to argue the people who put it out would have a problem with the same final
solution Nazi Germany developed for the ’Jewish Problem’. Normally you find hatred and distrust
of Catholicism and Christianity comes from the secular left.(See the letter to the Toronto Star in
2005 when a columnist called for outlawing the Catholic Church as a hate organization.) But this
booklet represented hatred that is far older than the modern Marxist push by progressives.
How is it possible in the modern United States to have this kind of intolerance, ignorance, and
hatred? Well, we've always had it. Freedom in this country means people are free to be evil too.
Hatred of Catholics, Jews, Italians, Irish, Blacks, Hispanics, all are a part of the American
experience. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, the suggestion by modern Democrats of a Catholic litmus test
for nominations to the Supreme Court, all speak of this brutish devaluation of people. It’s not the
majority of Americans by any means; and it doesn't’t represent the nation’s goals, values, or nature.
But it is part of the historical mix. Freedom to choose good means the chance to choose evil. The
people that produced this hate and the person who slipped into a church to place it there for
unsuspecting children chose evil.
and the pope in hell devising ways to bring people to damnation. The faces are drawn with long
noses and balding unshaven faces. Replace “Pope” with “Rabbi” and the publication would look the
same as something from the Third Reich. The principles are the same. The purpose is the same. It
wouldn't’t be surprising if the inspiration for these books were written in German and emanated from
the SS camps. The text is the most vile, disrespectful, deceitful, and venomous attack on the
Catholic Church and the principles of Christianity imaginable. It equated the Eucharist with a tool of
Satan to draw people to hell.
Reading the full booklet of purposely drawn, written, and distributed hate filled distortions one
would be hard pressed to argue the people who put it out would have a problem with the same final
solution Nazi Germany developed for the ’Jewish Problem’. Normally you find hatred and distrust
of Catholicism and Christianity comes from the secular left.(See the letter to the Toronto Star in
2005 when a columnist called for outlawing the Catholic Church as a hate organization.) But this
booklet represented hatred that is far older than the modern Marxist push by progressives.
How is it possible in the modern United States to have this kind of intolerance, ignorance, and
hatred? Well, we've always had it. Freedom in this country means people are free to be evil too.
Hatred of Catholics, Jews, Italians, Irish, Blacks, Hispanics, all are a part of the American
experience. Slavery, Jim Crow laws, the suggestion by modern Democrats of a Catholic litmus test
for nominations to the Supreme Court, all speak of this brutish devaluation of people. It’s not the
majority of Americans by any means; and it doesn't’t represent the nation’s goals, values, or nature.
But it is part of the historical mix. Freedom to choose good means the chance to choose evil. The
people that produced this hate and the person who slipped into a church to place it there for
unsuspecting children chose evil.
At the turn of the twentieth century the KKK had one of it’s founding goals as suppression of the
Catholic Church. You can easily find on line the pictures of thousands of hooded klansmen
marching down Pennsylvania Avenue in the mid 1920’s. Their numbers at one point reached into
the millions. They haven't faded away with time. If you go online now you only have to type in the
search “KKK” or “Jack Chick” to go to their modern hate web sites. It seems it used to require effort
to debase yourselves with hate. You had to go to a meeting out in a field at night, or have a cheap
booklet sent through the mail. Now all you have to do is download it at home, just like porn. Evil is
a lot easier to obtain in the information age.
While it is disturbing that such activities are as evident today as they were from the founding of the
nation, it is more disturbing when such hatred is acted out to hurt others. Somebody with such
hatred for Catholics obtained anti-Catholic booklets from these hate sources and made the effort to
enter the back of the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church to hide these booklets among the missals. This
was done the same way you find swastikas spray painted on the sides of synagogues or tombstones
kicked over in graveyards. It was done with cowardice and malice by a disturbed individual, or
individuals. They did not seek to promote their own versions of Christianity in a positive way, but
instead sought to attack and smear someone else's.
There is a Catholic solution to this. Explain to the children there are people in the world that hate
Christ and Catholicism. There are people who hate because they like to hate. Then, pray the Rosary
for the person. That’s it. Nothing more is required. You cannot make people be tolerant. You
cannot make people love. You cannot make people respect others, nor be honest. You cannot stop
people from being cowards. You cannot stop others from choosing evil and darkness. You can only
provide an example of love and Christ and hope for the best for the other person. For in the end,
they are bitterly unhappy. Bitterly.
Catholic Church. You can easily find on line the pictures of thousands of hooded klansmen
marching down Pennsylvania Avenue in the mid 1920’s. Their numbers at one point reached into
the millions. They haven't faded away with time. If you go online now you only have to type in the
search “KKK” or “Jack Chick” to go to their modern hate web sites. It seems it used to require effort
to debase yourselves with hate. You had to go to a meeting out in a field at night, or have a cheap
booklet sent through the mail. Now all you have to do is download it at home, just like porn. Evil is
a lot easier to obtain in the information age.
While it is disturbing that such activities are as evident today as they were from the founding of the
nation, it is more disturbing when such hatred is acted out to hurt others. Somebody with such
hatred for Catholics obtained anti-Catholic booklets from these hate sources and made the effort to
enter the back of the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church to hide these booklets among the missals. This
was done the same way you find swastikas spray painted on the sides of synagogues or tombstones
kicked over in graveyards. It was done with cowardice and malice by a disturbed individual, or
individuals. They did not seek to promote their own versions of Christianity in a positive way, but
instead sought to attack and smear someone else's.
There is a Catholic solution to this. Explain to the children there are people in the world that hate
Christ and Catholicism. There are people who hate because they like to hate. Then, pray the Rosary
for the person. That’s it. Nothing more is required. You cannot make people be tolerant. You
cannot make people love. You cannot make people respect others, nor be honest. You cannot stop
people from being cowards. You cannot stop others from choosing evil and darkness. You can only
provide an example of love and Christ and hope for the best for the other person. For in the end,
they are bitterly unhappy. Bitterly.