Book-burners too.
Sunday's Minneapolis Star/Tribune ran a story titled, "Trying to track hate, in Minnesota and around the country" followed by "The Southern Poverty Law Center lists 12 hate groups in Minnesota, though the criteria for inclusion aren't always clear." For a listing, click here.
The same organization that was keeping track of the shooter at the Wisconsin Sikh temple has identified a dozen active "hate groups" in Minnesota.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed organizations ranging from a group founded by a member of the former American Nazi Party to a parents' organization that opposed repealing a controversial Anoka-Hennepin School District policy on issues of sexual orientation.
Leaders of those groups and others listed by the center dispute the "hate" label. Some call the Law Center hateful and slanderous.
"The only reason why some people would consider us a hate group is because they're too ignorant to open their eyes and see what we are really all about," said a man who identified himself over the phone as Mike Schmidt, public relations director for the National Socialist Movement, which the Law Center lists as "neo-Nazi." "There's nothing on our website that promotes hate. ... Our organization is about self-preservation of our own people and the promotion and advancement of it." - Star/Tribune
"Leaders of those groups and others listed by the center dispute the "hate" label."
That's an understatement, to be sure. Be that as it may, I was surprised to see one group identified as a hate group, that being The Remnant Newspaper and Publisher. The reason? Rad-Trad. Seriously. Here is how SPLC defines the danger:
“Radical traditionalist” Catholics, who may make up the largest single group of serious anti-Semites in America, subscribe to an ideology that is rejected by the Vatican and some 70 million mainstream American Catholics. Many of their leaders have been condemned and even excommunicated by the official church.
Adherents of radical traditional Catholicism, or “integrism,” routinely pillory Jews as “the perpetual enemy of Christ” and worse, reject the ecumenical efforts of the Vatican, and sometimes even assert that recent popes have all been illegitimate. They are incensed by the liberalizing reforms of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council, which condemned hatred for the Jews and rejected the accusation that Jews are collectively responsible for deicide in the form of the crucifixion of Christ.
Radical traditionalists are not the same as Catholics who call themselves “traditionalists” — people who prefer the old Latin Mass to the mass now typically said in vernacular languages — although the radicals, as well, like their liturgy in Latin. They also embrace extremely conservative social ideals with respect to women. - SPLCenter
Hmmmmmmmmmm ... I wonder if the SPLCenter tracks bloggers?
Well, I would take issue that most "Traditionalists" advocate antisemitism. If that's the case then what the Church held regarding the conversion of the Jews prior to Vatican II was antisemitic. Any "traditionalist" would hold what the Church has always held regarding the Jewish people. There is no change in belief in that regard from "Pre to Post Vatican II". Our Lord, His beloved mother, St Joseph and the apostles were all Jews who accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah. I'm sure the Southern Poverty Law center would have pegged St Paul as an anti semite as well. That said I am certain there are "fringe" people who call themselves "Traditionalist" but who advocate hatred toward the Jewish people and that is to be deplored. I just resent them pigeonholing "traditionalists" in general as such. There is nothing "antisemitic" about praying for the conversion of the Jewish people.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Morris Dees a pervert? http://www.zianet.com/web/dees1.htm
ReplyDeleteOnly a real fruitcake would be afraid of the SPLC, or take their assertions seriously.
ReplyDelete