Comments on: Anti-Catholic Bigotry in Nebraska

By: Catholicgauze

Catholicgauze — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hah! The joke is on them. After the priest blesses the wine it turns into the blood of Christ and ceases to be wine.

By: subadei

subadei — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

lol. Don't give the drooling boob any ideas, CG. Next he'll pursue a law banning "faux-canabalistic ritual."

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

"Don't give the drooling boob any ideas, CG. Next he'll pursue a law banning "faux-canabalistic ritual.""

Or they could just criminalize theophagy!

More seriously, a sickening aspect of Kruse's defense is that the police just would not enforce the laws. In other words, Kruse wants to hold prosecution over every Catholic church while making it only a tool to go after Catholic churches the police of whatever town dislike.

This is a terrible story of not just religious bigotry but also openly planning for arbitrary enforcement. Just sickening.

By: Lexington Green

Lexington Green — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

True story. My father in law tells this. He grew up in rural Iowa. In his town, the Catholics were a majority, but not in the county. When prohibition went into effect, the rural locals were ecstatic, since they thought they were going to be able to shut down the Catholic Church in town. The sheriff went to see the priest, and told him that, while he was sorry to have to do it, he was going to have insist that the priest not have any wine in his church. The priest told him, first, I will have wine on the altar at mass on Sunday. Two, I am going to tell my parishoners to bring their guns to church on Sunday. Do whatever you want, sheriff. Nothing happened.

Probably a tall tale. But maybe not. The anti-Catholic bigotry in the Heartland is very, very strong and deeply rooted. Four years in Indiana was an eye-opener.

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lexington,

I believe the story. Here's an excerpt from South Dakota Magazine, on Klan harrassment of a Catholic community and subsequent Catholic harrassment of the Klan:

"There were 3,000 KKK members in S.D. in the 1920s, with chapters (klaverns) across the state. It wasn’t the violent, terrorizing klan of the post-war South. Historians think it gained a foothold here and in other rural areas because it offered a social group in young and unorganized towns …, “a way for the good old boys to gather, gossip and drink a sip of moonshine,” wrote Stoel and Collins.

Few Jews or blacks lived here at the time. In some communities, Catholics felt they were the targets. At Sturgis, local klansmen lit crosses up to 25 feet tall with oil-soaked gunny sacks, on a hill within view of St. Martin’s Academy. The Catholics responded by burning a circle on an opposing hill, inspired by the Klan’s name, derived from the Greek world “klukos,” meaning circle." [1]

We laugh at these stories now, but the nativist v. immigrant theme is pretty constant. In South Dakota, it was (Episcopalian) English v. (Catholic) German. In the movie "Gangs of New York" it was (Episcopalian) English v. (Catholic) Irish. Now in Los Angeles its (Baptist) Black v. (Catholic) Latin. Same dynamics, same process, different days.

[1] http://www.southdakotamagazine.com/?p=314

By: subadei

subadei — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dan, you haven't heard? Nebraska has seen a vast increase in under-age DUI's and public intoxications on Sundays between 7:00 am and 12:00 pm.

I hear the bane of burning incense (fire hazard and all) is next on his agenda.

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

If he's smart about a harrassmant campaign, he would avoid a direct conflict but try to make life harder for Catholic Churches. For instance, if this leads to no arrests but to an increased in diocese insurance costs it might be a rational attack.

By: subadei

subadei — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

It'd be interesting to interview some of Nebraskas law enforcement and get their take.

"Sheriff Jones, what do you intend to do about this social plague of underage sipping?!"

The whole thing is utterly ridiculous. Kruse is a political hack. The one silver lining is his own Methodist leanings. Were he a fundamentalist athiest I'd be a bit worried.

By: subadei

subadei — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Interesting. Hadn't thought of the current Latin/Black gang strife in terms of religion.

By: Dan tdaxp

Dan tdaxp — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

An interesting aspect of this turn of the screw is the politically convenient change in rhetoric. The same dynamic that was once caused white flight [1,2] (immigration into established neighborhoods leads to emigration by the establishment) is now referred to as ethnic cleansing [3,4].

This problem would still exist without religion (the wars between the Catholic English and the Catholic Irish were immediately followed by the wars between the Anglican English and the Catholic Irish), but religion is an obvious organizing principle once hostilities begin.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight
[2] http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i8043.html
[3] http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-hernandez7jan07,0,2489.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
[4] http://moderntribalist.blogspot.com/2007/01/acrimonious-relationship-between.html