The ludicrous and libelous lies promoted by the anti-Semitic "Christians" concerning St. Simon of Trent are just the ancient version of that depressing phenomenon of "Liars for Jesus." Doubtless, many of the rumor mongers who were partisans of St. Simon of Trent sincerely thought they were great champions of Jesus when they were merely pathetic "Liars for Jesus." Could there be a greater paradox than Christians who feel compelled to lie on behalf of "THE TRUTH, the Life and the Way?"
Unfortunately, like Blaise Pascal said:
"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction."
My series on St. Simon of Trent illustrates how religiously motivated blood libel lies directly led to the Holocaust. Today, barefaced lies spread by purported Catholic Christians, (I wouldn’t slander Jesus of Nazareth by omitting “purported.”), continue the same tradition, the same methods, the same objective: To assassinate an opponent’s reputation by repeatedly telling a libelous, slanderous, ludicrous lie.
For example, while Santorum accuses President Obama of phony theology, he is guilty of the wholesale creation of phony “facts.” Unfortunately, in the defense of “The Truth,” too many nominally-Christian, public, standard bearers serially manufacture phony “facts.” Even more unfortunate, too many professional Christian media persons amplify these phony “facts.” Most unfortunate of all, too many rank-and-file Christian soldiers, like St. Simon’s devotees of old, eagerly swallow such woppers. This is a serious charge. The proof follows:
On February 3, 2012 at the Grace Bible Church in Columbia, Mo. at a forum moderated by Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, who has endorsed Santorum, Santorum told the following serial lie.
“In the Netherlands people wear a different bracelet if you’re elderly and the bracelet is ‘do not euthanize me.’ Because they have voluntary euthanasia in the Netherlands, but half the people who are euthanized every year, and it’s 10 percent of all deaths for the Netherlands, half of those people are euthanized involuntarily at hospitals because they are older and sick. And so elderly people in the Netherlands don’t go to the hospital, they go to another country, because they are afraid, because of budget purposes, that they will not come out of that hospital if they go in with sickness.”
Factcheck.org found the following:
1) Santorum claimed legal euthanasia is responsible for “10 percent of all deaths for the Netherlands.” Government statistics show euthanasia is climbing, but represented only 2.3 percent in 2010, according to the most recent data.
2) Santorum added that half of the people euthanized were killed “involuntarily.” A representative of the Royal Dutch Medical Association said “there are no forced cases of euthanasia.” Dutch euthanasia review boards found nine cases in 2010 where doctors “had not acted in accordance with the due care criteria,” mostly for how the procedure was performed — not because it was against anyone’s will.
3) Santorum claimed the Dutch elderly wear bracelets that say “do not euthanize me,” but the Dutch government and medical association say no such bracelets exists. Santorum “might be confused with a ‘do not resuscitate’ bracelet or necklace” worn by some patients, a medical association representative said.
4) Santorum claimed that Dutch elderly are so fearful of being euthanized involuntarily in Dutch hospitals that they leave the country. The Dutch general public, aware of the complete falsehood of such claims, is simultaneously insulted and bemused that a “serious” candidate for the presidency could make such outrageously false statements.
To add insult to injury, when a Dutch reporter (see video) requested an explanation for Santorum’s ludicrous lies, the Santorum campaign refused to retract the phony facts and justified his mendacity by emphasizing that he was very pro-life.
(A small digression on proper truth-seeking method—Ludicrous liars, like the St. Simon rumor mongers and Santorum in this instance, typically don’t bother to even cite a source for their slanders. They just uncritically repeat and amplify even the most obvious, unfounded information. In contrast, my blog, while not bogging the reader down in lengthy, academic sourcing apparatus, cites sources).
Now, it is obvious that Santorum is not primarily interested in berating Dutch society; his lies about the Dutch are just props for his religious crusade. To do so he must create a demonic scapegoat, like St. Simon of Trent’s partisans created with the Jews. This is merely part of his claim that Satan is attacking the United States, God’s exceptional, chosen, and Christian nation; that Satan, in the persons of Santorum’s political opponents, is de-Christianizing the City on a Hill and transforming it into an immoral, socialistic, European, failed-state like, of course—the Dutch. Thus, no lie is too ludicrous not to employ in such a righteous mission.
Santorum’s serial slanders demonstrate the following points. First, this is only one of numerous such patently phony facts spread by politivangelists for partisan purposes. (Politivangelist is the hybrid species which evolved around the time of Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition and Jerry Fallwell’s Moral Majority. There are two subspecies: 1) the political politivangelist, the politician who likes to wrap himself in the robes of religion; 2) the religious figures who promote the politivangelists. The Pat Robertsons incarnate 100% of both (presidential) candidate and religious media spin-doctor). Sarah Palin’s falsehood concerning supposed death panels included in Obamacare famously won her the liar of the year award a couple years ago from Politifact. The multiple lies endlessly repeated by politivangelists on national TV regarding Terri Schiavo were, if possible, even more infamous. (See my coming blog on Terri Schiavo). Other duplicitous political propaganda has been so pervasive that it may be legitimately supposed that the politivangelists actually believe they must promulgate falsehoods to support their policies and philosophies. Why? Because the truth and the facts do not support their politivangelist agenda.
The second phenomenon concerns the evangelical politivangelist as incarnated by Dr. James Dobson. No matter how outrageous the untruth propagated by the political politivangelist, the evangelical politivangelist acts as a cheerleader to amplify the untruth in broadcasting it as convincingly as possible to the Christian soldiers. While not tolerating any untrue “phony theology” to go unchallenged, they do not hold anyone within their own ranks responsible when egregious phony facts are trumpeted by their standard bearers.
The third phenomenon concerns the simple Christian soldier who uncritically echoes whatever battle cry the twin politivangelists are propagating. Like the European anti-Semites of the 16th-20th centuries, they seem to have an insatiable appetite for the most ludicrous modern equivalents to the blood libel against the Jews. The recent Birther craze for hokey history illustrates this phenomenon and is reminiscent of the Dreyfus Affair (Topic of a future blog).
The politivangelists appear to have absolutely no regard for the truth; when before an audience acquired in advance to their phony, factitious, facsimile of history, they appear to think they can speak and act with total impunity, treating facts with reckless abandon. They have a higher “TRUTH,” an absolute, infallible, inerrant truth that must be propagated regardless of any other consideration. They have the same religious certitude that fortified the kamikaze pilot of old and the suicide bomber of the present.
In Liars for Jesus, Part 2, I will document additional libelous slanders manufactured by Santorum which are supported by the general “religious” wing of the Republican Party. Santorum’s lies about the Dutch are merely a small part of a pattern of deceit. As in the St. Simon of Trent tragedy, Santorum fills the role of Prince/Bishop Hinderbach; Dr. Dobson fills the role of Ingrid Shafer’s father and teachers; and the rank and file of the evangelical public fills the role of the credulous, anti-Semitic, European peasantry.
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