There are an awful lot of people I know in the world of public policy, many of whom I respect and admire. But beyond respecting his wisdom and admiring his courage, I just plain like Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League. I like his Irish feistiness. I like his sense of loyalty. I like his sense of humor. Most of all, I like how he drives his opponents mad. And with his new book, "Secular Sabotage: How Liberals are Destroying Religion and Culture in America" he could be expected to be stricken from all manner of Christmas card lists -- except the people he skewers don't believe in Christmas.
Disclaimer: I'm on the Board of Advisors of the Catholic League. I've been involved with this terrific organization for many years because Bill Donohue invited me, and I've never been able to refuse Bill Donohue anything.
"Secular Sabotage" is serious business. Donohue insists the
The popular culture's hesitation to acknowledge the truth of this country's Christian identity is a direct measure of the success a tiny minority of Americans has enjoyed in thoroughly intimidating the majority. While Donohue discusses secular sabotage, he is clear that these ought not to be considered simple secularists existing alongside the faithful. They are nihilists out to expel Christianity not just from the public square but from the public conversation entirely. And they are powerful enough to be succeeding.
The Christian nation has at its core the nuclear family. Erase the notion of the nuclear family and you've destroyed the Judeo-Christian identity of
How else to explain the radical gays' overt hatred of the Catholic Church? Several years ago I attended an early morning Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in
But the anti-Christian, anti-Catholic agenda of the nihilistic secularists is not confined to the cultural. It is now in the open, very political, and absolutely determined to crush the Judeo-Christian identity in
Donohue tracks the increasingly shrill attacks against Christians in general and the Catholic League in particular by the radicals at the Democratic National Committee; he exposes how in 2004 Sen. John Kerry, a self-described "devout Catholic," hired a spokeswoman for ACT-UP, the gay group that attacked St. Patrick's Cathedral, as his Director of Religious Outreach; and how in 2007 presidential candidate John Edwards hired religious bigots to organize his internet presence.
Donohue believes there are some positive signs. Young people seem not to be as radical as their parents. There are new alliances being created among conservative Catholics, Protestants and Jews. And there's this nugget: "But not all agnostics and atheists are secularists at heart."
At first blush this doesn't seem to make sense. The late great Steve Allen didn't make sense, either. A fallen Catholic, Steve was a self-proclaimed agnostic who openly championed all manner of liberal political causes. But few were as upset and outspoken as he against the left's attacks on Christianity and Catholicism.
In the final analysis it may be liberals who are trying to destroy religion and culture in
