THE WANDERER, AUGUST 9, 2007
JOSEPH SOBRAN'S
WASHINGTON WATCH
In Defense of Poor Barry
By the time you read this, Barry Bonds of the San
Francisco Giants will have made baseball history by
breaking Hank Aaron's career homerun record.
And you will have heard many pundits deploring
Bonds's obvious use of head-swelling steroids.
Okay. We all admire, say, the honest, lovable Cal
Ripken more than this dubious and surly superstar. But
how about a little sense of proportion? In essence, Bonds
corked his bat; he's Sammy Sosa writ large. He cheated
for glory; but he didn't try to hurt anyone.
I'm from Detroit, where the truly detestable Ty Cobb
became a baseball immortal (.367 lifetime batting
average, 12 batting crowns, 4,191 hits, 978 stolen bases)
while actually trying to injure his opponents, many of
whom hated him the rest of their lives.
Has Bonds ever done that?
Or think of the many mound "heroes" -- some of them
Hall-of-Famers -- who threw fastballs at batters' heads.
Has Bonds done anything remotely comparable? (If you want
a real baseball hero, read Jane Leavey's wonderful
biography of Sandy Koufax. Granted, she lays it on a mite
thick: The book might have been titled O COME, LET US
ADORE HIM. But you can't blame Sandy for that.)
And think of sports whose very purpose is to do
bodily harm to opponents, with spectators reveling in the
mayhem.
If it weren't for the vanity of statistics, Bonds
would be remembered simply as one of the most thrilling
baseball players of all time.
I repeat, we need some sense of proportion about
this. As I joked to my best pal, "I'm going to write
Bonds a letter. And it's going to be even nastier than
the one I wrote to Aaron when he broke Babe Ruth's
record!"
Pardon My Popery
A sweet Bible Christian of my acquaintance -- that
is, one who thinks the Holy Spirit let the Church use the
wrong Bible until 1517 or so -- got furious with me last
year for sending her husband, one of my oldest friends, a
prayer to St. Therese. How terribly Popish of me!
More recently, she has taunted me for having
illegitimate grandchildren. After checking chapter 19 of
St. Matthew's Gospel, I find that Jesus, just as I
recalled, welcomes the wee ones, without qualification.
I've already written enough about Christopher
Hitchens's truly obtuse atheist tract GOD IS NOT GREAT,
but I can't drop the subject without mentioning Tom
Piatak's amazing review on Taki's Top Drawer. I'd rather
be mauled by a lion than deserve such a notice.
Incidentally, one of the evils Hitchens blames on
religion, especially Christianity, is "sexism."
This is a real howl. Does anyone think pagan savages
practiced sexual equality back in the State of Nature?
It was the Church, in fact, that first exalted woman
to a degree never before imagined, simply by recognizing
her spiritual dignity.
A Deed without a Name
For years I have tried to think of a name both
accurate and fair for one of the great evils of the
modern world, something sensitive people are well aware
of but hardly dare discuss publicly. It has been the ruin
of many; it has bred war and persecution.
I propose to call it "secular Semitism." It is
neither Judaism nor Jews as a race; many of its most
thoughtful critics and determined enemies, in fact, are
religious and ethnic Jews.
But to criticize it is to court charges of being
either an "anti-Semite" or a "self-hating Jew." The dread
of being slandered with false charges of anti-Semitism
has warped American journalism and politics for a long
time now; an astute foreign observer has noted that
public discussion of Jewish matters in this country is
"extraordinarily guarded." (Yes, that was our friend
Mr. Hitchens, many years ago!)
The New Testament recounts that the early Christians
had to take evasive action, again and again, "for fear of
the Jews."
Of course "the Jews" is only an approximation, the
first disciples themselves being strictly religious =and=
genuinely ethnic Jews.
Secular Semitism has expressed itself in Zionism,
liberalism, hatred of Christianity, and blaming the
Church for anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, and every other
evil, real and imaginary.
Without a Christian morality of natural law, why on
earth would anyone but Jews think anti-Semitism was a
moral evil? Most men assume we should hate our enemies.
Put it this way: Does President Bush, a nominal
Christian, pray fervently for the Iranians?
Riddle
What does Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation
League, have in common with his bete noire, Mel Gibson?
Give up? He's a baptized Catholic! As a small child
in Europe during the Hitler era, Abe was taken in at
great risk by a Catholic family, who had him baptized.
Not that he seems very grateful. And I must confess
I have to keep reminding myself that Abe is still
technically a member of the Mystical Body of Christ. You
could easily get the wrong impression, eh, Mel?
Imus
Does anyone still remember the enormous media to-do
about Don Imus only last April? He was on the cover of
TIME for blurting three words!
Amazing how fast these moralistic seizures blow
over. Can a Hitler pass into oblivion in the space of
less than four months?
--- Joseph Sobran
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