Catholic-bashing in this time of supposed "tolerance?"

Rating: 2/10 (23 October 2007)

Can you say "hypocrites?" From all corners of the nation, we hear countless cries of injustice and intolerance whenever the ACLU or any other tolerance watch-dog thinks they've caught the merest glimpse of gay-bashing, anti-Semitism, racism of all sorts, and other social atrocities. Yet does that stop anyone, ANYONE, from seizing the opportunity to defame Catholics and the Catholic Church? Where are the cries of the ACLU then? Why don't celebrities and talk-show hosts take a moment to speak about the damaging, hurtful injustices and prejudices when the Catholics are attacked? And here we go once again with yet another history-slaughtering blunder of after-school-special fiction that deems it necessary to skew people's regard for a religion beloved by more people in this entire world than any other religion (~1.5 billion at last count, by the way). But don't take my word for it. I now quote a film critic who has put to words the ineptitude and injustice of this latest bit of hacker's work. Steven D. Greydanus writes:
"A lurid sort of Christopher Hitchens vision of history pervades Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Shekhar Kapur's sequel to his 1998 art-house hit Elizabeth.
The earlier film, which made a star of Cate Blanchett as the eponymous Virgin Queen, celebrated the triumph of bright, happy Elizabethan Protestantism over the dark, unwholesome Catholic world of Bloody Mary. Even so, that film's church-bashing was tame compared to that of this sequel, in which everything bad, evil and corrupt in the world is ultimately the bitter fruit of Religion. And by Religion, I mean Catholicism.
"I will not punish my people for their beliefs  only for their deeds," says Elizabeth, conveniently forgetting that in the last movie she rammed the Act of Uniformity through Parliament, outlawing the Catholic Mass and imposing compulsory attendance at Anglican services. In this version of history, the hosts of Catholics martyred under Elizabeth are all traitors and conspirators. "Every Catholic in England is a potential assassin," Elizabeth's advisers helpfully remind her in an early scene. Well, then, every Catholic in England is a potential political prisoner too."
One day, maybe justice truly will be had for all. Until then, we Catholics must persevere as well as we are able in such a hateful, bigoted, hypocritical mess we call America.