Anti-Life Image Sanitation Through History Revisionism
CHAPTER 11 — ANTI-LIFE IMAGE SANITATION THROUGH HISTORY REVISIONISM
American Life League
There is no such thing as absolute history. The question of what is legitimate is a function of what you want to stress.
Jere Bacharach, Chairman of the University of
Washington History Department.[1]
Anti-Life Philosophy.
Women, minorities, and gays and lesbians have been oppressed by this patriarchal, phallocentric society for long enough. One of the strongest links in the chain holding back the oppressed is history, entirely written by white colonialistic males.
Therefore, in order to make progress, we must rewrite history to reflect the great accomplishments of women and minorities and gays. To do less would be to relegate them to the status of second-class citizens.
Introduction.
History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
Napoleon Bonaparte.[2]
The anti-life mentality is at its most rigid and close-minded in its absolute inability to admit or even recognize in itself the slightest taint of error, bigotry, or ill-will.
This is entirely understandable, because the anti-life philosophy is primarily grounded in the deeply flawed concept of personal infallibility. According to the Humanists, everyone is supposed to be his own god and, of course, gods have no faults.
This "New Age" concept of personal godhood is discussed in detail in Chapter 2, "The Anti-Life Mentality," and in Chapter 130 of Volume III.
The No-Fault Mentality.
Historical phenomena always happen twice the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.
Karl Marx.[2]
No Concessions.
An admission of fault by an anti-lifer would not only reflect discredit upon his movement but, on a deeper level, upon himself and his personal philosophy as well. This is why many anti-lifers continue to defend Communism, despite its appalling genocide and universal ineptitude. This is why they can continue to fight for abortion in the face of horrible abuses of women, third-trimester and sex-selection abortions, and forced abortions in China. And this is why they continue to support "gay rights" as a positive good, perhaps even superior to heterosexuality, in spite of its obviously destructive nature.
The Mechanism.
The anti-lifer has a conveniently selective memory. In his mind, the only notable accomplishments of the Christian Church are entirely evil: The Inquisition, the Crusades, and witch-hunts, whose impact and goriness, of course, he wildly exaggerates. He then extrapolates these violent episodes to the present in an attempt to invalidate the Church's current position on various topics. This tactic is commonly referred to as argumentum ad hominem, or attacking individuals or groups instead of their positions and logic.
Naturally, the anti-lifer will excuse or conveniently forget the transgressions of the Left, including the slaughter of more than 150 million people by Communist regimes in this century alone.
If an anti-life person implicates a pro-lifer by mentioning Church-sponsored murders that took place centuries ago, a pro-lifer should feel entirely justified to respond in kind by calling attention to the many examples of left-wing genocide that have occurred within the last fifty years, and, indeed, are still occurring to this very day.
Agitate for Change Any Change.
The whole system we live under is completely worthless, and no basic change for the better can come about until this system is overthrown.
Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary
Communist Party of the USA.[3]
The Motivation.
The Neoliberal is literally driven to be free of limits upon his behavior. He chafes against the existing structures of tradition and authority in pursuit of this total freedom. Neoliberals teach that everyone is his own god, and gods naturally transcend limits.
The Neoliberal, therefore, is not purely anti-Christian, although he may appear to be so; he is simply a "natural malcontent" who is constantly agitating for change while not really knowing why.
Progress Equals Good.
Under such mindless directionism, 'progress' becomes an end unto itself; iconoclasm and nihilism are the highest goods, and change any change is the goal, no matter what the result.
It is now axiomatic in the anti-life movements that all (forward) change is good; all resistance to such change is, by definition, "reactionary."
To the Neoliberal, to change something is to reform it and improve it. Therefore, redefining marriage to include homosexuals and unlimited promiscuity is a reform; to oppose or to attempt to change the definition back is evil. To abolish all restrictions whatever on the printed word, to include children having sex with animals, is "progressive;" to oppose this is "wrong thinking" and "censorship." Unlimited free abortion is a 'good;' to advocate even the most justifiable limits on it, such as a ban on third-trimester abortions, or decent burial for the babies, is "backward" and "misogynist."
The Results.
Where has this 'progressive' passion for change conveyed us?
Our culture is saturated with pornography and drugs. Our economy has been irreversibly warped by pervasive crime and our entitlement-addicted society. An average of one million of our citizens languish in jails and prisons at any one time and we therefore have the highest rate of incarceration in the world. 'No-fault' divorce profoundly impacts millions of our children every year, who have to contend also with free sex, abortion, and contraception, all of it eventually paid for by unknowing parents. We now hide in our homes and endure the manifold evils that we once feared.
As newly-discovered "sexual beings," we have transmogrified Descartes' cogito ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am") into copulo ergo sum.
As Bertrand Russell once said, "Change is inevitable, but progress is a matter of opinion."
Carry On Regardless.
The Neoliberal, however, sees none of this damage; in fact, to him, it simply does not exist. The solution is yet more directionless, mindless and unseeing 'progress,' and anyone who objects is cast in the role of the aggressor trying to strip everyone of their most fundamental rights.
It never occurs to the Neoliberal to admit even a tiny bit of responsibility for the mess that he has made, nor does it occur to him that these evils were of far lesser magnitude in the 'old' society, which was run by the same type of 'Neanderthals' that resist him now.
The Neoliberal believes himself faultless because he does not even remember his past errors. He lies without being conscious of lying; he destroys lives and tradition with as little thought as others would swat a housefly. "Progress" is literally all that matters to him.
And one of the most powerful tools in aid of "progress" is the one that literally erases the past errors of the Neoliberals the selective revision of history.
The Lesson.
The lesson that pro-lifers should learn from all of the examples of Neoliberal history revisionism described in this chapter is clear never believe a word about past events uttered by any Neoliberal. When no other tactic will work, he will gaze sincerely into your eyes and lie with unparalleled expertise, so you must check and recheck and call into question everything he says.
Since members of every 'progressive' movement have acknowledged the importance of altering history to suit their own purposes, it is critical to challenge anything that they say about history that sounds fishy.
In general, if a Neoliberal makes some statement allegedly gleaned from historical references, it is important to demand information on where the information came from and request citations. In most cases, any source materials that are quoted either lack footnotes entirely or refer to other questionable Neoliberal 'historical works' that also lack proper documentation.
Supporting Quotes.
Only the future is certain the past is always changing.
Solidarity joke about the Polish Communist
government's history revisionism.
The concept of pervasive and widespread Neoliberal history revisionism is not a paranoid conservative fanatasy. Many prominent Neoliberals and Neofeminists have stated their contempt for history as it is now written, and have proclaimed from the rooftops that they would like to revise it to suit their own purposes.
A few quotes demonstrating the ingrained Neoliberal contempt for authentic history are shown in Figure 11-1.
FIGURE 11-1
QUOTES BY NEOLIBERAL HISTORY REVISIONISTS
We shall rewrite history, history filled and debased with your heterosexual lies and distortions. We shall portray the homosexuality of the great leaders and thinkers who have shaped the world.
Extract from sodomite Michael Swift's essay,
printed in the February 15, 1987 issue of the
homosexual newspaper Gay Community
News, and reprinted in the February 15-21
1987 Congressional Record.
All of history must be re-written in terms of oppression of women. We must go back to ancient female religions like witchcraft.
The Declaration of Feminism, November
1971. Quoted in New Dimensions Magazine,
July 1990, page 22.
History is ... a particular form of power and knowledge involving the manipulation of academic and political resources and serving to ensure the dominance of certain groups. Rather than pretend to a spurious 'objectivity,' feminists argue that we must find a way to read texts that will serve to illuminate the masks of truth with which phallocentrism hides its functions.
Mary Condren. The Serpent and the
Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in
Celtic Ireland. 1972, Harper and Row, San
Francisco. Also quoted in the National
Catholic Register's April 1, 1990 Review of
Books.
There is no such thing as absolute history. The question of what is legitimate is a function of what you want to stress.
Jere Bacharach, Chairman of the History
Department at the University of Washington.
Quoted by Steve Duin. "A Return to
Segregationist History." The Oregonian,
November 18, 1990, page B1.
We are critical of all past ideology, literature and philosophy, products as they are of male supremacist culture. We are re-examining even our words, language itself.
"PRINCIPLES (New York Radical
Women)." Sisterhood is Powerful (Robin
Morgan, editor). New York: Vintage Books,
1970. Page 520.
History would read differently ... if it had been recorded equally by women. Everyone would learn that the cotton gin, the computer, and the novel were invented by women. That a woman was a well-loved pharaoh; another, a highly-regarded Pope. That for most of human existence worldwide God was a woman.
History teacher Marlene Loisdotter. "Women's
History Month: How My Students See
Women's History." Progressive Woman
[Portland, Oregon], March 1991. Page 1.
This contempt for genuine history allows Neoliberals to "roll their own." And so Martin Luther King, adulterer, liar, and plagiarizer, is canonized by the Left; the 'indiscretions' of Ted Kennedy are ignored and buried; a draft-dodging, adulterous, pot-smoking liar is cast as a "moderate" and elected President of the United States; the atrocities committed by Communists, who have killed over 150 million people, simply vanish from the books; sodomites claim that prestigious historical figures were "gay" with no proof whatever; and Nazis, who were among the first to mandate "abortion on demand," suddenly become ardent pro-life activists.
The Terrible Dangers of Revisionism.
There is a great danger in special interest groups revising history to suit their own purposes. Aside from solid religious principles, history is the greatest teacher our country and our people have.
If special interest groups simply rewrite history to suit their own tastes and objectives, society will eventually find it impossible to discern what is real history and what is fabricated. We will be reduced to comparing the credentials of various "historians" in order to find out which version we want to believe.
We will find it impossible to learn from past mistakes, and, as American philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Even the consummate atheist, Friedrich Nietzsche, acknowledged that "The only thing that we learn from history is that we do not learn from history."
Taking Advantage of the Weakness.
This rigidity in Neoliberal thinking (psychosclerosis?) can be a great advantage for a pro-lifer in a debate situation. No matter how extreme, outrageous, or atrocious a Neofeminist quote or action a pro-lifer can produce, the anti-life debater will be forced to either ignore it or defend it. The subject matter may be third-trimester forced abortions in China; sex-selection abortions; violence by pro-abortionists; or any other extreme action or quote by anti-lifers.
Pro-lifers can also take advantage of the fact that Neoliberals try hard to forget their past mistakes and seem incapable of dealing with them when they are brought up before an audience. Therefore, it pays for a pro-lifer to look at any past writings by or articles about a potential debating opponent.
For example, Paul Ehrlich, in his 1967 book The Population Bomb, predicted widespread starvation and overpopulation in the United States by the year 1980. By that time, of course, our country had more diet plans and weight-loss clinics than the rest of the world put together.
In 1975, George Wald predicted the end of the world by 1985 due to vague and unspecified 'political problems.' Now we seem to be standing on the verge of a bright new world future.
And, of course, Rachel Carson predicted in her 1962 eco-freak 'classic' Silent Spring that human beings would poison the world and make it unfit for habitation in twenty years.
When confronted with such blunders, the anti-life debater will simply try to change the subject. The pro-lifer can point this dodge out to his audience and state as fact that his or her opponent refuses to answer the question, and therefore supports the atrocity. This may cause these incompetent 'prophets' to claim that they never made the claim in the first place or were simply misunderstood and/or quoted out of context. It pays handsomely to have a copy of the quote on hand.
As Plato, Aristotle, and Benjamin Franklin have all noted, the person who cannot find any trace of imperfection in himself is the most close-minded and self-deluding person of all. He is suffering from terminal psychosclerosis. He cannot learn from the twin guideposts of history and religious discipline, and therefore wanders the featureless moral landscape in search of the very thing he has rejected.
He has created his own Purgatory on earth.
Case Studies of Neoliberal Revisionist History.
What is history after all? History is facts which become legend in the end; legends are lies which become history in the end.
Jean Cocteau.[2]
Even though they are masters of the art, censorship is far too obvious for the more clever Neoliberal strategists. Some revisionist writers prefer to subtly modify history in order to erase past leftist errors and emphasize or completely fabricate 'crimes' committed by the 'right wing.'
The following paragraphs describe some of the instances in which Neoliberals have tailored history to suit their own purposes. These case studies are listed below.
CASE STUDIES OF NEOLIBERAL HISTORY REVISIONISM
#1: Linda Bray, the woman 'war hero.'
#2: The Colon caper.
#3: The Thomas-Hill affair.
#4: Becky Bell, progressive martyr.
#5: The 'inconsistent' Catholic Church.
#6: Tawana Brawley, 'rape victim.'
#7: The myth of 'thousands of abortion deaths.'
History Revisionism Case Study #1:
Linda Bray, The Woman 'War Hero.'
Background.
One of the most egregious examples of Neofeminist history manipulation took place after the United States armed intervention in Panama in 1989.
One goal of the Neofeminists is to get women into combat. This must be accomplished in order to remove one of the last obstacles to women's complete identicality (not equality) to men.
To this end, the Neofems were willing to resort to outright fabrication and manipulation of facts regarding how well women have actually performed in combat.
The Story.
In December of 1989, Congresswoman Pat Schroeder [D-espicable] and the media described how Captain Linda Bray, commander of the 988th Military Police Company, led a platoon of men in an attack on a Panamanian Defense Force installation. In this three-hour firefight, as the story went, Bray distinguished herself by her conspicuous gallantry, and three of the defenders of the installation were killed. A USA Today editorial claimed that "Truth is, when her troops were pinned down by hostile fire, Capt. Bray crashed the kennel gate in a jeep."[4]
The Reality.
The reality of the situation was far different from the stories being weaved by the Neoliberals. Instead of a three-hour battle involving a heavily-guarded installation, the action was ten minutes long, and the two underequipped and bedraggled defenders gave up without a fight. Instead of crashing the kennel gate in her jeep, Bray was a mile away, and the only contact she had with her troops during the entire action was by radio.
And the only casualties of the action were 25 caged German shepherds slaughtered by Bray's troops.
Despite these revelations, many Neofeminist leaders continued to use Bray as an example of how well women can do in combat at least, until Bray got a disability discharge in April of 1991 because she broke both of her legs while shouldering a heavy pack that her men had no trouble carrying.[4]
History Revisionism Case Study #2:
The Colon Caper.
How Many Times Removed Does It Take? Naturally, the Neoliberal mind, while excusing all atrocities that Neoliberals commit, has a diamond-sharp, photographic memory for the slightest error on the part of those they label "reactionary conservatives."
For example, Cristobal Colon was selected to be Grand Marshal of the 103rd Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California on January 1, 1992. American Indians objected strenuously, because Colon happens to be the great-great-great-great- great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great- great-great-great-great-grandson of that alleged colonialist and purveyor of genocide, Christopher Columbus.
It did not matter to the Neoliberals that many of their own people were probably numbered among the tens of thousands of Columbus' descendants; all that mattered to them was making a show of force.
And these, remember, are the people who preach nonjudgmentalism and the policy of 'forgive and forget.'
Black Robes and Blackguards.
The month before the Colon flap took place, other Indians protested some of the scenes in the popular movie "Black Robe." One of the allegedly 'objectionable' scenes featured Indians cutting off one of the thumbs of a Catholic missionary, the Jesuit priest Father Isaac Jogue.
The reality was far worse than what was depicted in the movie: The Indians had actually cut off both of the priest's thumbs and had tortured him horribly, in addition to torturing to death many of his companions. The priest had to journey to Rome to receive a special dispensation to say Mass with his mutilated hands.
So the very people who trumped up charges against the grandson of Christopher Columbus (22 times removed) simply will not tolerate even a watered-down movie version of the atrocities of their ancestors.
Dancing With Revisionists.
It is interesting to note that Neoliberals commonly distort history about a group in proportion to that group's perceived victim status. The 1990 hit movie "Dances With Wolves" was a good example of this policy.
Except for star Kevin Costner, who joined a band of Sioux Indians, all Whites in the movie were portrayed as vicious, stupid thugs, and all Indians were handsome, intelligent nobles simply dripping with virtue.
The movie did not mention that the Sioux kept slaves, treated women as animals, tortured enemies to death by chewing off body parts and eating them, and that they occasionally slaughtered buffalo for sport.
As always, should anyone "commit truth" against a Neoliberal 'saint' (or a 'beatified' group like the Indians) by opposing, say, a bizarre agenda tenuously attached to the name of Martin Luther King, that person is instantly branded a "racist" or worse.
History Revisionism Case Study #3:
The Thomas-Hill Affair.
When it appeared that Judge Clarence Thomas had enough votes in hand to win confirmation to the United States Supreme Court in 1991, Neoliberals enticed law professor Anita Hill into lodging (naturally anonymous) sexual harassment charges against him in a last-ditch attempt to derail the nomination process. When it became apparent that Thomas would overcome the slight amount of publicity generated by the unspecified charges, the Neoliberals convinced Hill to go public.
It appeared at first as if these cowardly, back-stabbing tactics (labeled 'Borking' by angry conservatives) would work. The Senate confirmation hearings were rescheduled, and numerous media spokesmen proclaimed that anyone who was even suspected of being guilty of sexual harassment should not hold public office. These people did not seem to realize that any person running for office, no matter how pristine his or her record, could be 'disqualified' from holding office by one lying person with an ax to grind.
Hill put on a stomach-emptying performance on national television, and her Neofeminist handlers screeched their 'anger' and 'indignity' into eagerly-proferred microphones at every available opportunity.
At about this time, a national USA Today poll showed Blacks approving of Thomas by a margin of more than 3 to 1 (54% to 17%).[5] The Neoliberals knew they had a problem then, so they got prominent left-wing Blacks ("oreos") to viciously attack him.
Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder displayed his anti-Catholic bigotry and his blatant ignorance when he asked "The question is, how much allegiance is there to the Pope?," despite the fact that Thomas is Episcopalian.[5] Movie producer and inveterate whiner Spike Lee labeled Thomas "a handkerchief-head, chicken-and-biscuit eating Uncle Tom."[5] And the ever-present (and ever-obnoxious) Neoleftist syndicated columnist Carl Rowan wrote that "If you gave Clarence Thomas a little flour on his face, you'd think you had David Duke talking."[6]
All of these efforts were wasted, however; not only did polls reveal that the majority of every category of American, regardless of gender or race, believed that Hill was lying, but many people expressed profound disgust at the typical underhanded tactics used by the Neofeminists. Nevertheless, Hill instantly became a symbol of 'oppression by the good old boy system' to thousands of dissatisfied and angry pro-aborts.
When her dismal performance finally staggered to a well-deserved end, some of Hill's many detractors suggested that she write a book about her experiences entitled From Smear to Absurdity.
It is strange indeed that the very people who fought so hard for the right to utter, publish, or display any obscenity in public would object so strenuously to the same type of filth allegedly perpetrated in private.
History Revisionism Case Study #4:
Becky Bell, Martyr to the Cause.
The Truth of the Matter.
Becky Bell was a 17-year old Indiana girl who died on September 16, 1988. She was a promiscuous and uncontrollable drug addict who ingested drugs at a party, vomited, and aspirated (inhaled) some of the vomit. This is what caused the pneumonia that led to her death.[7]
In an interview by Rochelle Sharp of the Gannett News Service, Heather Clark, Becky Bell's best friend, stated that Becky had had a miscarriage. She also said that Becky had talked about getting a legal abortion up until the day before she died. This statement, in tandem with the attending emergency room physician's statement to Becky's parents that "We might not be able to save the baby,"[7] leads to the inescapable conclusion that Becky Bell did not die of an induced abortion, legal or illegal.
The Medical Evidence.
The Marion County, Indiana coroner's report listed the cause of Becky's death as "septic abortion with pneumonia," but the manner of her death was, according to the report, "undetermined."
It is critical to note that the term "abortion" includes miscarriages, which in medical parlance are "spontaneous abortions." If Becky Bell had died of an induced abortion, the coroner's report would have listed "induced abortion," not just "abortion" (for more detailed information on abortion-related terms, see the glossary in Appendix C of Volume III).
The physician who personally examined Becky's body, Dr. John Pless, head of forensic pathology at Indiana University Medical Center, stated that "I cannot prove she had an illegal abortion. I cannot prove she had anything but a spontaneous abortion [miscarriage]."[8]
This conclusion was confirmed by Dr. John Curry, former head of the Tissue Bank at Bethesda Naval Hospital; Dr. Curtis Harris, president of the American Academy of Medical Ethics; and former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson.[9]
The Abortophile's Response.
Despite all of this evidence, abortophile strategists decided to try to parlay Becky Bell's death into a propaganda coup. According to the story they concocted, she was driven into obtaining an illegal "back-alley" abortion because of Indiana's "oppressive and mean-spirited" parental consent statute. Then she allegedly became infected and died. Therefore, the pro-aborts allege that Indiana's parental notification and consent laws killed her, and, as a result, all such laws are "bad" and must be eliminated all over the country.
Becky's parents, Bill and Karen, immediately went on the lecture circuit in order to push the entire pro-abortion agenda. They got a lot of press and stayed only in the best hotels, having all of their expenses paid by pro-abortion groups. They were not allowed to debate directly with pro-lifers, and, in numerous instances, when pro-lifers in the audience brought out the truth about Becky's death, the activists were either ignored or grabbed and bodily thrown out of the room.
A more detailed description of the Becky Bell case is contained in Chapter 17, "Anti-Life Propaganda Stories."
History Revisionism Case Study #5:
The 'Inconsistent' Catholic Church.
The Purpose of the Attacks.
All anti-life activists especially abortophiles and sodomites recognize that the greatest obstacle standing between them and the fulfillment of all of their unholy dreams is the Roman Catholic Church.
Therefore, they have embarked upon an ambitious propaganda campaign whose purpose is to undermine the credibility of Church teachings by manufacturing quotes and historical 'evidence' that make the Church appear 'inconsistent.' Since the Neoliberals prize 'consistency' almost to the point of obsession, they assume that this propaganda campaign will cause the public to ignore any pronouncements on abortion, sodomy, or other moral issues by the Catholic Church.
This is a form of 'Borking' committed against an organization instead of an individual.
Some examples of Neoliberal lying about Catholic moral teachings are described in the following paragraphs.
'Inhuman Women?'
In January of 1992, more than a hundred newspapers featured an editorial by syndicated 'Catholic' columnist Dolores Curran that claimed "In the year 584 in Lyons, France, 43 bishops and 20 men representing other bishops, took a vote on the question, "Are women human?' After a lengthy debate, the results came in: 32 yes and 31, no. Women were declared human by one vote."[10]
Curran apparently believes that a lie becomes more credible when it is encrusted with detail. Some of the observers of Curran's atrocious mangling of the truth inquired as to whether or not the 31 men who voted women "not human" therefore approved of bestiality and marriage between a woman and an animal.
In any case, when Catholics demanded to know what sources Curran used for this column, she refused to answer. Reputable Catholic scholars, upon researching this story, found that no such congregation of bishops ever discussed the humanity of women except to speculate what ancient scholars would have thought. Therefore, Curran was either lying outright or twisting the facts until they were unrecognizable.
That Blasted Vaccine Again ...
Certain pro-abortion 'priests' (including Daniel Maguire, Richard McCormick, James Halstead, Louis Janssens, Abel Jeanniere, and Pierre Simon) claim that Pope Leo XII declared in 1829 that smallpox was a judgment from God and that "The smallpox vaccination is a challenge towards Heaven."
This purported quote by Pope Leo XII is used by these dissidents to 'show' by extrapolation that the Catholic Church changes its moral teachings with regard to birth control, sterilization, and abortion.
However, after intensive research, experienced investigator Father Donald Keefe concluded that no such papal statement or Bull existed in any records anywhere, and the above-mentioned dissident priests could not provide substantiation of the statement. In other words, every one of these 'theologians' simply lied in order to fabricate a statement that they could use to prop up their illogical and dissident viewpoints.[11]
The Inquisition and Miss Jones.
Many Neoliberals and Neofeminists on the extreme radical fringe try to paint the Catholic Church as 'inconsistent' on its sanctity of life stand because of its activities during the Inquisition centuries ago.
For example, the professional 'white witch' Z. Budapest claims that the Catholic Church burned 11,000,000 women at the stake in the Middle Ages (equivalent to half of the female population of Europe). The Neofeminist group WITCH alleges that the figure was a more modest nine million.[12]
These ersatz 'historians' ignore the fact that such an effort would have deforested vast tracts of woodland, in addition to wiping out most of the female population. Budapest and WITCH also ignored the fact that even the most extreme anti-Catholic writers put the number at less than 20,000. Therefore, these 'white witches' were exaggerating their claims by a factor of at least 450!
The witches also seemed completely ignorant of the fact that the job of the Church inquisitors was to indict alleged heretics it was the job of the secular authorities to confirm the indictments, pass sentence, and execute those so accused.
As always, Neoliberals may be expected to exaggerate and lie outright when describing history, in line with their compulsion to commit history revisionism. The basic facts surrounding the Inquisition are as follows.
The Spanish Inquisition tried 100,000 cases during the period 1540 to 1700. Persons found guilty were handed over to the Spanish government for execution: The Church did not kill them. 828 persons were executed in all, or about five per year a rate half that of executions in the United States over the past fifteen years. By comparison, this was a lower rate than that of Catholics executed by England during the reign of Elizabeth I. From 1559 to 1603, 250 Catholics were executed by the government for their faith, most of whom were priests who were horribly tortured before their deaths.[13]
But back to Budapest, who also claims that a dogma of the Christian Faith is that "woman is created in the image of the Devil." Her authoritative reference for this fascinating nugget of misinformation? A pornographic movie entitled "The Devil in Miss Jones!"
On 'Changes' in Abortion Teaching.
As mentioned above, many pro-abortion liars try to 'prove' that the Catholic Church is inconsistent in its teachings because, as they allege, it "approved of abortion" at some earlier time.
A typical example of this kind of lie was provided by the quisling group 'Religious' Coalition for Abortion Rights in a June 1978 propaganda pamphlet entitled "ABORTION: Why Religious Organizations in the United States Want to Keep it Legal;" "Catholic theology, which now regards the early fetus as a person, did not always do so. The Church first adopted the belief of Aristotle, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas that ensoulment occurs several weeks after conception. Pope Innocent III, who ruled at the turn of the 13th Century, made that belief part of Church doctrine, allowing abortion until fetal animation. It was not until 1869 that the Church prohibited abortion at any time and for any reason."
RCAR knows the truth but will not tell it: That the Catholic Church has always prohibited abortion in every case and in all ages. The events mentioned by RCAR pertained to church punishment of aborters, not to the morality or validity of the act of abortion itself.
For a more detailed discussion of the unwavering historical Catholic Church opposition on abortion, see Chapter 43 of Volume II.
History Revisionism Case Study #6:
Tawana Brawley, 'Rape Victim.'
After the Howard Beach incident in which several White men beat up a Black man in a racially-motivated attack, the Neoliberal 'victim-seeking' radar was on full power.
The vigilance of the professional victim groups was rewarded in mid-1988, when a teenaged Black girl named Tawana Brawley claimed that she was raped by a vicious gang of White punks.
In the days and weeks that followed, Brawley and her loud and obnoxious mouthpieces (including the 'Rev.' Al Sharpton) became more and more hysterical as it became apparent that her assailants would not be brought to justice. The usual accusations of racism, sexism, and discrimination were given wide play in the nation's media, and feelings of indignation among the 'professional victims' were at an all-time high.
Of course, the real reason the "system" simply "refused" to bring her assailants to justice was because the attackers simply did not exist. It turned out that Brawley was lying, and the alleged rape never happened.
However, this minor detail was irrelevant, because truth itself is irrelevant to the victim mentality. Instead of insisting that Brawley was raped, Sharpton and others appointed themselves representatives of all those 'people of color' who have been victimized in any way by the 'system.'
Brawley, Sharpton, and their entourage of "groupies" continue to speak indignantly at rallies, tapping into the deep reservoir of White Neoliberal guilt and collecting wild applause and lots of cash.
History Revisionism Case Study #7:
'Thousands of Abortion Deaths.'
Introduction.
In order to advance their agenda, organized sodomites know that they must assume a pitiful 'victim status,' as described in Chapter 118 of Volume III, "Homosexual Tactics." To this end, they push hard for "hate crimes" legislation by presenting inflated statistics regarding alleged acts of violence against sodomites, and then use this legislation to force their agenda on their enemies, particularly the Catholic Church. Under "hate crimes" tyranny, even a spoken insult to a homosexual may be prosecuted, while the sodomites themselves commit unbelievable acts of violence with impunity, because they are a "protected minority."
Abortophiles have used this technique to great advantage in the past by presenting fabricated stories of mangled, weeping women who have suffered at the hands of back-alley butchers. The pro-aborts have always lied about the numbers of women who died due to illegal abortions before Roe v. Wade was committed by the Supreme Court.
In fact, they are still doing so.
They're Still At It ...
The specter of thousands of women being killed by illegal and unsanitary back-alley abortions was without question the most powerful argument put forth by abortophiles in their push to legalize abortion during the period 1965 to 1970.
Since this propaganda was so effective in their fight to eliminate all abortion laws, anti-lifers are using it again as they battle to keep the abomination of baby slaughtering legal in this country.
For example, a typical lurid "scare scene" was recently painted in the magazine Mother Jones;
It's hard for today's young women to imagine abortions in dark, dirty rooms that smelled of Clorox, done by doctors who breathed bourbon fumes and copped a feel before they got to work, and warned you not to scream or they'd walk out and leave you alone in the middle of nowhere. Or self-aborting alone in your college dorm room, scared to tell anyone, watching your metal wastebasket fill up with blood, flushing the fetus down the toilet, terrified that it would clog the plumbing and you'd be found out. Or being rushed to the hospital hemorrhaging from a perforated uterus, only to be interrogated by police officers demanding to know where you got the abortion ...[14]
A San Francisco group calling itself "Men Who Care About Women's Lives," including Brian Willson (the so-called 'peace' activist who lay on railroad tracks in front of a 200-ton locomotive and lost his legs as a result), mailed 10,000 coathangers to President George Bush in 1989, representing the "... number of women who will die annually should pro-choice be outlawed."[15]
And, of course, the paragon of hysteria was, as usual, the Revolutionary Communist Party of the United States. In the RCP's propaganda organ, the Revolutionary Worker, an understandably anonymous writer complained that "If the people don't succeed in taking the OFFENSIVE and defeating this assault on women, hundreds of thousands of women will suffer mutilation and death from illegal abortions. Today some 200,000 women a year die in Third World countries one woman every three minutes. And the anti-abortion policy of the U.S. is making the situation even worse."[16]
Internationally-minded abortophiles bandy about the worldwide figure of 200,000 illegal abortion deaths a year as they work to eliminate all protection for the preborn in all countries. However, just as their figures of 10,000 deaths a year in the United States was a lie, so is their quote of 200,000 deaths for the world. The actual number is somewhere between 1,000 to 6,000 deaths per year caused by illegal abortions worldwide.
The Truth Comes Out.
Many anti-life writers and experts have admitted that their colleagues have wildly exaggerated the number of maternal deaths due to illegal abortions.
Pro-abortion writer Marian Faux confessed that "An image of tens of thousands of women being maimed or killed each year by illegal abortion was so persuasive a piece of propaganda that the [pro-abortion] movement could be forgiven its failure to double-check the facts."[17]
Chapter 59 of Volume II describes the story of Ruth Barnett, the prolific illegal abortionist who scoffed at stories like the above; "In the movies, they always depict the fallen woman sneaking up a dirty, rickety stairway to a dismal room or making her way, furtively, into a dark alley that leads to a decrepit shack where some alcoholic doctor or untutored butcher performs the abortion.
"A clinic such as mine was not that way at all. It was a bright, cheerful place where women's problems were handled quickly, efficiently and with dignity, no matter what the circumstances of the patient."[18]
Even the Neofeminist "Bible," Sisterhood is Powerful, recognized that "A study made in the 1930s, before the development of antibiotics made even illegal abortion less deadly than it used to be, came up with this number of 10,000 deaths; but it is no longer anywhere near the truth and has no place in any serious discussion of abortion."[19]
References: History Revisionism.
[1] Jere Bacharach, Chairman of the University of Washington History Department. Quoted in The Oregonian, November 18, 1990.
[2] Quotes are from Jonathon Green. The Cynic's Lexicon. New York: St. Martin's Press. 1984, 220 pages.
[3] Bob Avakian, Chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party of the USA (RCP). Communist Party Worker, July 10, 1989, page 2.
[4] James G. Bruen, Jr. "Women at War With Themselves." Fidelity Magazine, October 1990, pages 11 to 13.
[5] "Rum, Romanism, and Doug Wilder." National Review, August 12, 1991, page 39. Also see "On the Record." National Review, August 12, 1991, page 10.
[6] Syndicated columnist Carl Rowan, quoted in "On the Record." National Review, August 26, 1991, page 8.
[7] J.C. Willke, M.D. "Becky Bell Did Not Die From An Induced Abortion." National Right to Life News, October 2, 1990, pages 3 and 9. This article includes an excellent, detailed, and understandable analysis of the coroner's report. If the traveling Bill and Karen [Bell] abortion show is coming to your town, get all medical documentation on the Becky Bell case from National Right to Life, 419-7th Street NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20004.
[8] Joe Frolik. Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 9, 1990, page 1.
[9] Bernard Nathanson, M.D. "In Memoriam: The Becky Bell Story." Bernadell Technical Bulletin, November 1990, pages 4 and 5. Also see Nathanson's letter to Becky Moore, United Families of Oregon, dated September 4, 1990. This and other medical documentation regarding the Becky Bell case is available from Dr. Nathanson at 133 East 80th Street, New York, New York 10021. Telephone: (212) 737-6455. Also see Dave Andrusko. "They Have No Shame!" National Right to Life News, August 16, 1990.
[10] Frank Morriss. "Why Are So Many Catholic Feminists Either Ignorant Or Liars?" The Wanderer, April 2, 1992, page 4.
[11] Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Newsletter of September 1986, quoted in the February 26, 1989 National Catholic Register.
[12] Robin Morgan, ed. Sisterhood is Powerful. New York: Vintage Books, 1970. Page 543.
[13] Father Benjamin Luther. "The Church and the Spanish Inquisition." Catholic Twin Circle, September 20, 1992, page 19.
[14] Brett Harvey. "The Morning After." Mother Jones, May 1989, pages 28 to 31 and 43.
[15] The Lavender Network [sodomite monthly magazine], May 1989, pages 58 and 59.
[16] "Women Are Not Incubators!: The Assault on Abortion Rights." Revolutionary Communist Party of the United States, Revolutionary Worker, November 6, 1989. Also distributed as a special reprint booklet, pages 4 and 40.
[17] Marian Faux. Roe v. Wade: The Untold Story of the Landmark Supreme Court Decision That Made Abortion Legal. MacMillan Publishers, 370 pages. Reviewed by Maggie Gallagher on page 45 of the July 22, 1988 issue of National Review.
[18] Ruth Barnett. They Weep On My Doorstep. Beaverton, Oregon: Halo Publishers, 1969. Pages 9, 36, 39, 40, 46, and 70.
[19] "Unfinished Business: Birth Control and Women's Liberation." Sisterhood is Powerful (Robin Morgan, editor). New York: Vintage Books, 1970. Page 260.
References: History Revisionism.
American Information Newsletter.
This 8-page monthly newsletter gleans information on a wide variety of topics from the nation's alternative (i.e., conservative) press and presents it in compact form. Typical subjects covered include political correctness, race & ethnicity, religion, government and politics, history revisionism, and morals and society. Subscribe for by writing to 2408 Main Street, Boise, Idaho 83702. Telephone: (208) 343-3790.
Judge Robert H. Bork. The Tempting of America: The Political Seduction of the Law.
Free Press, 448 pages, 1989. Reviewed by United States Senator Orrin G. Hatch on pages 39 and 40 of the December 22, 1989 issue of National Review. Judge Bork touches briefly on his bitter United States Supreme Court confirmation fight and then goes on to cogently examine the basic problems involving law at the highest level in our land today. The problem he deals with most is the tendency of the Supreme Court to make law, not interpret it, depending upon prevailing social mores or the justices' desire to create these mores.
John Koster. The Atheist Syndrome.
Wolgemuth & Hyatt Publishers, Inc., Post Office Box 1941, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027. 1989, 200 pages. This scholarly book shows how atheists have rewritten history to show only the best side of atheism and the worst side of Christianity. It also shows just how savage and degenerate most atheist "heroes" really were. The book focuses on four of these: Charles Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Sigmund Freud.
© American Life League BBS — 1-703-659-7111
This is a chapter of the Pro-Life Activist's Encyclopedia, published by American Life League.
