Originally published at: What Joe Kent and Candace Owens Are Really Up to in Their Critiques of the Iran War - TPM – Talking Points Memo
This story is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. At the Catholic Prayer For America Gala in Washington Thursday night, the far-right group Catholics for Catholics (CFC) celebrated Joe Kent, the recently-departed Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who quit over opposition to the war in Iran. Kent has a…
“The antisemitic Catholic right…”
Wait, that’s a thing??
I grew up Catholic and I’ve never heard of such a thing, tho I see in the article mention that this may not be known to other (normal) Catholics. What an eye opening essay. Thank you Sarah Posner for this informative primer on Religious dynamics in current American politics (and this ‘administration’ in particular). 
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Candice Owens desperately wishes she were white and no amount of racist wingnut butt kissing will make that happen.
She’s just a useful idiot.
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Time to quote Tom Lehrer:
“Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics,
And the Catholics hate the Protestants,
And the Hindus hate the Muslims,
And everybody hates the Jews.”
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I don’t think it’s fair to call the Christian Zionists “philosemites”. They don’t actually support Judaism; they just see it as a necessary part of their end of the world prophecy. After the second coming, Jews who fail to convert will be condemned to eternal hellfire, which isn’t pro-Jewish in any meaningful sense.
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From the article:
When pressed by CFC president John Yep, Kent added a religious flourish: “Having faith, I was able to hear God’s voice. I was able to hear that I was exactly where I was supposed to be and it was my time to actually take action, which made taking the action incredibly easy actually and actually made me feel very liberated and like I’m in the right spot.”
In my humble opinion, if you talk to God you are a person of faith.
If God talks to you, you are a schizophrenia.
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btw, and I’m not complaining, but I haven’t got a visit from Jehovah’s Witness since maybe 1990.
Do they still even publish Watchtower?
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I heard they were bought out by Scientology in a debt-for-stock swap, later merged with the Amish, and are slated for an upcoming IPO under the Bokononism brand.
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Yes they do, and in vast quantities, though much of that is overseas.
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So, God talks to these people on a regular basis? That’s a lot of conversations.
Does God ever use big words, does God talk to people like how they write it in the Bible, coz that can really be confusing, or does God talk like it’s to a 6 year old?
When God gets up on the roof of this third temple thingy, will they need a bullhorn ala George W Bush? Does God have to be on the roof, why not at the top of the stairs (you know it’s gonna have a bunch of marbeley stairs)?
Jeebus, these people are very confusing.
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You must be pretty young because I can remember the priest praying for the Jews to see the error in their ways.
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Just because Joe Kent is an antisemite and no hero doesn’t mean the Israeli government (Netanyahu) didn’t pressure or even force Trump’s hand on attacking Iran. Michelle Goldberg, among others, have reported it on apparently good authority, while Josh Marshall has emphatically denied it could have happened, even to the point of suggesting that anyone saying is antisemitic. Fear of antisemitism is hardly justification for denying the Israeli government’s role in events, whether the war on Iran or its (Netanyahu’s admittedly) genocidal goal re Gaza (and the West Bank).
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The prayer on Good Friday for conversation of the Jews was removed from the Liturgy decades ago.
The lessons of the enlightenment are wasting away. Pretty soon Catholics will be killing Protestants. We are going to have a really ugly 21st century.
Catholics killing Protestants, Protestants killing Catholics everybody killing Muslims and Jews. Nobody is more vicious than someone killing in the name of their god. The future looks really, really bleak.
Insert obligatory “Let them fight” meme here.
God told me “nuh uh”.
I find both sides in this fight distasteful at best, but if I had to choose a side I would take the Catholic anti-Israel antisemites over the evangelical pro-Israel antisemites - they are much less dangerous to both America and Jews. Fun fact is that in the dominate evangelical end-times narrative, the anti-Christ will be Jewish (Haggie actually belongs to a faction that believes he will be the Catholic Pope) - seems like a stronger antisemitic trope than “AIPAC gives money to campaigns to effect pro-Israel policy” -e.g.”its all about the Benjamins”.
I was raised as a Catholic and have a cousin who belongs to a radical Catholic sect. The Mass is said in Latin and they might reject the Pope but I have not heard if they are antisemitic. It wouldn’t be surprising though. I try to avoid any conversations about religion with him.
I think that’s overstating it. Netanyahu is more like the buddy who holds your beer and says “doooeeeet. Be a legend”, when a real friend would have said “you’re drunk, sit down”.
One impulsive, belligerent fool egging on another impulsive, belligerent fool isn’t “pressuring” or “forcing”. Both Israel and the United States elected impulsive belligerent fools to head their government, despite knowing they were impulsive belligerent fools who think only of themselves and not the country. Both countries have large numbers of citizens in the streets, but neither has yet to dislodge the fool.
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