The publishers of two more newspapers that ran the “Earth’s Final Warning” hate ads have apologized in print. Roger Kintzel of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Michael E. Waller of the Baltimore Sun apologized to readers for running the anti-Catholic ads; they appeared on August 26 and October 8-9, respectively. William Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore criticized his local newspaper for running the ad.
The Catholic League has protested the propriety of running these Catholic-bashing ads whenever they appear. At stake is not a legal issue—we never question the legality of placing these ads—but a moral one. Our point is simply that no newspaper is forced to accept any ad.
The full page, single spaced ads, are the work of a Seventh Day Adventist splinter group based in Palm Beach, Florida. The Eternal Gospel Church has run dozens of these hate ads in dailies all over the country. Most recently, they ran in the Marietta Times of Ohio and the Montgomery Journal in Alexandria, Virginia. The league is awaiting a response from the publishers of these two newspapers.
In one sense, the ads are so dumb that it is tempting to discount them. On the other hand, the ads are definitely feeding anti-Catholicism and must be protested every time they run.
We’re still not sure who’s funding this group, but whoever they are, they’re loaded. Ads of this size cost upwards of $100,000 each. In any event, we love checkmating them whenever we can.
