One of our good members, John Boone from Woodland, California, recently sent us a back issue of a newspaper called The Christian Activist. Published by James Buchfuehrer out of Mt. Hermon, California, the publication fancies itself as “A Journal of Orthodox Opinion.” But from what we’ve read, it sounds more like a journal of orthodox anti-Catholicism. Indeed, the organ actually advertises its bigotry, softened only by its uppity “pro” Catholic stance. Here is an editorial comment that makes this very point, taken from the March issue.
“A number of readers have reacted to several recent articles in The Christian Activist as ‘anti-Catholic.’ A number of other readers have chided us for giving space to ‘pro-Catholic’ pieces (i.e. in favorable treatment of the Pope’s stand on human life issues). We are pleased to be criticized both as ‘anti-’ and ‘pro-’ Catholic, since we are indeed both! We are pro-Catholic in the sense that we have a deep appreciation of the best that the Western Church has to offer. We also appreciate the principled stand that John Paul II has taken on a number of issues like abortion and euthanasia. However, we are also anti-Catholic inasmuch as we deplore not only the Western and Latin Church’s departure from the Holy tradition of the ages, but also because we deeply regret on behalf of our very Roman Catholic friends the liturgical and doctrinal chaos that has engulfed the many sincere believers in the Roman Church since Vatican II.
“Why does a ‘journal of Orthodox opinion’ such as ours even care what becomes of Roman Catholicism? We care because the Western Church was once Orthodox. We care because many Roman Catholics are sincerely seeking Christ. We care because many Orthodox need to look honestly at the fruits of Roman liturgical innovation and work hard to avoid the modern temptation. We care because some Orthodox ecumenists seem to want to sweep the actual state of Roman Catholicism under the carpet so that they do not have to explain why they are angling their fellow Orthodox towards ‘union’ with Rome.”
This is as good a commentary on how nativistic anti-Catholicism portrays the Church.
