Catholic League president slams Huckabee for 'subliminal' cross ad

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Source: The Raw Story

GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee's new Christmas-themed campaign ad -- which may or may not feature a subliminal cross image -- has found an unlikely critic in Catholic League president Bill Donahue.

The opening seconds of Hucakabee's Christmas spot features the candidate seated in front of a window pane which appears to form the shape of the Christian cross. Speaking in the ad, the former Arkansas governor tells viewers that "sometimes it's nice to pull aside" from politics and "remember that what really matters is the celebration of the birth of Christ and being with our family and our friends."

Donahue, the president of the Catholic League and an ardent defender of Christmas in what he believes is a secular "war" against the holiday, told hosts of the Fox and Friends morning program that the ad had gone too far.

"The whole idea is to give the appearance of a cross," he said, "and this is just injecting religion into politics even too far for guys like me."

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Fox_rips_Huckabee_for_using_subliminal_1218.html

[Richard D]

1. May or may not????

Subliminal?????

Like a Mac truck is subliminal.

Pretty tacky.

[Barrett808]

6. Really. Like a sledgehammer to the face.

Pretty liminal, if you ask me.

[hatrack]

34. Precisely - about as "subliminal" as a breaching blue whale

:eyes:

[meegbear]

2. I wonder how much is "outrage" ...

and how much is a slapdown on a Rudy challenger.

[chieftain]

17. Your explanation makes sense to me.

[Eric J in MN]

18. Yeah, given the choice between believing...

a) Bill Donahue is against too much religion in politics, OR
b) He's saying that as a way to support a Republican running against Mike Huckabee,

...my guess would be "b."

[gratuitous]

3. Oh fer Christ's sakes

William Donahue is all of a sudden concerned about injecting religion into political discourse? What a fucking hypocrite. Why in the ever-loving, blue-eyed world does anyone give this lunatic the time of day, let alone turn over a platform to him to spew his noxious bigotry?

[JBoy]

4. This is begging for an SNL skit

Where they show candidates competing with ever more blatantly pandering religious ads.

[CatholicEdHead]

5. WTF? Donahue and the Catholic League are nuts

but this is really confusing. Coming together with family and friends and putting aside differences is bad at Christmas? We only need to be concerned with making sure that the "War on Christmas" comes first and needs to be won?

Donahue is getting more desperate and nuttier by the day. I guess that he is upset as it is probably a naked cross in the ad. In hard-core Catholicism it has to have a crucified Jesus on it to "count".

While I am not a fan of either, there is nothing really here in this specific ad by Hucakabee.

[Mz Pip]

8. Everytime I see that guy

I worry for his blood pressure. He always seems like he is about to explode over something. He went bananas over "The Da Vinci Code". He sees secularist boogiemen everywhere.

The guy needs to take a chill pill or apend a bit more time reading the Sermon on the Mount, if he really is looking for answers in religion.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[CatholicEdHead]

15. He goes nuts about pretty much EVERYTHING

From the Golden Compass crap to going back to blame all same-gender preference people for the sex scandal, it never ends.

Check out the South Park episode from last Easter, they roasted Donahue pretty good.

[EFerrari]

23. Watch it again. That's what I saw as well. It's creepy because

it's obviously intentional.

[AngryOldDem]

7. ..."and this is just injecting religion into politics even too far for guys like me."

So says a man who would like nothing more than to have religion play a major role in American politics.

:eyes:

[Amerigo Vespucci]

9. For whatever this is worth...

...I'm Catholic and I'm offended by the concept of religion playing a major role in politics.

I remember the 2004 election. My church has an "intentions" portion of the Mass, and one of the intentions that was offered up was that voters would "choose a candidate that respects the rights of the unborn."

I have friends who, when John Kerry's name was mentioned, would immediately and without hesitation say "HE'S PRO-ABORTION!"

Translation: Kerry's a baby killer and George W. Bush respects the rights of the unborn.

They also had "informative evenings" so that people could "gain insight into the candidates' platforms," but the purpose of the evening was essentially to remind you that John Kerry wants to kill unborn babies and George W. Bush respects the rights of the unborn.

What a lot of people don't understand is that religion...in my own personal situation, I cannot speak for others...includes a significant degree of free will. If I hear something that sounds like utter crap, then I register it as utter crap, whether it's coming from inside or outside of the four walls of my church.

Unfortunately, some times people confront intolerance WITH intolerance, which means no one wins.

I think we all know what being "born again" did for George W. Bush. That's not an endorsement, it's a cautionary tale.

[AngryOldDem]

14. Totally agree

And I also find it scary that people just cannot think for themselves, and I find it absolutely maddening that there are plenty of others out there who are more than willing to take advantage of that.

I've been fortunate in that I have yet to hear a blatantly political homily at Mass. If I did, I would most likely walk out. And how any Catholic can paint George Bush as being "pro-life" (at least from the Catholic Social Teaching definition of the word) is utterly beyond me.

[CatholicEdHead]

16. That is what this style of religion is

I sometimes post on a ultra-conservative Catholic board and any questioning whatsoever means they pile on you to submit to Rome, case closed, no discussion allowed. Debate is met with a list of church rules interpreted that debate is not allowed.

This is the type of group that Donahue is going after for attention, they also worship at his feet there and rarely have issues with his rants.

[saigon68]

25. The Chimp doesn't respect life

He loves to masturbate at the thought that his servants are killing islamics by the thousands

[rodeodance]

10. Bill Donahue.--is an embarrassment to the average Catholic

[theredpen]

13. "The Catholic Plague" n/t

[Dr. Strange]

11. Hey, I think I see the virgin Mary in the branches of the Christmas tree too!

And maybe the profile of Speed Racer. Wonder what message Huckabee is trying to send there?

[TwilightGardener]

12. I seriously wonder what God thinks of Mike Huckabee exploiting

Him in such a blatant way for political power and wealth--no better than any other phony televangelist. Methinks Huckabee will not like where he ends up for his Final Reward.

[baldguy]

19. Republicans eating their own

Keep it up!

[goodgd_yall]

20. I have another take on this

Like most Catholics, he dislikes wearing religion on your sleeve. It's a Catholic cultural thing. They are not into proselytizing or talking about their religion publicly. I believe the guy is being honest. Of course, throw in that as a Catholic he believes he belongs to the "one true Church" and then listening to protestant politicians yammering about their religion is really going to tick him off.

[theredpen]

21. Actually, yeah

I think you're spot on.

I just hate to admit that Donohue is acting like anything less than a complete twit. It's kinda like you have to give Bill O'Reilly credit for opposing the death penalty, even if it hurts.

Of course, it would be interesting to see how much fuss Donohue would raise if a Catholic Republican (i.e. Giuliani) threw a little religion in the mix. Then again, as you said, Catholic politicians don't evangelize like that.

[goodgd_yall]

22. Being raised Catholic

I know there was always this, at the minimum, annoyance when some public figure, especially a politician, started talking about their faith, religion, etc. Of course, when I was young, there weren't any politicians doing it that much. It's part of my cultural upbringing still, even though I don't consider myself Catholic anymore, that I have a real distaste for politicians making religion part of their campaign stump speeches.

[EFerrari]

24. Except it wasn't a "little religion". The huckster is clearly imaged

as Christ in the ad.

That's pretty much a LOT of religion. lol :)

[yojon]

28. Notice the camera pan...

At the end of the pan, Huck's head is right in the middle of the cross.....

[EFerrari]

31. Exactly. It was either intentional or it was a miracle! n/t

[theredpen]

35. Whoa! I hadn't seen the ad when I posted #21! n/t

[EFerrari]

37. I caught it by accident. Can you believe someone is running for President

ON THAT AD?

I can take or leave Donahue, mostly leave him. But that ad should raise hackles among people who still think separating church and state is a good idea!

[theredpen]

38. I can believe it... which is actually quite sad n/t

[NashVegas]

29. I Guess

If we saw an ad with Rudy framed by little candles in red, glass holders, that'd be a tip off. A crucifix would be way too obvious.

[tomg]

27. To a certain extent, I agree

with what you say about Catholic politicians. Even theologically, public testimony of faith or sinfulness is rather alien to Roman Catholics, particularly to Irish Catholics. We confess (Say, God, sorry about that little misunderstanding with the altar boy. Glad we can keep this between ourselves). Protestant traditions, particularly Baptist, often encourage publicly testifying ( Yes, I'm a sinner and the devil led me to that room with the crystal meth, the three hookers and the goat in the negligee. But now I'm saved so send me more money).

With that said, Donoghue honest? It is Donoghue, for God's sake. And he's calling on the Huckster for injecting too much religion into politics? And the Huckster is denying it? The hypocrisy of the two of them is beyond hilarious.

I am an ex-Catholic - thirteen years of Catholic ed. - but I am not knee-jerk anti-Catholic or Evangelical(or anti-religious in any way for that matter). I know too many Dorothy Day Catholics and have read Sojourner for far too long. But God, I love a good battle between hypocrites.

[goodgd_yall]

32. I don't know enough about the man--

Donoghue (sic), to tell you the truth, to have been able to judge the hypocrisy. There's one thing to try to force your own morality on people and another to talk about the specifics of your religion (Jesus, "came to Christ," etc) as part of your political discourse. So that's where I see a difference. But I'm not all that hip to what Donoghue's been up to.

I'm not knee-jerk anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, or anti-religion in general either, but I must admit to being anti-fundamentalist, as fundamentalism is usually expressed. And even there, if fundamentalists were not so influential politically, I wouldn't really care.

[tomg]

36. You and I are on the same page with this,

including the attitude toward fundamentalists. Oh, and for some reason, I always screw up his name. One of my favorite teachers in grad school was a guy named Donoghue, so I always misspell it when it is in one of the other forms.

[xchrom]

26. donahue is jealous that a catholic candidate didn't think of it first. nt

[EFerrari]

33. Have you seen the ad? It's the creepiest. It's like being asked to vote

for Christ on the cross. I'm a lapsed Catholic and sort of used to all those images but it snapped even my head back. :shrug:

[AngryOldDem]

30. Huck's response...

"There's nothing offensive about the spot. In fact, if you play it backward, you'll see 'Paul is dead, Paul is dead.'"

Just heard on CNN.

They just don't know when to quit, do they? (But you kinda have to give Huck props for knowing the reference, though.)

[IndianaGreen]

39. Bill Donahue is a fucking moron and a jackbooted pro-Vatican thug

His "Catholic League" is a very small organization that has more in common with Mel Gibson than with the average American Catholic.

I don't care what Donahue says about Huckabee, or anyone else. Donahue is a pig!