Lest anyone accuse me of Jew hatred, let me make it abundantly clear that I would welcome with open arms all 15 million Jews in the world to move into my state of Virginia, most especially the orthodox; maybe not the Soros types, but sure, bring them, too.

I have always loved my Jewish brothers and sisters. I fondly remember Deborah Calabrese bringing in the Menorah to our goyishe third-grade class in Columbia, Missouri. In college, I spent an inordinate amount of time hanging out with Jewish guys and dating my share of Jewish women, who were the most beautiful and hilarious.

A fallen away Methodist, back in those days, before I moved to toward Catholicism, I briefly flirted with Judaism.

In my New York days, well, Jews everywhere, with very close Jewish friends. I most especially loved the tough Jews, the Israelis who ran various businesses. They seemed not only wise but tough. An acquaintance of mine when I worked at Rolling Stone, Rich Cohen, now a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, wrote a book I love called Tough Jews. He wrote another book about Jews in the music business, mostly Motown.

When I lived in New York, I would ride my bike over to Williamsburg on Saturday afternoons to hang around and see the beautiful parade of Hasidic Jews on Shabbat, what with those amazing big hats, long beards, shiny pants, slippers, and their long curling payes. I even took my family there a few years ago so they could see this remarkable culture. America is so homogenized these days; it is a delight to see such vibrant subcultures.

You could say I am thoroughly philo-semitic.

Having said all this, I am unhappy with Carrie Prejean getting her two minutes of hate for what she said and asked at the Religious Liberty Commission last week. Let me nuance this: I am writing only about what she said at the Commission and nowhere else. I am not prepared to go down every podcast and 𝕏 rabbit hole to respond to everything she has said about Israel and/or the Jewish people.

At the Commission, she challenged various Jewish representatives to say something about what is happening to the Palestinian people in Gaza. Truth be told, prior to October 7, I thought very little about the Palestinians except that they needed to get their act together and maybe move to Jordan or Egypt, but I know neither country is interested. I have been scolded by Catholic diplomats at the United Nations for not paying attention to the plight of the Palestinians. The thing is, you can only care about so much, and the Palestinians have not been on my radar screen, and my reflex has always been for Israel.

Is this enough throat clearing?

Maybe it was imprudent of Prejean to ask these questions at this event. I readily concede that. And clearly, she got some things wrong, like when she said she was Catholic and Catholics do not support Israel. 

I am unhappy with Carrie Prejean getting her two minutes of hate for what she said and asked at the Religious Liberty Commission last week. Tweet This

And it was unclear what she believes about scriptural references to Jews killing Christ. It is clear that a group of Jews, along with Romans, did just that, but this did not and does not redound to either generations of Jews or Romans. But her belief in that was not entirely clear. It appears she wanted a Protestant minister to explain how that passage is or is not anti-Semitic in the current official definitions. Clearly, she thinks the current definition of anti-Semitism puts that Scripture in the anti-category.

She also said that “Catholics don’t support Zionism.” This is both true and false because some Catholics do, others don’t. While the Vatican recognizes the constitutional State of Israel, the Church does not recognize its theological roots. Modern Israel is not biblical Israel. She very well could have been referencing this distinction. It was hard to tell.  

Anyway, has she deserved all that she has gotten? First, there was the putting her in her place. Bill Donahue lowered that boom: 

Prejean Boller is a former Miss California and a convert to Catholicism. She does not run a Catholic organization, has no Catholic credentials as an author or instructor, and indeed represents no one but herself. For her to say, without qualification, that “Catholics do not embrace Zionism,” is presumptuous and arrogant. 

Her Catholic card was not up to date enough to opine. Granted, her Catholic card is new.

There was also a bit of straw-manning. Shawn Carney of 40 Days for Life accused her of saying “Catholics are against Jews.” I am not aware she said anything like this during the Commission meeting. I have to think his quote was mangled by the reporter at the New York Post or that Carney mangled something Prejean said.

In the same way, fellow Commission member Ryan Anderson responded on 𝕏 by posting a paper by former Pope Benedict XVI that says, “Both theses—that Israel is not replaced by the Church and that the covenant was never revoked—are basically correct but are in many ways imprecise and need to be given further critical consideration.” I could be completely wrong, but I am not sure that Prejean made either of these claims. It is interesting that in the paper Anderson posted, the former pope also said there is no scriptural warrant for modern-day constitutional Israel, even though the Vatican recognizes Israel as a state.

It is interesting that in the paper Anderson posted, the former pope also said there is no scriptural warrant for modern-day constitutional Israel, even though the Vatican recognizes Israel as a state.Tweet This

What is happening now is that Prejean is being held up to universal opprobrium. She is being charged with doing this to get new followers on social media. It seems to me we owe her the respect that she believes what she says and not assume there are ulterior social media motives.

As it is, she is under attack like Custer on that hill. I ask, does she really deserve this? Maybe she was wrong in these interventions. Maybe she was wrong in her assertions. But does she deserve these two minutes of hate?

The late, great Michael Novak used to say that you need at least two hours of conversation before you understand what your disagreement is about.

Finally, the problem for my fellow philo-Semites is that such attacks are harming our cause. Guarding the border with machine guns, even verbal ones, can have the result of turning people away from our cause.