In yesterday's New York Times, columnist Frank Rich called Mel Gibson a "bigoted blowhard," branding his movie "The Passion of the Christ" anti-Semitic; he also attacked several Catholic and Protestant leaders who befriended Gibson, including Catholic League president Bill Donohue. Donohue responds as follows:If Frank Rich were as sensitive to anti-Catholicism as he is anti-Semitism, there would be no problem. But the fact is he has an ugly record of attacking those who object to anti-Catholicism, but not the bigotry itself. The following examples suffice: the 1995 movie "Priest"; the 1998 play "Corpus Christi"; the 1999 Brooklyn Museum of Art exhibition, "Sensation"; the 1999 movie "Dogma"; the vitriolic reaction to Catholicism that accompanied "The Passion of the Christ"; his own newspaper's hypocritical and selective crusade against priestly wrongdoing; the ongoing "war on Christmas," etc. In every instance, his ire was directed at the protesters, not the object of their protest.
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