As if coordinated, a slew of articles appeared across American media outlets this past weekend, each of them hysterically warning of the threat of so called ‘Christian Nationalism’.
What is ‘Christian Nationalism’?
In general it seems to be Christian conservativism which opposes the nation wrecking neo conservativism of the past two decades, prioritising investment in the United States of America rather than in say, shooting children with drones in Pakistan. Critically, these ‘Christian Nationalists’ also generally eschew Zionism, which had been another long running feature of American Neo Conservativism. Lastly, these ‘Christian Nationalists’ generally expect victory when it comes to politics, which makes them more threatening than Neo Conservatives, who tended to be malleable when it came to social issues.
Somehow in the midst of this political climate in the United States of America, it is the Rosary that has provoked the ire of the regime media.
Many is the time that a liberal Catholic has played down the significance of the Rosary or cast it to the side as a relic of bygone era, yet here we are in 2022 and number of major media outlets across the United States are trying to equate it to a Machine Gun, though not in the metaphorical way that many Catholics have done previously, this comparison blurs the lines between the real violence of physical guns and
Author Dan Panneton, who is not a Christian himself but is in fact Jewish, writes:
Just as the AR-15 rifle has become a sacred object for Christian nationalists in general, the rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or “rad trad”) Catholics. On this extremist fringe, rosary beads have been woven into a conspiratorial politics and absolutist gun culture. These armed radical traditionalists have taken up a spiritual notion that the rosary can be a weapon in the fight against evil and turned it into something dangerously literal.
What is this dangerously literal interpretation?
According to Panneton, it is Crusader memes that have been around much of the past decade.
The article eventually disappears on a bizarre tangent where the author appears to try to throw as much mud at the issue as possible, conflating the metaphorical weapon of prayer with real literal weapons that shoot and kill people.
Militia culture, a fetishism of Western civilization, and masculinist anxieties have become mainstays of the far right in the U.S.—and rad-trad Catholics have now taken up residence in this company. Their social-media accounts commonly promote accelerationist and survivalist content, along with combat-medical and tactical training, as well as memes depicting balaclava-clad gunmen that draw on the “terrorwave” or “warcore” aesthetic that is popular in far-right circles.
This Americancentric diatribe fails to address that the recent resurgence of the Rosary as a public symbol of devotion and strength is most prominent in places like Poland and Ireland, where Ritalin fueled school shootings at the hands of supermarket machine gun customers are completely alien. It also fails to address the fact that 100 churches were burned in his native Canada last year, mostly under provocation from journalists.
He mentions, without providing any examples, that ‘alt right activists’ had fantasised about ‘killing pro choice activists’ after the termination of Roe vs. Wade, even though Catholic churches bore the brunt of the violence in the wake of the ruling.
He finishes by saying:
The sacramental rosary isn’t just a spiritual weapon but one that comes with physical ammunition.
This is one of the darkest articles you could ever read about Catholicism, not merely because of its content but also due to the nonchalance with which he delivers it. Unverified generalisations, hysterical assumptions about what is taking place in the minds of Catholic men and deliberate misrepresentations of innocuous objects such as ‘Combat Rosaries’.
All of this from a campaigner against ‘hate’, no less.
Panneton has targeted anything even remotely resembling Traditional Catholicism recently, recently writing:
Some traditional Catholics believe that the Vatican II reforms were secretly a plot to destroy the Church from the inside by Freemasons.
The opposition to Freemasonry is not an internet conspiracy, Masons are the subject of more papal encyclicals than any other topic.
In other posts, he criticised acclaimed documentary Mass of Ages. Panneton seems to be under the impression that the Second Vatican Council abrogated the Latin Mass because it was Anti Semetic, he writes:
There were a lot of reforms like no longer blaming Jews for killing Jesus
Nowhere in his article does he offer a fair explanation of what the Rosary is or of its history. He does not mention, for example, its role in the Battle of Lepanto, when fervent praying of the Rosary led to the defeat of Muslims who had hoped to conquer Christendom. Nor does he mention those Irish who were banned from Mass (amongst other things) for centuries under the Penal Laws, the Rosary became a particularly virulent form of private devotion in the face of tyranny.
Surely a journalist who has worked extensively with Holocaust Education would take the time to try to understand the symbols of other persecuted minorities, rather than say, simply demonising them?
The article also fails to provide any context on the USA’s long suffering Catholic minority, who did much to promote the Rosary, particularly Irish priest Father Patrick Peyton. Peyton promoted the Rosary across the United States and beyond, preaching in person to millions of people. He was generally a non controversial character, being one of the first to utilise mass media, with his phrase ‘The Family that prays together stays together’. Even his family friendly brand of Rosary evangelisation spoke about the Rosary as a ‘weapon’ against cultural forces that were hostile to Catholicism:
The rosary is the offensive weapon that will destroy Communism—the great evil that seeks to destroy the faith
What did Fr. Peyton call his campaign to get families to pray the Rosary? Rosary Crusade.
Even Christ Himself used weaponry as a rhetorical device, stating that he did not bring peace but a ‘sword’.
Ultimately, the author of this piece seems to resent that Catholics have found a symbol to unite them when they are threatened by malevolent forces from outside.
To publish an article like this on the even of the Feast of the Assumption is either deliberate provocation or profound ignorance, or both.
Either way, this article would have been better served trying to understand or to explain why the Rosary is so important to Catholics, rather than in the disparaging matter that it was presented.
Even better yet, perhaps the author could reflect on his own religious beliefs and explain them, rather than simply trying to wage war on those whom he chooses not to understand.
With what is happening in Nicaragua, Nigeria and elsewhere at the moment, Catholics should not be hesitant to defend themselves. Catholics in those countries are aware of how quickly this sort of rhetoric can degenerate into persecution, imprisonment and slaughter.
This quote attributed to Oliver Cromwell, says it all:
All is not well with Ireland yet. You gave us the money, you gave us the guns. But let me tell you that every house in Ireland is a house of prayer, and when I bring these fanatical Irish before the muzzles of my guns, they hold up in their hands a string of beads, and they never surrender.
You can read The Atlantic’s hate piece here: How Rad-Trad Catholics Weaponized the Rosary - The Atlantic