On spreading hate

Image: Charles Edward Coughlin? radio priest - 1940's by The Retro-Spector

Father Charles E. Coughlin was a Catholic priest turned public figure in the 1930’s and 40’s that built his career spreading his thoughts on various social, economical and political topics via radio and printed press. The thoughts he shared with his audience, however, were not necessarily anything positive or productive – on the contrary, he used his influence on the masses (that went up to 45 million listeners at times) to criticize politicians and economists, and spread anti-Semitic messages.

Reading his story made me feel uncomfortable to say the least, to imagine someone in the field he was in, with the power to reach so many millions of people, using this power to hurt and hate others. Going over the things he said and imagining how bad he made so many people feel turns my stomach upside down.  How did someone like him get to have access to a microphone?

Something that I thought was curious and almost funny in an ironic way was that in one of his radio shows, he challenged all the Jews in America to tell him that they believed in the principle of loving their neighbor as themselves. He’s one to talk! So spending all his time and energy hurting others with his venomous words was an act of love and purity? Defending the Nazis, whose terrible acts resulted in the death of millions of innocent people, inspiring the masses to act violently against one another and to riot, is that all part of God’s teachings?

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think calling him a huge hypocrite is being nice and sweet. Having been raised a catholic – even though I couldn’t be farther from that these days – I was under the impression that priests were supposed to use their influence to inspire others to love themselves and others blindly, and to lead lives that resemblance that of Jesus Christ. I’m not innocent enough to not know this isn’t all that realistic, growing up being put down by the church and their many opinions on homosexuality, but this Father took the hypocrisy to a whole new level.

I will not include the members of the Government and economists in this because they have also done their share of repulsive things, but I feel bad for the Jewish people who lived in these times. I hope they got to understand that this man wasn’t very sane and that paying attention to his message wasn’t worth their time. I think this is a clear example of someone who had power and used it for all the wrong things, and I hope this serves as a lesson to the media to think twice about who they give the chance to speak to an audience.