Anti-Catholicism in American Culture

Product Description

Would a major American newspaper accept a full-page ad viciously denigrating African Americans, Jews, or another minority? Of course not. But when the target is the Catholic Church, the rules change.

Anti-Catholicism has been an integral part of American culture from the time the Pilgrims landed at Cape Cod. Even in today's supposedly tolerant climate, vicious stereotypes, falsified history, misrepresentation of religious beliefs, as well as ridicule and public attack of Catholics are commonplace. Anti-Catholicism has become the last refuge of acceptable bigotry.

In Anti-Catholicism in American Culture, a series of essays that includes the Center for Media and Public Affairs' newest report on media coverage of the Catholic Church, discover first-hand:

• The seven anti-Catholic assumptions common to the American experience
• The sordid account of an anti-Catholic diatribe that has been a best-selling "religious" title for more than 155 years
• Why the role of women is a flash point for criticism of the Church
• How the focus of anti-Catholicism has changed radically from the 1960s to the 1990s
• Ways priests are simultaneously depicted as being sexually repressed prudes and licentious perverts
• How the secular media ridicule Catholic teaching under the guise of freedom of speech

As well as:
• Comprehensive analysis of media coverage of the Catholic Church from 1963-1998
• Twelve practical ways to improve relationships with the secular media that actually work, by William A. Donohue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights