There is a disturbing trend I have seen lately: youtubers randomly and for no apparent reason bashing Catholics and the Catholic Church. It appears to bolster the view that the last acceptable prejudice is anti-Catholicism (words from author Philip Jenkins). Perhaps this explains why many Youtubers and social media personalities so readily opt to bash Catholics without giving it much thought.
To be clear, I'm not talking about just any Youtubers, I'm talking about people with broad appeal with many followers. Usually Youtubers thankfully take the stance of not espousing any particular political belief or belief in general. They wish to remain neutral on most things in order to appeal to the broadest audience. This is what makes these statements so surprising.
Let me give a couple of examples to clarify what I am talking about.
Adam Ragusea:
I was watching a video by Adam Ragusea who focuses on cooking home meals. He's not a professional chef, but he has learned some things and he produces videos with high production value. He generally seems to stay away from discussion on politics and religion. You can tell he is probably a liberal in many regards, but he doesn't bring it up front and center, so watching his videos is normally fine.
One day he was talking about being attacked for writing an article about Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" song and being interviewed on the article. He made some small mistakes and he was mercilessly bashed by know-it-all music critics. He was criticizing what was happening.
The anti-catholicism came up when he compared these critics to the Catholic Church hierarchy. He jokingly said the Church tells everyone they cannot read the Bible on their own or have their own opinions because the hierarchy has "funny hats" that others do not, or something along those lines. I guess the point he was trying to make was that some people are elitist, and was saying the Church is like that as well.
Anyone who knows anything about the Church knows this is false. It's in fact the opposite. We don't listen to people because of their hats, we listen to them because they are holiest and most learned people within the Church. The hats are worn by bishops and they get these hats because they have been seen to be holy, spiritual, and able to guide the flock. So the knowledge, understanding, grace, and wisdom come first and the position comes later.
However, we don't only listen to those in the hierarchy or those of a certain rank. Many Doctors of the Church, those who best enunciate Church teachings, were not bishops or popes, but perhaps only priests, and even several women.
So, his analogy is wrong. I'm not saying his speech is some kind of discrimination. It's just his fallacious point of view. I'm not saying Catholics are some kind of victims or something. I'm just pointing out the ease with which a personality like him can make these assertions. Would he say such a thing about other religions? I doubt it.
Awaken with JP (Sears)
JP Sears is a well-known critic of Covid protocols and rules. He has also criticized other things prior to Covid such as political correctness and censorship. His comedy centers on parodying and mocking left-wing ideologies.
A couple of times I have heard him bash the Catholic Church and the hierarchy of the Church. However, it was for no apparent reason and made little sense in the context.
Most recently he made a video about fact-checkers. These are the groups online who allegedly fact-check information present on various social media such as Facebook and Twitter. They are criticized for being biased and not providing valid fact-checking. In particular, JP criticized them for all being on the same side as well-known left-wing activists and could thus not be unbiased as they should be.
However, out of nowhere he says sarcastically the fact-checkers can be trusted just like priests could be trusted not to abuse children. This is an extremely overused example. I don't really see how it really fits here. His video has nothing to do with Catholicism or even religion in general. Why drag the church into it just to bash it?
What is strange about this is that many Christians probably appreciate his videos. Why go out of your way to alienate your supporters? I even remember Patrick Coffin posting to Facebook that he likes JP Sears and his videos. Coffin is a very devout Catholic and would be put off by these comments.
Abuse definitely happened in the Church and it's a horrible tragedy. I'm all for routing out the evil. But most people are not able or willing to make the distinction between the hierarchy and structure of the Church and churchgoing Catholics, let alone a distinction between good and bad priests and bishops. Bringing up comments about clergy sexual abuse out of nowhere does nothing but provide fodder to anti-Catholic attitudes.
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I cannot say why these social media personalities randomly resort to Catholic-bashing that is out of context and can easily turn off much of their audience. I feel it is absolutely unnecessary and they should refrain from doing this.
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