KKK and Catholics

[Ghosty]

Is this relative a Catholic?

Since he’s not a Catholic, the best you can do in my opinion is to be a great example of the Catholic Faith. That doesn’t mean preaching about the Dogmas of the Faith, but it does mean showing the Glory of God through your actions, and calmly expressing the equality of all humans before God. Just remember, and remind him, that the Son took HUMAN nature, not “white” nature, or “black” nature, or any other non-sensical definition.

If he was Catholic I was going to recommend being much, much heavier on him. Not only does the KKK and its ilk (including the Nazis of Europe) have a history of murderous animosity against Catholics, and the Church has a history of condemnation against such groups, but many of our greatest Saints (St. Augustine, the Apostles, the Desert Fathers who founded Monasticism, to name just a few) and modern members (much of Africa and growing portions of Asian, and almost all of Latin America) are of non-European heritage.

An “all-white” Catholic Church would be such a small fragment of our true heritage that it would be like amputating the body to save a few fingers.

Peace and God bless!

 

[sawman]

Was your alma mater an all black school because they refused white/hispanic/asian/native american students or because it was a black neighborhood and a neighborhood school?

Regarding another post, don’t you think people should be able to choose to live where they want and can afford to live? If they choose to live with ‘their own kind’ or not would be up to them. There’s an inherent freedom in being able to choose where you live according to your means. And, yes, you do see populations of ethnic/racial groups living close to each other…but then you see mixed areas, too. I think it should be up to the family or individual.

Regarding schools, in a perfect world where people were free of biases and every school had excellent teachers, involved parents and excellent resources, kids could just go to their neighborhood school and receive an good education.

The school I was referring to was my college. There would have been an international outrage if the government had descided to segregate my school. It will never happen that way,if ever.
I believe people should be able tobuy a house wherever they want and can afford.I for instance would never buy my house in a black neighborhood. I’ve had too many experiences with “black” culture to be comfortable living in close proximity. This is not got one bit of racial animosity to it,but is rather due several reasons.
You speak of a perfect world.What is the point?We manifestly live in an imperfect world,and as far as I can see in the area of racial relations,Government involvement at every level has done nothing but make things worse. I’m talking about since 1964,the civil rights act.

 

[JustaServant]

If I may. There is (or was at one time) a shadowy connection between the KKK and American Christian fundamentalism. Both movements grew simultaneously to one another after the Civil War and especially at the turn of the century.
Many of the ‘founders’ of fundamentalism such as Bob Jones Sr., Billy Sunday, J. Frank Norris, Bob Schuler and many others were very sympathetic to the Klan. Although I can find no smoking gun that they were members. A building on the campus of Bob Jones University is dedicated to a Klan grand dragon who was once a govenor of a southern state. There are still ‘churches’ in the deep south that cater to the Klan, silently, if not overtly.
So, no great surprise that the Klan is anti-Catholic.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Senator Robert Byrd was once a Klansman. Not only that, I believe he was the Grand Dragon or Great Spotted Owl or Magnificent Snail Darter or something.

Nothing good about the Klan. When I was a kid they had pretty much ended their activity around here. But back in the thirties a local police chief gave my Dad a copy of their membership list. Just about every prominent Protestant in town was on it. Their grandchildren are now some of the most prominent people in town. But I never say anything about it. Interestingly, the membership was almost the same as the membership in the Masons.

 

[kalt]

People tend to to congregate with others of like mind, etc. I think this is a freedom human beings can have. I think if one did it due to hatred or pride, then it would be sinful of course.

That however raises the question of forced de-segregation, as often happens in schools. I can see just reasons for it (to eliminate segregation due to unjust attitudes) especially since children who’s parents choose public school don’t usually get to choose the school anyway. But overall, I’m uncertain.

Desegregating schools has been a disaster for public schools in my area. They took kids from poor areas and sent them to “better” schools. When that resulted in nothing but making the “better” schools not as good, they decided to send the kids who lived in the “better” school’s area to the “worse” schools.

After a short 40 years, we know what desegregtation does. In one high school that in the 50’s and even the early 60’s was sending kids to good colleges, including the Ivy Leagues, there is now barely a kid who can function. High schools in the city are showing a proficiency rate in math that is truly patheric. In this particular high school (the one that used to produce Ivy Leaguers), the proficiency rate in math is 2%. Yep, only 2% of the kids in this school can do math. And that’s the rate of kids that scored proficient, which means barely knows the material. I’m not sure if any kid in the school actually got a high score on the test.

The city schools have been destroyed by busing. The people who care about their kids’ education left the city years ago.

Most of the people who are left claim that they care about their kid’s education, but they allow an absentee rate that is truly amazing. And they fight the schools when they try to discipline the kids for being absent. Same for disruptive behavior. Same for criminal behavior. Same for bad grades.

Of course the drop-out rate is appalling. With a proficieny rate of 2%, that’s not a surprise.

I feel bad for the few families that actually do care about their kid’s education but are stuck in the city.

 

[kalt]

So how would you handle it if your close relative (father, mother, brother,sister…) were in the KKK (or at least expressed similar beliefs)?

I don’t know. At first I might be interested in picking his brain to try to figure out they try to make their nonsense make sense. But I think that wouldn’t last long. After that, I would tell him that he can believe what he wants, but keep it to yourself.

If I had little kids, I would keep the kids away from him.

 

[sawman]

I don’t know. At first I might be interested in picking his brain to try to figure out they try to make their nonsense make sense. But I think that wouldn’t last long. After that, I would tell him that he can believe what he wants, but keep it to yourself.

If I had little kids, I would keep the kids away from him.

I do have a close relative who is very simpathetic to the klan and all they stand for.The family member is my son. I argue with him. I remind him that he was not raised to be this way. He is an adult now. He knows he can’t win an arguement with me,I think he also knows that he is really very wrong about race relations,but I cannot get him to renounce his views.
I think also that the advent of government schools has been one of the greatest evils we as a nation have perpetrated upon ourselves.We have done a grave harm to the social fabric of this country.

 

[Kielbasi]

The KKK started out as an organization of Civil War vets which also opposed reconstruction often violently in the post war period. They were just about extinct by 1915.

In that year, the blockbuster motion picture The Birth of a Nation was released, which glorified the klan. In the subsequent months and years, the producers of the film and others made literally millions selling memberships to the KKK, and by the mid-20s they had literally millions of members. Fully 15% of eligibles, white, native born, protestant males ended up joining.

After financial and moral scandals, the membership subsequentially nosedived, but the remnants were around to oppose, sometimes violently, against the ending of racial segregation.

Not everyone who supported racial segregation was a member of the KKK. The klan certainly didn’t invent it, plenty of Catholics and others thought it was a good idea in both the north and the south, even among those who hated the klan.

 

[Rand_Al_Thor]

The KKK is an anti-Catholic organization. They have changed their charter to de-list Catholics as one of the groups they oppose, but they haven’t changed their behavior.

My grandfather, Captain Jack Clooney, and his brothers stood off the KKK at gunpoint in Lake Charles, LA. The church I attended when I was in high school, Saint Mary’s in Batesville, Arkansas, was desecrated and burned by the KKK in the 1970s.

My grandfather (when he lived in the south for a while) and some friends had a Bible study at their church once a week. They got word that some klansmen were going to be stopping by to do something…beat them up, vandalize the church, I’m not sure exactly what. So being the Irish Catholics they were (and the KKK doesn’t like either of those groups), they showed up as normal to their Bible study…but brought pick-axe handles with them. And the klansmen left faster than they came!

 

[drafdog]

Catholic position on the KKK???
Catholic means “here comes everyone!”
That means we welcome them, and the Jews, and the Blacks, and the Irish, and the Poles, and the Italians and …

Matthew

 

[drafdog]

There being no Klan chapter in the area, a Montana man sent in to the Grand Dragon and asked for information on starting one. He was sent an application for membership which he duly filled out and sent back with the membership fee. He was sent a membership card, literature and a notice that he was appointed the head of the local chapter of the Klan. The man took the relevant documents to a local newspaper and a news item appeared shortly after announcing “Local black man heads Klan chapter.”
Nope, these guys don’t have their s**t together.

Matthew

PS True story; he was interviewed on the radio at which time he protested that he had not engaged in anything fraudulent. There was no place on the application form to indicate race.

 

[Kielbasi]

Catholic position on the KKK???
Catholic means “here comes everyone!”
That means we welcome them, and the Jews, and the Blacks, and the Irish, and the Poles, and the Italians and …

Matthew

Certainly that’s pretty accurate in the current era, but it isn’t historically you know.

During the period of segregation in the US, many Catholics thought it was a good idea, and some dioceses (including northern ones) maintained separate schools and churches for blacks.

Of course, few Catholics were ever members of the KKK. Segregation was a lot bigger than the klan.

 

[YADA]

Catholic position on the KKK???
Catholic means “here comes everyone!”
That means we welcome them, and the Jews, and the Blacks, and the Irish, and the Poles, and the Italians and …

Matthew

True, we welcome everyone … after they renounce satan and all his evil works … renounce sin and embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ…

That sort of presume that a Klan Member would have to renounce his membership in the KKK to join the stampede of “Here Comes Everybody”

PS it was th KKK that passed legislation in Oregon during the early 1900’s that outlaweed parochial school education. This legislation made it illegal for catholic parents to send their children to the parish schools … You would not want catholic parents to be able to teach christianity to their children … better to force them into the public school system to be indoctrinated

It was the Sisters of the Holy Names with the support of the Knights of Columbus who fought that legislation all the way to the United States Supreme Court AND WON:thumbsup: overturning that anti-catholic law …

 

[SpiritMeadow]

I am unaware of any official Church view on the KKK specifically. The Klan is fully anti-Catholic, so common sense is that no Catholic would cooperate with them. As far as segregation as a topic, I would just avoid the subject with this person.

I’d not be so sure it doesn’t happen. The KKK is nortorious for its fundamentalist views of the bible. As such they are also rabid abortion opponents. We already see some Catholics making common cause with Hagee type fundamentalists, ignoring Hagee’s abject hatred of all things Catholic. So don’t be so sure that some Catholics are knowingly or not doing business with the KKK.

 

[lwest]

My mom used to tell a story that when she was 3 (about 1925) in Pennsylvania, the KKK held a parade. She was standing next to her father and she was wearing a crucifix. A KKK guy walked right up to her and ripped the crucifix from her neck. No, they can’t be in line with the Church.

Regarding my family member, the kids still see him on occassion and I want them to respect them for who he is in regards to how he’s related to them but they know that his views are skewed and that he needs prayers. The kids will never be left alone with him and my oldest (11) knows that it would be acceptable to get up and walk away if these views are ever brought up. However, this relative baited me the other night and I ended up hanging up on him because I didn’t want ot get into an argument. It makes me so sad that he holds those views. My husband is Mexican/German; I’m Italian/English. This relative has referred to me as a ‘race traitor’ and has said that I’m under communist influence. It’s good to know that I’m not being a bad person by disagreeing with him. Thank you for your posts and for your support. God’s Blessings.

 

[kalt]

My mom used to tell a story that when she was 3 (about 1925) in Pennsylvania, the KKK held a parade. She was standing next to her father and she was wearing a crucifix. A KKK guy walked right up to her and ripped the crucifix from her neck. No, they can’t be in line with the Church.

Regarding my family member, the kids still see him on occassion and I want them to respect them for who he is in regards to how he’s related to them but they know that his views are skewed and that he needs prayers. The kids will never be left alone with him and my oldest (11) knows that it would be acceptable to get up and walk away if these views are ever brought up. However, this relative baited me the other night and I ended up hanging up on him because I didn’t want ot get into an argument. It makes me so sad that he holds those views. My husband is Mexican/German; I’m Italian/English. This relative has referred to me as a ‘race traitor’ and has said that I’m under communist influence. It’s good to know that I’m not being a bad person by disagreeing with him. Thank you for your posts and for your support. God’s Blessings.

If you’re Italian and Catholic, you’re not “white enough” to be white, but KKK standards. So how could you be a race traitor?

Is your relative also Italian? If he is, he’s not really “white”.

They have a problem with Irish, too. I guess white has quite a few shades.

 

[lwest]

If you’re Italian and Catholic, you’re not “white enough” to be white, but KKK standards. So how could you be a race traitor?

Is your relative also Italian? If he is, he’s not really “white”.

They have a problem with Irish, too. I guess white has quite a few shades.

I’m considered a ‘race traitor’ because I married someone who’s part-Hispanic. I know it doesn’t make any sense because (you’re right) Italians aren’t considered ‘white enough’…which just demonstrates that frame of mind. No…the relative is of English/German heritage: the very definition of WASP. The fact that he even married an Italian woman to begin with adds to the dichotomy.

 

[Ryan29]

The KKK (to my limited understanding) would like to see all races kept separate. I have a family member who sees nothing wrong with this mentality and believes segregation should be a state issue. I try to avoid discussions with him regarding this because I know no matter what I say, he won’t change his mind and I’ll end up upset. We have very limited contact but I can’t avoid him altogether. My question is: What is the Catholic view on the KKK and are there any suggestions as to how to handle this situation more effectively?

The first thing you have to learn about people in general is, you can’t fix them or change their minds. People that have hate in their hearts aren’t easily altered. They see the world as negative as possible. Racism is a thing of the past and he has to learn that on their own. It is noble that you want to make him see the error of his ways, but if he blinded by hate and won’t let Jesus in his heart then you are wasting your time. America is becoming more and more diverse and he is losing ground even in the white sheeted cross burners.

The Klan believes(d) that Catholics were anti-America for not being about the power of the states and the unified federal government, but in Rome. It was a typical protestant opinion.

The media likes to talk about these goons as though they are a spreading movement, but it’s all propaganda to make people afraid. If a person was White Anglo-Saxon Protestant or WASP they didn’t bother you unless you sided with their enemies, blacks, jews, hispanics, or gays. Yet, Christians in general still seem to have a problem with the latter group, so some could say the Christian churches are 25% KKK.

In conclusion, a childhood fear of the dark that is shed with the hand of Jesus by your side good. Ku Klux Klan that don’t like the aformentioned groups bad.

 

[Valke2]

The KKK should be as off limits to Catholics as the Masons.

I don’t think you have to worry about a significant Catholic presence in the KKK. It would be like seeing the KKK institute a media campaign to bring more Jews and blacks into the organization.

 

[lwest]

Hi all, I haven’t been on here for awhile but I really enjoyed reading the posts. i especially like the story of the black man in montana being made a leader of the klan. That’s too funny

My mom was Italian, my dad english (very white). In fact, my joke is “I’m half WOP/half WASP”.

Thank you for clarifying what I’ve believed to be true in my heart. It’s nice to have that validation. Now, do I continue contact with this person? He’s never been openly hostile to my husband or children but I know his views and he does voice them. Thank you, again, everyone. God bless!!