Father Coughlin: Rabid American Jew-Hater on the Radio in the 1930s

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Father Coughlin: Rabid American Jew-Hater…

FATHER COUGHLIN

Father Charles Coughlin (October 25, 1891 — October 27, 1979) was a Roman Catholic priest and radio personality who spewed his antisemitic views to an estimated 30 million listeners during the 1930s. “A variation of the Fascist agenda applied to American culture” is one way his radio program has been described. In 1939, his show was cancelled due to pressure from the Roosevelt administration.

Quotes: “Must the entire world go to war for 600,000 Jews in Germany who are neither American, nor French, nor English citizens, but citizens of Germany?” | “I am beginning to understand why I have been dubbed a ‘Nazi’ and or a ‘fascist’ by the Jewish publications in America; for practically all the 16 principles of social justice are being put into practice in Italy and Germany.”

Sources: Wikipedia, en.wikiquotes.org

Learn more about Father Charles Coughlin on Wikipedia. >>

Watch “Father Coughlin Before the 1936 Election” [5:43]. >>

Photo: The Irish Times

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“[T]he foundations for extremism usually are held in check by various restraints. Societies are not liberal, moderate, progressive, and free because almost all their citizens – let alone their politicians — are liberal, moderate, progressive or committed to the freedoms of others.

“But societies consistently avoid extremism when the infrastructures of freedom are strong: when key institutions and norms encourage a more decent, rights-respective, lawful politics; when powerful social movements and independent media hold leaders to account, expose rather than reinforce political fantasies, and champion the rights of the vulnerable; and when information is produced and scrutinized by scholars, civil servants, and non-governmental organizations devoid of either government repression or vested interests.

“Yet no infrastructure is rigidly immovable, and once key components are eroded and weakened, once sections of the political and cultural elite attempt to mobilize the foundations of extremism, the system of restraints can swiftly collapse.

“While genocide on the scale of the Holocaust is historically exceptional, its central lesson is that the broader danger of extreme atrocities is not. In the words of the great historian Ian Kershaw, the Holocaust ‘lit a warning beacon that still burns brightly: it showed how a modern, advanced, cultured society can so rapidly sink into barbarity… It showed what we are capable of.’ Only by rejecting false narratives of conflict and polarization, and maintaining systems of rights and freedoms for all, can we hope to prevent that capability from once more becoming a reality.”

— Jonathan Leader Maynard in his incisive article “Could It Happen Here?: The Holocaust and Atrocities in the 21st Century” To read the entire article, click here.