Bearing False Witness is the provocative title of the most recent book just published this year by Rodney Stark who is a most highly regarded sociologist, a historian of religion and the author of the bestselling 1997 book The Rise of Christianity.
As Bearing False Witness debunks anti-Catholic propaganda, it should be of particular interest in a country like ours which is going through a phase of virulent and programmed secularisation.
In Malta, not so long ago, the Catholic faith was widely accepted without question. Religious observance and daily prayer were an almost effortless way of living for most Maltese. This has changed dramatically and very quickly, as reflected in the precipitous fall in Mass attendance and the epidemic breakdown of marriage vows. This is nothing new, and sadly, Malta is rapidly catching up with the rest of Europe.
One has only to follow what is going on in the media – the writings of most columnists and the ‘comments’ following articles in the mainstream media – to see the aggressive anti-Catholic bias that has been unleashed, especially over life issues such as the integrity of marriage, euthanasia and abortion.
The conspicuous absence of informed and articulate Catholics in this public arena should be cause for concern and might explain the prevalent disillusion with, and indifference to, the Church, especially among the younger generations.
For years now, the Church has been continually lambasted for being a hindrance to progress and emancipation. Its historical record has been branded as profoundly intolerant. Just to mention a few salient failings, it has been accused of fostering and promoting Anti-Semitism. As recently as the last century, the Church in Germany was denigrated for colluding with the Nazis and Pius XXII was labelled ‘Hitler’s Pope’.
When videos of the atrocities of IS were reaching the public domain in 2015, US president Barack Obama dismissively reminded his audience that we should also remember that during the Crusades and Inquisition terrible deeds were committed by Christians. Such comments are sometimes even parroted by high-ranking members of the Church.
I am not a Roman Catholic, and I did not write this book in defence of the Church. I wrote it in defence of history- Rodney Stark
Above all, the Church is vilified for being hostile to science, and the mention of Galileo is usually enough to shame Catholics into silence over the issue. The Dark Ages and slavery are also invoked to besmirch the intrinsic backwardness of the Church. These and other false and unjustified myths are, and have been, allowed to go largely unchallenged.
One should not blame the secular agenda, the so-called humanists and others hostile to the Church, for vilifying Catholicism and painting it and its record in the ugliest possible light. But it is almost scandalous that Catholic teachers, academics and catechists have so singularly neglected their professed vocation for setting the record straight.
In 1925, G. K. Chesterton, with sharp wit, remarked that there are historians who do the one thing that God cannot do: change the past. Stark is one of the exceptions.
In Bearing False Witness, Stark crushes anti-Catholic myths one by one with clarity and well-researched scholarship. In each chapter, he addresses major, widely held, corrosively negative ideas about the Catholic Church, explaining their genesis and widespread acceptance, and shoots them down in the glaring light of historical truth.
With his masterly defence of the Catholic Church’s historic contribution to reason, science and enlightenment, he ends his book’s introduction as follows: “I am not a Roman Catholic, and I did not write this book in defence of the Church. I wrote it in defence of history.”
Catholics should be proud of the role played by their forebears in encouraging science and opposing anti-Semitism, slavery, and totalitarian government. They will also be relieved by Stark’s fair exposition of the Crusades and the Inquisition as he discredits the entrenched anti-Catholic propaganda.
It is long overdue that in respect of the truth and as part of its mission of evangelisation, the Church should present its real contribution through the centuries. Getting Catholic educators to read Bearing False Witness would be a good start.
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