On the night in which he was betrayed

When Anthony Damato showed me on his computer today this excellent photo he had taken of a bas relief at the 13th century St. Petri Dom (St. Petri Cathedral) in Bremen, Germany, I liked it so much I asked him to send it to me so that I could share it with VFR readers. That was before I heard the shocking news that the U.S. government has condemned the brave European newspapers that are taking a stand for Western freedom and against the intimidations of our Muslim enemies, who throughout Europe and the Mideast are threatening to kill and behead the people who published the cartoons, and to launch terrorist attacks and a new Holocaust against Europe. So the event portrayed in the relief—Judas, the disciple of Jesus, delivering Jesus into the hands of his mortal enemies, an act that turns out to be suicidal for Judas as well—is not only timelessly true, it reflects something that is happening in our world this very day.

Three things in particular strike me about this image: the superhuman elongation of the figures, reminiscent of the sculptures at Chartres; the insinuating, snake-like posture of Judas as he kisses Jesus; and the resemblance of Jesus’ face to the face in the Shroud of Turin. There is also the nobility of Jesus as contrasted with the baseness of Judas, as Jesus suffers Judas to kiss him. The expression in Jesus’ face somehow contains the whole meaning of the Passion. He is granting sin power over him, to betray him, to arrest him, to torture and kill him, he is voluntarily allowing this repellant thing to be done to him, but he remains above it and is not affected by it. It is a worthy representation of the face of the God-man, the Christ.

Getting back to the subject of the U.S. betrayal of Europe, Judith Klinghoffer has forwarded to me “a very bitter email” she got from a Danish friend, of which she says, “It hurt.”

Thank you very much for your support, but alas there is aboslutely no reason whatsoever to thank the official US. Join the coalition of the “willing” (become a prostitute, it seems like now) as one of the very few civilized nations, get your young men killed in Basra and receive a knife in the back from the Bush administration as a most civilized thank you. Shame on that crooked administration of slow readers in The White House.

And shame not only on Labor but on the British press, calling Jyllands-Posten “Der Stürmer” (Guardian) planning a new Holocaust, while Jack Straw is condemning us. Not exactly a new Churchill.

Shame on our two disloyal ex-allies. And shame on weak and fearful Annan and the UN The world’s gone topsy-turvy: Germany and France show common sense, backbone and true loyalty. Our warmest thanks fly in the direction of Wolfgang Schäuble.

In London the demonstrators now emphasize, that there is no reason to apologize, we don’t have to, it is not required, and it won’t make any difference. The 12 cartoonists just must be executed—by us or else they can fix it, it will be beheading, they explain, sooner or later. Perhaps in ten years time. And then the whole matter is forgotten and DK can live in peace again.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 03, 2006 08:11 PM | Send