While Men Slept…
By Karen Frazier Romero
Trafford Publishing, 2015, 174 pages.
Evangelical Protestants have been critiquing Roman Catholicism and its salvation-by-merit system for almost 500 years. Many of the criticisms of Rome have been Gospel-focused and fact-based. But some have admittedly leaned a bit towards sensationalism.
Jack Chick published a tidal wave of material about Catholicism – tracts, comic books, and books – back in the 70s and 80s that found a wide audience within Christian fundamentalism. There was a lot of fact-based information in those publications but there were also a lot of fantastic, irresponsible claims. Many of Chick’s dubitable allegations came from the mysterious Alberto Rivera, a supposed ex-Jesuit priest who asserted he had the inside scoop on Jesuit plots, past and present. To a degree, Chick’s controversial materials undermined reasonable Christian witness to Catholics. See former Mission to Catholics director, Bart Brewer’s assessment of Alberto here.
Karen Frazier Romero takes up where Chick left off with this self-published attack on Catholicism. She quotes Chick’s material extensively as well as Justin Fulton’s “Washington in the Lap of Rome,” published way back in 1888. We learn from Ms. Romero that in these United States the Jesuits currently control the federal government, banking, medical care, education, and the military. But Rome can’t even get its members to attend mass on Sundays anymore let alone run the entire U.S. of A.
Now, there’s no doubt the Jesuits were engaged in sundry plots and skullduggery that will never make it into standard college history texts but Romero presents speculation and even misinformation as fact.
“The Communist Party was created by the Vatican to destroy one of its greatest enemies, the Russian Orthodox Church, whose members were called Serbians.” – p.40.
Really, Ms. Romero? The Vatican created communism? But wouldn’t that be like suggesting Black people created the Ku Klux Klan? Also, I’ve always thought the people who lived in Serbia were called Serbians! Gee, I’m so glad Ms. Romero has set me straight.
“Hitler appointed the notorious, Heinrich Himmler, a Jesuit priest, as the commander of the special elite corp (sic) known as the S.S.” – p.41.
The above claim that Himmler was a priest is patently false although he had an uncle who was a Jesuit priest and he definitely was an admirer of the Jesuits’ organization.
“Hitler was a faithful Roman Catholic until his death.” – p.41.
Another absurdity stated as fact. Hitler was not a practicing Catholic as an adult and Ms. Romano can’t provide ANY evidence to the contrary. Hitler certainly had MANY Roman Catholic supporters within Germany, clerics and laypeople, but to claim he himself was a “faithful” practicing Catholic is a total fabrication.
I was tempted to stop reading the book at this point but I have a bit of a scrupulosity problem when it comes to finishing books, even very bad ones.
On pages 51 through 54 Romero describes how the Jesuits directed their alleged stooge, Captain Edward Smith, to purposely sink the Titanic with several influential passengers on board who opposed their central banking scheme. Yes, I kept reading even after this.
Romero’s outrageous pseudo-truths continue from the beginning to the end. This book is conspiritorialism on steroids.
When it comes to history, Roman Catholicism has A LOT to be embarrassed about. No need to make things up. Let’s stick to verifiable history and to comparing works-righteous Catholicism to God’s Word.
excatholic4christ 