CAI (Kind of) Apologizes for Robin Williams Gaffe

Shortly after our previous post was published, exposing Bob Sungenis's error in claiming that Robin Williams is Jewish, CAI changed the headline of the news item to remove any reference to Williams's alleged Jewishness.

In addition, Sungenis posted this apology:

CAI apologizes for the original headline stating that Robin Williams is a "Jewish comedian." According to Williams, he is not Jewish, rather he is noted for speaking favorably about Judaism and grew up with Jews who referred to him as an "honorary Jew" (source)

It's nice to see Bob get closer to writing a real apology, but we all could have done without the rationalizations regarding Williams' purportedly good relations with Jews. It seems that if you are on good terms with Jews, you are automatically as suspicious and untrustworthy to Sungenis as those "out to rule the world" Jews. And the question still remains: why did he make the accusation in the first place? Why didn't he verify his information first? And what is the relevance of Williams' ethnicity, anyway? More interesting still, from where did he get this bogus information?

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Sungenis has expressed some resentment over the fact that he was called on the carpet at Sungenis and the Jews Blog:

... people like you [Jacob Michael] who, because we, like most people, assumed Robin Williams was either Jewish or wished he was, since he speaks very favorably of Judaism at the same time that he denigrates the Catholic Church, and also says that he considers himself an "honorary Jew" because of his friendship with fellow Jews, you then take it upon yourself to say that we are "creating Jews out of thin air" ... (Sungenis, email of 6/25/2007)

Whatever Bob's opinion may be, it is quite certain that "most people" do not "assume" that Robin Williams is Jewish. As noted earlier, even an anti-Semitic site like Jew Watch knew better.

The next time Bob has questions about which celebrities are Jewish and which ones are not, perhaps he could at least start by listening to Adam Sandler's Hanukkah Song.

Sungenis Inventing Jews? Robin Williams Singled Out as "Jewish"

Very recently, Robert Sungenis of Catholic Apologetics International added the following "News Alert" to his website:


Jewish Comedian, Robin Williams Mocks Catholic Church


(Such "News Alerts" are regularly cycled in and out from the CAI web site over time)

The article originally appeared at Life Site.

And what is the actual title of the original article?


Robin Williams Mocks Catholic Priests on Tonight Show


Notice that? Lifesite entitles the article: Robin Williams Mocks Catholic Priests on Tonight Show but Robert Sungenis feels the need to rename it Jewish Comedian, Robin Williams Mocks Catholic Church .


If you read the original article about William's hypocritical and bigoted remarks, you will find no mention at all of the ethnic or religious background of Robin Williams.

At first, the natural inclination may be to accept Sungenis's claim that Williams is indeed a Jew. But the question would remain: why is his Jewishness being singled out? Is Sungenis suggesting that his Jewish ethnicity was what drove Williams to mock Catholic priests? If so, then what are we to make of all the other people of various religions (including Catholics!) who have mocked the priesthood as a result of the scandals?

But the problem seems to be far worse. It seems clear that Williams isn't even Jewish! In fact, even the blatantly anti-Semitic website "Jew Watch" (a website that would certainly love to claim that Williams is Jewish) says the following about Robin Williams:

"Williams Robin - Actor...he is probably of Christian descent. According to Adherents, Williams gravitated to Jewish friends in school and attended 14 bar mitzvahs...His parents were descended from the English Welsh, and Irish (father) and French (mother). Robin Williams plays many Jewish
roles."

Of course, this anti-Semitic website has done everything possible to tie Williams to Jews as much as possible including the laughably twisted observation that he "plays many Jewish roles" in movies and has purportedly attended many bar-mitzvahs. But Robert Sungenis had to go them one better and claim that Williams is actually Jewish.


Wikipedia confirms William's gentile, Episcopalian background:

Wikipedia: Robin Williams

Of course, we can expect that Sungenis and CAI will quickly revise this News Alert to read "Gentile Comedian of Episcopalian Background, Robin Williams, Mocks Catholic Church!"


It's gotten to the point where Sungenis sees Jewish enemies everywhere. Every Catholic should reject this anti-Jewish obsession for the ugly bigotry that it is. There is no room for anti-Semitism in the Catholic Church.

One wonders exactly what it will take for Sungenis defenders like Mark Wyatt, Laurence Gonzaga and Chris Campbell to admit there is a serious problem and that they are only enabling an anti-Semite by their behavior.

Or is it that they don't care, and see Jews in the same way Sungenis sees them?

After everything that has gone on with Sungenis in the past 9 months concerning the Jewish controversy, what kind of man continues to throw himself headlong into verifiable blunders, continues to publish falsehoods without bothering to even execute the most rudimentary verifications?

As Sungenis said over a year ago to Catholic writer Matthew Anger in regard to his use of the racist source National Vanguard:

"I have a bad habit of not checking the sources...which will not be the case in the future."

Link

Over one year later, apparently Sungenis still makes these kinds of inadvertent and innocent mistakes...repeatedly...at least when it comes to Jews for some mysterious reason. And this happens in spite of all the serious, sustained effort Sungenis has exerted to be much more careful about his claims and "research" in regard to Jews.