Sir, - Those of us who watched the recent Eurovision Song Contest from Jerusalem will remember the skittish interludes before each song, described by Pat Kenny as "a light hearted look at the events in the Bible". Ever since the contest, I have been at a loss to explain why a nation like Israel, with the greatest history of all nations on earth, would hold its own sacred history, holy prophets and kings up to international derision and mockery.
The sad fact appeared to emerge that, leaving aside those devout Jews, who like devout Christians seem now to be under the same sort of persecution universally, those who run the show in Jerusalem do not love their history at all.
I was enlightened, however, on reading an account of the illuminism of Adam Weishaupt. This German Canon Law professor who operated during the 1700s was the spiritual father of communism and invented the three-way route to world power: "obliterate religion, destroy the family and get rid of private ownership." He encouraged the two degrees of his sect, the Novices and the Minervals (after the Roman goddess of wisdom) to write themes calculated to spread impiety among the people, such as burlesques on the psalms, pasquinades on the prophets, and caricatures of personages of the Old Testament after the manner of Voltaire and his school. - Yours, etc.,
Frank O'Meara, Quin, Co Clare.