Forgive Douglas Murray, For He Knows Not What He Does

It was uncanny listening to Douglas Murray’s viral Joe Rogan interview the same weekend we Catholics listened to the Passion Narrative during Mass at the beginning of Holy Week. Both were excruciating reminders of how God is betrayed.

The first thing I noticed when I listened to Murray’s back-and-forth with Rogan and the good-hearted comedian Dave Smith was that Murray didn’t even seem present. His whole demeanor was cold and calculated. He showed no familiarity and never seemed to directly or sincerely engage with the two other men in the room.

I quickly realized Murray had only come on the show to deliver a series of pre-conceived talking points advocating for the deadly actions of the regime of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza. Perhaps the talking points had even been agreed to in a meeting with handlers and approved by his funder, open borders advocate and major supporter of same-sex marriage, Paul Singer.*

Then two things dawned on me.

First, of course Murray made no substantive arguments in defense of the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza, the majority of them under the age of 18. There are no such arguments because that kind of brute force never comes with arguments. Instead, it believes might makes right and that the violence speaks for itself.

And my second realization was along the same lines: Murray wasn’t there to make a case. He was there to make a threat. He was there to tell Rogan and Smith (and, significantly, their enormous audience) what they may and may not say about the war—and even who is and is not allowed to talk about the carnage at all. In other words: “Watch your mouths, or else.” 

That would also explain the incredible coordination between dozens of powerful media figures and public officials after the interview, who quickly spread the narrative far and wide that Murray’s Rogan spot was meant to expel anyone who criticizes the ethnic cleansing of Gaza or questions the prospect of war with Iran from the powerful, populist “MAGA” movement. 

Someone even got President Donald Trump’s social media account to tout Murray’s murderous positions the day after the interview!

But what came before Murray’s Rogan appearance is just as important and just as telling as the unmistakable influence campaign that unfolded on cue immediately after it. 

I’m talking about Murray’s whole campaign to promote Netanyahu’s insane military goals ever since October 7, 2023. And that whole campaign has come down to one thing: a betrayal of Western Civilization with a kiss.

Quoting the Venerable Fulton J. Sheen, Fr. Roger Landry said in a homily during Holy Week last year that Judas had no faith in Jesus’ divinity and mission and therefore never fully understood what he was doing when he betrayed Him.

Jesus’ full revelation of how He would offer Himself up and make His Blood the Blood of the New Covenant became “the test of the fidelity of His followers.” After Jesus mentions He knows who will betray Him, “everyone else in the Gospel was saying, ‘Surely not I, Lord,’ whereas Judas asked, ‘Surely not I, Rabbi?’” Fr. Landry explained. “For Judas, Jesus was a teacher owed respect, not a Lord owed faith.”

For Murray, Western Civilization is Rabbi. Admirable. Respectable. A thing to bridle and harness as a stratagem for political and social causes. And when it stands in the way of such causes? Something to be used and discarded.

But to true lovers of Western Civilization, it is a way of life given to us by God Himself in order that we might walk in His ways, fulfilling our true nature as He created us to do and, ultimately, leading us to eternal happiness with Him and all the heroic saints who have gone before us.

Western Civilization is founded on God’s revelation that every human person is made in His image. And it’s founded on Christ’s insistence on associating Himself most intimately with the most vulnerable among us—the widow, the orphan, and all of those rejected by the powerful and living under urgent threats of violence.

Western Civilization is present in every human being—but most especially in the currently vulnerable. Today, in other words, Western Civilization is present in the Christians and innocents under siege in Gaza, whose blood mingles with Christ’s as “the test of the fidelity of His followers.”

That Gospel truth is the meaning behind all the best articulations of Western Civilization. It’s in the Magna Carta’s words of warning against unjustly arresting and punishing individuals without trial. It’s in the Declaration of Independence’s recognition of “Nature’s God,” before Whom “all men are created equal” with “inalienable rights.” It’s in the United Nations Charter of Human Rights and in the West’s condemnations of Nazi offenses against human dignity at Nuremberg.

And it’s in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s wise admonition that the line between good and evil “passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties, but right through every human heart.”

This Holy Week, we might add, too, that the line between good and evil, now as ever, passes not between Western people and Gazans but through us who claim to belong to Western Civilization and, therefore, to its Lord and Founder.

Murray makes a point of being seen kissing Western Civilization in public, just like a pious Christian would reverence an Icon of Our Lord. But he does so only in such a way and at exactly such a time as to ensure that those principles will be betrayed and put to death.

And as Good Friday approaches, I pray God will forgive Douglas Murray, for he knows not what he does.

*Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article labeled Mr. Singer as a promoter of “transgenderism,” but in fact Singer is opposed to the transgender agenda. We apologize for the error.