I am the author of the books They Were White and They Were Slaves and Judaism Discovered.  After accurately stating those facts in the June 2010 Chronicles, Scott P. Richert proceeded to pen a farrago of pseudobiography (“You Say Ásátru, I Say Shoresh,” Rockford Files), stating that this writer received a $40,000 contract from “School District 205” and that I have an “Old Icelandic” program that I allegedly call “Ásátru, Inc.”  He then admits that he made up the preceding and goes on to claim, seriously this time, that Judaism Discovered is “equivalent” to the Nation of Islam’s book The Synagogue of Satan by Ashashed Muhammad.

Why am I being abused in this fashion, and why is my name being dragged through the mud by means of a fantasy concocted by Mr. Richert and published by Chronicles?  No less fantastic is his allegation that my work is equivalent to the Islamic volume.  Islam, like Orthodox Judaism, is a false religion, as I have made clear.  Has Mr. Richert even read Judaism Discovered?  My text is thoroughly Christian.  One of its theses is that hatred of Judaic people is destructive and fulfills a Talmudic dictum.

Mr. Richert’s reckless and irresponsible column could stir much confusion.  His one-line disclaimer may not offset his more numerous paragraphs of falsification.  Chronicles ought to know better than to spread a false report from a malicious witness (Exodus 23:1).

—Michael Hoffman

Coeur d’Alene, ID

Mr. Richert Replies:

Mr. Hoffman need not worry that my column “could stir much confusion.”  Chronicles’ readers are quite capable of reading the entire text of a single-page column, noting my one-paragraph (not one-line) disclaimer set off with a subhead, and understanding exactly what I did and did not mean.

Nor, for that matter, should Mr. Hoffman worry that his own devoted followers might misunderstand my column, should they stumble across it while taking a much-needed break from Mr. Hoffman’s incessant conspiracy theories and his charitable discussion of Pope Benedict’s Regensburg Address, in which the “thoroughly Christian” Mr. Hoffman defended at great length the false religion of Islam, its murderous “prophet,” and its “sacred” text, while referring to the Holy Father as “your ass-holiness,” “the crypto-rabbi in the Vatican,” and “a gravedigger who swings his mud-encrusted shovel over the barren wombs and seared brains of the Germans.”

Mr. Hoffman proved a decade ago that his devoted followers are perfectly capable of understanding what they read.  After we at Chronicles chose not to accept an advertisement for They Were White and They Were Slaves, Mr. Hoffman viciously attacked Chronicles in one of his publications.  One might even call his remarks “a false report from a malicious witness.”  Unlike my column, they were not accompanied by a disclaimer.

Mr. Hoffman’s readers understood the point of his attack quite well.  They attached bricks to pre-paid business-reply envelopes and included death threats aimed at our former vice president of operations.  They made similar threats over the phone and posted Mr. Hoffman’s remarks on bulletin boards on the internet, encouraging others to do the same.  One of them even went so far as to find our VP’s home address and the name of his wife, and sent a death threat to her attention at their house.

As long as Mr. Hoffman’s devoted followers give my column the same attention that they gave to his words, there is no danger of them making the mistake Mr. Hoffman fears that they will make.