“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” – Nelson Mandela
The Biden administration supports codifying abortion on demand into federal law.
VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) – The Vatican was unsuccessful in softening the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB’s) statement that spotlights heretical positions of self-identifying Catholic Joe Biden.
Interference from two pro-LGBT American cardinals, Joseph Tobin of Newark and Blase Cupich of Chicago, triggered the Holy See to attempt changes to the USCCB’s statement penned by its president, Abp. José Gomez of Los Angeles.
The involvement coming from outside the USCCB was reported by three sources close to the USCCB, according to The Pillar, an outlet covering Catholic news. In addition to Tobin and Cupich, the sources added other unnamed bishops were involved in the meddling.
Slated for release at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, the statement clarified points of contradiction between perennial Catholic teaching and some of Biden’s policies. Though the Vatican succeeded in delaying the timing, the statement remained intact and has been published on the USCCB website.
Sources revealed the statement was debated on Tuesday evening, with various bishops objecting it was overly critical of the incoming administration. But it was the Vatican that ultimately caused the delay of its release.
Our new president has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity.Tweet
[A]s pastors, the nation’s bishops are given the duty of proclaiming the gospel in all its truth and power, in season and out of season, even when that teaching is inconvenient or when the gospel’s truths run contrary to the directions of the wider society and culture. So, I must point out that our new president has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage and gender. Of deep concern is the liberty of the Church and the freedom of believers to live according to their consciences.
Gomez’s statement also addresses abortion:
We have deep concerns about many threats to human life and dignity in our society. But as Pope Francis teaches, we cannot stay silent when nearly a million unborn lives are being cast aside in our country year after year through abortion.
Abortion is a direct attack on life that also wounds the woman and undermines the family. It is not only a private matter, it raises troubling and fundamental questions of fraternity, solidarity and inclusion in the human community. It is also a matter of social justice. We cannot ignore the reality that abortion rates are much higher among the poor and minorities and that the procedure is regularly used to eliminate children who would be born with disabilities.
Gomez Does ‘Not Go Far Enough’
Under condition of anonymity, one priest told Church Militant this Vatican intervention is unsurprising.
Both of these cardinals should be down on their knees praying that this scourge against the unborn in our nation is brought to an end.Tweet
Another priest, who also asked to remain anonymous in comments to Church Militant, said:
At this point in time the United States is near to having aborted 70 million babies, and frankly, Abp. Gomez’s statement does not go far enough to address Biden’s and the Democrats’ unflagging support of this grave evil. At this moment in our history as a nation, the number of dead by abortion exceeds every and all of the wars ever fought.
As to the two American cardinals involved, Father said, “Cdls. Cupich and Tobin are concerned about ruffling the Biden administrations’ feathers! What rot! Both of these cardinals should be down on their knees praying that this scourge against the unborn in our nation is brought to an end and not concerned about kissing up to the new administration.”
He explained the interest in playing nice with the Biden administration is financial.
“As a priest, I am all in for cutting off all federal funding to so-called Catholic charities,” Father said. “U.S. taxpayers paying for so-called social programs is not a good thing for the country when the funds go towards subverting and circumventing the gospel.”
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This is the day the world changed. It’s best to simply own up to that and get down to the business of changing it back. Recall that, in 2016, the Marxist forces that thought Hillary had it all sealed up were thrown into chaos and despair at Trump’s victory. All that they had so desperately labored for, put into place, worked like termites to destroy, was suddenly brought to an abrupt halt.
They spent about two or three weeks in mourning, wondering and lamenting what went wrong, how it went wrong. And they got back up off the mat and started getting organized. And boy, did they ever organize, setting out on a four-year witch hunt to destroy Trump, and when that didn’t work, they stole an election.
Okay, so here we all are today, the beginning of a very dark winter, and then some. So now what? Well, to begin with, realize that we have lost about two months compared to the 2016 Marxist Democrats. We foolishly thought that simply having mountains of evidence proving the steal would be sufficient.
We’d get our day in court; word would spread like wildfire; the GOP would step forward and do the right thing; judges would do their job — all of it. And every single entity we put our trust in completely and utterly betrayed us — before, during and after the election.
We essentially wasted two months in a delusional hope (two months that the Democrats did not in 2016), waiting for this day to come and that somehow, someway, the illegitimately “elected” Biden would not take the oath. It was somewhat of a reasonable hope, one based on an expectation that people who had sworn to uphold the Constitution as well as the duties of their offices would, in fact, do so. They didn’t.
So here we are, betrayed and angry — betrayed by both the hierarchy and public leaders. But amidst the betrayal and anger, there is one shining truth: We are the wiser and now comprehend the entire depth of the evil swamp — Church as well as State.
Even President Trump didn’t grasp that, perhaps until it was too late. He absolutely understood the goal of the communist bastards in the Democratic Party was to make America socialist. He even made a point of it in his State of the Union speech. What he (and let’s be truthful here, we) had not sufficiently understood was the massive penetration into the Republican party that various cowards and eventual traitors had made.
When the chips were down, they showed their true colors. Now, for faithful Catholics, this has been true for decades: The betrayal of us, not to mention Our Lord, by our bishops has been a daily reality for anyone willing to look at it (not to mention the betrayal by bishops of faithful priests as well).
To look at these two sets of betrayal as somehow unrelated would be willing blindness at this point. For decades, American bishops assisted the Marxists up the ladder of power (many of them being turncoat Catholics), and that applies to not just the politicos.
They let them claim to be Catholic, played footsie with them, pretending that immigration was just as important as chopping and slicing up a child in the womb. They gave them sacrilegious Holy Communion like candy and went along with virtually every single step of their agenda, all in a phony virtue-signaling attempt to pretend they care about the poor and advancing social justice.
Judas is the patron saint of social justice; never forget that. But they spent everlasting amounts of time covering up for each other’s sexual proclivities, rape of altar boys and stealing from the faithful to pay outrageous legal bills to protect themselves from being imprisoned. And now they are declaring bankruptcy to freeze their assets and files from becoming discovered.
So if you are an American patriot and a faithful Catholic, you’ve been betrayed not once, but twice. We have a two-front war to fight. So we better get to fighting it. Any good fight requires a good battle plan, which means structure, discipline, communication and organization.
It means never taking your eye off the prize, with everything you do being a way to advance the ball down the field. Period. And a word here — Church Militant has no desire to be associated with people who don’t grasp the imminent threat to your souls and liberty and who aren’t willing to change their lives accordingly.
As we said before, the good guys have been way too passive. Signing petitions and thinking you’ve done something real is stupid and a waste of time. “Liking” a headline is, likewise, completely futile. While too many good guys were clicking and liking, the Marxists were out in the streets, knocking on doors, taking over the institutions of power, and anything else you can name.
They became so powerful that, we must admit, the war we are about to engage in may simply not be winnable, at least not in earthly, temporal ways. But that doesn’t mean it must not be fought. In fact, that it is this desperate means precisely that it must be fought. It must be fought with our intellects and our gumption.
We must commit to it totally, just as the Marxists did for decades. They were relentless, and so must we be. Life as we understood it and lived it is now over. If there is any hope of any restoration, this must involve every bit of energy we can throw at it. Again, that’s what they did.
Let’s start with organization and communication, something you will notice the Marxists are racing to deny us the opportunity to do. Whatever you want to say about the ongoing purge, it’s a good strategy on their part. So, as we said last week, stop acting like the world hasn’t changed, like you can just do what you used to do.
While we were all comfortable and living “the American Dream,” they were hard at work laying the groundwork to destroy America and the Church. In various ways, Church Militant has seen all this coming. We were actually afraid of it in 2016 but obviously were relieved when we were spared. The storm petered out.
But a more ferocious one gathered off the coast and reached landfall last November. So all of this means someone has got to step up, someone who has the understanding, the insight and the presence to speak to it. Church Militant videos have been viewed tens of millions of times and our footprint has grown substantially in the past three years. At first, we were mocked. They aren’t mocking anymore.
No one has pursued the intersection of religion and politics like we have — no one. Some other (perhaps) well-intentioned Catholic groups were simply late to the game, some even trying to capitalize on the drama. Likewise, some well-intentioned conservative media outlets have simply failed to understand that behind all of this is a spiritual war, and if you don’t have that understanding, you’ll never do anything more than simply report the news.
Only Church Militant has understood the dual nature, the dual reality of what’s going on, and that understanding has dictated our every move, whether it’s been our election coverage during the campaign or our reporting on the globalist view of multiple churchmen.
It’s one giant war, but it’s being fought on two fronts, and unless you are experts in each, you’re going to miss the big picture. So what we are saying is this: We are asking you to join Church Militant in the fight and help us be the tip of the spear in the restoration of both Church and State.
We want to be the source where you come for everything — Church and Nation. We lead the Rosary every morning along with morning prayer at 8 ET. You should be praying with us if at all possible. We churn out information every day in multiple programs, soon to be culminating in our weekday Church Militant Evening News, for which we have been preparing for months. That debuts on Monday, Feb. 8 at 6:30 p.m. ET.
We are moving away from the Marxist-dominated social media platforms and going onto whatever is available, but most importantly, we are asking you to get proactive and come to our website. Sign up to receive our emails. Join our Church Militant Resistance, which has thousands of members all over the country. Get active. Channel your justified anger.
Come to the site every day; tune into our programs. Fight for the truth with whomever will give you an ear. Organize rallies at your local chancery. Organize rallies and team with others to get these treasonous, backstabbing RINOs flushed from office. And prayer should be integral to all of those public scenes.
Primary any of them that did not do the right thing, which, frankly, is almost all of them. Likewise, CINOs — Catholics in name only, the Catholic equivalent of RINOs — need to be purged as well.
Now obviously, bishops can’t be voted out of office, but they can be frustrated by faithful laity at every turn. Every bishop hates bad publicity because it touches their bottom line. They, for the most part, are the wimpiest men you will ever encounter. Again pray that the successors of the Apostles, at least some of them, will respond to the grace you are asking to be imparted.
For too long, they have caved to the pressure put on them by fake Catholics. Well, it’s high time they start hearing loudly from faithful Catholics.
In truth, many of them should have resigned long ago, but they’ve profited from your ignorance. Enough is enough in both the culture and the Church. Too few leaders have stepped forward to fight all this. Support Church Militant, and help us take the lead: For God, Church and Country!
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Church Militanthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngChurch Militant2021-01-28 11:45:352021-10-07 20:34:27VIDEO: The World Just Changed — Now, the war begins.
The New York Times story opens with a scene of unmitigated horror: “On May 30, 2019, Mohamed Abdulrahman Ahmed should have been in class preparing for exams. Instead, neighbors found the gifted high school senior hanging lifeless from a beam in his home in the Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya. He had taken his own life.” Since this is the New York Times, it comes as no surprise that the ultimate culprit is none other than Donald J. Trump, and his nefarious “Muslim Ban” that his wise successor’s handlers have now consigned to the dustbin of history.
Times author Ty McCormick does his best to tug at our heartstrings as he describes Dadaab, “a sea of sand and thorn scrub and makeshift tarpaulin dwellings” that is “home to more than 200,000 people — a city the size of Richmond, Va., or Spokane, Wash., except without electricity or running water.”
It’s a place absolutely mired in despair, but “over the years, refugees in Dadaab have clung to one hope: resettlement overseas, sometimes in Europe or Canada but mostly in the United States. Tens of thousands of Dadaab’s residents have come to the United States; in 2015, for instance, more than 3,000 people from the camp were resettled there.”
But then came the reign of the Evil One: “Those hopes of a better life were dashed on Jan. 27, 2017, when on his eighth day as president, Donald Trump suspended all refugee admissions and banned entry to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, including Somalia. (Restrictions were eventually applied to 13 countries in all.)”
It’s a predictable sob story about how hard the residents of Dadaab have had it since they have been unable to come to America. One is moved to tears, but when one begins to consider the issue rationally, other considerations inevitably intrude: there are people who are having hard times all over the world. In fact, there are even people who are having hard times in the United States of America. There are people who are suffering economically, like the people in Dadaab. There are people who are suffering physically, emotionally, mentally, and in other ways. All over the world, there is suffering and pain. Why, then, is it the moral responsibility of the United States of America to alleviate the suffering of the people of Dadaab? No one in Kenya or Somalia or France or China or Australia or anywhere else is doing a thing to alleviate the sufferings of Americans; why is it up to Americans, all of whom are suffering in various ways themselves, to alleviate the suffering of everyone else?
Meanwhile, what about the suffering of those whose lives were destroyed by Somali migrants who came into the country before Trump’s travel ban came into effect? Can we get a New York Times article on them? Somali Muslim migrant Mohammad Barry in February 2016 stabbed multiple patrons at a restaurant owned by an Israeli Arab Christian. When is the New York Times going to interview the people whom Barry stabbed, and publish a piece about how they have suffered, and how their lives forever changed that day? When is the New York Times going to write a piece about the other people who were in the restaurant that day, and explore their trauma, their horror, their terror, and the nightmares and anxiety they have experienced since then?
When does the New York Times plan to profile the victims of Dahir Adan, another Somali Muslim migrant, who in October 2016 stabbed mall shoppers in St. Cloud while screaming “Allahu akbar”? Do Adan’s victims get a New York Times article about their injuries, their healing processes, any operations they may have had to undergo, and their own ongoing trauma and fear?
How about the victims of Abdul Razak Artan, yet another Somali Muslim migrant, who in November 2016 injured nine people with car and knife attacks at Ohio State University? Does the New York Times plan to explain to us how the victims whom Artan tried to run down with his car (in an instance of the common phenomenon of vehicular jihad) now find their hearts racing at the prospect of having to cross the street?
Of course, the New York Times is not going to publish even a single line about the suffering of those people and others like them, or even consider the possibility that Trump’s travel bans did anything but harm. Only the suffering of the people of Dadaab and others like them, not the suffering of victims of jihad attacks, matters to the Times. The suffering of the people of Dadaab is very real, and should be addressed, but is the only solution, or the best solution, really the resettlement in the United States of large numbers of people among whom is an unknowable number of jihad terrorists, who will enter undetected since any vetting to try to discover them will be deemed “Islamophobic”?
There will soon be new victims of Biden’s handlers’ marvelous, multicultural discarding of the “Muslim Ban.” The New York Times will ignore them, while congratulating themselves on how they helped install a president who strikes back against “racism” and “xenophobia.”
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2021-01-28 06:26:382021-10-07 20:34:30New York Times Details Horrors of Trump’s ‘Muslim Ban,’ Ignores Victims of Jihad Attacks
And the answer is: of course it is. Remember: under the Obama administration, ISIS established a caliphate in Iraq and Syria that was larger than Britain, and on January 20, 2017, looked as if it was here to stay. Now ISIS knows it is the time to strike again.
“Is ISIS Being Empowered by The Biden Administration? Deadly Terrorist Attacks Follow The US Inauguration,” Al Bawaba, January 24, 2021:
Only hours after the US welcomed a new president into the White House, the Iraqi capital was rocked with two deadly suicide bombings that resulted in at least 32 deaths and hundreds of injuries. The attack which was attributed to ISIS sparked discussion over the new administration policy towards Iraq and whether or not the terrorist group has timed its attack to coincide with the start of the Biden administration….
Social media users widely shared news of the Baghdad attacks since Thursday, labeling it as one of the worst in the city over the last few years, wondering whether or not it carries any political messages to the new US administration.
Some online commentators argued such attacks might have been intentionally allowed to take place it justify the return of US troops to Iraq that were withdrawn by the former Trump administration less than a year ago. Some tweets also went on to accuse the Biden administration of “funding groups like ISIS” to overthrow the Russian-backed Assad regime in Syria….
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2021-01-27 05:32:462021-10-07 20:34:35Jordanian Publication Al Bawaba: ‘Is ISIS Being Empowered by The Biden Administration?’
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If you watch any of the mainstream media, meaning the Marxists, you’ll notice the astonishing amount — and it truly is an astonishing amount — of misinformation.
For example, just in politics, the Marxists are more than happy to just push on pretending the 2020 election was perfectly legitimate — as though 80 million Americans went out to vote for Biden in the face of boatloads of evidence to the contrary.
Joe Biden did not win the election, period.
But thanks to the massive amount of misinformation, he and others get to pretend he did. He didn’t. And no amount of playacting changes that. Talk about the emperor having no clothes. The Biden administration is that fairy tale come to real life.
But in this Vortex, it is the larger topic of misinformation itself, as its own thing, we’d like to touch on.
Since Campaign 2020 really heated up last fall and then, getting really intense in the aftermath, Church Militant has been contacted by countless non-Catholics who recognize the truth of what we talk about politically.
They are men of goodwill — people who recognize truth, if even somewhat dimly — because they are committed to wanting to know the truth, wherever it takes them. Goodwill, in fact, is precisely what the process of conversion begins with.
Here’s a little side story if you will permit me.
My father, Russ Voris, grew up as a Nazarene in southwestern Ohio. He converted to Catholicism a few years after marrying my mother. God rest both their souls.
I asked him once in my youth about being at one time Protestant and what he thought of people of goodwill who are Protestant today. I was struck by his answer — one of those “never forget” comments. He said, “Even though my Mother, Michael, was Protestant, it was from her that I first learned about Jesus and the Bible. Without her, I might never have eventually found the One True Faith.”
His answer was so beautiful, it cemented in my mind.
He went on to tell me about when he was in the process of converting and he took his mom, my grandmother, into the local Catholic Church where he was taking instruction. He walked her around, pointing out and trying to explain the Stations of the Cross and candles lit before statues and all that sort of thing. He told me her response was, “Oh, Russell, it’s all so pagan — praying to statues and so forth, worshiping bread.”
And this story is what I’d like to ask you to ponder for a moment or two — misinformation. The point of misinformation is to create a pretend world, a fake universe, an alternate reality. That’s why CNN and the rest of them are so proficient at it.
80 million people didn’t vote for Biden. Votes were added to his totals in key battleground states. Likewise, a heck of a lot more than 75 million voted for Trump. Votes were subtracted from his total in those same states.
So an alternate world now exists. The man who is president should not be. And the man who should be is not.
In this alternate world, many horrible things will happen. And though it may seem simple, we must ask ourselves the question: In an alternate world, what precisely is alternated from? Simple questions come with a simple answer — truth.
Misinformation begets an antipathy for truth. Over time, that antipathy grows so deep and intense that the truth is nearly impossible to discern. The misinformation gets repeated so often with such regularity that the alternate world begins to appear as the real world.
Hold on to that thought now for a moment and let’s move into the realm of the theological.
Misinformation about Our Blessed Lord, repeated often enough with enough regularity, can create an actual antipathy toward the truth about Him.
This is what my father was saying to his mother, God rest her soul. I pray for her eternal rest every day without ever having met her. She died before I was born.
There is an ocean of misinformation out there about Christ, simply accepted by not only Protestants but also many Catholics — Catholics who were poorly instructed over the past 60 years — for which yes, many bishops will be burning in Hell.
In this Vortex, Church Militant would like to extend an invitation for Protestants and poorly instructed Catholics — all of whom are living in an alternate universe regarding Our Lord — to embark with us on a friendly mission of discovering the fullness of Christ.
Every honest believer in Christ must know at the bottom of his heart that all this division among the baptized is a deception of the Devil. For all men of goodwill, we ask you ponder this. Really ponder it.
Communism has come to America for the simple reason that Christ’s followers are divided. This is what division brings. It brings Antichrist. The nation can never be won back until Christianity is once again united. Too many evils have been allowed to proliferate by both Protestants and poorly trained Catholics.
While it is necessary to formulate and execute political plans, a truly honest man will admit — if only to himself — that if all involved do not have an authentic understanding of Christ, that plan will fail. It is a spiritual war that is raging. Politics is only the arena where the war is playing out, but it is a spiritual war, at the close of the day.
The challenge in coming to break free of the misinformation is that things internally will have to change. Certain admissions of being wrong will have to be made — not wrongs born of malice, but born of ignorance coming from misinformation. It’s difficult to admit fault. It’s even more difficult to admit you’ve been fooled.
This Vortex is for all men of goodwill, whether you’re a poorly trained Catholic (of which the vast majority are), or an Evangelical, or non-denominational or Baptist or whatever. There is no division in God, and therefore there cannot be within His body on earth. The cracks, the spits, the divisions are where the serpent has slithered in. These cracks must be located, addressed and sealed shut.
It’s going to be a tough job, but we are inviting any men of goodwill to look at the world around us and ask: Could all of this come about because I was sold a bill of goods? If your answer is yes, then the only Christlike response is to go on a hunt for the truth. There can be no other authentic response.
Many thousands of you have signed up to be Premium members of Church Militant, especially in the wake of the devastation now facing the nation and the world.
We have too many productions to even keep track of — thousands of hours. So we are going to recommend certain programs for you to watch and think about as you embark on this truth-seeking mission.
The threat is not surprising, given the authoritarian Islamic character of Pakistan’s government and its vicious hostility to the Ahmadiyya movement, as it forbids Ahmadis to call themselves Muslims and persecutes them in numerous ways. The TrueIslam.com website presents Ahmadi Islam as the pure and genuine form of the religion, despite the fact that the Ahmadiyya movement is regarded as heretical by mainstream Muslims and represents an infinitesimal percentage of the worldwide Muslim population. Zafar and his colleague Amjad Mahmood Khan, who was also threatened, must have known that such a site would ruffle the Pakistani government’s feathers.
But what made this more than just another story about the repressive Pakistani government is the fact that back in January 2013, Zafar published an op-ed in the Washington Post entitled, “Making Islamic Sense of Free Speech.” In it, Zafar offered a manifesto for the destruction of the freedom of speech worthy of a true totalitarian.
“The difference between Islam’s view on free speech and the view promoted by free speech advocates these days,” Zafar asserted, “is the intention and ultimate goal each seeks to promote. Whereas many secularists champion individual privileges, Islam promotes the principle of uniting mankind and cultivating love and understanding among people. Both endorse freedom for people to express themselves, but Islam promotes unity, whereas modern-day free speech advocates promote individualism.”
The unity Zafar envisioned involved restrictions on the freedom of speech: “In order to unite mankind, Islam instructs to only use speech to be truthful, do good to others, and be fair and respectful. It attempts to pre-empt [sic] frictions by prescribing rules of conduct which guarantee for all people not only freedom of speech but also fairness, absolute justice, and the right of disagreement.”
So we can have the freedom of speech as long as “fairness” is ensured by Islamic “rules of conduct.” With evident distaste, Zafar continued by claiming that “the most vocal proponents of freedom of speech, however, call us towards a different path, where people can say anything and everything on their mind. With no restraint on speech at all, every form of provocation would exist, thereby cultivating confrontation and antagonism. They insist this freedom entitles them the legal privilege to insult others. This is neither democracy nor freedom of speech. It fosters animosity, resentment and disorder.”
Note the sleight of hand: “With no restraint on speech at all, every form of provocation would exist, thereby cultivating confrontation and antagonism.” Zafar was implying that the Muslims who riot and kill because of perceived affronts to Islam were not responsible for their own actions, but that those who supposedly provoked them were.
This is an increasingly widespread confusion in the West, willfully spread by people such as Zafar. In reality, the only person responsible for his actions is the person who is acting, not anyone else. You may provoke me in a hundred ways, but my response is my own, which I choose from a range of possible responses, and only I am responsible for it.
But having established that if someone riots and kills in response to someone else’s speech, the fault lies with the speaker, not the rioter, Zafar drove his point home: speech must be restricted in the interests of “world peace”: “Treating speech as supreme at the expense of world peace and harmony is an incredibly flawed concept. No matter how important the cause of free speech, it still pales in comparison to the cause of world peace and unity.”
And who will decide what speech accords with “world peace and harmony,” and what speech does not? Why, Zafar and his friends, of course. But what if the Pakistani government claimed that right for itself, and decided that what Zafar himself was saying did not accord with “world peace and harmony”?
Harris Zafar could well become the Nikolai Yezhov of our age. Yezhov was the Soviet secret police chief who sent innumerable people to their deaths in the gulag before Stalin decided it was his turn. Nowadays, Zafar has become the first advocate of restrictions on the freedom of speech to run afoul of people who want to take his own freedom of speech away. But as the silencing continues, he will by no means be the last.
No surprise here in Shibly’s behavior. He is clearly a true believer, a Sharia-adherent Muslim. What is surprising is that Imane Sadrati actually has dared to complain. The Qur’an teaches that men are superior to women and should beat those from whom they “fear disobedience”: “Men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other, and because they spend their wealth to maintain them. Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because Allah has guarded them. As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them.” — Qur’an 4:34
Muhammad’s child bride, Aisha, says in a hadith that Muhammad “struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: ‘Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?’” — Sahih Muslim 2127
It will be interesting now to see if Shibly attempts a religious freedom defense, as did doctors in Michigan who were accused of practicing female genital mutilation. They succeeded with this defense. Maybe he will, too.
CAIR is an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas terror funding case — so named by the Justice Department. CAIR officials have repeatedly refusedtodenounce Hamas and Hizballah as terrorist groups. Several former CAIR officials have been convicted of various crimes related to jihad terror. CAIR’s cofounder and longtime Board chairman (Omar Ahmad), as well as its chief spokesman (Ibrahim Hooper), have made Islamic supremacist statements about how Islamic law should be imposed in the U.S. (Ahmad denies this, but the original reporter stands by her story.) CAIR chapters frequently distribute pamphlets telling Muslims not to cooperate with law enforcement. CAIR has opposed virtually every anti-terror measure that has been proposed or implemented and has been declared a terror organization by the United Arab Emirates. CAIR’s Hussam Ayloush in 2017 called for the overthrow of the U.S. government. CAIR’s national outreach manager is an open supporter of Hamas.
“CAIR Executive Shibley [sic] Beats Wife, Resigns, and Could Get Disbarred,” by Javier Manjarres, The Floridian, January 24, 2021:
Former Executive Director of the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Florida, Hassan Shibly (pictured) has literally taken what the Qur’an says about beating your wife and applied it to his own family.
Verse 4:34 in the Qu’ran allows for Muslim men to “strike” their wives, and that is exactly what Hassan Shibly did to his wife Imane Sadrati, who has accused him in a fundraising video of beating her in front of her children, causing her living situation with Shibly as “unbearable.”
“My children and I are in desperate need of your help,” stated Sadrati. “For years I’ve been in an abusive relationship, and the situation at home has become unbearable. I’ve finally decided to build the courage to start over.”
This is the same Syria-born Shibly that hosted Rep. Ilhan Omar at a CAIR fundraiser in California, where he infamously stated, “some people did something” about the 9/11 Islamic terrorist attacks against the U.S….
Shibly is a devout Islamists [sic] that defended the “ISIS bride”, has called the terror group Hezbollah a “resistance movement,” tweeted that “Israel and its supporters are enemies of God,” and praised Palestinian terrorist Marvan [sic] Barghouti as a “hero.”
In addition, Hassan Shibly for the last two years has engaged in a high-profile spat with Conservative journalist and former Republican nominee for Congress, Laura Loomer.
Loomer sued Hassan Shibly and CAIR FL in a Florida court for tortious interference for their role in getting her banned from Twitter and other social media sites.
In a statement to The Floridian, Loomer stated that she had long sounded the alarm about Shibly.
“I’ve been warning people about the national security threat Hassan Shibly poses to Florida and our nation for years. I’m happy to see that the leader of CAIR- FL, CAIR’s largest branch in the country, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the UAE, has resigned over a domestic violence dispute. His resignation should have been submitted in 2019 when he advocated for Hoda Muthana, an ISIS bride who fled to Syria to be readmitted to the US despite her Murderous threats against Americans. fled to Syria to be readmitted to the US despite her Murderous threats against Americans.”…
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2021-01-26 04:50:462021-10-07 20:34:39Wife of Hamas-linked CAIR top dog Hassan Shibly accuses him of beating her, he resigns, may be disbarred
Joe Biden had barely been in the Oval Office long enough to exile the Winston Churchill bust yet again when he repealed the notorious “Muslim Ban,” and so now Americans can rest easy. We have repudiated one of the hallmarks of the Bad Orange Man’s administration, put “racism” and “Islamophobia” behind us, and resumed our role as a refuge for the tired, the poor, the woke masses. And so as a glorious new multicultural era dawns in America, after a four-year-long speed bump, will come the reminders that virtue-signaling is never a risk-free proposition.
For besides cementing Old Joe’s role as the errand boy for his party’s ascendant hard-Left wing, that was all the repeal of the “Muslim Ban” was: virtue-signaling. The executive order his handlers had ready for him to sign on Wednesday made that clear. “Beyond contravening our values,” it said, “these Executive Orders and Proclamations” — that is, the ones instituting the bans – “have undermined our national security. They have jeopardized our global network of alliances and partnerships and are a moral blight that has dulled the power of our example the world over. And they have separated loved ones, inflicting pain that will ripple for years to come. They are just plain wrong.”
That “moral blight” bit is the key, as it would be hard for Biden’s handlers to whisper into his earpiece a coherent argument for how a ban on travel from such upstanding members of the international community as Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, North Korea, Venezuela, Nigeria, Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania undermined, rather than strengthened, national security.
But even the “moral blight” business runs into a major problem: there never really was a “Muslim Ban” at all. From beginning to end, that was just propaganda designed to smear Trump as a racist (even though Islam is, contrary to popular belief, actually not a race), bigoted, “Islamophobe.” It had no basis in reality. For as you may be aware, North Korea, Venezuela, and Myanmar are not actually Muslim countries at all. Eritrea has about a fifty percent Muslim population. Tanzania is about 35% Muslim.
What’s more, the world’s largest Muslim populations are (in descending order) in Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Algeria, and Sudan. Iran, Nigeria and Sudan are the only ones on the “Muslim Ban” list. If Trump had really wanted to bar Muslims from entering the United States, he would have banned travel from Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Turkey, and Algeria. He made no attempt to do so. If he had intended to impose a “Muslim Ban,” barring travel from North Korea but not Pakistan was a remarkably inefficient way to go about it.
What led to the grouping of countries in the Trump “Muslim Ban” was not that they were Muslim at all. The travel bans were on countries that could not or would not provide adequate information about who was entering. It was a national security move from start to finish. But now Obama’s dotty old puppet and his handlers have made sure that any consideration of national security issues in connection with mass migration will be dismissed as “racist” and “Islamophobic.”
And so now the reminders of why we needed Trump’s travel bans will start coming. Here is a preview: Somali Muslim migrant Mohammad Barry in February 2016 stabbed multiple patrons at a restaurant owned by an Israeli Arab Christian; Ahmad Khan Rahami, an Afghan Muslim migrant, in September 2016 set off bombs in New York City and New Jersey; Arcan Cetin, a Turkish Muslim migrant, in September 2016 murdered five people in a mall in Burlington, Washington; Dahir Adan, another Somali Muslim migrant, in October 2016 stabbed mall shoppers in St. Cloud while screaming “Allahu akbar”; and Abdul Razak Artan, yet another Somali Muslim migrant, in November 2016 injured nine people with car and knife attacks at Ohio State University.
Seventy-two jihad terrorists had entered the U.S. from the countries listed in Trump’s initial immigration ban before it was instituted. But once the travel bans came into effect, suddenly we didn’t see as much of this as we had before. Yes, this was no coincidence.
There are warning signs from Europe as well. All of the jihadis who murdered 130 people in Paris in November 2015 had just entered Europe as refugees. Numerous other Muslim migrants since then have committed “lone wolf” jihad attacks on the streets of several European countries.
But to consider such matters is now officially “racist” and “Islamophobic.” The problem with virtue-signaling by our moral superiors in Washington, however, is that they never have to deal with the consequences of their actions; ordinary Americans do. Anyone who is the victim of a crime or a jihad attack perpetrated by a migrant from one of the countries on Trump’s travel ban list can expect no sympathy from Biden’s handlers. Their constituency has been served, and it isn’t the Americans who have to deal with criminal migrants. As a nation, we are no longer “racist,” at least in this particular, and that’s all that matters.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2021-01-25 09:15:592021-10-07 20:34:40The ‘Muslim Ban’ Is Gone. Now Come the Reminders of Why We Needed It.
Atlas readers are long familiar with this subversive jihad operative. As early as 2007 and 2008 (and repeatedly throughout the campaign and in my book), I warned Geller Report readers of the troubling relationship between Robert O. Malley and Barack Hussein Obama.
ROBERT MALLEY TOLD THE NY TIMES THAT HE HAD REGULARLY BEEN IN CONTACT WITH HAMAS, WHICH IS DESIGNATED A TERRORIST ORGANISATION BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT.
[Malley] was part of the American negotiating team that dealt with Yasser Arafat at Camp David. He has presented a revisionist history of those negotiations since then:
presenting a view that blames Israel for the failures of the negotiations. His version has been radically at odds with the views of Americans and Israelis (including the views of American Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross-also an adviser to Obama- and President Clinton). He has spent years representing the Palestinian point of view, co-writing a series of anti-Israel articles with Hussein Agha-a former Arafat adviser. Palestinian advocate. These have appeared in the New York Review of Books a publication that has served as a platform for a slew of anti-Israel advocates from Tony Judt to the aforementioned George Soros to the authors of the Israeli Lobby book Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer. Malley has also called settlements “colonies” — implicitly condemning Israel as a “colonial” state. His writings have been so critical of Israel that the media-monitoring group CAMERA has a “dossier” on him.
In a July 2001 op-ed (titled “Fictions About the Failure at Camp David”) which was published in the New York Times, Robert Malley (whose family, as noted above, had close ties to Yasser Arafat) alleged that Israeli — not Palestinian — inflexibility had caused the previous year’s Camp David peace talks (brokered by Bill Clinton) to fail. This was one of several controversial articles Malley has written — some he co-wrote with Hussein Agha, a former adviser to Arafat — blaming Israel and exonerating Arafat for that failure.
One security official at the time said, “We are noting with concern some of Obama’s picks as advisers, particularly Robert Malley who has expressed sympathy to Hamas and Hezbollah and offered accounts of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that don’t jibe with the facts” (here).
Because of the exposure of Malley by the blogs, he was removed from Obama’s campaign team. But the mask is off, and Obama has no need to pretend to be something he is not. Malley is back and in charge of the Obama “war” against ISIS.
This guy is dangerous. Robert Malley is one of the architects of the radical JCPOA (Iran Nuclear Deal) with Iran. In addition, Malley was one of lead advisors for President Obama’s disastrous ISIS policy. Malley is also a rabid hater of Israel, and will often write viciously anti-Israel screeds in various publications. In fact, In 2008 Malley was actually removed from Obama’s election committee due to his meetings with Hamas officials.
President Biden’s foreign policy team is absolutely horrendous. The Middle East is very likely going to become a far more dangerous place in the next four years.
“Ronald Radosh, adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute, who provided some background on Malley in 2015, recalled that Malley was removed from Obama’s 2008 election committee after “protests from the Jewish community about his private meetings with Hamas.”
“In articles primarily appearing in The New York Review of Books, he regularly focused on Israel’s supposed sins and responsibility for lack of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. A profile of him in Discover the Networks has links to his articles, many of which were co-authored with Hussein Agha, a former advisor to Yasser Arafat.”
“Malley’s parents were rabidly anti-Israel and counted Yasir Arafat as a personal friend. Indeed, Arafat was among those ‘leaders’ (for want of a better word) who had intervened with the French government to readmit the Malley family to France after being expelled for their radical activities,”
It’s deeply troubling that President Biden would consider appointing Rob Malley to direct Iran policy. Malley has a long track record of sympathy for the Iranian regime & animus towards Israel. The ayatollahs wouldn’t believe their luck if he is selected. https://t.co/caxHhiXjKn
Robert Malley is rumored to be in line for a position on Biden’s team as special envoy on Iran, the Jewish Insider reports on Jan. 20, a source of concern for Israel supporters.
President Joe Biden has made no secret of his desire to return to the 2015 Iran deal, an agreement bitterly opposed by Israel and described by former President Donald Trump as “the worst deal ever” and one which paved the way for Iran to obtain nuclear weapons. Trump exited the deal in 2018.
Former State Department official Aaron David Miller told Jewish Insider that appointing Malley would be a “smart move,” saying he understands the issues surrounding the agreement and has a close relationship with incoming Secretary of State Tony Blinken and National Security Advisor-designate Jake Sullivan.
However, Malley’s background is troubling to others, who point to his history of criticizing Israel.
Ronald Radosh, adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute, who provided some background on Malley in 2015, recalled that Malley was removed from Obama’s 2008 election committee after “protests from the Jewish community about his private meetings with Hamas.”
Radosh writes, “In articles primarily appearing in The New York Review of Books, he regularly focused on Israel’s supposed sins and responsibility for lack of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. A profile of him in Discover the Networks has links to his articles, many of which were co-authored with Hussein Agha, a former advisor to Yasser Arafat.”
Jeff Dunetz, founder of The Lid Blog, says “For those who are unfamiliar with Mr. Malley, he is a second-generation Israel hater. I do not believe the father’s sins are visited on the son, but this son has chosen to follow in his dad’s footsteps.”
“Malley’s parents were rabidly anti-Israel and counted Yasir Arafat as a personal friend. Indeed, Arafat was among those ‘leaders’ (for want of a better word) who had intervened with the French government to readmit the Malley family to France after being expelled for their radical activities,” Dunetz writes.
As President Clinton’s special assistant for Arab-Israeli Affairs, Malley appears to be the only one who blamed Israel for the failure of the 2000 Camp David peace talks.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2021-01-24 08:39:312021-10-07 20:34:42Notorious Antisemite Robert Malley joining Biden team as special Iran envoy
Fr. Paul D. Scalia: “Repent” is the foundational Gospel command. It’s always timely. Sin is the construction of one’s own petty little kingdom.
Saint John Henry Newman once observed that men always think of their own day and age as the worst. In every time, he said, “serious and anxious minds, alive to the honour of God and the needs of man, are apt to consider no times so perilous as their own.” Indeed, we see this from Cicero – O tempora! O mores! – to Thomas Paine – These are the times that try men’s souls! – to today’s political hyperboles.
Ironically, Newman made this observation on the way to claiming that the trials of his own day were indeed the worst. They were such that “would appall and make dizzy even such courageous hearts as St. Athanasius, St. Gregory I, or St. Gregory VII. And they would confess that dark as the prospect of their own day was to them severally, ours has a darkness different in kind from any that has been before it.”
One sympathizes.
As we look at the cultural, political, and ecclesiastical wreckage around us, we are tempted to conclude the same. Political division and cultural relativism, simmering religious persecution, widespread infidelity, and ecclesiastical confusion – these make our times arduous and presage more difficulties ahead.
Still, it’s of little use and of frequent distraction to try to pinpoint our time’s exact location on the chart of woeful times. What matters is not how today’s evils compare to yesterday’s, but how we respond to them. In such circumstances, it’s good to go back to basics. And basics are just what today’s Gospel gives us. (Mk 1:14-20)
Last week the world was focused on the presidential inauguration. Today’s Gospel presents another – a very different and more important – inauguration: the beginning of our Lord’s public ministry. “After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God.”
Our Lord even gives a brief inaugural address: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” Unlike the typical timebound, agenda-laden inaugural address, our Lord’s words focus on eternal truths. They are timeless and thus apt for every moment in history, including our own.
He declares, “This is the time of fulfillment.” For the ancient Israelites, that had a very specific meaning: the realization of all that had been promised and prophesied for centuries. The long-awaited Messiah has come. The kingdom of God is no longer a desire, but at hand.
More broadly, we can take the “time of fulfillment” to indicate that all time and all times have meaning only in relation to Christ and His Kingdom. He relates all of history to Himself and thus sets it in proper perspective. If we try to interpret and respond to our times apart from Him, we tragically misread them.
This is the proper supernatural outlook: to measure our current circumstances not according to the world’s standard and solutions, but according to the reality and power of the Kingdom of God that is at hand no less today than 2000 years ago. And that Kingdom requires two things: repentance and faith.
“Repent” is the foundational Gospel command. It’s always timely. Sin is the construction of my own petty little kingdom. It might be a squalid, selfish, peevish place, but at least it’s mine. Admission into the Kingdom of God requires that I repent and renounce this miserable rival kingdom.
This repentance takes on greater significance as we are called to confront the evils of our day. The greatest danger in war is to adopt the immoral tactics of the enemy. So, in opposing the culture of death, we risk growing bitter, hardened, and resentful. Our response to evil must always be seen in relation to the “time of fulfillment,” and thus preceded by our own repentance. Only a heart set right with Christ can see with clarity and speak with charity.
The prophets of Israel never considered themselves exempt from the sinfulness of their people. “Woe to me! For I am lost,” says Isaiah, “For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” (Is 6:5) The first step in speaking the truth is repentance for our own actions against it. As we have an obligation to bear witness to the truth, so we should understand ourselves as rebellious, sinful, and in need of the truth we proclaim.
Next, “believe in the Gospel.” Repentance cleanses our souls; faith opens them to God’s grace and truth. Again, this takes on greater significance in our trying times. Against increasing darkness, the light of faith enables us to judge wisely, so that the world’s deceits will not mislead us. That faith also makes us stouthearted, able to stand fast and persevere, because we know the one in Whom we have believed. (cf. 2 Tim 1:12)
An exchange between Frodo and Gandalf is helpful for this consideration. The poor hobbit has just learned that the evil Sauron was rising again and menacing Middle Earth. He says, “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” Again, one sympathizes. But Gandalf responds, “So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
For us, the first and most fundamental thing to do with the time that is given us is to repent and believe in the Gospel.
Will he be disbarred? Of course not. That would be “Islamophobic.” “The California bar investigated him and unbelievably found no actionable conduct.”
There is so much corruption these days, you need wings to stay above it.
The Jews in the Qur’an are called the strongest of all people in enmity toward the Muslims (5:82); they fabricate things and falsely ascribe them to Allah (2:79; 3:75, 3:181); they claim that Allah’s power is limited (5:64); they love to listen to lies (5:41); they disobey Allah and never observe his commands (5:13). They are disputing and quarreling (2:247); hiding the truth and misleading people (3:78); staging rebellion against the prophets and rejecting their guidance (2:55); being hypocritical (2:14, 2:44); giving preference to their own interests over the teachings of Muhammad (2:87); wishing evil for people and trying to mislead them (2:109); feeling pain when others are happy or fortunate (3:120); being arrogant about their being Allah’s beloved people (5:18); devouring people’s wealth by subterfuge (4:161); slandering the true religion and being cursed by Allah (4:46); killing the prophets (2:61); being merciless and heartless (2:74); never keeping their promises or fulfilling their words (2:100); being unrestrained in committing sins (5:79); being cowardly (59:13-14); being miserly (4:53); being transformed into apes and pigs for breaking the Sabbath (2:63-65; 5:59-60; 7:166); and more. They are under Allah’s curse (9:30), and Muslims should wage war against them and subjugate them under Islamic hegemony (9:29).
He is also is the founder and chair of the Iranian American Sport Association (IASA), a Los-Angeles based 501c3 nonprofit organization, “to help save his family sport, Olympic wrestling, and to bridge the sports gap between the two nations and support USA-Iran Sports Diplomacy.” As such, he appears on Persian TV to comment on Iran-US sports relations.
[CLICK HERE AND HERE TO SEE HIS SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS]
After these posts were exposed – including by a former classmate of his who had no idea he was like this – the California bar investigated him and unbelievably found no actionable conduct….
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2021-01-23 06:38:532021-10-07 20:34:48CALIFORNIA: Muslim Lawyer Praises Hitler, Calls for New Genocide of the Jews
An Ohio priest has been suspended for attending the “Stop the Steal” rally ahead of the US Capitol siege — a punishment he ripped as “unjust,” according to reports.
Archpriest Mark Hodges, who is affiliated with St. Paul the Apostle Orthodox Church in Dayton, told the Journal-News that he was slapped with a three-month suspension and faces possible defrocking for simply attending the demonstration by President Donald Trump supporters.
“My beloved bishop had questioned the wisdom of a priest attending,” Hodges told the newspaper this week. “I think part of the problem is I viewed that ‘Stop the Steal’ rally as expressing extreme concerns over voter fraud allegations in the 2020 election.”
A notice on the Orthodox Church in America’s Diocese of the Midwest website shows that Hodges was “suspended from all priestly functions” effective Jan. 12. No additional details are provided and a message seeking further comment was not immediately returned early Thursday.
“I disagree,” Hodges said of the disciplinary action.
Hodges, of Lima, said he was informed of the move directly from Archbishop Paul Gassios, who heads the Diocese of the Midwest. A diocese spokesman declined to comment on the matter, the Journal-News reported.
Hodges said he has served as a “supply” priest for the past few years at parishes in Cleveland, Byesville and Toledo, as well as other churches in Michigan when vacancies arise.
Hodges told the Lima News he was informed by Gassios he was “guilty by association” for attending the rally. The archbishop confirmed Hodges’ suspension to the newspaper, but declined additional comment, saying “that is between myself and Father Mark Hodges to address.”
In a letter written to “concerned loved ones” that he shared with the Lima News, Hodges recalled the “joyful” rally where he met “wonderful” people and many families.
“It was good, huge,” the letter read. “Easily as big as any March for Life I’d been to, and I’ve been to most since the ‘80s, so I believed the whispered estimates of half-to-three-quarters of a million.”
Hodges said he saw one man who was sprayed with an irritant who told him “they’re attacking us,” he recalled.
“At this point, I had no idea of the violence inside the Capitol,” Hodges stated. “I heard the young men cursing and taunting the police.”
Hodges said he then “began to leave” as police unleashed tear gas into the crowd while he was about 25 feet away. He told a woman with him, “We should go,” he recalled.
“We left and went to Union Station,” the priest wrote in the letter.
Guidelines on the Orthodox Church in America’s website state that “clergy should refrain” from making political statements, joining political groups or “becoming fans” of political candidates or causes on social media platforms.
Hodges, meanwhile, had previously urged others on Facebook to join him at the “mega MAGA rally” on Jan. 6 in Washington.
“Whatever happens on that historic day, it will be an event to remember,” Hodges wrote. “You can tell your grandchildren that you were on the front lines in the Second American Revolution, where you fought to save the Republic.”
Robert Royal: You can carry rosary beads and bless yourself publicly as much as you want. But please, don’t expect Catholics to be blind.
In recent days, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago has described the pre-inauguration statement issued by USCCB President and Archbishop of Los Angeles José Gómez as “unprecedented” for what – in any non-partisan perspective – were actually quite temperate warnings to President Biden that the Church will not ignore his departures from clear Catholic teachings. In fact, the Chicago Cardinal has become rather obsessive, tweeting out what some have called a Twitter “storm” about the whole affair.
Cupich’s criticisms of his fellow bishops are themselves also quite unprecedented. Then again, the thing that’s most “unprecedented” – that’s given rise to these recent in-house Catholic squabbles – is the election of a self-described “Catholic” president, who not only believes personally that abortion, gay “marriage” (he performed one as vice-president), transgenderism (“the civil rights issue of our time”), and much more are matters of overriding political urgency, despite the long teachings of the Church and American history. He’s determined – actually seems to be going out of his way – to impose those views. On all of us.
But there’s even worse. As we’ll soon see – I hope to be wrong about this – he and the people he is appointing are poised not only aggressively to advance bad policies, but also to curtail religious liberties where they conflict with the tenets of the Alternative Creed that many Democrats – and not only them – have now embraced. It’s not only going to be the Little Sister of the Poor this time, though they will be back in court again soon. It’s Catholic (and other religious) adoption agencies, poverty programs, hospitals, schools, maybe even parishes or dioceses that are too starkly Catholic.
The Courts or a stray Democrat or so in Congress may stop some of the worst from happening. But that’s a slender hope with so much in play.
What’s truly unprecedented, then, beyond being an unfaithful Catholic, is that Biden has already shown himself by word and deed to be an anti-Catholic “Catholic.” Indeed, he’s an equal opportunity religious bigot who, for all the talk of coming together, will ride roughshod over his co-religionists as well as traditional Protestants and evangelicals, Orthodox and Conservative Jews, Muslims, Mormons, and even secular citizens who believe that “woke” politics do not abolish ordinary reason and human nature.
Biden has tried to position himself as a moderate and a man who wants to bring back American “unity.” In his inaugural address, however, he and his speechwriters told us exactly where they think the fault lines lie:
I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, and demonization have long torn us apart. The battle is perennial.
In the unlikely event that you are a racist, hate foreigners, suffer from politically incorrect “phobias,” and – ahem, unlike liberals – demonize opponents, consider yourself forewarned. If, however, you think that by opposing certain policy choices you are yourself being demonized and marginalized by a political clique, well, you’ll just have to bear the stigma of being called bigoted and opposed to American “unity.”
Like Nancy Pelosi, who has said that some Catholics have placed their pro-life views “above democracy,” Biden has over the years talked himself into an alternative faith centered in partisan politics. A Catholic, indeed any sincere religious believer, should have no trouble saying – with the necessary qualifications – that of course he or she places God and his Word above any political order.
Any public figure who goes out of his way to make a display of his Catholicism should expect to receive scrutiny for his claim. Who knew that according to some Catholic Democrats the Constitution, for example, gives the Federal government the power to tell us which pronouns, family relationships, and “genders” can and cannot be used in conducting the business of the American people?
You can carry around rosary beads and bless yourself publicly as much as you want. But please, don’t expect Catholics to be blind. Or stupid. It’s not surprising when political partisans, religious or not, place their party and ambitions first, while masking it as an appeal to compassion and patriotism. But when a Catholic politician openly chooses to follow his wayward political party rather than his Church, lays out a whole set of policies that will negatively impact that Church, and immediately sets out to implement them, he’s seeking neither civic unity nor religious fidelity.
But let us also learn a lesson from this: we do not need to act like this ourselves. Christians aren’t in the world to cancel people; we’re here to convert them. The nation is divided and needs to be evangelized. The alternative is civil war or secession. A nation divided in its ultimate commitments cannot resolve differences politically unless we open up space to live and let live. We can do that and still stand up – forcefully – for truth.
We won’t get that from the Biden administration. But we can prepare among ourselves a different mentality by the ways we think, speak, and act, now. It’s not an easy road. There are pitfalls everywhere. But God never said that his way would be easy.
Our bishops are shepherds, as well as public figures. They must teach, sanctify, and govern the flock as well as be public witnesses to the Truth. Gomez and the other bishops who joined him were right to express willingness to co-operate, even “dialogue” – however unlikely, given ideological hatreds – with the incoming administration. But they were even more right to make clear that (to borrow from St. Thomas More) they are America’s good servants, but God’s first.
That may seem unprecedented to some, but let’s hope it’s the first of many new precedents that will radically shift the understanding of faith in our public life.
At yesterday's White House Press Briefing, when asked about Biden's abortion policy, we were reminded: "he is a devout Catholic & somebody who attends church regularly."
Today, we learn Biden is reportedly preparing to roll back Trump's pro-life policy ⬇️https://t.co/fMO7byfS47
Although the pro-life movement has faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision illegalizing abortion in the U.S., the movement continues to make legal and cultural gains.
This is one of the latest.
In July 2019, I wrote the blog “The Last Planned Parenthood Clinic in Missouri Again Evades Closure” about how the lone Planned Parenthood clinic in my home state of Missouri received multiple court-ordered reprieves from closure after the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) decided not to renew the facility’s license because of dozens of serious health and safety violations.
Public records showed numerous problems at the clinic, including unreported failed abortions, life threatening complications, an illegal abortion at 21 weeks, insufficient supervision of medical residents (students) performing abortions, and inaccurate medical records, among the many other violations.
Yet the St. Louis abortion clinic continued to get court-ordered reprieves.
But this month, Operation Rescue confirmed that now no abortions have been performed there for months. Instead, all abortion appointments are now being referred to the Fairview Heights Planned Parenthood facility across the Mississippi River in Illinois.
How could this happen?
While Missouri has long been a strongly pro-life state with legislation like the 2019 “Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act” and many active pro-life organisations, Defenders of the Unborn president Mary Maschmeier, who has led a peaceful, prayerful and life-saving ministry outside the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic for many years, wrote an email also giving credit to the:
“ordinary citizens who would not take no for an answer. Who persevered day after day, year after year, decade after decade. Ever present on the front lines. In the streets. In the halls of our state legislature. Sidewalk counseling. Prayer warriors… Manning pregnancy aid centers. Staffing ultrasound vans. Rain, snow, heat, cold — ever vigilant.”
Mary also wrote,
“We will not stop until the that unjust practice is banished from our land and encourage our fellow citizens to end abortion in their respective states.”
Conclusion
In 1989, I had just started working as an RN on an oncology (cancer) unit when we discovered that one of our patients had CMV (Cytomegalovirus).
One of our nurses was pregnant and tested positive for the virus. Her doctor told her how her baby could die or have terrible birth defects from the virus, and he recommended an abortion.
“Sue” (not her real name) was frantic. She had two little girls and worked full-time. She said she didn’t know how she could manage a child with serious birth defects.
I told her that it was usually impossible to know if or how much a baby might be impaired before birth. I also told her about my Karen who was born with Down Syndrome and a critical heart defect and died at 5 months. I told her that I treasured the time I had with her and later babysat children with a range of physical and mental difficulties. Most importantly, I also told her that I would be there to help her and her baby.
“Sue” decided against abortion and told the other nurses what I said.
The other nurses were furious with me and said if the baby was born with so much as an extra toe, they would never talk to me again.
But slowly, the other nurses came around and also offered to help Sue and her baby.
In the end, we all celebrated when Sue had her first son, who was perfectly healthy!
My point is that what many people don’t understand is that pro-life doesn’t mean just being against abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. What being pro-life really means is truly caring about all lives, born or unborn.
The article has been republished with permission from Nancy Valko’s blog.
COLUMN BY
Nancy Valko
I have been a registered nurse since 1969 and currently I am a spokesperson for the National Association of Prolife Nurses (www.nursesforlife.org). I have also been a past President of Missouri Nurses… More by Nancy Valko.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00MercatorNet - Navigating Modern Complexitieshttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngMercatorNet - Navigating Modern Complexities2021-01-22 05:38:402021-10-07 20:34:51How Missouri became the first abortion-free state in the U.S.
Yet another convert to Islam gets the crazy idea that his new religion commands him to commit treason and mass murder. Are authorities investigating who taught him Islam, and what kind of influence they have? Why not?
“‘Islamic State-inspired’ US soldier arrested over alleged plot to bomb American troops and attack NYC 9/11 Memorial,” RT, January 19, 2021 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
An American soldier has been arrested on terrorism charges, including suggesting wiring explosives into buildings as part of an Islamic State plot to kill US troops, as well as allegedly planning an attack on the 9/11 Memorial.
Ohio man Cole James Bridges, 20, was held in Georgia on Tuesday, and is charged with the assistance of a foreign terrorist organization and the attempted murder of US military service members, the US Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
The private first class, also known as Cole Gonzales, had expressed his support for the terrorist Islamic State group (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) on social media, according to the criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday in Manhattan Federal Court.
After joining the US Army in late 2019, Bridges began unknowingly communicating with a member of the FBI in October last year, with the bureau employee posing as an IS supporter who claimed to be in touch with the terrorist group in the Middle East.
The soldier is then said to have used his army training to guide supposed IS fighters about potential attacks in New York City, including on the 9/11 Memorial.
In December 2020, Bridges allegedly provided diagrams of “specific military maneuvers” to help IS fighters “maximize the lethality of attacks on US troops” while also pledging his allegiance to the terrorist group in videos. He suggested militants should wire particular buildings with explosives in order to kill American troops, the charges claim….
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2021-01-21 05:18:522021-10-07 20:34:56Muslim U.S. Army Soldier Arrested over Plot to Bomb U.S. troops and Commit Jihad Massacre at 9/11 Memorial
