Legal Challenge to No-Fault Divorce

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LINCOLN, Neb. (ChurchMilitant.com) – After five decades of legality, so-called no-fault divorce — in which the dissolution of a marriage does not require the showing of wrongdoing by either party — is being challenged in court.

On Sept. 3, 2020, Attorney Bob Sullivan will appear on behalf of his client before the Nebraska Supreme Court to discuss the appeal he made against a no-fault divorce order from a county judge.

The appeal brief says the Nebraska statute is unconstitutional and that the court made multiple errors, including denying the husband’s motion to dismiss the case.

The injustice of Easy Divorce

Bai Macfarlane of Mary’s Advocates, a nonprofit working to reduce unilateral, no-fault divorce on behalf of those who are unjustly abandoned, posted on Twitter a live video that Mike, the estranged husband, took when he returned home one December night, 2019.

https://twitter.com/Marys_Advocates/status/1204603391973961728

“No-fault divorce is absolutely evil,” said Mike, as he met an eviction notice taped to his front door when returning home. He reads it to himself. “[The notice] basically says I’ve been kicked out of my own house.”

Then his wife opens the door and with a stern voice threatens to call the police on him for trespassing. He only wanted a few of his belongings.

“Can you believe this? Two cop cars [coming],” Mike said. “I’m evicted from my home. I’m peaceably here trying get some toiletries and some personal items so I can sleep someplace other than my home of 28 years,” he lamented.

Then a police officer showed up to escort him off his own property, per order of a judge. Mike explained to the officer the injustice of what is going on.

“I’m a pretty strong Catholic and I don’t believe in divorce at all,” Mike told the officer. “I can’t cooperate with the divorce itself. Had I followed the orders and took off and left, it would have probably shown that I was cooperating with the divorce.”

The officer did not acknowledge what Mike said, but ordered him to immediately leave his own property. As Macfarlane says, Mike was never accused of abuse or adultery; the judge just found the marriage to be “irretrievably broken.”

Mike’s wife, who filed for the no-fault divorce, was granted sole ownership of the marital home, and he was ordered to pay all his wife’s attorney fees.

“No-fault divorce violates the defendant’s constitutional right to due process and equal protection under the law,” said Sullivan, Mike’s attorney. And, according to Mike’s Catholic faith, it attempts to tear apart what God has joined together (Matthew 19:6).

Origin Within Soviet Communism

The first modern, no-fault divorce law was enacted in Russia in December 1917, following the October Bolshevik Revolution that ushered in Soviet communism. California was the first U.S. state to adopt no-fault divorce laws in 1969, and all states gradually followed. Australia followed in 1975 and Canada in 1986.

Easy divorce laws did not occur in a moral vacuum. Observers note that America’s skyrocketing divorce rates immediately followed the cultural acceptance of contraception shortly after Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) legalized use of the birth control pill.

Christian social scientists have seen widespread use of contraception taking sex outside of its exclusive relationship to marriage, and Pope St. John Paul II noted that it creates a wedge between spouses by lying with one’s body. The marital act inherently says “I give my whole self to you without reservation,” he taught; but contraception holds back life-giving love, devolving the act of union to one of self-gratification.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) calls divorce “a grave offense against the natural law” (CCC 2384) that “introduces disorder into the family and into society” (CCC 2385). No-fault divorce hastens the process whereby sexual and other sins become permanent injustice.

EDITORS NOTE: This Church Militant column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

Actress Debra Messing Falsely Puts a Bible in Hitler’s Hand

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Last week, during some of the race-related protests, President Trump famously held up a Bible in one hand outside of an historic D.C. church that rioters had set afire.

Actress Debra Messing (Will and Grace) then sent out a tweet, in which she showed Trump with the Bible and next to it she juxtaposed a picture of Hitler supposedly holding a Bible. She had the caption: “A dog whistle to white nationalists and Nazis.” She also declared, “This is no accident!”

Of course, the picture of Hitler holding a Bible is a total fake. Furthermore, putting a Bible in Hitler’s hands is totally incorrect on every front.

I realize that actors and actresses are not necessarily well-read when it comes to history. But it’s important to be clear about this. If there is any book that Hitler did not approve of, it was the Bible.

The leader of the Nazi Party rued the day that Christian missionaries ever set foot in his beloved Germany.

One of the best books on Adolf Hitler was written by the history professor and author, Dr. Richard Weikart. He is perhaps best known for his book, From Darwin to Hitler. He also wrote an important book a few years ago called, Hitler’s Religion: The Twisted Beliefs That Drove the Third Reich. What was Hitler’s religion? Short answer: Nature red with tooth and claw—not the Christian God by a long shot.

Just a few quotes from Weikart’s book on Hitler and the Bible show how ignorant Messing’s tweet was, not to mention deceptive.

  • “Since Hitler was a radical anti-Semite, his characterization of Christianity as a Jewish plot was about as harsh an indictment as he could bring against Christianity.”
  • “He saw the Old Testament as the antithesis of everything he stood for.”
  • “He regretted that Finnish people’s religiosity was based on the Bible because it was permeated with Jewishness. According to Hitler, religious people like the Finns, who during long winters seek their religion in the Bible ‘must become mentally crippled’ and fall into ‘religious delusion.’”
  • “Hitler lamented that the Bible had been translated into German, because this made Jewish doctrines readily available to the German people. It would have been better, he stated, if the Bible had remained only in Latin, rather than causing mental disorders and delusions.”
  • The “Fuhrer” declared, “The idiocy of the Christian doctrine of salvation is for our time completely unusable….That even today one views the Christian doctrine of salvation as giving direction through a difficult life is completely incomprehensible.”
  • “Many SS members followed [Heinrich] Himmler’s example and encouragement to withdraw from the churches, and Hitler lauded them for their anti-church attitude.”
  • “Hitler harshly castigated Christianity for not supporting his eugenics and racial ideology.”

This is just a smattering of anti-Bible examples found in Weikart’s book, showing that Hitler had no tolerance for Christianity (although he sometimes hid that antipathy for political purposes).

Hitler denied that Jesus did miracles, that He was divine, that His death was anything but martyrdom, and that He rose from the dead. Hitler even denied that Jesus was Jewish.

I shared the article about Debra Messing’s ignorant tweet with Dr. Weikart (who has also written on the tendentious Trump-Hitler comparisons) and asked him if he would provide me a statement or two for this column.

Weikart told me, “Hitler rejected the Old Testament as a book of Jewish provenance, and he scorned the apostle Paul, who wrote about half the New Testament, as a sneaky Jewish rabbi who corrupted Christianity from its earliest phases. He liked a few Bible stories that corresponded with his worldview, such as Jesus driving the Jews out of the temple because of their greed, or Jesus saying that he had come not to bring peace, but a sword. However, he forthrightly criticized Jesus’ teaching about turning the other cheek. He also once stated, ‘The New Testament is full of contradictions.’ Clearly Hitler did not have much respect for the Bible.”

Furthermore, I asked Weikart if the German people prior to the rise of Hitler were steeped in the Bible—as many of them had been in previous centuries.

He answered, “Most German Protestants (and Protestantism was in the majority in Germany) by the twentieth century did not view the Bible as historically (or doctrinally) accurate, because they had embraced liberal theology, which denied that the biblical text was accurate.”

Of course, Messing’s silly tweet overlooks the fact that numerous U.S. presidents have been photographed holding Bibles. In fact, a photograph of Bill Clinton holding a Bible in front of the exact same church resurfaced recently.

It’s not surprising that the photo of Hitler holding a Bible in Messing’s tweet was fake. Hitler and his ardent followers had no use for that book.

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Nancy Pelosi Claims Israeli ‘Annexation’ Will Harm American Security Interests

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The story of her astonishing claim is at the Jerusalem Post here:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that she is “concerned” about a possible Israeli move to annex parts of the West Bank.

“Unilateral annexation puts the future at risk and undermines US national security interests,” she said in a webinar hosted by the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA). “It undermines our national security interests and decades of bipartisan policy. We always want it to be bipartisan,” she continued.

The extension of Israel’s sovereignty to the “West Bank” – the name Jordan gave in 1950 to those parts of Judea and Samaria it had managed to hold onto during the 1948-49 war – is based on the Palestine Mandate itself. That Mandate assigned to the future Jewish state all of the land from Mt. Hermon in the north, to the Red Sea in the south, and from the Jordan River in the west, to the Mediterranean in the east. At the end of Arab-Israeli hostilities in 1949, the Jordanian army remained in possession of part of Judea and Samaria; Jordan renamed that territory the “West Bank” in order to efface the Jewish connection to the land, much as the Romans nearly 2000 years before had replaced the name “Judea” with “Palestine.” When Israel took possession of the “West Bank” after the Six-Day War, this did not create its legal, historic, and moral claim to land where Jews had lived for 3,500 years, but allowed the Jewish state to finally enforce its preexisting claim.

A second, and independent source for the Jewish claim to extend its sovereignty to a considerable part of the “West Bank” is U.N. Resolution 242.

The chief drafter of Resolution 242 was Lord Caradon (Hugh M. Foot), the permanent representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations from 1964-1970. At the time of the Resolution’s discussion and subsequent unanimous passage, and on many occasions since, Lord Caradon always insisted that the phrase “from the territories” quite deliberately did not mean “all the territories,” but merely some of the territories:

Much play has been made of the fact that we didn’t say “the” territories or “all the” territories. But that was deliberate. I myself knew very well the 1967 boundaries and if we had put in the “the” or “all the” that could only have meant that we wished to see the 1967 boundaries perpetuated in the form of a permanent frontier. This I was certainly not prepared to recommend.

On another occasion, to an interviewer from the Journal of Palestine Studies (Spring-Summer 1976), he again insisted on the deliberateness of the wording. He was asked:

The basis for any settlement will be United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, of which you were the architect. Would you say there is a contradiction between the part of the resolution that stresses the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and that which calls for Israeli withdrawal from “occupied territories,” but not from “the occupied territories”?

Nota bene: “from territories occupied” is not the same thing as “from occupied territories” – the first is neutral, the second a loaded description. Lord Caradon answered:

“I defend the resolution as it stands. What it states, as you know, is first the general principle of inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war. That means that you can’t justify holding onto territory merely because you conquered it. We could have said: well, you go back to the 1967 line. But I know the 1967 line, and it’s a rotten line. You couldn’t have a worse line for a permanent international boundary. It’s where the troops happened to be on a certain night in 1948. It’s got no relation to the needs of the situation.

“Had we said that you must go back to the 1967 line, which would have resulted if we had specified a retreat from all the occupied territories, we would have been wrong.”

Note how Lord Caradon says that “you can’t justify holding onto territory merely because you conquered it,” with that “merely” applying to Jordan, but not to Israel, because of the Mandate’s explicit provisions allocating the territory known now as the “West Bank” to the Jewish state. Note, too, the firmness of his dismissal of the 1967 lines as nothing more than “where the troops happened to be on a certain night in 1948,” that is, nothing more than armistice lines and not internationally recognized borders.

Does Speaker Pelosi understand the legal, historic, and moral claims of Israel to Judea and Samaria (a/k/a the “West Bank)”? Does she understand the intent of the Mandate for Palestine, in recognizing those claims, and does she have a firm understanding of the territory that was included by the League of Nations in that Mandate? Does she comprehend, as well, the meaning of U.N. Resolution 242, which allows Israel to make territorial adjustments to ensure its own security? Is she aware that an American military mission, sent to Israel by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the orders of President Johnson, to study what territories, at a minimum, Israel would have to retain after the Six-Day War, reported back that Israel would need to keep the Jordan Valley and parts of the West Bank in order to slow down, or prevent, a possible invasion force from the east that could cut Israel in two at its narrowest point; within the 1949 armistice lines, Israel was only nine miles wide from Qalqilya to the sea.

Would comprehending the Mandate for Palestine (especially the Preamble, and Articles 4 and 6), and U.N. Resolution 242, make a difference to Nancy Pelosi? Would she be less quick to lecture Israel on not annexing territory in the West Bank, if she knew Israel had a perfect right to that territory – the Jordan Valley and the settlements – according to both the Mandate, and U.N. Resolution 242?

Pelosi’s bizarre claim is that any Israel “annexation” of territory would “harm America’s national security interests.” She has it exactly backwards. Any annexation by Israel of territory to which it is entitled, and which will increase the Jewish state’s ability to protect itself, will contribute to American national security. Deprived of control of the Jordan Valley, forced to surrender some of its settlements, Israel would be much more vulnerable to attack. And though Israel has never asked for a single American soldier to help defend it, unlike several Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, if it is squeezed back into something like the 1949 armistice lines – i.e., the pre-1967 lines which Abba Eban famously described as “the lines of Auschwitz” — that could make more likely the need, in some future war, for Israel to request American help. That’s not something either Israel, or America, wants. And if Israel were to be squeezed back into something like the 1949 armistice lines, and as a consequence was in danger, in case of war, of being cut in two by an invader from the East, does anyone doubt that if the Israelis ever felt their national survival was at stake, they would use some of their nuclear weapons as a last resort. Does Pelosi want to make such a possibility more likely?

Nancy Pelosi claims that Israel’s annexation of land in the West Bank will harm America’s national security interests; she has things backwards. The better able Israel is to defend itself, the less likely that it will ever have to ask for American aid. And what about the Arab states? Would they be angry with the United States if Israel held onto most or even all of the West Bank? We know that while the member states of the Arab League, for public consumption, have deplored Israeli “annexation,” behind the scenes several of these same states have expressed their support, more muted in some cases than in others, for the Trump Deal of the Century which allows for that Israeli annexation. The ambassadors of three Arab states — Bahrain, Oman, and the UAE – in a sign of support even attended the White House ceremony in which the Trump Plan was rolled out. Though Jordan has denounced any “annexation,” privately Jordanian officials have said they do not want the Palestinians to control the West Bank, for they fear a possible alliance of Palestinians on both sides of the Jordan against the Hashemite monarchy. Two other important Arab states, Egypt and, especially, Saudi Arabia, have lost interest in the “Palestinians” – Crown Prince Muhammad angrily told Mahmoud Abbas to “take whatever deal” he can that the Americans offer – and are more interested in Israeli help, including the sharing of its intelligence with them, in combating Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. When the Israelis were about to annex the Golan Heights, it was predicted that all hell would break loose in the Arab countries. Nothing happened. When Trump decided to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem, we were again warned that Arabs and Muslims would be inflamed. Again nothing of the sort occurred.

Now we are being assured that if Israel annexes the Jordan Valley and the settlements, the Arabs will this time really rise up. Why should we believe it? Even in the West Bank, where Mahmoud Abbas insists he has now torn up all agreements with Israel, on the ground there is still security cooperation between the P.A. and Israel. On May 20 it was reported that an unnamed senior Palestinian official sent messages to the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service saying that some coordination would continue and that the Palestinian security organizations will continue to do their best to foil terror attacks against Israel. Even if cooperation really is ended, the official vowed that terror groups will not be permitted to act freely in areas under the control of the Palestinian Authority. So there is a lot less to Abbas’s threats to “end all cooperation with Israel” than meets the eye. Abbas knows how valuable is the intelligence the P.A. receives from Israel on its deadly rivals Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and their operatives in the West Bank. Will he really want to do without Israeli assistance that on several occasions has even helped to foil plots to murder him and his cronies?

What should Nancy Pelosi in decency do? She should study the Palestine Mandate and its maps. She should remember that even though the League of Nations dissolved in 1946, its successor organization, the United Nations, included in its Charter Article 80 (called the “Jewish people’s article”), which recognized the continuing validity of the Mandate for Palestine. And finally, she should study the text of U.N. Resolution 242, and the authoritative explanation of that text by its main drafter, Lord Caradon. Only when she has thoroughly digested the meaning of both the U.N. Resolution 242 and of the Mandate for Palestine, will she have earned the right to comment on what Israel “should” or “must” do.

She might then say, for example, that “I am well aware that Israel has a right to keep the entire West Bank if it so wishes. I do not challenge that right. But I challenge its wisdom. Wouldn’t it be better to keep the territories Israel currently controls, without a formal annexation that will merely serve to roil the Arab world?” I still think she’d be wrong, but at least she would no longer be outrageously, offensively, intolerably wrong.

The Speaker told participants that Democrats are taking “a great pride” in former president Barack Obama’s memorandum of understanding, which provides Israel with $38 billion worth of security assistance over a decade. “That’s our commitment. And we continue to have that,” she said. “It was signed in 2016 to help Israel defend itself in a variety of ways. And we stand committed to that, but we’re very concerned about what we see happening in terms of annexation.”

“I’m not a big fan of the Palestinian leadership in terms of their capability to be good negotiating partners,” she added. “I wish they could be better. But I think that everybody can be doing better in terms of that.” She also sent a barb to the Trump administration’s peace plan, saying that it has “nothing in common with the word peace or plan.”

Pelosi is “not a big fan of the Palestinian negotiating partners in terms of their capability to be good negotiating partners”? That’s a historic understatement. Mahmoud Abbas for the last twelve years refused outright to engage in any negotiations with Israel. He’s not been a “negotiating partner” at all. And in 2008, when he negotiated for the first and last time with the Israelis, he refused Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s offer of 94% of the West Bank, together with Israeli territory equivalent to 5.8% of the West Bank, and on top of that, Olmert also offered to relinquish Israeli control of the Old City to an international body. Abbas refused, and walked out. Pelosi should have told the truth: the Palestinians have shown themselves completely unwilling to seriously engage in negotiations with the Israelis.

Pelosi’s brusque dismissal of Trump’s peace plan — it has, she said, “nothing in common with the word peace or plan” – is intolerable. It is the first American effort that, had it been accepted, would have led to the creation of a Palestinian state, one which would include 97% of all the Palestinians living in the West Bank. For the first time in their history, the Palestinians would have a state. What’s more, according to the Trump Plan, the Palestinians would be given two large swathes of territory in Israel’s Negev, along the border with Egypt, to compensate for territory taken by Israel – as is its right under the Mandate – in the West Bank. Further, Gaza would be directly linked to the West Bank part of “Palestine” by traffic corridors. An enormous effort went into the Administration’s constructing a viable Arab state, consisting of contiguous territories in the West Bank where 97% of the Palestinians now live, and from which they would not have to move. Speaker Pelosi should look at all the work that went into carving out this state before so airily dismissing it.

Finally, in what is surely the most generous offer of aid in history, the Trump Administration promised that international donors would provide the state of Palestine with $50 billion dollars in aid; by comparison, the Marshall Plan allotted a total of $60 billion (in 2020 dollars) not for just one but for sixteen countries. Why does Nancy Pelosi say this carefully worked-out effort was not a “plan”? Has she looked at the maps, and seen with what care the Trump Administration managed to ensure that 97% of the Palestinians now in the West Bank would be included, in contiguous territories forming the state of Palestine, while 97% of the Israelis in the West Bank would be included, without having to move, in the state of Israel. It was a real feat of boundary-drawing. And why does Pelosi say the Trump Plan has nothing to do with “peace” when that is its main goal, to keep the peace between Palestinians and Israelis, by means of both the statehood and the prosperity– that $50 billion in aid — promised to the Palestinians, and through the demilitarization that would be required of the future state of “Palestine”?

American national security interests will not be harmed but enhanced if Israel and the Palestinians make peace, based on the Trump Plan, and if the Palestinians achieve a level of prosperity in their own state that they would not wish to endanger through war, while Israel’s deterrent power is increased by its permanent control, through annexation, of West Bank territories, and especially of the Jordan Valley, that can help prevent or slow down an invasion from the East. There may be a brief display of displeasure from the Arab street, if the Trump Plan is accepted, but in the corridors of power in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, and Oman, there will be quiet satisfaction that the Trump Plan has put paid to Palestinian irredentism, given the Palestinians a state of their own, and imposed demilitarization on that state. Israel, more secure than ever, can continue to help them deal with their real worries – the Muslim Brotherhood, the assorted terror groups including Hezbollah (Iran’s proxy), and Hamas (which is merely a branch of the Brotherhood), and above all, Iran.

It is difficult for many Democrats to admit that something good might actually come out of the White House, where they long ago consigned its occupant to the outer darkness. And who has the time to read all that stuff – the Mandate for Palestine, U.N. Resolution 242, Article 80 of the U.N. Charter – or learn about the history of the non-existent negotiations between Mahmoud Abbas and several different Israeli leaders? Who has the time to find out what the Arab leaders really want, which is not always what they say they want? It’s a lot to ask. But try, Speaker Pelosi. Just try.

COLUMN BY

HUGH FITZGERALD

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

VIDEO: The Vortex — A ‘Terrorist Organization’

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TRANSCRIPT

A wave of anti-police sentiment is being pushed around the country by Marxist Democrats, including Joe Biden.

The hate for police — a type of hate which is apparently okay because the Marxists give that hate their seal of approval — is being backed by not just Antifa, but also some backers of Black Lives Matter.

Now, their hatred of all things police fails on a number of levels. First, many police officers, including police chiefs around the country, are black themselves. Second, the call to start defunding and dissolving various cities’ police forces is the final protection against an actual civil war breaking out.

Who will stop the violent assaults on law-abiding citizens and businesses if there are no police? The answer is no one, which is exactly what the forces of anarchy want. Law-abiding Americans are left defenseless — except for, of course, self-defense, which helps explain the near doubling of gun sales compared to this time last year.

And look at this picture of Saks Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan — the flagship store of the chain situated directly beside St. Patrick’s cathedral. The very revealing picture was the front page of the New York Post, which other major media are not telling you about, deliberately.

So what’s going on, exactly? Here’s what all this is not about — racism. The Marxist media wants to drill into your heads: “You suck,” “America sucks.” “You’re a racist.” “The police are racists,” even though, again, loads of police themselves are not white. One of the driving forces behind this narrative is the outfit Black Lives Matter (BLM).

BLM is a racist group in and of itself because it highlights the issue of racism solely as a wedge issue to advance a broader agenda. What’s their agenda? It’s one completely in lockstep — or better said, goose step — with the Marxist Democrats.

Look at their website and click on the “About” page, and then click “What we believe.” Scroll down and observe how racism fades into the background near the bottom and is replaced with the entire checklist of the Joe Biden-brain-dead-Marxists over at Party of Death headquarters.

Here at just some the highlights:

  • All black lives matter, regardless of actual or perceived sexual identity, gender identity, gender expression
  • We make space for transgender
  • We do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege
  • We dismantle the patriarchal practice
  • We foster a queer‐affirming network
  • We are freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking

And here’s the summary statement of their entire existence: We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure. This group opposes Western civilization.

Race is just their wedge issue, pushed by a Marxist media and gobbled up by gullible, low-information people who have been kept deliberately in the dark so that when a time arrives for civil unrest, the shock troops can be sent out into the streets.

So with that background on the anti-Western civilization, anti-Catholic group, a situation has arisen which calls into serious question the leadership of the diocese of Fresno California.

Popular Catholic commentator Tim Gordon was on social media last week talking about these very facts when BLM supporters struck and began doxxing him on social media platforms, calling for him to lose his job at the Catholic high school where he taught.

We say taught, past tense, because within hours after the BLM campaign against him began, the diocese of Fresno — under the leadership of Bp. Joseph Brennan — dumped Gordon on the spot and told him not to come back.

[Transcript unavailable]

The actions of the diocese reveal not only the complete collapse of Catholicism being taught in Catholic schools, but also the obedience the bishops feel they owe to politically correct hegemony which rules the Marxist world.

The bishop dumped Gordon knowing full well he would lose his family’s health insurance as well as their income.

Tim has a handicapped child who recently underwent serious surgery, raising the question, what happened to getting the “smell of the sheep on you” or the view of the Church being a “field hospital”?

[Transcript unavailable]

Why are so many in the Church — specifically bishops so sensitive to the needs of anti-Catholic groups — so sensitive that they unceremoniously terminate an upstanding Catholic man?

[Transcript unavailable]

Catholics who have been lobotomized by their gay or lying bishops for decades, allow us to ask you: Do you think what happened here is just? Do you really believe the bishops care about peasant Catholics? If you’re rich, you get access to the bishops. If you bow down to the PC gods and offer incense at their altars you’re in like Flynn because you are deemed, “tolerant” and “reasonable” and “non-divisive.” You work with the world and therefore you are to be raised on high as the model of modern Catholicism.

But if you go against their anti-Christ narrative you will be ground up underfoot — torn to shreds, lose your job and your family will be left to fend for itself. That’s what these men in miters have established as the status quo in the Church.

At this moment, Tim and his family are not sure what they’re going to do, although he is exploring some options and thinking about what would be best, both in the near term and the longer term. If you’d like to help him bridge the gap he and his wife and children are now facing, you can make a donation by going to his webpage — www.timothyjgordon.com — and click on the donation button.

A GoFundMe page had been set up in the wake of all this to help them out. However, GoFundMe is notorious for refunding donations when people give money for a conservative or authentically religious cause, which of course this is. If you are one of the people who made such a donation and you receive a refund from GoFundMe, you can just redirect your donation to Tim’s webpage.

Anyone who thinks they are going to remain somehow safe as the great Marxist steamroller plows through society still does not realize the reality.

If you don’t stand and fight now — even in the face of persecution — what comes after this is going to be far worse.

EDITORS NOTE: This Church Militant video is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Lecture Opportunities During Corona Times

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Now, with less travel during corona times, I am offering to speak to your congregation or organization via Zoom. There is still so much to hear and learn about Israel, Islam and the Middle East especially at this time and I am available to speak via Zoom to your audience. I have partnered with Avi Abelow and his Pulse of Israel project to continue to make myself available to communities and organizations around the world.

Here is a recent lecture which I gave to the Bayit community in Toronto by Zoom:

***

A popular topic today is: The Coronavirus effect on the Arab and Islamic world.

See a list of more topics below.

If you are interested in reserving a speaking engagement with me, please let me know or contact Avi Abelow. avi@12tribefilms.org‏

Possible Topics:

Jewish Issues:

Jew-Hatred / Antisemitism: roots, causes and ways to deal with it
Israel and the Diaspora: the widening gap
Against All Odds – A miracle named Israel
The European Jewry – where to?
The situation of European and American Jewry – similarities and differences
The mass migration to Europe and the Jewish communities

Israeli Issues:

The Results of the 2019 General Elections
The Controversy in Israel over Judea, Samaria and Gaza
Right, Center and Left in Israel
Trump, Putin and the Middle East – What Can We Expect?
Israel at 72: Achievements and Challenges
Israel in a Changing Middle East – Challenges and Opportunities
Israel and the Palestinian Issue – Possible Solutions
The Middle East – where to?
Peace in the Middle East – What does it Need?

Understanding Arab and Muslim Culture

“The Arab Spring” – Why did it fail?
Tribalism in the Middle East and its influence on politics and state building.
Turkey – What went wrong?
What is the struggle over Jerusalem all about?
Why do many Muslims hate the West?
Understanding the Iranians – What motivates the Ayatollahs?
Hezbollah – Ideology, politics and modus operandi.
Hamas – Ideology, politics and modus operandi.
Islam – A culture in crisis.
Islam in Democratic State – The Islamic Movements in Israel.
Democracy in the Middle East – Opportunity or danger?
Islamic Radicalism – Causes, ideology and ways to face it.
Sunnis and Shi’is – Why do they hate each other so?
Islamic Women between Tradition and Modernity.
Palestinian Political Illustrations – Cartoons and messages.
The Right of Return in the Palestinian National Ethos.
Hizballah, Hamas, and Israel – Living with the enemy.
Clash of Values: Gender and Family Issues – Sources of tension between Islam and the West.
Arab Intellectuals – Where are they?
Arab Mass Media – their role in ME societies.
The Other Voice in the Arab World – My personal experience.

Lecture Subjects Concerning Military Intelligence:

Flawed intelligence assessments and mistaken policies resulting from cultural differences.
What motivates Arab states, societies and armies?
How to understand the Arab state media?
Major mistakes made by the Western coalition in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lectures on Israeli domestic issues can also be considered.

©All rights reserved.

Disciples of the Gospel of Democrats and Fake News Media

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Dear American Family. For decades, my black family and friends have viewed me as the weirdo who votes for Republicans.

At our annual family Christmas gathering a few years before he died, my dad, Dr. Rev Lloyd E. Marcus, instructed them to follow me as the new leader. I heard through the grapevine that most of them disapprove of my politics. At family events, I am pleasant and keep conversations non-political. Still, they read my articles posted on social media and the internet.

The vast majority of my family and friends profess Christianity. And yet, everything I have written and told them on occasion about Democrats’ anti-biblical agenda has not broken their loyalty to the party.

They ignore the fact that their party worships Planned Parenthood which targets black babies and profits greatly from selling dead-baby body parts. Recently, Democrats have been pushing legislation to abort healthy babies after they are born.

They ignore that fact the Democrats want open borders for illegals who take jobs from blacks. They ignore the fact that Democrats are cramming the LGBTQ agenda down our throats. Democrats want schools to orchestrate sex-change surgery and abortions without parental knowledge or consent. They ignore the fact that Democrats seek to legalize 12 new perversions which include pedophilia and bestiality. How can anyone who professes Christianity support Democrats’ anti-biblical agenda? Remember the convention at which Democrats banned God from their platform? 

I learned that relatives are posting propaganda on Facebook in support of the George Floyd rioters. Despite living successful racism-free lives, they have bought Democrats’ and fake news medias’ absurd lie that America is a hellhole of racism where blacks are routinely murdered by police. This made me sad and a bit lonely.

At the root of my sadness is the fact that my black family and friends are disciples of the Gospel of Democrats and Fake News Media. Whatever these two wicked entities tell them, they believe. God says allowing someone or something to trump His word is idolatry.

Eagles fly alone. “…all that will live godly in Christ Jesus suffer persecution.” (2 Timothy 3:12) Christians are martyred around the world. Therefore, complaining about deceived fellow blacks disapproving of my politics is hardly worth mentioning.

Still, it is extremely frustrating that facts nor commonsense seem to penetrate my family and friends blind loyalty to the far-left-extremist, hate-generating, anti-Christian, and anti-American Democratic Party.

They perceive everything they see and hear on TV from Democrats and fake news media as the gospel truth. For example. They believed the lie that catching covid-19 was a death sentence. They stayed at home, wore masks, and trashed anyone who did not. I told them that covid-19 has a 98% recovery rate. Once again, I was viewed as an Uncle Tom, siding with mean Republicans who want to reopen America which will cause a Ga-zillion Americans, mostly black, to die. By the way, a 65-year-old relative recovered from covid-19.

Democrats and fake news media are exploiting the tragic death of George Floyd in an attempt to stop Trump’s reelection. Insidiously, they are overwhelming the airwaves with lies about Trump, white America, and police. My family and friends are embracing every lie as a gospel. Presenting them with facts and data has had no effect in changing their minds. The Bible speaks of those who prefer to believe lies rather than truth.

Families across America are dealing with the same frustrating situation that I am challenged with. Their kids have been indoctrinated by extreme leftist, anti-American, and anti-Christian Hollywood celebs and fake news media. How do you break their brain-dead zombie control of young idealistic minds? I believe the answer is prayer and faithfully continuing to tell youths the truth about issues.

God’s word promises, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all.” (Galatians 6:9)

Outrageously, ANTIFA terrorists are demanding that whites kneel in worship to Black Lives Matter, begging forgiveness for being born white. Folks, this is evil beyond belief.

We must stand together as Americans while praying for God’s strength to be like Daniel in the Bible. Tell the Democrats, fake news media, ANTIFA, and Black Lives Matter that we “ain’t” kneeling nor worshiping their vile false gods of social-justice, socialism and communism.

©All rights reserved.

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BROOKLYN: Muslim migrant slashes cop in neck, probed for links to jihad terror groups

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“When you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks…” (Qur’an 47:4)

“Man who slashed Brooklyn cop in neck probed for terror links: sources,” by Wes Parnell, Rocco Parascandola, Graham Rayman and Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News, June 4, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A man shot by police after he slashed an officer in the neck in Brooklyn is being investigated for possible links to terrorism, police sources said Thursday.

The suspect, 20-year-old Dzenan Camovic, has no criminal history — but the Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating his background, sources said, and whether he is linked to ISIS or other terror groups….

Camovic is an immigrant, possibly from Bosnia, officials and neighbors of the suspect said.

All three of the cops wounded in the clash with Camovic were also immigrants, Mayor de Blasio said….

Federal agents on Thursday raided Camovic’s home on E. 22nd St. near Newkirk Ave. in Flatbush — roughly a mile from the fracas — as stunned neighbors looked on.

“I was shocked to hear that he stabbed a police officer and then they shot him and he’s still alive, it’s amazing,” said neighbor David Song. “He seemed so quiet and like a nice guy. I don’t know what made him come out like that. He never seemed angry.”

The suspect, 20-year-old Dzenan Camovic, has no criminal history — but the Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating his background, sources said, and whether he is linked to ISIS or other terror groups.

Camovic was critically wounded by police gunfire late Wednesday night after slashing Officer Yayonfrant Jean Pierre in the neck in what de Blasio called an “absolutely unprovoked attack.”…

The two shot cops were identified by authorities as Officers Randy Ramnarine and Dexter Chiu….

A relative of the suspect, who declined to give his name, said terrorist ties are out of the question.

“Absolutely not,” the relative said.

“I have the utmost respect for law enforcement, but it’s easy to accuse a Muslim of terrorism. It’s the first offense that comes to mind when someone mentions Muslim. He might have been attacked yesterday. He could have been provoked, and he might have mentioned, like anyone would mention, God. He might have said Allah, but no one knows. I just hope law enforcement will do their due diligence.”…

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Iran, Turkey, China and Russia celebrate the “collapse” of the United States

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Islamic State Celebrates the George Floyd Riots: ‘O Allah, burn them’

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Once again we see Islamic State jihadis failing to realize what every non-Muslim politician in the U.S., Canada, and Europe knows: that the Islamic State has nothing to do with Islam and actually twists and hijacks its peaceful teachings. As with all ISIS communications, the celebrations of the riots are expressed wholly and solely in Islamic terms. Despite this, establishment counterterror analysts such as the Useful Idiot Max Abrahms will continue to insist that ISIS is un-Islamic.

“Sick ISIS thugs celebrate George Floyd riots as ‘divine retribution for treatment of Muslims,’” by Jon Lockett, The Sun, June 1, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

JUBILANT ISIS thugs are hailing the bloody George Floyd riots as ‘payback for the treatment of Muslims’.

They have been rejoicing at the outbreaks of violence across the US on the anonymous chat app Telegram.

Some twisted channels have been covering non-stop footage of the riots dubbing them a ‘civil war’ and calling for them to rapidly escalate.

One pro-ISIS user even called on muslims in the U.S. to buy guns for ‘self-defense’ reasons claiming they may be targeted during the unrest.

Another post used the hashtag #AmericaBurning and the text: ‘The anarchy in the U.S. is continuing.

‘Many police vehicles are being burned in Philadelphia, Dallas, and Los Angeles.’

Some sick ISIS supporters are calling the worrying riots and protests as ‘divine retribution.

Another chilling message read: ‘You are waking up this morning to news of the destruction of America, the dismantling of its States, and civil war.

‘May Allah give them them a taste of what they did to the Muslims in Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Palestine, and may be save the Muslims there from all evil.’

Another wrote: ‘The American civil war: dozens of security force vehicles were destroyed in the riots.’…

News of the sickening posts were revealed by monitors from The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

They revealed the channel Iraq News posted: ‘Praise be to Allah, the American people are rising against their government.

‘Destruction, fragmentation. America is burning. On the other hand, there are powerful storms, floods, and earthquakes….

‘Rejoice at the infidels. This is the state of those who attack Muslims and the Religion of Allah.’

Another warped ISIS supporter posted photos of the riots writing: ‘O Allah, burn them like they burned the lands of the Muslims.’…

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Brooklyn lawyer who threw Molotov cocktail into police cruiser is activist for ‘Palestinian’ jihad

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And now she has brought “Palestinian” jihad tactics to the riots in the U.S. Here is some agitprop Urooj Rahman wrote in 2016 for the “Palestinian” jihad.

“Woman identified by sources as Brooklyn lawyer accused of tossing Molotov cocktail at NYPD cruiser used Bud Light bottle for incendiary device: photo,” by Rocco Parascandola and John Annese, New York Daily News, May 31, 2020:

One of the two Brooklyn lawyers accused trying to torch an NYPD cruiser in Brooklyn used a Bud Light bottle stuffed with a rag as a Molotov cocktail, according to a photo obtained Sunday by the Daily News.

Urooj Rahman, 31, was snapped in a picture holding a black and white striped scarf close to her face with one hand and the potentially fiery bottle with another as she prepared to toss it out of the passenger-side window of a van.

Rahman and Colinford Mattis, 32, a corporate lawyer and member of Community Board 5 in East New York, were charged with the attempted attack Saturday night on an empty police cruiser parked outside the 88th Precinct station house in Fort Greene.

Rahman hurled the bottle, which was filled with gasoline, into the cruiser. But the Bud Light Molotov cocktail failed to ignite, law enforcement sources said….

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Mass gatherings — OK. Mass — not OK

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If you can remember that long ago, the only protesters defying Covid-19 lockdowns in the United States were small crowds of roughnecks from flyover country waving flags and brandishing placards at State capitals.

Nonetheless, petty incidents like this still outraged bioethicists and public health experts. Writing in PennLive, a Pennsylvania blog, four of them, including the nationally-known bioethicist Art Caplan, argued that those protesters were freeloading on the sacrifices made by people who observed lockdown restrictions.

They had little sympathy for them if they fell ill with the coronavirus: “If the protesters can’t be persuaded that they are wrong and their behavior is dangerous, they should own up to their political commitment and sign and carry a pledge stating they decline all medical care to treat Covid-19, should they fall ill if resources are being rationed.”

That was then.

Now, crowds of tens of thousands have gathered to protest the appalling tragedy of the death of George Floyd in cities across the country. Most of them are ignoring social distancing. Hospitals can expect a gigantic spike in coronavirus cases.

So are these protesters freeloaders? Nope. They’re heroes – according to 1,300 public health and infectious diseases experts, along with community stakeholders. Lockdown critics may deserve to die without ventilators, but protesters against racism should be encouraged, praised and supported. The public health response “must be wholly different from the response to white protesters resisting stay-home orders”.

“White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to Covid-19,” they write. “As public health advocates, we do not condemn these gatherings as risky for Covid-19 transmission. We support them as vital to the national public health and to the threatened health specifically of Black people in the United States.”

This is a “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” moment for these American experts, the triumph of virtue-signalling over virtue. States should “prepare for an increased number of infections in the days following a protest [and should] provide increased access to testing and care for people in the affected communities, especially when they or their family members put themselves at risk by attending protests.”

A few weeks ago, violating curfews was a crime. Now it’s almost a patriotic duty.

Art Caplan even had the cheek to give a thumbs-up to the protests despite the danger. “I’m not sure they’re gonna be socially distant– that’s pretty hard in a demonstration, so I get that,” he told WGBH in Boston. “But you should be doing all that you can, and remember: it isn’t just making the group sick, it’s bringing it home, the virus.”

In other words, even though 100,000 Americans have died of Covid-19, we’re cool with a lot more of them dying.

For many Americans — already suspicious of self-righteous experts — this is sure to confirm their misgivings.

Over the past three months the economy has been trashed, millions have lost their jobs, lives have been turned upside down – on the advice of experts. In the reassuring words of an Australian expert:

Our leaders and senior public health officials are receiving some of the best medical and public health advice that is available, informed by people who have been working on the possibility of this very scenario for years. I would appeal, therefore, to all commentators that we trust in our leaders, noting that they are being advised by some of the best experts in the world.

Rather than showcasing the experts’ repudiation of racism, this letter exposes their irresponsibility. It undermines the strategy of compulsory social distancing and lockdowns. Its message is that quarantine regulations are, and probably always were, political – you’re allowed to ignore them if you support the right cause.

This is sure to infuriate people who lost their jobs (not essential) or who were prevented from going to church (not essential). But you can have rallies to protest racism (essential). Mass gatherings but not Mass. What a great election year slogan! What are these guys smoking? Are they really working for President Trump?

And one more thing.

All of those experts should fall on their knees and pray fervently for a spike. If there isn’t one, that means that their draconian policies were a gigantic con. Maybe they’ll end up looking for work along with the 35 million people whom they helped to put out of a job.

COLUMN BY

Michael Cook

Michael Cook is the editor of MercatorNet. More by Michael Cook.

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EDITORS NOTE: This MercatorNet column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Way of Christ is Not Violent

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America needs Jesus. No greater reminder of that fact can be seen than the recent protests in the streets of the nation.

The anger against what happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis last week is justified. The violence and looting that came in the wake of protests is not.

A white officer kneeled on the neck of a black man in his custody until he was dead—while being recorded on video by numerous bystanders. But protests turned violent and destructive, and now they are taking place in major cities all over the nation.

In an editorial in The Wall Street Journal (6/1/20), Robert Woodson opines, “Riots Invite Crime, Not Justice.” He adds, “Blacks end up suffering more when hostility to police makes it impossible to maintain urban order.”

Long-term positive change can be effected through peaceful means. I think, for instance, of the peaceful African-American lady who, with God’s help, led the peaceful wade-ins at Fort Lauderdale beaches in the early 1960s.

She was the late Eula Johnson, and I interviewed her in her home in 1991—30 years after the event. I was delighted to learn that she was a regular viewer of the televised Christian services of the late Dr. D. James Kennedy, for whom I worked.

Here’s what happened. Fort Lauderdale is known for its lush beaches and relaxed lifestyle. Before 1962, however, blacks were not allowed on the beaches.

They were allowed one little strip of beach, in Dania (five miles south of Fort Lauderdale), to which they had to be ferried. But they couldn’t go to the more popular beaches in the area.

One Sunday on the 4th of July, after they attended church, Eula Johnson and Dr. Von Mizell (a local physician—just the second African-American doctor in Fort Lauderdale) concluded that it was time that their community have access to those beaches too.

She told me, “We decided …to celebrate a little more independence than what we were enjoying. People were talking about independence—I felt like we had no independence. We would do our best to try to obtain some independence that we would have a right to celebrate the 4th of July.”

So she, the doctor, and a couple of others walked to the beach. Word of their bold march preceded them. Eula said, “And we could hear them broadcasting over the radio, ‘Negroes are lounging at the municipal beach in Fort Lauderdale.’ When we looked up, we saw [opposing] crowds. The ambulances were out there. Policemen were out there. The fire department was out there.”

Despite the sea of angry white faces, thankfully, no violence took place. Eula, then president of the NAACP-Broward, continued going to the beach with other blacks. And so the city of Fort Lauderdale sued her for fear of losing valuable tourist dollars. And in deciding the case, U.S. District Judge Ted Cabot not only ruled in Eula’s favor, but with a single decision, he struck down all of Fort Lauderdale’s Jim Crow laws.

What was the source of Eula’s strength? She said, “God was with me. I take my strength from the Spirit of God. God is big enough to handle it.”

While Fort Lauderdale sued her in the 1960s, later, it gave her a key to the city.

Today, one of the beachfront state parks in Fort Lauderdale where Eula was not allowed to be is now named the “Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park.”

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who did more than any single person to peacefully work toward making America become more color-blind, once said that America’s problem is not with its creed—that all men are created equal. It’s that we have not been living up to that creed.

His niece, Evangelist Alveda King, told me in an interview that we could solve much of the racial conflict in this country if we would just accept what the Bible teaches: “You go to Acts 17:26, ‘Of one blood God created all people to live together on the earth.’ Now, if we are separate races, we cannot possibly be brothers and sisters. So, we have to see ourselves as one race, one human race, created by God, and we’re supposed to live together in this world as brothers and sisters. So, that’s a fundamental truth that America has not yet embraced.”

Her Uncle Martin preached: “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

MLK also declared, “Nonviolence is not a symbol of weakness or cowardice, but as Jesus demonstrated, nonviolent resistance transforms weakness into strength and breeds courage in the face of danger.”

Positive, long-lasting change comes from doing the right thing by God’s help—not from stealing television sets from Target while claiming to “demand justice” for George Floyd. God is the key to true healing in America.

©All rights reserved.

PODCAST: ‘We’ve Got to Go Beyond Tolerance, to Love’

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The sign said, “All Are Welcome.” But apparently, “all” doesn’t include Donald Trump. Any other leader visiting a church in the middle of a nationwide street war would have been praised for his solemnity, his search for healing. Not this president. His visit to St. John’s, which had been engulfed in flames the night before, and St. John Paul II’s National Shrine on Tuesday were just new opportunities for second-guessing.”No one,” Mollie Hemingway insisted, “needs permission to pay respects to a church.” She’s right. In fact, if more Americans had been visiting churches — for reasons other than lighting them on fire — our country might not be in this mess. Very honestly, the fact that we live in a nation where our leaders embrace faith, not just in times of crisis but as a matter of daily life, ought to be something we celebrate. And yet, we’ve grown so used to our freedoms and jaded by years of enjoying them that we can’t set aside our political suspicions long enough to see the remarkable contrast our America’s leaders make to their counterparts all around the world.When the riots broke out in Hong Kong, where was China President Xi Jinping? Not kneeling at the altar of a local shrine, I can guarantee that. Or when starving Venezuelans clashed with police in the latest of more than 500 protests under Nicolas Maduro? Was he standing outside with reporters talking about God, justice, and liberty? No. So while skeptical media types and the president’s opponents try to assign motive to Trump’s every move, maybe it’s time to recognize that however imperfect they may consider this administration’s response, his instinct to look to faith in times of turmoil is instructive and reassuring. Because the government doesn’t have the answers to brokenness. It can’t tear down walls and fix what’s wrong with the human heart. Only God can.

President Trump isn’t perfect, but he understands what the majority of talking heads do not: our nation’s problems are a whole lot bigger than race. They’re rooted, as Bishop Vincent Mathews and I talked yesterday, in a rejection of basic truth. And over time, that creates the kind of division and disrespect we’re seeing across the country today. “For many people,” Bishop Mathews said, “[it’s] incomprehensible, the depths of man’s inhumanity to man that we’re witnessing.” But as hurtful as it is, he shook his head, “it’s no surprise.” This is what comes when we turn away from centuries of teaching that we were created by the hand of God who loves us and sent His Son to redeem us. Without that certainty, people’s lives lose all meaning. It puts us on the path to what we’re seeing on American streets, where humanity isn’t treated with reverence but contempt.

“We need to, as a church,” Bishop Mathews insisted, “[a] black church, white church, as God’s church… not only preach the kingdom, but preaching truth to power… That’s important for all Christians — to speak out for those who are disenfranchised and have challenges in our society.” There is real wisdom in that, because only the church can bring together people in a genuine, abiding fashion. I’m not talking about promoting tolerance — we’ve got to go beyond tolerance to love. And the only true way that can happen is when we’re in the bond of Christ.

We can’t just rely on our skin or zip code or status to unite us. “That’s superficial,” Bishop Mathews warned. “It is the love of Christ that binds us together.” And it’s that love that will impact society. “We need to really seek and share with the world the true gospel… When we see that there are disenfranchised, marginalized individuals in our society, [the answer is] not just to say, ‘Hey, people need to pull themselves up by the bootstraps’ — but to say that Jesus is the answer. He is the one who empowers you. And we share that gospel that you can be free… whether you’re black, white, Latino, or Asian.”

Of course, the irony is, black and white evangelicals have a lot more in common than the media will ever admit. It’s in their best interest to keep the two sides separate and fuel the growing divides. But, as lot of surveys bear out, there’s far greater agreement on issues that matter than there are differences. “That’s why,” Bishop Mathews agreed, we can’t allow “the narrative to be defined by the world.” “There are 7.5 billion people in the world, 7,500 languages. But there are only two cultures… There’s a culture of Christ and a culture of Satan. And we may not share the same DNA — but we share the same Father. And we share the same values — and those are biblical values.”

It’s in that sameness, that strength of conviction, that the church finds its mission in these tumultuous times.

“We must be intentional about breaking those barriers,” Bishop Mathews urged. “Not just swapping pulpits, but really seeking to see what we can do on the ground in our cities and in the areas where we are to serve humanity and demonstrate… our love for each other. When the world sees that you and I can not only get along but work together and break down the walls of denomination and ethnicity, then we define what is being portrayed in the media and outside.”

Tony Perkins’s Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

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EDITORS NOTE: This FRC-Action column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

FLORIDA: Muslim woman tries to send phones to ISIS to be used as jihad bomb detonators

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Will the Islamophobia never end?

“Woman who tried to send phones to ISIS to be used as bomb detonators jailed,” by Nicky Harley, The National, May 30, 2020 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

A US woman has been jailed for attempting to send phones to the Middle East to be used as bomb detonators by ISIS.

Alison Marie Sheppard, 35, of Florida, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison on Friday.

She had pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to ISIS.

Sheppard began using Facebook and other social media applications in 2016 to connect with others who supported the terror group, according to court documents.

She also used social media applications to engage in encrypted communications with people she believed were supporters of ISIS….

In June 2017, Sheppard told the agents she could purchase and ship the phones for ISIS, prosecutors said.

She bought 10 phones the next month and posted them to one of the agents, believing they would be forwarded to the Middle East and used in pressure cooker bombs.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

The Real Reason Why They Hate Him: Donald Trump is a Heretic from the Left’s Secular Religion

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My latest at PJ Media:

Donald Trump is a heretic. He is persecuted by the Church.

No, not any of the Christian Churches. For them, although few realize or will admit it, Donald Trump, the famous playboy womanizer, is the most pro-Christian President in recent memory. Trump is a heretic from the Leftist church, the secular religion of today’s political and media elites, and as such he must be treated as heretics were in the old days of the Spanish Inquisition: he must be burned at the stake. Actually, that’s inaccurate, as archaism is frowned upon by this religion’s clergy. He need not be burned at the stake, but by whatever means, he must be destroyed.

Although most people in the United States today still identify themselves as Christians, the dominant religion of those who have dominated the political arena, own the establishment media, and set the cultural tone for the nation is not Christianity, but Leftism.

Leftism is a religion without a being who is identified as god as such, except insofar as the atomized individual is exalted to deity status and its every whim canonized as tantamount to divine writ, but it is as rigidly dogmatic, as fervently held, and as fanatically divorced from rationality as the worst and most destructive religious manifestations in human history. It is also extremely influential and all-pervasive. Every President since Franklin D. Roosevelt, with two notable exceptions, has held to this religion to varying degrees, and in some way paid obeisance to its gods and made offerings at its altars.

There is much more. Read the rest here.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

FLORIDA: Muslim researched targets for jihad massacre, including at Honeymoon Island

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Here yet again authorities are not asking and will not ask what may be the most important questions: where did Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari learn his understanding of Islam? What mosque did he attend in the Tampa area? Has that mosque been investigated? Why not? What if it is teaching jihad

“Tampa Man Faces Terrorism Charges In Honeymoon Island Plot, Authorities Say,” by Julio Ochoa, WUSF News, May 27, 2020 (thanks to the Geller Report):

A 23-year-old Tampa Man has been charged with attempting to support ISIS by carrying out terrorists attacks in Florida, including one at Honeymoon Island, according to authorities.

Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari was arrested on Sunday following an investigation by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which included police departments in Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg and sheriff’s offices in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties. If convicted, Al-Azhari faces up to 20 years in prison.

In a release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Al-Azhari expressed his admiration for Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen and talked about his desire to conduct a similar mass shooting.

Al-Azhari researched and scouted out several potential targets in the Tampa Bay area, including Honeymoon Island, authorities said. He went as far as rehearsing the attacks, including what he would say during them, they said.

“We are grateful for the hard work and swift action by our law enforcement partners and concerned citizens during this investigation,” said U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez for the Middle District of Florida. “Their coordination and cooperation in this matter allowed us to interrupt a serious threat, without harm to anyone.”

Al-Azhari has a criminal history with terrorism charges in Saudi Arabia.

During the investigation, he tried to buy multiple firearms and eventually acquired a Glock pistol with a silencer, authorities said….

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EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.