Toronto Church to Host Event Honoring Terrorist

A Toronto church is hosting an event by a Palestinian youth group that honors brutal terrorists.

Click here to sign a petition against the church

Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church is “provid[ing] a space” for the Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Scholarship Launch being held by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), reported The Jerusalem Post.

Kanafani was the spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) at the time the terrorist group claimed responsibility for the massacre of Lod (now Ben Gurion) Airport in Israel in which 26 civilians were killed, including one Canadian and 17 Christians visiting from Puerto Rico. Another 80 were injured in the attack.

The events will “showcase the winners of the Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Scholarship,” writes the PYM on its Facebook page.

A year ago, PYM praised Mohammad Tareq, a 17-year old Palestinian terrorist responsible for stabbing three Israelis in July 1918. Below is a copy of their Facebook post honoring Tareq after his “martyrdom”:

In a letter to the Toronto church, the Jewish organization B’nai B’rith Canada, wrote, “We will not tolerate the open glorification of terrorists and murderers, particularly in a place of worship … Churches should be places of peace, not places where violence and/or terror are glorified.”

B’nai B’rith CEO Michael Mostyn said, “Trinity-St. Paul’s spokesperson claimed that the PYM had provided a statement that it did not promote or condone violence.”

He further condemned the decision, saying, “The United Church’s insistence on facilitating this event is shameful and grotesque … Canadians expect churches to be places of peace and mutual respect, not altars for the glorification of violence and terrorism.”

The PFLP became known in the late 1960s and early 1970s for a series of grisly terrorist attacks and aircraft hijackings. Their Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades also claimed responsibility for several suicide attacks during the “Second Intifada,” the Palestinian uprising that began after the year 2000.

B’nai B’rith has started a petition against the Toronto church hosting the event. You can click here to sign the petition.

RELATED STORIES:

How the Media Glorifies Palestinian Female Terrorists

Omar, Tlaib Support Gaza Terrorists in Onslaught Against Israel 

Linda Sarsour to Fundraise for Terror-Tied Organization

Bye Bye Dubai: Wife of Ruler Flees

Princess Haya, the sixth wife of Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, fled Dubai and her marriage to start a new life. She took her seven-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter, along with $31 million dollars.

According to reports on June 29th, 2019, Princess Haya, 45, traveled first to Germany then London. She is said to be staying at her a home near Kensington Palace, with tight security, and is intent on fighting the legal battle brought by her husband from the UK.

In the meantime, Sheikh al-Maktoum, 69, who accuses her of betraying their marriage with her British bodyguard, has taken to social media in poetry and prose, condemning her flight and “disowning” his wife.

Princess Haya’s story gives hope to other women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who have dreamed of escaping the country. She’s now being called on to help free Sheikha Latifa of Dubai, a daughter of Sheikh al-Maktoum.

Princess Latifa made headlines in April of 2018 when she fled Dubai via a yacht in order to escape “years of torture and imprisonment by her father.” Her yacht was intercepted and she was dragged back home.

Insight into conditions for women in Dubai are often difficult to come by. The question of what women are dealing with can be speculations or a story of he-said/she-said.

However, a related story coming out of London offered some clarity into what it’s like to live under the billionaire Dubai ruler as a part of his family.

In January of 2019, Sheikh al-Maktoum turned his UK estate into what neighbors describe as a “prison camp,” with the installment of a high fence more suitable for a prison than a home. This despite the fact that security presence at the estate was already in place with guards, CCTV and layered fences.

The added security may have been a response to a 2000 incident where the sheikh’s other daughter, Sheikha Shamsa (Princess Latifa’s younger sister) escaped the estate. Latifa has since claimed that Shamsa “was being kept in a drugged state. … in Dubai and was ‘like a zombie.’”

There are a significant number of stories coming forward of women from privileged families desperately looking to escape. However, Princess Haya’s case is exceptional, fleeing with a hefty purse and her children, while negotiating diplomatic channels for asylum.

It’s unlikely Princess Haya will be dragged back kicking and screaming because of who she is outside of her marriage to the Dubai ruler. Princess Haya bint Hussein is the half-sister of the King of Jordan, King Abdullah II. However, that fact also ties more knots into an already fragile diplomatic entanglement between the UK, Jordan, and the UAE.

RELATED STORIES:

Princess Vanishes – See Her Final Video

Dubai Princess ‘Seized During Escape Attempt’

Kidnapped Dubai Princess Resurfaces

Jewish Identity Excluded from Identity Politics

A recent survey by the Jewish Electorate Institute indicates that 71% of registered Jewish voters disapprove of the way President Trump handles anti-Semitism and 73% feel less secure since he took office.  Clearly, many associate him with bigotry in spite of his staunch support for Israel, warm relationships with Jewish colleagues and family members, and policy of challenging Jew-hatred at the United Nations and around the globe.

Though Jewish Democrats can disagree with Mr. Trump’s politics, personality, or confrontational style, he has no known connections to anti-Semitic or anti-Israel organizations, churches or ideologues – unlike Barack Obama, whom they pronounced “good for the Jews” despite a questionable background that would have disqualified any Republican in their eyes.  Curiously, they expressed little concern when thousands of anti-Semitic acts and hate-crimes were committed, and violent assaults against Jews nearly doubled, during Mr. Obama’s presidency.

The fears voiced by Jewish Democrats regarding Mr. Trump’s supposed bigotry seem disingenuous considering their party’s tolerance for anti-Israel advocacy and progressive anti-Semites.  And in advocating a partisan agenda that impugns Israel’s national integrity and rationalizes ancient stereotypes as political expression, they betray heritage, tradition, and common sense.  Many define themselves through identity politics, but the identity they assert is not really Jewish. Instead, they espouse a grievance-based platform that glorifies radicalism, devalues Jewish history, and fosters hatred against their people and ancient homeland.

Democratic Party membership today includes BDS activists and classical conspiracy theorists who are not shy about pushing their anti-Israel agenda, and yet liberal Jews continue sitting in the same tent.  They were ambivalent during the 2016 election cycle as party radicals burned Israeli flags, and they remain so today when Congressional Democrats spew hateful or ignorant rhetoric.

True, some expressed outrage when Ilhan Omar asserted classical stereotypes against Jewish organizations, Rashida Tlaib questioned the allegiance of pro-Israel legislators and claimed Palestinians gave “safe haven” to Holocaust survivors, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asserted the Israeli “occupation” myth and praised anti-Semitic British politician Jeremy Corbyn.  But their umbrage was short-lived, and there was no outcry when Democrats stripped a House resolution of language solely and specifically condemning anti-Semitism. Party leaders have only compounded the problem by labeling as racist, Islamophobic, or misogynistic those who criticize House Reps. Tlaib, Omar, Ocasio-Cortez and others for such egregious comments.

Though liberals accuse Trump of prejudice, today’s epidemic of Jew-hatred began under Obama, who pandered to anti-Semitic progressives and validated the BDS movement.  In contrast, claims of pervasive conservative bias have been exposed by surveys indicating far less Jew-hatred – and far greater support for Israel – among Republicans than Democrats.  Consistent with these findings, Congressional voting patterns reflect solid support for Israel from House and Senate Republicans. Conversely, there is no dispute that anti-Israel movements, programs, and events (e.g., BDS, Israel Apartheid Week) are endorsed by Democrats, progressives, and Islamists, but spurned by conservatives and Republicans.

Those who accuse Trump of anti-Semitism are hard-pressed to corroborate their claims.  His relationships with Jews and Jewish institutions over the years have been positive, and his treatment of Israel exemplary.  In contrast, Barack Obama had a troubling record that Jewish Democrats simply ignored. He sat in the pews of Jeremiah Wright’s church for twenty-two years, reportedly hobnobbed with members of Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam in Chicago, counted among friends and colleagues people like Rashid Khalidi and Edward Said, and treated Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu disrespectfully throughout his presidency.

The tendency of liberals to ignore Democratic anti-Semitism suggests they are not serious about confronting it.  If they were, they would make a priority of denouncing bigotry on the left as conservatives have done on the right since the 1990s.  Their obsession with phantom Republican prejudice stems from their flawed understanding of Jewishness as progressive metaphor and endorsement of ideologies that contravene traditional Judaism as authentically Jewish.  The resulting absurdity is exemplified by their reluctance to condemn Democratic bigots the way British Jews have denounced Corbyn and the Labour Party. They prefer to blame Republicans for anti-Semitism – much of which comes from the left – over putting their own house in order.

Jewish progressives cannot tolerate Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu, whom they despise, but this disdain reflects the projection of their political values onto an Israeli society that has far different priorities.  Likewise, though the Reform and Conservative movements elevate “social justice” over traditional observance, most Israelis question their relevance.  And whereas Americans believe that excoriating Trump and adulating Obama are Jewish mandates, Israelis tend to disagree.  In fact, many appreciate Trump’s admiration for Israel and stance against global anti-Semitism, but wonder how US Jews could have supported Obama despite his relationships with Israel haters, apologetic views on radical Islam, and apparent disdain for the Jewish State.  More fundamentally, many are baffled that American Jews would trade ancestral loyalty for political causes that are extraneous to or inconsistent with traditional Judaism (e.g., transgender activism, Palestinian advocacy).

As observed by the late Prof. Daniel J. Elazar more than twenty years ago, most non-Orthodox Israelis, whether identifying as traditional or secular, incorporate observance into their lives to varying degrees.  And while some might not oppose official recognition of liberal Judaism, “except for a minuscule handful, they do not seek it for themselves nor do they respond to it positively,” he wrote then, noting further: “It is not just that the religiously Orthodox Jews in Israel have not found satisfaction in those two diaspora-originated movements [i.e., Reform and Conservative], but, perhaps especially, neither have the religiously moderate traditional or secularist Jews.” (“Why Reform and Conservative Judaism have Not Worked in Israel.”)  Though not all Israelis are stringently observant, most seem to accept the validity of Jewish tradition.

These observations are no less relevant today, as American liberals and their movements have distinguished themselves by (a) seeking to impose sociopolitical standards on Israel that most Israelis find irrelevant and (b) promoting causes that many believe threaten their country’s sovereignty and Jewish character.  Nothing illustrates this more than the liberal American propensity for dialoguing with Islamist front groups posing as moderate, supporting organizations like J Street, and legitimizing Palestinian national claims that negate Jewish history – all while demanding that Israel kneel before the altar of progressivism.

Not surprisingly, many Israelis reject liberal Judaism for its ethical relativism as much as its lenient ritual orientation.

Unlike their Israeli counterparts, US Jews seem to suffer from identity erosion influenced by declining observance, substandard Jewish education, and the sacralization of liberal politics.  Though many claim their Jewishness requires them to reject Trump, they conflate identity with secular ideals that defy Jewish tradition. Liberals can dislike Trump for any reason or none at all, but they cannot claim their disdain is Judaically-mandated.  Nor can they ignore how Trump has reversed his predecessor’s course of demeaning Israel, enabling Islamic radicalism, empowering Iran, and whitewashing leftist anti-Semitism.

Jewish history is replete with examples of those who rejected heritage and community.  During the Hellenistic period, many emulated Greek culture and repudiated their ancestors, while during medieval times some accepted baptism and sought to lead others astray.  The apostate Nicholas Donin in 1240 denounced the Talmud to Pope Gregory IX, inflamed Dominican ire, and instigated public disputations and Talmud burnings. Similarly, Johannes Pfefferkorn in 1509 advocated expelling Jews from German lands, kidnapping and baptizing their children, and burning Hebrew texts.  During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many joined European radical movements, abandoned Judaism, and discouraged education and observance.

Whereas yesterday’s apostates renounced religion and culture, today’s progressives claim fealty to tradition while falsely equating Jewish identity with non-Jewish priorities.  They misuse terms like “tikkun olam” and “Mussar” to imply Judaic authenticity, though doing so only illustrates their distance from tradition. True tikkun olam involves the promotion of societal harmony through Halakhic observance, while authentic Mussar calls for ethical character development through Torah study, mitzvah observance, and personal introspection.  Neither promotes ideals that are alien to Judaism.

Many American Jews today know little of their heritage and attempt to fill the gaps with agendas that bear no resemblance to the Judaism of their ancestors.  Though Jewish voters can certainly support any policies their consciences may dictate, tradition does not require them to be liberal Democrats – or conservative Republicans.

As for President Trump, they can support or oppose him for any reason.  But they cannot claim that hatred for the man reflects Jewish virtue – and certainly not in light of his support for Israel and condemnation of global anti-Semitism.  Nor can they oppose him based on dubious claims of prejudice, especially when they ignore or excuse flagrant anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party. Whatever moral authority they claim to possess is only diluted when they condemn Jew-hatred where it doesn’t exist but grant a pass where it does.

EDITORS NOTE: This Israel National News column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

VIDEO: A$AP Rocky proves that Donald Trump was right about Sweden

Recently, the American rap musician A$AP Rocky visited my home country of Sweden to perform a concert.

Walking around the streets of Stockholm together with his crew, a couple of what seems to be immigrants (likely Afghans. Most of them originate from Iran, not Afghanistan, which really makes them economic migrants, not refugees) started to stalk him, obviously looking for trouble, perhaps trying to rob him or at least force him to give them something they were asking for.

This is very common in Sweden today. Immigrants from Northern Africa, Afghanistan, and other non-European places, roaming around the streets stealing and robbing as well as harassing and raping women (in 2017 a couple of Afghan migrants living in Sweden live-streamed a rape on Facebook), threatening those who are weaker than themselves.

Swedes are generally not used to this kind of behavior. Additionally, Swedes in general also prefer to calm the situation down by taking a step back or agreeing to some sort of compromise in order to avoid a conflict. Therefore, these kinds of people usually know that they can get what they want from Swedes.

What they apparently didn’t understand was that A$AP Rocky and his friends weren’t Swedes. They were Americans, probably raised in even rougher neighborhoods than the immigrants in question. As such, when the immigrants continued their stalking of the rap artist, A$AP Rocky and his crew kicked their asses.

Here is the clip when the Swedish immigrants stalk them:

And here is the clip where they get beaten:

In a speech February 18, 2017 President Trump made an offhand remark about Sweden. He said:

“We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this. Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. You look at what’s happening in Brussels. You look at what’s happening all over the world. Take a look at Nice. Take a look at Paris. We’ve allowed thousands and thousands of people into our country and there was no way to vet those people. There was no documentation. There was no nothing. So we’re going to keep our country safe.”

The Swedish establishment politicians and journalists laughed at him. What did he know about Sweden? Former Prime Minister Carl Bildt tweeted: “What has he been smoking?”

The American journalist Tim Pool visited Sweden to conduct some research. At first, Pool came to the conclusion that Trump was wrong. But eventually he realized that Trump probably was right and that Swedish media covered up the increasing violence and unsecurity in Sweden following mass immigration, primarily from Muslim majority countries. Here is a clip where Pool visits Rinkeby, an  immigrant suburb of Stockholm.

Most recently, it was the American rap artist A$AP Rocky, who without any intention of doing so, proved that Donald Trump was right about Sweden.

Sweden is changing rapidly.

This is a fact and something a lot of us here in Sweden know despite our politicians refusing to admit it. However, it’s time for the world to know the truth.

The romantic northern country of Sweden that most Americans would think of when they hear the name of this nation, is appearing less and less like Sweden. Instead, Sweden looks and feels increasingly more like the Middle East.

That’s the reality no one wants to talk about.

About a week ago, an illegal Afghan refugee murdered a 69-year-old Swedish woman. Stefan Löfven, Prime Minister of Sweden, commented that ”We need to allocate more resources to our mental health system.”

However, the problem is not the mental health system; the problem is the overwhelming legal and illegal immigration that drain the resources. And political leaders who do not understand that their main mission should be to protect their own citizens.

This is Sweden. Welcome to Democratic Socialism, America!

After the latest incident, A$AP Rocky was arrested, because that’s what Swedish authorities do: they arrest law abiding citizens for not adapting to our new multicultural reality. However, A$AP Rocky and his team should really be given an award. He did what most Swedes would have wished they had the courage to do, but never would have done.

So thank you America for raising this issue: from Donald Trump to Tim Pool to A$AP Rocky.

Ronie Berggren is a Swedish Conservative who runs Sweden’s most active podcast about American politics: American News Analysis. His lifelong ideological inspiration is Thomas Jefferson. This article is cross-posted from Ronie.se.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Islamic Republic of Iran deports singer: Authorities were afraid she might try to sing

Germany: Muslim Brotherhood being monitored, intelligence warns about MB agenda, danger to “social peace and harmony”

RELATED VIDEO: Lopez Moment: Erdogan’s Turkey and U.S. Muslim Brotherhood Alliance.

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

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison embraces UK’s anti-Semitic Labour top dog Jeremy Corbyn

These are two leaders of the international Left today, both steeped in irrational Jew-hatred. On the Left, that’s the “enlightened” position.

Ellison’s Jew-hatred is Islamic. The Qur’an depicts the Jews as inveterately evil and bent on destroying the well-being of the Muslims. They are 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).

Where does Corbyn’s come from? An uncritical acceptance of the victimhood claims of Islamic advocacy groups in the West, as well as of the “Palestinian” propaganda that the international media routinely retails.

Keith Ellison Embraces Anti-Semitic UK Leader Jeremy Corbyn,” by Ariel Behar, Investigative Project, July 3, 2019:

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a former Democratic National Committee deputy chairman, posted a photo of himself Tuesday night with U.K. Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Corbyn’s Labour Party has been embroiled in an anti-Semitism controversy that has seen key leaders leave the party. Nearly 40 percent of British Jews said they would consider leaving the U.K. if he were to become prime minister.

Ellison, a savvy politician, has to be aware of Labour’s problems. That did not give him pause about posing with Corbyn, who has embraced terrorist organizations Hamas and Hizballah and called them his friends.

“Awesome day in London,” Ellison wrote, “especially meeting with Rt. Hon. Jeremy Corbyn – a true grassroots organizer.”

Before becoming Labour leader, Corbyn praised a re-issue of a century-old book that claims Jews control banking and the press. Corbyn wrote a foreword in the 2011 edition of J.A. Hobson’s “Imperialism: A Study.

“I am sickened that Labour is now perceived by many as a racist, anti-Semitic Party,” MP Mike Gapes wrote in a February resignation letter posted on social media. “But there has been considerable reluctance since then to seriously deal with hundreds of cases of anti-Semitism and several prominent anti-Semites have been readmitted to the Party.”

An ongoing investigation by Great Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), drew 100 witnesses, The Guardian reported.

Despite the scrutiny, “Nothing has changed,” Jewish Labour Movement Secretary Peter Mason told the newspaper. “We continue to see the same behaviour that we have seen for a very long time and no action taken to tackle it.”

Ellison, a former congressman, is also no stranger to embracing bigotry and anti-Semitism.

In 2010, Ellison promised at a private fundraiser that Israel’s influence on American foreign policy would change once more Muslims got involved in politics.

He was also forced to denounce Louis Farrakhan, a fervent Jew-hater, despite the fact that he met privately with him in 2016. Ellison had said that his ties to the Nation of Islam and Farrakhan ended in the early 1990s.

Ellison insists he’s being unfairly maligned. But he does himself no favors when, as a state attorney general, he makes a point of showing the world he’s aligned with Corbyn…

RELATED ARTICLES:

UK government: “approximately 6,850 victims of organised child sexual exploitation in the UK in 2015”

Labour Party in an Antisemitic Hole, Decides to Keep Digging

BBC survey shows half of Arab young people want to migrate to Europe and North America

RELATED VIDEO: Democrat Politicians Now Posing with Antifa Leaders.

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

VIDEO: The Vortex — Anti-American Bishops

A greedy, self-serving bunch if there ever was one.

TRANSCRIPT

It’s time once again for the Fourth of July celebrations in America to get rolling and we thought we’d take the opportunity to point out a little something, a two-headed hydra, the Democratic Party and the U.S. bishops’ conference.

First, let’s look at the Democrats and this guaranteed losing stance.

Yep, all 10 Dem candidates on stage last week promised that their plan is to take your tax dollars and pay health care costs for illegal immigrants, and some of those tax dollars coming from actual citizens who don’t have health insurance themselves.

Turning to the second head of the hydra, the U.S. bishops have more than a dozen times issued pronouncements against Trump’s enforcement of current immigration laws, some of the exact same laws that Obama used to enforce.

Curiously, when Democrat Obama would make speeches or give interviews about illegal immigrants, the U.S. bishops just let it slide.

And why would the bishops not thunder against Obama, you might ask. That’s a good question. A question for the record that the Catholic establishment media never asks, because they can’t tick off their meal ticket.

There are really two reasons the bishops are down with open borders and staging photo ops at the border, and running off a flood of press releases damning Trump.

One reason is their miserable track record of running the Church has resulted in a depressing demographic reality.

For decades, Catholics were about 25% of the total U.S. population — for decades.

But as the Church of Nice, modernist homoheretics slowly tipped the scales and got control of the levers of power, the population of Catholics relative to the total population began to shrink.

Today, it’s down to about 21% of the population. And here’s the truth under those numbers, white European-descent Catholics, in relation to the total population, comprise only about 13 percent.

That is a falling off the cliff — without Hispanic Catholics, many of whom are here illegally, Catholics, who used to be about one out of every four Americans, are now only about one out of every eight or nine.

Most illegal immigrants in the United States come across that southern border and are majority Catholic, so the bishops have latched onto that reality and are using it to shore up their flagging numbers in the pews.

But more than that, money is the overwhelming factor.

Look at these financial numbers from 2016 for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Catholic Charities.

Catholic Relief Services received a staggering $426,943,000 in U.S. federal tax dollars. Those federal monies accounted for 65% of the agency’s total 2016 budget.

And Catholic Charities received a not too shabby $202,000,000.

The bishops are getting literally hundreds of millions of dollars from Uncle Sam, and much of this money is earmarked specifically for coping with illegal immigration and refugee resettlement efforts.

The government is not really equipped to administer programs of this size, so they contract the work out — in this case, a half-billion dollars worth of contracts to the bishops.

Interesting to note, the U.S. bishops get as much money from Washington as Planned Parenthood gets.

And here’s another deception by silence on the part of the bishops, they never tell people in the pews when they take up the annual collection for CRS and Catholic Charities that, presuming you are legal and a taxpayer, that you have already contributed to these collections through your taxes.

When Obama first came to office, the USCCB was directly paid a whopping $91 million dollars for Syrian refugee resettlement programs.

As a result, one out of every three dioceses in the country suddenly opened up a refugee resettlement office to cash in.

In fact, another $30-plus million also poured directly into the bishops coffers from Obama’s White House for other programs.

The child killer in chief must have been very grateful to the mitered class for having delivered him the majority Catholic vote in ’08.

But for the supreme show of hypocrisy from the bishops who are always so chest-thumping about welcoming the stranger and so forth — look at the places most of them live.

You couldn’t get past the gates or over the walls with a small army, and of course, Church HQ itself is completely surrounded with a gigantic wall built specifically to keep out potential Muslim invaders, along with others.

And that’s because walls work, which is why so many of the hierarchy have themselves safely ensconced behind them, including the Pope.

And oh yeah, if you somehow manage to get around or over those walls, you’ll get shot and killed — so much for the death penalty being “inadmissable,” to quote Bishop Robert Barron.

The U.S. bishops are simply opposed, flat-out, to border security in complete lockstep with their Democratic sugar-daddies.

They make the irrational argument that the “first duty” of government is to welcome the foreigner and the stranger, specifically as the Immigration Office at USCCB HQ says “to welcome the foreigner out of charity and respect for the human person. Persons have the right to immigrate and thus government must accommodate this right to the greatest extent possible, especially financially blessed nation.”

This is a total perversion of Catholic teaching; it’s Democratic Party talking points made to sound like Church teaching.

The bishops say the “second duty (of government)is to secure one’s border and enforce the law for the sake of the common good.”

So let’s think about this. The first duty of government is to let everybody in who wants to migrate, and the second duty is to enforce the borders.

Well, if you are letting everybody in, then what need does America have for borders and if anyone who want to migrate to the United States gets to come in, how long before the government no longer exists?

A nation is defined by its borders in the most fundamental reality.

But all of this would actually be an argument worth having if the bishops were not getting cumulatively billions of dollars from the government, much of which has been severely cut back by President Trump, and they themselves were actually not living behind walls and or had immigrants sleeping in their palaces.

Those swanky digs up in the woods of New York that Cardinal Dolan commandeered for himself — remember, that $4 million pad — it sure looks like you cram a few dozen immigrant families in there, Your Eminence.

Hypocrisy, money, privilege, sucking at the teats of the Democrats — what a dastardly lot.

Exactly how does a hierarchy maintain any independence when its very infrastructure is supported by federal tax dollars?

Want to know why pro-abort Catholic Democrats are never denounced? Just look at the issue of illegal immigration, the wall and the money handed to them and you have your answer.

When the basket gets passed next time in your parish to contribute to any of this, drop in a note saying, “No thanks, I already paid you with my taxes.”

INTEL REPORT: Interview with an ISIS leader, Libya and Turkey with Analysis

ISIS LEADER INTERVIEW

The sin’at al-mawt (industry of death) program carried on the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based al-arabiyya TV on 28 June featured an interview with a top-ranked ISIS individual.  His name is El-yass Aaden, and his movement name was abu ‘Ubaydah at-Turki, indicating he was from Turkey.  Though Turkish, he spoke decent Arabic.  He was described as being in his late 20’s and one of the “prominent” leaders of ISIS.

He claimed to have studied religious law in Cairo, Egypt (likely done at al-Azhar), and then completed his education in Istanbul.  Even though Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, had a PhD in Islamic jurisprudence, Abu ‘Ubaydah’s knowledge of scripture (and his probably having studied at al-Azhar) earned him the honorary title within ISIS as ameer shar’i w-mufti al-tanzheem (Prince of Shari’a law and expositor of scripture and declarer of fatwas for the ISIS organization).

He also claimed to be a member of the very tight inner circle for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abu Muhammad al-‘Adnani.  He said he first joined the an-Nusra front (al-Qaeda’s Syrian franchise), then moved over to ISIS because he found it to be closer to the truth (i.e. the “real” Islam as preached and lived by Muhammad).

He then became the primary intermediary between ISIS and Turkey.  In this capacity he claims to have recruited over 2,000 Turks to come and join ISIS.

He went on to say that there was no democracy in ISIS.  No political opposition.  Baghdadi and his inner circle decided everything.

When his interviewer asked him about the role of ISIS in the explosions (terrorist acts) at Sirouj and Ankara (in Turkey), he said that Sirouj was done without al-Baghdadi’s knowledge and approval, and it was done in coordination with Turkish Intelligence (MIT), and Turkish citizens from the Turkish army.  Sirouj (operation) was against the Kurds, he said.  As for Ankara, the operation in Ankara was done by the orders of Baghdadi, but also with the coordination of Turkey’s MIT, and it was directed against the Leftists.

(Note:  This comports with previous reporting that the ISIS “terrorist” attacks in Turkey were done against Kurds and other Erdogan opponents, and with the coordination of Turkish Intelligence, the purpose being to provide Erdogan with a pretext for entering the Syrian war, using the war against ISIS as cover for his campaign to exterminate Kurds, Christians, and Yazidis in proximity to Turkey’s borders.  The fake “ISIS” attacks inside Turkey itself also allowed Erdogan to punish political opponents.  Kill two birds with one stone.)

When the interviewer asked him why they killed the journalist James Foley, he replied that “Foley was a Jew.  All Jews and Christians are kufaar (unbelievers), and should be killed.”  (Note:  A U.S. diplomat name Larry Foley was assassinated in Jordan by the ISIS precursor, Abu Mus’ab az-Zarqawi’s group which was being hosted and sponsored by Saddam Hussein at the time.)

Abu ‘Ubaida said that the West had no argument with ISIS at first (note:  other reporting has indicated that the Obama administration considered ISIS to be an “asset”), and only turned against ISIS when ISIS began seizing OIL wells and selling it on the Black Market.  He said that Turkey bought their OIL, and then would turn around and sell it for twice what they paid for it.  (Note:  This confirms what had also been reported on previously).  But he also added that the Assad Syrian regime also bought OIL from ISIS when they needed it.

He claimed that Turkey formed the so-called “Free Syrian Army” for the purpose of buying weapons to turn around and sell them to ISIS, and for smuggling antiquities out of Iraq and Syria for sale on the Black Market.  He said there was no border between Turkey and ISIS, and that the Turks facilitated to flow of ISIS recruits into Syria.

LIBYA

As reported by al-arabiyya TV on 28 June, General al-Mismari, the spokeman for Gen. Haftar’s Libyan army besieging Libya’s capital Tripoli, while reiterating his claim that Turkey and Qatar are both intervening directly in Libya’s civil way, added that the Turkish navy is playing a more active role by operating drones that are attacking the positions of the Libyan army.

Al-Mismari then went on to threaten that the Libyan army will attack any Turkish ship entering Libyan waters, or otherwise engaging in hostile actions against Libya.  He added that no ship departing from a Turkish port will be allowed to enter Libyan waters, and no airplane departing from Turkey will be allowed to enter Libyan airspace.

On 29 June the Cairo-based al-ghad TV interviewed a Libyan journalist concerning the Portuguese pilot who was shot down near the al-Hira area of western Libya, and then captured by elements of Gen. Haftar’s Libyan army.  According to the interrogation of the downed pilot, he admitted to being a Portuguese citizen, and that he was hired to take out roads and bridges.

The Libyan journalist taking to the al-ghad TV anchor said that this Portuguese guy was the 2nd foreigner flying for the Sirraaj government in Tripoli that the Haftar group has shot down and captured in the last 15 days (though he did not identify the other pilot).  The Libyan journalist then added that the Sirraaj government has been using Pakistanis, Arabs, and Europeans as mercenaries.

In another segment by al-ghad TV, the anchor interviewed a “Libyan analyst” who added that Africans are also working as mercenaries for Tripoli.  Then he noted that Turkey is hiring all these mercenaries, training them, and then infiltrating them into Libya.

30 June, Libyan analysts reporting to al-arabiyya TV have complained that an ISIS group working for the UN-recognized Sirraaj government had entered a hospital and killed Libyan soldiers.  Libyans demand an international investigation for these warcrimes.

30 June, reports have come in that Gen. Haftar’s Libyan army has captured six Turkish soldiers fighting on behalf of the Sirraaj government in Tripoli.

Erdogan has threatened to enter the Libyan war in full force if any Turkish interests in Libya are hit, and if those Turkish “citizens” are not immediately freed.

TURKEY

On 29 June, popular Egyptian Talk show host ‘Amru Adeeb, on his show al-hakaya (the story) on MBC-Egypt TV, reported on Trump’s surrender to Turkish dictator Erdogan.  After repeating for months that if Turkey goes through with their plans to purchase S-400 anti-aircraft missiles from Russia, that the U.S. would block sales of the advanced F-35 to Turkey, Trump has done a 180.

The excuse Trump used, was that Obama did not treat Erdogan right!  Talk show host Adeeb repeated that with great sarcasm, and rightfully so.

During the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, after first snubbing Erdogan for his purchasing weapons from Russia, Trump suddenly reversed and gave Erdogan the green light to purchase the anti-aircraft missiles from Russia.  Trump then followed that up by saying that he would not boycott Turkey over its purchase of the Russian missiles.  We have to assume that this means that Trump wants to go ahead and sell F-35s to Turkey.

ANALYSIS:

So, what does all of this mean?  First, it means that Trump will not let anything stand in the way of his being able to sell F-35s to the planet’s #1 state sponsor of terrorism.  Not even his own word of honor.  Not even world peace.

Does anyone seriously believe that Erdogan, and/or whom ever follows him as Sultan of the new Ottoman Caliphate, will not use those super jets to exterminate even more Kurds, Christians, Yazidis, Jews, Assyrians, Greeks, and Armenians?

As someone who voted for Trump, and will have to do so again because all the Democrats are even worse, it made me sick in my stomach to watch Trump surrender wimpily to the bully and Hitler wanna be Erdogan.  Trump, channeling his best Neville Chamberlain.

But this is of a piece with regards to Trump’s Middle East policies.  While he has been correct on most of his foreign policy and domestic issues, he has shown nothing but abject blindness when it comes to Turkey.

First, he asked Erdogan to move into northern Syria so that he (Trump) could withdraw American forces.  This gave Erdogan the green light to exterminate Kurds, Christians, and Yazidis who stood in his way as he added Syrian territory to his imaginary Ottoman empire.

Then Trump looked the other way as Turkey begins drilling for oil and gas in Cypriot waters, and even sends warships into the same waters.  This was followed by the U.S. ambassador to Greece dropping hints that the U.S. will favor a solution (to the Aegean Sea issues) that will give Turkey the right to drill in Cypriot (and by extension, Greek) waters–while Erdogan issues threats about taking what ever Greek territories he wants.

And, now he gets F-35s?  This would be like Great Britain selling Hitler spitfire aircraft on the eve of WWII.

Everyone who has read this news summary up to this point, as well as the previous reports on this site about Turkey’s behavior, Turkey’s support for ISIS, Turkeys’ behavior in Syria, Iraq, Greek and Cypriot waters and airspace, and in Libya, and other places, should be horrified by Trump’s continual bowing and scraping to this fascist, racist, terror state.

Washington likely believes that by coddling this eschatological, terrorist state and looking the other way when they annex other countries’ territories, and exterminate minorities they don’t like  . . . that they will willingly come back into the NATO fold at some point and behave themselves.  Sadly, the reality is the exact opposite.  Every act of aggression Turkey gets away with, every act of genocide that it gets away with, only encourages it to be even more aggressive, more supporting of terrorist groups like ISIS, and more genocidal against non-Muslims, non-observant Muslims, and other minorities it doesn’t like for racial reasons.

I don’t expect Trump to be an expert on the Middle East, Turkish history, and master all of the other issues that a president must handle, but most Americans do expect their presidents to surround themselves with people who are experts in these fields.  I fear that Trump has been getting very bad advice on Turkey, and I would look to the NSC, and possibly the head honchos at the CIA, as the primary sources of this bad advice.

This is just one more reason why America is in bad need of a comprehensive intelligence reform.

VIDEO: Communist Leader Bella Dodd exposes Infiltration of the Catholic Church

Posted by Eeyore.

This is an extraordinary video. I am only half way through and my understanding of communism and how it operates is significantly either more solid where I was aware of the material, or expanded to a greater understanding of the events and people I see around me in positions of influence.

The revelations about communist infiltration and subversion of the Church alone makes it worth the time to watch.

Please download it and keep a copy, and try and find time to listen to it while washing dishes or whatever activity that allows you to listen to something like this.

For those that want a more comprehensive look at what communist groups where doing at that time, and today through vehicles like the Democrat Socialists of America, get the book, Witness, by Whittaker Chambers.

RELATED ARTICLES:

INFILTRATION — Thousands of young Communists have infiltrated Catholic seminaries

New Report Links Some of Pope Francis’ Goals with Communist Ideology

RELATED VIDEO: Alice von Hildebrand—For 30 Years I’ve Been Fighting the Horror of Feminism.

PODCAST EXCLUSIVE: Yazidi ISIS Survivors in Israel Speak to Clarion

Shireen is a Yazidi ISIS survivor from Iraq. She was held as a slave by ISIS for three years after her village in Iraq was overrun by the terror group until she was able to escape during a military onslaught on the terror group.

Listen to Clarion Project’s exclusive interview with Shireen below

Shireen (we are only allowed to use her first name) was in Israel the past two weeks with a group of other Yazidi ISIS survivors who were brought to the country for a post-trauma course at the initiative of Bar Ilan University and IsraAid.

In the group was Lamiya Aji Bashar, who won the 2016 Sakharov Prize. Lamiya lost an eye when a mine exploded near her during a daring escape. The two girls escaping with her were killed by the same mine.

Bashar now lives in Germany where more than 1,000 Yazidi ISIS survivors now reside. These survivors are assisted there by an incredible man, Mirza Dinnayi, himself a Yazidi who moved to Germany decades ago.

Dinnayi heads an NGO in Germany called Luftbrucke Irak dedicated to helping victims of terror. Dinnayi makes a point of visiting Israel every year. This year, after two years of planning, Dinnayi was able to bring the survivors (most of whom still live in Iraq) to Israel, a country which, out of necessity, has developed tools to deal with post-traumatic stress disorders in terror survivors.

It was a logistics feat, considering that Israel has no diplomatic relations with Iraq.

The dedicated course organizers, Professor Ari Zivotofsky and Dr. Yaakov Hoffman, both from Bar Ilan University, feel they have a moral obligation to study the effects of genocide and to share Israel’s expertise in dealing with it.

I first met up with the group on Friday night, June 28, 2019 in Jerusalem. The girls wanted to meet Jewish people while they were in Israel and experience Jewish culture. It was suggested that they break up into small groups and join families for the traditional Friday night Sabbath meal. The girls were enthusiastic about the plan.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when their tour guide dropped off three girls at my house. Images from the media of shy girls, draped in veils and unable to communicate flooded my imagination. Instead, I was greeted by three beautiful, vivacious and Western-looking young women who couldn’t express their gratitude enough for being welcomed into my home: Shireen, who survived captivity, Talja, a young doctor who escaped to the Kurdish area of Iraq right before ISIS took over her village and her cousin Izzyhana, who is Dinnayi’s daughter and lives in Germany.

Their English was superb and the night flew by, animated by multiple questions and answers on both sides. I was most struck by the survivors’ forward-looking attitudes — all were ready to put the past behind them, get on with their lives and, at the same time, help others with the skills they learned the past two weeks in Israel.

Later, I met Shireen for a more serious interview. Shireen currently lives in a camp in Iraq and volunteers for Springs of Hope, a Clarion partner organization that helps rehabilitate terrorized children started by Israeli Lisa Miara.

Listen below:

Check out the trailer for our upcoming film “Kids: Chasing Paradise” about the radicalization of children by clicking here

Find out what you can do to Prevent Violent Extremism by clicking here

RELATED STORIES

ISIS Beheads 50 Yazidi Sex Slaves as Parting Gift 

Canada: Former Yazidi Sex Slaves Terrorized by ISIS 

Yazidi Female Brigade Formed to Fight ISIS

VIDEO: Extremists Stole My Son – The Psychology of Terrorism

Nicola, an British mother, tells the story of how her son was unexpectedly recruited by ISIS.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Really?? Singer Joss Stone Glorifies Niqab

Hamas ‘Partners’ with UN

UNRWA: Teaching Palestinian Children to Hate

Report: UN Agency in Gaza Returns Missiles to Hamas

UN Agency Funds ‘Camp Jihad’ for Palestinian Children 

VIDEO: Escaped Sex-Slaves Burn Burkas, wish the same for Islamic State

Posted by  Eeyore

EDITORS NOTE: According to a 2017 article by Free The Slaves:

There are tens of millions of people trapped in various forms of slavery throughout the world today. Researchers estimate that 40 million are enslaved worldwide, generating $150 billion each year in illicit profits for traffickers.

  • Labor Slavery. About 50 percent toil in forced labor slavery in industries where manual labor is needed—such as farming, ranching, logging, mining, fishing, and brick making—and in service industries working as dish washers, janitors, gardeners, and maids.
  • Sex Slavery. About 12.5 percent are trapped in forced prostitution sex slavery.
  • Forced Marriage Slavery. About 37.5 percent are trapped in forced marriages.
  • Child Slavery. About 25 percent of today’s slaves are children.

Slavery today is a hidden crime, making it harder for the public to see and for those in slavery to call out for help.

Slavery statistics come from the U.N. International Labor Organization, Walk Free and the International Organization for Migration. See our Trafficking and Slavery Fact Sheet for details. 

[ … ]

New slavery has two chief characteristics—it’s cheap and it’s disposable. Slaves today are cheaper than ever. In 1850, an average slave in the American South cost the equivalent of $40,000 in today’s money. Today a slave costs about $90 on average worldwide. (Source: Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy. See all Free the Slaves books.)

RELATED ARTICLE: When Europeans Were Slaves: Research Suggests White Slavery Was Much More Common Than Previously Believed

VIDEO: Confessions of an Ex-Migrant Volunteer in Germany

Posted by  Eeyore

This is a must watch. Really. No kidding. Everyone has to see this confession. Yes, it is 31 minutes. But wow is it ever worth the time.

This is a German woman, originally also a refugee to Germany, who was assisting the Muslim migrants at her own time effort and expense. Then she realized what a pointless scam it was against the German people, and broke the “oath” and went public with her story.

Special thanks on this one to MissPiggy. It is a huge job to do a 31 minute video.

Minnesota: City council in Ilhan Omar’s Congressional district drops Pledge of Allegiance to avoid offending Muslims

They didn’t mention Muslims, of course, but there is no doubt whatsoever that this was done to placate them. “In order to create a more welcoming environment to a diverse community we are going to forgo saying the pledge of allegiance before every meeting,” said Councilman Tim Brausen. The newcomers who need to be welcomed in this case are overwhelmingly Muslim, so this is clearly an extreme case of Islamopandering. But no one who cannot pledge allegiance to the United States of America should even be here, much less be pandered to. This shouldn’t even be a question.

Town eliminates Pledge of Allegiance before city council meetings,” KMOV4, June 27, 2019:

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. (KMOV.com) – A long-standing tradition at city council meetings in a Minneapolis suburb will soon come to an end.

Elected leaders in St. Louis Park, Minnesota recently chose to drop the Pledge of Allegiance from their monthly meetings. The change was approved in a 5-0 vote and will take effect on July 15.

“In order to create a more welcoming environment to a diverse community we are going to forgo saying the pledge of allegiance before every meeting,” said Councilman Tim Brausen….

RELATED ARTICLES:

UK former equity chief warns: “Islamophobia” is a “bullies charter” used by “censorious Muslims”

Germany: Muslim migrant who raped teen girl with 10 friends claims she “demanded” sex

UK: Muslims shout abuse, send warning letter to owner of Greedy Pigs cafe, demanding its name be changed

RELATED VIDEO: Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar failed to answer one simple question: did she marry her brother Ahmed Nur Said Elmi?Rebel Media

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

VIDEO: Faithful Catholics Slam Pan-Amazon Synod Working Document

by Bruce Walker  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •

October Synod of Bishops transforms Church into ‘secular NGO with ecological-social-psychological mandate’


VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) – The upcoming Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region, scheduled Oct. 6–17, is drawing intense fire from conservative clergy after the Vatican released on June 17 the Instrumentum Laboris (working document) for the gathering.

Among the most vocal critics is Cdl. Walter Brandmüller, one of the two remaining dubia cardinals. In a scathing essay, Brandmüller labeled the document heretical and an apostasy and further asserted it replaces true Catholic faith with the “noble savage” pantheism espoused by the 1800s Romantic-era philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Another ardent critic is Julio Loredo, president of the Italian branch of Tradition, Family and Property and author of a book highly critical of liberation theology. The concept of liberation theology attempts to reconcile the economic and social views of Karl Marx with Catholicism.

The synod “is a whole revamping of the Church from an ‘Amazonian’ point of view, which is nothing else than the culmination of liberation theology,” Loredo told LifeSiteNews.

Liberation theology took root in South American countries in the 1970s. Proponents such as Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff often came under scrutiny and disciplinary measures by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led at that time by Cdl. Joseph Ratzinger, who later was elected Pope Benedict XVI. Boff, on the other hand, was laicized.

According to Brandmüller, the synod is an example of the camel’s nose under the tent in which changes promoted in the Amazon region may spread eventually to the worldwide Church. He concludes the Church is being dragged into areas far removed from spiritual redemption:

One has to ask in principle why a Synod of Bishops should deal with topics, which — as is now the case with ¾ of the Instrumentum Laboris — have, at the most, very little to do with the Gospels and the Church. Obviously, the Synod of Bishops with this document makes an aggressive intrusion into the purely worldly affairs of the state and society of Brazil. What do ecology, economy, and politics have to do with the mandate and mission of the Church? …

Accordingly, the territory — that is to say, the forests of the Amazon region — is declared to be a locus theologicus, a special source of Divine Revelation. There are places of an epiphany where the planet’s reserves of life and wisdom show themselves, which speak of God (no. 19). The anti-rational rejection of the “western” culture that stresses the importance of reason is characteristic of the Instrumentum Laboris. Meanwhile, the subsequent regression from Logos to Mythos is being raised to a criterion of that which the Instrumentum Laboris calls the inculturation of the Church. The result is a natural religion with a Christian masquerade.

On the website Pan-Amazon Synod Watch, Loredo wrote:

It is now clear: the promoters of the Pan-Amazon Synod to be held in Rome in October want to reinterpret the Church from the ground up — its doctrine, sacraments, constitution, discipline, reshaping it according to an «Amazonian» style. They speak of a new “Church with an Amazonian face,” different from the one that has existed for two thousand years.

This is nothing but the old reformist dream of all heresiarchs who have afflicted the Church in recent centuries, from modernists to liberation theologians, who have sought to “reinvent the Church.” Well then, it seems that this old dream is about to come true at the very heart of Christianity.

Most press coverage has focused on the synod proposals allowing priests to marry and permitting women to become deacons to avert a shortage of clergy in the Amazon region. Loredo commented:

European media are focusing on clerical celibacy and the possible diaconal “ordination” for women, and rightly so. These are both very important aspects of the plan, but there is a whole story behind it. What they want is to change the whole Church according to the most radical versions of liberation theology — the so-called indigenist and ecological theology.

Brandmüller and other traditionalist Catholics critical of the Instrumentum Laboris discerned many other reasons with which to also take objection. As described in the document, these topics include:

Local communities need a Church that participates, that is present in the social, political, economic, cultural and ecological life of its inhabitants; a Church that is welcoming towards cultural, social and ecological diversity in order to be able to serve individuals or groups without discrimination; a creative Church that can accompany its people in the implementation of new responses to urgent needs; a harmonious Church that promotes the values of peace, mercy and communion.

Prompting Brandmüller’s rebuke, published by LifeSiteNews and Austrian news website Kath.net:

It is to be stated now with insistence that the Instrumentum Laboris contradicts the binding teaching of the Church in decisive points and thus has to be qualified as heretical.

Inasmuch as even the fact of Divine Revelation is here being questioned, or misunderstood, one also now has to speak, additionally, of apostasy.

This is even more justified in light of the fact that the Instrumentum Laboris uses a purely immanentist notion of religion and that it considers religion as the result and form of expression of man’s own spiritual self-experience. The use of Christian words and notions cannot conceal that these are being merely used as empty words, despite their original meaning.

The Instrumentum Laboris for the Amazon Synod constitutes an attack on the foundations of the Faith, and in a way that has not heretofore been thought possible. Thus it must be rejected with all decisiveness.

In his conclusion, Brandmüller remarks the views expressed in the Instrumentum Laboris are “sharply opposed to the genuine Catholic understanding.”

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

The Cross in the Crosshairs

Last week’s cross decision was a major case for religious liberty. Perhaps it even spells the death knell of the so-called Lemon Test…an aptly-named decision from the early 1970s that has often been used against any religious expression in the public square.

The Supreme Court ruled that a 40-foot memorial cross in the state of Maryland was not unconstitutional. The cross was built beginning in 1919 to commemorate many soldiers from Prince George’s County who died in service to their country in World War I.

The American Humanist Association (AHA) sued to have the cross torn down. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals (out of Richmond, Virginia) agreed with the AHA, and the cross had a sentence of death hanging over it. First Liberty Institute, which fights for religious liberty (including many military-oriented cases), fought to save the cross, on behalf of the American Legion. Perhaps surprisingly, the Supreme Court decided by a comfortable 7-2 margin.

The author of the decision was Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote,

“A government that roams the land, tearing down monuments with religious symbolism and scrubbing away any reference to the divine will strike many as aggressively hostile to religion.”

Writing for the dissenting minority—just herself and Justice Sonia Sotomayor—Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg argued:

“[T]he principal symbol of Christianity around the world should not loom over public thoroughfares, suggesting official recognition of that religion’s paramountcy.”

After the victory, I interviewed constitutional attorney Jeremy Dys for a radio segment. Dys serves as the Deputy General Counsel for First Liberty, the legal organization that helped procure the victory on behalf of the American Legion.

Dys told me,

“It’s a landmark victory for religious freedom….Whatever detractors are saying, they no longer have a tool in their arsenal so they can twist the establishment clause of the Constitution to render memorials like this Bladensburg World War I veterans memorial obsolete and then take a wrecking ball to it.”

The establishment clause, of course, is the first part of the First Amendment to the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” For the last several decades, the establishment clause has been invoked to censor out virtually any religious content in the public arena.

With this decision, he says, the Supreme Court is now protecting religious monuments: “That area of the law is kind of settled at this point, and we’re grateful that the Supreme Court has seen fit to protect what was the vision of some mothers back in 1919 as a way to remember their sons for serving in our armed forces.”

Dys continues:

“The day and age when [they] can weaponize the establishment clause to bulldoze memorials just because they are religious [and are] on public property are over.”

Dys feels that this decision effectively replaces the Lemon test with something he calls “the American Legion Test” (after the organization that built the monument and fought for it in the Supreme Court case). According to that test, if a religious symbol has longstanding significance in America’s history and tradition, it has the “presumption of constitutionality.” He notes that there are now six justices saying that the Lemon Test is bad law.

That is very significant going forward. Through this decision, things like “In God We Trust” on our money or displayed on our walls in public buildings would also be protected.

Dys also notes that the American Legion deserves a lot of credit in this case:

“We have been working with them for about 15-20 years now, protecting monuments that have religious imagery in them….These war heroes have been working with us for years to preserve these monuments. And if you’re one of those guys or gals from the American Legion…I just want to say: Mission Accomplished.”

This new victory would have allowed another World War I cross to stand, without having to change ownership of where it stands. In that case from a few years ago, First Liberty worked to save a memorial on public land in the Mojave Desert. A judge  ruled that that cross must be covered up with a canvas bag which was padlocked and then later covered up by a plywood box. “Why?” one might ask. So the spiders and snakes and occasional hikers could not see it? It was in the middle of nowhere. That cross ultimately was allowed to stay only because the land it stood on became privatized through a land-swap.

Just as Dracula flees from the cross, so there are many atheistic legal groups in America (like the American Humanists Association) that fight the cross at every turn—even when it is a symbol of those who paid the ultimate price for our country. Thank God the cross in the crosshairs still stands.