I am not suggesting that we should experience schadenfreude (feel pleasure from witnessing someone’s troubles, failures or humiliation). However, LGBTQ enforcers viciously seeking to destroy the career of comedian/actor Kevin Hart for tweets he made 9 years ago is encouraging. Finally, even leftists are beginning to see the take-no-prisoners intolerance and bullying LGBTQ enforcers have been applying to everyone who does not celebrate their lifestyle.
Many of us have been sounding the alarm for years that LGBTQ enforcers are relentlessly targeting Christian businesses for destruction; solely for the purpose of forcing Christians to betray their God by bending a knee in worship of leftists’ god of debauchery.
German pastor Martin Niemofller was imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp from 1941-1945. In his famous poem, Niemofller laments that when they came for the Communists, Socialists, Trade Unionists and Jews he did not speak out because he was none of these. Niemofller wrote, “And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.”
Not only did leftists not speak out against LGBTQ bullying, they cheered when LGBTQ bullies came for Sweet Cakes by Melissa. The Christian bakery happily served their lesbian customer for several years. When she asked them to bake a cake for her lesbian wedding, the owners said to do so would betray their faith. The husband and wife bakery owners with five kids were driven out of business.
Well now, LGBTQ enforcers have come for Kevin Hart who many leftists consider one of their own.
Leftist Snoop Dogg who shot president Trump in the head in his music video passionately expressed his support for Hart. Several leftist celebs are expressing their support for Hart. As I stated, the good news for America in the Hart attacks is leftists are waking up and smelling the tyranny coming from their side of the political aisle by LGBTQ enforcers.
“The Devil’s greatest achievement is convincing people that he does not exist.” LGBTQ enforcers’ greatest achievement and deception is convincing people they are the victims and we, mainstream Americans, are the aggressors.
Kevin Hart was scheduled to host the Oscars. In a video, Hart said, “I swear man, our world is becoming beyond crazy. My team calls me, Oh my God Kevin. The world is upset about tweets you did years ago. Oh my God.” LGBTQ enforcers deemed Hart’s nine-year-old tweets anti-homosexual.
Hart received a call from the Academy telling him to apologize again for his old tweets or be replaced as host of the Oscars. Hart said he has repeatedly addressed the issue and acknowledged the rights and wrongs. Hart said he has evolved since making the tweets years ago. Hart said to apologize again for something so far in the past would be a step backwards rather than moving forward. Therefore, he chose to pass on hosting the Oscars.
The American left’s response was mixed. Many rallied behind Hart. Others were furious over Hart refusing to apologize, calling him defiant. Leftist Kathy Griffin disturbed millions with her photo in which she held a bloody severed head of president Trump. In response to Hart refusing to apologize again, Griffin said, “F*** him”.
Hart did not realize that LGBTQ enforcers have zero-tolerance for anyone who does not fully embrace the lifestyle. Anyone who dares to dis the LGBTQ lifestyle in the slightest must fall on their face and beg forgiveness or suffer complete personal destruction.
Many Americans believe the LGBTQ community is 23% or more of the population. The truth is, they are 3.4 percent.
Witnessing LGBTQ enforcers’ relentless media assault on Hart and their efforts to destroy him, I could not help thinking, “Welcome to our world, Mr Hart.” This is the tyrannical assault on free speech Americans face everyday by the LGBTQ thought police. Again, I take no pleasure in seeing Mr Hart suffer.
It was stunning to hear even extreme leftist Joy Behar and leftist women on The View say the attack on Hart puts all comedians at risk. Numerous other high-profile leftist voices are speaking out in agreement.
Folks, LGBTQ enforcers attacking Hart is a real eye-opener for many Americans – a small victory in the war between totalitarian political correctness and constitutional free speech.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/Kevin-Hart-e1545240215125.jpg360640Lloyd Marcushttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngLloyd Marcus2018-12-19 12:23:472018-12-19 12:24:49The LGBTQ Hart Attack is a Good Thing
By FRC’s Alexandra McPhee, Director of the Center for Religious Advocacy
Think American citizens are ready to give Christ the boot this holiday season? Think again. A 2018 report from LifeWay Research shows an overarching sentiment that “Christmas should be more about Jesus” (65 percent).
These numbers reflect the reality of a report from Ozark, Missouri, that many locals clamored to get the government to keep its traditional Christmas light display featuring a cross after the town received legal threats from an activist secular legal group about the display.
According to the Springfield News-Leader, Mayor Rick Gardner received “hundreds” of phone calls, text messages and other communications from members of the Ozark community following the town’s initial announcement [to take the cross down in the face of legal threats]. One person reportedly told Gardner that the cross “is a part of Ozark” and “this is Christian County, for Pete’s sake.”
The legal letter sent to officials claimed that the cross was a violation of the First Amendment. But the United States Supreme Court has said government can “recognize the role religion plays in our society.” And the question whether government can maintain displays depicting religious symbols — like the one in Ozark — is now before the United States Supreme Court.
The heckler’s veto — the one complaint that convinces public officials to cave on behalf of all citizens — might fly in some areas. After all, Ozark was essentially slapped with the same legal letter sent to Dover, Ravenna, and Streetsboro, Ohio, and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Officials in all but Ozark and Streetsboro caved.
But what makes the difference is when citizens — the majority of whom say Christmas should be more about Jesus — make their voices heard. And they say keep the cross up and baby Jesus in the manger.
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
EDITORS NOTE: This Family Research Council column with images is republished with permission
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/121818_cross-blog_770x400-e1545220650862.jpg362640Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2018-12-19 07:00:442018-12-19 07:00:44Jesus Isn’t Just Ornamental
The mission of this apostolate — St. Michael’s Media/Church Militant — is singular: to be used to save souls — period. That mission plays out in the day-to-day in a number of different ways.
The corruption in the Church — doctrinal, liturgical, sexual and financial — must by necessity continue to be exposed for the simple reason that it cripples the Church — both the clergy and the laity — in the mission of the Church, which is to bring souls to Christ.
One of the ways the corrupters in the Church have been so remarkably successful is to speak in ambiguous terms where what they say can be understood a hundred different ways depending on who is hearing it.
That’s intentional — you can sound like you are Catholic, but in reality, you are far from the heart of the Church.
What this lack of clarity and precision has produced is near complete confusion, and that has been the intended effect. And the intended effect of the confusion has been to deprive people — meaning souls — of the truth.
Truth is always clear, meant to be understood, to be apprehended, by the mind, the intellect. Clarity is the currency that truth traffics in.
As the rot and filth, all the corruption continues to be exposed, it poses deep challenges in bringing it to light.
For example, long-time followers of Church Militant will notice that a good deal of time and attention, our resources, have been dedicated to uncovering the corruption and exposing it. Let us first say, this was not a part of our original mission here, not seen as even necessary to it because, frankly, we didn’t know it existed beyond just a collection of just individual bad prudential judgments.
But as the years have progressed, we have learned. We have learned that this is exactly what is being exposed, as we said yesterday, a worldwide, organized criminal syndicate, the goal of which is to destabilize the Church and represent the Faith in such a way as to suck out all vestiges of divine revelation.
It all goes hand in hand, these areas of rot: doctrinal, liturgical, sexual and financial.
For the going on 14 years the apostolate has been around, we have moved through what you might call a “progression of awareness.”
In our first few years, we concentrated entirely on the doctrinal rot because that’s all we were aware of, frankly. So we produced our flagship show, The One True Faith, to help people come to the realization that for the past 50 years they haven’t really been taught authentic Catholicism.
The reality came very clear very quickly, that if you are a baptized Catholic under roughly 60 years old, you were — with occasional exceptions, of course — not really taught the Faith.
So our programming then was largely concentrated in that arena. And it is still just as relevant today — actually more so than when we first produced it back in the 2006–2008 timeframe.
Then we began to see the intimate connection between the loss of faith with the destruction of the liturgy that had taken place, the parallel watering down of catechesis with the liturgy.
Both had become massively Protestantized. In fact, the understanding of the Faith had becomeso Protestantized that the average Catholic had forgotten, or never heard, that Protestantism is a heresy, and a heresy, every heresy, any heresy, deprives a person of the truth.
So in this period, our programming began focusing on this aspect, and we started producing our longer form investigative pieces, our FBIs — Faith-Based Investigations — where we dove headlong into these crucial discussions.
That all began around the 2008–2010 time frame.
After that, a great illumination began to come to us, all of this that was going on, the meltdown of the Faith — the Church established by the Son of God personally, outside of which there is no salvation — was actually an orchestrated effort.
The entire body of the Faith had been deliberately distorted and twisted and represented, re-offered to Catholics and the world.
But what was being represented was not Catholic. It was the working of spiritually sick and demented men and women who had no love for Christ and who had seized control of vast areas of the Church.
Many of these individuals had become corrupt because of lust — sexual lust — and lust for power, often times both, for they are often found hand in hand.
Their lust became the fuel in their engines for distorting the Church, disfiguring Her. Lust, especially sexual lust, a failure to control the passions, is the main cause for the damnation of souls, and it’s why so much of humanity will be damned.
In the Church, within the clergy specifically, a special lust seized hold — homosexual lust which has played itself out in the most spiritually, psychologically and physically damaging ways imaginable.
It is the driving reason law enforcement agencies are raiding chanceries all over the nation today.
All of this became very clear to us on a trip to Rome in 2011 with a series of private discussions and multiple headlines. In very short order, we began reporting on this manifest evil and haven’t looked back.
We were pilloried in the early years we were exposing all this — pilloried and attacked by people in the Church. Events, however, have unfolded to cause others to also see what we saw and join forces.
So here we are, years later, having dedicated a sizable portion of our resources to uncovering all this, because as long as this evil — the filth, rot and corruption continues to hold sway — souls are being lost because the truth is obscured.
When covering all this from a journalistic standpoint, there are challenges that do not exist in the secular world for uncovering corruption.
Put succinctly, there are avenues in the secular world for getting at the truth that simply do not exist within the Church.
While certainly not perfect, and requiring a kind of doggedness on the part of reporters, the truth can be discovered because of one factor in the secular world which is totally absent in the Church: accountability.
There is no accountability in the Church for evil men. As long as the person above them is also corrupt — a practicing homosexual, an enemy of Christ, a malformer, a spiritual terrorist — then they are safe.
In the world of secular journalism, a reporter can demand certain government documents: it’s called a Freedom of Information Act — a FOIA.
There are open trials where much is discoverable through court records. Campaigns have to report financial dealings as well as politicians.
There are a hundred legitimate ways to get at truth in the secular world if you are determined, but not so in the Church. A series of arcane procedures and laws and practices that can never be challenged or changed except, ultimately, by a sitting pontiff, prevent access to truth.
A climate of secrecy develops, and wicked men use this as a perfect cover. And if you challenge them, then they ignore you, or attack you, but they never come clean.
So this necessitates, for the reporter, a different way of getting at the truth. Methods that would not usually fly in the secular world now become the only means available to get at the truth and ultimately uncover the evil.
So very few people are ever able to be named because they will be retaliated against. Semi-private conversations which point to destabilizing efforts to uncover the truth must be revealed without the sources again ever being named.
Documents or recordings that were never intended to be seen or heard beyond the immediate parties are now spirited out and gone over.
Emails from people with encrypted accounts, secret meetings, discussions far away from interested ears — all of this now becomes the routine because there is no transparency. That lack of transparency is directly attributable to the lack of accountability. All of this, taken together, is how the mission must now be fulfilled.
Too many Church leaders today, frankly, are liars and cannot be trusted, and a person would be a fool given all that has been revealed to simply take a given leader at his word.
As the federal and state investigations continue to expand and media reports to continue to expose and more and more people within the Church come to realize that they need to come forward and spill the beans — ala Viganò — the truth will come out; which means that those who have a vested interest in keeping the truth from coming out will go their graves stepping up their efforts to cover it up.
If you would have told us 14 years ago that all of this is what we would be talking about today, we would have had you committed.
Yet here we are, fighting un-Catholic presentations like we have a reasonable hope that all men are saved, Holy Communion received in the hand is hunky dory and the whopper: homosexuality is a gift from God and we must treasure it.
We say all this now, as what has proven to be a watershed year begins to end, to say that nothing has changed here in our mission.
The Holy Catholic Church was established by the Incarnate Eternal Logos for the salvation of souls, and outside of it, there is no salvation; that for those who know this and refuse to enter it, there is no hope of salvation; that there are evil and wicked men in high levels in the Church who have dedicated their despicable lives to the prevention of people ever hearing this.
And that the number one duty of every single faithful son of the Church is to fight this corruption with every fiber of your being in what has proven to be unconventional ways.
Fight on, faithful Catholics. The mission never changes.
EDITORS NOTE: This column by Church Militant with images and video is republished with permission.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/THE-MISSION-VORTEX-e1545148836947.png360640Church Militanthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngChurch Militant2018-12-18 11:02:342018-12-18 16:08:10VIDEO: The Vortex—The Mission
Candidly, I have not written in a while because I’ve been in a funk. I caught Rabbi Jonathan Cahn on TV sharing devastating stats confirming we (Conservatives) have lost the culture war; the battle for the hearts and minds of America.
New York city has legalized a “third gender” on birth certificates. Not that long ago, over 40 states passed resolutions supporting God’s definition of marriage – between one man and one woman. According to the Public Religious Research Institute, a majority of Democrats, Republicans, blacks, whites, Latinos, Catholics and white mainline Protestant denominations support same sex marriage. The majority of evangelical Millennials support redefining marriage.
Years ago, LGBTQ activists claimed openly homosexual leaders admitted into the Boy Scouts had no intention to change the organization from its founding on Christian principles. As it turned out, first on the LGBTQ agenda was to remove “morally straight” for the Scout Oath.
“On my honor, I will do my best. To do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.”
We are living in a pretty sick time when morally straight is deemed hateful and offensive.
Recently, “Boy” has been removed from the name of the organization, changed to “Scouts BSA” to appeal to girls. The Girl Scouts are in a huff. They are suing the Boy Scouts because they feel the Boy Scouts is now in competition with them for girls. The Girl Scouts has also been changed, infected with radical feminism – promoting transgender-ism, lesbianism and abortion. Girl Scouts of Western Washington returned a $100,000 donation, a fourth of their annual fund-raising goal, because the donor requested that their gift not be used to support transgender girls.
Leftists’ war on gender includes absurdly claiming that having separate organizations for boys and girls is hateful and discriminatory.
The Bible says in the last days, man will seek to change nature, moving toward what is unnatural. We are seeing this happen. First leftists claimed they only desired tolerance for the unnatural. Today, anyone who does not fully approve the unnatural is high-tech executed.
Six thousand to 10,000 churches close each year in America, over 100 per week.
In Dover, Ohio, a Nativity scene and a Ten Commandments display were removed from public property after an atheist group complained.
The new “Batwoman” TV series will feature the first lesbian superhero on television.
‘Whiteness Forum’ seeks to ban the Christian cartoon “Veggie Tales”, claiming it is racist.
A Virginia middle school banned Christmas songs with ‘Jesus‘ from their winter concert.
Children seeking to transgender themselves has skyrocketed; 4,500 percent for girls and 1, 250 percent for boys. My wife Mary alerted me to this horrifying truth. U.S. doctors are performing double mastectomies on healthy 13 year old girls who think they want to be boys. Leftists have launched a war on gender which far too many Americans have either embraced or are afraid to talk about or push back against.
Over the holidays, I will be celebrating with various family members. Many of them see nothing wrong with practically every TV show, movie and commercial promoting homosexuality. If I dare mention the media blitz intended to normalize what the Bible says is wrong, I will be viewed as the crazy, intolerant and hateful old patriarch who is out-of-touch with the times.
After listening to Rabbi Cahn describe our nation’s moral and cultural decline, I felt discouraged, heartbroken and angry. Rabbi Cahn encouraged Christians to remain faithful, fighting and standing up for what is right. Still, I couldn’t shake feeling why I should continue writing articles when a majority of Americans embrace leftists’ evil agenda.
Angrily, I questioned, why stupid parents gleefully support drag queens reading LGBTQ stories to their children at libraries? Any idiot can see that leftists are purposely sexing our kids as early as pre-school with homosexual Christmas children books like “Santa’s Husband”.
An Austin Texas teacher at a poverty level school expressed her frustration. The students struggle with reading, writing and math. And yet, the school principal made it top priority for teachers to instruct students to embrace all things LGBTQ. The frustrated teacher who sounded the alarm said she was tasked with explaining and presenting homosexuality in a positive light to pre-k 4 year olds.
Frustrated, I asked God, why do the wicked prosper? Discouraged men of God in the Bible asked God the same question. God revealed to his faithful servants that the wicked prosper only for a season and will eventually receive their just reward. (Psalms 73)
God instructs, “ Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalms 37:3-4)
I repent from allowing myself to become discouraged; not trusting God. I will continue fighting back, standing up for what is right. Leftists are evil masters of deception – portraying themselves as all powerful – winning everything. They are not.
I cannot, nor do I desire to control others. “But, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/john-cafazza-425904-unsplash-e1545053285894.jpg372638Lloyd Marcushttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngLloyd Marcus2018-12-17 08:28:132018-12-17 08:28:13As For Me and My House
Fr. Gerald Murray: If the dark clouds of 2018 have a silver lining, it’s that there’s a chance that immoral priests and bishops will no longer be tolerated.
One aspect of getting older, and wiser, is the shedding of once comforting, but in fact naïve illusions about individuals or groups. We normally trust that certain people and groups who profess to carry out a particular and demanding mission in society are in fact going to do just that. Past performance, as far as we know, was good and the future promises more of the same.
But reality is more complicated than that. Illusions give way to a more realistic understanding. High expectations about people and groups are often shown to be illusions based on incomplete knowledge of their past performance. The reputation for competence and integrity may exist largely because contradictory evidence of failure was carefully hidden from public view, or downplayed when made public.
The overcoming of the false impressions that once buttressed our appreciation of persons and groups is a good and necessary step in facing the world as it is, not as we would wish it to be. I remember being told that growth into maturity consists in the ever-increasing ability to deal effectively with complexity. Simplistic judgments are often attractive but are not usually sufficient.
Knowing the complexity of things, however, should not mean losing our sense of awe for God’s providence in guiding the course of the world and His Church. Discovering facts and casting aside illusions is unsettling, especially when it comes to the way the Church manages her affairs, which means how the leaders of the Church carry out their duties, which should be in absolute fidelity to the teaching of Christ.
These year-end reflections on illusion and reality are of course prompted by what has been happening in our Church during the past twelve months. The reality is that the once common high regard for bishops as a group, and for many individual bishops, has been shattered by the revelation of sexual abuse and episcopal patterns of covering up immorality and malfeasance.
Catholics in the United States and elsewhere were genuinely stunned to discover the sordid story of ex-Cardinal McCarrick’s depredations, the hidden payoffs made by other bishops to seminarian and priest victims of McCarrick, and the seemingly unhurried response of the Holy See in pursuing these canonical crimes.
McCarrick resigned from the College of Cardinals in July and was ordered to live a life of prayer and penance without travel and public appearances while awaiting completion of a canonical process. He was first accused of molesting a seminarian in September 2017. The Holy See judged this accusation to be credible in June 2018. McCarrick has not been tried by a canonical court as of December 2018. Why the delay if the evidence was compelling six months ago?
In August, the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report was released and precipitated the downfall of the most influential American cardinal, Washington’s Archbishop Donald Wuerl. Shortly thereafter, Bishop Michael Bransfield of Wheeling, West Virginia, a McCarrick protégé, was abruptly retired and placed under investigation for sexual harassment of adults.
Dante and Virgil speak to Pope Nicholas III in the Eighth Circle of Hell by Gustave Doré, 1861 [The engraving was among a number Doré did illustrating The Divine Comedy. Nicholas III was pope from 1270-1280 and was accused of selling ecclesiastical offices, a.k.a. simony.]
There followed accusations by the former Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, that many people in the Holy See, in particular Pope Francis, knew about McCarrick’s immorality and abuse of authority and acted in ways that kept him from being held accountable.
When Pope Francis refused to answer journalists’ questions about Viganò’s charges on a flight back from Ireland, he frustrated those who want to know how McCarrick amassed such power and prestige when his behavior had been reported multiple times to the Holy See in the past. Francis told the journalists to do their job and look into Viganò’s charges. But when journalists started to call the cardinals and bishops named in Viganò’s memorandum no one wanted to respond. A cone of silence seemed to descend on the Vatican.
The American bishops asked for an investigation of McCarrick’s rise. The Holy See has only responded that a review of documents in various curial offices is being conducted. While a good first step, that hardly constitutes a thorough investigation. What about taking testimony from those in the know? Or promising to make public the evidence and the findings? Or inviting McCarrick’s victims to meet with the Holy Father and tell him directly what happened, as was the case in Chile?
The U.S. bishops were set to take concrete steps at their annual November meeting to put an end to a hierarchical culture in which priests, and even bishops such as McCarrick, were protected from revelations of crimes and allowed to continue in place, thanks to payoffs and confidentiality agreements. The last-minute instruction from the Holy See to take no action until after a February meeting in the Vatican was met with stunned incredulity. Is this the right way to address a five-alarm crisis of confidence in the Church and her leaders regarding horrendous crimes and malfeasance?
The faith and love of Catholics for Christ and His Church has been severely tried this year. The common expectation among Catholics that the bishops as a whole shared the same horror of sexual, and in particular of homosexual, immorality among the clergy has been shown to be an illusion. So be it.
Love for the Church has prompted laity to call for a reform of the hierarchy. Accountability for past failures to root out sexual immorality is the first necessity, as is a clear demonstration that a repeat of the career path of a Theodore McCarrick will be impossible in the future.
Bishops will only regain the respect of ordinary Catholics if they truly live up to what we all believe is the Church’s true mission, the salvation of souls. If the dark clouds of 2018 have a silver lining, it’s that there is now at least some chance that immoral and conniving priests and bishops will no longer be tolerated, protected, or promoted, but rather called to repent and held to account.
Fr. Gerald E. Murray
The Rev. Gerald E. Murray, J.C.D. is a canon lawyer and the pastor of Holy Family Church in New York City.
The Trump administration has put Pakistan “on its annual list of worst offenders for nations that it says infringe on religious freedom,” largely because of its infamous blasphemy laws. The high profile case of “Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who was recently acquitted of blasphemy but has been unable to leave the country due to riots and death threats against her” highlights the severity of Islamic oppression in that country, where Muslims were hunting house to house to find and kill Bibi and her family.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom also released a report that accused “South East Asian nations of systematically failing to protect their populations’ religious rights, noting that ‘state officials’ in Pakistan often shield criminals forcing Christian or Hindu women into a Muslim marriage,” citing Pakistan as “home to the most egregious violations mentioned in the study.”
As abusive as Pakistan is to religious minorities and women, it also a state sponsor of terrorism, and is attempting to enforce its Islamic blasphemy laws internationally. Its Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed to go to the UN to stop all Muhammad cartoons and criticism of Islam, and Pakistan has already succeeded in compelling Twitter to enforce Sharia. Twitter has absurdly sent warnings out to Western foes of jihad terror and Sharia oppression, telling them that their tweets violate Pakistani blasphemy laws.
“US Downgrades Pakistan in Religious Freedom Rankings,” Associated Press, December 11, 2018:
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Tuesday placed Pakistan on its annual list of worst offenders for nations that it says infringe on religious freedom.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement he added Pakistan to the U.S. list of “countries of particular concern” regarding protection for people to worship according to their beliefs. Pakistan had previously been on a special watch list for religious freedom. The downgrade means that Pakistan could be hit with U.S. sanctions, although Pompeo waived those penalties in the U.S. national interest.
U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback said the decision to designate Pakistan was largely the result of criminal blasphemy laws in the country. He said half of the world’s population of prisoners jailed for blasphemy are in Pakistan. And he noted the recent high-profile case of Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian woman who was recently acquitted of blasphemy but has been unable to leave the country due to riots and death threats against her.
“It’s our hope that the new leadership in Pakistan will work to improve the situation,” Brownback told reporters on a conference call to detail Pompeo’s findings. “There was some encouraging signs seen recently on how they’ve handled some of the recent protesting against the blasphemy laws, and we continue to watch very carefully what’s happening to Asia Bibi.”
Other countries on the blacklist, which calls out nations for “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom,” are China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. All had been so designated in last year’s list. Aside from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkistan received sanctions waivers.
Uzbekistan had previously been named a “country of particular concern,” but Pompeo upgraded it to the special watch list. The watch list now also includes the Comoros Islands and Russia.
In addition, Pompeo designated several Islamic militant groups as “entities of particular concern” as they do not meet the definition of countries. Those are the al-Nusra front in Syria, the Yemen-based al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qaida, Somalia’s al-Shabab, Boko Haram in West Africa, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, the Islamic State and the Taliban…..
EDITORS NOTE: This column with images is republished with permission. The featured photo is by Sameer Akhtari on Unsplash.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/sameer-akhtari-414427-unsplash-e1544995017426.jpg377640Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2018-12-16 16:17:092018-12-16 16:17:09Trump administration places Pakistan on list of worst violators of religious freedom
Bevil Bramwell, OMI on Christmas: God is doing the great task of saving mankind and we should be overwhelmingly grateful.
On this Third Sunday of Advent, less than two weeks before Christmas now, the message for the Church is all joy. The prophet Zephaniah announces the coming of the Messiah: “the Lord your God is in your midst a great Savior,” and in this spirit we should be “shout[ing] for joy.” As we approach the great Feast of the Nativity, we come together as the People of God, united by our common immersion in the Word of God, which paints a fitting picture for Catholics in this season.
The Church disposes us to be in a celebratory mood because “we have no further misfortune to fear.” The Savior is still with us so: “Be not discouraged.” Because the Savior is with us, God “will rejoice over you” and he will “sing over you. . .as one sings at festivals.” God will rejoice over the Church, regardless of the failings of some clergy.
In our situation, with Christ really present, we can “be confident and unafraid,” as it says in the psalm from the Prophet Isaiah. This is not because of how we feel but because of what the presence of Christ in the world through the Church means.
We do not give his presence meaning, rather we are filled with his presence and that gives our lives meaning. The need to worship God and love our neighbor has not gone away. The mission of the Church to transform each of us has not changed so that “we can draw water from the springs of salvation” in this joyous season and then “among the nations [we will] make known his deeds.”
With Isaiah, we can “sing praise to the Lord for his glorious achievement.” God is doing the great task of saving mankind and we should be overwhelmingly grateful. So Isaiah’s song is a song of thanksgiving.
Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness by Caravaggio, 1604 [Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri]
It is fully appropriate, in fact it is demanded, after the prophetic pronouncements about the coming of the Messiah, a glorious time when “the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat; The calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them” – words from the chapter before this one that we read at Mass today.
These metaphorical signs of peace are already happening, here and there, as the Kingdom of God breaks into the world. But it will only be fully here with the Second Coming.
People in the United States are good at getting angry, but for Catholics, being angry has a different quality because “the peace of God will guard your minds and hearts.” As the baptized, we stand in the grip of holiness, which is the foundation of how to be righteously angry. This is an anger that respects persons and wishes their supreme good. This is anger, paradoxically, from love.
The spiritual power of God is present. Paul’s words apply: “The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God.” (Second Reading)
People are rightly shocked at the craven moral weakness of some of our clergy, so there is definitely something to pray about. There is action to be taken. In fact, this action is part of the “glad tidings to bring to the poor.”
But historically, we have to acknowledge that the glad tidings – the moral stance of the Gospel – were already being watered down years ago, once dioceses tolerated the wishy-washy moral theology of the Sixties. The sloppiness was already being prepared for all those years ago. It gave a foundation for the neglect of spiritual leadership and Church discipline. And to speak bluntly, many of us went along with it, Now the pigeons have come home to roost.
This is where today’s Gospel comes in, forcefully: John the Baptist instructs the people in morality: firstly, “share with the person who has none.” Regardless of what else is going on, care for the poor. Then to the tax-collectors, “don’t collect more than is prescribed.” These are prescriptions in the law and they are meant to be followed, and not just by the clergy. Lastly, the soldiers are not to abuse their power– a message to all those who have power, and not just ecclesiastics.
Finally, the irresistible presence of the Lord in the world– which is the Church – shows us what real morality looks like. But his presence has another side too. It will judge us– which is one of the reasons for Christ’s Second Coming: “His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (John the Baptist)
So, yes let’s celebrate Christmas, but let’s do so by living in such a way that shows we understand that Christmas also calls us to get ready to stand before the judgment seat.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/grant-whitty-733620-unsplash-e1544958666714.jpg375640The Catholic Thinghttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Catholic Thing2018-12-16 06:11:132018-12-16 07:02:02The Peace of God Will Guard Your Minds and Hearts!
The most dangerous threat to Americans may be the colleges teaching them. In a country where a majority of students are afraid to voice their views, here’s the irony: most campuses don’t allow it anyway. That’s the bottom line of a new report on U.S. colleges, where a whopping nine in 10 are the First Amendment’s worst enemy.The survey, “Spotlight on Speech Codes 2019: The State of Free Speech on Our Nation’s Campuses,” combed through the policies of almost 500 American schools to see how well they protect free speech. Of the 466, a whopping 89.7 percent have rules that “restrict — or too easily could restrict — student and faculty expression.” To most people — especially parents with kids in college — it’s probably not a surprise that campuses are hostile to debate. What is a surprise is how widespread that hostility has become.
Laura Beltz, lead author of the report at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), was also taken aback by the depth of the censorship. “Colleges should be a place for open debate and intellectual inquiry, but today, almost all colleges silence expression through policies that are often illiberal and, at public institutions, unconstitutional.” Almost a quarter of the 466 universities got a red-light rating, the worst on FIRE’s scale. It’s important to point out, she explains, that this isn’t just a problem on public college campuses. Private schools are just as likely to crackdown on speech as the rest of them.
Amazingly, 11 states and the District of Columbia make up the bulk of the red-light campuses: Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming. Some even have “free-speech zones,” which have either been struck down by the courts or negotiated away in settlements.
In a country that already has a First Amendment problem, the idea that colleges are creating even more antagonism for free speech is a scary prospect. There’s nothing more dangerous to a republic than the rise of totalitarians shutting down debate. Americans are already paying the price for years of political correctness. And now, even the supposed guardians of the free flow of ideas are nowhere to be found. “When was the last time you saw the American Civil Liberties Union stand up for free speech on college campuses?” Harvard Law Professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz asks.
“We can no longer count on the ACLU. We can no longer count on all college administrators. We have to count on people of good sense on college campuses to try to restore a situation where we can hear conservative points of views as well as liberal points of view.” The real heroes, he says, “are the students — the conservative students, the pro-Israel students, the students who stand up for free speech rather than the administrators, and the faculty who are prepared to go along with this censorship…” It only takes a few students to make a difference. Raise yours to have the courage to be one of them!
Tony Perkins’ Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
Michael Bloomberg, former NYC mayor and billionaire patron of the Nanny State, may be gearing up for the presidential race in 2020. He gave the idea of running as an independent candidate “serious consideration” in 2016, but ultimately decided against it.
A recent Washington Post story on Mr. Bloomberg’s potential 2020 bid highlighted what it called his “disturbing attitude toward the First Amendment,” which safeguards, among other things, freedom of speech and freedom of the press from government interference. Mr. Bloomberg, the founder of the eponymous Bloomberg L.P., a privately-held financial information and media company that operates Bloomberg News, indicated in a radio interview earlier this month, that, “[q]uite honestly, I don’t want the reporters I’m paying to write a bad story about me… I don’t want them to be independent.” To ensure that the coverage from his own news outlet would be consistent with these expectations, he added that, should he run for president, one option would be to eliminate any political reporting by his employees. Kathy Kiely, who wrote the Post story, is herself the former politics editor at Bloomberg News who resigned in 2016 over concerns that the media company could not cover its owner’s possible presidential run in the same way that it reported on other candidates.
This authoritarian outlook is hardly a revelation to anyone who has followed Mr. Bloomberg’s activism regarding another fundamental constitutional right.
While professing his support for the Second Amendment and that “no one wants to take away anyone’s guns,” his efforts – through his Everytown gun control group and otherwise – have included advocating for bans on the manufacture and sale of “assault weapons” and “high capacity magazines,” increased background checks, and in Washington State, spending a quarter of a million dollars to push through an initiative in November that bans the purchase and possession of semiautomatic rifles by law-abiding young adults, without an exception for guns lawfully acquired before the law takes effect. In an appearance in 2015, he apparently went so far as to advocate an age, race and gender-based ban, to “get the guns” away from minority males.
In a move evocative of his “bad story” strategy, in 2015 Mr. Bloomberg set up The Trace, an anti-gun news outlet “whose only mission is to write on gun issues from his perspective” and ensure that the “news” on guns and gun control is in line with his own messaging.
Contrary to this record (and perhaps mindful that most Americans take a dim view of any meddling with their civil rights), Mr. Bloomberg appeared on television a few days ago to assure viewers that “the Second Amendment gives you the right to own weapons and there’s nothing wrong with that,” and “if you want to buy a gun and go through a background check process … I’m not opposed, I’m not in favor of taking that away one bit.”
Freedom loving citizens shouldn’t be fooled into thinking Mr. Bloomberg has become much more open-minded about the Second Amendment as part of his possible bid for the White House. After all, we already know that he thinks we’re “pretty stupid” for exercising our constitutional rights.
EDITORS NOTE: This column with images is republished with permission.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/michael-bloomberg-e1544879201792.jpg360640NRA Institute for Legislative Actionhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngNRA Institute for Legislative Action2018-12-15 08:06:482018-12-15 08:06:48News Flash: Michael Bloomberg Not a Fan of the First Amendment, Either
CSP President Frank Gaffney and Save the Persecuted Christians Founding Member Dede Laugesen joined the Jim Bakker Show to discuss the Save the Persecuted Christians coalition. Watch their excerpts in the clips below.
EDITORS NOTE: This column with videos and images is republished with permission.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/frank-gaffney-e1544785553163.png363640Center For Security Policyhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngCenter For Security Policy2018-12-14 06:07:312018-12-18 05:03:37VIDEO: “An assault on Christendom, not just Christians”
Cherif Chekatt reminds Emmanuel Macron that climate change is not the only threat France faces. My latest in FrontPage:
Emmanuel Macron, France’s youthful wunderkind, Europe’s poster child for globalism and socialism, has been absorbed lately with furious protests and riots over a confiscatory new tax he placed on gasoline in order to fight what he thinks of as the greatest threat France and the world face today: climate change. But on Tuesday in Strasbourg, a Muslim named Cherif Chekatt reminded Macron that France faces another threat, one that could prove to be immensely more serious: jihad. Chekatt opened fire at a Christmas market in his native Strasbourg, murdering four and injuring eleven.
As of this writing, Chekatt is on the run, and in a departure from the recent tendency to wave away all such attacks as manifestations of “mental illness” and insist that they’re not terrorism, much less jihad, French authorities are, according to the Telegraph, “treating the attack as a terrorist act. Anti-terrorist prosecutors have opened an investigation.”
In fact, Chekatt was “on a list of ‘security threats,’” France’s “Fiche S” list of people who pose a serious terror threat. RT reported that the regional prefecture announced: “The author of these acts, listed as a security threat, had been sought by police” on Tuesday, but they hadn’t been able to catch up with him before he opened fire. A former London police inspector, Peter Kirkham, explained to RT: “There are so many people that are involved around the edges of this sort of terrorism if this is what it turns out to be, that you can’t keep any sort of meaningful surveillance on them. Even just monitoring the use of communications and social media would be too much.”
And that’s especially true when, like Macron, you don’t want to admit that there is any significant threat at all. But it is also a situation that the Islamic State (ISIS) has been working actively to bring about. As I explain in detail in my book The Complete Infidel’s Guide to ISIS, in 2015 the Islamic State (ISIS) published Black Flags from Rome, detailing its strategy for conquering Europe. It explains how, as the Muslim population of Europe increases, intelligence agencies collect huge amounts of data, “but they will not study it unless you are caught under the radar.” As jihad attacks become more common, law enforcement authorities will not be able to keep up:
As the Western nations get poorer, their intelligence collection agencies will continue to exist, but they simply won’t have enough manpower (less jobs) to analyse it all. With less attacks in the West being group (networked) attacks and an increasing amount of lone-wolf attacks, it will be more difficult for intelligence agencies to stop an increasing amount of violence and chaos from spreading in the West.
As this violence and chaos spreads, Leftist non-Muslim Europeans will help pave the way for the Islamic conquest of Europe, for
a growing population of left-winged [sic] activists (people who are against; human/animal abuses, Zionism, and Austerity measures etc) look upto [sic] the Muslims as a force who are strong enough to fight against the injustices of the world….Many of these people (who are sometimes part of Anonymous and Anarchy movements) will ally with the Muslims to fight against the neo-Nazis’ and rich politicians. They will give intelligence, share weapons and do undercover work for the Muslims to pave the way for the conquest of Rome.
When will this alliance be cemented? When, sooner or later, Leftist protesters realize that taking up arms alongside Muslims is the only viable way of achieving their goals:
If you have ever been at a pro-Palestine / anti-Israel protest, you will see many activists who are not even Muslims who are supportive of what Muslims are calling for (the fall of Zionism). It is most likely here that connections between Muslims and Left-wing activists will be made, and a portion from them will realise that protests are not effective, and that armed combat is the alternative. So they will start to work together in small cells of groups to fight and sabotage against the ‘financial elite’.
Three years later, this plan is working beautifully. And so Cherif Chekatt will fade quickly from the headlines, and the jihad threat will again be downplayed, until the next one. Meanwhile, watch in the coming days for the handwringing establishment media stories about how the local mosque in Strasbourg fears a “backlash,” and that Muslims are the real victims of jihad terror attacks. It always works the same way, like clockwork. That is, until the day that it doesn’t. One day soon the disingenuousness and cynicism of this establishment media propaganda will be obvious to everyone. But by then it will likely be far too late for Emmanuel Macron, and France.
What do socialists and jihadis have in common? They both still believe in the tooth fairy. This is not funny.
Like most groups, socialists and jihadis are divided into leaders and followers. First, we will discuss the leaders.
Socialist leaders promise social justice and income equality to their followers in this life. Jihadi leaders promise 72 virgins to their suicide bombers in the next life. Leadership promises specifically address the particular desires of their adherents – the leaders aren’t stupid – they are manipulative and extremely successful at luring their believers with false promises.
The leadership disingenuously focuses on the promised benefits to their followers while the actual benefits to themselves are ignored. Any cursory study of history exposes the deceitfulness of the leadership’s promises and shows how reality benefits the ruling elite at the expense of the people. So, why do socialists and jihadis still believe their leaders? Because like children they still believe in the tooth fairy. I will explain.
The people of Cuba, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Honduras believed the promises of social justice and income equality made by their scheming socialist leaders. The people were lied to and are now living the equality of suffering and scarcity that socialism actually provides. Socialism necessarily fails because there is no incentive to be productive and eventually you run out of other people’s money.
The ruling elite in socialist countries suffer no such deprivation and the jihadi leadership worldwide remains alive and well – only their duped sycophants end up dead.
The population invasion at our southern border threatens the economic security and homeland security of the United States. Unregulated unvetted mass immigration will bankrupt our welfare system and simultaneously allow criminals and jihadis to enter the country – both create massive chaos.
The border wall is a defense against illegal entry into the United States. So, why would any politician reject it?
Leftist politicians who support socialism reject the border wall because they want a flood of illegal immigrants in the country to vote Democrat and keep them in power. Leftist politicians reject voter ID and any investigation into voter fraud that could expose illegal voting and/or deny voting rights to their followers – they sacrifice national security for their own job security. Their latest scheme is ballot harvesting.
Ballot harvesting is when organized workers or volunteers pick up absentee ballots and drop them off at a polling place or election office. There is absolutely nothing to safeguard the integrity of the ballots or to insure that all votes are delivered. Ballot harvesting is a powerful election-stealing tool that should be eliminated in favor of mailing in sealed signed ballots. If a voter cannot manage the mailing then that voter’s ballot will not count – period.
Voters are not children and need not be treated like children. Ballot harvesting is equivalent to breaking the chain of evidence in a criminal investigation and is an invitation for ballot tampering which adds to the lack of confidence in the integrity of elections. The left welcomes the chaos that public loss of confidence in elections necessarily brings.
Jihadi leaders promising 72 virgins to their devotees also rely on the chaos that jihadi violence brings. Chaos is the fulcrum of seismic social change. Watching Nancy Pelosi’s laughable performance during her 12.11.18 meeting with President Trump and Chuck Schumer was very enlightening. No wonder Pelosi did not want to have the meeting videotaped live! She was unable to deliver her revisionist version of the meeting to the media for worldwide distribution.
In her own words Pelosi condescendingly describes the meeting, “I was trying to be the Mom, but it goes to show you: You get in a tinkle contest with a skunk, you get tinkle all over you.” WOW! A tinkle contest? Trying to be the Mom?
Nancy Pelosi is one of the most vile scheming corrupt career politicians in Washington. Her manipulative and condescending attempt to “teach” the President of the United States and the viewing audience about proper procedure for funding the Wall was grotesque. Pelosi spoke in her bizarre Mommy teaching voice slowly explaining that Republicans must propose legislation in the House. REALLY?
President Donald Trump is an adult not a child. Politely ignoring Pelosi’s patronizing Mommy voice, the President stated clearly that funding the Wall is a national emergency. POTUS exposed Pelosi’s manipulation saying that following Pelosi’s instructions would necessarily defeat the measure. “If we thought we would get it passed in the Senate, Nancy, we would do it immediately,” Trump declared, adding, “It doesn’t matter, though, because you can’t get it passed in the Senate because we need ten Democrats’ vote.”
So, Pelosi is tutoring the President in the Pelosi politics of deceit – pretending that you are actually legislating something the people need when you know it cannot possibly pass. Pelosi’s political artifice only works on her infantilized supporters – they actually believe her just like children believe in the tooth fairy!
The infantilization of American society toward collectivism and away from individualism through leftist educational indoctrination, media propaganda, and political correctness has left a generation of Americans vulnerable to the false promises of their leaders. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer still want you to believe in the tooth fairy.
Socialists and jihadis fervently believe in the righteousness of their cause because, like children, they believe what their leaders tell them. Like children they still believe in the tooth fairy. Here is the problem – President Donald Trump does not believe in the tooth fairy.
President Trump is an unapologetic America-first adult who speaks honestly, plainly, and clearly to the American people about the existential threat at the border. Without a border we have no country. EXACTLY!
Globalists like Nancy Pelosi and her minions including Obama, Clinton, Schumer, Soros, Zuckerberg, and Bezos etc etc actually WANT TO ELIMINATE the borders between countries and create a New World Order. The greedy political globalist leaders want the power to control the world’s population that the New World Order will provide. The greedy corporate globalist leaders want to further enrich themselves with the unrestricted internationalized marketplace that the New World Order will provide.
So, what is in it for their followers?? Absolutely nothing but scarcity and servitude. The socialists and the jihadis are the useful idiots in the globalist grand campaign to internationalize the sovereign countries of the world into their New World Order.
President Donald Trump is telling America it is time to grow up – there is no tooth fairy to GIVE you money or GIVE you 72 virgins. The socialist and jihadi leaders and their followers are being played by the globalist elite to do the dirty work of creating the social chaos necessary to bring down the United States of America and the premier existential enemy of globalism’s New World Order – America first President Donald J. Trump.
Don’t let them get away with it – grow up – there is no tooth fairy.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/anthony-tran-639202-unsplash-e1544655544554.jpg402640Linda Goudsmithttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngLinda Goudsmit2018-12-12 17:59:132018-12-12 18:04:22The Socialist, the Jihadi, and the Tooth Fairy
Leaders of the left-wing activist group the Women’s March have ties to Nation of Islam and believe in a variety of conspiratorial anti-Semitic tropes, according to a Monday report from Tablet magazine.
The investigation by Tablet alleges that two core members of the group who occupy leadership positions, Carmen Perez and Tamika Mallory, shared erroneous ideas about the Jewish people in a November 2016 meeting, including that they “bore a special collective responsibility as exploiters of black and brown people,” and “were proven to have been leaders of the American slave trade.
Conspiracy theories asserting that Jews were central to the slave trade are regularly shared among anti-Semites, despite being repeatedly proven false by experts.
Muslim American activist Linda Sarsour prepares to perform “Maghrib” sunset prayers during an immigration rally and Iftar “breaking fast” during the month of Ramadan outside ICE’s New York field office at Foley Square in Manhattan, New York, U.S., May 23, 2018. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky
Mallory and other women who attended the meeting deny such theories were ever uttered.
Tablet also reports that Mallory, who currently serves as a national co-chair of the Women’s March, attended Nation of Islam events — a radical black nationalist organization led by notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan.
At one point in the piece, Tablet reports that Nation of Islam members began “acting as security detail and drivers” for the Women’s March co-chairs. A Facebook photo uploaded by founding member Linda Sarsour shows her next to men wearing typical Nation of Islam garb — suits and bowties.
The Women’s March later confirmed that its security firm “does not rule out the possibility — indeed, the likelihood — that the private security firm’s operation in Detroit, where the convention was held, employs some guards who are practicing members of NOI,” according to Tablet.
EDITORS NOTE: This column with images is republished with permission. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/womens-march-e1544620558557.jpg359640The Daily Callerhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Daily Caller2018-12-12 08:17:342018-12-12 16:31:56Report: Women’s March Full Of Anti-Semites, Has Ties To Nation Of Islam
During the years following the ratification of the Constitution, the new government embraced religion. George Washington, at his first inauguration, placed his hand on the Bible and spontaneously added the words, “So help me God,” to the oath of office. Congress hired chaplains to attend to the religious needs of the members and led them in daily prayers. The first two presidents declared national days of fasting and prayer for various purposes, not the least of which was to show the nation’s appreciation to its Creator for the favorable outcome of the Revolutionary War and the freedoms that sprang from it. Even the Thanksgiving observance was undertaken, not as a standing tradition as is done presently, but at the behest of a presidential order calling for the national observance.
In 1801, Jefferson became the nation’s third president, bringing with him views regarding religion that were quite distinct from those of his predecessors. Jefferson did not benefit from the nation’s formative debates on religion. During the Virginia Convention of 1776, when the Virginia Bill of Rights was drafted, Jefferson was serving in Congress. During the Constitutional Convention, Jefferson was in France. And during the First Amendment debates, Jefferson was serving as Secretary of State. Of all the major public discussions taking place during the country’s founding regarding religion, Jefferson was only present for the Madison-Henry debates in the Virginia Assembly.
Despite this, history would hand Jefferson an opportunity to formally present a position on church and state by way of a letter.
At the time of the nation’s establishment, the Congregationalist Church was Connecticut’s official church, a title that continued after the Constitution’s ratification. Other churches residing in Connecticut, such as the Baptist church, were therefore subject to substantial disadvantages, including unequal taxation and fees, merely because of their religious positions.
Frustrated with their persistently unequal treatment despite the ratification of the new federal Constitution, the leaders of the Danbury Baptist Association wrote a letter to the President of the United States, then Thomas Jefferson, sharing with him the difficulties they were facing. Their letter, dated October 7, 1801, read as follows:
SIR,
Among the many millions in America and Europe who rejoice in your Election to office; we embrace the first opportunity which we have enjoy’d in our collective capacity, since your Inauguration, to express our great satisfaction, in your appointment to the chief Magistracy in the United States: And though our mode of expression may be less courtly and pompious than what many others clothe their addresses with, we beg you, Sir to believe, that none are more sincere.
Our Sentiments are uniformly on the side of Religious Liberty—That Religion is at all times and places a Matter between God and Individuals—That no man aught to suffer in Name, person or effects on account of his religious Opinions—That the legetimate Power of civil Goverment extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbour: But Sir, our constitution of goverment is not specific. Our antient charter, together with the Laws made coincident therewith, were adopted as the Basis of our goverment. At the time of our revolution; and such had been our Laws & usages, & such still are; that religion is consider’d as the first object of Legislation; & therefore what religious privileges we enjoy (as a minor part of the State) we enjoy as favors granted, and not as inalienable rights: and these favors we receive at the expence of such degrading acknowledgements as are inconsistant with the rights of freemen. It is not to be wondred at therefore; if those, who seek after power & gain under the pretence of goverment & Religion should reproach their fellow men—should reproach their chief Magistrate, as an enemy of religion Law & good order because he will not, dares not assume the prerogative of Jehovah and make Laws to govern the Kingdom of Christ.
Sir, we are sensible that the President of the united States, is not the national Legislator, & also sensible that the national goverment cannot destroy the Laws of each State; but our hopes are strong that the sentiments of our beloved President, which have had such genial Effect already, like the radiant beams of the Sun, will shine & prevail through all these States and all the world till Hierarchy and tyranny be destroyed from the Earth. Sir when we reflect on your past services, and see a glow of philanthropy and good will shining forth in a course of more than thirty years we have reason to believe that America’s God has raised you up to fill the chair of State out of that good will which he bears to the Millions which you preside over. May God strengthen you for the arduous task which providence & the voice of the people have cal’d you to sustain and support you in your Administration against all the predetermin’d opposition of those who wish to rise to wealth & importance on the poverty and subjection of the people.
And may the Lord preserve you safe from every evil and bring you at last to his Heavenly Kingdom throug Jesus Christ our Glorious Mediator.
Signed in behalf of the Association
NEHH. DODGE
EPHM. ROBBINS The Committee
STEPHEN S NELSON
Interestingly, although the letter had been written in October, 1801, there is no evidence Jefferson received it until December 30, 1801.
At the time he received the letter, Jefferson was facing some political turmoil. Jefferson and his Republicans had just survived a very tumultuous election against Adams and his Federalists. Not the least of Jefferson’s difficulties was the problems he had developed from his strict views on the separation of church and state dating back to his days in the Virginia State Assembly.
Among other charges, Jefferson was accused of being an atheist, no small charge in that day. Evidence to that claim was his refusal to proclaim times of thanksgiving and national fasts in contrast to the habits of Washington and Adams. Having faced such ardent and continuous attacks regarding the role of government in religious worship and of his personal convictions, Jefferson saw the Danbury letter as an opportunity to discuss his views on religious worship and freedom.[1] So anxious was Jefferson to respond that he immediately crafted a draft and submitted it to Postmaster General Gildeon Granger and Attorney General Levi Lincoln. By December 31, Granger had responded to Jefferson. The next day, Jefferson sent the letter with a cover note to Lincoln who also immediately responded. Jefferson, despite a busy New Years day, finalized his answer and sent it on January 1, 1802. His final letter read as follows:
Gentlemen
The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. My duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.
I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.
It is important to clarify what Jefferson said and what he didn’t say in his letter. First, Jefferson agreed with the Baptists that religion is strictly a matter between Man & his God. As a matter of fact, says Jefferson, “the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions. . . ”
But, he clarifies, his job as President was to uphold the Constitution of the United States. And as such, he acknowledged that the legislature could make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus “building a wall of separation of Church and State.” Therefore, Jefferson said, he would continue to pursue “those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.”
Jefferson’s subsequent actions speak volumes of the intent and meaning of his letter. First, Jefferson did nothing to undo the Connecticut statute making the Congregationalists its official church. Unquestionably, he agreed that this was wrong; he said it in his letter. But he took no action because his greater duty at that time was to the Constitution, and although not expressed in the letter, the Constitution did not allow the President or Congress to keep a state from enacting the legislation that Connecticut had passed.
Instead, Jefferson engaged in a host of activities broaching his “wall of separation between Church and State,” implying that his “wall” was actually quite porous. On the same day that he finalized his letter to the Danbury Baptist Associations, Jefferson publicly met with John Leland, a Baptist minister whom he had invited to deliver a sermon at the House of Representatives. In a public demonstration of friendship, Leland presented Jefferson with a 1,250-pound cheese produced by his parishioners.[3] That Sunday, January 3, 1802, Jefferson personally attended the sermon at the House of Representatives that his friend delivered. How many of these actions were specifically due to political expediency will never be answered. However, it is said that subsequent to this letter Jefferson ‘constantly’ attended House services.[4]
Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptist Association had some limited, initial and regional play largely due to the actions of the Association itself. The letter, as well as Jefferson wall would disappear from the national conscience for more than seventy years, until it reappeared in the writings of a Supreme Court Justice.
[1] James Hutson, “‘A Wall of Separation’ FBI Helps Restore Jefferson’s Obliterated Draft,” (Library of Congress: June 1998) accessed Aug. 21, 2015, http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danbury.html. [2] The various incarnations of the language of his drafts have been reconstructed as follows: “confining myself therefore to the duties of my station, which are merely temporal, be assured that your religious rights shall never be infringed by any act of mine and that. . .” (There now appear some crossed out lines followed by:) “concurring with”; (which he also crossed out, then continued) “Adhering to this great act of national legislation in behalf of the rights of conscience” (he crossed out these words and then wrote) “Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience I shall see with friendly dispositions the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced that he has no natural rights in opposition to his social duties.” [“Jefferson’s Letter to the Danbury Baptists; The Draft and Recently Discovered Text” (Library of Congress: June 1998) accessed Aug. 21, 2015, http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpost.html] [3] Ibid. [4] Ibid.
https://drrichswier.com/wp-content/uploads/kyaw-tun-619971-unsplash-e1544395587850.jpg362640Dr. Julio Gonzalezhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Julio Gonzalez2018-12-09 17:46:372018-12-12 06:31:39Thomas Jefferson And His “Wall of Separation Between Church And State.”
DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (ChurchMilitant.com) – An African prelate is warning his people that it’s better to starve than to embrace homosexuality.
In an appeal to Tanzanian lawmakers last month, Cdl. Polycarp Pengo of Dar es Salaam lashed out at Western aid programs that force poor countries to promote LGBT ideology in exchange for development aid.
At a thanksgiving Mass celebrating the November harvest, Cdl. Pengo denounced the threat by post-Christian Western nations to choke off economic and humanitarian aid to Tanzania unless the country decriminalizes homosexual acts and rallied government leaders to stand firm against secularist coercion.
“It is better to die of hunger than to receive aid and be compelled to do things that are contrary to God’s desire,” he declared.
“We cannot accept such displeasing things to God; and if we are starving because we have refused to engage in such acts, then we would rather die with our God.”
Increasingly, Western activists and their allies are injecting LGBT and pro-abortion ideology into foreign policy, pressing developing nations to overthrow traditional religious and cultural norms in favor of post-Christian social re-engineering.
But as Cdl. Pengo demonstrated, multiple Catholic leaders are fighting back.
Pope Francis frequently slams coercive development programs, warning they represent a corrosive “ideological colonization.” In an address to the United Nations earlier this year, the Pope denounced emerging “new rights” that disrespect “social and cultural traditions” and ignore developing nations’ “real needs.”
“Somewhat paradoxically, there is a risk that, in the very name of human rights, we will see the rise of modern forms of ideological colonization by the stronger and the wealthier, to the detriment of the poorer and the most vulnerable,” Francis warned.
Likewise, Culture of Life Africa founder Obianuju Ekeocha is a fierce critic of the new imperialism.
In an interview with the National Catholic Register last year, the Nigerian-born pro-family advocate observed: “The western world has been — and is still — undergoing rapid and radical moral shifts especially with regards to human sexuality, marriage, family and of course the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death.”
Obianuju Ekeocha, founder of Culture of Life Africa.
“These changes have been toxic to society,” Ekeocha reflected, “as casual sex, abortion and contraception have become acceptable in many western countries, just as gender fluidity, same-sex ‘marriage’ and homosexual lifestyles are being supported and normalized by the same wealthy and powerful western leaders who hold and control the purse strings of foreign aid.”
In 2015, 45 prelates from more than three dozen African countries came together to issue a “Common Declaration of the Bishops of Africa and Madagascar,” demanding an end to foreign efforts to cultivate a Culture of Death across Africa under the guise of economic and humanitarian aid.
“By what right do Western NGOs, who only represent their own ideological interests, claim to legally bind African states to their world vision?” they asked. “Why such a programing and will to pollute and pervert, extending throughout the African continent?”
“This is a new type of slavery!” they exclaimed. “We want the dignity of our people to be respected.”
Speaking to his congregation in Dar es Salaam last month, Cdl. Pengo reminded his flock that the stakes involved in their fight run very deep.
“The sin of homosexuality,” he warned, is “contrary to God’s plan in creation,” and was “the cause of destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Stephen hails from the City of Fountains, Kansas City, Missouri. He holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from Pepperdine University, and an E.M.B.A. from the University of Missouri.
His interests include international relations, cultural diplomacy, and theology; he is fascinated by Church history, particularly crisis points such as the Protestant revolt and the rise of modernism. Particular sounds — the crashing of waves, the wind in the trees, the pealing of bells — turn his thoughts toward God.
Stephen likes bullet trains, BBQ, and the works of Hieronymus Bosch. His favorite places include Iceland, Britain and above all, the Netherlands.
He is fueled by prayer and Red Bull, in that order.
EDITORS NOTE: This column by Stephen Wynnewith images originally appeared on Church Militant. It is republished with permission.
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