Today’s blacklisted American: Violence against churches and religious institutions skyrockets since 2018

 

The Biden administration has done nothing because it sees these attacks as politically advantageous. The attacks are being done by the militant brownshirts of the Democratic Party, and thus Biden and Harris are glad to see them occur. They want the religious — who almost always tend to be conservative — to live in fear. And these politicians also know that they have the support of a huge segment of the modern American population. Too many Americans no longer believe in free speech. Instead, they think that censorship and oppression are always justified to impose their own ideas.

Meanwhile, the majority of Americans who still say they believe in free speech and religious freedom do nothing. Within the Republican Party is a small but significant faction that actually favors the repeated betrayal of its conservative wing, allying themselves with the Democrats to further these intolerant policies. The rest of that party does nothing, because it is like the American general public, largely willing to look the other way out of fear, self-interest, or cowardice.

And thus freedom dies.

The mainline Protestantism clown show

 

Excerpt: (read the whole thing)  It's both funny and sad.  But here's the bottom line:

The old mainline sustained a shared cultural commitment to a common set of values. Before 1960, interfaith marriages were rare, but inter-political marriages were common. Today, it’s the other way around. The new mainline, terrified of being on the wrong side of the next Civil Rights Movement, panders to activists and ideologues. It’s the new woke establishment at prayer.

This is the problem with the Methodist Church as it struggles with a leadership that's desperate to embrace the trend du jour, Where mere homosexuals are now so old-fashioned that they are attacked by "transgender" and the multiplicity of identities that make it nearly impossible to include them all in the 26 letters of the English alphabet.  We have to ask ourselves what the God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorra would do to churches hosting Drag Queen Sundays that tell the congregation that God is Nothing.  

Ms. Penny Cost discusses being the first drag queen certified candidate for ordination in the United Methodist Church.

It's now a trend ...

United Methodist Church Associate Pastor And Drag Queen Gives Blasphemous Speech On How 'God Is Nothing'

Putin’s Attack on Ukraine Is a Religious War

Interesting essay:
(long but worth a read)

Russia’s aggression against its neighbor isn’t just power politics and geostrategy, it’s about core issues of faith and identity

It’s finally happened. Early today, after weeks of will-he-or-won’t-he speculation, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on his neighbor and launched a major, multi-pronged invasion into Southern, Eastern, and Northern Ukraine. This is just the first military phase of many to come, only a small amount of the vast forces that Moscow has marshalled on Ukraine’s frontiers have entered action yet. Any judgements about the progress of the war would be premature (though this newsletter will be providing regular assessments on this conflict, Europe’s most important war since 1945).

What needs to be established is why Putin has done this. Unleashing full-scale war here represents an enormous political gamble – failure in Ukraine could unravel his two-decade rule over Russia – from a leader who’s generally been tactically adventurous yet strategically cautious. Most Western “experts” got this wrong and many seem stunned that the Kremlin has really started a major war. As Top Secret Umbra previously noted, this represents a collective failure of the Western elite, which so misread Putin, despite his being plain about his contempt for the United States and NATO for 15 years, as well as his dismissive attitude towards Ukraine as more a “region” than a bona fide country:

Amy Coney Barrett Gave a Perfect Response to Anti-Religious Bigotry

 Last year at an event with Hillsdale College, Barrett’s student Stephanie Maloney asked the judge “What role, if any, should faith of a nominee have in the confirmation process?”

Barrett said, “None.”

“I mean, we have a long tradition of religious tolerance in this country. And in fact, the religious test clause in the Constitution makes it unconstitutional to impose a religious test on anyone who holds public office,” the judge explained.

“So whether someone is Catholic or Jewish or Evangelical or Muslim or has no faith at all is irrelevant to the job,” Barrett added.

“I do have one thing that I want to add to that, though. I think when you step back and you think about the debate about whether someone’s religion has any bearing on their fitness for office, it seems to me that the premise of the question is that people of faith would have a uniquely difficult time separating out their moral commitments from their obligation to apply the law. And I think people of faith should reject that premise,” she added.

“All people, of course– well, we hope, most people– have deeply held moral convictions, whether or not they come from faith. People who have no faith, people who are not religious, have deeply held moral convictions,” Barrett noted. “And it’s just as important for those people to be sure– I just spent time talking about the job of a judge being to set aside moral convictions, personal moral convictions, and personal preferences, and follow the law. That’s a challenge for those of faith and for those who have no faith.”

“So I think the public should be absolutely concerned about whether a nominee for judicial office will be willing and able to set aside personal preferences, be they moral, be they political, whatever convictions they are,” Barrett explained. “The public should be concerned about whether a nominee can set those aside in favor of following the law.”

“But that’s not a challenge just for religious people. I mean, that’s a challenge for everyone. And so I think it’s a dangerous road to go down to say that only religious people would not be able to separate out moral convictions from their duty,” she said.

Politics Now Nation's Fastest Growing Religion

U.S.—A study released by Pew Research Center Thursday morning revealed a new fastest-growing religion in the country: politics.

Unlike many religions that only meet once or twice a week, adherents to the religion of politics worship every day, doing their devotionals in front of Fox News, CNN, or their carefully cultivated Twitter feeds. There is a major sectarian dispute among politics' followers, as to whether the one true god is a donkey or an elephant, but otherwise, their methods of practicing their faith are remarkably similar.

Political worshipers come in all forms, from casual believers who faithfully vote each election but don't regularly attend rallies or argue about politics online to crazed people who mail bombs to people they disagree with. But most political believers reject these violent zealots as radicalized extremists, insisting that politics is a "religion of peace."

Read the whole thing and subscribe to Babylon Bee.

Without a Stable Moral Currency, There Is Terror Without Trust

Richard Fernandez

The crisis of confidence in Western institutions can be described as a crisis of morality. The public has discovered that many public figures are shams. The #MeToo sex scandals, the accusations of collaborating with foreign powers, and most recently the Epstein case have undermined the reputation of our social betters. They are perceived are no better than the common clay and probably a good deal worse. This has undermined the trust that formerly allowed them to exercise authority over the public.

Once the realization hits that the Ruling Class is not only worse than the Country Class - but incredibly incompetent - you have a truly revolutionary situation.

What changed was the realization that without morality there is no trust and without trust, nothing works. Unchecked, this will result in a low-trust society where nobody can rely on the formal rules and reliance is placed on nepotism, tribalism, personal loyalty, and threats to transact business at all...

The instability of moral currency [outside of Christianity] combined with the immutable record-keeping of blockchain systems creates the worst of all possible environments: one in which people are irrefutably responsible for acts that may become retroactively reprehensible. Today's hero can easily be tomorrow's racist. You live in fear. Just as money is the measuring stick of economic values a stable morality is the necessary metric of political and social action. Without it, you can have terror but not trust.

A MUST READ.

Religion should look like and act like religion — or why bother?

A healthy religion is predicated on recognizing every individual’s divine spark. Based upon that premise, it sets out rules for living that optimize healthy relationships at both the broadest and smallest reaches of society. In that regard, I highly recommend Dennis Prager’s 10 Commandments videos, for they explain how the Commandments are not just irritating prohibitions against letting people “be free,” but are, instead, the surest pathway to a free, safe, and successful society. The Ten Commandments set out abstract principles that, once properly understood, can and should apply to all people regardless of race, color, country of national original, sex, sexual orientation, etc. Once a society catches on to this, you will not find a better place or time on earth to live.

..


But if that reform takes you away from central principles and even away from God himself, I ask again: Why bother? You don’t want religion; you just want to force a traditional institution to make you feel good about yourself. Worse, you’re willing to destroy the institution — and the benefits that accrue to society if the institution is an inherently healthy one — to reach that end.

UPDATE: This excellent article nicely discusses the way Leftists co-opt religion for nefarious ends.

UPDATE II: Coincidentally, my friend Mike McDaniel was thinking along lines similar to mine. He’s written a wonderful post about the way in which America’s churches are being torn asunder by Social Justice Warriors anxious to impose their left-wing values on traditional faiths — and to take off with all the money and buildings while they’re at it.

Richard Fernandez: "We need a bigger world"

After WW2 a chastened humanity realized the kingdom of man was unattainable through force of arms especially with the invention of the Atomic Bomb and turned its attention to achieving its goals through global institutions instead. The traditional faiths would be allowed to wither away, driven back year by year by advancing secularism, until they were impotent. Then the press would replace the pulpit; the academy the monastery; the State substitute for God till the institutions collectively had all the attributes of divinity and decide who would live or die, be born or not born, who was man or woman, even determine who belonged to what race. It would rule on the very meaning of life itself until there was nothing beyond the competence of the world of man....

Everything would be under control. But since, as Andrew Sullivan argued, religion is "in our genes" some ersatz had to fill the void, some opiate of the masses. So the time from the Fall of the Soviet Union to the present was spent building a substitute. Religion didn't "decline" so much as replaced and it is easy in retrospect to recall how this was done. Reverence for the great was provided through remoteness and elaborate pageantry. Substitute dogma, sacraments and even hagiography were found. By 2016 a nearly complete substitute religion generally known as Political Correctness had been rolled out.
Sponsored

Everybody knows what PC is because we are all members of its church, born into it at birth. It has sacraments like abortion, blasphemous words one cannot utter, heretical doctrines you cannot hold, individuals canonized by the media you cannot impugn and a roster of the damned with whom you cannot associate. Few say their prayers any more but multitudes spend each day sorting their trash in their backyard altars to the goddess Gaia. Nonbelievers in Global Warming are anathemized as Deniers; virtue signaling has become the new piety. And we are familiar with all of it because our conversion until recently seemed all but complete.

Unfortunately digital omniscience and globalization eroded the religion of men. When Rome, Jerusalem, Brussels or Washington are no harder to visit than Disneyland; when the peccadillos of the rich, famous and reverend are splashed across social media then familiarity will breed contempt. The Gramscians marching through the institutions never realized that in capturing the castles they would ruin them and deprive these of their mystery and power to overawe.

But there is hope because God is not dead and Jesus will come again. Read the whole thing.

It's called Mainline Christianity

Church To Cease All References To God In Effort To Boost Attendancehttps://t.co/fjkdsDrTXg pic.twitter.com/hSbjUVNu9v

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) June 17, 2018

Church of Sweden to stop clergy calling God 'he' or 'the Lord' in bid to crack down on gendered language

The Church of Sweden is urging its clergy to use gender-neutral language when referring to the supreme deity, refraining from using terms like "Lord" and "He" in favor of the less specific "God."

I didn't thnk that there were any churces left in Sweden.

CHARLIE ROSE IS A DEMOCRAT OPERATIVE WITH A LAVALIER

Like many conservative Catholics, I so look forward to Rose pressuring Catholic Democrats on their abortion-on-demand policies in a similar way. In fact, isn’t it fair to ask why this kind of questioning hasn’t already taken place between the numerous exchanges between Rose and the California Democrat? Strangely, I can’t seem to find it. In the transcript of an interview in 2010, abortion is only raised by Pelosi while talking about backlash on Obamacare. No follow-up from Rose.

Book by Hillary Clinton’s pastor will be pulled from shelves due to extensive plagiarism

Pretty much everything else about Hillary is fake, why not her pastor?

Religion of Peace Calling

Imam accused in Denmark of calling for murder of Jews

Imam Mundhir Abdallah preaches in the working class Copenhagen suburb of Norrebro at the Masjid Al-Faruq mosque, which media have previously linked to radical Islam.

He stands accused of citing a hadith or koranic narrative on March 31 calling for Muslims to rise up against Jews.

"Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them," begins Abdallah's address in footage on YouTube, according to a transcript of the original Arabic provided by US organisation the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Don't worry about a thing, Islam is the Religion of Peace.

Monkey incident sparks clashes in southern Libyan city of Sabha, 16 dead

Liberals preach to us that all religions are the same (and all people who believe in God are deluded).  That there's really no difference between a Baptist, a Jew and a Muslim.  They all pray to the same god.  And that Islam is THE "Religion of Peace."

Unfortunately, reality intrudes.  Which brings us to the story in the headline.

According to residents and local reports, the latest bout of violence erupted between two tribes after an incident in which a monkey that belonged to a shopkeeper from the Gaddadfa tribe attacked a group of schoolgirls who were passing by.

The monkey pulled off one of the girls' head scarf, leading men from the Awlad Suleiman tribe to retaliate by killing three people from the Gaddadfa tribe as well as the monkey, according to a resident who spoke to Reuters.

At this point 16 are dead and over 50 wounded in fighting that included tanks and mortars.  All because a monkey pulled a girl's headscarf off.

I'm not aware of anything that would cause any Baptists and Methodists to go after each other like this.

Anyone?

President Trump and Our Post-Secular Future

One result of the Trump "revolution" is the realization that being an avowed Christian is not a stigma.

At a very basic level, post-secular society is about the return of religion and religious values in the public square...

Moreover, this turn towards nationalist sentiments that we are seeing all over the globe actually entails a resurgence of historic religious identities and moral commitments, largely due to the interrelationship between nationalism and revitalized traditions. In the face of threats to localized or national identity by globalized secular processes, populations tend to reassert symbols of cultural identity such as language, custom, tradition, and religion as mechanisms of resistance.

We can see evidence of a revitalized civic religion here at home. In his recent campaign speech in Maine, Mr. Trump said: “Imagine what our country could accomplish if we started working together as one people, under one God, saluting one American flag.” This became a refrain in his campaign speeches: one people under one God. And while some can’t get past the potential threat to religious freedom such a hypothetical statement represents, we have to understand that this is precisely the kind of revitalization of public religion that accompanies the ascendancy of nationalist sentiments.

Thus it appears that the waning of multiculturalism and the rise of a nationalist populism indicates the dawn of a post-secular age. Despite the sporadic protests to the contrary, a Trump presidency signals to the wider culture that it is now open season on political correctness. And as far as I’m concerned, it couldn’t have come soon enough.

We're reach the point of rebellion against secular bullies who force us to commit acts that betray our religious values.

The Religion of the Left

The Religion of the Self does not rest upon selfless service but upon ego, even as the ego calls upon selflessness in others to boost it to power. Today's Religion of the Self spends a good many cycles advocating that others should serve its endless causes; that others should obey its endless requirements; that others should recite only its approved catechism. Above all it demands that others should reach for their wallets to pay for it all.

The Religion of the Self elects candidates to high office that promise equality and deliver obscenity. The Religion of the Self is composed of tens of millions of believers whose primary aim is their own glory at someone else's expense. It is little wonder that the high priests of the Religion of the Self are today known as "celebrities," and that the highest state sought by members of this religion is to be, themselves, "celebrated ...

And being of that world, like religious fanatics throughout history, the members of the Religion of the Self would not be content until all others joined with and affirmed their Religion as the way, the truth and the light.

Those that voted against the Religion of the Self were seen not just as citizens who preferred to be left to their own devices, but as heretics and apostates and, worse still, unlearned and ignorant. After all, all those who were of the Religion of the Self were secure in the certain knowledge that there was but One Way; theirs. That this way did not lead to great light but only down into the pit was something they would learn, if learn they could, only at the moment beyond the very last moment; that moment when -- at last -- the self is at last expunged from the universe and yet - mirabile dictu- Creation endures.

Crucifix, Trump chalkings reported as 'hate incidents' at UW-L

A report released by the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s “Hate Response Team” shows that more than 10 percent of reported hate incidents were determined to be fake or frivolous.

In fact, the report notes that 28 of 192 reports were found to be either completely fake or “not a bias/hate incident,” accounting for 14 percent of all incidents reported.

A Crucifix was reported for representing “oppression and hate of the LGBT+ community.” Tweet This

Meanwhile, of the reports that were legitimate, students complained about everything from images of the crucifix to a blog post about life on campus as a white student.

According to The La Crosse Tribune, one student reported feeling unsafe when discovering a Campus Crusade for Christ poster on campus, claiming that the cross represents “oppression and hate of the LGBT+ community.”

[RELATED: Oregon rebrands Bias Response Team to avoid ‘thought police’ claims]

Two other students turned in one of their peers for publishing a blog post about life as a white student, calling his post offensive to students of color, and even saying that the proximity of the author’s off-campus residence made them feel unsafe living on campus.

After the infamous “chalkening” had spread to UW La Crosse’s campus, several students reported the incident to the Hate Response Team, whose report shows a drastic increase in activity over the few days it occurred—18 reports in just three days.

The school had initially responded to the chalkening with a Facebook post that called it “contradictory to our mission as a university,” but later deleted the post after facing national criticism.

If you're a Christian you're responsible for the massacre in Orlando

That Donald Trump has always been an open book and there’s absolutely no need of “opposition research” has always been clear to us. To put it all together in this slim volume should have been the work of a summer intern searching the Internet on a lazy afternoon. But we suspect that the Killer of Benghazi probably had scores of employees on the case because that’s how she rolls.

The real news from yesterday is that the Generalissimo of Liberalism – the NY Times – thinks that Christians are responsible for the massacre in Orlando.

“Omar Mateen shattered the tenuous, hard-fought sense of personal safety that many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have begun to feel as the movement for equality has made significant gains in recent years. His bullets and the blood he left behind that early morning were a reminder that in many corners of the country, gay and transgender people are still regarded as sinners and second-class citizens who should be scorned.

While the precise motivation for the rampage remains unclear, it is evident that Mr. Mateen was driven by hatred toward gays and lesbians. Hate crimes don’t happen in a vacuum. They occur where bigotry is allowed to fester, where minorities are vilified and where people are scapegoated for political gain. Tragically, this is the state of American politics, driven too often by Republican politicians who see prejudice as something to exploit, not extinguish.”

Make no mistake, this is the way that the rest of the MSM thinks. This is what the people who bring you their funhouse-mirrors version of reality at ABCNBCCBSNPR and its local affiliates in cities and towns across the nation believe. Keep in mind the Prime Directive: IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ISLAM.

Keep one other thing in mind, if Hillary Clinton is elected this is what she believes. And she and her fellow travelers will run the country. If that doesn’t scare the hell out of you I don’t know what will.

Misunderstanding Islam

A school in Virginia was teaching students to write the Muslim declaration of faith, the  shahada which says: "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God"

Blogger and law professor Ann Althouse remarks:   

I would observe that students were not required to declare a faith, only to copy a declaration of faith. That's like the difference between praying in school and staging a play in which a character says a prayer. That is, I don't think it violates the Establishment Clause to require students to copy the statement of faith as a calligraphy exercise as the students are taught not that Islam is the true religion but the history and substance of the religion of Islam.

Bob R, commenting at Althouse, says something profound about Americans understanding of Muslims.

The biggest problem here is people who don't take religion seriously teaching people who take religion seriously about other people who take religion seriously. It's all pen strokes to them. It's time to end the government monopoly on education.

Mark comments: 

Moreover, it imposes a Western-centric view on what is a non-Western system.  Students were required to make the Islamic profession of faith. Period. That it was written, that it was written in a language that they did not understand, that the students may not have even known what they are saying -- all this does not matter from the Muslim perspective. From that perspective, merely making the profession makes one Muslim. That you understand it is not necessary. There are plenty of voluntary Muslims out there reciting the Koran in Arabic who have no idea exactly what they are saying because they do not speak that language. And once one makes the profession, thereby becoming Muslim, for one to then speak contrary to Islam is to make one, not an infidel, but an apostate.

Another comment by R&B:

Americans simply need to stop making declarations about what Islam is or isn't based on their own wishful thinking and humanistic principles. The religion does have its own little codes and rules that apply to both Muslims and others and converts and they aren't simply what you presuppose them to be based on a Western or secular or Christian understanding of how life interacts with religion. It's. Not. The. Same.  The amount of commentary on Islamic theology by Westerners who have no understanding of it is astounding and alarming.

Secular people view religion as an outmoded superstition and religious people as either foolish, superstitious, deluded or stupid. Most can put up with it as long as it stays in its place.  And that place is out of sight.  If they give it any though at all, they view the leading religion in the West – Christianity – as the Department of HEW at prayer. From what they have gathered in popular culture, God is the almighty patsy.  “Jesus is love.”  The God of Christians is meek and mild, forgiving everything.  That’s supposed to be His job even as he’s kicked to the curb.   And in the view of the secularists, it's also the role that Christians are supposed to play.  If they don't, they're accused of not being Christians.  

Many Christian denominations are led be people who have the same opinion.  For many it’s a job with no heavy lifting.   Parenthetically, there is a history for this.  In old England younger sons were sent either to the military or to the Church; their faith or lack thereof was of no consequence.

Judaism is even farther away from”faith” than Mainline Christianity.  It’s a cultural identity that doesn’t demand belief in God.  Jews who are atheists, and there are many, don’t lose their identity as Jews. 

Most people see what they wish to see, or what they believe they should see; not what is really there. Secular people see themselves as neutral.  But it’s a neutrality that piously proclaims that its moral and ethical positions are the neutral position.  That's deluded.  If you want neutrality try Switzerland. That's the real deal; taking no position between the Nazis and the Allies, between killing six million Jews and trying to rescue them.  It’s a country where art stolen by the Nazis in World Ware II still shows up.

Neutrality is a lie when Christianity is driven from the public sphere.  By removing signs of the religion that the majority of the people in the country profess, the secularists who decide the laws of this country actually believe that they are enforcing a "neutrality" that is specifically forbidden in the American constitution.  The part that says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereo, ..."    That prohibition against free exercise once meant that people were free to exercise their religion, but no more.  Now it's not OK to exercise your religion if they catch you doing it on public lands or in public places maintained by public funds.  A valedictorian may not speak of her faith in Jesus and a football team may not pray before a game.  A cross may not exist on public lands and if the Decalogue stands on public land it must be removed. The excuse usually given is that the expression of Christian faith may offend non-Christians, a right that is NOT found in the Constitution.  And all this, they tell each other - and us - is to protect religious freedom.  The lies we tell other people are nothing to the lies we tell ourselves.

The secular chattering classes disdain those countries like Iran that are ruled by the Ayatollahs.  But we have our own Ayatollahs: people who tell us and our elected officials what they can say and do.  They are referred to as the Supreme Court.  Once they were limited by the words in the Constitution but now they are free of those constraints.  Instead of a brake on the passions of the moment, they now lead the march to that glorious future.  The very thought of breaking one of their commandments is grounds for accusations of heresy.  One may burn the American flag and be praised as a brave defender of freedom, but vigorously dissent from the Supreme's diktats and, if there is a stake handy, you will be burned on it.  Presidential elections often hinge, not on who the temporary holder of that office, but on whom he will appoint to that much more important tribunal.  They are the ones who make the really important decisions.  It's their world, we're just living in it.    

This is why Ann,  everyone in the press and every Democrat doesn’t get it. First, they don’t take religions seriously. Would anyone in that group die for their faith?   Multitudes of Christians who are being martyred in the Middle East are.  To ask the question is to answer it. They view all religions as important as flavors of ice cream. Today I like chocolate and tomorrow vanilla and it’s all a matter of taste. They are incapable of understanding that Islam is not something that’s practiced one day a week. The really “smart” may even know that Muslims pray five times a day. But they don’t know what makes a Muslim. They may know that the real head of Iran is a Muslim cleric but don’t really understand why. 

This far the ignorance and cultural arrogance of Ann and the rest of secular America has not impacted their lives all that much. It’s exhibited in the inevitable media reactions following some kind of attack - fear of the backlash by Americans against Muslims that never comes. It’s funny in a way. Drawing cartoons of Mohammad is followed by riots throughout the world with dozens killed. The press is afraid to publish the cartoons. Murder 14 Americans in San Bernardino and Democrats go to a mosque to show their solidarity.

“At times to be silent is to lie. You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: Reason and Right” Miguel de Unamuno

The problem with religion in public schools

The biggest problem here is people who don't take religion seriously teaching people who take religion seriously about other people who take religion seriously. It's all pen strokes to them. It's time to end the government monopoly on education.