tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50050790201765252532024-03-18T13:15:58.444-05:00Faith on Trial RadioFaith on Trial is where we examine the influence of law and society on people of faith. Here we will look at those cases and events that impinge on the rights of people to fully practice their faith. Faith on Trial is heard every Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 9 p.m. on the Iowa Catholic Radio Network and anytime on our podcast at : https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/.Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.comBlogger2069125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-77443525881111212132024-03-18T13:15:00.000-05:002024-03-18T13:15:10.610-05:00Life-Minded Donors Can Still Support Scouting Organizations: American Heritage Girls Is Fully Pro-Life<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #a64d79;"> <b><a name="_Hlk159588955" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;">American Life League Charity
Watchlist</span></i></a><i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;"> Offers
Conscientious Philanthropists an Ethical Alternative to Girl Scouts</span></i></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">(March</span></i><i><span style="color: red; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></i><i><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">18,
2024 – Fredericksburg, Virginia)</span></i><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> Each
March, Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Low is regularly included among the
honorees receiving accolades for Women’s History Month. Based on the overt
anti-life leanings of the national Girl Scouts USA, <a href="https://all.org/charity-watchlist" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1;">American Life League’s Charity Watchlist</span></a> recommends
that pro-life donors consider turning their philanthropic attentions to the
American Heritage Girls—a Christian-based scouting organization.</span><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Women’s History Month is
a great time to honor Patti Garibay, who founded American Heritage Girls in
response to the Girl Scouts’ shocking agenda,” explained Katherine Van Dyke,
American Life League’s lead researcher on the Charity Watchlist project.</span><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The American Heritage
Girls was founded in 1995 by Garibay and other parents from West Chester, Ohio,
as a Christian alternative to the Girl Scouts USA after the then 83-year-old
group’s radical, anti-Christian bias came to light.</span><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Life-minded donors will
be happy to discover that the American Heritage Girls’ website features a
prolific blog with a section dedicated to pro-life,” remarked Katie Brown,
American Life League’s director of communications. “This provides a wonderful
opportunity for those who retain fond memories of the scouting years to support
a new generation of girls without having to endorse the objectional
philosophies now espoused by the Girl Scouts USA.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="https://all.org/charity-watchlist" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1;">American Life League’s Charity Watchlist</span></a> is
an online tool using a simple stoplight green-yellow-red color coding to allow
donors to know if they “go ahead” and donate to a green-coded nonprofit without
reservations, “proceed with caution” after being fully informed of the
potential risks of an organization assigned yellow, or “stop” any support of an
organization that is designated as red because of its endorsement of abortion
or other threats to life.</span><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Charity Watchlist
details some of the reasons that Girl Scouts USA has earned its red “stop”
rating for philanthropists concerned with life issues:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 11.55pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Girl Scouts USA maintains an
ongoing partnership with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl
Scouts, whose delegation for the Commission on the Status of Women
demanded “access to comprehensive sexuality information, services and
supplies for all young people.”<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 11.55pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Girl Scouts USA accepts financial
support from United Way and Johnson & Johnson, both of which openly
fund Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; color: #1d2228; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-line-height-alt: 11.55pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Girls Scouts USA promotes
contraception through its “Public Health/Sexual Health” patch, where it
also discusses consensual sex and encourages STD testing.</span> </li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">By contrast, the Statement
of Faith published on the website of the green-rated American Heritage Girls
defines its value of “purity” as being called to “reserve sexual activity to
the sanctity of marriage; a lifelong commitment before God between a man and a woman.”
The organization’s earned awards include a Respect Life Patch, All God’s
Children Badge, and a Pro-Life Kids Patch. Those factors, along with its
pro-life blog entries, earn the group a thumbs up for pro-life givers,
according to Van Dyke.</span><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Charity Watchlist wants
to highlight some of the more deceptive misunderstandings about nonprofit
groups and their pro-life positions,” stated Van Dyke, “as well as affirm those
organizations that are doing good and remaining true to life-affirming
principles.”</span><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Charity Watchlist
currently profiles more than 100 tax-exempt nonprofits based on their
implementation of life-affirming values or their endorsement of anti-life
practices. American Life League promises that the list will continue to grow
and invites charitable givers to submit nonprofit groups for Charity Watchlist
review. Read the current Charity Watchlist at <a href="https://all.org/charity-watchlist" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0563c1;">all.org/charity-watchlist</span></a>. </span><span style="color: red; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><i><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">About American Life League</span></i></b><span style="color: #1d2228; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">American Life League has
been part of the pro-life abortion debate since its inception. Since 1979,
American Life League has committed to the protection of all innocent human
beings from the moment of creation to death with a pro-life integrity that
stands up for every innocent human being whose life is threatened by the
culture of death. For more information visit </span></i><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="https://www.all.org/" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: #0563c1;">all.org</span></i></a></span><i><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><span style="color: #a64d79;"><b><i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; letter-spacing: -0.2pt;"></span></i></b></span><p></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-85187804447358267422024-03-18T13:11:00.001-05:002024-03-18T13:11:15.152-05:00Flawed Survey Demonizes Christians<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTgk_FXl72_cYaX8br7dJjVEyFh2GEw1OR4I0fKbGbGr1RSAyFG6IUfcfCztHWr4AJV_UTXVhtI_QaTYOaK6IkN5V0Ajw47YMnFBpf1wGNQ5EU6iTdpZAyiKXLQiOSL42eFC_kvsaNPevbR9uLCRF9kvRQDMbZwQQwTEY0iv-TQjG05C0GzybeTW00lpc/s376/Bill%20Donohue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="300" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTgk_FXl72_cYaX8br7dJjVEyFh2GEw1OR4I0fKbGbGr1RSAyFG6IUfcfCztHWr4AJV_UTXVhtI_QaTYOaK6IkN5V0Ajw47YMnFBpf1wGNQ5EU6iTdpZAyiKXLQiOSL42eFC_kvsaNPevbR9uLCRF9kvRQDMbZwQQwTEY0iv-TQjG05C0GzybeTW00lpc/w174-h219/Bill%20Donohue.jpg" width="174" /></a></div><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">By <a href="https://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0012uZF3LCzI9OJ-fx_uGzuj0ALhjiqm8chTT3jYoq3gXaM-m-8V3kdEX58JFTDF-pdFNKEKQwv7DbS7BDVhyqwTqPkhMY213Gph31P_1tUYi2ppQW8LrJ8mNNgVQLDwBOIGb_Egm4fHBs7Z5xEE76UozXcUR1sH3CYhInRriziAOi9o-5SOY--eyxRnMgIwmvl7QIcU9TSg6tSrVWn_sYBI4H7nXEjFzEC&c=53uXoxnaUFiChKcQ5FQ3f4wQe3wnODe351RPHEQeAD2_KIDBAZinJQ==&ch=0zA0Y7_RX7LDMkvRjl9IuvCqbEmr2fyRk8Fn0pNn4xkEXvGctGB8sA==" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration-line: none;">Bill Donohue</span></a>, Catholic
League president<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">A new poll on LGBT rights has been
published by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), a left-wing outfit
with a reputation for crafting politically skewed surveys. Its most
prominent researcher, sociologist Robert P. Jones, is well known for demonizing
so-called Christian nationalists.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">PRRI recently released its 2023 American
Values Atlas report, “Views On LGBTQ Rights In All 50 States.” It offers more
proof that the aforementioned flaws are extant. As a sociologist and a Catholic
leader, I have great interest in this subject.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">First a word about LGBT people
(there is no need to add a “Q”—it stands for Queers and is therefore a
redundancy).</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">The typical LGBT person is a young
Democrat with no religious affiliation. This makes perfect sense.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Transgenderism, the ideology that
falsely holds that the sexes are interchangeable, is a culturally induced
phenomenon that is more attractive to young people than older Americans.
Democrats are mostly liberals, and as such they have an expansive view of
sexuality. Secular-minded persons reject nature, and nature’s God, and are therefore
easy bait for transgender influencers.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">To put it differently, the older a
person is, the less likely he is to buy into this mad idea. Republicans tend to
be conservatives and are therefore more immune to trendy fashions unhinged from
reality. Religious Americans appreciate nature, and nature’s God, and are thus
inhospitable to militant secular ideas.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">There are two aspects of the
survey that deserve a riposte.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span class="yiv0233495515ql-cursor"><span style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">One of the questions asked
respondents was whether they supported or opposed “allowing a small business
owner in your state to refuse to provide products or services to gay or lesbian
people if doing so would violate their religious beliefs.”</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">This is a dishonest question. In
fact, it is a red herring designed to make religious persons look intolerable.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">It is dishonest because PRRI knows
that this issue, which was broached in two similar Colorado cases that wound up
in the Supreme Court, had nothing do to with denying homosexuals products or
services because of their sexual orientation. It had to do with the religious
rights of Christians being violated for having to </span><i><span style="outline: none !important;">affirm conduct </span></i><span style="outline: none !important;">they could not in good conscience do.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Neither Jack Phillips nor Lorie
Smith ever denied serving a customer who was gay or lesbian. Phillips sold them
cakes and Smith serviced their websites. But when Phillips was asked to
personally inscribe a wedding cake for two men, he refused. Smith issued a
preemptive strike by publicly stating that she would not provide web services
celebrating gay weddings. The high court agreed with them, noting the obvious
religious liberty issues involved.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">PRRI, following Jones’ obsession
with Christian nationalism, claims that those who believe that America was
founded as a Christian nation and should return to its moorings are a threat to
democracy.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">If someone were to say that
America was founded as a secular nation and should become even more secular,
would it be fair to say that this person is a threat to democracy? Of course
not. One may disagree, but to assert that we are on the verge of a despotic
secular regime would be as irresponsible as saying that Christian nationalists
are about to establish a theocracy.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">PRRI is not simply reporting
survey results—it is setting the political table for liberals.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">For example, Politico, a mostly
responsible liberal media outlet, seems to go off the rails when it comes to
Christian nationalism. Last month it maintained that if Trump wins in November,
his allies are ready to infuse Christian nationalism in his second
administration. It claimed to have the evidence to buttress its position, yet
it conceded that “The documents obtained by Politico do not outline specific Christian
nationalist policies.” That’s because there are none.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Heidi Przybyla wrote a piece for
Politico last month that set off the alarms. The issue was the conviction,
shared by millions of Americans, and encoded in the Declaration of
Independence, that our rights come from God, not from government (that was what
Stalin, Hitler and Mao believed). This simple observation was enough to send
her into orbit. Now it would have come as a shocker to Jefferson, who was not
exactly a religious guy, that he was a Christian nationalist.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">PRRI knows what it is doing. None
of what they did was a mistake. Which is why they are not to be trusted.</span></span></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-10635679225458666152024-03-18T13:08:00.002-05:002024-03-18T13:08:30.858-05:00Media hoax paints Trump as calling for insurrection <p><span style="background: white; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">Trump over the weekend said that as president he
would put a prohibitive tariff on Chinese-manufactured cars. "Now, if I
don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath,” he added. “That’ll be the
least of it. But they're not going to sell those cars." The Biden campaign
and the corporate media spread a clip of the comment, editing out the context
showing that Trump was talking about car sales and depicting him as calling for
a violent revolution.</span><strong style="outline: none !important;"><span style="outline: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;"> </span></span></strong><span style="background: white; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"></span> <strong style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="https://go.catholicvote.org/NDI3LUxFUS0wNjYAAAGR7_KxTLB7QIL9zUjt94AA1gQyH6nIXgBNG9SdI4DeuGyDzuOLBjkqcbjAjsVZb6rAZ1JQH2I=" id="yiv8946538670CampaignsElections" style="outline: none !important;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #fcaf26;">READ</span></a></span></strong></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-65731477794658491832024-03-18T13:07:00.002-05:002024-03-18T13:07:23.876-05:00Tennessee senator calls for ‘riots’ <p><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">Tennessee
Democratic state Sen. Charlane Oliver called for riots on Friday after the
Republican-controlled state Senate passed a bill preventing cities from forcing
police to stop making certain traffic stops. “Dr. King said that riots are the
language of the unheard. You ain’t seen nothing yet,” Oliver said. “We have had
it up here. Gloves are off. Like, we gonna fight like hell.”</span></strong><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="outline: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> <span style="background: white;"></span> <strong style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="https://go.catholicvote.org/NDI3LUxFUS0wNjYAAAGR7_KxTJrydnBFwnT_anNq2mAfQe6wdS0ZAw7gOBfZFcLWVF7oXHB5jHPFcQxsVdxXnBAGr8o=" id="yiv8946538670Policy" style="outline: none !important;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #fcaf26;">READ</span></a></span></strong></span></span></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-10844992563040821542024-03-18T13:05:00.001-05:002024-03-18T13:05:43.851-05:00Iowa Catholic Conference Report: Second legislative 'funnel' deadline report<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNhPUFHPJ7Jiy5hdaF8H2fghaV3zEPOsjS5Io9f7jTH6jHAfaFZSjCCJLzZcXmS_SPkdeTnIr9062r-OggWWaKM5PsYC7ZYRDO5LPBwYt_5MEdxgJa764WvgNOWciDpV57vNIKNQp43VF3yIC1rzebKA_0B_N5ZUj4fkcHwntwjAhdOXXGpajV5mlH8AE/s600/Iowa%20Catholic%20Conference.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="234" data-original-width="600" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNhPUFHPJ7Jiy5hdaF8H2fghaV3zEPOsjS5Io9f7jTH6jHAfaFZSjCCJLzZcXmS_SPkdeTnIr9062r-OggWWaKM5PsYC7ZYRDO5LPBwYt_5MEdxgJa764WvgNOWciDpV57vNIKNQp43VF3yIC1rzebKA_0B_N5ZUj4fkcHwntwjAhdOXXGpajV5mlH8AE/s320/Iowa%20Catholic%20Conference.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Last
Friday marked the second legislative “funnel” deadline, where a bill is
required to have passed one chamber and through a committee in the other
chamber to remain eligible for further consideration. The deadline does not
apply to appropriations or tax legislation. Here’s our funnel report:</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Addressing
migration issues<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The ICC
was pleased to see that HF 2608, the “human smuggling” bill that had passed the
House, was dropped from the agenda of the Senate Judiciary Committee. We
appreciate the many messages sent to legislators asking them to oppose the
bill.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Other
immigration enforcement bills have been set aside in the Iowa Legislature as
well, but a proposal that does not align with our principles remains alive for
consideration.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">SF 2340
has passed the Iowa Senate and been sent to the House. SF 2340 and its
companion bill, HF 2567, would create a state crime of “illegal entry into the
state by an alien.” We believe these bills are pre-empted by federal law and
the U.S. Constitution. It is problematic that these bills would explicitly
allow state officials to prosecute an individual for state immigration crimes,
even if that person’s application for immigration relief is pending before
federal authorities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Catholic
social teaching recognizes a country’s right and responsibility to manage its
borders in accordance with the common good. At the same time, serving newcomers
is compelled by Sacred Scripture and Catholic social teaching and is a core
ministry of the Church. Under federal law and the U.S. Constitution, only the
federal government has the authority to investigate violations of immigration
policy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The ICC
encourages you to contact your member of the Iowa House in opposition to SF
2340/HF 2567.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Working
on school safety<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
legislature is continuing to work on proposals with a goal of making schools
safer in the wake of the shootings in Perry, Iowa.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
Senate Education Committee voted to advance HF 2586, which provides a grant
program to help pay for school resource officers and legal immunity for public
school staff who receive a professional permit to carry weapons in school.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">HF 2652
passed the Iowa House last week and was sent to the Senate. It contains a grant
program for public schools to purchase weapons and for school staff to obtain a
professional weapons permit. All schools, public and nonpublic, would be
required to obtain a public safety radio, paid for by a separate grant program.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Technically
speaking we believe it is already legal for a school to purchase weapons. That
being said, the Catholic bishops do not support the initiative making it easier
for schools to buy weapons. The bishops support helping public schools pay for
school resource officers and having public safety radios in schools.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Other
issues relating to human life and dignity <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Unfortunately,
HF 2575, a bill defining an unborn child as a person for the purpose of the
state’s criminal code other than abortion, did not make it to the Senate
Judiciary Committee’s agenda last week due to concerns about IVF. About 40
states treat the killing of an unborn child as a form of homicide, including
the states bordering Iowa. Our view is the bill would not have affected the
legality of IVF procedures. The Church offers pastoral care to people
struggling with infertility, although IVF procedures are not supported by the
Church. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
Senate Education Committee passed legislation requiring middle and high school
to show a three-minute video showing fetal development. HF 2617 passed the
House late last month. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The ICC
supports legislation to increase the tax credit for adoptive parents to
$20,000. HF 2637 passed the House last week by a unanimous vote, 99-0, and goes
to the Senate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We were
also pleased to see the Senate Commerce Committee pass HF 2276 before the
deadline, which would allow maternity group homes to be zoned as residential
properties. This proposal will help the group homes to avoid “not in my
backyard” problems when they purchase a home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">HF 2319
was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. It prohibits local governments
from testing universal basic income programs. The concern among legislators
supporting the bill is that people will stop working if they receive money with
few obligations attached to it. The ICC opposes the bill. While universal basic
income (UBI) programs may not necessarily be the answer to poverty, they are
being researched in different parts of the country. Catholic social thought
does not exclude the possibility of UBI programs being a good idea. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">During
a subcommittee hearing for HF 2319, ICC staff had the opportunity to discuss
the importance of work in Catholic social thought. Work does not only mean paid
labor for wages. Our tradition also upholds the dignity of “caregiving” work
and argues that caregiving work in the home deserves “economic compensation in
keeping with that of other types of work.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Contact
your Iowa legislators on any of these issues here.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">‘Civilize
It’ webinar coming up<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In a
polarized climate that threatens the unity of the Body of Christ and distances
us from our brothers and sisters, how is the Church called to respond? Join in
virtually on Wednesday, March 20 at 3 p.m. to reflect on the challenge of
polarization and on tools from our Catholic tradition that can help us heal
Church and society.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Gloria
Purvis, renowned Catholic speaker and host of The Gloria Purvis Podcast from
America Magazine, will moderate the conversation. Panelists include: Kerry Alys
Robinson, president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA, and Rev. Aaron Wessman,
G.H.M., author of The Church's Mission in a Polarized World. This virtual event
is co-sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic
Charities USA, Glenmary Home Missioners, and the Jesuit Conference.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-6185514042904059982024-03-15T19:03:00.003-05:002024-03-15T19:03:38.684-05:00Biden’s vice president tours abortion facility <p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday visited a Planned
Parenthood facility, becoming the first sitting administration official to do
so in national history. “Don’t let your day go by without dwelling on the fact
that the Vice President of the United States toured an abortion mill in
solidarity with it,” wrote Andrew Walker. “Imagine thinking this party is a
plausible option for Christians to support.” </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://go.catholicvote.org/NDI3LUxFUS0wNjYAAAGR4H-RVy6CbpM3D-9aG5_umYimNzOMdM5tW1LPtsCDEIJsmUacx2F-giIl7TeW_OEbGkjsjaU=" target="_blank"><span style="color: #fcaf26;">READ</span></a></b></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-82981089785229778542024-03-15T18:56:00.004-05:002024-03-15T18:56:39.483-05:00BREAKING: Supreme Court rules public can sue officials who block, mute them on social media<p> <span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-size: 14pt;">On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled
unanimously that members of the public can, in certain cases, sue government
officials who block or mute them on social media.</span></p><p><span style="background-color: #f2f2f2; font-size: 14pt;">The justices determined that whether a lawsuit is justified will depend not
only on who the blocker is, but whether they acted using an official account
where government business is conducted.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F2F2F2; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F2F2F2; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">According to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-outlines-officials-can-sued-blocking-people-social-media-rcna135128"><span style="color: blue; text-decoration-line: none;">NBC News</span></a>,
Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote in the ruling that social media accounts can be
viewed as official channels of communication when the user "possessed
actual authority to speak on the state's behalf" and "purported to
exercise that authority." <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F2F2F2; line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">"In some circumstances," she
added, "the post's content and function might make the plaintiff's
argument a slam dunk," such as when the account is marked as official.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F2F2F2; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The ruling was made in response to two
cases out of California and Michigan. In the former, Poway Unified School
District Board of Trustees members Michelle O’Connor-Ratcliff and TJ Zane,
blocked parents Christopher and Kimberly Garnier from commenting on their
Facebook page and Twitter posts. Lower courts sided with the parents.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />
In the latter, Port Huron City Manager James Freed blocked a woman who
posted criticism in response to his explanation of the city's response to the
Covid-19 pandemic. Lower courts sided with the official.<br />
<!--[endif]--></span>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-54992703314794588782024-03-15T18:46:00.002-05:002024-03-15T18:46:39.378-05:00 Democrats Refuse To Reject Non-Citizens Voting In Federal Elections<p> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">By Graham Perdue, </span><i style="font-size: 14pt;">Freedom Press</i><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F3F3F3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: -.3pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A parade of Democratic witnesses showed their true colors
on Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary hearing on the John Lewis Voting Rights
Act. None were willing to take a stand and declare that only U.S. <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/12/not-a-single-democrat-witness-in-congress-agreed-only-citizens-should-vote-in-federal-elections/"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ec1a2e; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">citizens</span></b></a> should
vote in federal elections. </span><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14pt; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F3F3F3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: -.3pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Sen.
Mike Lee (R-UT) asked a straightforward and benign question of each of the
witnesses. He implored them to give a basic “yes” or “no” response to questions
over people who are not U.S. citizens voting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F3F3F3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: -.3pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Each
was asked, “Do you believe that only citizens of the United States should be
able to vote in federal elections?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F3F3F3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: -.3pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Simple
enough, especially considering that the witnesses were addressing a hearing on
voting rights. But one by one, each Democrat dodged the query.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F3F3F3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: -.3pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">President
of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project Lydia Camarillo
responded, “That’s a decision of the state law but I want to emphasize…” Lee
interrupted her attempt to avoid answering and asked, “It’s a decision of state
law as to who should vote in federal elections?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F3F3F3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: -.3pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Obviously,
as she well knew, it is not. But Camarillo ultimately answered that she lacked
a position on that question.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F3F3F3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: -.3pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Sophia
Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said, “Federal law
prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections and our focus is on
enabling all eligible voters to be able to vote and cast their ballot.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F3F3F3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: -.3pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Again,
a slippery answer to a direct question.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F3F3F3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: -.3pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">There
were two Republican witnesses before the panel. The Public Interest Legal
Foundation’s Maureen Riordan and the Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky
asserted that non-citizens should not be permitted to vote in federal
elections. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F3F3F3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: -.3pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The GOP is vigorously attempting to <a href="https://www.britt.senate.gov/press-releases/u-s-senator-katie-britt-introduces-legislation-to-help-prevent-noncitizens-from-voting-in-federal-elections/"><b><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #ec1a2e; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">secure</span></b></a> the
election process to preserve its integrity and voter confidence. It was
December when Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) introduced the Citizen Ballot Protection
Act as a companion bill to a House proposal.</span><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14pt; letter-spacing: -0.3pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F3F3F3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: -.3pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">It
would establish protocols to ensure that only U.S. citizens are permitted to
vote in federal elections.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: #F3F3F3; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2f1b1e; font-size: 14.0pt; letter-spacing: -.3pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">But
as was clearly displayed in Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Hearing, Democrats were
solidly opposed to building a wall around the nation’s electoral system.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-33223947993225501342024-03-14T16:31:00.000-05:002024-03-14T16:31:20.274-05:00 This week on Faith On Trial<p><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14pt;">Catholic
Vote on what the leaked documents from the World Professional Association for
Transgender Health which show how callously children with gender dysphoria are
treated; and from the Alliance Defending Freedom, how the government obtains
your personal information through banking and insurance channels and how some
conservative organizations are now deemed terrorists.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPMYLIFRurKhkxpLvjOqqG26_irhUBDS0VPZbk7bsyob-NTHwmH3SUt0BLGa0kPDXNtS0-RbKnFYxYXOm7RCvIOOXCK8v2s_H9xSfqvm7SHee1LBjt4BMkrDERmfXM1pj7s1ZNJ68w94i7fyRyvB8YN9sKm8D8X3PF_dLcHPDArUqRpMoo6fk0-JrwTyI/s1056/FOT%20promo%20templit_1_2_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1056" height="494" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPMYLIFRurKhkxpLvjOqqG26_irhUBDS0VPZbk7bsyob-NTHwmH3SUt0BLGa0kPDXNtS0-RbKnFYxYXOm7RCvIOOXCK8v2s_H9xSfqvm7SHee1LBjt4BMkrDERmfXM1pj7s1ZNJ68w94i7fyRyvB8YN9sKm8D8X3PF_dLcHPDArUqRpMoo6fk0-JrwTyI/w640-h494/FOT%20promo%20templit_1_2_1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;">The program
airs this weekend on all eight of our network stations, but the podcast is
available now: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://faith-on-trial.simplecast.com/episodes/logan-church-michael-ross-3-16-2024-biXPR8lG" target="_blank"><span style="background: white; color: #338fe9; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif;">https://faith-on-trial.simplecast.com/episodes/logan-church-michael-ross-3-16-2024-biXPR8lG</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-2662029500759048342024-03-14T12:38:00.001-05:002024-03-14T12:38:43.079-05:00The West and Christendom; are we losing control <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-e29_Svs7ohYcUUk_sAuGok9WIcByiPyw0Wk3zX1IytciavftNSBwyyydJnHmfJIJ84dLOWLsxmAlvrCS6fq2zcQ9IiIYTJUjWTaRwvqlLrTRxwSYSr_FB7Yjr8y91QnFQF0KNhiBkR8KhHf6LwDrehCLgFYmhug-JjYY83LKEwY8mucbGgQSgqouHo/s147/Deacon%20Mike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="147" data-original-width="102" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-e29_Svs7ohYcUUk_sAuGok9WIcByiPyw0Wk3zX1IytciavftNSBwyyydJnHmfJIJ84dLOWLsxmAlvrCS6fq2zcQ9IiIYTJUjWTaRwvqlLrTRxwSYSr_FB7Yjr8y91QnFQF0KNhiBkR8KhHf6LwDrehCLgFYmhug-JjYY83LKEwY8mucbGgQSgqouHo/s1600/Deacon%20Mike.jpg" width="102" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">By Deacon
Mike Manno<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wanderer</i>) -- Our concept of
religious liberty has been long held in the Western world. It traces its
history back to October 312 when Maxentius and Constantine were duking it out
for control of the Roman Empire. On the eve of the deciding battle at the
Bridge of Milvian, Constantine saw a large cross in the sky with the words “<i>In
hoc signo vinces</i>” (In this sign you shall conquer). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Constantine had the cross painted on
his warriors’ shields and he defeated Maxentius the next day. Four months later
the now Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan (313) which granted legal
status to Christianity which ultimately led to it becoming the approved
religion and its spread over the entire known world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Recently the Family Research Council
(FRC) published a report, “Free to Believe? The Intensifying Intolerance Toward
Christians in the West” which might possibly indicate that the United States
and many of our Western allies are trying to turn the clock of liberty
backwards. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We recently had on our radio program
Ariella Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the FRC,
where we discuss the report. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The report, which can be found at
frc.org., is interesting in that it reports on numerous actions taken by
governmental agencies to curb religious liberty, much of it began by using the
pandemic to place restrictions on public worship by closing churches,
prohibiting religious services – some of which were drive-in services conducted
by low power FM signals that could be heard on car radios, and the follow-up
harassment of ministers and their congregants. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I’m sure most of you remember those
days: Churches closed but strip clubs left open; churches that remained open
were sharply limited by impossible attendance limitations; singing of hymns
prohibited, etc. All, of course, in the name of fighting the pandemic. Yet some
of these prohibitions continued in other forms long after. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The report shows an alarming number of
anti-religious demands made by supposed “tolerant” government agencies whose
effect was to limit liberty. It ticks off case after case of anti-liberty
actions taken by government officials. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I don’t think we did more than just
scratch the service,” she said of the 31-page report. “After COVID we noticed
more and more different religious freedoms violated across the world. We were
looking at governments that were supposed to be free and democratic who were
going after Christians.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The report covered 34 nations in which
16 were found to have a total of 160 individual violations of religious
liberty. “It gives us a good picture of what’s taking place across the Western
world. … When you see all these things together it paints a different picture;
its looking more like a trend,” she said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>These attacks on religious liberty can
be divided into two areas. The first goes to the issue of gender, sexuality,
and marriage. This includes teachers and school counselors who refuse to follow
their institutions approved use of pronouns, or who ban them from discussing
with parents their child’s gender transition. This also includes making public
comments against such progressive rules. For example:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In Canada a pastor was arrested twice
for protesting in silent prayer outside of a public library during “drag queen
story hour.” In another Canadian city a teen was arrested for protesting
against biological males using the girls’ restroom. In Norway a Christian
organization was denied a community grant due to its views on marriage. In
Sweden a kindergarten was threatened with a fine for allowing lunchtime
prayers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In England a priest was arrested for
silently praying outside an abortion facility and a school chaplain was
dismissed and blackballed for telling students they can make up their own minds
about sexuality. Apparently it is against the law to pray silently in public since
there are numerous reports of people arrested or harassed by police for praying
silently in a public venue. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Additionally a teacher was fired and
found guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct” for presenting a Christian
view of sexuality. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A lot of the same activity is mirrored
in the United States: A 14-year old high school girl was suspended for
objecting to biological boys in the girls’ locker rooms, and when her father
backed her up on Facebook, he was fired from his job as girls’ soccer coach. In
another school a teacher was fired for speaking out against pornographic books
in the library promoting same-sex relationships. Another library speaker was
shut-down for voicing the Christian belief on gender. And a high school coach
was fired for saying males and females are biologically different.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Another area dealt with religious
animas in general:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Those people attending drive-in
services had their license plate numbers copied by police in several countries,
including the U. S. In Canada the Department of National Defense recommended
that military chaplains not be hired from denominations that will not ordain
women. A student was fired from a campus newspaper due to her Catholic beliefs.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In France the government condemned a
broadcast network for airing the film <u>Unplanned</u> because it promoted
Christian values. In Sweden a 15 year-old boy was told to remove his cross
necklace because it could offend, meanwhile students from other faiths were
allowed to wear their religious symbols.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In England a doctor was investigated
for praying with a patient and an actress was dismissed from her leading role
over her biblical Facebook post and at least one teacher was fired for the same
offense. A Christian man was visited at his job by police investigating a
complaint that he had posted a transphobic tweet. The police left him with a
warning to “check his thinking” next time. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the U. S. an Oregon city threatened
a church with fines for giving free meals to the homeless. A Vermont Christian
school was excluded from a state tuition program and ejected from the state’s
athletics association due to its promotion of Christian beliefs. In Wyoming a
Christian homeless shelter was threatened by the government for only hiring
Christian applicants. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In Oregon a woman was prevented from
adopting due to her Christian beliefs, and a fire department chaplain was fired
for expressing his religious beliefs on a personal blog. During COVID a
Mississippi school principal ordered a third grader to remove her mask that
said “Jesus loves me” while other masks with messages were allowed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As I indicated above, these are just a
few of the incidents reported but it should give you a sense of what Arielle
meant when she talked about the picture that develops once you start putting
all these incidents together. Finally, as she pointed out, this is not an
exhaustive list, it is only those published and known to the authors. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Perhaps we need a modern day
Constantine who can recognize and act on the sign in the sky.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-30-<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">(You can reach Mike at: <a href="mailto:DeaconMike@q.com"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">DeaconMike@q.com</span></a>
and listen to him every weekend on Faith On Trial or podcast at <a href="https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/</span></a>.
The episode discussed was 402)</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-16341960423973157762024-03-14T12:28:00.001-05:002024-03-14T12:28:28.206-05:00DOJ signals prisons must adopt pro-‘trans’ policies <p><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">The Biden
Justice Department said in a press release on Tuesday that the Utah Department
of Corrections had “violated the Americans with Disabilities Act” when it
“failed to provide” a male prisoner with “transgender” hormone therapy. The
move signals the administration’s position that prisons throughout the country
must obey LGBTQ ideology.</span><span style="outline: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></strong><strong><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"></span><a href="https://go.catholicvote.org/NDI3LUxFUS0wNjYAAAGR21y6WQE1AhIEj1PRmIx6haO6T1DB6Wlt3CbbXUOIyqkIXqncsSAo7FSs_uJiA3ZyYKgNMVY=" id="yiv3048083811LGBT" style="outline: none !important;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #fcaf26;">READ</span></a></strong></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-82573093502930069392024-03-14T12:27:00.000-05:002024-03-14T12:27:01.954-05:00State Department spent $77 million on DEI <p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">President Joe Biden’s State Department privately disclosed to
Congress that it spent $77 million taxpayer dollars on diversity, equity,
inclusion, and accessibility efforts in the last two years — and it plans to
eclipse that total in the final year of Biden’s first term. </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://go.catholicvote.org/NDI3LUxFUS0wNjYAAAGR21y6WYfrLoeQu5Rf8FeyGL9Tdj5DAs_u54i9K-LheUT4Qxo1-nbBot55tj48VBAVsShpo_o=" target="_blank"><span style="color: #fcaf26;">READ</span></a></b></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-77485565486281524022024-03-14T12:24:00.001-05:002024-03-14T12:24:16.326-05:00New bill would stop admin forcing ‘trans’ in foster care<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Sen. Roger Marshall, R-KS, this week put forward a bill to stop a
proposed Biden administration rule that would force “transgender” ideology on
potential foster parents and foster care organizations. Marshall’s newly
proposed bill is known as the “Protecting Religious Freedom for Foster Families
Act.” </span><b style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://go.catholicvote.org/NDI3LUxFUS0wNjYAAAGR21y6WeWzFgGwwC47Yh83pCt8IndQsfTyM3NdC5L506NXzY_rNpvmu-IJhA4SxPl9xffJI2U=" target="_blank"><span style="color: #fcaf26;">READ</span></a></b></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-41206782138549820992024-03-14T12:22:00.003-05:002024-03-14T12:22:22.636-05:00House Republicans will not shrink from abortion issue <p><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">House Republican
leadership will stress the party’s pro-life platform in the quest to expand the
party’s razor-thin majority this November. A new memo prepared by House
Republicans’ campaign arm urges Congressional candidates to “confidently
articulate” where they stand on abortion, noting that “being unwilling to stake
out a clear position with voters is the worst possible solution.”</span><span style="outline: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></strong><span style="background: white; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"></span> <strong style="outline: none !important;"><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;"><a href="https://go.catholicvote.org/NDI3LUxFUS0wNjYAAAGR21y6Wb6_VSmpAESDUFdKltdUFR8LrSr5HdLHJk1mBJh_pFQHBh_Jcg4qdLl-5sNDiORWWU0=" id="yiv3048083811CampaignsElections" style="outline: none !important;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #fcaf26;">READ</span></a></span></strong></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-44185393029037636602024-03-12T11:53:00.002-05:002024-03-12T11:55:33.363-05:00Archbishop of San Antonio gave Biden Communion, ignored Gov. Abbott at Uvalde Mass<p> <span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14pt;">SAN ANTONIO (</span><a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: #0092c8; text-decoration-line: none;">LifeSiteNews</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14pt;">) — San Antonio Archbishop
Gustavo García-Siller’s politics could not have been clearer the day he gave
Holy Communion to pro-abortion President Joe Biden and ignored pro-life Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Professor Randall B. Smith
of the University of St. Thomas in Houston told the story vividly in an August
29, 2022 article for <a href="https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/08/29/when-a-virtue-signaling-archbishop-is-more-politician-than-pastor/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0092c8; text-decoration-line: none;">Catholic World Report</span></a>:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“ </span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt;">… it’s odd that before the Mass for the families of
those killed in Uvalde, Archbishop García-Siller had a special private meeting
with President Biden and then went to the Bidens first to offer them communion
at their seats before everyone else. This is a man whose support for actual
murder means he shouldn’t be receiving communion at all. And Governor Greg
Abbott? No special treatment there. He wheeled himself in his wheelchair to the
back of the cathedral and came up the center aisle with his wife like everyone
else. The Archbishop saw him but never acknowledged his presence.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Smith reported that
García-Siller did worse than ignore the governor of Texas; he maligned Abbott
before the mainstream media. García-Siller told the <i>San Antonio
Express-News</i> that since “what happened at Uvalde, there has not been
word from my leader in my state of compassion, of care, of pain” and that the
governor was using tragic events in Texas “for personal gain.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Catholic professor found
this behavior unbecoming in a bishop.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Read the
full story:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archbishop-of-san-antonio-gave-biden-communion-ignored-gov-abbott-at-uvalde-mass/?utm_source=daily-usa-2024-03-12&utm_medium=email</p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-256536970758175492024-03-11T13:14:00.000-05:002024-03-11T13:14:15.862-05:00Update from the Iowa Catholic Conference<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju9aRHdlf5LYJzHW6y7QNaMdHH2fRkMKa930bjW6_l7dsrh2IvtsxH5tGsgs5FO-6RKTwAFSpR2974ocM4GTE6E62H30E3ZoklbYLDu2po12eIdkk57QVlko5KjGF9T81WrX8oDdBzpnWCkPsXt0B6i7xHcNam8bg1MZuBGNHFOy13at78c7V-ZrIyXKQ/s600/Iowa%20Catholic%20Conference.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="234" data-original-width="600" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju9aRHdlf5LYJzHW6y7QNaMdHH2fRkMKa930bjW6_l7dsrh2IvtsxH5tGsgs5FO-6RKTwAFSpR2974ocM4GTE6E62H30E3ZoklbYLDu2po12eIdkk57QVlko5KjGF9T81WrX8oDdBzpnWCkPsXt0B6i7xHcNam8bg1MZuBGNHFOy13at78c7V-ZrIyXKQ/s320/Iowa%20Catholic%20Conference.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">Last week at the State Capitol<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.75pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">The Iowa House was particularly busy with floor debate last week
as the second legislative deadline approaches. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.75pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">The House passed HF 2608, creating a new state crime of “human
smuggling," by a vote of 60-32. It goes to the Senate, where it would have
to pass the Senate Judiciary Committee by Friday to beat the deadline. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.75pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">By a vote of 34-16, the Senate passed SF 2340, which creates a new
state crime of illegal entry for someone who is not authorized by the U.S. to
be in Iowa. The measure goes to the House.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.75pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://www.votervoice.net/ICC/Campaigns/112022/Respond" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Check out our action alert on
immigration bills opposed by the ICC</span></a> in the Iowa Legislature.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.75pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">The House also has approved a "fetal homicide" bill
supported by the ICC, HF 2575, by a vote of 58 to 36. The proposal defines an
unborn child as a person for the purpose of the state’s criminal code other
than abortion (think a drunk driver killing a mom and the unborn baby). It now
goes to the Senate, and also has to pass the <a href="https://www.votervoice.net/BroadcastLinks/8vdz6bL9vw_BrYpExw3Hpg" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">Senate Judiciary Committee</span></a> this
week to remain eligible. About 40 states treat the killing of an unborn child
as a form of homicide, including our surrounding states.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="background: white; border-collapse: collapse; margin-bottom: 9.75pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-top: 9.75pt; mso-table-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-table-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-table-bspace: 12.0pt; mso-table-left: right; mso-table-lspace: 20.25pt; mso-table-rspace: 2.25pt; mso-table-top: middle; mso-table-tspace: 12.0pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 0px;">
<tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="padding: .75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt;"></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.75pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">HF 2523 passed by a vote of 88-6 in the House. It requires
parental consent before children can acquire a social media account. There is
an exemption for video gaming companies. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.75pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">The Iowa House also passed HF 2319 by a vote of 55-43. Opposed by
the ICC, it would forbid local governments from funding and evaluating
guaranteed income programs. These provide individuals with monthly payments,
usually for a defined period. While it is not settled that guaranteed incomes
are an answer to persistent poverty, research is ongoing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.75pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">Catholic social teaching says we have a responsibility to work if
we are able. But that doesn’t only mean paid wage labor. Our tradition also
upholds the dignity of “care” work and specifically frames it as work; it also
argues that caregiving work in the home deserves compensation in keeping with
that of other types of work. (<i>Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, 2004</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 3;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">And finally,<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.75pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">The Senate Ways and Means Committee approved SJR 2003, adding an
amendment to the state constitution on taxes. The ICC is opposed to the bill,
which would require a supermajority (two-thirds) approval of the Legislature
for tax increases. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.75pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;"> The amendment also requires a “flat” income tax, which would
prohibit the state legislature from adopting a lower tax rate for lower-income
people. The amendment says nothing about making it more difficult to raise
sales taxes, which might end up requiring low-income people to pay a greater
percentage of their income for necessities. The amendment would have to be
passed by both chambers this year and again sometime during the next two
sessions before it could go to a vote of the people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.75pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 9.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">During the subcommittee hearings, ICC staff spoke about <a href="https://www.votervoice.net/BroadcastLinks/JWQzMKA-b6QqiR7gqxcsjQ" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">“contributive” and “distributive”
justice and our responsibility to contribute to the common good</span></a>.</span></p><p></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-48047423391175668212024-03-08T13:36:00.000-06:002024-03-08T13:36:15.412-06:00Illinois Assisted Suicide Bill SB 3499 is a more permissive bill.<p><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14pt;">By Alex Schadenberg</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 13pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">I have <a href="https://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-assisted-suicide-lobby-goal-is-to.html"><span style="color: #2b00fe; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">recently written</span></a> how
most of the assisted suicide bills are "bait and switch" bills,
meaning, they are intentionally written in a "tighter" manner with
the intention of passing the bill and expanding it later.<br />
<br />
Illinois <a href="https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=&SessionId=112&GA=103&DocTypeId=SB&DocNum=3499&GAID=17&LegID=153199&SpecSess=&Session="><span style="color: #2b00fe; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Assisted Suicide
Bill SB 3499</span></a> is not a "tightly" worded bill, but even
the provisions in the bill, once legalized, will soon be pushed for further
expansion.<br />
<br />
Almost all assisted suicide bills have employed a 15-day waiting period. SB
3499 has a 5-day waiting period that can be waived if the assessor considers
the person to be nearing death.<br />
<br />
Almost all assisted suicide bills require that a person be a resident of the
State. Bill SB 3499 also requires that a person be a resident of Illinois, but
the bill then has 11 statutes explaining how a person can establish themselves
as being an Illinois resident. It doesn't take very long to obtain an Illinois
drivers license.<br />
<br />
The typical concerns with assisted suicide bills remain part of Bill SB 3499.
For instance, a person with questionable competency may be referred for a
mental health capacity test, but the licensed mental health professional only
needs to determine if the person is mentally capable. A person can be
determined to be mentally capable and at the same time be depressed and feeling
hopeless.<br />
<br />
The assisted suicide lobby claims that no slippery slope exists, yet, in the
past few years existing assisted suicide laws have been expanded by: reducing
or eliminating waiting periods, allowing non-doctors to participate in assisted
suicide, allowing assisted suicide approvals by tele-health, expanding the meaning
of terminal illness and removing state residency requirements.<br />
<br />
Assisted suicide law expansion bills have been passed in California (2021),
Hawai'i (2023), Oregon (2019, 2023), Vermont (2022, 2023) and Washington State
(2023).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Illinois needs to reject assisted
suicide Bill SB 3499 and commit to a caring culture.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 14pt;">More resource articles
on this topic:</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: 0in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 14pt;">The assisted suicide
lobby wants to legalize assisted suicide in your state (<a href="https://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-assisted-suicide-lobby-goal-is-to.html"><span style="color: #2b00fe; text-decoration-line: none;">Link</span></a>)</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: 0in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 14pt;">The Nationalization of
assisted suicide in America (<a href="https://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-nationalization-of-assisted-suicide.html"><span style="color: #2b00fe; text-decoration-line: none;">Link</span></a>).</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: 0in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 14pt;">Minnesota assisted
suicide bill is lethally deceptive (<a href="https://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2024/01/minnesota-assisted-suicide-bill-sf.html"><span style="color: #2b00fe; text-decoration-line: none;">Link</span></a>). </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: 0in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 14pt;">EPC - USA statement to
the New York legislature (</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #2b00fe; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="https://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2024/02/epc-usa-statement-to-new-york.html"><span style="color: blue; text-decoration-line: none;">Link</span></a></span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 14pt;">).</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; text-indent: 0in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: 14pt;">The assisted suicide
lobby pass restrictive bills and expand them later (<a href="https://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-assisted-suicide-lobby-will-pass.html"><span style="color: #2b00fe; text-decoration-line: none;">Link</span></a>).</span></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-21879965117186983942024-03-08T13:32:00.005-06:002024-03-08T13:32:41.463-06:00Michigan Hospital Settles With EEOC for Denying Religious Exemption <p> <span style="font-size: 14pt;">GRAND RAPIDS, MI
– The Michigan-based hospital Trinity Health Grand Rapids, formerly known as
Mercy Health St. Mary’s, recently agreed in a consent decree to settle a
religious discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC), which alleged the hospital improperly denied a job applicant’s
request for a religious exemption to the flu shot. Trinity Health has since
discontinued its mandatory flu shot policy and agreed in the settlement to pay
$50,000 in damages. As part of the settlement, the hospital must train its
senior leaders and human resources employees on Title VII’s religious
protections.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">According to the
EEOC’s lawsuit, even though the hospital’s former flu shot policy allowed for a
religious exemption, the hospital determined the applicant’s articulated
religious beliefs were “insufficient” to grant the exemption and denied it
without an explanation. Trinity Health, which had made a conditional job offer
to the applicant, then rescinded that job offer and did not give the applicant
an opportunity to address the concerns with his request. The lawsuit alleged
the hospital violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and committed
religious discrimination by “arbitrarily” denying the exemption with “reckless
indifference” to the applicant’s protected rights.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">The EEOC is a
federal agency established under the 1964 Civil Rights Act to investigate
workplace discrimination complaints and enforce civil rights laws meant to
prevent discriminatory practices, including religious discrimination for job
applicants and employees. Title VII requires employers to make “reasonable”
accommodations for religious employees unless the accommodation presents an
“undue hardship” on the employer. In March 2022, the EEOC provided updated
guidance on how an employer can determine an employee’s religious sincerity.
The guidance advises that the sincerity of a religious belief is “largely a
matter of individual credibility” and is “usually not in dispute.” Employees
also do not need to use any “magic words” when making a request and employers
should “proceed on the assumption” that a religious exemption request is based
on a sincere belief unless they have evidence that the employee has acted
inconsistent with the professed belief.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">“If an employer
has an objective basis for questioning either the religious nature or the
sincerity of a particular belief, the employer would be justified in making a
limited factual inquiry and seeking additional supporting information,” stated
the EEOC.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">However, the EEOC
alleged Trinity Health failed to make this “factual inquiry” or ask questions
and work with the job applicant before making a final decision on the
exemption.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">According to the
EEOC’s website, the agency received 13,814 complaints in fiscal year 2022 from
workers alleging illegal religious discrimination, which is up sharply from
2,111 complaints in the previous year.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial;">Liberty Counsel
Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Federal law requires employers to
accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs unless the employer can show that
doing so will result in an undue hardship. Employees should never have to
choose between their faith and their job.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-57972314720756925252024-03-08T13:30:00.003-06:002024-03-08T13:30:35.564-06:00 School district pays kids to become far-left activists <p><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">A public school
district in California reportedly paid dozens of high school students $1,400
each to participate in training programs conducted by a far-left activist
group. One teacher reported that the training is “not helping students find
their own voices…. They’re teaching them parroting, which is the exact opposite
of how you empower children.”</span></strong><strong style="outline: none !important;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="background: white; color: #00acc8; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></span><span style="outline: none !important;"></span></strong><strong><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><a href="https://go.catholicvote.org/NDI3LUxFUS0wNjYAAAGRvKoT0Aan_eKdTeKbH9ClXQvqOlsr6w6H4FwpqLO-HoIH0y1c6YyHUI5YR0LCsen9NcG8moo=" id="yiv3902692411Policy" style="outline: none !important;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #fcaf26;">READ</span></a></strong></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-53116203860514077202024-03-08T13:28:00.002-06:002024-03-08T13:28:37.515-06:00Leftist ‘hate’ group tried to sic DOJ on activists <p><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%;">The Biden
Justice Department accepted a briefing from the far-left Southern Poverty Law
Center on “hate groups” after it added Moms for Liberty and other parental
rights groups to its “hate map” last year, along with Catholic groups like the
Ruth Institute.</span><span style="outline: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></strong><strong><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 107%;"></span><a href="https://go.catholicvote.org/NDI3LUxFUS0wNjYAAAGRvKoT0LcB_pClcgeGtD0VzhJi3SQdjE-gw-sWXVZnP5NJ9ZM2MsaA3mrWnAkVgULT7XGPAMo=" id="yiv3902692411Policy" style="outline: none !important;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #fcaf26;">READ</span></a></strong></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-15831487122126361992024-03-08T10:54:00.003-06:002024-03-08T10:57:28.660-06:00This week on FOT: Chemical abortions now available at your local pharmacy, any danger to that? Poll numbers don’t support gender ideologies in schools; peaceful pro-lifers put on university terrorism list<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Podcast up, you
can listen now at:</span></p><p><a href="https://faith-on-trial.simplecast.com/episodes/hugh-phillips-matt-lamb-3-09-2024-QU2pLSl6">https://faith-on-tr</a><a href="https://faith-on-trial.simplecast.com/episodes/hugh-phillips-matt-lamb-3-09-2024-QU2pLSl6">ial.simplecast.com/episodes/hugh-phillips-matt-lamb-3-09-2024-QU2pLSl6</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZtr-Z_UoPbC-Bl6ve6xh47mIorSqvytFrg-i25RGUULHmRIC89cCwAfKW3YCa_BR0-wPGjW0nZnT5k7kDqzvWSfk_ssq-IF-JCkwBysRc_zqSHfeZF3q-5y98dcbesNWTei1fXYsiwYsTmcFq77BcooOWcxoqsXrnl2gubbTDuk3xVoFukGd0MMc9XQ/s1056/FOT%20promo%20templit_1_2_1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="1056" height="529" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZtr-Z_UoPbC-Bl6ve6xh47mIorSqvytFrg-i25RGUULHmRIC89cCwAfKW3YCa_BR0-wPGjW0nZnT5k7kDqzvWSfk_ssq-IF-JCkwBysRc_zqSHfeZF3q-5y98dcbesNWTei1fXYsiwYsTmcFq77BcooOWcxoqsXrnl2gubbTDuk3xVoFukGd0MMc9XQ/w686-h529/FOT%20promo%20templit_1_2_1.jpg" width="686" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-47105776108310874132024-03-07T18:26:00.002-06:002024-03-07T18:26:55.488-06:00Leaked Files Expose Global Transgender Health Association for ‘Widespread Medical Malpractice on Children and Vulnerable Adults’<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">CV NEWS FEED
// Leaked internal files from the World Professional Association for
Transgender Health (WPATH) this week revealed members’ shocking disregard of
medical ethics and the detrimental long-term effects of the hormone therapies
and surgical interventions they recommend for children.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Around the
globe, patients and doctors have been assured they are following ‘best
practice’ through the ‘Standards of Care’ published by [WPATH],” stated Robert
Clarke, Director of Advocacy for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)
International:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
documents released today expose an organisation lacking consideration for
long-term patient outcomes despite being aware of the debilitating and
life-changing effects of cross-sex hormones and other “treatments”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The WPATH Files<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
nonprofit group Environmental Progress published a report including the leaked
files on March 4. The leaked files include internal conversations between
members of WPATH, and a panel discussion of the members. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The report’s
author Mia Hughes wrote that WPATH, founded in 1979, “is considered the leading
authority on the care and treatment of individuals who have gender dysphoria
and/or identify as transgender,” and added that its published guidelines have
international influence. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The American
Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, and the Endocrine
Society are among the medical groups that look to WPATH’s “Standards of Care”
for guidance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yet, WPATH’s
“approach to medicine is consumer-driven and pseudoscientific, and its members
appear to be engaged in political activism, not science,” Hughes wrote.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The files
show conversations from an online forum for WPATH members seeking advice on
different situations involving minors or adults suffering from gender
dysphoria. Among WPATH members are doctors, nurses, psychologists, counselors,
activists, and others. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">WPATH’s Disregard for Minors’ Safety
and Health<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Clarke
stated that WPATH members are dismissive of “concerns and characterize efforts
to protect patients as unnecessary ‘gatekeeping.’ The files also provide clear
evidence that doctors and therapists are aware they are offering minors
life-changing interventions they cannot fully understand.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the
leaked panel discussion, WPATH member and pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Daniel
Metzger said, “most of the kids are nowhere in any kind of a brain space to
really talk about [fertility preservation] in a serious way,” when discussing
transitioning as a “treatment.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">According to
the panel’s transcript in the report, Metzger continued, “that’s always
bothered me, but you know, we still want the kids to. Be happy, happier in the
moment, right?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hughes
highlighted in the report that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones combined
“could leave a young patient sterile for life.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“The drugs
come with a host of known and anticipated side effects, including brittle
bones, cognitive impairment, and heightened risk of cancer and cardiovascular
disease, as well as uncertainty concerning resolution of gender dysphoria,”
Hughes added. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Clarke
stated that the WPATH “files reveal what we already knew to be true – children
cannot consent to life-altering procedures in the full knowledge of the
consequences involved.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">WPATH’s Disregard for Vulnerable
Adults’ Safety and Health<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The messages
also reveal WPATH members’ disregard for the safety of vulnerable adults, such
as those suffering from schizophrenia, depression, and PTSD, so as to promote
hormone therapies and surgical interventions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In one such
WPATH post, which did not have a date, a nurse practitioner “described a
patient with very complex mental health issues, including PTSD, major
depressive disorder (MDD), observed dissociations, and schizoid typical traits,”
Hughes wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The nurse
told the group that the patient is eager to start hormones, but psychiatry is
recommending holding off. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“My practice
is based fully on the informed consent model however this case has me
perplexed; struggling internally as to what is the right thing to do,” said the
nurse. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Dr. Dan
Karasic of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), the lead author
of the mental health chapter of WPATH’s SOC8, was baffled by the nurse’s
perplexity. “I’m missing why you are perplexed,” said Karasic. “The mere
presence of psychiatric illness should not block a person’s ability to start
hormones if they have persistent gender dysphoria, capacity to consent, and the
benefits of starting hormones outweigh the risks.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Calling on Governments to Act<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hughes wrote
that the report calls upon the United States government “to investigate how
activists with little respect for the Hippocratic Oath could have risen to such
prominence as to set the Standards of Care for an entire field of medicine,
leading to the medical abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Clarke
echoed Hughes’ call for accountability, stating that it is “time for more
governments to act.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Children
who experience discomfort with their biological sex deserve to be treated with
dignity and respect and need compassionate, effective mental health care.
Sadly, at the hands of ‘gender clinics’ around the world armed with the WPATH
‘standards of care’, they have been pushed in only one direction,” Clarke
concluded:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There is a
mounting and tragic cost to this ideology, revealed by the many stories of
those “de-transitioning” or who otherwise regret what was done to them.
Ultimately, vulnerable children and adults who deserved better were led to
irreversible interventions; those who spoke out were censored.<o:p></o:p></span></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-26251473714032382572024-03-07T18:20:00.000-06:002024-03-07T18:20:08.953-06:00Pastor Hosting Religious Gatherings in Home Responds to Town’s Legal Threats<p style="text-align: center;"><b> <i style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">The Town of Weare
targets religious assembly while turning a blind eye to comparable secular
activity.</span></i></b></p><p class="yiv2035964378msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Weare, NH</span></b><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">—First Liberty Institute, </span><span style="outline: none !important;">prominent law firm King & Spalding LLP,
and the Law Offices of Marbury & Marbury, PLLC, as pro bono counsel, </span><span style="outline: none !important;">filed a preliminary injunction against the
town of Weare, New Hampshire, claiming it violated the law when by requiring an
expensive and onerous site review plan before the pastor could use his own home
and property to host religious gatherings.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv2035964378msonormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv2035964378msonormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">You can read the motion <a href="https://firstliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/024-1-Memo-of-Law.pdf" style="outline: none !important;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #467886;">here</span></a>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv2035964378msonormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv2035964378msonormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“</span><span style="outline: none !important;">Hundreds of
thousands of Americans meet every day in homes for prayer meetings, Bible
studies, book clubs, card games, and other gatherings. Why would Weare
city officials demand this small church stop meeting in the pastor’s home, but
ignore Super Bowl parties and political gatherings?” </span><span style="outline: none !important;">asked Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel for First
Liberty Institute. “Since the day the First Amendment became law all people of
faith have been granted the right to worship and pray in their home with
like-minded people.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv2035964378msonormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv2035964378msonormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“In the United States, the tradition of using individual homes
for religious gatherings—even formal church services—has garnered special
solicitude under the law,” said King & Spalding partner Sean Royall.
“The suit is about protecting that legal right for all faiths.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv2035964378msonormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv2035964378msonormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Pastor Howard Kaloogian founded Grace New England Church in his
home as a church plant. He welcomes people in his home and occasionally holds
social gatherings for invited guests. In October of 2023, he received a “Cease
and Desist” notice from the Town of Weare stating, “you are to immediately stop
any assembly regarding Grace New England Church. This Cease and Desist will
remain in effect until a site plan is submitted, reviewed and there is a
decision made by the Town Planning Board.” Pastor Kaloogian was also warned
that unless he was in full compliance of the order, penalties would apply. Even
though Weare’s zoning permits churches to exist as a matter of right, the Town
informed him that, without a site plan, he would not be permitted to use his
home to hold church services.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="yiv2035964378msonormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; outline: none !important; text-align: justify;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
<span style="outline: none !important;"></span></p><p class="yiv2035964378msonormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; outline: none !important; text-align: justify; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="outline: none !important;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The complaint states that “the First Amendment’s guarantee to
‘free exercise’ is inviolate in one’s home and cannot be dismissed at the
request of a town’s zoning officer. The demand to ‘Cease and Desist…any
assembly regarding Grace New England Church’ directly implicates the First
Amendment’s ‘right of the people peaceably to assemble.’”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="yiv2035964378body" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span style="outline: none !important;"></span>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-69419396015608262412024-03-07T12:48:00.000-06:002024-03-07T12:48:09.435-06:00Court Sides With Christian Employers in Religious Freedom Win<p><span style="font-size: 14pt;">BISMARCK,
ND – A federal judge in North Dakota has ruled that the Biden administration
cannot force members of the Christian Employers Alliance (CEA) to perform
medically mutilating procedures or provide health insurance coverage for such
procedures in violation of their religious beliefs. While the ruling only
protects CEA and its members, it provides a precedent for preserving religious
freedom in future cases.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The CEA
is a nonprofit network of Christian-owned organizations that works to protect
religious freedom on behalf of Christian businesses and nonprofits.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This
week, U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor sided with the CEA and ordered the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) to permanently stop imposing two mandates that would have
forced members of the CEA to pay for or facilitate medically mutilating
procedures. Judge Traynor ruled that the unlawful mandates violate the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and “impinges” upon the religious
beliefs of CEA’s members.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In
Christian Employers Alliance v. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
CEA argues the EEOC and HHS are improperly enforcing sex discrimination laws in
Title VII and in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) respectively. The Biden
administration argues that since these laws prohibit discrimination based on
gender identity, they authorize the federal government to mandate employers who
receive federal funding to physically perform or fund procedures, treatments,
or counseling that attempt to change a person’s gender.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">However,
Judge Traynor determined the mandates were in direct conflict with the First
Amendment.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Judge
Traynor wrote, “As noted in its Order Granting [an earlier] Injunction, this
Court determined that if CEA had to comply with these mandates, its members
would have to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs which is an
impermissible exercise under the First Amendment and RFRA.”</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
judge stated that “CEA’s sincerely held religious belief is that male and
female are immutable realities defined by biological sex and that gender
reassignment is contrary to Christian Values.” He also noted the government’s
position is that there is a compelling interest to protect access to these
procedures and services for “transgender” patients.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Judge
Traynor stated, “Even if the Court were to accept the [government’s] purpose
for the mandates as a compelling interest, the [government] failed to provide
any evidence showing this policy was the only feasible means to achieve its
compelling interest.”</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In
addition, the judge identified that the threat of “harsh consequences” such as
fines and civil liability for not abiding by the mandates “substantially
burdened” CEA’s religious beliefs beyond a “compelling government interest” to
burden those beliefs.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“Because
CEA and its members are losing freedoms guaranteed by RFRA, they have per se
irreparable harm,” concluded Judge Traynor.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
judge’s order permanently restrains the EEOC and HHS from interpreting or
enforcing the sex discrimination provisions of Title VII and the ACA in a
manner that would force the CEA to perform or provide insurance coverage for
medically mutilating procedures.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Liberty
Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “All employers are protected by
the Constitution to conduct their business according to their sincerely held
religious beliefs. The government cannot simply ignore or overrule the rights
of believers as protected by the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom
Restoration Act. This ruling confirms the broad protections available to people
of faith to align their business conduct to their beliefs.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5005079020176525253.post-79826558909648323652024-03-07T12:45:00.003-06:002024-03-07T12:45:29.540-06:00After He Blew Whistle on Gender Treatments for Minors, Federal Government Came After Him<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #3c3c3c; font-size: 14pt;">By
Virginia Allen, </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #3c3c3c; font-size: 14pt;">The Daily Signal</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #3c3c3c; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #3c3c3c; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/01/16/texas-doctor-blew-whistle-on-hospitals-transgender-procedures-now-bidens-feds-are-persecuting-him/"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #0093d0; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Dr. Eithan Haim</span></a> was completing his surgical
training at Texas Children’s Hospital in the spring of 2023. On a Friday
morning in June, just before graduation, a knock came on Haim’s door. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; float: none; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #3c3c3c; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“I open it, [and] standing outside there are two
federal agents with [the Department of] Health and Human Services,” Haim
recalls.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; float: none; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #3c3c3c; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">The surgeon says he was told he was under
investigation in a case involving medical records. Just one month earlier, Haim
had worked with journalist </span><a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/author/christopher-f-rufo/" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; transition: color 0.25s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #0093d0; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Christopher Rufo</span></a><span style="color: #3c3c3c; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> to blow the whistle on Texas
Children’s Hospital in Houston and its gender treatments for minors. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; float: none; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #3c3c3c; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In 2022, <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/tag/greg-abbott/" style="transition: color 0.25s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #0093d0; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Texas Gov. Greg Abbott</span></a>, a Republican, took steps to
ensure that hospitals in Texas weren’t performing such procedures. As a result,
the Texas Children’s Hospital announced that it had stopped doing the gender
procedures on kids; inside the hospital, Haim says, he was seeing a different
story. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; float: none; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #3c3c3c; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The hospital “took away all the public-facing
indications that the program was still active,” Haim says, adding that “the
hospital is telling the public this program no longer exists, but within the
hospital, they’re prioritizing it to the highest level.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; float: none; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #3c3c3c; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“So the directors of the program that supposedly did
not exist were speaking at the hospital’s most prestigious lecture series seven
months after that statement [in which] they said they were shutting it down,”
the surgeon says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; float: none; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #3c3c3c; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">After the <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/tag/weaponization-of-the-federal-government/" style="transition: color 0.25s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #0093d0; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">federal
government</span></a> launched its investigation of Haim, he decided to
come forward and identify himself as the whistleblower at Texas Children’s
Hospital. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; float: none; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #3c3c3c; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Asked where the investigation against him stands
now, Haim says he doesn’t know, and adds that the federal government has
“nothing.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; float: none; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: .25in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #3c3c3c; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“But what’s going to happen now is we’re going to do
everything we can, [with] every fiber of my being, to hold them accountable,”
Haim says. “We’re never going to stop until we succeed. So they thought they
were going to intimidate me. They thought I was going to bend the knee to their
evil ideology, like most doctors would have done. But as they were coming to
find out, they had knocked on the wrong door.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: white; float: none; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 1.125rem; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: 1.625rem; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; vertical-align: baseline; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #3c3c3c; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Haim joins this episode of “<a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/podcasts/" style="transition: color 0.25s ease-in-out 0s;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #0093d0; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">The Daily Signal Podcast</span></a>” to explain why he is so
passionate about defending minors from these dangerous medical procedures and
standing against what he sees as the federal government’s intimidation
tactics. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Mike Mannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146902226737205177noreply@blogger.com0