Biden: Undermining women’s sports, privacy, and safety

 By Robert G. Marshall 

Joe Biden noted on his presidential campaign website: “On his first day in office, Biden will reinstate the Obama-Biden guidance revoked by the Trump-Pence Administration, which will restore transgender access to sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity.” During the campaign he stated there should be “no discrimination” against 8-year-olds who want to “change” their gender.

President Trump had stopped the Obama-Biden trans-sex policies compelling all public elementary and secondary schools and colleges to see that “transgender students … participate in such activities and access such facilities consistent with their gender identity.”

Problem

On January 20, Inauguration Day, Biden issued an executive order to “prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation, and to fully enforce Title VII and other laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.”

Biden’s policy will remove sports scholarships and other life-advancement opportunities from young women or girls and allow men or boys who “identify” as women to gain the upper hand and jeopardize the personal safety of women.

Will President Biden console parents when their 115 pound daughter is run over by a 210 pound guy “transitioning” to “female” playing on a “girls” soccer, lacrosse or basketball team, or when their daughter is sexually assaulted in a unisex locker, as has happened? Why subject women and girls to such abuse?

A 2019 Washington Post article quoted eighteen-time Tennis Grand Slam winner Martina Navratilova, Duke Law School professor and track star Doriane Coleman, and NBC Sports analyst and four-time Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross strongly disagreeing with Biden’s “unisex” sports mandate:

Title IX…requires educational institutions that receive federal money to provide separate programs and opportunities for females based on sex…because sex segregation is the only way to achieve equality for girls and women in competitive athletics….

Sport…is a public space where the relevance of sex is undeniable, and where pretending that it is irrelevant…will cause the very harm Title IX was enacted to address.…

The evidence is unequivocal that starting in puberty, in every sport except sailing, shooting and riding, there will always be significant numbers of boys and men who would beat the best girls and women in head-to-head competition. Claims to the contrary are simply a denial of science.

Students who value personal privacy who do not want to disrobe in front of men (who identify as women or vice versa) or take showers with them will undoubtedly be called bigots and hate-mongers, but Biden’s policy will absolutely increase sexual assaults on women.

Does Joe Biden remember reciting the words of the Lord’s Prayer, “…lead us not into temptation…” when he attended St. Paul’s Catholic Elementary School during the 1950s in Scranton, Pennsylvania?

One Solution

Citizens can stop President Biden’s attempt to threaten women and overrule Nature by contacting Members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to demand that no tax money be spent to implement Biden’s anti-woman Executive orders.

A president’s Executive Order cannot take effect without federal funds. Both parties have regularly restricted using federal dollars; some examples of which follow:

• Cut off military funding which halted the American support of the Vietnam war which led to the Fall of Saigon in 1975;
• Prohibit Medicaid funding of abortion on demand via the Hyde Amendment in 1976;
• Prohibit funds to assist anti-communists to overthrow the Communist government in Angola in 1975-76;
• Prohibit federal monies from paying for abortion in the District of Columbia, and the Military in the late 1970‘s (Rep. Dornan);
• Banned the use of tax funds to assist Contra rebel groups from overthrowing the Nicaraguan government in 1982.

The “transgender” agenda is encroaching at a record pace. The British Broadcasting Corporation had an “education” presentation for school children between ages 9 and 12, claiming there are “over 100 genders.”

Joe Biden gave federal agencies 100 days to impose his transgender mandate on America! Those who oppose this policy can ask their like-minded neighbors and family members to contact their own federal representatives and senators to demand that no tax dollars be used to implement Biden’s “transgender” mandates in our elementary and secondary schools and colleges.

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CatholicCulture.org is not a political action organization but, in furtherance of its Catholic mission, authorizes free distribution of this analysis of political initiatives which violate a Catholic understanding of the human person. For those unfamiliar with how to contact their Senators and Representatives, we also provide the following public links to their email addresses and local phone numbers:

• Find Your Representative
• Find Your US Senator

Bob Marshall served 26 years in the Virginia House of Delegates and was the chief House sponsor of the 2006 voter-approved Virginia Marriage Amendment and a ban on late term abortion. He recently wrote Reclaiming the Republic: How Christians and Other Conservatives Can Win Back America (TAN Books). Previously, he co-authored Blessed are the Barren, a social history of Planned Parenthood (Ignatius Press). Finally, don’t miss Bob’s Civics Lesson for Catholics in the Catholic Culture Podcast Episode 17. See the full bio. 

 

Today's program (Jan. 28) -- Faith On Trial on Iowa Catholic Radio

EPISODE NOTES

Guest #1 Christopher Dodson, Executive Director and General Counsel for the North Dakota Catholic Conference

Topic: North Dakota lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require priests to violate the seal of confession or face jail time in the state. The measure would remove the ministerial exception from mandatory reporting laws related to child abuse, requiring priests to report knowledge or suspicion of abuse even if it arose from the context of sacramental confession. 

Guest #2 Dr. Matthew Bunson, Executive Editor of EWTN News

Topic: How President Biden's executive orders on gender, life, and religious liberty will impact Catholics and people of faith.

Americans’ Lack Of Trust In Each Other Is Getting Dangerous

Americans’ Lack Of Trust In Each Other Is Getting Dangerous: Not nearly enough attention has been spent on why many Americans have come to believe that ‘the other side’ will destroy the country if it gets power.

Putting the Capitol Invasion, Joe Biden, and American Politics in Perspective

Putting the Capitol Invasion, Joe Biden, and American Politics in Perspective

Maoist Roots Of Deprogramming

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue 

The Catholic League, like all advocacy organizations, makes maximum use of its First Amendment right to freedom of speech. To this extent, the increasing calls for censorship of organizations that espouse traditional moral views is worrisome.

We live in a time of unparalleled attacks on free speech, emanating from establishment sources, including the media. One might think that the media, which does not exist without freedom of speech, would be reflexively opposed to censorship, but not anymore. In many cases, those who work in the media are leading the charge to silence what it sees as its opposition.

This is much more dangerous than the McCarthyism of the 1950s: the variety of tactics being advocated today extends far beyond anything the senator from Wisconsin had in mind. For example, calls to deprogram Trump supporters is now one of the most popular strategies for silencing any organization that has praised Trump's record.

The Catholic League has lauded Trump's policies on religious liberty. We will continue to do so. But we know that our critics are not content to disagree—they would like to deprogram us, if they could. Though calls for deprogramming are now routine, they began last summer.

Last summer, failed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said those on the left should view Trump supporters, and especially those who worked in the administration, as candidates for deprogramming. A few days later, CNN's Don Lemon targeted all of those who voted for Trump in 2016. "And I think a lot of people need to be deprogrammed, right now, before they cast their next ballots."

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich showed his fondness for Stalinist tactics a few weeks before the election. "When this nightmare is over," he tweeted, "we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It would erase Trump's lies, comfort those who have been harmed by his hatefulness, and name every official, politician, executive, and media mogul whose greed and cowardice enabled this catastrophe."

After the election, the totalitarians went into high gear, zeroing in on Trump voters. David Atkins, a prominent California Democratic operative, said he knew exactly what he wanted to do, but was unsure how to do it. "No seriously…how 'do' you deprogram 75 million people?" He asked, "We have to start thinking in terms of post-WWII Germany or Japan."

Harvard students, who would never consider themselves to be the unwitting dupes of brainwashing, called for reeducation and moral rehabilitation camps. A Bernie Sanders employee was caught in a Project Veritas sting saying, "we need to send all the Republicans to the reeducation camps." Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she wanted to "deradicalize" those who were "radicalized" by Trump.

One of the most clarion calls to deprogram Trump supporters came when Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said, "there are millions of Americans, almost all white, almost all Republicans, who somehow need to be deprogrammed"; he added that they are members of a ''Trumpist cult." Former "Today Show" host Katie Couric also voiced her support for deprogramming, arguing the need to deal with those "who have signed up for the cult of Trump."

An attorney for Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) went too far even for his left-wing employer when he set his sights on the kids. Caught by Project Veritas, Michael Beller announced, "We go for all the Republican voters, and Homeland Security will take their children away. And we'll put them [Trump supporters' children] in re-education camps." He was subsequently fired. He should move to North Korea.

The roots of deprogramming are found in Maoism. Once Mao Zedong seized power in 1949, he moved quickly to launch the first of his "thought control" campaigns. Everyone from intellectuals to housewives were chosen for "self-education and ideological remoulding of the liberated people."

Under Mao, "thought reform" reached a level the world had never seen before. It was a U.S. foreign correspondent, Edward Hunter, who in 1951 wrote a book, "Brainwashing in Red China," that detailed the workings of "thought reform." Ten years later, American professor of psychiatry Robert Jay Lifton wrote, "Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism." It became a classic.

Lifton fingered two key elements of "thought reform." The first was "confession, the exposure and renunciation of the past and present 'evil.'" The second was "re-education," or the "remaking of a man in the Communist image." To cite one example, young Chinese students had to confess how wrong they were to respect their parents—they were forced to denounce them. That set the stage for their re-education.

Do people like Katie Couric have any idea what they are promoting when they call for deprogramming? Do they know that there is nothing more totalitarian than having government send in agents to police our minds?

The Catholic League will never yield in its fight for freedom of speech. We need all the allies we can get.

 

This Thursday (Jan. 28) on Faith On Trial

Christopher Dodson, executive director and general counsel for the North Dakota Catholic Conference on the legislature’s consideration of a bill that would remove the ministerial exception from mandatory reporting laws relating to child abuse, thus requiring priests to violate the seal of the confession.

Dr. Matthew Bunson, executive editor of EWTN News on how the new executive orders from President Biden on life, gender, and religious liberty will impact Catholics and people of faith.

All at 10 a.m. (central) on Iowa Catholic Radio, 1150 AM; 88.5 & 94.5 FM; streaming on IowaCatholicRadio.com; or just download our free and convenient app.

How The Ruling Class Fueled The Capitol Riot

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue

Any investigation of the Capitol riot on January 6 must start by asking what provoked these men and women to act. While thousands showed up, roughly 200 of them managed to enter the Capitol. That small portion of Trump supporters must be held accountable, but we can't get to the bottom of this until we understand why most of the crowd—the non-violent ones—were there in the first place. 

What fueled the anger of this mob were many things, among them being the passive reaction of the ruling class to the wave of violence that encapsulated American cities in 2020. The police were told to stand down and prosecutors refused to hold the rioters accountable. When Americans saw their flags being burned, cops attacked, stores looted, and police stations set on fire—with no pushback—they knew the anarchists were winning. What they witnessed was a total collapse of authority. 

It was worse than this. Mobs took sledgehammers to statues of American icons, and trashed historic landmarks. The anarchists, most of whom were white, took great delight in sticking it to the American people. Religious symbols were also targeted. Catholic churches, schools and graveyards were vandalized, and statues of saints were toppled. All of this was done with impunity, week after week, month after month. 

The decision by Democrats in urban areas to allow their cities to be destroyed by Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters must be investigated. City mayors, city councils and city prosecutors—along with their counterparts at the state level—must be held accountable for their role in fanning the flames. They set the stage for January 6. Did they really think there would be no pushback?  

Democrats act as though the origin of the Capitol riot rests with Trump and his supporters. But choosing to focus exclusively on the rioters is myopic. It would be like focusing exclusively on the black rioters of the 1960s without ever addressing the social and economic conditions that inspired them to act. If the reason why blacks rioted in the 1960s was in response to long-standing grievances, why is it so implausible to believe that the Capitol riot was in response to long-standing grievances in the white working class community? 

One part of the probe must explain why the white working class has been demonized by the ruling class. To be specific, those who work in the media, the entertainment industry, colleges and universities, Big Tech and Wall Street have long exhibited an animus against these Trump supporters. We need to get to the origins of their pathology. 

The ruling class shares a strong anti-Christian bias. Throwing around terms like Christian Nationalism are designed to marginalize Christian voters, suggesting they are engaged in some kind of conspiracy to take over the nation. This is all madness, but it is a madness embraced by pundits and the media. 

Many of the working class are veterans, and are proudly patriotic. But patriotism is seen as provincial by elites, if not worse. Of course, most of those in the ruling class have never served a day in their life. Many are embarrassed by their country, which is why smashing American symbols and burning the American flag doesn't bother them. 

The working class is acutely aware of how the ruling class sees them. When they are called "Nazis" by TV commentators, and when their president is compared to Osama bin Laden by Democratic congressmen, it incenses them. That few in authority call out these lunatics for their lies is just as bad. 

What really gets under the skin of blue-collar workers is the sight of white privileged men and women joining Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters in burning down our cities. To cite one example, it is nauseating to watch young white brats, at least half of whom are women, leave their tony Brooklyn neighborhoods so they can take over bridges and tie up traffic. None had a permit to protest and none practiced social distancing norms. 

To sum up, the root cause of white working class fury is traceable to how the Left destroyed our cities while the ruling class looked away; this is still going on in Oregon and Washington. The fact is that leading Democrats in major urban areas nurtured a year-long culture of violence, and it was this reality that played a major role in enticing Trump supporters to swing into action. Moreover, not once in the four days of the Democratic National Convention did anyone even make reference to the anarchists. 

The sooner we get on with a serious investigation—not the kind of political farce being considered—the sooner we can prevent the kind of mayhem that took place on January 6 from ever happening again. 

Media Blackout of Nazi-Like Event: what happened at a pro-life Mass on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue

In the 1930s, Nazis routinely invaded religious services at synagogues. There have been many copycat events in the United States since that time, most of which have taken place in Catholic churches. The latest incident took place on January 22, the 48th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion-on-demand. 

The venue was St. Joseph Cathedral in Columbus, Ohio. While Columbus Bishop Robert Brennan was celebrating a pro-life Mass, a group of protesters stormed the cathedral. They held up pro-abortion signs and chanted anti-Catholic slogans, leaving Catholics in attendance in a state of shock. 

Bishop Brennan thanked the Columbus Police for acting swiftly to restore order and before anyone was hurt. He also expressed his admiration and thanks to those who endured this event. 

There are two major stories here. One is the decision by anti-Catholic protesters to crash the Mass; the other is the media blackout. 

One TV station, 10WBNS (the local CBS affiliate), covered this story. One local paper, the Columbus Dispatch, made mention of what happened. Catholic News Agency, LifeSite and Breitbart also did a story on the protest. That was it. 

Where were the major media outlets in Ohio? Where was the Associated Press? Where were the cable TV news stories? 

When a Nazi-like event takes place in 2021, and the media respond with a yawn, it means either they don't care what happens to Catholics or they find it vaguely amusing. That would be the generous view. 

A less generous interpretation would be that the church busting was deserved. The media are on a roll demonizing what they call White Christian Nationalists, an ill-defined group of people who are allegedly seeking to take command of America. So when fascists crash a Catholic Mass—especially one that honors pro-life Catholics—it is hard for the media to get worked up about it. 

A recent poll shows that less than half the public trusts the media. That lack of trust is a function of distorted news stories, instances when editorializing is substituted for hard news. It is also attributable to glaring instances of omission. Add what happened at St. Joseph's Cathedral in Columbus to the latter list.  

America united?

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) Joe Biden chose “America United” as the theme for his inauguration. Unfortunately, in his first test of leadership as president-elect, Mr. Biden has failed miserably to live up to that theme. Instead he allowed his party to gin up more hate, more disunion, and more distrust in the new administration.

He and his party have done the unthinkable: impeached President Trump during the last week of his term. And they have done so by using the most degrading vitriol imaginable. And it didn’t come from the riot at the Capitol; it had been well practiced weeks beforehand.

It was sedition, they claimed, an uprising against the United States, a coup, an insurrection; Trump and his fellow anarchists are traitors who should be punished — or so said the party line. Where did that come from? The idea was planted well before January 6.

In the days and weeks leading up to the congressional meeting to count the Electoral College votes, several members of Congress announced that they were going to try to challenge the electors from several states where they had concerns about the integrity of their elections. And while the media, liberal commentators, and intelligentsia were uniform in pooh-poohing that argument, there were plenty of folks who were legitimately concerned about the conduct of the election.

They had a right to be concerned. State election laws were being changed by individual election officials contrary to provisions of state law; many places were sending out live ballots wholesale without regard to any safety controls; ballot counting was suspended and when all the poll watchers left for the night magically new ballots were found, counted, and appeared to be all for one candidate; signature verifications of ballots were ignored, and numerous other problems infected the returns.

And to top it off, courts, when not dismissing challenges over technical issues, simply refused to fully hear the evidence. Case in point was the Supreme Court who refused to hear the challenges to the non-legislative changes in Pennsylvania’s election law both before and after the election.

In short, whether or not you believe that there were serious irregularities in the election, there were enough legitimate issues that were not resolved. Thus, numerous senators and congressmen announced that they would challenge the results of several states and ask for an audit of their returns. What they were asking for was fully within the law; in fact, there was a specific congressional rule that set out the procedure to do so; a procedure that several Democrats had used during the 2016 Electoral College count.

However, for the leftists among us that was a bridge too far. Beginning well before the day of the count, leftist ideologues were on social media claiming that those who raised questions about the election were engaged in sedition and should be punished. Some suggested jail, others that the offenders should be kicked off social media. One enterprising gent suggested that they should be put on the no-fly list.

When I saw that stuff starting to percolate on social media, I asked one of my “friends” how raising the question was sedition. The response was overwhelming. It was an attempted coup, it was treason against the United States. The same verbiage we would hear during and after the Capitol riot: sedition, treason, coup, insurrection.

Interestingly, one thing changed before the sedition argument went mainstream. There was an election in Georgia the day before the count and in it the Democrats took control of the Senate which gave them control of both houses of Congress and the presidency.

Then came the Trump rally on January 6, timed to coincide with the vote count which, in retrospect, might have been bad timing since one side was becoming very agitated about the whole matter. Mr. Trump asked for a peaceful march to the Capitol, and then suggested that Vice President Pence had the authority to somehow correct the vote. He didn’t, but many in the crowd thought he did. That was the president’s mistake. The mistake for which he was later accused of lying.

What happened next is anyone’s guess. Apparently some demonstrators were allowed to enter the Capitol; in some places the barriers preventing their entry were removed. In the building some videos show the demonstrators holding banners walking in line as if following a tour. However, others were not as genteel. They climbed the building’s parapets and broke windows to get in, then caused as much confusion and damage as possible.

Whether or how many anarchists were mixed in with the Trump supporters egging them on or not might never be fully known. But clearly, on the surface, it was a political rally that got way out of control and fed on the frustration of the Trump supporters who reacted accordingly.

Of course a riot at the Capitol was like any other crisis — it was to be used to somebody’s advantage. Now the political storm followed, with most of social media closing off Mr. Trump’s ability to speak to his followers. Platforms were closed to any individual or group who challenged the sedition narrative. In Congress there were serious calls to demand the resignations of any member who sought to challenge the vote, and if no resignation was forthcoming, they should be expelled.

And the doozy: the impeachment of a president who had only a week remaining in his term. Passions are high. Conservatives whose voices are being banned remember all too well the last four years where Mr. Trump was vilified as racist, a Russian troll, and any other name the left used to tag him. Johnny Depp asked, “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president,” to audience applause. Kathy Griffin posted a photo with an image of her holding the severed head of the president. A New York theater group staged Julius Caesar using a Trump look-alike as the title character who was murdered. And so it went.

Last summer, as violence broke out in many cities, the looters who burned down entire city blocks were defended by the left as peaceful protesters. Police were racist, there was systemic racism in the nation, police must be defunded, or so they said. Yet no leading Democrat condemned that rioting until some of the poll numbers started to surface. And then many party elders, including then Sen. Kamala Harris, urged followers to contribute to bail funds to spring those jailed in the wake of the riots.

And all this time, the left and the media considered Mr. Trump and his followers as one and the same. They hated him, so they hated us. We now need to go to reeducation camps to purge our antiquated ides and beliefs. Naturally, anyone who had anything to do with Trump must be canceled; even Forbes magazine says it will investigate any company that hires anyone who worked for the Trump administration.

Frustration? You bet. And what is the response from Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the rest? They poured gasoline on a dumpster fire. I wonder if this is Mr. Biden’s version of America united. It’s not mine.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday at 10 a.m. CT on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)

Why the Left Has To Suppress Free Speech

Why the Left Has To Suppress Free Speech: Let us begin with this fact: The left always suppresses speech. Since Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, there has been no...

This week's Faith On Trial

January 21 program – recorded today:

EPISODE NOTES

Guest #1 John Bursch - Alliance Defending Freedom, Vice President of Appellate Advocacy and Senior Counsel defending the Thomas More Society over California's Donor Disclosure law. 

Guest #2 Douglas Blair, works at the Heritage Foundation, and is a graduate of Heritage's Young Leadership program. His articles have appeared in The Daily Signal.  They are discussing  the use of cartoons to target kids for indoctrination by the left; here's how the leftist are targeting kids.

Unity?

By Brian Burch, president of Catholic Vote

Joe Biden is President…

A Catholic president -- who supports killing unborn children.

He’s got big plans, including restarting the attack on the Little Sisters, gutting core religious freedoms for our Church, penalizing Catholic schools, and shaming those who oppose him as “domestic terrorists.”

There is no whitewashing this: It’s a national scandal to our Church.

Of course charity and hope require that we extend our prayers for the new President. We pray for his success in all things noble and good. And yes, we also pray that his worst plans will fail miserably. As we should. Above all, we pray for his conversion. The light of baptism still flickers in his soul, despite the truly reprehensible policies he has promised. With God all things are possible!

But unity?

In his inaugural address, President Biden spoke of the need for unity. He’s right, America is divided like never before. The cheap excuse offered by the media and the Left is to blame President Trump and his supporters. Yet anyone paying attention knows Joe Biden and the progressive Left have divided America based on race, gender, income, religion, and more for decades. Just ask Clarence Thomas.

All white people are racists. Defenders of life are enemies of women’s health. Biology is a form of bigotry. Religion is hate. Anyone who voted for Trump is an insurrectionist. We could go on...

Unity is a nice buzzword. But unity, grounded in truth, is the only thing worth defending.

Moments ago, we learned that USCCB President Archbishop Jose Gomez had prepared a statement to be released this morning. The statement welcomed the new President, but also warned Biden’s agenda would advance “moral evils” on several fronts -- from abortion to transgender ideology to attacks on religious freedom.

Gomez’s statement was set to be released at 9am -- just as Biden was attending Mass before his inauguration.

But according to media reports, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark called the Vatican to intervene. These cardinals convinced the Vatican Secretary of State’s office to stop Gomez’s statement from being released.

Thankfully, The Pillar obtained a copy of Gomez’s statement:

“[A]s pastors, the nation’s bishops are given the duty of proclaiming the Gospel in all its truth and power, in season and out of season, even when that teaching is inconvenient or when the Gospel’s truths run contrary to the directions of the wider society and culture.

“So, I must point out that our new President has pledged to pursue certain policies that would advance moral evils and threaten human life and dignity, most seriously in the areas of abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender. Of deep concern is the liberty of the Church and the freedom of believers to live according to their consciences.”

As I write this, the USCCB -- perhaps bowing to public pressure -- has now finally released the statement in full.

The Biden presidency is an open challenge to those bishops who take seriously their role of defending the Faith and teaching the Truth.

They will be tested. Please pray for them.

If you are inclined to despair, I urge you to find solace in the lives of the saints -- those who embraced the call to holiness often amidst much suffering and hardship. God rules all.

Above all, I join you today in praying for fortitude. Not brashness, and not cowardice disguised as unity. Real fortitude. The kind of fortitude the Catechism explains with this passage from Scripture:

“The Lord is my strength and my song.”

“In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer…" 

“I have overcome the world."

This Thursday on Faith On Trial on Iowa Catholic Radio

John Bursch, vice president of appellate advocacy with the Alliance Defending Freedom, on the status of a challenge to California’s donor disclosure law which could cripple non-profits by making them vulnerable to the cancel culture.

Douglas Blair of the Heritage Foundation on how the left is using classrooms and even cartoons to indoctrinate you children.

10 a.m. Thursday central time on Iowa Catholic Radio 1150 AM; 88.5 & 94.5 FM; streaming on IowaCatholicRadio.com, and available on our free app.

Who started the violence?

By Judie Brown

President of American Life League                                                                                                               

The January 6 events in our nation’s capital have provoked comments from nearly everyone, including those who claim that “pro-life terrorism” fueled the riots. As ridiculous as that may sound, we cannot overlook the fact that even Jesuit Fr. James Martin agreed, saying that priests and bishops should apologize for their use of terms such as intrinsic evil to define the act of abortion. Martin claimed such words incite violence because such words are contemptuous and dehumanizing.

While bishops like Knoxville’s bishop, Richard Stika, tweeted disagreement with Martin, it seems to me that there is a fundamental truth in all this that has not been addressed, specifically by the media. Why does such violence occur? That is the real question.

And the answer resides in Catholic teaching, namely that sin manifests its violence in many ways, whether through the crucifixion of Christ or through countless other offenses against God, each combining with all others to create “structures of sin.”

So, the “who” is actually the devil, and the “what” constitutes every conceivable action, word, or thought that is contrary to God’s divine goodness. You see, the violence of January 6 is not an isolated incident but rather a result.

Why else would abortion practitioner Leah Torres refer to pro-life leader Lila Rose as a terrorist merely because she tweeted “abortion is violence”? Torres kills people for a living, yet she points a finger at Rose!

Further, why would pro-life hero David Daleiden find it necessary to document in a series of tweets the atrocities that occur when aborted baby bodies are harvested? In one of over 30 comments on Twitter, Daleiden tells us: “During President Trump’s administration the Justice Department prosecuted an eagle body parts trafficking case in South Dakota,” yet we know that they failed to prosecute the well-documented practice of treating aborted baby body parts like merchandise on an assembly line!

The eagle is more esteemed in our culture today than our preborn brothers and sisters. And we wonder why there is violence in our streets!

There is something so fundamentally wrong in our nation today that no one should be naïve enough to believe that politicians will somehow find a way out of this morass. We are confronting a moral apocalypse, not a political one.

It is Christ Himself, His bishops, and His priests who must help us, inspire us, and move us forward on our way back to peace.

Sean Fitzpatrick recently wrote: “Catholics must lead the work of restoration by looking to their faith, their families, their vocations, and their communities; they must tend them well. As Voltaire concluded his satire, Candide, ‘Let us cultivate our garden.’” 

Along the same lines, Fr. Matthew Habiger, OSB, opined: “The best way to restore unity in the nation is to publicly acknowledge our God-given rights to life, liberty and the common good. And the pivotal point is to stop abortion, the greatest violence in the nation.”

As we strive to tend our gardens and shine the light of truth on the culture of death that has driven our nation to this disquieting moment, know this: The devil started the violence, but through our faith and courage in Christ we can work to end it. God be with us all

Deacon Mike Manno’s homily Sunday January 17, 2021

The audio and video do not quite sync properly in this video but you can still understand what is being said. It starts with the proclamation of the Gospel, John 1:35-42. The earlier reading on the call of Samuel was from Samuel 3.3b-10, 19. It is from the 10 a.m. Mass at St. Augustin Catholic Church, Des Moines, Iowa.    

Heroic Catholicism Vs. Cheap Grace

By DEACON MIKE MANNO

(The Wanderer) A couple of years ago, while we were engaged in some turbulent times in our nation, I remember there was a priest who called for heroic Catholicism during those difficult times. I mentioned it in a homily I gave at the time, but have heard very little about it since.

I’m now given to wonder if there is any heroic Catholicism. I say that because I am completely dismayed how we Catholics have reacted to the political and religious “wars” being fought in our midst. It seems that too many have taken an easy path to Catholicism, the “go along to get along approach.” We see forcible church closings, gender indoctrination of our children, a Catholic president who is championing the cause for abortion, and so it goes on and on.

Recently I’ve had two encounters with Catholic friends who shrug off the immorality of abortion on demand, the new transgender culture, and attacks on churches, including the Little Sisters of the Poor, as nothing to be concerned about. And to cap it off, they degraded my views as inconsequential and non-Christian (one even told me, “I used to respect you”) while all the time cheering on the socialists’ victories in Georgia.
Certainly this was not heroic Catholicism, not as I understand it anyway. But beyond that, it raises the question: What is heroic Catholicism? And what happens when we do not live as heroic Catholics?

Nearly 90 years ago the National Socialist (Nazi) Party, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, took control of Germany. It obtained that control legally, but once in power it began its diabolical rule, stifling dissent, arresting clerics, harassing Jews, and replacing the worship of God with the cult of Adolf; and it did so rather easily as too many Germans were afraid to speak up. This gave rise to Martin Niemoller’s chilling poem, First they came for the Jews….

At about that same time, a Lutheran theologian in Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, did speak up. In 1937, before the outbreak of hostilities, he wrote a book, The Cost of Discipleship, in which he opined that when Christ calls, He bids you to die with Him. In the first chapter of that book, he discusses what he calls “cheap grace,” where he describes Christians who, while believers, are lackadaisical in their faith. He writes:
“Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. . . . The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. . . . Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. . . .

“Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian ‘conception’ of God. And intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. . . . In such a church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin.

“Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner.
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, Baptism without Church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

Then he turns to what he terms “costly grace.” It is, he writes, “the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has….It is the kingly rule of Christ, for the sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows Him.

“Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow Him,” he writes. What he is talking about here is heroic Christianity. A Christianity that does not slump and bend to the world, but faces it, even in times of great crisis.
Even though Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran, he was not anti-Catholic. In fact, he had a great admiration for the Church and had once briefly considered conversion. He spent much of his time in 1923 in Rome, attended Mass daily, and even had his own missal. Much of his time writing was done in Catholic monasteries where he actively engaged the monks in theological discussions.

In one of his monastery books, Ethics, he wrote about abortion: “The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.”

Eric Metaxas, author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, told Catholic News Agency in 2012, “Bonhoeffer’s relevance to us today is staggering, and I confess that when I began writing the book I had no idea I would stumble over so many powerful parallels to our own situation. The story of Bonhoeffer is a primer on the burning issue of what the limits of the state are.” What Bonhoeffer faced at the time was that the “state was trying to take over the German church and only a few brave souls like Bonhoeffer were up to the battle. We would do well to take our lead from him in our own battle on that front,” Metaxas said.

Heroic Catholicism is standing up for your faith, defending it even when unpopular to do so. And now it is needed more than ever, for as the prophet wrote centuries ago: “Right is repelled, and justice stands far off. For truth stumbles in the public square, uprightness cannot enter. Honesty is lacking and the man who turns from evil is despoiled” (Isaiah 59:14-15).

Does that describe today?

Of course we have to pray; this is not the time to shrink from that. But as the old adage says, pray like everything depends on God and work as if everything depends on you. Reach back for that costly grace and get out of your comfort zone, speaking up even when you voice a minority position.

On April 9, 1945, while the Reich was collapsing, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was taken by the Black Guards, at the direct order of Heinrich Himmler, and hung at Flossenburg Concentration Camp as an enemy of the state.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday morning at 10 CT on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)

 

This week on Faith On Trial

Faith On Trial on Iowa Catholic Radio

Using cartoons to target kids for indoctrination? The Equality Act and other measures that will inhibit religious freedom. 10 a.m. Thursday on IowaCathlicRadio.com.

Free Speech Under Assault

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue

The censoring of Parler by Amazon, Google and Apple is the most serious assault on freedom of speech we have ever seen by private companies in American history. Instead of addressing those who are responsible for abusing their free speech rights, e.g. those who are clearly fomenting violence, Big Tech is now seeking to censor conservative voices in general.

For justification, they are following the lead of pundits and activists who are blaming President Trump, and his supporters, for the violence that took place last week in Washington, D.C. The argument is more than absurd—it is pernicious.

Nothing President Trump said last week was in any way an incitement to violence. Indeed, it was protected speech under the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court has been very clear about its rulings on this matter. 

In 1946, Father Arthur Terminiello, a suspended priest, made an incendiary speech in Chicago wherein he attacked Jews and President Franklin Roosevelt. He not only got the crowd in the auditorium all jacked up, he stoked the passions of his foes who were outside the building. They rioted and he was arrested for breaching the peace. 

Terminiello appealed to the Illinois courts, but lost. In 1949, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the lower court rulings. The Justices knew that if overheated rhetoric could be subjected to sanctions because it inflamed those who objected, robust free speech would be squashed: All it would take is the threat of a riot to censor objectionable speech. In other words, those who riot are to blame for their behavior, not the speaker whom they loathe. 

In 1964, Clarence Brandenburg, a Ku Klux Klan officer, made racist and anti-Semitic remarks at a meeting in Cincinnati. He was arrested for urging his followers to seek revenge against blacks and Jews. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction on free speech grounds. He could only be sanctioned, the high court reasoned, if it could be shown that he deliberately incited lawlessness, and that the threat was imminent. 

In rendering this decision, the Supreme Court applied the "clear and present danger" test that it devised in Schneck v. United States in 1919. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that "The question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent." This is the origin of the famous fire in a crowded theater argument: Free speech does not give one the right to falsely scream fire in a crowded theater. 

What Trump said to his followers last week cannot, by these constitutional standards, be construed as an incitement to violence. Never once did he call for violence or an invasion of the Capitol. In fact, the rioters began to crash police barricades while he was still speaking. So much for the "clear and present danger" argument. Moreover, the NYPD and the FBI warned the Capitol Police before January 6 of impending threats, thus making foolish the charge that Trump incited the mob to violence. 

The danger to free speech extends beyond the machinations of Big Tech and the contrived charges of incitement against Trump. Wildly irresponsible accusations have been made by many people who should know better. Comparing Trump to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, as our next president did, was scurrilous. Comparing Trump supporters to Nazis, as the Jewish Democratic Council for America did, was equally outrageous. Fortunately, many responsible Jews condemned both of these charges. 

The indefensible storming of the Capitol is being exploited by those on the left to indict Christians. 

The Atlantic called what happened "a Christian insurrection" and Religion News Service labeled it the work of "Christian nationalists." Americans United for Separation of Church and State blamed "White Christian Nationalists," as did Patheos. Sister Simone Campbell, who thinks abortion should be legal in every instance, noted this was a "white supremacist effort," and America, the Jesuit publication, saw the imprint of white people all over the riot. None of these people consider themselves to be bigots. 

Not to be outdone, the National Catholic Reporter, which rejects many teachings of the Catholic Church (yet still pretends to be Catholic), singled out several Catholics, including me, for having "blood on their hands." Why? Because we have previously touted Trump's policies. That would make 74 million Americans guilty of "blood on their hands." This proves how delirious these extremists have become, making them prime candidates for the asylum. 

One does not have to agree with Trump's decisions last week to know that he never incited a riot. Worse, to brand his supporters Nazis, or to claim they have "blood on their hands," shows how unhinged many of his critics have become. They are a true menace to democracy: they are using Trump as a pretext to stifle the free speech of decent Americans. 

Shattered Trust

By DEACON MIKE MANNO

(The Wanderer) It’s nice to be back after a few weeks battling COVID. Unfortunately, from Thanksgiving through Christmas I’ve been home, away from my writing, and worst of all, away from my post at the Church. It wasn’t a fun experience, but I knew as soon as my wife said to me, “Go get it yourself,” that it was over.

So now I’m back — well, mostly back — thinking again about things that keep me up at night and praying that it’s God’s will that things go back to normal; like maybe 1960 normal! Anyway, as we enter the New Year, it might be a fitting time to mourn the losses that have shattered our trust. Let me take just a few examples:

The Judiciary. It’s going to be tough to continue our trust in a judiciary that has continued to let the country down. Oh I know, the courts have been particularly successful in adjudicating civil matters, especially in the areas of civil and religious freedoms, and have struck big blows for individual rights and First Amendment freedoms.

But remember the big things they’ve missed. When in the midst of what can only be described as the biggest election fraud in history, in which the presidential election hung in the balance, the Supreme Court punted. To its everlasting shame it refused to even hear a case in which the facts and evidence could be presented for all to see. And much of that involved matters brought to it before the election that it also refused to hear.
Chief Justice John Roberts proved himself a true swamp creature by trying to protect the reputation of the court rather than delivering justice; first he prevented the court from hearing the pre-election Pennsylvania case then led the court to reject the post-election case filed by Texas and other states. The result: Without a full, fair, and impartial hearing, too many of our fellow citizens will continue to believe that the election was stolen while officials who could investigate looked the other way.

And, of course, the role of the judiciary wasn’t painted any brighter when a judge and sister of Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat and voting rights advocate who was heavily involved in the presidential election, refused to recuse herself from a case challenging election procedures. The matter was a clear conflict of interest for U.S. District Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner, an Obama appointee, who has shown herself unfit to provide unbiased service.

It’s not my intention to pick on individual judges for their decisions but to indicate that the federal judiciary should be considered every much as swampy as the rest of Washington, D.C. Just one tidbit showing the same comes not from any election dispute but from the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) court, established to oversee surveillance against citizens alleged to be acting on behalf of foreign governments.

We know now that warrants approved by the court to “spy” on President Trump and members of his staff were based on false narratives provided by the Hillary Clinton campaign, and that the Obama Justice Department was fully aware of its falsity. Yet to this day no FISA judge has stepped forward to discipline or hold in contempt any FBI or Justice Department official who perpetrated the fraud. Every federal judge has that inherent authority to investigate such acts. To date none have done so.

Unfortunately it appears to me that the judiciary, especially that part based in Washington, D.C., is part of the deep state swamp.

The Media & Big Tech. If stealing the presidential election, or at least giving that impression wasn’t bad enough, along come the media and big tech to hide the facts from the American people. It seems like every news broadcast carried the same mantra: “There is no evidence of any voter fraud.” Not true and just because John Roberts didn’t want to examine the evidence doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. The bottom line is they lie to you for their own political purposes.

Of course nothing says you’re putting your thumb on the scale then not reporting the Hunter Biden story before the election. And for those who had the gumption to try to publish the truth, they soon found out that they were only spitting in the wind; they lost their platform, were ostracized, and, as we’ve seen before, canceled.
If you want to consider the depth of this problem just remember this: In the 1950s we had Walter Cronkite; today we have Don Lemon.

Listen if you want but understand there are no journalistic ethics in today’s media. All you will get is prepackaged liberal pabulum. The truth is there and it’s free but you’ll have to seek it out for yourself.

The Political Parties. It’s tough to talk about them without singling one out, but both need to be condemned here. On one side the Democrats have shown that they are only interested in pure power. The plot to steal the presidential election was an elaborate effort to use the COVID pandemic to arbitrarily and illegally change laws to loosen restrictions on signature verifications and mail-in ballots — the most easily tampered with ballots — to flood the system with thousands of rigged ballots, enough to swing the election in critical states.

I’ve written about this before. But it hit home during the summer when the Democratic Party started distributing yard signs urging folks to get ready for mail-in voting. As they say, don’t let a good crisis go to waste, and the Dems worked overtime to ensure that “mail-in” became the word — and tool — of the day.

But the Republicans are not without fault. During much of the election they complained but did little to try to stop the blatant and obvious fraud being devised. And when they did the courts were too quick to look the other way on the illegalities taking place.
And naturally, as soon as the “election” was over GOP swamp people were jumping off the wagon to solidify their positions in the pecking order of the D.C. swamp. All done at the cost of our freedoms and to pave the way for the liberal socialist takeover of the United States.

The Church. I don’t want to sound too alarmist, but it seems that many of our bishops only realized the Church will have a problem with an apostate Catholic in the White House after the election. Unfortunately, too many seemed to want to ride the tiger rather than issuing a warning about Mr. Biden’s anti-Catholic policies. Of course now they realize he is not only the most pro-abortion president in history, but his cabinet appointees demonstrate how radical he is on the issue.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra — who also calls himself a Catholic — chosen to be HHS secretary in the Biden Administration is an avowed proponent of abortion on demand.

Becerra collaborated with Planned Parenthood to force crisis pregnancy centers to advertise where free abortions could be obtained, and tried to force employers to cover abortion in their employee health-care plans. He also carried on his predecessor’s policy of persecuting David Daleiden for exposing Planned Parenthood’s illegal business of selling aborted baby parts.

His predecessor, Kamala Harris, one of the most anti-Catholic politicians in the nation, is Mr. Biden’s choice to succeed him, if necessary, as vice president. If confirmed, Becerra will be in a position to reinstate the abortion and contraception mandate that was part of the original Obamacare. Nice!

One by one as Mr. Biden announced his picks, it became clear that each one is as radical on the issue of abortion (and religious liberty) as the new left Democratic Party is. And as we wait to see how this melodrama plays out, our newest cardinal, the archbishop of Washington, D.C., Wilton Gregory, offered Mr. Biden an olive branch. He’ll be happy to allow the new president to receive Holy Communion and hopes to “dialogue” with him about issues of mutual agreement. Translation: that means all prudential issues will be decided according to leftist reasoning. Of course the non-negotiables will be off the table lest the dialogue not be beneficial.

Obviously there are plenty of other candidates for shattered faith — academia, the CDC — but only a few can be mentioned here. The bottom line is 2020 has left us in almost total distrust of the institutions that should be the most resilient and the most dependable in protecting our rights. Unfortunately, for too many that distrust will run deep. If we think the last four years were characterized by division, we haven’t seen anything yet.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him on Faith On Trial every Thursday at 10 a.m. Central on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)

Who Is Guilty Of Inciting Riots?

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue 

In the wake of the storming of the Capitol, many are blaming President Trump for the violence. Of course, he never instructed anyone to engage in violence. Nevertheless, his critics argue that he stoked people's passions, which he did, and can therefore be held accountable. 

If this is the standard—inflammatory rhetoric—then Trump's critics are at best ethically compromised. Consider the following remarks, made by the kind of people who are now hammering the president.

 

• "I need you to get out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face." Presidential candidate Barack Obama, 2008
• "When they go low, we kick 'em. That's what this new Democratic Party is about." Former Attorney General Eric Holder, 2018
• "Let's make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that [Trump] Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they're not welcome anymore, anywhere." Rep. Maxine Waters, 2018
• "Please, get up in the face of some congresspeople." Sen. Cory Booker, 2020
• "People will do what they do." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi commenting on violent protesters, 2020
• "You know, there needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there is unrest in our lives, and unfortunately there is plenty to go around." Rep. Ayanna Pressley, 2020
• "They're [left-wing protesters] not gonna stop before Election Day in November and they're not gonna stop after Election Day. And that should be—everyone should take note of that on both levels, that this isn't, they're not gonna let up and they should not. And we should not." Sen. Kamala Harris, 2020
• "And please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful." CNN host Chris Cuomo, 2020
• "When you see a nation, an entire nation, simultaneously grappling with an extraordinary crisis seeded in 400 years of American racism, I'm sorry, that is not the same question as the understandably aggrieved store owner or the devout religious person who wants to go back to services." New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio justifying illegal street protests that violated social distancing norms while he restricted church services, 2020
• "I can't imagine what it would look like if we said to people, 'Actually, you have to stay in. You have to ignore systemic racism—I'm sorry, just ignore it. Stay in.'" New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy justifying illegal street protests that violated social distancing norms while restricting church services, 2020
• "As public health advocates, we do not condemn these gatherings as risky for COVID-19 transmission. We support them as vital to the national public health and to the threatened health specifically of Black people in the United States." 1200 health and medical colleagues justifying illegal street protests that violated social distancing norms, 2020
• "Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence." Nikole Hannah-Jones, New York Times journalist, 2020
• "We don't have to finger-wag at protesters about property. That can be rebuilt." David Remnick, New Yorker journalist
• "The notion that nonviolence is tactically more effective...has not only been proven wrong over the past week by sheer numbers; it cannot be historically supported." R.H. Lossin, Ph.D., The Nation magazine, 2020
• "A siege [of the White House] only works if it is sustained. We witnessed this—the multiplying power of a strategic occupation—nine years ago. You dig in, hold your ground, and the tension accumulates, amplifies, goes global." Adbusters, the group that started Occupy Wall Street, 2020

Many more examples could be given. In fairness, these comments, while incendiary, are not direct calls for violence. But it is also true that nothing Trump said was a direct call for violence either. 

Left-wing commentators and activists (pretty much the same these days) have no moral authority to lecture the rest of us about violence committed by right-wing protesters. They nurtured a climate of violence over the past year by giving Antifa and Black Lives Matter their blessings. 

If they were principled, they would do as the Catholic League does and condemn violent protesters regardless of their cause. But they are not.