The DEI Disaster

Disastrous’: ‘trans’ child taken from parents

The Court of Appeals of Indiana on Friday affirmed a trial court decision removing a 17-year-old minor from the custody of his parents for their refusal to “affirm” his “female gender identity.” “The case displays the messy, personal qualities in a gender identity crisis, as well as the disastrous implications of permitting the transgender ideology to gain a foothold in law,” writes Joshua Arnold.  READ

Attempt to spike book on Amy Coney Barrett

Roughly 500 members of the literary community published a letter asking Penguin Random House not to publish Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s forthcoming book. The signatories begin their letter by claiming to “care deeply about freedom of speech,” but go on to assert that publishing Barrett’s book would constitute an “assault on inalienable human rights” because she voted to overturn Roe vs. Wade.   READ

As Biden’s DOJ Plays Hardball… The Good Guys Can Still Win

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – One of the festering problems bubbling up across the nation concerns the treatment of children who might have gender dysphoria. Much of the concern deals with how the teachers’ unions and some social service agencies handle the problem which, for far too many kids trapped in the situation, is more of a phase they go through rather than any real medical or psychological problems.

Thus as the liberal left has enshrined itself as the arbiter of good and evil, to which all must bow down, normal childhood development is overlooked in favor of an ongoing quest for the oxymoronic notion involved in something called “social justice.”

We have watched this played out for far too long. But the basic template goes something like this: Schools, social workers, and librarians, as the aforesaid arbiters of good and evil, have determined that gender is a fluid state which can be changed at will when needed to do so. The result is that children, often those associated with loneliness, shyness, an inferiority complex, or the like — which may be caused by many factors from family dynamics to a physical handicap — are seized upon by one of our enlightened betters to indicate that this little boy might be better off as a girl.

Thus the grooming begins. Each element of the school’s sexual education program is emphasized to open a window of acceptance to the shy and lonely little Tom Boy that perhaps her problem might be she was born into the wrong body. And this is usually done without the knowledge of the parents, and often ends up with what something euphemistically referred to as “gender affirming” care and ultimately puberty blocking drugs and sometimes much worse.

Some folks are trying to do something about this and several state legislatures have considered adopting bills banning such activities for minors. One such state that did so was Alabama.

The Alabama legislature worked on the bill, gathering information, through several legislative sessions and finally passed the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Law (VCAP) in 2022. The law bans puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery to alter the biological sex of a minor.

Two entities that supported the VCAP bill were Eagle Forum of Alabama and Southeast Law Institute. They did those things that such organizations do when supporting legislation they favor. They promoted the bill by direct communication with their own members; they issued press releases supporting the measure; they provided the legislature with pertinent information about the issues involved, including medical studies on the question, and raised funds in support of VCAP.

All that was done was typical grass-roots support for a law that the organizations support — as all-American as registering to vote.
Naturally the VCAP was a controversial piece of legislation. The left-wing Trans community opposed it, as well as numerous liberal groups and party. So, as we have seen before, someone filed suit against the state seeking to prevent the new law from taking effect, what is referred to as a pre-enforcement action.

Getting wind of the lawsuit — or perhaps because they knew and encouraged it — the Biden Administration intervened in the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs. Almost immediately the DOJ issued subpoenas to the Eagle Forum and the Southeast Law Institute for a wide range of materials that they used in their support for the passage of VCAP. The range of documents that the Biden Administration demanded was so far reaching that Heritage Foundation expert Zack Smith of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, said:

“It is clear that subpoenas like this one are intended to harass those who are on the conservative side of policy debates in order to chill their speech, deter their active participation in the democratic legislative process, and discourage citizens from contributing to or otherwise affiliating with organizations like the Eagle Forum.

“Such abusive discovery threatens the First Amendment rights of membership organizations to engage in free speech, associate with others who share their beliefs, and speak to their elected representatives and other government officials about public policy issues that concern them.”

This is how the judge described the subpoena in his order quashing it.

“The subpoenas, which generally seek to probe whether the nonparties [Eagle Forum and Southeast Law] helped research and draft the Act, commanded the nonparties to produce eleven categories of evidence: (1) draft and proposed legislation; (2) materials the nonparties considered when preparing such legislation; (3) documents concerning the nonparties’ policy goals; (4) documents provided to the Alabama Legislature; (5) communications with the Alabama Legislature; (6) communications with nongovernmental organizations; (7) records and minutes of meetings; (8) polling and public opinion data; (9) documents related to presentations, videos, interviews, and speeches given by the nonparties’ representatives; (10) mass letters, newsletters, and emails; and (11) social media postings.”

The misuse of the government’s subpoena power was so blatant that during a preliminary hearing to schedule a hearing on the motion to quash, U.S. District Court Judge Liles C. Burke seemed to scold the Justice Department, prefiguring his ultimate ruling on the motion:

“Administrations change every four years, or at least every eight. Is the new standard going to be that these kind of subpoenas go out in legislation to any advocacy organization, and they want emails to their members, they want social media posts, they want things that the group just considered in their advocacy?…Is that where you think the Department of Justice thinks we need to go in this country? Because I promise you this, at some point this will be aimed at the Southern Poverty Law [Center] and the ACLU, and their efforts, as well. Is this where we need to go?”

A close call. In the end, however, it is troubling that the Justice Department would attempt such a stunt, for as Eagle Forum’s attorney Margaret Green wrote to her board before the decision, “If this subpoena is enforced it will have an unprecedented chilling effect on historically protected Constitutional rights and legislative advocacy in Alabama and possibly around America.”

Unfortunately, an un-principled administration, seeking to win at all costs, was willing to trample the rights of private citizens banding together to better their state. This is what we have come to expect from those who are charged with defending the Constitution. Our problem is that unless Congress is willing to step forward we will be subjected to more close calls as this was, until ultimately the unbridled forces of a renegade regime will win and neuter our constitutional system.

Consider this with other recent actions against — not criminal cartels or foreign enemies, but peaceful citizens going about their lives seeking only to influence their political representatives. Take the wrong side and this could be you.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday on Faith On Trial at https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/)

Michigan AG Nessel’s War On Catholics

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue 

Why is Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel continuing her harassment of the Catholic Church? That is what her latest investigation of clergy sexual abuse amounts to, hunting for guilty priests going back over 70 years ago in the Diocese of Marquette. The record shows that this is not an anomaly.

Nessel’s animus against Catholics is palpable and well documented.  

She wasn’t in office for two months before she put Catholics on notice: if they were asked by law enforcement about clergy sexual abuse, they should “ask to see their badge, not their rosary.” She couldn’t wait to get the Catholic Church and intimidate Catholics.

Even before Nessel took office on January 1, 2019, she started her war on Catholics. She flat out said she would not enforce a religious liberty bill that protected the religious freedom of faith-based foster care and adoption services. In fact, she said those Catholics who disagreed with her were part of a “radical fringe” and were “hate mongers.”

Less than three months after she took office, Nessel made good on her anti-Catholic pledge, partnering with the ACLU of Michigan to challenge these Catholic services for children. Indeed, she said she would not defend this state law. In a settlement, she decreed that the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services must end state contracts with faith-based agencies.

Nessel got her comeuppance later in the year when a federal district court judge upheld the religious freedom of St. Vincent Catholic Charities, a  foster care and adoption agency. District court judge Robert Jonker explained in his 32-page ruling that in 2015 the Michigan legislature enacted a law upholding the right of faith-based agencies to adhere to the teachings of their Church.

Jonker wrote that Nessel’s 2018 campaign, coupled with her statements as attorney general, “create a strong inference that the State’s real target is the religious beliefs and confessions of St. Vincent, and not discriminatory conduct.”

Moreover, the judge said, she sought to terminate the state’s contract “simply because St. Vincent adheres to its sincerely held religious belief that marriage is an institution created by God to join a single man to a single woman.” Furthermore, this “strongly suggests that the State’s real goal is not to promote non-discriminatory child placements, but to stamp out St. Vincent’s religious belief” and replace it “with a State-orthodoxy test that prevents Catholic believers from participating.”

“All of this,” he concluded, “supports a strong inference that St. Vincent was targeted based on its religious belief, and that it was Defendant Nessel who targeted it.”

The judge said Nessel’s policy—which would “flout the letter and stated intention of the Michigan legislature”—“actually undermines the state’s stated goal of preventing discriminatory conduct and maximizing available placements for children.”

“Shuttering St. Vincent would create significant disruption for the children in its care, who already face an unpredictable home life and benefit from stability,” Jonker said. “It would also hurt the foster and adoptive parents who rely on St. Vincent for support and would have to find new resources.”

It is not just this judge, and the Catholic League, that have noted Nessel’s anti-Catholic bigotry. She no sooner took office when Michigan State Rep. Beau LaFave went after her for retweeting a statement citing the hiring of a retired judge by Michigan State University to address sexual abuse. The tweet in question noted his ties to the Catholic Church.  LaFave further noted Nessel’s previous comments attacking Catholicism.

Nessel’s latest attack on the Catholic Church—her vacuous report on the Diocese of Marquette—is a reflection of who she is.

There is no room for bigots in public life.

After Supreme Court Ruling, School District Will Reinstate Football Coach Fired for Praying

Heritage Foundation – Coach Joe Kennedy is headed back to the high school football field, eight years after he lost his job for praying on the gridiron. Kennedy won his religious liberty case before the Supreme Court in June after a long legal battle. The fight began in 2015, when the Bremerton School District in Washington state outside of Seattle did not rehire Kennedy after he refused to stop praying at the 50-yard line after games. On Tuesday, Kennedy and the Bremerton School District submitted a joint stipulation to a federal district court in Washington agreeing that Kennedy would be reinstated as a coach. “Kennedy is to be reinstated to his previous position as assistant coach of the Bremerton High School football team on or before March 15, 2023,” the agreement reads. The Bremerton School District said in a statement that it has agreed with Kennedy to give him his job back, and that “Kennedy will be able to pray.” Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in June in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Kennedy said all he ever wanted “was to be back on the field with my guys.” Heritage Expert: Virginia Allen 

Each Half of the Country Thinks the Other Are Unfit Parents. And One Half Is Right - The Stream

Each Half of the Country Thinks the Other Are Unfit Parents. And One Half Is Right - The Stream: Progressives think faithful Christians are unfit parents. We think the same of parents who subject their kids to transgender porn. One of us is right.

European High Court Okays Anti-Catholicism

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue 

Christmas carols were being sung when a woman walked into Mass, ascended to the altar, naked from the waist up, with pro-abortion slogans all over her body. She then proceeded to “abort” Jesus, holding up pieces of calf liver to symbolize an aborted baby. She completed her blasphemous act by urinating on the altar in front of parishioners. 

This 2013 stunt occurred in France. Now the European Court of Human Rights has taken her side, saying she was unjustly found guilty by a French court for an unlawful “sexual display.” The high court said she was merely engaged in freedom of expression, and should never have been prosecuted. Indeed, it ordered the French courts to pay her more than $9,500 in damages, costs, and expenses. 

No one has more fully understood this kind of moral depravity better than Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. He spoke eloquently about the “dictatorship of relativism” taking place in the West, a reference to the absence of objective moral truths. What better example than this high court ruling? 

He also warned of the dangerous aspects of multiculturalism. It is not, as some have contended, a way of appreciating cultural diversity. No, from the get-go it has been used as a club to destroy our Judeo-Christian heritage. 

The European Court of Human Rights proved its hatred for our heritage when it called this vicious act a “performance.”

 If this same woman walked into their court, half naked, ascended to the bench, with obscene slogans on her body condemning the judges by name, and then proceeded to defecate on pictures of their mother, would these open-minded wizards call this freedom of expression? 

Here’s more proof of their animus against Catholicism. Four years ago it upheld the conviction of a lecturer in Austria who called Mohammad a pedophile for having a sexual relationship with a 9-year-old girl named Aisha. 

This court has no legitimacy. It should be disbanded.

Why Fentanyl is Killing So Many Americans

The Iowa Mama Bears this week on Faith On Trial

Kimberly Reicks, head mama bear, joins Deacon Mike and Gina on this week’s program, https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/. Kimberly founded the Iowa Mama Bears after seeing what local school policies were doing to her school-aged children. She successfully fought back against mandatory school masks – even getting a bill passed by the legislature and signed by the governor – and also got a pornographic book removed from her children’s school library. She’s fighting for children and against school drag queen shows, among other things. Click the link above to listen to Kimberly’s story. Faith On Trial is broadcast every Thursday morning at 9:30 CT and then loaded onto the podcast site above.

Amerika — The New Police State

By JOSEPH MATT

Publisher of The Wanderer

As we approach the final week of the midterms — vote as though your life depends on it — because inevitably it does. Remember elections have consequences. We are reminded of that on a daily basis as we witness the escalating food and gas prices, the immigration crisis, the rampant crime, and perhaps the most troubling — the total discard for the First Amendment.

Nothing exemplifies this more than the rash of FBI raids on dozens of pro-life activists in recent weeks. These are citizens who pre-Biden Department of Justice were presumed innocent until proven guilty — NO MORE. These arrests are designed to intimidate and silence the pro-life cause. They are nothing short of intimidation and an unconstitutional abuse of power.

After the historic and monumental Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade there has been a weekly occurrence of these arrests involving pro-life activists throughout the country. In the past any conflicts which occurred between pro-life activists and abortion activists were always handled by the local police — not on the federal level. The recent Supreme Court decision has emboldened the pro-aborts — enter the new police state — under the guise of protectors of reproductive freedom, the now weaponized FBI and Department of Justice will now enforce the wishes of the baby murderers of the Biden administration.

Where is the Catholic hierarchy? — All of this happening under the supervision of a “devout Catholic” president presiding over the most pro-abortion administration in our nation’s history.

This little-known initiative needs to be broadcast far and wide and needs to be confronted at its core. Below is the initiative, dated July 12, 2022, two weeks after Roe v. Wade was overturned, that formalizes the Justice Department’s task force which supposedly will ensure protection of “reproductive rights.” This is from the Department of Justice’s official website.

Home » Office of Public Affairs » News

SHARE

JUSTICE NEWS

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

---

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Justice Department Announces Reproductive Rights Task Force

The Task Force Formalizes the Department’s Ongoing Work to Protect Reproductive Freedom Under Federal Law

The Justice Department announced today the establishment of the Reproductive Rights Task Force. The Task Force formalizes an existing working group and efforts by the Department over the last several months to identify ways to protect access to reproductive health care in anticipation of the possibility of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta will chair the Task Force, which will consist of representatives from the Department’s Civil Division, Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney community, Office of the Solicitor General, Office for Access to Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, Office of Legal Policy, Office of Legislative Affairs, Office of the Associate Attorney General, Office of the Deputy Attorney General and Office of the Attorney General and will be supported by dedicated staff.

“As Attorney General Garland has said, the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision is a devastating blow to reproductive freedom in the United States,” said Associate Attorney General Gupta. “The Court abandoned 50 years of precedent and took away the constitutional right to abortion, preventing women all over the country from being able to make critical decisions about our bodies, our health, and our futures. The Justice Department is committed to protecting access to reproductive services.”

The Task Force will monitor and evaluate all state and local legislation and enforcement actions that threaten to:

• Infringe on federal legal protections relating to the provision or pursuit of reproductive care;
• Impair women’s ability to seek reproductive care in states where it is legal;
• Impair individuals’ ability to inform and counsel each other about the reproductive care that is available in other states;
• Ban Mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment about its safety and efficacy; or
• Impose criminal or civil liability on federal employees who provide reproductive health services in a manner authorized by federal law.

The Task Force will identify such actions and coordinate appropriate federal government responses, including proactive and defensive legal action where appropriate. The Task Force will work with agencies across the federal government to support their work on issues relating to reproductive rights and access to reproductive healthcare. 

The Justice Department is working with external stakeholders such as reproductive services providers, advocates and state attorneys general. The Task Force will continue this important effort. It will also work with the Office of Counsel to the President to convene a meeting of private pro bono attorneys, bar associations and public interest organizations in order to encourage lawyers to represent and assist patients, providers and third parties lawfully seeking reproductive health services throughout the country. In order to assist attorneys working to protect access to comprehensive reproductive health services, the Task Force will centralize online legal resources, such as filed Justice Department legal briefs and information about the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.

Recognizing that the best way to protect reproductive freedom is through congressional action, the Task Force will also coordinate providing technical assistance to Congress in connection with federal legislation to codify reproductive rights and ensure access to comprehensive reproductive services. It will also coordinate the provision of technical assistance concerning Federal constitutional protections to states seeking to afford legal protection to out-of-state patients and providers who offer legal reproductive healthcare.

Component(s): 

Office of the Associate Attorney General

Press Release Number: 

22-739

Updated July 12, 2022

‘Transient Phase’: England moves to restrict transgender procedures for kids as biden doubles down

Heritage Foundation – The UK preceded us in this experiment on children, and they are now pulling back. The NHS is even conceding what honest observers have known for years: The massive increase in kids presenting with symptoms of gender dysphoria or confusion are likely the result of social contagion and a temporary stage that most will grow out of, if allowed to do so. The reason many of us have criticized the headlong approach into “gender affirming care” (social transition, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, surgery) is because is fast tracks kids to the end point of transition—sterilization—based on scant data that it benefits anyone.

Conservative Group Wins Court Bid to Block Sweeping DOJ Subpoena

Heritage Foundation – A federal judge quashed a Justice Department subpoena going after the communications of a private conservative group in Alabama.  The Justice Department sued the state of Alabama opposing the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, and in the course of discovery sought all information from Eagle Forum Alabama regarding its advocacy for the bill going back to 2017.  Eagle Forum is not a party in the lawsuit, prompting the court to rule that the DOJ was overreaching.  On Monday, U.S. District Judge Liles Burke, of the Middle District of Alabama, issued an opinion stating, “Considering the relevance (or lack thereof) of the requested material, the burden of production, the nonparties’ resources, and the government’s own conduct, the Court finds that the subpoenas exceed the scope of discovery.”  The Justice Department issued the subpoena in August and last month, Eagle Forum Alabama filed the motion to quash. Several Republican members of Congress, the Alabama Legislature, and conservative organizations filed a brief with the court arguing on the side of Eagle Forum Alabama.

The Fifth Circuit Updates Common Carrier Doctrine for Social Media Companies

Heritage Foundation -- Last month, in a case called NetChoice v. Paxton, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, writing through Judge Andy Oldham, upheld Texas’s anti-censorship bill, H.B. 20. The law, designed to stop social medial companies from censoring users based on their personal opinions, required that platforms “may not censor . . . a user’s expression . . . based on the viewpoint of the user.” The opinion highlights how important social media is to our public discourse today. Social media platforms are “the forum for political discussion and debate,” Judge Oldham wrote, “and exclusion from the Platforms amounts to exclusion from the public discourse.” The opinion also demonstrates how challenging it can be to apply old First Amendment caselaw to this new online forum. The issue in the case was whether social media platforms can be treated like “common carriers” (like mail carriers, telephone companies, and railroads) and prohibited from discriminating against their users. The plaintiffs in the case—several social media platforms—claimed that they were not common carriers and had the right to discriminate against disfavored (read: conservative) speech because censorship is itself a form of protected expression. 

GOP ways Republican states better for kids during Covid than Dems

From the GOP press room:

The verdict is in – Democrat school lockdowns were a “catastrophe.” The latest testing scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows devastating learning loss directly tied to school closures.

Now, Democrats want to memory-hole their part in keeping kids out of school, but they can’t rewrite the data. A National Bureau of Economic Research analysis showed that 19 of the top 20 states for getting kids back to in-person schooling were led by Republicans.

In contrast, 18 of the bottom 20 states and districts were led by Democrats.

And for those not convinced by the data … the DNC literally produced an ad attacking Trump and Republicans for pushing to reopen schools. Not to mention Biden’s CDC let one of the chief architects of school closures and anti-science mandates, Randi Weingarten, dictate school reopening guidelines. And now, Democrats want to lock parents out of classrooms. It doesn’t get much clearer than that.

Beware Of Halloween Drag Queen Events

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue

This Halloween there will be Drag Queen events for children in many parts of the country. We’ve seen advertisements for Colorado Springs, Ithaca (ages 3 and up), Minneapolis, San Diego, Dorset (VT) and Wenatchee (WA). 

These forays are based on Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH). 

There are some parents and grandparents who think that DQSH is a fun-loving way for kids to appreciate diversity. What’s wrong with men dressed as women reading to kids in the local library? 

Upon closer inspection, it becomes quite clear that these events were founded to promote an agenda, the goal of which is to normalize aberrant sexual behavior. 

No place in the U.S. celebrates DQSH more than San Francisco. Here is what a writer for The Federalist had to say about this last year. “DQSH has brought not just one, not two, but at least three convicted sex criminals, two of whom are convicted pedophiles, into confined spaces with large numbers of young children on multiple occasions. Its event also have been sponsored by a man who’s been charged with seven counts of child pornography possession.” 

DQSH was founded in San Francisco in 2015 by Michelle Tomasik, who goes by Michelle Tea. Though she has no academic credentials—she never even went to college—her standing in the lesbian community led to a post at Tulane University as a Writer-in-Residence. 

Growing up in Chelsea, Massachusetts she recalled how her stepfather spied on her through a hole that he drilled in the wall; he never disputed  the abuse. When her mother decided to stay with him nonetheless, she bolted and left for Boston with her female lover. After her girlfriend became a prostitute, she followed suit. She Tea “married” Dashiell Lippmann in 2013. 

Why did Tea found DQSH? Gaytimes said it was to introduce kids to the “LGBTQ+ culture.” She could not do so without the backing of the American Library Association (ALA). Those who run it are 87% white and 81% female, and virtually all of them are on the left. 

Why have these librarians and teachers become activists for the LGBT cause? Lil Miss Hot Mess is one of the nation’s leading drag queen authors and activists promoting DQSH. She says she loves it when kids realize “that things aren’t necessarily the way they’ve always been told they have to be.” Again, a clear shot at parents. Who are they to tell their children what’s right and wrong? 

Kevin Roberts is president of The Heritage Foundation. He is concerned about our culture creating a “new generation of drag kids.” He’s right. This past summer a video emerged of a young girl gyrating to music at a drag show as adults tossed dollar bills at her. It got so bad at a Brooklyn gay bar a few years ago that a reporter who covered a drag event said, “I left after seeing a child dance on stage for money at nighttime.” 

When a six-year-old boy saw a tall man dressed as a woman at a library drag event, he asked, “Are you a boy or a girl?” “Well,” he said, “I guess I was born a boy. But I like to dress like a girl.” The message sent was not hard to understand. 

In July, after a topless drag queen at a Miami bar sought to entertain a girl—she was “between three and five years old”—the performer boasted, “Children belong at drag shows!!!! Children deserve to see fun & expression $ freedom.” This is why another drag queen in Pennsylvania showed up shirtless teaching children how to spin on a stripper’s pole at a Pride Festival. 

This is the face of freedom for drag queens—watching little kids be sexualized by perverts. 

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to what honest persons involved in DQSH have to say. 

Drag queen Kitty Demure warned parents last year about taking their kids to such events. 

“I have no idea why you want drag queens to read books to your children... What in the hell has a drag queen even done to make you have so much respect for them and admire them so much? Other than put on makeup and jump on the floor and writhe around and do sexual things on stage? I have absolutely no idea why you would want that to influence your child. Would you want a stripper or a porn star to influence your child?” 

Demure wasn’t finished with his reality check. “A drag queen performs in a nightclub for adults. There is a lot of filth that goes on, a lot of sexual stuff that goes on. And backstage there’s a lot of nudity, sex, and drugs... So I don’t think this is an avenue you would want your child to explore... But to actually get [your children] involved in drag is extremely, extremely irresponsible on your part.” 

These perverts want to indoctrinate kids. Any adult who cooperates is sponsoring child abuse.

CRT WIDESPREAD IN SCHOOLS

According to a City Journal poll, most high school students report being taught Critical Race Theory. Also known as CRT, the controversial curriculum holds that America is fundamentally racist. According to the poll, about 62% of the students surveyed said they had been taught that “America is a systemically racist country” and 67% polled said that they were at some point taught that “America is built on stolen land.”   READ   

WARNING ON COVID VAX PUSH

Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins University criticized the CDC advisory panel for voting to recommend that COVID-19 shots be added to the child immunization schedule. He noted that for schoolchildren, there’s no evidence to show a reduction in disease in that age range. “So that’s not a very good milestone; it threatens the credibility of MMR and polio and many of the other vaccines for which it’s taken 50 years to build public trust,” said Makary.  READ 

ARCHBISHOP SLAMS BIDEN

Archbishop Charles Chaput said Joe Biden “is not in communion with the Catholic faith.” The retired archbishop of Philadelphia said that “any priest who now provides Communion to the president participates in his hypocrisy.” Chaput made the remarks at the Eucharistic Symposium at the Diocese of Arlington, VA.  READ

Woke Child Care

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – When I was growing up, apparently in a place lost to time, my mother did not work, and none of my friends’ mothers worked except for those few who were helping run family businesses. One of my great memories of that time were my friend’s parents who ran a bakery, the Spudnut Shop, right across from the school, where occasionally we’d miss the first bell after a round of glazed donuts.

Life was great back then; everything was, but I digress.

Today child care is a must for many parents, especially in single-parent families. There are, of course, numerous reasons for this and there are scores of sociologists throughout the United States who have determined why this new phenomenon exists, and, as usual, most of them will be wrong. But it does make child care a multibillion dollar industry.

To capitalize on this “business boom” there are numerous day-care centers, both large and small, dotted throughout every town in America to cater to the needs of working parents.

One such place is Bright Horizons Children’s centers. A Delaware corporation with headquarters in Newton, Mass. It has over 1,000 such centers worldwide and over 600 in just the U.S. It is “big business.”

It even has a full-time Chief People and Inclusion Officer, apparently to give guidance to its vast worldwide enterprise. Here is what its website says about the job: “[The Officer] oversees our HR functions and leads our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts to ensure a diverse workplace and maintain a culture of inclusion and caring.”

Isn’t that very nice. They also include the holy trinity of woke ideology: diversity, equity, and inclusion. What more could you ask for in a company? But it goes on through its web presence, “We offer more than early education — but inspiration for young children to grow into confident, joyful learners. . . . We’re committed to providing work environments free from discrimination and harassment.”

Wow! Are these guys great or what? They really believe in this stuff.

And to show you how strong they are in their beliefs in diversity and inclusion, its office in Studio City, Calif., has a policy requiring all teachers to support and promote celebrations of “diversity,” including same-sex marriage, to children in their care programs. In furtherance of that policy, each teacher was tasked to read to the children books in the company library on topics celebrating same-sex relationships.

Some of the books included titles such as Daddy, Papa, and Me and Mommy, Mama, and Me and featured same sex-couple marriages and families.

That’s diversity. So what about inclusion?

Well, for a Christian employee, Nelli Parisenkova, who because of her strong Christian beliefs on the subject did not want to read those books to children, or celebrate sexual diversity with the children aged one to five years old in her care, there was none. She was promptly fired, even though a previous manager for four years allowed her to perform other duties than read the objectionable books to the kids.

According to Los Angeles trial attorney and special counsel for the Thomas More Society, Paul Jonna, who are now representing Nelli in the lawsuit she filed against Bright Horizons:

“[The manager], who is lesbian, apparently took personal offense at Nelli Parisenkova’s religious beliefs and enforced Bright Horizons anti-religious ‘diversity and inclusion’ workplace policies,” explained Jonna. “[The manager] called Nelli into her office, questioned her in an irate manner, told her that if she did not want to celebrate diversity this was not the place for her to work, gave her an administrative leave memo, escorted her outside with a security guard, and left her out in the 96-degree heat with no transportation. As a result, Nelli was forced to walk 20 minutes in the heat and wait 45 minutes for transportation and suffered heat exhaustion for the next two days.”

Diversity 1, inclusion 0.

Just as an aside, I’ve noticed that the conduct of the manager is in line with others in similar circumstances that are trying to enforce a secular gospel against a faithful Christian: rage-filled abuse, belittling, condescending attitude, and condemnation.

According to the lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of Los Angeles, Nelli tried to compromise with Bright Horizons by allowing her to continue as she had for the past four years and only read what she considered non-offensive books to the kids and perform other duties while other teachers could read the “diversity” titles. But this was refused.

According to the lawsuit: “Bright Horizons responded by categorically denying the request. Bright Horizons did not engage in any negotiations and made no attempt whatsoever to determine whether a reasonable accommodation could be reached. Instead, Bright Horizons issued a counseling memo with false statements, terminated her life-insurance benefits, required her to complete retraining in diversity issues, and encouraged her to resign her position. Ms. Parisenkova could not return to work without an accommodation; so, Bright Horizons terminated her employment.”

“This is an outrageous example of religious discrimination,” added Jonna. “Nelli Parisenkova had been operating under the radar with an informal accommodation request for multiple years without notice. As soon as upper-level management discovered her religious beliefs and received her formal accommodation request, Bright Horizons leveled the full force of the company’s anti-religious and ironically ‘un-inclusive’ diversity policy against Ms. Parisenkova. They tried to get her to quit through harassment and intimidation. When she couldn’t return to work because they denied her accommodation request, they fired her. You can’t get much more discriminatory than that. It’s unethical and it’s blatantly illegal.”

The lawsuit names as defendants both Bright Horizons, the individual manager involved, and at least ten other company officials for their “illegal” and “unconstitutional” actions against Nelli. She is seeking both compensatory and punitive damages against the defendants on seven counts:

Religious discrimination and disparate treatment; failure to accommodate; wrongful termination in violation of public policy; harassment based upon religion; failure to prevent discrimination and harassment; retaliation; and constructive discharge.

Naturally, she’s asking for attorney fees and costs of the lawsuit.
Within just the last year, I have covered accusations of this “grooming” activity not only in schools, but in libraries as well. Child care was a sleeper issue, who, for example, would have thought some of these caregivers would pick up the LBGTQ banner and foist it on children too young to even attend elementary school. That is why the words of the attorney should be heeded:

“Make sure you know what books are on the shelf in your children’s care programs and schools. This is a clear-cut case of one of the largest childcare employers in the country having anti-religious workplace policies that promote indoctrination of young children with the LGBT agenda.” Paul Jonna is a partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, special counsel for The Thomas More Society.

And his words are more than just a friendly warning. Bright Horizons lists on its website that it works with such companies as Sprint, Target, General Mills, Baker Mackenzie, and Salesforce. So if your company is providing the service, check it out or you may not recognize your little boy when he comes home a little girl.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him on Faith on Trial https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/.)

Preying On Youth Is Big Business

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue 

Two major attacks on young people are being launched by those whose only interest is making money off of them. To be specific, the push to legalize marijuana and the push to normalize transgenderism are the two biggest current threats to the health and well-being of young men and women in America. 

It is worth noting that the social teachings of the Catholic Church clearly give preferential treatment to a market-based economy over a state-run economy, but there is nothing in those teachings that endorses a laissez-faire position. The Church understands the necessity of balancing economic interests with social interests, holding those in the business community to high moral standards. That voice desperately needs to be respected today. 

Those making big money off of marijuana don’t care what happens to young people. There is a wealth of information on how much more potent today’s brand of this drug is compared to decades ago, leading to serious cases of psychosis. The degree of brain damage varies by the user, but no one doubts that it impairs mental acuity and is downright dangerous when users get behind the wheel. 

According to Dr. Ken Finn, one of the nation’s leading experts on drug use, “Poison control calls are skyrocketing across the country in states that have both medical and recreational [marijuana] programs, particularly in the zero to five age group (my italics).” Worse, five states have marijuana legalization on the ballot in November. 

Marijuana advocates argue that legalization is necessary because too many African Americans and Hispanics were selectively punished in the past for using the drug. But that is not what is driving the push to legalize the drug. 

Ben Cort is the author of a book on this subject. He knows what’s really going on. “Multinational corporate interest” are leading the way. “The idea here is absolutely not social justice, nor any sort of reform in a meaningful way. The intent here is to get richer.” 

Former House Speaker John Boehner, who in 2015 said he was “unalterably opposed to the legalization of marijuana,” did a 180 three years later when he left the Congress and became the poster boy for legalization. 

To show how low he could go, he even partnered with Kathleen Sebelius, the former Health and Human Services czar under Obama. She was the one who declared war on Catholic non-profits, seeking to force them to purchase abortion-inducing drugs in their healthcare plans. But that didn’t make any difference to Boehner, who likes to tout his Catholic credentials. In fact, he got so caught up in making big bucks off of legalizing marijuana that he got into a legal dispute over his alleged failure to share profits with the man who hired him to lead the company. 

Like the marijuana industry, the transgender industry is booming. Last year it posted sales of nearly $2 billion and is expected to reach $5 billion by the end of the decade. Planned Parenthood is making a fortune by ripping off sexually confused young people; it is the second-largest provider of hormonal injections in America. 

To understand what sex-reassignment surgery does, consider what one of the most prominent defenders of this surgery has to say about it. 

The Cleveland Clinic performs metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, scrotoplasty and chest surgery for troubled girls seeking to transition to the opposite sex. Metoidoplasty uses tissue from an enlarged clitoris so it can form a small penis. Phalloplasty uses a large section of skin and tissue from  female body parts (e.g., her arm), and then it is rolled to form a shaft so it can be attached to her groin. Scrotoplasty involves the creation of a new scrotum—parts are taken from the female’s labia majora—and are then used to make a scrotum-like sac. 

Unfortunately, the Cleveland Clinic gives false information to these disturbed young girls. For example, it says that metoidioplastly “is a surgery sometimes requested by people assigned female at birth.” This is factually incorrect: no one is ever “assigned” one’s sex—it is determined by the father, the outcome of which is typically recorded by a healthcare professional. 

It is also wrong to say, “This surgery helps to align their physical bodies with who they really are.” In fact, everyone knows who they really are when they are born. What the cutting and splicing does is to artificially create body parts. All the surgery in the world can never alter one’s chromosomal makeup, and the Cleveland Clinic knows this is true. But there is a lot of cash on the table, and that is dispositive. 

Preying on young men and women, whether it be by poisoning their minds with drugs or deforming their bodies with surgery, is morally offensive. Indeed, it is child abuse. That the prime motivating force is to get rich makes those who are benefiting from such exploitation even more contemptible.

High School Girls Push Back Against Trans Student in Locker Room

George Soros in Iowa

On Faith On Trial (https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/) this week Deacon Mike and Gina are joined by Dan Sunne of the Family Leader to discuss the role of the noted atheist George Soros in Iowa politics and in the Catholic Church. Faith On Trial airs every Thursday at 9:30 a.m. CT and can be heard anytime by following the link above.

Democrat Hysteria Over Abortion

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue 

Most Americans are worried about inflation, their life savings, crime, open borders and education. Way down the list of concerns is abortion. But for Democrat leaders, nothing is more important. 

“Hysteria” is the only word that accurately describes what leading Democrats are saying. Why the sky hasn’t fallen is a mystery. Here are some examples. 

On October 17, Vice President Kamala Harris opened her remarks at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles by noting “when I’m traveling around the country, one of the feelings that I hear most is fear. It’s fear.” She later said, “there’s a lot of fear.” 

The fear she was talking about was not the fear of being killed, raped or mugged. Nor was it the fear of families not being able to pay their bills. It was the fear that in some places elected officials have placed restrictions on abortion. 

On October 18, President Biden held a political rally on abortion saying, “Patients are being denied prescriptions that they’ve been taking for years for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis, you know, because pharmacies are concerned that those drugs could also be used to terminate a pregnancy so they’re not giving them their prescriptions.” 

No evidence was given. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said after the overturning of Roe v. Wade that “People will die because of this decision.” 

She was not referring to children being killed by abortion but to some hypothetical case involving what she calls pregnant “menstruating people.” 

A new TV ad from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee quotes a doctor saying he thought the days of “back-alley abortions” were over. “Too often, women died. I thought those days were long behind us. But not for Mehmet Oz [the Pennsylvania Republican senatorial candidate].” 

Fact Check: According to the CDC, the number of women who died of an illegal abortion in 1972 (the year before Roe) was not some astronomical figure, as pro-abortion activists have alleged. The number was 39. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that “MAGA” Republicans have “pledged to ban abortion in all 50 states and sentence doctors for 5 years in prison.” Similarly, Kamala Harris has said their goal is to criminalize doctors and nurses “with up to five years in prison.” 

This is patently untrue. What some Republicans have said is that healthcare providers who intentionally allow a baby born alive as a result of a botched abortion could serve up to 5 years in prison if they failed to attend to the child. The issue is infanticide, not abortion, which apparently makes no difference to these women. 

Rep. Eric Swalwell is running a TV ad showing cops with guns drawn showing up at a house handcuffing a woman in front of her screaming husband and children because she had an unlawful abortion. 

In fact, the only people who are being subjected to SWAT Teams showing up at their homes with guns drawn are pro-life activists. 

Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams charged in August that her opponent, Gov. Brian Kemp, wants to “investigate and punish women for having miscarriages.”                    

PolitiFact, hardly a right-wing source, said her accusation was completely false. 

To demagogue any issue is despicable, and it is doubly so when the issue is sensitive and divisive. It is a sign of desperation that so many prominent Democrats are distorting, and indeed lying, about abortion, just to get votes.

The Battle over Babies Continues

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – We may have thought that since Roe v. Wade was overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson earlier this year that the ongoing battle over babies’ lives might be coming to an end. As much as we would wish, that is not even close to being true: Just take a look at last week’s column.

The problem, of course, is that those who believe that a child’s life belongs solely to its mother as long as he is in utero will not back down from their extreme positions, even when, as we discussed last week, that child has already been born.

But beyond that some states are now flexing their murderous muscles to keep women with crisis pregnancies from receiving assistance by those whose only concern is for the well-being of the woman and her child.

Angry state actors are following the suggestion of pro-abortion politicians, such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass), who are arguing that all pregnancy resource centers that provide assistance to women which would allow them to carry their child to term are frauds and should be banned or restricted.

Last June after the draft of the Dobbs decision was leaked, the New York legislature passed a measure that allows government officials to examine internal documents of these pregnancy centers, including the files of individual women who are seeking their help. That bill was signed into law by New York’s unintended Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, who, at the signing ceremony, called pro-life supporters “Neanderthals.”

Now if the governor thought that by signing the bill, state agents would be able to walk into pregnancy centers and flip through their files, taking the files of women who were expecting safety and protection, a group of Catholic nuns, the Sisters for Life, aided by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, are putting to lie Hochul’s dream world of crushing these centers, the people who support them, and the women they help.

They gave the All-American response, they sued the b*. In filing the suit, Becket said of the legislation: “The state government is clearly targeting the religious viewpoints of the Sisters of Life and violating the First Amendment protections granted to the Sisters.” 

The Sisters themselves were founded in 1991 by John Cardinal O’Connor, at the time archbishop of New York. The sisters pledge their lives to God when entering the order by professing vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. They also vow to protect the sacredness of human life at every stage.

Based in New York, the Sisters are a group of religious women who carry out this mission by caring for pregnant women and their unborn children. They provide pregnant women with housing, maternity clothes, baby formula, and other supplies for well after birth. They also connect pregnant women and their children to pro bono medical and legal services and a wide array of social services.

According to the lawsuit filed on their behalf:

 “The Act directs the Commissioner [of Health] to conduct a study and issue a report about ‘limited services pregnancy centers,’ defined as any facility or entity that has the ‘primary purpose of…provid[ing] services to clients who are or may be pregnant,’ that is not a licensed health-care facility or is not providing services under the direction of a licensed health-care provider, and that ‘fails to provide or refer for the full range of comprehensive reproductive and sexual health care services (emphasis added). . . .

“The Act then provides that the Commissioner ‘may request, and shall receive upon request,’ a broad range of data and information from limited services pregnancy centers. That includes information related to organizational funding; membership in umbrella organizations; services provided and most frequently sought; the number of women who access services and ‘basic demographic information about each woman, including race, age, and marital status’; whether women seeking services are seeking ‘comprehensive options counseling or services’ at medical facilities; the nature of information given to clients or potential clients; and operational manuals, handbooks, or guidelines.

“All of the Act’s intrusive and burdensome disclosure requirements turn on whether an organization is willing to ‘refer for . . . abortion care.’ That definitional trigger is plainly predicated on the content of an organization’s speech; it is also plainly unconstitutional [Cites omitted].”

Before filing suit, the Sisters tried to get some assurance from the state that it would not use the Act against them or take any enforcement action against them. On July 15 the Sisters sent a letter to the state Commissioner of Health. In that letter the Sisters described their religious ministry and explained how the Act violated the United States Constitution.

They asked the Commissioner to respond by August 1, assuring them that the commission would not act against them. There was no reply.

On August 23 the Sisters sent a second letter which reiterated that the Act violated the Constitution and illegally interfered with their religious ministry and requested a response by August 26. On August 30 the Sisters received the commission’s response:

“Thank you for contacting us regarding [the Act] which authorizes the New York State Commissioner of Health to request and receive broad categories of internal information and data from ‘limited services pregnancy centers.’ We are reviewing the enacted legislation and determining appropriate next steps for implementation.”

Shortly after receipt of that letter the Sisters filed a federal lawsuit seeking protection from the state. In the suit the Sisters claim eight constitutional violations, among them: violations of the Free Speech, Free Exercise, and Establishment Clauses of the Constitution.

The Sisters, among other things, request the following:

“a. Declare that the Act violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution by discriminating against the Sisters of Life based on the content and viewpoint of their speech;

“b. Declare that the Act violates the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment by violating the autonomy of the Sisters of Life to make decisions regarding faith, doctrine, and internal governance free from governmental interference;

“c. Declare that the Act violates the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution by subjecting the Sisters to invasive and burdensome disclosure requirements without a warrant and without any individualized suspicion of wrongdoing; and

“d. Declare the Act unconstitutional both on its face and as applied to the Sisters and issue a permanent injunction prohibiting the state or its agents and all those acting in concert with them, from enforcing the Act.”

And, of course, attorney fees.

Since the suit was just filed, there is little to report except that the Sisters will probably be asking for a temporary injunction to protect them during its pendency. We’ll track the case and keep you posted of any updates.

The anti-baby crowd apparently will stop at nothing. Remember, these are the people from the far left who do not believe in a “live and let live” philosophy. To them it is win at all costs and force their beliefs on the rest of us. So don’t be surprised that if they lose this suit, they will come back with something else. The left never rests; neither should we.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday on Faith On Trial at https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial).