This week on Faith On Trial

 Listen Now:

https://faith-on-trial.simplecast.com/episodes/erica-ahern-roger-byron-5-18-2024-SfCrbR6m

BIDEN ADMIN TO ISSUE GOVERNMENT PHOTO ids TO NON-CITIZENS

The Biden administration is planning to roll out a taxpayer-funded program giving government-issued identification cards to thousands of illegal migrants crossing the southern border. FOX News reported late Thursday afternoon that “the pilot program is expected to commence this summer with the distribution of approximately 10,000 cards.” READ

Possible Trump-DeSantis ticket and other things

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – There is a lot of hubbub this week about the possibility of a Trump-DeSantis ticket this fall. Of course the speculation of who Mr. Trump will chose as his running-mate will dominate this year’s political guessing game, as the VP choice always does. But this year it is even more intriguing.

And considering that several other VP candidates are also from Florida, it might be an interesting exercise to see how this might play out. First let’s look at the Constitutional problems such a ticket would produce. As we all know, the election will be determined by which candidate can gain a majority of the electoral vote.

The Electoral College is made up of representatives from each state in numbers equivalent to that state’s total membership in Congress, that is House members and two Senators. Thus to obtain a majority a candidate for president – and the same goes for vice president – needs 270 electoral votes for election.

The Constitution places very little restrictions on the electors except for this: “The electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves.”

Consider a close election in which the electoral majority for president is decided by 29 votes. If Trump is the winner, what happens to DeSantis? Florida’s 30 electors may not cast their vice presidential votes for him. So who is elected vice president?

According to the constitution, in the event that no one receives the 270 votes, the senate will choose the vice president from among the two top electoral vote winners. Now if the Democrats hold the senate the candidate selected will most probably be Kamala Harris, resulting in a Trump-Harris Administration. You’d have to go back to the early days of the republic, Adams-Jefferson, to find a similar situation.

Would the GOP run that risk? In 2000 George W. Bush, and his vice presidential choice Dick Cheney, were both from Texas. They solved the problem by having Mr. Cheney move back to his home state of Wyoming. Could that happen for a Trump-DeSantis ticket? As governor DeSantis can’t take up residence out of state, but would Mr. Trump do so?

Of course the Democrats in New York might just solve Mr. Trump’s dilemma for him by providing him a residence at Rikers Island.

By the way, just so you know, the situation is much different if no presidential candidate reaches 270 votes. In that case the House must choose from the top three candidates, with each state getting one vote, thus it takes 26 states to win.

***

We’re all aware of the current commotions (riots?) on our college campuses by the modern-day Nazi Youth. Several months ago before all the Jew-shaming started, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Expression (FIRE) released, in conjunction with the College Pulse, a report of how free speech was tolerated or not on the nation’s campuses.

The report covered 254 colleges and surveys from 55,102 individuals from those campuses, from which the report made it’s College Free Speech Rankings for 2024. Here are a sample of the findings, starting at the bottom.

“Harvard University obtained the lowest score possible, 0.00, and is the only school with an ‘Abysmal’ speech climate range[O1] . The University of Pennsylvania, the University of South Carolina, Georgetown University, and Fordham University also ranked in the bottom five,” it reported.

Additionally, “Students from schools in the bottom five were more biased toward allowing controversial liberal speakers on campus over conservative ones and were more accepting of students using disruptive and violent forms of protest to stop a campus speech. …  Deplatforming attempts that occurred at schools ranked in the bottom five had an alarming 81% success rate.”

The four schools listed as “Good” on free speech were Michigan Technological University, Auburn University, the University of New Hampshire, and Oregon State University. Rounding out the top five was Florida State University with a rating of “Above Average.”

Here’s how some of the leading institutions who are in the forefront of the latest campus uprisings were ranked: George Washington University, 185; Columbia University, 213; and Yale University, 234. The sorry state of higher education today.

***

Several notes of interest on my radio program:

A few weeks ago we had on Ed Flynn, you might remember from his and his wife’s book, Thunder of Justice. He is the author of a new book exploring the messages of the alleged Marian apparition at Garabandal, Spain. The alleged apparitions occurred to four young girls, 11 and 12 years old, from 1961 to 1965. The messages reportedly from the Blessed Mother contained warnings about a future miracle, a chastisement, and a divine reset.

The messages have created quite a stir and Flynn was on the program to talk about the new book, Garabandal, The Warning and The Great Miracle. If you follow the link at the bottom you can hear the interview by selecting Episode 408.

Then last week we had on the program Fr. Tad Pacholcyk, senior ethicist at the National Catholic Bioethical Center in Philadelphia. He was on to discuss the ethical considerations and moral teachings on in vitro fertilization and related matters. This, of course, is a subject that has been thrust to the forefront of political and religious conversations since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos were human children. Again, you can find the link at the bottom of the column; go to Episode 410.

What happened to Episode 409? Well that one was one of the most interesting we had this year. One of our guests was our own Dexter Duggan who spent 20+ minutes with me in a wide ranging discussion from St. Francis de Sales to bias in journalism and abortion law in Arizona. Good interview, but I did make one mistake: when I gave the studio the program notes, I misspelled Dexter’s name by leaving out a G.

Dexter: mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

Report from the Iowa Catholic Conference

Roundup of the 2024 legislative session

Every organization that advocates at the Capitol has successes and disappointments. The Iowa Catholic Conference (ICC) invites you to join a short Zoom webinar with a recap of the 2024 Iowa legislative session. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, May 22 at 7 p.m. You can learn about the ICC’s advocacy efforts as well as hear updates on the new immigration law and the “heartbeat” abortion law. Don't miss this opportunity to engage! Please register here.

Lawsuits challenge new immigration law

A lawsuit has been filed in federal court challenging the new state law on “illegal reentry by certain aliens.” It asks for the law to be stopped from going into effect on July 1 and a finding that the law is unconstitutional. It argues Senate File 2340 could cause someone who has previously been deported from the U.S. to face jail time or be deported, including those in the country legally with a green card or with a valid asylum claim. The American Immigration Council, American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Iowa filed the suit on behalf of the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice.

The federal Department of Justice has also filed a lawsuit against the law arguing that the federal government has exclusive power to regulate immigration.

The Iowa bishops oppose enforcement-only measures that reduce humanitarian protections and provide no viable solutions for long-time residents without legal status.

The law:

Makes it an aggravated misdemeanor for a person who has been previously denied admission or deported from the US to be in Iowa.

Does not allow police to make arrests on the school property, church grounds or hospitals.

Requires a judge, after a conviction, to order the person to return to the country from which the person entered.

Bills approved by the governor

Gov. Reynolds is wrapping up the signing of bills from the legislative session. Among the bills of interest signed:

SF 2251, expanding Medicaid health insurance coverage for a mother for a full year after the baby is born (ICC supported)

HF 2319, prohibiting counties and cities from funding guaranteed income programs (ICC opposed).

SF 2421, which creates the Choose Iowa Food Purchasing Pilot Project to help support local food purchases by schools, food banks, and emergency feeding organizations, and directs $300,000 in funding to the program (ICC supported the provision).

The War On Science

By Bill Donohue, Catholic League president

 

Anti-Catholics are famous for saying the Catholic Church is anti-science. Yet it is well acknowledged that the role played by the Catholic Church in the making of the scientific revolution was central. Today, those who are profoundly anti-science are militant secularists, many of whom, ironically, work in higher education and in the medical profession.

 

It was scientists like Copernicus, Boyle, Linnaeus, Faraday, Kelvin, Rutherford and Kepler who were responsible for the origins of modern science. As David Klinghoffer notes, they were “overwhelmingly religious.” To be specific, they sought to understand God through his creation.

 

This doesn’t stop Catholic critics from pointing to Galileo as the classic example of the anti-science legacy of the Catholic Church.

 

But Galileo did not get into trouble because of his ideas; after all, his ideas were taken from a priest, Copernicus, who was never punished. Indeed, Father Roger Boscovich continued to explore Copernican ideas at the same time that Galileo was charged with heresy, without attracting a bit of opposition. Had Galileo not presented his hypothesis as fact—that was the heresy—he would have escaped trouble.

 

Contrary to the mythology, Galileo never spent a single day in prison. Nor was he tortured. In fact, he spent his time under “house arrest” in an apartment in a Vatican palace, with a servant. More important, his work was initially praised by the Catholic Church: Pope Urban VIII bestowed on him many gifts and medals. A century later all of Galileo’s works were published, and in 1741 Pope Benedict XIV granted him an imprimatur.

 

Today many of those who follow science are being punished for doing so. Just consider what is happening to students and professors who insist that sex is binary.

 

When a 67-year-old woman found someone “with a penis” grooming himself next to a young girl in a Planet Fitness ladies’ locker room in Fairbanks, Alaska, she took a photo of him to prove her experience. Those who run the gym said he had every right to be there: he identified as a woman, so that was that. She was banned from ever entering again.

 

When a man walked around totally naked in a Planet Fitness ladies’ locker room in North Carolina, he was arrested for indecent exposure. But not because the gym is unalterably opposed to such behavior—they were upset because he didn’t tell them in advance that he believes he is a woman. In other words, indecent exposure is not indecent if the pervert with male genitalia says he is a woman.

 

“Brittney Griner and Her Wife Are Expecting Their First Child.” That is the headline published by “Today” on the famous woman basketball player and her girlfriend.

 

In the Planet Fitness examples, and in the “Today” instance, it is painfully obvious that we are living in a surreal world, one where politics has thrown science overboard.

 

A man can say that he is a woman—or a worm for that matter—but when self-identification contradicts reality, such declarations are palpably false. To be explicit, there is no such thing as a transgender person. It is a fiction. We are either male or female (intersex persons are not a third sex). Planet Fitness can rely on politics, e.g., the ideology of transgenderism, but in doing so it is contradicting science.

 

Similarly, it is a legal fiction to say that two people of the same sex can marry. Marriage is a universal institution designed to channel the sex drive of men and women in a socially responsible way. An important function of marriage is the possibility of the procreation of children; they need a stable and patterned environment in which to grow.

 

In other words, the most important cell in society, the family, is integrally tied to the institution of marriage. They are both the reserve of one man and one woman, and no amount of ideological protestation matters.

 

Brittany and her lover are denied by nature from having a family. They can rent a womb, acquire someone else’s baby, or adopt the children of some other couple, but they cannot create their own offspring. That’s the way nature, and nature’s God, work.

 

Science is not based on whim or fancy. It is based on laws that reflect the empirical reality of nature.

 

In a sane society, those who teach that the sexes are interchangeable, and that two people of the same sex can realistically marry and have a baby, should be fired for misrepresenting science. They are more akin to the devotees of the Flat Earth Society than they are to serious scholars.

 

To those who say such a position is lacking in compassion for those who disagree with this analysis, it needs to be said that when compassion conflicts with truth, it needs to take a back seat.

 

It is regrettable, yet understandable, that those who work in higher education and in the medical profession have witnessed an attrition in the prestige they once enjoyed. They alone are to blame and they alone can fix it. Rediscovering the verities of science is a good place to start.

Groups funding protests donated to Biden

Many of the groups financially backing pro-Palestine protests on college campuses reportedly have financial ties to President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign and billionaires George Soros and Bill Gates. Donors funding the protests “include some of the biggest names in Democratic circles: [George] Soros, [David] Rockefeller and [Susan and Nick] Pritzker,” POLITICO reported.  READ

New York ag sues pro-life centers

Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing Heartbeat International and 11 pregnancy resource centers for promoting the abortion reversal pill. The suit claims the pro-life groups make “false and misleading statements” about the pill’s effectiveness.  READ

‘Wokeness’ expert: protests show ‘rise of victimhood’ among youth

Catholic author Noelle Mering recently published a piece for The Daily Wire, exploring the problem at the root of the recent college protests. The students’ message is clear, Mering said: “we want a new regime in charge and it’s not the one reflected in the stars and stripes.” The protests, however, point to a deeper issue within the education system, as Mering points out.  READ

Catholic support for Trump soars

According to a recent poll, significantly more American Catholics – particularly Hispanics – support Trump now than during the run-up to the 2020 Presidential Election. The survey found that 55% of respondents who listed their religion as Catholic preferred Trump, compared to 43% who favored Biden. This marks a drastic shift from four years ago when Catholic support for the same two candidates was essentially split evenly.  READ

This week on FOT: IVF; what the Church teaches

What the Church teaches on IVF, this week on Faith On Trial.

Listen to the podcast now: https://faith-on-trial.simplecast.com/episodes/fr-tadeusz-pachloczyk-5-4-2024-exdxr16X

Additional resources on this topic

These are links to the two YouTube videos Fr. Tad mentioned during the program:

Video: The Struggle of Infertility, 

Video: Why is IVF Wrong?

Pelosi: Dems will kill filibuster for abortion if Biden wins

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, stated during a Monday MSNBC interview that if President Joe Biden is reelected and Democrats control both houses of Congress, the party will do away with the filibuster to pass a national pro-abortion law. “Very clearly we can enshrine into the law Roe v. Wade,” said the former speaker, a self-professed Catholic.  READ

Florida sues Biden over pro-LGBTQ Title IX changes

Florida – along with several other red states and women’s groups – announced it is suing the Biden administration over the Department of Education’s recent pro-LGBTQ changes to Title IX. “Biden is abusing his constitutional authority to push an ideological agenda that harms women and girls and conflicts with the truth,” Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrote on X after announcing the suit.  READ

Full-Blown Anti-Semitism

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – Shortly after I was born, my parents moved to Des Moines, Iowa from Richmond, Virginia. Both my parents were born and raised in Philadelphia, where the rest of our family resided, but they moved to Richmond for only one year, and it was during that year that I was born. Thus, while most people who know me think I was born in Philly it was really Richmond.       

          My dad was a printer and had a print-shop in Philadelphia that he ultimately lost to the city over a civil eminent domain action. They then moved to take a new job in Richmond.

          While there, dad found and applied for a job in Des Moines. He didn’t fly so he drove his old Chevy from Richmond to Des Moines for the interview. The firm was a large business with factories in DM as well as several other major cities including Kansas City, the firm’s headquarters.

          The result was a job offer as head printer. My dad turned it down saying he had applied for the plant manager’s positon and didn’t want to move his wife and new born son halfway across the country for a job similar to the one that he held.

          So he drove back to Richmond. While he was traveling the folks in Des Moines were contacted by the president of the firm who was en route to Europe on an ocean liner. They explained the situation with dad. When told of the result, he asked if they thought dad could do the manager’s job. The answer was yes so the president then told them to hire him.

          When he returned to Richmond, mom told him he had the job he wanted. They packed and moved to Des Moines.

          The reason why I bring this is up is that the president of the company was Jewish, in fact, the company was owned by a Jewish family.

          When my family arrived and moved into our new home, the family member who ran the company locally, and his wife kindly welcomed him and mom to Iowa. Mrs. Jewish Boss even bought a beautiful nick-knack mirror for our living room and later updated it with gold trim. That mirror is now in my living room and serves as a permanent memory of those early days in our family history and the welcoming Jewish family that made room for a Catholic family in a new city.

          I remember the day my mom told me that dad’s boss couldn’t shop, eat, or visit certain places because of his Jewish faith, and how we should act and think differently. As I grew it dawned on me that the Big Boss in Kansas City didn’t have a Jewish name. My father explained that during the war (WWII) he changed it so if he was captured by the Germans they would not know he belonged to the people who they thought should be exterminated.

          My dad loyally worked for that firm for some twenty-plus years until his death. At that time members of the company were more than supportive of mom, my brother, and myself.

          Later we went through the same thing with the Civil Rights movement and I learned that one of my father’s employees could not eat at a drugstore due to his skin color. My parents taught me the same about our “colored” friends. I remember at my dad’s funeral that same, now elderly, black man, approached my mom at the internment ceremony and asked if he could have the honor of one of the flowers from the casket spray.

          And now Jews are the enemy. American academics now seem to be taking up verbal (and sometimes physical) arms against anyone who is Jewish or supports Jews or the nation of Israel. One wonders if this is America or 1930s Germany and whether or not we should be expecting a new Kristallnacht.        

          The “peaceful protests” that are now engulfing some of our major universities, most rising from Anti-Semitism and pro-Hamas individuals, are clearly outgrowths of far left political philosophies, encompassing a wide range of leftist thought. This is the icing on the cake for a movement that has striven over the years to weaken our institutions and to bring Cultural Marxism and all that it implies, to the forefront of the American conversation.  

          But it is not surprising to me that the latest hubbub (dare we call them riots) has grown out of Columbia University. The school has too many historical connections with the type of ideology that is on display right now.

          It was the Communist Bella Dodd, prior to her return to the Catholic Church, who honed her Communist ideology in and around Columbia. On orders from Moscow she placed over 1,200 Communists in U. S. seminaries during the 20s and 30s in order to infiltrate the Church with Communist ideology. In the early 50s she told Bishop Fulton Sheen that world-wide several of the Red plants had achieved the rank of cardinal and bishop, indicating a successful mission.

          Dodd graduated from Columbia where she made her first Communist connections and taught at the nearby Hunter College. She was tasked by the Communist Party U.S.A. to infiltrate the New York teachers’ union, which she did.

          Columbia was also the 1934 landing point for a cadre of professors from the Frankfurt School in Germany where the concept of Critical Theory was developed. It taught that immutable human traits were responsible for all societal inequities. Thus it divided us into tribes, some as oppressors and others as the oppressed.

          This was Cultural Marxism, and one of the main proponents of it, Herbert Marcuse, was himself a product of that same Frankfurt School. That ideology has spread, throughout the academic world from college down to elementary school, and upward to professionals in all walks of life who now control a significant part of the new American establishment.

          Any wonder why this is happening now. It is to disrupt our institutions and social conventions. It’s been brewing for a while and is just now boldly coming out of the shadows of academia where it had been hiding.  

-30-

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

Report from the Iowa Catholic Conference

 

The Catholic bishops of Iowa have released a statement addressing migration issues including the new “illegal reentry” law set to take effect July 1 and a call for immigration reform with humanitarian protections. 

The bishops said, “While Catholics may disagree within the limits of justice on the specific approach to reforming the immigration system, we ask lawmakers in Washington, D.C., to resist easy answers and do their job … we again ask for ‘border protection policies that are consistent with humanitarian values and with the need to treat all individuals with respect, while allowing the authorities to carry out the critical task of identifying and preventing entry of terrorists and dangerous criminals.” 

Roundup on the 2024 legislative session

Every organization that advocates at the Capitol has successes and disappointments. The Iowa Catholic Conference (ICC) invites you to join a Zoom webinar with a recap of the 2024 Iowa legislative session. You can learn about the ICC’s advocacy efforts as well as hear updates on the new immigration law and the “heartbeat” abortion law. The webinar will be held on Wednesday, May 22 at 7 p.m. Don't miss this opportunity to engage! Please register here. 

Civilize It: Unifying a Divided Church 

On Tuesday, May 14 at 2 p.m., join Cardinal Robert McElroy, Bishop Robert Barron and Bishop Daniel Flores as they dialogue on the challenge of polarization in the Church today and the path forward. The conversation will include reflections on their roles as shepherds and leaders in their dioceses and in the U.S. Church, and on important topics such as the Synod on Synodality, encounter, and where to find hope amid the polarization. 

Gloria Purvis, renowned Catholic speaker and host of The Gloria Purvis Podcast from America Magazine, will moderate the conversation. This virtual event is co-sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Catholic Charities USA, Glenmary Home Missioners, and the Jesuit Conference. You can watch the livestream here.

Wisconsin election fraud investigator arrested and released in attempt to ‘shut him up’

Peter Bernegger was charged with 'simulating a legal process' after he filed numerous complaints against officials and candidates whom he claims took donations facilitated by activists in the names of unsuspecting voters.

(WND News Center) — An election fraud investigator who has documented multiple cases of “Smurf” campaign donations, those made in the name of a person who was unaware his or her name was being used, has been arrested, then released, in a Wisconsin election fraud dispute.

A report in the Wisconsin Daily Star documents the case involving Peter Bernegger, the chief of Election Watch in Wisconsin.

He was charged with sending a document through the mail, “simulating a legal process,” after he filed numerous complaints against officials and candidates who, he charges his evidence shows, took donations facilitated by activists in the names of unsuspecting voters, the report said.

He posted a signature bail and was released.

“This is politically motivated where they are trying to shut me up, to shut us all up. For those who don’t know, this is the second time they have come after me; the first time was dismissed in 15 minutes when the judge learned the truth of the matter,” he explained.

The previous case involved claims he harassed Meagan Wolfe of the Wisconsin Elections Commission but there was no evidence, resulting in dismissal.

His second arrest came after he filed six complaints against Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, which are before the Wisconsin Ethics Commission, the report said.

He was given an unsigned letter from Ismael Ozanne, a DA in Dane County, accusing him of the “legal process.”

“Wisconsin statute 946.68 states that it is illegal to send or deliver legal documents, including a complaint ‘that directs a person to perform or refrain from performing a specified act and compliance with which is enforceable by a court or governmental agency,'” the report explained.

But he got no summons and had filed for dismissal, so he didn’t appear in court.

The judge, however, issued an arrest warrant and Bernegger told the publication he was released on a signature bond.

“All they wanted was for me to shut and stop filing lawsuits,” he explained.

The report documented his research has uncovered “Smurfing” in elections dating back to 2010, when ACORN, which later turned into ActBlue, was active and donating.

He explained, in the report, progressive activists use bots to take names from the FEC website, where the donor has indicated they are retired or have left the employment space blank. He said he believes they target these types of donors since ‘they are unlikely to be able to fight back.’ They then make thousands of small donations in those donors’ names without their knowledge to ActBlue and Democratic candidates.”

He said the real crimes involved are identity theft, money laundering, violations of banking regulations and such.

He alleged on social media Kaul, formerly a lawyer for Hillary Clinton, benefited from Smurf donations.

“One of the elderly donors whose name was used, 79-year-old Lydia Foght, allegedly made 26,880 political contributions to him and others over about five and a half years,” the report explained.

He also charges that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis of Georgia, who has faced multiple scandals of her own in trying to create a RICO case against President Trump, allegedly accepted $184,916.45 in smurfing contributions.

Vandals write explicit pro-abortion slogans on Catholic church

Abortion activists vandalized St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon, this weekend, writing explicit pro-abortion messages on the church’s entrance doors and sidewalk. Parishioners discovered the vandalism on their way to Mass on Sunday. The graffiti messages included explicit messages and the slogan “my body my choice.” St. Patrick’s was also attacked by vandals back in 2021. READ

Biden's inversion of Title IX is devastating for men and women alike

 By Nicole Russell, Human Events

For over 50 years, Title IX has functioned as an imperfect but still valuable tool through which to help ensure that men and women are treated equally. Title IX elevated women, not above men, but to the same bracket, giving them the boost they needed to be treated equally. Last week, President Joe Biden made good on his campaign promise and revised Title IX to the detriment and safety of men and women alike.

Through the Education Department, the Biden administration has released new rules which essentially codify gender identity into the law, equal to sex discrimination. Schools can’t treat students differently and locker and bathrooms will be based on gender identity. The rules also loosen sexual assault due process procedures and colleges now can no longer be required to hold live hearings to allow students to question one another. Instead, college officials will be able to interview students separately and schools must use the preponderance of the evidence standard of proof to show guilt.

“The final regulations will help to ensure that all students receive appropriate support when they experience sex discrimination and that recipients’ procedures for investigating and resolving complaints of sex discrimination are fair to all involved,” the rules say.

Of course, in America, every student should be treated equally under the law, but Title IX already exists for that. It is not perfect. People are flawed and so is the legal system. But Biden’s new rules ensure that practically speaking, transgender students are also treated as a protected class, with rights that might usurp male, but especially female, students.

Now, under the new rules, which go into effect August 1, a woman’s right to safety and privacy in a bathroom, to live with only women in a dorm, or to compete in sports via an athletic scholarship could all be threatened under the premise of sex discrimination. This could spark new debates about the right of a woman to have privacy and safety in places like restrooms and locker rooms. It seems like it leaves little recourse for women under the new Title IX. These new rules erase any acknowledgment or protection of sex-based spaces, which is fundamental to privacy and safety for females.

This is not to claim that transgender people are inherently predatory or attempting criminal behavior. Loose policies open up loopholes for predators looking to commit crimes. We’ve seen this already in California prisons where transgender females are locked up with other women and commit crimes.

While Biden did not specifically ban schools from passing policies that protect female athletes, this rule almost ensures that women will lose more opportunities at sports scholarships, awards, and competitions, and the spots will go to transgender competitors who possess superior physiological prowess. Biden’s inversion of Title IX obliterates scholarships or awards intended for women only, destroying the original purpose of Title IX in the first place. We’ve already seen this happening in college and professional athletics from swimming and track and bicycle racing.

Biden’s erasure of due process in college for men accused of sex crimes is also unfair and frankly, discriminatory in its own way. While many allegations of rape are true, and rape is still the most under-reported crime, false accusations of rape do occur and they destroy men’s lives and reputations. Men accused of rape deserve an unbiased and fair process to defend themselves. Biden’s new rules could create kangaroo courts full of accusations and bias, not proof and evidence, destroying any chance of due process, which every student deserves.

Biden chose to protect the rights of transgender people in a way that erases the distinction between men and women. This will have the effect of reducing women’s rights altogether, something feminists have fought for, for decades. It is ironic that some of the most progressive politicians of our time have set in place policies that set women back many years.

This new rule will undoubtedly invite legal challenges to Title IX and perhaps questions about the executive branch’s overreach and consistent attempts to enforce life-altering policies through government bureaucracies. Shouldn’t these only be reserved for the will of the people to decide through Congress? Every President does this, including Republicans, but when does it go too far? Biden’s rule seems actually less like an attempt to ensure nationwide equality and more of a radical attempt to shore up the vote of young progressives wrapped up in these issues. He’ll need them since he’ll be losing moderates and middle-aged voters tired of his tanking economy and weak stance on foreign policy. But it could come at a greater cost to the millions of women counting on Title IX to ensure quality for themselves and their daughters.

Religious animas is no myth

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – Over the past few months the mainstream media has been fixated over the legal troubles of our former president. All court action whether it be the Fani Willis Show from Atlanta or the complete breakdown of the New York Judicial system, $450 million in fines for fraud in which there was no victim, illegal immigrants beating cops and released from jail without bond, and the like.

          But what has been missing from all of the legal reporting is how much anti-religious bias is being initiated by or in reaction to local and state prosecutions against people of faith. And, unfortunately, in a weekly column such as mine, or on a weekly radio broadcast, there is only enough time to focus on one or two matters, if that.

          So I decided to do something different. I went to my bookmarked religious liberty sites and decided to pick a few cases out to highlight the problem that does exist as more and more units of government come crashing down on local churches and people of faith. Here is a sampling of what I found on a short afternoon of internet surfing:

          In Colorado the state legislature created a preschool funding program to provide all parents with at least 15 hours per week of free preschool education for their kiddies. That’s fine as it sits, but the Colorado Department of Early Childhood has ruled that children enrolled in a Catholic school’s preschool program are not eligible. The state was sued by Catholic and other parents. A federal judge held a bench trial in January with no reported ruling as of this date; the case is listed only as “continued.”

          Parents in Maryland fought back against a Montgomery County Board of Education requirement that forced reading materials that promote transgenderism and gender identity on preschoolers and elementary students. A group of parents representing several faiths sued to protect their school-aged children from receiving non-age appropriate materials that violated the parents’ beliefs. In August of last year a federal judge ruled against the parents. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in December, a ruling has not been made.

          California has a special education program that provides funds to help parents who have children with disabilities. Part of the funding comes from a federal program created by the Disabilities Education Act. Under federal law the funds can be used at any school, public, private, or religious. However, under California law the funds may not be used in conjunction with a religious school, thus Catholic school parents are shut out of the program unless they transfer their children to a secular school.

          In 2017 the New York State Department of Financial Services issued a regulation that all employers cover abortion in their employee health insurance programs. A coalition of religious groups and individuals filed suit in state court which ruled in favor of the state regulation. An appeal was made to the U. S. Supreme Court which vacated the ruling and returned the case to the New York courts to reconsider its ruling, which is where the case sits right now.

          Just in the last few weeks the story emerged from Washington State in which a fifth-grade girl asked her middle school principal if she could form an afterschool prayer club so she and her friends who feel left out of other groups could come together. She and her mother met twice with the principal about the proposed club. In spite of the fact that the school had clubs for Marimba dancing, global reading, green policies, a chess club, and a recently added Pride Club, the principal turned down the request by claiming that there was no funding available. The little girl is now being represented by First Liberty who will, if necessary, take the school and its principal to court over the matter.

          In San Diego County a local black pastor, Dennis Hodges, was removed from a police and community relations board, over his views on human creation and transgenderism, both issues unrelated to his roll on the board. He had originally been appointed to the board because of his community activities and his relationship with the black community. The lawsuit which has been filed claims that Pastor Hodges removal from the board was a violation of his First Amendment (religion, speech) rights.

          Santa Clara County, California is being sued by a local church, Calvary Chapel of San Jose for using geofencing methods to spy on church members during the COVID pandemic. The county had levied a $1.2 million fine against the church for not abiding by COVID restrictions which curbed the church’s ability to worship publically. Geofencing is typically used by police to track lawbreakers, in this case those who attended the banned church services.

          When Pines Church in Maine applied to the local high school to use part of its facilities for Sunday services, a normal situation in many locales. However when Pine officials appeared before the board to consider the request they were peppered with questions about gay marriage, abortion, conversion therapy, gender reassignment treatment, and sexual ethics for children. As a result of the questioning, negotiations for the use of the building collapsed. The resulting law suit claims the board violated the state’s public accommodations act, as well as the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment.

          I did save one for last because it epitomizes what is going on in the area of religious liberty.

          In Albany, California a group of devout Christians and members of the local Lions Club joined together to build a large lighted steel and plexiglass cross on property that was owned by one of the participating members. The cross was constructed and dedicated on Easter 1971. Since that time the Lions Club lighted the cross every Easter and Christmas seasons. When lit the cross can be seen for miles, taking the message of the Gospel to all who can see it. The area surrounding the cross can be used for religious meetings, religious services, and weddings. 

          Since its erection, the Lions Club has taken care of the cross and provided all necessary maintenance, and has paid all the utility bills.

          All went well with the cross until 2016 when a complaint from an atheist group caused the city to ask the Lions Club to remove the cross. The Lions refused setting up a period of harassment by the city. The city ordered the disconnection of electrical service to the cross. It took four months for the Lions to get it restored. The city then filed a condemnation action against the cross.

          The Lions replied with a Free Exercise of Religion and Free Speech defense. In January the Alameda County Superior Court ruled in favor of the city and ordered the cross removed. The court held that “The Lions Club has not shown that its organizational purpose, its mission, involves promoting religious activities,” and thus could not assert a religious expression argument.

          The court further ruled, “The Lions Club cites no authority for the proposition that it has a right to speech in a manner that violates the Establishment Clause.” Apparently, according to the court, religious expression rights are not accorded to non-religious organizations.

          Naturally, this litany could continue and, unless effectively combated by committed people of faith, will continue. This matter is serious. It requires your attention in in all areas, spiritual, legal, and political. If not we will simply let Jesus be crucified again. 

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

Nebraska Governor Pillen signs school choice bill

Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed a bill Wednesday that would expand school choice to more of the state’s families. The Nebraska Examiner reported that the bill, LB 1402, “will devote $10 million to the state treasurer to distribute private K-12 scholarships to prospective students.” Both Pillen and the bill’s sponsor, State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, R-Elkhorn, are Catholics. READ

Jesuit university’s health plan appears to cover abortion

Jesuit-affiliated Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH, appears to list abortion on its student health insurance plan. The university maintains that it does not cover abortion. “[Xavier’s] plan not only appears to cover abortion – it looks like the school specifically added it into the coverage,” Hope College student William Hurley wrote in The College Fix Tuesday. “A ‘policy endorsement’ on the plan appeared to delete an ‘exclusion’ of abortion,” Hurley indicated.  READ

Report: new NPR CEO has ties to middle east revolutionaries

Conservative scholar Christopher Rufo reported he has uncovered alleged evidence which purports that new National Public Radio (NPR) CEO Katherine Maher had connections to radical revolutionaries in the Middle East. “Katherine Maher helped advance Color Revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, arguing that regime-change operatives could ‘govern a country’ by capturing radio stations,” Rufo wrote in an X post announcing his report Wednesday.  READ

This week’s FOT podcast is now posted

 Listen here: https://faith-on-trial.simplecast.com/episodes/dexter-dugan-justin-butterfield-4-26-2024-6v6j_fbg

Why Are Leftists So Miserable?

By Bill Donohue, Catholic League president

 

It was the day after Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election. I was smiling (I had run Reagan’s campaign in the North Hills of Pittsburgh), but most of the other professors at La Roche College (now a university) were sulking, and many appeared depressed. However, their mood was not uncharacteristic of the way they were most of the time: There are a lot of unhappy campers in the professoriate, especially in the liberal arts.

 

Nothing has changed.

 

In a new study by psychologists in Finland assessing the state of mind of radical social justice devotees, it was found that those who bought into progressive ideas are profoundly unhappy. Published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, the researchers started with a sample of 851 persons, mostly students and professors at the University of Turku, and then expanded it to 5,030 adults. They distinguished between those who hold to a traditional liberal perspective and those who identify with a  radical one. They focused on the latter.

 

The researchers devised a Critical Social Justice Attitude Scale (CSJAS) that measured seven aspects of what they deemed as representative of “woke” politics. Most of the items dealt with race, though one tapped transgenderism (the idea that the sexes are interchangeable). For example, “University reading lists should include fewer white or European authors” was deemed reflective of the “woke” view.

 

Social justice attitudes, the study’s authors said, “perceive people foremost as members of identity groups and as being, witting or unwitting, perpetrators or victims of oppression based on the groups’ perceived power differentials; and advocate regulating how or how much people speak and how they act if there is a perceived power differential between speakers, and intervening in action or speech deemed oppressive.”

 

The conclusions were riveting.

 

Regarding the initial small sample, it was determined that high CSJAS scores were “linked to anxiety, depression, and a lack of happiness.” On the larger sample, “this lower mental well-being was mostly associated with being on the political left and not specifically with having a high CSJAS score.” Women were more likely than men to have high CSJAS scores, which explains why their happiness quotient was smaller.

 

The researchers noted that their findings were consistent with that of other studies on this subject. They are right about that.

 

“Liberals, especially liberal women, are significantly less likely to be happy with their lives and satisfied with their ‘mental health,’ compared to their conservative peers aged 18-55.” According to University of Virginia sociologist W. Brad Wilcox, this was “the big takeaway from the 2022 American Family Survey, a striking new poll from YouGov and the Deseret News.”

 

In 2023, Musa al-Gharbi, a sociologist at Columbia University, examined data from many studies on this subject and concluded that conservatives are indeed happier than liberals. He said this finding “is consistent across countries and extends back in time.”

 

The question remains: Why are those on the left so miserable?

 

For starters, consider this. Imagine waking up each day thinking the world is made up of oppressors, racists, sexists, homophobes and their victims. Is that likely to put a smile on your dial?

 

It’s actually worse than this. Left-wing professors, which is to say most of them in the social sciences and humanities, love to bask in their negativity. Smug as can be, they love thinking that those who don’t share their views are ignorant buffoons; they, of course, are the only really bright ones. Their darkness is their defining characteristic.

 

But why do these malcontents think this way?

 

It has much to do with what Catholicism calls the sin of pride, the belief that we are self-sufficient human beings and have no need for God. The big thinkers believe they are too smart to believe in God. Too bad they aren’t smart enough to know that boys who claim to be girls should not be allowed to compete against girls in sports and shower with them. There must be a cavity in their brain when it comes to sex.

 

It must be said that while those on the left are the most likely to be unhappy, it has been my experience that extremists on the right are just as likely to be despondent.

 

I have often said that when I encounter a highly educated person, or an activist, for the first time, I know within minutes if I am dealing with an extremist. The individual could be on the right or the left—it doesn’t matter. The common denominator is humorlessness. They rarely smile and their bouts of laughter usually come at someone else’s expense.

 

Smiling is important. Laughter is important. They are staples of mental health. Hanging around those who are habitually unhappy—for reasons wholly due to their cast of mind and their inflated idea of who they are—is a chore. It’s also a bore.

 

The Finnish psychologists learned that left-wing “woke” mavens find it hard to be happy. The deeper problem is that they actually like it that way.