This week on FOT: Whistleblowers and the heartbeat bill

Listen now: https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/  Episode 377

High court upholds South Carolina heartbeat law

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a revised version of the state’s “heartbeat” law, reversing a previous ruling from the high court earlier this year that deemed the law unconstitutional. In the 4-1 decision, the court said abortions are not protected under the state’s constitutional safeguards against invasions of privacy. The pro-life law is in keeping with South Carolina’s legitimate “interest in protecting the unborn,” the ruling stated.  READ

Iowa Attorney General in studio this week for Faith On Trial

This week we hosted Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird (pictured center) in our studio with Deacon Mike Manno and Gina Noll. She spoke about Iowa’s new Heartbeat law which is now tied up in the courts, as well as other matters pertaining to her office. Our other guest (via phone from Texas) was Kyle Seraphin, the FBI whistleblower who blew the whistle on the FBI investigations of traditional Catholics as domestic terrorists. The program number is 377 and can be found on our blog post with all of our other programs at: https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/.

Catholic farmer wins in court

 A federal district court sided with a Michigan farmer on Monday, ruling that he is free to participate in a city-run farmer’s market after he was booted over his Catholic views on marriage. Steve Tennes, who owns Country Mill Farms, was banned in 2017 from the East Lansing farmer’s market by city officials after he posted on Facebook that he adheres to the Catholic Church’s teachings on marriage.  READ

Can Pro-Lifers Get A Fair Trial In D.C.?

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – For far too long we have been hearing complaints about a two-tiered justice system in the United States where favored people get breaks that other mere mortals cannot. As an adjunct to that claim, there is also the question of whether people with certain political beliefs can obtain a fair result in certain venues.

For example, there is a complaint that Donald Trump cannot get a fair trial in New York City due to the political breakdown of the juror pool and the demographics of the city. There is also the question about pro-lifers and fair trials in other blue states and districts, again due to the demographic and political views of the local jury pool.

Of course, to most folks such questions of fair trials for pro-life defendants in deep blue venues may seem more academic than practical since the thesis of the question is not easily proven, nor is there an easy correction if it is finally proved. It seems that this is an enormous hill to try to climb.

But there is a recent report on LifeSiteNews by Monica Miller, Ph.D., that looked at a jury pool in a case involving pro-lifers charged with violation of the FACE Act as well as conspiracy charges for conspiracy to interfere with the civil rights of women seeking abortions in the District of Columbia. If convicted the nine defendants face 10 years in prison and fines of $230,000.

Dr. Miller, president of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, examined the 34 written questions that were submitted to the 154 potential jurors. She focused on three of the questions asked potential jurors individually:

Q. 20: “In this trial ‘abortion’ will be mentioned, but this case is not about abortion — not whether it is right or wrong, just or unjust — it’s about whether clinics have a right to operate. Do you have any beliefs about abortion that would render you to not be fair and impartial in this case?”

Q. 21: “Have you ever belonged to or contributed to any group that advocates for or against abortion?”

Q. 22: “Have you or a close friend or family member ever participated in any demonstration either for or against abortion?”

According to Dr. Miller, four jurors answered “yes” to the questions above, two admitted to donating to Planned Parenthood, and one said that his wife donated to Planned Parenthood and he was okay with that. Another admitted that she had attended women’s marches in the city supporting abortion and other women’s issues and she was employed as a media consultant to a pro-abortion member of congress.

Another potential juror said that she had been raised Catholic but left the Church over the abortion issue and was now an agnostic.

As each of these potential jurors answered, the defense attorneys raised objections to their remaining members of the jury pool due to their specific support of organizations which promoted abortion. The objections made were for “cause,” meaning that the potential juror was not in a position to fairly hear the case due to their support of Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry.

In each objection the presiding judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton appointee to the bench who also serves as presiding judge for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), denied the defense motion to strike the potential jurors for cause despite the jurors’ obvious support for abortion. In answer to the defense attorneys the judge reportedly indicated that access to abortion is legal and thus a juror cannot be struck for supporting something that is legal.

Here are some of the other jurors who were also not struck for bias, according to Dr. Miller:

“One juror contributes money to Planned Parenthood and stated he believes protecting access to abortion is important.

“Another juror also heard through media about ‘unborn children being taken from clinics.’ Since he called the unborn ‘unborn children’ — we had hope for him! But, no. He actually donated money directly to abortion centers in Florida, attended pro-abortion rallies, was very concerned about maintaining access to abortion, and even attended a protest at the Supreme Court against the Dobbs decision and admitted that he disapproved of persons who denied women access to abortion. . . .

“A juror said he contributed to Planned Parenthood, wanted to be sure that people had access to ‘reproductive care,’ and admitted that such ‘care’ included abortion.”

The trial is now underway in Washington and the defense attorneys are left to use their limited number of “free” strikes. We’ll have to wait and see how the jury selection process and the judge’s handling of the defense motions to strike apparently biased jurors plays into the final result.

This report disturbs me for a number of reasons. Any time a case is about abortion or related “rights,” there appears to be an automatic bias in favor of one side over the other, and those biases are very personal and difficult for an individual to overlook. When a trial is being held in a venue where the wind only seems to blow in one direction it would seem to me that the courts should recognize the inherent unfairness in that and be willing to move the trial to a more balanced venue.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem there is a recognition of that. In fact, it almost seems as if some prosecutors and plaintiffs’ lawyers are specifically seeking such an unbalanced venue to give their side an edge with the jury pool. Now it may be unwieldy to try to do so. I know “forum shopping” is something that appeals to the plaintiffs’ bar but I think our courts need to take a look at this issue and to start to draft ideas to make trials fairer to all litigants.

We already have enough questions about the state of justice in a polarized population but it’s worth a try. 

(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/)

Governors Reynolds, Abbott, Pillen, Stitt and Noem Ban Together To Secure Border

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds

DES MOINES – Governor Greg Abbott today held a press conference in Eagle Pass withIowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to provide an update on their joint efforts under Texas' Operation Lone Star to respond to President Joe Biden's reckless open border policies.  

"Texas is ground zero, front and center of the border crisis," said Governor Reynolds. "On day 1 of the Biden Administration, they reversed policies that protect the sovereignty of this country and its citizens. Iowa is located at the intersection of two major interstates, and it is a pathway for Mexican cartels and humans traffickers in the Midwest. I thank the 14 other Governors who have stepped up to do the job that President Biden has failed to do. It is time for the President to do his job."  

"These Governors here with me today are deploying military and law enforcement officers to help Texas secure the border," said Governor Abbott. "We have 14 Governors who are deploying personnel to secure the border that President Biden has abandoned. President Biden is not doing his job, and he is responsible for the largest amount of illegal immigration in the history of the United States and has rolled out a deadly welcome mat with a record number of people dying attempting to cross the border. There is a reason the United Nations has named the border between the United States and Mexico the deadliest land border in the entire world. President Biden is responsible for that deadly border, and we're not going to stand idly by. We, as states, share an obligation and that's to step up and address this unparalleled catastrophe caused by President Biden."  

"President Biden continues to let the crisis at the border go unchecked, and it is growing," said Governor Pillen. "This is a national security issue that must be addressed. We stand with Governor Abbott as his state works daily to halt the influx of illegal drugs, weapons, and criminals into the U.S."  

"What we're literally witnessing is a war zone, and it is astonishing to witness our President allow this to happen," said Governor Noem. "The cartels are out for blood, and they are facilitating the trafficking of our children every day. The lack of humanity in these policies. These policies are inhumane of what they're doing to people and these families. This country needs to realize that our President breaks the law and ignores the law. I thank Governor Abbott for all that he's done to fight this fight. I'm all in helping support Operation Lone Star."  

"The chaotic scenes at the southern border are a stark reminder of the consequences of disastrous open border policies," said Governor Stitt. "The Biden Administration is asleep at the wheel. Make no mistake, every state has become a border state, but I’m encouraged by my fellow Republican Governors who are stepping up to secure the border. It is essential that we protect our communities by supporting our law enforcement and putting a stop to the flow of illegal drugs pouring into our nation."  

The Governor was also joined at the press conference by DPS Director Steve McCraw, Texas Adjutant General Major General Thomas Suelzer, and Texas Border Czar Mike Banks.  

Prior to the press conference, Governor Abbott held a border security briefing with his fellow Governors where they received updates from Director McCraw, Major General Suelzer, and Border Czar Banks on the multitude of effective strategies used by Operation Lone Star to secure the border, including Texas' floating marine barriers installed in the Rio Grande River.   

During the briefing, Governor Abbott thanked the Governors for their support in Texas' Operation Lone Star border security mission and highlighted the value of their states' resources being used to secure the border and curtail the influx of illegal immigration, dangerous weapons, and deadly drugs like fentanyl coming into Texas from Mexico.  

Director McCraw outlined the success of Operation Lone Star's border security efforts, noting that just DPS alone has seized over 426 million lethal doses of deadly fentanyl—enough to kill every man, woman, and child in America. He also highlighted the importance of state law enforcement along the border, pointing to their critical role in supporting Border Patrol agents as the first line of defense against surges of illegal immigration between ports of entry.  

Major General Suelzer provided an update on Texas’ and other states' National Guard soldiers’ efforts to hold the line, install strategic barriers, and turn back migrants along the Texas-Mexico border. Specifically, Major General Suelzer described soldiers' significance to help push out illegal activity from El Paso by installing 18 miles of concertina wire in the area and noted that turnbacks have gone up 38 percent with the help of other states.   

Border Czar Banks thanked the other Governors for their support in Operation Lone Star's border security efforts and reminded them that Texas knows that border security means national security for the rest of the country. He also corrected claims made about Texas' floating marine barriers, explaining their efficacy as deterrents for illegal, unsafe crossings from Mexico into Texas.  

Today's border visit comes after Governor Abbott sent letters to America's Governors in May requesting support for Texas’ border security mission following President Biden's decision to end Title 42.  

As of today, 14 other states—including Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming—have stepped up to support Texas' efforts and deployed personnel and resources to secure the border in President Biden's absence.  

Mental health crisis among children

A surge of mental health emergencies among children has overwhelmed emergency rooms, according to a joint paper released last week by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Emergency Physicians, and the Emergency Nurses Association. The children showing up in crisis are often suffering from emergencies related to anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts or attempts, the groups said.  READ

Biggest Virginia school district defies pro-parent rules

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) announced that they are defying new educational guidelines against pushing “trans” pronouns on students and letting boys use girls’ bathrooms. Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s office responded that FCPS may be infringing on the rights of Fairfax County parents. READ

School Year Begins With Religious Lawsuits

By Bill Donohue, Catholic League president 

The new school year is beginning with lawsuits to ensure religious liberty. 

In Colorado, the Denver Archdiocese is suing the state over strictures in its new universal preschool program that would force Catholic schools to violate Catholic teachings. To be explicit, the archdiocese is saying that Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood would mandate that Catholic preschools enroll “LGBTQ people.” This cannot be done without violating Catholic teachings on marriage, the family and sexuality. 

The archdiocese correctly argues that accepting the children of gay parents “is likely to lead to intractable conflicts” because the Church does not believe in same-sex marriage. The Church also rejects gender ideology, the idea that the sexes are interchangeable. Ergo, to accept students who have “transitioned” to the opposite sex is contradictory to its professed beliefs. 

In short, Colorado’s new preschool program does not provide for religious exemptions, and is therefore the subject of the lawsuit. 

In California, Orthodox Jewish families are suing the state for excluding religious schools from public funding for young people with disabilities. The state’s Education Code allows funding for “nonpublic, nonsectarian schools,” but provides no money for religious schools. Three Orthodox Jewish families are suing, insisting that their disabled children have religious needs that cannot be met in traditional public or private schools. 

Catholic parents who have children with disabilities are also at risk. At the federal level, Congress has long committed funds for the disabled, knowing that their needs require special attention. Those needs should not be exclusionary of religion.   

The secular vision of morality, which is entertained by the ruling class, is intolerant of religious liberty. State officials know that the courts are much more religious friendly than they are, making these lawsuits unnecessary. It just goes to show the zealotry that imbues in them. 

This is a never-ending battle for our First Amendment right to religious liberty.

This week on FOT: What to expect on campus; DC Circuit's ruling pro-lifers arrested improperly

This week on Faith On Trial, Iowa Catholic Radio Network

Listen now: https://iowacatholicradio.com/faith-on-trial/  Episode 376

Catholic healthcare giant partners with abortion group

The largest U.S. Catholic health network, CommonSpirit, partnered with a women’s health telemedicine company that later began offering abortion pills, according to a new report by the Lepanto Institute. CommonSpirit partnered with Tia Women’s Health in 2021, and following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Tia began to offer medical abortions. READ

Wisconsin girls quitting sports over male presence

When a Wisconsin high school allowed a male to compete on the girls' sports team, parents pulled their daughters off the team. Parents reported their daughters returning from summer games with unusual bruises and welts. “They’re just not used to the ball coming at them that hard,” said one parent. “A lot of these girls are specifically quitting this team because they’re concerned for their safety.”  READ

Dems push climate policy after Hawaii fires

In the wake of the devastating ongoing Hawaii wildfires, the state’s governor and other Democrats are blaming “global warming” and “climate change.” Global warming is “very real for us and everywhere,” said first-term Hawaii Democratic Gov. Josh Green. “There’s no question this catastrophe is going to change the way everyone looks at fire across the globe.”  READ

BUT

Climate experts weigh in against wildfire narrative  

While Hawaii’s governor and other Democrats are pinning the state’s deadly wildfires on “climate change,” environmental experts are saying there is no connection. Read their explanations here.  READ

Toxic Femininity

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – I saw last week a news story reporting that adolescent boys as they near voting age are becoming conservative politically. Myself I’d like to see them become more Catholic and Christian, but I suppose I can live with conservative.

Girls, on the other hand, are trending liberal. Jean Twenger, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University was quoted as saying, “Among liberals, the future is female. And among conservatives, the future is male.”

My first reaction to the news was that it was no surprise to me. For some years I’ve been watching young boys pushed to the sidelines while schools, teachers, and society measured conduct by a girls’ standard. Let me give you an example:

When I was a school boy we played rough, much rougher than the girls did. The nun’s main job in babysitting us was to make sure we didn’t permanently harm one another. Now there were occasional fights, which usually never lasted very long since those wonderful black-veiled women were quick to pull the offenders apart before either received a black eye or bloody nose.

And for guys, once the fight was over (and thank you, Sister for breaking this thing up before I really got beat) that was it. We had shown our manhood by asserting ourselves with our fists, and that was all we needed to prove.

You see boys played hard. We didn’t skip rope or play Ring Around the Rosie. And, in fact, that hard playing was what kept us calm and our fights short: We simply wore ourselves out. But in recent years that is not what I hear happening. Boys who are a little too energized behave outside the norms set for them. And those norms have been patterned after how young girls play, quietly with no rough-housing. You see, the girls were setting the decorum rules for the boys.

And, of course, when boys began to act up — that is, like boys — the message was sent home and far too often they were put on drugs to keep them calm. Getting the picture?

Boys were not allowed to act like boys; their conduct was circumscribed by rules natural to girls. Girls were nice and sweet but the boys were ADHD.

I’ve known a lot of schoolteachers in my lifetime and I cannot think of one who has not told the story of a boy on Ritalin because he didn’t comport himself as the girls did. It simply made for a better classroom. And, of course, it was necessary to send the message to the girls that they could succeed just as a boy could.

After all, nowadays there is no real difference between the boys and the girls, they are interchangeable. And the disservice is that boys are not allowed to play, horse- play, and rough-house as boys are inclined to do. After all, a boy’s role model should be his dad, the support and protector of the family. Unfortunately, due to societal changes inspired by governmental programs, far too few boys have that father figure in the home to guide them into strong adults capable of negotiating the complex ways of today’s world.

Back in 2019 clinical psychologist Michael Alcee, Ph.D., wrote in Psychology Today:

“While it is wonderful that society has been focused on helping girls, empowering them not to feel like the ‘odd girl out’ and tackling issues surrounding ‘mean girls,’ boys’ experiences, unfortunately, have often been neglected. And by failing to zero in on this important aspect of a boy’s psychology, we not only do boys a disservice, but we also miss the boat in treating them with the kind of empathy that will truly help them become strong. Fortunately, this doesn’t need to be a zero-sum game: We can empower, support, and celebrate girls and boys at the same time.”

Years ago, I am told, some schools tried to tie a left-handed student’s left hand to his desk so he would learn to write with his right hand. It didn’t take long for the professional educators involved to realize that it wouldn’t work. You can’t force someone to be something he is not; you can’t turn a lefty into a righty and you can’t turn an energetic young boy into a hop-scotch fan. It’s as simple as that. Eventually you have to untie the left hand, just like you have to let boys act out their natural personhood.

But I don’t think that has been the experience for far too many boys in this critical period of their lives. They have been demoralized and demonized, warned to avoid all that toxic masculinity that is running the country and the world. Far too many grow up in either female-headed households, or whose only male role model is some transient companion picked up to take care of mom’s needs with little regard to the effect they will have on the adolescent boys in the home.

So, while the nation was warned about toxic masculinity, the boys were suffering from toxic femininity by being measured against girls’ social development, not their own.

This was illustrated to me by a cable-TV commentary on a fight at a major league baseball game. Those brawls happen and they oftentimes clear the benches as one team tries to stand up for one of their own. In this particular case there were four hosts, two women and two men.

They split on their view of the fight, with the women calling it unprofessional and unsportsmanlike, and the men took the position that while it may not be a very good part of the game, these things happen and, in effect, the guys will be guys.

Now you might ask: What about all the riots and gang violence we see on the news these days? Aren’t most of those people guys? That’s right, we do see them. If I might be permitted to make this observation: Most of those you see have not had the role models — male and female — needed to develop into true adulthood.

So now look at the boy-problem from the boys’ perspective. For all his life he has been told to play nice like his sister, his growth dynamic has been pooh-poohed by teachers and administrators, and many were raised by single moms who lack the skills to raise a boy without a male role model. And on top of that, society is now telling him that there is no difference between boys and girls, unless a girl accuses you of something, then she must be believed.

Is it any wonder they are becoming conservatives? They are growing into manhood and that tie on the left hand has to be broken. A boy is a man and a man should be a man.

Any wonder who these new conservatives will vote for? Someone they see as filling a very masculine role: leader, defender, national father.

 Sorry, Joe. It won’t be you.

(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/)

Remember about Redskins: A chief factor of sports teams' names is aim for blush of victory

By Dexter Duggan, Substack

PHOENIX — Interesting that a Native American organization wants to change the name of football’s Washington Commanders back to what it had been, the Washington Redskins.

Under the proclamation “Educate NOT Eradicate,” the Native American Guardian’s Association (nagaeducation.org) describes itself as “a 501c3 non-profit organization advocating for increased education about Native Americans, especially in public educational institutions, and greater recognition of Native American Heritage through the high-profile venues of sports and other public platforms.”

For decades Native names on teams weren’t regarded as taunts. When Dad took little pre-teeners my sister and me to an occasional Indianapolis Indians baseball game, we popcorn eaters expected to see athletic accomplishment, not ethnic mockery. Nor did Dad feel the need to warn us that we shouldn’t sneer at “Indians” while watching players display skills of hitting home runs and stealing bases.

However, the day arrived that the social elitist establishment decided for itself — and therefore, of course, for everyone else, to whom it presumes to dictate — that some Native names on teams were intolerable bigotry and must be discarded. Hardly anyone else had perceived this, so it took a lot of twisting and turning to try to make everyone else agree. They still didn’t agree, but the elitists finally can get so exasperated with their social inferiors that they just ram things through anyway.

(Somehow certain names dodged the assault, like Kansas City Chiefs, even though that was as Native a name as others. Oh, wait. Maybe “Chiefs” was exempted because that was sort of like saying the Top Guys, whereas “Redskins” might just be guys on the assembly line or working behind the lunch counter or on the sales floor. If it had been “Redskin Business Executives,” would that have received the okay? When some such Business Executives had finished off supremacist Gen. George Armstrong Custer and his salesmen, they showed they knew how to close a deal.)

This present-day establishment’s attitude of white superiority used to identify itself as such when shoving around others, whether the others also were white or some other skin persuasion. But now, to maintain its power while hiding its identity in these super-progressive times, this white upper class passes itself off as anything but. Maybe call it white superiority trying to hide under a deep suntan.

NAGA’s website recognizes the trickery when it says, “The truth of the matter is the opposition doesn’t believe Native Americans are capable of self-determining whether something is offensive or revered. The opposition looks to silence Native opinions.”

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