Tag: religion

Ukrainian Drones Have Been Targeting Historic Orthodox Churches In Russia

Throughout over three years of the Russia-Ukraine war, there has been a sad and tragic trend of churches being struck by missiles, drones, or bombs on both sides of the conflict.

But attacks on religious sites have gone all the way back to 2014, and the start of the conflict in the Donbass, which saw pro-Kiev forces frequently shelling Russia-aligned areas, including attacks on Orthodox churches

And of course, since then the Ukraine government has actively and openly persecuted Ukraine’s largest Orthodox church for simply maintaining spiritual communion with the Moscow Patriarchate.

Famous, historic monasteries have been shut down or seized by authorities, monks expelled, and churches have been raided by far-right nationalist militant groups. As for the other side, Russian aerial raids have often devastated whole Ukrainian neighborhoods, including destruction of local churches.

In a fresh incident, Russian government and media sources say a Ukrainian drone was sent across the border and struck an iconic, historic church in Belgorord region, which set the church on fire.

Local Belgorod governor Vyacheslav issued a statement on Telegram Saturday saying “the enemy is striking our holy sites again – an enemy drone has attacked Saint George Church in the village of Tolokonnoye.”

Emergency crews were able to extinguish the blaze, but not before the church’s domes caught on fire…

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REVEALED: How the People’s Pope shielded sexual predators in the clergy – including one priest accused of violently raping nuns

When the world’s cardinals met in Rome last Monday for the first of their crucial pre-conclave discussions, they raised ‘the issue of clerical abuse’, according to a Vatican spokesman. 

The cardinals are forbidden to reveal anything that was said. 

But behind closed doors, the preparations for the conclave – which starts on Wednesday – are already mired in scandal.

Aside from doubts about the true age of Philippe Ouedraogo, a cardinal from Burkina Faso whom some claim is 80, meaning he’s too old to vote, and concerns about the presence of the Peruvian cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, who faces sexual abuse allegations (which he denies), several cardinals have torn into the legacy of the late Pope Francis.

‘We have listened to many complaints against Francis’s papacy in these days’, one unnamed cardinal told America Magazine, a Jesuit publication.

In any case, we can be certain that Monday’s debate was haunted by a series of jaw-dropping scandals whose details are unknown to the vast majority of the 400,000 Catholics who attended Pope Francis’s funeral a week ago.

If they had known, the crowds would have been much smaller. 

For the common denominator of these scandals – whose victims included 20 Slovenian nuns who claim to have been raped, Argentinian seminarians grotesquely assaulted by their bishop and a Belgian teenager subjected to incestuous assault by his uncle, a bishop – is that Francis went to bizarre lengths either to conceal or excuse these crimes.

The ‘people’s Pope’ was elected in 2013 on a promise to hold the Church accountable for clerical sex abuse. 

And it’s true that he did establish new rules designed to punish bishops found guilty.

But the first Argentinian pontiff did not practise what he preached. 

The darkest mystery of Francis’s 12-year reign was his persistent habit of shielding credibly accused and even convicted sexual predators from justice. 

The Pope enjoys supreme authority over the Catholic Church. 

He can twist or ignore canon law, which is supposed to punish sex offenders, and the Vatican state’s criminal law, without being challenged.

That is precisely what he did, again and again. 

Indeed, his sinister modus operandi predated his election: as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he tried to keep a priest who abused homeless boys out of jail.

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New law requires clergy in Washington to report child abuse

Religious leaders in Washington will be required to report child abuse or neglect, even when it is disclosed in confession, under a new law signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson on Friday.

“Protecting our kids, first, is the most important thing. This bill protects Washingtonians from abuse and harm,” Ferguson said, noting Washington is one of five states in which clergy are not currently mandated reporters.

It took Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle, three years to get the bill to the governor’s desk. Making sure disclosures during confidential conversations between a penitent and religious leader were not exempt was critical, she said.

“You never put somebody’s conscience above the protection of a child,” she said.

Senate Bill 5375 passed by margins of 64-31 in the House and 28-20 in the Senate. It takes effect July 27. 

It adds clergy members to the state’s list of individuals legally required to report suspected child abuse to law enforcement or the Department of Children, Youth and Families.

Clergy would join school personnel, nurses, social service counselors, psychologists, and many others with a duty to report when they have “reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse or neglect.”

A “member of the clergy” is defined in the legislation to cover any regularly licensed, accredited, or ordained minister, priest, rabbi, imam, elder, or similarly positioned religious or spiritual leader.

While disclosures in confession or other religious rites where the clergy member is bound to confidentiality are not exempt, religious leaders will retain their privilege to not be compelled to testify in related court cases or criminal proceedings.

More than half the states make clergy mandatory reporters and most exempt what is heard in a confessional. Washington will join several states, including New Hampshire and West Virginia where such conversations are not exempt.

“It says the church is not above the law, especially when it comes to protecting children,” said Mary Dispenza, a founding member of the Catholic Accountability Project and member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “We know children will be safer as a result of passing this law.”

Removing the confessional privilege proved the most divisive provision in legislative debates. 

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Gavin Newsom Awards Antiterrorism Grant to Mosque Linked to 9/11 Hijackers, Pro-Hamas Cleric

California governor Gavin Newsom (D.) recently awarded taxpayer funds under a state antiterrorism program to a San Diego mosque that has been linked to 9/11 hijackers and whose imam defended the Hamas attack on Israel.

Newsom, considered a top 2028 presidential contender, awarded nearly $200,000 to the Islamic Center of San Diego in March as part of a program to help religious institutions and nonprofits beef up security to protect against potential terrorist attacks, according to state records.

“Today more than ever, our state stands together to support our communities. Californians deserve the right to worship, love, and gather safely, without fear of violence,” said Newsom, whose administration has given another $500,000 to the San Diego mosque in previous years.

The Islamic Center of San Diego, led by Imam Taha Hassane, has condoned anti-Israel violence over the years. Hassane, who joined the center in 2004, defended Hamas’s slaughter of Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, saying in a sermon weeks later that “resistance [against Israel] is justified,” the Washington Free Beacon previously reported.

“We cannot accuse somebody who is fighting for his life to be a terrorist. The terrorist is the one who started the occupation, not the one who is defending himself,” said Hassane, whose remarks prompted his removal from San Diego’s Human Relations Commission.

Hassane’s wife, Lallia Allali, resigned from her job with the San Diego school district after she posted a cartoon following the Oct. 7 attacks that showed a Star of David beheading five children. She currently teaches courses on “Islamophobia” at the Islamic Center of San Diego.

The Islamic Center of San Diego gained notoriety in the wake of 9/11 after revelations that two of the al Qaeda operatives who flew the plane that hit the Pentagon—Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar—prayed regularly at the mosque. An official at the mosque also allegedly helped the terrorists receive a $5,000 wire transfer from the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11. Other mosque leaders hosted a welcoming party for the hijackers when they arrived in San Diego in 2000, according to the 9/11 Commission report.

Newsom awarded the grant as California faces a steep budget shortfall. State leaders acknowledged in a press release regarding the antiterrorism program that it comes amid “significant budget challenges” for the state.

The office that oversees the grant program—the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services—is the same one that oversees the state’s wildfire mitigation program. Newsom faced criticism following a Free Beacon report that he shut down a highly trained volunteer firefighting force called Team Blaze a year before the Los Angeles wildfires devastated the city in January.

Newsom has awarded grants to other mosques that preach anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate, the Free Beacon previously reported.

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Religion Is Not The Only Thing That Should Be Separated From The State

The Act of Supremacy of 1534 declared that King Henry VIII (and his successors) was “the only supreme head in earth of the Church of England” and not the pope of Rome. The Treason Act of 1534 made it an act of treason, under punishment of death, to deny the Act of Supremacy. During the reign of Queen Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII, the Act of Supremacy was repealed, but was enacted by the English Parliament again in 1559 after Henry’s other daughter Elizabeth became the queen. The British monarch is to this very day still the head of the Church of England or Anglican Church, which is the established church in England. This is one of the main differences between the United States and Great Britain. Although the United States has a National Cathedral where some state funerals are held (most recently for Jimmy Carter), it is actually an Episcopal church (part of the worldwide Anglican Communion), not owned or controlled by the federal government. The “separation of church and state” is a hallmark of the American system of government.

The First Amendment

The Constitution was drafted in 1787, ratified in 1788, and took effect in 1789. It established the United States as a federal system of government where the states, through the Constitution, granted a limited number of powers to a central government. The Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the Constitution) was ratified by the states in 1791 in response to criticisms of the Constitution by the Anti-Federalists that the Constitution contained no explicit protection of speech, assembly, religion, or the right to bear arms.

The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” It was President Thomas Jefferson who, in an 1802 letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, equated the religion clauses in the First Amendment with the “separation of church and state”:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.

That the “separation of church and state” applied to just the federal government is evident by the fact that some of the states still maintained established churches at the time the Constitution was adopted. The phrase was resurrected by Justice Hugo Black in the case of Everson v. Board of Education (1947). But as Mike Maharrey of the Tenth Amendment Center has observed: “The federal government’s use of the First Amendment to prohibit religious displays in local parks, to force the removal of the Ten Commandments from public schools, or to ban prayers in public assemblies would horrify the founding generation.” Massachusetts was the last of the original states to fully disestablish its churches in 1833. The idea of the “separation of church and state” is now enshrined in all state constitutions.

But religion is not the only thing that should be separated from the state. Unfortunately, the very people who talk the loudest about the separation of church and state never call for the separation of anything else from the state.

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Scientology, The CIA, and MK-ULTRA

The majority of current discourse on Scientology centers around insider revelations regarding the radical belief system coded within the pay-to-play hierarchy of the Church –– e.g. allusions to an alien god named Xenu, hydrogen bombs exploding in ancient volcanoes, auditing sessions with e-Meters, and parasitic past-lives in spirit-form covering human bodies known as Thetans. The deepest secrets of Scientology are only made available to members who have diligently climbed the ranks and dished out vast sums of money. Slowly but surely, these secrets have been published on the internet by disgruntled ex-Scientologists, and thus the discussions surrounding this controversial religion have been commandeered into sensational silos. Whether intentional or not, the end result is that the immense ties of the Church to intelligence and drug trafficking –– not to mention the intersection of both as it relates to the CIA’s MK-ULTRA mind control program –– remain largely ignored.

Scientology’s methods and their extremely pervasive effects on the minds of its own cult members only truly begin to make sense when understood within the context of the non-redacted history of founder L. Ron Hubbard, including the Church’s primordial Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation connections to the intelligence community, and Hubbard’s own intelligence career. His role in under-discussed operations, on the behalf of US Naval and other intelligence agencies, include Hubbard’s work at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. in the 1930s –– the hot-bed of psychiatric research during Project Bluebird and Project Artichoke, the precursors to the infamous MK-ULTRA program –– in addition to his infiltration of Jack Parsons’ occult-influenced rocket program, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whose work became the scientific foundation for NASA.

In 1953, The MK-ULTRA program was formally authorized by CIA Director Allen Dulles in order to close the “brainwashing gap” after the US learned of Korean mind-control techniques that had been used on American prisoners of war. As detailed later in this investigation, Scientology itself would later employ such tactics to direct fanatical members of the Church to infiltrate a handful of US agencies, including the IRS, the Treasury, and the FDA, among others, to enact an elaborate intelligence gathering operation in the largest infiltration of the US government in history –– Operation Snow White.

This piece, the first in a two-part series, attempts to abridge the history of the Church of Scientology from its formation through the mid-1990s in order to properly frame an ensuing article on Scientologist Sky Dayton and his numerous internet businesses strewn across his prolific data-mining venture portfolio.

Ultimately, Scientology is far more than just another run-of-the-mill religion. In fact, its mostly untold history paints a picture of an organization that much more closely resembles a tax-exempt intelligence operation –– signed off by the highest members of the CIA and its primordial OSS –– than a wacky cult of alien worshippers invented by a pulp science-fiction author.

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Decline Of Christianity Sparks Rise In Claims For Religious Protections Of Psychedelics

In February, a group called Singularism scored a troubling victory under the Utah Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), claiming police violated their rights by confiscating otherwise illegal magic mushrooms (psilocybin) used for tea ceremonies and their “scriptures” (recorded insights during trips). A mental health counselor had allegedly formed the organization to alleviate suffering and facilitate practitioners’ (called “voyagers”) connections with themselves and God.

A federal judge ordered the return of the items, rejecting the government’s argument that Singularism was “essentially a drug-dealing business in a minister’s robe.” The judge further found that Singularism held sincere religious beliefs and that each day the group was “deprived of the sacrament they suffer harm to their religious exercises.” Although the judge noted that individuals could perhaps achieve the same experiences from meditation, as opposed to illegal drugs, she said “most people do not have that luxury of time,” accurately distilling the zeitgeist of American obsession with a quick fix. And then she called it religion.

Litigation continues, but meanwhile, the decision sets a disturbing precedent. And a movement is afoot to capitalize on the win. Led by well-funded educated elites that includes scholars, lawyers, religious leaders, and entrepreneurs, the goal is obtaining widespread U.S. legalization of psychedelics.

How did we get here?

During the 21st century, the percentage of Americans attending religious services steadily shrank, while the percentage of those claiming no religion more than doubled. Christianity in particular has been in rapid decline. In 2007, 78 percent of U.S. adults identified as Christians; in 2024, that number had dropped to 62 percent.

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FBI memo examined activities of far-right radical Catholics ahead of 2024 election

In January of last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an 11-page memo outlining details of an investigation into what it called “radical traditionalist Catholic,” or RTC, elements within U.S. society.

Then the memo leaked. Republicans in Congress used the leak to accuse the Biden administration of persecuting Catholics and conservatives solely because of their beliefs.

The memo was quickly “withdrawn from FBI systems,” said an April 18 statement from the FBI. But a redacted copy of the document continues to linger online within the Justice Department, under whose jurisdiction the FBI falls.

So what does it say?

The FBI’s office in Richmond, Virginia, conducted the assessment. The memo’s executive summary said the presence of “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” – known in FBI parlance as RMVE – “in radical-traditionalist Catholic (RTC) ideology almost certainly presents opportunities for threat mitigation.”

It added, “FBI Richmond makes this assessment with high confidence based on FBI investigations, local law enforcement agency reporting, and liaison reporting, with varying degrees of corroboration and access.”

The memo said, “According to an FBI Richmond contact with direct access reporting for the first time, prior to RMVE actor [redacted]’s [redacted] 2022 arrest he had been attending the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX)-affiliated [redacted] Virginia, for approximately seven months and was participating in catechism classes as part of the process to become baptized. Prior to attending [redacted] stated he wanted to find a church that was ‘anti-Zionist’ and ‘anti-progressive’ because ‘that’s where God lives.’”

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Massachusetts Proposes Laws to Remove Religious Exemptions, Parental Consent for Vaccines

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a bill to remove religious exemptions to school vaccine mandates and two bills that would allow minors to consent to “preventative care,” including vaccines, according to grassroots groups Health Rights MA and Health Action Massachusetts.

Versions of the bill seeking to remove religious exemptions were introduced in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate.

Beth Ingham, a leader of Children’s Health Defense’s New England Chapter since 2022, called the proposed legislation “horrendous.”

If passed, children whose families object to school-mandated vaccinations based on sincerely held religious beliefs would be barred from attending public and private K-12 schools, according to Health Action Massachusetts.

Massachusetts’ lawmakers are also considering An Act Promoting Community Immunity, a bill that would undermine religious exemptions for school-based vaccine mandates and remove parental consent for vaccines in some cases.

According to Health Rights MA, the community immunity bill would:

  • Allow minors to consent to preventative care, including vaccination, without parental consent or knowledge.
  • Allow private daycares, schools and colleges to refuse religious exemptions and impose additional vaccines like the COVID-19 shots, which are not required by the Department of Public Health (DPH).
  • Subject the religious and medical exemptions to state approval.
  • Grant DPH expansive authority to change immunization and exemption requirements.
  • Require doctors to sign religious exemptions.
  • Allow DPH to publicly label programs with immunization rates below a state-defined threshold as “Elevated Risk” and exclude healthy, unvaccinated children, even in the absence of an outbreak or emergency.

Candice Edwards, executive director of Health Action Massachusetts, told The Defender that the state’s Joint Committee on Public Health will soon announce a hearing date for the two bills.

“Once the hearing is scheduled, we’re asking people to show up in person” to testify about why they oppose the bills. “Given the climate specifically for the removal of the religious exemption, we need an army inside that State House testifying.”

Additionally, Massachusetts’ lawmakers are considering a third bill that ostensibly aims at “enhancing access” to abortion but would also allow minors to consent to “preventative care,” including vaccines, without parental knowledge or consent, the groups said on their websites. Versions of the bill have been introduced in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

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Is the Jihadist Trojan Horse Winning?

Thirteen years ago, Daniel Greenfield pointed out that

Murfreesboro, a city in the heart of Tennessee, and, Marseille, France’s second-largest city and its largest city on the Mediterranean coast, have few things in common. The two cities are separated by nearly 5,000 miles, and by equally wide divisions of language and culture. And yet Murfreesboro and Marseille are connected by a common challenge. Both cities have struggled against the creeping rise of the mega mosques.

The mega mosque business is booming around the world. The Marseille mega mosque has a proposed capacity of 7,000 seats which would make it the largest mosque in France, overshadowing the Ervy mosque which has a mere 5,000 seats. Both of these French mega mosques would have been dwarfed by a proposed London mega mosque with 12,000 seats and usability targets as high as 40,000. If the London mosque is ever built, it will dominate the Mosque of Rome, currently the most mega of all the mega mosques of Western Europe.

At that time, Eric Allen Bell questioned why it was such a big deal “that a Muslim community [was] simply trying to build a house of worship.”  But Bell did wonder “why … a 53,000 square foot mega mosque” was needed for 250-plus Muslim families living in the area at that time.  And, he asked, “where is all this money coming from?” 

Most puzzling, why is it that after the horrific 9-11 attacks, mosque construction in America has nearly doubled?

A bit of history is important to answer the previous question.  Amy Mek explains that

for those unfamiliar with the term, Hijrah refers to Islamic migration meant to spread Islam into new territories — a strategy as old as Muhammad himself. This is how Islam has expanded for 1,400 years, and it’s happening right now in Texas.

Hijrah remains the model to this day for jihadists who seek to populate and dominate new lands. To emigrate in the cause of Allah is considered in Islam to be a highly meritorious act. The Qur’an makes this clear.

Moreover, as far back as 2012, the question was asked: “Is Hamas building a 53,000 square foot facility in America?”  Given that Hamas has engaged in countless acts of Islamic terrorism, it was a logical question.   

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