Tag: religion

The Secular State Reinvents the Inquisition

One of my favorite books is The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene.

Set in the 1930s when Mexico was still persecuting the Catholic Church (a persecution which the government of the United States consented to), the novel follows the life of a nameless “whiskey priest” who, despite being a drunk and a fornicator with an illegitimate daughter, continues to illegally minister to the people while other more reputable priests have abandoned their ministry out of fear of the punishment by the government.

The whiskey priest is lured to his doom by his sense of duty, as a request for a deathbed confession is communicated to him by a lying Judas-like figure. Despite his suspicions, the whiskey priest goes and is arrested. Sentenced to die, and denied confession by one of those priests who had abandoned ministry, we see into the whiskey priest’s thoughts for a final time in what I consider the most moving paragraph in all of literature:

What a fool he had been to think that he was strong enough to stay when others fled. What an impossible fellow I am, he thought, and how useless. I have done nothing for anybody. I might just as well have never lived. His parents were dead—soon he wouldn’t even be a memory—perhaps after all he was not at the moment afraid of damnation—even the fear of pain was in the background. He felt only an immense disappointment because he had to go to God empty-handed, with nothing done at all. It seemed to him, at that moment, that it would have been quite easy to have been a saint. It would only have needed a little self-restraint and a little courage. He felt like someone who has missed happiness by seconds at an appointed place. He knew now that at the end there was only one thing that counted—to be a saint.

The novel ends with another fugitive priest arriving, and a young boy who had previously been a skeptic greeting him enthusiastically, having been inspired by the martyrdom of the whiskey priest.

Years ago, this novel helped convince me that I could enter seminary despite the heavy realization of my own sinfulness. In 2020, those of us who were trying to get sacraments to people despite being forbidden by tyrants certainly could identify with the sense of duty demonstrated by the whiskey priest. I know of one priest who had to remove his cassock, put on jeans, and pretend to be a grandson in order to bring the sacraments to a woman in the nursing home.

The irony in all of this, however, is that some powerful men in the Church wanted the novel placed on the Index of Forbidden Books. Thankfully this would not occur, and Greene’s account of the conflict includes a useful comparison to totalitarianism:

The Archbishop of Westminster read me a letter from the Holy Office condemning my novel because it was “paradoxical” and “dealt with extraordinary circumstances.” The price of liberty, even within a Church, is eternal vigilance, but I wonder whether any of the totalitarian states…would have treated me as gently when I refused to revise the book on the casuistical ground that the copyright was in the hands of my publishers. There was no public condemnation, and the affair was allowed to drop into that peaceful oblivion which the Church wisely reserves for unimportant issues.

I’d like to suggest that understanding the use (and abuse) of the religious impulse to limit what type of content an adherent consumes can help us to understand the wave of censorship which has taken hold in the West, especially with respect to what began in 2020.

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More than $5 billion spent on Catholic sexual abuse allegations, new report finds

Over two decades, Catholic dioceses, eparchies and men’s religious communities spent more than $5 billion on allegations of sexual abuse of minors, according to a new report released Wednesday (Jan. 15) by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

Between 2004 and 2023, three-fourths of the $5.025 billion reported was paid to abuse victims. Seventeen percent went to pay attorneys’ fees, 6% was in support for alleged abusers and 2% went toward other costs. On average, only 16% of the costs related to the allegations was borne by insurance companies.

The CARA report combined 20 annual surveys sent to dioceses and eparchies within the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (which excludes some parts of the U.S., such as Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa), as well as U.S. religious communities belonging to the Conference of Major Superiors of Men. The report does note that some alleged perpetrators were assigned outside the U.S. The USCCB commissioned the survey in 2004.

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‘Huge Win’: West Virginia Governor Issues Executive Order Allowing Religious Exemptions

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey on his first full day in office issued an executive order allowing for religious exemptions from mandatory school vaccinations, ending one of the most restrictive vaccination policies in the country.

“We’re ensuring that the current policy, which does not recognize a religious and conscientious exemption for vaccines — that is being changed,” he said at a news conference.

The exemption will be available to anyone who wants to send their child to school but objects on “religious or conscientious grounds” to one or more of the vaccines required by the state’s compulsory immunization law.

To comply with the new order parents need only provide a written statement on why they object to the vaccines.

West Virginia state law requires children to receive vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis B, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough before starting school. The state does not require COVID-19 vaccinations for children.

West Virginia was one of a tiny minority of states that didn’t recognize religious exemptions for vaccines. “Today that changes,” Morrisey said.

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Mainstream Media Ignoring Ethno-Religious Genocide Under Syria’s New Rulers

Mainstream Western media previously wrote several puff pieces on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its US-designated terror leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani in the wake of Assad’s ouster, but now that same media is completely ignoring the atrocities taking place under Jolani’s watch.

Various armed allied groups of HTS are rampaging through the central and northern countryside, attacking Christians and Alawites, in a developing ethno-religious genocide. It has only been one month since Assad was overthrown.

Initially HTS and other factions, which includes foreign groups such as Chechens and Uyghurs, rounded up individuals and tortured or executed them under the guise that they were former “Assad regime agents”.

Now, according to regional reports, the jihadists are dropping even this pretense and are simply taking over Alawite villages. Serious problems and threats are also being reported in the historic ‘Valley of the Christians’ (or Wadi al-Nasara, which lies in Western Syria in Homs governate).

Various locations have seen jihadists seeking to impose public segregation of the sexes, Islamic head-coverings, and blanket bans on alcohol… 

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U.K. ‘Grooming Gangs’ Scandal Could Happen In The U.S. Thanks To Leftist Justice System

The United Kingdom’s “grooming gangs” scandal has reentered the public spotlight, largely thanks to X posts by Elon Musk showcasing court transcripts.

They detail how groups of men, mainly Pakistani Muslims, groomed and raped thousands of English girls across the country over a decades-long period. The simultaneously infuriating and blood-curdling descriptions of the violations those girls suffered are only compounded by the British authorities’ complicity in and cover-up of the abuse.

The first reports on these crimes came out in the early 2000s, and the grooming gangs may go back as far as the 1970s. And though this scandal has reappeared multiple times since then, only growing the list of victims, those in power have done outrageously little to stop it.

Despite years of reports about these crimes, local officials turned a blind eye to what was happening in dozens of cities. Police refused to investigate. In multiple cases, the police arrested fathers who had tracked down the locations used by the rape gangs to abuse young girls. In others, the victims found themselves arrested for “breach of the peace” while the perpetrators got off scot-free. The British Home Office, the office within the British government responsible for law and order, advised in 2008 against the prosecution of “grooming gang” members, claiming that their victims had “made an informed choice about their sexual behavior.”

British leftists hurled accusations of racism and Islamophobia at those who tried to speak up. And, of course, the British media joined in lockstep with politicians to downplay and bury the stories. Even so-called “conservatives” helped cover it up. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in 2019 that further investigation into the crimes would be a waste of time, and his government claimed that releasing the government’s official review of the scandal to the public was not in the “public interest.”

Why? Officials wanted to maintain good “community relations,” which is code for maintaining racial harmony with Britain’s large immigrant Muslim population. The police knew that the culprits were predominantly men from countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, but they “were told to try and get other ethnicities.” British politicians feared that reports of the rapes would turn Britain’s white native population (and anyone with a soul) against Muslims.

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UK Government Investigating Elon Musk’s TWEETS About Muslim Pedophile Gangs

Elon Musk’s tweets about Muslim pedophile gangs are being assessed by the UK Government’s counter-extremism unit, as a potential threat to the security of the country, it has emerged.

The Daily Mirror reports that The Home Office unit has stepped up social media monitoring of accounts with large followings, including Musk’s, as pertains to the grooming gangs issue.

Musk has posted hundreds of tweets in the past week related to the scandal, including openly calling Prime Minister Kier Starmer “evil,” accusing him of facilitating a cover up, and labelling Starmer and safeguarding minister Jess Philips as complicit in the “rape” of Britain.

The Mirror report states that the UK government’s counterterrorism unit has “been involved in content analysis and wider risk assessment.”

A government source told the Mirror “We keep a close eye on how disinformation and hate can proliferate, including online.”

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‘Moderate’ New Islamist Rulers of Syria Publicly Humiliate German Foreign Minister Baerbock, Refuse To Shake Her Hand, Syrian Channels Blur Her Out in Pictures

‘First handshake refused, now THAT’ – German BILD tabloid.

It’s no wonder the failed German coalition led by outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz is such a train wreck: at the same time that they want to lecture the world on their failed Globalist policies and prejudices, they wanted to jump the gun and be one of the first states to send top-level officials to engage with the ‘moderate’ new Islamist Syrian rulers – and they sent a woman to try to do the job, FM Annalena Baerbock..

Rarely was a disaster so predictable.

BILD reported (translated from German):

“Annalena Baerbock’s visit to Syria on Friday has another aftermath: In Damascus, the new ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa did not shake hands with the Federal Foreign Minister at first – unlike her male companions.

Now comes the next discrimination: Islamist news channels from the environment of the new rulers spread photos of Baerbock’s visit – and censor the German politician in the process!”

The humiliation began at her arrival at Damascus airport: Syrians did not shake her hand – so she shook the hands of German officials instead, with gusto!

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Jordanian National Ahmad Jamal Khamees Alhendi Identified as Suspect Behind Greenville I-85 Shutdown; Faces Bomb Threat Charges and ICE Detainer

Ahmad Jamal Khamees Alhendi, a Jordanian national, has been identified as the suspect responsible for the hours-long shutdown of Interstate 85 near Greenville, South Carolina.

The chaos unfolded after Alhendi allegedly issued a bomb threat during a routine traffic stop on Thursday, prompting a massive law enforcement response involving SWAT teams, bomb squads, and federal agencies.

The South Carolina Department of Transportation reported severe backups near Exit 44 at White Horse Road as authorities scrambled to address the threat.

Greenville County deputies, along with the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) bomb squad and the FBI, were deployed to neutralize the potential danger. Governor Henry McMaster confirmed that the shutdown was a precautionary measure taken “out of an abundance of caution.”

“I-85 near mile marker 44 is temporarily closed out of an abundance of caution due to a bomb threat issued during a routine traffic stop this afternoon by SC Transport Police,” Governor McMaster said.

“SCDOT and state law enforcement are on the scene, and normal I-85 traffic will resume once the tractor trailer is swept and cleared by SELD’s bomb squad.”

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New Orleans Terrorist Home Left Unsecured Before Full Processing?? And Quran Verses Displayed in New Orleans Terrorist’s Home Revealed – “Kindergarten Koran””

Yesterday, the New York Post’s Jennie Taer posted a video of her walking through what should have been a secure crime scene, the house of New Orleans terror suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar.  The head-scratching walk-through revealed a house reasonably intact despite an alleged search warrant being served.  Computers and electronics were visible throughout the home.  Religious texts appeared still in place as if they were left alone during the search.

It is now being reported a day later that Taer may have walked through the property without the knowledge of law enforcement.  FOX News’s Brooke Taylor is reporting on X that Harris County Sheriff’s bomb squad is en route to “collect evidence”:

Deputies just closed down the street in north Harris County where Shamsud-Din Jabbar was living. A source tells me HCSO bomb squad is on the way to collect evidence. This comes days later, when the door was left open and people were inside the home taking pictures and freely roaming around. Sources also say precursor chemicals were found inside the home when they first raided it, which are typically used for making home made explosives. The question now becomes why come back and collect evidence and not do this days ago?

The home of an alleged ISIS-supporting terrorist was left unsecured after an initial search?  During her video, Taer showed what appeared to be a staged display of the search warrant and receipt for items collected in her initial video yesterday.  As mentioned, nothing other than some preliminary bomb-making materials were reportedly taken, according to the receipt left on the kitchen island.

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Imam of mosque attended by Bourbon Street terrorist said Hitler killed Jews over the economy

The imam of the Houston mosque that the butcher of Bourbon Street in New Orleans Shamsud Din Jabbar reportedly attended, had sermons filled with antisemitic tropes, including claiming that Jews seek to control the economy wherever they go and that’s why Hitler killed them. He also claimed Europeans support Israel because they don’t want Jews back in their countries.

Eiad Soudan is the imam at the Islamic Center of Greater Houston (ICHG) – Masjid Bilal, where reportedly New Orleans attack Shamsud Din Jabbar was a member. Soudan, according to The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), during a November 17, 2023 youth committee program at the center, while discussing the history of Palestine, said that the Jews, whom he referred to as the “Israelites,” seek to take control of the economy wherever they go, and this is the reason that Hitler, whom he said had a “nice moustache,” killed them.

Soudan said in the video, that was uploaded to YouTube on November 25, 2023: “Imagine, in Europe, what was happening to the Israelites there? As we said, [Jews were] killed, destroyed, persecuted, the question is why? Why were they treated this way? And why does the whole world today support them? Why does the whole world want them to stay in Palestine?”

Soudan claimed that Hitler had not only killed Jews, but also thousands of Muslims. “Those who say that only the Israelites paid the price [in WWII] – everybody paid the price, they say thousands of Muslims were killed.”

The imam alleged that Europeans only support Israel due to fear that Jews will return to their countries. He added a verse from the Quran according to which the Israelites seek to spread corruption. “Because if they don’t stay in Palestine, they will go back to their countries, and those people, unfortunately, have one problem – well, they have many problems, but that’s one of the main problems – they like to take control of the economy. Everywhere they go, whatever is the rule, as long as they get to the goal, the means don’t matter. Interest, usuary is prohibited for them.”

“Still they use it to get control of the economy. That is why the other countries don’t want them back. So when they support them, they are not supporting them because they love them. It’s like: ‘Please stay there, we’ll do whatever [it takes], stay there, don’t come back.’”

Soudan added, “Allah told that in the Quran: ‘And they (Jews) spread corruption across the land, and Allah does not like corrupters.’ They seek corruption in the land.”

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