Reading Rod Dreher’s newest book, Live Not By Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents, brought to mind a song from Christian contemporary singer Carman in my early youth-group days: “America Again.” The song praises the founding fathers and the early American story before shifting to a litany of sins engulfing the nation in the mid-1990s.
Anyone who considers himself a friend of God must have at least great pause when it comes to modern Democrats. Seldom has a major American political party so distanced itself from the notion that, as President John Adams pointed out, 'righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.'
This is what happens when 'live your truth' is the prevailing moral position. No one should be surprised that politicians who support the 'right' to kill children in the womb, who championed the legal redefinition of marriage, and who now pretend we can no longer rely on science, or common sense, or even simply our eyes to tell us who is a male and who is a female, would display open animus against people whose faith tells them such positions are immoral, and who live according to the notion that there is such a thing as absolute truth.
If something is immoral, then perhaps it should be illegal. If there is such a thing as absolute truth, then perhaps our laws should reflect that truth. Democrats just can't take the chance that such thinking will prevail. Thus, unless Christians can manage to get themselves elected, our role in our government is increasingly imperiled.
This is especially true of Christians who wish to serve in the Judiciary. Because liberals have long seen the courts as a 'super-Legislature' that they can use to enact their perverse agenda, Brett Kavanaugh will be far from the last Christian conservative judge who will draw the ire of Democrats who wish to derail such nominations.
- Rod Dreher is a senior editor at The American Conservative magazine. This story appears in the April issue of Deseret Magazine. Twitter Facebook.
- Cardinal Cupich gives Cardinal McCarrick the Spirit Of Francis Award in 2016. Pope Francis has named Cardinal Blase Cupich, the liberal Chicago archbishop, to the planning committee for the.
Before Justice Kavanaugh, there were Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, and Amy Coney Barrett and her loud 'dogma.' Now we have 'Sir' Brian C. Buescher of the Knights of Columbus. Democrat senators Kamala Harris and Mazie Hirono recently implied that Judge Buescher's membership in the two million-strong, 136-year-old Catholic service organization makes him unfit for the federal courts.
What really troubled the Senate Democrats is the position of the Knights of Columbus on abortion and marriage. Never mind that such positions are perfectly in line with centuries-old teachings of the Catholic Church and that disqualification on such grounds would bar from public service every Catholic who actually adheres to the Church's teachings. As Matthew Continetti rightly notes:
My concern is the anti-Catholic sentiment manifest in the Democratic Party. Last March, Feinstein demanded to know if Michael Scudder, now confirmed to the Seventh Circuit, worked with his parish 'to establish a residential crisis pregnancy center.' Last May, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island asked Peter J. Phipps, now confirmed as a district court judge, about the Knights. Last October, Feinstein, Harris, and three other Democrats wanted to know about the relationship between Fourth Circuit nominee Allison Jones Rushing and the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian nonprofit that supports religious liberty. Last November, Feinstein asked Third Circuit nominee Paul Matey, 'If confirmed, will you recuse yourself from all cases in which the Knights of Columbus have taken a position?
Right-minded Catholics should thank God that Trump was elected. As Rod Dreher reported, a 'new Wikileaks dump from Clinton campaign chief John Podesta's emails reveals that Podesta created a couple of activist groups for the sake of undermining the Catholic bishops and the Church's authority.' As Thomas Peters tweeted, 'the head of Clinton's campaign has been organizing to fracture a major religion.' Or, as Dreher rightly noted:
Rod Dreher Twitter Ohio
[A]t the senior level of the Democratic Party's brain trust, a Clinton political operative – a Catholic! – created front groups specifically to undermine the authority of the Catholic bishops, and to separate the bishops from the people, as well as to secretly undermine Catholic teaching to make it more friendly to the Democratic Party's agenda. Podesta ought to be excommunicated.
Continetti notes that Democrats have not limited their religious bigotry to Catholics:
Baptists and Episcopalians are also under scrutiny. In June 2017, Bernie Sanders clashed with Russell Vought, now acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, over a blog post Vought had written regarding Islam that several Muslim groups considered Islamophobic. 'I'm a Christian, and I believe in a Christian set of principles based on my faith,' Vought said. By the end of the exchange, Sanders said, 'I would simply say, Mr. Chairman, that this nominee is really not someone who is what this country is supposed to be about.'
Democrats also opposed Mike Pompeo's nomination as secretary of state because of how his Christian faith informs and impacts his politics. Pompeo – a Presbyterian – has served as a deacon, is open about his faith, and has also indicated that he actually believes what the Bible says about life, sex, and marriage. In November 2017, Sheldon Whitehouse critically questioned federal district court nominee Trevor McFadden – an Anglican – over his church's traditional teachings on marriage and the family.
Along with targeting Christians who believe what the Bible reveals on the significant moral issues of our time, modern Democrats have also targeted Jews and the nation of Israel.
As John Perazzo recently noted, the black left is littered with racists and anti-Semites. These Jew-haters are not mere race pimps and publicity prostitutesà la Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, but are also elected Democrats. As Warren Henry revealed last year, 'Democrats are fielding even more anti-Semitic candidates for Congress.' They're not just running, but winning.
As Henry points out, Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib – who profanely promised to impeach President Trump – 'is representative of the Democratic Party's gradual march beyond the embrace of candidates and officials who criticize Israeli policy or its current government to a much uglier place in politics.' Like a growing number of Democrats in Congress, Tlaib supports a 'one-state solution' to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, along with the 'boycott, divestment, sanctions' (BDS) movement.
Henry also notes:
The founders and leaders of the BDS movement support a 'one-state solution' that destroys Israel as Jewish state. The movement is the intellectual descendant of the 1945 Arab boycott, which did not distinguish between Jews and Israel. It is based on the premise that Israel is a racist apartheid state requiring the sort of action once taken against South Africa.
Marc Greendorfer recently revealed:
While BDS has risen in the United States, so has anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitic incidents have spiked from a low point of 751 incidents in 2013 to nearly 2,000 in 2017. It is no coincidence that the spread of a movement that demonizes Jews has had the same effect in the U.S. that similar campaigns had in the last 2,000 years.
The real agenda of BDS is the destruction of Israel. Robert P. George of Princeton warns that leading Democrats will soon altogether turn on Israel. The modern left hates Israel because the existence of a nation called Israel is among the greatest evidence that the God of the Bible is real. They hate God, so they hate Israel.
This is also why the left hates Christianity. Authentic Christianity points people to the truth. As a California church recently declared, 'Bruce Jenner is still a man. Homosexuality is still a sin. The culture may change, the Bible does not.'
The left's deceit seems to know no bounds, thus we are left debating what was once almost universally accepted. This is what results when a major political party is so often opposed to the truth.
Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com
Anyone who considers himself a friend of God must have at least great pause when it comes to modern Democrats. Seldom has a major American political party so distanced itself from the notion that, as President John Adams pointed out, 'righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.'
This is what happens when 'live your truth' is the prevailing moral position. No one should be surprised that politicians who support the 'right' to kill children in the womb, who championed the legal redefinition of marriage, and who now pretend we can no longer rely on science, or common sense, or even simply our eyes to tell us who is a male and who is a female, would display open animus against people whose faith tells them such positions are immoral, and who live according to the notion that there is such a thing as absolute truth.
If something is immoral, then perhaps it should be illegal. If there is such a thing as absolute truth, then perhaps our laws should reflect that truth. Democrats just can't take the chance that such thinking will prevail. Thus, unless Christians can manage to get themselves elected, our role in our government is increasingly imperiled.
This is especially true of Christians who wish to serve in the Judiciary. Because liberals have long seen the courts as a 'super-Legislature' that they can use to enact their perverse agenda, Brett Kavanaugh will be far from the last Christian conservative judge who will draw the ire of Democrats who wish to derail such nominations.
Before Justice Kavanaugh, there were Robert Bork, Clarence Thomas, and Amy Coney Barrett and her loud 'dogma.' Now we have 'Sir' Brian C. Buescher of the Knights of Columbus. Democrat senators Kamala Harris and Mazie Hirono recently implied that Judge Buescher's membership in the two million-strong, 136-year-old Catholic service organization makes him unfit for the federal courts.
What really troubled the Senate Democrats is the position of the Knights of Columbus on abortion and marriage. Never mind that such positions are perfectly in line with centuries-old teachings of the Catholic Church and that disqualification on such grounds would bar from public service every Catholic who actually adheres to the Church's teachings. As Matthew Continetti rightly notes:
My concern is the anti-Catholic sentiment manifest in the Democratic Party. Last March, Feinstein demanded to know if Michael Scudder, now confirmed to the Seventh Circuit, worked with his parish 'to establish a residential crisis pregnancy center.' Last May, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island asked Peter J. Phipps, now confirmed as a district court judge, about the Knights. Last October, Feinstein, Harris, and three other Democrats wanted to know about the relationship between Fourth Circuit nominee Allison Jones Rushing and the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian nonprofit that supports religious liberty. Last November, Feinstein asked Third Circuit nominee Paul Matey, 'If confirmed, will you recuse yourself from all cases in which the Knights of Columbus have taken a position?
Right-minded Catholics should thank God that Trump was elected. As Rod Dreher reported, a 'new Wikileaks dump from Clinton campaign chief John Podesta's emails reveals that Podesta created a couple of activist groups for the sake of undermining the Catholic bishops and the Church's authority.' As Thomas Peters tweeted, 'the head of Clinton's campaign has been organizing to fracture a major religion.' Or, as Dreher rightly noted:
[A]t the senior level of the Democratic Party's brain trust, a Clinton political operative – a Catholic! – created front groups specifically to undermine the authority of the Catholic bishops, and to separate the bishops from the people, as well as to secretly undermine Catholic teaching to make it more friendly to the Democratic Party's agenda. Podesta ought to be excommunicated.
Continetti notes that Democrats have not limited their religious bigotry to Catholics:
Baptists and Episcopalians are also under scrutiny. In June 2017, Bernie Sanders clashed with Russell Vought, now acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, over a blog post Vought had written regarding Islam that several Muslim groups considered Islamophobic. 'I'm a Christian, and I believe in a Christian set of principles based on my faith,' Vought said. By the end of the exchange, Sanders said, 'I would simply say, Mr. Chairman, that this nominee is really not someone who is what this country is supposed to be about.'
Democrats also opposed Mike Pompeo's nomination as secretary of state because of how his Christian faith informs and impacts his politics. Pompeo – a Presbyterian – has served as a deacon, is open about his faith, and has also indicated that he actually believes what the Bible says about life, sex, and marriage. In November 2017, Sheldon Whitehouse critically questioned federal district court nominee Trevor McFadden – an Anglican – over his church's traditional teachings on marriage and the family.
Along with targeting Christians who believe what the Bible reveals on the significant moral issues of our time, modern Democrats have also targeted Jews and the nation of Israel.
As John Perazzo recently noted, the black left is littered with racists and anti-Semites. These Jew-haters are not mere race pimps and publicity prostitutesà la Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, but are also elected Democrats. As Warren Henry revealed last year, 'Democrats are fielding even more anti-Semitic candidates for Congress.' They're not just running, but winning.
Twitter.com Rod Dreher
As Henry points out, Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib – who profanely promised to impeach President Trump – 'is representative of the Democratic Party's gradual march beyond the embrace of candidates and officials who criticize Israeli policy or its current government to a much uglier place in politics.' Like a growing number of Democrats in Congress, Tlaib supports a 'one-state solution' to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, along with the 'boycott, divestment, sanctions' (BDS) movement.
Henry also notes:
The founders and leaders of the BDS movement support a 'one-state solution' that destroys Israel as Jewish state. The movement is the intellectual descendant of the 1945 Arab boycott, which did not distinguish between Jews and Israel. It is based on the premise that Israel is a racist apartheid state requiring the sort of action once taken against South Africa.
Marc Greendorfer recently revealed:
Rod Dreher Column
While BDS has risen in the United States, so has anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitic incidents have spiked from a low point of 751 incidents in 2013 to nearly 2,000 in 2017. It is no coincidence that the spread of a movement that demonizes Jews has had the same effect in the U.S. that similar campaigns had in the last 2,000 years.
The real agenda of BDS is the destruction of Israel. Robert P. George of Princeton warns that leading Democrats will soon altogether turn on Israel. The modern left hates Israel because the existence of a nation called Israel is among the greatest evidence that the God of the Bible is real. They hate God, so they hate Israel.
This is also why the left hates Christianity. Authentic Christianity points people to the truth. As a California church recently declared, 'Bruce Jenner is still a man. Homosexuality is still a sin. The culture may change, the Bible does not.'
The left's deceit seems to know no bounds, thus we are left debating what was once almost universally accepted. This is what results when a major political party is so often opposed to the truth.
Twitter - Rod Dreher
Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com