Time for Church in America to Pay Taxes and Give to God What Belongs to God?

 

FOR DECADES US BISHOPS AND PASTORS have celebrated American democracy, tolerance, and religious freedom, and have rightly shown their good will by refraining from political critique in a spirit of reconciliation and peace  – it is American tolerance after all that permitted the church to grow in a non-Catholic nation often hostile to its being here. Thanks to America’s respect for rights and liberties extended to all people, races, creeds and faiths, the church has experienced significant growth including the expansion of Catholic schools colleges and universities unmatched anywhere else in the world.

American Catholic integration and acceptance has led to a broad scale acceptance of Catholics as a warf in the American fabric; we now have a Catholic Vice-President and minority leader of the House of Representatives as well as a Vice Presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House and several justices serving on the supreme court etc. etc. The church, however, has paid quite a price for its acceptance: Out of thankfulness, respect and reciprocity for the gift religious freedom, the church has often acquiesced and remained silent to political machinations that run contrary to the sacred deposit of faith.

It is one thing to embrace error out of love and thankfulness for all the good showered upon the church by this nation and another to embrace error with false-love motivated by a spirit of fear or unwillingness to offend the feelings of our host when its political leaders smear the Catholic Church from the mountains to the oceans because they have been good to us in the past – what have you done for us lately?

American Catholics would be poor citizens and poor human beings if they failed in their affection for the homeland, if they failed in thankfulness and gratitude. However, no matter how much respect, reverence and gratitude is owed to this country, much more is owed to God who died for all of us.  It is clear America did not die for Catholics, but Catholics have died for America (in every war in which the nation has been entangled). Jesus Christ, however, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, did give His life out of love for His church –His love is simply greater than any love America might have showered on its faithful Catholics.

Thus, when a conflict arises between God’s Law and America’s Law, it is clear where our first loyalties  belong – not only Catholics but all Christians and men and women of good will. No American should be perplexed by this idea; it is enshrined in Article Six of the US Constitution, the “Supremacy Clause” clearly states that some laws are superior to others; in this case, the federal laws are superior to state laws. Similarly, God’s laws are superior to federal laws and when they conflict, God’s laws must be upheld as superior.  If we fail in this regard, we fail in our love of God and take the first step on the long road to divinizing the state as many Americans have often done.

To be very clear, the American Catholic response to its American host has been cordial, proper, and polite – the correct response. However, when the host seeks “legally” to silence the Church, to refuse it a political voice, to bound and gag her, it steps beyond its role of gracious host and begins to act the part of a tyrant contrary to its own professed love of democracy, human dignity and religious freedom. The issue being introduced here is not one of friendliness, cordiality and thankfulness, which we owe to America; it is one of fidelity to God that America has sought to bound and gag through use of its taxing power

Every bishop, pastor and clergyman , is the beneficiary of an IRS promise not to tax the collection basket if and only if, all church personnel, esp. bishops and pastors, refrain form making political comments, critiques, advocacy or statements contrary to prevailing law. The Catholic church has accepted this imposed limit because of the amount of wealth that is protected from tax confiscation.  To be hypothetical, if the church is gifted with $100 million a year in offerings from the faithful at least $ 20 million is saved from the tax roles and put to work on Catholic projects: social care, health care, missionary work, education, catechesis, and ministries of all sorts. This is a practical consideration but not always a wise one.


Short History on Tax Exempt Status as a 501 c3 Organization

Registering a church as a 501 c3 tax exempt organization did not begin until  1954 when Senator Lyndon B. Johnson (a proponent of the anti-Christian liberal agenda) pushed for the addition of churches to section 501c3 of the 1954 Tax Code. In this way, Johnson hoped to stealthily reduce the impact of the US Bishops and Protestant church leaders on public policy. Although church leaders have tended to view this political move by Johnson as some type of favor; like all political favors, it has come with significant strings attached. but

“For a 501 c3 church to openly speak out, or organize in opposition to, anything that the government declares ‘legal,’ even if it is immoral (e.g. abortion, homosexuality, same sex marriages, etc.), that church will jeopardize its tax exempt status.  The 501 c3 has had a ‘chilling effect’ upon the free speech rights of the church.  LBJ was a shrewd and cunning politician who seemed to well-appreciate how easily many of the clergy would sell out.”  Peter Kershaw, In Ceasar’s Grip

To be eligible for tax exemption a corporation must submit IRS Form 1023, but some corporations are excused from this requirement. According to IRS Publication 557,  churches are “exempt automatically.”

“Churches, interchurch organizations of local units of a church, conventions or associations of churches, or integrated auxiliaries of a church, such as a men’s or women’s organization, religious school, mission society, or youth group…. These organizations are exempt automatically if they meet the requirements of section 501(c)(3)” (IRS Publication 557).

 IRS Publication 526:

“You can deduct your contributions only if you make them to a qualified organization. Most organizations, other than churches and governments, must apply to the IRS to become a qualified organization.”

“A church does not have to be a “nonprofit charitable organization” to be tax deductible, nor does it need IRS authorization to be tax deductible. According to the IRS, churches have that status “automatically.”

This idea extends far back into human history.  As early as 460 BC Artaxerxes, King of Persia,  decreed that the priests of the Lord should not be taxed:
“Also we certify you, that touching any of the priests and Levites, singers, porters, Nethinims, or ministers of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom, upon them” (Ezra 7:24).
Many bishops, pastors and clergy have accepted government bestowal of tax exemption upon them as if the government somehow possesses a divine mandate to tax the church; and as such have interpreted the 501 c3 exemption as a gift, which somehow justifies their failure to speak out about political  issues because to question the liberal agenda would entail a loss of their tax exempt status. This ruse has gone far enough.  It is clear that the inducement to save collection money from the bite of taxes is not a valid argument, but often used (though not always) as an excuse for lack of proper zeal under the guise of episcopal prudence.
“What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul” (Mark 8:36)? 

Mark is advocating courage to live the faith, the kind of courage necessary to forego saved tax dollars and to advance the cause of the soul – the leadership we expect and now need from our bishops.

Money is not a valid reason to bind the moral and spiritual tongue of the Church. “No one can love both God and money”

First, Jesus did tell us to “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” (Mark 12:17).  The verse continues; Jesus also told us to render to God “the things that are God’s.” Clearly, there is a distinction between God and Caesar, between the Church and the state.  At no time did Jesus subordinate the church to the state. What is owed to each is different.  We are not to render to the state things that belong to God!

Since the state does not possess authority over the church, the church does  not have to apply for exemption from income taxes, something it did not do until 1954 in a cunning move by the state to gain control over the church.

Jesus instructs us to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.  Money, clearly belongs to the state – it has the name of the state printed on it –it is issued by the state and legal tender of the state; therefore it belongs to the state and the church should gladly give it to the state. The truth in love however belongs to God, and the Church owes this debt to its Lord. When we fail, to speak the truth in love in the Lord’s name,  we fail in our responsibility toward God and neighbor.

Only a “sovereign” power, such as the state, possesses authority to impose a tax. This power however extends only to the citizens or subjects of the sovereign. The state is sovereign over the polity but it is not sovereign over the church of which Christ is the Head. Therefore, the state does not possess authority to tax the Church (as Jesus indicated to Peter). If the state did possess the authority to tax the church, the church would be subordinate to the state rather than to Christ. Nonetheless, Christ instructs Peter to pay taxes imposed by the state not out of legal necessity but voluntarily for conscience sake to avoid scandal:

Let no man seek his own, but that which is another’s. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, eat; asking no question for conscience’ sake. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof. If any of them that believe not, invite you, and you will be willing to go; eat of any thing that is set before you, asking no question for conscience’ sake” (1 Corinthians 10:24-28).

Thus when Peter was asked to pay the temple tax, Jesus told him that he was exempt but to pay it nonetheless for the sake of his neighbor’s conscience and to avoid scandal.

And when they were come to Capharnaum, they that received the didrachmas, came to Peter and said to him: Doth not your master pay the didrachmas? He said: Yes.

 

When he came into the house, before he had time to speak, Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax? From their subjects or from foreigners?”  When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him, “Then the subjects are exempt. But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up. Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax. Give that to them for me and for you” (Matthew 17:24-27).

Clearly, there is a distinction being made among sons, subjects and  foreigners. The tax was for the Temple of Yahweh, the Father of Jesus. Jesus being the Son of the Father is exempt as are the subjects of His Kingdom.  Nonetheless, Jesus instructs Peter to pay double the tax (see note a below), not just for himself but also for Christ, the King of kings. This example is to serve as a standard for the conduct of the church in paying taxes imposed by the state.

Simply stated, the church should pay its taxes even though exempt because that is what Jesus did and what he instructed Peter to do.

This reasoning is all the more binding because not paying  taxes has bridled the church and its ability to teach, condemn when necessary, correct erring politicians, and to take a clear stand providing direction in presidential and other elections. The result is scandal among the faithful – the scandal that Jesus warned Peter to avoid by paying the temple tax.The US Income tax is imposed by law; it has nothing to do with works of God.  501 cs corporations are not excused form the tax because they do works of God but because they engage in charitable works recognized by the government. The government does not engage in building the kingdom of God; all of its taxes are for secular purposes.  Thus there is nothing that the government does which the church should be excused from. The 501 c3 exemption is offered by the state to those who qualify.  The price, however, for accepting the exemption is silence about political matters. The church does not owe the state silence in the face of moral aberrations or spiritual dangers, but it does as the “pillar and support of truth”  (1 Timothy 3:15) owe fidelity to the truth and the laws of God, the author of truth. In a sense, the federal income tax exemption is a type of bribe to bind the mouth of the church. It is not mandatory; the church does not have to accept it.  By rejecting the inducement, the church would loose money but would also be free to speak the truth as it should and not be  chained by its desire or need for money.  Beside the story about Peter and the fish show us Jesus miraculously supplying His Church with the money it  needs to pay the tax.

A colonial, preacher by the name of Isaac Backus (September of 1775) understood the issue and subsequently preached a sermon to the Massachusetts Assembly wherein he indicated that tax exemption is not a favor granted by the government.

“Yet, as we are persuaded that an entire freedom from being taxed by civil rulers to religious worship is not a mere favor from any man or men in the world but a right and property granted us by God, who commands us to stand fast in it, we have not only the same reason to refuse an acknowledgment of such a taxing power here, as America has the abovesaid power, but also, according to our present light, we should wrong our consciences in allowing that power to men, which we believe belongs only to God.”

Admonishing the sinner is a spiritual works of mercy, as is the mandate to counsel the doubtful, such as counseling the many Catholics who are unsure which way to turn. These are works for which failure we will be judged.  The episcopal argument about loosing tax exemption is not one made by Jesus, the “Good Shepherd”. Since it has become increasingly clear that the debt Catholics owe to America for its offering the church freedom and room to grow does not extend to abdication of the faith when it is so overtly challenged, ridiculed, belittled and smeared in the public arena by a state which has chosen an LGBT liberal agenda that flies in the face of God,  it is now time for the bishop and clergy to stand in faith and voice the Gospel in truth and love so that the flock will follow them into green pastures.

____________________________
NOTE

a) The “stater” is a Greek coin worth two double drachmas. Two double drachmas were the equivalent of a Jewish shekel (the tax was a half-shekel).



Has the US State Department Declared War on the Catholic Church?

APPARENTLY THE US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, launched a world-wide campaign against the Catholic Church as revealed by internal communiques filtered among high-level Clinton staff members. These documents contain evidence that indicate a liberal design to launch a “Catholic Spring” (internal revolution to overthrow the leadership). Such a design could be easily laughed off and dismissed as specious political banter if a Catholic Spring was not actually occurring every where the US is involved with terrorism around the globe.

Make no mistake about it, Christians are being persecuted worldwide in more countries than ever before and the US State Department might be part of the cabal behind it. The Knights of Columbus submitted a report In Defense of Christians to Clinton’s successor as Secretary of State, John Kerry, entitled “Genocide against Christians in the Middle East“, which substantiates the claim of a world-wide persecution going on. Likewise, “Open Doors”, a worldwide Christian watch group devoted to increasing awareness of Christian persecution around the globe, has also published a comprehensive report containing a list of places around the globe wherein Christians are being persecuted. Another list of “targeted acts of terrorism on Christian civilians and church workers has been compiled by the “ReligionofPeace.com.”

According to David Curry, CEO of Open Doors USA

“I don’t believe most Americans have an accurate understanding of the real state of Christian persecution around the world.”

https://youtu.be/8y4bLaRDC_M

Because of the work by the Knights of Columbus, Open Doors and other watch groups, John Kerry recently accused Daesh of genocide and promised to do something about it. Unfortunately, Secretary Kerry’s words seem to be empty rhetoric – an outcry and then nothing (why not?).

According to John Esposito of the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. “US foreign policy and political Islam today are deeply intertwined.”

Of the top 10 countries cited by Open Doors, the United States is either allies or involved with terrorists in 8 of them (Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Maldives, Mali, Yemen and Eritrea)

Saudi Arabia the birth place of Al Queda and state sponsor of ISIL and ISIS is a US ally. Saudi Arabia is also identified by Open Doors (and most others) as the penultimate persecutor of Christians worldwide. It seems strange that in every place the United States or its ally Saudi Arabia has been engaged during the Obama Administration, Christians, esp. Catholic Christians, have been the target of persecution.

Metropolitan Hilarion (Chairman of the Department of External Church Relations for the Russian Orthodox Church) was one of the first to recognize the problem.  As early as 2012 he clearly grasped the global extent and nature of the persecution and indicated that Orthodox and Catholic Christians should act together to defend the Christian faith (something that has subsequently taken place).

“I would like to use this opportunity to call on my brethren from the Catholic Church to create a united front to defend Christian faith in all countries where it is persecuted and oppressed”.

 

“We see that supporters of militant secularism and atheism in Europe and America are trying to cause Christian faith to leave the life of society, banish Christian symbols, destroy the traditional Christian understanding of family and marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and question the very value of human life, from its birth to its natural end.”

 

“In Iraq, where up to 1.5 million Christians lived several years ago, only 150,000 Christians are left, and the others have been killed or driven away. There is intensive persecution of Christians going on in Egypt, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, India, Indonesia, and other countries, both in the Middle East and in other regions.”

 

“The Christian communities of Syria and other countries of the Middle East are crying for help, while the Western media are ignoring these cries for help. As for politicians, they are turning a blind eye to this unprecedented persecution” (Interfax, October 17, 2012).

A review of several nations is provided below to illustrate the point.

Libya

“Dabiq (The Islamic State Propaganda Magazine) clearly states ISIS’ desire to target Christians under any number of ruses.”

 

Vizekanzler und Au§enminister Michael Spindelegger trifft das Oberhaupt der koptisch-orthodoxen Kirche, S.H. Papst-Patriarch Tawadros II, Wien, 03.06.2013, Foto: Dragan Tatic

On 8 May 2013, Pope Tawadros II, Head of the Coptic Church, met with Pope Francis, supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, in Vatican City.

“In addition, a video released just last month by ISIS in Libya states that its adherents should “‘Fight and kill them (Christians) from their Great Priest (Tawadros II-leader of the Coptic Church in Alexandria) to the most pathetic one.”

 

“ISIS statements related to the beheading of the Coptic Christians brand Christians as “polytheists” for their belief in the Trinity, making Christians the same as “pagans” in their view.

 

The plain meaning of these statements, especially in context, is clear: The so-called Caliphate has slated Christianity for destruction — now and in an apocalyptic battle to come”

 

Knights of Columbus Report to US Secretary of State.

 

 

Iraq

Christians have lived in Iraq for two thousand years. However, in 2015 alone more than 125,000 Christians were forced to flee their homeland in search of safety

“The frequency with which we heard the refrain that Iraq is a land with no hope for Christians is evidence of mental harm. Iraq is a place where Christians once felt at home, but now they feel as though there is no one who will protect them in their country.”

 

“On February 4, 2016, the European Parliament voted to recognize that genocide is occurring in Iraq and Syria. Speaking in Moscow on February 2, 2016, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia observed that politicians have finally “started to admit that mass killings and banishment of Christians and taking them as hostages are a real genocide committed on confessional grounds in this region” (K of C Report).”

The Archbishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Mosul, Nicodemus Sharaf, led a flock of over 10,000 Christians out of the city to escape persecution by ISIS. He is now a refugee in the Kurdish city of Erbil in Northeast Iraq. Prior to the influx of Christian refugees about 30,000 Christians were living in Erbil, most of them Chaldean Catholics. Chaldean Catholics have their own rite and are in union with the papacy. The archbishop of Erbil, Bashar Warda reports that his congregation has swelled by more than 60,000 refugees because…Kurdistan is recognized as a safe haven for fleeing Christians .

According to CBS News, ISIS is waging a cultural war against Christianity:

“The Islamic state allows no Christian symbols. It just released…photographs which show the desecration of the church at what is believed to be the monastery of Mar Gorgis, just north of Mosul….Just like the Nazis marked the property of Jews, Christian homes in Mosul have been marked with this red symbol. It’s the Arabic letter N – for Nasara – an early Islamic term for Christians. When ISIS puts it on your home, you either convert to Islam, pay an extortion tax or face the sword.

View “The Last Plight” A  Rare Glimpse Into The Lives of Assyrian Christians and Yezidis after The Tragic Attacks of ISIS in Iraq.

Syria

According to the Knights of Columbus Report:

“The Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch… reports that 500 people were killed by ISIS during its takeover of Mosul and the surrounding region. In Syria, where the organization Aid to the Church in Need has reported on mass graves of Christians, Patriarch Younan estimates the number of Christians “targeted and killed by Islamic terrorist bands” at more than 1,000.”

 

“Melkite Catholic Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart of Aleppo estimates the number of Christians kidnapped and/or killed in his city as in the hundreds, with as many as “thousands” killed throughout Syria….Christians have been attacked throughout the region, not simply in the Nineveh area or only during the summer of 2014. Christians have been attacked and killed by ISIS and its affiliates in Syria, Libya, Yemen and surrounding areas. Even before ISIS was constituted, Christians found themselves victims of its predecessors: the Islamic State in Iraq, Al Qaeda and other radical groups.”

The situation in Syria resembles the results of US campaigns in Libya and Iraq. Christians in Syria were secure before the US backed rebel forces invaded. Christians were involved in government, often serving in top posts from embassy personnel to senior criminal-justice officials. Prior to the increase of military involvement in Syria, it was a safe-have for Christian refugees fleeing from Iraq.

In 2012 “Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of the Barnabas Fund that assists persecuted  Christians, recognized that Syria was a safe haven for Christians, one of the a hand full of Arab countries where they were respected and mixed with the Muslim majority. Syria had a history of welcoming persecuted Christians from other countries, but Dr. Sookhdeo foresaw what was to come. In 2012 he stated:

“I greatly fear that within the near future we will see a new Iraq developing in Syria.”

New American reported in 2012 that:

“Christians who fled in droves to Syria from Iraq in the wake of the U.S. invasion are now faced with the prospect of death and persecution there as Western governments, led by the Obama administration, join forces with al-Qaeda to oust Assad in a scenario reminiscent of the underhanded war on Libya.”

 

“The Western and Islamist alliance, along with the Turkish regime —  which is becoming increasingly Islamist as it continues to deny its mass murder of Christians over the last century — have been working with the so-called “Syrian National Council,” a coalition of opposition groups that is largely dominated by the Marxist-inspired Muslim Brotherhood and other extremists. And Christians throughout Syria fear that, if Assad falls, Islamists will take over, and Christianity will be brutally wiped out there, too.”

This sentiment is corroborated by the Religious Freedom Coalition: “Christians remaining in Syria have been given three choices by the American supported Free Syrian Army (FSA): convert to Islam, flee their homeland, or die.  It is widely believed that this Islamic ideology will be enacted nationwide if President Assad is overthrown. ”

Somalia

The United States is also involved in Somalia.  It just so happens that in 2006 Islamic terrorist groups gained control of Southern Somali and imposed Sharia law, exactly where the largest concentration of Catholic happens to be.

“The South then became a haven for Muslim extremists, including those with links to al-Qaeda.” Al Queda is affiliated with “al Shabaab, which has vowed to rid Somalia of Christianity,

According to Open Doors:

“If a Christian is discovered in Somalia, they are unlikely to live to see another day.”

“Just the suspicion that someone is a Christian can lead to a rushed beheading.”

Nigeria

Christian communities in Nigeria face attacks from Boko Haram, an Islamist terrorist group based in the northern part of the country. Things are so bad in Nigeria that, Bishop Kukah  laments that “Christians have become target practice”

“More than 2 million people, many of them Christians, have been forced to leave their homes in northern Nigeria, where the Islamist terror group Boko Haram is waging a campaign. Open Doors also reported violence against Christian farmers by Hausa-Fulani tribesmen, conservatively estimating more than 1,500 religiously motivated killings. Both Boko Haram and Hausa-Fulani “are carrying out religious cleansing, aiming to eradicate Christianity.”

According to the Catholic News Agency

“Since 2009, changing government relations and radicalization within Boko Haram have resulted in a dramatic increase in violent attacks against civilian targets, including the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibook, Nigeria. In 2015, the Global Terrorism Index named Boko Haram the world’s deadliest terrorist organization, greater than ISIS.

 

Adding to the suffering of the community, Bishop Kukah said, is a lack of support from the government. While some targets of violence find government and societal aid in rebuilding and accessing services such as schools and hospitals, the state in northern Nigeria merely “looks on” as Christian churches and institutions struggle to rebuild.

According to Bishop Kukah,

“The government of America must take full responsibility for how it shapes leadership around the world,” he continued,  “We are suffering the collateral damage,” he lamented.


This Hypothesis Would Seem Nonsensical Except for the Following

The hypothesis that the US State Department might somehow be involved with the persecution of Christians around the globe would seem nonsensical except for the following three facts.

  1. The US Support of Liberalism, regime change and liberal propaganda around the globe
  2. The Recent Statements about the need for a “Catholic Spring” made by Secretary Clinton’s State Department Staffer’s
  3. The Promises of Our Lady regarding the “Triumph” of Her Immaculate Heart and the “Conversion of Russia”


The US Support of Liberalism

Liberal moral values have long been a part of US foreign policy as they are also a part of its domestic policy. Federal money comes with strings attached linking the recipient to such unsavory liberal items as homosexuality, LGBT, abortion, contraception etc.  The US imposes the same agenda, or a very similar one, on developing third world nations, which, as reported in other articles, are beginning to throw of the liberal impositions with increasing bravado.

Most people are now aware that the United States is promoting a world-wide liberal agenda and using money as well as military force to impose its will  on weaker nations such as Uganda, Nigeria, Poland, Philippines, etc. Simply stated, the United States is the main force behind the global spread of liberalism.  Because the Catholic Church is opposed to the liberal global agenda, like any other enemy, it must be acculturated, subverted or defeated if US foreign policy is to be successful.

 

Recent Statements by Secretary Clinton Staffers that their Needs to be a “Catholic Spring”

Before it was recently revealed that Secretary Clinton’s campaign personnel were discussing the need for a “Catholic Spring”, “Spring Revolutions” were occurring throughout Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe in places such as Tunisia, Libya, Iraq, Egypt Syria and Ukraine. Following success in the former three zones of influence, and after it became apparent that Russia stood in opposition to the global spread of liberalism, the idea of launching a similar revolution in Russia was conceived to topple Vladimir Putin.

The need for a “Russian Spring” was first voiced by Senator John the McCain, who, feeling his oats following easier victories in North Africa and the Middle East, publicly threatened Putin with a springtime in Russia to overthrow his government.

According to CBS News correspondent Whit Johnson, McCain started

 “…taking shots at Putin, alluding to massive anti-Putin protests in Russia. McCain admits he picked a fight with the embattled prime minister. He tweeted…,

 

“Dear Vlad, #The Arab Spring is coming to a neighborhood near you.”

McCain also said, in an interview with BBC News, that “dictators all over the world” should “feel nervous”.

He gave as examples the leader of Alawite government in Syria, Bashar al-Assad, and the leader of the increasingly Christian government in Russia, Vladimir Putin.

John McCain made this statement in the program Newsnight:

“I think dictators all over the world, including Bashar al-Assad, maybe even Mr. Putin, maybe some Chinese, maybe all of them, may be a little bit more nervous, because clearly the people in Libya rose up.

We (the United States) assisted them, and if there hadn’t been for the British, French and NATO air power they (the rebels who are now killing Christians inn Libya) probably wouldn’t have succeeded, but I think they have to be nervous. It is the Spring, not just the Arab Spring”, the senator said.

NOTE:

 

“As the world focuses on potential military advances against the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, it risks overlooking another vast region where militant Islam is a growing threat to the Church – in the continent where the Church is growing fastest: Africa.

 

“Amongst other factors, the chaos in Libya since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi – characterised by easy access to weapons of all sorts combined with the increasing presence of jihadists – has had a spill-over effect into Africa’s vast Sahel region. This spans the African continent from Senegal in the west to western Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia in the east. (The ‘Sahel’ describes the ecological and geographic region between the Sahara Desert and the humid and fertile savannah belt north of Africa’s tropical rainforest) where Islamist militants and foreign fighters made common cause with Tuareg… banning the practice of other religions and desecrating and looting churches and other places of worship.”

 

“The radical militancy of jihadist groups in the Sahel is also spilling over further south and giving rise to terrorist attacks in predominantly Christian parts of West Africa. The attack on the Grand-Bassam resort in Ivory Coast (March 2016) has highlighted the vulnerability of these countries.” (Voice of the Persecuted).

 

This is what Senator John McCain is bragging about: An engineered project of the State Department aided and facilitated by the United Sates and NATO ending in a failed Libyan sate, a destabilized region, and broad-scale massacre of Christians.

According to the CBS Report.

“When asked for comment (about McCain’s threat of an “Arab Spring” coming Russia’s way), the Russian embassy would only say, “The Prime Minister spoke on TV. We will not be saying anything more.

To this response by the Russian embassy, Senator McCain quipped:

“This is in some ways amusing.”

It was these overt threats made by Senator McCain that Putin was referring to in his 2012 victory speech for president contained in the following video.

https://youtu.be/30oMuEo4eDw

 

Senator McCain has recklessly admitted and thereby implicated the United States in covert activities leading to the overthrow of foreign governments, even democratically elected governments (governments that will not adopt Western secular liberal values, advance their foreign policy objectives, or assist liberal ideologues stationed in their countries to spread ideas contrary to their indigenous, often Christian, values.

Resistance to secular liberal values has resulted in regime change as is clear in all the countries where spring revolutions have been fomented, esp. in places like the Phillipines, Ukraine and Egypt and who are now struggling to lose themselves from the shackles of our liberal foreign policy.

It is clear why leaders world wide are beginning to identify the President of the United States as a “son of  a whore” and telling him to either “go to Hell” or to “shut up and go home“.

Given all this background, it does not seem so shocking to now be informed that Hilary Clinton’s (President Obama’s Secretary of State) presidential campaign staff is discussing the overthrow of the Catholic Church. The global nemesis of their liberal agenda must be infiltrated, opposed, and if necessary eliminated like Assad, Qaddafi, Saddam, Morsi, Mubarak or any other world leader who stands in the way of their global agenda. This is not conspiracy theory hatched by staunch Catholics; it is now a plain fact that even non-Catholics have recognized.  A nationally prominent non-Catholic attorney skilled in Church-State relations in a letter to the archbishop referred to the emails as

“some of the worst bigotry by a political machine I have seen… (a) Church has an absolute right to protect itself when under attack as a faith and Church by civil political forces.”

After reviewing the emails, Archbishop Charels Chaput of Philadelphia offered this description of Secretary Hilary Clinton he received from a “friend”:

“…a scheming, robotic liar with a lifelong appetite for power and an entourage riddled with anti-Catholic bigots” (Archbishop Chaput’s website)


What is in those Emails?

Last week John Podesta, campaign chief for Secretary Clinton (Podesta is also the past president of the liberal Center for American Progress think tank and served as chief of staff for President Bill Clinton) , admitted to creating an organization fronting as “Catholic” in order to induce genuine Catholics to vote for liberal agenda items. Podesta shared e-mails with fellow staffer Sandy Newman, the founder and president of ultra-liberal Voices for Progress, in which they plotted revolution within the Church to bring about, what they refer to as “the end of a middle ages dictatorship.”

The Podesta-Newman e-mails revolve around the  Department of Health and Human Services 2011 rule that mandated  coverage for sterilization and contraceptives in employers’ insurance plans and a requirement that Catholic organizations provide abortion-inducing drugs. In this regard, the Podesta-Newman e-mails manifest their repugnance toward the US bishops whom they refer to as “dictators” who disrespect (liberal) democracy and therefore must be toppled. Newman wrote:

“This whole controversy with the bishops opposing contraceptive coverage (in insurance plans even though 98% of Catholic women (and their conjugal partners) have used contraception has me thinking … There needs to be a Catholic Spring, in which Catholics themselves demand the end of a middle ages dictatorship and the beginning of a little democracy and respect for gender equality in the Catholic church.”

Newman muses whether or not contraception is the issue around which they can build a consensus leading to the start of a Catholic Spring:

“Is contraceptive coverage an issue around which that could happen? The Bishops will undoubtedly continue the fight. Does the Catholic Hospital Association support of the Administration’s new policy, together with ‘the 98%’ create an opportunity? “

Newman goes on to indicate that indeed he is referring to a revolution within the Catholic Church:

“I have not thought at all about how one would ‘plant the seeds of the revolution,’ or who would plant them.”

In his response, Podesta admits to an already advanced plan to foment discontent with bishops who oppose heir agenda and to promote liberal change from within the church:

Podesta answers: “We created Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to organize for a moment like this likewise Catholics United.”

According to Rodney Pelletier,  staff writer for ChurchMilitant.com

“Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good is a Catholic outreach whose true agenda is to liberalize Church teaching on abortion, contraception and gay marriage, among other things. The group uses the cover of Pope Francis and his “message of inclusion,” and cites magisterial documents claiming to support “human dignity,” “the common good,” “economic justice,” “stewardship of God’s creation,” nuclear “disarmament,” and other commonly proffered social justice issues.

Podesta went on, in the same email, to clarify that this revolution will have to be a grassroots effort:

“Like most Spring movements, I think this one will have to be bottom up.”

In another Podesta e-mail bearing the header: “Re: Conservative Catholicism,”  Podesta engages in a three way discussion with John Halpin of the Center for American Progress (see note below) and Jennifer Palmieri . Halpin reminds Podesta that,

“Many of the most powerful elements of the conservative movement are all Catholic from the SC [Supreme Court] and think tanks to the media and social groups.”

Halpin, thinking he is a Catholic superstar or at least a Catholic intellectual equipped to direct the episcopate and decide for himself what the Catholic Church teaches or should teach proceeds to mock Catholics who disagree with him:

“It’s (the bishop’s teachings presumably regarding contraception and sexual ethics) an amazing bastardization of the faith. They (any Catholic ho does not hold their position) must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy.”

Palmieri chimes in,

“I imagine they think it is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion. Their rich friends wouldn’t understand if they became evangelicals.”

Halpin agrees,

“Excellent point. They can throw around ‘Thomistic’ thought and ‘subsidiarity’ and sound sophisticated because no one knows what the hell they’re talking about.”

According to the Washington Times, “Archbishop Chaput blasted the exchange, as well as another by John Halpin of the Center for American Progress that labeled Catholics “severely backwards” on gender relations.” According to Chaput,

“It would be wonderful for the Clinton campaign to repudiate the content of these ugly WikiLeaks emails. All of us backward-thinking Catholics who actually believe what Scripture and the Church teach would be so very grateful,” Archbishop Chaput wrote. “In the meantime, a friend describes the choice facing voters in November this way: A vulgar, boorish lout and disrespecter of women, with a serious impulse control problem; or a scheming, robotic liar with a lifelong appetite for power and an entourage riddled with anti-Catholic bigots.”

Though it seems way beyond anything imaginable, these emails do indicate a Catholic animus circulating among Clinton officers. Taken together with American foreign policy in support of liberalism, the world wide attack on Christians esp. in places where the US is embroiled in anti-terrorism, and together with the State Department’s opposition toward Christian renewal in Russia, makes one wonder if perhaps the there is a Catholic Spring under way with the support of the Obama administration.

Archbishop Chaput’s attorney cited at the archbishops website summarizes the situation well:

“I was deeply offended by the [Clinton team] emails, which are some of the worst bigotry by a political machine I have seen.  [A] Church has an absolute right to protect itself when under attack as a faith and Church by civil political forces. That certainly applies here . . .

 

 “Over the last eight years there has been strong evidence that the current administration, with which these people share values, has been very hostile to religious organizations.  Now there is clear proof that this approach is deliberate and will accelerate if these actors have any continuing, let alone louder, say in government.  

 

“These bigots are actively strategizing how to shape Catholicism not to be Catholic or consistent with Jesus’ teachings, but to be the ‘religion’ they want.  They are, at the very core, trying to turn religion to their secular view of right and wrong consistent with their politics.  This is fundamentally why the Founders left England and demanded that government not have any voice in religion.  Look where we are now. We have political actors trying to orchestrate a coup to destroy Catholic values, and they even analogize their takeover to a coup in the Middle East, which amplifies their bigotry and hatred of the Church.  I had hoped I would never see this day — a day like so many dark days in Eastern Europe that led to the death of my [Protestant minister] great grandfather at the hands of communists who also hated and wanted to destroy religion.”

 

Triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the Conversion of Russia

On October 13, 1917, Our Lady promised the children of Fatima that “in the end” Her Immaculate Heart would “Triumph” and that “Russia will be converted.”

Pope Francis recently confirmed the conversion of Russia following his historic meeting with Patriarch Kirill, Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, which took place in Havana, Cuba.  The two leaders signed a document in which they pledged to work together for the future of Christianity.

”We spoke as brothers, we have the same baptism, we are bishops, we spoke of our churches,”

At the conclusion of their meeting, the two religious leaders signed a joint declaration which stated

“We are not competitors but brothers, and this concept must guide our mutual actions as well as those directed to the outside world.”

The document also addressed the problems of capitalism. “consumerism, the growing inequality in the distribution of material goods increases the feeling of the injustice of the (liberal) “international order that has emerged.”

Both leaders expressed their concern over the decreasing significance of the traditional family, and stated their positions on euthanasia and abortion.

The document reads.

“In affirming the foremost value of religious freedom, we give thanks to God for the current unprecedented renewal of the Christian faith in Russia, as well as in many other countries of Eastern Europe, formerly dominated for decades by atheist regimes. Today, the chains of militant atheism have been broken and in many places Christians can now freely confess their faith.”

With the Syrian conflict threatening to push the world to the brink of war, the document calls on all Christians to pray for peace. “

We exhort all Christians and all believers of God to pray fervently to the providential Creator of the world to protect His creation from destruction and not permit a new world war.”

The idea of Russia defending Christians materialized years prior to the meeting between Pope and Patriarch, at a meeting between Putin and a group of religious leaders led by Metropolitan Hilarion, Chief of Foreign Relations for the Russian Orthodox Church, who expressed hope that Russia’s government would stand up for persecuted Christian communities abroad.

In reply,

“Putin promised (that) it would be one of the tasks of Russia’s foreign policy to defend Christians in other countries who are persecuted for their faith.”

His specific words were:

“You needn’t have any doubt that that’s the way it will be.”

It is clear why Secretary Clinton has such a disdain for Vladimir Putin. Like a growing array of other world leaders who are opposing the unilaterally imposed liberal agenda of the West, Putin does not like being pushed around by a bully.  So, in his words, the  West can “get stuffed.”

https://youtu.be/6eCYHHMON8I

___________________________
NOTES

The Center for American Progress (CAP) has recently received hundreds of thousands of dollars  from the Arcus Foundation to “reclaim” religious freedom and to promote progressive values that “include LGBT equality and women’s reproductive health and rights.”