Harris' attempt to pander to Christians after insulting them goes very badly: 'You're at the wrong rally'



Kamala Harris' latest attempt to pander to a group she has alienated with her politics and prejudices appears to be going very badly.

After attempting to win back those black male voters now abandoning her and the Democratic Party en masse with the promise of federally legalized marijuana, Harris set her sights more broadly on Christian voters, insinuating that "putting faith into action" means casting a vote for her — despite her zealous support of abortion and gender ideology, her past anti-Christian remarks, and her efforts to run roughshod over religious liberties.

The online component of Harris' "souls to the polls" campaign, which corresponded with her visits Sunday to churches in Georgia, was overwhelmingly met with ridicule.

Harris tweeted an image of herself standing on a church platform with crosses in the background, stating, "We each have the power to make a difference — in our communities and in this election. Now is the time to come together to show faith in action and service."

Despite netting nearly 2 million views on X, the post received fewer than 8,000 likes.

'This is such disgusting, superficial, disingenuous pandering, it's beyond words.'

BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey quipped, "Christian Nationalism is so scary."

Auron MacIntyre, the host of BlazeTV's “The Auron MacIntyre Show” who helped "ratio" the vice president's post, responded, "I think you're at the wrong rally."

MacIntyre's comment, which received roughly 9,000 more likes than Harris' post by the time of publication, referred to the vice president's remarks at her campaign event last week in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

On Thursday — the day Harris blew off the Archdiocese of New York's 79th annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation dinner — the vice president reportedly told a pair of Christian college students who yelled "Jesus is Lord" that they were "at the wrong rally."

Grant Beth, one of the pro-life students mocked by Harris and elements of her crowd, told "Fox & Friends," "This is what you are going to get with a Kamala Harris presidency."

"You are going to get the Kamala Harris that alienates over 50% of the U.S. population that is Christian," continued Beth. "You're going to get the Kamala Harris that skips the Al Smith Memorial Dinner."

When an audience member yelled, "Jesus is King," at a campaign event for Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump's running mate said, "That's right. Jesus is King!"

"Christians won't be fooled," tweeted Trump campaign adviser Alex Bruesewitz wrote in response to Harris' "souls to the polls" post.

Popular YouTuber David Freiheit wrote, "4 days after telling a rally-goer who said 'Jesus is Lord' that they were 'at the wrong rally', Cackling Kamala puts out this message. This is such disgusting, superficial, disingenuous pandering, it's beyond words. And if it works on you, you are an idiot."

One user wrote, "Christians are voting for Trump."

Harris told members of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, on Sunday, "Our country is at a crossroads, and where we go from here is up to us as Americans and as people of faith," reported CNN.

'She has done nothing to support people of faith and what we believe and what we stand for.'

"We face this question: What kind of country do we want to live in?" said Harris. "A country of chaos, fear, and hate, or a country of freedom, compassion, and justice?"

Like the booster group Evangelicals for Harris, the vice president attempted to use scripture to paint her political cause as morally righteous, casting herself, for example, as the protagonist in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

This might be a big reach for a great many American Christians, including Billy Graham's son, Franklin Graham.

Blaze News recently reported that Franklin Graham said his dad would never have supported a candidate like Harris, highlighting how her positions are antithetical to Jesus Christ.

"My father was a strong conservative all of his life, theologically as well as politically," Graham told Premier Christian News. "He would have never voted for or supported someone like Kamala Harris — someone who is almost anti-Christ in her positions. She has done nothing to support people of faith and what we believe and what we stand for."

Harris has found numerous ways to alienate Christians, including

  • suggesting that Catholic judicial nominees who embrace the Vatican's moral teaching should be disqualified from serving on federal courts;
  • co-sponsoring the "Equality Act," which Kenneth Craycraft, the James J. Gardner Chair of Moral Theology at Mount St. Mary's Seminary and School of Theology, indicated would compel Christian hospitals "to perform gender transition surgeries, open women's restrooms to men, and force girls and women to compete against boys and men in athletic competitions";
  • introducing and sponsoring the Do No Harm Act, which would force religious individuals and organizations to engage in activities that directly violate their firmly held religious beliefs;
  • attacking abstinence education;
  • supporting overturning the Hyde Amendment, thereby freeing up federal funds for abortions; and
  • authorizing a raid on the home of a pro-life activist who exposed Planned Parenthood's alleged trafficking of baby parts.

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Factchecker Makes Fool Of Herself Claiming Minnesota Didn’t Ban Christian Teachers

Sure, Christians can teach in Minnesota public schools. All they have to do is publicly deny their faith!

French police arrest several Christians for protesting attacks on Christians



In the wake of the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony mocking the Last Supper, members of a conservative advocacy group headed to Paris to protest such routinized attacks on Christianity. They were promptly arrested and left to conclude that the underlying problem is perhaps worse than first imagined.

The watchdog group Open Doors revealed in its latest annual report that one in seven Christians worldwide — over 365 million Christians — faces "high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith."

Blaze News previously reported that the 10 worst countries for Christians are North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Eritrea, Yemen, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Iran, and Afghanistan. Christians stand a good chance of being tortured, imprisoned, raped, and murdered for their faith in these third-world nations as well as in countries far higher up the list, such as China.

Attacks on Christians and on their churches are not limited, however, to Africa, the Middle East, or the Orient.

Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the FRC, revealed in a report earlier this year that between 2018 and 2023, there were at least 915 acts of hostility against American churches. Canada, too, has seen hundreds of churches razed by radicals since 2021.

Against this backdrop of anti-Christian persecution and hatred, the French — who have seen their fair share of anti-Christian attacks — kicked off the 2024 Olympics with a ceremony mocking Christianity.

The opening ceremony contained a scene intended to resemble Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper." However, instead of depicting Christ and his disciples, the ceremony's designer, Thomas Jolly, instead had several transvestites strike poses on either sides of a morbidly obese lesbian named Barbara Butch.

Jolly then had a virtually naked man painted blue — intended to represent Dionysus, Greek god of wine-making — set upon the table as a substitute meal.

The ceremony generated significant controversy and elicited denunciations from various Christian institutions around the world, including the Vatican.

The Madrid-based conservative advocacy group CitizenGo started a petition demanding an apology and an explanation from all members of the International Olympic Committee.

"Enough is enough! This grotesque spectacle was an affront to everything we hold sacred, and it cannot go unchallenged," said the petition, which had over 392,500 signatures at the time of publication.

"All too often, we stand by and do nothing while they step on us and mock our Christian faith. But after today, I’ve seriously had enough! What happens if we stay silent? Our faith, our Christian symbols, will become a permanent parody promoted by queer, LGBTI, and trans lobbies, backed by our globalist leaders and the international left."

CitizenGo sent a bus into the heart of Paris Monday with "Stop attacks on Christians!" written on the side.

The bus was also emblazoned on one side with images of both Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" as well as a photograph of the Olympic ceremony mocking the religious imagery, striking a damning contrast.

Catholic activist Caroline Farrow alleged that despite having no issues early in the day, the bus was ultimately stopped "at gunpoint" by French police who surrounded the vehicle and claimed they were "conducting a 'public demonstration without the government's permission.'"

'They are tyrannical, anti-Christian bullies.'

A lawyer for the group claimed, "It appears impossible to constitute the crime of failing to communicate a protest because there is no protest in the presence of one unique vehicle. The prosecutor pushed the law to its limits to stop the bus and limit their free speech."

According to Farrow, six members of her team — including two from the U.K. — were arrested, then taken to the police station "where they were put in handcuffs and transferred to a second secure facility."

"They are tyrannical, anti-Christian bullies. It's absurd," the group said on X.

"Fearing the campaign's impact and the stain on France's image to the world, the political elites viciously censored CitizenGO in a manner akin to an authoritarian regime," continued Farrow. "The French police, under political orders from high-level political authorities, arrested six campaigners and the bus driver. All of their belongings were confiscated, they were stripped and searched, and they were illegally denied to call their personal lawyers. [S]ome were even not allowed to call their family members and were held on non-existent charges."

Farrow suggested further that the effort to shut up the protesters backfired, granted their bus, which was "clearly offensive to the French police and authorities, [was] still parked at the Police Station in District 16th, 3 blocks from the Arc de Triumph in front of everyone in the middle of downtown Paris."

The conservative group indicated that French police escorted their bus out of the city the next day.

Ignacio Arsuaga, president of CitizenGo, tweeted, "Our lawyer tells us there is no case, and that the prosecutor ordered the gendarmerie to arrest the campaigners even though there was no case."

"We are now going to file a lawsuit against Macron, the Attorney General, and the gendarmerie. Woke governments are becoming increasingly totalitarian," added Arsuaga.

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Bill Maher shoots down comedian's claim that the right is behind today's anti-Semitism



The Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel reverberated throughout the West. Whereas many came out to mourn the dead and condemn the terrorists responsible, anti-Semites alternatively came out of the woodwork to condemn Israel and celebrate Hamas.

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that anti-Semitism in the United States was nearing "historic levels" as student radicals endorsed by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hamas began massing on college campuses and taking to the streets, chanting genocidal slogans and parroting anti-Israeli talking points.

Republican lawmakers uniformly condemned the attacks and the anti-Semitism that followed. While some Democrats sided with Israel and the Jewish people against terrorists, leftists such as Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and her fellow travelers in the Democratic Party joined the chorus of pro-Hamas protesters calling for Israel's ruin.

Having observed this much, Bill Maher was unwilling to accept the argument on the Sunday episode of his "Club Random" podcast that the anti-Semitism now on full display is a product of the American right.

Late in their relatively innocuous conversation about relationships, family, and comedy, Sandra Bernhard, a comedian and Democratic booster, told Maher that her Jewish forebears migrated to the U.S. after fleeing a Russian pogrom.

"Do you feel that flowing through your veins?" asked Maher.

"Yup," said Bernhard. "But I'll tell you something: I am not — you know, everybody's like up in arms now about being Jewish. Suddenly everybody's discovered their Judaism. It's like, I grew up Jewish. I was bat mitzvahed. I went to Hebrew school. I did the whole thing. You know, I like being Jewish."

"Everybody's suddenly like, 'I'm Jewish and I'm being persec —.' I don't feel persecuted," said Bernhard.

"Well, not persecuted perhaps, but there is an anti-Semitism afoot in this country that we haven't had in a very long time," said Maher. "And I never thought I'd see the day."

'It comes from the right wing.'

"I'll tell you where it comes from," said Bernhard. "It comes from the right wing. The right — the extreme."

"No, it doesn't," said Maher without missing a beat.

"You think it's [the] left?" asked Bernhard.

"There's anti-Semitism on both sides," said Maher. "The left wing is even worse. ... That is coming down from elite colleges who see everything only through a racial lens. They are stupid. They don't know history. They think everything is about colonizers and racists and how awful America is."

'None of this jives with the facts.'

Maher appeared keen to extend an olive branch to radicals, saying, "And America has done some bad things. But to drag Israel into this as the stand-in for every bad thing white people ever did — this is not any more complicated to most of these college kids than the Palestinians are brown and poor and the Israelis are rich and white, even though half of them are not rich and certainly not white."

"So they think they're rich and white so they're the colonizers and the apartheid people and the genocide people. None of this jives with the facts," added the host.

Bernhard said, "But can we get on the same page and agree that Benjamin Netanyahu is a s*** disturber and needs to be yanked out of Israel? He is not good for Israel. He is not good for Jews. He has also contributed to the global mistrust. ... He is solidly to blame for everything that is happening right now."

"He is so not to blame for everything that's happening," Maher fired back. "That's the fault of the Palestinian people and the religion of Islam, which gets lost in all of this. I mean, we are fighting."

"What?" interjected Bernhard.

'Mostly to blame is Hamas.'

"Islam," responded Maher. "You've heard of it?"

"How is that? What does that have to do with —?" asked Bernhard.

"You said Netanyahu was mostly to blame. Mostly to blame is Hamas," added Maher.

The host proceeded to suggest that the current predicament is the result of the terrorist group using foreign aid money over the course of years to buy bombs and make tunnels rather than feed the hungry and build adequate health care facilities.

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Trio of Islamic extremists indicted over plot to massacre Jews in England



Britain's Community Security Trust, an anti-Semitism watchdog, observed a massive spike in hate incidents against Jewish citizens following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel. This increase coincided with the mainstreaming of the kinds of genocidal and anti-Israel rhetoric that have since been recycled at various Democrat-supported campus protests in the United States.

Douglas Murray, the founder of the Center for Social Cohesion, noted in an Oct. 12 piece for the Spectator, "Within hours of the slaughter, people in London were driving around flying Palestinian flags and blaring their horns in celebration of the massacre. In Manchester the president of the local 'Friends of Palestine,' Dana Abuqamar, told Sky News, 'We're really full of joy, full of pride at what has happened.' At a Free Palestine rally in Brighton one speaker who claimed she was a Palestinian said: 'Yesterday was a victory.' She described the massacres in Israel as 'so beautiful and inspiring to see.'"

It appears that Britain and its Jewish population have something more to fear than murderous rhetoric.

A pair of Islamic extremists were arrested last week and charged with preparing acts of terrorism. 36-year-old Walid Saadaoui of Abram and 50-year-old Amar Hussein of no fixed address were hauled before the Westminster Magistrates Court and charged with planning an attack on "the Jewish community in the North West of England and members of both law enforcement and the military," reported the BBC.

Bilel Saadaoui, the brother of one of the alleged terror plotters, was also arrested. He has been accused of failing to disclose the details of the terror plot to the authorities, reported the Guardian.

Prosecutor Rebecca Waller indicated the duo set their plan in motion in December and planned "to conduct an ISIL [Isis] or Daesh-inspired terrorist attack in the UK during which they intended causing multiple fatalities using automatic weapons," not unlike the gruesome November 2015 Bataclan massacre where Islamic terrorists murdered 90 people and committed various other atrocities against their victims, or the March 22 ISIS terror attack in Moscow Oblast, Russia, where 145 victims were murdered and 551 were injured.

The plotters reportedly had designs on securing a machine gun, 1,200 rounds of ammunition, a handgun, and a safe house to store their weaponry. Saadaoui allegedly traveled with Hussein to Dover in March "with the aim of conducting reconnaissance of the port security" where the guns were to be imported, reported the Daily Mail.

"Both defendants took significant steps to prepare, and by May 2024, had reach the point at which, they believed, they were in a position to launch their attack," said Waller.

Police nabbed Saadaoui when he went to pick up the weapons.

Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts of the Greater Manchester Police said in a statement Tuesday, "Today's first court appearance has outlined some concerning and distressing details about a suspected terrorist plot that we allege was being planned by suspects from Greater Manchester."

"Firstly, we know how significant the impact of this will be. Particularly for our Jewish community in Greater Manchester and across the country," continued Potts. "We have worked closely with the Community Security Trust, community groups and key stakeholders prior to today's hearing, and we will continue to update them and support them throughout the course of this case. The wider public will understandably be alarmed too."

Amanda Bomsztyk, the northern regional director of the Community Security Trust, said, "These are very serious allegations of a plan to commit a terrorist attack against British Jews at a time of record anti-Semitic hate crime levels. This is one of a number of recent and ongoing cases that demonstrate why the Jewish community needs such extensive security measures and why our continuing partnership with police and government is so vital."

When asked whether he wanted to apply for bail, Hussein reportedly answered, "Do whatever you want to."

Bilel Saadaoui applied for bail unsuccessfully and blubbered on his way out of court.

Blaze News previously reported that German and Dutch officials similarly foiled an Islamic terrorist plot in December, capturing four Hamas terrorists who had been targeting "Jewish institutions in Europe." Those arrests coincided with Denmark's capture of another four suspected terrorists.

Prosecutors indicated that four of the radicals "have been long-standing members of HAMAS and have participated in HAMAS operations abroad. They are closely linked to the military branch's leadership. This included Khalil Hamed Al Kharraz, the second in command at the 'Izz al-Din al-Qassem' Brigades."

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The NFL’s Condemnation Of Harrison Butker Exemplifies The Left’s Anti-Christian Bigotry

In corporate America today, there’s a permission structure in place to attack, defame, and destroy anyone who dares to be publicly Christian.

Video teaches that all whites are racist, minorities can't be racist. A college required its athletes to watch it.



Davidson College — a private institution in North Carolina — required its athletes to watch a video that teaches that all white people are racist and that racial minorities can't be racist, the College Fix reported.

What are the details?

The Davidsonians for Freedom of Thought and Discourse — an alumni-run free-speech organization — exposed and denounced the “I’m Not Racist … Am I?” video, the outlet said.

"In one clip of the film that we uncovered is the unequivocal repetition that all white people are racist, and people of color cannot be racist,” the group said, according to the College Fix.

Here's one clip:

— (@)

The discussion shown in the clip differentiates between racism and bigotry, noting that racial minorities can be guilty of bigotry against whites — expressing "personal meanness" and "hate" — but not racism against whites, which the discussion facilitators define as access to power through state-sanctioned systems that they say benefit white people.

"We're saying that, collectively, blacks, Latinos, and other groups do not have the power to collectively oppress white people through the use of our systems," another facilitator told the group.

The Davidsonians pushed back against the video's message, telling the College Fix that "the students with whom we have spoken about this film found it offensive, divisive, and personally insulting."

The group also told the outlet that it "does not object to discussions among teammates or anyone on any topic, including weaponized definitions of racism. Compelling them to do so, guided only by the extremist views of the film producer, is a hazardous way to go about it."

The Davidsonians wondered to the College Fix, “Will those teammates classified as ‘the oppressed’ and ‘the oppressor’ continue to trust and respect each other?” It added to the outlet a concern that the "endorsement of such a film by the Athletic Department could signal to the scholar-athletes what views the institution does, and does not require, and thus have a silencing effect on them."

More from the outlet:

The group pointed to a survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression that indicated 66 percent of Davidson students “regularly avoid informed dissent in the classroom.”

In response to the video and other concerns, the organization started a petition late last month to advocate for student’s rights and oppose future instances of ideological oppression.

The petition also points to “numerous” class syllabi containing “controversial ‘anti-oppression’ behaviors unrelated to the course subject” as another cause for concern. These included Spanish 101, multivariable calculus, and cell biology classes, according to the organization.

“Some of these anti-oppression statements make sweeping demands that students ‘actively identify and confront oppressive behaviors,’” the College Fix said, citing the petition.

The outlet said the Davidsonians also found syllabi statements such as, “We can only identify how power and privilege play out when we are conscious and committed to understanding how white supremacy, patriarchy, classism, heterosexism, cisgenderism, ableism, and all other systems of oppression affect each of us."

What did the college have to say?

The College Fix said Davidson College — which had just under 2,000 undergraduates in the fall of 2022 — defended the video and syllabi in an email earlier this month.

“Students encounter many ideas, perspectives, and beliefs about the world at college, and even though a reading or event is assigned, that does not mean that anyone at the college expects students to agree with every idea they encounter,” the statement said, according to the outlet. “Learning – and teamwork – is about exploring different ideas, countering with better ones, and expanding knowledge.”

But the Davidsonians for Freedom of Thought and Discourse noted to the College Fix that the college’s “anti-oppression directives obviously run counter” to its stated commitment to freedom of expression.

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'Qualified' member of Gov. Hochul's reparations commission hates on Israel and blames 'White Folk' for the weather



New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) ratified legislation in December creating a reparations commission tasked with determining how to redistribute New Yorkers' money along racial lines in order to make amends for the actions of persons now long gone.

While the governor's office indicated at the outset that this commission — which may ultimately be funded to the tune of tens of millions of dollars — would "be composed of nine members who are especially qualified to serve by virtue of their expertise, education, training, or lived experience," two of the members have since been outed as radical identitarians.

Ron Daniels, a failed independent candidate for president and the head of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, is a member of Hochul's reparation commission despite routinely dealing in ostensibly racist commentary online.

The New York Post highlighted how, for example, Daniels wrote in October 2021, "White Folks Messed Up the Weather = Black Folks Save the Planet."

In another post that month, Daniels clarified, "I Say White Folks Messed Up the Weather as a Way of Saying = Disrespect for Earth Mother by Materialistic, Greed and Profit Driven, Capitalist Systems of Europe and America = Killing the Planet and Danger to Humanity and All Forms of Life."

While keen to ascribe guilt to entire racial groups, Daniels has also invoked race when attacking lawmakers over matters of political disagreement. For instance, Daniels denigrated U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, calling the black Republican, "Uncle Tim" in a May 3, 2021, post.

"'Uncle Tim,' Scott that is, Who Picked Cotton On the Plantation, Is 'Still On the Plantation' = Picked to Be the 'Black Face' To Suppress/Black Power/Black Freedom On Behalf of White Supremacy/White Power and That's 'The Cotton Picking Truth' #BewareofUncleTim," wrote one of the radicals on Hochul's commission.

In addition to hurling racially-charged remarks, Daniels also lashed out at Israel just weeks after Hamas terrorists massacred thousands of Israeli civilians and dozens of Americans.

"With silence comes complacency. No Homeland. No Peace. No Justice, No Peace in Israel," Daniels wrote just months before his appointment to the reparations commission. "There will never be peace in Israel until the Palestinians have a home. Military force will quench the thirst of the Palestinian people for justice. No Homeland, No Peace!"

With silence, comes complacency.\nNo Homeland. No Peace. No Justice, No Peace in Israel.\n\nThere will never be peace in Israel until the Palestinians have a home. Military force will quench the thirst of the Palestinian people for justice.\n\nNo Homeland, No Peace!\n\n#FreePalestine
— (@)

While Daniels is greatly supportive of a Palestinian homeland, he does not appear to be as enthusiastic about his own.

Last July, he wrote that Independence Day "is mere shallow patriotism which is meaningless. In the spirit of Frederick Douglass, it is a day that should remind the oppressed that 'if there is no struggle, there is no progress. Therefore, on this Frederick Douglass Day, our task is clear."

Reparations apparently would not amount to total victory for Daniels. He also seeks the abolition the criminal justice system and for the "vast majority of MAGA subservient, terrified, cowardly Republicans" to be "vanquished."

Daniels is not the only radical on the commission who will ultimately be responsible for submitting recommendations for appropriate action to address "longstanding inequities" to the state senate, assembly, and to Hochul. There's also Lurie Daniel Favors, whom the post revealed to be another raving identitarian.

Favors, who serves as executive director at the Center for Law and Social Justice at CUNY's Medgar Evers College, has openly called for lawmakers to privilege one particular racial group or others when drafting policy and has also made clear her antipathy for racial harmony, writing, "F*** YOU & YOUR RACE APOLOGETICS. WE WILL NOT BE SILENT. WE WILL NOT MAKE YOU COMFORTABLE."

"We have given everything," continued Favors. "To make you comfortable about how evilly twisted your white supremacist sickness is and WE ARE DONNE with that as a political/education/housing policy. DONE."

— (@)

Favors was apparently also a champion of the ruinous defund-the-police movement.

"Police all across the country are literally proving *daily* why #DefundThePolice is necessary," Favors wrote in April 2021. "I'm old enough to remember summayall claiming activists were going too far."

Daniels and Favors were two of the three members appointed to the commission by Democratic state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. The appointments, including the three made by Hochul, were announced late last month.

New York Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar said the "commission on reparations was ridiculous from the start. This proves it."

"These sound like people who have preconceived notions of what they view as white privilege. Unbelievable," continued Kassar. "There's no way these appointees should serve on the commission given their comments."

Republican state Sen. Robert Ortt blasted Hochul for paving the way for the creation of the commission, stating, "The reparations of slavery were paid with the blood and lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans who fought to end slavery during the Civil War."

"A divisive commission to consider reparations is unworkable," continued Ortt. "As we've seen in California, I am confident this commission's recommendations will be unrealistic, will come at an astronomical cost to all New Yorkers, and will only further divide our state."

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The Feds Gave Banks Woke Censorship Tools To Control All Your Money

The same government pressure erecting an Iron Curtain around the Internet is also constructing a financial social credit system like Communist China's inside the United States.

Report: Attacks on churches have skyrocketed in recent years — and the trend is accelerating



Attacks on churches in the U.S. have skyrocketed in recent years, and the trend appears to be fast accelerating, according to a new report from the Family Research Council.

The report, authored by Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at the FRC, noted that between 2018 and 2023, there were at least 915 acts of hostility against American churches. These depraved actions have ranged from vandalism and arson to gun-related incidents and bomb threats.

The states that reportedly accounted for the greatest number of church-related hostilities in the six-year period were California, with 91 incidents; Texas, with 62 incidents; New York, with 58 incidents; and Florida, with 47.

Things appear to be getting much worse.

Between January and November 2023, there were reportedly at least 436 such attacks — eight times as many as there were in 2018 — such that 2023 ended up being the worst of all six years reviewed by the FRC.

The FRC observed 315 incidents of vandalism last year; 75 arson attacks or attempts; 10 gun-related occurrences; and 20 bomb threats.

Among the various documented instances of vandalism in 2023 was the January 2023 smashing of stained glass windows at Holy Nation Church of Memphis, Tennessee; the June shredding of Bibles and hymnals at the historically black Fowler United Methodist Church of Annapolis, Maryland; and the July inversion of crosses at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in El Paso, Texas, which was also slapped with satanic imagery.

In terms of arson, attacks ranged from small to massively destructive fires. The Easter Sunday fire set to Faith Lutheran Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for example, resulted in substantial damage as well the removal of the church's steeple.

Del Turco noted that "although the motivations for many of these acts of hostility remain unknown, the effect is unmistakable: religious intimidation."

The beheading of a statue of religious significance may, for example, leave congregants "disturbed and upset." Other acts of hostility may alternatively "cause congregants or church leaders to feel unsafe," thereby interrupting the normal work of the church, according the report.

"They send the message that churches are not wanted in the community or respected in general. Our culture is demonstrating a growing disdain for Christianity and core Christian beliefs, and acts of hostility against churches could be a physical manifestation of that," continued Turco. "Regardless of the motivations of these crimes, everyone should treat churches and all houses of worship with respect and affirm the importance of religious freedom for all Americans."

The report posits that the increase in hostility against churches may point to a "larger societal problem of marginalizing core Christian beliefs, including those that touch on hot-button political issues related to human dignity and sexuality."

While frequently targets for radicals on account of their congregants' fidelity to tradition, churches also appear to be a reflexive scapegoat for leftists and other extremists.

Radicals in the U.S. seized upon the 2020 death of George Floyd as an excuse to lash out at their perceived foes, which turned out in many cases to be Christians and their places of worship. Leftists did likewise in 2022 in the lead-up to and wake of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, attacking churches and pro-life pregnancy centers alike.

This reflex appears elsewhere in the West. For instance, in Canada, at least 68 churches were razed, desecrated, or vandalized in 2021 after activists, the northern nation's liberal media, and political elites hyped the mass graves hoax.

The hoax, fully embraced by the Trudeau regime, alleged that mass graves had been discovered at the sites of former Indian residential schools that had been administered by Christian groups. The claims, which were dubious to begin with, were subsequently debunked, but not before radicals torched Catholic and Anglican churches across the country.

Tony Perkins, president of the FRC and a former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said of the findings in the report, "There is a common connection between the growing religious persecution abroad and the rapidly increasing hostility toward churches here at home: our government's policies."

"The indifference abroad to the fundamental freedom of religion is rivaled only by the increasing antagonism toward the moral absolutes taught by Bible-believing churches here in the U.S.," continued Perkins, "which is fomenting this environment of hostility toward churches."

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