Category Archives: Freedom of Religion

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Are you ready to surrender your rights for the “common good”?

I’m old enough to remember the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, a product of mostly leftist students on campus.

With the participation of thousands of students, the Free Speech Movement was the first mass act of civil disobedience on an American college campus in the 1960s. Students insisted that the university administration lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge the students’ right to free speech and academic freedom. The Free Speech Movement was influenced by the New Left, and was also related to the Civil Rights Movement and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement. To this day, the Movement’s legacy continues to shape American political dialogue both on college campuses and in broader society, influencing some political views and values of college students and the general public.

I’m not a leftist by any means, but I completely support the freedom of speech, and all of the rights enshrined in our great Constitution. Sadly, so many of today’s left do not support freedom of speech, at least not when they believe they have the power to restrain it.

Irish senator under fire for advocating bill to restrict free speech

One critic calls Ireland’s anti-hate law ‘draconian,’ adding it will have ‘severe implications’

By Brianna Herlihy, Fox News | First Sunday of Advent, December 3, 2023 | 4:00 AM EST

A speech delivered in June by an Irish lawmaker who said the work of legislatures is about “restricting freedoms” in the name of the “common good” has gone viral, with criticism on both sides of the Atlantic.

Senator Pauline O’Reilly of the Green Party, in defense of Ireland’s proposed Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences Bill 2022, spoke at the Houses of the Oireachtas in June, saying, “We are restricting freedom, but we’re doing it for the common good.

Well, of course she’s a member of the Green Party, of the hard left.

“You will see throughout our constitution, yes, you have rights, but they are restricted for the common good. If your views on other people’s identities go to make their lives unsafe, insecure and cause them such deep discomfort that they cannot live in peace, then I believe that it is our job as legislators to restrict those freedoms for the common good.”

If a right is “restricted for the common good,” is it a right at all?

Senator O’Reilly’s speech is embedded below the fold, since videos take up a lot of bandwidth on the front page. Continue reading →

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Another deep-pockets Ivy League donor tells the pro-Hamas students to go to Hell Go directly to Hell, do not pass Go, do not collect $2,000,000

We noted, just yesterday, that despite the noisy pro-Palestinian demonstrations on our college campuses and in large cities, only about 20% of Democrats support Hamas, and that, even surveying only those in the 18-to-24-year-old age bracket, Hamas enjoyed less support than Israel. The radicals are both the noisy and stupid ones.

As for colleges themselves? We have also noted how some deep-pockets donors are closing their checkbooks and job offers in the face of the anti-Semitism being displayed. Now, yet another college is losing a billionaire donor. From Forbes: Continue reading →

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Rashida Tlaib and the rest of the Usual Suspects prove the need for a strong, independent, affirmatively Jewish Israel!

We are being told by the people the credentialed media use as spokesthings, like Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the now-censured congresscritter from Detroit and a ‘Palestinian-American,’ if such an oxymoron can actually exist, that all the Palestinians want is their freedom. They don’t hate Israelis specifically, or Jews more generally, but just want their freedom. Mrs Tlaib even tried to claim that the mantra, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!” as not being anti-Israeli at all, but no one actually believed her.

However, there’s an obvious question: do the (purported) leaders of the pro-Palestinian movement in the West actually represent the crowds behind them. The tweet I retweeted from @StopAntisemitism is just one of hundreds they’ve posted, documenting people living in the United States and Canada showing us exactly who they are. The Stop Antisemitism site is doing great work in exposing and identifying those people, and letting their colleges or employers know just who they are, and many have found their way to the unemployment line. If you think that’s a bad thing, just imagine how employers would react if one of their employees was caught on video calling for the death of [insert virtually forbidden slang for Negroes here].

Of course, even those stupid enough perhaps to want to say that kind of thing about blacks are generally not stupid enough to say it on tape, which means that they are at least not as stupid as the anti-Semites! Continue reading →

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The left sure like Christians, right up until they seem to be actual Christians!

We have been told what a devout Catholic President Biden is, and how former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was a good, believing Catholic. President Trump, on the other hand, showed us how fake a Christian he is, because he almost never attended religious services. Clearly, for the left, being a faithful Christian of some denomination or other was a pretty good thing. Or at least it was until someone who is actually a Christian becomes Speaker of the House! Continue reading →

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Is Pope Francis trying to destroy the Church?

Photo from St Paul’s Catholic Church website. Click to enlarge.

We have previously mentioned what it’s website calls “Historic St. Paul Roman Catholic Church,” at 425 West Short Street in Lexington, Kentucky, and not in a positive way. St Paul’s has an active homosexual ministry, something which cannot ever be approved. Continue reading →

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Today’s American left really, really hate our individual rights! Or at least they do when those rights are exercised by conservatives!

We noted, a year and a half ago, how President Biden and his leftist minions, proposed the creation of a Ministry of Truth ‘Disinformation Governance Board‘ within the Department of Fatherland Homeland Security, and had chosen Nina Jankowitz, who for months told us that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation, to head it.

On April 25th, she told us how she feels about #FreedomOfSpeech:

I shudder to think about if free speech absolutists were taking over more platforms, what that would look like for the marginalized communities . . . which are already shouldering . . . disproportionate amounts of this abuse.

Then came Helen Ubiñas, who has a very visible platform as a regular columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, claiming that Freedom of Speech is dangerous and harmful to people like her: Continue reading →

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So, which one concerns His Holiness the Pope more?

The Religion News Service noted that His Holiness the Pope is somewhat upset with the Catholic Church in the United States:

The new Americanism heresy

Once again, American bishops are at odds with the Vatican.

By Mark Silk | Wednesday, September 20, 2023

(RNS) — In a private meeting with fellow Jesuits in Lisbon, Portugal, last month, Pope Francis didn’t turn the other cheek in response to a question about hostility to his leadership on the part of many American Catholics, including some bishops.

“You have seen that in the United States the situation is not easy,” he said. “There is a very strong reactionary attitude. It is organized and shapes the way people belong, even emotionally.”

While some conservative Catholics professed to be dismayed by the pope’s remark, no one disputed that America is a hotbed of anti-Francis criticism. Or that American bishops are leading the charge.

Bishop Joseph Strickland, from his Twitter biography.

OK, just to what about Pope Francis and his leadership do the American bishops object? We have seen Archbishop Salvatore of San Francisco speak out about the importance of being pro-life, and that Catholic politicians like Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) who promote pre-natal infanticide should not present themselves to receive the Eucharist. Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, has been strong and adamant concerning the inadmissibility of same-sex ‘marriage’:

Because marriage was divinely instituted by God as between one man and one woman, there is simply no right given to humanity to depart from this foundational truth of marriage. I will reemphasize this point: marriage can only be between one man and one woman.

The Diocese was subjected to an ‘Apostolic Visitation’ ordered by Rome to check on what? We were never told, and now there have been leaked reports from the Vatican that the Pope will request the Bishop’s resignation. Bishop Strickland stated directly that he has received no communication from the Vatican along such lines.

But then there’s this, from the Jesuit’s America magazine: Continue reading →

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The Miami Herald reports on the Traditional Latin Lass If the Tridentine Mass is bringing in newer, younger Catholics, shouldn't we be celebrating that?

There are several Protestant churches which advertised themselves as King James Only, arguing that “the KJV needs no further improvements because it is the greatest English translation of the Bible which was ever published, and they also believe that all other English translations of the Bible which were published after the KJV was published are corrupt.” They have their reasons, which I will not argue here, and which you can read if you follow the link.

But, regardless of their arguments, one thing is certain: the Elizabethan English used in the King James Version is lofty in a way that modern English simply is not, and I have to wonder: does the grandeur of the language itself inspire some English-speaking people?

I will admit it: I didn’t expect to find a story like this in the Miami Herald, a McClatchy newspaper. 1,038 words, on the Tridentine, or Traditional Latin Mass?

Latin Mass not just for older Catholics — what’s driving Miami’s newer, younger members?

By Lauren Costantino[1]This report was created with philanthropic support from Christian, Muslim and Jewish funders in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald retains editorial control of all work. | Monday, August 28, 2023 | 5:00 AM EDT

It’s the kind of Catholic Mass your grandparents might remember: The liturgy is spoken in Latin, the choir sings Gregorian chants and women wear chapel veils, or “mantillas.” But, this Traditional Latin Mass isn’t full of elderly parishioners.

At Our Lady of Belen Chapel in West Miami, roughly 350 people — young and old — show up weekly for services, an old-style Catholic Mass that had been celebrated for centuries before the Second Vatican Council reformed the Catholic Church in the 1960s. One look around the picturesque Belen chapel and it’s clear that this Mass, though grounded in tradition and conducted mostly in Latin, is not just for older Catholics. Amid the sacred chanting and echoing organs, babies fuss and parents distract their toddlers with toys and coloring books.

There is no designated childcare room, but parents of crying babies are never shamed, said Eleonora Cacchione, a mother of four and Latin Mass regular. Cacchione is a lifelong Catholic, but says she did not fully understand what was happening during Mass until she started attending Traditional Latin Mass.

Attendance at Mass has fallen since the panicdemic — and yes, I spelled it that way deliberately, because that’s how I see the reaction to it — and has not returned to pre-COVID-19 levels. People who were used to getting out of bed on Sunday mornings found that sleeping in isn’t all that bad. Attending Mass is a habit, just as sleeping in can be a habit, and we have lost parishioners due to the forcible closing of churches.

“People wearing their Sunday best, seeing the priest facing the altar rather than the congregation, the solemnity and reverence of the liturgy — including the way people receive Jesus in the Eucharist — reminds one that something special, something supernatural and beyond human explanation is taking place,” Cacchione said in a text message.

Traditional Latin Mass, also called the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, or the Tridentine Mass, has been celebrated in the Archdiocese of Miami for the past 40 years, beginning under former Archbishop Edward McCarthy. In recent years, Miami’s community has steadily grown, relocating to five different chapels in the past 10 years to accommodate the growth.

This is the most powerful paragraph of all: a secular newspaper, reporting what some of us already knew, that the Tridentine Mass is attracting more and more people to attend Mass. And really, isn’t that something that any Catholic, lay or priest, bishop or pope, should want, more Catholics in the pews?

But, the most recent move to the Belen chapel — which is aligned with the Jesuits, and not an Archdiocese of Miami church — was made after Pope Francis restricted where groups can celebrate Latin Mass. He also required priests who wanted to celebrate the Mass to get permission from their bishops, and for bishops to get approval from the Vatican. The pope was concerned the Church was going backward, rather than looking forward.

Or, perhaps, His Holiness the Pope was concerned that too many people were taking seriously what Jesus said, in Matthew 5:17-20, as he has been allowing what would previously have been seen as prohibited.

Miami’s Latin Mass community has more than doubled in the past five years — up from an average of 112 congregants in 2017 to 320 in 2023 — according to records taken by Frank Andollo, who’s been going to the services for 10 years. People drive from as far north as Palm Beach County and as far south as the Florida Keys to make it to Latin Mass at Belen on Sundays.

Why the growth?

“It’s bound to attract people because I believe they are attracted to authenticity,” said Jose Ballon, the choir director. “They don’t want something watered down or compromised.”

Ballon, 28, was referring to the traditions that are honored during Latin Mass, compared to the new order of Mass, or Novus ordo, the the religious service most Catholics are familiar with today.

As our regular readers know — both of them! — I am significantly hearing impaired. A Tridentine Mass, with the priest ad orientem, with his back to the people, would be extremely difficult for me. My pew is in the front row, directly in front of the ambo, and I can still miss things. I can just imagine the difficulties I would have with the priest having his back to me.

There’s a lot more at the original, and it’s not controversial at all. Lauren Costantino, the author, is basically describing the feelings of the worshipers she interviewed, and almost everything is positive.

The Tridentine Mass does not take away from the Novus ordo; Catholics who have both available to them — for me, the closest one is in Georgetown, about 70 miles away — will choose to go to one or the other, or, sadly, choose neither at all, and sleep in on a Sunday morning.

And that last is a huge problem: too many Catholics, following the ‘break’ for the panicdemic, have chosen to just stay in bed. If a more available Tridentine Mass was to bring some of them back, how would that be anything but a good thing?

My parish is an old parish; while there are a couple of families with kids, most of us are around retirement age, and eventually we will be going to our eternal rewards. If the Tridentine Mass is bringing in new Catholics, new parishioners, younger parishioners, that is something we should be touting, honoring, and celebrating.

References

References
↑1 This report was created with philanthropic support from Christian, Muslim and Jewish funders in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald retains editorial control of all work.
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They tried that in a small town

Linda Blackford, the longtime columnist for what my best friend used to call the Lexington Herald-Liberal hasn’t written about Jason Aldean’s hit “Try That In a Small Town,” but she is aghast that someone tried something stupid in a small town and it didn’t work out well:

‘Deeply traumatized.’ Arts retreat at Pine Mountain ends after confrontation. What’s next?

by Linda Blackford | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | 10:58 AM EDT | Updated: 2:47 PM EDT

For 110 years, a small swathe of mighty Pine Mountain has been a shelter, a school, and a gathering place in Harlan County. But this past weekend, Pine Mountain Settlement School instead became the latest flashpoint in our culture wars.

The Waymakers Collective, a group of Appalachian artists, was holding its annual meeting at Pine Mountain Settlement School. It included performances, artist workshops, film screenings and art activities. Participants stayed in the cottages and dorms around the compound.

They also had permission to use the chapel, and set it up as a “healing space” with pillows, mats, a table of aromatic oils and an “om” symbol, which symbolizes the universe in the Hindu religion. They were not allowed to move the pews, but Pine Mountain staff set up tables.

On Saturday, someone took a picture of the chapel and posted it on social media, which was soon shared around the Harlan County community of Bledsoe, where Pine Mountain is located. According to a statement from the Pine Mountain board, community members called the interim director and board chair about the chapel. Pine Mountain officials asked the Waymakers to move the “healing space” to another location, and the Waymakers agreed, according to the statement.

But before they could do so, a group of men and women in trucks and on ATVs, entered the Pine Mountain campus, blocked the exit, and then made their way to the chapel. According to the Waymakers’ statement, “the people who entered the chapel demanded that we leave. Our group was told they did not belong there, were desecrating a Christian space, and needed to leave right away. We were shocked by this as we had rented out the entire campus of PMSS for our event and were treating the entire property with respect and in the manner we had communicated to PMSS prior to our event.”

But the Waymakers, who are dedicated to the art of the marginalized, including indigenous people, people of color and LGBTQ folks, were terrified. They decided to end the retreat early, and according to their statement, left in a large convoy, so no one would be driving through Harlan County alone.

There’s more at the original.

The Waymakers Collective legitimately rented the grounds on which they were holding their gathering, and should have been allowed to use it as they chose. And the Pine Mountain Settlement School should have been fully aware as to whom and for what the Waymakers were renting their facilities.

But there’s more to it than that: the Pine Mountain Settlement School should also have been aware of the culture in Harlan County, and that the people there might not have been quite as receptive to those “dedicated to the art of the marginalized, including indigenous people, people of color and LGBTQ folks.” Surely the Settlement School folks had heard of Senate Bill 150, to protect normal kids from the homosexual and transgender lobbies, and been aware that both of the county’s state Representatives, Adam Bowling (R-District 87) and Jacob Justice (R-District 94), and state Senator Johnnie Turner (R-District 29), all voted for the bill. They should have known that the voters of Harlan County vote strongly conservative Republican, giving 85.38% of their votes to Donald Trump in 2020, as well as huge margins to Senators Mitch McConnell in 2020 and Rand Paul in 2022.

Translation: renting space to Waymakers would not have gone over well in Harlan County, if the populace in general knew about it.

Mrs Blackford was, of course, highly upset about the whole thing, about how Harlan Countians might be less than eagerly receptive to a group touting, among other things, homosexual and transgender acceptance. Of course, Mrs Blackford’s newspaper has a solid record of endorsing politicians who really don’t line up with the voters in the Bluegrass State:

And yes, every one of them lost. In 2022, when no serious Democrat chose to run in the Sixth District, and a perennial kook candidate won the primary, a guy so bad that even the state Democratic Party wouldn’t support him, the Herald-Leader couldn’t bring itself to endorse the incumbent Republican, Representative Andy Barr, but chose to make no endorsement at all. That’s how much they hate conservatives and Republicans.

This is where Mr Aldean’s song arises: as much as the urban left hate it, it reflects an obvious truth, that the culture of the rural areas, and most certainly in the rural areas of the Bluegrass State, is simply not the culture of the larger cities, and attempting to force urban culture on rural counties simply hasn’t worked out very well.

Back to Mrs Blackford:

Harlan Judge Executive Dan Mosley, who was married at the chapel, said he understood the feelings of people like (Tate) Napier.

“One way to coexist is respect,” he said. “Respect for different people’s culture and ideology. Someone may not agree with my religious beliefs but they could respect them by not disrespecting where I worship, and I could respect their religious beliefs, too.”

Mrs Blackford, and the majority of commenters on her column, apparently do not see hosting homosexual and transgender-positive meetings in a Christian church as “disrespecting where (Harlan Countians) worship,” but it’s pretty obvious that some in the county did.

‘Read the room‘ is defined as “to be or become aware of the opinions and attitudes of a group of people that you are talking to”. In choosing Harlan County for their gathering, the Waymakers just didn’t read the room very well.

More, it seems that the only real objection came when the Waymakers started using the chapel for part of their meeting; that put them in direct conflict with a conservative, Protestant Christian community. At a time in which there’s a great deal of conservative pushback against the forcing of homosexual and transgender ideologies on people who want no part of it, there’s really no surprise that the Waymakers encountered resistance.

If the homosexual and transgender activists had simply kept to the apparently-very-outdated maxim, “What we do in our bedrooms is nobody else’s business,” rather than today’s, “We’re here, we’re queer, and you damned well better approve of, use our pronouns, and fête us,” there’d have been no legislation such as Senate bill 150, and it’s highly unlikely that the mostly leave-us-alone people of eastern Kentucky would have bothered the Waymakers. Then again, the Waymakers would have probably been actually displaying their art, rather than going on to point out that particular artists were in some fashion different from normal people.
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