Every day brings more evidence that we’re rapidly evolving into a police state as our historic norms and traditions disintegrate and lawlessness is flaunted by our domestic enemies on the Left, whether in politics, education, science, entertainment, religion, medicine or business. We can no longer assume that we live in freedom with the U.S. Constitution guarding our rights, because those in power no longer respect that historic document.
Take, for instance, our rights of religion, speech, assembly and, though not specifically listed, freedom of association. Every one of those rights was to be violated with the latest revelation that the FBI planned to cultivate informants within the Catholic church.
The chair of the House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed FBI Director Christopher Wray for all records relating to a leaked internal memo that proposed developing sources in traditionalist Catholic parishes to inform on potential “violent extremists” in such houses of worship.
In an April 10 letter (pdf) attached to the subpoena, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) noted that the committee’s investigation of that Jan. 23 memo, which has since been repudiated by the FBI, had revealed that it was produced by at least one undercover agent and that, despite leadership’s claims to the contrary, the bureau intended to act on the memo’s recommendations.
“Based on the limited information produced by the FBI to the Committee, we now know that the FBI relied on at least one undercover agent to produce its analysis, and that the FBI proposed that its agents engage in outreach to Catholic parishes to develop sources among the clergy and church leadership to inform on Americans practicing their faith,” Jordan wrote to Wray. “This shocking information reinforces our need for all responsive documents, and the Committee is issuing a subpoena to you to compel your full cooperation.”
“Shocking”? Really, Jim?
Is it really so shocking after all we have endured during and post-Trump? We’ve learned that the FBI helped fuel the Russia! Russia! Russia! hoax, likely took part in instigating the J6 “insurrection”, coordinated the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home with the White House, targeted concerned parents opposed to public (i.e. state-run) schools corrupting their kids with critical race theory and transgenderism, concocted a ludicrous entrapment scheme to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen “Wretched” Whitmer, and abused their authority to arrest a pro-life activist in front of his family as a warning to anyone else who might think they can protest abortions at the little extermination camps set up across our fair nation without reprisal.
So, “shocking”? No. Not shocked at all.
This is the kind of police state activity you might expect in communist or socialist countries ruled by dictators-for-life. The FBI is acting more like the East German Stasi or the Russian NKVD than it is the domestic investigative unit whose mission is “to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States.” (*spit*)
FBI Director Christopher Wray denied that the FBI condoned such activity, protesting that, “we do not and will not target people for religious beliefs, and we do not and will not monitor people’s religious practices.” Yet, Jordan found that, “The document itself shows that its contents, including its proposal to develop sources in Catholic churches, were reviewed and approved by two senior intelligence analysts and even the local Chief Division Counsel.”
Say, I wonder if the FBI is developing sources within Islamic mosques to monitor for “potential ‘violent extremists’”? Or nah?
It’s not like the FBI had identified a specific threat coming from a specific church. The plan was simply to develop inside sources among “clergy and church leadership” to report to the FBI what certain church members were up to.
Can you imagine the distrust and suspicion that would be sown among the body of believers, especially as people found out that parishioners were winding up in federal prisons? The effect would chill relationships and conversation. After all, who could you trust?
For now it seems like the threat has been averted. But the fact that it was even proposed tells us all we need to know about how the FBI sees religious conservatives.
Today the Catholics; tomorrow the Protestants. Now that the precedent has been set and the idea of surveilling churches is out there, don’t be surprised when parishioners begin to be arrested or simply disappear without a trace.
It shouldn’t be that shocking.