ETC Morning Edition

An FBI Agent in Every Mass, plus more wisdom from Exodus

Feb 11, 2023

black and white rectangular frame — Photo by Tobias Tullius on Unsplash

In case you have not seen the headlines, the FBI has increasingly turned its gaze on U.S. citizens who are to the political and religious right of the current Administration. The latest revelation comes from a whistleblower within the FBI who released a document in which they target “radical traditionalist” Catholics. From the Breitbart report:

The FBI has pulled a leaked internal document announcing an investigation into “radical traditionalist” Catholics and their possible ties to the “far-right white nationalist movement” following vocal backlash.

The whistleblower offered his explanation of the terminology in the document (which you can find online), including some of the text of the document at the end of this paragraph:

Commenting on the leaked document, Seraphin noted an unsubstantiated assumption that “a preference for the Catholic Mass in Latin instead of the vernacular and a number of more traditional views on other world religions can amount to an ‘adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ and white supremacist ideology.’”

The document concerns itself with pre-Vatican II Catholics, which translates into those who attend Latin mass and believe in traditional marriage. Notice the ubiquitous LGBTQ language. Plus, “white supremacy” is an ever-present bogyman for the Left. The demand for white supremacists is so high, and the supply so low, they need to manufacture groups of people to label as such. It was also revealed that they used the Southern Poverty Law Center as a source of “information” about hate groups.

The FBI report relied heavily on analysis from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a far-left, scandal-ridden organization, and even included a direct copy of the SPLC list of “Radical Traditional Catholicism Hate Groups” as an appendix to its text.

This has happened before. The Soviet Union used to plant KGB agents within Russian Orthodox churches. There are still some people who will say that the USSR allowed Christian churches. Technically, they allowed churches they could control. Dissidents knew this, and build an underground, faithful, church. Ironically, a Russian Orthodox Priest who was a spy for the KGB recently died. The Nazis did the same thing, You could keep your church open if you hung Nazi flags on your altar.

Orthodox and religious Jewish communities have been dealing with this kind of pressure and persecution for generations all over the globe. If you really want to depress yourself about anti-Semitism in America, research how Orthodox communities have been treated in New York City, especially since 2020.

Tyrants Can’t Stand Religion

Better put, political ideologies that seek more and more power do their best to separate people from their faith and religious institutions. But not every religion is created equal. Many Americanized religions are like the Greco-Roman paganism of the first century – as long as you can add the Caesar to your pantheon, you will get along just fine. If, however, you claim something like, “Jesus is Lord,” there might be hungry lions in your future.

Why does this kind of political power – manifest in the political Left in our age – seek to diminish the church and faith? There are at least two major reasons.

First, a believer is a citizen within a State who worships a higher authority than the State. This is going to be true for any believer in a monotheistic faith – God is the greatest authority. In Christian theology, the State exists under the authority of God to enforce his will and enable God’s creation to flourish. The believer, then, lives as a happy citizen of the State as long as it aligns with the will and goodness of God. If it does not, however, the State cannot usurp God’s authority. Like the midwives in Egypt, the believer fears God more than they fear the tyrant and will obey him no matter the threats of the State.

Secondly, the resurrection of Jesus Christ breaks every threat a tyrant has. Because Jesus defeated death and the grave, the Christian lives with the sure and blessed hope of eternity with Him. Tyrants can do their best to coerce the Christian, but the Christian knows that their final power, death, has been taken away from them by Christ. Kill me, and I will enter my eternal reward and be in the kingdom of my Savior for ever and ever.

Stand firm. The Christian faith is far more important than acceptance by the State, and God is so much greater than any threat that may come our way. And, maybe, if an official of the State shows up at church, maybe they will hear the Gospel and be saved.

Share Every Thought Captive with Phil Steiger

This reminds me:

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