Property Law Does Good Deed for Faith Groups
It was the seventh break-in of the summer. Pastor Elijah Mwitani wouldn’t have believed it if it weren’t for the smashed windows and carved-up pews.
It was the seventh break-in of the summer. Pastor Elijah Mwitani wouldn’t have believed it if it weren’t for the smashed windows and carved-up pews. At Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Annandale, the vandalism was almost as regular as the worship services. Whoever it was had been coming every day, every other day, every week. They cut cords to the sound equipment, spray painted the walls, crushed glass against the walls.
The fourth time it happened, the trespassers weren’t alone. When they saw a young man downstairs, they grabbed a fire extinguisher, and hit him over the head. After a trip to the emergency room and tens of thousands of dollars in damage, Pastor Mwitani feared for his congregation. Smashing their way through the sanctuary is one thing, but now, he told reporters, “The fact that it’s escalated, to the point where they now have a signature on it, makes us wonder what the ultimate goal is.”
He’s not the only one. Type “church vandalism” into any search engine, and you’ll see a surprising number of results. And while most stories aren’t making it past the local news, it’s obvious that churches, synagogues, and mosques are in greater danger than ever. In the Carolinas, the pastor at Lake Bowen Baptist Church walked into knives thrown in the wall, classrooms with disgusting messages and artwork, and every drink in the cafeteria poured on the floor. At Destiny Outreach Ministries in Colorado, the carpet was so covered in broken glass that people couldn’t walk from one side to the other. Cabinet doors were yanked off, there were sledgehammer holes in the wall, even the grand piano was missing its cover.
Church security, everywhere, in every denomination, is at risk. Back in Utah, Senator Orrin Hatch (R) saw members of the Mormon church harassed and mistreated — so badly that he decided to do something about it. That “something” was the Protecting Religiously Affiliated Institutions Act. After more than 100 bomb threats against Jewish centers last year and a string of horrific church shootings, Senator Hatch lead the fight to crack down on people who try to turn houses of worship into targets. “In recent years, we’ve witnessed an alarming upsurge in threats of violence made against religious institutions,” he said. “I’ve long held that an attack on one religion is an attack on all, which is why I have worked tirelessly to strengthen religious liberty protections for people of all faiths.”
This week, he saw the fruit of that work, as President Trump signed his bill into law — increasing the penalty to up to three years in prison and a fine for the wave of crime hitting religious groups across the country. To the relief of groups like FRC, Senator Hatch also expanded the definition of what’s considered religious property. For the first time, faith-based nonprofits will get the same protection as churches, which is especially important now in a political climate that’s getting more violent by the minute.
Speaking of politics, it was more than a little noteworthy that the bill’s cosponsors are the same people at the middle of the Kavanaugh fireworks: Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). I suppose we should be grateful that even in the midst of one of the fiercest chapters in Congress, the Senate can still manage to come together on something as important as church security.
As Senator Hatch said, the people targeting religious groups “post a danger to the religious freedom and security of all Americans. I am proud to sponsor this bill that will protect houses of worship and affiliate community centers. These attacks are inexcusable. I want to thank my colleagues in both the House and Senate, as well as the president, for working swiftly to sign our legislation into law.”
Meanwhile, people like Pastor Mwitani aren’t deterred. His church is here to minister to everyone — including the people responsible. “We hope that the person who’s doing this — if it is just something that they are troubled by in the mind — [knows] we would be here to help. It doesn’t have to end up in a situation where somebody gets hurt or killed.” Bethlehem Lutheran “is very intentional about being welcoming.” And although the community is sad about what happened, he insists that all this does “is just energize us to do even more.”
Originally published here.
Google Employee on Blackburn: She’s a ‘Terrorist’
Just when people stopped talking about Google’s post-Trump cry-fest, the company has another PR disaster on its hands. Weeks after the tech giant was outed for calling the president’s supporters “facists,” “haters,” and “extremists,” Breitbart published a nasty email chain from Google’s Blake Lemoine calling Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), among other things, a “terrorist.”
Of course, Blackburn’s been a longtime target of the tech industry — starting last year when social media started censoring her campaign ads. In 2017, Twitter actually took down one of her pro-life videos, insisting it was “inflammatory” to bring up Planned Parenthood’s baby body part ring. When she protested, Twitter replied that it wasn’t an accident. “[I]t appears that the line in this video specific to ‘stopped the sale of baby body parts’ has been deemed an inflammatory statement that is likely to evoke a strong negative reaction. If this is omitted from the video it will be permitted to serve.”
It was one of the many incidents that led Marsha to write an open letter to Silicon Valley on Fox News. “My Tennessee constituents have expressed concern over having their Christian movie trailers taken off YouTube, or their Facebook accounts being disabled, or their posts on Twitter being censored. As I said, I had a personal experience with the latter this last fall, and it was deeply troubling.” Like a lot of conservatives, she demanded better. “If these companies truly believe in a free and open internet, they should allow an honest and open public discussion — even when that means views they disagree with in ‘flyover country’ are highlighted. If they don’t believe in that level of neutrality, perhaps we should heed Mr. Zuckerberg’s advice and consider holding them to a higher standard that acknowledges their responsibility.”
Google’s Lemoine saw her column and unloaded in a politically-charged email. “We certainly shouldn’t acquiesce to the theatrical demands of a legislator who makes political hay by intentionally reducing the safety of the people who she claims to protect,” he wrote. “I’m not big on negotiation with terrorists.” Insisting she was a “violent thug,” Lemoine argued that “taking down libel is not censorship.” “She’s a lying liar who lies and Twitter treats her like one.”
Obviously, Google’s bias isn’t anything new. But this is especially significant since Lemoine is part of the company’s search team, meaning that he helps create the algorithms that seemed to be increasingly skewed against conservatives. Google, of course, declined to comment. (It said enough already.) Marsha’s campaign, on the other hand, had plenty to say. “Marsha Blackburn is a mother, a grandmother, a friend, a dedicated public servant, a pro-life champion, an ally for veterans, and an advocate for lowering our taxes and cutting regulation. To call her a terrorist is offensive and degrading. These emails are indicative of the bias conservative women in the political arena face every day. Liberals do not want them to have a voice in the public arena, and too many social media employees carry their bias to work with them.”
At last year’s NRB convention, Marsha and I talked extensively about media censorship. Like a lot of conservatives, we think it’s time for companies like Google to start embracing First Amendment principles. After all, she said, “What’s the value of platforms that care more about inserting their biases than in providing a neutral place for people to discuss their ideas?” Probably about the same as an employee who isn’t capable of common courtesy, let alone open debate.
Originally published here.
Georgia Decaturs to the Far Left
“When you send your daughter to school — when you see her off in the morning,” said a parent, “you have a level of expectation that you’re not going to be worried about them.” Unfortunately for one mom in Georgia, there is nothing but worry now. Her daughter, a sweet, innocent five-year-old girl, was pushed up against a bathroom wall and molested — an act that could have all been prevented, if district officials hadn’t let boys in the restroom to begin with.
“The night when my daughter explained what happened to her,” she said, “I felt devastated. I felt angry. I felt betrayed.” And based on the circumstances in City Schools of Decatur, she should have been. A year and a half earlier, Superintendent David Dude made the quiet decision to change the district’s bathroom, locker room, and overnight field trip policy. But instead of telling parents in a letter home or in a public meeting, he posted the change on Facebook in the summer when very few families were paying attention.
After one mother noticed it, she called another. And then another. And soon, the news exploded through the district. The uproar over Dude’s decision was so unavoidable that the school board agreed to put the issue on its October 2017 agenda. A month later, Pascha’s kindergartener was assaulted. Like any parent, she went to school officials expecting help — or at least sympathy. They offered neither, Alliance Defending Freedom’s (ADF) Sarah Kramer explains, and instead filed a report with the Department of Family and Children Services naming the mom as the responsible party.
She turned to ADF, who decided that if the Decatur School District won’t help, the Justice Department will. Thanks to the DOJ’s Office for Civil Rights, government officials are launching an investigation. But unfortunately for Pascha and her daughter, the damage has already been done. Worse, there are still liberals out there who insist that these policies won’t do anything to harm women or children.
In Massachusetts, the latest ground zero over gender-free restrooms, state house Speaker Robert DeLeo makes the ridiculous claim that there’s been no fallout from open-door policies like this one. “Opponents to this common-sense protection routinely and falsely claim that the law could be abused by criminals seeking to harm women and children in public restrooms,” he writes. “The facts simply don’t support this fiction.” Tell that to a five-year-old girl and her mom who will probably be dealing with that experience for the rest of their lives.
The threats associated with these politically correct laws aren’t something conservatives invented (unlike the Left’s latest definition of gender). There are very real patterns of violence, voyeurism, and abuse affecting people of all ages. That’s why even Massachusetts, one of the bluest states in the country, had no trouble finding the signatures conservatives needed to put gender politics on the ballot this November! Even they aren’t buying the line that this is a harmless movement meant to treat everyone “fairly.” Join Massachusetts in a battle that could send transgender activists packing. See what you can do to help by visiting KeepMASafe.org!
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
