Same-Sex Marriage Was Never Enough or the End

A pro-family activist says the LGBT movement has convinced lawmakers in his state to pass a radical “parentage equality” bill that redefines the family.

In May of 2004, after the state’s highest court ruled in 2003 that the state’s ban violated the constitutional rights of same-sex couples, Massachusetts (MA) became the first state to legalize homosexual marriage.  Now, in legal terms, a MA family is no longer a mother, a father and their children; it could be two mothers or two fathers with children through adoption or some other means.

Brian Camenker, founder and president of MassResistance, tells American Family News (AFN) the new legislation could declare, among other things, that a child has more than two biological parents. “When the LGBT movement used the courts to force same-sex marriage on America, that was not the end of it,” he asserts.  “They said all of this won’t affect anything, but now, their next step is to redefine the family to accommodate that in law.”  He says homosexual activists have already gotten several states to sort of do that, but what they have accomplished in MA is huge.  

The legislature has unanimously passed this 42-page comprehensive bill; that means every Republican and Democratic member in the 200-member legislature voted for it.  It accommodates surrogacy and all kinds of different ways that children can be born artificially.  “Because same-sex couples can’t have children normally, it takes the word ‘mother’ out of family law and replaces it with ‘person who gave birth to the child,’ ” Camenker details.  “ ‘Father’ is replaced throughout family law with ‘other parent.’ ”  Additionally, a baby’s mother and father can be changed on the birth certificate to two adults of the same sex.  He says this is all about fulfilling the selfish and un-natural wants of adults, not meeting the needs of children, who are now commodities that can be bought and sold and destined to grow up in dysfunctional environments.

Meanwhile, the press is pretending like there is no opposition to this, but Camenker assures AFN that there is.  “At least one Republican state rep. is being primaried on this issue,” he relays.  But if pro-family conservatives continue to keep quiet, he warns that more and more will be told to radically change their states’ laws to satisfy a tiny minority of dysfunctional people.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Appeals Court Revives Christian Case Against Washington State Law

A Christian group in Washington state has shown it’s being injured by a state bias law, a federal appeals court ruled on Aug. 12, reversing a lower court decision and reviving the group’s case against state officials.

The Union Gospel Mission of Yakima, WA, sued over the Washington Law Against Discrimination, which bars employers from discriminating based on sexual orientation.  The group said the law is unconstitutional and that it is being affected by the law because it distributes a form for employees to sign that agrees to adherence to a Christian lifestyle and beliefs, including only engaging in sexual conduct in a marriage between a man and a woman.  Due to the threat of prosecution, the group stopped listing job openings, paused hiring, and decided not to publish requirements for its employees online, the group said in its suit.  That means the law “has thus chilled the mission’s religious exercise and speech, and is causing irreparable harm every single day the mission cannot express its beliefs and hire coreligionists who live them out.”  

U.S. District Judge Mary K. Dimke in 2023 rejected the suit, finding that the case was outside of her jurisdiction because it sought a review of precedent established by the WA Supreme Court, which has ruled that a Christian group violated the law when it decided not to hire a man who was in a gay relationship.

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit panel, though, said on last week that Dimke should not have turned away the case.  The Union Gospel Mission has shown that it is being injured by the law by having to self-censor and there is a possibility state officials will prosecute the group if it continues to hire based on the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman, the panel said. That’s based in part on how state officials have repeatedly refused to commit to not enforcing the law against the mission, the judges said.  The decision overturned Dimke’s ruling with regard to the dismissal of the case and her rejection of the mission’s request for a preliminary injunction as moot.  The panel remanded the case to the district judge to reconsider based on ripeness. She should think about entering a preliminary injunction, the judges directed. The panel consisted of U.S. Circuit Judges Milan D. Smith Jr., Mark J. Bennett, and Anthony D. Johnstone.  

A spokesperson for WA Attorney General Robert Ferguson did not respond to a request for comment. Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Ryan Tucker, who is representing the mission, said in a statement that the appeals court “rightly overturned the lower court’s dismissal, permitting the ministry to pursue protection for its constitutional rights in federal court.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Franklin Graham Blasts Leftists After They Use His Deceased Dad for ‘Evangelicals for Harris’ Ad

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign will do just about anything to drum up support for its candidate — no matter how dishonest it is.  While outright stealing policies from former President Donald Trump is low, using the deceased for political ads is even lower.  That’s exactly what the Harris campaign did with an ad featuring the late Southern Baptist Minister Billy Graham.

Last week, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” posted a clip to the social media platform X from a political ad from “Evangelicals for Harris” with footage of Graham.  The footage shows him giving a sermon in which he impresses upon listeners the need to talk to ask God for forgiveness, and change.  The clip then fades into an interview Trump did at the Family Leadership Summit in 2015 in Ames, IA. Republican Polster Frank Luntz asks Trump, “Have you ever asked God for forgiveness?”  Trump responded, “I’m not sure I have.  I don’t bring God into that picture.”

Billy Graham’s son, Franklin, took to X to understandably express his rage with the ad and how the Harris campaign represented his father’s values.  Seeing this as stunningly insulting and shameful to the memory of his father, Graham wrote, “The liberals are using anything and everything they can to promote candidate Harris.”  He then proceeded to remind his audience of whom his father actually supported in his lifetime.  “Maybe they don’t know that my father appreciated the conservative values and policies of President @realDonaldTrump in 2016, and if he were alive today, my father’s views and opinions would not have changed.”  

It is inarguable that this was a poor decision by the Harris campaign and one they owe Graham and his family and apology for, but in the broader context, it also shows how desperate this campaign is. While few would accuse Trump of being overly pious, this clip is from 2015.  While looking at previous remarks by a candidate is standard in politics, the remark isn’t a smoking gun where Trump proclaimed his lifelong allegiance to the devil.  More recently, Trump made remarks after surviving an assassination attempt in July in which he more strongly stated his faith.  

The Harris campaign is using Graham in contrast to Trump because it can’t use their own candidate. For one thing, old footage of Graham is easier on the ears, but for another, Harris clearly doesn’t have anything to say on the issue of faith that would win over God-fearing Americans.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

9 Facts about Tim Walz’s Church

VP Kamala Harris selected Governor Tim Walz (MN-D) as her running mate, and many Americans are naturally curious to know more about him, including his religious beliefs.  Walz does not often discuss his faith, but he occasionally mentions that he attends Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul, MN (both instances are from 2020).  Here are nine facts about Walz’s church.

1. Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), a liberal association of Lutherans in the United States.

In 1976, Pilgrim Lutheran left the LCMS to join the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC) over “views on the inerrancy of the Bible,” the church explains on its website.  “The Missouri Synod was quite firm in the belief that the Bible was without error.  Others — pastors, scholars, and lay persons — felt that the Bible, while inspired, had portions where informed people could have differing opinions.”  The AELC later merged with other groups to form the ELCA.

2. The lead pastor of Pilgrim Lutheran Church is Jen Rome.

According to the church website, Jen Rome (“she/her”) “received her Masters of Divinity Princeton Theological Seminary in 2000” and “has 17 years of experience in bringing people of all generations to deeply experience and creatively connect with God, the world, and each other.”  She is married with two daughters, and the family lives “inter-generationally” in a duplex with her in-laws.

On Sunday, August 4, Rome delivered a homily based on a reading from John 6, in which, after feeding the 5,000, Jesus teaches that he is the bread of life. “Jesus goes on and on forever, it seems,” said Rome, but “what Jesus is talking about is setting aside or being healed from what causes you and the ones around to perish, to receive what is life-giving.”

Drawing an object lesson from a fictional, young-adult book series in which a young girl studies dragon science in defiance of societal expectations, Rome urged all her hearers to free themselves from the “garbage” of societal norms. She discussed her struggle with aging, saying her body no longer attains what she believes society expects from the female figure, adding that “it is amazing garbage that can go through this feminist’s head.”

“We humans love to make systems or hierarchies, whether that’s government, or religion, or gender, or race.  We just live in all that stuff.  We breathe it in, and the dynamics just circulate around in ourselves,” she said.  But she imagined that Jesus would deliver quite a different message: “You, with the sick body, you are important.  You, who do something for a living that others don’t appreciate, you are my child.  You, who have been excluded by society for simply being who you are, whatever shape your body took, you are God’s child.”

3. Pilgrim Lutheran Church pursues a ‘varied and creative’ liturgy, particularly at evening services

“Evening worship at Pilgrim is varied and creative, focusing particularly on contemplation and a sense of calm mindfulness, most notably in the music, readings, use of silences, and lighting,” the website explains.  “There is no sermon, so the Celtic Contemplative Communion and Contemplative Prayer from Nordic and Other Lands services use a unique style of ‘Word Weavings.’” The church website lists multiple staff experienced in Celtic and Nordic music, led by Composer-in-Residence Dick Hensold (“he/him”).

The church’s “word weaving” aims to “combine scripture and poetry in a way that is inspired by the ancient practice of ‘Lectio Divina.’  These ‘weavings’ juxtapose phrases from the readings in new ways to inspire deeper experience with the texts.”

While most deliberate in its evening services, Pilgrim Lutheran also embraces an open-ended worship liturgy in its Sunday morning gatherings.  In the most recent service on August 4, for example, Pastor Rome announced a “U-pick hymn sing” after the conclusion of her homily and prayer, inviting attendees to select their favorite hymns out of the hymnal.

4. At Pilgrim Lutheran Church, anyone may partake in the Lord’s supper.

“All people are ALWAYS welcome to receive Holy Communion,” announced the church newsletter.  Rome confirmed this at the most recent service, declaring, “You are all welcome at this table.  Whatever your age, wherever you are at in your life of doubt and faith … you are welcome at Christ’s table.”

This differs from the practice of many churches that restrict the Lord’s table to baptized believers, based on Paul’s warning to the Corinthians: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.  Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.  For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.  That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (1 Corinthians 11:27-30).

5. Pilgrim Lutheran Church recites a modified version of the Lord’s prayer.

After reciting Jesus’ instructions about the Lord’s supper from Matthew 26:26-28, Rome led the congregation in a modified version of the Lord’s prayer.  “And now,” she said, “we pray together the prayer that Jesus taught us, saying, ‘our guardian, our mother, our father in heaven, hallowed by thy name …’”

According to the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus said, “Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name …’” (Matthew 6:9).  The gospel of Luke contains a similar, but slightly abbreviated, teaching, in which Jesus says, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name …’” (Luke 11:2).

6. Pilgrim Lutheran Church welcomes and affirms people who identify as LGBT+ and follow those lifestyles.

“Pilgrim is a Reconciling in Christ church,” their website states, “which includes a partnership with Reconciling Works, a ministry devoted to welcoming, celebrating, and advocating for the full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals in Lutheran faith communities.”

“Reconciling Works advocates for the acceptance, full participation, and liberation of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions within the Lutheran Church,” according to their website.

Reconciling Works offers trainings with titles such as “Lutheran Introduction to Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, & Gender Expression [SOGIE]” and “Let’s talk SOGIE.”  It directs youth and families to PFLAG, an LGBT activist group that lobbies for explicit books in school libraries and against legislation to protect minors from gender transition procedures.

All six members of the Reconciling Works Board of Directors identity as LGBT, not including their non-binary chaplain.  The current chair of the board has three children, two of whom (ages nine and 14) also identify as LGBT, while she considers the youngest, age four, to be “he/him until otherwise declared.”

In addition to their partnership with Reconciling Works, Pilgrim Lutheran also incorporates LGBT-inclusivity throughout their church culture.  Their staff page lists the preferred pronouns of every team member, including one, a Kindergarten teacher, who identifies as “she/they.”  The church also hosts a trans-friendly, monthly event for mothers, advertising, “All those who identify themselves as mamas from Pilgrim are invited to a Pilgrim Mamas get together approximately once a month in the later evening.”

7. Pilgrim Lutheran Church promotes at least five anti-racism initiatives.

On its “ministries” page, Pilgrim Lutheran Church lists an Advocates for Racial Equity (ARE) team, which works “to overcome white supremacy by aligning with Pilgrim’s ‘Mission of Outreach and Welcome’ and ‘Doing Justice’ as we live out the counterculture values of the gospel through education, relationship building and advocacy.”

The ARE team developed a land acknowledgement statement “to acknowledge the traditional Indigenous inhabitants of the land we are on, inspiring us towards ongoing awareness and action.  The full land acknowledgment is below (the ARE team also approved a shortened version that omits the bracketed material): “This land is not just this address.  From time immemorial the Dakota people’s lives and stories have been woven together with this land.  [They were forcibly exiled from their land starting with the treaties of 1837 and 1851 and were nearly exterminated after the 1862 US Dakota war.  We acknowledge the Dakota people, past and present, for their ongoing story and care of this land. We condemn and lament the way colonialism pillaged both the land and the Dakota way of life.  Pilgrim Lutheran Church commits to ongoing efforts to recognize, support, and advocate for the Dakota and other Indigenous peoples.] Let us take a moment of silence to honor the Dakota people, their heritage and resiliency.”

Additionally, Pilgrim Lutheran Church maintains a reparations fund “directed specifically to respond to inequities in homeownership for BIPOC families.”  The ARE team has led the church in a “process of making reparations for its tacit participation in the system of housing segregation.”

Pilgrim Lutheran Church also participates in a Joint Church Anti-Racism Team (JCART), “a collaborative effort of study and action” of four local mainline churches.  JCART studies varied topics and is currently engaged in studying “Indigenous/Native understanding and issues.”

Most broadly, Pilgrim Lutheran Church participates in “a multi-racial, state-wide, nonpartisan coalition” called ISAIAH, which is “fighting for racial and economic justice in Minnesota” through “activism, organizing, and political action.”  ISAIAH celebrated the “bold, progressive agenda” that passed the Minnesota legislature in 2023 and laid out its 2024 legislative priorities: expansion of green energy, publicly-funded daycare, publicly-funded health care, rent control, and trimming down voting requirements.

Pilgrim Lutheran Church also offers a Pilgrims Caring for Creation group, which aims “to reduce material and energy waste on our church campus” and sponsors “education and public events on issues of environmental justice.”  The Environmental Justice Movement battles “environmental racism” by working “to improve and maintain a clean and healthful environment, especially for communities of color.”  Pilgrim Lutheran has been designated a “Caring for Creation” Congregation by Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light.

8. Pilgrim Lutheran Church emphasizes social issues in its prayer requests.

On the penultimate page of its church newsletter, Pilgrim Lutheran Church lists concerns for prayer. The lower half of the page lists ongoing health concerns, those mourning the loss of loved ones, and ministry partners.  The upper half of the page reads as follows:

“We pray for God’s loving presence for these Pilgrims who need healing, hope, comfort, and care:

“We pray for the people of areas torn by war and violence, including Gaza and Ukraine, for peace and safety.  We also pray for those who are refugees fleeing violence seeking help and hope.

“We pray for the loved ones and communities of all victims of gun violence across our country.

“We pray for our governor and all elected officials and public servants.  Guide them and support them in their work to care for our cities, our state, and our nation.

“We pray for those whose lives are altered by climate events.  We pray for creation and for an increased will to care for it.

“We pray for all in the LGBTQIA+ community who face bias, rejection, and violence.  We pray that we may all grow in acceptance and each become a voice for acceptance, advocacy, and support as an expression of Pilgrim’s status as a Reconciling in Christ community of faith.

“We keep in prayer our Native, Asian, Latino, and Black siblings who continue to face the legacy of racism.  We pray for change in systems of oppression and injustice, and that we all may learn to follow the path of anti-racism, and each become a voice for inclusion, equity, and justice.

“We pray for our Muslim and Jewish siblings, as well as our siblings of other religions, in our country, state, and community facing prejudice, threats, and destruction of their places of worship.”

9. Pilgrim Lutheran Church maintains a partnership with a Lutheran Congregation in Tanzania.

Pilgrim Lutheran has maintained a partnership with the Luganga Lutheran congregation, of the Iringa Diocese of Tanzania, since 2002.  Luganga Lutheran is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT).

In contrast to its mainline American counterpart, the ELCT prominently displays on its website its mission “To make people know Jesus Christ and have life in [his] fullness by bringing to them the Good News through words and deeds based on the Word of God as it is in the Bible and the Lutheran teachings guided by the ELCT Constitution.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

8 Facts about Kamala Harris’s Church

As the 2024 presidential election draws closer, more Americans tune in for information about the major candidates.  For spiritually active, governance engaged conservatives, who know firsthand the formative role a church can play, a candidate’s church background is an important issue that often receives little coverage in the mainstream media.  To fill that void, here are eight facts about Vice President Kamala Harris’s church, Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, CA.

1. Third Baptist Church comes across as a traditional black Baptist church with a heavy focus on social engagement.

Third Baptist Church retains the look and feel that have come to be associated with black Baptist churches.  At its most recent service, a church choir and organ led a lively time of worship, and a talented male soloist presented a prepared song. The pastor wore a suit and tie, delivering his remarks in the classic, sing-song style and eliciting the classic exclamations of encouragement from his hearers.

Third Baptist also provides a wide-ranging array of social programs.  The church provides a low-cost weekly lunch for seniors, a free weekly lunch for the homeless and needy, a six-week K-12 summer school, and a music academy for inner-city youth.  It also hosts a Narcotics Anonymous night and has sponsored more than 1,000 resettled refugees from Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Haiti.

2. Third Baptist’s longtime lead pastor is the Reverend Amos Brown, Sr.

Third Baptist Church of San Francisco called the Reverend Amos Cleophus Brown, Sr. as its pastor in June 1976, and he remains active there 48 years later.  As its pastor, Brown has shaped the church’s social aspect, its community outreach, and its political engagement for nearly five decades.

Brown’s wife Jane is known as the church’s First Lady and “is widely hailed as the best fundraiser. … Whatever committee she joins or task she assumes will achieve excellence.”  Mrs. Brown chaired the committee for the church’s 150th anniversary gala in 2001, at which President Bill Clinton was the keynote speaker.

Brown graduated with a B.A. from Morehouse College in 1964 and with an M.Div. from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1968.  He later earned a Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in 1990.

As a young man, Brown was deeply shaped by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.  He grew up in Mississippi only an hour away from Emmett Till, a black teenager about Brown’s age who was lynched and murdered in 1955 after he was accused of offending a white woman.  Brown “served as National Chairman of the Youth and College Division of the NAACP” in 1959 and as “Youth Field Secretary for the NAACP in the South” from 1962-1964.  “In 1962, he led a ‘kneeling’ demonstration which resulted in the desegregation of First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Georgia,” according to Third Baptist’s website. During the Civil Rights movement, Brown interacted with Martin Luther King, Jr., Clarence Mitchell, Medgar Evers, and Jesse Jackson.

Brown’s experience with racial segregation and civil rights activism still influences him today.  Just recently, while preaching about Paul’s Macedonian call and Lydia’s conversion from Acts 16, Brown spoke at length about how his great-great-grandfather endured the evils of slavery in America and then later told the story of a KKK ambush against a young black pastor.

“I know America.  America is a racist country,” Brown complained in a 2021 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.  He accused San Francisco of ongoing racism, saying the city “does not deserve the brand and image that it has of being liberal and progressive.”  He said black people are being “pushed out” of the city, declaring that a decline in the city’s black population from 16% in the 1970s to 4% today “didn’t happen by accident and it wasn’t just economics. It happened because of public policy.”

Brown’s perspective on contemporary political issues has been shaped for decades by his Civil-Rights-Era experiences.

3. Brown opposed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

In 1991, Brown served as chair of the Social Justice Commission of the National Baptist Convention.  According to the church’s website, he “was successful … in unifying” the entire black Baptist convention against Thomas’ nomination.

Brown testified against Thomas before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  His testimony criticized Thomas’s stances against minimum wage laws and welfare, which were based on Thomas’s convictions that these policies hindered black advancement more than they helped.  “At best,” Brown said, “what he has produced is a barrage of speeches and writings in support of the right-wing conservative ideology.”

When Brown finished his remarks, the committee chairman replied, “Reverend Brown, I must say that is the most concise, explicit, and damning bill of particulars against Judge Thomas I have heard, and somewhat convincing,” a fact repeated in his church biography.  That chairman was then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden.

4. Brown criticized U.S. for leaving an anti-Semitic conference.

In September 2001, Brown represented the NAACP at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa, where apartheid ended only 11 years earlier.  When the conference devolved into attacks against Israel, the American and Israeli delegations left in protest. “South Africa rushed tonight to convene emergency meetings to redraft the declaration and program of action in the hope of averting other walkouts,” The New York Times reported. The Canadian delegation stayed only to register a complaint.

Later that month, after the 9/11 terror attacks, Brown criticized the U.S. walkout while speaking at a memorial service for 9/11 victims, implying that the U.S. bore moral culpability for provoking the attacks.  “America, America, what did you do — either intentionally or unintentionally — in the world order, in Central America, in Africa where bombs are still blasting?” he said.  “America, what did you do in the global warming conference when you did not embrace the smaller nations?  America, what did you do two weeks ago when I stood at the world conference on racism, when you wouldn’t show up?”

According to the San Francisco Gate, Brown’s remarks pleased the crowd but shocked the politicians in attendance.  The late Senator Dianne Feinstein and CA Governor Gray Davis both got up and walked out.  Then-Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA-D), who spoke later in the service, rebuked Brown, “With all due respect to some of the sentiments that were earlier expressed — some of which I agree with — make no mistake (about it) ... the act of terrorism on September 11 put those people outside the order of civilized behavior, and we will not take responsibility for that.”

Far from being embarrassed by the dust-up, Third Baptist still proudly records this speech in Rev. Brown’s biography.

5. Brown opposed Proposition 8 and actively promotes same-sex marriage.

In 2008, California voters passed Proposition 8, a ballot measure that defined marriage as a union of one man and one woman.  Rev. Brown was a leading opponent of the ballot measure, even to the point of publicly breaking with other black ministers who participated in the San Francisco branch of the NAACP.

Same-sex marriage “was coming,” said Brown, “and I was one of the persons who for years have pushed for us to face this matter.  He explained his reasoning, “it would’ve been hypocritical for us in the face of these debates … to have, in the past, stood for the rights and equality of opportunity for blacks … and then to turn around and [not stood with] other people who are marginalized for whatever reason.”

In response to those who based their objections to same-sex marriage on the Bible, Brown responded, “Even though Jesus did, out of his faith tradition, say that the man, you know, should forsake his father and mother and cleave to his wife and all that … people need to look at in context that … Jesus did not say anything about gays, did not say anything negative about people who had different social orientation.”

In a 2021 interview, Brown said, “There should be no restrictions on persons on how they express their sexuality.”

When Proposition 8 was challenged in court, then-Attorney General Jerry Brown refused to defend it. The case dragged on in court for years.  In 2011, Jerry Brown became governor, and he was succeeded as attorney general by Kamala Harris, who also refused to defend Proposition 8.

6. Brown endorsed monetary reparations for black Americans.

Brown served on San Francisco’s African American Reparations Advisory Committee, which last summer issued a report calling on the city “to provide any adult who has identified as black or African American on public documents for at least 10 years and has lived in San Francisco for at least 10 years with reparations,” The Christian Post’s Ryan Foley reported.  The Committee demanded $5 million from the city, as well as financial services, debt forgiveness, guaranteed insurance, business discounts, and tuition assistance for eligible residents.

7. Brown introduced a pulpit exchange program with rabbis.

“Rev. Brown introduced a pulpit exchange program,” the church website states, “bringing Rabbis to speak at Third Baptist and Black Pastors to speak in synagogues.”  As part of the pulpit exchange program, which has continued annually since 1987, Jewish rabbis would preach at Third Baptist, and a Third Baptist preacher would preach at Congregation Emanuel.

“This is what the world needs to see.  There’s too much division, too much hate, too much war,” said Brown.  “This dichotomous thinking of them against us and us against them has to stop.  And we need to master that little pronoun ‘We.’ This is a ‘we’ thing tonight.”

The Jewish apostle John wrote, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God” (1 John 4:2).

8. Brown supports Harris’s candidacy for president.

During his August 4 sermon, Rev. Brown alluded to the current presidential campaign and made the following remarks: “We better stop this culture war that’s going on in America, about whether or not a woman can lead this nation,” he said.  “This has got to stop, this culture war about where the woman belongs. For I heard Sojourner Truth said, a long time ago, ‘Ain’t I a woman?  I can pick up a pail of water.  I can move a log.  I can do anything a man can do.’”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

10 Things to Look for in This Week’s Democratic Party Convention

As the Democratic National Convention (DNC) meets this week, Kamala Harris hopes it will be an opportunity to recast herself as a moderate.  Harris has launched “a highly choreographed effort to define herself — in some cases, redefine herself — as a different kind of Democrat,” insiders have told Axios. “Harris won’t say it this bluntly in public, but her advisers do so privately: She wants to break with Biden on issues on which he’s unpopular.”

Last month, the Democratic Party released a draft of its 2024 platform which, like all platforms, reflects a political party’s long-term aspirational plans to reshape the nation.  The 2024 platform contains numerous extreme policies that should concern Americans of all backgrounds, especially people of faith.  The real test of the vice president’s would-be transformation comes down to a simple question: Can she stand up against her party on these issues?

1. Will Harris ‘Protect’ Transgender Surgeries for Minors and Place Boys in Girls’ Showers?

The draft of the 2024 Democratic Party platform touts the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts “to address discriminatory legislative attacks against LGBTQI+ children” and “safeguard health care.”  It contrasts this to President Donald Trump’s “extreme plan to punish doctors who treat transgender youth and to ban gender-affirming care” for kids.

This refers to roughly half of all U.S. states which have passed versions of the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act.  These commonsense protections shield minors from potentially-sterilizing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries that remove the healthy breasts and reproductive organs of minors.  While the White House has suddenly backed away from surgeries for minors during this campaign season, at least publicly, the Democratic Party remains committed to giving Planned Parenthood and other pillars of the multi-billion-dollar transgender industry the green light to carry out so-called “gender-affirming care,” with all its permanent and irreversible effects, on minors whose brains have not yet fully developed — minors whom the law bars from getting a tattoo or smoking a cigarette, because they do not understand the long-term implications of those choices.

Strong majorities oppose transgender procedures for adolescents.  A total of 55% of Americans believe “changing one’s gender” is immoral, according to a 2023 Gallup poll.  A majority of multiracial (53%), Hispanic (52%), and white Americans (51%), as well as half of black Americans (50%) oppose placing males of any age in areas where females disrobe.

The platform also promises to “prioritize the investigation of hate crimes against trans and non-binary people.”  All crime is hate crime, rooted in a hatred of a God-given order that upholds the right to life. Yet prosecuting alleged “hate crimes” threatens free speech and serves as another avenue for the government to weaponize federal agencies against American citizens who uphold biblical morality.

The platform also vows to “ban so-called ‘conversion therapy.’”  Despite the scare wording, “conversion therapy” consists of compassionate conversations aimed at helping people (many of whom were molested) fulfill their desire to embrace their birth gender.  Respecting medical professionals’ freedom of speech to enable children to live happier lives should be easy for a campaign that has oriented itself around “joy” and “freedom.”

2. Will Harris Stop ‘Fighting’ Parents Trying to Keep Porn out of Schools?

If Kamala Harris wishes to appear as a centrist, she could begin by standing up against her party’s war on parents.  In addition to transgender surgeries, the Democratic platform dedicates the full resources of the federal government to “fighting book bans that censor LGBTQI+ content.”  President Donald Trump and his “MAGA allies are ripping away our bedrock personal freedoms, dictating what health care decisions women can make, banning books, and telling people who they can love,” says the first page of the 80-page document.  These alleged “book bans” simply seek to place books with graphic sexual content in an age-restricted portion of the library.  Many of these books contain graphic, cartoon-like depictions of sodomy, as well as wistfully-positive descriptions and depictions of child molestation.

3. Will Harris Stop Backing Taxpayer-Funded Abortion until Birth?

The draft platform promises to nationalize taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand.  “With a Democratic Congress, we will pass national legislation to make Roe the law of the land again,” states the platform.  “We will repeal the Hyde Amendment,” the federal law dating back to the mid-1970s that protects pro-life Americans from seeing their salaries pay for most abortions.

Democrats promise a national abortion expansion, funded by pro-life taxpayers. Nearly two-thirds (60%) of U.S. voters oppose funding abortion in the United States, such as the $1.89 billion abortion businesses received from taxpayers over just three years, according to a Marist poll.  Wouldn’t a moderate want to appeal to two-thirds of voters?

4. Will Harris Crush Christians’ Conscience Rights?

The Democratic Party draft platform threatens Christian conscience rights in one small sentence: “Democrats will pass the Equality Act to codify protections for LGBTQI+ Americans.”  The Equality Act would force Christian businesses to hire people who identify as LGBTQIA2S+ by adding sexual orientation (and in some drafts, gender identity) to civil rights legislation.  It could potentially impose a quota for such hiring practices, despite the owners’ biblical moral convictions.  Heavy fines and federal prosecution such as the kind suffered by Masterpieces Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips, would follow.

5. Will Harris Oppose Taxpayer-Funded Transgenderism in Prison?

The 2024 draft platform states, “We will guarantee access to medical care in prison.”  Since the federal government already provides health care in prisons, the platform means the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitments to furnishing taxpayer-funded transgender hormones and surgeries to prisoners — and the administration has committed to housing inmates who identify as transgender in the opposite sex’s prisons, triggering an atmosphere of rape, sexual assault, intimidation, and physical abuse.  This seems particularly relevant in a platform that touts the “National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence.”

6. Will Harris Add Up to Six States to the United States?

“We unequivocally support statehood for D.C.,” reads the platform.  “Democrats support self-determination for Puerto Rico. … Democrats also support self-determination for the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.  We will create a Congressional task force to study equal voting rights and House representation.”

Unable to win elective office or pass sweeping national legislation, self-styled progressives have turned to remaking the electorate, changing constitutional offices, and fundamentally transforming America.  In addition to remaking the Supreme Court and granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, some propose adding new states to the union.  These liberal-leaning states would each add two new U.S. senators and at least one representative to Congress, tilting the balance in a socialistic direction.

7. Will Harris Double Down on Open Borders?

The Biden-Harris Administration has presided over a historic number of illegal entries at the southern border, fueled by promises that they may receive “free” health care and the most valued benefit: U.S. citizenship.  Yet the draft platform promises to “provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and others,” boasts of Biden-Harris actions to “expand legal pathways to citizenship,” and commits to “supporting a pathway for long-term undocumented individuals.”  It brags that the administration “has extended Affordable Care Act coverage to DACA recipients.”  Lest the point be missed, the platform demands, “Congress must pass legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, farmworkers, careworkers, and other long-term undocumented individuals.”

The platform poses as tough on crime, stating agents have “arrested more individuals for fentanyl-related crimes in the last two years than in the previous five years combined.”  That may indicate increased enforcement; it may also indicate a massive increase in fentanyl trafficking, crimes and overdoses under Harris’s watch.  As it turns out, the Biden-Harris Administration clarifies which it is: “fentanyl seizures have increased more than 860% from fiscal years 2019-2023, and fentanyl seizures nearly doubled from fiscal years 2022-2023,” reports the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

It also vows to increase competition for U.S. jobs.  “Congress must act to increase the number of family-sponsored and employment-based immigrant visas that are available each fiscal year so that people aren’t forced to wait decades,” it states.

8. The Democratic Party Promises to Literally Ban Speech.

The draft 2024 Democratic platform contains an odd proposal that would literally ban speech.  “We will also ban voice impersonations,” states the platform in its section on artificial intelligence.  It is not clear how this would square with the First Amendment.

The section adds that, since “AI can deepen discrimination,” the platform commits to “combating algorithmic discrimination.”  The clearest example of such discrimination came when Google’s AI platform depicted George Washington and other Founding Fathers exclusively as black men.

9. Is ‘Nothing More Important’ than Climate Change?

“There is nothing more important than addressing the climate crisis,” states the platform.

10. Will Harris End the Lies and Incitement about President Donald Trump?

In a fallen world, lies are the lingua franca of politics.  Yet the 2024 draft platform distinguishes itself in this regard.  “Trump called members of the military who died in war ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.’  He disparages the brave men and women who wear our uniform and protect our democracy and national security,” it says.  The platform recycles the “suckers” and “losers” lie twice.  “He called white supremacist and openly-antisemitic Charlottesville protesters ‘very fine people.’”

The platform continues to present potentially inciting language against the president:

“Trump is a greater danger to democracy than ever. ... After years undermining public faith and confidence in our elections, he has warned of a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses now. … He has vowed to weaponize our government to go after his enemies and benefit his allies. … And to silence his critics, he suggested the ‘termination’ of our Constitution.  There is no more profound threat to the soul of our nation.”

The draft platform was released on July 13 — the same day that Thomas Matthew Crooks came within a fraction of an inch of assassinating President Donald Trump.  Yet the Harris campaign has doubled down on the issue.  “To a crowd of 12,000 in Las Vegas, Harris says Trump is a threat to democracy,” reported NPR.  At a campaign stop earlier this month in Eau Claire, WI, the vice president continued to beat the drum and “pointed to his vow to be a dictator ‘on day one’, his threats to weaponize the Justice Department against his political enemies and his 2022 comment demanding the ‘termination’ of constitutional provisions over his 2020 election defeat.”

If Harris hopes to remake herself as a moderate, she should pivot on all of these issues.  Even fellow Democrats know that whether voters will buy her distancing from her own positions of years past, and her administration’s accomplishments, is another story.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Biden-Harris Continues Convicting and Sentencing Pro-Lifers

The Biden-Harris Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) has sentenced three more pro-life Americans for defending the unborn.

Last week, James Zastrow, Eva Zastrow, and Paul Place were sentenced to 90 days of home detention and three years of probation for violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, according to ABC News.  The trio, along with Eva Edl, were convicted by a federal magistrate judge of misdemeanor FACE Act violations in April, relating to a 2021 peaceful protest outside a Nashville-area abortion facility.

Six other pro-lifers were convicted in January on FACE Act violations related to the same protest.  Four of them were sentenced earlier in July.  Paul Vaughn and Dennis Green were sentenced to three years of supervised release, Coleman Boyd was fined $10,000 and sentenced to five years of probation, and protest organizer Calvin Zastrow was sentenced to six months in jail and three years of supervised release.  Prosecutors with the Biden-Harris Administration’s DOJ had requested significantly more severe sentences, but U.S. District Judge Aleta Trauger cited the motivation of the pro-lifers’ sincerely-held religious beliefs and their “good works in the community” in her sentencing.

Defendant Caroline Davis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor FACE Act violations last year and was sentenced earlier this year to three years of probation.  Sentencing has been postponed for Heather Idoni, Chester Gallagher, and 89-year-old Eva Eld, who all face a trial this month in Michigan on similar charges related to pro-life protests.  Edl, who survived imprisonment in a communist prison camp in Yugoslavia after World War II, told The Daily Signal in an interview that she does not expect to survive prison after having been convicted of FACE Act violations.  “When I was indicted, I began to prepare to die there,” she said in April.  “There’s no guarantee that I survive it.”

Prosecution of pro-lifers has become a standard for the DOJ under Biden-Harris.  Last year, nine pro-life activists with the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU) group were convicted of FACE Act violations for protesting outside an abortion facility in the Washington, D.C. area and were immediately jailed prior to sentencing.  U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly commented at the time that she deemed FACE Act violations to be “crime[s] of violence.” PAAU Activism Director Lauren Handy was eventually sentenced to nearly five years in prison.

Catholic father Mark Houck was indicted in 2022 on alleged violations of the FACE Act outside a Philadelphia-area abortion facility.  Although Houck agreed to cooperate with prosecutors if charges were brought, the DOJ instead sent a team of approximately two dozen FBI agents armed with automatic rifles and riot gear to raid Houck’s home and arrest him in front of his wife and children.  Houck was acquitted at trial, but maintains that the raid on his home and subsequent prosecution are part of a broader effort by Biden’s DOJ to silence and intimidate pro-life Americans.  According to a lawsuit filed in May, Houck’s children were traumatized by the FBI raid on their home.  Houck’s is the only FACE Act prosecution case that the Biden Administration has lost since taking power in 2021.

Last year, an FBI whistleblower reported that the agency had applied a special “threat tag,” originally intended to address threats against U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) justices after Roe v. Wade was overturned, to pro-life Americans.  According to DOJ data obtained by The Daily Caller, the Biden Administration “is using a novel application of an 1870 statute to enhance the sentences of peaceful abortion protesters.”  The DOJ has reportedly added “Conspiracy Against Rights” charges to FACE Act violation charges, ensuring that pro-lifers convicted of FACE Act violations face up to 10 years in prison. Additionally, 97% of FACE Act prosecutions since the law was enacted in 1994 have been against pro-life Americans, even though the law also protects churches and pregnancy resource centers.

“Once again, we see the Biden Administration intent on making pro-life activists pay a high price for their attempts to protect unborn life,” said Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, in comments to The Washington Stand.  “This is upsetting for the pro-lifers who received their sentence, but it is also indicative of a leftist-run DOJ that prioritizes targeting ideological opponents while ignoring attacks on churches, for example.”

According to an FRC report Del Turco authored, attacks against churches in the U.S. have increased by 800% since 2018.  Between the beginning of 2018 and the end of 2023, there were over 700 vandalism attacks, 135 arson-related attacks, over 30 bomb threats, over 20 gun-related incidents, and a myriad of other attacks, assaults, and threats — all against churches.  CatholicVote’s “Violence Tracker” reports that nearly 300 Catholic churches have been attacked since May of 2022, shortly before the SCOTUS overturned Roe v. Wade.

Erin Hawley, vice president of the Center for Life and Regulatory Practice at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), noted that, at least over the course of 2022, no prosecutions were made against those who attacked churches or pregnancy resource centers, although 26 pro-life Americans were targeted with FACE Act prosecutions that year. Since Biden took office in 2021, there have been 55 FACE Act prosecutions, only five of which involved violent attacks against pregnancy resource centers.  In total, the Biden Administration’s FACE Act prosecutions over the course of less than four years accounts for a quarter of all FACE Act prosecutions over the past 30 years.

“This is particularly relevant now as the election season ramps up,” Del Turco observed, pointing to V.P. Harris’ complicity in the administration’s targeting of pro-life Americans. She recalled that Harris aggressively prosecuted reporter David Daleiden when he published video evidence that “Planned Parenthood was selling the body parts of aborted babies.”  Del Turco pointed out that Planned Parenthood was donating to Harris’ senate campaign at the time.  “If Harris is elected president, we can expect the attacks on pro-lifers that we’ve seen over the last four years to continue, or perhaps worsen,” Del Turco concluded.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

What Does the Wife of J.D. Vance Say Is Most Important to Him?

For those who care deeply about faith, family, and freedom, it’s important to know where presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates stand on public policies that particularly impact families — such as the child tax credit, parental rights, school choice, religious freedom, and the sanctity of human life.

Usha Vance, wife of Republican vice presidential candidate and Senator J.D. Vance (OH-R), has brought attention in recent weeks to the fact that family is of utmost importance to her husband.  In her moving speech before the delegates at the Republican National Convention in July, Vance described her husband as the most determined person she knows “with one overriding ambition: to become a husband and a father and to build the kind of tight-knit family that he had longed for as a child.”  She explained, “His goals in this new role are the same that he has pursued for our family — to keep people safe, to create opportunities to build a better life, and to solve problems with an open mind.”

Vance and his wife first gained national attention from his book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was released in 2016 and became a New York Times bestseller.  In 2020, it became a movie which has received renewed attention on Netflix since former President Trump chose Vance to be his running mate.  In “Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance writes about his family’s struggle with poverty, family violence, alcoholism, and drug abuse.

In an interview with Fox & Friends’ Ainsley Earhardt last week, Usha Vance said about her husband, “There is nothing that he cares about more than being there for his kids. He wakes up after a really late night of travel … at 6 a.m. to make sure that they have an elaborate breakfast the next day.  He is just determined to be there for them.”  Vance went on to say that her husband is thankful for role models such as his grandmother, aunt, and his uncle who currently lives with them now.  Usha herself grew up in a loving family with both of her parents and her sister.  She said their family means everything to them and keeps them well-grounded.

Usha told Earhardt that what her husband “really cares about” is “the people he grew up around.  There are a lot of people that just haven’t had the opportunity to wake up every day and know that their kids are going to have a better life than they had themselves, and I just think that J.D. is not afraid to push the boundaries and to shake things up in the way that will allow more people to wake up … to know that they’re giving their kids a better life and that it’s possible.”

When Earhardt asked Vance about her husband’s controversial words that he used in a 2021 interview, referring to some liberal policymakers as “childless cat ladies,”  Usha said she wished people would go back and take a look at the context in which he used those words. She explained, “What he was really saying is that it can be really hard to be a parent in this country, and sometimes our policies are designed in a way that make it even harder.  And we should be asking ourselves, ‘Why is that true?  What is it about our leadership and the way that they think about the world that makes it so hard sometimes for parents?’  And that’s the conversation that I really think we should have, and I understand why he was saying that.”

Earhardt asked, “What do you say to the women who were offended or were hurt by that?”

Usha replied, “I think I would say, first of all, that J.D. absolutely at the time and today would never, ever, ever want to say something to hurt someone who was trying to have a family who really was struggling with that.  He made that clear at the time.  He has made that clear today. And we have lots of friends who have been in that position.  It is challenging and never ever anything that anyone would want to mock or make fun of.  I also understand there are a lot of other reasons why people may choose not to have families and many of those reasons are very good.  I think what I would say is, let’s try to look at the real conversation he is trying to have and engage with it and understand for those of us who do have families, for the many of us who want to have families and for whom it’s really hard, what can we do to make it better? What can we do to make it easier to live in 2024?”

Earhardt then asked Vance to explain the importance of family and society to her husband. Usha answered, “I think it comes from his background.  It comes from the fact that he knows that he would not be anywhere near where he is today if he hadn’t had family members looking out for him every stretch of the way.  I think it comes from seeing my family and knowing that the stability and calm that I provide in our family life comes from all of the support that I had, just the faith that things would be okay because I had people behind me.  I think that J.D. needs family to thrive.”

In a speech in Atlanta recently, the OH senator highlighted some of the family-friendly policies he cares so deeply about — which Democrats in Congress and the White House vehemently oppose.  He pointed out, “Barack Obama said we cling to God and guns; remember that Hillary Clinton called us ‘deplorables’; and now Kamala Harris says we’re ‘weird.’  Well, Kamala, I’m glad you brought that up.  Let’s talk about some things that are weird.  We think it’s weird that Democrats want to put sexually explicit books in toddlers’ libraries.  We think it’s weird that the far Left wants to allow biological males to beat the living crap out of women in boxing, and we think it’s weird for a presidential candidate to bail convicted rapists and murderers out of prison, and that’s what Kamala Harris did.”

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel

Conservatives React to Harris-Walz Ticket

Conservative leaders and elected officials are warning that V.P. Harris and Gov. Walz (MN-D) represent the most far-left presidential ticket in American history.

“This is the most Radical Left duo in American history.  There has never been anything like it, and there never will be again.  Crazy Kamabla is, indeed, CRAZY,” declared former President Trump on Truth Social, in response to Harris selecting Walz as her running mate.  Trump joked that the Harris-Walz ticket is so extreme that “THERE IS A BIG MOVEMENT TO ‘BRING BACK CROOKED JOE.’”

“I would say my reaction is I can’t believe it, I never thought he was going to be the one that was picked,” Trump told Fox News in a last week morning interview.  “He’s a very, very liberal man, and he’s a shocking pick.”  The former president added that he’s “thrilled” to be competing against such a stark contrast in November’s election, pledging to focus on Harris’s and Walz’s “radical” records.  “He’s a smarter version of her,” Trump quipped, referring to the Democratic duo’s left-wing policies.  He continued, “There’s never been a ticket like this.  This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner. … He’s very heavy into transgender — anything transgender he thinks is great.  And he’s not where the country is on anything.”  He added, “This is a really bad decision for the country. Ultimately, I want the country to have good decisions because, ultimately, what we want is for the country to do well.  The country can’t do well with these two people.”

Trump’s own running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (OH-R), took a similar approach, saying that Harris’s selection of Walz “just highlights how radical Kamala Harris is…”  He continued, “Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and then the few who got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail.  So, it is more instructive about what it says about Kamala Harris.”  He noted, “She doesn’t care about the border. She doesn’t care about crime. She doesn’t care about energy.  And most of all, she doesn’t care about Americans who have been made to suffer under those policies.”

An U.S. Marine Corps veteran himself, Vance also criticized Walz for lying about his military record at a campaign event last week.  “As a Marine who served his country in uniform when the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it.  I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably,” Vance said. He continued, “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with.”  The senator added, “I think it’s shameful to prepare your unit to go to Iraq, to make a promise that you’re going to follow through, and then to drop out right before you actually have to go.”

FL’s Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) also blasted the Harris-Walz ticket, quipping the pair’s campaign slogan might be “Make America Burn Again.”  At a press event, DeSantis noted the involvement of both Harris and Walz in 2020s Black Lives Matter riots, saying, “Those were riots that Harris egged on and raised money to bail out the rioters with Minnesota Bail Fund, and they’re riots that Tim Walz as governor sat back and let happen.  He sat back and let the city of Minneapolis burn.  That city has been gutted as a result of those riots.”  He continued, “This is a ticket that really represents the spirit of those 2020 BLM riots.  You have a very vapid San Francisco Democrat and then you’ve got an Ilhan Omar-style leftist, Tim Walz, who has the same policies as his fellow Minnesotan Ilhan Omar,” referring to pro-Hamas “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-D).  The FL governor added, “We do not need an America that represents the failed policies of San Francisco or the failed policies of Minneapolis.  We do not need to see poop on the street and cities burning down.  That is not a prescription for America to work its way back.”

DeSantis also observed that, in 2021, “Minnesotans were roughly five times more likely to move to Florida than vice versa.  They were fleeing a state that, under Gov. Tim Walz, turned its back on law and order, increased taxes, and imposed unscientific coronavirus restrictions, harming children and destroying businesses.”  He reiterated, “Walz is an unbridled leftist, an Ilhan Omar-style Democrat that puts ideology above all else.”

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) of the Lone Star State branded Harris and Walz “the most radical and dangerous administration in modern history.”  He stated, “Tim Walz will be a rubberstamp for Kamala Harris’ deadly open border policies, refusing to admit there is a border crisis, opposing border wall funding, and supporting sanctuary cities.”

“As Governor of Minnesota, Walz’s policies endangered the lives of those he was elected to protect — and we can only expect more of the same as Vice President,” Abbott continued. “Like Harris, Walz endorsed defunding the police, and under his watch, vehicle theft, aggravated assault, and even murder rates have gone up in Minnesota. And while Minneapolis was burning as riots overtook the city in 2020, Walz refused to call in the National Guard for three days.”

“Walz is also a climate radical who wants to destroy American energy independence and completely eliminate fossil fuels, killing hundreds of thousands of good-paying oil and gas jobs in Texas and across the country,” the TX governor added.  He concluded, “Tim Walz is in lockstep with Kamala Harris’ dangerous open border, anti-energy, soft-on-crime agenda that will hurt Americans and the future of our country.”

Christian organizations have also sounded the alarm over Walz’s extremism.  Robert Ketterling, founding pastor of the River Valley Church in MN, and Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, issued a joint statement condemning the Harris-Walz pairing.  “Walz has signed laws restricting free speech for pastors, made derogatory comments about conservatives, and embraced socialism — all of which make him an unappealing choice for those in the political center,” the pastors observed.  They continued, “His lack of likability, often coming across as angry and on the edge of violence, only exacerbates his inability to connect with a broader electorate. … [Walz’s] liberal policies, ineffective crisis management, divisive rhetoric, and failure to appeal to independent and moderate voters make him a liability rather than an asset.”

The conservative Catholic League said in a statement that Walz’s “policies on religious liberty and sexual issues mirror” Harris’s.  The Catholic League noted that, in addition to the MN governor’s unabashed abortion and LGBT advocacy, he stripped religious liberty protections from Christians in 2023, barred Christian colleges and universities with statements of faith from participating in the state’s Postsecondary Enrollment Options program, and forced churches to remain closed during COVID-19 while he allowed retail stores, liquor shops, bars, casinos, and shopping malls to reopen.  “Tim Walz is no friend of religious liberty, the rights of the unborn, and the welfare of young people.  There will be no tension between him and Harris on any of these issues,” the Catholic League concluded.

Harris announced Walz as her running mate at a campaign event in Philadelphia last week. The V.P. has faced criticism over her own far-left record, which includes abortion advocacy, LGBT activism, climate hysteria, an ongoing illegal immigration crisis, skyrocketing crime rates, rampant inflation, the aggressive prosecution of American Christians, and the cover-up of President Biden’s cognitive decline, among others.

 

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel