Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – guest host Aaron Gulbransen discussed the demonization of American conservatives and religious freedoms by the Biden administration.
GULBRANSEN CONTINUED:
(Joe Biden clip plays)
That’s Joe Biden just spewing absolute baloney. I would like to ask the former vice [resident if he were remotely interested in securing our border. But we know the answer to that question. I would like to ask Vice President Biden if he were remotely interested in battling the opioid epidemic, the fentanyl crisis. We’re in.
Let’s see, how about this one? Human trafficking. All of these things result in basically millions of deaths, injuries, that sort of thing. But of course, when they talk about white supremacy, they’re talking about Republicans, they’re talking about conservatives, they’re talking about people of faith, they’re talking about the MAGA movement and all that sort of thing.
And they’re trying to demonize anybody who would dare vote Republican in these midterm elections or in 2024 in the future. So when you hear things like that, I don’t know about you, those of you listening at 5:19 a.m. right here on 1510 AM, WLAC 98.3 FM, my blood boils. And here’s the thing.
This kind of language is obviously not constructive but what does it lead to? You have these groups of people that hang on to things that former Vice President Joe Biden said. By the way, I know he’s the president, but I guess my little dig at him is former Vice President Joe Biden.
It’s my ripoff of Stephen Crowder, who I’m a big fan of, and my buddy Brodick works for Louder with Crowder. But it’s utterly sick that the sitting president of the United States would actually demonize people.
That a very large group of people in this country, over 70 million people voted for Donald Trump by using code words like white supremacy and things like that. That’s what he’s talking about.
He’s not talking about the evil few remaining people that are part of whatever hate group like the Ku Klux Klan or something like that. He’s talking about the average conservative American voter that doesn’t vote for him.
That’s what they’re trying to demonize because they’re trying to lump anybody who voted for Donald Trump with a very tiny evil minority of the country. And that’s a major problem. And sometimes this kind of rhetoric can result in crimes against people of faith in light of the increasing anti-Catholic hate crimes.
Not that this is related to what Biden said, but this is the interesting segue here. Across the country, in the wake of Roe v. Wade, U.S. Representative Lisa McClain and 19 of her U.S. House colleagues sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice to take action against these appalling attacks and defend the constitutional rights of Catholic Americans.
The Executive Director of the National Faith and Freedom Coalition, Timothy Head, wrote, to ignore this hostility towards our Catholic brothers and sisters is to ignore the principles this nation was founded on. It is past time for the DOJ to carry out its duty to protect our God-given right to religious liberty.
And I’ll read a little bit from the letter. As we’ve seen, there are Catholic churches getting vandalized all over the United States and other pro-life groups and organizations and other churches because they’re pro-life.
And the letter that 20 members of the U.S. House of Representatives sent Attorney General Merrick Garland, who, I may point out, could have been U.S. Supreme Court Justice Merrick Garland, thank God that did not happen.
The letter states religious freedom is under attack in the United States. Since May of 2020, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has counted at least 160 hate crimes against the Catholic Church across 37 states. As a result, millions of Christians are under assault for merely exercising their constitutional right to freely practice their religion.
It continues, our nation was founded on the principle of religious freedom, but this basic tenet of our system is being debased as Catholic parishes are vandalized across the country. Just this year, the altar at St. Augustine Catholic Church in Brooklyn, New York was destroyed.
As an aside, I’m not Catholic, but I’m originally, once upon a time, from Brooklyn, New York, and I actually know exactly where that is. Apparently, vandals stole the Church’s historic tabernacle that held the Eucharist, which the Catholics considered to be the body of Christ, before proceeding to wantonly decapitate the statues of angels and desecrate the Eucharist on the altar.
Other incidents of anti-Catholic violence include arson, destruction of church property, and the defacing of gravestones with swastikas and anticatholic slurs. As U.S. representatives of many Christians, we are forced to wonder, they say, if your Department of Justice will ever address the over 100 crimes against Christian holy sites in America.
But is there any questions forthcoming or reaction forthcoming from Attorney General Garland? No, not yet. I’m going to continue with this letter because it just illustrates the problem. The principle of religious freedom is woven into the fabric of what makes America great.
No Americans should live in fear of practicing their religion, and no religion should be subject to attack in the land of the free. Religious freedom is not only a constitutional right, but a human right, too. It is. It’s also in the First Amendment.
It continues, we are calling on you and your department to uphold your oaths to the Constitution and bring justice to the anticatholic criminals who are running rampant across America. And the Congressman ended with, we and our constituents are demanding answers to the following questions by September 2022, will the Department of Justice act against anti-Catholic crimes and defend the constitutional rights of Catholic Americans?
Also, what specifically are your plans to defend Christians from targeted crime? And they politely ended with, thank you for your attention to this matter. We look forward to receiving a response from you. Sincerely and 20 members of Congress.
U.S. Representative Lisa McLean led the letter and Louis Gohmert would be a name that you would know. So would Lauren Boebert. But this just goes to show you the Biden administration likes to sow division, target conservatives, target Republicans, and target people who voted for Trump.
And remember, not everybody who voted for Trump even was a conservative or even a Republican. And it’s insane that they would demonize people and draw attention to this.
Well, of course, why they’re doing this, but without addressing the legitimate needs of people in this country, people who are being discriminated against by their faith, people being vandalized because of their faith, because their faith says that we are pro-life.
Again, I’m not Catholic, but I’ve certainly sympathetic on this issue. It just astounds me to this day. But when you are in media or you are in politics, you kind of wear two hats. Your normal human being hat astounds it and when you’re wearing your media hat or your political hat, it doesn’t because this is all politics.
And the truth of the matter is the Biden administration doesn’t care about protecting the rights, the constitutional rights or the bodily rights or the “human rights” of anybody that disagrees with them. They’re happy to attack human rights, constitutional rights, and the bodily rights of anybody who disagrees with them.
And they’ll defend the ones of those as long as you agree with them. So it’s a very much a rules for me and not for thee situation with the Biden administration and probably much more to come on that.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Religious freedom? You mean religious coersion!