Bill Donohue

On March 27, 2023, Audrey Elizabeth Hale, murdered three adults and three 9-year-old children at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. A transgender person, who mistakenly thought she was a boy, Hale had been treated at the time for “emotional disorder.” She kept a log of her problems, detailing how she was planning a mass shooting. Thanks to a lawsuit brought by the Tennessee Star, her manifesto has been made public.

[The quotes are as written by Hale. No corrections were made.]

Hale, who sometimes referred to herself as Aiden, was a terribly despondent person who saw little reason to live. “Nothing on Earth can save me,” she wrote in her diary. Other times she would say things like, “Everything Hurts” and “I hurt bad enough & long enough that I Need to DIE.” She confessed, “Everything makes me sad. I’m sad about everything.” “Being Me Sucks.”

If there was one person she said she loved, it was Paige Patton, whom she referred to as P.A.P., or the “brown girl.” She was a radio host. They played basketball together in the eighth grade and remained in occasional contact thereafter. Hale referenced Paige in her diary, saying, “If I cry all day, it’s cause I need your love.”

She was also fond of Nikki Tidwell, whom she met at the Nossi College of Art. On January 16, 2023, just over two months before Hale went on her shooting spree, she let her know of her plans. “I’m so sorry, Nikki. I didn’t plan my massacre on the 17th, I’m going to be in terrible s*** for leaving you. How bad my heart hurts. Tomorrow is my last day on Earth. I love you, I am so sorry. Audrey (Aiden).”

Then she had second thoughts: “(P.S. Not leaving yet. I couldn’t do it. I don’t want to ruin your day. I’ll wait as planned. Audrey.” It was even more bizarre to learn that literally two days before the shooting began, Hale showed up at a birthday party for Nikki.

If there was one factor that accounted for Hale’s profound unhappiness it was her adamant rejection of her nature. She hated the fact that she was not a male. “Why does my brain not work right?? Cause I was Born Wrong!!!” She opined, “A terrible feeling to know I am nothing of the gender I was born of. I am the most unhappy boy alive. I wish to be dead.”

She took out her internal problems on society. “Everything hurts. And I hate society b/c society ignores to see me. I’m a queer; I am meant to die.” She even wrote a statement titled, My Imaginary Penis wherein she said, “My penis exists in my head. I swear to god I’m a male.”

Hale was angry that she somehow let girls down. “Major blow to girls; I am a boy that has no penis.” She was also angry at God. “If God won’t give me a boy body in heaven, then Jesus is a faggot.”

She hated her father. In a post titled, “Dad problems,” she wrote, “He never once loved me for years, maybe like ever.” She declared, “You’re a loser. I hate you…I don’t care if you die. I want to kill you.” She even condemned him on the day of the mass murder.

Days before she went on her rampage, Hale spoke of her darkness. “Soon I will leave this world…I will regret nothing…No regrets by the gun!!!” She was mentally ready. “For 5 years I planned to die. Now I am finally ready to go.”

Then, in a clear reference to Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the high school seniors who killed 12 students and one teacher in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, she wrote, “I want my massacre to end in a way that Eric & Dylan would be proud of.”

On the day of the killing, Hale boasted, “Nature needs enigmas…I am one, Thank God.” More ominously, she scribbled, “DEATH. Today is the day. The day has finally come!”

She gave a shout-out to Paige, saying she was ready to roll. “Please don’t be mad….” She added, “P.S. I think God will enter me in heaven. If I do go there, I’ll be waiting for you. All our pain will leave us.”

She really did believe in God. Much earlier she had written, “God is love, so are you.” But on that fateful day, she begged forgiveness. “Forgive me God, This act will be inglorious.”

Hale gave Paige a heads up just before she pulled the trigger. She contacted her and said, “I’m planning to die today. This is not a joke. You will probably hear about me on the news after I die.” Thirteen minutes later the shooting began.

Transgender persons are not normal and it is cruel to pretend otherwise. They need help. That does not mean affirming their sick status—it means getting to the source of their troubles. If that means anything, it means not treating conditions like Hale’s as if they were merely an “emotional disorder.” What she suffered from was much more serious.

Part II

Bill Donohue

Part I of this installment exposing the myth of Christian nationalist violence focused on six purported incidents of this phenomenon as described by Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC) and lead organizer of Christians Against Christian Nationalism.

She has testified on two occasions before congressional panels on this issue. The research I did examining her sources forms the basis of my analysis. Most of her claims are just that—assertions. They are not evidentiary. Her central claim maintains that “The greatest threat to religious liberty in the United States today…is Christian nationalism.”

Part II addresses the seventh, and last, incident—the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. She calls it “an insurrection.”

“Christian Nationalism and the January 6, 2021 Insurrection” is a report sponsored by BJC and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a notorious anti-Christian atheist organization. It was published in 2022.

There are seven chapters in the Report, all supposedly chock full of evidence that the riot was a Christian nationalist event. Yet the first three chapters are merely a commentary on Christian nationalism, and don’t even attempt to tie the violence at the Capitol to it. Of the other four chapters, two were written by Andrew Seidel, an attorney who works for FFRF.

Katherine Stewart is an author and investigative journalist. Here is the first sentence in her chapter: “By now, most Americans understand that Christian nationalism played a role in last year’s violent attack on the Capitol.” She cites not a single source. It is simply an unsupported assertion. This is the extent of her “evidence.”

Seidel wrote chapters five and six. Chapter five covers events leading up to January 6, and chapter 6 claims to provide evidence that the riot was of Christian nationalist origin.

Chapter five says there were two violent Christian nationalist episodes leading up to January 6: one occurred on November 14, 2020; the other occurred on December 12, 2020.

Seidel argues that after supporters of President Trump rallied on November 14, “violence erupted in D.C.” It did. But the source he cites from the Washington Post simply says that Trump supporters clashed with counterdemonstrators. So what? The news story says not a word about Christian anything.

The December 12 incident saw another nighttime clash between the two factions. The source he cites notes that the Proud Boys, a right-wing group that supports Trump, was involved. They were. What Seidel doesn’t mention is that four of them were stabbed.

Chapter six begins by saying that Paula White, one of Trump’s spiritual advisors, delivered “an explicitly Christian nationalist and openly militant prayer.” What was it? “Blessed is the nation whose God is Lord” (Psalm 33:12). That was it.

Other “evidence” that the riot was a Christian nationalist event include statements by Katrina Pierson, a Trump campaign spokesperson. She said, Trump “loves the United States of America. He loves God.” Ergo, this is an invitation to Christian nationalist violence.

Seidel also says that some people carried a cross and a Christian flag, and some were even spotted singing “God Bless America.” More evidence that this was a Christian nationalist event was the sighting of men blowing shofars. A shofar is a Jewish musical instrument—not exactly a prop used by violent Christian nationalists.

Tyler wraps up the Report with similar “evidence.” Signs such as “In God We Trust” are considered proof that Christian nationalists were on a tear. She says that as the violence took place, something curious happened: Christian leaders who condemned it “for the most part did not name Christian nationalism as a contributing or driving factor.” I wonder why.

No doubt there are crazies who fit the label “Christian nationalist.” But if those who make a living off of selling the idea that Christian nationalists are a violent-ridden threat to America, and they can’t provide convincing evidence, then they are frauds. Worse, accusing Christians of bomb threats and arson—absent any proof—makes them a bona fide threat to America.

Part I

Bill Donohue

As a sociologist and a Catholic advocate, I am quite interested in the left-wing accusation that Christian nationalists are a violent-ridden threat to America. Those who make this charge are mostly academics and activists. I was skeptical about their claim, so I decided to fact check their work.

I am no longer skeptical: I am convinced these people are not only frauds—their goal is to demonize conservative Christian activists.

Christian nationalists are defined by their critics as those who seek to integrate Christianity and American civic life.

Perhaps the most prominent person floating this charge is Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC) and lead organizer of Christians Against Christian Nationalism. A while ago I read the testimony she gave in October, 2023 before the U.S. House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs.

This prompted me to email Christians Against Christian Nationalism, asking them to provide me with the evidence that Christian nationalism “inspires acts of violence and intimidation.”

They wrote back referencing Tyler’s October 25, 2023 testimony and her written testimony on December 13, 2022 before the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee and Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. The following analysis is based on the two testimonials.

In Tyler’s testimony in 2023, she says, “The greatest threat to religious liberty in the United States today…is Christian nationalism.” Such a sweeping statement would ordinarily be peppered with one example after another. She provides none. She simply makes an assertion, providing no evidence.

Her testimony in 2022 offers some examples to support her thesis about the violence of Christian nationalists.

The first example she mentions occurred in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015. Dylann Storm Roof shot and killed 9 people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. By all accounts, he was a seriously disturbed neo-Nazi who wanted to start a race war. But there is no evidence that he was a Christian nationalist.

Roof came from a troubled home. When he was born, his divorced parents got back together for a while, but it didn’t last. His father remarried and allegedly beat his new wife, before getting divorced once again.

Roof dropped out of school, spending most of his time taking drugs, getting drunk and playing video games. He was busted twice for narcotics. He was also known for burning the American flag.

No one doubts he was a racist. But no one ever accused him of being a Christian nationalist.

The second example cited by Tyler was the tragic Tree of Life Synagogue mass shooting in Pittsburgh in 2018. Robert Gregory Bowers killed 11 people and wounded six. It was the deadliest attack on any Jewish community in the nation’s history.

His parents divorced when he was a year old. His father committed suicide while awaiting trial on a rape charge. Like Roof, Bowers was a disturbed racist and a right-wing nut. But no one who knew him ever said he was a Christian nationalist.

The third and fourth incidents mentioned by Tyler took place at Christchurch mosque in New Zealand on March 15, 2019. Brenton Harrison Tarrant was charged with 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder, and one count of committing a terrorist act.

His parents separated when he was a young boy and his home was destroyed by a fire. When his mother remarried, he went to live with her and her husband. The new husband beat her (Brenton’s mom), Brenton, and his sister.

Brenton left home and went to live with his father. That didn’t work out: Brandon found his father dead by suicide. Those who knew him, which were only a few, said he was disturbed but none ever described him as a Christian nationalist.

The fifth example cited was a shooting that took place in 2019 at Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California. John Timothy Earnest shot and killed one woman and injured three other persons. In an open letter that he wrote prior to the shooting, he said Jews were plotting to kill the European race.

Earnest was an evangelical. Church members were split on whether his religious beliefs had anything to do with his shooting rampage. There is no evidence that he identified as a Christian nationalist, nor is there evidence that he was branded as such by those who knew him.

The sixth killing spree took place at Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York in 2022; it is located in a predominantly black neighborhood. Payton S. Gendron shot and killed 10 black people.

He was a classic loner. His father was an alcoholic and a drug addict for 40 years, resulting in the demise of two marriages. Gendron had no friends and was known to wear a hazmet suit in the classroom.

He was fascinated by violence, even to the point of bragging how he stabbed his own cat and then smashed the animal’s head on concrete. He finished the cat with a hatchet.

Not only was he not a Christian nationalist, he wasn’t even a Christian. Tyler concedes this point but nonetheless lists him as a Christian nationalist.

Part II will cover the January 6 riot of 2021.

Bill Donohue

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy’s recent piece on parenting that was posted in the New York Times has received considerable media coverage. Politico titled its article on his op-ed, “Parents Can’t Function, They’re So Stressed, Surgeon General Warns.”

Indeed, Murthy claims that from his own experience, parenting has been “more stressful than any job I’ve had.” He notes that his view is shared by parents across the nation.

After painting a dour picture of parenting, he explains, “That’s why I am issuing a surgeon general’s advisory to call attention to the stress and mental health concerns facing parents and caregivers, and to lay out what we can do to address them.” He further says that we must identify “policies” and “programs” to improve matters.

This should give us pause. To be sure, parenting is stressful—there is nothing new about it—but so is work. It’s part of the human condition. Mature adults learn to deal with it. So why has the surgeon general decided that we are now at the breaking point and something must be done to alleviate parental stress?

If Murthy were a researcher, what he said would not raise red flags. But he is not. He is a senior federal employee, appointed by the president, and his answer to this problem is to create a committee to advise him what to do. Only the naïve would conclude that this would not involve state action.

This is a familiar pattern. Government officials announce they are going to fix a problem that is largely of their own making. They are good at contriving issues that demand an expansion of the government.

Brad Wilcox is a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, and Wendy Wang is a director of research at the Institute for Family Studies. They examined the data from the 2022 General Social Survey on the subject of happiness. Here is what they found.

• Married men (ages 18-55) in America are about twice as likely to be very happy, compared to their unmarried peers.
• Men and women who have the benefit of a spouse and children are the most likely to report being “very happy” with their lives.
• A combination of marriage and parenthood is linked to the biggest happiness dividends for women.

Now if these same people were asked if it is stressful to raise children, no doubt they would agree. So what? Experiencing stress does not negate the possibility of being happy.

Winning the World Series or the Super Bowl is stressful for the players. It is also a source of tremendous happiness. The two emotions are not necessarily contradictory.

Back to Murthy. He is teeing this issue of parental stress up for his bosses, the president and the vice president.

When President Biden spoke at the Teacher of the Year event in 2022, he told teachers that their students are more than that. “They’re all our children…. They’re not somebody else’s children; they’re like yours when they’re in the classroom.” Also in 2022, Vice President Harris told Seth Meyers that “When you see our kids, I truly believe that they are our children, they are the children of our country, of our communities.”

Wrong. Children belong to their parents. Period.

Marx and Engels insisted that parents should not be allowed to raise their own children. Their position was not only implemented in the early years of the Russian Revolution, it has become a staple in the ideological arsenal of the Left ever since. To this day, left-wing intellectuals and activists argue that children are not the “property” of parents, and should therefore be raised communally. This is part and parcel of the “they’re all our children” mentality.

The Biden administration is on record saying it is okay for administrators and teachers not to tell parents that their child is going to transition to the opposite sex. It’s okay for agents of the government to know—they can even affirm the decision of the troubled student. But the parents can be kept in the dark. It’s easy for the Biden team to come to this conclusion. After all, “they’re all our children.”

Murthy has sounded a false alarm. Married men and women with children are the happiest people in the nation. They don’t need the prescriptions of a government advisory board to deal with the stress that comes with parenting. What they need is a government that knows its place and does not encroach on their rights.

Contact: surgeongeneral@hhs.gov

Bill Donohue

Unlike many sociologists, Travis Hirschi understands human nature. His specialty is crime. Instead of asking why do some people commit crime, he aptly notes that the right question is why doesn’t everyone.

One way to understand his point is to apply his logic to children. What do responsible parents spend so much of their time doing: they are constantly invoking the word “No.” That’s because what comes natural to us is to satisfy our wants and desires, and that can often be harmful to others, even dangerous.

Adults are the same way. When we see something in a store that we like, what stops us from stealing it? If we have been properly socialized, we know that stealing is morally wrong. But what if we have not been properly socialized? Then our instincts tell us to take what we want. Now it may be that we will refrain from stealing because we are afraid of being caught, and because stealing is a crime, we may be punished, even imprisoned.

What happens if we steal, get caught, and get a slap on the wrist? If this is the new normal, then it is only a matter of time before the word gets out that breaking the law to get what we want matters little. Only a fool would think this wouldn’t lead to a spike in crime.

We are a nation run by a lot of fools. This is especially true of officials in big cities. The breakdown in the social order that is now commonplace was entirely predictable. Take New York City.

Before the pandemic, one in five New Yorker bus riders did not pay their fare. Now it’s one in two. Almost one million take the bus daily, and in 2022, the bus fare evasion cost the city about $315 million in lost revenue. It’s not hard to figure out why.

In 2008, a bus driver was stabbed to death in Brooklyn; he was killed after telling a passenger he needed to pay. The transit union jumped on this tragic incident and told bus drivers not to question those who refuse to pay. The word got out and soon there was an increase in fare beaters.

Why did fare beating jump from 18 percent in 2018 to 48 percent now? Because the word got out that even those who commit violent crimes suffer little or no punishment. It is not a big leap to think that if thugs are caught and released, what are they going to do to fare beaters?

Only a fool would be surprised.

The fools are Alvin Bragg, the George Soros-funded Manhattan D.A. who is responsible for the no-bail, catch and release, soft on crime policies. Another fool is the only person who can fire him, New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul (she adopted the policies of her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, another fool). Indirectly, they sent the message to those who take the bus that fare beating is of no consequence.

It all filters down. What is happening is a variation of the “broken window” thesis. For example, when those who live in an apartment complex notice that broken windows are rarely repaired, it has a way of cascading: it invites a callous attitude toward misconduct, the result of which is an escalation of offenses of a more serious sort.

Responsible parents don’t wait until their child does something that is seriously wrong before disciplining him. Yes, some parents can be overbearing, and that is not a virtue. We are talking about reasonable ones.

They understand that if their child is not held accountable for relatively minor infractions, they are not likely to stop at that point. Just as it is foolish not to call the fire department until a neighborhood fire is literally next door, it is foolish not to act when Johnny keeps pushing the envelope.

Some urban problems are hard to resolve, but some are quite easy. All it takes is common sense and the will do act on it. Just keep the fools at bay.

Bill Donohue

I have long admired the erudition and courage of Mark Levin, the influential author and Fox News host. But his latest show featuring a so-called victims’ advocate was a disaster. Quite frankly, he was ripped off.

On his August 24 show, Mark had as his guest Joey Piscitelli. He was identified as a leader for 20 years with Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). He alleges that when Kamala Harris was the San Francisco district attorney she did not prosecute priests who were accused of sexually abusing minors (he claims to have been a victim).

He further contends that the district attorney whom she beat “in early 2004,” Terence Hallinan (he is wrong—she beat him in 2003 and took over in 2004), was hot on the trail of the Archdiocese of San Francisco but Harris never followed up. He attributes her inaction to Archbishop William Levada, “the most powerful bishop in the United States.”

Having closely followed this issue for decades, and having assisted in effectively busting SNAP (it is a shell of its former self, and even then it was not an organization), and having authored a book on this subject, The Truth about Clergy Sexual Abuse: Clarifying the Facts and the Causes, I am in a position to checkmate Piscitelli’s account.

If Harris showed favoritism to the Catholic Church, we would need to know if she prosecuted other professionals who interact with minors. For example, did she prosecute public school teachers, or members of the clergy from other religions? This is important because most of the offenses committed by priests occurred in the last century (mostly between 1965 and 1985). In education, the problem is ongoing. If Harris did not pursue teachers, why should she have pursued priests?

From my own research on this issue, subsequent to the publication of my book, I learned that Hallinan was able to secure Church documents on 40 former or current priests. It is important to note that in June 2003, approximately six months before Harris took over as D.A., the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a California law from 1994 that retroactively eliminated the statute of limitations for crimes involving the sexual abuse of minors.

Instead of asking why Harris did not pursue criminal cases against molesting priests—when the high court said such offenses were time barred—perhaps we should ask why Hallinan was so aggressive in singling out priests for prosecution, even using a grand jury to bring indictments. He was on a tear, seeking 75 years of Church documents.

Why would a D.A. want to spend his resources seeking to obtain the files on priests extending back to the 1920s? The San Francisco Chronicle, not exactly a Catholic-friendly source, labeled Hallinan’s pursuit “a fishing expedition.”

Where did Hallinan get the documents on the 40 priests? The archdiocese voluntarily turned them over in May 2002. By the way, lay employees were among the 40, and most of the priests were no doubt dead or out of ministry.

There is no question that San Francisco Archbishop Levada was seeking to protect the anonymity of accused priests. In doing so, he was doing what the leaders of every religious and secular institution do in these situations. Do the media open their books to the authorities on sexual abuse allegations? Do school administrators? Does Hollywood? In short, Levada was not an outlier, as Piscitelli suggests.

While serving as San Francisco District Attorney, Harris was asked why she would not make public those documents she possessed on priests. Linda Klee, her chief of administration and spokeswoman, told a reporter, “If we did it for you, we would have to do it for everybody. Where do you stop, and where do you start?”

Elliot Beckelman is a former prosecutor in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office who dealt with clergy sexual abuse cases.

He defends Harris’ decision not to release Church documents. “I don’t think a district attorney should float that out there if a person can’t defend themselves. It’s a very serious charge, a sex crime. The Catholics, like other minorities, feel picked upon, and I thought for the integrity of the investigation that we don’t have running press conferences to make out that the Catholics are worse than the Jews—which I am—or worse than the Hindus. There’s always a balance that comes to sexual assault investigations.”

Beckelman does not exaggerate. SNAP has smeared the Catholic Church for decades. Its longtime leader, David Clohessy, deposed in 2012 and shown to be a fraud. Five years later, after he was sued by an employee for accepting financial kickbacks and funneling money to SNAP via dummy organizations, he resigned. He was also shown to have more interest in sticking it to the Catholic Church than in doing anything constructive to help victims.

Clohessy admitted that there never was a SNAP office—he “worked” from home. It still has no office: its “staff” consists of persons with emails and a cell number.

Those who victimize minors are despicable. Ditto for those who exploit this issue for ideological and financial profit.

Bill Donohue

The 2024 Democratic platform notes, “For generations, LGBTQI+ Americans have summoned the courage to live authentically and proudly, even when it meant putting their lives and livelihoods at risk.”

However, it seems the speakers at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) could not summon “the courage” to speak “authentically and proudly” about their full-throated endorsement of the most radical LGBT policies ever implemented. They appear to be unwilling to put their political “lives and livelihoods at risk.” Even taking a fleeting second to explain who the “+” people are appears to have been too much for them.

No, rather than defending the record of the Biden-Harris administration, the DNC featured a stealth campaign to obfuscate the barbarism and depravity at the heart of the policies promoted over the last four years. Instead, the DNC has chosen to put a “joyful” and moderate spin on their agenda in hopes of appealing to normal voters in the swing-states.

While the Democrats might lack the fortitude to highlight their “accomplishments” on these issues, here is just a brief summary of what the Biden-Harris administration has done:

• On the first day of the Biden-Harris administration, it implemented an executive order allowing boys into the girls restrooms and locker rooms and to compete in girls sports.
• The Biden-Harris administration has rolled back religious liberty protections for medical providers compelling them to provide “gender affirming care.”
• The Biden-Harris administration has routinely championed the Equality Act. This act would effectively gut religious liberty protections and eviscerate women’s sports and other legal protections. It would compel Catholic Hospitals to provide “gender affirming care.”
• The Biden-Harris administration adopted a rule that if foster parents refused to support “gender affirming care” they would have their children taken from them.
• The Biden-Harris administration regularly condemned states like Florida, Texas, and Tennessee for defending parental rights and protecting children from mutilation in the name of “gender affirming care.”
• The Biden-Harris administration sought an appeal to mandate that Catholic doctors and hospitals would have to provide “gender-transition” surgeries.

You would not have heard any mention of these policies from the DNC speakers. There were platitudes about children “being who they are and loving who they love” as Michelle Obama put it, or Barack Obama’s insistence “that true freedom gives each of us the right to make decisions about our own life,…what our family looks like,…[and] who we marry….”

The DNC speakers were happy to go on about “book banning.” Vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, and Secretary Pete Buttigieg were happy to mention this. Of course, they left out that the books are not being banned, but instead, parents are calling on education officials to keep books out of schools that are not age-appropriate (they feature graphic sexual content).

But what makes this political expedience even more outrageous is for the past four years we have been told by the Biden-Harris administration that “trans” kids are facing a crisis in this country. To drive this point home, they have turned to Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Rachel Levine, a man who pretends to be a woman. Levine has assured us that “Gender-affirming care is medical care. It is mental health care. It is suicide prevention care. It improves quality of life, and it saves lives.” If what he says is true, why would the DNC not give him a prominent platform to highlight this?

We at the Catholic League have the courage these speakers lack. This is why we have a billboard calling for the end of gender transitioning just outside of the United Center. Additionally, we have been running 30 radio ads on WLS 890 AM, one of the most prominent radio stations in Chicago. The radical LGBT agenda seeks to upend our nation, and the promotion of gender affirming care for minors is child abuse. This is a critical issue that we will never walk away from. The American people need to be leveled with, but the DNC speakers won’t do that.

Bill in the News (Beyond These Stone Walls): Fortunately for America, Catholic League President Bill Donohue has a more nuanced view of culture, what it means for a society to survive, and the price we pay if it fades away. I believe the United States would face even greater cultural decline if not for the brakes applied by honest and vocal prophetic witnesses like Bill Donohue. READ MORE HERE

Bill Donohue

The crazies have descended on Chicago, whipping up hatred against Jews and Christianity. Their goals are unambiguous: destroy Israel and destroy Christian sexual ethics. The former is easier to comprehend, but the latter deserves more attention, especially as it relates to the former. First a little background.

According to a New York Times story last November, “On Oct. 7, scores of Hamas gunmen swept into Israel towns and military bases near the border with Gaza, opening fire on people in their homes, on the streets, and at a music festival. The attackers fatally shot the elderly, women and young children, according to survivors; others were burned after attackers set their homes ablaze.” Most—70 percent—were civilians.

The protesters in Chicago are not upset with Hamas for killing 1,200 innocent Jewish civilians on October 7, 2023. Their only regret is that they didn’t finish the job.

“March On The DNC 2024, Chicago, IL,” is the name of the coalition. Its central aim is “Stand with Palestine! End U.S. Aid to Israel” and to “stop our government from arming and supporting this genocide!” But it also lists as one of its goals, “Defend LGBTQIA+ & Reproductive Rights!”

A look at some of the groups that are part of the coalition underscores the nexus between the political (anti-Israel) and the sexual (anti-Christianity) aspects of the protest.

Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws says, “We demand national legislation to expand access to abortion, support families, and defend the rights of trans and queer people.” It explains its founding, stating, “We are a national coalition formed to demand a federal response to the wave of attacks on our bodily autonomy.” Naturally, they add, “We demand an end to US funds going to the genocide in Palestine.”

CODEPINK not only hates Jews and hates Christian sexual ethics, it wants to kill unborn children in Israel. Earlier this year, it issued an urgent call for “Reproductive Justice in Gaza/Palestine & Everywhere!” Of course, it demands an end to U.S. aid to Israel. It showed what a fraud  it is when it said it was “an enthusiastic supporter of the rights of gay and lesbians to join and serve openly in the military,” but after that goal was achieved it issued the following statement: “To the LGBT community: Now that you can join the military, please don’t!” For good measure, it also wants to “Defund the Police, Defund the Military.”

Democratic Socialists of America not only has nothing to say about the Hamas attack on innocent Israelis on October 7, it blames Jews for defending themselves. “Since October 7, Israel has continuously engaged in provocative military aggression, aimed at expanding its brutal war into Lebanon.” It is also an “advocate for LGBTQIA+ liberation.”

Jewish Voice for Peace is a pro-Hamas organization that has played a prominent role in demonstrations against Israel. Its Chicago affiliate is part of the coalition; it has previously supported the Chicago Dyke March Collective. Its members “were present at Dyke March wearing Jewish symbols, including Stars of David, t-shirts with Hebrew, kippot, and sashes with Yiddish script.”

Thank God for Abortion—yes, such a group exists—has been around for several years. Although it is primarily interested in killing kids, its members have launched protests in Grand Central Station in New York City on behalf of Hamas. It also pays for a float at Gay Pride Parades. Its leader, a young woman, brags openly about her two abortions, saying to her followers, “I celebrate your life to have 20 abortions—I’ll throw you a party.”

In the 1960s, Wilhelm Reich, a cultural Marxist from the radical Frankfurt School, helped create the intellectual seedbeds that led to the  pro-Hamas and pro-LGBT coalition. He blended Freud’s ideas with those of Marx, envisioning a world where individuals would enjoy sexual liberation and society would experience a revolution. It was only fitting that he was a sex maniac and a member of the Communist Party.

That is what is driving the Chicago protesters. They see oppression everywhere. Hence, they are convinced that the only true liberation is to shed their sexual and political shackles. According to their logic, Israel must be destroyed because it is an outpost of Western oppression and Christianity must be destroyed because it promotes sexual repression.

These people are not only mad, they are a threat to a free society. A sensible society would deal with them with dispatch.

Bill Donohue

The Catholic League is displaying a billboard and running radio ads during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The digital billboard is located just outside the United Center, the venue of the DNC. It runs from August 19 to August 25. Here is what it looks like.

Welcome Democrats

DO WHAT IS MORALLY RIGHT

END GENDER TRANSITIONING NOW

[Our logo, name, location and website address will appear below on the left side. Across the bottom it will say, Paid for by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.]

The radio ads are running on WLS 890 AM. It is based in Chicago and has one of the largest radio signals in the world. It is also one of the top news talk stations in Chicago.

• 5 ads were run August 18 between 6 AM and Noon
• 5 ads are running through August 23, starting today, between 6 AM and noon
• 20 ads are running through August 23, starting today, between 6 AM and 7 PM

In addition, we are periodically sponsoring WLS’s coverage of the events. For example, at the top of the hour, the radio station will announce that it is covering the convention, acknowledging the Catholic League as a sponsor. We hope to draw new members as a result.

Here is the text of the ad that is being run on WLS 890 AM.

The Catholic League extends a warm welcome to Democrats convening in Chicago. 

While there are many critical issues facing our country, the Catholic League believes the number-one civil rights issue of our day is the exploitation of children done in the name of gender ideology.

Pope Francis has labeled gender ideology as the “ugliest danger” of our time.

The Catholic League believes it is outrageous that children are being coaxed into thinking that they can change their sex. Attempts to do so have serious mental and physical consequences. Moreover, allowing men to compete in women’s sports is subversive of women’s rights.

Please address this issue.