Bill in the News (Gomathist): But the influential Catholic League, an organization dedicated to defending Catholics, wants Hochul to veto the measure. The league’s longtime President Bill Donohue said he believes that if Hochul signs the bill, lawmakers will soon turn their attention to repealing crimes like prostitution, which his organization opposes. READ MORE HERE
The First Amendment references religion twice: the free exercise provision and the establishment provision (they are incorrectly called clauses).
The First Amendment was originally slated to be the Third Amendment (but was moved up after the first two failed to be adopted). Written by Madison, he meant the former provision to guarantee the free expression of religion. The latter meant that (a) there could be no national church, and (b) there could be no favoritism of one religion over another. That was it. The rest was left to the states to decide (there were even state churches at the time).
The two provisions were meant to be complementary, not treated as if they were opposites (which is the flawed contemporary understanding). Jointly, they mean that the government cannot encroach on religion.
One governor who has no clue about what the First Amendment means is Tim Walz, the chosen vice presidential nominee for the Democrats.
On March 13, 2020, the Minnesota governor declared a “peacetime emergency” in response to Covid. Between March 13 and May 5, he would issue 51 “emergency executive orders” that greatly curtailed freedom of religion. As part of these orders he created a hotline for Minnesotans to report their neighbors for not complying with his orders. Essentially a state snitch patrol, it was reminiscent of what Orwell predicted in 1984.
On May 6, the Upper Midwest Law Center filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on behalf of the Northland Baptist Church and Living Word Christian Center against Walz for his executive order limiting the capacity of houses of worship.
On May 13, Walz really socked it to people of faith. He issued an executive order limiting houses of worship to 10 persons per service. But he allowed up to 50 persons to go to malls, shops, and other retailers. Other businesses such as pet-grooming services and medical marijuana dispensaries were allowed to resume in-person operations. Bars and restaurants were given instructions on a phased plan of reopening. Even casinos were allowed to resume by the end of the month, and the Mall of America was allowed to reopen for those seeking “retail therapy.” But those seeking spiritual therapy at their local church were capped at ten.
A week later, on May 21, the Minnesota Catholic Conference and the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod announced they would not comply with Walz’s discriminatory policy. They said they would reopen at 33 percent capacity. Walz immediately slammed the door on them, saying they had to wait. He declared he was resolute on enforcing the 10 person cap for houses of worship. The same day a U.S. District Court judge sided with the two churches who brought suit on May 6.
Two days later, on May 23, Walz reversed his position and announced a new plan to reopen the houses of worship with 25 percent capacity. He cited a new CDC policy as the reason for his change.
On March 30, 2021 Walz lost in his effort to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the two churches. This was the first substantive loss in court that Walz faced; it compelled him to settle out of court to cut his losses.
On May 6, Walz reached a settlement with the two churches and agreed to end his discriminatory treatment of churches and other houses of worship by promising that Emergency Covid Orders would treat all houses of worship the same as stores and entertainment venues. On the same day, he announced a new plan to “end nearly all state Covid-19 restrictions by May 28.”
Walz was not alone in singling out churches, synagogues and mosques for punishment—this was standard fare for many executives. But he was among the worst. When religion takes a back seat to secular interests, it perverts the intentions of the Framers and creates a hostile environment for religious Americans.
What happened during Covid should never be allowed to happen again.
Contact Walz’s chief of staff: Chris.Schmitter@state.mn.us
From FDR to Bill Clinton, Bob Hope was a regular entertainer at White House events. He was never coarse, nor did he embarrass anyone. Why is it that Democrats such as Kamala Harris and Joe Biden continue to showcase the most obscene and racist performers in the nation?
On July 30, hip-hop queen Megan Thee Stallion worked the crowd at a Kamala Harris campaign rally. The lyrics to her hits, “Savage” and “Girls in The Hood,” included vulgar terms referring to female genitalia and patently obscene terms; she also dropped the N-word.
In September 2023, Lil Wayne performed at “the first-ever hip-hop house party at the Office of the Vice President of the United States.” Harris enjoyed him singing “A Milli,” a tune that used gay slurs, obscenities, the N-word, references to feces and lyrics such as, “I’m a venereal disease like a menstrual bleed.” His number, “Mrs. Officer,” was a filthy hit job on cops, and he dropped the F-word 17 times doing his song “Uproar.”
Harris learned a lot from her boss, Joe Biden. Two months ago, after his disastrous debate performance, he invited Fat Joe to a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina. He entertained the failing president with lyrics such as, “Kicked the b**ch out the room and gave her no breakfast; Had to stash the jewels, these b**ches so reckless; Keep my hoes on cruise, I’m talking naughty nothings.” He used no obscenities in “Tell Me When To Go,” but he did take a shot at Jews, singing, “Jesus Christ had dreads, so shake em; I ain’t got none, but I’m planning on growing some; Imagine all the Hebrews going dumb.”
When Biden was the presumptive presidential nominee in August 2020, he sat down for a chat with Cardi B for an interview. Ten days earlier she released one of the most disgusting, misogynistic songs ever recorded, “WAP.” And, of course, she dropped the N-word.
Donald Trump has welcomed rappers to his rallies, but they do not perform.
What is wrong with Harris and Biden? Are they okay treating women like raw meat? Are the most vile obscenities okay to invoke at campaign rallies? Is it okay to rip gays and Jews? Why would they recoil in horror if a Republican office holder used the N-word to describe African Americans? Have they no decency?
The message that Harris and Biden are sending to young people, in particular, is that it is fine and dandy—even fun—to speak in public like filthy louts and inveterate racists.
It’s a sure thing that the lyrics they find so amusing will not be featured on TV next week as they take the stage at the Democratic National Convention. How cowardly. Why not let the whole world know what you find to be entertaining? And then lecture us on civility and racism!
Thomas Jolly, the homosexual activist who insulted Christians with his opening ceremony antics, is ready to roll out the closing ceremony. It is scheduled to begin August 11 at 3:00 p.m. ET.
There will be the traditional athletes’ parade and medal ceremony. It will be held indoors at France’s national stadium, involving hundreds of singers, performers, acrobats, dancers and circus artists. Jolly says it is his “ambition” to “celebrate in suspended time, with conscience, and with the idea that together we can make a difference.”
How he will suspend time remains a mystery. But at least it is being done with a conscience, which is better than the alternative.
Jolly has already made a difference. He has joined the ranks of anti-Christian bigots. Will he give us Round 2 of his obscene portrayal of Christianity, or will the guy who grew up playing with dolls tap the brakes and be a good boy? If he does, it will show that our protest was not in vain.
Our protest was aimed at many parties to the Olympics. We contacted Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee; the fifteen major sponsors of the Olympics; leading Republicans and Democrats; and the U.S. Olympic Committee. We not only protested what happened in the opening ceremony, we asked that they make sure that the closing ceremony is not a repeat.
The Catholic League was the only Catholic organization to register a formal protest. Moreover, by supplying contact information, we were the only one to give Catholics a voice in registering their objections. And unlike others, who did next to nothing, we didn’t try to hustle our supporters by asking for a donation.
We are happy that so many contacted Bach in July about what Jolly did. You can contact him again about the closing ceremony.
Contact: media@paris2024.org
Note: In an earlier post, mention was made of Walz, Sanders and de Blasio honeymooning in communist countries. We were remiss in not mentioning Joe Biden. He is now included in this revised version.
In the 1930s, if a Republican politician chose to go to Hitler’s Germany for his honeymoon, he would have been hounded from office. But in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s three Democrats and one independent (with close ties to the Democrats) chose to go to communist countries for their honeymoon. One of them is Tim Walz, the newly minted Democratic vice presidential candidate. We need to know why.
In 1989, Walz moved to Communist China to teach at a high school for a year. He later said it was “one of the best things I’ve ever done.” Five years later he got married and chose to honeymoon there. He has been to China at least 30 times.
When Walz was chosen to join Vice President Kamala Harris on the presidential ticket, the Chinese state media noted his frequent trips there and praised him for “fostering cultural exchanges.”
Under Mao Zedong, who ruled China from 1949 to 1976, 77 million people were killed, far outdoing the body count under Hitler and Stalin. While Walz has criticized human rights abuses in China in recent years, he has never explained why he would honeymoon in a nation with a history of mass murder. Nor has he explained why he is reticient about condemning Communist China for threatening the security of Taiwan.
Walz has much in common with Joe Biden. In 1977, then-Senator Biden spent his honeymoon with his second wife, Jill, in a Communist-run country, Hungary. But he did more than celebrate his marriage. According to Daily News Hungary, he met with Communist officials and “had some secret meetings during his stay.”
It was a weird place to go to at the time. In 1956, Hungarian young people staged a revolt protesting Soviet domination. Tens of thousands took to the streets for six days before they were crushed by the communists. Mass arrests and executions followed and some 200,000 Hungarians fled to Austria and Yugoslavia before the borders were closed.
Why would Biden choose to honeymoon behind the Iron Curtain? That’s a long way from Rehoboth Beach.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who frequently caucuses with the Democrats, spent his honeymoon in the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). The communists killed 66 million, mostly under Stalin.
Like Walz, Sanders has never explained why he would honeymoon in such a blood-stained country. He did so in 1988. While he was there he condemned U.S. foreign policy, but said nothing about egregious human rights abuses in the USSR.
In 1972, Sanders said that U.S. policy in Vietnam was “almost as bad as what Hitler did.” In 1985, he had a friendly sit-down with Daniel Ortega, the communist dictator of Nicaragua. In 1989, he visited Castro’s Cuba, praising the communists for their healthcare system, schools and housing, but saying nothing about the political prisoners being held. Today he refuses to condemn the oppressive Marxist regime of Maduro in Venezuela.
In 1994, former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio went on his honeymoon to Cuba. What he did was illegal, but that didn’t matter. He never told his children about this—they found out after he admitted it on TV; they were told their parents honeymooned in Canada.
In 1988, de Blasio went to Nicaragua to support the communist Sandinista regime. In 1990, he said he supported “democratic socialism” (which is an oxymoron), but when he was asked about this by the New York Times in 2013, he denied it. When the reporter said he has the evidence, de Blasio said, “It doesn’t matter.”
It does matter to the American people that left-wing political leaders cozy up to communist totalitarian dictators. Biden has already been erased by Harris, De Blasio is out of office and Sanders is going nowhere, but for Walz, that is a different story. He needs to come clean. It is one thing to teach in Communist China, quite another to celebrate a wedding there. And why all the back and forth trips?
Contact Walz’s chief of staff: Chris.Schmitter@state.mn.us
In the 1930s, if a Republican politician chose to go to Hitler’s Germany for his honeymoon, he would have been hounded from office. But in the 1980s and 1990s two Democrats and one independent (with close ties to the Democrats) chose to go to communist countries for their honeymoon. One of them is Tim Walz, the newly minted Democratic vice presidential candidate. We need to know why.
In 1989, Walz moved to Communist China to teach at a high school for a year. He later said it was “one of the best things I’ve ever done.” Five years later he got married and chose to honeymoon there. He has been to China at least 30 times.
When Walz was chosen to join Vice President Kamala Harris on the presidential ticket, the Chinese state media noted his frequent trips there and praised him for “fostering cultural exchanges.”
Under Mao Zedong, who ruled China from 1949 to 1976, 77 million people were killed, far outdoing the body count under Hitler and Stalin. While Walz has criticized human rights abuses in China in recent years, he has never explained why he would honeymoon in a nation with a history of mass murder. Nor has he explained why he is reticient about condemning Communist China for threatening the security of Taiwan.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who frequently caucuses with the Democrats, spent his honeymoon in the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). The communists killed 66 million, mostly under Stalin.
Like Walz, Sanders has never explained why he would honeymoon in such a blood-stained country. He did so in 1988. While he was there he condemned U.S. foreign policy, but said nothing about egregious human rights abuses in the USSR.
In 1972, Sanders said that U.S. policy in Vietnam was “almost as bad as what Hitler did.” In 1985, he had a friendly sit-down with Daniel Ortega, the communist dictator of Nicaragua. In 1989, he visited Castro’s Cuba, praising the communists for their healthcare system, schools and housing, but saying nothing about the political prisoners being held. Today he refuses to condemn the oppressive Marxist regime of Maduro in Venezuela.
In 1994, former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio went on his honeymoon to Cuba. What he did was illegal, but that didn’t matter. He never told his children about this—they found out after he admitted it on TV; they were told their parents honeymooned in Canada.
In 1988, de Blasio went to Nicaragua to support the communist Sandinista regime. In 1990, he said he supported “democratic socialism” (which is an oxymoron), but when he was asked about this by the New York Times in 2013, he denied it. When the reporter said he has the evidence, de Blasio said, “It doesn’t matter.”
It does matter to the American people that left-wing political leaders cozy up to communist totalitarian dictators. De Blasio is out of office and Sanders is going nowhere, but for Walz, that is a different story. He needs to come clean. It is one thing to teach in Communist China, quite another to celebrate a wedding there. And why all the back and forth trips?
Contact Walz’s chief of staff: Chris.Schmitter@state.mn.us
Democratic candidate for president, Vice President Kamala Harris, has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her vice presidential pick. His policies on religious liberty and sexual issues mirror hers.
In 2024, Walz approved legislation that would protect religious liberty in Minnesota’s Human Rights Law. However, this was done after a 2023 bill that he signed into law that stripped them of their protections. The 2023 law caused an uproar across the state and forced Walz and the Democrats to retreat. The Catholic Conference of Minnesota was heavily invested in passing the 2024 law.
In 2023, Walz signed a bill into law that specifically excluded Christian universities with statements of faith from Minnesota’s Postsecondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) program. This program allows high school students to enroll at local colleges at no cost to them; they can receive both high school and college credits. This law was struck down in the courts after a Christian family sued Walz. The case was Loe v. Walz. No friend of religious liberty would ever have banned Christians from this program.
During the Covid-19 lockdowns, Walz banned houses of worship from having gatherings of larger than 10 people. After the heads of Minnesota’s Catholic and Lutheran churches said they would reopen May 26, 2020, Walz quickly changed his position and allowed the churches to reopen. He had previously allowed retail stores, casinos, bars and restaurants to open at 50 percent capacity, and he okayed the opening of the Mall of America. The hard line he took for houses of worship smacked of an anti-religious bias.
Walz’s position on abortion is consistent with that of Harris’. He not only has no record of opposing an abortion for any reason—or at any time during pregnancy—he is so radical that in May 2023 he signed a funding bill that repealed Minnesota’s protection for babies born following a botched abortion. In other words, he legalized selective infanticide.
On January 31, 2023, Walz enshrined the “right” to abortion and other reproductive health care measures into Minnesota statutes. This law was designed to protect abortion in the state from future Supreme Court decisions.
When it comes to transgenderism—the anti-science movement that promotes the right of males and females (including minors) to switch their sex—the Biden-Harris team is the most radical administration in American history. Walz is on board, 100 percent.
On April 27, 2023, he signed a law that banned “conversion therapy.” House File 16 “prohibits mental health practitioners or mental health professionals from providing conversion therapy to vulnerable adults and clients under age 18.”
In other words, Walz wants to stop teenage girls (80 percent of those who “transition” to the other sex are females) from having the right to correct the mistake they made—often aided and abetted by corrupt therapists and medical professionals—in attempting to change their sex. These exploited young people want to “detransition” back to their father-determined sex, but Walz wants to take this right away from them.
On April 27, 2023, Walz signed a law that turned Minnesota into a transgender sanctuary state. House File 146 “prevents state courts or officials from complying with child removal requests, extraditions, arrests, or subpoenas related to gender-affirming health care that a person receives in Minnesota.”
In other words, this law gives state courts temporary emergency jurisdiction over any child in Minnesota who has “been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care.” If a child runs away, and moves to a state to receive “gender-affirming care,” Minnesota would not return the child to his parents under this law. Similarly, in a custody battle, a parent could take the child to Minnesota for “gender-affirming care” and the out-of-state parent would have no recourse in Minnesota’s courts.
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.
Bill in the News (Newsmax): Catholics and other Christians were outraged after a parody tableau during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games used drag queens to portray Christ’s Last Supper. Donohue said the incident is part of a larger battle between good and evil. To watch, click here.
Bill in the News (Family Policy Matters): This week on Family Policy Matters, host Traci DeVette Griggs welcomes Dr. Bill Donohue, president of Catholic League and author of Cultural Meltdown: The Secular Roots of Our Moral Crisis, to discuss why it is so important for Christians to be engaged in the culture around them. For Podcast and Transcript, click here.
Bill in the News (The Drew Mariani Show): Bill discusses his new book, Cultural Meltdown: The Secular Roots of Our Moral Crisis, with Drew Mariani. Bill’s segment begins at (28:53). To listen, click here.