This is the article that appeared in the January/February 2025 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects
the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.

In recent years the Christmas wars have subsided, though each year there are some ugly incidents. This year we got involved in what could have been a legal showdown, but ended mostly on our terms.

On December 12, we were contacted by a Catholic League member who sought to have a nativity scene displayed in the lobby of his cooperative building in Larchmont, New York, a town in Westchester.

The lobby had a Christmas tree and a menorah. His request was denied. When he was told that the nativity scene was a religious symbol and could not be displayed, he pointed out that the menorah was also a religious symbol. He was told they didn’t see it that way.

That same day, Bill Donohue wrote a letter to the Property Manager, sending a copy to the president of the board of directors and a Catholic League attorney (see p. 4). The letter was sent priority mail, UPS, and was delivered by 10:00 a.m. on December 13.

They were given until December 17 to answer. We heard from their lawyers that day. The board of directors of the Coop decided to pull the Christmas tree and the menorah from the lobby, thus making the charge of religious discrimination moot.

There are three ways they could have ruled on this issue: allow the nativity scene; pull the menorah; or keep the menorah and prohibit the nativity scene. The first two options are declarations of neutrality, treating the Christian and the Jewish symbols equally. The latter would have triggered a lawsuit.

We hasten to add that the two neutral decisions are not morally equal. To allow both religious symbols would be an expression of tolerance. To deny both is an expression of intolerance. They chose the intolerant route.

They would rather deny Jews their rights before extending equal rights to Christians. Telling.

Atheist organizations and Satanic groups were busy in other parts of the country.

Atheists in Rhode Island tried to compete with a traditional Christmas display by featuring an array of silly secular symbols in the state capitol. A pagan ministry sought to march in a Christmas parade in Parkersburg, West Virginia, backed by an atheist group.

Satanists in Iowa hosted the “Satanic Holiday Joy at the Iowa State Capitol,” and another band of Satanists installed a demonic idol in the plaza across from the New Hampshire state house in Concord.

These people are full of hate, which is the opposite of what Christmas is—a demonstration of love.

We were happy to have played a role in sending these folks a message—Christians will not shy from defending themselves.

This is the article that appeared in the January/February 2025 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects
the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision in March of 2021 to launch Operation Lone Star—bussing migrants from Texas to cities across the nation—turned out to be one of the most consequential issues affecting the 2024 presidential election. What he did was to turn a regional issue into a national one. That was a stroke of sociological genius.

Washington D.C. and New York City were targeted in the first wave, with bus after bus arriving in Union Station and Port Authority, respectively. Chicago and points west were next up.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also played a vital role. His decision to fly migrants to Martha’s Vineyard—home to wealthy supporters of President Biden’s open border policy—hit a chord: The illegal aliens were moved out of the liberal paradise with dispatch.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey got into the act, bussing migrants to the nation’s Capitol. All participants signed a waiver that their free trip was voluntary.

If these governors had not acted, there would have been little sympathy in most parts of the country for their plight. After all, the citizens in most states were never threatened by those who crashed our borders, so they had no reason to take this issue as seriously as those who were impacted.

Gov. Abbott did what he had to do—he had to shock the conscience of the nation. He sent a message to his critics: everyone needs to have some skin in the game.

William A. Donohue

Cultures change, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. The changes are sometimes positive, sometimes negative, sometimes a little of both. The reasons why they change are multiple. In short, there is no such thing as a cultural template or a cultural iron law. They vary. That said, it appears we are in the throes of a cultural shift.

In the last century, we had two world wars and both brought about dramatic changes in the culture. After the Great War (as the first one was initially called), western nations witnessed relaxed social mores. The cabaret society was popular on both sides of the Atlantic: nightlife and entertainment, much of it risqué, brought relief after the war. Prohibition in the U.S. was resisted in urban centers, and was eventually repealed.

World War II saw a massive influx of women into government and private sector jobs. Racial integration of the armed forces proved to be a bellwether of things to come. From the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s, American society was marked by stability: there was virtually no inflation, marriages were strong and church-going was commonplace.

From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, the counterculture challenged traditional norms throughout society. Standards fell in school, boardrooms and bedrooms. The feminist movement, fueled by anger, was more revolutionary than reformist. Sexually transmitted diseases and drug use spiked. In short, promiscuity subverted the stability of the 1950s.

Two things happened in 1981 that represented a cultural shift: Ronald Reagan became president and AIDS was discovered. He was a voice of traditional morality and AIDS put a brake on sexual experimentation. A modicum of stability reigned.

The next shift occurred in the latter part of the 2000s. The Obama administration signaled a departure from the kinds of religion-friendly policies that marked previous administrations. Identity politics became all the rage. The Biden administration took this to another level, beginning with the selection of Kamala Harris as vice president.

The Biden-Harris team launched a massive attack on boundaries: inflation and the national debt soared; immigrants by the millions crashed our borders; crime exploded; the ruling class embraced gender ideology; and attacks on religion reached a new level.

The Trump landslide represents another cultural shift. He won not simply because the domestic and foreign policies of Biden-Harris were a proven failure. He won because the ruling class didn’t settle for giving the cultural pendulum a gentle push—they gave it a wild swing.

Woke culture—the idea that traditional moral norms and values are inherently offensive—has created havoc in school, the workplace and in families. No social order can survive if its culture is under constant assault, and it is this reality that accounted for Trump’s stunning victory. The American people threw down the gauntlet, seeking a return to normalcy.

After the election, the New York Times interviewed many Trump voters. One stuck out in my mind. A 52-year-old woman said she had never voted for a Republican before, but this time she did. She cited one major factor: her son isn’t learning anything in school, and that is because his class is heavily populated with the children of illegal aliens who can’t speak a lick of English. This was a direct consequence, she noted, of the Biden-Harris policies.

The signs of a cultural shift are everywhere. Identity politics is being challenged in corporations and universities: both are pulling back on DEI standards (diversity, equity and inclusion). Mayors that allowed thugs to destroy their cities—in the name of protesting racial injustice—are cracking down. Schools that abandoned standards are reinstituting them. Voters who approved resolutions to legalize hard drugs have rescinded them. The pushback against gender ideology is real and will continue. And our border will soon be secure again.

It’s too bad it took pushing our culture to a crisis level before those who promoted these policies got a good slap in the face. Every policy that worked to undermine traditional mores was bound to fail. Even the village idiot knew that defunding the police would only generate more crime. The shame of it is that the village idiot proved to be smarter than those who unnecessarily created this mess—the mostly wealthy white secularists with post-graduate degrees.

This is a good time for the clergy and the laity to exercise their religious muscles and become reengaged in society. The culture is ripe for a return to commonsensical policies, the kind that imbue Catholic moral theology and social teachings. We don’t need more imbecilic experimentations: we know what works and what doesn’t.

This cultural shift will not proceed without resistance. Those responsible for sabotaging our society—and that is exactly what they did—occupy many important seats of power, and they will not go quietly into the night.

That’s where we come in. No administration can effectively transform society without significant help from non-governmental sources. Our number-one goal is to defend and promote religious liberty, but to do this we must take on those who seek to undermine it. We’re ready to roll.

This is the article that appeared in the January/February 2025 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects
the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.

Michael P. McDonald

2024 will go down in American history as a pivotal year. The people standing for tradition, reason, and faith fought to reclaim their country, and the Catholic League was right there in the thick of it.

By far, the biggest story of 2024 was the presidential election, and as history unfolded, we tirelessly worked to educate Catholics on the critical issues at stake.

To this end, we published a report on the religious liberty policies of Donald Trump and the Biden-Harris administration. We noted how Trump was pro-religious liberty and never supported groups hostile to Catholics. We could not say the same for Biden-Harris and found their record sorely lacking. Our comprehensive report did more to educate Catholics on this subject than any other document put out by other organizations.

We additionally pointed out Harris’ outright hostility to Catholics on several occasions. She stiffed Catholics this year by refusing to go to the Al Smith Dinner. While serving in the Senate, she was openly hostile to judicial nominees who were faithful Catholics. As California Attorney General, she crippled pregnancy resource centers and targeted pro-life activists.

While Harris had problems with Catholics that upheld the teachings of the Church, in her corner was a whole slew of Catholic dissidents. We called out these rogues.

Ultimately, Trump decisively won the election, in large part thanks to him carrying approximately 58 percent of Catholics. Moving forward, the work will turn toward ensuring that the safeguards for religious liberty are as robust as they can be. To that end, Bill Donohue urged Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito to resign early in the new Trump administration so they can be replaced by younger justices who will protect the court’s religion friendly majority for years to come. Bill also raised concerns over Robert F. Kennedy’s departures from Catholic teachings and the prudence of appointing him as Secretary for Health and Human Services.

While Trump’s victory represents a return to tradition and commonsense, the opposition went down swinging. In 2024, we saw a concentrated effort from the federal and state governments targeting Catholics and other people of faith.

We called out the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network after the Federal agency flagged “the purchasing of books (including religious texts)” as a sign of extremism. We also went after the Department of Justice (DOJ) for using the FACE Act to punish peaceful pro-life activists while giving a pass to violent pro-abortion radicals.

The FBI continued to stall in revealing the truth behind its probe of Catholics from 2023. Even after DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report on the matter, several critical questions remained. For now, it appears that our doggedness to uncover the whole truth has at least curtailed the worst of it. Hopefully, the new administration can definitively put this issue to rest.

Another area we battled with the FBI was the release of Audrey Hale’s manifesto. In 2023, Hale, a woman who falsely believed she was a man, attacked the Christian Covenant School in Nashville, killing six people including three children. For over a year, the FBI withheld the manifesto from the public. Normally, such documents are released right away. We hounded them to disseminate the manifesto.

When it was finally released, it was clear why the FBI kept it hidden for so long. The manifesto showed that Hale was a very sick person, and her woes were further compounded by identifying as transgender.

We also pushed back on the Department of Homeland Security after it came to light that an internal advisory board recommended flagging those who served in the military, are religious, and support Trump as potential extremists and domestic terrorists.

We proved Biden’s White House and the media were wrong to insist the ban on religious symbols at the annual “egg roll” party was in line with previous administrations. We found evidence to the contrary highlighting their deception.

Another disturbing trend was how the Biden administration used Orwellian language to influence public thought and sideline traditional Catholic values. We issued a report examining this.

On the state level, perhaps the greatest display of anti-Catholicism came from Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. While wearing a “Harris Walz” hat, Whitmer mocked the Eucharist by placing a Dorito on the tongue of a kneeling Liz Plank, a podcaster. We led the charge against Whitmer, alerting all Catholic parishes in Michigan of her horrendous act. We created such a media firestorm that she was compelled to put out a statement.

In the statement, Whitmer tried to say she was not mocking the Eucharist. Instead, she was championing the CHIP Act also insisting that no one was kneeling. Of course, this was a flimsy excuse and photographic evidence quickly proved she was lying. We did not fall for it and jumped back into the fray to confront her dishonesty.

We also called out a dangerous ballot initiative in New York that would trample parental rights and religious liberty. We mobilized Catholics across the state to vote no on Proposition 1. Bill wrote an excellent booklet highlighting the adverse impact the initiative would have, and we sent the booklet to important stakeholders in the Empire State. Unfortunately, New York is too far gone, and Proposition 1 passed.

Joining the government in targeting Catholics came a large swath of characters from all walks of life.

Twice in 2024, anti-Catholic activists defiled St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In the first instance, LGBT radicals hijacked the cathedral to stage a funeral mocking Catholic traditions for a man who falsely claimed to be a woman. Then again, during the Easter Vigil Mass, protesters invaded the cathedral screaming “Free Palestine” and holding a banner that read “SILENCE = DEATH.” In both instances, we called out the crashers and the media, which either ignored the story or tried to frame the radicals as the victims.

After Harrison Butker, the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, spoke in defense of traditional Catholic values at Benedictine College, he was criticized by the NFL and slammed on social media. We happily came to Butker’s defense with greater effect than any other Catholic organization.

The Olympics’ opening ceremony featured a skit mocking the Last Supper starring transgenders. We wasted no time in contacting International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach and other officials around the world, targeting the Olympics’ sponsors, and calling out those telling us it was not intended as an insult to Catholics.

Additionally, we called out the NBA for its selective interest in “human rights.” While the league claims to promote social justice in America, it partners with China, one of the worst persecutors of Christians.

We also confronted the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) after they tried to intimidate us. The atheists complained to the IRS that we “engaged in unlawful political campaigning.” We were undeterred, because we did nothing wrong, and promised to continue to publicly hammer anti-Catholic bigots.

Meanwhile, a coordinated effort by Christian bashers attempted to discredit Trump nominees Pete Hegseth and Mike Huckabee. We exposed the bigots targeting these men for their faith.

All of these attacks were not just acts of random bigotry. The secular left needs to weaken the power of the Church and the resolve of individual Catholics to advance their agenda, particularly on the issues of abortion and transgenderism.

In 2024, the media covered for the pro-abortion extremists in the Democratic Party. Repeatedly, we were told there was no such thing as late-term abortions by the “fact checkers” and the talking heads.

Even during the presidential debate between Trump and Harris, and again during the vice presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz, who as governor of Minnesota signed a law which repealed protections for infants born alive following a botched abortion, the pundits lied saying that late term abortions are “misinformation” and babies born alive receive lifesaving care following an abortion.

The worst was the New York Times, which omitted the relevant portion of the sentence that proved Walz repealed safeguards for newborn babies.

We routinely pointed out the truth to correct these false narratives.

There was also a lot of action on transgenderism. The secularists went on a tear trying to advance this cause. Across the country parents and religious people saw their rights eroded so that men and women can pretend to be the opposite sex. In several instances, parents lost custody of their children or children were permitted to “transition” without parental consent. Additionally, faithful Catholics and Christians were denied the opportunity to provide loving homes to children in need.

Fortunately, we may have reached a tipping point on this issue. Across Europe, many nations have pulled back on their support for transgenderism. Closer to home polls throughout the year showed people rejecting this anti-scientific ideology.

We struck while the iron was hot with an ad blitz at both the Republican and Democratic conventions calling on both parties to commit to protecting children from this insanity. We also showed our support for those who realized they were hoodwinked by transgenderism and have decided to “detransition.” Look for more of these people in the year to come.

We also fought back on several other key issues and scored critical victories in the process.
We exposed the myth of “Christian nationalist” violence comprehensively showing that the “violence” often cited has almost nothing to do with Christianity. It is just a fraudulent attempt to silence Catholics.

We set the record straight after the Washington Post published a report on abuse at Catholic-run Indian boarding schools in the United States. We thoroughly tore apart the erroneous conclusions.

When the media was totally silent about a report by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops noting the almost complete eradication of clergy sexual abuse, we highlighted this good news.

Bill also released his new book Cultural Meltdown: The Secular Roots of Our Moral Crisis, and our documentary “Walt’s Disenchanted Kingdom” won its ninth award.

We continued displaying our life-sized nativity scene in Central Park. Additionally, we arranged for a billboard this year in Madison, Wisconsin, home to FFRF. Our ad took aim at them for their mockery of Christmas with their Winter Solstice exhibit. We also defended a Catholic League member who wanted to display a Nativity alongside a menorah but was denied. The building decided to do the equal but intolerant thing and removed all displays. Meanwhile, around the country, atheist and satanic groups tried to dilute Christmas, but we pushed back.

We achieved great things this year, but it is only the beginning. It will take time to utterly route the secularists that maligned and marginalized Catholics in the last few years. The cultural forces that engendered these attacks remain potent and will attempt to corrode our values in the future. The culture war cannot be won in a single election cycle. It takes years of dedicated effort. The forecast for 2025 looks brighter. However, there is still work to be done, and the Catholic League will be there to see it through.

Michael McDonald is the Catholic League’s Communications Director.

This is the article that appeared in the January/February 2025 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects
the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.

Here is a copy of Bill Donohue’s letter to the cooperative board in Westchester, New York that initially allowed the display of a menorah in the lobby of a building but prohibited the display of a nativity scene. The resolution of this matter is on p. 1.

December 12, 2024

Mr. William J. Archer
Property Manager, 16 N. Chatsworth Ave. Cooperative
Archer Property Management
105 Calvert Street, Ste. 3
Harrison, NY 10528

Dear Mr. Archer:

As president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, it is my job to combat discrimination against individual Catholics and defamation against the Catholic Church.

One of our members lives in your Cooperative and he says that his request to display a nativity scene in the lobby of the building has been denied. As long as all religious symbols are prohibited, there is no legal issue. But such is not the case.

The lobby reportedly has a Christmas tree and a menorah. The tree is a secular symbol, so no problem there. But the menorah is clearly a religious symbol—the candles represent a miracle (see Exodus, chapter 25). This is not a matter of opinion: the United States Supreme Court has ruled that it is.

Therefore, to allow a menorah while prohibiting a nativity scene constitutes discrimination. It should also be noted that the Catholic League currently has a life-size nativity scene in Central Park; a huge menorah will soon grace the same area. It’s all constitutional—we get a permit each year from the Parks Department of the City of New York.

Christmas is upon us. This issue needs to be resolved immediately. If I do not hear from you by December 17, I will assume you are satisfied with your decision. I will then take steps to rectify it.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President

cc: Erin Mersino, Esq.
Bartlene Sages

We can be reached by email at: pr@catholicleague.org

This is the article that appeared in the January/February 2025 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects
the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.

The results of the presidential election show that well-educated, wealthy secularists are not like the rest of us. In virtually every demographic group, Donald Trump either won, or did better than he did in 2016, with the exception of this cadre of voters.

All the exit polls show that Trump beat Kamala Harris among men, whites, middle-age voters, and seniors; she won with women, non-whites and young people. But Trump won the white women’s vote, and the married women’s vote. Harris won among women who were not married. Indeed, single women—those who never married or are widowed or divorced—always vote for the Democratic candidate. Security is clearly an issue with these voters.

Regarding education, Harris won the college graduate vote and did even better among those with a postgraduate degree. Trump did best with those who attended high school (or dropped out) and among those with some college or an associate’s degree. The effect that college has on one’s political views is a reflection of the liberal-left bias of the faculty; there are very few conservatives among the professoriate.

Religion is another important factor. Catholics and Protestants voted handily for Trump; Harris won the Jewish and the Muslim vote, also by wide margins. Orthodox Jews voted for Trump but secular Jews, who are the majority, voted for Harris. Muslims lean Democratic though in local elections, where gender ideology reigns in the schools, they turn to the Republicans.

Why, if Trump either won or did better than he did in 2016 with most segments of the population, did he fail with those who (a) have an income of $100,000 or more (b) possess a post-graduate degree and (c) are religiously unaffiliated?

Wealthy, well-educated persons do not have the same kinds of experiences that most Americans have. They live in comfort and in low-crime areas, which means it is easy for them to exercise their virtue-signaling muscles: they show how much they care for the poor by voting for those who support generous welfare policies. This allows them to not feel guilty about doing nothing for the poor themselves.

Having spent many more years in school than the rest of us, they are natural candidates for believing what their professors believe in—nothing. Too smart to believe in God, they are obsessed with their own godly abilities. While they do not believe in the mystery of faith, they are much more likely than the rest of us to believe that a man who says he is a woman is—bingo—a woman.

It’s time we stopped calling those with lots of degrees well-educated, even if many of them are. It would be more accurate to say they are well-schooled. Moreover, it seems plain that there is an inverse correlation between education and common sense: the more years spent in school, the less common sense one is bound to have.

It’s also time we started importing more working class people from around the world. We badly need more Americans with common sense.

This is the article that appeared in the January/February 2025 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects
the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.

It took only a week after the election for the Christian bashers to attack president-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense and Mike Huckabee to be U.S. Ambassador to Israel.

Hegseth is a strong Christian who literally wears his religion on his body (he has more than a dozen tattoos emblazoned on his right arm and chest). To be sure, that is bizarre, but that is not what his critics are upset about. They don’t like what the tattoos represent—Christianity.

If he had metal spikes hanging from his nose, or had tattoos honoring Lucifer on his neck, that would be fine. But once Jesus is brought into the mix, that’s a call to arms. Indeed, the Christian bashers are explicitly calling him out for wanting a call to arms—they are saying he wants to bring back the Crusades.

The Jerusalem Cross on Hegseth’s chest is driving them mad. On his right bicep he has inscribed the Latin phrase, “Deus Vult,” which means “God wills it.”

Mike Huckabee is an Evangelical Christian who is a rock-solid supporter of Israel. But according to John Hudson at the Washington Post that is a problem. He is worried that people like Huckabee, who believe that in the covenant that God made to Abraham about Israel, “have turned that belief into a right-wing brand of Zionism.”

Similarly, the militants at J Street have lashed out at Huckabee for his “extremist views.” Louis Moreno, a former U.S. Ambassador who knows Huckabee, calls him an “utter nut case.” Why? Because the former Arkansas governor believes in the biblical account of the end of times. If he believed the fiction that the sexes are interchangeable, that would be considered reasonable.

Radicals hate Pete Hegseth because he is a committed Christian and a patriotic American. They hate Mike Huckabee because he is a committed Christian who strongly defends Israel. It’s really not all that complicated.

This is the article that appeared in the January/February 2025 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects
the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.

Surveys show that the majority of Americans want illegal immigrants deported, especially those who have been convicted of crime. If they were asked exclusively about those convicted of sex crimes, that number would surely be greater. But many in Congress disagree—they want to keep them right here in America.

In the last year, a total of 158 Congressmen voted not to deport migrants convicted of sex crimes, and 140 of them were reelected in November. Everyone of them were Democrats.

Here are the names of those who were reelected and voted to keep illegal migrants convicted of sex crimes in the U.S.

Rep. Alma Adams, North Carolina
Rep. Pete Aguilar, California
Rep. Gabe Amo, Rhode Island
Rep. Jake Auchincloss, Massachusetts
Rep. Becca Balint, Vermont
Rep. Nanette Barragán, California
Rep. Joyce Beatty, Ohio
Rep. Ami Bera, California
Rep. Donald Beyer, Virginia
Rep. Sanford D. Bishop Jr., Georgia
Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, Oregon
Rep. Shontel Brown, Ohio
Rep. Julia Brownley, California
Rep. Salud Carbajal, California
Rep. André Carson, Indiana
Rep. Troy Carter, Louisiana
Rep. Greg Casar, Texas
Rep. Ed Case, Hawaii
Rep. Sean Casten, Illinois
Rep. Kathy Castor, Florida
Rep. Joaquin Castro, Texas
Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Florida
Rep. Judy Chu, California
Rep. Katherine Clark, Massachusetts
Rep. Yvette Clarke, New York
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri
Rep. James Clyburn, South Carolina
Rep. Steve Cohen, Tennessee
Rep. Gerald Connolly, Virginia
Rep. Luis Correa, California
Rep. Jim Costa, California
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Texas
Rep. Jason Crow, Colorado
Rep. Danny Davis, Illinois
Rep. Madeleine Dean, Pennsylvania
Rep. Diana DeGette, Colorado
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut
Rep. Suzan DelBene, Washington
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, California
Rep. Debbie Dingell, Michigan
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, Texas
Rep. Veronica Escobar, Texas
Rep. Adriano Espaillat, New York
Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, Texas
Rep. Bill Foster, Illinois
Rep. Valerie Foushee, North Carolina
Rep. Lois Frankel, Florida
Rep. Maxwell Frost, Florida
Rep. John Garamendi, California
Rep. Jesús “Chuy” Garcia, Illinois
Rep. Robert Garcia, California
Rep. Sylvia Garcia, Texas
Rep. Dan Goldman, New York
Rep. Jimmy Gomez, California
Rep. Al Green, Texas
Rep. James Himes, Connecticut
Rep. Steny Hoyer, Maryland
Rep. Valerie Hoyle, Oregon
Rep. Jared Huffman, California
Rep. Glenn Ivey, Maryland
Rep. Jonathan Jackson, Illinois
Rep. Sara Jacobs, California
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Washington
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, New York
Rep. Henry “Hank” Johnson, Georgia
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, California
Rep. Bill Keating, Massachusetts
Rep. Robin Kelly, Illinois
Rep. Ro Khanna, California
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois
Rep. Greg Landsman, Ohio
Rep. Rick Larsen, Washington
Rep. John Larson, Connecticut
Rep. Summer Lee, Pennsylvania
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, New Mexico
Rep. Ted Lieu, California
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, California
Rep. Doris Matsui, California
Rep. Lucy McBath, Georgia
Rep. Jennifer McClellan, Virginia
Rep. Betty McCollum, Minnesota
Rep. Morgan McGarvey, Kentucky
Rep. James McGovern, Massachusetts
Rep. Gregory Meeks, New York
Rep. Rob Menendez, New Jersey
Rep. Grace Meng, New York
Rep. Kweisi Mfume, Maryland
Rep. Gwen Moore, Wisconsin
Rep. Joseph Morelle, New York
Rep. Seth Moulton, Massachusetts
Rep. Kevin Mullin, California
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, New York
Rep. Richard Neal, Massachusetts
Rep. Joe Neguse, Colorado
Rep. Donald Norcross, New Jersey
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York
Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota
Rep. Frank Pallone, New Jersey
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, California
Rep. Scott Peters, California
Rep. Brittany Pettersen, Colorado
Rep. Chellie Pingree, Maine
Rep. Mark Pocan, Wisconsin
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts
Rep. Mike Quigley, Illinois
Rep. Delia Ramirez, Illinois
Rep. Jamie Raskin, Maryland
Rep. Deborah Ross, North Carolina
Rep. Raul Ruiz, California
Rep. Linda Sánchez, California
Rep. Mary Scanlon, Pennsylvania
Rep. Janice Schakowsky, Illinois
Rep. Bradley Schneider, Illinois
Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott, Virginia
Rep. David Scott, Georgia
Rep. Terri Sewell, Alabama
Rep. Brad Sherman, California
Rep. Darren Soto, Florida
Rep. Melanie Stansbury, New Mexico
Rep. Haley Stevens, Michigan
Rep. Marilyn Strickland, Washington
Rep. Mark Takano, California
Rep. Shri Thanedar, Michigan
Rep. Mike Thompson, California
Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Michigan
Rep. Jill Tokuda, Hawaii
Rep. Paul Tonko, New York
Rep. Norma Torres, California
Rep. Ritchie Torres, New York
Rep. Lori Trahan, Massachusetts
Rep. Lauren Underwood, Illinois
Rep. Juan Vargas, California
Rep. Marc Veasey, Texas
Rep. Nydia Velázquez, New York
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida
Rep. Maxine Waters, California
Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, New Jersey
Rep. Nikema Williams, Georgia
Rep. Frederica Wilson, Florida

This is the article that appeared in the January/February 2025 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects
the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.

Michael P. McDonald
Director of Communications

Most Americans were shocked to learn that an innocent man, Brian Thompson, was murdered simply because he was an insurance man; he was the United Healthcare CEO. They were also shocked to learn that a former Marine, Daniel Penny, was being tried for manslaughter: he put his life at risk trying to subdue a crazed man on a New York subway who threatened to kill passengers; it ended with the death of the offender.

But in the mind of left-wing haters, Thompson deserved to be killed and Penny was probably guilty.

The author Joyce Carol Oates took to social media to claim that the outpouring of negative sentiments toward slain United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson “is better described as cries from the heart of a deeply wounded & betrayed country; hundreds of thousands of Americans shamelessly exploited by health-care insurers reacting to a single act of violence against just one of their multimillionaire executives.”

Oates, however, took a different approach to Daniel Penny. She questioned if the decision to dismiss the manslaughter charge was “based on law.” Oates accused Penny of homicide and wondered if there were “mitigating circumstances” that would have led to the dismissal.

Beau Forte, a former Green Party candidate for Congress in New Jersey, said, “Currently, over 1,000 people go bankrupt daily, solely due to personal medical bills. Anyone who can make millions of dollars overseeing a system like this, and sleep well at night doesn’t deserve my sympathy.” Forte additionally opined on social media “that the world is a better place because of” Thompson’s murder.

Forte posted on social media that he did not know enough about the Daniel Penny case to make an informed statement if Penny “was guilty or not.” Forte, however, went on to push the racist lie “that If [sic] you swapped the races in this case, the jury would not be deadlocked.”

Anthony Zenkus, a senior lecturer at Columbia, is more of an activist than an academic. According to his profile on Columbia’s website, he is involved with racial justice, income inequality, and climate justice. He has served as an organizer for Occupy Wall Street, the fight for a $15 minimum wage, Al Gore’s climate initiative, and supports Black Lives Matter.

Zenkus posted online, “Today, we mourn the death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, gunned down…wait, I’m sorry—today we mourn the deaths of the 68,000 Americans who needlessly die each year so that insurance company execs like Brian Thompson can become multimillionaires.” His X account is littered with sympathy for the shooter and scornful of anyone showing remorse for Thompson.

Zenkus did not make any statements on the Daniel Penny verdict, but when the incident first happened he posted on social media, “Daniel Penny was trained. Daniel Penny knew exactly what he was doing to Jordan Neely [sic]. Daniel Penny murdered Jordan Neely. Arrest Daniel Penny.”

The ladies on ABC’s “The View” were quick to defend Jordan Neely and cast aspersions on Daniel Penny. Whoopi Goldberg sympathized with Neely stating that “he was an ill man” and argued that the death of his mother “set him off on his mental path.” Co-host Sunny Hostin referred to Neely as “a former Michael Jackson impersonator” and suggested he was “hungry and thirsty” and less of a threat. Both Goldberg and Hostin asked several times “where is our compassion as a society” for Neely.

As for the murder of Thompson, co-hosts of “The View” took a different tone. Sara Haines took point accusing health insurance companies of acting “like a criminal racket.” Meanwhile, Hostin referred to the gunman as “young” and “promising.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA-D) commented on the murder of Thompson noting, “Violence is never the answer, but people can only be pushed so far.” She went on to say, “This is a warning that if you push people hard enough, they…start to take matters into their own hands in ways that will ultimately be a threat to everyone.”
Senator Bernie Sanders (VT-I) commented on the Thompson murder by arguing that the “anger at healthcare industry tells us…you cannot have people in the insurance industry rejecting needed healthcare for people while they make billions of dollars in profit.”

Yolanda Wilson, Ph.D., an associate professor of health care ethics at St. Louis University, wrote on social media “While I’m not rejoicing about UHC CEO being shot dead in the street, I’m not sad about it, either. People deserve better than the US health insurance industry, and chickens come home to roost.”

Following Penny’s acquittal, Hawk Newsome, a cofounder of Black Lives Matter, stated, “We need some black vigilantes.” It is worth restating the George Floyd riots that Black Lives Matter participated in contributed to the death or injuries of dozens of people and caused between $1 and $2 billion dollars worth of damage.

What happened to Thompson was inexcusable. What Penny did was honorable. Unfortunately, 41 percent of those under the age of 30 found Thompson’s killing acceptable. This tells us more about what they are learning in school and from social media than anything else.

This is the article that appeared in the January/February 2025 edition of Catalyst, our monthly journal. The date that prints out reflects
the day that it was uploaded to our website. For a more accurate date of when the article was first published, check out the news release, here.

The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe) annually collects data on the state of religious liberty. Its latest report garnered media coverage on both sides of the Atlantic, but most of it was simply a tally of offenses committed against Christians; the motives of the perpetrators were given scant coverage. Had they probed more deeply, they would have reported on the oversized role played by militant secularists.

Given that most of the major media outlets in North America and Europe are left-of-center, this outcome is not surprising. It seems clear that this was less an oversight than a calculated decision.

In the nearly 15 years that OIDAC Europe has been documenting anti-Christian hate crimes, there has been a steady increase in the number of incidents; they range from vandalism to murder. The researchers found there were 2,444 anti-Christian hate crimes in 35 European countries last year, including 232 personal attacks on Christians. France, the United Kingdom and Germany posted the worst records.

Who’s mostly responsible? The 2024 Report says most of the attacks were done by (a) radical Islamists (b) those who were anti-religious and (c) those who identify with the radical left. The latter two categories combine for the large share of the offenses, and although the Report does not say so explicitly, those two demographic groups are representative of militant secularists.

A review of the types of offenses detailed by the Report validates this conclusion. Radical Muslims are not the biggest threat to religious liberty in Europe; it is left-wing radicals who harbor an animus against Christianity. It should be mentioned that much the same kind of persecution is taking place in Canada and in the United States.

For example, those who follow traditional Christian teachings were discriminated against by losing their jobs, being subjected to unfounded investigations, the closing of bank accounts, humiliation and bullying.

“Expressing religious convictions such as ‘marriage is a union between one man and one woman,’ or ‘human life begins at conception,'” were among the reasons Christians lost their jobs. Those are the kinds of beliefs that trigger militant secularists on the left to act, not radical Islamists (they are more prone to strike out against converts to Christianity).

The Report also found that “In the context of employment, Christians who expressed traditional views, were often reported by activists, subjected to disciplinary hearings—which some described as interrogations about their personal beliefs—and subsequently dismissed.” Left-wing activists fit the bill completely.

Here’s how discrimination on the basis of traditional moral beliefs works. “Any mention of faith in a CV precludes one from an interview. My yearly assessment was lowered because I spoke of Christ.” That is precisely the type of bullying that secular activists are very good at.

Besides the workplace, traditional Christians are being targeted in the universities. “This perception seems to stem mainly from a hostile attitude towards Christianity among students from the political left and from negative preconceptions about Christians that are attributed to anyone who professes the Christian faith.” That says it all.

Some Christian haters in Europe have gone so far as to punish praying in public. They even attack those who pray silently. Christians are being interrogated by the police, fined and prosecuted if they pray outside an abortion clinic.

Adam Smith-Connor is an army veteran and father. He was found guilty in October 2024 by a British court after “praying silently in his own mind in a public area in a so-called ‘buffer zone,’ because at one point his head was seen slightly bowed and his hands were clasped.” That was it. In Northern Ireland a woman who was caught peacefully praying by the roadside now faces up to six months in prison if found guilty.

In May, another person who was simply standing on a public street corner in a “buffer zone” in Birmingham was asked by the police, “Are you here to pray for the lives of unborn children?” By the way, these “buffer zones” include private homes: it is against the law in Scotland for private home owners to display pro-life signs if they can be seen within 200 meters of the premises.

This is the kind of thing we would expect from the dictators in North Korea, not democratically elected officials in Europe.

Transgenderism is all the rage in Europe. They are now banning teachers in the U.K. for “misgendering” a transgender pupil, meaning they are punishing teachers for calling a boy a boy and a girl a girl even when the boys and girls falsely claim that they are of the opposite sex.

In Switzerland, the government took a couple’s 16-year-old daughter from her parents and placed her in a state home because the parents objected to her “gender transition.”

This is the mark of totalitarians, and it is not radical Islamists who are doing it. It is the work of militant left-wing secularists who hate Christianity.

They are locking up the wrong people in Europe.