Monday confirmed the FBI’s most recent target: unassuming churchgoers.
After an FBI whistleblower last month leaked a document suggesting parishioners were being subject to surveillance due to their traditional belief system, proper outrage ensued.
As reported by Daily Wire, Rep. Jim Jordan said at least one FBI employee sought to monitor a Catholic church exercising its First Amendment rights, to combat domestic terrorism.
What caused this church to fall under the suspicion of the FBI? Was it a coup against the president? Or perhaps a stockpile of pressure cooker bombs?
No. It was a supposed “Radical-Traditionalist” ideology.
The internal document obtained by Rep. Jordan described this ideology in part as someone who shows disdain for most popes since Vatican II and frequently adheres to anti-abortion, anti-LGBT ideology.
Under this suspicion, an FBI employee was ordered to use churches as “new avenues for tripwire and source development.”
Regardless of political affiliation, Americans agree that religious freedom, free from government surveillance or interference, is foundational to our system of government.
According to Pew Research, 44% of Catholics in America identify as Democrats, while only 37% are Republican, and another 19% report no party affiliation. This attack on Catholic centers of worship is not a party issue.
This violation should be detestable to all Americans, regardless of party, creed, or custom.
America has historically been home to those fleeing religious persecution. When did her institutions become militarized against her churches?
In fact, as recently as last Friday, 60 Chinese Christians were welcomed into Texas, fleeing imprisonment and death at the hands of the CCP.
How long until the FBI investigates their church as well?
This egregious violation of privacy and religious freedom by one of the most powerful governmental institutions is the very horror Christians from around the world run to America to avoid.
Democrats, Republicans, and freedom-loving individuals from sea to shining sea must agree with James Madison: “Nothing is more dreaded than the national government meddling with religion.”
Whatever one's personal religious or political convictions, our nation cannot survive unless we stand for one another’s fundamental rights, among these being the right to worship.
Please sign the COS petition below.
