At the risk of further alienating my readership I must work with Archbishop Charles Chaput on some early American history in this post, which continues on from post one, here.

Before that, allow me to also give a tip of my hat to Auxiliary Bishop James Conley, featured here, who is presently serving Archbishop Chaput (the author of the red text in this post).  I happen to know some personal information about the Aux Bishop — it is not a secret — he is, like me, part Cherokee.  Perhaps he, too, will weigh in on the controversy stirring in the comments to the previous post.  (Archbishop Chaput is of partial Native American extract as well.)  I also know that the good Aux Bishop was raised Presbyterian, and came into the Church through the mentoring of Professor John Senior (then of Univ of Kansas and later, of Christendom College).  Thus the Aux Bishop is invited to likewise weigh in on the controversy that the title to this post just might stir up.

Here is today’s clip from Archbishop Chaput’s insightful warning as to our times:

American Catholics have no experience of the systematic repression so familiar to your [Slavic] Churches.  It’s true that anti-Catholic prejudice has always played a role in American life.  This bigotry came first from my country’s dominant Protestant culture, and now from its “post-Christian” leadership classes. Source

Confessions of a former WASP in 3, 2, 1:  Born Methodist, raised Baptist, sent to Bible camps and Bible colleges and mentored by the writings of this great man, I was as firmly convinced that my Evangelical Protestant heritage was right and true in the mid-80’s as one could be.  And I was decidedly anti-Catholic.  Vehemently so on my zealous days.

Anti-Catholicism is not foreign to America.  Even before Jack T. Chick and his libelous, error-filled tracts we had the Klan, Thomas Nast, the Know Nothings,  the Free Masons and other direct and indirect asides against Latin Orthodoxy.

Such was the case at the nation’s birth.  Such was the case 100 year before the nation’s birth as well.

One month before I joined the Roman Catholic Church my father was doing genealogical research in Maryland and found the history that allowed my Evangelical Protestant (and respectfully anti-Catholic) grandfather the foundation from which to bless my journey to Rome.  Here is what Dad found:  Our family tree, which my grandfather knew back to Protestants during the Revolutionary War, actually stretched all the way back to Lord Baltimore’s St. Mary’s Colony of 1634.   The history is fascinating and too much to go into in this post, but suffice it to say that my progenitor on this continent some 375 years ago was a teenage indentured servant learning the shoe cobbling business. He was a Roman Catholic who was sent to America because he was Catholic — a Catholic escaping religious persecution in England.  Here is my New World ancestry for those who find this a bit hard to believe from one with a name as common as Browne.  (My father and cousin (Steve) have done much work authenticating this lineage.)

In 1649 the Roundheads cut off the head off of  England’s King Charles I, which  moved their Calvinist counterparts to descend from Massachusetts and upon Catholic Maryland with avarice and violence.  The skirmishes and resulting coup d ‘etat left Catholics like my ancestors disposed and disenfranchised, at least in part. (And some dead.)

So Catholic blood was shed — and property and titles lost — to the Calvinist cause in colonial Maryland.  (Dear Calvinists, do not take this personally, it is just your history.)

Fast forward 175 years and move a few hundred miles north.  The city is New Amsterdam, named after a Calvinist heritage.  It was later dubbed after a more Anglophile fashion … you likely know it as New York.

Who was it that the New York Constitution of 1775 — which stayed in effect well into the 1800’s — trying to keep out of the State with this paragraph?

Provided, All such of the persons so to be by them naturalized, as being born in parts beyond sea, and out of the United States of America, shall come to settle in and become subjects of this State, shall take an oath of allegiance to this State, and abjure and renounce all allegiance and subjection to all and every foreign king, prince, potentate, and State in all matters, ecclesiastical as well as civil.

Hint:  It was not the Mohammedans.

Fast forward another 220 year and move 1000 miles west  Indianapolis is the town, last June 1 the date.  (See “heresy trial” category on the right for more details)

Some might hear historic echoes in the following  transcript from my “show trial” before Indiana’s Grand Inquisitors, echoes that  sound much like New York’s anti-Catholicism … or is it rather the howling zeal that moved the Roundheads to dispossess my Maryland ancestors of land and title?

I could be too close to it all, but am I alone in concluding that I have documented a  modern heresy trial?

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/a-post-modern-heresy-trial-post-2-what-my-inquisitors-most-wanted-to-hear/

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/a-post-modern-heresy-trial-post-5-my-luke-12-moment-before-indianas-finest/#more-3806

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/a-post-modern-heresy-trial-post-8-saint-thomas-more-as-inspiration/

It took quite a bit of audacity for the Board of Law Examiners to just come right out and make my religion the issue.  One has to hand it to them, they have the zeal of a Torqemada or Cromwell.   How did the Star Chamber, er, I mean Board of Bar Examiners know to drill down on my religious beliefs?  What briefing caused them to prepare their metaphorical greased rack and figurative hot pokers?

(1)  The report of the pro-abortion, pro-gay rights, anti-Catholic, feminist psychiatrist Dr. Elizabeth Bowman, a product of a once Calvinist, liberal Protestant seminary who wrote about my religious beliefs  in a report to the Supreme Court’s Board of Inquisitors and:

(2) The report of modernist, neo-catholic psychologist Dr. Stephan Ross who also likewise labeled my magisterium-affirming beliefs up as disordered.

Read all about that right here, on pages 6 -7 and pages 19 – 22.  (And check out Dr. Bryan Flueckiger’s nonreligious opinion of my psyche in the appendix.)

Ah yes, the more things change the more they stay the same.  My ancestors were robbed of land and title, and I am nearing economic collapse after suffering the loss of a license to practice law.

The historian Arthur Schlesinger Sr., once called anti-Catholicism “the deepest bias in the history of the American people.“    Seven years ago nonCatholic academic Philip Jenkins (professor of history and religious studies at Penn State) released  “The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice” (Oxford Press).  In that work and the press that followed it Jenkins  argued that critics of the Church “use such ferocious language that, in rhetoric if not in deed, they’ve become morally indistinguishable from Klansmen and 19th-century nativists.”  Source for quotes here.

I have met such people.  They really do hate us Catholics.

“The only thing I don’t like about the book is the title `The New Anti-Catholicism,“‘ said Father Richard Neuhaus, the late editor of the conservative journal First Things. “I’m not sure it’s that new. It’s an old prejudice and vice that weaves its way through American life and rears its heads in new forms.”

Indeed.  I am feeling much akin to my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandfather William Browne these days.  I pray that he is praying for me.

to be continued ….

This starts a new series, our end of summer series, here at the Institute. 

A joke making the rounds of late involves a surly Texan informing a boastful Muslim that Mohammedans are yet numerous and somewhat powerful “cause we ain’t played cowboys and Muslims yet’ –  a laugh at the expense of the Native Americans wiped out through the “game” of cowboys and Indians back in the days of the Trail of Tears and smallpox infected blankets.

We Americans have never been short on bravado or violence-tinged humor.

The Archbishop of Denver asks if we could be on the cusp of a new game in the dying West — a game of cowboys versus Catholics  — and, by extrapolation, cowboys versus all Christians.  (Although it does seem that the Catholics are usually the first ones targeted by secularist, atheistic post modern cowboys and cowgirls.)

Here at the Institute we have sounded this concern from our launch — and lived it as well.  See the posts gathered under “the whirlwinds” and “refuse, resist and/or rebel”, posts such as this one, as examples of us warning of a coming persecution.  (Actually here now for some, as is developed in this post.)

That said, we cannot raise the alarm as eloquently, academically or authoritatively as Archbishop Charles Chaput can  — and so this series will present his speech (here) broken down into post sized excerpts with a few comments from one currently undergoing persecution along the way.

And so it begins …

August 24, 2010 (Spisske Podhradie, Slovakia)

Living within the truth: Religious liberty and Catholic mission in the new order of the world

Charles Chaput, Catholic Archbishop of Denver Colorado, addressed the first session of the 15th symposium for the Canon Law Association of Slovakia on Tuesday. He called upon Catholics in America and in Europe, to resist the world’s intolerance of Christianity.

Tertullian once famously said that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.  History has proven that to be true.  And Slovakia is the perfect place for us to revisit his words today.  Here, and throughout central and eastern Europe, Catholics suffered through 50 years of Nazi and Soviet murder regimes.  So they know the real cost of Christian witness from bitter experience — and also, unfortunately, the cost of cowardice, collaboration and self-delusion in the face of evil.

I want to begin by suggesting that many Catholics in the United States and Western Europe today simply don’t understand those costs.  Nor do they seem to care.  As a result, many are indifferent to the process in our countries that social scientists like to call “secularization” – but which, in practice, involves repudiating the Christian roots and soul of our civilization.

I, Bryan J. Brown, executive director of the ArchAngel Institute am not indifferent to the process of secularization in the social sciences.

On the contrary — I have been subjected to it, up close and personal.

My defense of the Christian root and soul of our civilization has cost me two careers and more, the first due to the culture of death suing me through the abortion industry, the second the same targeting me through the Democrat Party (in Kansas) and Indiana Board of Law Examiners.

The story of that second shot is directly onpoint with the good Archbishop’s speech.  I could be Exhibit A, in fact.

The Hoosier portion of that story starts here: http://www.archangelinstitute.org/psycho-justice-in-post-modern-america-post-a/

to be continued

Updated July 1

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” George Orwell

Why the ArchAngel Institute?  It is all about recovering Christian chivalry.  A tough minded, fighting faith.  Christian faith for a faithless and secular new world order.

Here is the mission statement that launched this project in 2007 and that yet guides us toward our institutional destiny:

We seek … a rebirth of Christian chivalry that advances the Culture of Life by encouraging, empowering and emboldening Christians to cherish, defend and advance faith, family and freedom.

See mission criticals at the top, right for more on this subject.

Our major project since 2008 has been documenting the unconstitutional acts of Indiana’s Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program (JLAP)  by our Executive Director, Bryan J. Brown.  He was “undercover” for about two years in that assignment  — he was in so deep that he did not even fully realize he was on assignment — how is that for covert!

You will find the documentation of his undercover ops recorded in the federal lawsuit denominated as Brown v. Bowman filed in the Northern District of Indiana on December 8, 2009.

Here is the latest docket report:

1:09-cv-00346-TLS-PRC

Brown v. Bowman et al
Theresa L Springmann, presiding
Paul R Cherry, referral
Date filed: 12/08/2009
Date of last filing: 05/07/2010

We are one of the millions of groups making up the “small people”  — the historic antidote to the poison called political correctness.

We are building a Culture of Life on the ruins of the culture of death.

We agree with the author of 1984 that “So much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot.”
George Orwell

The following hyperlinks may prove of interest to those who have questions about the litigation project of the ArchAngel Institute: Read the rest of this story »

Our last class on the Foundations of American Order met tonight.  We spent six weeks studying how America became such a beautiful testament of ordered liberty and three classes noting how it fell from ordered liberty to disordered passions.

Tonight’s class greatly appreciated the wise words of one of America’s leading contemporary jurists, a Man for all Seasons:

This selection was found to be particularly poignant tonight:

•The [Majority's] description of the place of Roe in the social history of the United States is unrecognizable. Not only did Roe not, as the Court suggests, resolve the deeply divisive issue of abortion; it did more than anything else to nourish it, by elevating it to the national level where it is infinitely more difficult to resolve. National politics were not plagued by abortion protests, nat ional abortion lobbying, or abortion marches on Congress before Roe v. Wade was decided. Profound disagreement existed among our citizens over the issue — as it does over other issues , such as the death penalty — but that disagreement was being worked out at the state level. As with many other issues, the division of sentiment within each State was not as closely balanced as it was among the population of the Nation as a whole, meaning not only that more people would be satisfied with the results of state-by-state resolution, but also that those results would be more stable. Pre-Roe, moreover, political compromise was possible.

Aux. Bishop James Conley has known me (Bryan) since 1991.  He is one of my spiritual advisers and has been for 18 years now.  He explains our shared background in this clip which he prepared for our December 8 banquet, before he knew for certain that the federal litigation would be filed.  He prepared a similar — actually even  more glowing — recommendation as to my good moral character and fitness and sent it to the Indiana Board of Law Examiners last June.  They ignored it.

I post this now because I am pretty certain that the same conspirators who focused their collectivist efforts to deny me entrance into the Indiana bar are now plotting to destroy me for daring to set forth their “official” deeds in the federal court pleadings.  (Read the complaint.)

More  revelations and fireworks to follow, so stay tuned  . . .

Or did the generations who set up constitutional republics across North America have a specific Infinite-Personal in mind when they formed their governments?

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/celebrating-martin-luther-king-jr-it-is-good-he-did-not-try-to-get-into-the-indiana-bar/

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/celebrating-martin-luther-king-jr-%e2%80%94-just-a-postmodern-heretic-himself/

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/celebrating-martin-luther-king-jr-by-standing-up-to-injustice/

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/what-the-world-need-now-is/

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/elena-kagan-is-no-mlk/

Today is the feast day of St. Augustine’s mother, and Pastor James Seculoff, one of the ArchAngle Institute’s advisers, used the following text at

Mass (St. John the Baptist, New Haven) this morning …

Sirach
Chapter 26

1

¹ Happy the husband of a good wife, twice-lengthened are his days;

2

² A worthy wife brings joy to her husband, peaceful and full is his life.

3

A good wife is a generous gift bestowed upon him who fears the LORD;

4

Be he rich or poor, his heart is content, and a smile is ever on his face.

13

A gracious wife delights her husband, her thoughtfulness puts flesh on his bones;

14

A gift from the LORD is her governed speech, and her firm virtue is of surpassing worth.

15

Choicest of blessings is a modest wife, priceless her chaste person.

16

Like the sun rising in the LORD’S heavens, the beauty of a virtuous wife is the radiance of her home.

¹ [1-4, 13-18] A good wife is as a gift from God, bringing joy and peace, happiness and contentment to her husband (Sirach 26:1-4) through her thoughtfulness, reserve, modesty and chastity, beauty, grace and virtue (Sirach 26:13-18).

² [2] Worthy: gifted spiritually, mentally and physically. Cf Proverb 31:10.

Dedicated to my one-of-a-kind soulmate and the wonderful mother of our five children, Anne E. Walker Brown (pictured with our latest addition).  Anne is too busy homeschooling and babycaring these days  to enlighten us with posts here at ArchAngel, but she did post a year ago.  Here. I will ask her to post again once the fall semester is underway.  (She was up at 4:30 a.m. working on lesson plans today!)  She is a woman of vibrant faith, strong opinion and well developed world view.

We are preparing an intimate, behind the scenes mailing to go out to a small list of friends.  We want to get it to those who have stood with us, worked with us, laughed with us (not at us) and prayed with us over the past three years.

Here is the problem … our database management is not stellar.

If you have sent a check the past three years, then we likely have you on the list.  We have to keep that list up to date for IRS purposes.

If you have instead just dropped by to extend your best wishes, or dropped us a line over the three years, or attended one of our events and did or did not fill out a card …. well then we may not have you on our “best friends” list.

If you want to ensure that you are on that list then please send us, in the next week, warm wishes and a request to be on that list.

A comment left here will probably be enough  — as long as we recognize you as a friend and not a culture of death plant.  Your comment will not be posted if contains personal information.

An email to archangelinstitute@gmail.com is  enough, again, if we recognize you as a friend of the Institute.

Snail mail is probably the best, since only friends, for the most part, would take the time to write.

No check is necessary, but …. it will go toward a good cause and does tend to show good will.

On August 25, 1989  the (arguably) largest act of civil disobedience in Hoosier history took place at 827 Webster Street.

On August 25, 2007 the ArchAngel Institute put on its first educational program (not counting the May 19, 2007 blessing and exorcism of the former abortion clinic, click here for that.)

Click here for our post with an embedded Kevin Leininger article on the gathering three year ago today.

Below:  A friend’s capturing of the moment on August 25, 2007 …