Bishop D’ Arcy’s request for a reserved and prayerful response to the shameful act soon taking place at the University of Notre Dame is being rejected, largely by groups led by Protestant pro-lifers.

Some Catholics are indeed joining in, but when the day ends it will be nonCatholics who were the most successful culture war profiteers by going way over the big top in South Bend.

Here is a fine example from a Protestant Evangelical group that now claims to dominate the air space over our Lady’s school:

Acts
Chapter 26

1

Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You may now speak on your own behalf.” So Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense.

2

¹ “I count myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am to defend myself before you today against all the charges made against me by the Jews,

3

especially since you are an expert in all the Jewish customs and controversies. And therefore I beg you to listen patiently.

4

My manner of living from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my people ² and in Jerusalem, all (the) Jews know.

5

They have known about me from the start, if they are willing to testify, that I have lived my life as a Pharisee, the strictest party of our religion.

6

But now I am standing trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors.

7

Our twelve tribes hope to attain to that promise as they fervently worship God day and night; and on account of this hope I am accused by Jews, O king.

8

Why is it thought unbelievable among you that God raises the dead?

9

I myself once thought that I had to do many things against the name of Jesus the Nazorean,

10

and I did so in Jerusalem. I imprisoned many of the holy ones with the authorization I received from the chief priests, and when they were to be put to death I cast my vote against them.

11

Many times, in synagogue after synagogue, I punished them in an attempt to force them to blaspheme; I was so enraged against them that I pursued them even to foreign cities.

12

“On one such occasion I was traveling to Damascus with the authorization and commission of the chief priests.

13

At midday, along the way, O king, I saw a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my traveling companions.

14

We all fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.’ ³

15

And I said, ‘Who are you, sir?’ And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

16

Get up now, and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness of what you have seen (of me) and what you will be shown. ⁴

17

I shall deliver you from this people and from the Gentiles to whom I send you,

18

to open their eyes ⁵ that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may obtain forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been consecrated by faith in me.’

19

“And so, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

20

On the contrary, first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout the whole country of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached the need to repent and turn to God, and to do works giving evidence of repentance.

21

That is why the Jews seized me (when I was) in the temple and tried to kill me.

22

But I have enjoyed God’s help to this very day, and so I stand here testifying to small and great alike, saying nothing different from what the prophets and Moses foretold, ⁶

23

that the Messiah must suffer ⁷ and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

24

While Paul was so speaking in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, “You are mad, Paul; much learning is driving you mad.”

25

But Paul replied, “I am not mad, most excellent Festus; I am speaking words of truth and reason.

26

The king knows about these matters and to him I speak boldly, for I cannot believe that (any) of this has escaped his notice; this was not done in a corner. ⁸

27

King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? ⁹ I know you believe.”

28

Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You will soon persuade me to play the Christian.”

29

Paul replied, “I would pray to God that sooner or later not only you but all who listen to me today might become as I am except for these chains.”

This post takes off from where the last post ended. Thus we are still discussing Ulrich George Klopfer, who has dedicated his adult life to performing first and second trimester abortions. Search for this site for more articles on this man, who I got to know through my pro-life activism and who sued me out of existence about 19 years ago. He brought much pain to me then, but as a powerful German once said, that which does not kill us makes us stronger.

I retire from my 20 years on the Culture War front strong and impoverished.

I have been slammed by a state ordered counselor (actually a contracted cleaner) for failing to have enough empathy for dear doctor Klopfer. She must have missed this testimony and this testimony in the Indiana statehouse earlier in the year. Or maybe not. I has been my finding that those who are slavishly devoted to the regime ushered in by Roe v. Wade are quite willing to overlook women with their guts ripped out by men like Klopfer. Their goddess, Choice, does demand a few adult human sacrifices now and then. It was once about ending back alley abortions. It is now about keeping backalley abortionists in storefront operations. What a noble cause!

Seven month ago Dad and I were at Home Depot buying flooring for the ArchAngel Institute. As we pulled a heavily laden cart toward checkout an older man and middle aged woman passed us by. They ended up just ahead of us in line. The man was on his cell phone speaking loudly in a Germanic accent. Dad had recognized him and his female escort just moments before and tipped me off. As he rang off the call I looked him square in the eye and asked “George, don’t you recognize me?” He did not. It was a seemingly chance encounter that seemed to be ripe with destiny. And so I stepped up to the plate and invited George Ulrich Klopfer to please come visit me at the ArchAngel Institute.

I offered to take abortion off the table and discuss only Mr. Klopfer during the visit. “Let’s talk about you!” I said. I asked him to come into the ArchAngel Gabriel studio and cut an interview with me. He then cursed me, quite loudly, and shared with everyone in the front of the store his low opinion of me. He claimed that I could did not care about human suffering (the empathy thang again), and especially when whole cities were burned to the ground. My Dad looked him in the eye and said “you are talking about Dresden, aren’t you George.” “Damn right I am,” Klopfer responded. “I saw it burn.”

What a moment! Stop the presses! Was George Klopfer wounded by the Devil? Is that how he could be such a faithful servant of the ancient murderer (see John ch.8) for most of his adult life?

If you do not know of Dresden then you do not know of America’s darkest hour in WWII. Click here for some insight into that violence that drives Klopfer’s destructive hand.

Undaunted by his initial refusal to come and visit me at the Institute I mulled over the coincidences and then sent a letter off to my old nemesis. The text of that letter may prove to be controversial. Some might think I offered too much. Some might read it as me compromising. Some might even find it “empathetic.” But probably not those who hate me for my Christian worldview.

Memorial Day weekend, 2008

Dear Mr. Klopfer,

I truly appreciated seeing you once again (last Thursday) after all these many years. The years look to have been kind to you. I believe that I have aged more than you have.

Sir, I do not much believe in chance, and do not believe that our seeming chance
encounter in the checkout lane at Home Depot was by mere happenstance. Consider the
timing and circumstances: Were my Dad not with me I probably would not have recognized
you or Ann; we arrived at the same checkout lane at the very same time; I was in the
process of buying new flooring for your previous offices; I had discussed Dresden and the
uneven historical record as to WWII with a South Bend attorney just a week prior. What
are the chances of us so meeting by chance on a Thursday afternoon? The odds are quite
long.

I also appreciated the topic of our brief discussion. I have long considered Dresden to
be one of the least explored chapters in this nation’s history, and one of the darkest
hours in the Allied Cause. Many are now in the process of rethinking World War II, Pat
Buchanan among them. The generation that witnessed that fratricidal act is not long
among us now is the time to better study such topics as the firebombing of Dresden.

I have enclosed the art that first introduced me to the topic of Dresden. I was not
taught of Dresden in school or college – no surprise there. Pink Floyd’s leadman, Roger
Waters (one of my favorite artists) lost his father at the Battle of the Bulge. (Waters
was of tender years then). He has often allowed his own pain and doubts about WWII come
out in his lyrics. He did so in the 1980 award-winning release The Wall. His followup
to that fine album was even more moving and quite cynical. It received no awards and
little air play. In The Final Cut, Roger Waters fully vented his pain and rage,
including these profound lines, which he places on the lips of a Lancaster bombardier:

The Hero’s Return (Roger Waters, 1982)

Jesus, Jesus, what’s it all about?

Trying to clout these little ingrates into shape.
When I was their age all the lights went out.
There was no time to whine or mope about.
And even now part of me flies over
Dresden at angels one five.

Though they’ll never fathom it behind my
Sarcasm desperate memories lie.
Sweetheart sweetheart are you fast asleep? Good.
‘Cause that’s the only time that I can really speak to you.
And there is something that I’ve locked away
A memory that is too painful
To withstand the light of day.

I have enclosed the compact disc of The Final Cut as a gift from me to you so that you
can hear these lyrics in the context of this quite moving concept album.

After our”chance” encounter I asked a Germanophile attorney (double German
descent) … to consider joining you and me for a no-holds-barred discussion
of Dresden in a studio interview. He views Dresden as a war crime for which Churchill
and others should have been tried. He is [a military man] willing
to risk further career advancement to speak out about Allied War crimes.

The goal of this interview would be to explore the topic of injustices against the
Germanic people using firsthand accounts – yours, among others. The end would be a piece
for radio and internet play that lays out the case against the Allies as to Dresden and
other acts of state-sanctioned terror. We would then invite a response that attempts to
defend what Churchill and Roosevelt ordered. I am open to having your own experts join
us in studio or on the telephone for this series, which I hope to follow up with a
similar series on similar acts which have taken place in the Middle East since WWII.

Your own profession and professional activities of the past 40 years are of no import to
this series and will not be brought up by me or anyone else on my team. I will call you
Mr. Klopfer, George, Ulrich or, if you prefer, Dr. Klopfer during the interview. You may
know that I have rarely offered the latter to anyone in your profession. I even risked
contempt of court to deny the same to Mr. Tiller more than a decade ago. I offer it to
you, now, as a showing of my good faith. I seek common ground and I seek a first hand
accounting of the firestorm over Dresden. I seek a robust discussion of the horrors that
followed that international injustice. War is my focus not a woman’s choices during
peacetime.

You will be accorded the respect due one who lived through the bombing of his ancestral
homelands.

George, decades have passed since we last “tussled.” I have matured much in
the intervening years, and see the world quite differently now. Your litigation had a
devastating effect upon my life, and it yet pays off in negative dividends. But it has
paid off in many positive rewards as well. Had I not left the Fort I would have never
met my lovely wife, Anne. Had I not met my lovely wife I would not have four beautiful
children. So, in a strange way, I owe you a debt of gratitude. Thank you.

To elaborate further, I am concerned about the tone of the national debate over the
“social issues.” I confess that my earlier work has added more heat than light
to the problem. I have been involved in communications that tended to demonize men such
as yourself. I have been involved in communications that demonized you. For that I
tender my apology to you.

Please help me make amends. Please help me produce a recording on the horror that was
visited upon Dresden and, in the process, help humanize you for those who fail to
appreciate that you are a man who has been subjected to war crimes and, I would guess
from my own research, unspeakable childhood pain. I have studied what the Allies did to
Germany after the war. We yet decry the injustices placed upon Germany by the terms of
Versailles but refuse to admit to the greater injustices done to the German people from
1944 – 1949.

Dr. Klopfer, I am one hundred percent sincere. This is not a setup, you have my word on
that. You can bring anyone that you wish along with you into the studio. Abortion will
not be brought up unless you bring it up, and it will not then be discussed unless you
want to discuss it. You would be included in the final production process and have the
ability to edit out any content that was not to your liking. You will be given copies of
all interviews and be given the ability to oversee the erasing of any copies that you do
not want on file.

I simply and sincerely seek your aid in preserving a record of Dresden and WWII from your
very unique perspective. Forget our combative past. Let’s try to work together to get
the truth out, and in so doing send a message to those on both sides of the abortion
debate — the message that common ground can be found if both sides are willing to seek it.
In search of true history,

Bryan J. Brown
Executive Director,
The ArchAngel Institute

Dr. Klopfer failed to respond to my letter. Who is the ungracious party now, counselor?

As Ron Allen says, one must be wounded to be best used. (See previous post)

I bequeath, on this, the seventh post of my swansong as the Executive Director of the ArchAngel Institute, the above knowledge to those who will come after me. George, the offer yet stands. Come let us reason together.

p.s. Klopfer certainly is a German name. Check out this post. And this post. And this post. (Those who know Ulrich may spot a certain familiarity of face.

Once when I walked Ulrich toward 827 Webster Street (where he killed thousands of babies and where the ArchAngel Institute is now located) I asked him why he was an abortionist. He replied, a his thick German accent, that he “removed population pollution.”

Is the Indiana bar yet feeling sympathtic toward the plaintiff Klopfer? Probably not. Amazingly, I still am. But then I would, since I have a much higher tolerance of political incorrectness than the Indiana bar.

It is your move, George. I say let’s talk history.

“Mammon is a term that was used to describe riches, avarice, and worldly gain in Biblical literature. It was personified as a false god in the New Testament. The term is often used to refer to excessive materialism or greed as a negative influence.” Wikipedia

Webster’s dictionary defines ‘Mammon‘ as: 1) the false god of riches and avarice. 2) riches regarded as an object of worship and greedy pursuit; wealth as an evil, more or less personified.

Mammon has corrupted Western Civilization, of that there can be little doubt. Now that the god of this age is shaking and falling, what will you do? Learn to live without this golden calf or fall at its altar, worshipping riches in a bid to revive the idol.

It is easy to point to the abortion industry as a golden calf. After all, it turns little people into economic interests. In the middle ages the dream of the alchemists was to get rich spinning straw into gold. The abortionists get rich spinning the preborn into shekels. But it does not stop there … Hollywood moguls get rich spinning sex into entertainment dollars … modern governments spin debt into paper money to bailout the present at great cost to the future … and … are you ready for this … the Christian Right gets rich spinning yarns into giving units.

Back in the days of Rescue the nationals used to have a saying. You did not hear it unless you were close to the inside. It was something about not beginning to believe your own press releases. The underlying assumption was that press releases tended to exagerate the truth of the matter.

For money, for power, for fame.

Yarns spun into giving units. It was the sad result of direct mail, which is the lifeblood of the Christian Right. I should say was the lifeblood, since reports from all over have been that this strategy, proven to bring in the geld since the 80’s, is now failing.

The Christian Right and its mailing lists were born during the Reagan years, and it is a little known fact that the men behind the letters got really rich. Not only many of the leaders, but also many of the ghost writers. Those men who added the red ink, the person touches, the exaggerations. (Don’t make the mistake of beginning to believe you own fundraising letters.)

Yarns spun into giving units. For money, for power, for fame.

When I was putting ArchAngel together some nationally recognized pro-life leaders gave me advice. One pulled me aside and whispered this:”Do not do your own fundraising letters, hire professionals. Realize that they will have to take a healthy cut and go over the top at times with the appeals.” I felt sick to my stomach. I was then told such was the way things worked in this business, and if I were to succeed I would have to accept that fact. Another prominent leader advised me against focusing upon Fort Wayne. “I have found,” he matter of factly stated, “that you bring in much more money if you keep a national focus, even if operating only locally.”

Yarns spun into giving units. For money, for power, for fame.

On another occasion I was speaking with a pro-life promoter who told me of a pro-life team that bought an abortion clinic and evicted the owner. I corrected him, stating that I knew the facts and that the abortionist had moved out before the clinic was bought out by the ‘lifers. I was told that I needed to realize that there was nothing wrong with embellishing the story for dramatic effect.

Well color me old fashioned, but I think there is something very wrong with all of the above.

Whatever happened to the doctrine of Mammon? Can one serve God and money? Can one live by direct mail and do the Will of the Father? Does an embellishment here and yarn there soon end in a butchered conscience?

Yarns spun into giving units. For money, for power, for fame.

It was all too much for many who watched from the sidelines long ago, even before the pitches got fevered. Consider this social commentary by Queensryche:

“Religion and sex are power plays
manipulate the people for money they pay
selling skin, selling God,
the numbers are the same on the credit card.”

The ArchAngel Institute was not born of Mammon and has not pursued Mammon. We have tried to walk by Faith and live on just what God supplied. We have seen doors open that seemed locked. We have witnessed strange occurrences that strike us as miraculous. Retta just reported another one tonight, look for her to post some good copy next week about a trip to Michigan — just as soon as I finish my swan song.

My views of Mammon and faith were kick started hard back in ‘91, when Susan Hill and George Klopfer’s attorneys relieved me of almost all of my worldly possessions and my career. I wandered west to Wichita, were I learned to live on faith. I had no dependents and it was easy to just look skyward and say “what’s next, Lord?” I did not worry about money and wanted for nothing. I did not live a champagne lifestyle — it has been my experience that God is more proletarian than bourgeoisie in his tastes. He likes us more poor than rich. He knows the lure of Mammon.

As the years passed and the kids came I became more complacent, less faith filled, more trusting in salaries and my career once again. Than, thanks be to God (that was not easy to say) the Left hit me very hard once again. This time I had a wife and four kids. I was again privileged to walk forward in faith. Not relying on a career. Not relying on a salary. Relying on God. He did not disappoint. But it was a great challenge.

Could it be that we are now all, all of us Americans, facing this haunting specter? Could it be that the golden calf of the American economy is falling so that those who call upon the Name of the Lord can come out of a sick world system to walk by faith?

Are you ready for that?

Tonight I bequeath to my readers this advice: Do not fear a walk by Faith. He really is there, He really will hold you aloft. He may want you poorer, that is true. Poor is dependent upon Him. But He can be trusted to see you through.

A depression may be coming. It will not be new to me, I have lived in one since January, 2007, and been persecuted by my government at the same time. Blacklisted and blackballed. But He has met my family’s every actual need. Is our 501 c-3 packed up tight? No. Is our retirement planned? No. Have we lived on less than we thought we could? Yes. Could God be trying to set our priorities aright? Yes, I think so.

Consider our Saviour’s words:

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully;

And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.

The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.

Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?

And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?

If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?

And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.

For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Don’t hear these preached often do you? Could it be that we have become “of the nations?” Even the Christian Right?

Yarns spun into giving units. For money, for power, for fame.

As I step down from the ArchAngel Institute we are financially solvent by the Grace of God. But we do not have treasures stored up in barns. Like the children of Israel we have just enough manna for today, and trust in God that more will come when needed. That more manna needs only be enough to keep the lights on, rent paid and Retta given a retainer to staff the Institute.

We need less than $900 a week to keep this ministry open as a beacon of light and hope. Just this week Retta has entertained two women working through the pain of past abortions at the Institute. Stop and imagine that! A former abortion clinic being used of God to bring healing to those deeply wounded by abortion.

We are seeking first the Kingdom of God, as best we can. Pray that we remain true to that High calling. Pray that we always butcher golden calves rather than our own consciences.

I pledge to you in this swan song that the ArchAngel Institute has not given into the temptation to spin yarns into giving units. Not for money, not for power, not for fame.

Bryan

p.s. Here is tonight’s rock and roll nexus. It pretty well sums up my 20 years on the front.

Here is a great American of days gone by saying much the same as I did above.

I have protested abortion more than a few times and represented protestors in state and federal courts. I have stood in the docket myself for numerous acts of protest and represented protestors who were up on criminal charges, who were being sued and who were doing the suing. I have argued protestor cases before judges, before juries and before appellate courts. I have argued protestor cases in more states than I can remember without my files, but they at least include Oregon, Arizona, Montana, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico. I have argued protestor cases before the Second, Third, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth and Eleventh Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal.

I might be considered somewhat of an expert on protesting.

One of the reasons that I walked away from representing protestors to take up the Consumer Protection crusade in 2003 was the caliber of the protestors I was dealing with. While many were principled, too few seemed to be doing anything other than offending people with six foot dead baby signs.

This needs to be put into some historical context. (Click here for the Fort’s history in a nutshell.)

The “pro-life movement” was born in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade. First as a religious expression of dissent mostly among the Catholic bishops. Then, as abortion clinics came out of the back alleys to hang their neon signs on sidestreets like Webster, pro-lifers were attracted to them like bugs to light.

Some of the best of those bugs were actually pro-life nurses. I am willing to be corrected, but I think that Fort Wayne was one of the first places where such nurses were sued for protesting. Thanks to Phyllis Morken, the late Phyllis Avila and Concordia Lutheran Seminary.

All these “bugs drawn to the light” did to get sued was stand on the sidewalks adjacent to abortion clinics, in their white uniforms, offering abortion bound woman a choice. “Choose Life” they softly offered. And for that they were sued $750,000 by the so-called “pro-choice” champions.

Note that they had a communicative reason (to abortion bound women) to be at the clinic.

As the 80’s droned on the “pro-choicers” became more aggressive on overruling the “choose life” option. They crowded around the abortion bound women as “clinic escorts,” singing loudly to drown out the “choose life” message of the nurses and those that had taken their place. The escorts even began getting a little rough with the sidewalk-stationed “pro-life counselors.”

The abortion industry had, through its useful idiots, upped the ante. The pro-lifers answered in kind, kinda. We began gathering at the clinics en masse to support the sidewalk counselors. It was a show of force, a show of Christian resolve, unified Christian resolve, to stand opposed to the abortion clinics that were proliferating across America.

More escorts showed up. As our masses grew theirs became more desperate. Sidewalk counseling became impossible as rings of escorts rushed abortion bound women toward the doors of fate covered under blankets with music blaring.

Then, in the late 80’s, a tipping point was reached. Some pro-lifers began to stand in the doorways and block access. The cry went out – if abortion was really murder, act like it! What would you do if they were killing one year olds? What is the difference between one year olds (conception plus 21 months) and one month olds (conception plus one month)., The logic seemed inescapable. The Rescue Movement was born out of pro-life angst and collective guilt.

One of the byproducts of the Rescue Movement was a tri-fold division of labor at the clinics. We had the “rescuers” who would block doors, the “counselors” who would approach the clinic bound women and the “pray warriors” who supported the other two by corporate worship onsite.

As a manager of such events it was always the latter group that seemed the least Biblical. The sidewalk counselors had a message to share. The rescuers were engaged in civil disobedience in pursuit of the doctrine of interposition. But the Prayer Warriors were, in my mind, possibly unbiblical.

Here is why …

“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven…

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.  But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Well lawsuits, aggressive arrests and Congressional action (The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, FACE) pretty well shut down the rescues cold. Threats of the aforementioned and the ravishes of time has worn down the sidewalk counselors. But the prayer warriors have now recently reemerged, only without rescuers or counselors to support. They have now become an end in themselves. And the above verses yet give me pause.

I simply do not comprehend, given the ground rules, a communicative reason (other than public prayer) to be at the clinic. If it is merely to pray in public in close proximity to sinners, then I fear that the above red may apply in full.

Especially when said prayer gatherings attempt to supplant liturgical seasons from the ancient past, such as Lent.

Another recent strain in the protest movement that gives me pause is the advent of the six foot dead baby posters. (And now even truck mounted 10 foot dead baby posters.)  They were not prevalent back in the day of my protest activity. They seemed to spring up once FACE shut down rescues. They strike me as a desperate (and even crass) attempt to create social tension. I have never been comfortable with their use in the general public and have often worried that they simply serve to further coarsen an already too-coarse culture. Think about it … if you were murdered would you want your lifeless body displayed on six foot panels for five year olds to view?  If your wife was torn assunder would you march about showing her most tortured moment?

I turned down as many cases involving these giant posters as I took on when I worked for the AFA Center for Law and Policy. Too many of the protestors acknowledged, even boasted in, their sign’s ability to enrage viewers, and then inexplicably used the same in school zones, along busy highways and in places where families gathered.  It seemed to be all about the impact, and to be, at times, done with a vindictive spirit.

I often asked the sign wielding protestors how they would feel if someone who viewed their signs became visibly shaken or enraged and drove their car into innocent persons. Most of the zealots replied that they would not feel responsible. I wanted to represent only those who clearly understood their responsibility to be responsible protestors.

Finding few, I traded in my constitutional law perch for a position in the civil service. Being pro-life must mean more than holding giant pictures of decapitated babies and praying in public for others to repent of their sins.

How does one best protest the Culture of Death responsibly? How does one protest the Culture of Death with the greatest impact? How does one protest the Culture of Death most biblically?

These are fine questions. As my final bequeathing to the Movement that I actively served these past twenty years I will end this swan song series answering these fine and pressing questions.

My previous post ended with call for post-abortive women and men to rise up and lead the pro-life movement in this hour. There is nothing quite as powerful as the wounded rising up against the perpetrators. Consider vets against war, lung cancer survivors against tobacco, mothers against drunk driving.

These wounded warriors would best lead us by keeping the following principles close to the heart: Be the Church, Build the Community, Resurrect Chivalry, Rally around the Constitution.

Be the Church

One of the fundamental mistakes of the pro-life movement from the get go was secularization. This was a byproduct of the Protestant Reformation. That ostensible reform movement ended up throwing the baby out with the bathwater in its second and third generation (see Protestant author Richard Lovelace for this argument) The socio-religious argument goes something like this: since we cannot agree on such foundational subjects as the Creed, the Eucharist and Church offices we must agree to just ignore these foundational subjects and soldier on seeking the lowest common denominator. Some of the affiliates of the National Right to Life took this false ecumenism so far as to ignore the Author of Life in toto — not even opening meetings in prayer.  The ArchAngel Institute does not ignore the core of our Christian Faith — we celebrate and memorialize it.

A pro-life movement focused upon being the Church must focus its gaze squarely upon the Lord Jesus Christ first and foremost. Since we (sadly) had a divorce in the family of God in the 900’s and again in the 1500’s, let us go back further than that to find, in the hallways of history, our common Christian heritage. That heritage is found among those who faced down the Culture of Death in the persons of the Caesars. If we do live in the age of the Antichrist, as many argue (click here and here for examples) then we should draw inspiration from the Founding Fathers who faced the lions with faith and courage. We should seek out the Faith of our Fathers.

Build the Community

If I have learned one thing through the rough ride at the end of my four year gig in the civil service it is this: Families under attack for their faithfulness in standing against the Culture of Death should not be shunned by “the Movement.” The Culture of Death will ever seek to target the leaders of the Movement and compromise or destroy them. I was so targeted by the Left in a $250,000 political ad campaign. That campaign rendered me far too controversial for most. Pro-lifers who knew my history should not have been included in that grouping. But my letters to pro-life attorneys, pro-life groups and Christian Right law firms (the ones ostensibly advancing the type of robust Christian activism for which I was pilloried) went pretty much unanswered. Even letters to Church officials resulted in little in the way or aid or encouragement. (I thank God Most High for Bishop John D’Arcy!)

If President-Elect Obama’s appointments and pledge to grow the federal government are taken at face value it is likely that the “culture war” is about to open a whole new chapter. The families of Christian activists may soon face official harassment not seen since the darkest days of Janet Reno’s reign.

Will we circle the wagons or let those targeted twist in the wind? It we are to circle the wagons we must get to know one another better and be ready to stand, in solidarity, with one another. Future pro-life events should thus be less akin to revivalist church services (all focused upon the speaker) and more akin to banquets. Our model must be less top down and more bottom up. Our structure must be more like a net, made up of many intersection ropes, and less like a pyramid.

This social networking is a tall order. It is best accomplished through the parishes, or, as our Protestant brethren call them, the “churches.” Our Lord is building His Church – let the Movement be fully integrated with that plan in this hour to realize its full potential. To be pro-life is to be fully Christian. To be pro-choice is to reject the Revelation clearly given the Church. (See this post for details. One of the many counselors that the State required me to see actually instructed me that this was a misinterpretation of a historic event and thus not a foundation from which to value the lives of those in utero.)

Resurrect Chivalry

Political correctness is the chivalry of the modern age. It does not value women and children as the highest priority, it rather values “diversity” and “tolerance.” Or so it claims. The diversity of one who engages in civil disobedience to protect the unborn is never celebrated. Tolerance is not extended to those who refuse to swear off their allegiance to traditional Christian morality.

Chivalry is thus the antithesis of the ethic advanced by modernity. The ArchAngel Institute was born to advance chivalry, as is made clear by this lengthy statement on the same. Most all of the series presented on this website arise out of some paragraph in that lengthy philosophical foundation.

Chivalry and political correctness are diametrically opposed because they are the ethical systems of two competing systems. One is Christendom, the other is the New World Order. Those who have dedicated themselves to the latter have no regard for, and even rail against, the former.

Our Lord clearly taught that what we believe must inform what we do. Christianity is incarnational. Our Lord Jesus Christ became flesh to save us, and we are to put His teachings into flesh to change our world. A merely spiritual experience (Francis Schaeffer called it an “upper storey experience”) is not what the Christian faith is all about. As nice as spiritual goosebumps are, they are not the stuff of which our Faith is advanced. Consider the greatest prophet who ever lived – John the Baptist. Why did he lose his head? Because he refused to abandon the morality of the Faith even when ordered to do so by the King himself. The greatest prophet to ever live was executed for advancing chivalry in an age that wanted to celebrate an ungodly “diversity” and embrace toleration of all manners of deviance. (Sound familiar?)

If we are to have John the Baptist’s courage we should draw inspiration from the generations that most revered him. Those generations were the Founders of our Church. I cannot stress enough the import of studying the writings of those Church leaders. Here is a link to a set that I found most helpful and here is a study of the historic development of those same Fathers’ teachings that I found most instructive.

Rally around the Constitution

While the pro-life movement claims to be the majority in America, recent election results reveal this to be a soft majority at the very best. The Culture of Death has dominated the media for a good forty years, hammering home themes that now frame the debate. The winds of change that carried Barack Obama to victory could be fanned into flames that attempt to silence the pro-life witness over the next four years.

Rest assured that Planned Parenthood desires, more than most anything else, to see such a conflagration fanned into real flames of persecution.

The Founding Fathers of our federal government sought to protect the rights of persons much like today’s pro-lifers. Religious wars had dominate European politics for centuries, and there was little love lost among the Calvinists, Anglicans, Baptists and Roman Catholics who settled the original thirteen colonies. Prior to the Declaration of Independence the colonies of Maryland and Virginia had witnessed squabbles every bit as intense as the culture wars of the past forty years in America.

No less authority than the United States Supreme Court has noted, in West Virginia v. Barnette (1943) that:

“The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One’s right to life, liberty and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.”

This same High Court, through Justice Jackson, left us with this very important assurance:

“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein”.

A federal appellate court recently applied the Barnette decision to render an opinion that included the following:

“[The] rights embodied in the Constitution, most particularly the First Amendment, protect the minority — those persons who march to their own drummers. It is they who need the protection afforded by the Constitution and it is the responsibility of federal judges to ensure that protection.” Circle School v. Pappert, 381 F.3d 172, 183 (3d Cir. 2004).

(The drummer reference harkens back to an earlier post in which a government agent called me just that.)

All who stand up to the government should use the constitution as a shield. It can also be used as a sword against overreaching government. If I am correct on what lies ahead, pro-lifers will need the shield and the sword more than ever in the days to come. Christian eschatology certainly teaches that a day is coming when great evil will be unleashed upon all the Earth. Our constitution may be all that restrains such evil in our time. Value that blood bought document with your life, your fortune and your sacred honor.

Putting it all together

I dropped into the Institute today for 1 pm prayers. Father David Meizen was on duty, leading us in the Jesus prayer out of the orthodox tradition.

Retta, Priscilla and Delores were hard at work, busy bringing their female energies to the Institute. The launch completed, the blessing performed and the founder out of the way (tomorrow’s post), it is time for new sprouting at the Institute.

I bequeath the above to the new guard moving in, and again invite other wounded warriors to come join the team. Now is the time for America to hear from the consumers of the pain that is abortion.

My detractors think I am too religious. They would expect me to anchor all of the above in Holy Writ. I need not turn to that fine source, for their own poets encourage us in such matters.

Click on the blue — Roger Waters gets it , he laid it down on Pink Floyd’s Final Cut album — it is the post war dream that we are aborting in the modern age:

A place to stay, Enough to eat
Somewhere old heroes shuffle safely down the street
Where you can speak out loud
About your doubts and fears
And what’s more no-one ever disappears
You never hear their standard issue kicking in your door.
You can relax on both sides of the tracks
And maniacs don’t blow holes in bandsmen by remote control
And everyone has recourse to the law
And no-one kills the children anymore.
No one kills the children anymore.

{Note:  This post is the final in a series on the retirement of Bryan J. Brown from pro-life leadership.  This initial post in that series is here.  Many topics of interest are discussed in the series, and especially in post #11. The post that follows is Bryan’s most personal post in the series.)

Closure is a great thing. I am a person who needs closure. The Donegal Corridor, the ArchAngel Institute and the events of the past two years have been closure for me.

Some, including me, mistook the founding of the Institute as a new beginning. It is a new beginning for 827 Webster Street. It is not a new beginning for me. It is instead my happy ending. A happy end to my twenty years in pro-life leadership. This is my final post in a leadership position with the Institute, and tomorrow, for the first time since January 13, 1989, I will not be in a leadership position in “the Movement.”

It all makes sense to me now.

I crossed the line on January 13, 1989 to support my then wife of eight and a half years. She threw herself into the “rescue-revival” with reckless abandon, serving as NorthEast Indiana’s founder and main administrator in its early years. I was startled by her zeal at that time. I later came to believe that it had to do with her own desire to somehow “get even” with the abortion industry. She seemed to view them as Josie viewed the Redlegs. She was a gifted and unique woman driven by an all-consuming mission.

That mission came to an abrupt halt when Susan Hill and George Klopfer sued us in federal court. She soon began to fall apart. All of the dysfunctions that plagued our relationship since the day we married came due in the months that followed. We were one, but we were not the same. Our marriage began to unravel.

On August 4, 1990, two days after our tenth anniversary, she gave me back the expensive watch that I had bought her. Through the tears she told me that she just could not accept it, that she did not deserve it. She then dropped the following bomb: “I just do not love you like a wife should love her husband. I am in love with your best friend.” My world began crashing to the ground. It felt as though my heart would explode.

“I am leaving you,” she sobbed, and then added, “one day you will have a wife who loves you like you should be loved and you will have five beautiful children. When that day comes you will thank me for what I am doing now.”

Thus began the end of my previous life in the Fort. The Culture of Death moved in for the kill. She moved out of the Fort and sought comfort in the arms of my former best friend. Pastor Wendell Brane’s (wisely uninvolved) wife afforded him the relative safety of being “judgment proof.” Thus the full wrath of the Culture of Death fell upon me. Their siege engines targeted my possessions, my house and my career. It all went by the wayside in the crash that followed.

I prayed and I prayed that divorce was a cup that would pass me by. I sincerely believed that it would not end that way. I really did not have much choice in the matter. She had our marriage undone with about as much formality and expense as a disturbing the peace prosecution.

I was left to struggle with the theological ramifications of the end of our marriage of ten years. Some told me that I could never marry again, that once was all that was allowed in this life. Others assured me that I faced no impediment to remarriage. I was amazed by the range of opinion on such an important topic among dedicated Christians.

I left the Fort a deeply wounded and broken man in the Summer of ‘91. I was rebuilt in Wichita as I found a catharsis in pro-life activism of a most urgent kind. And I was rebuilt when I met a woman who was willing and able to love me like a wife should. She helped me complete my journey from Evangelical with catholic leanings to Catholic with evangelical zeal. The Bishop’s marriage tribunal authoritatively answered the question of whether I was free to marry again, drawing from a legal system older than the Magna Carta.

Anne Walker is a pearl of great price. Gaining her was well worth all of the pain that was mine in the Fort. I could have no better mate in this life. She is my lioness.

As I have written elsewhere, I had been informed by medical professionals that I was sterile. For that reason I actually had laughed when my ex-wife “prophesied” that I would one day have five beautiful children. It was simply impossible. My Anne married me despite this physical impairment, believing in faith that God would grant us children, either through natural means or via adoption.

All can now understand why the birth of my fifth child, Judah Christopher, meant so very much to me two weeks ago. And why the timing of it all makes so much sense given my present circumstances.

So much is coming to a head this month.

Contrary to modernist opinion, children are a very good thing. Those who contracept and/or avail themselves to “the back up for failed contraception” (Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s description of abortion on demand) deny themselves the greatest blessing on God’s green Earth. As it is written, “Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, The fruit of the womb is a reward.” Psalms 127:3

MY restoration is complete. I am a very rich man.

I have closure.

One of Susan Hill’s flagship abortion clinics, once the headquarters of the radical feminists of NorthEast Indiana, once used to drive me from all I then held dear, now hosts a budding post-abortion mentoring program and daily prayer meetings. In those prayer meetings Susan Hill, George Klopfer and others involved in the Culture of Death are lifted up to the Lord for healing. Its studio, located in one of the three former abortion chambers, now records the testimonies of those wounded by abortion and those who have sacrificed in the battle against the COD.

The very building that was used by the COD to drive me from the Fort was used by the Lord as a mission to bring me back home to share in my loving parents’ December years. And to enjoy the best set of siblings and sisters-in-law a man could want.

Closure at long last.

During our marathon prayer meeting on September 29, ArchAngel director Gloria Carrel prayed that the Lord would grant me direction “suddenly.” A series of suddenlies followed. Just three days later, on October 2, the Feast of the Guardian Angels, I was offered, in essence, the same position in industry that I enjoyed on January 13, 1989. It seemed that a portal back to the past had opened up. Our Lord certainly has a fine sense of humor! For the first time since January 13, 1989, I was being vetted to be something other than a leader in “the Movement.” I was invited, in fact, to focus all of my energies on something other than “the Movement.”

The timing was right. I have a wife who loves me and five beautiful children to raise in the fear and admonition of the Lord. The Institute is up and running and needs only your help to do great things.

Thus I must now stand down. Will you please step up?

Please support the Institute as a volunteer, a donor and/or a prayer partner. I believe that the Institute is posed to do great things through very fine officers, through an engaged board, through Retta Kohrman’s daily presence, through daily “prayer closet” gatherings, through the many great people now dropping in on a regular basis and, most of all, through the Spirit of the Living God.

That said, we are in need of more funding. A little bit goes a long way at the Institute. Details will soon be posted by the team taking over this website and bringing new focus to it.

The many counselors that Indiana has “blessed me” with have tried their best to figure me out. They have used the most advanced tools known to psychology. (My book is being written.) Heck, they should have just asked me about some of my role models. Hours of “discussion” and that never was asked! I took the Outlaw Josie Wales on as a role model after my wife, like his, was seemingly swept away by the Culture of Death. (Like our dear Phyllis, too.) Thus explains much of my zeal in Wichita and beyond, and especially in taking on the COD as it was manifested at George Tiller’s late term abortuary and through the University of Kansas’ abortionist training program. (The sources of most of my arrests for pro-life activism. The latter was shut down as a result.) Blue bellies and Redlegs, all of them. I fought until I was satiated. This clip pretty much sums up my thoughts on the subject.

Before this post closes, I must say a word to those who will be tempted to lay siege to the ArchAngel Institute, either in the near term or in the future…. be it Susan Hill, George Klopfer, some hired gun attorney, Indiana authorities, misdirected redlegs or blue bellies. Please do not disturb my retirement by firing on the Institute. Let me ride off into the sunset to look after my loving wife and five beautiful children. Rest assured that I recall how to use constitutional law as both a shield and a sword and can round up plenty of friends in high places to mount a defense that will be, I promise, formidable. We will fight until the Alamo is empty if gigantomachy is what you seek. I will come out of retirement to be the huckleberry of the legal adversaries of the Institute if such is needed, that I have promised the Board.

My twenty years has come due. My fifth child has been born. I am ready to lay down the mantle of pro-life leadership and ride off into the sunset to prepare a new generation of leaders. Whether it ends here or not is the choice of the Culture of Death. I give you the first move.

Oh, and suffer me one final dedication … this one is pure country and very much from the heart.

God’s best to all who serve Him.

Bryan

p.s. Also as to closure … I have perceived the need to report on my 18 year missionary journey from the Fort which started with a pilgrimage to Wichita to take part in the Summer of Mercy in 1991. About 100 NEIR activists joined me and Wendell for those consequential weeks. This series has granted me closure on the need to report on my 18 year journey as well. It is good to be back home.

12/25/0700 update below (and 0710) (and 0930) (and 1200) (and 1800)(and 2030)

December 25 is upon us and still no baby from my lovely Anne, pictured here on a far less holy day. Annie is sleeping soundly at this time. Grandma and Grandpa Brown have the kids.

Anne had real birth pains — even big ones — that proved unavailing between 4 – 7 am Monday and 4 – 7 am Tuesday. It may very well be that the baby will arrive in four or six hours or so.

The false starts of the past two days brought Sacred Scripture to my mind. Jesus talked of false starts, birth pang-like false starts that would herald both the destruction of the second temple (in AD 70) and his Second Coming (one fine day in the future).

In other words, we would see foreshadowings that spoke of a reality soon to come. Foreshadowings like WWI & WWII and the present worldwide economic meltdown and the persecution of the faithful by statist bureacrats, be it in Soviet Russia, Cuba or Indianapolis. Here is how the King of the Universe put it:

The Gospel of Saint Mark at chapter 13:
3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew were questioning Him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?” 5 And Jesus began to say to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. 6 “Many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He!’ and will mislead many. 7 “When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. 8 “For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.
9 “But be on your guard; for they will deliver you to the courts, and you will be flogged in the synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them10 “The gospel must first be preached to all the nations. 11 “When they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour; for it is not you who speak, but it is the Holy Spirit. 12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. 13 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.

I have found the above and the following from Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary to grant me solace as I put the Left’s ongoing harassment of me in perspective:

13:5-13 Our Lord Jesus, in reply to the disciples’ question, does not so much satisfy their curiosity as direct their consciences. When many are deceived, we should thereby be awakened to look to ourselves. And the disciples of Christ, if it be not their own fault, may enjoy holy security and peace of mind, when all around is in disorder. But they must take heed that they are not drawn away from Christ and their duty to him, by the sufferings they will meet with for his sake. They shall be hated of all men: trouble enough! Yet the work they were called to should be carried on and prosper. Though they may be crushed and borne down, the gospel cannot be. The salvation promised is more than deliverance from evil, it is everlasting blessedness.

Yea and amen! May the work of the ArchAngel Institute carry on and prosper no matter what comes of me in the future.

This is all dramatic foreshadowing. I am awaiting child number five, and that number has a special meaning for me. More on that after we get this baby born. Just remember child number five for later reference.

Look for an update in the morning as to Anne’s condition. Any suggestions on what to name a Christmas baby?

Merry Christ*mas …. thanks be to YHWH for Christ and His Mass.

Bryan
p.s. Want to know more about what the Church teaches on the Second Coming? Click here.

0700 Christmas morning…Anne’s hard contractions started at 2:30 (thankfully she did not tell me that until she woke me up at 6:30). She is laboring now, about every ten minutes and strong enough to get her out of bed. We are debating whether to call the midwife. Well, she is debating. I say call now. It is not that I “don’t know nothin’ about birthing no babies,” for this is our third outside a hospital. The previous two were, however, at the Birth Center in Topeka, Kansas, a wonderful place with no parallel in northeast Indiana. There I had plenty of help from dulas. Oh well, best do the best I can. I think I will put some hot water on. I think I will use the coffee maker and some ground up beans.

More later …. it sure looks to me like God is sending us a Christmas baby. Here is an interesting article to read while waiting with us …..

0710 update: Anne is on the telly with the midwife right now. Anne is calm, cool and collected. She is my lioness and hero. Having a contraction in the middle of the telly call, having to stop talking and breath through it. She is asking “when to push” questions — not good for me. Did I say that I “don’t know nothin’ about birthin’ no babies” yet? Someone might need to come slap me, Dad.

0930 update …. Anne still sleeping. Contractions continue. She jumps up every 10 minutes or so, standing bent over the bed with arms spread far apart on the bed, breathing and some moaning, and then back in bed to sleep until the next one comes. My job has been far too easy to date. “Clean the kitchen, get me some grape juice.”

1200 update … My princess asked for breakfast and I got an “A” on that project. Now she is up and walking around the house, on the telly with the midwife again right now. When she is horizontal the pangs continue, when she gets up they then seem to abate. Makes me think in evolutionary patterns. The lioness must be up hunting until the time to give birth, at which time her body tells her to lay down and then her body moves the cubs toward the exit. Should I make my lioness lay down or allow her to freely roam? I guess I will trust her on that call. And keep praying.

The midwife says everything that Anne is relating is normal and that all appears to be going according to the Divine Plan. The birth process has been “professionalized” the past 50 years, a great boom for the medical profession. The Divine Plan worked for aeons before that. Anne’s most extensive brush with the professional system ended in a c-section (baby #2) and, a year later, complications from that “routine surgery” that darn near killed her. Indeed, we spent the week following Christmas of 2002 in a Kansas hospital — there while visiting Topeka for Christmas (we lived in Tupelo). Anne had internal scar tissue (adhesions) from the c-section one year earlier, and suffered much pain from both the c-section and the $40,000 surgery one year later to repair the scar tissue from the c-section. She never wants to go through either again.

Not to mention that either one would now ruin us economically and force us into bankruptcy, like so many Americans. From a bad turn of events to uninsured status to huge medical bills to economic dissolution to loss of the home to divorce. It is a pattern we are all hearing too much about. God help those so suffering this Christmas Day.

And so here we are, at home giving birth. No accelerants, nothing artificial. Anne is on her way to her third “earth birth,” the most earthy one yet. She takes no drugs at all for the pain. Not even an aspirin. She and I are so different that way! I would want morphine at the minimum! Pray for my lioness, she is the bravest person that I know.

We are going to go get our kids and let them open Santa’s bounty in the next hour. What a Christmas to remember!

Next update at 1800 hours.

p.s. Keith, I cropped out the GR like you asked. Who says I am not easy to work with?

1800 Glory to God in the Highest! We just finished our family Christmas. The kids are 11, 7, 5 & 2, such wonderful ages. All are now playing with the toys they received. Our 11 year old is so innocent, and happy to play with action figures with his little brothers. No electric “toys” this year. As the Pope teaches, too many of those devices push us apart into self-imposed solitary confinement. I thank God for my children and the blessings that we share this special day as a family united in He Who was born in abject poverty and raised to Rule the universe.

As for my lioness, she took the day off from laboring but is now back at it. Seems to be coming faster and harder than anytime before. While the window is rapidly closing, it does appear that a Christmas day birth may yet be in the cards. Thanks to all who are praying and visiting. Our traffic is up, many are stopping by to take in this virtual birth process. Please pray for Anne and Fidget. (the name will change after the sex is verified. stay tuned.)

The Oh Come, Oh come that I listed earlier just came on FM 88.3. Nice. Here it is again, Keith, since you could not get the previous link to work.

Here is the address to cut and paste if the hyperlink does not fire:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMGKUTUPMAU&feature=related

2030 update … Anne is resting and still having some strong contractions. Note the video referenced above. Here is a link explaining the blood dripping into the chalice and scrubbed onto the doorposts. http://www.archangelinstitute.org/passover-readings-in-the-raphael-division/

We have been studying Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s historic 1978 Harvard address.  We will get back to it soon, but first we pause to contemplate these wise words from Europe.  The words of a prophet are not written on a subway wall … they are highlighted in red below.

Pope in Paris condemns love of money, power

Source

PARIS (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI condemned unbridled “pagan” passion for power, possessions and money as a modern-day plague on Saturday, as he led more than a quarter million Catholics at an outdoor Mass in Paris.

Benedict was making his first visit as pontiff to the French capital, renowned for its luxury goods, fashion sense and cultural riches.

“Has not our modern world created its own idols?” Benedict said in his homily, and wondered aloud whether people have “imitated, perhaps inadvertently, the pagans of antiquity?”

“This is a question that all people, if they are honest with themselves, cannot help but ask,” the pontiff said.

The 260,000 or so people who gathered on the lawns of the Esplanade des Invalides displayed a joyful outpouring of faith for this traditionally Roman Catholic country, which has witnessed a sharp decline in churchgoing in recent years.

Benedict has continued with a campaign started by his predecessor, John Paul II, who worried that the ever-more affluent West was turning consumerism into a kind of religion and ignoring its Christian roots of spiritual values.

Paraphrasing from the New Testament, Benedict decried “insatiable greed” and said “the love of money is the root of all evil.”

“Have not money, the thirst for possessions, for power and even knowledge, diverted man from his true destiny?” the pope asked.

In his homily, Benedict blasted modern society’s thirst for these new “pagan” idols as a “scandal, a real plague.”

The pope urged the faithful to “shun the worship of idols. Do not tire of doing good!’”

***

On Friday, Benedict told young people they shouldn’t fear spreading their faith in a society where secularism is entrenched and Islam is growing.

Click herefor more from the ArchAngel Institute on that note.

The Direction of the Press

The press too, of course, enjoys the widest freedom. (I shall be using the word press to include all media). But what sort of use does it make of this freedom?

Here again, the main concern is not to infringe the letter of the law. There is no moral responsibility for deformation or disproportion. What sort of responsibility does a journalist have to his readers, or to history? If they have misled public opinion or the government by inaccurate information or wrong conclusions, do we know of any cases of public recognition and rectification of such mistakes by the same journalist or the same newspaper? No, it does not happen, because it would damage sales. A nation may be the victim of such a mistake, but the journalist always gets away with it. One may safely assume that he will start writing the opposite with renewed self-assurance.

Because instant and credible information has to be given, it becomes necessary to resort to guesswork, rumors and suppositions to fill in the voids, and none of them will ever be rectified, they will stay on in the readers’ memory. How many hasty, immature, superficial and misleading judgments are expressed every day, confusing readers, without any verification.The press can both simulate public opinion and miseducate it. Thus we may see terrorists heroized, or secret matters, pertaining to one’s nation’s defense, publicly revealed, or we may witness shameless intrusion on the privacy of well-known people under the slogan: “everyone is entitled to know everything.” But this is a false slogan, characteristic of a false era: people also have the right not to know, and it is a much more valuable one. The right not to have their divine souls stuffed with gossip, nonsense, vain talk. A person who works and leads a meaningful life does not need this excessive burdening flow of information.

Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic disease of the 20th century and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. In-depth analysis of a problem is anathema to the press. It stops at sensational formulas.

Such as it is, however, the press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. One would then like to ask: by what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible? In the communist East a journalist is frankly appointed as a state official. But who has granted Western journalists their power, for how long a time and with what prerogatives?

There is yet another surprise for someone coming from the East where the press is rigorously unified: one gradually discovers a common trend of preferences within the Western press as a whole. It is a fashion; there are generally accepted patterns of judgment and there may be common corporate interests, the sum effect being not competition but unification. Enormous freedom exists for the press, but not for the readership because newspapers mostly give enough stress and emphasis to those opinions which do not too openly contradict their own and the general trend.

*** End of Solzhenitsyn installment, more tomorrow

Our late friend Alexander (may he rest in peace) spoke these words 30 years ago.  He foreshadowed the political correctness movement, which was then evident in academia and somewhat in the press, but which would become stifling in both and far beyond both — even in the Church! — in the decades to follow. 

What Alexander could not see coming, could not appreciate, was the rise of poor man’s media.  Talk radio, Christian radio, desktop publishing, the internet.  All have cut down on the strangehold effect of the mainstream media in American life. 

Pope John Paul II often encouraged the responsible use of such alternative media.  Indeed, that is one reason, the main reason, that the ArchAngel Institute is assembling a radio-quality recording studio in one of the former abortion procedure rooms.  We will speak out, as Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI encourage us to do. 

We think it no stretch to say that Alexander would approve.

We close with this reminder to those who are journalists by profession as to what their business is supposed to be:

“Our Republic and its press will rise and fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and the courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery.”
Joseph Pulitzer“The function of the free press is very high. It is almost holy. It ought to serve as a forum for the people, through which the people may know freely what is going on. To misstate or suppress the news is a breach of trust.
Justice Louis Brandeis of the Supreme Court of the United States