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/

The ArchAngel Institute celebrated the life and death of Sir Thomas More on his feast day of June 22.  The Anglican Church, King Henry’s Church, yet mourns this great martyr on July 6 . .

More was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886 and canonised, with John Fisher, on 19 May 1935 by Pope Pius XI. His name was added to the Roman Catholic calendar of saints in 1970 for celebration on 22 June jointly with Fisher, the only remaining Bishop (owing to the coincident natural deaths of eight aged bishops) who, during the English Reformation, maintained, at the King’s mercy, allegiance to the Pope.^[52] In 2000, Pope John Paul II declared More the “heavenly patron of statesmen and politicians”.^[53] In 1980, More was added to the Anglican calendar of Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church, jointly with John Fisher, More is commemorated on 6 July.^[54]
Source for above here

According to Sir Winston Churchill, in the History of the English-Speaking Peoples, (more…)

“To endure the cross is not tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ”

This post is dedicated to Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, author of the above, who was executed on the order of Adolph Hitler for treason on this date in 1945.  More here.

I applied for the Indiana bar in April, 2007.  My application was one inch thick, mostly because I attached to it much from my application to Missouri, which had, just the year before, resulted in the Missouri Supreme Court and the National Confernce of Bar Examinershaving found me of sufficient good moral character and mental fitness to sit for the Missouri bar.  The Indiana Board, upon receipt of my file, immediately ordered the entire Missouri application, my previous Kansas application, my previous Montana application and added to it my previous Indiana application — this swelled my application to over 800 pages, and from that time forward the Bar Examiners complained of its size.  (Know that they could have granted me a presumption rather than order all of my past applications in a bid to catch me in a misrepresentation — which they never did.  Thus they were the proximate cause of the size of the application — which they repeatedly blamed on me.)

The Indiana authorities sat on my application for six months and then instructed me to meet with a state court judge whose husband had represented Fort Wayne’s pre-eminent pro-abortion activist (more…)

We continue MLK week here at the ArchAngel Institute.  That brave man was hounded by the FBI and persecuted for his Christian ideology. Even killed for it.   Had they the ability, they surely would have handed him over to the same process to which I was subjected.  Psychologists and psychiatrists are the “clergy” of the postmodern state.  Just as the Pilgrims had their witch trials for heretics, the postmodern state has its “extremists” trials.  I was subjected to one and my legal career burned at the stake under the stern gaze of a cadre of Indiana’s high priests and priestesses of political correctness, — JLAP’s Tim Sudrovech and Terri Harrell.

Because I am openly Christian in my expression and because I refused to recant from my pro-life convictions they had me tied to the stake — all the while refusing (numerous requests) to even meet with me or look me in the eye.  (It is easier to dehumanize the intended sacrifice that way.)

It pretty much began with Dr. Stephen Ross’ report, which went so far as to offer the authorities a “rewrite” if it did not include all necessary to “process me” as they wished.   Ross bound me to the stake with the following, which was subsequently rejected as shallow and unsupportable by all of the subsequent psychologists and psychiatrists to whom I went –  even the two government affiliated professionals:

44.    [The Ross] report identified Plaintiff as a pro-life person with a traditional Christian worldview and constitutional, conservative political perspective who intended to advance the pro-life and Christian cause through the ArchAngel Institute. 

45,   In that April 23 report Dr. Ross concluded that Plaintiff “appears to have moral integrity.”

(more…)

We pause this weekend to celebrate a milestone in peaceful, Christian civil disobedience.  That milestone is the life and work of MLK.  Lest anyone accuse me of being an opportunist, realize that I shared much of this at my June 1 hearing before the Board of Law Examiners, and previously on this site here and also in one of my most creative writing exercises – the one that communicated my one and only discussion with the Kansas AG who fired me as deputy attorney general and consumer chief, June, 2007 and then again on that same blog, here.  I also made use  of MLK in my own jailhouse letter to Judge Patrick Kelly (in 1991) that the Indiana authorities have recently used to deny me licensure based upon my religiously-based political ideals.  Here.

Thus I am not just trotting MLK out at this time to make some points against the Indiana Supreme Court and its minions. 

Speaking of that collection of postmodern jurists, this is from my December 8-filed federal petition:

153.  Dr. Bowman informed Plaintiff that he placed his values and morals higher than legal obligations and by so doing shared much in common with early church, including being at odds with the state.  That Plaintiff’s conservative political and Roman Catholic views were the primary focus of Dr. Bowman’s interviews are evident throughout Dr. Bowman’s final report and are used to support her conclusion that Plaintiff suffered from Personality Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified.

154,  Dr. Bowman’s report stated that:

“Like many people of faith of past millennia, he firmly believes he is obligated as a Christian to put obedience to God’s laws above human laws.”  Id.;  “He considers his [former protest activities] an integral part of his Roman Catholic Christian faith and considers his actions morally right.”  Bowman report at p.4;

155.  Upon information and belief this report influenced the final Board of Law Examiner’s final report stating that:

“He testified [as] to his obligation to disobey laws that contradicted his religious beliefs under certain circumstances. [He further] indicated that he would not obey certain court orders and judgments  that he believed to be unjust.  [It is the policy of the  Indiana court]  that a member of the Indiana bar must obey Indiana law and federal law, even when doing so violates an attorney’s conscience, and that an avowed willingness not to do so is disqualifying.”  Board report at pp.29-30.

** end of excerpts from federal complaint

It is clear from Dr. Elizabeth Bowman’s report that she strongly disliked me — as do most pro-abortion and anti-Catholic ideologues.    Still, she did seem to understand that my views were as old as Western Civilization itself and for that reason had some historic justification.  What is far more difficult to understand — and even frightening — is how three of the allegedly “top tier” attorneys in the State of Indiana  (to be named in subsequent posts), as well as seven others on the Board, as well as Indiana Supreme Court Justice Randall Shepard could NOT realize that the above paragraph flies directly in the face of the following excerpts from America’s best known jailhouse missive:

(more…)

It was a very well financed and powerful industry that trafficked in human suffering.  It had become deeply wed to the government and sneered at the Church and Christian chivalry as it preyed upon family structures.  It was the embodiment of the Culture of Death, a profit making entity that increased its power and influence by rendering human beings mere instruments of commerce.

No, I (Bryan) am not talking the abortion industry or Planned Parenthood.

We are talking the slave trade.

Anne and I just watched Amazing Grace last night — the story of William Wilberforce’s lifelong quest to end the slave trade and advance Christian chivalry in his day.

It was inspiring.  If you have not yet watched it, Anne and I suggest that you do so soon.  Click here for more details.

Let Wilberforce be remembered and celebrated as one who spoke  Truth to power to the glory of his Risen King.

That is the question in Honduras in this hour, and the Obama Admininstration seems bent on lining up with Friedrich Nietzsche instead of Thomas Jefferson, with Hugo Chavez instead of Simon Bolivar.

Click here for a fine analysis of that ongoing struggle between the Left and the rule of law. 

The Institute directs your attention to this crucial statement:  “Catholic Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga has condemned Mr. Zelaya’s violent tactics and says that Honduras does not want to emulate Venezuela.”

Earlier the Cardinal (pictured above), who is considered a possible future pope,  had this to say:  ”[The former president] doesn’t have any authority, moral or legal,” Rodriguez told the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. “The legal authority he lost because he broke laws and the moral authority he lost with a discourse full of lies. The most patriotic thing he could do is stay away. Anything else is just trying to impose Hugo Chavez’s project at all costs.”

Source

Today is a special day on the Catholic calendar, for it is a day that honors a great leader in the Church, a great man who paid the ultimate price to follow his conscience.

That man is Thomas More, former Chancellor of England.

If you know little of him then do yourself a fine favor and rent this movie.  You really owe it to yourself to exchange heroes like Arnuld and The Rock and all of that rot for men of character like Sir Thomas More.

We have posted on Sir Thomas in the past.  Those posts are at the end of today’s reflection for any who want to read more on this great example.

Since I (Bryan) first learned of Thomas More (during the Rescue days) I have looked up to him. I watched A Man for All Seasons the night that I was received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.  He has often inspired me.  I am no Sir Thomas More.

Allow me to say it again:  I am no Saint Thomas More.

That said, there are a few parallels that come to mind, especially as I spend much time writing in my basement after my legal career in government ended.  He spent much time writing in the Tower of London after his final run-in with the authorities over conscience issues.  I am spending much time writing in my basement.   His career at the law then ended abruptly.  I am hoping that, with his aid, mine might yet be viable.

Here is a fine website for Saint of the Day information.  I am using it in red today, with blue comments, to make my point and to honor a very honorable Christian, Saint Thomas More.

St. Thomas More, Martyr (Patron of Lawyers) St. Thomas More was born at London in 1478. After a thorough grounding in religion and the classics, he entered Oxford to study law.

**My grounding was in Baptist Sunday School as a youth (thank you, Anna Jury, RIP) and then two Bible Colleges and then the dominant religion of the age (cultural relativism) at Indiana University and then the study of law at Regent — think of it as Oxford on the Chesapeake.**

Upon leaving the university he embarked on a legal career which took him to Parliament.

*** Mine took me to the Deputy Attorney General’s desk in Kansas, after having argued successfully before the Second, Third, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal, Illinois and Kansas Supreme Courts, and many lesser courts***

 In 1505, he married his beloved Jane Colt who bore him four children, and when she died at a young age, he married a widow, Alice Middleton, to be a mother for his young children.

***The loss of a wife who it the mother of your children is sad, very sad, this must have placed a tremendous burden upon Sir More ***

A wit and a reformer, this learned man numbered Bishops and scholars among his friends, and by 1516 wrote his world-famous book “Utopia”.

**** I have not quite yet finished my book, but I have put far more copy out than Sir Thomas left behind!  And I do have some smart friends, and maybe even a Bishop or two!*** 

He attracted the attention of Henry VIII who appointed him to a succession of high posts and missions, and finally made him Lord Chancellor in 1529.

*** I attracted the attention of Phill Kline, who appointed me as a Deputy AG, heading up the Consumer Protection and Antitrust Division in the Kansas Office of Attorney General.  When Planned Parenthood screamed about me being appointed  it was that I had become “one of the most powerful attorneys in Kansas” a mere eleven years after they and George Tiller had engineered my incarceration in Kansas for civil contempt.  (I was later exonerated.)   

While I did enjoy the benefit of pretty much carte blanchesubpoena power while in that position, I was never found to have abused it.  Thomas More’s fine example guided me (“I would give even the Devil the benefit of the law.” Click for that scene from the movie) More would not have misused it either.**

However, he resigned in 1532, at the height of his career and reputation, when Henry persisted in holding his own opinions regarding marriage and the supremacy of the Pope.

***Sir Thomas lost everything for principle.  He stood when others cowered.  What a great and godly example to us all!  I did not resign, I was terminated from state employ.  That story and my face to face interview with the man who terminated me — and where he went from there — is more dramatic than much of Shakespeare.  But I cannot digress into that today.  I have not resigned from the pursuit of an Indiana law license, even though many have advised me to do just that, for I, too, stand on principle.  I will, like Saint Thomas and St. Paul, use all legal appeals open to me to fulfill what I interpret to be God’s Will.***

The rest of his life was spent in writing mostly in defense of the Church.

***This site?  I am an Evangelical Roman Catholic writing to defend Christendom and document my own struggles as a Christian Activist.  (And ArchAngel shares the space, so other Christian Activists are free to submit copy.  We have never turned anyone down.)***

In 1534, with his close friend, St. John Fisher, he refused to render allegiance to the King as the Head of the Church of England and was confined to the Tower.

*** With the Left having pretty much rendered me too controversial to hire, I have been confined to house arrest.  It is hard to buy and sell in America without the mark of allegiance to the dominant cultural paradigms, and I have refused that mark.  This refusal has caused me to be isolated from America’s middle and at great odds with its Left.***

Fifteen months later, and nine days after St. John Fisher’s execution, he was tried and convicted of treason.

**** That was the charge of treason against an order that was in the process of committing treason against its own history.  Treason against an order that cared not one whit about treason against principle, but was ready to behead for treason against politics. Treason, the allegation that the dissident does not care enough for the laws of his oppressors, is the favorite charge of oppressive regimes.***

He told the court that he could not go against his conscience and wished his judges that “we may yet hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together to everlasting salvation.”

*** And this is why he is a Saint!  What a magnificent stand!***

And on the scaffold, he told the crowd of spectators that he was dying as “the King’s good servant-but God’s first.”

***  Some of the best last words ever spoken.  All authority arises from God, is delegated through the State and Family.  It is so harmful when the State refuses to fall into line and goes about trying those loyal first to God for treason and such.***

Saint Thomas More was beheaded on July 6, 1535. His feast day is June 22nd

More from the Institute on More:  http://www.archangelinstitute.org/a-time-for-prayer-all-else-is-vanity/

Love, Sweet Love?  So it was sang back in 1965, just as the Free Love society, the generation that gave us Bill Clinton, George Bush Jr. and our present cultural cul de sac, was being formed.

That became the “me generation” — the most narcistic lot since ancient Babylon.

We need no more such self-love.  What the world needs now is creative extremists who are willing to put themes greater than mammon and their “sexual liberation” first.

Not ideologue anarchists like the murderous assassins who cut down George Tiller and some innocent security guard this month!  That is not creative, it is demonic.  Those two are one in the same. Anyone who cannot see that should spend much time in prayer and ask God to enlighten them, for they are being seduced into the spirituality of Cain, which is pure wickedness.

We need creative extremists in this dire hour.  But instead look for Hates Crime legislation to soon be rushed through Congress that will render creative extremism illegal, in the name of Homeland Security.

Here is an excerpt on the best known work on creative extremism.  It explains much of what we are seeing as those who are seduced by the spirit of Cain “go pop” on the evening news.  It explains that a heavier governmental hand will likely only bring upon more violence and less of what America truly needs in this hour:

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: “Get rid of your discontent.” Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist. But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” Was not Amos an extremist for justice: “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.” Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Was not Martin Luther an extremist: “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God.” And John Bunyan: “I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience.” And Abraham Lincoln: “This nation cannot survive half slave and half free.” And Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . .” So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary’s hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime–the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html  (emphasis added)

This is quite fitting, as that Justin Martyr is my (Bryan’s) confirmation saint. 

Prayer warriors update at end …

The following is from this website

In the time of the lawless partisans of idolatry, wicked decrees were passed against the godly Christiansin town and country, to force them to offer libations to vain idols; and accordingly the holy men, having been apprehended, were brought before the prefect of Rome, Rusticus by name. And when they had been brought before his judgment-seat, said to Justin, “Obey the gods at once, and submit to the kings.”^[1]Justin said, “To obey the commandments of our Saviour Jesus Christ is worthy neither of blame nor of condemnation.” Rusticus the prefect said, “What kind of doctrines do you profess?” Justin said, “I have endeavoured to learn all doctrines; but I have acquiesced at last in the true doctrines, those namely of the Christians, even though they do not please those who hold false opinions.”Rusticus the prefect said, “Are those the doctrines that please you, you utterly wretched man?” Justin said, “Yes, since I adhere to them with right dogma.”^[2]Rusticus the prefect said, “What is the dogma?” Justin said, “That according to which we worship the God of the Christians, whom we reckon to be one from the beginning, the maker and fashioner of the whole creation, visible and invisible; and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who had also been preached beforehand by the prophets as about to be present with the race of men, the herald of salvation and teacher of good disciples. And I, being a man, think that what I can say is insignificant in comparison with His boundless divinity, acknowledging a certain prophetic power,^[3] since it was prophesied concerning Him of whom now I say that He is the Son of God. For I know that of old the prophets foretold His appearance among men.”

The prefect says to Justin, “Hearken, you who are called learned, and think that you know true doctrines; if you are scourged and beheaded, do you believe you will ascend into heaven?” Justin said, “I hope that, if I endure these things, I shall have His gifts.^[1]For I know that, to all who have thus lived, there abides the divine favour until the completion of the whole world.” Rusticus the prefect said, “Do you suppose, then, that you will ascend into heaven to receive some recompense?” Justin said, “I do not suppose it, but I know and am fully persuaded of it.”Rusticus the prefect said, “Let us, then, now come to the matter in hand, and which presses. Having come together, offer sacrifice with one accord to the gods.” Justin said, “No right-thinking person falls away from piety to impiety.”Rusticus the prefect said, “Unless ye obey, ye shall be mercilessly punished.” Justin said, “Through prayer we can be saved on account of our Lord Jesus Christ, even when we have been punished,^[2] because this shall become to us salvation and confidence at the more fearful and universal judgment-seat of our Lord and Saviour.” Thus also said the other martyrs: “Do what you will, for we are Christians, and do not sacrifice to idols.”

Rusticus the prefect pronounced sentence, saying, “Let those who have refused to sacrifice to the gods and to yield to the command of the emperor be scourged,^[1] and led away to suffer the punishment of decapitation, according to the laws.” The holy martyrs having glorified God, and having gone forth to the accustomed place, were beheaded, and perfected their testimony in the confession of the Saviour. .

Today was not quite that bad … but it is not over yet.  Please keep the prayers going for us, especially for Anne.