Welcome to the ArchAngel Institute …  click here for background on what we are doing from this former abortion clinic.

The twenty year old  legal background on the Institute is too much to spell out in one place … here it is in a few posts.  (Just page backwards for the story).

Our most recent project is a filing with the United States Supreme Court alleging free exercise, establishment clause, due process and equal protection claims.  See this  post for a discussion of how that important case forms our core mission at the ArchAngel Institute.

Please pray that the High Court dockets that case.  Here is the docket at the SCOTUS.

If your or anyone that you know is concerned about conscience clause litigation, religious freedom, political correctness, the misuse of psychiatry aka Soviet style processing of religious dissidents, test oaths and more the ArchAngel Institute’s two cases should prove very interesting.   (Here is the beginning of the series of posts on the federal district court case that we filed on December 8, 2009.)

Our friends at the American Family Association are featuring our battle against the entrenched Left in their Journal this week.  We have been holding back on a transcript from a fateful June 1, 2009 hearing before the Indiana Board of Law Examiners for the AFA visitors to drop by, so if you are such a visitor please leave a comment.  That transcript reveals the though pattern of Charlotte Westerhaus, an Indiana Bar Examiner who recently made national news by refusing to allow Focus on the Family to place banner ads on the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s website — due to their beliefs. 

The transcript that will soon be posted reveals her interest in religious beliefs, as does all of my (Bryan Brown’s) processing before the Indiana Board of Law Examiners.

Beliefs are not supposed to matter — or at least so we have been told for the past 40 years.  But now all of the sudden they matter very much — if they are beliefs that those in power do not want to see advanced.   Beliefs like mine and beliefs like Focus’.   Christian beliefs.

The transcript that will soon be posted is part of the appendix of my Petition for Review that is now pending before the SCOTUS. 

Briefs filed at the SCOTUS are bound booklets. My brief is 147 pages including the appendix.  It was very expensive (as measured by the Institute’s resources) to produce.

 I am admittedly biased, but I also think it is a good read.  Especially if you are interested in discrimination based upon Christian beliefs.

Have you already sent your donation?  Thank you!  Today we are printing reproductions of the brief.  We need to offer some more to make up the donations to pay the almost $6,000 printer bill. If you want a bound, signed and serialized copy of the brief along with a DVD of Professor Charles Rice’s stellar presentation of the Natural Law at IPFW last fall (click here for details) …

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The ArchAngel Institute has been working on a project that we think Pope Benedict XVI would fully bless.  It will be rolled out during our December 8 banquet.

We base our opinion on the Pope’s likely blessing of our meager effort on the following article in red.  If you want to join Diskey Sign and electrician George Strack (GTech Electric, 609-9835) in aiding us in this noble quest then you are more that welcome to do just that!  This week we need sheets of clear or slightly defused acrylic panels of a size greater than 6′ x 3′.

By Daniel Flynn

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict met artists from around the world in the Sistine Chapel on Saturday and urged them to inject spirituality into their work, saying contemporary beauty was often “illusory and deceitful.”

The Pope told the gathering of hundreds of painters, sculptors, architects, poets and directors, held beneath the vaulted ceiling of the chapel painted by Michelangelo, that he wanted to “renew the Church’s friendship with the world of art.”

“Beauty … can become a path toward the transcendent, toward the ultimate Mystery, toward God,” Benedict said.

The Vatican said it invited some 500 artists to the event, regardless of religious, political or stylistic allegiances.

More than 250 accepted, mostly from Italy, including singer Andrea Bocelli and award-winning film composer Ennio Morricone.

Amongst the other guests were Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid, whose Maxxi modern art museum has just opened in Rome, and F. Murray Abraham, the American actor who won an Oscar for his role as Salieri in the Mozart film, Amadeus, in 1985.

The Pope told them that in a world lacking in hope, with increasing signs of aggression and despair, there was an ever greater need for a return to spirituality in art.

“Too often … the beauty thrust upon us is illusory and deceitful … it imprisons man within himself and further enslaves him, depriving him of hope and joy,” he said.

Against the backdrop of Michelangelo’s vast fresco of the Last Judgment, which adorns the chapel’s altar wall, Benedict lamented that the once-close cooperation between the Church and the artistic community had weakened.

“Faith takes nothing away from your genius or art,” he said. “On the contrary, it exalts them and nourishes them.”

Saturday’s event marked both the 10th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s ‘Letter to Artists’ in 1999 in which he spoke of the Church’s “need for art,” and the 45th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s original meeting with artists in 1964.

Reflections on the Struggle to Advance the Culture of Life
 

It is clear that we are experiencing today a period of intense and critical struggle in the advancement of the culture of life in our nation. The administration of our federal government openly and aggressively follows a secularist agenda. While it may employ religious language and even invoke the name of God, in fact, it proposes programs and policies for our people without respect for God and His Law. In the words of the Servant of God Pope John Paul II, it proceeds “as if God did not exist” (Pope John Paul II, Post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles laici, “On the Vocation and the Mission of the Lay Faithful in the Church and in the World,” 30 December 1988, no. 34).

With the red and blue bold shot across the bow the former ArchBishop of St. Louis, Raymond Burke, brought the full focus of his intense gaze upon the battle that the ArchAngel Institute and Donegal Corridor were launched to fight.

The good ArchBishop left St. Louis last year for quite a promotion.  He is holds the office of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.   That  is the highest judicial authority in the Roman Catholic Church besides the Pope himself.

Here is more from this man who sits in the chair next to St. Peter’s, again in red and blue:

How does one follow up a week like last week?  Federal Judge William C. Lee vacated a judgment that had dogged me (Bryan) for most of my adult life, sorta like Captain Hook was dogged by the ever lurking, ticking crocodile.  My affidavit (click here) explains how and why.

It is not everyday that a $350,000 debt merely vanishes.  Not to mention a debt to one’s mortal enemies.  Imagine MLK, Jr. owing such a debt to the KKK, or Anna Frank’s family being ordered to pay such a debt to the Nazi Party of Amsterdam.   Just like that.

And so now the enormity of the event has caught up to me.   I give God the glory, it was a legal miracle.  Thank you William C. Lee for playing Abraham Lincoln and setting this economic captive free.  And for essentially asking the Indiana authorities why I was not approved into their bar.  (An act that Kansas, Montana, Missouri, the United States Supreme Court and the National Board of Law Examiners had no problem taking, but certainly an act that the abortion industry would never have allowed …..)  Here is Judge Lee’s opinion, compliments of the Alliance Defense Fund.

What to do as an encore?  That will take some time.  I am working on it, but must drop off of the radar for a while to make some things happen and focus on my family.  We have been on a very arduous journey, and my Annie has proved her mettle over and over again.  She has boldly gone where very few wives can go.  She was my great reward for living through the onslaught of the Left in 1990-92, and is yet by my side, the best mother any kid could want, the best wife I could ever have.

And so I must step aside from ArchAngel Institute, from the Donegal Corridor, from all of it for a while.  Please pray for us as we weigh out what is next and attempt to determine what our Heavenly Father would have me do to support my lovely wife and five beautiful children.  The Indiana Board of Law Examiners has ensured that I cannot support them by plying my trade — so I must find another path, and find it soon.

I am turning in my keys to this site and the archangelinstitute@gmail.com.   The ArchAngel Institute Board will have to appoint another gatekeeper here.  Send any guest posts or applications to be just that to the above address.  The Board welcomes visiting posters.  Please send posts in for the Board to consider, posts that build upon the themes already found at this site.

Posts that would fall into a category on the right.

If you need a primer, I have gathered some fine introductory posts in the category “an introduction.”   Other categories are pretty much self-explanatory as to content.   “Michael” is governmental or legal, “Raphael” is post-abortion or commemorative, “Gabriel” is the communicating of the Gospel of  Life.  “Swansong” is my resignation from pro-life leadership.  (I remain pro-life, but have serious concerns about whether the pro-life leadership, as it has existed since the 70’s, is truly focused upon the big picture.  Christendom has been under relentless attack for centuries now, and is threatened with collapse in our lifetime.  This battle is winner takes all.  It is so much larger than abortion or fundraising or increasing the GOP’s marketshare.)

The “whirlwinds” are posts presenting evidence that, to quote the President’s preacher, ”America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”  It is not unAmerican to make note of that lesson in Natural Law, no matter what Nancy Pelosi spews forth.   The most pressing category in this critical hour may be “refuse, resist or rebel.”  As the previous posts of this week reveal, I am concerned that machinations are now in play that may bring our constitutional republic to an end.  We truly live in interesting times  — to say the least.  May we all belly up to the bar and prove ourselves worthy of the Blood shed to buy us  — if that be possible.

“Tea partying” recounts our successful July 4 commemoration (click for a great participant’s review) of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and is a fine source of patriotic quotes.  “Great dissidents” is encouragement to stand on the solid Rock and pay even the ultimate price if it be demanded of you.

So this, after a good long run, is goodbye for now.  I hope to return to post here again in the future, but truly do not know what the future holds for me and my family.  Please pray for us and please help the ArchAngel Institute Board by submitting guest posts to archangelinstitute@gmail.org.  I am now no longer on the ArchAngel Board (that happened last summer, this post) , no longer the Executive Director (as of last January, this post) and no longer the lead volunteer (as 0f this week).  There is, to quote one of my favorite Christian bands, a “fearful symmetry” to it all.

Please help the Institute as you can while I turn to other pressing matters that simply must be addressed.  I hope to rejoin the mission in the future, but must implore my friends to now pitch in and take up some of the slack.

For God and Country,

Bryan J. Brown

The Internal Revenue Service has taken a long time to approve or deny the 501C3 application of The ArchAngel Institute, Inc.

We can yet offer any who give a tax deduction, but if we stay the present course we might not end up in that position.  We are, much like another application much discussed at this site, in legal limbo.

The IRS is concerned that we lack objectivity and fairness as to our presentation of the concepts of Christian Chivalry and “post abortion.”  We strike them as too strident. 

Now the Institute does, we assure you, want to be respected for having an informed perspective.

And the Institute does want to be “objective”  — although we are concerned about what the federal government means by use of that word.

And the Institute does want to air most all sides of any debate.  We do not edit comments left, and we welcome comments from all perspectives.

But that is probably not enough.

Thus we are seeking guest posters.  Won’t you please submit a posting?  And by ”you” we mean those who stand in opposition to our views on some of the most significant ideas of the day. 

We are especially interested in receiving posts from those who disagree with us on issues which we have addressed.

For example:

We are looking for those who will argue that the slave trade was a good thing in opposition to this post:  http://www.archangelinstitute.org/how-sweet-the-sound/

And we are looking for posts arguing that starving handicapped children to death is a good thing to do in opposition to these posts:

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/more-on-the-baby-doe-discussion/

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/executive-directors-post-july-4th-post-6/

And we are looking for those who will present an argument in favor of frivolous litigation in opposition to these posts:

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/nuisance-litigation-steals-away-a-soldier/

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/nuisance-litigation-backfires/

And we are looking for former fetuses who will argue that their abortion was the best thing for them in opposition to this post:

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/abortion-and-the-annunciation/

And we are looking for posts opposing us on “post abortion” in opposition to these posts.

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/real-pain-real-victims-real-sad/

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/54/

And we are looking or posts opposing our views on proper surgical center hygiene here:

http://www.archangelinstitute.org/archangel-raphael-division-in-the-news/

If you are interested in helping balance us out, please submit your guest post to archangelinstitute@gmail .com

We will be very grateful, no matter how hideous we find your pro-slavery, and/or pro-abortion and/or  pro-sanctionable litigation commentary.

So all of you denizens of the Culture of Death — here is your opportunity to take over this website for a post or three or more.  Hey, if the traffic increases we might even give you a running column!

Oh, and we are also interested in hearing of any other groups who had to do what we have done above …. you know, like Jewish groups having to solicit from holocaust deniers, or black heritage groups having to ask the KKK for help to prove their objectivity, or homosexual rights groups asking Focus on the Family to post at their website.

We are sure many such examples must be out there, so please send them all to us.  We are hoping for some big press in the near future, and want to then be able to show that pro-lifers are not the only ones singled out for such treatment.

Or are they?

Retta Kohrman is at the ArchAngel Institute every day, even when she is told not to be! Monday it was icy and zero degrees. Retta was told to stay home due to the inclement weather and fact that no one was likely to drop by the Institute that day.

Thanks be to God, Retta was “in the Spirit” and fought the elements to make it in. She filed this report after a meeting that had “destiny” written all over it . . . (edited to preserve privacy)

At 12:30PM Monday a very abortion minded young mother of two, … , came to the Institute. Her friend told her that she had her abortion here and she wanted to schedule an abortion for herself. She hadn’t had a pregnancy test but knew she was pregnant. I told her to be able to schedule an abortion she would have to have had a positive test. And that she should have an ultra sound just to make sure there was a heartbeat. Of course I told her everything I could to try to disuade her. She didn’t want to go to the Women’s Care Center but after talking with her for about 20 minutes she agreed to go if I went with her. She was pregnant and Anne Koehl said she was … in her second trimester. Still abortion minded after counseling with Marta, Anne and myself she opened a little on current stressers ….. Marta offered some gifts for her kids and diapers/clothes and she said ok. Marta sent her to the other WCC location for something for more age appropriate gifts for one of her kids. Through talking with Barb she told of an unfortunate circumstance in which she recently lost most everything. She related her work locally and living situation with a parent. Mike [Retta's husband] and I took her to pick up her child and then to [a social network ]office where we waited for them until they were done. I then took her and her child shopping for Christmas for their family from us. Delivering her home at 8PM where she hugged me and thanked me more than a few times as she did all day. Lastly, she gave me the impression that she might not have an abortion and that she will keep me informed. She said that I could phone her and made sure I had her phone number. I will be checking back on her and the kids from time to time. I think we have a saved baby.

It is easy to see why Retta is called to the ArchAngel Institute. When you consider end of year gifts realize that giving locally allows you the benefit of seeing how your gift is used. The Institute is being run on a shoestring budget so that Retta can make the kind of difference documented above. Please prayerfully consider a gift to keep Retta in this great position of rescue, from which she is able to pull from her own experiences and training in ministry, including years as a sidewalk counselor.

The Institute is using the building at 827 in a manner that would infuriate men of the caliber of the Pharoah of Egypt, King Herod, George Tiller and Ulrich Klopfer this Christmas season. Please aid us in our sacred mission. Bishop John D’ Arcy has. Click here for that post.

So has the Reverend Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association.  Click here for that post.

If you are praying for us then please leave a comment at this post.  Thank you and God Bless, Bryan

We could use your help on three present needs

1. A furnace to heat 1400 square foot. Gently used is fine. Donations are welcome!

2. Carpet for stairs and a hallway. About 85 feet long and 5 feet wide would be great!

3. A display board for our table at the March for Life in Fort Wayne on January 24. We will have an open house that same day, so please plan to come see us. Any groups out there with a display board in storage? If it belonged to a 501c3 that went out of business then all was supposed to be handed off to another 501c3. We are that. Hint, hint.

Give Retta a call if you can help us out on any of these items. (800) 399-4620 or 423-1771.

The Latin above is translated “pray and work.”

You have an opportunity to do just that on Monday, Labor Day.

We will be painting at the ArchAngel Institute and praying at 9, noon and 3. 

If you have something already planned on Labor Day then do that.  If you have no plans then consider dropping by to pray, to work, to chat us up while we work or to drop off some tasty treats for those working.

This is an impromptu invite, so it comes with no pressure at all.  Come as you are if you wanna, and if not  — do not!  (But do consider flashing this post around to friends within an hour of the Fort to let them know of this opportunity to spend some time working on the former abotion clinic.)

Downtown Fort Wayne, near the public library.  The address is 827 Webster Street.  The former abortion clinic is now the almost completed offices of the ArchAngel Institute! 

June 24 is the day on the Church’s calendar to celebrate the birth of John the Baptist. The Institute has previously posted on this important prophet here and here. John the Baptist was the greatest of the prophets of the Old Covenant and one whom the Lord Jesus Christ directs us to contemplate.

This picture is Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s famous treatment of the young St. John the Baptist (1670). John and Jesus were cousins, and likely did play together as children.

Here is a the good word (in green) for this day from AmericanCatholic. org http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/saintofday/

John challenges us Christians to the fundamental attitude of Christianity—total dependence on the Father, in Christ. Except for the Mother of God, no one had a higher function in the unfolding of salvation. Yet the least in the kingdom, Jesus said, is greater than he, for the pure gift that the Father gives. The attractiveness as well as the austerity of John, his fierce courage in denouncing evil—all stem from his fundamental and total placing of his life within the will of God.

Quote:

“And this is not something which was only true once, long ago in the past. It is always true, because the repentance which he preached always remains the way into the kingdom which he announced. He is not a figure that we can forget now that Jesus, the true light, has appeared. John is always relevant because he calls for a preparation which all men need to make. Hence every year there are four weeks in the life of the Church in which it listens to the voice of the Baptist. These are the weeks of Advent” (A New Catechism).

PRAYER REQUESTS

Pray that the Institute, as it closes out the second stage of its launch and fires the third stage in July,
would be given the courage and zeal of John the Baptist!

Pray that this third stage will be successful in getting the Christian Resistance recording studio up and operational in one of the three “procedure rooms” of the former abortion clinic at 827 Webster Street.

Pray that this third stage will be successful in finalizing the post abortion counseling program to be managed from one of the three “procedure rooms” of the former abortion clinic.

Pray that this third stage will be successful in finalizing the ongoing legal projects and battles now being waged from one of the three “procedure rooms” of the former abortion clinic.

Pray that John the Baptist will inspire the Institute to emulate prophetic zeal in furtherance of the Reign of the King of Kings — no matter the cost.

Please pray again for the Michael Division projects, and please pray for them throughout the weeks to come.

Details are on the way . . .

Pretty flowers are needed. See final paragraph for details . . .

Great friends are hard to find. The Institute is fortunate to have a few very great friends. Here is one of them:

Bill Baermann. Bill has been a stalwart defender of Christian orthodoxy for decades, and is now sacrificing time, talent and treasure to help the Institute come up to speed on all eight cylinders.

Bill not only scrapes paint, he applies paint, mounts locks, hangs curtains and performs many other useful services — all while discoursing on theology, psychology and good old fashion common sense, Hoosier-style!

We are pleased to announce that Bill is now on the Institute’s governing Board! Welcome Christian soldier Bill (and thanks to his Christian soldier wife, Kelly).

And now a call for flowers. Note the missing bushes in front of the former clinic. We are inviting any and all who ever stood and prayed for the lives snuffed out at 827 Webster Street to come plant some flowers in this site this Memorial Day Weekend.

Some were arrested on this very plot of ground almost 20 years ago. You will not be arrested for planting flowers there now.

We have a work morning planned starting at 7:30 am., Saturday, May 24. If you come by to plant flowers and we are already gone then just plant them — no further authorization is necessary!!!