There are still many people, including Christians, who don’t know the time.
Recently, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), overturned a French court’s decision to sentence a feminist to a prison sentence and a fine for interrupting a Roman Catholic Church service. She “aborted” Jesus at the altar while she was topless.
Eloise Bouton, bare-breasted, and covered in pro-choice slogans on her body, interrupted Paris’ Christmas Carols in December 2013. She also protested against the Catholic Church’s teachings about abortion by simulating an abortion of Jesus.
Bouton wore a crown made of thorns to mock Jesus Christ, and a blue veil in defamation of Virgin Mary. She stood before the altar of the church and pretended that she was performing an abortion. Then, she urinated on the ground in front the congregation.
More:
Bouton was a member of the Ukrainian Femen group. They later celebrated the act via social media by writing “Christmas is cancelled!” “The holy mother Eloise just aborted Jesus’ embryo on the altar of The Madeleine.”
Bouton was found guilty of an illegal “sexual display” by a French court. The priest of the church filed a complaint. Bouton was sentenced to more time than one month in prison, and she was ordered to pay EUR2,000 to the church. This punishment France’s highest court was upheld.
The Strasbourg-based ECHR ruled, in an Oct. 13 opinion that France had violated Article 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights which protects freedom expression by punishing Bouton because of her display.
It is illegal in many European countries to claim that a penis-having man who claims to be female is actually a man. The ECHR says that you can make the ultimate blasphemy at the altar of a Catholic Church during the liturgy. It’s protected speech.
Who would not want to defend a social system that is just? Who is willing to fight for the right of feminists at Christmas to imitate Jesus’ birth on the altar of a Catholic Church?
But not me. You can count me out.
There is something very dark and evil coming. Your eyes and ears should be open. Olivia Reingold reported that there have been scores of violent acts against pro-life centers in the United States since Roe was rewritten. Our media doesn’t seem to care. Christians and other prolifers know it’s coming. Reingold’s report from Bari Weiss’s Substack newsletter.
Wisconsin Family Action, a prolife group based in Madison’s suburbs, was set on fire by a bomber on Sunday morning, May 1.
Windows were destroyed. Furniture was also destroyed. Spray-painted by someone in neat, girly handwriting: “If abortions aren’t safe, then why are you?”
Julianne Appling, Wisconsin Family Action executive director, saw federal agents dragging buckets of evidence from the building hours later. She assumed that someone would be indicted, arrested, and prosecuted.
It was Mother’s Day. This was the first weekend following the Dobbs leaked Supreme Court decision, which would reverse Roe and return the question of abortion to the states. While thousands protested the impending decision across the nation, Wisconsin Family Action was setting fire to their building. Just days earlier, around 1,000 people had demonstrated less that five miles from the state capitol. Wisconsin Family Action was just one of many pro-life attacks that weekend.
Appling claims that she has not been able to find out who destroyed the facility. Appling is currently trying to get rid of all exemptions from Wisconsin’s recent abortion ban.
Appling said to me, “When there’s such a level of inaction in the investigation you start asking questions.” Appling said, “Is that who we are and what it is we believe?”
Yes, Mrs. Appling. Continue reading the story, including the silence of Democrats, pro-choice groups, and more (after Reingold quotes several pro-life conservatives that have openly condemned violence against abortion clinics in the past).
The White House spokesperson told me that President Joe Biden had called for peace after Dobbs, and also his statement that violence was never acceptable.
The president’s sentiments were not shared by the Democrats in Congress. A House Republican press secretary confirmed that they stopped a resolution to condemn violence against pro-life activists in July. This was reported by a few outlets, including The Daily Wire but not widely. Representative Jerry Nadler was one of few Democrats who condemned violence against pro-life groups.
Nathaniel Hurd is a policy fellow at The Religious Freedom Institute and co-authored a Report about the growing threat to pro-life groups. He suggested that Democrats may be unwittingly encouraging further attacks. He said that if a religious institution has been attacked, especially violently, everyone across the board condemns it over the past 50 years. “That seems to be missing, which suggests that the consensus is starting to falter somewhat.”
This did not seem to be surprising for Sen. Ted Cruz. Sen. Ted Cruz was not surprised by this.
The whole thing. It will tell you what time it’s.
Recently, I have been telling people in speeches that we are in a Kolakovic Moment. This refers to Father Tomislav Kolakovic (a prophetic Catholic priest who foresaw Communist persecution in Slovakia) and who spent the years prior to it preparing for resistance.
I was invited to Kosice (the second-largest city in Slovakia) for the Hanus Fellowship‘s ideas festival. This group is made up of young Catholics and focuses on living faithfully in today’s world. If you are a Catholic or Slovak citizen and would like to make a donation to an excellent group of orthodox young Catholics keeping the Church’s life thoughtful and vibrant in contemporary Slovakia, please click here. The Hanus Fellowship is named after an intellectual priest who was persecuted and killed by the Communists. I was taken by some members of the fellowship to the new Museum Of The Victims Of Communism. This private museum was started by the Hnic family to commemorate the 250,000 Slovaks who were killed or imprisoned under the Communist regime.
There are video testimonials from Silvester Krcmery (a prisoner and leader of the underground church) and others. I am always manipulated by the Communists’ pointless cruelty, no matter how many times these tales are told to me. It is shameful that almost no one talks about the victims of Communism today. This is what they said to me at the museum: Most young Slovaks born after the fall of Communism don’t know these stories. This is what the museum is trying to change.
We also discussed how Slovakia, like Hungary and other ex-Communist countries, East Germany excluded, never enjoyed a postcommunist lustration. This was, in part, bringing to light the role played by regime collaborators. Many people who were able to thrive under Communism used their connections to flourish under liberal democracy and never had to answer. For example, in Hungary, the leader of the left-wing opposition is a former Communist bureaucrat. According to me, many of those who went into teaching were Communists or favorable to the Communist cause. This is probably one reason why the crimes committed during the Communist era with the post-communist generation are downplayed or ignored.
The museum has a section that is dedicated to the production of Samizdat. These illegal publications kept alive resistance and gave the underground church the resources it needed to continue its worship.
Living Not by Lies will recall me talking about entering a secret room in a basement and behind a wall of an ordinary suburban Bratislava home. The underground church produced samizdat in that small chamber for ten years using an offset printer that Open Doors’ heroic Christians smuggled into it around 1980. Open Doors Dutch Christians celebrate in the chamber, with a Slovak-made samizdat printing machine.
Pavol Hnic, director of the museum, presented me with a copy in Slovak of the spiritual exercises Father Kolakovic taught to his followers in 1945 at the end of my visit. It was amazing! I was stunned! Today, Christians in the West need to be prepared for the future just as Father Kolakovic prepared young Christians of Slovakia. This was the offer of Mr. Hnic. If it is possible, I hope that the museum and its work will be funded by the proceeds of its sale. Here’s a picture of Fr. K’s spiritual exercises
On the right is Pavol Hnic (museum founder and director), accompanied by Peter, his son, who is a museum guide.
The Hnics should get me the Word document in which Father Kolakovic’s spiritual exercises are written down. It is urgent that they be translated into English and distributed to American Christians while there is still time. It was both shocking and sad to see so many young people from Slovakia not being aware of the terrible things that Communism has done to their country. Similar stories have been reported in Central Europe’s post-communist countries. It’s also true in America (that is, our youth aren’t taught anything about Communism).
We are fortunate to have witnesses to Communism to inform us and warn us about the dangers of falling back into the same mindset which brought us tyranny. But they are slowly disappearing. A couple of Nashville film producers are currently raising funds for a live not by lies documentary to help us get these heroes onto film while they are still with us. Keep me informed about the fundraising.
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Lies are now available in paperback. This makes it easier to study in groups. Click here to download a study guide for your student or church group.
Yes, I am an alarmist because the world is alarming. It’s a sign of something. It is a spiritual battle that we are fighting. We will take some casualties. All of us have the luxury to be able to see and prepare for what lies ahead. Father Kolakovic, who gave the Slovak underground Church the guidance and fortitude they needed, is now speaking to us today. It’s certain.
