All posts tagged "religion"

How Christianity's 'kook' fringe went mainstream in Trump's MAGA world

The far-right National Conservatism Conference used to be an event that many traditional Goldwater and McCain conservatives made a point of avoiding. But with President Donald Trump's MAGA movement now dominating the GOP, NatCon is drawing a lot more attention in Republican circles.

In an article published on September 13, Salon's Heather Digby Parton points to growing interest in NatCon as a troubling example of how much Christianity's lunatic fringe is influencing the GOP and the MAGA movement.

Describing the most recent NatCon gathering — which was held in Washington, D.C. in early September — Parton explains, "'Overturn Obergefell' was one featured panel, the AP's Joey Cappelletti reported. 'The Bible and American Renewal' was another. The conference, he wrote, 'underscored the movement's vision of an America rooted in limited immigration, Christian identity and the preservation of what speakers called the nation's traditional culture' — which is putting it very mildly. It certainly doesn’t seem there was much talk of individual freedom, free markets or liberty of any kind, and that is a big change from the conservative movement that has dominated Republican politics since the Reagan Administration."

The far-right NatCon gathering should not be confused with National Council for Mental Wellbeing event that is also abbreviated NatCon. The health event was held in Philadelphia in May, not in Washington, D.C. in early September, and has zero connection to the political event.

This year's political NatCon, Parton observes, featured some prominent figures in the Trump Administration — including National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard; Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget and a key architect of Project 2025; and border czar Tom Homan.

"But perhaps the most revealing moment was a viral speech by Missouri GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt titled 'What is an American?' in which he made the claim that the country belongs to the descendants of white Europeans who took the land from the violent Native Americans fair and square because they were just plain superior," Parton observes. "He said straight out: 'America doesn't belong to them — it belongs to us.… We can no longer apologize for who we are. Our people tamed the continent, built a civilization from the wilderness. We Americans are the sons and daughters of the Christian pilgrims who poured out onto the ocean's shores.'"

Schmitt, Parton adds, even promoted the Great Replacement Theory during his speech.

A recurring theme of NatCon, Parton warns, is that the U.S. is not only a Christian nation — it is a white Christian nation.

"It's tempting to write off NatCon, and Schmitt's speech in particular, as an example of a bunch of right-wing kooks indulging their little fever dream of creating a white Christian autocracy," Parton stresses. "But these are powerful people now, and if there's any person in government who is trying to create 'a pastiche of past glories' — largely by erasing the true American past, both good and bad — it's the most powerful one of all, Donald Trump, who has certainly discovered that 'you can just do things!'"

Parton continues, "Nobody paid attention to Project 2025 until it was too late, and look where that got us. It would be foolish to make that same mistake again."

Heather Digby Parton's full article for Salon is available at this link.

'Fits a profile': Suspect's Christian ties spur fears of more assassinations

Since the fatal shooting of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband in an act described by a federal prosecutor as a “political assassination,” scrutiny has turned to suspect Vance Boelter’s ties to independent charismatic Christianity, in particular a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR).

Boelter is alleged to have posed as a police officer as he gunned down Democratic Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, in the early hours of June 14. In a separate shooting, he wounded state Sen. John A. Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife, Yvette Hoffman. Investigators say Boelter visited two other lawmakers and had a list of 70 targets, including Democrats, civic leaders and abortion providers.

Boelter was described in a court filing supporting federal charges as embarking "on a planned campaign of stalking and violence, designed to inflict fear, injure, and kill members of the Minnesota state legislature and their families."

Researchers who study the Christian right have homed in on Boelter’s attendance at a Bible college in Dallas in the late 1980s and missionary work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he delivered sermons critical of abortion and LGBTQ+ people.

Christ For the Nations Institute (CFNI) confirmed that Boelter attended the college from 1988 to 1990, graduating with a “diploma in practical theology in leadership and pastoral.”

Christ For the Nations Institute has been a “merging space” for trends in independent charismatic Christianity, Matthew D. Taylor, a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic Christian Jewish Studies, told the “Straight White American Jesus” podcast.

Those trends include dominionism — the idea of Christians taking control over the world — and NAR, which emerged in the mid-1990s.

Frederick Clarkson, a senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, described NAR to Raw Story as a movement whose adherents believe God speaks directly to modern-day apostles and prophets, and which seeks to “restore their vision of what they think 1st-century Christianity was.”

Both Taylor and Clarkson note that Apostle Dutch Sheets, one of the major proponents of New Apostolic Reformation, attended CFNI in the 1970s and taught at the college in the following decade, potentially overlapping with Boelter.

Sheets reportedly met Trump officials at the White House one week before the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Staff at Dutch Sheets Ministries declined Raw Story’s request for an interview.

In the early 2010s, Sheets was executive director at CFNI, where a sign in the lobby displays a quote attributed to founder Gordon Lindsay: “Every Christian ought to pray at least one violent prayer a day.”

Following the Minnesota shootings, the institute said its leadership was “absolutely aghast and horrified that a CFNI alumnus is the suspect,” and that it “unequivocally rejects, denounces, and condemns any and all forms of violence and extremism, be it politically, racially, religiously or otherwise motivated.”

The statement rejected any notion the college’s teachings were “a contributing factor” to Boelter’s “evil behavior.”

The statement also claimed Lindsay’s comment about “violent prayer” has been misrepresented.

“By ‘violent prayer’ he meant that a Christian’s prayer life should be intense, fervent, and passionate, not passive and lukewarm,” the statement said, “considering that spiritual forces of darkness are focused on attacking life, identity in God, purpose, peace, love, joy, truth, health, and other good things.”

‘Five soccer balls’

Researchers who track the Christian right have taken note of a sermon Boelter preached in Congo in 2023.

“They don’t know abortion is wrong, many churches,” Boelter said, in comments first reported by Wired. “They don’t have the gifts flowing. God gives the body gifts. To keep balance. Because when the body starts moving in the wrong direction, when they’re one, and accepting the gifts, God will raise an apostle or prophet to correct their course.”

Clarkson told Raw Story Boelter’s rhetoric had a familiar ring.

“Nobody but someone influenced by the New Apostolic Reformation movement would say something like that,” Clarkson said.

But Taylor saw a broader strain of charismatic Christianity in Boelter’s sermonizing, connected to the Latter Rain movement, a precursor to NAR that emerged after World War II.

“Many people today would say those are NAR ideas, but they were Latter Rain ideas before they were NAR ideas,” Taylor said. “I don’t know where he picked up these ideas. He’s very clearly charismatic in his theology and in his preaching as well.”

In a sermon in Congo in 2022, Boelter used an odd metaphor involving soccer balls to suggest he was burdened with regrets.

“Do you understand what God has given us?” Boelter asked. “He’s given us eternity — with Him. And what does he ask? He says, ‘Life didn’t go the way I wanted it for you. But it wasn’t my fault. Vance, you sidetracked. You messed up your life. You took your five soccer balls, and you wrecked ’em.’

“But He says he loves us so much he came and he died to pay for it all. And he says, ‘Vance, do you want to trade your five wrecked soccer balls for all of these? Do you want to live forever with me? Then get on your face, Vance, and repent of your sins.”

Clarkson told Raw Story he thinks both personal troubles and exposure to ideas in the realm of charismatic Christianity could have factored into Boelter’s turn to political violence.

“If he’s in NAR all the way, and his marriage and his finances are falling apart, he may lean into his faith to find purpose,” Clarkson said. “If he thinks his life as he knows it is over, he may be thinking about trying to go out in a meaningful way.”

Boelter reportedly texted his family after the shootings: “Dad went to war last night.”

“He’s been planning these things for a long time; he was armed for it,” Clarkson said. “It was literally war. He did seem to assume he would be killed … When people commit violence out of religious motive, that’s profound.”

‘Priming the pump for violence’

Clarkson said that if it turns out Boelter is an NAR adherent, “this would be the first major example of the violent vision and rhetoric of the New Apostolic Reformation movement manifesting.”

On the other hand, Clarkson said, “if it turns out that he’s not NAR, it’s still the case that there are all these NAR leaders that have been teaching people that they are in an end-times war. They’re priming the pump for violence in their lifetime.”

Minnesota shooting Officers gather in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, after the shootings of two lawmakers and their spouses. REUTERS/Ellen Schmidt

Taylor suggested a different way of looking at Boelter’s attack.

Political discourse in the U.S. is “at a high boil,” Taylor said. While Boelter might have been influenced by hostility towards abortion and LGBTQ+ rights in right-wing media, Taylor noted that political violence is manifesting against an array of targets, with a firebombing attack against Jewish demonstrators calling for the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza in Colorado this month only one example.

“There’s so much of this bile in the far-right and right-wing and independent media spaces about abortion, and about LGBTQ+ rights,” Taylor said. “And that’s something that Boelter touches on in his sermons as well — about trans people, about Muslims, about immigrants.

“I worry that this is the harbinger of what’s to come. And we could see more attacks like this in the coming time, because he fits a very common profile.”

Trump's vile avarice has met its match

I’m not a religious person. Catholic schools, and my mom’s reliance on Catholicism as a surrogate for normal things like grocery shopping, complicated my relationship with the church.

We moved to Southern Indiana when I was about nine, and my mom was going through some stuff. She enrolled us at St. Benedict’s Catholic school down the street, where daily lunches compensated for my dirt-crusted uniform. In those years we enjoyed one family trauma after another; suffice it to say I conflated food, fear, and God at an early age.

When I graduated high school, probably still confusing education with yeast rolls, I thought Catholic college was a good idea. It was familiar, plus, it would give my mom bragging rights and reserve her seat in heaven. So I got a scholarship and set off to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College.

Indiana’s oldest Catholic college was founded in 1840 by a religious order from Ruille-sur-Loir, France. The Sisters of Providence obtained the state's first charter to educate women in 1846, and set up a chapel in the wilderness that still stands today. As school legend has it, the sisters endured a treacherous sea journey from France. Tossed in a violent storm, they made a pact that if the sea didn’t swallow them whole, they’d build a chapel made entirely of sea shells on their new campus. Today the shell chapel still stands; if you’re ever in Southern Indiana, it is worth seeing.

In 1840, women weren’t exactly encouraged to get a formal education, so I greatly admire what the Sisters of Providence set out to do — they were feminist bad-asses of their time. But, sorry to say, things didn’t go to plan.

All it took was one look at their campus cemeteries.

Nearly two centuries of lives were laid out in a picture that said it all: male priests are buried under headstones, carved in marble, personalized, and adorned. The nuns are buried in rows of plain white crosses, fungible, subservient, and beholden to hierarchy. I was out of there.

A friend drove a couple hours and backed his pickup to the Le Fer Hall dorm. I threw my boxes and clothes out the second-story window and made a run for it.

All of this TMI is to convey my deeply personal yet complicated joy at the ascension of America’s first pope.

A moral voice

Pope Leo XIV is a perfectly timed antidote to the craven man in the Oval Office who seems hellbent on destroying forces of good. Pope Leo, like his beloved predecessor, walks the walk. Augustinians live simply and frugally, never ostentatiously. They believe in the pursuit of truth and humility, which puts them in diametric opposition to our current president. Like the Sisters of Providence, Augustinians live in service to the poor and underserved, something MAGA equates with weakness.

Pope Leo has already warned the world about the destructive combination of wealth and power. In his first papal press conference, he nailed the crisis of our current moment: Rising dictators use language of hatred and division, and suppress the media, to advance their own pursuit of power.

Defending free speech without naming Donald Trump directly, Pope Leo stressed the need for leaders and the media to engage in more nuanced speech, condemning “loud,” i.e. boisterous communications: “We do not need loud, forceful communication, but rather communication that is capable of listening and of gathering the voices of the weak who have no voice.”

He encouraged the world to soften and “disarm communication of all prejudice and resentment, fanaticism and even hatred.”

He champions “the precious gift of free speech and of the press,” as Trump tries to destroy both.

Love is all we need

The world just watched Trump shamelessly accept lavish gifts and royal treatment from Saudi Arabia’s rulers, the same people who ordered the dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist, because he criticized them. Pope Leo delivered an urgent message in contrast, reiterating the Catholic church’s “solidarity with journalists who are imprisoned (and worse) for seeking and reporting the truth.” No doubt it was an unwelcome rejoinder to Trump, who has weaponized federal resources, barred journalists who fail to fawn over him from his press conferences, and filed repeated lawsuits to punish his critics as ‘enemies of the people.’

I get it that the Pope opposes abortion and gay marriage, two personal, Constitutional rights I hold dear. But unlike the U.S. government, leading by religious creed is literally the Pope’s job. More importantly, while Trump spews violent and divisive hatred trying to split the nation, including even the Catholic church, Pope Leo talks and walks the more evolved path of love and compassion.

He also plainly condemns the nativism endorsed by the MAGA movement. When Pope Leo was still Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, he posted a slap at JD Vance’s newly-minted cruelty disguised as Catholicism. Responding to Vance’s claim that Christians should “rank” their love to put poor, needy strangers at the bottom of their hierarchy of concerns, Prevost said plainly, “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn't ask us to rank our love for others.”

Failing the Pope’s directive

The most brazenly corrupt president in our nation’s history considers himself anointed by God. He has perpetrated fraud on the nation by accusing others of fraud, weaponized the federal government by accusing others of weaponization, and claims license to sell the presidency to brutal foreign dictators.

In naming Trump’s vile, self-serving avarice, I’m aware that I am violating Pope Leo’s admonition against heated rhetoric.

In my defense, I, like JD Vance, rank my moral commitments. Identify the evil confronting the nation first, then defend the Constitution, particularly the First Amendment. Then defend my neighbor’s right to fly his MAGA freak flag.

From my lapsed Catholic and legal perspective, these commitments are actually one and the same.

Sabrina Haake is a 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

Trump is a troll – but his 'ugly' pope selfie demands a damning response

The America-attacking Donald Trump descended further into the sewer on Friday, once again proving that his singular talent during his long, miserable life has been the ability to somehow always go lower, while dragging the willing accomplices who kiss his ample a-- down into the stink and the bilge with him.

I debated about whether to write about this one, because as we all know that while narcissists and 11-year-old bullies don’t love negative attention, they are absolutely terrified of getting no attention at all.

pic.twitter.com/x2HrR939tn
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 3, 2025

So when I saw the White House fly the hideous post (above) with no comment Friday night, I was repulsed and angered, which I know is exactly what the America-attacker and his odious enablers want.

Look, I am not a religious man, and in fact have some serious issues with the Catholic Church, so the trumpeting of this childish crap by Pope Felon the 1st and his ghastly followers doesn’t offend my senses from that standpoint. I won’t be pounding on the Bible and citing any of what I am sure are 1,473 passages in the good book that address this kind of sacrilegious gunk.

That would be sanctimonious on my part.

I will defend Catholics who take offense to it, though, because it is no doubt intentionally hurtful, which is the other thing the dead-inside Trump is effortlessly good at. Whether it be the disabled, our fallen, women, or people of color, the grotesque man-child will always gleefully manufacture any opportunity he can find to pile insult onto tragedy.

I’ll take it the woman-abusing felon who a judge said is an adjudicated rapist is butt-hurt that the recently deceased Pope Francis had the good taste to distance himself as much as possible from the devil himself.

Like most human beings, Francis knew Trump to be an abuser, not a healer ... a liar, not a truth-teller ... an unrepentant felon, not a law-abiding citizen.

Ugly.

The normal, decent and God-fearing folks across the world will never understand how any of this is OK, or far, far worse, how this kind of unholy hell was able to ascend to power not once, but twice, while violently attacking America in between.

So for that reason, and that reason alone, I decided to take public issue with this taxpayer-funded, childish display of insult and hate, and alert you in the event you didn't see it.

I know this will only fill the veins of the attention-seeking monster with the poison that fuels him, but as sure as I am typing this, sooner or later it is going to kill him. The religious true-believers, and wise-guy columnists like myself will align to tell you that when he finally goes the way of Francis, it will be straight down not up.

Remember: It’s his singular talent.

Can I get an amen?

(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.)

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‘Evil people’ and ‘haters’: Chicagoans endure disruptions to combat convention threats

CHICAGO — Tens of thousands of visitors will pass by a 138-year-old brick church facing a parking lot for the United Center, home of this week’s Democratic National Convention.

Welcoming visitors into the landmark building would be a “blessing” — and timely — given the history of Greater Union Baptist Church, which includes a visit from Black civil rights activist and suffragist, Mary Church Terrell, said Walter McCray, the Baptist church’s pastor.

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“To highlight her is very significant in terms of preserving democracy and voting. We believe in voting and are promoters of voting as a congregation,” McCray told Raw Story in a phone interview. “We think that would be very significant with Kamala Harris as a Black female running for the President of these United States of America.”

But Greater Union Baptist Church will be in a “lockdown” instead. Metal fences and concrete barricades ring its perimeter. Parking is prohibited. The normally welcoming house of worship now resembles a fortress. And communication between the Democratic Party and the surrounding community members — many of whom are Democrats — hasn’t always been great, residents said.

Greater Union Baptist Church near the United Center has barricades and fencing around it on Aug. 18, 2024, due to the Democratic National Convention. (Photo by Dave Levinthal/Raw Story)

Such is the temporary fate of private properties that fall within the designated security “red zone” that requires Secret Service approval for access during the convention.

The specter of terrorist attacks and violent protests have resulted in overwhelming security procedures in this lower-income neighborhood about three miles west of Chicago’s downtown core.

“We're not naive enough to think that everyone will respect the church house, the people of God there, so under the circumstances, we are cooperative,” McCray said.

Greater Union Baptist Church is one of the community organizations located near the convention sites that has needed to completely alter its operations in order to maneuver around security restrictions required by the Secret Service and law enforcement.

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The church in Chicago’s Near West Side neighborhood pivoted to virtual services and meetings for its 67-person congregation while the convention and preparations took place, which members understood even though “everybody misses the fellowship in person,” McCray said.

McCray said much of the congregation consists of “senior seniors” who cannot walk long distances or quickly.

“The aches and pains that come with older age, they have, so to be able to park right in front of the church and not far from the church house, the entry doors, is important,” McCray said. “With the street blocked the way it is, that's problematic.”

Choosing to proceed with virtual services was a “two-sided” decision – both for the protection of the congregation and for the safety of the dignitaries, delegates and visitors attending the convention, McCray said.

“We are very much aware that not everybody is about peaceful protests and demonstrations, and there are some who are very sinister, who would be clandestine in seeking to take what is positive in peace and turn it very negative,” McCray said. “There are very evil people. There are haters who seek to not only harm elected officials, or who would seek to distract from a Democratic National Convention by creating chaos and violence.”

Community outreach efforts

Following a community impact session hosted by the Chicago 2024 Democratic National Convention host committee in early August, the Secret Service got in touch with McCray about security protocols, but representatives of the host committee and Democratic National Committee have not, he said.

The Secret Service provided McCray with a phone number to call in order to help staff members of the church access the building during the week.

The Democratic National Convention Joint Information Center confirmed to Raw Story that the Secret Service and its partners contacted Greater Union Baptist Church as a part of its outreach effort to about 1,300 people, including 500 business representatives, since July 25. Prior to then, the Secret Service community outreach subcommittee held meetings with community groups in the city and suburbs, the information center said.

Less than a mile north of the United Center, a food pantry, Nourishing Hope, operates a warehouse that processes about three million pounds of food each year. The nonprofit runs another warehouse and two walk-in pantries across Chicago, in addition to providing deliveries and online food ordering services.

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Given that it’s outside of the security “red zone” but not far from the convention site, the organization took a precautionary approach to its operations planning during the convention.

“Just making sure that the drivers are paying attention to closures and giving themselves extra time to navigate any sudden closures or delays,” Kellie O’Connell, chief executive officer for Nourishing Hope, told Raw Story. “The other thing that we're messaging to our staff, really, and volunteers is to just make sure that you plan extra time so that you can navigate any increased traffic.”

Clients who live in the Near West Side and South Loop neighborhoods near the United Center and the other convention site, McCormick Place — particularly seniors — might experience rescheduled food deliveries during the convention. But O’Connell insisted that they will get food for the week.

“Because we're just outside of it, I think we're just being more proactive to make sure that we're educating ourselves on what's happening and how it might impact our operations,” said O’Connell.

Leaders for Nourishing Hope attended a community impact meeting but did not receive personal outreach from Democratic National Convention organizers or partners about the convention’s effect on their operations.

The Secret Service, City of Chicago, Chicago Police Department, Chicago’s Office of Emergency Management and the Chicago 2024 Host Committee created a community outreach program in the spring, which included door-to-door visits to residents and businesses around the United Center and the McCormick Place, the Democratic National Convention Joint Information Center told Raw Story.

"The preparation for the 2024 DNC, like any National Special Security Event, is a joint effort. No one federal, state or local agency alone can carry out the measures necessary to secure the event. The expertise of each participating law enforcement, public safety and military agency is critical to the success of the operational security plan," said the Democratic National Convention Joint Information Center in an email, declining to provide a named spokesperson for attribution.

The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection also canvassed, shared information via email and social media, and hosted meetings with business owners "in the perimeters and in proximity to the venues," according to the Democratic National Convention Joint Information Center.

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“We know that security for this event of this size will have impacts. To that end, the Secret Service and our partners have conducted dozens of outreach up to this point, with businesses, residents and community groups,” said Joel Hefferman, assistant special agent in charge of the U. S. Secret Service, Chicago Field Office, at a press conference on Aug. 2. “The objective is to effectively and efficiently communicate our plan and mitigate confusion as we move forward towards the DNC.”

For the nearly 650 schools in the Chicago Public Schools district, teacher classroom preparations and trainings ahead of Aug. 26 — the first day of school — are proceeding as usual, Evan Moore, a school district spokesman, told Raw Story via email.

But there are disruptions.

Schools near the United Center were informed by district officials that street closures and security barriers may cause their employees to arrive late, Moore said. The principals relayed precautionary instructions and offered opportunities for expanded accessibility in order to avoid congestion, such as open hours for school supply drop off ahead of the convention to the community.

Sports practices for three high schools in the Chicago Public League will be restricted to 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. during the convention, Moore said.

The district adjusted its 2024-2025 school year days to start on Monday, Aug. 26, after the convention. Classes will end Friday, June 12, 2025.

“This shift not only accommodates the city’s logistical needs as they relate to the influx of convention goers, but it also allows time for students to attend, volunteer and participate in the civic process of hosting the convention,” Moore said in a statement on behalf of Chicago Public Schools.

Commuter concerns

Even those outside of the vicinity of the United Center and McCormick Place are taking precautions to avoid street closures and protests during the convention.

“I told everybody at my job, don't you dare create in-person meetings that week. We're doing everything by Zoom,” said John Booras, Republican candidate for U.S. House Illinois District 3 and tax attorney. “Especially as a former police officer, I'm seeing the signs of that being a powder keg right now.”

John Booras, Republican candidate for U.S. House Illinois District 3 and tax attorney, at the Billy Goat Tavern in Wrigleyville for a Chicago Republicans event on Aug. 12. (Photo by Alexandria Jacobson/Raw Story)

Laura Kotelman, a Republican committeeperson for Chicago’s 44th Ward, expressed concern about how the convention will affect her commute downtown for work.

“I don't want to get trapped if there's like roving outages, or they take over Lakeshore Drive. It might be hard to get home,” said Kotelman, recalling protestors’ clash with police at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Chicago in 2012.

Ken Ashner, who lives in Chicago’s South Loop near McCormick Place, said it’s been “so far so good” in terms of navigating his neighborhood, despite a parking ban outside his home. Ashner said he just needed to show his license to access the designated parking space in his building. but finding parking was a little harder for some of his neighbors.

“I talked to a guy this morning, and he said he had to find a place down a little bit further away, but he found one because they're allowing us to use other neighborhoods,” Ashner said. “Obviously, the street closures we know about, so we’re just going around them.”

Ken Ashner walks by a street closure in his neighborhood on Aug. 18, 2024. (Photo by Alexandria Jacobson/Raw Story)

The Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications has released maps of affected areas around the United Center and McCormick Place that includes vehicle check points and limited vehicular traffic throughout a couple blocks around each venue.

Vehicle screenings began as early as Friday near McCormick Place, and street closures near both sites started on Saturday. The convention is scheduled to end on Thursday evening with Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepting the Democratic presidential nomination.

Pat Dowell, alderman for Chicago's 3rd Ward, was unavailable for an interview, and Walter Burnett, Jr., alderman for Chicago's 27th Ward, did not respond to Raw Story's request for comment.

Trump and God: Religion raises the stakes at Republican convention

MILWAUKEE — The religious fervor apparent from the very start of the Republican National Convention crescendoed to the point when a Donald Trump-impersonating pastor came on stage the first night.

“We are made in God's image, amen, and we won't shy away from speaking that simple truth ever,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Monday.

Next came Mark Robinson, lieutenant governor of North Carolina and candidate for North Carolina governor, who thanked his “Lord and savior Jesus Christ for giving us my life, health and strength.”

“While the left is trying to divide us with identity politics, we are here tonight because we believe that America is always, and should be, one nation under God,” said Sarah Workman, an Arizona single mother.

Evoking a pastor-like delivery himself, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) came out raring:

“If you didn't believe in miracles before Saturday, you better be believing right now. Thank God almighty that we live in a country that still believes in the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and Alpha and the Omega,” Scott said.

Overt religiosity has long been a feature of Republican national conventions.

But this Republican National Convention is different.

In hallways and corridors, delegates spoke of the Holy Spirit's presence, the precious blood of Jesus being upon them. A true battle between the forces of good and evil was already underway, one man told another as they walked onto the Fiserv Forum delegation floor.

Only days before, a gunman nearly took the life of former President Donald Trump. And nothing short of divine intervention kept Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, alive during that assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pa., Scott said.

“Our God still saves. He still delivers, and he still sets free, because on Saturday, the devil came to Pennsylvania holding a rifle, but an American lion got back up on his feet, and he roared.”

Before giving a blessing at the close of Monday night’s program, Pastor James Roemke did an impression of Trump, evoking applause and a grin from the former president himself.

Pastor James Roemke conducting a prayer on Monday at the Republican National Convention. (C-SPAN)

“You’re gonna be so blessed. You’re gonna be tired of being blessed. I guarantee it. Believe me,” Roemke said.

Christianity continued to be a refrain throughout the next two days of the convention — sometimes to inspire, and other times to fight.

Savannah Chrisley, a reality TV personality whose parents are serving prison time for conspiracy to commit fraud and tax evasion, said Democrats are using the justice system to “punish their enemies” on the right.

“Let's face it, look at what they're doing to countless Christians and conservatives that the government has labeled extremists or even worse. Meanwhile, the Democrats are releasing actual violent offenders who have hurt innocent people,” Chrisley said.

Chrisley called Steve Bannon’s recent imprisonment for contempt of Congress — for refusing to comply with a subpoena related to a Jan. 6, 2021 investigation — unjust. She read from the Bible verse, Proverbs 24:16

“‘For though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.’ It's about time we start seeing people stumble. We need to rise above the persecution. We need to hold rogue prosecutors accountable,” Chrisley said.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said the Bible verse, Galatians 6:9, could serve as guidance for “the difficult path ahead to save America.”

“‘Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap if we do not give up.’ We, the people, will never give up on President Trump, and we will never give up on the United States of America,” Stefanik said. “God bless you. God bless President Donald J. Trump, and God bless the United States of America.”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) wore large cross earrings during her speech on the third day of the convention.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday. (C-SPAN)

Country singer, Lee Greenwood, whose popular song, “God Bless the U.S.A.,” is a Trump favorite — he usually walks out to the song at campaign rallies — performed live throughout the convention.

Greenwood signed autographs for fans and sold an autographed photo and Bible set for $75 at the Baird Center in Milwaukee, near the Fiserv Forum.

Lee Greenwood merchandise for sale at the Baird Center in Milwaukee. (Mark Alesia/Raw Story)

‘Not surprising’ focus on Christianity

The overt displays of Christianity were “not surprising,” said Peter Montgomery, managing director of Right Wing Watch who specializes in writing about religious discourse.

“Often, the overlap between the MAGA movement and the Christian nationalist movement is very large,” Montgomery told Raw Story. “Trump often plays to that. He knows that he got elected in large part because of the overwhelming support he got from conservative evangelicals, and he's counting on their support to put him back in the White House.”

The assassination attempt on Trump further imbued him with savior-like status — some of his followers consider him “ordained by God to be president,” Montgomery said.

Trump used “Scripture language” in his posts immediately after the shooting on Saturday, further fueling that narrative, Montgomery said.

“It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. “We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness.”

Some speakers outside of the convention hall took the Christianity devotion to a more extreme level.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson told attendees at a Heritage Foundation event in Milwaukee on Monday that they are in “spiritual battle” against those who want to “eliminate” Christians, Right Wing Watch reported, and Moms for Liberty also evoked the idea of "spiritual warfare" at a town hall in Milwaukee on Tuesday.

Trump — twice divorced and recently convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from hush money payments to a former porn actress who says they had an affair — became the first president since Dwight D. Eisenhower to change his religion in office, in 2020. He now identifies as a non-denominational Christian instead of Presbyterian, according to a report from Christianity Today.

Trump is not known to regularly attend church services although he counts numerous conservative faith leaders among his political allies.

On the other hand, President Joe Biden is a lifelong Catholic who makes a habit of attending Sunday mass each week.

Bibles being sold with photos and autographs from Lee Greenwood. (Mark Alesia/Raw Story)

‘Satanic chants’ and ‘FALSE GODS’

While Christianity took center stage at the convention, other religions were represented at the conference.

Roemke’s benediction on Monday was followed by a prayer from Sikh Republican Harmeet Dhillon, a leader of the California Republican Party.

Yet, her presence was criticized by some MAGA supporters.

“They did have some non-Christian people doing prayers, which I actually thought was a good thing to show some respect for religious diversity in America, but even that gesture was not welcomed by some of the folks on the Christian right,” Montgomery said.

Right Wing watch compiled a thread of Christian nationalists who railed against Dhillon’s prayer.

The racists and Christian nationalists are not happy about Harmeet Dhillon delivering a prayer at the RNC last night. https://t.co/56u13X5ged
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) July 16, 2024

“Day 1 of the RNC was complete with satanic chants and multiple prayers to FALSE GODS,” wrote white nationalist and alt-right internet personality, Stew Peters, on X.

Jewish Republicans showed their presence at the convention, holding signs on the convention floor.

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a self-proclaimed “proud Orthodox Jew” spoke on Wednesday about the anti-semitism he said he experienced at Harvard University and expressed his support of “President Trump's policies to expel foreign students who violate our laws, harass our Jewish classmates and desecrate our freedoms.”

For three Jewish attendees of the Republican National Convention, they all agreed that the Republican Party they know is open and welcoming to Jews — and people of all faith traditions who believe in conservative values and support Trump.

Gail Weiss, Steven Leventhal and Jodi Schwartz — Jewish supporters of Donald Trump who attended the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee during July 2024 — said they've always felt welcome within the party and lauded its support for Israel. (Dave Levinthal/Raw Story)

Asked if the convention’s focus on Christianity and overt displays of Christian imagery concerned them, they shook their heads no and said it didn’t bother them in the least.

“I love my Christian friends. I love Christian Republicans. I’ve always been welcomed,” Gail Weiss, a Florida alternate delegate from Walton County, Fla., told Raw Story in Milwaukee.

The Republican Party’s commitment to Israel is proof that the party cares deeply about Jews both in America and abroad, the attendees said.

“We all need spirituality. We all need God,” said Jodi Schwartz, a Florida delegate representing Palm Beach County, while holding a sign that read “We Are Jews for Trump.” “Democrats — their god is government.”

Steven Leventhal, Republican convention attendee, held a blue and white sign that said “TRUMP” in both Western and Hebrew script.

“The Republican Party is better for religion and for religious — Christian, Jewish, Muslim, any faith,” he said. “ “What’s good for Israel is good for America. We need to support the only democracy in the Middle East, and Republicans support Israel.”

Benny Rosenberger, an alternate delegate from Brooklyn, N.Y., wasn't bothered by invocations to a Christian God.

"We're different religions, but I agree with [Tim Scott] that God should protect [Trump],” Rosenberger, who is Jewish Orthodox, told Raw Story. "God has to save America. We've deviated from the vision of the founding fathers."

Samuel Alito’s arrogance is of Biblical proportions

I was raised Catholic. When I was nine years old, waiting in enormous St. Benedict’s slow line for Communion, I studied the violent imagery adorning every window, crevice and corner of the church.

Romans were fond of crucifying people, and Jesus was no exception. The walls of the church depicted violence everywhere: the stations of the cross, nailed body parts, Pontius Pilate’s whips, stab wounds, bloody crowns of thorns. To top it off, a 20-foot-tall crucifixion with the same lifelike details loomed over the altar. It hit me that these images weren’t meant to comfort. They were meant to manipulate through fear, guilt and control.

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My dad had already taught our family the causal link between mortal fear and control, my mom had left him for that reason, and I didn’t need a repeat of the same lesson. It also didn’t sit right with me that we were surviving on peanut butter sandwiches, yet the tax-free church still wanted 10 percent of my mom’s barely-there wages, and what was up with priests having all the power while nuns did all the work?

I decided in that communion line that organized religion was mostly about power, control and money, and not in that order. Although Jesus’ woke messages of peace and love were transcendent and ethereally beautiful — Consider the lilies. Do unto others. Do not judge. Turn the other cheek … — men ruling the Catholic church ditched the beauty and embraced the power hundreds of years ago.

Using the High Court to promote religion

As a lapsed Catholic and long-in-the-tooth federal trial lawyer, I am more familiar with Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s religious nuttery than I want to be. I certainly didn’t need any more proof that his jurisprudence — as well as his misogyny — has deep Catholic roots, but last week, filmmaker Lauren Windsor brought the receipts anyway.

A couple weeks ago, at the annual dinner for the Supreme Court Historical Society, Windsor secretly taped Alito agreeing with a stated goal of fighting to return “our country to a place of godliness.” I’m not a fan of secret wiretaps, but every public figure with a lifetime federal appointment should assume that what they say to strangers in public places could become public.

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When Windsor asked Alito about the nation’s current polarization, Alito replied that “one side or the other is going to win … you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised. They really can’t be compromised. So it’s not like you are going to split the difference.” So much for being a neutral arbiter, or an umpire calling balls and strikes where they fall.

Alito’s religious bias shows

Rolling Stone first reported the exchange, and observed that Alito, a George W. Bush appointee who’s served on the Supreme Court since 2006, makes little effort to hide that he is a partisan member of a hard-right judicial faction.

Alito’s statement that “fundamental things really can’t be compromised” suggests he sees cases as zero-sum affairs. Instead of serving as an arbiter trying to craft a just result based on established precedent, Alito picks sides, then drives his selective analysis toward his desired result.

Vox conducted an assessment of Alito’s “standing” decisions — cases that examine whether federal courts have jurisdiction to decide a particular dispute — and found that Alito has ruled in favor of conservative litigants 100 percent of the time. Standing means plaintiffs must have a personal stake in the dispute; they can’t just be interested bystanders. Finding standing among 100 percent of conservative plaintiffs — and zero percent among liberal plaintiffs — exposes irrefutable bias.

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Alito seems particularly inclined to find standing when religious beliefs are offended, as crystallized in 303 Creative LLC, a case involving a homophobic web designer.

In 303 Creative, Alito and the conservative majority allowed business owners to refuse to do businesses with gay couples on the grounds that gay marriage offends their religious beliefs. The plaintiff, a web designer, didn’t have standing to sue — no gay clients sought her services, she claimed she was afraid that Colorado’s non-discrimination law meant she might have to design a wedding website for gay couples.

Alito and the conservative majority found standing anyway, and they issued what amounts to an advisory opinion, simply to set anti-LGBT policy for the nation.

So much for Federalists not legislating from the bench.

Alito’s Catholicism-driven misogyny comes through in Casey, Hobby Lobby and Dobbs

When Alito served on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, his dissent in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey would have required women to notify their husbands prior to getting an abortion. Equating a husband’s control with parental control, Alito showed complete indifference to women brutalized by domestic violence who would have risked their lives by notifying their abuser of their plans to abort.

Then, in 2014, in Hobby Lobby, in a 5-4 split, Alito wrote that an employer had the right to exclude contraceptive coverage from employee insurance plans based on the employer’s religious beliefs.

Contraceptives are routinely included in most health care plans under the Affordable Care Act. To circumvent the ACA, Alito focused on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which allows religious objectors to be exempt from federal law unless compliance is “necessary to a compelling government interest.”

In Alito’s final analysis, allowing women to avoid unwanted pregnancies so they can earn a living was less “compelling” than employers’ religious beliefs that God meant women as birthing vessels first, employees second.

In his infamous Dobbs opinion, Alito revived a 13th century treatise on English law and custom, written when women were burned alive as witches.

Alito’s sleight of hand used selective misrepresentations of ancient common law history to overturn 50 years of constitutional protection for reproductive choice. He determined that legal abortion did not exist as common law, despite his own passages detailing how “abortion was a crime after ‘quickening’ (around 25 weeks) throughout common law. Pages 16 through 28 of Alito’s own opinion describe how abortion was legal up to 25 weeks, for centuries, so when Alito said there was no abortion throughout centuries of common law, he was lying to reach his preferred outcome.

Alito’s hubris and refusal to recuse should lead to his impeachment

During oral argument on former President Donald Trump’s election interference case, Alito offered a crazy argument that presidents need broad immunity from criminal consequences, because an incumbent president who “loses a very close, hotly contested election” would not “leave office peacefully” if they could be prosecuted by the incoming administration.

Alito addressed a hypothetical future president’s fear, instead of addressing what actually happened when Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election.

That Alito allowed an insurrectionist flag to be flown at his home and allowed a Christian Nationalist flag to be flown at his vacation home, should have triggered his recusal from all cases dealing with Trump’s insurrection.

But it didn’t.

Federal law on federal judges’ recusal requires any justice to recuse “in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned,” i.e., you can’t fly your freak flag and pretend not to be a freak.

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Alito’s strident ideological bias, entitled hubris and decades of misogynistic rulings have brought the nation’s opinion of the High Court to an unprecedented low. In his quest to rewrite history to fuse church and state, Alito disregards centuries of violence and wars carried out in the name of religion. He has bastardized the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment — a venerated shield protecting religious freedom — into a sword for imposing his religious worldview onto others.

The weapon of federal law should be turned on him. Democrats and moderates need to make Court reform a top campaign issue, use Alito’s (and Clarence Thomas’) outrageously unethical conduct to win a sufficient majority in both chambers, and impeach them as the first order of business.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25 year litigator specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense. Her Substack, The Haake, is free.

German police seek tips after arson attack on Oldenburg synagogue

Police have launched an online portal seeking tips about an arson attack on a synagogue in the northern German city of Oldenburg last Friday that prompted widespread outrage. An incendiary device was thrown at the front door of the synagogue. Two janitors at a neighbouring cultural centre discovered the fire and extinguished it. No one was injured, but the perpetrators managed to escape and have not been identified. Police investigating the crime announced the portal for tips on Thursday, and added that videos and photos could also be uploaded to the site. A reward of €5,000 (about $5,400) has...

America is marching toward theocracy one zygote at a time

The only thing more outrageous than vesting the contents of a petri dish with legal rights is the Alabama Supreme Court’s use of religion to get there.

Two thirds of Americans oppose Alabama’s ruling that frozen embryos are children entitled to legal protection, but the ruling is entirely consistent with Republicans’ position that life begins at conception.

It also duly followed the contours of the 2022 Dobbs mandate, under which the Supreme Court’s religious bloc subordinated women’s legal rights to those of unborn fetuses.

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Although many Republicans are now scrambling to distance themselves from Alabama’s unpopular ruling, it is the direct result of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell packing SCOTUS with religious zealots who dismantled more than 50 years of abortion access, who are seeking to erode the separation of church and state at the same time.

How we got here

Plaintiffs in the Alabama case were couples seeking in vitro fertilization. They sued for negligence and wrongful death after someone wandered into an unlocked cryogenic lab, picked up a vial containing their frozen embryos, injured his hand from the subzero temperatures and dropped the vial, spilling the embryos onto the floor.

The zygotes, one-tenth of a millimeter in size, about the thickness of a regular sheet of paper, came from a lab. They never saw the inside of a uterus. But the Alabama Court ruled that they were “killed” and entitled to wrongful death protection.

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Exercising the same religious hubris displayed by the Dobbs majority, Alabama’s high court assigned legal “personhood” rights to zygotes, saying their location was irrelevant. In Alabama — and across the United States, if Speaker Mike Johnson and Republicans get their way — a fertilized egg now has more legal protection than women. They are entitled to protection whether curated in a cryogenic lab or floating in a petri dish.

Destroying the wall between church and state

The 1st Amendment’s Establishment clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion,” which means courts cannot prefer religion over non-religion.

Apparently not constrained by something so trivial as the 1st Amendment, Alabama’s Chief Justice Tom Parker used the IVF case to elevate his religious convictions into a defined set of public policy goals. Parker dedicated more than half of his “special concurring” opinion of 22 full pages to expound on his own religious beliefs.

Members of the Supreme Court of Alabama. Source: Supreme Court of Alabama

Under the guise of legal analysis, Parker wove biblical quotes, the Ten Commandments, the Book of Genesis and 16th century commentary into his concurring opinion to postulate on “the significance of man’s creation in God’s image.” He delivered these gems (among many others):

Life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself;

The “sanctity of life” means 1. holiness of life and character: GODLINESS; 2 a: the quality or state of being holy or sacred;

Man’s creation in God’s image is the basis of the general prohibition on the intentional taking of human life. (Never mind the government’s compelling, secular interest in outlawing murder.)

Given the force of Parker’s self-evident religious truths to protect the sanctity of zygotes in a petri dish, he must carve out an exception for death penalty cases.

Alabama’s death penalty brokers no argument about the “sanctity of life in God’s image,” but instead gets creative when it comes to strapping a condemned man onto a gurney to asphyxiate, poison or electrocute him.

Alabama most recently put a defendant to death using nitrogen hypoxia, the first in the nation.

After forcing 58-year-old Kenneth Eugene Smith to inhale pure nitrogen through a mask until he suffocated, his restrained throes violent enough to shake the gurney beneath him for two full minutes, Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall bragged about the execution and offered to teach the method to other (Republican-ruled) states.

Some sanctity of life.

Forgive him Father, he knows not what he’s done

Chief Justice Parker is entitled to his cherry-picked religious drivel, but he is not entitled to amplify his beliefs using a government platform.

When any judge resorts to quoting scripture or the Ten Commandments to explain his interpretation of the law, he reveals his own ignorance about American history as well as the foundational underpinnings of the U.S. Constitution.

Parker is obviously oblivious to the historical realities that drove Revolutionary War heroes to risk their lives, families and fortunes to cast off a brutal monarchy that also controlled the Church of England. Over half a million men from just 13 young colonies gave their lives for the right to compose their own governing treatise, arguably the most brilliant ever written. Writing and debating the 1st Amendment, the framers of the U.S. Constitution took great pains to separate religion from government, having experienced first-hand the brutalities and gross injustice made possible when they are joined.

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The words God, Jesus and Christianity, though commonly used in parlance of the day, were deliberately omitted from the Constitution. Instead, honoring the Jeffersonian wall between church and state, the founding fathers adopted as their very first directive, in the very first sentence of the very First Amendment, that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”

Not only did the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment reflect a preternatural understanding of human power struggles throughout history, it has steadied the United States through tumultuous centuries, each decade vexed with a new danger. As America’s number one foundational guidepost, the 1st Amendment is too crucial and too precious to let fact-challenged Trump judges and Christian Nationalists destroy it.

(Judge Parker, if this finds its way to your eyes through divine intervention, your legal malfeasance and arrogance inspire the Luke 23:34 prayer, “Forgive him, Father, he knows not what he’s done.”)

The Alabama Court helped itself to Dobbs’ unequal protection

Aside from religious fanaticism, the only legally interesting aspect of Alabama’s ruling is the extent to which the court — without irony — relied on the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause to conclude that zygotes could not be discriminated against.

A fertilized human egg, the Court reasoned, is entitled to the same legal protections regardless of how or where it was fertilized, or how or where it is stored.

The irony is that the court understood Equal Protection principles enough to protect all zygotes equally, if absurdly, but not enough to protect women. It’s objectively obvious that state-forced birth under Dobbs metes out differing (e.g., unequal) legal status and protection depending on a person’s sex.

If Republicans weren’t motivated by gender animus, but truly sought to eliminate abortion, they would have mandated age-appropriate vasectomies for men — safe, quick, cheap, pain free and medically reversible — years ago.

But rather than mandating a risk-free, reversible procedure for men to eliminate abortion, Republicans instead are forcing women to undergo nine months of pregnancy with potentially fatal consequences, extended physical confinement, permanent changes to their bodies, reduced earning capacity and hours of bone-crushing labor pain to give birth against their will.

Republican judges and legislators pushing fetal personhood have decided that a hypothetical human — a fertilized egg — is entitled to more legal protections than a living, breathing one. In a gross perversion of Equal Protection, they’ve determined that women should bear the life-altering consequences of having sex, but not men.

Republicans are rushing to distance themselves

The only silver lining in Alabama’s ruling, if there is one, is watching Republican candidates disassemble en masse, rushing to distance themselves from the ruling and its political fallout.

Although Trump often brags about overturning Roe v. Wade, he is the chief dissembler, declaring in response to Alabama's ruling, “I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson called IVF “a blessing for many moms and dads who have struggled with fertility.” Johnson failed to mention that he also cosponsored H.R. 1011, the “Life at Conception Act” to declare that life begins at the moment of fertilization.

The Republican message that life begins at conception has been entirely consistent, which complicates their RNC — orchestrated reaction to Alabama.

Apparently, God wants Republicans to protect zygotes until the Republican National Committee tells them not to, because zygotes aren’t politically popular.

The broader dangers of infusing judicial opinions with religion may be an intellectual bridge too far for Republicans to cross, despite the searing clarity of Jefferson’s roadmap.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25 year litigator specializing in 1st and 14th Amendment defense. Her Substack is free.

Alabama court ruling on IVF 'outrageous and unacceptable': Biden

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday slammed the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling that frozen embryos are children, a decision that has led IVF clinics in the state to halt operations because of their increased exposure to wrongful death lawsuits.

Two clinics have issued statements announcing pauses, with reports of a third following suit.

"The disregard for women's ability to make these decisions for themselves and their families is outrageous and unacceptable," Biden said in a statement.