Has the time come for conservatives and Christians to stop working through the courts, and start disobeying tyrannical edicts?

Paul Nachman forwards this letter which he has sent to George Weigel:

Dear Mr. Weigel,

I’m an atheist who disagrees with the American Catholic leadership on the subjects of birth control and abortion. However, I am 100 percent with the Catholic leadership in its fight against the lawlessness of this federal administration, which has merely singled out the Catholics for suppression in the current attack. On this, all cognizant Americans should sign up as honorary or auxiliary Catholics for the duration.

Thus I was disappointed with the tepid call for polite action in this article of yours, which I read at National Review Online, particularly this paragraph:

But as attempts to find a legislative remedy continue, Cardinal Dolan noted that the judicial path to the defense of religious freedom is the likeliest to achieve success, given both the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Thus the cardinal indicated that “our bishops’ conference, many individual religious entities, and other people of good will” are working with pro bono legal assistance to challenge the mandates in the federal courts; some suits have already been filed, and others will be filed in coming days. Given the Supreme Court’s recent Hosanna-Tabor decision, it is not easy to see how the administration will successfully defend its latest attempt to erode the institutions of civil society and violate individual consciences. That it will try to do so, however, is a fact of which voters should be constantly reminded as the year unfolds.

It is not the time—and it will never be the time on this matter—to search for a judicial remedy. Instead, what’s needed is open defiance, in the same spirit as General Anthony McAuliffe told the Germans “Nuts!” at Bastogne in 1944.

To be more specific, here’s what Christian, but non-Catholic, patriot Ann Barnhardt wrote on February 21 about this criminal administration’s thuggery:

Obama has NO POWER to force Catholics, or Catholic hospitals, or anyone else to do ANYTHING against their will—and if you don’t get this through your sheep skulls, we’re dead. You fools are playing right into their hands by going on defense and thinking that they have power over you that simply does not exist. I hear Dolan, and the bishops, and everyone else talking about Obama “forcing us to violate our consciences” and “forcing us to do this” and “forcing us to do that.” Speak for yourself, sheep. THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN VIOLATE YOUR CONSCIENCE IS YOU!!!! And make no mistake, you WILL be held to account if you capitulate to this evil. You will answer personally for your stupidity, your cowardice and your faithlessness at your Particular Judgment if you don’t stand and fight this obvious satanic evil. It isn’t as if you don’t have the example of not just the Christian martyrs, but also the men who died for freedom in secular wars and campaigns. How any person, most especially an American, could not understand this is absolutely ENRAGING to me.

Let’s say that the Obama abortion mandate holds, which it appears it will. What should, for example, Catholic hospitals do? They should continue on exactly as before. They should refuse to comply, continue their self-insurance programs exactly as before with zero coverage for baby slaughter, and when the Obama Gestapo starts sending nasty letters, they should chuck every single one of them in the trash. When the Obama Gestapo starts calling on the phone, they should tell the Obama Gestapo to go to hell. When the Obama Gestapo shows up wanting to have “meetings,” they should tell them to go to hell, and have their security guards escort them off the property. And when the Obama Gestapo shows up with storm troopers, the Catholic hospital personnel should look them straight in the eye, tell them to go to hell, tell them that they will not be taken alive, and that they are going to have to kill them—but they WILL NOT COMPLY.

(Barnhardt first came to wide public attention in April, 2011 when she appeared in a homemade YouTube video eloquently and mercilessly excoriating Senator Lindsey Graham for his particularly stupid and gutless remarks about Koran-burning.)

Regards,

Paul Nachman
Bozeman, Montana

- end of initial entry -

March 8

Expatriot writes:

The letter by Paul Nachman cited in your post “Has the time for conservatives and Christians to stop working through he courts, and start disobeying tyrannical edicts?” refers to Ann Barnhardt as a “Christian, but non-Catholic, patriot.” However, her website, which you linked to, makes it clear she is indeed Catholic. For example, one of her posts contains the following statement: “Remember my post wherein I said that even if I knew that everyone else in the Catholic Church on earth today was a child molester, I’d still be Catholic because the Church is the Body and Bride of Christ, and what she teaches from the Chair of Peter is TRUE.” Her Catholicism is front and center throughout her writings. In fact, given the passion with which she professes her faith and argues matters of doctrine, she might aptly be termed a hyper-Catholic or arch-Catholic (with no pejorative connotation intended).

Alan Roebuck writes:

In his excellent letter posted at VFR, I think Mr. Nachman makes one mistake: saying that Ann Barnhart is not Catholic. Here is a quote from her blog (specific link apparently not available):

Finally, the heresy that every single Protestant proudly shares with islam, and now since Vatican II, a huge number of ignorant Catholics, too—the denial of the Real Presence of Eucharist.

That doesn’t sound like a non-Catholic.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 07, 2012 11:04 PM | Send