I’m not Catholic, but if the bureaucraps can get away with this, what other denominations will they try this on?
We’ve seen a lot of concerning things about the effort to weaponize the government to control the political agenda.
But perhaps one of the most concerning pieces of information dropped on Monday with word that the FBI was trying to develop “sources” within Christian and Catholic churches to “combat domestic terrorism,” in what looks like an effort to have people spying and reporting on their fellow parishioners.
The House Weaponization Committee just released a letter about internal documents showing this FBI effort. According to the letter, the FBI was targeting “mainline Catholic parishes,” looking into them for “source development,” according to Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH).
In addition, according to Jordan, the FBI expressed interest in “leverag[ing] existing sources and/or initiating [ing] Type 5 Assessments to develop new sources with the placement and access.” And, in another example, the agency cited a desire to sensitize religious congregations “to the warning signs of radicalization and enlist their assistance to serve as suspicious activity tripwires.”
“Based on the limited information produced by the FBI to the Committee, we now know that the FBI relied on at least one undercover agent to produce its analysis, and that the FBI proposed that its agents engage in outreach to Catholic parishes to develop sources among the clergy and church leadership to inform on Americans practicing their faith,” Jordan wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday.
Jordan also dropped a subpoena on the FBI for related documents that they have failed to turn over, despite requests.
Jordan called the actions of the FBI “outrageous.” He said that the FBI needed to comply and answer what they were doing here trying to use “Catholic houses of worship as potential sources to monitor and report on their parishioners.”
“Americans attend church to worship and congregate for their spiritual and personal betterment,” the letter continued. “They must be free to exercise their fundamental First Amendment rights without worrying that the FBI may have planted so-called “tripwire” sources or other informants in their houses of worship.”
We previously reported on how the FBI appeared to be targeting “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics” and painting them as likely to be some kind of extremist group based upon the determination of the radical SPLC. But what Jordan is saying in this letter seems to go even further than that. What the “threat” from Catholics is supposed to be isn’t clear. I haven’t heard of any systemic terrorist threat based upon Catholicism, much less “mainline Catholics.” Last time I checked there were “threats” from radical leftists trying to attack churches and pro-life centers, but the FBI doesn’t seem to be too interested in them. Where are all the investigations into the thousands of radicals who set the country ablaze in 2020? Few and far between. So why is the FBI targeting “mainline” churches for source development to fink on their parishioners? Or any other Christian churches for that matter?
Given that the FBI is now defining normal terms like “based” and “red-pilled” as “extremist” talk, one has to wonder what is going on here. It’s pretty scary when they are now even seemingly putting their feelers out into the last place where the government should be intruding and that’s where you worship. If anything screams potential constitutional problems, this does. What do they think the clergy is going to tell them and why would they think there was some systemic question here? Unless what it is, is that you’re concerned that the Catholic church or Christian churches might say things that don’t line up with the Democratic narrative — like being pro-life and standing up against abortion.