Like many other Americans living in rural towns, I attend a church that is small enough that there is time to hear the prayer requests of individual congregants–both at the Wednesday evening Bible study meeting and at the Sunday worship services. This coming Sunday, I plan to voice three prayer requests in succession. This is in reaction to three news stories that have circulated in just the past two weeks. These news reports have deeply troubled me, and have begun to dominate my prayer life. All three of these involve inversions of justice. They are:
- Indictment of the Planned Parenthood Baby-Parts-For-Sale Whistleblowers. An article at The Federalist began: “A Houston grand jury has concluded there’s not enough evidence to bring Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast to trial from the series of videos David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress produced this last summer. It did, however, indict Daleiden on two charges, a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record (another employee, Sandra Merritt, was indicted on this charge as well) and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing organs.” When I read that I was shocked. How could justice become so inverted? Why would a grand jury indict well-intended undercover Whistleblowers who were posing as baby part buyers instead of the actual baby part sellers?
- The failed court appeal of a New York married Roman Catholic couple for refusing to host a homosexual “wedding” at their family farm. (See: “Court Unanimously Upholds $13,000 Fine Against Couple for Refusing ‘Gay Marriage’ Ceremony“.) The article noted: “Liberty Ridge Farms was also ordered to provide proof that they have trained their employees not to refuse requests from homosexuals. A poster noting that the business is subject to human rights law was additionally to be displayed prominently at the business.” Reading that put a chill up my spine. That smacks of Maoist “Re-Education”. And shaming posters? Court-ordered shaming of a family for taking a righteous stand? This reminds me of the public humiliation that was used against Jewish storekeepers in Germany in the 1930s, when their store windows were painted with the Star of David and the word “Jude!” How could justice become so inverted to make it a crime to preserve the sanctity of a family home and farm?
- The shooting death of Lavoy Finicum on January 26th. Regardless of your opinion of the merit or lack of merit on their protest or of their tactics, the men and women who occupied the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon were obviously seeking a redress of grievances. Further, it is noteworthy that the Malheur protest occupation was itself triggered by another inversion of justice: The re-sentencing of the Hammonds under a counter terrorism law’s mandatory minimum sentence terms. Not only was this re-sentencing a form of double jeopardy, but their original conviction was a gross misapplication of a law that was intended to stop true terrorists from setting fire to buildings full of innocent people. (It was was not intended to protect sagebrush!) Similarly, the felony conspiracy indictments of Ammon Bundy and his compatriots for “Conspiracy to Impede Officers of the United States from discharging their official duties though the use of force, intimidation or threats” was misapplied. That is a Federal law that was originally enacted to stop the KKK intimidation of federal officers. It was not intended to stop people from occupying a BLM office building that was closed for the winter. That conspiracy law was intended to stop intimidation of people from doing their jobs. How does someone “intimidate” unoccupied desks and office cubicles? How could justice become so inverted?
I am also troubled that journalist Peter Santilli was named as a co-conspirator on the indictment. Although he was clearly sympathetic to the cause, it is chilling to think that a journalist who camps out with protestors to cover a news story would be named as a “co-conspirator.” And this by the way is the same Pete Santilli, who just a few weeks earlier was stopped at gunpoint in Ohio, because he was supposedly “misidentified” as being on a “terrorist watch list.” Although Santilli has been roundly criticized for having bad business dealings in the past, he was still a bonafide journalist and this has set a horrible precedent. After Santilli’s indictment, what American journalist is going to want to go and cover the next “Occupy Wherever” event? And if it had been a journalist with a mainstream news network who had gone to camp out with Bundy, would he or she have also been indicted? I really doubt that.
A Time of Darkness
We are clearly now living in The Age of Deception and Betrayal. Increasingly, we are seeing miscarriages of justice – both by our paid peace officers (who now refer to themselves are “law enforcement officers”) and by our courts. Ironically, in reaction to falsely-alleged “intimidation” by Ammon Bundy and his group, the FBI has used genuine intimidation of their own, on a grand scale. (And there is nothing quite so intimidating as their unspoken message: “If you step out of line or get uppity, then we’ll shoot you dead.”) Many of the recent inversions of justice are so wicked and so vile that we must speak out. In fact, if we fail to speak out against them, then we are indirectly complicit and will have to answer for our silence, come Judgement Day.
This is my message to fellow Christians: We are called to be Watchmen. “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.” – Ezekiel 3:17.
I urge my readers to make these recent events a part of their prayers in the days and weeks to come. If, following prayer, you feel convicted to speak out, then do so publicly and repeatedly. Ask your friends and relatives to also pray about this and to contact their elected representatives.
Speak out now, while you still have the right to speak out! – JWR
(Note: Permission is granted for re-posting of this entire article, but only if done so in full, with proper attribution to James Wesley, Rawles and SurvivalBlog, and only if the included links are preserved.)