church militant voris

see paleo-catholic

an 3 24

catholicism has plenty of representation in the Democratic Party, including President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) — both of whom consider themselves devout Catholics and aren't shy about discussing their faith. But a far-right approach to Catholicsm has prevailed on the U.S. Supreme Court with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett. And the website Church Militant has been a voice for the Catholic far right — until now.

According to the Daily Beast, Church Militant (formerly Real Catholic TV) will be folding in April "after settling a defamation lawsuit filed by a canon lawyer and priest with an apology and $500,000 payment."

"The impending closure, announced by the law firm that represented the priest, comes just four months after Church Militant founder Michael Voris was ousted for breaking its 'morality code' — reportedly by sending out shirtless pictures of himself," the Beast reports.

Church Militant, founded by Voris in 2006, was sued by Father Georges de Laire of the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire. De Laire, according to the Beast, "was smeared as unstable and vindictive in an article after he decreed that St. Benedict Center, an organization labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, could not represent itself as a Catholic institution."

The Beast reports, "The article was anonymously written, but the author was later revealed to be canon lawyer Marc Balestrieri, who was representing St. Benedict Center, Religion News Service reported. Church Militant said on its site last week that Balestrieri led it and St. Michael's Media, which operates the network, to believe 'that the claims in his article were supported by anonymous sources known to him'…. The months before the resolution of the lawsuit were turbulent ones for Church Militant."

The Beast adds, "Beset by financial troubles, it laid off 19 employees and scrapped its nightly news show in May."

---

JULY 25, 2023

AUTHOR: JACK JENKINS, RNS

In Targeting Catholic Charities, Republicans Amplify Right-Wing Catholic Fringe

WASHINGTON (RNS) — On Capitol Hill, a handful of Republican lawmakers are threatening to reduce or eliminate funding for Catholic Charities and other faith-based groups who offer aid to immigrants at the Southern border.

The members of Congress, who are echoing the campaigns of deeply conservative Catholic groups that vow to “#defund the bishops,” have already succeeded in inserting their agenda into legislation passed by the House earlier this year. Another attempt to zero-out appropriations for a key Department of Homeland Security program supporting faith-based border efforts is awaiting a vote in Congress.

[Migrants reach through a border wall for clothing handed out by volunteers, as they wait between two border walls to apply for asylum, Friday, May 12, 2023, in San Diego. Hundreds of migrants remain waiting between the two walls, many for days. The U.S. entered a new immigration enforcement era Friday, ending a three-year-old asylum restriction and enacting a set of strict new rules that the Biden administration hopes will stabilize the U.S.-Mexico border and push migrants to apply for protections where they are, skipping the dangerous journey north. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

In December, Republican Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, penned a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. In the letter, co-signed by Reps. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin and Jake Ellzey of Texas, the lawmakers complained that the Biden administration was “allowing non-governmental organizations … the freedom to aid and abet illegal aliens.” In addition, lawmakers also sent letters to Catholic Charities, Jewish Family Service and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service demanding they preserve documents “related to any expenditures submitted for reimbursement from the federal government related to migrants encountered at the southern border.”

Contacted by Religion News Service at the time, Anthony Granado, vice president of government relations at Catholic Charities USA, said, “We have not seen such a level of direct … attack against Catholic Charities USA.”

In May, when Gooden penned another letter to Mayorkas, this time with Rep. Tom McClintock of California and Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, they accused the NGOs that use federal funds to aid immigrants of creating an “incentive” for illegal immigration and demanded access to a broad swath of records about DHS funding practices.

Days later, Gooden published an open letter to House colleagues that accused NGOs, including faith-based groups, of abusing their tax-exempt status by “play(ing) a disturbing role in the inflow and spread of illegal immigration throughout the country.”

Gooden, who worships at a Church of Christ congregation, expressed particular frustration with FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program — which is transitioning to an effort titled the Shelter and Services Program — that reimburses NGOs and local governments for offering certain aid to migrants. He singled out a number of faith-based groups in his solo letter, such as Jewish Family Services and LIRS, but criticized Catholic Charities at length.

For his part, Tiffany recently called for Catholic Charities USA to testify before the Judiciary Committee to explain “what they’re doing down on the border to facilitate this illegal immigration,” according to Bloomberg Government.

In a phone interview last week, Lee Williams, chief programs officer for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, called the lawmakers’ allegations “preposterous” and “dangerous.” He also pointed out that LIRS aids immigrants after they are processed and released from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, work that is funded by private money.

Catholic Charities, for its part, receives ample government funds annually and operates as a network of local charities. In addition to anti-poverty programs, Catholic Charities also works with immigrants — including efforts to offer humanitarian aid to migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.

It’s work that, not long ago, Republicans in Congress nearly uniformly praised. In 2014, amid a spike in border crossings by unaccompanied minors and mothers traveling with children, a delegation of Republican lawmakers led by talk-show host Glenn Beck visited a Catholic Charities respite center based in a church in McAllen, Texas. Sen. Ted Cruz, East Texas Rep. Randy Weber and then-Rep. Louie Gohmert, among others, toured the center and, in Beck’s case, donated toys to children.

“I want to thank Catholic Charities that are working to care for these children and care for these families,” Cruz told reporters at the time.

Weber was similarly effusive, quoting Scripture while describing the center’s work as a fulfillment of “the church’s role.”

Mistrust of faith groups that work with immigrants, but in particular Catholic Charities, has been growing in right-wing circles since at least February 2022, when CatholicVote, a conservative political group, sued the Biden administration in an effort to acquire copies of “all communications between the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol” and various Catholic bishops and Catholic Charities entities — including the respite center in McAllen.

The antipathy for Catholic Charities came up again last summer, when Michael Voris, founder of the conservative Catholic website Church Militant, interviewed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a self-described Christian nationalist and former Catholic who converted to evangelicalism. Voris, whose organization has referred to Catholic Charities as an “enemy of the people,” complained to Greene about the American bishops supporting immigrant aid through religious agencies such as Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities. Greene responded by framing the work as “Satan controlling the church.”

Most recently, in Washington on Thursday (July 20), members of the Deposit of Faith Coalition, a group of activists who object to the direction the U.S. Catholic bishops are taking and accuse them of “standing with Marxists,” called on Congress — and particularly appropriations committees — to stop granting contracts to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Charities.

Addressing the crowd from a podium at the National Press Club that read “#DefundtheBishops,” Sheena Rodriguez, head of Alliance for a Safe Texas, insisted that Catholic Charities was one constellation of groups “incentiviz(ing) mass illegal migration worldwide” and “creating a modern-day slavery scheme.”

The gathering attracted only a small crowd, but their ideas have gained a footing on Capitol Hill. In April, Rodriguez was invited to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on border security, arguing that unaccompanied minors at the border were being mistreated under the Biden administration.

After her testimony, Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, that Rodriguez was among the crowd that surrounded the U.S. Capitol when rioters attacked the building on Jan. 6, 2021, although there is no evidence Rodriguez entered the building that day. She had also taken part in the Christian nationalism-themed Jericho March at the Capitol the day before.

The movement to defund Catholic agencies also found its way into the GOP’s signature border security bill passed in May, known as the Secure the Border Act. It included a provision that would cut all funding to the Shelter Services Program.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops opposed the Secure the Border Act for multiple reasons, including how it treats DHS funding streams to NGOs. The bishops sent a letter to lawmakers urging them to vote against it. Sister Donna Markham, a Catholic nun who oversees Catholic Charities USA, also wrote a letter to congressional leadership at the time decrying the proposed cuts, saying they would “dismantle the public-private infrastructure currently in place to manage the humanitarian crisis at the southern border and its impact throughout the country.”

The bill passed the House largely along party lines, with Gooden, Tiffany and Weber all voting in favor.

The bill has little chance of passing the U.S. Senate, where Democrats enjoy a majority, but Gooden’s movement persists: Last month the House Appropriations Committee unveiled a DHS appropriations bill, which, like the border bill, eliminates funding for the Shelter and Services Program.

Markham said in a statement to RNS that the work of respite centers along the U.S.-Mexico border should be uncontroversial and invited members of Congress to tour their facilities.

“This work is humanitarian and motivated by the teachings of the gospels; it is not political, and it should not be controversial,” Markham’s statement read.

---

exposing-the-climate-apocalypse (https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/exposing-the-climate-apocalypse)

EXPOSING THE NONEXISTENT CLIMATE APOCALYPSE

NEWS: US NEWS (https://www.churchmilitant.com/search/category/246/us-news)

[grx]

candid challenge to climate change dogma

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...

BALTIMORE (ChurchMilitant.com (http://churchmilitant.com/)) – As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) convened in Baltimore for its fall Plenary Assembly, a prominent climate change critic and former Republican political aide stood nearby to challenge both the climate change narrative and the hierarchy's commitment to it.

pix Marc Morano

At a press conference (https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/spro-challenging-climate-claims) on Tuesday, Marc Morano offered a vigorous critique of both the mainstream climate change narrative and involvement by the Church — from Pope Francis to the USCCB.

He critically assessed the approaches of the United Nations and Pope Francis toward climate change, arguing the driving force is not science but rather sociopolitical agendas such as wealth redistribution.

The press conference was held at the Four Seasons Hotel by the Deposit of Faith Coalition, religious and political conservatives (https://www.churchmilitant.com/dof) partnering with scientists and climate experts to expose the fraud and misinformation that are weakening the American economy.

Challenging Church Involvement

Morano stressed that Pope Francis' alignment with U.N. climate initiatives (https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/pope-francis-to-attend-cop28) deviates from core scientific and religious principles and falls outside the Church's competency and mission to save souls.

Morano also portrayed the climate change movement as a secular religion.[

https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/exposing-the-climate-apocalypse#)

Although Francis urges world leaders to act on climate change, warning (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/pope-francis-urges-world-leaders-to-act-on-climate-change-as-planet-nears-point-of-no-return) of a "point of no return," Morano illustrated that such apocalyptic warnings are not new, using historical examples to show a tendency for hyperbole. Specifically, he cited an 1864 statement by George Perkins Marsh warning of "climatic excess" unless humanity altered its course.

Morano also portrayed the climate change movement as a secular religion. He cited the earth vigils held in Central Park during the People's Climate March in New York City, where participants engaged in what he described as a "serious, spiritual message of people communing with Mother Earth."

](https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/exposing-the-climate-apocalypse#)

Challenging Climate Claims

He argued that such events demonstrate how climate change activism has taken on religious-like fervor and even includes rituals. Morano also referenced a 2023 Time magazine article advocating making Earth Day a religious holiday, further illustrating his point about the intertwining of environmental activism with religious-like reverence.

He criticized the blending of climate change activism with religious observance, especially by the Catholic hierarchy, which he explained is acting outside its competency, causing confusion and discord among the faithful.

Impacts of Climate Policy

In his address, Morano expressed apprehension about the societal repercussions of proposed climate policies. He highlighted the risks of adopting authoritarian measures, such as climate lockdowns and lifestyle mandates, and drew parallels to the overreaches observed in recent years due to concerns about COVID-19. He emphasized that such policies could infringe upon personal freedoms and alter the fabric of daily life.

He cautioned against the centralization of food production and property ownership.

Morano further spotlighted figures like Bill Gates and the push for synthetic meat. He cautioned against the centralization of food production and property ownership, framing it as a modern form of serfdom endangering individual autonomy and traditional agricultural practices. He also pointed to the potential implications of these policies on food security and rural communities.

In his concluding remarks, Morano underscored his commitment to offering an alternative perspective on climate change and climate policy through his books and ClimateDepot.com (https://www.climatedepot.com/). He emphasized the importance of engaging in informed and balanced discussions on these critical issues.

Marc Morano is a well-known figure in the climate policy debate, challenging mainstream climate narratives through his work. He advocates for a balanced approach that weighs environmental sustainability against economic viability.

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rw sci biden refuse

Nobel Prize Winner Debunks Climate Hysteria – One America News Network (https://www.oann.com/video/in-focus-video/nobel-prize-winner-debunks-climate-hysteria/)

nobel Prize Winner Debunks Climate Hysteria - One America News Network

One America News Network

... Pearson Sharp Reports · Daily Feed · LIVE. Search … Nobel Prize Winner Debunks Climate Hysteria. with Marc Morano. 0:00 / 0:00. 15 seconds. 15 seconds.

Exposing the Nonexistent Climate Apocalypse - Church Militant

Church Militant

Marc Morano is a well-known figure in the climate policy debate, challenging mainstream climate narratives through his work. He advocates for a ...

The slow demise of green energy? - Fox News

Fox News

The push toward a net zero utopia is not practical and has been a complete disservice to the American consumer. Components of the green movement ..

https://www.alternet.org/jim-jordan-fbi/

no lnx

house Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has issued a subpoena to the Director of the FBI over the Bureau’s alleged efforts to develop “sources” in local Catholic Churches, and a now-withdrawn memo from a local field office that reportedly discussed the possibility some right-wing Catholics might pose possible domestic terror threats.

Jordan, who also heads the House GOP’s new, specially-constituted Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, appears to be using the new committee as a bullhorn to amplify far-right wing conspiracy theories about alleged incidents of anti-conservative bias, while attacking government officials who he sees as enemies of the far-right. His committee has not investigated any instances of anti-liberal bias.

But this new subpoena of FBI Director Wray (Jordan infamously to this day has refused to comply with a lawful subpoena from the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack) comes under the auspices of Jordan’s Judiciary Committee, despite Jordan tweeting it out via his Weaponization Committee account.

“The Committee on the Judiciary is conducting oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) handling of domestic violent extremism investigations against Catholic Americans and its effect on protected First Amendment activity,” Jordan’s letter begins. There is no proof his allegations are credible.

READ MORE: Louisville Becomes 146th Mass Shooting in Just 100 Days This Year – Dem Governor Says Two of the Victims Were His Friends

Commonweal, a liberal Catholic magazine, explored the issue last month, mocking the far-right’s outrage, and noting: “Those who’ve been quick to call the FBI anti-Catholic should recognize that far-right Catholic websites do publish a great deal of material that would draw and affirm racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, especially anti-Semites. Catholic leaders and spokespersons should condemn that more forcefully.”

The FBI withdrew the memo after it was leaked. The far-right jumped on the memo as yet another alleged example of anti-Christian bias of the federal government. In reality, it was a memo drafted by one Richmond, Virginia FBI agent.

The now-withdrawn FBI memo, The Richmond-Times Dispatch reported in February, “said the agency was investigating Catholics who have possible ties to ‘the far-right white nationalist movement.'”

In his letter, Jordan claims: “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. This shocking information reinforces our need for all responsive documents, and the Committee is issuing a subpoena to you to compel your full cooperation.”

Commonweal also wrote that it’s “easy to make fun of the leaked FBI memo that proposed infiltrating radical-traditionalist Catholic organizations to gather intelligence on the violent extremists said to be drawn to them and, supposedly, their celebrations of the Tridentine Mass.As one op-ed writer scoffed in the Washington Post, ‘the most dangerous thing a Rad Trad might do is leave a rosary lying about for someone to slip on.'”

“It’s also easy to be outraged, especially if you misinterpret the FBI memo in the way twenty Republican attorneys general did in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland: ‘The memorandum’s targeting of Catholics because they prefer to pray in the ancient liturgical language of the Church, and the tactics it proposes for dealing with those Catholics, harkens back to some of the worst chapters of our past.'”

READ MORE: Jim Jordan to Hold Committee Hearing During NYC Field Trip to Attack Alvin Bragg for Prosecuting Trump

It’s also important to remind Americans that Republican outrage during the early days of the Obama administration over a Dept. of Homeland Security “report warning that home-grown extremists are organizing and targeting military veterans for recruitment,” was so vilified – because those extremists were right-wing extremists – DHS withdrew the report.

That helped enable the rise of right-wing violent extremism, including white supremacist and white nationalist hate groups, that America faces today.

In 2021, President Joe Biden said, “Domestic terrorism from white supremacists is the most lethal terrorist threat in the homeland.”

Watch President Biden’s remarks below or at this link.

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11 22 onlysky rww

Michael Voris, the founder of the right-wing Catholic website Church Militant, told his followers that violence “must always be an option” in the political arena. He added that any suggestion that violence should be avoided went against Catholic doctrine: “Remember the Crusades?”[vid scry climate gunman dl vid]

Now we are in a pitched battle in the political arena—the last remaining line before all-out civil war. If you love peace and you don’t want to see violence, then you better get involved on the political front.

And let’s be clear about this for all the phony or delusional pacifists out there: Violence in and of itself is not immoral. It depends on the circumstances, and sometimes, even, it’s necessary: self defense, the subduing of an aggressor threatening the life of your family, the Son of God in the temple violently whipping the money changers.

The idea that violence must always, at all times, always be avoided is not Catholic. Remember the Crusades? Sometimes violence must be unleashed to protect the innocent. But lethal violence—because of its drastic, you-can-never-come-back-from-it consequences—must never be the first resort. In fact, it must always be the last resort, and then not be allowed to turn into an orgy of dominance over the foe.

Nonetheless, violence does—must—always be an option. Welcome to a fallen world.

https://www.salon.com/2022/08/24/new-america-avowed-nationalist-lgbtq-hater-pushes-vision-to-catholic-right/

no lnx many?

"New America": Avowed white nationalist, LGBTQ-hater pushes vision to Catholic right

Catholic fringe group acclaims "Christian fascist" who led ugly anti-Pride protests as a "saint in the making"

By KATHRYN JOYCE

Investigative Reporter

PUBLISHED AUGUST 24, 2022 6:30AM (EDT)

Anti-abortion activists and church members gather outside of a Catholic church in downtown Manhattan on May 07, 2022. (Stephanie Keith/Getty Images)]

On Aug. 18, the Catholic-right media outlet Church Militant featured a half-hour interview with John Doyle, a young YouTube streamer who drew national attention this June for helping to lead a uniquely ugly protest against an LGBTQ Pride Month event in downtown Dallas. The 22-year-old Doyle, whose YouTube show "Heck Off, Commie!" has an audience of some 300,000 subscribers, has openly referred to himself as both a "white nationalist" and "Christian fascist." But to his interviewer, Church Militant founder and president Michael Voris, he was a "saint in the making." And as the conversation brought Doyle's message to a new and different audience, the alignment of right-wing Catholicism with some of the most extreme voices on today's far right only grew.

For years, Church Militant has served as an angry gadfly within the world of right-wing Catholicism, objecting not just to moderate and progressive Catholics and Pope Francis, whom the outlet sees as a heretical liberal, but also to more mainstream conservative Catholic outlets it views as insufficiently critical of church hierarchy.

For his part, Doyle is a prominent member of online far-right youth circles aligned with the white nationalist America First/groyper movement and its leader, the gleefully racist and antisemitic livestreamer Nick Fuentes, with whom Doyle led a "Stop the Steal" protest in 2020. On his livestream show, where Doyle promotes an authoritarian form of Christian nationalism, he has attacked figures like Martin Luther King, Jr., claiming that "being assassinated was like the best thing that could happen to him" and said that "the destruction of white racism is ultimately code for the destruction of American society." Last October, Doyle taunted students at the University of North Texas by asking, "What is wrong with Christian fascism?" and warning that "when we and all my friends take power, bad things are going to happen to you."

Related Lone Star hate: Right-wing activists in Texas drive a new wave of anti-LGBTQ bigotry]

In February, Doyle appeared as a special guest at Fuentes' third America First Political Action Conference (AFPAC III) in Orlando,alongside far-right politicians like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers, who called for hanging the movement's political enemies. In April, after keynoting an event hosted by the University of California, Santa Barbara, chapter of Turning Point USA, Doyle praised the group for being brave enough to invite "white nationalists" like "yours truly" to speak.

And this June, as Salon reported, Doyle attacked a family-friendly drag queen brunch at a Dallas gay bar, declaring that LGBTQ people are "the symptom of a dying society," that he aimed to take away "every single one" of their rights and that Texas sheriffs should enter the bar "and put bullets in all their heads" because "That's what the badge is for."

That protest is what Doyle recalled when Vorisasked him what Church Militant's right-wing Catholic audience should be paying attention to in the cultural arena. Describing transgenderism as "deeply disturbed and satanic," Doyle went on to claim that when some of his fellow protesters prayed the rosary, it had sparked a "demonic" response from the counter-protesters who were there to protect the bar and its patrons.

"There were people next to us who weren't exactly Catholic," Doyle said, but who nonetheless later told him that "at that moment, the sort of spiritual conflict we're in became very real to them." While LGBTQ advocates and allies might dismiss other forms of protests, Doyle continued, "hearing the word of God and something that powerful made these people who look as though they were probably demonically influenced screech. They weren't yelling their counterargument … they were literally screeching at us exactly as you would expect if you believe in spiritual warfare."

During that event, as local activists' and filmmakers' videos document, anti-LGBTQ protesters screamed at parents and their children, followed some families and performers back to their cars, called attendees and counterprotesters "faggots" and "groomers" and even taunted police there to separate the camps by saying, "Your dad probably dragged you to a lot of gay bars."

Doyle also suggested, without evidence, that the parents who had brought their children to the event were all "single mothers" who had "been failed by the men around them and they're taking it out on the children. You know, oftentimes these are little boys who are being brought to these events by their single mothers, and you have to assume that the single mother is basically viewing that boy as like his father, and getting revenge on him by destroying them."

Doyle went on to claim that American men have been feminized by "residual estrogen in our tap water"; that the behavior of women politicians shows "that they really were supposed to be like mothers or nurturers"; and that, should his side "win," it should erect statues of all the "Satanic Panic evangelical right-wing leaders [of the 1980s and early '90s], just as an apology to them, because everything they predicted turned out to be true." (As with baseless QAnon conspiracy theories today, the Satanic Panic involved elaborate but utterly unfounded accusations that American day care centers were part of a widespread network of organized ritual pedophilia rings.)

Doyle claimed American men have been feminized by "residual estrogen" in tap water and suggested erecting statues of the "Satanic Panic evangelical right-wing leaders" of the '80s and '90s, because their predictions "turned out to be true."

Doyle's racist ideas were also hinted at during the interview. WhenVoris asked Doyle why he thought he hadn't yet been censored by "big media," Doyle responded that he believed his "intellectual approach" disarms content moderators who are on the lookout for more obvious hate speech. "If I do an hour-and-a-half-long video, for example, basically preaching against the civil rights movement in every aspect, that has been able to survive on YouTube and get a few hundred thousand views," he said. "Whereas someone who will say, 'Oh, MLK is a bad guy because of XYZ cheesy joke,' they'll get censored." He went on to suggest that today's United States is "definitely unsustainable" because America's government was constructed "by people who were much more intelligent and educated than the people who currently run it," thanks to both "exponentially accumulating degeneracy" and "affirmative action."

In response to that threat, Doyle continued, the "authoritarian right wing" was growing as "an immune response to Communism." While he said he and his fellow travelers weren't calling for "a Mussolini-style state," they "just know that what is happening is wrong and we're going to stop it eventually." Within the course of the next decade, he went on, "It will be more obvious that pillars are being put into place that could really cause a serious change. …We're seeing a lot of these people emerge and I think they're going to be very useful in orchestrating what will be, like, the New America, so to speak."

Part of that New America, he suggested, would come about through the increasing mobilization of young right-wing men. "I think it is going to be as we see throughout history: Men, in particular young men, finally get together and organize and take the country back in whatever capacity that means."

During the interview, Voris called Doyle "a saint in the making" and Doyle credited Church Militant with helping shape his faith, saying that after he'd "come out" as Catholic during one livestream, "without really knowing what that meant," members of Church Militant "reached out to me" and had become his "sherpa, leading me into becoming a good Catholic."

Doyle's New America will come about, he suggested, through the mobilization ofyoung right-wing men, who will "finally get together and organize and take the country back."

Church Militant isn't the only outlet helping to mainstream Doyle's views. In addition to the welcome he's found with Turning Point USA — which is currently bringing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on a national tour to support far-right candidates such as Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Pennsylvania's would-be Christian nationalist governor Doug Mastriano — Doyle also regularly appears on, and even guest hosts, a show on Glenn Beck's BlazeTV network.

Furthermore, Doyle also isn't the only far-right activist affiliated with white nationalism that Church Militant has helped elevate to a new audience. The outlet made waves in 2021 for hiring disgraced alt-right star Milo Yiannopoulos as a contributor. (Yiannopoulos in turn likely helped Church Militant score a major sit-down interview with Marjorie Taylor Greene this April, in which Greene declared that the existence of Catholic immigrant aid groups suggested that Satan was controlling the Catholic Church.) Last November, the outlet invited self-declared "groyper Mommy" Michelle Malkin to address its daylong protest rally outside the annual gathering of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, where Malkin invoked "replacement theory" rhetoric to charge that the church's hierarchy was using immigration to destroy "the historic American nation."

More recently, as Salon reported in a series this spring, Church Militant has made a number of efforts to align itself with and recruit members of the America First/groyper movement, at least one of whose members is also on the outlet's staff. Those efforts have included buying social media ads that use groyper imagery in appeals for "based straight Zoomer[s]" to join Church Militant's activist arm, Resistance, and "fight for authentic Catholicism."

In a video last February, Voris praised AFPAC III as the place "where all the youthful (read: future) energy is," predicting that, between Fuentes' AFPAC and the more mainstream Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), "Whoever wins this struggle will dictate the future of the [Republican] party and, to a large extent, the nation."

In May, the head of Church Militant's Resistance group interviewed groyper leader Dalton Clodfelter, promoting a groyper website as an exciting platform "for a lot of awesome younger conservatives." Clodfelter, who described the America First movement as "not like normie neocon conservatism" but rather actively "Christian nationalist" and dedicated to "spreading Christianity through our nation where it's lacking," in turn promoted a series of Resistance-organized anti-abortion protests to his followers on the social media site Telegram in the days after the leaked Supreme Court opinion that eventually overturned Roe v. Wade.

In the past week, as Right Wing Watch has reported, Clodfelter has declared that "every homosexual is a child molester; every child molester creates a gay"; called someone he was feuding with online a "fucking k*ke" and promoted a vision of America's future in which Christianity will become the official religion, pornography and LGBTQ people will be illegal and all schools will "promote what it means to be a Christian to the youth of America."

"I believe in a far-right authoritarian government," Clodfelter continued. "Once we take control, we will identify our enemies and we will stomp them into the dirt. They will not be able to return to power. We will rip them from their offices. We will rip them from their homes for being degenerate liars, degenerate, treasonous domestic terrorists, because that is what they are."

Back at Church Militant last week, viewers were ecstatic about the outlet hosting Doyle, calling him an "Absolutely based Catholic man," declaring the interview "in the top ten crossovers in modern Catholic history," and urging Church Militant, "Please have Nick Fuentes on" next.

Read more from Kathryn Joyce on the far right

Tennessee showdown: Governor's big plan for right-wing charter schools sparks fierce backlash

Arizona's Kari Lake celebrates BDE (um, "Big DeSantis Energy") at right-wing lovefest

QAnon believers have a novel spin on Mar-a-Lago raid: At last the "Storm" is here

By KATHRYN JOYCE

Kathryn Joyce is an investigative reporter at Salon, and the author of two books: "The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption" and "Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement."

https://www.azmirror.com/2021/02/10/there-wouldnt-have-been-a-stopthesteal-campaign-in-arizona-without-mark-finchem/

there wouldn’t have been a #StopTheSteal campaign in Arizona without Mark Finchem

BY: JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY - FEBRUARY 10, 2021

The lead organizer of the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C., that turned into a deadly coup attempt based on the false idea that Donald Trump failed to win a second term as president because of massive voter fraud said Arizona’s #StopTheSteal movement started with one man: Mark Finchem.

“Arizona started with one man, State Representative Mark Finchem,” Alexander said to an interviewer ::{**Church Militant**:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:}: on Jan. 10. “I’m very confident that the Stop The Steal movement has taken over Arizona.” no twt

Finchem frequently spouted misinformation about the 2020 elections, much of which was flagged by Twitter as being incorrect, and was the driving force in Arizona for an event at a Phoenix hotel in late November.At that event, Trump’s lead attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and other pro-Trump figures :{gathered with state GOP lawmakers and the president’s supporters:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: to discuss baseless theories that Joe Biden won Arizona’s election by fraud.

In the same video clip, Alexander claims that only nine prominent Arizona Republicans were involved in the movement before that meeting, but that the number had swelled to 50 afterward.

Finchem was present at the Jan. 6 rally and marched to the Capitol, and he praised the rioters on Twitter.

the Oro Valley Republican first publicly mentioned Alexander in a December tweet, thanking the activist and saying there wouldn’t be an audit of the Maricopa County election without his help.

“I would like to thank @ali and @MichaelCoudrey for coming to fight for Arizona. #StopTheSteal has been instrumental in fighting the election fraud we’ve discovered! Without your 2000+ patriots we wouldn’t be auditing Maricopa County,” Finchem wrote on December 5.

The tweet garnered over 2,100 likes and over 480 retweets.

The tweet also mentioned Michael Coudrey,an investor and far-right internet personality who has :{spread false election information:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: and led #StopTheSteal :{rallies across the country:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.

Finchem deleted his twitter account after the Capitol insurrection, but the Arizona Mirror was able to obtain copies of his tweets going to 2012. Finchem did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Alexander, a :{right-wing personality:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: and :{former felon:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, started the “Stop the Steal” movement. In a :{since deleted video:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, he said the Jan. 6 rally :{was planned with Arizona Republican Congressmen Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, as well as Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks. Biggs has since :{denied the allegations:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.

But Arizona lawmakers Biggs and Gosar seem to not be the only lawmakers with a connection to the man who is now :{allegedly in hiding after the events of Jan. 6:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.

On December 11, Finchem tweeted at Alexander about the Jan. 6 event.

“@ali I’ll be there! #stopthesteal #jerichomarch,” Finchem wrote.

The second hashtag relates to a separate march :{that was happening on the same day:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: that consisted of Christians praying, fasting and blowing ritual :{Jewish horns called shofars:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: before circling the Capitol building seven times like the siege of the City of Jericho described in the Bible.

In the biblical story, the Israelites’s god caused the walls of the city to fall, allowing the army to enter the city and :{slaughter every man, woman and child:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:. The organizers of the Jericho March have :{denounced the violence:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: that took place Jan. 6, saying their goal was for peaceful prayer.

In the time leading up to Jan. 6, Finchem also tweeted at Alexander and others about his desire to convert his colleagues over to the “#StopTheSteal” movement.

“The ‘protests not events’, as @ali puts it, that #stopthesteal has thrown around the U.S., but particularly here in Arizona, has empowered me to fight for Trump and convert my colleagues,” Finchem said on Dec. 20 beforethanking Coudrey and Brandon Straka,who :{has been arrested for his connections to the Jan. 6 riot:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:.

The Republican legislator also promoted the hashtag prominently on his Twitter, with tweets featuring it often garnering hundreds of retweets and thousands of likes.

“With the People dug in demanding a forensic audit, and the establishment asserting its oligarchy-based power, a lot of establishment types are now outing themselves. If you don’t stand for the Constitution and your oath, we’ve already lost our republic. #stopthesteal,” he wrote on Dec. 9.

In total, Finchem used the hashtag 62 times from Nov. 19 to Jan. 6. After the violence of Jan. 6, Finchem stopped using the hashtag.

On Jan. 2, Finchem wrote that he would be heading to the nation’s capital.

“I will be in Washington DC on January 6 to #StopTheSteal and fight for President @realDonaldTrump,” Finchem said. “This is one of the most important days our republic has ever seen. We need all hands on deck.”

The tweet included a location and time for the event as well as a link to RSVP. The location was the U.S. Capitol.

Democrats are trying to expel Finchem from the legislature.

finchem :{has since said:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: that he was in D.C. “to deliver an evidence book and letter to Vice President (Mike) Pence” to persuade him to delay presiding over the certification of the presidential election. He said he was scheduled to speak at a press conference on the Capitol steps while Congress was certifying the election,but was delayed in arriving because he attended Trump’s speech at the Ellipse and joined the march to the Capitol “at the rear of the crowd.”

Finchem was at the Capitol when Trump supporters engaged in a violent coup attempt, in the hopes of stopping Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory, that left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer. On his Twitter page, Finchem posted a photo he took of the Capitol after rioters and protesters had breached the inner areas of the Capitol grounds.

“What happens when the People feel they have been ignored, and Congress refuses to acknowledge rampant fraud,” he wrote, praising the rioters.

Finchem has claimed that :{“antifa” was behind the violence:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}: — something federal investigators have said is untrue. He also has said that he did not get within 500 yards of the building, andwas unaware the Capitol was breached until later that day.

On Jan. 18, twelve days after the violence in D.C., Finchem told his followers he would be leaving Twitter in favor of Gab— a social media platform most famous for it’s far-right user base, including the :{Tree of Life shooter:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, who posted to the site before murdering 11 people — where he posts under the username AzHoneyBadger.