Monday, December 16, 2019
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Saturday, December 14, 2019
2020 Democratic presidential candidates answer Christian leaders' question about poverty
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2019
Watch: 2020 Democratic presidential candidates answer Christian leaders' question about poverty
By Samuel Smith, CP Reporter| Friday, December 13, 2019
Watch: 2020 Democratic presidential candidates answer Christian leaders' question about poverty
By Samuel Smith, CP Reporter| Friday, December 13, 2019
Democratic presidential candidates (L-R) Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), arrive on stage before the start of the Democratic Presidential Debate at Tyler Perry Studios November 20, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. | Joe Raedle/Getty Images
So far, seven 2020 presidential candidates have responded to a request from 50 Christian leaders asking them to make a short video explaining what they would do as president to offer assistance and opportunities for those less fortunate around the world.
Each election cycle a coalition of faith leaders called The Circle of Protection asks presidential candidates to speak for a few minutes about what they would do to fight hunger and poverty.
The Circle of Protection is comprised of leaders from the National Association of Evangelicals, the National Council of Churches, the Catholic Church and other major faith organizations and denominations.
Source
So far, seven 2020 presidential candidates have responded to a request from 50 Christian leaders asking them to make a short video explaining what they would do as president to offer assistance and opportunities for those less fortunate around the world.
Each election cycle a coalition of faith leaders called The Circle of Protection asks presidential candidates to speak for a few minutes about what they would do to fight hunger and poverty.
The Circle of Protection is comprised of leaders from the National Association of Evangelicals, the National Council of Churches, the Catholic Church and other major faith organizations and denominations.
Source
A Million People Sign Petition Bashing Netflix Implying Jesus Is Gay
More Than A Million People Sign Petition Bashing Netflix Movie Implying Jesus Christ Is Gay
SOCIAL ISSUES REPORTER
December 13, 20193:30 PM ET
More than one million people have signed a petition against a Netflix movie that implies Jesus Christ is gay.
“The First Temptation of Christ” is reportedly a satirical representation of Jesus Christ, his mother Mary, and his father Joseph, in which Jesus returns home for his birthday party with a friend named Orlando, according to the New York Daily News. The publication reports that Orlando continuously hints in the film that he and Jesus are more than friends.
Netflix advertises the Brazil-produced film as a Christmas special, the Daily News reports, and it aired on Netflix Brazil on Dec. 3.
The comedy group Porta dos Fundos (which translates to Back Door) created “The First Temptation of Christ” following their International Emmy Award-winning production of “The Last Hangover,” a movie which satirizes the biblical Last Supper, the last meal Jesus Christ shared with his disciples before he was crucified.
As of Friday afternoon, more than 1.4 million people had signed a Change.org petition demanding that the film be removed from Netflix and saying that the film “seriously offended Christians.”
Porta dos Fundos defended the film in a statement to Yahoo News.
Enquanto tá rolando abaixo assinado contra, a gente comemora o sucesso de mais uma criação de Deus: nosso Especial de Natal @NetflixBrasil “A Primeira Tentação de Cristo” continua cada vez mais poderosíssimo. Mas querendo assinar, segue o link: https://t.co/pU0tk1J59z pic.twitter.com/sVYRtyru5w
— Porta dos Fundos (@portadosfundos) December 9, 2019
“Porta dos Fundos values artistic freedom and humor through satire on the most diverse cultural themes of our society and believes that freedom of expression is an essential construction for a democratic country,” the group said.
Porta dos Fundos and Netflix did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
More than one million people have signed a petition against a Netflix movie that implies Jesus Christ is gay.
“The First Temptation of Christ” is reportedly a satirical representation of Jesus Christ, his mother Mary, and his father Joseph, in which Jesus returns home for his birthday party with a friend named Orlando, according to the New York Daily News. The publication reports that Orlando continuously hints in the film that he and Jesus are more than friends.
Netflix advertises the Brazil-produced film as a Christmas special, the Daily News reports, and it aired on Netflix Brazil on Dec. 3.
The comedy group Porta dos Fundos (which translates to Back Door) created “The First Temptation of Christ” following their International Emmy Award-winning production of “The Last Hangover,” a movie which satirizes the biblical Last Supper, the last meal Jesus Christ shared with his disciples before he was crucified.
As of Friday afternoon, more than 1.4 million people had signed a Change.org petition demanding that the film be removed from Netflix and saying that the film “seriously offended Christians.”
Porta dos Fundos defended the film in a statement to Yahoo News.
Enquanto tá rolando abaixo assinado contra, a gente comemora o sucesso de mais uma criação de Deus: nosso Especial de Natal @NetflixBrasil “A Primeira Tentação de Cristo” continua cada vez mais poderosíssimo. Mas querendo assinar, segue o link: https://t.co/pU0tk1J59z pic.twitter.com/sVYRtyru5w
— Porta dos Fundos (@portadosfundos) December 9, 2019
“Porta dos Fundos values artistic freedom and humor through satire on the most diverse cultural themes of our society and believes that freedom of expression is an essential construction for a democratic country,” the group said.
Porta dos Fundos and Netflix did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Friday, December 13, 2019
James D. Standish Suggests Students Make Their Churches ‘Sanctuaries’ For Illegal Immigrants
DECEMBER 8TH, 2019
WATCH: Lecturer At Andrews University Suggests Students Make Their Churches ‘Sanctuaries’ For Illegal Immigrants
ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP via Getty Ima
[This piece has been updated to include broader information about Standish’s lecture. A parenthetical has been inserted into the body of the article, and Standish’s reply to my email has been added at the bottom. The title has also been altered.]
In October, Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, hosted a lecture by James Standish, who “most recently served as the communications director for the South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists,” according to the university’s website.
Andrews University is a Seventh-day Adventist college. Though students were not required to attend Standish’s lecture, they are required to “attend 30 co-curricular programs a semester,” of which Standish’s lecture was one of many.
During the latter portion of his lecture, Standish called for students to offer their churches as “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants.
“In the United States, we have a lot of people who are looking for a home. Many of them have found a home here in the United States, but they face constant danger of being deported,” Standish said in a video available on Andrews University’s YouTube channel, as reported by Campus Reform.
After noting that he himself is an immigrant, he said that many other immigrants (legal and illegal) don’t have the ability to successfully engage in the “complicated … system.”
“Many of the people who are now undocumented could have regularized their citizenship at one point or another if they were like me, a lawyer, and understood the system, they had money for a lawyer, if they spoke English better, had greater facility, a thousand things – but they were poor. Not all of them, but many,” Standish stated.
[This piece has been updated to include broader information about Standish’s lecture. A parenthetical has been inserted into the body of the article, and Standish’s reply to my email has been added at the bottom. The title has also been altered.]
In October, Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, hosted a lecture by James Standish, who “most recently served as the communications director for the South Pacific Division of Seventh-day Adventists,” according to the university’s website.
Andrews University is a Seventh-day Adventist college. Though students were not required to attend Standish’s lecture, they are required to “attend 30 co-curricular programs a semester,” of which Standish’s lecture was one of many.
During the latter portion of his lecture, Standish called for students to offer their churches as “sanctuaries” for illegal immigrants.
“In the United States, we have a lot of people who are looking for a home. Many of them have found a home here in the United States, but they face constant danger of being deported,” Standish said in a video available on Andrews University’s YouTube channel, as reported by Campus Reform.
After noting that he himself is an immigrant, he said that many other immigrants (legal and illegal) don’t have the ability to successfully engage in the “complicated … system.”
“Many of the people who are now undocumented could have regularized their citizenship at one point or another if they were like me, a lawyer, and understood the system, they had money for a lawyer, if they spoke English better, had greater facility, a thousand things – but they were poor. Not all of them, but many,” Standish stated.
How the Vatican Spent Millions on Elton John’s Biopic
Barbie Latza Nadeau
Correspondent-At-Large
Published Dec. 13, 2019 4:37AM ET
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / Photos Getty / Paramount Pictures
ROME–Just when you thought the Vatican‘s image problem couldn’t get any worse, what with endemic clerical child abuse and a near bankrupt American arm of the church, it does. A new report pulls back the red velvet curtain on a bizarre new tidbit about the Vatican‘s other dirty little secret: its finances.
The latest twist started to unravel in October when Pope Francis ordered Swiss Guard gendarmes to raid the Holy See’s Financial Information Authority (AIF) office inside Vatican City, carrying out boxes of papers and computer hard drives. They tacked up what amounted to a “Wanted Dead or Alive” sign on the Vatican’s fortified gates to keep out the administrators while they started sifting through reams of curious expenditures in the Vatican’s financial books.
They came up with quite a few surprises about the way money donated for the poor was being used, including some dubious real estate interests, connections to an even more dubious Maltese financier, and investments in movies that, good or bad, don’t exactly square with church doctrine.
One of the more peculiar items on the spreadsheet was property on Sloane Avenue in London. It included luxury apartments in a former Harrods warehouse. The Vatican press office said at the time further investigations would be “carried out over time.”
Among the latest of those investigations is a tie to the Centurion Global Fund based in Malta, which has proven itself to be a hotbed of corruption. The Maltese prime minister is currently spending most of his time blockaded in his office in Valletta while angry protesters demand he resign over his alleged ties to the assassination of anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia two years ago.
“While investing in mainstream entertainment is hardly sinful, the great contradiction is that the Catholic Church preaches to the devout that homosexuality is a sin.”
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Vatican calls Greta Thunberg ‘great witness’ of Church’s environmental teaching
Elise Harris
Dec 12, 2019
Dec 12, 2019
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
Swedish teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg holds up a sign as Pope Francis greets her at the end of his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 17, 2019. (Credit: Vatican Media via AP.)
ROME - On Thursday top Vatican officials hailed Swedish teen Greta Thunberg, recently named TIME Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for her environmental advocacy, as a “great witness” of Church teaching on care for creation and the human person.
Speaking to reporters at the Dec. 12 publication of Pope Francis’s message for the 2020 World Day of Peace, celebrated on Jan. 1 each year, Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Vatican office for Integral Human Development, called Thunberg “a great witness to what the Church teaches on the care of the environment and the care of the person.”
“What is her objective? Skipping school for a future, a future that can’t be guaranteed because there is no care for the environment,” he said, adding that in many cases, there is a complete lack of coherence between the international policies on the environment and what children are told.
Asked whether she was a model of the “ecological conversion” Francis calls for in the message, Turkson said that “model” was not the right word, but insisted that her activism brings attention to the Church’s insistence that “attention to the poor and society also coincide with care for the environment, the common home.”
RELATED: Pope says that peace comes in a shade of green, or not at all
“It’s a coherence with the Church’s teaching,” he said, adding that care of the environment is also a matter of faith.
Swedish teenage environmental activist Greta Thunberg holds up a sign as Pope Francis greets her at the end of his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 17, 2019. (Credit: Vatican Media via AP.)
ROME - On Thursday top Vatican officials hailed Swedish teen Greta Thunberg, recently named TIME Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for her environmental advocacy, as a “great witness” of Church teaching on care for creation and the human person.
Speaking to reporters at the Dec. 12 publication of Pope Francis’s message for the 2020 World Day of Peace, celebrated on Jan. 1 each year, Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Vatican office for Integral Human Development, called Thunberg “a great witness to what the Church teaches on the care of the environment and the care of the person.”
“What is her objective? Skipping school for a future, a future that can’t be guaranteed because there is no care for the environment,” he said, adding that in many cases, there is a complete lack of coherence between the international policies on the environment and what children are told.
Asked whether she was a model of the “ecological conversion” Francis calls for in the message, Turkson said that “model” was not the right word, but insisted that her activism brings attention to the Church’s insistence that “attention to the poor and society also coincide with care for the environment, the common home.”
RELATED: Pope says that peace comes in a shade of green, or not at all
“It’s a coherence with the Church’s teaching,” he said, adding that care of the environment is also a matter of faith.
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
The Roman Pontiff has a Jesuit Plan in mind..
Photo (Courtesy):
https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/tagle-rome-francis-signals-more-changes-come-vatican-posts
Many major posts in the Roman Catholic Church/Government are Jesuits.
One is a Venezuelan;
Arturo Sosa Abascal, the Black Pope or the Superior General.
Two are Spaniards;
-Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
-Juan Guerreo Alves, Prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy as of 1 January 2020.
One is a Filipino.
Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Lastly, the Pontiff himself, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, aka Francis I, is a Jesuit from Argentina...
- Arturo Marcelino Sosa Abascal SJ (born 12 November 1948) is the thirty-first and present Superior General of the Society of Jesus. He was elected Superior General by the Society's 36th General Congregation on 14 October 2016, succeeding Adolfo Nicolás. As a Venezuelan, he is the first person born in Latin America to lead the Jesuits.
- Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer SJ (born 19 April 1944) is a Spanish Jesuit, theologian and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. After a thirty-year career teaching theology, he joined the Roman Curia in 2004 as Secretary-General of the International Theological Commission. An archbishop from 2008 until his appointment to the cardinalate in 2018, he became Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in 2017
- As Francis did last month when he appointed a fellow Jesuit, Fr. Juan Guerrero Alves, to take charge at the Secretariat for the Economy, the pope is filling a high-level Vatican post with a known friend and supporter of his reform agenda.
- Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle (Spanish: [lʊˈwis ɐnˈtonɪo 'taɡlɛ]; born June 21, 1957)[1] is a Filipino cardinal of the Catholic Church, appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in December 2019. ...After attending elementary and high school at Saint Andrew's School in Parañaque, he was influenced by priest friends to enter the Jesuit San José Seminary, which sent him for studies at the Jesuit Ateneo de Manila University.
References:
Arturo Marcelino Sosa Abascal, Wikipedia;
Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, Wikipedia;
Juan Guerrero Alves,
With Tagle to Rome, Francis signals more changes to come in Vatican posts, Wikipedia;
Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, Wikipedia.
Vatican Uses Donations for the Poor to Plug Its Budget Deficit
Only 10% of donations to the Peter’s Pence collection go to charitable works
Pope Francis speaks ahead of the start of the General Audience at the Vatican on Wednesday.
PHOTO: CLAUDIO PERI/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
VATICAN CITY—Every year, Catholics around the world donate tens of millions of dollars to the pope. Bishops exhort the faithful to support the weak and suffering through the pope’s main charitable appeal, called Peter’s Pence.
What the church doesn’t advertise is that most of that collection, worth more than €50 million ($55 million) annually, goes toward plugging the hole in the Vatican’s own administrative budget, while as little as 10% is spent on charitable works, according to people familiar with the funds....
How Miss USA Spends Her Sundays
Cheslie Kryst lives with Miss Universe in Manhattan. Soon, she will compete for her roommate’s crown.
Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times
By Tammy La Gorce
Dec. 6, 2019
Before Cheslie Kryst was crowned Miss USA in May, she was a lawyer in Charlotte, N.C. In keeping with pageant rules, she moved to Manhattan.
Although Ms. Kryst is taking a hiatus from her day job, she still maintains her blog, White Collar Glam, where she discusses affordable workplace fashion. And in October, she became a correspondent for the celebrity news show, “Extra.”
Ms. Kryst, 28, who happens to be the oldest Miss USA ever, shares her Midtown apartment with Miss Universe, Catriona Gray. Yes, Miss USA lives with Miss Universe, and on Dec. 8, she will compete to become the successor to her roommate’s crown.
JET SET
Most Sundays I’m flying back to town from somewhere I went for an event as Miss USA, so I don’t wake up in my own bed. I start my day by unpacking. If I’ve eaten anything before I get back to my apartment, it’s plain eggs or an egg-white omelet at an airport. For protein. To be candid, all the traveling can be very stressful.
The Continued Threat to Religious Liberty Is Undeniable
By Kelly Shackelford
In 2004, I was honored to be invited to give testimony to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution regarding attacks on religious liberty in America. During my remarks, I cited numerous examples from around the country, which prompted an important question from Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Kennedy: “Are these isolated incidents or an indication of a larger trend?”
In order to answer, my firm, First Liberty Institute, conducted exhaustive research and published the results in the first edition of “Undeniable.”Since then, we have regularly updated this resource with the latest examples from our cases and others around the nation.
This week, we released the latest edition of “Undeniable.”
I have spent the last 30 years defending religious freedom for people of all faiths in America. This experience has led me to two fundamental conclusions that at first glance might appear contradictory: the frequency and intensity of attacks on people of faith are increasing, and yet there is more hope for the future of religious liberty in America than at any point in my career.
In 2018 our firm engaged in over 400 legal matters; with only a few days left in 2019 we’re well on our way to surpassing that mark. Attacks on religious freedom have been growing.
More important than the raw numbers is the increasing ferocity of the assault on our most fundamental rights. I never thought I would live to see the day when a retired pastor would be threatened with eviction from his senior living apartment community for leading a Bible study in a private residence, but that is exactly what happened to our client Ken Hauge in Fredericksburg, Va.
Sunday, December 08, 2019
Texas CPS dismisses case after taking 4-year-old boy away from homeschool parents
CP CURRENT PAGE:
U.S. | FRIDAY, DECEMBER 06, 2019
Ashley (L), Drake (M) and Daniel Pardo (R) pose for a picture. | Texas Home School Coalition
Child Protective Services in Texas has dropped its five-months long case against homeschooling parents who say their son was unfairly removed by the state on allegations of child medical abuse.
On Tuesday, Kaufman County Judge Tracy Gray signed an order that ended the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services' cases against the Pardo family.
On June 20, Daniel and Ashley Pardo’s 4-year-old son, Drake, was taken from their home on the authority of a court order after the family missed a CPS-facilitated meeting at Dallas Children’s Medical Center that they were not informed of and was hours away from their home.
The family’s lawyers at the Texas Home School Coalition argued throughout the case that CPS failed to meet the legal requirements needed for an emergency removal and failed to notify the parents about a meeting they were ordered to attend with a child abuse pediatrician and were subsequently faulted with not attending.
A concerned doctor had reached out to CPS initially with concerns that the family was seeking medical treatment for their son even though she had never met personally with the family. The family’s lawyers also pointed out that the child was removed from the home before CPS consulted with the family’s attending physicians.
In October, the Texas Supreme Court ordered that Drake Pardo be returned to his parents.
Although the child was reunited with his parents, CPS continued to demand that the family participate in “invasive therapies” based on claims that they suffer from mental health issues. But the Pardo family’s attorney refused the CPS’ demand, which led the agency to drop its case.
Child Protective Services in Texas has dropped its five-months long case against homeschooling parents who say their son was unfairly removed by the state on allegations of child medical abuse.
On Tuesday, Kaufman County Judge Tracy Gray signed an order that ended the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services' cases against the Pardo family.
On June 20, Daniel and Ashley Pardo’s 4-year-old son, Drake, was taken from their home on the authority of a court order after the family missed a CPS-facilitated meeting at Dallas Children’s Medical Center that they were not informed of and was hours away from their home.
The family’s lawyers at the Texas Home School Coalition argued throughout the case that CPS failed to meet the legal requirements needed for an emergency removal and failed to notify the parents about a meeting they were ordered to attend with a child abuse pediatrician and were subsequently faulted with not attending.
A concerned doctor had reached out to CPS initially with concerns that the family was seeking medical treatment for their son even though she had never met personally with the family. The family’s lawyers also pointed out that the child was removed from the home before CPS consulted with the family’s attending physicians.
In October, the Texas Supreme Court ordered that Drake Pardo be returned to his parents.
Although the child was reunited with his parents, CPS continued to demand that the family participate in “invasive therapies” based on claims that they suffer from mental health issues. But the Pardo family’s attorney refused the CPS’ demand, which led the agency to drop its case.
Pope Francis Compares Trump to Herod, Who Tried to Kill Jesus
Pope Francis Compares Trump to Herod, Who Tried to Kill Jesus
Tony Baggert/Getty Images
THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D.
5 Dec 201933915
2:02
ROME — Pope Francis has compared U.S. President Donald Trump to the murderous King Herod who massacred innocent children in ancient Palestine while trying to kill the baby Jesus, a Jesuit journal revealed Thursday.
Speaking with his brother Jesuits during his recent visit to Thailand, the Argentinian pope minced no words in his thinly veiled condemnation of the U.S. president and his administration, suggesting that like a modern-day Herod, Mr. Trump separates families at the border while allowing drugs to freely flow into the country.
“In other parts there are walls that even separate children from parents. Herod comes to mind,” Francis said. “Yet for drugs, there’s no wall to keep them out.”
“The phenomenon of migration is compounded by war, hunger and a ‘defensive mindset,’ which makes us in a state of fear believe that you can defend yourself only by strengthening borders. At the same time, there is exploitation.”
In this Q&A session, the pontiff also proposed that the rise of populism is at the root of migrants’ problems in Europe.
“I must admit that I am shocked by some of the narratives I hear in Europe about borders,” the pope said. “Populism is gaining strength.”
“The phenomenon of refugees has always existed, but today it is better known because of social differences, hunger, political tensions and especially war. For these reasons, migratory movements are intensifying,” he said.
“What is the answer the world gives? The policy of waste,” he continued. “Refugees are waste material. The Mediterranean has been turned into a cemetery. The notorious cruelty of some detention centers in Libya touches my heart.”
“The Christian tradition has a rich evangelical experience in dealing with the problem of refugees. We also remember the importance of welcoming the foreigner as the Old Testament teaches us,” he said.
Source
2:02
ROME — Pope Francis has compared U.S. President Donald Trump to the murderous King Herod who massacred innocent children in ancient Palestine while trying to kill the baby Jesus, a Jesuit journal revealed Thursday.
Speaking with his brother Jesuits during his recent visit to Thailand, the Argentinian pope minced no words in his thinly veiled condemnation of the U.S. president and his administration, suggesting that like a modern-day Herod, Mr. Trump separates families at the border while allowing drugs to freely flow into the country.
“In other parts there are walls that even separate children from parents. Herod comes to mind,” Francis said. “Yet for drugs, there’s no wall to keep them out.”
“The phenomenon of migration is compounded by war, hunger and a ‘defensive mindset,’ which makes us in a state of fear believe that you can defend yourself only by strengthening borders. At the same time, there is exploitation.”
In this Q&A session, the pontiff also proposed that the rise of populism is at the root of migrants’ problems in Europe.
“I must admit that I am shocked by some of the narratives I hear in Europe about borders,” the pope said. “Populism is gaining strength.”
“The phenomenon of refugees has always existed, but today it is better known because of social differences, hunger, political tensions and especially war. For these reasons, migratory movements are intensifying,” he said.
“What is the answer the world gives? The policy of waste,” he continued. “Refugees are waste material. The Mediterranean has been turned into a cemetery. The notorious cruelty of some detention centers in Libya touches my heart.”
“The Christian tradition has a rich evangelical experience in dealing with the problem of refugees. We also remember the importance of welcoming the foreigner as the Old Testament teaches us,” he said.
Source
The Tell: Three of the impeachment witness lawyers were Jewish, and it matters
By Ron Kampeas December 6, 2019 11:56 am
WASHINGTON (JTA) – On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee launched impeachment hearings just hours after the Intelligence Committee, chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., concluded its own impeachment inquiry.
The 300-page Intelligence Committee report concludes that President Donald Trump “placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests of the United States” in asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, calling it “the act of a president who viewed himself as unaccountable and determined to use his vast official powers to secure his reelection.”
It is now the Judiciary Committee’s task to decide whether to recommend articles of impeachment. And while the officials who appeared before Schiff’s committee were fact witnesses who described the events surrounding the Ukraine scandal, Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., brought three witnesses — all constitutional scholars — that he hoped would outline a theory of impeachment.
All three witnesses are Jewish: Noah Feldman of Harvard, Pamela Karlan of Stanford and Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina. So are Schiff and Nadler, and so was the Democrats’ counsel who directed the first 45 minutes of questioning, Norm Eisen.
Why does this matter?
Well, predictably, it mattered to anti-Semites.
Ann Coulter, the right-wing agitator, tweeted, “Too little ethnic diversity among the professors for me to take them seriously.” Considering her past flirtations with anti-Semitism, one could conclude that she wasn’t faulting the professors just for being white.
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