Lesbian Activist Who Urged Cupich to Take "Swift Action" Against Fr. Paul Kalchik Elected Mayor of Chicago

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Yesterday, Lori Lightfoot won the Chicago mayoral race runoff against rival Toni Preckwinkle by the landslide margin of approximately 74% to 26%.

My headline calls Lightfoot a "lesbian activist". By that I mean she is a lesbian and an activist for liberal and democrat causes. She is "married" to another woman with whom she raises an adopted daughter and she was endorsed by many LGBT groups. But I have no particular reason to believe she is or will be necessarily anymore pro-LGBT (which itself could have multiple meanings) than Preckwinkle or many other Democrats.

Lightfoot had begun the race as a political newcomer, at least to electoral politics, and had initially only been a relative unknown in a crowded field. But she steadily gained support to narrowly come in first with 17.54% in the first-round of voting. Preckwinkle, a veteran Illinois pol, came in second with 16.04%.

Both were African-American women, prompting predictable gushing stories in the national media about Chicago getting its "first black female" mayor.

Here's an interesting fact that you probably didn't see reported:

Both black female candidates had or had had white "spouses" (the Preckwinkles divorced in 2013 after a 44-year marriage), which I suppose is another sort of first.

Though since both were in interracial relationships, presumably neither of them lost any of the Chicago black female vote because of it.

Lightfoot was arguably initially the underdog, but by the day of the runoff the prediction markets had her winning comfortably.

For the record, on the level of practical politics I don't give a damn whether Lightfoot is a lesbian or not. And, in general, that goes for most candidates.

I'd vote for Anne Marie Waters in a second. Unfortunately, I don't imagine Waters will be running for mayor of Chicago anytime soon. You can follow that lesbian activist on Twitter.

Or, rather, you can't. She was banned for Islamophobia.

But I'd sooner get thrown off a building than cast a ballot for Miss Lightfoot.

In September, she wrote a letter to Cardinal Cupich urging him to take "swift action" against Fr. Paul Kalchik, who had recently presided over the "burning" of a rainbow flag at his Avondale parish.

I write to urge your swift action against Rev. Paul Kalchik of Resurrection parish for his hateful act and speech. As you know, apparently in defiance of your direct order, Rev. Kalchik, along with some parishioners, led a burning of a rainbow flag that had previously hung in the parish. He claimed to be banishing evil. 

Rev. Kalchik has gone further and described homosexuality [sic] as an act against God and stated that homosexuals are to blame for the clergy sex abuse scandal. Rev. Kalchik's ignorant and hateful speech and actions must be addressed swiftly. 

...No person of true faith can stand as a leader of a parish, church, synagogue or mosque and express the kind of hate as that Rev. Kalchik has shown. I have followed very closely both the teachings of the Holy Father and your words, and it is clear that Rev. Kalchik's views are wildly inconsistent with both. He should not have the ability to continue subverting the minds of any other parishioners, and especially not children. 

Please take swift action to stamp out this hate.

As many of you know, the flag was no ordinary rainbow flag but the actual flag - a rainbow with a cross superimposed - that a previous pastor, Fr. Daniel Montalbano, had hung over the altar to make it a "gay friendly" worship space. Montalbano was known for hosting homosexual parties in the rectory. Church staff would later find him dead in his bedroom, having apparently suffered cardiac arrest while being hooked up to a masturbation device. Supplies of sex toys and pornography were carted away and burned. But at the time they missed the flag.

A few days after Lightfoot's letter, Kalchik was removed by Cupich. Various archdiocese emissaries, most or all of whom were suspected homosexuals, had been sent to threaten him. It was recommended that Kalchik submit to "counseling" at a psychiatric center. Instead, he left his parish on only a few minutes notice and for the last six months has been more or less in hiding.

Kalchik is a Catholic priest. Lightfoot is not a Catholic, as far as I know. But she still thought it was very much her business to petition her ideological ally Cupich to fire him.

Not only does she want to administer the government of my city. She also wants to control who is and isn't a Catholic pastor in my neighborhood.

This is why on Twitter I called Lightfoot a "lesbian fascist".

Stamp out this hate.

Or maybe she's just a nice lady who saw an opportunity for political publicity. For all I know the letter helped her surge into the runoff.

And she hasn't gone full-fascist against half of the black churches in the city - who take the conventional Old Testament line against homosexual acts - to say nothing of writing letters demanding "swift action" against most of the imams in the Chicago mosques, who preach against gays and Jews, or Chicago-based Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan, who preaches against everyone.

It wouldn't have helped her in the runoff.

Then again, Lightfoot's mother once said in an interview:

She is the shortest of my children … but she has never allowed height to cause her not to go up against whatever she feels is not right.

Without being uncharitable, the vertically challenged Lightfoot, with the big forehead and masculine uniform, does seem to have a whiff of the Mussolini about her.

 

On the Recent Developments in the Jussie Smollett Case

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Kim Foxx

In the wake of yesterday's shocking action by Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, in which all 16 felony charges against Jussie Smollett were dropped, CWBChicago obtained a Chicago Police investigative file on the Smollett case under a Freedom of Information Act request. You may read it here and here.

One of the reports in the file states:

The report is being RE-CLASSIFIED from an Aggravated Battery - Hands, Fist, Feet / Minor Injury (0440) to a Public Peace Violations / Other Violation (2890) 

Case re-classification is being done based on the facts of the case, evidence gathered and witness statements.  

Initially, SMOLLETT stated while walking to his residence, he was approached by two offenders who engaged in racial and homophobic slurs directed at SMOLLETT. The offenders then struck the victim about the face and body causing minor injuries. Investigation revealed that a plan was formulated and put into play by SMOLLETT to conduct a staged incident where SMOLLETT was beaten by [redacted] and [redacted] posing as persons other than themselves.  

The file includes a number of interesting and, yes, funny bits to the story not previously known.

Among other things, it appears that Smollett did in fact have bleach applied to him by one of the Nigerian Abimbola "Abel" and Olabinjo "Ola" Osundairo brothers. For some reason they had kept it in a Mexican hot sauce bottle which they subsequently abandoned at the scene:

[Redacted] was shown a large photograph taken of the EL YUCATECO Hot Sauce bottle which was recovered on 07-FEB-2019 near the location listed as 406 North New Street, in Chicago. [Redacted] stated that indeed was the bottle he filled with bleach and poured on SMOLLETT and appeared to be the same picture he viewed the previous day.

Although, given the size  and construction of a typical hot sauce bottle*, one might question the use of "poured". Perhaps "sprinkled" would be more appropriate.

But apparently, this was enough for the "gay Tupac".

One thing that always struck me as odd was why the Osundairo brothers agreed to commit a serious crime for the wealthy Smollett for only $3500. Perhaps part of the reason is that as personal trainers, the brothers didn't appear to be very successful, possibly because they were not very good at bargaining for fees: 

[Redacted] was then asked about his training fees. [Redacted] stated he likes to get $50 an hour, in average but tries to get what he can. [Redacted] stated he sometimes barters his services. [redacted] has taken $20 an hour on the low end and $50 an hour on the high end. [Redacted] stated that training was based on need and availability of the client. Prior to the trip to [redacted] [redacted] stated he had 2 clients, including SMOLLETT. 

[Redacted] stated he currently did not have any clients but was training 11 people on a trial basis for free.

There are many comic elements to this case. But overall, it is of course a horrific injustice and a tragedy. Chicago, with its famously high murder rate, it's less well-known sharp demographic racial segregation (which dictates that the large majority of both murder perpetrators and victims are African-American, from almost exclusively African-American neighborhoods) and its tribal politics doesn't need anymore racial tension. I suppose this could have been one motivation for dropping the case.

But the flip side is almost certainly worse, with trust, such as it is, in any sort of halfway colorblind execution of local government administration or justice taking another hit. The politically correct line is that Smollett got off because he's wealthy and well-connected. That's half-true. But the other half is that he was let off by an African-American politician because he was part-African-American. One couldn't imagine a white hate hoaxer getting the same treatment.

Or at least that's how many will see it.

It should be stated that the villains of the story - including former chief of staff to Michelle Obama Tina Tchen and Cook County prosecutor Joseph Magats - come in all colors.

And it wouldn't be a Chicago grift without the involvement of that ultimate grifter Jesse Jackson. One of the reasons given by prosecutors for dropping the charges against Smollett was that he had secretly put in sixteen hours of volunteer work for Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition, helping them out with camera angles for a recent broadcast, among other things.

Tom Wolfe couldn't have invented that.   

I suppose Chicago will muddle through as it always has.

It survived the Capone crime family. It will no doubt survive this family.

The Feds are apparently still pursuing a case against Smollett for faking that threat letter. Perhaps that will be his "tax evasion" moment.

But for now he is flying First Class back to New York.



* The photo of the hand holding a bottle of El Yucateco hot sauce is from a 2013 Tweet by Joe Rogan, of all people: "This hot sauce is f**king LEGIT. Mexicans make the best hot sauce."

Dhaka Terrorist Was Inspired by Zakir Naik - Creator of the Chicago Based "Peace Phone"

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Dr. Zakir Naik

Five weeks ago I reported that the "first Islamic phone" or "Peace Phone," created by Dubai-based Dr. Zakir Naik (also spelled Nayak) was being shipped from Chicago. Naik is an internationally known Muslim writer and speaker. He is also a straight down the line death-to-apostates-and-gays, dhimmi-status-for-all-non-Muslims-and-it's-okay-to-have-sex-with-your-female-slaves sharia supporter who has also made many statements supportive of terrorism. He is banned from the UK, Canada and Malaysia.

Now The Daily Star, Bangladesh's main English paper, lists him as one of three figures that inspired the five Dhaka terrorists. One of the five, Rohan Imtiaz--the well-to-do son of a Bangladeshi politician--posted on Facebook that Naik's words and writings had urged him to become a terrorist.

Two of the five young militants who have slaughtered 20 innocent people Friday night at Holey Artisan Bakery used to follow three controversial Islamists -- Anjem Choudary, Shami Witness and Zakir Nayek. 

Militant killer Nibras Islam, 22, used to follow two alleged suspected recruiters of Islamic State -- Anjem Choudary and Shami Witness -- on Twitter in 2014. 

Another killer Rohan Imtiaz, son of an Awami League leader, propagated on Facebook last year quoting Peace TV’s controversial preacher Zakir Nayek “urging all Muslims to be terrorists”. 

A Pakistan-origin British citizen, 49-year-old Anjem is now facing trial in England for breaking the British anti-terrorism law. Shami Witness is the Twitter name of 24-year-old Mehdi Biswas of Bangalore in India, who is also facing trial for running propaganda for the IS. 

Shami was arrested in December 2014 following an investigation into his Twitter account which was last active in August 2014. Anjem’s twitter account became inactive from August 2015 after terror charges were brought against him. 

Dr Nayek is banned in UK, Canada and Malaysia and is a controversial figure in his home country India. He is wildly popular in Bangladesh through his Peace TV although his preaching often demeans other religions and even other Muslim sects. 

This means at least in the case Nibras and Rohan, they did not become radicalised overnight. They have been consuming radical materials for one to two years before finally disappearing in February-March and reappearing as “IS killers” Friday night at the Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan.

A spokesman for Naik's Islamic Research Foundation responded that Dr. Naik has many followers and he cannot be responsible for the actions of all of them.

But where did the young killer get the idea that Naik was "urging all Muslims to be terrorists"?

Three days ago, a Muslim death squad hacked to death twenty innocents at a restaurant in Dhaka. If you want a "Peace Phone" created by the man who inspired at least one of them, you can go to 2140 W. Fulton street in Chicago and buy one. 

Guilt by Association? Cupich Celebrates Iftar with Charity Group Associated with "Death to Apostates" Islamist, Yusuf al-Qaradawi

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Archbishop Cupich and Dr. Mohammed Kaiseruddin, Chair of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago and keynote speaker at the 19th Annual Catholic-Muslim Iftar Dinner

I put a question mark next to "Guilt by Association." That's because I assume that Archbishop Blase Cupich has no idea who Yusuf al-Qaradawi is. In that sense Cupich is no different than many non-Muslims who rush to embrace prominent and "respectable" Muslim organizations, following the mantra that the "vast majority" of Muslims are "moderates" and Islam is on the whole a "religion of peace," etc.

Last night, Cupich attended and gave the welcoming address at the 19th Annual Catholic-Muslim Iftar Dinner--Iftar being the meal where Muslims celebrate the end of their daily fast. The event was held at the Zakat Foundation of America headquarters in Bridgeview, Illinois. The Foundation is a well-known Islamic non-profit that distributes aid to Muslim communities all over the world in fulfillment of the religious zakat or charity obligation.

The theme of the event was Islamophobia.

The Zakat Foundation publishes The Zakat Handbook: A Practical Guide for Muslims in the West, which it prominently features on its website--you are invited to download the PDF for free--as an essential guide to Zakat. It has no credited author but the Foreword was written by Khalil Demir, the longtime Executive Director of the organization. In the Foreword, Demir prominently notes the Handbook's primary source:

A noted source for contemporary cases is the celebrated Dr. Yusuf al-Qardawi’s Fiqh az-Zakat (a book translated into English under the same name (with the subtitle: A Comparative Study, published by Dar al-Taqwa, London, UK, 1999). This book relies heavily on Shaykh Yusuf’s monumental service to contemporary Muslims in Fiqh az-Zakat.

Who is Yusuf al-Qardawi?

Al-Qardawi is an Egyptian-born Muslim scholar currently residing in Qatar. At the age of 89, he is one of the world's most well know Muslim public intellectuals, with a popular and long-running program on sharia on the Al Jazeera network.

That doesn't prevent him from being as much of an "extremist" as any fictional caricature dreamed up by an Islamophobe.

Al-Qardawi is currently barred from entering the United States and a number of other Western countries due to his advocacy of terrorism and links with Muslim supremacist groups. He was sentenced to death in absentia by the Egyptian government due to his prominent association with the Muslim Brotherhood over many years.

According to Wikipedia, some of his more notable publicly expressed views include:

• Advocating the death penalty for apostates from Islam

If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment Islam wouldn't exist today...The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle is that they should be murdered or crucified... many hadiths, not only one or two, but many, narrated by a number of Muhammad's companions state that any apostate should be killed. Ibn 'Abbas's hadith: 'Kill whoever changes his faith [from Islam].'

• Advocating the arrest and public torture of homosexuals

The same punishment as any sexual pervert – the same as the fornicator (the punishment for fornication is whipping.)

• Approval of Hitler and the Holocaust and a call for a second Holocaust at the hands of Muslims

Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the Jews people who would punish them for their corruption ... The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them.... Allah Willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.

• Murderous hatred against Jews in general

O Allah, take your enemies, the enemies of Islam. O Allah, take the Jews, the treacherous aggressors. O Allah, take this profligate, cunning, arrogant band of people. O Allah, they have spread much tyranny and corruption in the land. Pour Your wrath upon them, O our God. Lie in wait for them. O Allah, You annihilated the people of Thamoud (An early pagan Arab tribe) with an overpowering blast, and You annihilated the people of 'Aad with a fierce, icy gale, and You destroyed the pharaoh [of Exodus] and his soldiers – O Allah, take this oppressive, tyrannical band of people. O Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish Zionist band of people. O Allah, do not spare a single one of them. O Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one (from a prayer read by Al-Qaradawi on Al Jazeera during the 2009 Gaza war).

• Support for Palestinian suicide bombing
• Support for "resistance" against allied forces in Iraq

Now, it is true that for many of his "extreme" statements there are also moderating ones. For example, he apparently believes that only apostates who go public with anti-Islam views should be executed. He once told Rabbis from a dissident Jewish sect that "there is no enmity between Jews and Muslims." And so on.

This has on occasion even earned him the label of being a "liberal." Yes, that's correct, in international Islamic intellectual circles, only being in favor of executing apostates in some cases, often makes one a liberal.

And of course, Al-Qardawi is absolutely correct that everything he says has explicit foundation in the Koran and/or Hadith (the canonical sayings of Muhammed), the same sources that Muslims use to deduce, say, one's charity obligations

Where does this leave the Zakat Foundation?

Is guilt by association in this case, fair? I'm not alleging that, say, every member of Zakat approves of all of the views of Yusef Al-Qardawi. Indeed, it's almost certain that they would publicly deny agreeing with any off them. But then why enthusiastically cite him in their main publication? Arguably, it would be as if a prominent Catholic charity cited David Duke as their main inspiration. Then again, as far as I know, David Duke has never advocated the execution of Christian apostates or the arrest and public torture of homosexuals.

One answer of course is that they can't really avoid it. The Muslim intellectual milieux isn't 95% inhabited by "moderates." It is dominated by people like Al-Qardawi. If you want to write a handbook on the Zakat obligation, you cannot help but make use of the work of these people.

At the very minimum, Muslims such as the Executive Director of Zakat know this but do not reveal it. Indeed, they lie about it.

At anti-Islamophobia dinners.

More to the point, I have no doubt that many Muslims, including many at that dinner, at least passively approve of many of the horribles associated with Al-Qardawi. One could cite polling that shows this. More to the point, where is the prominent Muslim non-profit actively working to abolish the most illiberal elements of sharia in the countries where it is most in force? Where is the Zakat Foundation on that one?

No doubt, many Muslims are passive out of fear. That at least partially absolves them. It does not absolve Islam.    

Where does that leave Cupich?

Archbishop Cupich doesn't want to know that Islam is shot through with hatred and barbarism. Or more probably he knows it, at least on some level or in some vague sense, but doesn't really care. For the moment, it doesn't fit the narrative he wants to exploit. For all his bragging about "accompanying" his LGBT brothers and sisters, he's supping with those who shrug at having homosexuals publicly flogged. But no worries, that inconvenient fact won't be reported in the next Catholic New World.

And, of course, Cupich is not alone by any means, among Catholics or others, in being an apologist for Islam. But here's the thing, Cupich has himself decided to make much of his job about the advocacy of minority rights or what he would no doubt claim are human rights in general. Being a shill for Islam makes this aspect of his ministry a joke.   

Sinead O'Connor: "I'm on a bridge in Chicago and I'm going to jump!"

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This is not a parody. Apparently she has been living in Chicago for the last few months.

From TMZ:

SINEAD O'CONNOR SUICIDE WATCH ON CHICAGO BRIDGES 

Cops are on the hunt for Sinead O'Connor after someone in her family told cops she's threatening to kill herself. 

Chicago PD got a call from Irish authorities saying Sinead contacted her family an hour ago and said she was suicidal and planned to jump off a bridge in the Chicago area. 

We're told cops actually spotted someone who looked like she fit the profile but it wasn't Sinead. 

TMZ obtained scanner audio from the PD giving officers the heads up. We're told there's not an active search ... but cops were told to be on the lookout. 

Sinead's been struggling with depression lately -- just last month she was reported missing and her friends and family feared suicide -- she was later found at a Chicago hotel.

From ABC7 (WLS):

CHICAGO POLICE ADVISED TO BE ON LOOKOUT FOR SINEAD O'CONNOR 

CHICAGO (WLS) -- An all-call was issued for Chicago police Thursday, urging officers in the city to be on the lookout for Irish singer-songwriter Sinead O'Connor after police in Ireland received a report that she may be suicidal and threatening to jump from a bridge. 

"Dublin, Ireland is saying that at 1530 hours, Sinead O'Connor called and said I'm on a bridge in Chicago and I'm going to jump," police said in their all-call. 

Police spokesman Officer Thomas Sweeney said Thursday there isn't an active police search for O'Connor. 

Around the same time the call went out, officers spotted someone threatening to jump from a bridge over a Chicago expressway, but it turned out to be a 54-year-old man. He was taken to a hospital. 

Last month, O'Connor disappeared from a home in Wilmette, her friends saying she rode away on a bicycle and never returned. She was found safe at a suburban hotel. 

O'Connor has used social media to call out family members overseas and it's possible she reached out to them again Thursday, leading to the call to Dublin police. Her representatives have not responded to requests for comment.

"First Islamic Smartphone," Created by Notorious Sharia Law and Terrorist Supporter Zakir Naik, is Shipping From 2140 W. Fulton Street in Chicago

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India and Dubai-based preacher Zakir Naik is launching the world's "first Islamic smartphone." It's called "Peace Mobile 2" and according to to its website, it is currently shipping from an office in Chicago's West Loop. This what the building looks like, according to Google.

Naik is fairly well-known in India, the middle-east and the world Islamic community in general and has been the recipient of various honors and awards. He is the founder and President of the Islamic Research Foundation and the founder of Peace TV.

While cultivating a friendly and "modern" persona, Zakir Naik is a supporter of straight down-the-line Sharia. Here are some of his publicly stated views:

• Apostates from Islam should be put to death (or more precisely, they should be put to death if they start publicly peaching against Islam or for another religion).
• Homosexuals should be put to death.
• Dhimmi status for non-Muslims in Muslim countries. No preaching of other faiths. No new churches or temples, etc.
• Having sex with one's female slaves is Halal.
• Etc.

He has also made supportive claims about Osama Bin Laden and terrorism in general (although he is always ready with the usual denials about what he really meant, etc.), thinks Bush brought down the Twin Towers (when he's not praising Bin Laden for doing so), thinks Jews are the enemy of the world and so on and so forth.

In other words, your basic Muslim preacher.

Or not. Maybe most Muslims are moderates and he's an extremist.

Regardless, Zakir Naik himself is clearly an Islamo-fascist demagogue who wants your Christian convert classmate to be stoned to death or enslaved. Ditto for your lesbian classmate.

And his latest project is based in Chicago.

Where are the protesters?

Oh, right. They're forcibly shutting down Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking at DePaul.

A Century Ago Today, an Anarchist tried to Kill Chicago's Archbishop with Soup

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The "laboratory of death"

We now have an Archbishop with "soup" in his name. Four generations ago we had an Archbishop with arsenic in his soup.

From today's Chicago Tribune (via a reminding tweet from Amy Welborn):

It was almost the crime of the century. 

But now that a century has passed, the banquet soup poisoning of 1916 has virtually disappeared from Chicago's memory. 

On Feb. 10 — 100 years ago today — a few hundred of the city's most prominent people gathered at the stately University Club at the corner of Michigan and Monroe for a dinner welcoming the new Roman Catholic archbishop, George Mundelein. 

Illinois Gov. Edward Dunne was there, along with former Gov. Charles Deneen, former Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison Jr., utility czar Samuel Insull, bishops, bank presidents, judges and the superintendent of schools. 

All were marked for assassination by an anarchist cook named Jean Crones, who spiked the soup stock with arsenic. 

When dinner was served, some of the highest fliers of Chicago were laid low, falling to the floor, groaning in agony and vomiting. But none of them died, and there are various theories why. 

According to one story, an expanded guest list forced the kitchen to water down the soup, thereby diluting the poison. By another account, a kitchen worker thought Crones' soup stock had spoiled and threw out most of it, replacing it with fresh stock. Still others believe that the soup contained too much arsenic, not too little, and that the overdose caused the guests to quickly vomit and thus survive. Yet another theory is that the diners were saved by a quick-thinking doctor who mixed mustard and water and served it as an emetic, inducing the soup eaters to expel the perilous broth. 

Mundelein, who showed no ill effects, may have been too busy meeting and greeting to do much eating. "You know it takes something stronger than soup to get me," said the archbishop, who would later become a cardinal and have a Chicago suburb named after him. 

The anarchist cook fled the city, leaving his chemical supplies in his South Side boarding house room, which the Tribune described as a "laboratory of death." 

For years afterward, the hunt for the religion-hating radical generated headlines. Letters purportedly from Crones were sent to The New York Times, expressing regret that 100 diners weren't killed. The signature of Jean Crones on a bathroom wall in Waukesha, Wis., was "found to be identical with the poisoner's handwriting," according to the Tribune. A man playing pool in Nebraska was arrested because he resembled Crones. And Chicago police officers rushed to Pittsburgh to check out a tip that Crones was hiding there disguised as a nun. 

Turns out, the name Jean Crones was a pseudonym. The nefarious cook was really Nestor Dondoglio, a follower of Italian anarchist firebrand Luigi Galleani. Like the failed soup poisoner, Galleani suffered frustrations as a terrorist. He once published a bomb-making guide that contained an error, causing his comrades to blow up when they followed his instructions. 

Never captured despite the nationwide dragnet, Dondoglio died quietly in 1932 in Connecticut, where he had found haven with friends.

Cupich Sends Out Black Jesus Christmas Card

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No. Not that Black Jesus. 

By the way, Jesus wasn't black.

He wasn't Norwegian or Chinese either.

Now, there's nothing wrong (obviously) with being black, Norwegian or Chinese. It's just that Jesus wasn't any of those.

So why portray Jesus as black?

There are many reasons:

One of them is racism, pure and simple. Your view of black people is so cynical and condescending that you believe they will only embrace Christianity if they think Jesus was racially "one of them". Let's give the childish little darkies what they need.

A second is racialist--you think being black is a metaphor for various things--victimization, heroism--so Jesus is best portrayed as being black even if He wasn't. (He really was in the deeper sense.)

A third is simply in-your-face Nazified political correctness. We're the good Catholics (liberals). You're the bad Catholics (everyone else). So we're going to rub your face in it with a black Jesus. If you have a problem with that, you're racist.

The 2015 Archdiocese of Chicago Christmas card is from a mural at the Holy Angels Church on the South Side of Chicago. Holy Angels has long been a center of black political activism, perhaps becoming most prominent under the leadership of Rev. George Clements. In the early 1990's Clements commissioned Fr. Englebert Mveng, a well-known Jesuit priest from Cameroon, to paint the mural, which contains various scenes from the Old and New Testaments featuring African-looking characters.

Here is how Holy Angels explains one of the panels:

3. Acts of the Apostles: (Ch.6 ) (Liberators) Peter was banished to prison by King Herod and the Lord sent an angel in the middle of the night to who told him to get up and as he did his shackles broke and he walked past the sleeping guards. The artist thought that in light of Nelson Mandela's recent release from Prison, he would make the face on Peter closely resemble Mandela's (which it does).

Mveng was one of the most prominent exponents of the African branch of Liberation Theology. He was murdered (some say by the government or with its knowledge or collaboration) in 1995.

To get a sense of where Rev. Clements was coming from, here's an interesting bit of history as described in an approving 2014 article from Milwaukee Catholic Herald (Clements is no longer head pastor at Holy Angels but he is still alive):

Then (Rev. Clements) said he did something that upset many people. He took down a statue of St. Anthony and replaced it with one of (Martin Luther) King. Soon after, he received a call from the then-archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal John Cody. 

“He said, ‘Are you out of your mind? You better take that statue down right now. You’re not going to make some Protestant minister a saint,’” Fr. Clements said. 

He added that he argued with Cardinal Cody that King embodied many traits of other Catholic saints. 

“I said, ‘I’m not about to take it down. But I want you to know, if you want it down, you send somebody down here to take it down. And when they come out here, I can’t vouch for their safety when they get into the ‘hood,’” Fr. Clements said.

Ah, Catholic non-violent witness. Is Bishop Barron aware of this?

From the Holy Angels website: Rev. Clements in front of fist

As should be plain from some of my own text above, I think grafting black political activism onto Catholic worship is toxic. It's religiously misleading and distracting--Jesus didn't die to save black people from oppression, he died to save black people (and white people) from sin. And it's of course another example of the racist condescension with which many whites (and some blacks) view blacks in America. Everything must be about race. Everything must be about victimization. Everything must be about the struggle.

And you can't get out of it for even one hour a week. Even at Mass.

Sorry blacks.

And sorry all Catholics. For Archbishop Cupich, in so far as he is sincere about anything, Catholicism is merely a political program, given a teeny bit more legitimacy (so he thinks) by the fact that you can thump your bible or flash your pallium at the same time. 

It's not that it's merely false (though of course that's the most important thing), it's that it's so petty and small. It's boring.

And thus it's unattractive. No one is going to become a faithful Catholic because of that version of Catholicism. It doesn't give you anything more than, well, just doing the politics. And you have to give up your Sunday mornings.

Then again, if there's good gospel music . . .

BREAKING: Major Fire at Chicago Traditional Mass Church, Shrine of Christ the King

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Credit: Mike Krauser/WBBM

From what I can tell, there appears to be major, perhaps even irreparable damage to this Latin Mass Church on Chicago's South Side. Local CBS Chicago reports:

CHICAGO (CBS) — An extra-alarm fire was burning early Wednesday at a landmark church in the Woodlawn neighborhood. 

The Fire Department first responded to the fire at Shrine of Christ The King, 6401 S. Woodlawn Av. shortly before 6 a.m., when smoke alarms went off in a neighboring building, but fire officials said the blaze might have been burning well before then. 

The building, previously named St. Gelasius Church, received city landmark status in 2004. 

When the first firefighters arrived at the scene, they saw fire through a couple windows of the church, and once they got inside, they found “an awful lot of fire within the church itself,” according to Deputy Fire Commissioner John McNicholas. 

Firefighters were pulled out of the building, and a defensive operation was set up to prevent the blaze from spreading to any neighboring buildings. 

A total of about 150 firefighters and 50 pieces of fire equipment responded to the blaze. 

The fire caused extensive damage to the roof, which eventually collapsed. The interior of the building was expected to be a total loss, and fire officials were concerned the steeple might collapse as well. 

As of 8 a.m., firefighters had the fire under control, but were expected to be on the scene for several hours. 

“The fire is under control. We have it surrounded, but we’re going to be on the scene here for quite a few hours,” McNicholas said. “When the roof systems failed, those roof systems fell into the main body of the church, so we have a lot of hidden fire that we just don’t see yet. So we will be on scene for quite a while.” 

No injuries have been reported, but a shelter for women and children next door was evacuated as a precaution. 

The Fire Department Office of Fire Investigations and the Police Bomb & Arson Unit were investigating the cause of the blaze, but officials said it appeared to be accidental. 

Fire officials said preliminary reports indicated workers were putting down varnish on floors in the choir loft Tuesday night, and investigators were trying to determine if the fire might have been the result of that work. The church had been undergoing a multimillion dollar renovation before the fire started. 

The St. Gelasius Church building was built in the 1920s, designed by architect Henry J. Schlacks, who designed several other churches in Chicago and the suburbs, and taught the first formal courses in architecture at the University of Notre Dame in the 1890s.