For the past few years, Americans have been concerned about the federal government intervening in private affairs. Many are concerned that Big Brother has been abusing its authority lately.
This not only involves individual rights, but religious rights granted by the Constitution. The State vs. Religion battle has been raging for centuries but now we might be entering a new era.
As it turns out, our own FBI was allegedly caught in an “outrageous” operation that targeted people of the Catholic faith.
The bombshell reveal came from whistleblowers, who allegedly exposed a plan by the agency to place agents in Catholic churches across the country.
House GOP boss and Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (OH) is stunned at the news, and he’s already taking strong legal action. As far as he’s concerned, this is a blatant overreach.
From The Blaze:
The FBI sought to plant ‘tripwire’ sources in local Catholic churches, according to Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
‘The FBI proposed that its agents engage in outreach to Catholic parishes to develop sources among the clergy and church leadership to inform on Americans practicing their faith,’ Jordan wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray Monday, describing the actions as ‘outrageous.’
Now a subpoena is out, which forces Wray to cough up any documents supposedly related to this event.
Rep. Jordan added currently, “it’s unclear how many FBI employees explored ‘new avenues for tripwires and source development” in Catholic churches.
This is part of a reaction by the Committee to look into the FBI’s handling of domestic violent extremism investigations, as they relate to Catholic Americans. They also want to determine if First Amendment rights have been violated.
So far, though, the government hasn’t cooperated fully with the Committee.
Back on March 23, they only provided the GOP investigating group with 18 pages of redacted documents. Jordan fired back, calling this response “substandard” and the redactions were “significant.”
This subpoena is trying to get the agency to come forward with more documents.
Jordan and his colleagues are accusing the FBI of engaging in “outreach” where they would “sensitize these congregations to the warning signs of radicalization and enlist their assistance to serve as activity tripwires.”
Included in this plan were “mainline Catholic parishes,” and there’s no knowing just how many houses of worship were on the agenda.
Either way, it appears to be a frightening precedent: a major law enforcement agency surveilling churches under the guise of preventing “domestic terrorism.” It sounds a little too dystopian for many citizens.
