Wings of Liberty • December 12, 2024

Seven Mountain Mandate

Part 3: Clasping Hands


What is the link between the Papacy and the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR)? This installment hopes to provide some answers to this question.


On a stage in a Los Angeles stadium on April 9, 2016, NAR Apostle Lou Engle warmly welcomed a delegation from Pope Francis before a packed crowd of ecstatic worshipers. The wet weather had not deterred the throng of 60,000 people who had gathered to commemorate the 110-year anniversary of the original Azusa Street Revival, recognized as the beginning of both the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.i The crowd eagerly welcomed the messengers of the Pope.


Pope Francis’ delegates greeted the gathered masses in the name of the Catholic church, and especially the 100 million plus charismatic Catholics whose worship practice closely resembles those in the Pentecostal/Charismatic movements. Charismatic Catholicism has grown rapidly around the globe, and like its Pentecostal cousins, focuses on deep emotional experiences, uplifted hands during worship singing, speaking in tongues, and a personal relationship with Jesus.ii Vatican II encouraged ecumenism, formally declaring that “The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council.”iii


After effusive mutual expressions of unity and forgiveness, the Pope’s delegate and Lou Engle kissed each other’s feet before the gathered masses and the world, proclaiming a holy moment ending the “the diabolical sin” of division between Catholics and Protestants. The papal delegates proclaimed, “Jesus doesn’t care about our differences [in doctrine]”, “we must fly united”. The exchanges can be seen starting at the 6 hour and 50 minute mark.


This incident, and other ecumenical gatherings like it, are a stunning and ominous development in the Protestant world. It is a fulfilment of Bible prophecy.


It is all too clear that the aims of Vatican II have been balefully successful. For Pentecostalism and the Charismatics, gone is the protest of Luther, forgotten are the lives of Huss, Jerome, and Wycliffe. Abandoned are the works of John Knox and John Bunyan. Forgotten are the martyrs who died by the rack and at the stake, killed by the papal power. Forgotten are the centuries of persecution, and the suffering of Pilgrims who fled Europe for America to escape the persecution of that worst of all evils, the combined rule of the church and the state. Forgotten are the warnings of Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Roger Williams and many others.


For many in what passes for Christianity today, the faith of their fathers is gone. Gone is sola scriptura. Instead, the paramountcy of the Bible has been replaced with the primacy of emotional ecstasy. The doctrines of salvation are supplanted, and dismissed as unimportant. Repetitive and trance-inducing rock music leads to an emotional high and what is seen by many charismatics as the worship’s climax: the ecstatic emotional utterances of congregants speaking in gibberish tongues.


Today, this worship experience is not only for Pentecostals. Its entrenchment is well advanced in
almost every major denomination in the world, including, as stated, in the ranks of over a
hundred million Catholics.iv


A clip of NAR Apostle, Lance Wallnau, teaching his followers to speak in tongues can be viewed
here.v



Bible Prophecy and the Papal Power


The Bible revealed that the Roman papacy would be dominant for a period of 1260 years.vi


History demonstrates the truth of the infallible Word. From 538 AD, when civil power was
assumed by the Bishop of Rome pursuant to the decree of Emperor Justinian, to 1798 and the
capture of Pope Pius VI by Napolean’s general Berthier, the Papacy had tremendous authority
and influence over western Europe. Kings knelt at the feet of the Pope for centuries, and did the
bidding of the Roman pontiff.


Church and state in union brought incredible peril to the human family. The Dark Ages were
marked by superstition, censorship and persecution. It was the age of the suppression of the
Bible, of the Inquisition, and the burning of so-called heretics.


With the Protestant Reformation, the power of the papacy to control the state gradually
weakened until the pope of that period, Pius VI, was taken captive and died in exile in France.
The Bible had prophesied that at the conclusion of the 1260 years the papal power would receive
a deadly wound, and so it did. To hear a detailed presentation on this subject, click here.vii


A beast in Bible prophecy symbolizes a kingdom.viii There are two beasts, or kingdoms,
mentioned in Revelation 13. The Protestant Reformers knew and taught that the leopard beast of
Revelation 13 was the papal power. They knew from the Bible that the papacy was predicted to
persecute God’s people,ix and then one day receive a deadly wound.x They were aware that the
book of Revelation also foretold the rise of another kingdom around the time the papacy was to
lose its dominance. In 1752, the Reformer John Wesley correctly predicted that the lamb-like
beast with the two horns of Revelation 13 was not far away.xi


History shows that only one nation was rising to global prominence at the time of the deadly
wound to the papal power, and that nation was the United States of America


America is the greatest nation the world has ever seen, and it was founded on an express
rejection of papal teaching and authority. The papacy vehemently opposes the
separation of church and state.xii The U.S. Constitution requires a separation of church and state
in the First Amendment.xiii The Papacy is opposed to liberty of conscience.xiv The U.S.
Constitution protects liberty of conscience and religious liberty as a God-given right.xv


The papacy is opposed to freedom of speech and freedom of the press,xvi and maintained a list of
banned books for centuries.xvii The U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and freedom
of the press, and the Founding Fathers taught that without a free press liberty would perish.xviii
The papacy systematically trampled on the principles of due process both before and during the
centuries of the Inquisition, torturing people to obtain a confession to so-called heresy.xix The
U.S. Constitution constitutionalizes due process, including a right to remain silent,xx and rejects
torture.xxi


The Bible foretold that the Bride of Christ would flee into the wilderness to escape the dragon
and from the power of the Roman papacy. Ultimately, Protestantism found its way to the New
World, and one of the last great wilderness areas on the planet. How fitting that the lamb-like
beast, the United States, comes up “out of the earth” – Revelation 13:11, as opposed to the point
of origin of the other beasts in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13! Geographically, those other beasts
come out of the water, and specifically find their geographic location around the Mediterranean,
as noted in Daniel 7:2.xxii But America rose from the ground of the New World.


The Declaration of Independence repudiated the contentions of the church/state system and thus
rejected the dominionist claims of the Pope. The Founders trumpeted that human rights come
from God, not from the state. The Founders declared as “self-evident truth” “that all men are
created equal, and endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights.”


“Righteousness exalts a nation” – Proverbs 14:34. America’s protection of the rights and
freedoms of humanity has brought it greatness. It’s secret strength, like Samson’s, has its source
in the Almighty. America was raised by the Lord as a haven for the persecuted, and as a place
where the Gospel and the light of the Scriptures could be proclaimed to all the world. Individual
rights, constitutionalism, and the separation of church and state have made America great.


But like Samson, even the mighty may fall.


Samson, the mightiest man recorded in the Scriptures, fell through continued liaison with a
harlot.xxiii Delilah wooed him and plied him with her charms until he violated the secret trust
between himself and God and gave up the secret of his great strength. In liaison with the
Philistine civil powers, Delilah cut his hair and took his power. His two eyes were put out, and
his liberty was taken from him.


Sadly, the Bible predicts that America will fall the same way. The harlot who seeks America’s
power is the papal harlot, described in Revelation 17.xxiv Long has she sought to bring America
to its knees


As discussed HERE and HERE, the NAR apostles also want political power. The Papacy is more
than willing to ally with the NAR to accomplish her ends.


In 2016, NAR leaders met personally with Pope Francis to discuss their mutual interests. This is
a photo of NAR Apostle Che Ahn and Pope Francis.


Further details of this meeting can be found here.


Conclusion


The Bible foretells that the Papacy’s deadly wound will be healed.xxv The Bible states that the
world will wonder after the first beast, the Papal power, and it is. And the Bible states that
America and the Papacy will work together to bring about the final events of Bible prophecy.


Today, both the New Apostolic Reformation and the Catholic Integralism of the Heritage
Foundation, which openly advocates for a reunification of church and state, are within striking
distance of their goal. This will be the subject of an upcoming installment in this series.
For now, we conclude with words written nearly a hundred and thirty years ago regarding the
events now taking place before our eyes:


Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan
will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of
spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. The Protestants of the
United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand
of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power; and
under the influence of this threefold union, this country will follow in the steps of Rome in trampling on the rights of conscience.xxvi




i https://news.ag.org/en/article-repository/news/2016/04/what-azusa-had-and-we-need


ii  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Charismatic_Renewal


iii Unitatis Redintegratio, the Decree on Ecumenism (1964, #1).


iv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLmMHdYjWGI


v https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZi9F-5pXf8


vi Revelation 13:5 – the time period of the 42 months is the same as the time period of the 1260 years mentioned in Daniel 7: . Using a Hebrew lunar month of 30 days, 42 months is 1260 days. The day for a year principle of prophetic interpretation is found in Ezekiel 4:6.


vii https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-OX2Fzr1IU


viii See Daniel 7.

 

ix  Revelation 13:7


x Revelation 13:3


xi  https://ccel.org/ccel/wesley/notes/notes.i.xxviii.xiv.html


xii Pope Pius X, Vehementer Nos, 1906: “That the State must be separated from the Church is a thesis absolutely false, a most pernicious error.” “Hence, mindful of Our Apostolic charge and conscious of the imperious duty incumbent upon Us of defending and preserving against all assaults the full and absolute integrity of the sacred and inviolable rights of the Church, We do, by virtue of the supreme authority which God has confided to Us, and on the grounds above set forth, reprove and condemn the law voted in France for the separation of Church and State, as deeply unjust to God whom it denies, and as laying down the principle that the Republic recognizes no cult. We reprove and condemn it as violating the natural law, the law of nations, and fidelity to treaties; as contrary to the Divine constitution of the Church, to her essential rights and to her liberty; as destroying justice and trampling underfoot the rights of property which the Church has acquired by many titles and, in addition, by virtue of the Concordat. We reprove and condemn it as gravely offensive to the dignity of this Apostolic See, to Our own person, to the Episcopacy, and to the clergy and all the Catholics of France. Therefore, We protest solemnly and with all Our strength against the introduction, the voting and the promulgation of this law, declaring that it can never be alleged against the imprescriptible rights of the Church.”


Also see - Pope Gregory XVI, Mirari Vos, 1832: “Nor can We predict happier times for religion and government from the plans of those who desire vehemently to separate the Church from the state, and to break the mutual concord between temporal authority and the priesthood. It is certain that that concord which always was favorable and beneficial for the sacred and the civil order is feared by the shameless lovers of liberty.”


xiii  First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution


xiv  Pope Pius IX, in his Encyclical Letter of August 15, 1854, said: `The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are a most pestilential error—a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a state.’ Pius IX, in his Encyclical Letter of December 8, 1864, also anathematized `those who assert the liberty of conscience and of religious worship,’ also ‘all such as maintain that the church may not employ force.’


xv  First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution


xvi Pope Pius IX, Mirari Vos, 1832: “This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. “But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error,” as Augustine was wont to say.[21] When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly “the bottomless pit”[22] is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws — in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty. https://rsf.org/en/dangerous-comments-pope-freedom-expression


xvii https://www.britannica.com/topic/Index-Librorum-Prohibitorum


xviii  “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost” -Thomas Jefferson, 1786. “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” - Thomas Jefferson, 1787.


xix  https://www.ccel.org/f/foxe/martyrs/fox105.htm


xx  The Fifth Amendment states: No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-5/


xxi  https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/constitutional-amendments-amendment-8-freedom-excessive-bail-fines-and-cruel-punishments


xxii Danel 7:2 “Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.” The Great Sea of Danel’s vision is the Mediterranean. All of the beasts come up out of that sea, and all of the nations in the vision find their geographic location around the Mediterranean.


xxiii See Judges chapters 13-16.


xxiv  Revelation 17 will be examined in an upcoming segment.


xxv  Revelation 13:3 The healing of the papacy’s deadly wound will be covered in detail in an upcoming segment. It is the position of the author that the wound has been healed, and current events demonstrate the proof of this.


xxvi  Great Controversy, p. 588. https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/132.2635#2659






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By Wings of Liberty August 14, 2026
It is apparent that there are obvious media biases which result in coverage blackholes with both the left-wing media and the right-wing media. The leftist media avoids stories that are politically problematic for the left, and the right-wing media avoids stories which are unfavorable to the political right. Unless you are a complete partisan-loyalist-come-what-may (and these abound, to be sure) you know both sides of the media have their agendas. And they push those agendas with the issues they cover, how they cover them, or whether an issue gets covered at all. Control of information = control of people. If you needed any further evidence that the western media is bought and sold, major broadcast networks ABC, NBC, and CBS, along with cable news outlets CNN and MSNBC, largely ignored the stunning release of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s diary entries leading up to his testimony, or rather non-testimony, at the Senate on July 29, 2026. [1] The Fauci diary files, which can be read here , expose a number of lies Fauci told the public versus what he recorded in private, [2] including conflicting stories about the origins of the virus and its actual versus claimed risk of fatality to the public. Following the hearing on July 29, during which Fauci refused to answer questions and pled the Fifth Amendment 111 times, most major news outlets either gave cursory coverage to the testimony, or actively defended Fauci’s conduct. Similarly, most major news outlets failed to report the bombshell revelation that Bill Gates held Q level security clearance through the Department of Energy (equivalent to top secret clearance issued by the Defence Department) during COVID, or questions Fauci refused to answer from Senator Rick Scott related to Fauci’s involvement with Bill Gates, [3] or Gates’ funding of virus research. Bill Gates’ top level security “typically applies to positions involving nuclear weapons design, national laboratories, critical energy infrastructure and classified scientific research”. [4] Fauci is stonewalling Congress and the American public and the world at large has yet to learn exactly what Fauci and Bill Gates were up to regarding gain of function research and the subsequent MRNA “vaccine” which was imposed and coerced so forcefully onto the public. Was this just about money? Make a virus, sell a “cure”? Or was it also about something even darker – like depopulation? The Covid shots were not only ineffective in preventing infection or transmission of Covid-19, they killed and maimed a lot of people. In 2010, Gates said that “if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower [population] by perhaps 10 or 15 percent.” [5] Despite an almost superhuman media campaign to recast this statement as benign, there just seems to be no amount of media weaseling that will make it go away. And since “reproductive health services” is often just the sleaze ball way of saying “abortion”, reasonable people have reasonably concluded that a good translation of what Gates said in the 2010 TED Talk is just what it sounds like: that if the elites abort more babies and inject people with more dangerous pharma cocktails, the population of planet earth will decrease by 10-15%. Which is a goal the Club of Rome and other elite orgs have been talking about for decades. [6] But back to Fauci: facts are facts. Fauci knew the virus was intentionally genetically modified: he had funded that research through the NIAID. Fauci publicly pushed the narrative during the pandemic that SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was natural, and evolved from a wet market, which was false. It looks just like a man covering his tracks. Analysis of the virus revealed a novel furin cleavage site found at the S1/S2 boundary of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which is absent in closely related natural coronaviruses like SARS-CoV. This specific additional sequence creates the mechanism whereby SARS-CoV-2 can infect human airways by facilitating viral entry by pre-cleaving the spike protein and significantly increasing infectivity, tropism, and syncytia formation. Fauci was aware that this very mutation was the purpose of NIAID funding and gain of function efforts, all while attempting to convince the public that the virus was natural. If you haven’t watched the full July 29, 2026 Fauci Senate hearing, you should. The link is here. And, as you may already know, in the intervening time between then and now, another shoe from the millipede has dropped. It has come to light that Fauci knew early on that the Covid vaccine could cause baby miscarriages in pregnant women, but he publicly informed the world that pregnant women should take it, and that it was safe. [7] If it looks like a depopulation agenda, and it walks like a depopulation agenda… But there is another story which the western media, left or right, refuses to cover regarding Tony Fauci, and that is his link to the Vatican. Sometimes what is not said is just as informative, if not more so, than what is said. And that is why it is so notable that both left and right wing media avoid investigation and coverage of the Vatican’s involvement in the narratives of both Anthony Fauci, as well as another public perp named Jeffrey Epstein. [8] If you watch Fox News, you will see that it is almost as averse to criticism of the Vatican or investigation into Fauci’s connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, vax mandates, as left-wing media outlets like CNN. It’s the same with Epstein and the Vatican. Radio silence from legacy media, be they left or be they right. Yes, its true that Fox News has turned on Fauci – but it doesn’t really have a choice at this point because the story has become too big. It’s either cover Fauci, or lose all credibility with that segment of the conservative base which smells all the dead rats under Fauci’s floorboards. So, Fox News covered Fauci’s diary and his narcissistic obsession with fame. It covered allegations Fauci misled Congress on the origins of the virus. It covered Fauci’s gross exaggeration of the fatality rate of Covid-19 in public, while privately documenting that it is actually far less dangerous. Fox News covered all of that. But Fox News is awfully quiet re Fauci and the Vatican. And there definitely is a connection between Fauci and the Vatican that any investigative journalist worth their salt should want to dig at. It’s not just that Fauci is Catholic, and the Vatican is the civil power of the church-state union of the Catholic Church. It’s not just that Fauci is being sheltered and aided in the midst of congressional scrutiny and public exposure by the Jesuits at Georgetown University, [9] which of course he is, or that the Jesuits are the militant arm of the Papacy, which of course they are. It’s not just that Joe Biden (Catholic) gave Tony Fauci (also Catholic) an unconditional pardon for all of his crimes during the pandemic no matter how heinous, or that the popes of old used to grant such plenary indulgences for all sins to the crusaders who furthered their wars. Isn’t that how it works in the confessional, behind the scenes? “Forgive me father, for I have sinned.” “What have you done, my son?” “Do you have the internet? I killed millions of people with a genetically altered virus and then told the whole world they needed to take a poison shot to save them from the virus.” “Yes, its all forgiven, my son. Ego te absolvo. Go do 33 ‘hail Mary’s’ and keep your head down at Georgetown for awhile.” The reality is that the Vatican and Fauci were teammates during Covid. The Vatican pushed lockdowns and Covid shots globally arguably as hard as Tony Fauci, and brought all its moral and spiritual influence to bear on the reluctant to overcome their misgivings. The Pope told every Catholic in the world that they have a “moral obligation” to take the Covid shot. [10] He told them it was “morally licit” even though derived from cell lines from aborted foetuses. [11] The Vatican even minted a coin celebrating the imposition of the Covid shot on the human family. [12] In doing so it publicly celebrated oppression, force, deception, coercion, and corruption. It celebrated everything that is anti-Christian, and anti-liberty of conscience. And early in the rollout of the Covid shots, the Vatican held a symposium to chart a course for world governments to overcome vaccine hesitancy in the face of public reports that the shots were killing people. The event was hosted by Pope Francis, and included the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna. Opening remarks were delivered by none other than Anthony Fauci. What did Tony Fauci say at this conference hosted by the Pope? Well, among other things, Fauci informed the crowd that moral authority needed to be brought to bear to overcome the doubters. The right voice was needed to overcome the hesitant, and those who did not want an experimental gene editing franken-shot under threat of punishment via the loss of civil liberties. Fauci said the key to overcoming current vaccine hesitancy is pairing the right medical message with the right messenger. “You have someone who’s a deeply religious person who will listen to their clergy.” [13]  Oh yes. There are plenty of dead rats in the Tony Fauci’s former office. One by one Congress will ensure that some of them are found and publicly ventilated. Fauci may take a public fall, and some media outlets will be compelled to cover some of his disgrace. But no mainstream media dares to touch the involvement of the Vatican with Fauci. And you should ask yourself what that means. And when you have thought about the implications you may know a little more about who really runs this world.
By Wings of Liberty July 7, 2026
TO: THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE Via EMAIL: RLC@usdoj.gov RE: RECOMMENDATIONS OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY COMMISSION Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback to the recommendations of the Religious Liberty Committee submitted to President Donald J. Trump on June 26, 2026. While we are mindful of the Committee’s labors which resulted in the 12 recommendations released June 26, certain of which we agree with, we write to voice our concerns and objections to the Committee’s first and ninth recommendations, 1 and its obviously insufficient consideration of the warnings of the Founding Fathers of the dangers of a union of church and state, or the many lessons of history regarding same. The Committee recommended that the Department of Justice “issue guidance clarifying the proper understanding of the Establishment Clause and separation of church and state.” 2 At the formal release of the Committee’s recommendations on the same day, Committee Chair Dan Patrick publicly stated that, “The separation of church and state is not in the constitution, ” and that the phrase “ has no constitutional basis .” 3 As citizens and students of history, and as Christians, we are alarmed, lest the flawed and unconstitutional view of the Chair of the Committee of the so-called “ proper understanding of the Establishment Clause and the separation of church and state”, prove influential or worse, instructive, to the Department of Justice. If the Committee’s opinion of the so-called “proper understanding” of the Establishment Clause is the same as that of its Chair, it is apparent that its understanding is not proper, but rather improper. Founding Father, “Father of the Constitution”, and fourth President of the United States, James Madison, contradicted Chair Dan Patrick’s claim that the separation of church and state is not in the Constitution. Madison stated that, “ Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion & Govt in the Constitution of the United States , the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history." According to James Madison, the separation of church and state is in the Constitution. As to whether James Madison, who is the principle author of the Establishment Clause, or Dan Patrick, is the greater authority on this subject, we think it not difficult for reasonably minded people to ascertain. Certainly, the Founding Fathers were all aware of the persecution of the Baptists, Quakers, Jews, and others in some of the colonies. They had seen first hand the ear croppings, whippings, imprisonment and hangings in Massachusetts and other colonies. In Europe, the persecution of the martyrs is well documented. Today we take the Bible for granted, but forget that William Tyndale was executed for translating the Bible into the English language not by atheists, but by religious bigots. It was a union of church and state which suppressed speech and the freedom of the press in England. It was a union of church and state which prohibited the work of translation of the Bible which changed the world. It was a union of church and state which necessitated his flight to Europe. It was a union of church and state which killed him. We respectfully ask that the Department of Justice, in considering the issue of public guidance of the separation of church and state, consider the history of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, and early Founding Father, who was repeatedly jailed for his religious faith in England. Pennsylvania Colony became a haven, not from atheist persecutors, but religious persecutors who did not believe in the separation of church and state. The same is true of Roger Williams, founder of the colony of Rhode Island, who was ordered arrested for declaring that the civil magistrate cannot enforce the first table of the Decalogue. We ask that the Committee take into account the brutal public whipping of President Abraham Lincoln’s five-time great grandfather, Obadiah Holmes, in Massachusetts colony, for the “crime” of religious dissent. Obadiah Holmes was not whipped by atheists. He was whipped by Puritan bigots who did not believe in the separation of church and state. We respectfully request that the Department of Justice consider this history in the issuance of public guidance on the subject. We are concerned that the Committee neglected to take into account the impact of the separation of church and state on the other rights codified in the First Amendment. Free speech and freedom of the press, for example, owe their flourishing in the modern world in large part to the separation of church and state in America. Prior to the protections in the First Amendment, the Roman Catholic Church for centuries maintained a list of banned books called the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. The books were subject to confiscation, and the possession of them resulted in the punishment of the owner. Unfortunately, the Committee makes no mention of the censorship in this context of Galileo and Kepler, Kant and Locke, John Milton and Maimonedes, John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, David Hume and Edward Gibbon, and many others, all at the behest of the Roman Papacy, which is itself a union of church and state. Free speech in the western world is the legacy of those who risked the wrath of a unified church and state, often at the cost of their lives. We would also ask that the Department of Justice consider the repeated modern calls from the papal power today for the censorship of the internet, and the suppression of free speech, contrary to the First Amendment. 4 We have no doubt that the censorship of Galileo, Kepler, Milton and others was prosecuted under the justification of the censorship of misinformation, also. The Roman Church was not alone in this persecution, either. We would ask the Department of Justice in its formulation of public guidance on the separation of church and state to remember the religious persecutions carried out at the behest of John Calvin in Geneva against religious dissenters such as Michael Servetus, who paid with his life for his writings and teachings. Servetus was executed by a union of church and state. We are concerned at the public statements of those who would create such a system in America. 5 Therefore we respectfully ask what proper guidance can the Department of Justice hope to give to the public on the “proper understanding of the Establishment Clause and the separation of church and state” if it is directed in its object by a Committee and a Committee Chair, who has neglected to more fully analyze the reasons for the separation of church and state, or the reasons why the United States codified the disestablishment of church and state in the First Amendment in the first instance? Reference to the wall of separation between church and state is not only mentioned by President Thomas Jefferson in the letter to the Danbury Baptists, which of course it is. 6 What is often left out of the narrative is that Jefferson said that he personally believed that the principle of the separation of church and state is codified in the Constitution. Therein, Jefferson wrote: Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, ¬t opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. 7 James Madison wrote, It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of Citizens and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The free men of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much soon to forget it. 8 Lastly, we object to the recommendation of the Committee that the Johnson Amendment be removed. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are mindful of Our Lord’s words that we “render to Caesar what is Caesar, and to God the things that are God’s.” 9 Jesus Christ established the principle of the separation of church and state, and taught that what belongs to God cannot be rendered to Caesar. The application of this teaching is that religionists, ambitious for civil power, and politicians ambitious for their endorsement, are to be kept separate in the American system of politics, as the Constitution requires. The union of church and state results in the corruption of both, a result which neither should desire, and neither can afford. Madison stated that “The number, the industry, and the morality of the Priesthood, & the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the Church from the State." 10 And he was right. If the Johnson Amendment is removed, religionists who want civil power will publicly stump and promise their votes and congregational dollars in exchange for political favors, and the politicians will be doubtless all too eager to reciprocate in the form of legislation which the religionists desire provided they will aid their attempts to gain office. In his anonymous treatise published in the Boston Gazette, John Adams, later the second President of the United States, wrote that canon law was a tyrannical form of government, as was feudal law, but that the worst of all forms of governments was a union of the two. 11 And it was Madison who stated that, “In the Papal System, Government and Religion are in a manner consolidated, & that is found to be the worst of Governments.” We respectfully request therefore that the Department Justice not adopt recommendations 1 and 9 of the Committee, and that it does adopt recommendation 1 of the Committee that it convene a public hearing, with written and oral submissions from the public, to more comprehensively study the question of the separation of church and state in history, and in American history in particular, a study which we would enthusiastically support. We remain yours truly, [THE UNDERSIGNED] ------------------------------------------------------- 1 https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/president-trumps-religious-liberty-commission-delivers-historic-report-draft 2 Ibid, [Emphasis added]. 3 https://www.chron.com/politics/article/dan-patrick-church-state-constitution-viral-22323383.php 4 https://reclaimthenet.org/pope-francis-calls-on-social-media-platforms-to-censor-more-misinformation ; 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAUkMwlWYB8 ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMBiPIfx-UA 6 https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html 7 https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9806/danpre.html - Jefferson here is clearly referring to Congress. That Congress is prohibited by the Constitution from making a union of church and state. 8 James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments 9 Matthew 22:21 10 James Madison, Letter to Robert Walsh, March 2, 1819. 11 John Adams, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1765. https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/view/PJA01dg2 Since the Promulgation of Christianity the two greatest systems of Tyranny that have Sprung from this source, are the Cannon and the feudal Law. The Desire of Dominion, however noble and useful on the whole, is however, when unawed and unrestrained by Hopes and Fears, an encroaching, grasping, restless and ungovernable Principle. And among all the Variety of iniquitous systems that have been contrived by the great, for the Gratification of it, in themselves was never So successful, as in the Invention and Establishment of the Cannon and the Feudal Law. In the former, the most refined, sublime, extensive and astonishing Constitution of Policy that was ever conceived by the human Mind, we find was framed by the Romish Clergy, for the Aggrandisement of their own order. All the Epithets, that I have given to the Romish Policy, will be owned to be just, when it is considered, that they found it practicable to persuade Mankind, that God almighty had intrusted them with the Keys of Heaven, whose Gate they might open and Close at Pleasure—With a Power of Dispensation over all the Rules and Obligations of Morality—With an Authority to Licence all sorts both of Sins and Crimes.—With a Power of deposing Princes, and absolving subjects from their Allegiance.—With a Power of procuring or witholding the Rain of Heaven and the Beams of the Sun—With the Management of Earthquakes, Pestilence and Famine—Nay with the misterious, awful Incomprehensible Power of Creating out of Bread and Wine the Flesh and Blood of the great Creator of the Universe. And all these opinions, they were enabled to propagate and rivet in the Minds of the People, by reducing the Minds of the Common People them to a State of Sordid Ignorance and staring Timidity, and by infusing into them a religious Horror of Letters and Knowledge of every Kind. Thus was human Nature chained fast for ages in a cruel, shameful, deplorable Servitude, to him and his Subordinate Tyrants, who it was foretold, would exalt himself above all that was called God and that was worshiped. In the latter We find another System, Similar in many Respects to the former: which, altho it was originally formed, perhaps for the necessary Defense of a barbarous People, against the Inroads and Invasions of her neighboring nations; Yet for the Same Purposes of Tyranny, Cruelty and Lust, which had dictated the Cannon Law, it was soon adopted by allmost all the Princes of Europe and wrought into the Constitution of their Govt. It was originally a Code of Laws 110for a vast Army in a Perpetual Encampment. The General was invested with the Sovereign Propriety of all the Lands within their Territory—of Him the first Rank of his great officers, held the Lands, immediately, and the other subordinate Ranks, held of them, and all held by a Variety of Duties and services, tending to bind the Chains the faster on every order of Mankind. In this Manner the Common People were held together in Clans and Herds in a State of Servile Dependance on their Lords, bound by the tenure of their lands to follow them to their Wars whenever they commanded, and in a state of total Ignorance of every Thing divine and humane, excepting the Use of Arms and the Culture of the Lands. But another Event, still more calamitous to human Liberty, was a wicked Confederacy between the two Systems of Tyrany above described. It seems to have been even stipulated between them that the temporal Grandees, should contribute every Thing in their Power to maintain the Ascendancy of the Priesthood, and the Spiritual Grandees in their turn, shold employ that ascendancy over the Consciences of the People, in impressing on their Minds a blind, implicit obedience to civil Magistracy. [emphasis added]
By QV.tv July 2, 2026