Michael Flynn, former national security advisor in the Trump administration, is back in the news this weekend with another startling declaration. While speaking at the “Rewaken America” rally, Flynn declared “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion.” It is a deeply offensive and frankly unAmerican viewpoint. This country was founded (and has been defended) by people of many religions. Arlington cemetery has Christian, Jews, Muslim, and other faiths represented on the tombstones of those who gave the final measure of devotion to this country and its freedoms, including the freedom of religion. Thomas Jefferson famously declared “It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God.”
The posted clip is short and does not include the full context of Flynn’s remarks, which seem to include a discussion from Matthew in the Bible:
Flynn was pummeled by prosecutors to the point of bankruptcy and subjected to serious errors in prosecutorial and judicial misconduct for years. Despite my criticism of his prosecution, however, some of us noticed a rise of unhinged and undemocratic rhetoric from the former national security adviser. This includes comments that appeared to call for a military coup.
The comment about religion is equally reckless and hopefully Flynn will publicly correct it.
In any correction or clarification, Flynn would be wise to incorporate the words of Thomas Jefferson (who famously translated his personal copy of the Koran):
“The subject of religion, a subject on which I have ever been most scrupulously reserved, I have considered it as a matter between every man and his maker, in which no other, and far less the public had a right to inter-meddle.”
Jews fought in our revolution including Colonel Mordecai Sheftall and possible Brigadier general Moses Hazen (though his religion is still a matter of debate). The role of the Jewish community was honored by George Washington in a letter on August 17, 1790 to the Sephardic congregation of Newport, Rhode Island:
May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in the land continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants. While everyone shall sit safely under his own vine and fig-tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.
In the War of 1812, Sapelo Island in Georgia was defended against a British attack by a group of 80 slaves, including their leader Bilali Muhammad, who were mostly Muslim.
Since that time, Jews, Muslim, and people of other faiths have fought with distinction in every war and helped transform this country. The same is true of many atheists, including the hero Pat Tillman. Indeed, some believe that Jefferson himself may have been an atheist.
I do not doubt that Flynn recognizes the contribution of such heroes of other faiths or atheists to our country. Moreover, in fairness, Flynn did not say that we should impose one religion. He clearly believes that Christianity is the one true faith and may have just been saying that everyone should embrace a faith in Jesus. However, that does not change the reckless and insulting meaning suggested by his words.
This country was based on the rejection of the “one religion” model. Indeed many of the colonists fled nations with such religious intolerance. Even with our guarantees of separation of church and state, such rhetoric can easily lead to sectarian divisions and even violence. That point was made by the great Edmund Burke who declared “Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and overzealous piety.”
This is why we took a different path and embraced the concept of E pluribus unum — “Out of many, one.”
Flynn has great courage and loves his country but he is wrong. Flynn swore an Oath of Office loyalty oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution in his job duties and authorities. One cannot serve in any governing role (local, state, federal) without agreeing to that loyalty oath. This oath legally supersedes all other loyalties for government officials and their private contractors.
Flynn’s Oath of Office includes the First Amendment which prohibits any law passed by Congress that establishes any official religion. Ironically the First Amendment was created to stop Christians from persecuting other Christians. When the First Amendment was created the Anglican Church (Church of England) was persecuting Baptists for having the freedom to worship their faith.
Conservatives should also remember the American Oath of Office not only protects 2nd Amendment gun rights but the 14th Amendment rights of women, African-Americans, LBGT-Americans and other minority groups.
If one is truly conservative, the American Oath of Office restrains government authority and maximizes individual freedom – even freedoms we disagree with for unpopular individuals and unpopular groups.
Global Exclusive: General Michael T. Flynn Lays Out Plan To Save America And The World
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Nov 17, 2021
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The Alex Jones Show
The Alex Jones Show
General Michael Flynn joins Alex Jones and Infowars to deliver an emergency plan that identifies and brings to justice the globalists entrenched in America’s government.
During this exclusive interview, Flynn breaks down how America is under attack by bad actors across the world who are aided by traitors within the country.
Also, Flynn stresses the importance for informed Americans to collectively inspire mass awareness to the globalist operation via The Great Awakening.
Watch & share this emergency plea for all good men and women to come together to stop evil and save our children’s future! You can fins out more about General Flynn’s Plan AmericaProject(.)com
https://banned.video/watch?id=619548cf269aa852508b7d97
Svelaz says:
“You should ask Liz Chaney if that’s true. Any republicans who mildly criticize trump end up receiving the wrath of Trump supporters for committing such a sin.”
Conservative Cancel Culture.
oh gawd, would you please just go away, if not, make a comment on the substantive content of the blog. You’ve got some real issues, man.
Absent a full video of his speech, I will reserve judgement about the propaganda media’s reporting on this. These are the same people who promoted the Fine People Hoax.
OT If the ballot images disappeared we can’t verify election results. The loss of of those images means someone broke the law by getting rid of them. That places the 2020 election, at least in Georgia, as questionable.
—
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/74-georgia-counties-unable-produce-original-images-2020-election-ballots?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter
Watchdog group says 2020 ballot images destroyed in 74 Georgia counties
Ballot images are crucial for election records and required by both federal and state law to be retained for 22 months and 24 months, respectively.
Seventy-four of Georgia’s counties have not been able to produce original images of ballots from the November 2020 election, according to an election integrity group. …
The organization noted that recount images do not have original time stamps that may be used for auditing nor the original meta data showing how the votes were originally interpreted. Recount images are invalid for an election audit because they can be changed by tampering between scans.
Garbage in -“watchdog group”- garbage out.
Flynn: “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion.”
Flynn expressed a key conviction of dominion theology (dominionism) — a growing, theocratic movement that seeks the unConstitutional union of state and church. It is based on the fiction that America was founded as a Christian nation, and that to be saved, it must return to its supposedly religious roots. (That is why its defenders are enraged by the argument that America is a product of Enlightenment ideas.)
One of its truly horrifying goals is to take control of government (local, state, and federal) — then to use the government’s police powers to force their religious ideology on every American.
“Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ—to have *dominion in civil structures*, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness. … But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice. … Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land—of men, families, institutions, *bureaucracies, courts, and governments* for the Kingdom of Christ.” (George Grant, _The Changing of the Guard: Biblical Principles for Political Action_, emphasis added)
Portraying a fringe movement as applying to the great majority of Christians is dishonest.
It’s also dishonest, as tyranny is the goal of the Left, always ‘justified’ as for “the greater good”.
“Portraying a fringe movement as applying to the great majority of Christians is dishonest.”
What’s dishonest is to misrepresent a person’s claim. I never said anything about the “great majority of Christians.” And if you think that it’s a “fringe movement,” then you know nothing about its ideology, its infiltration, or its adherents. And then there’s this: Today’s fringe movement is tomorrow’s mainstream.
That “tyranny is the goal of the Left” does not preclude the fact that it’s also a goal of some on the religious Right — not coincidentally, also justified by an appeal to the “greater good.”
Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead
The media’s epic fail
https://www.axios.com/steele-dossier-discredited-media-corrections-buzzfeed-washington-post-6b762a0b-64a9-4259-8697-298e2f04fb3e.html
A reckoning is hitting news organizations for years-old coverage of the 2017 Steele dossier, after the document’s primary source was charged with lying to the FBI.
Why it matters: It’s one of the most egregious journalistic errors in modern history, and the media’s response to its own mistakes has so far been tepid.
Anonymous says:
“morality is MUCH more important to the well-being of our country than religion is.”
Amen. Religion is what keeps people fundamentally divided. Sure, non-devout believers can abide other non-devout religious followers, but the fundamentalists of each CANNOT tolerate the other’s beliefs. You are either with your god or you are not- not unlike Trumpism where you are either with Trump or against him- all or nothing. We see what happens when you fail to show complete fidelity to Trumpism- you are cast out as a heretic- a RINO.
“ We see what happens when you fail to show complete fidelity to Trumpism- you are cast out as a heretic- a RINO.”
BINGO!!! And even if you voted for him, and if you said one thing that you disagreed with President Trump on, the zealots wanted to burn you like
“ Mance Rayder.” I would vote for him again if he ran. I will state it publicly because I will always publicly state my beliefs.
“ I would vote for President Trump again, and I will always post my disagreements with him online. I will never, ever, hide from the zealots on my side, just like I don’t hide from the Evil-Anti-America-Far-Left.”
It is not republicans demanding absolute purity – it is the left.
Too broad; say “Justice Democrats” and you can see real communists!
“ It is not republicans demanding absolute purity – it is the left.”
That’s not quite true. Republicans demand purity just as fervently. Liz Chaney is being ostracized because she chose to follow the constitution rather than party ideology. The Montana GOP voted to stop recognizing her as a Republican.
Any Republican mildly criticizing Trump is immediately condemned as a “heretic” of sorts.
She was not ostracized for what she believed. Perhaps she was ostracized for how she acted. Republicans rightfully didn’t want her in a high position. Look at what the left does and how they act, irresponsibly, illegally and violently.
Look at how you act; liar and deceitful.
“ She was not ostracized for what she believed. Perhaps she was ostracized for how she acted. Republicans rightfully didn’t want her in a high position. Look at what the left does and how they act, irresponsibly, illegally and violently.”
Yes she was. She’s being called out for not toeing the party line. She acted against the party’s loyalty towards all things Trump. They didn’t want her in a high position because she didn’t put party before country. Republicans have gone as far as censuring her for voting to impeach trump. 13 republicans are being admonished and called traitors because they voted for Biden’s infrastructure bill. John B. Say’s claim is false. There are plenty of examples of republicans demanding absolute loyalty to the party’s worship of Trump.
“ Look at what the left does and how they act, irresponsibly, illegally and violently.”
The right does the same or worse in the case of the Jan 6 rioters. They acted irresponsibly, illegally, and violently.
“Yes she was. She’s being called out for not toeing the party line. She acted against the party’s loyalty towards all things Trump. They didn’t want her in a high position because she didn’t put party before country.”
The left is cancel country. Look at what the left did to Alan Dershowitz. Look at what the leftist members of this blog do to Jonathan Turley and you are here for free.
Cheney did not advocate what most Republicans wanted so they removed her from her position. That is normal. She is still a member of the Republican Party. She has not been cancelled or threatened.There have been no suicides that are unexplained. No money is missing from the till.
You can believe what you want, but the Biden Administration is the most authoritarian we have had for decades and the most lawless. No one can tell you different, but you cannot provide proof for your conclusions. You are stuck without a paddle.
John B, say,
“ It is not republicans demanding absolute purity – it is the left.”
You should ask Liz Chaney if that’s true. Any republicans who mildly criticize trump end up receiving the wrath of Trump supporters for committing such a sin.
Svelaz, Are you starting another debate before completing all the others. Is the Democrat Party putting out leftist talking points in comic book form so that people like you will have something to say?
You keep running away.
Garland says:
“ I would vote for President Trump again,”
The fact that Turley did not twice is telling.
“…AMENDMENTS DESIRED, OF SUCH A NATURE AS WILL NOT INJURE THE CONSTITUTION…” [OR INJURE THE REPUBLIC].
The Founders restricted immigration to “…free white person(s)…” and the right to vote to male, European, 21 with 50 lbs. Sterling/50 acres, as legislated by individual States.
Through immigration law, religions at variance with Christianity were effectively not allowed into the country en masse, and, for the foreseeable future in 1789, their disciples were not allowed to vote.
The Founders set in place fundamental restrictions which effectively prohibited the free exercise of disparate foreign religions in America.
Those controls have been deleterious eroded by various means; the Constitution and America have been mortally “injured.”
Freedom cannot be so free as to devolve into utter chaos, anarchy or open warfare.
The republic of the American Founders was never a one man, one vote democracy and was always a restricted-vote republic.
In 1788, the American Founders wrote “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;…”
In 1790, the American Founders wrote “…any Alien being a free white person,…may be admitted to become a citizen…”
In 1789, James Madison said, “And if there are amendments [Acts] desired, of such a nature as will not injure the constitution, and they can be ingrafted…”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Naturalization Act of 1790
United States Congress, “An act to establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,” March 26, 1790
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That any Alien being a free white person, who shall have resided within the limits and under the jurisdiction of the United States for the term of two years, may be admitted to become a citizen thereof…
__________________________________________________________________________________
1st Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
______________________________________________
” And if there are amendments desired, of such a nature as will not injure the constitution, and they can be ingrafted so as to give satisfaction to the doubting part of our fellow citizens; the friends of the federal government will evince that spirit of deference and concession for which they have hitherto been distinguished.”
– James Madison, Proposed Amendments to the Constitution, June 8, 1789
What is the purpose of any religion?
If conservative ideas and Christian denominations are evil, what are the goals of progressives?
What religion is this, or is this the complete and total absence of religion?
Actual Americans, you may want to take your republic back…soon!
I do know that the Christian bible preaches one God only and all others are false Gods. I mean if you are a religious person, in this case a Christian, it would seem obvious that you would push for one religion. I mean, are you or are you not a Christian? To me this seems the more righteous postilion to take if you truly believe in the Christian Bible.
Anonymous says:
“I do know that the Christian bible preaches one God only and all others are false Gods. I mean if you are a religious person, in this case a Christian, it would seem obvious that you would push for one religion. I mean, are you or are you not a Christian? To me this seems the more righteous postilion to take if you truly believe in the Christian Bible.”
Absolutely. A TRUE believer must always proselytize and never cease converting the unbelievers. Just like the Trumpists have every reason to mount an insurrection and establish Martial Law to take back a country when they TRULY believe Trump that his election was stolen by Democratic voter fraud.
If these beliefs are devoutly held, these consequences are ineluctable.
“Absolutely. A TRUE believer must always proselytize and never cease converting the unbelievers.”
Not true, even in your own religion.
Someone says:
“Not true, even in your own religion.”
I’m an atheist, but if you are referring to Judaism, Jews only try to convert secular Jews into Orthodox ones.
I’m an atheist… — JeffSilberman
So you’re a believer, and fundamentalist.
I fundamentally believe in the Scientific Method.
I’m an atheist… — JeffSilberman
No, Jeff, you are a believer — you believe no God, or gods, exist in the entirety of creation.
Spanky says:
“No, Jeff, you are a believer — you believe no God, or gods, exist in the entirety of creation.”
I believe in just one less god than you.
I believe in just one less god than you. — JeffSilberman
Like I said, you don’t know me, Jeff. And I have no opinion about God, gods, or a lack thereof.
Spanky says:
“Like I said, you don’t know me, Jeff. And I have no opinion about God, gods, or a lack thereof.”
Great! I’m proud of you!
There are exception as mentioned above, but in general Jews do not prostelytize. You need to do more reading and less talking.
Someone says:
“There are exception as mentioned above, but in general Jews do not proselytize.”
Lawyers speak only in generalities as we know there are always exceptions to every rule.
There are exceptions to every rule. There’s a thought to remember.
JeffSilberman — please get therapy. Your TDS is clouding every issue.
Giocon says again and again:
“JeffSilberman — please get therapy. Your TDS is clouding every issue.”
If and only if you get help for your BDS and HDS.
Jeff believes Biden has all his marbles. That tells us Jeff lost his years ago.
Now you get that the communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs) in America are debasing every American concept, principle and notion.
On the other hand it could be recognized as the collection of fables that it is and other than the moral teachings of Jesus, not be taken too seriously…literally.
Hoo boy. Yes, by all means, General, toss out any credibility you may have managed to recover, and I say that as someone that has been largely on his side. No, we do not, and it is explicitly written into our Constitution. In America, we look at people’s actions, not their beliefs about any particular thing. I am secular myself, and he can go suck eggs. Again, stated as someone that has been largely on his side.
Religion as in behavioral protocol (e.g. moral, ethical, legal). Principles matter.
That said, Pro-Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness, under The Constitutional framework less the Twilight Amendment.
It is fair, I think, to wonder, “Where was all of this tongue-clucking when our government was allowing the immigration of persons whose native states openly practice General Flynn’s (presumed) position?” If we truly deplore it, why are we importing it?