- The Washington Times - Thursday, April 13, 2023

There was a time in America when Christian institutions were regarded with admiration. Now there is an element within officialdom that views them with suspicion. The FBI has searched for “opportunities” to target believers who want nothing more than the freedom to practice their faith in the same manner their forebears have done since the nation’s founding. It’s an inexcusable anti-Americanism that necessitates purging the agency’s leadership.

The FBI’s faithless regard for the Constitution returned to the spotlight with Monday’s House Judiciary Committee release of new details of an agency initiative to develop “new avenues for tripwire and source development” — in other words, place spies — in Catholic chapels affiliated with the Society of Saint Pius X, a traditionalist Catholic priesthood, in Richmond, Virginia. Other “opportunities” included “mainline Catholic parishes” and the local “diocesan leadership.”

Not simply the harebrained idea of one member from the agency’s Richmond field office, the plan was approved by a local chief division counsel and two senior analysts, and it was then propagated to field offices around the nation, according to whistleblowers.

Traditional Catholics believe human life is sacred, and they have joined other Christians in praising the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs ruling, which returned the regulation of abortion to individual states. The nation’s capital, where the FBI is based, though, is reliably committed to preserving the “progressive” woman’s right to kill her own unborn offspring.

The fresh FBI revelations prompted Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, to subpoena FBI documents associated with the agency’s original proposal to spy on Catholics. In an April 10 letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, he wrote: “This shocking information reinforces our need for all responsive documents, and the Committee is issuing a subpoena to you to compel your full cooperation.”

As for Mr. Wray, he disavowed in earlier congressional testimony the Catholic surveillance initiative when details were first reported. The FBI does not target individuals for investigation based on their religious affiliation, he said, and he vowed to tamp down his employees’ unholy suspicions.

Whether spoken truly or not, the bureau — and its overlords at the Department of Justice — display little apparent interest in targeting individuals who destroy pro-life facilities. With more than 100 pregnancy crisis centers and churches firebombed or vandalized in the wake of the Dobbs ruling, only two people have been prosecuted.

In contrast, 34 pro-life activists have been charged in the past year with obstructing access to or vandalizing abortion clinics. At a March Senate hearing, Attorney General Merrick Garland laughingly ascribed the glaring disproportion to law enforcement to the difference between night and day: Pro-abortion vandals attack stealthily in the dark, and pro-lifers act out in broad daylight.

Mr. Garland’s Justice Department has set a tone in law enforcement that abridges the First Amendment’s protection for the free exercise of religion. Following their boss’s lead, it is not unlikely that employees in the FBI’s Richmond office surmise their only mistake in targeting Catholics as “opportunities” for investigation was getting caught.

Americans should not tolerate these anti-Americanisms. Rather than retrain offending individuals, they should be fired. And whenever the bungling Biden administration departs, so should their faithless bosses.

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