FBI Richmond Document Using SPLC as Main Source Labels "Radical Traditional Catholics" as Potential Threat That Justifies Infiltration of Parishes and Online Communities.
The memo warns that Radical Traditional Catholicism will become more popular in the next 12-24 months due to the Presidential Election while justifying monitoring parishes and RTC online communities.
A whistleblower has shared an internal document from the FBI Richmond office that used the SPLC as a primary source for an internal document that categorized “Radical Traditional Catholics (RTCs)” as posing a potential violent extremist risk. The document states that this risk affords the FBI an opportunity to monitor and investigate and infiltrate RTC parishes and online communities, citing the impending 2024 Presidential Election as a reason why RTC may become more popular and the potential of criminal activity by some members of several RTC groups or expressing RTC views as justification.
The potential of state actors infiltratinh physical churches and religious communities in addition to online communities poses a fundemental risk to constitutional and statutory religious rights. The potential of domestic law enforcement agencies using questionable sources to justify disrupting and infiltrating religious institutions and communities impacts the ability of believers and the faithful to exercise their religion of choice. Non-believers attending services or lying about their intentions in online religious communities is a spiritual attack on the faithful and impedes the risk of parishioners to practice their religion absent government supervision.
The FBI Richmond Memo
FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin shared documents with the media about an internal document shared at the FBI Richmond office.
From the Catholic News Agency:
From the Washington Examiner:
An interview with whistleblower Kyle Seraphin about the FBI Richmond documents:
Constitution and Statutory Religious Rights
Despite the narrative of the founding of the United States including the valiant escape Puritans and other persecuted religious groups to colonies where they could freely worship, the FBI Richmond memo ironically replicates the same intolerance of religion that American colonists fled.
The potential of government agents actively infiltrating religious organization, particularly based on biased or inadequate sources, poses a direct threat to basic constitutional and statutory rights of citizens. The FBI citing the election as a reason for the rise of RTCs indicates a potential attempt to influence voters through covert and overt activities. To infiltrate a community, one can assume the infiltrators would present themsleves as an ally. Doing this within a religious community has a direct impact on worship and religious life. It also raises problems that infiltrators would circulates lies, heresy, and apostasy within the religious communities they infiltrate. Additionally, it is a crime and civil harm for state actors to conspire or to actually violate constitutional and civil rights of Americans. The FBI Richmond office circulating the memo demonstrates an intent to deprive Americans of constitutional and civil rights. And this deprivation is due to the adherent's religion or association with a specific religion or person/group meeting the RTC definition.
The document circulating the among staff makes it a potential conspiracy against civil and constitutional rights. It is concerning that the Department of Justice is the agency responsible for enforcing federal civil rights statues if the FBI is circulating documents encouraging its staff to deprive American citizens of rights in violation of federal law.
An outsider who joins a religious group despite not sharing those beliefs is an attack on the religion whose community they infiltrate. For example, an individual who is not a believer taking communion or praying with a actual believers is restricting religious rights as their actions can be acts of desecration and their presence is defrauding the parish of funds (as there is an expense to host services and non believers whose intent is not in conformity with the criteria for membership or worship are using services, facilities, and resources paid for by the parish community by means of fraudulent and deceptive behavior). This can have the impact of limited resources of the community to help members or those that seek assistance.
The US Department of Justice published a document outlining religious protections, which includes rights such as:
Stating freedom of religion is a fundemental right protected by federal law
Freedom of religion includes the right to abstain from certain acts
Freedom of religion extents to individuals and organizations
The government can't restrict acts because of the beliefs they display
Govenrment can't target religious individuals or groups through discriminatory enforcement of laws
The government may not favor or disfavor particular religious groups
The government can't interfer with the autonomy of a religious organization
The government can't substantially burden any aspect of religious observance or practice absent satisfaction of the strict scrutiny standard
The government can't “second guess” the reasonableness of a religious belief
A government action substantially burdens an exercise of religion if it bans an aspect of the adherent's religious observance or practice, compels an act inconsistent with that observance or practice, or substantially pressures adherent to modify such observance or practice. The COVID 19 pandemic response, such as mandating churche’s close or individuals receive a vaccine against their religious beliefs, could be a substantial burden by compelling or modifying an individual's religious practices. For example, mandating a church be closed on an important feast or “holiday” would impede an adherent's right to observe and practice their religion. Mandating limits on attendence or prohibiting behavior like changing communion could likewise violate religious rights.
WASPs and Anti-Catholicism in America
Anti-Catholicism is not new to America. Ironically, the Irish Catholics were a target of the White Anglo Saxon Protestants (the Irish are not Anglo nor Saxon nor Protestants/Puritans while the British were largely WASPs).
The prospect of state actors using the potential that a crime could occur based on biased and/or unreliable sources has significant implications for natural rights. If the government can intrude upon your religious community, how can you practice your faith knowing that state actors may be infiltrating and circumventing your church and online communities? The justification that some people fitting a label or category could engage in bad behavior is speculative and oddly requires the use of discriminatory behavior. For example, if several RTCs demonstrate a extremist view or the potential for bad behavior, how can all people sharing similar RTC theological views or fit criteria created by the government be considered an equal or greater threat? This is the fundamental framing used to justify segregation, placing Japanese Americans in internment camps, and countless military campaigns.
Considering the FBI is tasked with enforcing laws related to discrimination, why would one of their offices circulate a memo that relies on outliers within a group to target a much larger group?
The premise of America existing relies on the story that Puritans and other religious individuals came to America to escape religious persecution by an Imperialist regime. The fact taxpayer money is now funding government actors to justify depriving citizens of basic constitutional and statutory rights is ironic, as the “liberated colonies” have managed a great reset to 17th century imperial Britian.
The document demonstrates the willingness of state actors, funded by taxpayers, to create a means to infringe on worship in temples of God. If these state actors deny the dogmas of the religion they infiltrate and attempt to gather intelligence from members using lies, then perhaps America is a country whose leaders are waging an active war against God. Perhaps the religious views of state actors are a factor, which raises the question if state actors or assets infiltrating churches would be an attempt to impose a religion on others. Because by destroying a competing religion, it creates opportunities for other denominations to gain followers. Has there been a process developed to ensure state actors, such as FBI and DOJ employees, are not seeking to use their positions of power to persecute religious rivals? Could their own religious beliefs cause bias that results in the disproportionate targeting of other religions?
If America wants to lecture the global community about democratic values, why is the FBI employing KGB tactics to persecute churches? The KGB was notorious for controlling religious institutions and banning those that challenged the regimes militant athiests views. And given the FBI and DOJ's budgets and resources, why do they need to resort to deceit, lies, manipulation, covert operations, and undercover spies to fulfill their law enforcement obligations? Or are agents simply wanting to pretend to be someone they are not to satisfy anti social personality traits or some occultist dogma?
The FBI demonstrating its willingness to infiltrate churches and online religious communities demonstrates they have no fear of God nor respect for the very rights they're supposed to protect. Those who seek to harm The Church are engaging in attacks against God Himself, as the Church is the Body of Christ and Christ is the Head. Which is anagolous to the Roman soldiers who tortured and assaulted Christ, using the authority of the law to justify attacks on the body of Christ. This results in state actors using taxpayer funds to attack the salvation of mankind by disrupting the ability of God's servants to assist mankind's ascension.
This behavior is not limited to RTCs. And the FBI's willingness to intentionally desecrate The Church and Her flock are a commitment to the works of the devil. Which itself means the FBI has a religion. And it's certainly not Christianity.
A free society requires the government to not obsessively find ways to spy or gather intelligence on its citizens. Whose purpose does such behavior benefit? Particularly when the government pays the judge, jury, and executioner? With Catholicism among the most popular religions in America, the FBI document is an ominous warning to all religions. If the Roman Catholic Church, with it's abundant resources, is a target for state actors, how will much smaller denominations fare?
Overall, the document demonstrates the dedication of state actors to impede, restrict, and attack basic religious rights. Those who will enter the Body of Christ with the intent to destroy Her flock are not the good guys. Because if you can enter a Church of God with the sole intent to break His law, then how can anyone believe you in Court when you swear to tell the whole truth on a Bible? Does lying only end when you are not being paid by the government? The FBI targeting churches and religious group while failing to solve numerous acts of vandalism and terrorism against churches makes one wonder if the FBI agents are encouraging, through their inability to solve these crimes, personal religious biases, and negligence, attacks against religious groups that they simultaneously claim are a potential extremist threat.
Engaging in conduct that will knowingly offend individuals due to their religious beliefs, such as infiltration of religious communities, is a hate crime and deprivation of rights. When those tasked with enforcing the laws violate the very laws they are entrusted to enforce, they become the corrupted Pharisees and Sadducees that lied in order to murder God.
May God arise.
May His enemies scatter.
As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
But let the righteous be glad; let them rejoice before God: yea, let them exceedingly rejoice.
Psalm 68:1-4
It’s hard not to view the actions of the federal government through the lens of gnosticism. Along with the Soviet-esque tactics the FBI has been using, the overarching theme of the feds knowing what’s best reeks of people who believe as much about themselves.
Keep your powder dry, brothers and sisters.