Brazilian education minister with Jewish roots in the Bolsonaro administration was criticized by the Israeli government and Jewish groups for comparing police investigation raids against allies to Nazi persecution against Jews

By Julio Severo

Brazil’s education minister drew criticism from the Israeli government and Jewish groups in the U.S. and Brazil for likening Federal Police raids against allies of the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to Kristallnacht — the beginning of the Nazi persecution against Jews.

Abraham Weintraub

“Today was the day of infamy, national shame, and it will be remembered as the Brazilian Night of the Broken Glass,” tweeted on May 27, 2020, Abraham Weintraub, whose Jewish paternal grandparents fled the Nazis.

“They desecrated our homes and are suffocating us. Do you know what the great oligarch/socialist press will say? SIEG HEIL!” continued the minister in his tweet, adding a picture that shows the boycott to Jewish stores in Germany in 1933.

Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass, refers to the 1938 Nazi persecution marking as the beginning of the Holocaust.

Weintraub was born to a Catholic mother and a Jewish father whose family members were killed in Nazi concentration camps. He is usually mistaken as Jewish due to his name, but, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, he does not identify as a Jew.

Jewish organizations in the U.S. and Brazil harshly criticized his comments.

“The comparison is totally unreasonable and inopportune, unacceptably minimizing those terrible events, the beginning of the Nazi march that culminated in the death of 6 million Jews,” said Fernando Lottenberg, president of the Brazilian Israelite Confederation, the most important Jewish organization in Brazil.

“Enough is enough! The repeated political weaponization of Holocaust language by Brazilian government officials is profoundly offensive to world Jewry and an insult to the victims and survivors of the Nazi terror. It needs to stop immediately,” tweeted the American Jewish Committee, the most important Jewish organization in the U.S.

Even though the Bolsonaro administration is an ally of Israel, especially because evangelicals, Bolsonaro’s most important political base, are traditional supporters of Israel, the Israeli government also criticized Weintraub’s comparison.

The consul general of Israel in São Paulo, Alon Lavi, said:

“The Holocaust, the greatest tragedy in modern history, where 6 million Jews, men, women, elderly and children were systematically murdered by Nazi barbarism, is unprecedented. This episode can never be compared to any political reality in the world.”

With the same critical tone, the Israeli Embassy in Brazil issued a statement:

There was an increase in the frequency of use of the Holocaust in public discourse, which unintentionally trivializes its memory and also the tragedy of the Jewish people, which ended with the extermination of 1/3 of our people out of hatred and ignorance of the Nazis and their collaborators.

In the name of the strong friendship between our countries, which has grown more and more for 72 years, we demand the question of the Holocaust as well as the Jewish people or Judaism to be left out of the daily political dialogue and the disputes between the sides in the ideological game.

This is the first time that Israeli diplomats have publicly criticized the Bolsonaro administration. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Brazil to participate in the inauguration of the Brazilian president in 2019. At the time, Netanyahu said: “We have no better friends in the world than the Evangelical community, and the Evangelical community has no better friend in the world than the State of Israel.”

In January 2020, Brazilian top culture official Roberto Alvim, an adherent of Olavo de Carvalho, was fired for imitating a Nazi speech. At the time, Israel’s ambassador to Brazil, Yossi Shelley, spoke directly with Bolsonaro to express Israel’s concern about Alvim’s speech, who had published a video in which he made use of excerpts from a speech by Joseph Goebbles, minister of propaganda in Hitler’s Germany. Soon after, Alvim was fired.

There were also other conflicts between Jewish groups and the Bolsonaro administration. In April 2020, the American Jewish Committee demanded an apology from Foreign Affairs Minister Ernesto Araújo, who compared social isolation to contain COVID-19 to Nazi concentration camps. It was an unreasonable comparison, as even Israel used social isolation to contain COVID-19.

In March 2019, Araújo said in an interview that Nazism was a left-wing movement. The Jews say it was a right-wing movement, and their view has weight, as they were the biggest victims of Nazism and many of them were left-wingers. On a trip to Israel that same month, Bolsonaro supported Araújo’s view, but was challenged by the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, which declared that Nazism was a right-wing movement.

Weintraub’s comparison was made after on May 27, 2020 Brazil’s federal police held search and seizure warrants against several allies of President Bolsonaro as part of an investigation about threats to Supreme Court’s ministers and the spread of fake news.

Were the political allies worthy of Weintraub’s comparison? The actions of the Brazilian federal police affected several individuals, including Sara Winter, Allan dos Santos and Bernardo Kuster.

Sara Winter became internationally known after LifeSiteNews, the most important international Catholic pro-life website, published a 2015 report on her, presenting her alleged conversion to Catholicism. The report said,

Sara Fernanda Giromini first made herself known to Brazil and to the world under the alias “Sara Winter” in 2012, when she became the founding member of Femen Brazil, and led a trio of girls in a number of topless protests that garnered much media attention. However, only three years later, the young activist has done an about-face and has declared war on feminism and abortion, and is apologizing to Christians for her offensive behavior.

She continues using her nickname, Sara Winter, which is the Portuguese form for “Sarah Winter,” a British Nazi supporter and member of the British Union of Fascists.

In a May 27, 2020 video, Sara said that she would like to “exchange punches” with a Supreme Court minister and stated that this minister “will never again have peace in his life.” She said:

You wait for me, Mr. Alexandre de Moraes. You will never have peace in your life again. We are going to make your life hell, we are going to find out the places you go to, we are going to find out who are the maids who work for you… We are going to find out everything in your life until you ask to leave. Today you made the worst decision of your life.

Sara Winter is the leader of the self-titled group “300 do Brasil” (300 of Brazil), who camped in front of the Brazilian Supreme Court. The group, whose members wear camouflage clothing similar to Army clothing and carry weapons, has already been called an “armed militia” by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office of the Federal District and Territories. It resembles a paramilitary group.

Sara Winter

In an interview with the BBC’s Portuguese news service in London, Sara said the presence of weapons in her camp is “for the protection of the members themselves.” The BBC said:

Sara Winter likes to publish photos holding guns and says on social media that she “shoots very well.”

She has given several versions for the “300 of Brazil.” She says it was Olavo de Carvalho’s idea, who is her guru. She also says, perhaps to please different groups, that the name was chosen based on the “300 of Gideon,” from the Old Testament in the Bible. She also says it was based on the “300 of Sparta.”

Sara has also given other explanations for a tattoo on her shoulder of an Iron Cross, a Germanic symbol that became popular during the Nazi regime and was the main Nazi decoration of war. Sara says that the tattoo was a tribute to the “Knights Templar of the Middle Ages,” but German researcher Carina Book has confirmed that it is the Iron Cross.

About the “300 of Brazil” camp in front of the Supreme Court, she said: “Who asked me to do all this was Professor Olavo.”

It is no surprise then that on May 28, 2020, Olavo asked for the death penalty for the minister who requested the Federal Police’s action against Sara and others. But if he defends the death penalty for the minister who seeks to take away Sara’s right of speech, then why is he the greatest denier of the Inquisition in Brazil? The Inquisition took from its victims not only their right of speech, but also their property and lives.

On some occasions Sara Winter has stated that she received training in Ukraine and that she wants to “Ukrainize” Brazil, a stance difficult for conservatives to understand, as the Ukrainian revolution was largely funded by George Soros, the Obama administration and the neocons.

In the training sessions promoted by Sara for her “300 of Brazil,” photos and videos are prohibited and adequate clothing is required for physical combat training.

Sara Winter with her skull mask, according to the journalist website A Publica

In a photo of “300 of Brazil,” Sara Winter appears with other militants, wearing a skull mask. The mask is very popular in Europe and the United States among neo-Nazis. “The skull mask has become a universal fascist aesthetic,” journalist Jake Hanrahan wrote on Twitter.

Neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division and its skull masks

In the film “A Vida de Sara” (Sara’s Life), a biographical documentary produced by the Lumine platform, dubbed “Conservative Netflix,” Sara Winter says that FEMEN sent money so she could be trained in Ukraine and take this training back to Brazil.

The movie was produced by Matheus Bazzo, who also produced the documentary about Olavo de Carvalho, “The Garden of Afflictions.”

In the movie, Sara says that she has already prostituted herself and she appears shooting and handling firearms.

Such a picture seems problematic for the image of conservative Christians who fight against the abortion and homosexuality agenda.

Among the supporters of “300 of Brazil” are Terça Livre journalist Allan dos Santos and psychiatrist Ítalo Marsilli, who declared in one of his videos that women should not be allowed to vote because they are easy to seduce. He said:

“In Greek democracy, the only one in the world that worked, women were not expected to vote. When the vote becomes full, that is, women and everyone else can vote, you see that there is a crisis in the state’s governance. It is very easy for you to convince a woman to vote, you just have to seduce her.”

Santos and Marsilli are also adherents of Olavo de Carvalho. Santos was a prominent speaker at CPAC Brazil in 2019, an event that was held with taxes and used to glorify Olavo.

As for Bernardo Kuster, who together with Sara and Santos was also targeted by the Federal Police, he abandoned the Evangelical Church to follow Carvalho’s syncretic Catholicism. Today Kuster promotes the idea that the Inquisition was a court of mercy — a stance strongly contested by the Israeli government and the Jews. In fact, in 2013, on a visit to the Vatican, Netanyahu gave Pope Francis a copy of a massive book against the Inquisition written by his father.

On Netanyahu’s next visit to Brazil, he should give a copy of this book to each member of the Bolsonaro administration. Some of them, who follow Carvalho, believe that the Inquisition was a lie, although it also tortured and killed Jews in Brazil.

What stops Olavo and his adherents, who make a shameless revisionism of the Inquisition, from someday also making a revisionism the Holocaust? After all, the main victims of both were precisely the Jews.

It is impossible to understand this chaotic situation without understanding that Olavo de Carvalho, who has an occult history, is a member of the Traditionalist School. Recently, American Jewish writer Benjamin R. Teitelbaum released the book “War for Eternity,” published by HarperCollins. The book maps the Traditionalist School and its main representatives in several countries. The representative for Brazil is Olavo. Teitelbaum presents the Traditionist School as an occult cult.

By its very nature, the occult brings chaos.

Despite reprimands from the Israeli government and Jewish organizations in the U.S. and Brazil, Education Minister Abraham Weintraub did not back down in his comparison. In fact, he defended it, in the name of free speech. He said in a tweet of May 28, 2020:

Do not speak on behalf of all Christians or Jews in the world. I SPEAK FOR ME! I had Catholic grandparents and surviving grandparents from the Nazi concentration camps (photo). All were Brazilian. I HAVE THE RIGHT TO SPEAK ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST! I don’t need any more people attacking MY FREEDOM!

Yes, he has a right to talk about the Holocaust. But since he has grandparents who survived the Holocaust, why doesn’t he condemn the signs of fascism in the movement he is supporting?

Olavo de Carvalho is the greatest Brazilian defender of the Inquisition, which tortured and killed thousands of Jews. Carvalho’s Catholic supporters support and spread his radical stance that the Inquisition was myth and legend.

If Weintraub knows how to confront Israel and the Jews in his stubborn stance comparing the Holocaust with the actions of the Federal Police against Sara Winters and other Carvalho supporters, why does he not know or cannot confront Carvalho about the Inquisition? Why doesn’t he know how to confront the signs of fascism and occultism in Carvalho and his adherents?

For example, the Brazilian Foreign Minister openly praises Olavo de Carvalho, René Guénon and Julius Evola. Guénon is the Islamic occult master followed by members of the Traditionalist School, whose most prominent member was Evola, guru of the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Evola was radically against Marxism and wrote books defending the right-wing ideology, the occult and black magic.

Why doesn’t Weintraub question and confront this?

And regarding his defense of free speech, is this defense total or limited? In 2019, using lies and slander, Olavo de Carvalho, considered Bolsonaro’s Rasputin, called for the Federal Police to investigate me, in a blatant desire to see the state machine silencing my voice and my evangelical articles against the occult and the Inquisition. You can check everything here: http://bit.ly/2CPK0tX

At the time, Weintraub said nothing against Carvalho’s dictatorial desire to censor me.

But today Weintraub, confronting Israel and Jewish groups, speaks out against the Federal Police acting against an activist who has a Nazi surname and was trained in Ukraine by groups funded by George Soros.

Weintraub also defended Terça Livre, a channel that defends the Inquisition and has already attacked, cursed and defamed me.

Is the free speech that Weintraub advocates for everyone or only for those using Nazi nicknames and for those cursing and slandering?

How would an evangelical writer be in this defense? I don’t know, because when Carvalho called for the Federal Police against me, I didn’t see Weintraub defending free speech. But his brother, Arthur Weintraub, who also has an important position in the Bolsonaro administration, when he came across my tweet criticizing Carvalho, blocked me on Twitter.

For them, even Israel can be confronted. But criticizing Carvalho, the advocate of the Inquisition, is unacceptable.

I certainly do not agree with the Supreme Court’s views on abortion and homosexuality. In fact, the so-called “homophobia” was criminalized in Brazil in 2019 after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a homosexualist organization that filed a complaint against me with federal prosecutors years ago.

Weintraub seeks to defend against the Supreme Court Sara and others in the pure logic of free speech, but are not the armed behavior of Sara’s group and her use of symbols so linked to fascism enough red flags that her threats may eventually become violent?

There are three phases in Sara’s history over the past ten years. She was linked to FEMEN in the early 2010s. By the middle of that decade, she was already apparently changed, becoming a pro-life Catholic personality on LifeSiteNews. And there is the most recent Sara, who is connected to Olavo and training a group that has paramilitary characteristics. This is a Sara who wears a fascist mask, swears, uses weapons and threatens ministers of the Supreme Court.

How does not Weintraub confront this, but confronts the Israeli government and Jewish organizations? How does he view this as mere opinion, not as danger signs?

With information from Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Notícias R7, Istoé, Yahoo, CONIB, Correio Braziliense, Estado de Minas, A Publica, BBC, LifeSiteNews, Revista Forum and UOL.

Portuguese version of this article: Ministro da Educação com raízes judaicas no governo Bolsonaro foi criticado pelo governo israelense e organizações judaicas por comparar batidas da Polícia Federal contra aliados à perseguição nazista contra judeus

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Beware the Traditionalist School, the Esoteric Sect that Uses Anti-Marxism to Promote Religious Syncretism and the Personality Cult of Its Leaders

Brazilian Minister of Education Abraham Weintraub and His Right-Wing Socialism or Right-Wing Statism

Nazism: Nationalism and Socialism at the Service of Occultism

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said that Nazism was a left-wing movement after he visited the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. But the museum, which is a memorial of the Jewish victims of Nazism, says that Nazism was a right-wing movement. What about now?

Brazilian top culture official fired after quoting Nazi Goebbels while talking about nationalist art in a video as Hitler’s favorite composer played in the background

Brazil’s Ministry of Education launches astrology campaign for students on the internet, but it deletes posts shortly after criticism from readers that such a campaign was born of the influence of Olavo de Carvalho, who has a history of astrologer, on the Minister of Education

Olavo de Carvalho says, including other institutions, that “every evil that happens in Brazil comes from Evangelical churches,” which he equated with the Communist Party

The Atlantic Introduces the Intellectual and Spiritual Founder of Brazil’s Esoteric Far Right

Steve Bannon and Olavo de Carvalho Together: Two Occultists Promoting an Occult “Conservatism”

Steve Bannon’s Occult Movement, Brazil and Conservative Evangelicals

Astrologer Olavo de Carvalho calls for Brazilian Federal Police to investigate Julio Severo on the allegation that accusations against him involving the Inquisition and occultism are collusions paid by the Russian government that threaten the Brazilian national security

How the Powerful Union of Trump with Evangelicals Saved the U.S. from Steve Bannon and His Occult Plan of a “Traditionalist” Government

Guenonian Influence in Brazil’s Bolsonaro Administration

“Idiotic astrologer”: Response from Brazilian televangelist Silas Malafaia to Olavo de Carvalho, who said that “Every evil that happens in Brazil comes from evangelical churches”

“Free Speech,” The Ultimate False Gospel in America

By Julio Severo

The gospel of “free speech” is the big actor in “Persecuted,” a conservative movie featuring John Luther, a televangelist who loves free speech, the Bible, the Gospel… and the rosary!

John Luther

In his most troubled times, Luther prays with the rosary in his hands.

The free-speech gospel culture has produced a hybrid Catholic-evangelical televangelist who defends in America a hybrid conservatism not centered on the Gospel, but on free speech. The movie reflects just the reality: For the sake of conservatism, evangelicals in the largest Protestant nation in the world are being Catholicized by placing an emphasis on moral issues and good works, not on the Gospel and the salvation that Jesus Christ offers freely by faith. Free speech and a conservatism of good works have taken precedence over the Gospel.

Even though the conservative unity, as proposed by the movie and abundantly shown in real life, is not “evangelicalizing” Catholics and not even producing hybrid Catholics, the reverse is happening. While Catholics are not losing their Catholic identity, U.S. evangelicals are losing theirs.

Eventually, the hybrid evangelical conservatism will expand to encompass not only conservative Catholics, but also conservative Mormons, conservative Muslims, etc. So evangelicals will forget their main mission and that souls, conservative and otherwise, are getting eternally lost.

“Persecuted” is a sad evidence of evangelical decadence because of “conservatism.” To watch the trailer, go here: https://youtu.be/vurFMz8bfNY

Pro-abortion feminist Dorri Olds said that “Persecuted” was “made up of mostly real-life conservatives.” Olds, who watched its premiere, adds that it “was pure religious right propaganda” and that it is a “A Movie For Christian Conservatives Only.”

She wrote about her talks with “Persecuted” actors and producers.

“Much of our culture is eroding,” actor and producer James R. Higgins told her. “There aren’t as many real Christians as there used to be.”

Olds asked, “What’s a real Christian?”

Higgins replied, “Somebody who will stand up for what he believes in and will not back down.” He praised the Luther character, saying, “Whenever people are willing to die for their cause, I think that is really special.” As recorded in TheBlot, Olds added, “Yeah, that’s it. Let’s all become suicide bombers!”

She also remarked, “When Higgins voiced how important it is to protect our right to freedom, I asked if he thought women should have the freedom to do what they want with their bodies. He said, ‘Oh boy, that’s a tough question. That’s what I call a social issue.’”

To defend freedom and free speech in a Christian society, as happened in the U.S. 200 years ago, produces freedom. In contrast, to defend freedom and free speech in a morally decaying nation today produces freedom for abortion, sodomy and other evils.

In Higgins’ definition, as written by Olds, even radical Muslims can be “real Christians.” But is such definition correct?

If feminist Olds had asked me, “What’s a real Christian?” I would have answered: “A real Christian is a man who knows and follows Jesus Christ. His passion is to preach the Gospel to every creature to give them an opportunity to know that Jesus can rescue and save their eternal souls from the eternal hell.”

Preach free speech to feminists like Olds, and they will use it for abortion. Preach the Gospel to them, and they can be delivered from their sins, including abortion activism.

To preach the real Gospel, regardless of free speech, produces freedom, here and forevermore.

The power of Jesus and his Gospel have never been dependent on free speech or left-wing and right-wing political movements.

To read a detailed report on “Persecuted,” see: Conservative Babylon in “Persecuted”: Hybrid Televangelist Framed by Pagan Neocon, and the Free Speech or Patriotic or Equality “Gospel” Replacing the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Portuguese version of this article: “Liberdade de expressão,” o supremo falso evangelho nos EUA

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Christian Freedom in the U.S., Russia, Israel and Brazil

Billy Graham, the Best of America to the World

Rex Humbard, Premier Televangelist Who Blessed Millions

Canadian Paradise: Only for Homosexual Thugs, Not for Christians

By Julio Severo

As far as Christians are concerned, free speech is an endangered species in Canada. Prominent homosexual activists Christopher Hudspeth and George Smitherman, a former Liberal Deputy Premier, have filed a $104-million class action lawsuit against Christian activist Bill Whatcott for infiltrating the 2016 Toronto gay pride parade while he and his Christian friends were dressed as “gay zombies” in green suits to distribute leaflets which graphically warned about the health dangers of homosexual sex and accused socialist politicians of being in cahoots with the gay agenda.

They are suing Whatcott for mental distress on behalf of Toronto’s entire gay community and for libel against various socialist leaders including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The allegations of “mental distress” are comical, because the vast majority of gay parade’s over one million participants never came into contact with Whatcott.

Danielle McLaughlin, former Education Director at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, who herself marched at the gay parade and describes Whatcott as a “homophobic sexist”, couldn’t help mocking the homosexual activists who are suing him:

“Really? What kind of damage have they suffered as a result of Whatcott’s flyers? Has former Ontario deputy premier George Smitherman, one of the lead plaintiffs, lost status in the community because of Whatcott’s flyers? Did the Prime Minister have to go into hiding because of the publications (or did he march in two subsequent Pride parades?) Did my LGBTQ family members and friends experience pain and suffering as a result of Whatcott’s words? Not that I noticed or heard about.”

Their class action lawsuit may seem ridiculous, but Hudspeth and Smitherman know exactly what they are doing. This is a fear campaign, intended to silence all Christian activists and journalists who may be critical of the gay agenda. The demand for $104 million is meant to show just how giant the plaintiffs’ boxing gloves are, threatening financial ruin to all those who dare squeak in opposition.

Whatcott, with other Christians, had paid the $100 fee to the Toronto Gay Pride Parade organizers to register their invented “Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumers Association” so that they could move more easily along the parade route to distribute a pamphlet that showed graphic images of diseases associated with same-sex behaviors, including anal warts and AIDS.

The pamphlet was not forced on homosexuals.

“I asked them if they wanted ‘Zombie safe sex,’” Whatcott told LifeSiteNews at the time.  “Everyone loved it. But, if you try to give out a Gospel pamphlet, they swear at you and throw slushies on your forehead. But, give them some wackadoddle thing that looks like a condom, and they really can’t grab it fast enough. I had three thousand out in 20 minutes,” he said.

One part of the pamphlet stated: “Natural law is clear, homosexuality is incompatible with human nature. Disease, death and confusion are the sad and sordid realities of the homosexual lifestyle. The ‘Gay Zombies’ are concerned about the spiritual, psychological and physical welfare of all potential homosexual pride attendees, so we want to give you this accurate information and encourage you to abstain from the homosexuality.”

Whatcott said that the goal of his “Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumers Association” in participating in the gay parade was twofold: First, to be a prophetic and unambiguous witness against the unfettered celebration of homosexuality, and second, to offer people caught up in the same-sex lifestyle a way out through a call to repent and to turn to Jesus Christ to be saved.”

Whatcott knows homosexuality very well. In his 2014 autobiography Born in a Graveyard, Whatcott reveals his experience of not only being raped by another male in prison, but of selling himself to a man to pay for his drug addiction. Whatcott makes it clear that his activism is inspired by his concern for others — based on his past of involvement in homosexuality.

Whatcott has become famous for his creative ways to give the Gospel to homosexual sinners. In 2014 he marched in the Vancouver Gay Pride Parade as a member of a church he invented: The Calgary Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. There, he distributed pamphlets. 

In 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada found Whatcott guilty of so-called “hate speech” for distributing flyers in Saskatchewan in 2001-02 that criticized homosexual practices. 

Canada is a “developed” nation that fully guarantees unilateral free speech to anti-Christians. In fact, anti-Christians — especially homosexualists and Muslims — are entitled to verbal and legal aggression against Christians. Canada is truly a “developed” infernal paradise.

In the “developed” Canada, if you offer the Gospel, they swear at you. But if you offer a pamphlet about kinky zombie sex and cannabis, they love!

Bill Whatcott’s case is being used by the Canadian homosexual activism to frighten Christians into hiding themselves in the closet and hiding their Christian testimony about the physical, moral, spiritual and mental hopelessness of the homosexual behavior and the only ultimate answer: Jesus Christ.

With information from LifeSiteNews and Mercatornet.

Portuguese version of this article: Paraíso canadense: Só para delinquentes homossexuais, não para cristãos

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

Beware of False Conservatives! Neocons and Their Leftist Mistreatment of Christians

Conservative Babylon in “Persecuted”: Hybrid Televangelist Framed by Pagan Neocon, and the Free Speech or Patriotic or Equality “Gospel” Replacing the Gospel of Jesus Christ

By Julio Severo

At last, a conservative movie! Days ago I enthusiastically watched “Persecuted,” a movie that, according to leftist Dorri Olds, is “made up of mostly real-life conservatives.” Olds, who watched its premiere last year, adds that it “was pure religious right propaganda” and that it is a “A Movie For Christian Conservatives Only.” So it is just for me!

Televangelist John Luther with his rosary and gun

According to WorldNetDaily, “‘Persecuted’ tells the story of evangelist John Luther’s life-and-death battle to preach the gospel without compromising its message to a political agenda motivated by greed.”

MovieGuide says, “‘Persecuted’ is a suspenseful political thriller about a renowned evangelist who finds himself being targeted by a secret conspiracy to limit religious freedom in America.”

A Framed Telelevangelist

James Remar plays John Luther, a nationally acclaimed Christian televangelist whose fame and influence make him an essential political tool for Senator Donald Harrison (Bruce Davison) in his efforts to get his “Faith and Fairness Act” through Congress. The ill-defined bill, having something to do with providing equal standing to all religions, doesn’t sit well with the televangelist Luther, who refuses to cooperate, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Since the action takes place in the sort of cinematic Washington, D.C., where political conflicts are resolved through heinous criminal acts, Luther soon finds himself abducted, drugged and photographed, in racy photos, with a young girl in a plot, executed by nefarious Secret Service agents, where the senator orders him, to destroy his credibility and ensure passage of the senator’s bill, to be framed for the rape and murder of the innocent teenage girl, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Luther escapes and becomes a rosary-carrying version of Harrison Ford’s character from The Fugitive, according to Jon Webster in the Examiner. He becomes a wanted man with his face all over the media. So he uses a classic disguise — dark sunglasses and a hoodie. To watch the trailer, go here: https://youtu.be/vurFMz8bfNY

He attempts to find the evidence that would prove his innocence, while trying to avoid the police and government agents and while his ministry is being taken over by its opportunistic vice-president (played by conservative Christian comedian Brad Stine).

A Televangelist and His Father, a Catholic Priest

Vulnerable and desperate, he cries out to God for direction. Luther’s father is Fr. Charlie Luther, a Catholic priest, played by Fred Thompson. The priest helps his son, but he knows that big forces are against them. The senator sends government operatives and assassins after them. Fr. Charlie is killed.

MovieGuide says, “the movie also implies that the President of the United States is in on the schemes to get the evangelist out of the way, but that plot twist could use more clarity. Finally, the movie as now edited doesn’t explain how exactly the evangelist could have a father who’s a Catholic priest.”

There is no explanation on how a traditional Catholic priest became the father of a popular televangelist. Even though the movie has no malicious innuendo, there was obviously a breach of the Catholic celibacy. But because father and son are very conservative, no suspicion was raised about the hybrid televangelist who loves the Bible and the rosary.

MovieGuide says that “Persecuted” “gives a warning to the Christian Church, the Body of Christ, to be careful about getting in bed with the government. In the movie, the new law offers churches and religious groups a special tax benefit to entice religious leaders into supporting the new law. When the evangelist gets framed for the girl’s murder, his right-hand man convinces the organization’s board of directors to support the new law so they can get more financial donations. This leads to an intense confrontation between the evangelist and his board of directors, including his right-hand man who clearly wants to take away leadership of the group from the evangelist.”

MovieGuide labels “Persecuted” as “a provocative political thriller from a strong Christian, and somewhat conservative or libertarian, perspective.”

The Hollywood Reporter says, “By the time the film reaches its violent conclusion, Luther, armed with rosary beads and a gun, is forced to take matters into his own hands.” This for me is Babylon, a word that means “confusion.”

In many respects, I liked “Persecuted.” It has no foul language. I am very tired of U.S. movies with dirty language, even from supposedly Christian actors.

Yet, even though Luther was almost murdered because he did not put his support behind legislation to unify people of all faiths, “Persecuted” gives the message that the Catholic faith and the evangelical faith are equal.

Free speech: a problem only in Russia and China, not America and Saudi Arabia

The movie also seems to suggest that the most important value is free speech and, fully satisfying the will of neocons, Luther tells about his worry that America could become a “Russia, China or Iran,” with repressive laws against free speech.

This is exactly what neocons want to hear. Yet, if free speech is so important, why not include Saudi Arabia, which is as Islamic as Iran, but much worse in Christian persecution? In Saudi Arabia, no churches and Bibles are allowed, and this is the most important Islamic ally of the U.S. Why not expose it?

Russia does not persecute people who express their views against abortion and sodomy. What about America? How should we measure free speech in these critical conservative cases?

About China, why complain about them? America has been the main financial feeder of China, which is building the largest communist army in the world through massive investment from U.S. companies in Chinese soil.

Besides, while Protestantism in America, the largest Protestant nation in the world today, is shrinking, in China evangelical Christianity is increasing and it is poised to surpass the Protestant population in America in the next few years. That is, China will be the largest Protestant nation in the world.

America has free speech. China has not.

Protestantism in America is shrinking. In China, it is increasing. What does it tell us?

True Christianity grows under persecution. The early Christian church had no free speech, but she increased.

Free speech is not essential for Christian survival. The preaching of the Gospel is.

In an interview with Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network, “Persecuted” producer Daniel Lusko said, “John Luther is the hero of our story. And he becomes a major evangelist at the level of a Billy Graham, at a time when America becomes an unwelcoming environment for the Gospel.”

My mother was converted to Christ through Billy Graham’s Gospel message. She had her rosary. But after accepting Christ, she understood that a rosary is not necessary to pray to God, who hears us through Jesus Christ. Yet, John Luther’s example seems sometimes to suggest that a nationalist conservative lifestyle is more important than a Gospel lifestyle and that you can be a hybrid Catholic-evangelical-non-denominational conservative, with no spiritual loss.

We can gain the whole world to conservatism, but if conservatives do not know Christ in a personal way, what is it good for?

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what shall a man give in return for his life?” (Matthew 16:26 ESV)

Fundamentalists Yesterday and Today

Jon Webster said, “To sum up, this is a film that fundamentalist Christians will be drawn to.”

If these fundamentalists are like the original fundamentalists, they will certainly not like “Persecuted.” The original term for fundamentalism was used for evangelical Christians who developed and followed “The Fundamentals,” a massive theological book, edited by R. A. Torrey, to confront liberalism, ecumenism, socialism and heresies among Protestant churches in the early 20^th century.

“The Fundamentals” rejects many of the Catholic doctrines as incompatible with the Bible. It encouraged U.S. Protestants to avoid the hybrid Christianity of John Luther.

Among Brazilian evangelicals, a rosary-loving evangelical would be labeled a confused and disturbed Christian. In fact, they would not understand why their American counterparts see no problem in such evangelical.

I am not be worried about Catholics or Orthodoxies with rosaries. But an evangelical televangelist? A “Billy Graham” with a rosary? Could John Luther be representative of what is happening to U.S. evangelicals?

The ministry of the hybrid televangelist Luther is named “Truth,” a bold name requiring bold words and attitudes. So it is very appropriate to tell the truth about this movie.

“Persecuted” does not attack Islam, the single greatest persecutor and murderer of Christians today and for many centuries. But it attacks the geopolitical enemies of the United States: Russia, China (a special trade partner, a muy amigo “enemy”) and Iran. This greatly pleases neocons.

“Persecuted” does not attack the complete ban on free speech in Saudi Arabia and other Islamic dictatorships that are allies of the United States. This greatly pleases neocons.

Pro-Family Union, Yes, Hybridism, No

“Persecuted” pleases Catholics and evangelicals by creating a hybrid Catholic-evangelical conservative: a “Billy Graham” with a rosary. Why not a hybrid Catholic-Orthodox-evangelical-Jewish conservative? My worry is that this dangerous trend can lead to a future hybrid Muslim-Christian-Hindu-Buddhist conservative, and all of us know how America is prone to “diversity.”

I am not against a pro-family union among Catholics, Orthodoxies, Jews and evangelicals. But, in a very profound spiritual level, do we need to create hybrids? Do we need a genetically (in a spiritual way) modified televangelist?

Sometimes, John Luther seems more nationalist conservative than an evangelist. Other times, he seems more evangelist than a nationalist conservative. This is confusion. This is Babylon.

Conservatism is important, but it is not the Gospel and it cannot replace the Gospel. I talk as an evangelical to evangelicals.

Let Catholics be Catholics. Let Orthodoxies be Orthodoxies. Let Jews be Jews. Let evangelicals be evangelicals. Let them be united in conservative pro-family efforts. But why use the Gospel to break differences among Christians and create hybrids for the sake of a nationalist conservatism? Why create a strange “ecumenism” in the name of conservatism, patriotism or nationalism?

In the WorldNetDaily article, Daniel Lusko said, “Once you have put all that trust into an institution that cannot replace God, then it becomes a trap. That’s why this story is so essential because he could have been a believer in any kind of faith.”

I could also add, “Once you have put all that trust into in nationalism or patriotism, which cannot replace God, then it becomes a trap.”

Take away his rosary, and “Persecuted” will be perfect. If Lusko wanted a hero with a rosary, he should let the Catholic priest be the only hero.

Take away also his nationalist criticism only of nations not aligned with the U.S., and “Persecuted” will be perfect. Saudi Arabia deserves to be criticized for its complete ban on free speech.

And why not praise Russian laws banning homosexual propaganda to children? If America is better than Russia in free speech, why in Russia Christians can criticize sodomy, and in America cannot they do it? Why Russia protects children from the gay agenda, and America does not?

Introduce this Russian example, and “Persecuted” will be perfect.

It is remarkable that John Luther (two Christian names combined; one right from the Bible, the other from Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation) fights for a new reformation.

Yet, while the original Luther fought corruption in the Catholic institution 500 year ago, modern John Luther is an American patriot fighting the dark forces of the U.S. government as represented by Senator Donald Harrison (Bruce Davison) and a cartoonish white-haired corrupt president (James R. Higgins) of the United States who looks like Ted Kennedy and sounds like Bill Clinton.

Patriot evangelical hybrid Luther opposed the “Faith and Fairness Act,” supposed to protect all religions and give them equal free speech.

Religious Freedom Above the Gospel

In the WorldNetDaily article, titled “Trust in God or government?” Fred Thompson, who played Fr. Charles Luther, said “Quite frankly, any religion people should feel the right to practice what they believe in. That’s why I think this movie is central to anyone who has ever felt that freedom of speech or religion is under attack in any shape or form.”

Concisely, is not this the “Faith and Fairness Act”?

So the father of the hybrid televangelist eventually betrayed his son and his movie.

Yet, on the other hand, John Luther is a mirror of the “Faith and Fairness” with his hybridism that equals the Catholic faith and the evangelical faith. Somewhat, he opposes something that he lives. This is confusion. This is Babylon.

An evangelical minister with a Bible and a rosary is also a betrayal, not to Catholics, who follow these traditions, but to R. A. Torrey and all American evangelical leaders who defended their faith against what they saw as unbiblical Catholic traditions.

Lusko said, in a ChristianPost piece, that he is a pastor’s kid and that he has grown up around megachurches and preachers — both the good ones and the charlatans. I wonder how many of these preachers prayed to God with rosaries.

In all my lifetime, I have never seen a televangelist or any evangelical using a rosary in his desperation and troubled times. Why would an evangelical seek God this way?

Is to preach patriotic religious hybridism to save the national honor more important than to preach the Gospel that offends trust in religious objects, but saves eternal souls?

Sometimes, “Persecuted” shows the correct Gospel. Other times, it shows confusion. It shows Babylon.

In the end, “Persecuted” shows a John Luther tired of corruption in the U.S. government, of ministry filled of opportunists eager to go to bed with government and he seems to want only to preach the Bible — with or without a rosary?

What is happening to evangelicals in the U.S.?

“Persecuted” was screened at the February 2014 National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville, Tennessee and March 2014 at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C, becoming a model for evangelicals and conservatives.

What’s a real Christian?

“Persecuted” producers committed the error of inviting liberals to attend the film’s world premiere in New York City last year. One of them was pro-abortion feminist Dorri Olds, who wrote about her talks with “Persecuted” actors and producers.

“Much of our culture is eroding,” actor and producer James R. Higgins told her. “There aren’t as many real Christians as there used to be.”

Olds asked, “What’s a real Christian?”

Higgins replied, “Somebody who will stand up for what he believes in and will not back down.” He praised the Luther character, saying, “Whenever people are willing to die for their cause, I think that is really special.” As recorded in TheBlot, Olds added, “Yeah, that’s it. Let’s all become suicide bombers!”

She also remarked, “When Higgins voiced how important it is to protect our right to freedom, I asked if he thought women should have the freedom to do what they want with their bodies. He said, ‘Oh boy, that’s a tough question. That’s what I call a social issue.’”

To defend freedom and free speech in a Christian society, as happened in the U.S. 200 years ago, produces freedom. In contrast, to defend freedom and free speech in a morally decaying nation today produces freedom for abortion, sodomy and other evils.

In Higgins’ definition, as written by Olds, even radical Muslims can be “real Christians.” But is such definition correct?

If feminist Olds had asked me, “What’s a real Christian?” I would have answered: “A real Christian is a man who knows and follows Jesus Christ. His passion is to preach the Gospel to every creature to give them an opportunity to know that Jesus can rescue and save their eternal souls from the eternal hell.”

Preach free speech to feminists like Olds, and they will use it for abortion. Preach the Gospel to them, and they can be delivered from their sins, including abortion activism.

To preach the real Gospel, regardless free speech, produces freedom, here and forevermore.

The power of Jesus and his Gospel have never been dependent on free speech. Just ask Chinese Christians.

With information from MovieGuide, WorldNetDaily, Hollywood Reporter, The Blot and Examiner, ChristianPost, CBN and Wikipedia.

Portuguese version of this article: Babilônia conservadora em “Perseguição”: Televangelista híbrido cai em armação de neocon pagão, e o “evangelho” da liberdade de expressão, do patriotismo ou igualdade substituindo o Evangelho de Jesus Cristo

Source: Last Days Watchman

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