When 74-year-old President Donald Trump nominates 48-year-old Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett today to replace the late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg , the war starts with Democrats willing to do anything to stop her appointment. Barrett, a devout Catholic and mother of seven, has deep religious convictions that have nothing to do with what she does on the bench. Democrats will make the case forcefully that Barrett isn’t fit for the Supreme Court because she’s pro-life and doesn’t want government sponsored health care, like Obamacare, paying for contraception or abortion, both prohibited by her faith. Democrats point to Barrett’s membership in South Bend-based evangelical group People of Praise, a group that celebrates certain Christian Charismatic values including fraternity and charity but goes beyond into quasi-Pentecostal practices.
Some religious and secular Democrats believe that People of Praise lies outside mainstream Roman Catholicism into a religious cult, claiming its not a movement because they can’t point to a charismatic leader but to celebration of the holy spirit, bringing more abstract concepts of Jesus, Mother Mary and God into direct experience like speaking in tongues and spiritual healing. People of Praise believe in communal living arrangements especially for singles, sharing living spaces and often finances. Suffice it to say, it’s not approved by the Vatican because it represents a fringe group incorporating the most controversial aspects of Christianity from the Pentecostal faith: Catholics looking for spirituality and faith healing. While there are references to spiritual revivals and faith healing in the New Testament, People of the Praise attempts to marry Catholicism with Pentecostalism.
Appointed today by Trump in the White House Rose Garden, the president itemized Barrett’s undeniable stellar credentials and experience, including getting personal, bringing up her commitment to her husband and seven children, two of whom adopted from Haiti, one of whom suffers from Down’s syndrome. Whatever Barrett’s credentials and personal life, Senators in her confirmation hearing need to know about Barrett’s involvement in what appears to be a quasi-religious cult. One of the past members of People of Praise, Adrian Reimers, said he had “grave concern” how lives of members were “not his or her own.” Reimers says “all one’s decisions and dealings become the concern of one’s head, and in turn potentially become known to the leadership,” raising red flags about a religious cult. No Supreme Court justice can be a member of a religious cult.
Praising the late Justice Ginsburg at her Rose Garden ceremony was a gracious thing to do but, regardless of the wide range of judicial philosophy, Ginsburg would not accept membership in religious cults when Reimers talks about collective decision making, he’s referring to “group think,” that in the past has led to Jonestown, Heavens Gate and Waco, to mention just a few. “A lot of what goes on in People of Praise is not that different that what goes on in a lot of right wing or conservative Catholic circles,” said Heidi Schlumpf, a correspondent with National Catholic reporter. Villanova history and theology professor Massimino Faggioli said People of Praise “lacks transparency and visible structures of authority that are accountable to their members, to the Roman Catholic Church, and the wider public.” Senators have a right to know about Barrett and her husband’s involvement in People of Praise.
Founded in 1971, South Bend-based People of Praise have 1,700 members, describing their community that “shares our lives together” and “support each other financially, materially and spiritually,” giving more of the trappings of a religious cult. Religious cults are often surrogates for the nuclear or extended family, something preached by Black Lives Matter that once said on their Website that they seek to abolish the nuclear family, considering all people partners of a wider network of community and humanity. “Our covenant is neither an oath nor a vow, but it is a n important personal commitment,” People of Praise Website says. When People of Praise talk of a commitment, it’s difficult to know what comes first: Loyalty to the Constitution or to the religious cult? Ask members of Jonestown or other cults to whom they held their blind loyalty. It wasn’t the U.S. Constitution.
Amy Coney Barrett should be immediately disqualified for being a member of a religious cult. How she got approved to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in anyone’s guess. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), 87, Grand Dame of the U.S. Senate, said it best in 2017 at her confirmation hearing, “Dogma lives within you.” Well, we now know under more scrutiny that it’s much more than dogma, it’s the spiritual, emotional, personal and financial commitment to a religious cult. With 22 branches in the U.S., Grenada and Jamaica and probably Haiti where she adopted two children, People of Praise practices prophecy, speaking in tongues, divine healing, consider homosexuality and other gender issues strictly sinful. No Supreme Court justice, no matter how distinguished their credentials and experience, can be a member of a religious cult without compromising their judgment, whether legal or not.
