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Proclamation on 850th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket--His Plea "Freedom of Religion" (Updated)
By Capt Joseph R. John, January 3, 2021, Op Ed #534
Not since the 1933 election in Deutschland, when Hitler’s National Socialist Party came to power, has the world seen anything like the election theft that occurred in the US national election of 2020, which was planned and executed to destroy the US Democrat process by Communist China and the Socialist Democrat Party. The freedom of the Republic is now in the hands of the American people, and the majority of elected members of Congress have done nothing to oppose the election theft.
We encourage every Patriotic Americans to contact their US Senators and US House Representative at GovTrack.us: Tracking the U.S. Congress and inform them that unless they take action to oppose and rectify the Voter Fraud which tried to steal the election from the American Voter, that in 2022 you will plan to vote “To Save The Republic” by removing every unpatriotic member of Congress who was complicit and turned a blind eye to the 2020 Election Theft!
The US Domestic Enemies in the Republic have turned a blind eye to the ongoing persecution of Christians and Jews in Communist China, Communist Cuba, the Radical Islamic Terrorist State of Iran, Communist Venezuela, and Marxist Russia, and are complicit in perpetrating the persecution of Christians and Jews in the US with the support of Big Tech and the left of center liberal media (The Leftist Main Stream Media) who are following Communist China’s directions.
Communist China, Nazi Collaborator George Soros, Obama’s Marxist Organization “Organization For Action”, The Muslim Brotherhood International Terrorist Organization, the Socialist Democrat Party, the Communist Party USA, Big Tech, and the Leftist Main Stream Media have planned, organized, and perpetrated the most massive Voter Fraud and Election Theft of the Presidential Election in the 244 year history of the Republic!
Both sides of the political aisle in Congress have been lining their pockets with Communist China and Nazi Collaborator George Soros’ financial support. They have turned their backs and no longer support the “Rule of Law”. They no longer support “One Man, One Vote.” They do not respect the fact that American Patriots in the US Armed Forces have given the last full measure of devotion in defense of the Republic for nearly three centuries, while protecting and defending the US Constitution.
Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom of Religion, and The Right to Bear Arms are currently under assault by Socialist Democrats, and they will be systematically be crushed if Biden is allowed to steal the election, which would result in Communist China having a compromised and senile ally in the Oval Office, who will shortly be replaced by the first Communist President of the United States, Kamala Harris, who will take her orders from Barrack Hussein Obama.
The below listed message is aimed at US Domestic Enemies of the Republic who have allied themselves with Communist China, Nazi Collaborator George Soros, Obama’s Marxist Organization “Organization For Action”, The Muslim Brotherhood International Terrorist Organization, the Communist Party USA, Big Tech, the Leftist Main Stream Media, and the Socialist Democrat Party who have initiated the plan to change the US Constitutional Republic into a Socialist State, and eliminate the Judeo/Christian foundation of the US Constitution and “Freedom of Religion”.
American Patriots love freedom and will fight for it. Sunshine Patriots elected to Congress have demonstrated for the last two months that they will NOT fight to protect the freedoms outlined in The Bill of Rights given to their posterities by the Founding Fathers.
“Never, Never, Never Quit.”
--- Winston Churchill
Copyright by Capt Joseph R. John. All Rights Reserved. The material can only be posted on another Web site or be distributed on the Internet by giving full credit to the author. It may not be published, broadcast, or rewritten without the permission from the author.
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PROCLAMATION
Proclamation on 850th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket
Issued on: December 28, 2020
Today is the 850th anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket on December 29, 1170. Thomas Becket was a statesman, a scholar, a chancellor, a priest, an archbishop, and a “Lion of Religious Liberty”.
Before the Magna Carta was drafted, before the right to free exercise of religion was enshrined as America’s first freedom in our glorious Constitution, Thomas gave his life so that, as he said, “the Church will attain liberty and peace.”
The son of a London sheriff and once described as “a low?born clerk” by the King who had him killed, Thomas Becket rose to become the leader of the church in England. When the crown attempted to encroach upon the affairs of the house of God through the Constitutions of Clarendon, Thomas refused to sign the offending document. When the furious King Henry II threatened to hold him in contempt of royal authority and questioned why this “poor and humble” priest would dare defy him, Archbishop Becket responded “God is the supreme ruler, above Kings” and “we ought to obey God rather than men.”
Because Thomas would not assent to rendering the church subservient to the state, he was forced to forfeit all his property and flee his own country. Years later, after the intervention of the Pope, Becket was allowed to return — and continued to resist the King’s oppressive interferences into the life of the church. Finally, the King had enough of Thomas Becket’s stalwart defense of religious faith and reportedly exclaimed in consternation: “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?”
The King’s knights responded and rode to Canterbury Cathedral to deliver Thomas Becket an ultimatum: give in to the King’s demands or die. Thomas’s reply echoes around the world and across the ages. His last words on this earth were these: “For the name of Jesus and the protection of the Church, I am ready to embrace death.” Dressed in holy robes, Thomas was cut down where he stood inside the walls of his own church.
Thomas Becket’s martyrdom changed the course of history. It eventually brought about numerous constitutional limitations on the power of the state over the Church across the West. In England, Becket’s murder led to the Magna Carta’s declaration 45 years later that: “[T]he English church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished and its liberties unimpaired.”
When the Archbishop refused to allow the King to interfere in the affairs of the Church, Thomas Becket stood at the intersection of church and state. That stand, after centuries of state-sponsored religious oppression and religious wars throughout Europe, eventually led to the establishment of religious liberty in the New World. It is because of great men like Thomas Becket that the first American President George Washington could proclaim more than 600 years later that, in the United States, “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship” and that “it is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.”
Thomas Becket’s death serves as a powerful and timeless reminder to every American that our freedom from religious persecution is not a mere luxury or accident of history, but rather an essential element of our liberty. It is our priceless treasure and inheritance. And it was bought with the blood of martyrs.
As Americans, we were first united by our belief that “rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God” and that defending liberty is more important than life itself. If we are to continue to be the land of the free, no government official, no governor, no bureaucrat, no judge, and no legislator must be allowed to decree what is orthodox in matters of religion or to require religious believers to violate their consciences. No right is more fundamental to a peaceful, prosperous, and virtuous society than the right to follow one’s religious convictions. As I declared in Krasi?ski Square in Warsaw, Poland on July 6, 2017, the people of America and the people of the world still cry out: “We want God.”
On this day, we celebrate and revere Thomas Becket’s courageous stand for religious liberty and we reaffirm our call to end religious persecution worldwide. In my historic address to the United Nations last year, I made clear that America stands with believers in every country who ask only for the freedom to live according to the faith that is within their own hearts. I also stated that global bureaucrats have absolutely no business attacking the sovereignty of nations that wish to protect innocent life, reflecting the belief held by the United States and many other countries that every child — born and unborn — is a sacred gift from God. Earlier this year, I signed an Executive Order to prioritize religious freedom as a core dimension of United States foreign policy. We have directed every Ambassador — and the over 13,000 United States Foreign Service officers and specialists — in more than 195 countries to promote, defend, and support religious freedom as a central pillar of American diplomacy.
We pray for religious believers everywhere who suffer persecution for their faith. We especially pray for their brave and inspiring shepherds — like Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong and Pastor Wang Yi of Chengdu — who are tireless witnesses to hope.
To honor Thomas Becket’s memory, the crimes against people of faith must stop, prisoners of conscience must be released, laws restricting freedom of religion and belief must be repealed, and the vulnerable, the defenseless, and the oppressed must be protected. The tyranny and murder that shocked the conscience of the Middle Ages must never be allowed to happen again. As long as America stands, we will always defend religious liberty.
A society without religion cannot prosper. A nation without faith cannot endure — because justice, goodness, and peace cannot prevail without the grace of God.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim December 29, 2020, as the 850th anniversary of the martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket. I invite the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches and customary places of meeting with appropriate ceremonies in commemoration of the life and legacy of Thomas Becket.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.
DONALD J. TRUMP