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[Order David Horowitz’s new book, America Betrayed, HERE.]
FrontPage Mag readers may recall that back in December I wrote about Michael Cassidy, a conservative Christian and former Navy pilot who tore down a Satanic altar competing with a Christmas display of the Nativity in the Iowa State Capitol. Originally charged with fourth-degree criminal mischief, Cassidy was subsequently hit with a hate crime charge by Polk County Democrat Attorney Kimberly Graham, a prosecutor funded by – surprise – left-wing billionaire financier George Soros. Cassidy is now looking at a possible five years in prison.
As reported by Ben Zeisloft at The Republic Sentinel, the far-left ideologue Graham has received over $300,000 in campaign contributions from the Justice and Public Safety PAC, a Soros-funded entity:
Graham campaigned on decreasing racial disparities in prosecution and has since introduced drug diversion programs during her first year in office. The official has voiced numerous leftist views on social media: she wished that George Floyd would “rest in power” on the day police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted, as well as claimed that crime prevention involves “tackling environmental racism” and said that “cash bail makes our communities less safe.”
“After accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from George Soros, Iowa prosecutor Kimberly Graham is now pushing what appears to be a politically motivated ‘hate crime’ enhancement in a conservative-leaning midwestern state,” stated Cassidy’s attorney Davis Younts, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, in an interview with The Sentinel.
“The addition of a hate crime enhancement means that our client is facing the possibility of a felony conviction,” Younts added. “We believe that the application of the enhancement is not appropriate in this case.”
In mid-April a hearing was scheduled to address a motion to dismiss the charge on the basis that the Satanic Temple of Iowa is neither a person nor a legitimate religion under Iowa law. The motion argued that the “violation of individual rights” statute in Iowa only “applies to human beings and is meant to protect human beings and their personal rights,” and the Satanic Temple of Iowa cannot be considered a legitimate religion since the group does not promote “a belief in a personal Satan” or “worship Satan.”
Cassidy had previously told The Sentinel that he destroyed the shrine to “awaken Christians to the anti-Christian acts promoted by our government.” He added, “The world may tell Christians to submissively accept the legitimization of Satan, but none of the founders would have considered government sanction of Satanic altars inside Capitol buildings as protected by the First Amendment.”
(For more on Cassidy and his courageous stand against the Satanic Temple, check out my interview with him on the Freedom Center podcast The Right Take.)
I asked a few questions of Ben Zeisloft and Cassidy’s lawyer Davis Younts in the wake of the recent judgment that came down in Cassidy’s case.
Mark Tapson: In mid-April a hearing was held to determine whether the hate crime charge against Michael would be dropped. What happened at that hearing?
Davis Younts: Unfortunately the judge at that hearing denied our motion to dismiss the hate crime charges, so our client still faces up to five years in prison. The prosecution repeatedly failed to produce any example of enhanced hate crime penalties being used when an organization rather than an individual is allegedly targeted. Yet our client was not targeting any person or organization; he was taking action out of a sincerely held religious conviction, which has long been recognized by our culture, that Satan is evil and a profane figure.
MT: Where does his case stand now? What’s next for Michael, legally speaking?
DY: We are moving into jury selection and we expect a trial in the coming weeks. That trial is currently scheduled for early June. We have filed additional motions but this case will ultimately be decided by an Iowa jury, which will likely be asked whether the Satanic Temple of Iowa should be considered a religion as defined for purposes of a hate crime.
MT: Ben, you revealed in your article at The Sentinel that D.A. Kimberly Graham has been funded to the tune of over $300,000 by leftwing billionaire financier George Soros, who is notable for his financial support for prosecutors and judges across the country who are leftist ideologues. What impact do you and Davis think that has had and may continue to have on Michael’s case?
BZ: We have definitely seen a pattern of progressive prosecutors funded by Soros throwing the book at conservatives and Christians while opting for a soft-on-crime approach toward brazenly violent offenders.
As our reporting at The Republic Sentinel indicates, Kimberly Graham has an extensive history of backing woke causes: she expressed hope that George Floyd would “rest in power,” spoke to the urgency of addressing “environmental racism,” and introduced drug diversion initiatives during her first year in office. This is not the behavior of an impartial prosecutor exercising the solemn duty to uphold the rule of law and execute justice. This is the behavior of a political operative making an example out of a conservative Christian.
MT: It was clear from my podcast interview with Michael that he’s a humble guy who wasn’t interested in seeking the spotlight or controversy, only in doing the right thing to protest the evil direction our culture has taken. How is he holding up under the pressure of all this lawfare targeting him?
DY: Our client has been doing well under the circumstances but is certainly feeling the heat. His career in the Navy and his future as a test pilot will be decided by the outcome. The hate crime charges significantly increased the stakes of his case, but he remains steadfast in his faith as he leans on the support of his family and his local church.
MT: What can people do to help his case?
DY: Keep praying for Michael and consider supporting Stand With Warriors, a new organization we started to help veterans and service members facing crackdowns on their liberties.
BZ: Watch our continued coverage at The Republic Sentinel. We are closely tracking the Michael Cassidy case and what his story means for Christians in America at this hour.
MT: Thanks, gentlemen. I’ll be following developments closely myself. Please let Michael know that I and FrontPage Mag readers are praying for him.
Note: The Republic Sentinel is hosting a fundraiser for Michael Cassidy’s legal defense.
Follow Mark Tapson at Culture Warrior.
Satan and his demonic forces generate the lies and hate and cause the darkness, death, and war we observe in the world today. Satan believes he can disrupt God’s plan, but God will finally claim dominion over this world. its a fact.
The satanic globalists that have been destroying USA and the free world with every perverse agenda and agendas of total control from the pLandemic to the theft of the 2020 election and the 2022 election in Arizona as well as having Obama send pallets of billions of our tax dollars to Iran, the purposely sloppy abrupt withdrawal from Afghanistan and leaving billions of dollars of military equipment behind that of course fell into the hands of jihadists and our enemies to be dispersed, sold and reverse engineered that was used on the October 7, 2023 genocide massacre and abductions in Israel as well as funding the massive tunnels in Palestine from money sent to help the Palestine population is all a dead head to the antichrist. We are living in those Biblical prophesised times!
there is a big missing piece to this story. “tore down a Satanic altar competing with a Christmas display of the Nativity in the Iowa State Capitol” my question is did the satanic altar go up after the nativity scene? if so, then it is blatant entrapment by the state capitol. did the nativity scene go up after the satanic altar? if so, then again its blatant entrapment by the state capitol. putting those two items in the same room by the government is to entice violence. can i put up a nativity scene with baby jesus burning the quran? no, that would be insensitive and incite violence. its a simple case of entrapment. michael cassidy needs to sue the state for entrapment. iowa state capitol leadership is accountable with the da prosecuting investigated for collusion.
I’m pretty sure Satan rules the world. I just paid $9.00 for a jar of orange juice and Trump is in multiple courts for nothing while an unelected and extremely senile dotard squats in the White House and pretends to be the leader of the “free” world.. Does anybody do anything about any of this? No, because Satan is in charge.
Cassidy did not commit a very hateful crime. His action was, more importantly, not a Soros funded hate crime.
Hate is an emotion produced by thoughts and a value-judgement. Hate can be rational, or hate can be irrational depending on the context. Just as love can be a rational response or an irrational response depending on the context.
A rational society is ruled by OBJECTIVE law. Under objective law neither emotion or thought can be prosecuted or punished by the courts.
Under objective law only actions, fraud, violence, threats of violence, or incitement to violence can be prosecuted and punished by the state. Under objective law Michael Cassidy would be and should be prosecuted and punished for destruction of property and criminal mischief but not for his emotions or thoughts.
Only a country ruled by objective law (not Christian law, Mosaic law, Sharia, or Marxist law) can remain a free country.
“A religious motive does not excuse murder [or any other crime], it makes the crime more dangerous. It took the West centuries to move from medieval mysticism to the Enlightenment, and thereby discover the only safeguard against endless, bloody, religious warfare: the recognition of man’s inalienable right to think and speak as he chooses. Civilization depends on reason; freedom means the freedom to think, then act accordingly; the rights of free speech and a free press implement the sovereignty of reason over brute force. If civilized existence is to be possible, the right of the individual to exercise his rational faculty must be inviolable….
Conservatives have become dominated by religionists, who openly base their views on mystical dogma and want the government to impose their dogmas by force which is just what the Ayatollah is doing. Homegrown fundamentalists are in no position to lead a crusade for free thought. Can these groups maintain that it is wrong to ban Rushdie, but right to ban Darwin?” – Leonard Peikoff
The usual abstract blah blah from your two familiars. I see you are racking up those downvotes. Think I’ll add mine as well.
Geee- wonder why this demonic influenced fool has all thumbs down!
Posting the same thoughts over and over and getting the same negative reaction is not the behavior of a rational person.
Well said. Destruction of private property, no matter how hateful it might be to your principles, should be protected just as it would be were the attack the other way around. At minimum I would expect financial restitution, anger management classes, a restraining order set at 100 yards and a public apology.
People like you are why America sucks now. Go take some Aderall and STFU.
You might want to get a little more protein in your diet.
THX :
I believe you started out strong by championing freedom of thought and speech.
Your penchant for trying to tie the bad acts of a few, to Christianity, diminishes your arguments in favor of freedom.
The vast majority of patriotic Christians do not want to censor Rushdi or Darwin through the force of law in this modern age. And they certainly would not find support for such laws in Christian Scripture.
Finally, let me say that I sincerely hope you don’t consider ‘On the origin of species’ to be a valid scientific treatise anymore. If you do, you have some catching-up to do.
Without Christianity there would never have been an Enlightenment period nor the scientific method, as we know it.
Kent
I object to your annoying fixation on objectivism.
And Ayn Rand was a skank.
A skank? Gee ya think?
C’mon Jeff. Objectivism is all he has. If he didn’t have that he would have zero reason to get up in the morning.
“A crime is a violation of the right(s) of other men by force (or fraud). It is only the initiation of physical force against others—i.e., the recourse to violence—that can be classified as a crime in a free society (as distinguished from a civil wrong). Ideas, in a free society, are not a crime—and neither can they serve as the justification of a crime….
There can be no such thing as a political crime under the American system of law. Since an individual has the right to hold and to propagate any ideas he chooses (obviously including political ideas), the government may not infringe his right; it may neither penalize nor reward him for his ideas; it may not take any judicial cognizance whatever of his ideology.
By the same principle, the government may not give special leniency to the perpetrator of a crime, on the grounds of the nature of his ideas.” – Ayn Rand
“Blasphemy” violates no one’s rights. Those who feel insulted do not have to listen to or read the insults. In defending religious liberty, Jefferson observed that “the operations of the mind” must not be made “subject to the coercion of the laws,” adding:
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” – Leonard Peikoff
More pointless blah blah that no one reads. Just the usual finger wagging. ***yawn***
Maybe you should pray to God to effect a change of fortune on this site. He works in mysterious ways.
More downvotes. Quel dommage pour vous.
Maybe you should support the laws of the land?
If you were directing your comment at me I have no idea which laws you are referring to.
If you were directing your comment at THX you clicked the wrong link.
Like anti blasphemy laws and laws against humanity?
There’s a lot to unpack here, but here goes:
Generally, I’m opposed to any government promotion of religion in any way shape and form (and yes, that would include Satanism), and I think it is utterly asinine to charge anyone with a hate crime based off of their religious beliefs.
But here’s where I take issue with some of the arguments in favor of Cassidy: I think you’re treading a slippery slope here when you say that some moral objections to what one considers morally evil justify certain actions. After all, if we used the example of, say, the vicious terrorist who attacked Salman Rushdie, the terrorist’s defense could argue that by attacking Rushdie, he was attacking what he considered a moral evil.
You can call it a game of semantics all you want, but you know deep down that once you establish a slippery slope, it will only start gathering more and more momentum that will take down the entire system and everyone with it.
Everybody hates the “slippery slope” analogy. I don’t think Cassidy has much in common with the jihadi who stabbed Salman Rushdie in the eyeball.
And what about those taking down crosses and the Vandals who tear down Displays of the 10 Commandments
1962 one satanic witch of a bitter woman of hate Madlyn Murry Ohare was successful in having the 10 Commandments removed from above the chalkboards of public schools. Then all public places from courthouses to whatever had to remove the 10 Commandments. As an elementary school boy who was thankfully born into the USA as a second generation American who is also Jewish, the 10 Commandments literally scared the hell outta me as with other kids, mostly boys. Having the hell scared out of us leaves us open to YHVH’S Will. Look at the state of public schools and society since! When children have no morals, standards, ethics being raised on comes in! This is the commie agenda! As in China and Russia, as in the demonic commie manifesto, the state removes children from the parents and raises the children to be good satanic commies. Look at the state of our nation! These spoiled brats on college campuses were raised like this and given participation trophies. They do not know what it takes to become successful and are further brainwashed that successful people are privileged Hell no, us successful people are privileged because we work our assess and brains to be successful, No hand outs, No trophies and successful entrepreneur’s do not give each other participation trophies
Same answer and same punishments.
How many people are charged with hate crimes for tearing down “bring the hostages home” posters on college campuse
If God is love and Satan is the opposite, anti-Christ, Satan is hate. So a Satanic display would represent hate. Right?
God’s evil, both personal and by command, is rampant in the Bible. Jesus couldn’t even get the slavery or female rights issues correct nor could he straighten out the Romans or Barbarians or Muslims (presuming Islam is (and must be) false). As a god, it is not impressive but then it is in good company.
Are you one of those Morons who believes this Darwinists load of Malarkey?
Moslems in the Bible? What Bible would that be? And women in ancient Judea didn’t have rights? What, they couldn’t have abortions 12 months a year?
You’re deranged.
Muslims in the Bible and the New Testament? That’s a reach since they didn’t start infecting the planet until the 7th C.
Corrupt professional politicians, WOKEs, Wicca, Satanic cults, the alphabet agenda, etc are expressions of God’s judgment against America’s abandonment of the Judaeo Christian ethic and the weakening of devotion to Christ.
It’s a great time to be a Christian or conservative Jew. The pressures brought by those judgments will filter, test, and ultimately strengthen we that know the Lord. So, to the surrounding ‘pagan reprobates’ I say, “Bring it!”.
Objective law? A worldly system without Christ is unable to be objective because Christ is the only being in existence who is actually objective. Do you know what an “objective” society looks like by your definition? Exactly what we see today: unfettered abortion, crime, division, war, abuse, etc. In other words, we exist in a broken, anemic society buckling under the weight of its own sinister depravity to the point where societal function from a holistic standpoint is borderline impossible.
Until you recognize that a nation governed by Christianity is the only way a nation can succeed–and, even then, only to a limit because it is still governed by humans–you will understand that comparing religious/ideological extremism of other belief systems such as Islam and Marxism to Christianity is like comparing apples to oranges. Why? Christianity is the only “religious system” (for lack of better terminology) that is legitimate and verified by historical, archeological, scientific, and logical means because it is God-ordained; whereas, anything and everything else is a counterfeit. It simply cannot work without God in the mix and the history of ancient, and even modern, societies attest to this fact.
Do you want to know what made America great for all those years before we descended into the lawless, unrecognizable monstrosity we can hardly refer to as “society” today? God did. A nation governed by Christianity did. That’s what made America great: using the ONLY legitimate, provable belief system of how and why the world exists and basing the entire government of a fledgling nation upon the principles of the Bible.
You want to know why our nation looks the way it does? People like you, who 1) equate Christianity to Islam, Marxism, and, other Christ-less, worldly beliefs, 2) ban God and Christianity from schools and everyday society, and then 3) look around in a confused stupor and wonder why everything is the way it is. And, news flash: free thought isn’t actually free; it’s governed by Satan and his hoard of demons intended to send you straight to Hell to endure an eternity of torture.
Friend, for the sake of your soul, I beg of and implore you to reconsider your harsh, untrue, and outlandish assessment of the Christian faith because, one day, it will reign upon the earth, with or without you and your “free thought.”
Utter religious BS. Nothing raises Christianity above any other religion practiced in the World. Go get a life.
Nothing raises Christianity above other “religions” except words and deeds. As if comic book style Hinduism or subhuman islam is comparable. I’ll give Judaism credit but atheists are scum. You’re all just stupid nihilists who thinks man is God, like Hitler did.
Oh well, looks like we have another anti-Christian bigot in our midst. Looks like you are racking up the downvotes just like the other clown on these pages.
This is rich! It is now a crime to HATE the devil? What?
No, it’s a crime to destroy private property. You should know that.
Private property on public display?
DERP.
ANOTHER Decent Person who has been PERSECUTED by the left! The INSANITY has to end and 2025 should be the BEGINNING of the END of INSANITY!
I do hope PRESIDENT TRUMP is keeping a PARDON LIST so on DAY ONE many decent AMERICANS will be SET FREE!
While not on the left, actually somewhere to the right of middle, I fully support the protection of private property. You should as well.
Yeah but no, you support Satan.
Satan worshippers are the personification of all that is evil and their displays are cleverly designed to advance evil and incite death and destruction and theft and lies and hate and punish and prevent his enemies from trying to expose him and stop him. Supporters of Satan are now in charge in the USA and are in full attack mode.
I wonder if this prosecutor would be as aggressive in pursuing someone charged with vandalizing a Christian church and leaving behind graffiti with satanic or pro-abortion messages? That is happening repeatedly in almost every state.
Of course not. The Soros DAs are supportive of the leftist destroyers and fund tem, not stop them.
Some will disagree but in my view, he should not have torn down the display. He could taken other routes to see to it that it was removed and even more so, publicly ridiculed for its nasty content as it deserved. That said, the behavior of the judge and prosecutor is vile and disgusting. Five years in prison? Both the judge and the prosecutor should be removed from office for malfeasance. I wonder what is going on Iowa when the people there can elect such a prosecutor. Maybe money does buy elections there when what should happen is that people should think about the candidates in question and vote with a certain degree of common sense.
While I agree that the sentence is harsh, examples must be set.
Yeah, Satan is super cool. We should teach Satanism in preschools.
Idiot. You’re your own worst example.
Choose your battles wisely, friends and neighbors. Treat your environment like a hot war zone. Whatever you do, assume that someone is out there, dug in and ready to return fire.
They are out there. And in public life.
Riddle me this…. If a Satanic Statue or symbol was erected and somebody put a Christian Statue or symbol beside it and then some Lucifer loving person pulled it down would that be a hate crime?.
A dark and evil force has come across the Western World.
They took Jesus out of the Schools and Satan took its place…
FYI.. Im neither Christian nor Jew.
Satan is the personification and originator of hate and crime. Satan and his worshippers goal is to destroy Christianity and the human race by twisting and manipulating everything into evil destruction and promoting war and pestilence and death. He has many supporters active in American culture and politics. What the Satanists call “hate crime” is anything anti Satan,