| 词条 | Church Militant (website) |
| 释义 |
|name = Church Militant |logo = Church Militant logo.png |commercial = no |type = News and opinion Traditional Catholic |current status = active |url = {{URL|churchmilitant.com}} |owner = St. Michael's Media, Inc. |registration = Optional |revenue = USD$2.8 million (December 2018)[1] |alexa = {{IncreaseNegative}} 15,878 (USA, February 2019) [https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/churchmilitant.com churchmilitant.com Traffic Statistics] }}Church Militant (also known as St. Michael's Media, the 501(c)(3) organization behind it)[1] is a Catholic lay apostolate and traditional Catholic news website founded by Michael Voris. It was known as Real Catholic TV until 2012, when the Archdiocese of Detroit objected to the use of the word "Catholic" in the name and Voris agreed to change it.[2][3] While Church Militant makes use of a paywall and offers premium content to subscribers, the website's most well known feature is its free segment The Vortex, simulcast on YouTube and hosted by Voris. As of December 2018, 34 employees create videos and write content for Church Militant.[1] NameThe site is named after the Catholic doctrinal division of the universal Church into the Church Militant, Church Penitent, and Church Triumphant.[4] InfluenceOwing to its wide viewership among traditional Catholics, Church Militant exposées have been reported to cause deplatforming of liberal Catholics,[5] such as in the case of Dan Schutte, who was disinvited from a concert after a Vortex segment accused him of being a homosexual.[6] Also "relentlessly" targeted has been Fr. James Martin,[7] whose book Building a Bridge proved controversial among traditional Catholics, which some, including Martin himself,[8] have speculated has led to him being disinvited from speaking engagements.[9] The Vortex, along with other Catholic publications, have been speculated to have caused the "forced" resignation from Catholic News Service of Tony Spence, its editor-in-chief, owing to his opposition towards proposed anti-LGBT legislation.[10][11]Steve Bannon and "Church Militant Theology"After Donald Trump was elected President of the United States in 2016, the media began to focus on his adviser, Steve Bannon, with some news sites turning to Voris and his ChurchMilitant.com organization for more context around Bannon's use of the phrase "church militant" and insight into his theological beliefs. Buzzfeed and The New York TimesOn November 15, 2016, the website Buzzfeed News published the text of Steve Bannon's speech to the Human Dignity Institute given by way of Skype in the summer of 2014 at the Vatican. By the time of Buzzfeed's article, Bannon had risen in notoriety since the speech becoming chief executive of Donald Trump's presidential campaign on August 17, 2016 and then appointed chief strategist and senior counselor to President-elect Trump on November 13, 2016. Buzzfeed stated that they had attended the conference "as part of its coverage of the rise of Europe's religious right."[12] They presented the text of his speech under the title "This Is How Steve Bannon Sees The Entire World" and stated that the Human Dignity Institute "has ties to some of the most conservative factions inside the Catholic Church" noting that "Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the most vocal critics of Pope Francis, who was ousted from a senior Vatican position in 2014, is chair of the group's advisory board."[12] In the speech Bannon invoked the Christian concept of the Church Militant. He claimed that World War I ushered in "a new Dark Age" that continued through World War II and which was only able to be overcome by "the heroism of our people...really the Judeo-Christian West versus atheists" combined with the underlying principle of "an enlightened form of capitalism" that was "eventually [able] to take back continental Europe and to beat back a barbaric [Japanese] empire in the Far East."[12] Bannon went on to say "I believe we've come partly off-track in the years since the fall of the Soviet Union and we're starting now in the 21st century, which I believe, strongly, is a crisis both of our church, a crisis of our faith, a crisis of the West, a crisis of capitalism. And we're at the very beginning stages of a very brutal and bloody conflict, of which if the people in this room, the people in the church, do not bind together and really form what I feel is an aspect of the church militant, to really be able to not just stand with our beliefs, but to fight for our beliefs against this new barbarity that's starting, that will completely eradicate everything that we've been bequeathed over the last 2,000, 2,500 years."[12] Bannon maintained that "the West" was successful due to a capitalism based on "the underlying spiritual and moral foundations of Christianity and, really, Judeo-Christian belief."[12] Which was under threat from "state-sponsored capitalism...[which] you see in China and Russia.", from "Ayn Rand or Objectivist School of libertarian capitalism", and from "immense secularization of the West...[where] the overwhelming drive of popular culture is to absolutely secularize this rising iteration [of millennials under 30]."[12] Bannon held that the undermining of "enlightened capitalism", and the loss of "Judeo-Christian belief" he held it was based on, were in dangerous decline right as "we are in an outright war against jihadist Islamic fascism" which includes Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Boko Haram "and other groups that will eventually partner with ISIS in this global war".[12] Bannon called on Christian capitalists to examine the purpose of their wealth and if divine providence was calling on them "to actually be a creator of jobs and a creator of wealth...and make sure that we are reinvesting that back into positive things...[so they can] bind together as partners with others in other countries" which would better prepare the West at these "the very beginning stages of a global conflict".[12] The New York Times, in a follow-up piece on December 30, 2016 authored by Samuel Freedman, held that Bannon's use of "church militant" had taken the term "out of context," invoking it in a call for cultural and military conflict rather than for spiritual warfare, particularly within one's soul, its longstanding connotation."[13] Freedman stated that the term was being used with "a political resonance" that was indicative of a "Church Militant theology," which was defined at least in part around "right-wing stances against globalism, immigration, social-welfare programs and abortion."[13]Freedman said, "To fully grasp what 'church militant' means in this highly politicized atmosphere, it helps to examine the broader movement and the role of a traditionalist Catholic website called — to no surprise — ChurchMilitant.com."[13] Freedman went on to quote approximately 1.8% of the interview with Michael Voris on which his article was based (full transcript available here), accusing Church Militant's alleged "right-wing stances" as "mesh[ing] with many of the positions espoused by Mr. Trump and his inner circle."[13] Freedman summarized Voris' views by claiming that "the website's positions were a righteous defense of patriotism and morality on behalf of people who believe those virtues have been attacked by liberals, secularists and global elites."[13] Voris told the newspaper that Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's "seamless garment" theology was "a total whitewash of Catholic social teaching."[13] Reflecting on the contemporary situation, Voris stated, "This is breaking down into forces that believe in God and those that don't. Largely, I would say this is a war of religion versus nonreligion."[13] Freedman relayed that Voris' online audience was cumulatively "about 1.5 million views a month"[13] and characterized the apostolate's position as one that dismisses manmade climate change, thinks the Black Lives Matter movement is akin to "the new fascism," and called Hillary Clinton "Killary," who was acting as "Satan's mop for wiping up the last remaining resistance to him in America."[13] It also quoted Voris's critique of social-welfare programs as a system where "half the people of America" do not pay taxes and "get things handed to them."[13] Freedman claimed, "For some Catholic scholars and anti-hate advocates, the emergence of Church Militant theology in a politicized and highly partisan way is disturbing."[13] He spoke to John C. Cavadini, Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, who commented that the concept of "the Church militant" originally was "against interior temptations that lead you to greed and all kinds of spiritual pathologies. And it's about engaging in acts of mercy. Part of the victory of the Church Militant is the victory of love. It didn't have the triumphalist and militarized connotation that's been attached to it now."[13] The transcript of Michael Voris' interview with Freedman (left out in the Times article) shows Voris' thinking about the Church Militant tracks closely with that of Cavadini. Voris said: "[Church Militant is] a term that has been used theologically for centuries and centuries and centuries. What it really refers to is the war, the spiritual warfare or the spiritual combat that must take place in every individual’s soul to resist evil and to do good. And that’s largely what it is."[14] Although The Times noted that the 1992 Catechism approved by Pope John Paul II replaced "Church Militant" with "pilgrims on earth,"[13] it failed to note that Pope Benedict, as recently as 2012, said the phrase Ecclesia militans, or "Church Militant," is an apt phrase to describe members of the Church on earth entering into "battle with evil."[15] The Times went on to quote Pat Buchanan 2009 essay that they held "embraced Church Militant theology": The Times held that Buchanan's "words could serve as a mission statement for Mr. Voris's ChurchMilitant.com.[13] The Buchanan quote stated: "Catholicism is necessarily an adversary faith and culture in an America where a triumphant secularism has captured the heights, from Hollywood to the media, the arts and the academy, and relishes nothing more than insults to and blasphemous mockery of the Church of Rome."[13][16]Church Militant responded to The Times article in a panel discussion, in which the panel called Freedman's article a "hit piece" and "dishonest."[17] Detroit Free Press, USA Today, Americans UnitedFollowing the Times story, other organizations also ran pieces that tried to link Bannon and Voris. On February 19, 2017, Robert Allen wrote a piece for the Detroit Free Press,[18] which was republished by USA Today[19] about Voris that also invoked Bannon. The article declared that Voris' studio in Ferndale was "the nerve center for a growing, religious group hoping the forces that elected President Donald Trump will tear down the wall between church and state."[19] The article called Voris' apostolate "a fringe group claiming to be Catholic but denounced by the church, [that] broadcasts pro-life, anti-gay, anti-feminist, Islam-fearing content on its website".[19] It noted that Voris had dismissed Trump's past moral problems by making an analogy with Constantine the Great, whom Voris called a "power-hungry egomaniac" but who served as a human vessel by which God ended Christian persecution and protected Christianity.[19] Voris was quoted saying, "The personal proclivities, the personal sins or life of a particular leader is a separate discussion from how that man's view of the world might influence his policies. And if that policy is favorable to the church, well then, very good."[19] The article held that "Many of Church Militant's headlines are similar to those on Breitbart News, the far-right news organization that White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon previously ran."[19] It noted "Many of Breitbart's articles are cited on the Church Militant website. But unlike Breitbart, Church Militant is under a Christian, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization."[19] The article noted that Voris didn't think that the group's political advocacy violated restrictions on keeping tax free status by avoiding political campaigning - restrictions which the article quoted him as calling "stupid" since "Church and state have long been linked in this country".[19] Voris proclaimed that the election of Trump showed that the notion of mainstream media has been altered, "The Entire established order has been thrown up into the air. What we say now has some credence. We're allowed into the discussion."[19] He felt that Trump's presidency "will even the playing field."[19] Church Militant responded to the Detroit Free Press/USA Today article in a panel discussion in which it also addressed the Detroit archdiocese.[20] On February 23, 2017 Bannon spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference. His remarks included a promise that the Trump campaign would work towards the "deconstruction of the administrative state...the regulation...if you look at these Cabinet appointees, they were selected for a reason and that is the deconstruction, the way the progressive left runs, is if they can't get it passed, they're just gonna put in some sort of regulation in -- in an agency. That's all gonna be deconstructed and I think that that's why this regulatory thing is so important."[21] The next day Americans United for Separation of Church and State ran a piece by Rob Boston that linked Bannon's thinking with that of Voris, characterizing Bannon's statement as a plan to destroy government that took no account of whether people relied on a government program or agency. The piece continued, saying, "Sadly, Bannon is far from the only one out there bent on nihilistic destruction."[22] It then went on to name Voris and his media site saying that he had once called "to tear down the wall of separation between church and [State, to] replace our democracy with a far-right Catholic king who will decide what’s best for us."[22] Church Militant's rebuttal to the Americans United piece notes, "Americans United is known for its anti-Christian bigotry, promoting secularist ideals in the public square while shoving religion aside (or at least, those religions with which they disagree; the group's selective outrage is notable — more on this below)." The article also notes that, although Americans United vigorously fights Christian groups, it often comes to the defense of pagans, Wiccans, and Satanists in the public square. Quoting from Americans United's own website, "Americans United represented a war widow whose husband, a Wiccan, was denied the right to have a Pentagram on his memorial marker. ... After AU filed suit against the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2006, the VA quickly moved to settle the case and approved the Wiccan emblem." The Church Militant article goes on, "The non-profit also has a page dedicated to its work defending The Satanic Temple, whether it's pushing for after-school Satan clubs or the right to erect satanic displays on state property."[23] The AtlanticEven after Steve Bannon's role was diminished by Trump in mid-April 2017,[24] Voris' organization was still viewed as notable by national media. On May 9, 2017 The Atlantic released a video of the Church Militant offices and personnel which also included pictures of the then recent New York Times and Detroit Free Press articles. Voris told The Atlantic that of all the debates held in America, the question of which is the right religion has never been debated. He complained about "A tyranny, a dictatorship of relativism. [Where it's accepted for people to say] 'If you don't want to have an abortion don't, I'm going to have mine, you don't want to that's fine. If you don't like gay marriage, don't marry someone of the same sex.' Societies can function like that. There is right and wrong, good and evil, truth and lies. ...The world is so mired in misunderstanding today that they need to be pointed to - here's truth." Voris discussed his upbringing and the story of how he returned to Catholicism. He also challenged the label of far-right or hate group. The video ended with him saying "The old Michael Voris was a lustful, prideful, acting on hurt, and sense of victim, and all that business. The new Michael Voris, or the new man, is somebody who is now dedicated to helping other people realize that there is no limit to God. It's impossible to do enough to save souls until you have drawn your last breath."[25] See also
References 7 : American news websites|Media companies of the United States|Catholic lay organisations|Organizations that oppose same-sex marriage|Anti-abortion organizations in the United States|Islamophobic publications|Christian organizations based in the United States |
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