Black Lives Matter Riots and MORE

VATICAN HAILS BLM AS ‘NON-VIOLENT’
NEWS: WORLD NEWS
by Jules Gomes  •  ChurchMilitant.com  •  June 18, 2020    144 Comments
African archbishop 'salutes' BLM's battle against racism
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/vatican-hails-non-violent-black-lives-matter?fbclid=IwAR2KRSApgffCnORs4HVryYH3uQNqgIX1eiVAE2knn3BM-s7vkbCjMWGoBYw
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ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - Vatican News is praising Black Lives Matter (BLM) as a "movement dedicated to non-violent civil disobedience through protests against police violence directed at black persons as well as all forms of racism." 

"The movement began in 2013 with the use of the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media," the Holy See's official information service said Wednesday, providing context for comments from president of the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO) Abp. Marcel Utembi Tapa, who said he "welcomed the fight against racism being spearheaded by the Black Lives Matter movement."

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Vatican media commends Black Lives Matter
"Today, Black Lives Matter has decentralized into a broader and worldwide network of movements advocating against police violence towards minorities, the militarization of the police as well as against systemic racism around the world," Vatican News reported.

The Vatican media made no reference to BLM's involvement in riots, it's campaign to "defund the police" or to the movement's goals of "disrupt(ing) the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement," as explicitly stated on the "What we believe" page of the BLM website. 

BLM also proclaims itself determined to "dismantle cisgender privilege," pro-transgender and "queer‐affirming," maintaining: "When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise)" — an agenda in flagrant contradiction of Catholic teaching on sexuality and the family.

"It is ridiculous for the Vatican to pretend that Black Lives Matter is a non-violent movement," British politician David Kurten told Church Militant. "They are, at best, naïve — and at worst, complicit — by sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring its true, radical, Marxist nature."



Kurten, a member of the London Assembly and candidate for mayor of London said: "BLM/Antifa street protests have been characterized by violence and vandalism wherever they have occurred, whether on the streets of London, Seattle, Atlanta or many other cities."

He pointed out that "several black people have been killed at the hands of violent thugs, but they receive no mention and no selective outrage by the progressive leftists who the Vatican seem so keen to appease and emulate."

Archbishop Tapa admitted to Vatican News "he was not very conversant with the ideas of the [BLM] organization" and so could not "speak in detail about it." 

"The realization of a plural and multicultural world must be a priority in this 21st century," Tapa stressed.

It is ridiculous for the Vatican to pretend that Black Lives Matter is a non-violent movement. They are, at best, naïve — and at worst, complicit — by sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring its true, radical, Marxist nature.Tweet
Church Militant contacted Vatican News — English for Africa Section asking if the media representing the pontiff intended to stand by its positive appraisal of BLM, despite BLM claims to be a pro-LGBT, pro-abortion organization that is bent on destroying the family and Western civilization and unhesitant to use violence to achieve its goals.

We also drew Vatican media's attention to a Church Militant Special Report revealing two of the three co-founders — Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza — identifying as lesbians and, unlike the civil rights movement of the '60s, declaring itself "unapologetically feminist, womanist and queer." 

So far, no Vatican statement or official has condemned or even identified the anti-Catholic, Marxist ideology undergirding the BLM movement.   

Instead, bishops have voiced support for BLM protests, with Pope Francis making a phone call to commend Bp. Mark Seitz of El Paso Texas after he knelt with fellow clergy holding up BLM signs.

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Bp. Mark Seitz with fellow clergy
On June 8, Washington auxiliary bishops Roy E. Campbell and Mario E. Dorsonville attended a rally where a number of clergy carried BLM signs. 

"I believe that the Church must explicitly declare: Black Lives Matter," Olga Segura writes in the left-wing National Catholic Reporter, advocating a strong relationship between the Church and BLM. 

"This alignment would not mean that the Church would become a pro-abortion institution or change its teaching on marriage, as many critics believe would happen if there were any kind of relationship between the Catholic Church and the Black Lives Matter movement," she claims.     

Kurten reiterated his disapproval of the relationship between the clerical hierarchy and the BLM movement: "Instead of seeking to ingratiate themselves with the right-on, mainstream-media narratives of the moment, the Vatican should stand firm and condemn the violence, thuggery and anarchy that is being perpetrated around the world under cover of the killing of George Floyd.

"Unless they stand up to the wave of Marxism that is attempting to engulf Western civilization in its cultural destruction, the spineless, supine primates will fall, too, when they come for the churches," Kurten warned.    

Church Militant received no response from Vatican Media as of press time.

African kente cloths worn by Democrats in political stunt have roots in African slave trade
Yikes
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
 CHRIS ENLOE
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other top Democratic leaders marched into the U.S. Capitol Visitor's Center last week and knelt for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the same amount of time that fired Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin kneeled on George Floyd's neck.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/democrats-kente-cloths-slave-trade?utm_source=theblaze-dailyPM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily-Newsletter__PM%202020-06-17&utm_term=TheBlaze%20Daily%20PM%20-%20last%20270%20days
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But it was what the congressional Democrats wore — traditional West African kente cloths — that made headlines. In fact, they were harshly criticized for what came across as mere pandering.

As it turns out, those kente cloths have roots in the African slave trade, according to a USA Today fact check.
The day following the political stunt, Facebook user Dave Brandon claimed, in a post that received thousands of shares, that the scarves are connected to African slave traders.

Brandon wrote:
So check this out, Kente cloth was worn by the Ashanti. It's made of silk so the affluent wore it. The Ashanti were also known as slave owners and traders. Huh? The Ashanti's long-time ally, the Akwamu, were among the first ones to profit from the slave trade with the Europeans. Their captives were almost always prisoners of war, but they were not above to selling Akwamu men who offended the chief. They also kidnapped able-bodied men from other tribes and sold them in the coastal slave markets.
According to USA Today's fact check, Brandon is correct.

The kente cloth comes from "the Asante, or Ashanti, peoples of Ghana and Ewe peoples of Ghana and Togo," according to USA Today. Asantehene Osei Tutu, the first ruler of the Asante Kingdom, adopted the scarf as a royal symbol, the fact check explained.

From USA Today:

Tutu, who lived from 1660 to 1712 or 1717, unified several small Asante kingdoms to create the Asante empire. He is credited with expanding the Asante throughout most of Ghana and introducing his subjects to the gold and slave trades along the West African coast.

The Asante supplied British and Dutch traders with slaves in exchange for firearms, which they used to expand their empire. Slaves were often acquired as tributes from smaller states or captured during war. Some slaves were brought across the Atlantic whiles others stayed in Africa to work in gold fields.
By the end of the 18th century, the region was exporting between 6,000 and 7,000 African slaves per year, according to the BBC.

However, in modern times, the kente cloth has become a symbol of African pride and is traditionally worn during special occasions.

Diana Baird N'Diyea, cultural specialist and senior curator at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, told USA Today she places the significance of the Kente in the people who craft them — not the scarf's origins.

"My way of thinking about it is that it honors the creativity, the ingenuity, the skill of the people who actually make the kente," she said.
https://www.theblaze.com/news/democrats-kente-cloths-slave-trade?utm_source=theblaze-dailyPM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily-Newsletter__PM%202020-06-17&utm_term=TheBlaze%20Daily%20PM%20-%20last%20270%20days