Anti-Gun Chicago Priest Calls for Death of Gun Shop Owner - Media Silent

NewsBusters.org ^ | 05/31/07 | Warner Todd Huston

[Mobile Vulgus]

On May 29th a Catholic Priest from Chicago's St. Sabina Church joined a rally in front of a gun shop and called for the owner of the shop and all pro-gun legislators to be "snuffed out", yet, the media is strangely silent on the "Father's" extreme comments -- words one would think would be explosive enough to get media coverage. Father Michael Pfleger, known the city over for his overt political activism, made the obscene comments while demonstrating with Jesse Jackson and his Organization Operation Push in front of Chuck's Gun Shop in Riverdale, a Chicago suburb.

This from the Capitol Fax Blog (one of Illinois' best political sites):

Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina’s Church, went way over the top this week. During a protest against Chuck’s Gun Shop, Father Pfleger twice threatened to “snuff out” the shop’s owner and threatened the same fate for legislators who oppose his position on gun control.

“We’re gonna find you and snuff you out,” Fleger said about the gun shop owner, likening the man to a “rat.” He later repeated his threat to “snuff out” the owner.

“We’re gonna snuff out legislators who are voting [garbled] against our gun laws and we’re coming for you because we are not going to sit idly.”

That is some of the most vicious rhetoric one could imagine coming out of the mouth of a so-called Priest, but, the MSM had nothing to say about the comments. In fact, while several Chicago MSM sources mentioned the Jackson sponsored protest, none of them mention Pfleger's outrageous and inflammatory rhetoric.

NBC5 News (TV), with a story copyrighted by the Chicago Sun-Times, doesn't mention that Pflager was even at the rally.

ABC7 News (TV) similarly doesn't mention that Pfleger was at the rally. They do, however, recount Jackson's unfounded claim that "weapons sold at Chuck's Gun have ended up in the hands of criminals." There is no proof that Jackson's claim is true and ABC notes at the end of the piece that, "From time to time, protestors target Chuck's Gun Shop, but there have been any charges that the gun stores breaks the law." Still, and once again, Jackson gets away with making unfounded claims without any proof whatsoever to back it up with no one calling him to account.

The Chicago Tribune at least mentioned that Pfleger was at the rally, but does not report his comments at all. All the Trib said was that, "Michael Pfleger encouraged the crowd to push for stricter gun laws." And that he, "vowed that the rally was just the beginning and that civil disobedience was possible."

So, why the blackout of the "Father's" outrageous comments?

Could it be because they agree with the efforts at gun control and they don't want Pflager's idiotic rhetoric to tarnish that effort?

Or, perhaps, Pfleger has been a loose cannon for so long that his foolishness doesn't even rate comment anymore?

That last point is a shame if true, too. After all, don't we always hear that Bush is an evil, evil "extremist Christian" for wanting to have faith based charities being able to receive Federal funding? Don't we hear that this is some sort of violation of the so-called "separation of church and state"? Don't detractors always say that the Church should stay out of political fights? Additionally, don't leftists claim that Churches that get involved with right leaning political causes should have their tax-exempt status threatened or removed?

Yet, here we have in Father Michael Pflager, a Catholic Church and it's Pastor getting directly involved in political fights and causes all the time. You can go right to the St. Sabina website and immediately see a graphic and a link to an overtly political message against Illinois gunrights legislation. The link takes you to a Church sponsored page featuring a listing of current Illinois gun bills that they are targeting for activism.

If THIS isn't a violation of Church and State... what is?

But, do we hear the left railing about this political activism by a church? Do we hear calls for St. Sabina's tax-exempt status to be threatened?

Um, no. After all, it is an MSM approved brand of political activism, one that leans squarely against the Constitution and in a heavily leftward direction.

And, can we remind one and all of what kind of coverage Reverend Jerry Falwell got upon his passing? How often did the MSM rail against his political activism? It shouldn't have to be noted that Falwell's activism was scorned because it emanated from a distinctly right leaning direction.

In any case, the MSM's failure to report this incident is telling, indeed.

(For those interested, an MP3 audio file of Father Pfleger's comments can be downloaded from the Illinois State Rifle Association website)

[Mobile Vulgus]

This "Priest" needs to be reprimanded by the Church.

[Havok]

The media is gonna be all over this like a fat kid on a cup cake.
Any negativity about the Catholic church is a gold mine!

FYI I have gone to the range with my priest. :)

[Parley Baer]

Interesting that I don’t see the “cult” religion but a mainstream religion wanting death to a gun shop owner, allowing priest to molest boys and wanting open borders.

[wideawake]

The most important question: has this comment been captured on video?

If you are going to complain about a priest to his chancery, you are going to need proof.

Otherwise, the chancery will respond: "Fr. Pleger disputes these claims and in the absence of documentary proof to the contrary, we cannot take any action on what may merely be rumors."

If this were put up on YouTube and made available to the chancery and the nuncio, it would have a much greater effect.

[KeyLargo]

posted May-30-2007 01:39 PM gotta love father flakey

quote:
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
May 29, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - An Illinois gun-rights group says it plans to complain to the Catholic Church after a Chicago priest at the weekend appeared to call for the murder of a suburban gun shop owner.

During a Rainbow/PUSH Coalition protest at Chuck’s Gun Shop & Range on Saturday, the Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor of St. Sabina’s Church, threatened to “snuff” shop owner John Riggio.

The Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) has posted online what is says is a recording of Pfleger’s remarks.

PflegerIn the audio clip, the priest is heard being introduced to the crowd by the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Immediately therafter, Pfleger launches into a tirade.

“I want the NRA [National Rifle Association] to understand - you have a lot of money, but money can’t buy moral authority and it can’t buy justice or freedom, and we will fight you, NRA,” he says.

“We will fight you on every angle [sic], no matter how much money you’ve got, we will embarrass you, and we will embarrass every legislator that takes money from you. We will call them out by name, by district. We will expose you, legislators.”

Pfleger then turns his attention to Riggio. “He’s the owner of Chuck’s. John Riggio. R-i-g-g-i-o. We’re going to find you and snuff you out … you know you’re going to hide like a rat. You’re going to hide but like a rat we’re going to catch you and pull you out. We are not going to allow you to continue to hide when we’re here …”

“We’re going to keep coming back, and like Reverend Jackson says, it takes civil disobedience, if it takes whatever it takes … we’re going to snuff out John Riggio, we’re going to snuff out legislators that are voting … and we are coming for you because we are not going to sit idly. Keep on fighting, people. Keep on fighting, keep on fighting.”

St. Sabina describes itself as a “Bible-teaching” African-American Catholic Church.

The day before the anti-gun protest, the church hosted former Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who was making a rare public appearance. Pfleger was quoted as describing the controversial Muslim activist as “a gift from God to a sick, sick world.”

ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson called it “shocking” to hear a priest advocate the murder of a gun shop owner “who has never committed a crime in his life.”

“Pfleger’s comments were disgusting and dangerous,” Pearson said. “And, I seem to remember that the Fifth Commandment frowns on murdering one’s neighbor,” he added.

“This week, I’ll be penning a letter to the Archbishop, expressing my concerns over Rev. Pfleger’s comments,” continued Pearson. “I would hope that the Archbishop would reply with words of comfort for Mr. Riggio, his family, state legislators, and all others who were injured by Rev. Pfleger’s thoughtless, inflammatory remarks.”

In a message on the church’s website, Pfleger says he believes that “we are called by God to build this church in a world filled with division, alienation and racism in order that we may be a witness to the world that it is possible and that the love of God is stronger than the hate of Satan.”

http://www.coolrunning.com/forums/Forum1/HTML/156150.shtml

[FormerLib]

If they really have linked their parish website to an overtly political website, couldn’t that jeopardize their tax status?

[Mobile Vulgus]

There is an audio file that can be downloaded. It is in the original story posted.

[wideawake]

a mainstream religion wanting death to a gun shop owner

Ridiculous and slanderous claim.

allowing priest to molest boys

Another ridiculous and slanderous claim.

wanting open borders

Yet another ridiculous and slanderous claim.

Your stupidity is as lamentable as your ugly bigotry.

[LetGoNow]

True. But first he needs to be prosecuted if he broke any laws.

[wideawake]

Does the audiofile contain any identifying references?

It's not as good as video, but it could be useful.

[Yorlik803]

Like the song sez. Go ahead cheat a neighbor, go ahead a kill a friend, do it in the name of heaven, you’ll be justified in the end.
As long as they beleive they are doing right. They know the words of the bible but not its meaning.

[E Rocc]

It always amazes me when gun grabbing lefties try to talk tough.

The military hates them.

The cops, with the exception of BATF and a few politicians in uniform, hate them.

To say that the majority of privately held weapons in this nation belong to believers in the Second Amendment is, to put it mildly, an understatement.

Who do they think they are kidding?

-Eric

[Lurker]

Ridiculous and slanderous claim.

So sue.

L

[Mobile Vulgus]

Do you not think that inciting people to kill someone is breaking a law somewhere, somehow?

[KeyLargo]

GUN SAINT Author Rips Hypocrisy of Jesse Jackson and Demands Defrocking of Lapdog Catholic Priest

Contact: John Snyder, 703-212-9860, 321-385-9192

ARLINGTON, Va., May 31 /Christian Newswire/ — “Who in his right mind can help abhorring the vicious clerical hypocrisy manifested in Chicago last weekend by Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Michael Pfleger during their verbal assaults on the law-abiding owner of a suburban business,” asked GUN SAINT author John Michael Snyder here today.

Jackson’s group, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, organized the demonstration against Chuck’s Gun Shop in Riverdale IL. Jackson himself charged that the business sold the “majority of guns connected with recent shooting deaths in Chicago,” but then admitted he did not have statistics on the store, reported NBC5.com.

“While Jackson poses as a protector of Chicagoans and others,” Snyder noted, “the fact is that millions of law-abiding American citizens rely on legitimate firearm stores as legal sources from which they may obtain the arms they need to protect themselves and their families from the violent criminals who prey upon them. Jackson is using his ‘Reverend’ moniker as a shield from which to advance an anti-self-defense political agenda.

“His clerical lapdog in this effort is Rev. Michael Pfleger, Pastor of St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago. The Church’s website supports specific pending Illinois restrictive gun control legislation. In an absolutely incredible statement for anyone, let alone a Catholic priest, Pfleger, according to a recording of his remarks at the demonstration provided by the Illinois State Rifle Association, called upon the protest crowd to ‘drag’ John Riggio, the owner-manager of the store, out ‘like a rat’ and ‘snuff’ him.”

Pfleger’s statement “is an absolute outrage,” Snyder continued, “and he ought to be defrocked. There are ecclesiastical penalties which can be invoked against Pfleger. Hopefully, Chicago-area Catholics will demand that church authorities initiate canonical proceedings against this loose cannon.”

Snyder’s book, GUN SAINT, published by Telum Associates, LLC, recounts the history of St. Gabriel Possenti, a Catholic seminarian who rescued Italian villagers of Isola del Gran Sasso from a gang of terrorists in 1860 with a striking, single-shot demonstration of handgun marksmanship. Possenti died in 1862. Pope Benedict XV canonized him in 1920. The international, interdenominational St. Gabriel Possenti Society, Inc., which Snyder founded, seeks Possenti’s official Vatican designation as Patron of Handgunners. It emphasizes the historical, philosophical and theological bases for the doctrine of legitimate self-defense.

http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/353103277.html

[Jaded]

Reprimanded? He needs a serious smack-down.

[wideawake]

As usual, you don’t get it.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

this “Rev” knows all about street lingo....

Race Card Wins Again
By David Horowitz
FrontPageMagazine.com | June 8, 2001

The following is a letter I received from a Chicago reader of FrontPageMagazine.com.

Welcome to urban America in the 21st Century:

[Text of letter begins]
Last week, representatives of Chicago’s Southside Catholic Conference held a blind vote, the result of which denied admission of the St. Sabina School to its athletic league of 21 grammar schools.

The vote was close, 11-9, but most of the schools voting against admission were concerned about the safety of children going into St. Sabina’s neighborhood, which has a high crime rate (the statistics can be found on the Chicago Police web site at http://www.cityofchicago.org/CommunityPolicing where you can conveniently display the crime stats for the area around the school).

In Evergreen Park, where several of the conference schools come from, there was one murder, seven assaults and 23 robberies in 1999, the most recent annual crime statistics available. That same year, there were 30 murders, 1,877 assaults and 1,208 robberies in the district in which St. Sabina sits, according to the Chicago Police Department.

In response to the vote, the pastor of St. Sabina’s Church, Reverend Michael Pfleger cried “racism.”

An article from the Chicago Tribune on June 2nd by Rick Morrissey (”Rev. Pfleger plays race card, and kids lose” at http://chicagosports.com/columnists/content/column/0,2007,153149,00.html)
summarizes the situation nicely: “If those white parents were worried that their children somehow would come to harm in his neighborhood, then they must be racist, he reasoned. Never mind that Pfleger’s foster son was killed tragically by stray gang gunfire in the neighborhood. Pfleger says those things can happen anytime, anyplace. Never mind that crime statistics show otherwise.”
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=4548

[Lurker]

a mainstream religion wanting death to a gun shop owner

The Chicago Archdiocese is pretty silent and silence is assent, so this statement for the moment is true.

allowing priest to molest boys

The Chicago Archdiocese just settled a 6 million dollar lawsuit which asserted just that, so this claim is true.

wanting open borders

The LA and Chicago Archdiocese are on record as offering 'sanctuary' to illegals, so this claim is also true.

Now you were talking about slander?

L

[MEGoody]

I do not have the slightest clue why the Catholic Church tolerates people like this.