Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, one of the first conservatives to be canceled back in 2010-2012 (along with me as collateral damage), has started a docuseries profiling other Christian conservatives who the left targeted. “For many years, a quiet crisis affecting millions of Americans has grown and gone without remedy,” he opens. “In the early 21st century, a militant secular Left captured America’s centers of wealth and power. Because of prejudice and hostility from monied and powerful left-wing interest groups, those who publicly opposed the Left often lost their careers, businesses, livelihoods or reputations.”
In his first installment, the Harvard Law educated author showcases a Congressman who was canceled due to false accusations of white supremacy, a coach who was fired over writing “All Lives Matter” and a small business that was destroyed due to same-sex marriage objections.
Former Iowa Rep. Steve King, an outspoken conservative who was the late Phyllis Schlafly’s favorite member of Congress, lost his career due to a reporter who deliberately misquoted him. In January 2019, a journalist reported King saying, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” The reporter left out the full context, King only meant how ridiculous it is that the meaning of Western civilization is now associated with racism. He’d also said, “No one ever sat in a Western civilization class listening to classes on white supremacy or white nationalism.”
But the RINOs running the Republican Party were already gunning for him. Curiously, a GOP candidate backed by the establishment announced he was running against King a day before The New York Times published its hit piece. Republican powerhouses shut down his fundraising and threatened his donors, and he was defeated for reelection. Unlike other prominent recently retired Congressmen, King has not been offered lucrative job opportunities.
Kurt Beathard, a former college quarterback who became a coach for Illinois State, is no longer employed as a coach due to a Black Lives Matter controversy. One day he showed up at work and found a poster on his door at work that said “Black Lives Matter.” He took it down and replaced it with a sign that said, “All Lives Matter to our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.” Some of the players said they would no longer play under him, so he was fired. He has been unable to get another job coaching — even at a Christian college.
Richard and Betty Odgaard, a Mennonite couple in Iowa, lost their restaurant and events hall because they would not allow it to be rented for a same-sex wedding. The state came after them, forced them into a settlement agreement, and a lawmaker launched a boycott, eventually forcing them to close what was supposed to be their source of retirement. Their church gave them no support so they eventually left it.
Sadly, Thomas says, churches aren’t stepping forward to help these people, they’ve turned their backs on those persecuted. Instead, churches give aid to the same old clients, the ones favored by the left, such as how the Salvation Army gives money to vagrants engaged in destructive lifestyles. Yet the government already provides an ample safety net for these people funded by taxpayers. They are duplicating this. It’s because they don’t want to anger the left.
Thomas says the church ignores the problem because of cowardice, self-preservation or both. Churches should be helping the canceled find jobs. Christian colleges and universities need to step up — why hasn’t a Christian college hired the coach? What about having them speak at graduations? College speakers are never these lesser known martyrs, who could use the honoraria.
Thomas brings up the tragic suicide of conservative Christian writer Mike Adams, who killed himself after being hounded by the left in academia. Adams found doors closed to him by Christians who would not help him at his darkest hour.
Bobby Lopez, a professor and writer who was canceled both by the left and a Christian university that turned on him, wrote about Adams, “It sickens a person to hear the distorted logic Christians have used to rationalize abandoning people who made sacrifices to defend the Christian faith. One can lose faith in everything as a result of the slow realization that many people who presented themselves as valiant defenders of Christianity were nothing more than phonies, opportunists, egomaniacs, and otherwise horrible people. I can understand why these hard feelings could lead a person to decide that nothing could redeem the pain of continuing to live.”
Thomas says if pastors won’t stand up for their members, parishioners need to find different churches. The powerful Republicans who run the country don’t stand up because of their interest in self-preservation and the fact that Republican voters don’t hold them accountable at the polls. “They settle for the candidate with the best TV ads and cliches,” Thomas says.
He recognizes that “The election of Trump was the first major breakthrough against this apathy.” Thomas recommends starting a program to employ those canceled in academia. “We must meet the left with tactics that are smart, tough and relentless.”
Fighting back hard isn’t for everyone. “The sacrifices of a brave few allow many to enjoy lives of peace and prosperity. Or course, not everyone can find it within themselves the courage to take such a stand for their beliefs.”
He ends with strong words for Christian leadership. “To avoid being modern day scribes and Pharisees — those leaders denounced by Christ for collaborating with the Romans for their own gain — Christian ministers, priests and other leaders should remember one of Christ’s explicit injunctions: ‘Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
The docuseries is located at the Liberty Anvil channel on YouTube and Rumble, and includes short films drawing lessons from history, politics, philosophy and other sources on how to withstand and defeat the tyrannical Left. Thomas concludes, “Our founders deserved the freedom they secured. But given our apathy in the face of this onslaught, do we?”