Day: October 29, 2017

Episcopal church vote to remove George Washington memorial is just outward sign of a politicized church

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is everywhere on the news in the last 24 hours!

In case you happened to miss it, here is Daniel Greenfield on George Washington’s Virginia church and the vote. (hat tip: Ed).

Christ Church Alexandria
Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia where both Washington and Robert E. Lee worshiped. More details:  https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/27/george-washingtons-church-tear-down-memorial-honor/

 

So what does this have to do with refugees? 

It is a news hook to tell you about Episcopal Migration Ministries!

We tell you daily that there are nine federal resettlement contractors*** placing third world refugees in to unsuspecting American towns and cities.  Six of those, depending almost completely on taxpayer dollars, are supposed to be ‘religious’ church groups largely controlled now by the political LEFT. (The Socialists and Communists understand that in order to bring down America they need to control the churches and break up the family.)

The one federal resettlement contractor surviving almost exclusively on federal tax dollars is Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) that admitted in its own publication recently that it is 99.5% funded by the federal government.

And, it gets worse! The other eight federal contractors at least have set up separate legal entities as non-profit groups to receive their federal payola, not so EMM.  The federal money destined to EMM goes directly to the Episcopal Church (USA) making it harder than normal to follow the (your!) money!  See my post here.

I had always wondered why I couldn’t find an IRS Form 990 for them! Churches don’t have to tell the feds about their money (apparently even if it is the feds’ money!).

Screenshot (1027)
Check out this recent annual report from EMM. Have you ever seen an annual report that does not mention their income and spending at all?  https://episcopalmigrationministries.org/wp-content/uploads/AR2017.1.pdf

Let me be clear, this Virginia church and the Episcopal Church (USA) can be political all they want to be, but not with taxpayer dollars!

From an April 2017 article in Episcopal News Service:

The executive order’s impact on EMM’s bottom line is especially drastic because EMM is a unique ministry of the Episcopal Church, both structurally and fiscally. While not separately incorporated, as is Episcopal Relief & Development, EMM receives very little money from the church-wide budget, instead receiving 99.5 percent of its funding from the federal government.

(By the way, if you are still an Episcopalian, you do need to either speak up or find another faith group! Just saying!).

Are federal dollars propping up the Episcopal Church (USA)?

This is not the only place I’ve heard this over the years, but here is one writer who believes the money the church gets from the feds for refugees, helps prop-up the failing church.  Read the article which is focused on the US State Department’s travel loan repayment plan where the non-profit, in this case EMM, acts as a loan collection agency and pockets some of the money it wrings out of the refugees.

The Episcopal Church (USA) has two primary sources of income: according to its latest audited financial statements for the calendar year 2013, it received a little over $27 million from its member dioceses, and it received half as much again, or $13.8 million, from the federal government.

Where is Congress?

So why isn’t the House Immigration Subcommittee holding “oversight” hearings on the rackets these ‘church’ contractors have going for them?

***The nine federal refugee contractors who live off the taxpayer’s dime.  Go here to see if EMM is operating a refugee resettlement office where you live.

 

Federally-contracted resettlement agencies do hold secret refugee planning meetings

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We have been over this ground so many times I want to barf.

St. Cloud council meeting (2)
If the program is so wonderful for St. Cloud, OPEN THE MEETINGS!

US State Department contractors (non-profit groups paid with taxpayer dollars and hired to resettle refugees in your towns), hold quarterly “consultations” where they meet with other government agencies and sometimes representatives of ethnic groups they serve to discuss problems with refugees and to make plans for the next batch they are bringing in.

The US State Department in Washington says such “stakeholder” meetings are open to the public, but apparently that message hasn’t reached the arrogant contractors.

A picture is worth a thousand words and I am surprised this one is being used to illustrate an otherwise mealymouthed editorial in the St. Cloud Times.

Taxpaying citizens in St. Cloud have been barred from federal contractor Lutheran Social Service’s “quarterly consultations.”

By the way,  federal law requires the consultations, but they only started following the law in about 2013.

(I have links for everything above… search RRW for “stakeholder meetings.”)

See my ever-growing archive on St. Cloud, Minnesota by clicking here.

Shame on the House Immigration Subcommittee for never getting to this huge and growing problem (citizen anger in refugee-saturated cities!) with the US Refugee Admissions Program in its rare “oversight” hearing this past week.

What you can do!

LOL! Have some fun in Minnesota and complain about closed meetings to your US Senator Amy Klobuchar who was running her mouth about more openness in government earlier this year!   She wants increased government transparency and accountability.  Tell her to start here!  We are told after all, that this is a federal program!