BARR SAYS NO FAITH, NO LIBERTY: Candor and truth from the Attorney General’s recent address to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast:

“That crucial link between religion and liberty, so well understood at the Founding, is all too often forgotten today. In American public discourse, perhaps no concept is more misunderstood than the notion of ‘separation of church and state.’

“Militant secularists have long seized on that slogan as a facile justification for attempting to drive religion from the public square and to exclude religious people from bringing a religious perspective to bear on conversations about the common good.”

Confession: When President Donald Trump appointed William Barr to replace Jeff Sessions at the Department of Justice, I worried that choosing a Bush I administration retread signaled a worrisome choice to reach an accommodation with the GOP Establishment. I was wrong about Trump and Barr.

CHINA REWRITES JESUS WITH WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY: Just wait till He hears about this!

CAPITOL HILL BAPTIST CHURCH SUES DC MAYOR, GOVERNMENT: It’s tough to survive as a congregation when government officials bar any worship gatherings of 100 or more people, regardless if they are indoors or outdoors.

That’s why the 850-member Capitol Hill Baptist Church (CHBC) is suing Mayor Muriel Bowser and the District of Columbia government. Church leaders told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that for CHBC there is no theologically acceptable alternative to meeting together in person for fellowship and worship. Thus, the church has no virtual meeting capacity.

This suit could prove to be much more significant than at first glance it might appear because the D.C. government is the creation of Congress, which is itself explicitly barred by the First Amendment from prescribing what is acceptable worship practice and what is not.

There is also an element of basic hypocrisy, as the church pointed out in its filing:

“Defendants have been discriminatory in their application of the ban on large scale gatherings. For example, on June 6, 2020, Mayor Bowser appeared personally at an outdoor gathering of tens of thousands of people at the corner of 16th and H Streets, NW and delivered a speech describing the large gathering as ‘wonderful to see.’”

The church is represented by the First Liberty Institute of Plano, Texas, which has successfully defended multiple individuals and congregations that have tangled with authorities as a result of Covid-19 enforcement policies.

SURVEY FINDS MILLENNIALS THE MOST INTOLERANT GENERATION: They are also most likely to seek revenge against those they believe harmed them, according to the 2020 edition of Dr. George Barna, research director for the Center for Cultural Resources at Arizona Christian University.

But here’s a question for us: Should we Baby Boomers put a hold on our tut-tutting, since we raised the Millennials and allowed the public school system and the media-driven culture to inculcate values like intolerance of contrary opinions?

A SINGLE RAY OF HOPE IN THE FETID, DARK BIZARRO-WORLD OF ACADEMIA: Converse College Associate Professor of Politics Joel Poelvoorde still has his job despite refusing to take mandatory “diversity” training.

U.S. SANCTIONS FORCE RUSSIA TO CUT DEFENSE SPENDING: Let me get this straight —OrangeManBad is a tool of the Russkies, so OrangeManBad imposed sanctions on the Russkies that are so tough they had to reduce military spending? Uh, what am I missing here?

HAS ANYBODY NOTICED THE TRUMP ECONOMY IS HUMMING? Despite the Covid-19 lockdown, the American economy is beating all kinds of expectations.

COURT-PACKING COMING IF BIDEN WINS: And boy, Hans Bader explains, it’s not going to be good for America.

SHOULD DR. SCOTT ATLAS SUE HIS DETRACTORS? One can only hope.

NOW WHY WOULD BLM GO AND DO THAT? Delete their About page that talked about disrupting the nuclear family and much more toward the end of Western civilization, Christianity and capitalism.

TRUMP KILLED REAGAN CONSERVATISM OR RESCUED IT? Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal is out with an arresting book assessing how the conservative movement that swept Ronald Reagan into the White House in 1980 ended up split in major ways over Donald Trump’s time in the Oval Office.

Having lived and worked through this epoch in American political history, there is more than a little of Seib’s analysis that I find inadequate, but this statement by Samuel Gregg in his review of “We Should Have Seen It Coming” is not part of those doubts:

“The push to deepen America’s economic engagement with China may have begun with the Clinton administration but it was a Republican administration which assented to China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in December 2001. The consensus was that greater immersion into global markets would increasingly liberalize China and its regime. That calculation lies in tatters today.”

It does indeed and you would be hard-pressed to find anybody on the Right today willing to argue the U.S. should reverse course in its present resistance to Chinese expansion around the globe. Gregg uses his Steib review as a tool for his own assessment of where the Right has been and where it is going. I’d be very interested in how Instapunditeers view Gregg’s analysis.

THESE MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS REJECT COVID LOCKDOWNS: This open letter to Belgian health authorities to date has signatures of 401 medical doctors, 1,375 medically trained health professionals and 9,141 private citizens

WHAT KILLED MICHAEL BROWN? Historian Shelby Steele’s new documentary provides the answers sure to outrage BLM, the Squad, the Biden Brigades, the MSM, and pretty much everybody on elite and state-run campuses. Here’s the trailer:

MAYBE IT’S TIME TO RECONSIDER CROMWELL: Paul Lay’s new book, “Providence Lost,”  will either become the focus of another academic book-burning episode, or it will go mostly unnoticed. Either outcome would be a loss for the Republic.

Daniel Johnson’s excellent review for Law & Liberty of Lay’s book illustrates why thoughtful folks with a passion for understanding the historical, spiritual and legal roots of the American Revolution and Constitution should get “Providence Lost” before it’s banned.

WILL THIS ‘OCTOBER SURPRISE’ RE-ELECT TRUMP?

OUTBREAK OF COMMON SENSE REPORTED AT EEOC: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against the Kroger grocery store chain for violating the First Amendment religious freedom rights of two employees who declined to wear a uniform apron bearing the LGBQT symbol.

IS BEING GAY GENETIC? Don’t hear much these days about the search for the definitive “gay gene,” but advocates on both sides of the issue ought to be careful about pronouncing that science “proves” this or science “disproves” that.

DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH WAITING TO SEE THIS STORY IN THE MSM: Hunter Biden allegedly offered to use his access to official Washington in return for a $5 million investment in his business by China, according to The Washington Free Beacon’s Alana Goodman.

The technical term for this kind of thing is “influence peddling,” but the New York Times, Washington Post, et. al. have more important stories to report, like the former Pence aide who will vote for Joe Biden.

GOTTA ADMIRE THIS MAN’S SPUNK: Pastor John MacArthur says he will start a jail ministry if California authorities arrest him for holding indoor services at Grace Community Church in Los Angeles County.

DOES TRUMP HAVE BIDEN ON THE ROPES? Bill Powell at Newsweek thinks so. Me, not so much, though a landslide could be lurking out there if pollsters are again missing the actual depth of Trump’s support as they did in 2016.

CALIFORNIA CHURCH CAVED OR CONQUERED? North Valley Baptist Church faced more than $50,000 in fines for holding indoor services in defiance of Gov. Gavin Newsome’s draconian Covid restrictions.

Now the church is meeting outdoors in its parking lot and its senior pastor praises the health official who enforced the fines against his congregation. Some would say the church caved, others that it’s just being prudent. What do you think?

PLEASE, MR. PRESIDENT, DO NOT ‘GROW’ IN THE OFFICE: Two recent decisions by The Donald provide worrisome signs the Swamp may be sneaking up on the chief executive who has wracked up more conservative achievements than even Ronald Reagan.

NOW WE KNOW: If you wondered if there is a China link to BLM, wonder no more.

WHAT THE 60S RIOTS TELL US ABOUT TODAY’S VIOLENCE: Katharine Gorka remembers it well and she brings together the story of Gene Methvin, Ben Mandel and Steve Posony. This post is essential reading.

EXPECT MORE COVID RESTRICTIONS: If you think Covid restrictions like California’s ridiculously detailed anti-indoor church regs are going away any time soon, Dr. Anthony Fauci has some news for you. Hint: You ain’t gonna like it.