FBI Targeting “Radical Traditional” Christians?

Now a leaked FBI document indicates that the agency is defining conservative Christians as a terrorist threat, to the point of recommending that churches be infiltrated by FBI informants.

Specifically, the report focuses on “Radical Traditional Catholics.”  Evita Duffy-Alfonso quotes from the document:

The January 23, 2023 document claims “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics” (RTCs) are “typically characterized by the rejection of the Second Vatican Council” (which allowed for Mass to be said in people’s spoken language) and their “adherence to anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ and white supremacist ideology.” According to the FBI, the threat comes from RTCs increasingly fraternizing with “Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists” (RMVE).

Also suspicious is that Radical-Traditionalist Catholics oppose “abortion rights.”

A photocopy of the report is posted at Uncover DC, which also published an accompanying analysis of the document by former FBI agent and whistleblower Kyle Seraphin.  He examines the report’s lack of evidence, poor sourcing, logical gaps, leaps to conclusions, and extreme leftwing bias.  He stresses that the report fails to meet the agency’s traditional standards for such a study and explains how these kinds of “intelligence investigations” are used.  You should read the whole article.  Seraphin’s conclusion is unsettling (my bolds):

There is no reason to expect Radical-Traditionalist Catholics are the end point of this train track – they will be the beginning. Opening the door to associating white supremacists with traditional religious practices based on common Christian positions on abortion and the LGBTQ political agendas is a dangerous step. Such investigations can easily lead to the same analysis of Radical Traditional Baptists, Radical Traditional Lutherans, and Radical Traditional Evangelicals. The FBI is forbidden from opening cases or publishing products based solely on First Amendment-protected activities. By tolerating the publishing of intelligence products as shoddy as this, they are crossing a line many Americans will find themselves on the wrong side of for the first time in history. This is what a politicalized FBI looks like; it should not be tolerated if Americans expect to enjoy the protections of our Bill of Rights.

Now that the document, from a Virginia field office, has been leaked, the FBI has retracted it, saying that it does not “open an investigation based solely on First Amendment protected activity.”  That is good to hear.  But we can’t help but wonder if there is also a file on “Radical Traditional Lutherans,” defined as those favoring Divine Service 3 in the Lutheran Service Book, for being pro-life and opposed to same-sex marriage.

And will those RTLs, along with the RTCs,  “Radical Traditional Baptists,” and “Radical Traditional Evangelicals” need to start screening converts to make sure they are not just undercover FBI informants trying to infiltrate their church?

At any rate, the document is evidence of a mindset within the agency that would like to turn the FBI into a KGB, a totalitarian secret police.

Photo:  FBI demonstration via Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, Public Domain