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At Miami college founded by Cubans exiled under communism, officials shut down pro-capitalism club

After granting the pro-capitalism club Turning Point USA tabling rights on campus last fall, administrators at St. Thomas University founded in 1961 by Augustinians expelled from Cuba by the communist Castro dictatorship have revoked that permission.

In an email obtained by The College Fix, Carmen Brown, an administrator at the Miami-based Catholic university, recently wrote to the clubs field director Driena Sixto that the organizations foul language does not align with the schools Catholic principles, thus they are prohibited from promoting their cause on campus.

In reviewing your organization, including its website, we found that your organizations use of foul language is offensive to the very principle of what we stand for in our Catholic core values as an institution. Therefore, we regret to inform you that we are not approving your organizations presence on our campus, Brown wrote in the March 16 email.

Brown did not respond when Sixto asked for clarification about the allegation, though Sixto told The Fix she believes the administration might have taken issue with TPUSAs slogans Big Government Sucks and Socialism Sucks. But when Sixto asked Brown specifically if this was the language to which she referred, she said Brown directed her to the schools lawyer, who also did not reply. Brown also did not respond to The College Fixs requests for comment.

Matt Lamb, director of campus integrity for Turning Point USA, called the administrations decision troubling.

The school invokes a broad opposition to foul language to keep a free-market, conservative group off of campus, Lamb told The Fix via email. The higher-ups in the school administration frequently dodged requests to speak with us, and then failed to keep their facts straight.

Sixto, who is not a student at the school but rather a field director that helps college students in the Miami area launch and maintain Turning Point USA chapters, shared a strongly worded email with The College Fix that she sent to St. Thomas students who had signed up to be a part of the group.

In an ironic turn of events, the school that was founded in 1961 by Augustinians that were expelled from Cuba by the communist Castro dictatorship is now a school where conservative values and freedom of expression are undesired, thanks to complaints of left-wing, and self-declared communist/socialist faculty members, Sixto wrote.

She also pointed out that Turning Point USA in fact stands for the same principles of limited government that the Catholic Archdiocese of Miami has invoked in their lawsuit against a government mandate, which forces employers to subsidize abortion-inducing contraceptives.

Whats more, TPUSA is the largest student group at Barry University, a Catholic University similar to St. Thomas and both schools receive funding from the Archdiocese of Miami, Sixto noted.

In a separate email she sent in mid-March to St. Thomas students, Sixto said she believes at the crux of the issue is professors who do not like the groups free-market message.

A couple of self-declared socialist professors on campus complained about having me on campus promoting capitalism and free markets, and apparently it triggered them enough to go complain and have me shut down. This is what socialists, communists and the left customarily do anywhere in the world, Sixto wrote. Since their ideas are so bad and go against the very concept of individual liberty and freedom they have a hard time selling it to others. Therefore the next step is to silence those who dont agree with them through censorship.

Nearly six universities over the last two years have refused club status to TPUSA, though the chapters have eventually overcome most of these fights with the help of free-speech supporting organizations such as the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Lamb said he is hopeful that a similar outcome will be possible at St. Thomas. Sixto has implored the administration, university president, and the archdiocese of Miami to reconsider their decision.

We look forward to the university reconsidering their decision, Lamb said.

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About the Author

Kate Hardiman is a student at the University of Notre Dame majoring in the Program of Liberal Studies and minoring in the Philosophy, Political Science, and Economics (PPE) Program. She serves as campus editor of the Irish Roverand is a fellow of both the Constitutional Studies Department and Center for Ethics and Culture. She interned at The Hillin Washington D.C. for the summer of 2015 and has had articles published there, as well as onMinding the Campus.

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At Miami college founded by Cubans exiled under communism, officials shut down pro-capitalism club - The College Fix

Forbes

A Century Ago Woodrow Wilson Took America Into WWI: Blame Him For Communism, Fascism And Nazism Forbes A century ago Congress declared war on Imperial Germany. It was a bizarre decision: the secure New World voluntarily joined the Old World slaughterhouse, consigning more than 117,000 Americans to death for no intelligible reason. The chief outcome of ... and more »

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A Century Ago Woodrow Wilson Took America Into WWI: Blame Him For Communism, Fascism And Nazism - Forbes

ROME (CNS) -- In an Italian nature reserve surrounded by a forest inhabited by wild boar and foxes, a group of families is seeking to embrace the lifestyle of New Testament-era Christians.

"In the Acts of the Apostles, it is written that they lived with one soul and heart and held all things in common," said Susanna Scifoni, a member of the Nomadelfia community on the outskirts of Rome.

Following that principle, community members live together and share the responsibilities involved in their work of welcoming visitors and with cooking, cleaning and gardening for the community. They grow bok choy, fennel, lettuce, spinach and chicory, raise chickens and assist their local parish in its Caritas operation.

Nomadelfians, as they are sometimes called, receive no pay for their work, but they also do not need money for anything within the group's 25-acre property.

"If work is an act of love, an act of love can't be paid for because it has a price that would be infinite," Scifoni, 24, told Catholic News Service.

"There should be neither servants nor masters, for we are all brothers and sisters," she said.

An Italian priest, Father Zeno Saltini, founded Nomadelfia in 1948, naming the community after the Greek expression meaning "the law of fraternity."

Paolo Matterazzo, 29, said that if the group's ideas sound revolutionary, they should.

"In the DOCAT," the Catholic Church's youth-oriented compendium of social teaching, it says, "if you want to be a Christian, in spirit you have to be revolutionary; if you aren't revolutionary, you aren't Christian," Matterazzo said.

Though there may be a temptation to compare some of Nomadelfia's ideas to communism, members said there are important differences between their economic philosophy and Marxist ideology.

Even Pope Francis has been accused of espousing communism when he promotes an economy based on solidarity and sharing. But, Matterazzo said, the pope has responded, "I am not communist; I am Christian."

"In communism there is no forgiveness," Matterazzo said. "Our purpose is to lead people to God."

And, he said, "communism wants everyone to be communist. We don't ask everyone to become a Nomadelfian."

Nomadelfia members have been encouraged by the pontificate of Pope Francis, who often critiques modern economic values and the "idolatry of money."

The pope "insists a lot on the fact that money should not govern but serve," Scifoni said.

While relationships within the community are money-free, Nomadelfia does accept donations for the community's upkeep and uses money in its relationship with the world, paying for tools, cars and supplies that make its religious life possible.

The challenges of living in common and sharing property are such that Nomadelfia members describe their lifestyle as impossible to sustain without a vocation to live it.

To avoid members becoming overly attached to possessions, or even to the family groups they live in, they rotate homes within the community every three years.

The life is clearly not for everyone. Nomadelfia members report that 70-80 percent of children raised in the community leave at 18 to seek work and a life in the world.

Some, though, leave for university or work only to discover later that God is calling them back to Nomadelfia.

Maria Paolucci, 28, moved into Nomadelfia with her family when she was 9. After leaving the community for university and spending time traveling internationally, she decided to return to Nomadelfia last September.

Having an experience of the outside world "reinforced the idea that Nomadelfia could be a response to many of today's problems, starting with those of the family, problems of loneliness," Paolucci said. For such social ills, living in "a community context is undoubtedly a winning proposal."

Nomadelfia's main campus is located near Grosseto in the region of Tuscany, where the group of 60 families owns 990 acres of rural land and runs its own school for the children raised within the community. The smaller branch located in Rome occupies buildings once part of a Benedictine convent, and it has a special mission of evangelization.

"We want to show that even today, despite everything, even in cities like Rome where we are now, it is possible to live out the principles proposed by the Gospel," Scifoni said.

Nomadelfia's Rome site, called the John Paul II Center for Spirituality, welcomes 2,000 visitors each year. Carlo Sbaraglia, the 67-year-old in charge, said there is a cultural reason more people are inquiring about their way of life.

The growing interest in Nomadelfia Sbaraglia reports coincides with a broader international interest in alternative Christian communities.

For example, Rod Dreher's new book, "The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation," details the approach of many such communities and landed on the New York Times' best-seller list last month in the United States.

"Many people are looking for a new world to live in," he said, pointing out that despite modern means of communications, "there is a lot of loneliness."

There is a need to rediscover human relationships that are "not fiction, not online, but real, authentic, concrete," Sbaraglia said.

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Christian, not communist: Catholics in Rome embrace counterculture - Catholic News Service

Foreign Policy (blog)

It's Not Communism Holding China's Youth Back. It's Their Parents ... Foreign Policy (blog) I am the son of a Chinese democracy activist. My father went into exile in 1988; I was born in China and raised in England. But today, my father and I find ... and more »

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It's Not Communism Holding China's Youth Back. It's Their Parents ... - Foreign Policy (blog)

President Xi Jinpings China is becoming a more fearful place. The government has cracked down both on dissent and contact with the West. Religious persecution also is rising: the Communist god that failed fears competition.

A new Freedom House report, The Battle for Chinas Spirit: Religious Revival, Repression, and Resistance under Xi Jinping, details how the authorities have intensified many of their restrictions, resulting in an overall increase in religious persecution since Xi took power in November 2012.

The victims span the faith spectrum: A Taoist disciple joins the order without knowing when he will be admitted to the priesthood. Dozens of Christians are barred from celebrating Christmas together. Tibetan monks are forced to learn reinterpretations of Buddhist doctrine during a patriotic reeducation session. A Uighur Muslim farmer is sentenced to nine years in prison for praying in a field. And a 45-year-old father in northeastern China dies in custody days after being detained for practicing Falun Gong.

This certainly doesnt sound like a nation that addresses the world with growing confidence. Instead, persecution reveals a leadership that is nervous, even fearful. Communism as a serious ideology is dead. The Chinese Communist Party is filled with ambitious time-servers, people too smart to believe Marxist and Maoist nonsense but too venal to reject the fictions by which Chinas rulers justify their power.

The Peoples Republic of China was born in 1949. Mao Zedong and his fellow revolutionaries rejected the past and the West. The regime also insisted on being the only object of affection by the people. However, in the early years Beijings policy toward religion varied over time between pragmatic neglect and vicious persecution. The latter characterized the Cultural Revolution, a period of madness orchestrated by Mao.

However, his death, followed by reforms which provided greater economic freedom and personal autonomy, expanded the space for expressions of religious faith. Once granted, that liberty is not easily retracted. Indeed, Freedom House found that believers have responded with a surprising degree of resistance, including in faith communities that have generally enjoyed cooperative relationships with state and party officials.

Indeed, just as it is not entirely certain that Xi stands on the mountaintop as opposed to a precipice, so too it is not clear whether in persecuting believers the CCP is demonstrating strength or weakness. For there is no quicker way to turn religious believers into anti-government activists than to attack their faith. Repression begets resistance.

Explains Freedom House: Rather than checking religions natural expansion and keeping it under political control, the CCPs rigid constraints have essentially created an enormous black market, forcing many believers to operate outside the law and to view the regime as unreasonable, unjust, or illegitimate. Combine that with broad public antagonism over pervasive corruption, and the CCP is facing a well-earned crisis of legitimacy.

Worse from Beijings viewpoint, religious believers are adopting tactics which can easily be adapted for political protests. Detailed the report: Christians, including those in the state-sanctioned patriotic associations, have published joint letters, boycotted ceremonies, worshiped outdoors, asserted their legal rights, and physically blocked demolitions or cross removals. Many Christians also employ more subtle tactics to reduce the impact of state controls, such as incorporating religious outreach into charity work, attending private mountainside trainings, or cultivating cooperative relations with local officials. Xi & Co. may regret what they have inadvertently triggered.

Every variant of Marxism views religion, especially organized faiths, as a threat. Last year Xi declared that CCP members must be unyielding Marxist atheists. We should guide and educate the religious circle and their followers. Of course, for him guidance means brutal repression if necessary. Whether Xi is a committed atheist by belief or simply an authoritarian realist who understands the challenge posed by religious faith is not clear, though in this case the results are the same.

Freedom House estimates there are some 350 million believers in China, more than a fourth of the population. There may be 185 million to 250 million Buddhists, 60 million to 80 million Protestant Christians, 21 million to 23 million Muslims, 7 million to 20 million Falun Gong practitioners, 12 million Catholic Christians, and 6 million to 8 million Tibetan Buddhists. (There are no numbers for Taoists.)

Persecution is low to very low for Taoists, Chinese Buddhists, and Hui Muslims. Catholics face moderate restrictions; Protestants high persecution. Very high levels of repression are applied to Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, and Falun Gong.

Xis record has been negative, but not entirely so. Falun Gong practitioners are slightly better off, though not out of any sense of communist benevolence. Explains Freedom House: the imprisonment of former security czar Zhou Yongkang and other officials associated with the campaign as part of Xis anti-corruption drive, together with Falun Gong adherents efforts to educate and discourage policy from persecuting them, have had an impact.

Catholics also may be doing slightly better despite some forced cross removals because relations between Beijing and the Vatican have warmed since March 2013. Their status might improve further if the two sides reach agreement on the appointment of bishops.

Little has changed for Taoists and Chinese Buddhists. Indeed, Xi appears to view both as tools for realizing the partys political and economic goals at home and abroad. Hui Muslims are somewhat worse off, suffering some intensified restrictions and Islamophobia. So, too, Tibetan Muslims, who face some new measures punishing assistance to self-immolators, canceling previously permitted festivals, increasing intrusive restrictions on private religious practice, and more proactively manipulating Tibetan Buddhist doctrine.

Uighur Muslims face greater persecution. Details Freedom House: Controls on religion have deepened and expanded in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Moreover, Authorities have launched new campaigns to more closely monitor smartphone usage and force businesses to sell alcohol, while incidents of security forces opening fire on Uighur civilians have become more common.

Also topping the Xi governments recent campaign are Protestants. Over the last three years local authorities have intensified efforts to stem the spread of Christianity amid official rhetoric about the threat of Western values and the need to Sinicize religions. As the larger of the two main Christians denominations in China, Protestants have been particularly affected by cross-removal and church-demolition campaigns, punishment of state-sanctioned leaders, and the arrest of human rights lawyers who take up Christians cases.

Freedom Houses findings are backed by other analysts and organizations. For instance, the State Department issues an annual report on religious liberty. The latest issue points to reports that the government physically abused, detained, arrested, tortured, sentenced to prison, or harassed adherents of both registered and unregistered religious groups for activities relating to their religious beliefs and practices. Human rights organizations stated police shot and killed Uighur Muslims during house raids and protests after conflicts arose due to stricter government controls on religious expression and practice in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. A Falun Gong group reported abductions, detention, and a death in police custody.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom rates the PRC as a Country of Particular Concern for its systematic, egregious, and ongoing abuses. The violations of religious liberty are widespread: the central and/or provincial governments continued to forcibly remove crosses and bulldoze churches, implement a discriminatory and at times violent crackdown on Uighur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists and their rights; and harass, imprison, or otherwise detain Falun Gong practitioners, human rights defenders, and others.

Of course, summary judgments and statistics sometime obscure the individual and community hardship involved. Believers die, go to prison, and lose their livelihoods while attempting to live out their faiths. Religious persecution is a crime, not a policy.

Despite all the bad news detailed by Freedom House and others, not everything is negative. Freedom House notes positive developments, such as a warming relationship between the Vatican and Beijing, and reduced persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, in part because of the purge of hostile local officials. Most important, despite intensive and repressive efforts, religious beliefs and groups have survived or spread, representing a remarkable failure of the partys repressive capability. Meanwhile, official actions are generating resentment, assertiveness, and activism among populations that might previously have been apolitical and largely content with CCP rule.

In short, while the hardship faced by individual believers is very real, the long term prospects for religious liberty look promising. After all, religious faith is deeply rooted in China, far more than communism. For instance, Christianity is thought to have come to China in the 7thcentury. Either Chinas rulers come to their political senses and choose to accommodate religious believers. Or Beijing continues on its current repressive course, making political upheaval and the collapse of communist rule more likely. Either way, the Chinese people eventually will be free to worship God as they wish.

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As a Religion, Chinese Communism Has Failed: Rising Persecution ... - American Spectator