(RNS) — A conservative Catholic bishop in Texas praised a speech by actor Jim Caviezel this week, lauding remarks that included criticism of Pope Francis and have been delivered at a convention linked to QAnon.
Bishop Joseph Strickland, who heads the Diocese of Tyler and is understood for his controversial model of conservatism, tweeted out a hyperlink to an internet site praising Caviezel’s speech on Monday (Oct. 25), with the prelate insisting “all must pay attention” to its message. By then a clip of the speech had already been extensively shared on social media by which the actor recites a line from Mel Gibson’s 1995 film “Braveheart.”
“You may take our lives, however you may by no means take our freedom,” shouted Caviezel, who portrayed Jesus in Gibson’s 2004 movie “The Ardour of the Christ.”
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Caviezel then added a faith-fueled addendum that seemed to be at the very least partly of his personal design.
“Each man dies. Not each many actually lives,” he stated. “We should combat for that genuine freedom and reside, my buddies. By God we should reside. And with the Holy Spirit as your protect and Christ as your sword, might you be part of St. Michael and all of the angels in defending God and sending Lucifer and his henchman straight proper again to hell the place they belong.”
Jim Caviezel provides a speech riddled with non secular fanaticism and Q propaganda on the QAnon convention in Las Vegas. pic.twitter.com/9gugWfoyaG
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) October 25, 2021
The speech passed off on the “For God & Nation: Patriot Double Down” convention convened in Las Vegas over the weekend. In response to the Las Vegas Solar, the gathering featured an array of controversial conservative audio system, together with those that have unfold misinformation about COVID-19 and conspiracy theories related to the QAnon motion.
The audio system additionally included Couy Griffin, a pastor and founding father of Cowboys for Trump who has stated he believes former President Donald Trump was “ordained by God.” Griffin led a prayer on the riot on Jan. 6 and was later arrested upon his return to the Washington, D.C., space. Clips of Griffin from the convention present him declaring participation within the riot as a “badge of honor,” though he insisted he didn’t interact in violence that day. (He additionally expressed frustration he and folks arrested for his or her function within the riot didn’t obtain extra assist from Trump.)
The extensively shared clip of Caviezel didn’t present his full speech, however a longer video suggests it was largely a recitation of President Ronald Reagan’s 1964 “A Time for Selecting” tackle — however with new non secular references, anti-mask sentiment, modern-day conservative causes and QAnon conspiracy theories inserted into Reagan’s traces.
Whereas Reagan stated “we can’t purchase our safety, our freedom from the specter of the bomb,” Caviezel declared “we can’t purchase our safety as ‘one nation below God,’ our freedoms in Christ our Savior from the specter of the satan any longer.” Equally, whereas Reagan used the time period “Iron Curtain” to confer with Soviet Russia, Caviezel tailored the speech to say “thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of little youngsters now caught behind the iron curtain of sex-trafficking and abortion” — a doable homage to the conspiratorial QAnon perception in widespread baby intercourse trafficking perpetrated by a secret cabal of Democratic Devil worshippers.
Caviezel, a Catholic, additionally inserted an implicit condemnation of his non secular opponents — together with the pope. The place Reagan insisted “each lesson of historical past tells us that the higher threat lies in appeasement, and that is the specter our well-meaning liberal buddies refuse to face,” Caviezel amended the road barely to specify, “Christian liberal buddies.”
He additional added he was referring to “our clergymen, our pastors and now, sadly, even our pope” earlier than returning to Reagan’s suggestion that appeasement “provides no selection between peace and struggle, solely between combat or give up.”
Caviezel’s closing remarks additionally appeared to make reference to “the storm,” a perception standard amongst QAnon devotees that Trump would forged out evil forces from positions of energy.
“We’re headed into the storm of all storms,“ he stated. “Sure, the storm is upon us.”