In its December 22, 2001, edition, World Magazine, the best-known news magazine of the conservative evangelical world, named then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft its “Daniel of the Year.” Among the things that Ashcroft did that year to earn this honor from the evangelical community was to help push the Patriot Act through Congress as a “tool” to fight terrorism, which came to our shores with a vengeance on the previous September 11. Today, that law that World and other Christian supporters of the Bush administration stood behind, even as it demolished legal protections that people had enjoyed for hundreds of years, now is being used to destroy a family of Christian homeschoolers. Somehow, one doubts that the editors of World will pay attention, but they should. (Note: I have heard from World publisher Joel Belz, who has informed me that after being notified by me, his publication is going to look into the story.) As eloquently noted by Will Grigg, the U.S. Government is holding 16-year-old Ashton Lundeby of Oxford, North Carolina (a state that apparently wishes to have a national monopoly on injustice) incommunicado because of the powers granted to it by the Patriot Act, that same act that World’s “Daniel of the Year” helped to impose upon us. Grigg already has explained this case in detail, and I do not need to plow the same ground. However, I will point out that years ago, I warned the publisher of World and other evangelical activists that the laws and policies of the Bush administration that they were championing in time would be used against evangelicals themselves. One high-level evangelical and I had been friends dating back almost 35 years, but we pretty much ended our communications because he could not stand the idea that I thought the Bush administration was becoming tyrannical. So, we now see the handiwork of the evangelical effort to give authoritarian powers to the state. A 16-year-old boy is being held in secret by the government, even though the “evidence” against him is spotty at best and downright non-existent at worst. Furthermore, this 120-pound youngster is facing interrogations given by experienced FBI agents that almost surely will break him down, leading him to “confess” to anything the FBI wants him to say. Did he kill JFK? Yes. Did he shoot Bobby Kennedy? Yes! Was he the main planner of 9-11? Yes!! I have no doubt that the FBI will coerce a “confession” from this lad, a “confession” that everyone in the room – and the courtroom, when he is led to it in chains – will know is a lie. However, the government never lies, and once it holds someone under this execrable act, it never admits a wrongful arrest and certainly there are no wrongful charges. The irony is that the Lundebys are the kind of evangelical family that most likely supported the Patriot Act when it was trotted out and probably supported John Ashcroft when he was attorney general. I doubt any of them ever thought that this abominable piece of legislation would or could be used against them. After all, the Patriot Act was written to fight terrorism. Only now, they find that the Patriot Act never was meant to deal with “terrorism,” but simply was another weapon in the state’s arsenal against humanity. Even though there is some publicity in this case, nonetheless the major news outlets are ignoring it. At this writing, I sent two emails with links to the case to the editor and to the publisher of World, but have heard nothing from them. In the case of the news outlets, one can understand their hostility to a family of evangelical homeschoolers, and I am sure that the New York Times would cheer on any effort by the state to harass, imprison, or kill these “enemies of the people.” In the case of World and other evangelical outlets, Ashton Lundeby is a reminder to them that they were at the forefront of enabling and encouraging the very destruction of the legal foundations that have held up our society for many years. For that matter, John Ashcroft lost his Senate election to a dead man in 2000 in large part because he opposed the appointment of a black man from his home state of Missouri because Ashcroft believed this judge would not be enthusiastic about state-promoted executions. So now, we see the Patriot Act which these Christians supported being used against a Christian family. Will the evangelicals speak out, or will they simply ignore the agony that this family is facing? So far, it seems to be the latter. May 8, 2009

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