Remembering
James Robison

You are viewing a page from our archive site. To browse the latest Christian TV content on The Stream, click here.

The Brew: Joe Biden’s Pardon of Hunter Is a Creepy Inversion of Jesus’s Atonement

By John Zmirak Published on December 3, 2024

Political commentators have been arguing the last two days about Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter — whom Joe appointed as the bagman for the Biden family business of politically driven shakedowns and bribes.

In case you forgot the long list of influence peddling around the world, which culminated in the U.S. currently risking a nuclear war with Russia, here’s a helpful timeline:

Some pundits suggest that Joe was only looking out for himself through all that, taking away any leverage an honest Department of Justice might have to make Hunter testify against other Biden famiglia capos, exposing the massive corruption that extended from Iraq to China to Ukraine.

No, Hunter won’t be able to plead the Fifth, now that he has immunity. But that doesn’t mean he will testify. Call him up before Congress, and he simply won’t show up. Or else he’ll show up and clam up. “What are you going to do, put me in jail?” he might sneer. And he’d be right. He’d count on our media, the Democrats, and the tame RINOs in Congress to call such a demand to testify against his family “personal retaliation” and “vindictive cruelty” if a Trump DOJ enforced the legal penalties for refusing a subpoena. (Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon can do time for that — and did, because the law only applies to conservatives and Christians.)

A father with plenary powers asks his son to commit many crimes on his behalf, then later remits that son’s guilt, imputing it instead to millions of innocent people who will pay the price for the sins of both the father and the son, who saunter off scot-free.

A few observers are playing on our heartstrings, pretending that loving dad Joe Biden is only trying to protect his poor, targeted son from retaliation by a suddenly, shockingly politicized DOJ. Imagine that: a federal government that targets its political opponents by weaponizing prosecutions. That can’t happen here.

Julie Kelly points out that Biden has removed whatever hesitation Trump might have felt about pardoning all the January 6 defendants — apart from feds like Ray Epps who provoked chaos and violence, then skated on any serious charges because … well, because they were feds. She writes at her Substack:

I tip my hat to Joe Biden for laying the groundwork for President-elect Donald Trump to offer similarly generous clemency to all January 6 defendants on Day One of his presidency. That’s not to say Trump is not already considering such a plan — but Biden’s claims that his own DOJ “selectively” and “unfairly” targeted his son will be delicious words for J6 pardon-detractors to eat when the time comes. So too will Biden’s accusations that “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”

This from the man whose DOJ not only initiated two investigations into his predecessor, which led to an armed raid of Mar-a-Lago and historic federal criminal indictments against Trump and codefendants, but whose DOJ also continues to investigate, arrest, prosecute, and imprison Americans involved in protesting the rigged 2020 presidential election.

Biden’s unprecedented persecution of J6ers has become a rallying cry among the MAGA base; while most Republican political leaders ignored their plight, Trump did not. On the campaign trail, Trump often promised to pardon the more than 1,500-and-counting Americans ensnared in the most abusive and politically motivated federal prosecution in the DOJ’s history.

Students for Life of American President Kristan Hawkins reminds us of the pro-lifers also serving time for peaceful protests:

Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.

I think we need to wake up and smell the spiritual warfare. There’s something eerily theological, even soteriological, about Joe Biden’s decision. Consider these two scenarios:

A father with plenary powers asks his son to serve as an innocent scapegoat for the sin-ridden many whom both of them deeply love — and that son agrees, taking on their guilt and punishment so that the mass of guilty sinners can join him and his father in a community of agape, self-giving love.

And:

A father with plenary powers asks his son to commit many crimes on his behalf, then later remits that son’s guilt, imputing it instead to millions of innocent people who will pay the price for the sins of both the father and the son, who saunter off scot-free.

The Biden family is a point-by-point demonic parody of the Trinity, and this pardon is a dark inversion of the economy of salvation. It stinks of brimstone.

But if there’s a silver lining to it that gets innocent patriots out of prison, maybe it’s worth it in the short term. God will settle it in His own way later.

Tina Peters’s Persecutors Were Actually Working for Dominion Election Systems

Remember Tina Peters? The heroic election official in Colorado who tried to preserve voting records when her corrupt colleagues wanted to wipe the data from the machines and who now sits in prison after a political prosecution? Joe Hoft’s report is a bombshell:

After Peters’ sentencing last month to nine years in prison — new information has surfaced showing that Colorado officials were working for Dominion and Runbeck, while simultaneously orchestrating Peters’ reputational and legal downfall through back channels.

Following the 2020 election, Tina Peters received notice from the Colorado Secretary of State, Jenna Griswold, that Dominion Voting Systems would be visiting her office to install a “trusted build” on her election system. The “trusted build” would overwrite the data that was stored on her computers. As the elected County Clerk and Recorder, Peters was the custodian of the election records and had a duty to preserve them for 25 months. So, Peters had a copy made of her central election computer to ensure that the records would be preserved prior to the “trusted build.” She also made another copy of the machine after the “trusted build.”

When the “before” copy of the original election files was analyzed by experts, it was discovered that the original election database was abandoned and a new database was created inside the software while the 2020 election was ongoing. In other words, it was like the Dominion software was keeping two sets of books on the election. The “after” copy of the database showed that Dominion had in fact deleted election records from the county’s machines, breaking state and federal law.

The election officials who enabled this fraud weren’t punished. In fact, they went after the whistleblower, Tina Peters:

For the sin of preserving Mesa County’s election records, Peters was charged and convicted of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty, and failing to comply with the secretary of state. The jury acquitted Peters of criminal impersonation, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, and identity theft. Peters has filed an appeal for multiple legal errors made by the court during her trial.

Go read the rest.

This is the kind of moral filth and legal outrage that the Trump administration must clean up at every level of government. My own father served under General George S. Patton in the occupation and de-Nazification of Germany. Decontaminating our own institutions, from the FBI to the courts, from lawless ideologues won’t prove any easier than the task he faced.

Along The Stream

Jules Gomes brings us the details on jihadis in Syria going door-to-door to massacre Christians in a new outbreak of violence in “Syrian Christians Face New Threat of Genocide from Muslim Jihadists.”

Meanwhile, Jason Jones, who has been advocating for Middle Eastern Christians since he opposed the U.S.’s war in Iraq in 2003, brings us an opinion piece on the same topic in “Voting Wasn’t Enough: Every American Christian Must Act Immediately to Stop U.S.-Backed Jihadists Killing Christians in Syria.” Jones has long fought efforts by neocons to replace the secular dictatorship in Syria with a jihadi dystopia. Now that hideous daydream of John McCain might be coming true, at the expense of a million Syrian Christians. Jason asks President Donald Trump to blow up the tracks on this genocide express — and explains the role you need to play in that personally.

 

John Zmirak is a senior editor at The Stream and author or coauthor of 14 books, including The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism. His newest book is No Second Amendment, No First.