Shame On The Presbyterian Church For Comparing Renee Good To MLK

On January 19, the nation will celebrate Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Unfortunately, his legacy is being dishonored this year by the public policy arm of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

To be exact, the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness, the advocacy group for the mainline Protestant denomination, recently compared the Minnesota woman who ran her car into an ICE agent to King. They said Renee Good was a martyr, just like the black minister.

The comparison is obscene.

In 1958, in King’s first book, Stride Toward Freedom, he described his own “pilgrimage to nonviolence.” He laid out six principles that would guide the nonviolent movement for civil rights. While all are apropos to this discussion, there is one that is strikingly relevant. He said that nonviolence seeks to win “friendship and understanding” of the adversary, not to humiliate him. He counseled love, not hatred.

Renee Good was the complete antithesis of what King stood for, which is why trying to hijack his contributions is patently offensive. Good was a professional left-wing zealot who rejected every tenet of civil disobedience. She did not seek “friendship and understanding” with ICE agents—she taunted, harassed and stalked them. Moreover, she trained others to do the same, leading convoys to impede law enforcement. Prior to the shooting, Good followed ICE agents to two locations, deliberately blocking the roadway. She did the same thing at the site of the incident, illegally parking her huge Honda Pilot in the middle of the road. Her female lover, Rebecca, was with her, and both carried whistles, the purpose of which was to alert illegal aliens that ICE agents were in the vicinity, thus obstructing the pursuit of justice.

When one of the ICE agent’s vehicles got stuck in the snow, his colleagues sought to push it free. That is when the anti-ICE agitators moved in: they harassed them, impeding them from doing their job. Rebecca, who exited the car driven by Renee, taunted the agents, “You wanna come at us? I say go get yourself some lunch, big boy. Go ahead.” When Rebecca tried to get back into the car, Good was asked to get out, but she wouldn’t budge. Rebecca, outside the car, shouted to Good, “drive, baby, drive, drive.” Good hit the gas, hitting an ICE agent, Jonathan Ross. That’s when he shot her. She was killed and he was taken to the hospital for treatment. Rebecca later reflected, “It’s my fault.” The agent involved had previously been dragged 50 yards by a vehicle operated by “a serial criminal illegal alien.” He could have been killed. No one can blame him for not wanting to endure the same experience again, which explains why he acted so quickly to defend himself. Anyone in his shoes would have done the same. He has since received multiple death threats for defending himself.

What Good did constitutes assault and battery. According to UCLA law professor Paul Bergman, assault is typically defined as “any intentional act that causes another person to fear an attack or imminent physical harm. This definition recognizes that placing another person in fear of bodily harm is itself an act deserving of punishment, even if the victim of the assault is not physically harmed.” Battery is a “completed” assault. Ross suffered internal bleeding as a result of being hit by Good. Ergo, despite chatter to the contrary, this is a clear case of assault and battery.

Renee Good’s blood is on the hands of the anti-ICE agitators. They are itching for a confrontation, and they have no interest in following the nonviolent model of Martin Luther King. Indeed, they have more in common with violent street gangs than they do practitioners of King’s philosophy and activism.

Shame on the Presbyterian Church (USA) for ripping off King’s work in service to their perverse agenda. He would want nothing to do with them.

Dr. William Donohue is the president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.