9-12-2023 2:06pm

John Blocks Attack on Religion and First Amendment Rights

Chris Edwards Editor

Defending the 2nd Amendment, Rep. John Block lost credibility attacking the exercise of 1st Amendment freedoms.

Radicalized, Proud Boys embraced, New Mexico State Representative, John Block returning from his 3 minutes of Fox News fame feels empowered to take aim at individuals exercising their 1st Amendment rights while simultaneously attempting to defend 2nd Amendment rights.

Block’s battle to condemn the Governor and embrace the constitution is severely undermined and show’s hypocrisy, when he attacks the 1st amendment and exercise thereof.

Block lost all credibility of support for his embrace of constitutional law and even religious liberty in a post he placed on social media 9-12-23.

Mr Block posted an attack on a group of individuals independent of party that met for a training session on how to canvas and how to register individuals to vote.

A meeting was hosted not by “party” but by individuals wanting to expand voter outreach and education.

The meeting space at the Unitarian Universalist Church was rented out, as a public space, for an educational meeting to better understand the tools of community engagement and canvassing by the a group of individuals as an educational resource.

Present at the event were about 20 individuals from a variety of economic and political backgrounds. Present were Democrats, Independents and Republicans seeking information on how the canvassing process works and an explanation of tools available via the County Clerks office or via online from the League of Women’s Voters.

Provoking the attack from radicalized Block was a post by Jeny Buckley who goes by the pseudonym GroguSimp on TikTok. She posted a video encouraging individuals to join the “educational workshop”

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRWoxonP/

Ms. Buckley’s post was a simple informational post. Mr. Block however wanted to turn a simple 1st Amendment protected educational gathering into something sinister and in the process attack a church as a “leftist church,” whatever that is supposed to even mean?

A church that teaches the Christian Bible is just that a Christian Church.

However the meeting was not hosted by the church but by a private individual that rented the space for a meeting.

Interesting, that Mr. Block would attack a Christian institution, given that he is an out loud homosexual, partnered with Alamogordo City Commissioner Karl Melton.

Per Wikipedia:

In the past, hypocritical John Block, has suggested an attack on a church or religious organizations is directly out of the playbook of the “gay agenda,” and an “attack on Christian values” and yet he today, attacked a Christian Church, calling it a “leftist church.

Let’s dissect Blocks post further:

The only truth to the post by Mr Block is that the local Democratic Party has imploded and was disbanded (pending investigations by DPNM.)

From there, Block propagates, as usual a pack of misinformation to garner hysteria.

The educational gathering was not “Democrats sneaking around,” the meeting was an open to the public, posted obviously online and via a video invite with dialog that consisted of individuals that were Republican, Democratic, Independent and Decline to States present. Far from sneaking around!

Mr Block then proceeds to claim that the church by renting out event space had violated the Johnson Amendment which outlines can dos and cannot dos for 501c3 chartered organizations.

If one wants to question the political activities of 501C3 organizations, and or churches, then Mr Block should look near his own back door and activities he has participated in.

Antimask rallies, “voter suppression sessions” with Erin Clements at Flickinger and Grace Baptist Church, would be examples that come into play that the IRS should investigate, based on John Blocks interpretation. Those partisan and politicized events have direct ties to the John Block driven political agenda.

On the church property of Grace Baptist today a candidate sign for Shannon Wright is posted. (Note: this maybe simply a mistake by the Wright campaign but the placement is questionable to the application of the Johnson Amendment)

But, Mr Block ignores that political act that is indeed a violation of the Johnson Amendment. The hypocrisy is always evident in the grandstanding by Mr. Block and condoned by his partner, City Commissioner, Karl Melton.

But let’s dissect that final piece on the Johnson Amendment the IRS issued a statement to quantify what is legal and illegal behavior of a 501c3 organization. The asserting by Block that the Johnson Amendment was violated as false. First the educational forum on Monday night was NOT hosted by the church but was hosted by a private group which rented the community space of the church.

Thus it was not a church sponsored event. The IRS is very clear in allowing such activities but for a clarification here is a link to an IRS advisory…
https://tr.ee/h8p-i8Wt3E

And is is true form to Alamogordo and the political debates of social media; Ms Buckley, pseudonym GroguSimp thanked John Block for becoming a new fan to her TikTok page and responded via a new video. In that video she responds to his disinformation, shows an image of him seated next to a convicted pedophile and challenges his assertions. To via her response click on the link below. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRWo44Yu/

Mr Block is effective in stirring controversy, for his constituents however he is ineffective as a legislator.

Commentary: Is John Block effective or Ineffective as a legislator?

An 11% success rate in sponsored legislation. You decide.

Sadly if one review his record of his first term as a representative one sees he has an 11% effectiveness ratio; of the 18 House bills sponsored by Mr. Block 14 did not make it any further than to be “introduced.”

In layman’s terms, the bill did not garner enough interest nor deemed important enough to garner enough support in committee to debate its merits, thus never made it to full committee discussion. In sports an 11% success ratio would keep the athlete benched in baseball, football, soccer, basketball or even track and field. Mr. Block is not showing signs of building a winning record.

Examples of a few of those 14 failed attempts to get legislation to the floor for a vote include his bill to end the “Opportunity Scholarships” this bill as written according to the analysis report would have also ended the lottery scholarship program thus ending state sponsored scholarships.
Other Block introduced failures were an act prohibiting the Teachings of Critical Race Theory, (it’s not taught as part of curriculum as that’s a university level curriculum), an act relating to education restricting word usage specifically the word "LATINX" and “similar words” in universities, public schools and in classroom materials. This bill sponsorship is ironic, considering Mr. Blocks boyfriend, Karl Melton, works with an organization called Teaching Strategies which has white papers on diversity education and sensitivity training…

https://teachingstrategies.com/blog/ell-assessment-preschool/

Fourteen clearly did not garner support for Committee debate. One made it to committee but no further and two were enacted into law.
The two enacted into law and both garnered significant support were, HB35 Free Cultural Services For Foster Families, and HB131 Prosthetic & Custom Orthotic Device Coverage. Bravo on the two and an 11% success average.

Mr. Block, let’s devote some time to learning how to get legislation past the home plate, and less time worried about meetings being conducted under the rights of the 1st Amendment. With a focus on good governance you just might increase that batting average of being a successful legislator up from an 11% success ratio.

Mr Block your constituents deserve better than 11% your constituents are paying for s winner!