House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan issued a subpoena on April 10 requesting that Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray provide information about his agency spying on local churches.

According to Representative Jordan’s subpoena, the fbi infiltrated Catholic parishes in order to investigate “domestic violent extremism.” Yet a memo leaked in February reveals that the fbi relied on reports from the notoriously biased Southern Poverty Law Center as an excuse to monitor “traditionalist Catholics.” So there is a realistic chance the fbi violated American’s freedom of speech, worship and assembly in order to spy on a group of people that the Southern Poverty Law Center says is rife with “anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-lgbtq and white supremacist ideology.”

Domestic surveillance: The Obama administration spied on millions of Americans without a warrant and particularly targeted conservatives. The 2009 Homeland Security report “Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment” stated that “right-wing extremists” could use the state of the economy and the election of the nation’s first black president to recruit members. It admitted that officials had no information about planned attacks. Yet it spotlighted the following threats: anti-government conspiracy theorists, those opposed to abortion, those opposed to immigration, and those who believe in “end times” prophecies.

Representative Jordan’s current investigation is about fbi surveillance of traditionalist Catholic groups, but other government reports single out fundamentalist Protestants, those who believe that Americans are descended from ancient Israel, and those who are associated with Herbert W. Armstrong as potential religious extremists (Homeland Security Affairs Journal, July 2006).

Religious persecution: Jesus Christ prophesied that just before His return to Earth, His followers would be persecuted for their beliefs. When His disciples asked Him for a sign of His Second Coming and the end of the world, He answered: “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. … Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake” (Matthew 24:4-5, 9). When Christ said His followers would be “hated of all nations,” He certainly included America among them. This means the First Amendment protection Americans have enjoyed for over two centuries will erode to the point that true believers can once again be persecuted for their beliefs by out-of-control governments.

Learn more: Read “What Will Happen to Religious Freedom?”