Upcoming FEMA Drills Involve Community Groups And Faith Based Organizations

As the FEMA website describes the Be Ready Sunday exercise,

In addition, another exercise scheduled to take place on April 27th, Formidable Footprint, organized and directed by FEMA in accordance with principles and guidelines set forward by the Department of Homeland Security.

The exercise is described on the FEMA website in the following way:

Formidable Footprint is also described as a “Virtual Event” on the FEMA website.

Such coordination between the federal government and local communities is concerning for a number of reasons, not least of which is the rapidly growing snitch culture that has blossomed in the United States. An even more concerning aspect of the recent exercises, however, is that they can easily be seen to exist as part of the DHS plan to further infiltrate and influence religious communities, churches, and community organizations.

Indeed, one need only remember the open establishment of the FEMA-based “Clergy Response Teams,” designed to facilitate the smoother transition from normal American life into a state of Martial Law and/or forced relocation. As Paul Joseph Watson described the program, the Clergy Response Teams are, quite simply, “training Pastors and other religious representatives to become secret police enforcers who teach their congregations to ‘obey the government’ in preparation for a declaration of martial law, property and firearm seizures, and forced relocation.”

Watson continued to describe the program when he wrote, in 2006,

In March of this year [2006] the Pastor, who we shall refer to as Pastor Revere, was invited to attend a meeting of his local FEMA chapter which circulated around preparedness for a potential bio-terrorist attack, any natural disaster or a nationally declared emergency.

The FEMA directors told the Pastors who attended that it was their job to help implement FEMA and Homeland Security directives in anticipation of any of these eventualities. The first directive was for Pastors to preach to their congregations Romans 13, the bible passage often taken out of context that was used by Hitler to hoodwink Christians into supporting him, in order to teach them to “obey the government” when martial law is declared.

It was related to the Pastors that quarantines, martial law and forced relocation were a problem for state authorities when enforcing federal mandates due to the “cowboy mentality” of citizens standing up for their property and second amendment rights, as well as farmers defending their crops and livestock from seizure. It was stressed that the Pastors needed to preach subservience to the authorities ahead of time in preparation for the round-ups and to make it clear to the congregation that “this is for their own good.”

Such a description of the program was actually confirmed by a report made by KSLA in a report entitled “Homeland Security Enlists Clergy to Quell Public Unrest if Martial Law Ever Declared.” The article read,

If martial law were enacted here at home, like depicted in the movie “The Siege”, easing public fears and quelling dissent would be critical. And that’s exactly what the ‘Clergy Response Team’ helped accomplish in the wake of Katrina.

Dr. Durell Tuberville serves as chaplain for the Shreveport Fire Department and the Caddo Sheriff’s Office. Tuberville said of the clergy team’s mission, “the primary thing that we say to anybody is, ‘let’s cooperate and get this thing over with and then we’ll settle the differences once the crisis is over.'”

Such clergy response teams would walk a tight-rope during martial law between the demands of the government on the one side, versus the wishes of the public on the other. “In a lot of cases, these clergy would already be known in the neighborhoods in which they’re helping to diffuse that situation,” assured Sandy Davis. He serves as the director of the Caddo-Bossier Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

For the clergy team, one of the biggest tools that they will have in helping calm down the public or to obey the law is the Bible itself, specifically Romans 13. Dr. Tuberville elaborated, “because the government’s established by the Lord, you know. And, that’s what we believe in the Christian faith. That’s what’s stated in the scripture.”

Civil rights advocates believe the amount of public cooperation during such a time of unrest may ultimately depend on how long they expect a suspension of rights might last.