John Block

Just how religious are New Mexicans? A new report has the answer

12 Comments / Culture, New Mexico, News / By

The results from the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies’ (ASARB) 2020 U.S. Religion Census report show a growing trend for people of faith in New Mexico.

According to the data in the report, there were 1,111,977 “adherents” (churchgoers) in the state. That is a 7.26  percent increase from 2010’s report, which showed 1,031,198 adherents. 

Despite congregations dwindling from 2,447 in 2010 to 2,405 in 2020, church membership grew.

The ASARB defined adherents as people who “generally are members, children who are not members, and others who are not members but are considered participants in the congregation.”

Catholics were by far the greatest number of church congregants in 2020, with 633,259 adherents (29.9 percent), which is a slight bump of 1.5 percent from 2010’s number of 584,941 adherents (28.4 percent). 

The next largest religious denomination in New Mexico is evangelical protestants, with 277,326 adherents, a slight 1.21 percent decline from 273,956 in 2010. Evangelical protestants make up 12.9 percent of all churchgoers, with non-denominational Christian Churches making up the largest amount of that figure or around 37.6 percent.

The Catholic Church had the highest concentration of adherents in 32 out of New Mexico’s 33 counties, with the only exception being Hidalgo County, which had a higher percentage of adherents belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).

Islam had a massive 192.6 percent increase in New Mexico, with 12,046 members of the church in 2020, while there were only 4,116 adherents in 2010.

Judaism had a significant 14.4 percent decline in New Mexico adherents, with 3,698 in 2020 versus 4,232 back in 2010.

According to an analysis of the data by Ryan Roys of Eastern Illinois University, “South Florida and many of the least-populous counties in Texas close to the border with Mexico saw notable growth, as did parts of New Mexico and Arizona. Additionally, counties in Idaho became more religious in 2020 over 2010.”

Nationwide, the Catholic Church remained the leader in religious denominations, with 61,858,137 adherents, and non-denominational Christian Churches came in second place with 21,095,641 adherents. 

See the full results of the 2020 U.S. Religion Census here.

Pew Research Center’s 2015 Religious Landscape Study revealed that New Mexico is the 15th most religious state, with 63 percent of respondents saying they believe in God with absolute certainty and 57 percent of the population being “highly religious.” A similar statistic from the World Population Review revealed that New Mexico is the 18th most religious state, with 57 percent of adults being religious. 

Just how religious are New Mexicans? A new report has the answer Read More »

Dems panic over Herrell CD2 bid while national Republicans send endorsements

15 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

Immediately following former Congresswoman Yvette Herrell’s announcement alongside U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that she is running to reclaim New Mexico’s Second Congressional District, New Mexico Democrats freaked out on social media.

The Democrat Party of New Mexico (DPNM) wrote, “At a rally with GOP elite Speaker McCarthy, Yvette Herrell just announced yet another bid for NM’s 2nd Congressional District. Herrell’s damaging record speaks for itself. Her radical and out-of-touch agenda prioritizes corporations and GOP elites over New Mexicans,” not mentioning current Rep. Gabe Vasquez’s extreme abortion up-to-birth, pro-criminal, or anti-parent agenda.

The group claimed, “From promoting dangerous conspiracy theories to undermining democracy, her actions don’t align with New Mexico’s values.” 

“Yvette Herrell’s announcement with national elite GOP leadership is out of step with New Mexican values and shows that she remains beholden to Washington politicians, not to the people of New Mexico’s Second District,” claimed DPNM chairwoman Jessica Velasquez.

A tiny band of elderly protesters showed up to protest Herrell’s Las Cruces campaign announcement, some of them spewing profanities at attendees while they drove into the event.

The crying from New Mexico Democrats comes as every national Republican in the U.S. House leadership has endorsed Herrell. 

House Speaker McCarthy wrote in a statement, “Yvette Herrell is a fearless conservative leader -and New Mexico needs her back in Congress. During her time in Washington, Yvette always put her constituents first: working hard to deliver results for New Mexico families and standing up for fiscal responsibility, free markets, and constitutional rights. Yvette has my full endorsement and I look forward to serving with her again next Congress.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise wrote, “I am proud to endorse my friend Yvette Herrell for Congress in New Mexico’s Second District. Yvette is a humble and hardworking leader who proved her effectiveness as legislator while serving in the New Mexico House and then in Congress. As a small business woman, Yvette is a champion for good paying jobs and the New Mexico industries that create them, and is a strong advocate for the conservative principles that make our country great.”

“Yvette Herrell’s work ethic and perseverance are an inspiration to us all, and I am excited to endorse her for Congress today. Yvette is a tireless campaigner, a knowledgeable and principled legislator, and a true advocate for New Mexico’s Second District. I am proud to stand with Yvette and eagerly anticipate working with her again in the next Congress,” wrote House Majority Whip Tom Emmer.

“Our country is on the brink because of failed Far Left policies and New Mexico needs my good friend and conservative fighter Yvette Herrell more than ever. Yvette is a rock solid conservative who puts America First and prioritizes results for hardworking families over partisan politics. I am fully backing Yvette in her race and encourage all voters to rally behind her as we work together to flip this seat!” wrote House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik. 

Stefanik’s E-PAC also endorsed Herrell, as well as the group Value In Electing Women (VIEW) PAC.

Dems panic over Herrell CD2 bid while national Republicans send endorsements Read More »

New ABQ abortion facility servicing mostly Texans

7 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

According to a new report by The Dallas Morning News, Albuquerque’s newest abortion facility, Whole Woman’s Health, which opened on March 23, is servicing mostly Texans at the New Mexico abortion center. 

The piece notes that “nearly all of its patients have come from Texas, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, the organization’s founder and CEO.” 

The group is also targeting women in Fort Worth and Austin by serving them social media ads promoting killing unborn babies in New Mexico, where it is legal up to the moment of birth. The ads reportedly read, “Think access to safe legal abortion is a thing of the past? Think again.” 

As we reported in March, The facility is performing first and second-trimester abortions up to 18 weeks of the child’s gestational age. It plans on expanding those services to late-term abortions “up to 24 weeks in the near future.” Also offered at Whole Woman’s Health are abortion pills at up to 11 weeks while setting a “starting goal” of killing up to 75 babies per week.

The group “now operates clinics in Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota and Virginia and provides abortion pills by mail.”

Recently, a Texas judge halted the dangerous abortion drug mifepristone due to “legitimate safety concerns” to women.

However, Whole Woman’s Health is bucking the order, with Miller claiming, “We don’t take our orders from that judge…. [We]’re still offering medicated abortion.”

New ABQ abortion facility servicing mostly Texans Read More »

NM’s ‘woke’ social studies standards get national spotlight

24 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

New Mexico’s failed education system has been a headline for years, with recent rankings showing the state dead last compared to all other states. However, fewer national headlines spotlighted New Mexico’s ultra-woke social studies standards being rammed down public school students’ throats — until now.

The Washington Examiner recently ran an op-ed by The Heritage Foundation’s Mike Gonzalez detailing the New Mexico Public Education Department’s (NMPED) Marxist standards, which the Piñon Post has covered for years. 

Gonzalez writes, “Things couldn’t be that bad, you say? A typical sentence in the standards instructs teachers to have high schoolers ‘assess how social policies and economic forces offer privilege or systemic inequity in accessing social, political, and economic opportunity for identity groups in education, government, healthcare, industry, and law enforcement.’” 

He continues: 

Indeed, the standards, approved last year, mention “diversity” 65 times, “identity” 156 times (in just 104 pages!), and “equity” a comparably paltry 29 times. “Systemic,” meanwhile, appears 10 times — nine as in “systemic inequity” and once in the standard version, “systemic oppression.” “Power,” a key term to an ideology that sees all of life in terms of power dynamics, appears 43 times.

Taken together, the standards aim to use social studies to indoctrinate children and turn them into citizens filled with grievances, who identify not with America but with their given ethno-racial or sexual-gender category and who see the world only in terms of these categories jockeying for power with one another.

The classroom thus becomes the fulcrum of revolution, shaping a generation that hates the West and America. Whether it ends with revolution or not, it is almost guaranteed to end with unhappy citizens, for by generating people who hate their country and community, teachers will create people who hate themselves.

Gonzales wrote to the NMPED to reconsider the standards, telling them that these updates “will in no way help New Mexico students participate in their civic duties of our society if they are taught to abhor that society.” 

Instead of turning schools into “laboratories of revolt,” Gonzales would rather have students learn historical facts without the far-left anti-American spin. The coverage of New Mexico’s failed education system and woke social studies standards is a rare sighting amid mostly silence from the mainstream media.

NM’s ‘woke’ social studies standards get national spotlight Read More »

Sky-high gas prices on the horizon again in NM, across country

12 Comments / National, New Mexico, News, Politics / By

Due to the recent Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decision to cut oil production, gas prices have already risen eight percent in the United States. The price whiplash is par for the course in Joe Biden’s America, with his “climate change” agenda taking center stage — and consumers feeling the pain at the pump. 

“​​Some forecasters see prices rising by another 10% or 15%, which would quickly boost the cost of gasoline and other types of carbon energy,” one report notes.

The Saudi Arabia-led OPEC is cutting production by 1.16 million barrels per day. This would have been an opportunity for the United States to fill the gap and create lower prices with more domestic production, but instead of thinking of the taxpayers’ costs, the ant-energy Joe Biden administration is going all-in on its environmental agenda.

Biden then doubled down on his “green” agenda, writing in a White House statement, “Recognizing that clean energy as well as energy efficiency, and demand flexibility measures are essential to enhancing energy security and accelerating the energy transition, the Task Force has exchanged information on policy and market solutions to accelerate the deployment of energy efficiency technology, heat pumps, smart thermostats and related awareness raising activities among consumers and relevant stakeholders.”

One week ago, gas price averages in New Mexico were $3.35, according to AAA. Now, averages are at $3.42 and rising. 

In 2022, the average national gas price rate was $4.87 during Biden’s anti-energy policies and price war with other countries. He then nearly decimated all of the United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) padded during the Donald J. Trump presidency.

The Council on Foreign Relations wrote that in 2021 “Biden announced a release of thirty-two million barrels in exchange agreements and eighteen million barrels in sales, seen as an effort to pressure OPEC to increase production; some experts said it was a novel use of the SPR, given there was no supply disruption.” Now, Americans are facing the consequences of the failed negotiation between Biden and OPEC. 

“In New Mexico, lower and middle-class families are the ones who suffer the most from these price increases, forcing many to make the heartbreaking decision of filling up their car or buying groceries. Hard-working New Mexicans should never have to make this choice, especially when New Mexico is rich in energy,” wrote Republican Party of New Mexico Chairman Steve Pearce, a former congressman from the oil-rich Second Congressional District. 

“[Joe] Biden’s energy policy is a disaster. Gas prices are increasing because Biden has allowed foreign nations to weaponize energy against the United States. We’re witnessing the harmful consequences of losing our energy independence.”

Sky-high gas prices on the horizon again in NM, across country Read More »

NM Supreme Court temporarily blocks pro-life sanctuary city ordinances

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On Friday, the state Supreme Court ordered a stay to temporarily block sanctuary city ordinances protecting children in the womb. These ordinances were passed in the cities of Hobbs and Clovis in 2022.

In an order signed by Chief Justice C. Shannan Bacon, Democrat Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s request to block it was granted.

The Court also ruled that it will decide the fate of the newly passed H.B. 7, which forces New Mexico public bodies to facilitate abortions and gender-affirming care. 

In the order, it reads that both parties’ briefs to the Court are due by April 20, 2023, with the stipulation “that the briefs shall address the following issue: What effect, if any, does House Bill 7, the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Freedom Act, which was signed into law on March 16, 2023, have on this matter.”

This court case now would decide not only the fate of the pro-life ordinances but also the legislation pushed by far-left Democrats to embed radical abortion and transgender policies into state law.

Mike Seibel of the pro-life legal group Abortion On Trial (AOT) is the New Mexico attorney representing Hobbs and Clovis.

“This announcement by the Supreme Court is no surprise. We are fully prepared to argue this case to the court of last resort. We are optimistic that the 18 U.S.C. sec. 1461-62 will pre-empt over any state statute and allow these individual cities to enforce their statues,” wrote AOT executive director Jamie Jeffries following the state Supreme Court ruling.

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Haaland humiliated again during congressional hearing

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On Tuesday, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a Democrat former congresswoman from New Mexico’s First District, was once again humiliated in front of a U.S. congressional panel.

Haaland couldn’t answer basic questions from Congressman Ryan Zinke (R-WY), a former Interior Department secretary under President Donald J. Trump.

Zinke asked Haaland during a hearing, “Is it your policy that critical minerals should be sourced from countries that are stewards of the environment like the U.S. and our allies, or sourced from Russia and China that don’t share our same values?”

Haaland responded, “Our policy is to, um, work to make sure we have the best, um…” 

Zinke responded, “I’ll take that as a maybe,” asking further, “Are you aware that China produces more emissions than any other country on the planet?” 

“I have probably read that somewhere,” Haaland responded.

The congressman then asked, “Have you read the Department of the Interior report on critical minerals dated December ‘17?” Haaland responded that she had not. 

“Are you aware that China controls, by proxy, production [of] the supply chain of critical minerals that are critical to both the EV (electric vehicle) world and defense?” asked Zinke. 

Haaland said, “Thank you for that information.” 

After further questions from Zinke, Haaland continued to respond, “Thank you for the information, congressman,” seeming not to know the basic information referenced. 

She continued regarding a question about sourcing these minerals domestically rather than abroad, “We are working currently on identifying those critical minerals…. That is with the U.S. Geological Survey…. I know energy independence is a priority of… [Joe] Biden.”

WATCH:

Following the embarrassing hearing, Sandoval County Commissioner Jay Block wrote, “We are not sending our best and brightest to Washington. Biden’s appointees and nominees have a difficult time answering basic questions. She’s been the Sec of Interior for 2 years. Does she know anything? Embarrassing.” 

Another wrote, “This woman makes [Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg] look experienced & qualified,” adding, “That was pathetic.” 

During Haaland’s confirmation hearings, there were similar flubs by the then-congresswoman, who could not answer basic questions before being elevated to the Interior Department post by Joe Biden. 

NM Dems release frantic defense of Deb Haaland after confirmation hearing trainwreck

Haaland humiliated again during congressional hearing Read More »

NM taxpayers’ return on investment revealed in new report

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A new report published by WalletHub revealed the states with the best and worst returns on investments of taxpayer money, with New Mexico ranking low on the list.

WalletHub wrote, “Different states have dramatically different tax burdens. This begs the question of whether people in high-tax states receive superior government services. Likewise, are low-tax states more efficient or do they receive low-quality services? In short, where do taxpayers get the most and least bang for their buck?”

According to the analysis, taxpayers in New Hampshire, Florida, Alaska, South Dakota, and Texas took the top five spots, respectively.  

California ranked 50th as the lowest state, with Hawaii coming in 49th and New Mexico ranking slightly better at 48.

While New Mexico ranked 49th for overall government services, residents paid the 24th-best tax rate in the nation.

Following the 2023 Legislative Session, New Mexico might be ranked below Hawaii or California due to a new Democrat-led tax package that raises alcohol taxes by 20 percent and cigar taxes to a full 25% of the price, among other measures that will increase taxes to the tune of around $100 million annually.

Commenting on the legislative session, the Rio Grande Foundation wrote, “Overall, the session, even with a $3.6 billion surplus, offered no fundamental approach to economic development or anything else.”

Other numbers from WalletHub show New Mexico ranks 49th in education ahead of only Alaska, 34th in health, 48th in safety, 49th economically, and 30th regarding infrastructure and pollution.

Source: WalletHub
Source: WalletHub

NM taxpayers’ return on investment revealed in new report Read More »

Satanic Temple to open NM facility for ‘religious abortion’ ritual

37 Comments / New Mexico, News, Politics / By

The Satanic Temple, a nontheistic “religious” organization, is opening a new facility in New Mexico to kill children in the womb in the name of supposed religious practices to worship Satan. 

The facility would provide “free religious medication abortion” rituals, bearing the name “The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic” to target U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned Roe v. Wade. 

Fox News reported, “TST Health, the new medical services arm of the nontheistic religious organization, will provide telehealth screenings and appointments to provide abortion pills to patients. These services will be provided free of charge as part of The Satanic Temple’s ‘abortion ritual,’ though patients must still pay for the medications from a pharmacy, which typically cost around $90, according to the TST Health website.”

The abortion facility will make itself available for women aged 17 or older who are up to 11 weeks pregnant. 

“In 1950, Samuel Alito’s mother did not have options, and look what happened,” said Malcolm Jarry, a co-founder of The Satanic Temple. “Prior to 1973, doctors who performed abortions could lose their licenses and go to jail. The clinic’s name serves to remind people just how important it is to have the right to control one’s body and the potential ramifications of losing that right.” 

Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has ties to other Satanic cults, namely the “Temple of Satan,” which also performs the abortion ritual to sacrifice babies in the womb. 

The governor has interacted with and follows Satanic cult leader Greg Stevens, who also goes as “Priest Penemue.”

Satanic abortion cult suing Texas connected to Michelle Lujan Grisham

Satanic Temple to open NM facility for ‘religious abortion’ ritual Read More »

Bill limiting governor’s emergency powers passes through first committee 

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On Wednesday, H.B. 80, sponsored by Rep. Greg Nibert (R-Chaves), passed through its first committee with vast bipartisan support. The bill would limit the New Mexico governor’s emergency powers to 90 days for a state of emergency, with intervention by the legislature.

The bill notes, “The special session called pursuant to Subsection A of this section shall convene no later than the ninetieth day after the initial declaration of the state of emergency.” 

During the House Government, Elections, and Indian Affairs Committee hearing, Nibert noted how he had consistently worked on this bill for years, beginning in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the governor commenced lockdowns via public health emergency orders. He noted how he has worked with former Rep. Daymon Ely (Sandoval, Bernalillo), who has been a longtime partner and co-sponsor on the bill.

All members of the public who testified on the bill signaled support for it, with no opposition whatsoever from the audience. 

House Majority Leader Gail Chasey (D-Bernalillo) made the case in the committee that the legislature was not a co-equal branch of government with the governor and thus must first “modernize” before making any such change. Others argued that this is exactly how to strengthen the legislative branch while keeping both the governor and the legislature accountable.

On the motion to pass the bill, all members but Chasey supported advancing the legislation.

The votes in support included Chairwoman D. Wonda Johnson (D-McKinley and San Juan), Vice Chair Natalie Figueroa (D-Bernalillo), Rep. Martin Zamora (R-Curry, DeBaca, Guadalupe, Roosevelt, and San Miguel), Rep. Janelle Anyanonu (D-Bernalillo), Rep. John Block (R-Otero), Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil (D-Bernalill0), Rep. Charlotte Little (D-Bernalill0), and Rep. Bill Rehm (R-Bernalillo).

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