AFN reported in a May 9 story the office of Wisconsin Family Action was firebombed by a Molotov cocktail and threatened (pictured at top). A group named Jane’s Revenge, which immediately claimed responsibility, has been tied to Communist-inspired anarchist and has now claimed credit for vandalism at four churches in Washington state, too.
Julaine K. Appling, who leads WFA, tells AFN she hasn’t backed down from her vow in May that the abortion-supporting terrorists picked on the wrong organization to attack and to intimidate.
“God has called us to do this work,” she says, “to speak truth into the darkness, and to this culture that is so bereft of truth right now on issues like life and marriage and family and religious freedom.”
The right-leaning Wisconsin Family Action takes a pro-life stance on the abortion issue but is not a single-issue group, such as National Right to Life, but abortion supporters targeted it anyway along with other groups and now churches, too.
Appling and the group also work in a city whose embrace of far-left causes has made it a mecca of radical Marxists in politics, academia and street-level activism. After last month's attack, the city's police chief openly sympathized with the attackers in a statement that failed to acknowledge an act of domestic terrorism had occurred in the city.
"The Madison Police Department understands members of our community are feeling deep emotions due to the recent news involving the United States Supreme Court," the statement from Chief Shon Barnes reads in part. The police department supports the right of people to "speak freely" about their beliefs, the statement further states, but any acts of violence "do not aid in any cause."
A statement released later by a police department spokesman stated, "There is no room for hate in Madison," and said the MPD is working with the ATF and FBI to solve the case.
Regarding a police investigation of the attack, Appling says authorities have reportedly sent the homemade bombs for a lab analysis, and now WFA is waiting on the police while the police wait for the results.
“And apparently that's quite a process,” she advises, “and can take much longer than maybe I would have thought.”
Appling did not criticize the police investigation in her interview with AFN but Wisconsin Family Action, hoping for a tip to help authorities, is offering a $1,500 reward for any information that leads to an arrest.
