“I’m not getting my hopes up too high.”[/caption]
For only the second time in their 41-year marriage, Calvin and Trish Zastrow will be spending Thanksgiving apart. The first time was due to travel — this time it’s because Cal is serving a six-month prison sentence over a peaceful protest at a Tennessee abortion facility in 2021.
Zastrow was convicted earlier this year on FACE Act-related charges brought by the Biden administration after he prayed, sang hymns, and sat in front of the door to the entrance of an abortion facility in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. Calling from the Federal Correctional Institute Thomson in Illinois this week, Zastrow told The Daily Wire he was doing “absolutely fantastic.”
“I’m all on fire for Jesus,” he said. “I’m doing absolutely great, I’m on a big mission trip here.”
Over one month into his prison sentence, Zastrow said he has kept busy praying, reading his Bible, and teaching his fellow inmates about Christianity.
“There’s a whole lot of prodigals who are wallowing in pig mud, but they want to come back to Jesus, and so I’m here as a missionary to pull them out of that and help them get back on the Jesus road,” he said.
He said his friends and family have sent him over 50 books, mostly about Christian missionaries, and he has turned his cell into a sort of library. Zastrow said he’s been giving away a lot of copies in English and Spanish of the book Tortured for Christ, which is about Richard Wurmbrand, a pastor who spent years in a Communist prison in Romania.
In a low-security section of the prison, Zastrow said he has seen few fights but has met a broad diversity of prisoners — from men convicted over January 6 to recruiters for ISIS and the Taliban.
He said that many of the January 6 prisoners are optimistic that they will get pardoned once President-elect Donald Trump takes office. He also referenced the discussion that Trump may pardon him, as the president-elect previously indicated that he would look at the cases of pro-lifers targeted by the Biden administration.
“I’m not getting my hopes up too high,” he said. “Plus I’m busy here. I’m busy. This prison holds almost 2,300 men and their need to hear about Jesus, their need for that is greater than my need for liberty. And so I’m here on a DOJ-sponsored mission trip.”
He said that most of the guards in the prison were unpleasant and would frequently “bark” and “scream” at the prisoners. “They can’t touch my joy, they can’t touch my soul, they can’t touch my attitude,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said he has been able to call his wife pretty much every day so far.
“We are very proud of our Cal,” Trish told The Daily Wire on Wednesday. “He’s in there ministering every day. He’s doing well. He isn’t backing down from things.”
Trish was able to visit her husband earlier this month, saying she was able to spend about four hours talking to him. Still, she said it has been tough to be away from him.
“We miss him around here,” she said, noting that they had a new grandson born on November 1. “I didn’t get to share it with Cal, he’s such a great grandpa.”
Zastrow gets 500 minutes a month to call people in 15-minute increments. Trish said her daughter put a special ringtone on her phone so she knows whenever he calls.
“One of the hardest things is I can’t just call and talk to him whenever I want,” she said. “I don’t want to ever miss a call.”
Zastrow is scheduled to be released from prison on April 8, but may be able to qualify for a few days of early release if he takes some classes. His family is eager to see him back, but say they are grateful for the opportunity he’s been given to share his faith.
“I feel very privileged to be his wife and I’m very proud of him for standing,” she said. “I’m excited to see what God does with all this.”
From the Daily Wire
Calling it “peaceful” doesn’t excuse nor justify criminality. If you block the entrance to a business and refuse verbal requests or orders to vacate, you are no longer acting peacefully; you are trespassing on private property, interfering with commerce, and resisting enforcement of law. Find another way. Being in jail doesn’t accomplish anything. He’s not MLK, Jr. Sometimes these sorts have martyr complexes. Peaceful would be walking or standing (be careful not to loiter) outside on a public thoroughfare without obstructing or impeding the general public. His protest was not peaceful.
Oh, for Pete’s sake. “These sorts”, as you say, are out doing what you most likely would be too timid to do, i.e., stick your neck out for righteousness in the Lord. The good souls in Europe who hid Jews in their homes did break civil law, and they most assuredly didn’t have martyr complexes while doing so. The consequences were too grim. I admire Mr. Zastrow’s courage of his convictions.
Would you make a protest and block the entrance to a Nazi Jewish-killing concentration camp in WWII– and even die, trying to save the poor Jews? Abortion is not a “business.” It is murder of a poor, innocent, helpless unborn child, in the mother’s womb– for cold, heartless, nasty money. You are old enough to know that. Remember, Jesus was legally arrested, falsely tried, and legally killed by a group of evil, “respectable” Jewish “hit men” for 30 pieces of silver– betrayed by a greedy, heartless, evil, deceitful disciple– Judas. Would you have declined to try to save Him, too– for the same diabolically ugly, selfish “reasons?”
Jail, if you lived in the South during the era of slavery, would you decline to help a runaway slave– because it was illegal? And if you lived during Hitler’s era– would you decline to help save a poor Jewish family — because it was against the law? The Pope, many Catholic priests, bishops and nuns — and the future Pope St. John Paul II — all risked their lives to help save the Jews.
Do not blindly accept evil laws of Man, that violate God’s Laws. Work hard to help eliminate evil laws, and replace them with good laws, acceptable in the eyes of God. The Holy Bible tells you that. You don’t have to be a “protestor,” you can do lots of other good work, to try to change any evil laws of Man.
All I know is that I’m not willing to go to jail for this cause. And neither is anyone else who types here.
Not willing, most authentic Catholics would be willing to not only go to jail, but to lay down their lives for a just cause. Including all the great Saints and holy martyrs of the Church. All of the holy Saints and martyrs of the Early Church went willingly to their tragic martyrdoms, for Jesus Christ. Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire, during that time. All of Christ’s 11 remaining disciples, and St. Paul, met tragic deaths, just as Christ prophesied.
Jail– Jesus Christ was frequently in big trouble with the Jewish leaders, especially the Pharisees, for performing healings on the Sabbath. There is a passage from St. Mark 3:1-6, in which Jesus explains why He broke the Jewish Law, and performed healings on the Sabbath. If you read this passage, you will see that the evil Pharisees and Jewish leaders were so angry at Jesus for breaking this Jewish Law, and for healing poor, desperate, sick and disabled people on the Sabbath– that they plotted to find a way to kill Him. Who was right– Jesus Christ or the evil Jewish leaders and Pharisees? Jesus was no “hero,” nor even a kindly, selfless “humanitarian,” in their view.
So how many of those BLM “peaceful protesters” spent any time in jail. Face it, there has always been a double standard under the Biden administration.
That’s the result of unjust, selective enforcement of the law. It doesn’t justify blockading a business. It doesn’t invalidate the laws.
” Being in jail doesn’t accomplish anything.. ” Tell that to Ghandi or MLK.
What did that first person say about some people having martyr complexes? We don’t hear about those other prolife protesting people from a few months ago who were also sentenced and are in prison anymore. They are probably regretting their non-peaceful, illegal actions because they are in jail when they could have been free.
Martyrs, I hear all about the
dedicated Christian martyrs, unjustly tortured and imprisoned in Muslim extremist and Communist countries, as well as Pro Life workers unjustly imprisoned in America, daily, from many Church and pro life groups! We daily pray for them all. Plus, you must be well aware of the false imprisonment in China, of Jimmy Lai, Cardinal Zen, and others. And Nicaragua has been enforcing a severe persecution and imprisonment of Catholic and Protestant clerics and laymen. Christianity is now the most persecuted religion in the world! Many American political leaders are seeking to end the wrongful FACE act and release the falsely imprisoned, brave, dedicated Pro Life workers. Concenteation camp survivor, 89-year-old Eva Edl, is in prison for her long-term, brave pro life work. She wanted to help save the poor, unborn children, because her life was saved from a Soviet death camp. St. Maximilian Kolbe offered his life in exchange for the release of a prisoner in an evil Nazi concentration camp, a prisoner who was a married man with a wife and children. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross — and lots of others who became Catholic saints– was imprisoned in a Nazi death camp, and brutally killed. Pope Benedict’s parents and others in his church and community instructed their children that Hitler’s evil laws were wrong, and must never be obeyed. The Ratzinger family had a relative, a young cousin of Pope Benedict’s, age 14, who was mentally and physically disabled, who was brutally siezed from his home and sent to die, vecause of Hitler’s evil laws to “purify” Nazi Germany of Jews, the handicapped, mentally or physically impaired, deaf, blind, epileptics, gays, and all people whom Hitler deemed “unworthy to live” in his cruel “Aryan” nation. Churchgoers who were aware of but ignored the Jewish Holocaust, later were totally horrified that they were so selfish, lazy and cruel, and went to their churches regularly but did nothing to try to stop the evil Holocaust. Read the beautiful story of the gifted young, Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life, imprisonment and death from the Nazis. Read his beautiful book, “The Cost of Discipleship.” Hundreds of Catholic priests and nuns were imprisoned in concentration camps, tortured and killed by the Nazis. A group of nuns even exchanged their lives for an entire village of people. An entire Polish family– the Ulma family– was murdered by the Nazis— and beatified by the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII issued an encyclical, “Mit brennender Sorge,” condemning the Nazis, and condemning anti-Semitism, had it secretly smuggled into Nazi Germany, and read on 21 March 1937, from every Catholic pulpit. Read Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s deeply inspiring “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” of 16 April 1963, which is a defense of non-violent protest and a call to action for civil rights. Very inspiring!
As Christ showed us in the Gospels, you cannot serve two masters, you cannot serve both God and the fallen, sinful secular world– you must choose. And your choice must be God. The Christian is not a babyish 1960s-era socialist, compelled to following the latest socialist fads and fashions. Instead, the Christian shuns the world and leaves it behind, to follow only Jesus Christ. You must make up your mind, that you are committed to Christ– and turn away from the world, turn to Him, and just follow Him. People will do that, if their faith is so strong, that they do not want to do anything else, ever. That is how to get on the true path to Salvation. In the end, it is only you and God, and you must carefully make your way, as a pilgrim, along the pathway that we find in the Church– but avoiding any human errors, such as what bad clerical leadership may present to us. This has always been the way it is, for those committed to Christ. It is the pilgrim’s pathway, with all the trials and crosses, that we must bear, on earth. There is no other way. When we die, we go face-to-face before God, all alone. There was a popular Gospel song called, “Jesus Walked that Lonesome Valley,” and someone played a lovely choral recording of it, recently. The refrain goes,
“Oh, we must walk that lonesome valley
We’ve got to walk it by ourselves
Oh, nobody else can walk it for us
We’ve got to walk it by ourselves”
That’s what Jesus had to do, too!
Oh, how funny! Look what I found on YouTube! The Pro Life heroes could all sing this spiritual, to uplift their spirits and pass the time in prison. Praying for them all!
https://youtu.be/3OwNH88P8mg?si=u4vKktwI0EYBVoNE
Spirituals were not written for our Catholic Mass. They are good to sing by yourself or in a nice group, to express personal religious feelings. Great for poor, persecuted Christians to sing in jail, to uplift their spirits, and feel closer to God.
Sorry– of course, “not yet regaularized with the Vatican” does, in fact, mean “illicit. ” And all priests who offer Mass and the Sacraments of the Church must be incardinated into the diocese and receive faculties from the bishop. But instead of “illicit,” it is better to use the term, “irregular,” as many prelates do. I got confused because the Pope previously “okayed” SSPX Masses and Confessions and etc. (See Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter of 2016, “Misericordia et misera.” Pope Francis, during the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, 2015-16, extended privileges to SSPX priests, to hear Confessions, etc. and further extended their privileges indefinitely– this is still in place, today, the Pope never changed it.) And definitely NO– the SSPX is not in a formal schism with the Catholic Church. They are in talks with the Vatican. They are not in schism. They recognize the Pope. And they include the proper prayers for the Pope in every Mass. So, the term “schismatic” is incorrect. Anyway, strange that the “Pachamama” and its “Mayan Mass” are both perfectfcly valid and licit, by the Vatican. And you can attend a Mayan “Pachamama” Mass anytime, to fulfill your Sunday obligation. Strange. There– it’s all correct and straight, now.
This post was put in the wrong place. It was meant for the news story of the special Mission Santa Clara Mass.