Conservative Catholic Mark Houck Goes to Washington – The American Spectator

A persecuted Catholic is running for Congress. Mark Houck announced last week that he will be running to represent Pennsylvania’s first congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. Houck states on his campaign website, “I will focus on restoring traditional values and principles that are central to the American identity, such as faith, family, and freedom of speech, religion, and the right to bear arms.”

Houck was infamously terrorized by the FBI last year when a team of armed agents swarmed his home and arrested him in front of his wife and seven children. He was charged with alleged violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and put on trial. He was acquitted when the prosecution offered no case and the defense demonstrated Houck had shoved a Planned Parenthood employee, but only after that employee left his post, crossed the street to where Houck and his son were praying, and began profanely harassing Houck’s son and following them down the street. (RELATED: The Leftist Playbook Is Key for Conservative Catholics)

Houck runs a Catholic men’s group called The King’s Men and is known for praying outside abortion facilities in the Philadelphia area. He told The Daily Signal that he believed he and his family were targeted by the Biden administration in an attempt “to intimidate, silence, and scare” pro-lifers throughout America. With his bid for office, Houck is demonstrating he won’t be intimidated, silenced, or scared.

Houck has committed himself to a number of principles that are distinctly Catholic. His commitment to “limited government and individual rights” and pledge to “bring integrity to Washington, D.C. and prevent the government from interfering with the constitutional rights of the American citizen” sounds a little Republican-cum-libertarian. But after what the FBI and the Biden administration did to Houck, it’s clear he expects no quarter to be given to men, women, and children of faith, and is willing to stand between the government and the most basic unit of society: the family. (READ MORE: Religious Liberty Under Threat, at Home and Abroad)

Houck’s plan to “address criminal behavior” also extends beyond the usual political platitudes meant to placate those concerned over skyrocketing crime rates. Houck cuts to the heart of the issue and once again zeroes in on that most basic unit of society, promising, “I will address the crisis in fatherhood as it pertains to juvenile and adult crime. I will pursue and support policy that strengthens the human family.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly given his brood of children, Houck also takes a strong position on education: “I will fight to end the industrial educational complex that puts unions, administrations & indoctrination before our children … A child cannot become the best version of themselves without learning Math, English, History, Reading, & writing a complete sentence.” He also takes a swipe at gender ideology and the transgender craze, saying, “I will further support parental rights in the education of their children while also protecting students & their rights to fair play on the playing fields.”

Perhaps least surprising of all is Houck’s commitment to pro-life policy: “I will strive daily to restore family values by instituting & promoting policy that protects the dignity of the human person, in particular the pre-born child.” Some of the Catholic father’s other platform points include excising “woke” from the military, taking care of the environment without accepting “‘green ideology’ that is not based on rational thought & imposes economic burdens that bankrupts its citizens,” and securing the U.S. border.

Houck said of his candidacy, “I have seen first-hand what an out of control government can do to its citizens. I will fight to protect all people and their rights under God and our Constitution.” In a day and age when “politician” is practically synonymous with “self-serving, money-grubbing octogenarian,” it’s refreshing to see a man seek office for the sake of serving his fellow Americans — it’s even more refreshing when that man articulates strong principles — and “refreshing” becomes “invigorating” when that man has already taken on the corrupt Biden Justice Department and won.