Anti-Woke Answers to Prayers

Everyday I pray that evil in our culture and society will be overcome and what is GOOD, TRUE, and BEAUTIFUL will prevail under God’s almighty hand. For seven years I’ve harbored ill will toward the whole “political correctness” movement. I saw the faux politeness as an insidious effort to undermine truth. The problem was evident in every sector of the culture and even in the Christian Church which was a major problem, for under the “political correct” model where offense of any kind was to be avoided, the Church was becoming tolerant of evil. The backlash against political correctness is what contributed to the popularity of Donald Trump who made mincemeat of miscreants who were lauded for their polite behavior. 

 

Daily, I find myself scanning the news for answers to my prayers for conversion of the malevolent, or for God to re-erect Haman’s gallows (Book of Esther), or to read about evil-doers who fall into their own traps (Proverbs 29:6).

 

In the past year I have seen many answers to these prayers as misled titans of corporate, education, and media institutions have fallen or reversed course back to what is true. The riots in Seattle and Portland reminded me of Romans 1 where God gives over the perverse to the desires of their hearts. The fall of Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein and associates, Nancy Pelosi and and more recently Alec Baldwin are modest examples. The recent changes at CNN which Christopher Licht is forcing upon their show hosts, and the recently discovered backbone at the New York Times to tell the truth are also examples. Then there’s the Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the Twitter Files that are taking on Biblical proportions. 

 

Three more examples that came to light this morning. 

 

1. While I’m not a Chris Rock fan, nor any longer a Netflix subscriber, Ben Shapiro points to the significance of Chris Rock (and other comedians like Dave Chappelle) who are finally ditching the wokeness which they were all plagued with several years ago, and are boldly attacking the woke culture with truth. Shapiro sees it as a true sign of an anti-woke revolution. That Chris Rock's comedy special where he revisits the Will Smith slap, has the strong backing of a major liberal-woke corporation (Netflix) is a good sign than the culture is changing and it may in fact bleed down into politics.

 

Jacob Chansley is seen outside
the U.S. Capitol in Washington on
Jan. 6, 2021. (Brent Stirton/Getty Images)

2. With the U.S. House of Representatives being taken over by Republicans under Kevin McCarthy’s leadership, a major breakthrough occurred in the last week when McCarthy released ALL of the January 6 Capitol security footage to Tucker Carlson. Bombshell…the footage, held secret by the Democrats, proves once again that the Democrats were lying.  The vast majority of the video (some 40,000 hours worth) proves that the January 6 protest was not an insurrection, as the Democrats claimed by selective release of the video. The vast majority of the video demolishes the insurrection claim the Democrats used to attack their political opponents. 

 

 

3. Many corporations and universities (even Christian universities) have formed DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) departments in a woke effort to ensure they are not lambasted by the social media mavens over claims of racism and prejudice. But in fact DEI efforts, which disparage and act as gatekeepers for hiring and admitting individuals based on merit, are nothing more than racist and prejudicial at their core. The DEI movement has been active since 2017 but recently there are reports that corporations and educational institutions are seeing the falsehood that DEI creates. 

 

When inflation hit this year, corporations were quick to layoff and stop their DEI trivialness. 

 

See: https://www.businessinsider.com/layoffs-diversity-departments-some-ceos-talk-committed-racial-justice-2023-2

 

Then, the University of Texas and Texas A&M remove all DEI considerations in hiring and admissions. 

 

See: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/education/2023/03/03/diversity-equity-inclusion-texas-am-system-hiring-admissions-ut-system/69964633007/

 

4. Ah, another...they keep cropping up: Liberal comedian Bill Maher continues to chip away at the false narrative of the woke culture by confronting one of its most vocal adherents, Bernie Sanders, here face to face about Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness proposal.  Bernie Sanders is left speechless:

 I will keep praying, as are millions of others, that God will remove the snake scales from everyone’s eyes.  

Are 2,000 Year Old Bible Stories the Only Important Ones?

ARE YOU CAUGHT IN THE PAST?  

Or, Do You Exist in the Present?

Some of my 50 years of Prayer Diaries

Several days ago I heard a religious speaker trying to help his audience make sense of the chaotic 2020 presidential election.

He recounted the Biblical story of Jacob and how Jacob's faith was effected by the events the patriarch had experienced and how we should do the same. 

I was lost. 

I could not fathom how anything that had happened (supernatural or otherwise) to a tribal nomad living thousands of years ago in the Middle East wilderness, had anything to do with me or anyone else in the United States in 2021. 

Why do priests, pastors, and spiritual influencers spend their time telling us Bible stories about the miraculous things God did 2000-4000 years ago?  Do they think Bible events are the only things that matter...or that ever happened to people to change their lives? How are people living in a sophisticated, Internet connected society to relate to Moses? Noah? Jacob? Jeremiah? or even to Jesus living in Romanist Palestine? 

Granted some parallels can always be drawn from Old and New Testament times. And yes, there are eternal truths that can be identified for all people, in all places, at all times. But if we're honest, the culture, language, science, politics and problems are much, much different. And then there's the little fact that Jesus was God...and we never will be.  

But here's the important question:  Has nothing important happened SINCE the Bible was written that can strengthen our faith? 

Click Image for Info

Of course there has.  

Most Christians do not have faith in God because of something that happened 3000 years ago. They have faith because of something that happened 3 days, 13 weeks, 3 months, or 30 years ago...to THEM....in THEIR lives...that THEY either experienced or to which THEY were an eye witness.

To bolster MY faith I've kept a prayer diary. I've kept it since I was a teenager. The picture above is part of my shelf of those diaries. Reading from these pages strengthens my faith tremendously, because they contain events that happened to ME and MY family, and were (in part) the consequence of MY prayer life. 

A while back I wrote a memoir that dramatically recounted hundreds of those stories. I wrote it to confirm my faith, for me, for my family (for those that were brave enough to read it). Sure, there are references to the Bible in it. It's a faith memoir. But it's all about the events that strengthened my faith "today" and not what happened thousands of years ago. 

You should do the same. Write a MEMOIR to strengthen your faith,  for YOU, for YOUR family, and for others. 

Tell us stories of what has happened in YOUR life that have bolstered your faith.  Surely, it's not the sermons or homilies you've heard. Rather it's what you have experienced.  It's something personal. Sure, what's in the Bible or in a sermon or homily may explain your experience and give you a deeper understanding. But it's what you have sensed with your own eyes, ears, what you have touched and maybe even smelled, and tasted...not to speak of your sense of balance as you've moved through the dimensions of space and time...  that has changed you and grown your faith. 

Start your story today.

Did God Choose a Reprobate to Save America? (An Open Letter to our Priest)

Over the past years of Trump's presidency, Pam and I (Stan) have been convinced that God found it necessary to answer our many prayers about the cultural war we find ourselves in, by seeing to it that a character like Donald J. Trump got elected as POTUS.  

We think like a lot of Christians, that a Christian should lead us out of moral quagmires, not people like Trump, whom many Christians think is a reprobate.  (Just to be clear, Pam and I never thought Trump was a reprobate, but was like a lot of us in need of salvation....but that's for another discussion.)

Our priest seems to think the election is about personality. We think it's about policy. 

On Sunday our dear priest, who tries hard to be a good priest, seemed to invoke Revelations 3:16 by inadvertently declaring (through his homily) he was very lukewarm about how to vote this election. After all, the Church doesn't like politicians who promote abortion and all sorts of other sexual depravity as the Democrats are promoting. But then the other choice is a man whom our priest thinks is totally lacking in compassion. Lost in the discussion are the policies, executive orders and laws that Trump has signed since being in office. We're not sure why his political accomplishments don't count, but with some folks (hopefully the majority of folks) they do. 

So, we wrote a letter and are sharing it below.  If you don't want to read it, here is the bottom line: 

God wants to answer the prayers of the faithful to turn our country around from moral depravity, but there weren't any Christian leaders (that Christians would like, like Billy Graham) so God tapped Trump to do the job. Christians complain about Trump's personality, but they should look in the mirror for the source of the problem. 

-----

October 19, 2020

Fr. __________\

_____________ 

_____________

Dear Fr. _____

I (Stan) watched and heard most of your homily today (Sunday Oct 19) on-line. 

You were right to call out the importance of the Right to Life in this election. But you missed an opportunity to reinforce its importance after your condemnation of Trump. You sounded like saving the environment and being polite was as important as stopping abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism (even of children), euthanasia, and wide-spread lying to citizens by "news" media. Really? 

This needs some perspective for you to understand. Let's try this.

THE GOD OF JUDGEMENT AND GRACE

When God decided that the cities of the plain in Genesis 14-19 (incl. Sodom & Gomorrah) required destruction for their sexual depravity, he didn't send a polite politician to sweet talk them out of their sin. Nor did he send an evangelist like Jonah to preach to them. God went right to the crux of the matter and sent two angels to utterly destroy them.

But we live in an age of grace, which explains why our country has not experienced a heavenly conflagration of brimstone. And yet in many ways we deserve it. We are surrounded by "legal" depravity far beyond those of the Sodomites. We are in the midst of a moral war of a scope never before imagined in western civilization where homosexuality, transgenderism, euthanasia, abortion are all legal and espoused by many politicians as civil rights and by Catholic leadership by their silence. At the same time, God is also aware that there are far more than ten righteous men and women in the land who pray and fast for its salvation—there are thousands if not millions. We are among them.

So, what is God to do? The people pray, but the depravity looks like Salvatore Dali's painting of hell. 

I'll tell you what. God sends someone like Donald J. Trump. 

Let me explain it this way.

• Since the Catholic bishops have refused to take a public stand against the evil in our country regarding abortion, religious liberty, Christian worship, liberal policies that hurt the poor; and have chosen instead to be silent (so as to avoid controversy), God has sent a political judge not unlike those of Old Testament times—Donald J. Trump. As long as the bishops (and most priests) refuse to speak out in the public square and courageously fulfill their calling as moral leaders, God has reverted to what people can better understand—verbal judgement of their corrupt and evil values by Trump.

• I doubt that you would have liked living next to Samson who bragged about killing a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. I don’t think you would’ve approved of a Judith pretending to be a whore and then beheading Holophernes. Nor would you have chosen to cheer on King David for killing his tens of thousands, perhaps. Even Trump hasn’t done anything like those “acts of God by the hands of his chosen."

• But like God, Trump has condemned evil and the secular values of a corrupt nation. Did you miss that? Let's try that again. Trump’s assault on all things evil and illegal reinforces that he, more so than our bishops, has been called by God to root out the evil and the corruption which is epidemic in our government and society. Drain the swamp!

• God does not show compassion to the prevailers of evil. He hates those that are in leadership who encourage the killing of babies by the thousands, who commit fraud with impunity and then lie to the public about it, who endorse organizations like Black Lives Matter who have publicly denounced the nuclear family and marriage between a man and woman. Who are they? The media, the Democrats, and many Republicans that care more about their own power and prestige than the good of the American citizens. 

• So, God sent a judge who is "like" Himself. Trump hates evil, and he is not compassionate about evil like the Church seems to be.  It's about time!  Where in the public square are you, or any Detroit priest, or Vigneron on the evil surrounding us? I’m not talking about squirreled away homilies but about seeing you or Vigneron calling out the corruption and evil at press conferences. Shouldn’t that be your job or at least the bishops'?   We believe that if the Church had taken moral leadership in this country back in the 60's, abortion would never have become legal. But the bishops are still hiding from controversies and refusing to lead. Vigneron is a prime example. 

• And so, since the Church has ignored this responsibility of being salt and light, God found another leader to do it—Donald Trump. Trump isn’t scared of calling out what is wrong. He is fearless, unlike our bishops. This is how God works, isn't it? 

• Trump properly denounced his Republican competitors for the 2016 election, because they allowed such political evil in Washington and allowed China to steal from us through the manipulation of currency and disseminating of lies. All those other Republicans tolerated evil and lying, and fraud, and such. 

• In contrast, we applauded Trump and still do, because like God, we are sick of the fraud in Washington. 

God does not tolerate this stuff, and the Church should not tolerate it, but it does. 

And so, God sent Trump. God didn't send a sweet gentleman to war against the satanic purveyors of our age.  No other politician could do what Trump has done to turn the tide back to righteousness. He doesn't cave to evil diatribe and fraud like Romney and the Bushes. He fights. He's not a Neville Chamberlain, Trump's more like George Patton who defeated the Nazi tanks across Africa and Europe, and who said, "May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't." 

THE COMPASSIONATE POTUS

But God also sent a compassionate Trump. There are literally hundreds of compassionate policies he's instituted but we'll list just a few. (We're voting for just and fair POLICIES; we're not voting for a sweet PERSONALITY.) 

Former President Barack Obama instructed public schools that they must allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with a child's chosen gender identity. Trump revoked this. (NBC News)

• Trump's fight against abortion led him to defund federal programs and international aid to abortion providers. And is ACB’s nomination for JOTSC not an act of compassion? 

• Trump's actions to close the border to ILLEGAL immigration is compassionate for those caught up in sex trafficking, illegal drugs, and lost jobs to American citizens.  But the border is still open for LEGAL immigration. 

• Trump compassionately signed the “Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act” (FOSTA), which includes the “Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act” (SESTA) which both give law enforcement and victims new tools to fight sex trafficking.

• Trump's recent police-reform executive order, the First Step Act, released thousands of people from jail (90 percent of whom were black) and addressed inequities in sentencing laws that disproportionately harmed Black Americans and reformed mandatory minimums that created unfair outcomes.

• Trump created “opportunity zones” which compassionately incentivized private investment into marginalized (black) communities.

• Trump (permanently) increased federal funding to historically black colleges and universities by 17%, a total exceeding $100 million—more than any president in history! Meanwhile, the Obama administration infamously removed a two-year Bush-administration program that annually funded $85 million directly to these prized institutions.

• Trump moving our embassy to Jerusalem was an act of compassion to the Jews.

• Trump negotiating (through Jared) the several mid-east peace agreements between Arab lands and Israel has been an act of compassion to the war-torn people of the Middle East, for which Trump has received THREE Nobel Peace Prize nominations. That is a monumental act of compassion to the Jewish state.

• Trump ordering the assassination of Iranian Qasem Soleimani without endangering others was an act of compassion that saved thousands of lives in Iraq. The toleration of evil is not compassion.  

And what has the Church done in the public square to support these programs of his. Anything?  (...have they stood up for LIFE from womb to tomb like Fr. Perone?  ...have they applauded Trump's Embassy move to Jerusalem?  ...have they praised the new alliances Trump has negotiated between Arab people and Israel [TIMES 3!!!]?  ...have they denounced transgender operations or males identifying as female, allowed then to have access to Girls' bathrooms and locker rooms AND to legally compete in Girls' sports?)

We do praise you for the courage to open the parish doors, through all stages of Lockdowns, for prayer (with a mask) and for early opening up of the church for Masses and Confession.

Respectfully, but not happy about the Church’s lack of leadership. 

Thank God for Trump.

The Political Divide: Use Jargon Not Argument

The source of political and religious divide in America is wonderfully illustrated in Uncle Screwtape's first letter to Wormwood. (C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters)

It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep [your target] out of the Enemy's clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. You man has been accustomed, every since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily 'true' or 'false', but as 'academic' or 'practical', 'outworn' or contemporary', 'conventional' or 'ruthless'. Jargon, not argument is your best ally in keeping him from [the truth].

Babies and the Supreme Court