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During the 1980s, I purchased several sets of cassette tapes of talks that had been given by the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. At the time, I had a small battery-operated cassette tape player that I used to listen to tapes while I was shaving and getting ready for work, while I was driving, and while I was getting ready for bed.
After former Vice President Joe Biden announced that he was running for president, he said, “We are living through a battle for the soul of this nation.” During a subsequent interview with Good Morning America, in an attempt to mimic Trump, Biden said that his campaign slogan is, “Make America Moral Again.” He then said that his goal is to “make America return to the essence of who we are, the dignity of the country, the dignity of people, and treating our people with dignity.”
My wife and I were married in June 1980, which was a month after I finished my first year in law school. One of the weekly television shows that we watched together during the first year of our marriage was the prime-time soap opera, Dallas. We’ve come a long way since then. Today, there’s no way we would waste our time on that type of show.
During the mid-1980s, I had a good friend — I’ll call him “James” — who I periodically had conversations with about life, politics, family, and religion. I was five years younger than James, and he was a lot smarter than I was. He breezed through elementary school, high school, and college, without any problems. He was quick to grasp new concepts and was a great problem solver.
For several years, there has been a list that has been passed around the internet with the title, “Advice from An Old Farmer.” The list contains lessons of life that apply to everyone. I did some research to see if I could find out who the original author was, but I was unable to identify who it was.
While I was preparing to write this article, I went to YouTube and watched the opening theme of a weekly TV show that aired on NBC from 1966 to 1968. When the show began in 1966, I was nine years old. I’m referring to Tarzan, a TV show that I watched with my younger brothers every Friday night.
I ordinarily attend daily Mass at Sacred Heart Church in downtown Peoria. Last Monday (March 25), I saw my parents at noon Mass and talked to them after the Mass. My mom told me that it was the 58th anniversary of her consecration to the Mother of God. I knew that she had made her consecration years ago, but I was not aware of the actual date.
We know from the teachings of the Catholic Church that angels are pure spirits. They do not have bodies, and they do not depend on any activity or matter for their existence. Every angel is an individual person who will never die. We ordinarily see the word “angel” applied to the pure spirits who remained faithful to God. The angels who did not remain faithful to God are commonly referred to as “devils.”
If a devil were to take on the form of a human, how do you think he would look? How would he behave? There was a time during the reign of Adolf Hitler that he was considered by many to be the devil incarnate.
The definition of “incarnate” is someone who is “in human form, embodied in flesh.” At the moment that the Son of God was conceived inside the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, He became incarnate — in human form, embodied in flesh.
It could be argued that the so-called Catholic governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, is the devil incarnate. On January 22, 2019 (the 46th anniversary of the infamous U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States), Governor Cuomo approved a new law in New York that had been voted on and passed by the New York State Assembly and Senate.
The new law, which was deceptively called the “Reproductive Health Act,” made it legal for any pregnant woman in New York to kill her unborn child, up until the moment of delivery. The new law also expanded the list of executioners who could be hired to do the killing, from only licensed doctors to any “healthcare practitioner.” The new law also removed protections that were in place to save babies who survive an abortion procedure, meaning that those babies can now be left on a table to die after birth.
When evil is not stopped dead in its tracks, it always continues to progressively get worse.
If what happened in New York — and what is currently happening in other states — is not stopped, the next wave of evil will be laws that give parents and the government the right to murder children and elderly people who are potential burdens on their family or society.
I watched a replay of a video that showed Governor Cuomo signing the abortion bill into law. When he signed it, he had a big smile on his face. He then declared, “Congratulations, the bill is signed!” He received a standing ovation accompanied by thunderous applause from the large crowd that was present for the signing.
The new law has stripped all fully developed unborn children in New York of their personhood. They are now nothing more than disposable property. That’s what slaves were before the Civil War — disposable property that was subject to the whims of their owners.
After Governor Cuomo approved the new law, several influential Catholics, Christians, and conservatives called on the Archbishop of New York, Timothy Dolan, to excommunicate Cuomo from the Catholic Church. While Cardinal Dolan harshly condemned the actions of Governor Cuomo, he stated that excommunication was “not an appropriate response to a politician who supports or votes for legislation advancing abortion.”
I’m not going to give my opinion on whether Cardinal Dolan should have excommunicated Governor Cuomo, but I will say this: Whatever path Cardinal Dolan decided to take on the matter, he was walking onto a field of landmines. Lucifer, the brilliant and cunning leader of all the fallen angels always has a dual strategy in place to deal with men like Cardinal Dolan. If Cardinal Dolan had excommunicated Governor Cuomo, Lucifer and his followers would have seen to it that the power brokers would unleash a flurry of accusations and threats against Cardinal Dolan and the Catholic Church.
As a reminder, the “power brokers” are the men and women who are in control of Hollywood, the mainstream media, the institutions of higher education, the public school system, the multinational corporations, the high-tech companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Netflix, and our federal, state, and local governments.
If Cardinal Dolan had excommunicated Cuomo from the Catholic Church, the power brokers would have immediately pushed for the removal of the tax-exempt status of the Catholic Church, its agencies, and its healthcare institutions. They would have screamed at the top of their lungs that the Church has no business threatening politicians. Some of them would have also surreptitiously called for violence against Cardinal Dolan, the Catholic Church, Catholic priests, and members of the Catholic Church.
This is how bad things have gotten in America today. There was a time when Catholics and Christians were left alone to practice their faith and live their lives in peace. Those times are gone forever. There is now constant pressure that is being exerted by the power brokers to bully, intimidate, and force those of us who believe in Jesus Christ to comply with their evil plans.
So what did Lucifer’s agents do after Cardinal Dolan refused to excommunicate Governor Cuomo? They instigated multiple attacks against him and his fellow bishops. They (again) branded the bishops as impotent cowards who are no longer willing or capable of leading the Catholic Church in the way that Christ intended them to lead. The power brokers will never give up in their efforts to completely destroy the influence and credibility of the spiritual leaders of the Catholic Church.
When I was preparing to write this article, I stumbled upon a 2012 National Review article that was written by Michael Walsh. The title to the article was “What Would Dagger John Do?” The article started out by stating:
In 1844, faced with a Nativist threat to burn down St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral (at Prince and Mott streets), John J. Hughes, the Irish-born bishop (and later first archbishop) of New York, gathered several thousand of his mostly Irish parishioners and deployed them around the church. Any attack on the cathedral, warned the man known as “Dagger John,” would be repulsed with force. The Nativists backed down.
In last week’s article, The War Against Real Men, I wrote about the marketing video that was recently released by Gillette, which implied that all men are, by nature, mean, evil, and predatory. During the video, the announcer lectured the public about toxic masculinity and the need to eradicate it.
When I was a teenager, there was an ad that frequently appeared in the comic books that promoted the “Charles Atlas Bodybuilding Course.” The ad was written in comic-strip format. The first frame of the ad showed a young man who was a “97-pound weakling” being humiliated in front of his date by a bully kicking sand in his face.
The next frame of the ad showed the young man in his home kicking a chair and sending away for the Atlas body building course. The ad then showed the man receiving the course and building up his muscles. The last frame of the ad showed the man on the beach punching the bully in the face. He was then identified as the “Hero of the beach,” while a beautiful girl standing next to him declared, “Mac! You are a real man!”
Back then, teenage boys wanted to be just like the man in the ad — tough, muscular, and admired by pretty girls. At that time, to me, real men were warriors who didn’t back down from bullies. That’s the way my dad and my grandfather, Tom Williams, were while I was growing up. They were tough, strong, and ready to do battle if it ever became necessary.
As I grew older, I realized that being a real man wasn’t just about being tough and strong. There were more important qualities that real men possessed. Those qualities included a man’s loyalty and devotion to his wife and children, his work ethic, his resiliency, his industriousness, his confidence, and most importantly, his strong faith in God. Fortunately for me, I was able to learn about those qualities from the example of my dad and my grandfather.
If you think about it, those same qualities have been found in real men since the beginning of time. The men of the Old Testament — including Abraham, King Solomon, and Moses — had those qualities. The Son of God and His foster father, Saint Joseph, had those qualities. And, of course, all of our Lord’s followers — including St. Peter, St. John, St. Stephen, and St. Paul — possessed those qualities.
Today, in America, there is an unprecedented attempt by what I call the “power brokers” to silence and eradicate men who possess those qualities. Such men have been branded as being toxic and harmful to society. The word “masculine” has become a bad word — a word that is associated with bullying, arrogance, and sexual abuse.
Who are the power brokers? In most cases, they are the men and women who are in control of Hollywood, the mainstream media, the institutions of higher education, the public school system, the multinational corporations, the high-tech companies such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Netflix, and our federal, state, and local governments.
The power brokers have perfected the practice of lumping certain individuals into cleverly named, all-inclusive evil categories. After coming up with a clever name for a particular group of individuals, the power brokers proceed to silence and restrain those individuals by slandering, berating, demeaning, and bullying them into submission. The power brokers use every tool at their disposal to accomplish their goal. They are masters at using social media and the court system to get their way.
What do the power brokers have in common? They are all evil to their very core. As a society, we are often surprised by the behavior of someone who is truly evil. Unfortunately, we don’t really have any predictable ways of recognizing and dealing with individuals before it becomes obvious that they are evil.
So what makes a person evil? From a Catholic perspective, a person becomes evil when he either (1) allows himself to be consumed by one or more of the seven capital sins, or (2) intentionally chooses to engage in and embrace sinful behavior. (As a reminder, the seven capital sins are pride, lust, anger, avarice, envy, gluttony, and sloth.)
When a person surrenders to sinful behavior, he becomes an agent of the devil. It is at that point when evil metastasizes inside the person’s soul and begins to spread like cancer. And like cancer, the evil does not usually reveal itself until it has gotten out of control and has destroyed the conscience of the person.
Whether they know it or not, at a spiritual and subconscious level, the power brokers are agents of the devil who are committed to one primary goal — the complete silencing and, if necessary, the destruction of every person who is a reminder to them that their sinful behavior is an abomination, and that they must either repent or they will burn in Hell for all eternity.
Who is it that is a reminder to the power brokers, by word and example, that their sinful behavior is an abomination? The answer is, real men.
What is it about real men that is a threat to the power brokers? It’s their deeply held belief and faith in God, His Church, and His commandments. The real men that I’m referring to are those men who are devout Christians or Jews. Their lives are governed by the Judeo-Christian values and beliefs that have been the foundation of all successful civil societies since the beginning of time — values and beliefs that reject sinful behavior while promoting virtuous behavior.
If you pay any attention to the news, you know about what happened to Nicholas Sandmann, a 16-year-old Catholic boy who attended the pro-life March for Life in Washington DC on Friday, January 18, 2019. Sandmann and several of his classmates from Covington Catholic High School attended the march.
Sandmann was ruthlessly attacked by the power brokers after a three-minute video was posted on Twitter by a member of a radical group. The video allegedly showed that Sandmann was being disrespectful and confrontational with a so-called “Native American Elder.” After the video was posted, Sandman was savaged by the media, members of Hollywood, government officials, and even members of his own church. There were multiple instances where people made death threats against Sandmann and his family.
It wasn’t until a second, two-hour long video was released that the true facts of what actually occurred were revealed. That video showed that it was the native American protester who walked over to Sandmann, lifted up his drum until it was close to Sandmann’s face, and then began beating on the drum in an attempt to get a negative reaction from Sandmann. While the protester was attempting to get Sandmann to become confrontational, Sandmann simply smiled and stared at the protester.
Despite what was revealed in the two-hour video, the power brokers have continued to attempt to destroy the good name and reputation of Sandmann and his fellow students at Covington Catholic High School. Why? Because to the power brokers, Sandmann, his classmates, and his church are toxic.
To the power brokers, toxicity is synonymous with belief and faith in God.
To my delight, Sandmann’s father is a real man who is not going to let the evil power brokers get away with trashing his son’s and his family’s good name and reputation. He has hired the top libel and slander attorney in the country to go after the power brokers. I hope that the Sandmann family and their attorney obtain a multi-million dollar court verdict against the power brokers.
There is a spiritual war that is going on in our country. On one side are the evil power brokers who want to silence and eradicate the real men who they believe are a threat to their sinful way of life. On the other side are the real men and their families who believe in and are faithful to God — men who do their best to lead virtuous, holy lives.
Make no mistake about it. This is a war that is raging between good and evil and it’s up to you and me to do everything in our power to be victorious (with the assistance of our Lord and our Lady).
Our Savior warned us that we would be hated by His enemies. His enemies not only hate us but they also genuinely believe that we are toxic and poisonous to their beliefs and way of life.
All the more reason to stand tall like real men and defeat the enemies of God.