Reflections on Faith #37

[00:00:00] He doesn’t wear sunglasses to protect his eyes from the sun. He wears them to protect the sun from his eyes. Even celestial bodies need protection from his awesomeness. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Catholics of all ages. Here’s the Catholic adventurer. Welcome.

[00:00:24] Welcome. What a little hiatus. Welcome to the Catholic experience. I am your host, the inevitable Catholic adventurer. This is September 1st in the year of our Lord, 20, 24. And I thank you for joining me. This is just going to be a little update and a couple of thoughts on a couple of things. It’s great to be in front of a microphone again.

[00:00:45] It’s been a while, man. Some things have Changed and gone on, and yada yada yada. If you’re following me on socials, you already know the deal, but I’ll just go over a little bit with you here. Gonna talk a little bit also about immigration and, uh, the latest thing the Pope said about immigration. It’s, it’s just ridiculous.

[00:01:05] And, uh, gonna talk a little bit about politics and, uh, it’s gonna be short, sweet, and simple as the prelude to what’s uccu down the pike. And I thank you once again for joining me. You know. Anytime I say that, I mean it. Thank you so much for joining me. I know it, uh, there are a lot of folks that you could be listening to right now.

[00:01:24] You could be listening to some of the voices in your head right now, but you’re not. You’re listening to one of the voices in my head right [00:01:30] now. There are other podcasters out there. Maybe you listen to some of them. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you have your choice of six or 10 or 12 and you’re on a train going to work somewhere or you’re on a commute in your car or you’re going for a walk or a jog and you’re thinking.

[00:01:44] Which podcast should I listen to and you tap play on this one? I really don’t take it lightly I’m, very humbled very honored and grateful and I thank you very much now I’ve been away for a little while. I don’t know if you’ve noticed , my guess is most of you have not noticed most of you probably haven’t noticed but I have been away a little while I started a new job Earlier than expected So I’ve, I haven’t had a lot of time to devote to the podcast or really to anything, you know, anything hashtag Catholic adventurer.

[00:02:23] And then just recently, I was able to go away with my family for a week, kind of on the spur of the moment, kind of not, it’s a long story and not, not an interesting one. , so I was away for a week and so I’ve really been sort of out of the loop. Just a couple of, you know, reshares and one or two random thoughts on socials is about all you’ve gotten from me.

[00:02:46] I really needed a week to reboot and reset. I’ll tell you, the worst thing, the worst thing that can happen to somebody is unemployment. I’ll tell you the truth. That’s probably, I’ve been working almost every day since I was [00:03:00] 11 or 12. So, unemployment is, it really was not nice. It was really not a pretty experience.

[00:03:08] And I know it’s going to be a bit of a recovery process from that. It’s gonna be a little bit of a, you know, it’s sort of a mental and emotional recovery process from that. I was hoping to take a week to reboot. I guess I refreshed. I wouldn’t have called, I wouldn’t call it a reboot, but maybe hopefully that refresh, that one week refresh.

[00:03:27] Will, assist me in, in my, the, the recovery, the mental and emotional recovery process from being unemployed. But, you know, the lesson I, I learned from it, if, if I have learned it, I, I, I don’t know, but there’s a lesson to learn. This is the lesson that I’ve learned. Leave it in God’s hands.I, I cannot say I have my dream job.

[00:03:50] And you know what, that’s almost expected. When you leave it in God’s hands, you won’t necessarily get your dream anything. Your dream house, your dream job, your dream life, your dream situation. You won’t even get your, you may not even get your dream spouse. But, what God provides, even and especially when it’s an unexpected thing, from spouses to houses to jobs and so on, when God provides it, it is the perfect thing for you.

[00:04:18] Even if you’re not expecting it. Even if it’s the last thing you might have expected. I have experienced that in my life.So I can say that, This, the job that I have is not my dream job, but it [00:04:30] is it’s a job that, that suits me and a job that I fit into very, very well.it’s not a job that if, listen, if you gave me my choice of a hundred jobs and this is one of them, I would do.

[00:04:42] This would, this might be like in the top 20 of jobs I choose from, not in the top 5, maybe the top 20, maybe the top 10.and that’s not me being ungrateful. This is my point. My point is gratitude. I believe that I am in the job that God wants me to be in. That My unemployment journey was about a year.

[00:05:09] It lasted about a year. And it was one curveball after another. I mean, It was, it was like somebody was writing this Greek tragedy. And I was the main character. And all the while I said, God, what is your problem with me? What is your problem? Why? Why? Why? Never got an answer to the why. Never expected one. I don’t need one anyhow.

[00:05:36] The why doesn’t matter.in the end, I almost, and I almost feel like too, this is like God’s sense of humor. He finally lifted the veil of unemployment and, and fiscal disaster, financial disaster after a year, almost, almost a year to the day, almost a year to the day, hashtag God’s sense of [00:06:00] humor, hashtag it’s not that funny.

[00:06:06] I left it in God’s hands, I prayed to St. Joseph, I prayed to St. Anthony, finally a job that, really I’m actually surprised that I landed the job, to tell you the honest truth. There were a couple of other jobs that I was even more qualified for, I don’t even want to tell you the long story, but I’ll tell you, these places that told me no, boy did they make a big mistake, boy did they make a big, they have no idea.

[00:06:33] Who they said no to Not that I’m like the greatest of all time. I’m not saying that but boy. Oh boy was I Perfectly suited for those jobs, and I and in fact two of them. I would say I was uniquely suited You’re not you’re not ever going to find someone more qualified for those jobs than me I can say that with total confidence call out a thousand jobs.

[00:06:55] I suck at 999 of them Okay, so this is not me being proud. I would suck at 999 of them, but that one job, I’m going to be a rock star because it just specifically suits what I bring to the table. So there were two jobs in the, in the past year, actually three, two church related, one secular, where it was like, you have to be an idiot to tell me no.

[00:07:17] Well, they did. Actually, it’s, it’s, I could, I could go on with the, with the story of one of these employers, but I can tell you one of the three employers has told me They deeply regret not hiring [00:07:30] me. That was the secular employer. That’s a long story. Anyway. I believe that I’m in the job that God wants me to do.

[00:07:37] That the timing was right. the employer, was right.and so on and so on. And, and, I, I do believe that. Not a job I would have expected. And a job that I’m surprised I, I, I landed. But, you place it in God’s hands, God will provide, and often times what He provides will surprise the hell out of you.

[00:07:58] This kind of surprises, surprises the hell out of me. Leave it in God’s hands, God will provide. It won’t always be elegant, it won’t always be immediate, most times usually it won’t be immediate, actually. But God does provide, God will provide, you just have to leave it in His hands, you have to let go, and just Each and every day, make it a good day.

[00:08:22] Put in a good day each and every day. No matter what it is that you’re doing. In my case, taking care of my family, taking care of my apostolate, looking for work, writing cover letters, sending, you know, job submissions and so on and so on and so on. Just make every day count. Put in a good day every day and let God sort the rest of it out.

[00:08:44] Won’t always, and I’m telling you now, this is really something that I want you to take from this lesson. Not just the lesson that God provides, but this, what I just said a moment ago. It will not always be elegant. It will often scare the hell out of you. It [00:09:00] will, I don’t want to say often, but more than occasionally, it will feel like God has abandoned you.What I can tell you from my experience with that, feeling like, oh boy, not only did I feel like God was abandoning me, but I felt like he was really, really. beating the hell out of me. But what I can tell you for sure is this. I tried to pay very careful attention to the darkness, that feeling of absence of God, that feeling that God has abandoned you or whatever, whatever, however, however you want to put it.

[00:09:31] I just call it the darkness, even in the moment. And I’m not totally out of it, but I’m not in the deep, dense darkness that I was in. But I can tell you this, even in the moment I was aware of this. God is teaching me something in the dark. Pay attention. Pay attention. Pay attention. Pay attention. God is teaching me something in the dark.

[00:09:54] And I paid attention. And I did learn a few things. I did learn a few things. I learned a few hard lessons. I learned a few things. I will say that. I won’t share those lessons with you, but I’ll say I can tell you honestly when those moments happen, when you’re putting it in God’s hands and it feels like He’s abandoned you It feels like he’s not paying attention to you.

[00:10:17] It feels like he’s intentionally making you go through a period of suffering, not just spiritual, you know, dryness, but I mean like tempering, like in the temporal order, suffering in the temporal order, joblessness, [00:10:30] whatever. In those moments where you feel abandoned, that is the darkness. Pay attention, pay attention in those moments, stay spiritually sober and alert and pay attention.

[00:10:43] God is trying to teach you something in the dark. Pay attention. You will, and, and you, you, you’ve likely, and this is, this is true in the spiritual journey, you likely will not like what you learn, but you will be happy to have learned it. Pay attention in the dark. You see everything in the dark. I say it all the time.

[00:11:02] You see everything in the dark. Okay, there’s about ten and a half minutes that should have been condensed into three minutes, but, you know me. If I, if I knew how to shut my mouth, I wouldn’t be a podcaster. Moving on to the next bit, I want to apologize for my absence over the past month or so, not just the past week where I’ve been really absent because I was away and it was a good kind of a way to, it was like I had no computer.

[00:11:33] I barely had an internet connection and so on, but anyway, I want to apologize for, for being, you know, away for so long, especially to my locals. both free members and paid members because I haven’t had the time to, to post content there. I did post something I think like two weeks ago and I planned on posting another thing for subscribe for paid members [00:12:00] that same weekend, but it never happened.

[00:12:02] I’ve been kind of absent from the podcast catalog, the public podcast catalog, you know, off of locals. kind of an absent there for a while. And I wanted to say, you know, I, I apologize, but I’m, I’m sure you understand. You know, I just don’t have the time to devote to it. And of course, as I have time to do things like this, that’s mostly going to be devoted to, to, locals.

[00:12:23] I could bend your ear for about 20 minutes explaining why locals. Like, if you’re doing it anyway, why not just put it everywhere? Well, because to put it everywhere, you have to play the, you have to play the algorithm game. And I don’t know if I shared this with you in the last recording I did. I might have talked about it and then edited it out.

[00:12:45] But I’ll give you one example of the algorithm game, just one of many examples I can give you. On Spotify, and this has also happened to me on iTunes, when I type the Catholic experience, my podcast does not show up on the first page of search results. Why not? The podcast is called The Catholic Experience.

[00:13:09] Why are five other podcasts or ten other podcasts showing up first? It’s because I’m not posting every week. It’s because I don’t publish something new every week, or at least somewhat regularly. Really, they like it to be every week, but they’re okay with it being like every two weeks. But they want it, they want something [00:13:30] regularly, somewhat frequently.

[00:13:31] It’s You may notice some podcasters, they’ll do like one show a month and then through the month, they’ll publish like two, three minute nonsense to their podcast feeds. It’s like, what’s, why is, you know, why are they doing that? Well, because they know that they have to play the algorithm game. If you’re not posting something regularly, you won’t perform well on podcast search results, podcast recommendations on the various podcast networks and carriers and so on.

[00:14:00] And you know what? I’ve been playing that game. I don’t know. What is it? Two years, two years. Maybe I don’t remember exactly when I started podcasting. I’ve been doing the apostle for a while. I don’t remember when exactly I started podcasting. It’s a, it’s a little over a year ago. At least I’ve been playing that game and I’m just done playing it.

[00:14:19] I’m done playing the, the podcast network algorithm game, the social media algorithm game. I’m just done. The people who are signed up to me on locals. are there because they want my content. There is no algorithm game. Every time I publish something, they’re gonna get, be notified of it. So, hey, if you’re doing the recording anyway, there, Catholic adventurer, why not just put it everywhere?

[00:14:43] Because I would rather just devote my energy to, in a way that’s focused, to people who specifically are looking for the content. Instead of, you know, doing something kind of broad, kind of diffuse, to appeal to a larger audience so that the [00:15:00] algorithms place me better, to post something very frequently so that the algorithm, you know, shows my podcast when someone looks for a Catholic podcast and so on.

[00:15:08] I just don’t want to play that game anymore. So I’m just going to do the podcast that I want to do.sometimes I will post it to the public feed and most of the times I won’t. My first priority is going to be to publish it to locals. Because people who, and not many people have signed up to me on Locals, and that’s okay.

[00:15:24] But the people who are signed up to me there, actually want the content. So that’s, that’s gonna be my first, priority. Alright, let’s see. Has anybody new signed up to me on Locals? No, I’m up to 40 members. Actually, I think I did gain a member. In the last month, I gained a whole new free member. Yay! I’m up to 40 members.

[00:15:44] Still trying to get to 50. Maybe by the time I reach retirement age, maybe I’ll hit that 50 members number, who knows. So anyhow, long story short, I apologize for being absent for so long. As soon as I, I am finding my legs with the new job. And there’s still some leg finding I need to do. As soon as I’ve done that leg finding, And I’m in the groove of, you know, my work schedule, my home schedule and personal schedule, you know, stuff that I just like, like the podcast, you know, personal stuff.

[00:16:18] I’ll figure out how I can reserve time on a regular basis for the podcasting. Even if it’s just a half an hour a week, you know, on a [00:16:30] Saturday or something, or maybe, yeah, I always plan on a half an hour of something and it always becomes an hour, hour and a half. But that’s better for you. So, so I guess that works out.

[00:16:40] I apologize. More content is coming, especially if you’re a paid member. The next thing I want to do, and then also for free members, I’m going to touch on something that I’m going to be providing to free members. I’m going to touch on that in this episode that you’re listening to now. So just stick with me.

[00:16:58] But the next thing I want to produce for paid members is, the next episode of, Aquinas, Aquinas five ways.I actually, I’ll tell you the truth. I was going to do that last week, but there’s something in the logic that I’m uncomfortable with. That was one of the things. It wasn’t just that I had no time.

[00:17:16] There was something. In the philosophy that I felt like something isn’t right there. Something isn’t right. Now, of course, Aquinas logic is sound, but there’s a logical leap that he makes sometimes that I’m like, eh, I’m sure it works, but it’s really hard to present that argument without filling the gap.

[00:17:43] so there was just something that I wanted to, settle in the logic before I, before I present it to you, because what I want to present to you is something sound, you know, something that you can really lean on, and, you know, the teaching side of me, when, when I don’t feel comfortable with [00:18:00]something, I don’t want to present it, and if that something that I don’t want to present is fundamental to the whole argument, then I won’t present anything in the argument.

[00:18:09] Been like that since early in my debating days. If I cannot present something that’s bulletproof, I don’t want to present it at all, until I can make it bulletproof. So, that’s going to be coming in the next episode of Aquinas Five Ways. The argument from gradation. Okay, that’s coming down the pike. Now, the next thing that I’m going to talk about, I’ve been, not teasing it, but mentioning this on socials, You know, saying things like, Liberals are not the enemy.

[00:18:45] Communists are not the enemy. Think again. Democrats are not the enemy. Think again. Republicans or Rhinos or neocons, whatever you want to call them. They’re not the enemy either. Try again. Well, if they’re not the enemy, who is? I mean, surely communists at least have to be the enemy, right? No. No, that’s too easy.

[00:19:13] That’s too easy.

[00:19:14] enemy, at the end of the day, is the devil. But, okay. Well, how do we get from devil to communism? How do we get from devil to anything? How do we get from devil to murder? From devil to lie? From [00:19:30] devil to freemasonry?

[00:19:33] more, how do we get from, how do we go backward? How do we say communism, therefore the devil? Freemasonry, therefore the devil. What signs do we see that point to the, that point us in the direction of who the enemy is?thing I’ll point out here is this.let me see if I can play this for you.

[00:19:57] Give me a second. My mouse chooses the worst time to stop working. I’m going to play this, this for you. This is regarding, immigration. I’ll This is something that was on Bill Maher’s, I guess, whatever his show is called. It’s not politically incorrect, is it? I think it’s real time with Bill Maher, right?

[00:20:18] Nancy Pelosi was on there talking about immigration. The Pope just recently said a few things about immigration. It’s actually not stupid, but the way people are, the way people are selectively quoting him is kind of stupid. But let me, let me get to Nancy Pelosi. So this is Nancy Pelosi talking to Bill Maher.

[00:20:36] And, they, let me give you this foundation. So this was tweeted by Elon Musk, who was retweeting something by the, by Wall Street Silver. And Wall Street Silver says this. She said the quiet part out loud. They want to give amnesty to 20 million illegal aliens.but I want you to see, and I agree she does say the quiet part out loud, but I [00:21:00] want you to see past that for a second and listen to the logic.

[00:21:03] The California lawmakers just passed a law, it hasn’t been signed by Governor Newsom, but giving government assistance to undocumented immigrants to buy houses. So this is a plan that as far as I know It’s a, a first payment relief fund, or a down payment relief fund, that only illegal immigrants are able to, receive.

[00:21:31] That’s kind of a, a different place than, the Democratic Party used to be on immigration, is it not? And like I say, that’s what the country’s gonna do. But that’s certainly where California is. Well, let me just say If California is there, much of the country will roll right along with it. It’ll just become the next new thing.

[00:21:48] Colorado, I think, was the first state to make marijuana completely legal a number of years ago. Now, state by state by state, that’s becoming legalized, right? So, things that start in one state, especially if it’s a popular thing or a thing that rests on what some can perceive as popular demand, it usually does not remain isolated in that one state.

[00:22:14] Like, something like this. Helping illegal immigrants or illegal migrants, whatever you want to call them, helping them to buy a home. That’s not going to stay isolated to California, if it even passes in California. Immigration had always Oh, [00:22:30] so here we go with Nancy Pelosi’s response. Immigration had always been a bipartisan issue.

[00:22:36] I refer you to the But not free houses. Well, that’s not free housing. It’s, it’s the American dream being available. Now, I want you to pay real careful attention. Don’t get sucked down the drain. Listen carefully. Well, that’s not free housing. It’s, it’s the American dream being available to more people. But, understand this about immigration.

[00:22:58] The best speech on immigration was by President Ronald Reagan. This is the last speech I will make as president of the United States. I want to communicate a message. To, to the country I love. Now she begins to recite this segment of the speech. It’s obvious she’s prepared for this because ain’t no way in hell, she just had this committed to memory by accident.

[00:23:21] Talked about the Statue of Liberty and the ba, beacon of hope it is to the world and what America was preeminent in the world because our door was always open and we will cease to be preeminent when we shut the door. Now. Now I remember that speech. And I was young when I heard it, but I had no idea that he was talking about illegal immigrants.

[00:23:46] In my mind, I understood this very clearly that he was talking about people who came to this country legally, right? Legally. There was, there was no thought in my head that he’s talking about anyone who crosses the border by [00:24:00] any means necessary, right? Or possible, whether or not it’s legal. That’s, I don’t do justice to the great communicator.

[00:24:06] Google it. You got that right. Holy cow, do you really not do justice to the great communicator. Great communicator. Google it. It’s a fabulous speech. And George Herbert Walker Bush continued in that respect for the diversity of America and the rest. Blah, blah, blah. Did you catch, did you catch what she’s putting down here?

[00:24:25] She’s talking about immigration. As if all immigration is exactly the same. As if there is no such thing as legal immigration and illegal immigration. And the church does the same thing too. Every time the church talks about immigration, and maybe that’s, maybe that’s pastorally sound. Maybe it’s pastorally sound.

[00:24:49] I’m not saying that I have it over the church. Believe me. But what frustrates me whenever the church opens its collective mouth about immigration Sure. You would swear to God that we have closed the borders. There is no way to come here, even legally. It doesn’t matter if you’re fleeing political persecution.

[00:25:06] It doesn’t matter that there was a natural disaster in your homeland. Nothing matters. The border is closed. You cannot come in. Don’t even ask. Do not knock on the door. No immigration. Whenever the church opens its collective mouth about immigration, you would swear that’s what the conditions are. And when politicians like Nancy Pelosi open their mouths about immigration, same thing.

[00:25:27] They make no distinction from, between [00:25:30] normal immigration and illegally crossing into the border. California’s always in the lead, maybe others will In the lead? Hold on a second. In the lead, maybe in America and the rest. California’s Always in the lead. Maybe others will follow that lead. Yes, if you want to go straight to hell, just follow California because they’re definitely in the lead.

[00:25:57] But that’s up to those states. But we are very blessed here with beautiful diversity. Diversity, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay. I just had this, not just, it was a few days ago, and it was a very brief back and forth with someone on Twitter because I just didn’t want to make time for it. I was on vacation.

[00:26:15] I don’t even remember what I was responding to something about what the pope said about immigration, you know It’s it’s a grave sin to not welcome immigrants. Okay, fine and that’s That severely waters down what he said, but okay, let’s just take it at that

[00:26:28] magazine, of course Tweeted about it. Don’t remember what america magazine said. Let me see if I can dig this up If it won’t take too long, let me see That should be on Twitter, should be in replies. If you’re not following me on Twitter, you must be half stupid. At 4thequeenBVM on Twitter, or X, at 4thequeenBVM, okay?

[00:26:47] Check it out. Alright, let me just look at this here. Oh, the saints in heaven. I once had Pope Francis rejecting migrants. Okay, this is from America Magazine. Pope Francis, rejecting migrants is a grave sin. My [00:27:00] response, oh, read the, and then someone responded, read the Gospels, live the teaching. Now that really annoyed me, because this person probably doesn’t actually read the Gospels.

[00:27:10] My response to this person who said, read the Gospel, live the teaching, I’m sorry, let me back up. I did more, I did more than one volley apparently.

[00:27:18] might have this order a little screwy. My, my first reply to this post was, migrants go through an immigration system. Thank you. That’s what migrants do. Okay. Rejecting migrants is a grave sin. Okay. But migrants go through an immigration system. We don’t reject those, but until they go through that system, they aren’t migrants.

[00:27:39] They’re trespassers. They are not migrants. They are people who are migrating illegally. That does not make them migrants in the legal sense of the word. They’re not migrants until they go through an immigration system. Then they are migrants who become immigrants. Legally. Then someone, again very annoyingly, said, Not Christlike.

[00:28:02] Still annoyed me because obviously the person does not read the Gospels. Fine. My response to Not Christlike was it isn’t Christlike to give trespassers treatment that even poor American citizens don’t get. And they don’t get this treatment, these poor Americans, because they aren’t worth, they, because they are worth it.

[00:28:23] More to, because immigrants, sorry, illegal immigrants are worth more to the politicians as political pawns [00:28:30] than American citizens are.We stretch a mile to give illegal immigrants, and I’m not saying they’re, they’re unhuman, I’m not trying to dehumanize them, but they’re people who are coming here illegally, right?

[00:28:44] That’s just true. They may be beautiful people, and many of them are not, we all know this, but a lot of them, of course, are. They are still crossing the border illegally. The current government’s posture is to bend over backwards for them in ways that they don’t bend over backwards for American citizens.

[00:29:03] And I’m sorry, my friends, that is unjust. That is wrong. 

[00:29:08] response to Live the Gospels, I’m sorry, Read the Gospels, Live the Teachings, went like this. Gospels. Caring for the poor is. And that’s true. Caring for the poor is supported in the Gospels, of course. My response continues. But Where does it become our duty to care for the poor of someone else’s country?

[00:29:32] It’s literally an unsustainable paradigm that harms the country. It does harm the country at the expense and to the detriment of its citizens. Now, my friends, I ask you, how is that justice? How is that justice? If it costs tens of thousands of dollars to put a child through school, And the parents are not paying taxes, are not working, are [00:30:00] not contributing to the economy.

[00:30:03] Then who’s paying the tens of thousands of dollars to put each of those children, that family’s children, through school? I’m not saying, therefore, don’t educate them. What I’m saying is, it is unsustainable. It is unsustainable that we’re paying for illegal immigrants to go shopping. When we don’t even give po My friends, I don’t want to say, I don’t want to give too much detail, but I can tell you, I received, after paying into unemployment for decades, decades, decades, decades, I received very, very little money from my, from unemployment benefits.

[00:30:42] Very little. Very little per week, and then they cut it off at five months. Very little. So I would like to know who made off with all of the money that I paid into that damn system, but oh well, I’m never going to get that answer.And it seems some of the evidence is hearsay, but some of it is pretty solid. It seems people who are brought here or come here illegally receive benefits that far outpace what I received in unemployment and I paid into the system for decades, decades, and I have a family to provide for. So why are poor or unemployed Americans not given the same level or measure of benefit?

[00:31:26] that people who are here illegally are receiving. It is [00:31:30] literally unsustainable. Forget about unjust. It’s mathematically unsustainable. That’s just obvious. You don’t have to even have a political opinion about it. That’s just math. You don’t have to have a theological or philosophical opinion about it.

[00:31:43] It’s just math.My response continues. It’s literally an unsustainable paradigm that harms the country at the expense and to the detriment of its citizens. That isn’t Christian principle, it’s Fantasyland Christianity. And that’s what it is. Doesn’t matter if they’re here illegally, just provide for them anyway. Well, okay, as human beings, sure.

[00:32:07] Sure, of course. But the taxpayers shouldn’t have to do that. If there are people who can afford to contribute to a fund to help these people or these families, great! But we shouldn’t all be forced to do that.It’s Fantasyland Christianity. That’s what it is. That’s what it is. And on the immigration issue, we often get fantasyland Christianity. It’s fantasyland! It’s not real Christianity. Well, you know, Jesus, Joseph, and Mary were illegal immigrants when they went to Egypt. Are you crazy? That’s not only fantasyland Christianity, it’s fantasyland history.

[00:32:46] When the Holy Family went to Egypt, Egypt was under the Roman Empire. So was Israel. No. Even though the Holy Family were not Roman citizens, they were Roman, I guess, Roman subjects, I guess you would say? [00:33:00] So going from Israel to Egypt was like going from California to Arizona.

[00:33:04] not illegal immigration. In fact, I’m not sure you could call it immigration at all. But okay, if you want to call it immigration, fine. But it wasn’t illegal. Fantasyland.

[00:33:14] They’re doing this in the church. And I don’t know that the ecclesial church does this. Actually, to be honest, sometimes it does. But certainly, individual Catholics do this, where they just treat immigration like, as if there’s no distinction between illegal immigration and legal immigration. They just treat it all the same.

[00:33:37] Well, if you don’t like people immigrating here, then you’re a racist. No, no, no. That’s not true. I just don’t want people coming here illegally. I want them coming through the front door, not sneaking in through the windows through the basement. And once they, I’ll give you another example.I was recently watching with my kids. I don’t know why my kids love this show, but they do. They love, shark tank.there was one episode of shark tank. It was an old episode. This young man came into the shark tank. I forget what business he had started, but he really worked his ass off. He came here, I think, from Dominican Republic?

[00:34:16] Or Ha Oh, Haiti. It was from Haiti. He came here from Haiti. Came here legally. Worked something like 13 jobs or something.he really worked himself up from nothing and worked several jobs. Worked his way [00:34:30] through school. Work, work, work, work. I I wish I could remember all the details, but this guy really worked hard.

[00:34:36] You know to get the the the jobs that he wanted to get the degree that he wanted To get his advanced degrees and so on and so on. I mean it was a beautiful story And wouldn’t you know? One of the sharks was I think the ceo of virgin. Let me see ceo Virgin, let me just google that real quick Yes, richard branson ceo of virgin He was one of the sharks And he said, you know, this is why, not to make a political statement, but this is why America really needs to let in immigrants.

[00:35:15] Click, next show, watch Spongebob Squarepants Kids, because we’re done with that episode of Shark Tank. Once again, in this case, Richard Branson, making no distinction between legal and illegal immigration. Of course. That person from Haiti, that is the kind of person we want in here. People who come here because they want to be here and they want to work their asses off to get from nothing to something by their own merits.

[00:35:45] That’s what we want. It’s not racism to say we don’t want people sneaking in through the windows or through the basement and then just resting on their laurels, selling fruit at the side of a highway. That’s [00:36:00] And cashing government checks on the side. That’s not what we want. And if we want that, you know what?

[00:36:07] There are plenty of poor American citizens who are more deserving of that because they’re already citizens. They’re already, they already have entitlements to some kind of safety net.And if you want to say, well, yeah, safety net is good, but they shouldn’t be able to live off of that. I am completely with that. I’m completely with that. I’m with that.

[00:36:27] the point I’m trying to make is, well let me go back up, back up to the original point. Richard Branson, in this case, and the church in many, many cases, and Nancy freakin Pelosi, in that video I played for you, failed to distinguish this immigration from that immigration. And I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t see this.

[00:36:58] Even Bill Maher, who’s very smart, he does push back a little bit on this. You’d vote for this law? Excuse me? So you’d vote for it? I’m just fast forwarding a little bit. Ownership. This is for the undocumented. Well. Okay, so he pushes back a little bit here, right? This is for the undocumented. For people who are here now.

[00:37:16] This is before you’re a citizen. This is undocumented. This is for the undocumented. Well, what I would like to do is move them to documented. That’s where she says. That’s where she says the quiet part out loud. I would [00:37:30] like to move him to documented, which in my, in my opinion, what that sounds like is with the stroke of a pen, they just want to make all of them, you know, legally, legal migrants.

[00:37:39] So they go through no vetting system. They’re not, they’re not told, okay, you can come here, but you have to have a sponsor. You have to have a job and so on. They skip all that. They just with a stroke of a pen, make them American citizens. But even Bill Maher, Though he said that, he does not say, well, let’s pause for a second.

[00:37:57] What Ronald Reagan was talking about was people who come here legally. And of course, they’re precious. People who come here legally from other countries because they’re fleeing something, or because they want a better life for their family or for themselves, whatever. They’re precious. But that’s what Reagan was talking about.

[00:38:11] What you’re talking about is anyone who comes here in any possible conceivable way. Even Bill Maher doesn’t push her on that.And we see this same stupidity when we talk about abortion. Right? Where we just Why doesn’t anyone say, listen, my body, my choice. Okay, but when you have sex, you’re making the choice.

[00:38:31] Why doesn’t anyone say that? It’s not your body. Why doesn’t Now, people do say that, but most people don’t. It’s not your body. And you do have a choice. Even, even people in the church really don’t say that. We just pretend like we’re talking about abortion like something that fell out of the sky, right?

[00:38:54] But it’s not something that just, well, it just fell out of the sky. Well, holy cow, what do we do with this? It didn’t [00:39:00] just fall out of the sky. It’s not a problem that just springs up and now you have to be like, Oh, hell, what do I do about this? It’s not that. Abortion is a thing, because the conception of a child is a thing.

[00:39:13] The conception of a child is a thing, because sex is a thing. Sex is a thing, because people don’t exercise self control. And so on, you can go through the whole, the whole litany. But why it is no, not even conservative commentators are saying this. You could, you can go even further. Lack of self control is because we live in an indulgent culture.

[00:39:35] It’s because of pornography, pornography, pornography. It’s because of the crap we put on TV. It’s because of, you know, sex sells, sex sells, sex sells. So it’s everywhere in TV, in movies, and in music. You can take it further and further and further. No one goes there. Everyone just, it seems like they just agree to pretend like abortion just fell out of the sky.

[00:39:56] This problem of killing unborn children, it just fell out of the sky. Like COVID. We don’t know where the hell that came from. It just happened. Well, hell, what do we do with it? The collective global stupidity, my friends, is absolutely staggering. It’s on the left. It’s on the right. It is in the church. It is not the church, capital C, but it is in the church.

[00:40:25] have to give the Pope credit though, because the Pope, [00:40:30] Trips over his own words or says things really badly sometimes, but, but he doesn’t let those things slide. He talks about things or angles associated with problems in ways that nobody else does, but that’s, that’s a side note. Anyway. So we have this collective, global stupidity throughout the human order.

[00:40:56] On the left, on the right, and in the church. Even from people who are educated in the church.What else do we see? What other signs of the enemy? You know, taking it back to what I said before. Communism isn’t the enemy. This isn’t the enemy. That isn’t the enemy. What other signs do we see?Do you notice the lack of creativity in modern culture these days?

[00:41:20] not a lack of inventiveness But it’s a lack of creativity. I’ll tell you in music music is so bad that many Many kids, you know teenagers and little younger a little older. They don’t have a preferred genre They don’t have a preferred artist or group This is my personal opinion, but I think that has something to do with the fact that Nothing is worth following.

[00:41:48] There’s no Bob Dylan. There’s no Bruce Springsteen. There’s no Beach Boys or the Penguins if you go back that far. There’s no, [00:42:00] I don’t know, the Platters. There, there are no, no big names that really recruit or elicit excitement and devotion. Not just the names, but the music, you know, and I’m personally not a Beatles fan.

[00:42:15] I actually hate the Beatles, but I recognize their value as artists. I just don’t like them.So we have that we have generations that are kind of drifting, you know, they haven’t rooted themselves in, in, in something cultural, like how we used to root ourselves in our, you know, the music we chose to listen to.the kinds of books we liked to read or whatever. There’s also, this is going to sound stupid and it may be, but it’s definitely on my radar.

[00:42:46] Why does everyone have tattoos all over the place? Why? I am not anti tattoo except I really don’t think women should have tattoos, but whatever. I’m not anti tattoo. But why, all over the place? The neck, the face, up and down the arm, here’s some more on my leg, why? Why? Why do people feel like they need to express themselves this way?

[00:43:18] Look at these things I’m saying about myself with my tattoos. Why does anyone have to give a damn about that? And why should you give a damn that you’re able to express this to everybody else? Especially women. Women are so tattooed these days. [00:43:30] Just this past week alone, I couldn’t believe it. And the dumbest things tattooed on their own Beauty and the Beast I saw once.

[00:43:40] The dumbest things! Some of it is artful, not just the women, but the men too, some of the tattoos they have. Some of it is artful, nice ink, I appreciate it, you know, from an artistic point of view, as someone who appreciates art and design and graphics and stuff. Some of it is artful, or artistic, but it’s still stupid.

[00:44:00] And some of it isn’t stupid, and it’s artistic or artful, and I still question why is that all over your arm? All over your back, on your neck, whatever. Why do people feel so desperate to express themselves this way? I don’t know if it’s even just an adornment. I think it’s a little bit of that, but I think it’s mostly an expression.

[00:44:21] Why?

[00:44:22] theory is one that I’m still developing, but I’m confident it’s true. Is the entire culture is suffering from a deficiency of, or a lack of identity. And so, we need to express ourselves. First we need to make up who we are, because we don’t know who we are, and then we need to express it. Which is why Trump supporters are like in a cult.

[00:44:52] Hey, if you support Trump, I’m not damning you. I’m not talking about people who prefer Trump or like Trump or plan to vote for him. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about [00:45:00] the Trumpists. The Trumpists are like a cult. It is unbelievable. And it was even like that in 2016. They’re loud. They’re aggressive.

[00:45:10] Sometimes they’re nasty. I wouldn’t say they’re evil. They’re just, I don’t know, sometimes juvenile because it’s like a cult. And the left is even worse. The left is far worse. Why? Because on the left or on the right, just people in general, they latch on to others who, who are the people they want to be.

[00:45:41] Right, or who reflect something they have inside of themselves, but they’re not able to, to root or express on their own. Trump has a big, fat mouth. He’s a, he’s truly a New Yorker. He has a big, fat mouth, and he says what’s on his mind, and so the Trumpists are all about him because he is who they want to express in themselves.

[00:46:08] He is who they want to express in themselves. I’m not damning them for that. I am not damning them for that. Even the ones on the left who do that when they surround themselves with people like Kamala Harris or Joe Biden. What I’m not saying they’re they’re damned to hell. They’re stupid. I’m not saying that.

[00:46:25] What I’m saying is it shows a deficiency of character and [00:46:30] identity.The, the lack of grounding, the lack of rooting. The seemingly sporadic ways in which we express God knows what. Why do I care that you like, this movie so much that you have to tattoo it on your arm or on your back? Well, I, I, this is my favorite movie, so. Well, Rocky is my favorite movie. I don’t have a Rocky tattoo because that’s just my favorite movie.

[00:47:00] Why should I care that anybody else know that? Why do I feel like it’s important to express that? Maybe people feel like it’s important to express that because they don’t have any means of expression. Or because they don’t know who they are, or who or what they should express.You think communism is the enemy, my friends?

[00:47:23] You know what’s worse than communism, which came from an ordered though errant mind? You know what’s worse than that? Savages are worse than communism. Hey, you know me well enough. I am not a communist. I do not support communism. None of that. But what’s worse than communism is paganism, savagery. It’s worse in the way that, well, what’s worse?

[00:47:49] A lunatic human being or a crazed animal? You know what’s worse? A lunatic human being. Because even a crazed animal, to a [00:48:00] point, is limited by its own nature. Transcribed Right? It can’t really make choices the way a human can. A lunatic human can do all kinds of damage. Look at Charles Manson or any other mass murderer.

[00:48:14] Right?A lunatic person is more dangerous than a crazed animal. Because a lunatic person is creative, can make choices, can be devious, sneaky, highly, highly, highly, highly destructive in literally numerous or countless ways. Right? In the same waycommunism is evil, you know what’s worse? A human culture that has no identity.

[00:48:44] And for lack of identity,just become sheep. Sheep that follow any shepherd. And usually that shepherd will be a puppet dangling from strings held by the devil. And they are a lot easier to manipulate than it is to move someone from capitalism to communism. The culture lacks an identity. It’s detached from its own collective character and individual characters.

[00:49:15] People don’t know who they are, where they come from, or where they’re supposed to be going, even in the church. Everything I’ve described, you find it in the church too, just wears a different suit. You [00:49:30] can overthrow communism. Really, it’s ordered toward its own overthrowing. It just sometimes takes time.

[00:49:37] You can overthrow things like communism. You can, you can logically defeat Freemasonry, which is evil. It is of Satan, yes. But you can logically defeat it.You can evangelize a Freemason. You can convince a communist that communism is flawed and ultimately defeat it. Inhuman.try convincing someone that modern liberalism is anti democratic.

[00:50:13] Try convincing someone of that. They’ll probably stone you to death first before you get a chance.Democrats are talking about democracy, democracy, democracy. Completely laughable after what they did to RFK Jr. After elevating Kamala Harris without a single a single vote to her name. Good. And so on, and so on, and so on.

[00:50:33] Their failure and refusal to safeguard the election process. And yet, they talk democracy, democracy, democracy, democracy. We’re protecting democracy and all this other crap. And unbelievably, no one is calling them on it. Even their own voters don’t see through the veil. Don’t see through the haze. Don’t see through the mist.

[00:50:54] Don’t see through the deception. Their own voters don’t see it. Some of them [00:51:00]probably see it and they’re just ignoring it. But I think most of them just truly don’t even see it. These are also people who don’t see that there is such a thing as legal and illegal immigration. That closing the, that closing the borders does not mean stopping legal immigration.

[00:51:16] They also don’t see that. They also don’t see that abortion is not a problem that fell from the sky. It actually comes from a, from another problem of another problem. They don’t see that. They don’t see these things that really slap them in the face, slap them hard in the face. It’s just so obvious, so logical, so demonstrable, and they still don’t see it.

[00:51:38] And these people are voting. And my friends, it’s not just liberals, it’s conservatives too. It’s conservatives too. Maybe they were better candidates than Donald Trump this time around. They were better candidates than Donald Trump in 2016.never forget how many times Ted Cruz just tried to give a speech and he was shouted down by Trump supporters in 2016.

[00:52:00] I didn’t know why. I could not understand why. What was he saying? What was he saying that was wrong or stupid or whatever? But shouted down by Trump supporters, asking dumb questions, Is it true that you think aliens exist? Yeah! I don’t know. I just made that up. But asking dumb questions, Ted Cruz would try to give, to address it rationally and calmly but he couldn’t get out a single sentence [00:52:30] without being shouted down by the Trump supporters.

[00:52:31] This was in 2016. I think Ted Cruz was a better candidate than Donald Trump. He didn’t really get a chance.Maybe, and I really don’t know, maybe they were better candidates, well maybe, what’s his name from Florida was a better candidate. I think he was okay. I, I, I don’t know enough about him to say, oh that definitely would have been a better candidate, but maybe, maybe, forget his name now, I, I can’t believe it, but I, I, his name escapes me now.

[00:52:56] The governor from Florida, he might have been a better candidate, but he, maybe he wasn’t given a chance. Because of the Trump hysteria. And again, if you’re in favor of Donald Trump, I don’t, I’m not anti Trump. That’s okay. If you’re in favor of Donald Trump, God bless you. I’m not anti Donald Trump. I’m re I’m really not.

[00:53:13] All I’m saying is I am not a Trumpist. I am not a Trump ite. And I just see the man for what he’s worth and for what he isn’t. Like I see anybody else, Kamala Harris, Ted Cruz, doesn’t matter. I just see the man for what he’s worth and for what he isn’t worth. And I’m just calling balls and strikes. That’s all.

[00:53:29] If you’re in favor of them, great. God bless you. That’s fine. If you’re voting for him, great. God bless you. That’s fine. I got no beef with that. I’m not talking about Trump, you know, as a candidate, what I’m talking about is the, the Trump ism phenomenon is really what I’m talking about. So who’s the bigger enemy.

[00:53:47] And I’m going to tell you straight out, who’s the bigger enemy, the, the, the communist Kamala Harris. And I’ve been saying for years, she’s a communist. Is she a bigger enemy? Or let’s not say Kamala Harris. [00:54:00] Let’s say the people voting for Kamala Harris, who’s the bigger enemy? The, the, the, the people who are blindly devoted to Kamala Harris or the people who are blindly devoted to Donald Trump is one worse than the other, or is there something deeper at play?

[00:54:18] Is there something deeper at play? People who are voting for the Republican candidate because they’re fed up with how things are. Or people who are voting for Kamala Harris, just because she’s not Donald Trump. You see how that’s a deeper problem. You see how that is a deeper problem. And then it goes deeper.

[00:54:39] Still, it goes deeper. Still are people voting for the conservative, for the Republican candidate out of hopelessness and desperation or out of hope are people voting for the democratic candidate out of fear and out of anger, which one of those is worse. I’ll leave that to you to decide. But let’s recognize that there’s a difference.

[00:55:04] Let’s recognize that there’s a difference, and there’s a problem with both of those scenarios.

[00:55:08] might have been a little bit all over the place, and I apologize, but I’m not really trying to give you something solid here. I’m just trying to share my preliminary thoughts with you. Okay, I’m not trying to say, And that’s the end, now you’ve learned something. The original question here is, Who is the real enemy?

[00:55:24] I can’t put my finger on the what or the why, and so that’s not what I’m trying to [00:55:30]do in this episode. I’m just trying to tell you it’s deeper than what appears much deeper than what a, what it appears. And a great big part of the problem is the culture suffers from a lack of identity, not just the C culture collectively, but individuals in the culture.

[00:55:52] They, they, they lack character, they lack identity, they don’t know who they are, they have to make it up. And they desperately have to express it to be recognized as having dignity. That’s really why they’re expressing it, because they want their dignity recognized. Well, why would you need your dignity recognized?

[00:56:08] Because you don’t recognize it in yourself. And so, dammit, you want somebody else to recognize it for you. Or in some cases, you want somebody else to give you your dignity. Because you don’t feel like you have any. So you want someone else to give you your dignity. There are people who are voting for Trump because they feel he gives them their dignity because he speaks to what they want to speak.

[00:56:29] Same thing on the left. In fact, in my experience, leftists are the worst about this, that they latch onto whatever they feel gives them their dignity, which usually it’s the government. The government gives me my dignity. The government protects my dignity. Right? Thank you. This is just a different manifestation of a problem that’s global and throughout the human order.

[00:56:52] A lack of identity. A lack of character, component to that is a [00:57:00] detachment from one’s own dignity, or failure to recognize one’s own dignity, and for that matter, therefore, the dignity of others. So that’s what I’m going to talk about a little more the next time I take to the microphone. Maybe in another few days, maybe in another week.

[00:57:16] but the first thing I’m going to get to, the next time I do a recording will be for paid members of my locals community catholicexperience. locals. com That’ll be another the next installment the next episode of Aquinas five ways the argument from gradation This is supposed to be a quick little episode turned out to be about an hour Mucho sorry about that, but I hope you don’t hate me for it.

[00:57:40] might have been a little bit all over the place, but as I said, this was just me kind of sharing my, my exploration of thoughts with you. I didn’t intend to teach you something here, just to share something with you, share with you where my thoughts are and where I’m going. This has been another stunning episode of The Catholic Experience.

[00:58:00] I’ve been your host. The Catholic Adventurer. Please say a Hail Mary for me and for my family. Thank you for your prayers up to this point. Follow me on X at ForTheQueenBVM. Come on along and listen to me on my Locals community. CatholicExperience. Locals. com God bless you. God be with you all. Signing out of here.

[00:58:20] Bye bye.