5/10/25 – All the greedy tech titans who do very little for others disgust us. We do not respect or like them, and we want this to be known. Avarice is also an expression of evil.
5/10/25 – As friends of the Jewish people: stephen miller and benjamin netanyahu are putting your people in grave danger. For moral reasons and for your own self-preservation, you need to stop them. The human trafficking of illegal migrants or immigrants, the violation of their due process rights and their ill-treatment, the violation of the protesting students’ First Amendment rights, the starving of Gazan children is morally wrong and is damaging the world’s opinion of the Jewish people. You are alienating the friends you will likely need in the future, and you need to stage a concerted intervention to stop this, for their sake…and for your own.
When the Jewish chemist Fritz Haber created a chemical weapon in his nationalistic zeal to ingratiate himself with the German government during World War I, he didn’t foresee it being used to gas over 1 million Jews during the Holocaust. The nature of cruelty and violence is that it begets more cruelty and violence. Whether or not one believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ, “those who live by the sword die by the sword” applies.
Hama’s attack on October 7, 2023 was heinous, and the protestors who created a hostile environment on college campuses violated Jewish people’s civil rights. They were both wrong, but the respective responses are also wrong. They are far too strong, and the Jewish people take great risks with this approach. Revenge or opportunism is not justice. They cannot be justified and can have severe negative repercussions for the Jewish people in the future.
The nature of evil is that we all possess the capacity for it. As the opening of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible explains and, therefore, as the Jewish people would understand better than any of us, this is our fallen nature. The only thing that prevents us from becoming an evil monster is not our incapacity but our restraint. Stage an intervention, and impose the restraint.
The Bad Show
5/9/25 – Curtis Yarvin is an insane chimpanzee. He doesn’t know if he is coming or going. He is a garbage spewer who desperately wants attention. He should be committed. Then again, all of the tech titans who listen to him should also be committed. They are morally bankrupt and detached from reality. They are crazy people and a serious threat to global peace and governance.
5/9/25 – This is a dark and dangerous time for us as a global people. We must vanquish this evil that has fallen upon us. We must remember who we serve. We serve God and the poorest and most vulnerable in the world. For their sake, we cannot lose this battle.
5/8/25 – Yesterday, we remembered Saint Monica. Who was she? She was St. Augustine’s mom, a Christian woman from North Africa (likely modern-day Algeria) married to a pagan, Patricius. Many people think St. Augustine was Roman, but he was actually North African, and he was the Bishop of Hippo, also in North Africa, for almost 35 years.
Monica persistently prayed for her intellectually gifted but hedonistic son to become a Christian, and he finally did after a long, circuitous spiritual journey. He is now known as one of the greatest theologians in Christian history. (He is my patron saint.)
Conversion is sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes dramatic, sometimes quiet. Each person has their own pace and way. No matter how we come to Jesus Christ, if we are to truly follow him, it can’t be superficial gestures and words. As Jesus sacrificed for us, we also have to sacrifice. We have to help the poorest and the most marginalized in the world.
5/8/25 – We are praying for our new pope, Pope Leo XIV. It is an incredible honor for our country, especially during this difficult time when Americans have been humiliated and disgraced on the world stage. He is also considered by some as the first pope from the Augustinian Order, perhaps because he held its leadership role. It does seem like the world is hoping he can save us all, but this would be asking too much of anyone. We do hope that he can pray to God with us that God may save us from ourselves. May the Holy Spirit guide him in this challenging time and the difficult work ahead. (Note: It is unclear why some news agencies reported him as the first Augustinian pope, and America magazine wrote that there have been six before him. Changes to the text above reflect this ambiguity.)
5/7/25 – To anybody immoral and stupid enough to carry out this administration’s heinous and illegal orders, know this. The supreme sociopath is 78-years-old. His days of power are relatively short, if only restricted by his age. And when he is no longer in power, you will be hunted down like a dog, be put in prison, possibly for the rest of your life, and your family will be impoverished. The international community will make sure that justice is served.
5/7/25 – Are Europeans ever going to show some courage and conviction? Are they only capable of being lazy and entitled, or can they actually do something for the world, such as arresting the architects of these illegal deportations? Certain people land on European soil. Put them in handcuffs and escort them to The Hague.
5/7/25 – State governments need to start arresting anybody that carries out these illegal deportations.
5/7/25 – This administration is engaging in human trafficking. It is a morally bankrupt and criminal enterprise.
5/7/25 – We pray that the Holy Spirit guides the papal conclave to elect a fitting pope.
5/7/25 – Even if you disagree with his personal politics, this is what courage and conviction looks like. The law firms and lawyers that caved are an embarrassment to themselves and to our country. History will remember them as such.
Marc Elias: Trump’s Attacks on the Rule of Law and Democracy
5/6/25 – This administration’s policies are not respecting people’s due process rights in violation of our country’s Constitution. It is also sending people to a country with which they have no legal relationship and often to its prisons without proving that they have committed a crime. The administration could have easily chosen to conduct the deportations, which in many cases are justified, in a lawful and humane way, one that respects the deportees’ rights, dignity and humanity. It chose not to do so, in part, because of the sociopath, the Henry Kissinger of the modern era, Stephen Miller. It is time to bring order and morality to this entirely unacceptable situation. This is a matter of international law, and it is past time for the international legal community to step up and do their jobs. They need to start with issuing an arrest warrant for Bukele and bringing him to trial at The Hague.
5/4/25 – Either the persecution of Christians in Nigeria stops, or the Muslim extremists need to be brought to trial in The Hague for genocide. “Help Women Who’ve Endured the Unthinkable, Christian women in northern Nigeria are targets for Islamic extremists. Many have: Been forced into extremist marriages, Watched their children die, Lost everything they owned, Been rejected by their communities. Your gift provides healing, skills training, and a path to self-sufficiency.”
Your persecuted family in Nigeria needs your help today.
5/4/25 – True Christians are Africans. In the theme of catching up from last week, on Friday, we remembered Saint Athanasius – an African, a Copt, originally meaning an Egyptian, you know, from one of the world’s great ancient civilizations. Now, Copt refers to Christian Egyptians. Saint Athanasius is considered one of the great fathers of the church – the global church, the same one in which people of all colors, cultures, and backgrounds worship. He was a bishop in Alexandria, Egypt for forty-six years and is a Doctor of the Church, particularly for his insistence on Jesus’s divinity. The words in the Nicene Creed, the one Christians throughout the world no matter their denomination say, reflect his faith and immense influence on Christianity to this day.
To Africans, we say this: don’t throw away your birthright because some nonwhite liberals who choose to be conditioned by ignorant white liberals who know nothing about Christianity speak some nonsense about your identity or about the faith. You are not a Pavlovian dog. You are a child of God, and all you need to know personally is Jesus Christ.
5/4/25 – According to some supposed enlightened nonwhite liberal who has emancipated herself from “white Christianity” and found “African spirits,” all nonwhites are white people’s Pavlovian dogs. Did you know that? If you’re nonwhite, and that’s what you know, maybe you need to get some self-respect and an accurate understanding of history. No amount of “African spirits” can save you from your sad opinion of yourself and your ignorance. Happy Sunday!
5/3/25 – Another flashback because why not. It seems apropos five years later. “Therefore, the sole dependence on the state for these services is as dangerous and precarious as the nation itself. If a corrupt, depraved person rises to power, the people will be at the mercy of a failed state with no corrective measures since the constitution and the laws would simply be changed to facilitate the exploitation or subjugation of the people.
Although both church and state are vulnerable to corruption, unlike the state, the corrective measure in the church is indelible and immutable since it is the foundation of the church itself, Jesus’s teachings. The enforcement of the church’s corrective measure is its believers who would force the church to return to the correct application of the teachings. The church’s role in society was incomparably important, and it needs to remain so, as it provides an irreplaceable source of stability and goodness for the world.”
The Necessity for Christian Witness in Secular Society
5/3/25 – So many parents are obsessed with providing materially for their children. Obviously, when basic necessities, such as housing and food, aren’t met, that can negatively impact a child’s well-being and development. However, more important than anything else is having a loving, supportive family that also holds children accountable and provides them with community and spiritual connection. Most families are often too focused on ambition and accomplishment and not focused enough on the holistic development of their children. Are you spending quality time or even time with your children? Are you doing family and community activities together with them? Are you nurturing a sense of doing for others, donating and volunteering, and of responsibility to the family? Are you cultivating their beings or outsourcing your responsibilities to electronic device(s) and their teachers?
5/3/25 – From a few years ago, a belated Flashback Friday because, well, life is busy. The Tradition of the #Trending
5/1/25 – Paganism is not cool. It’s callous and cruel. It’s might makes right. Instead of obsessing on a certain person, a pagan pretending to be a follower of Jesus Christ, we suggest that you find your passions and your heart. You have to give to receive. Donate to organizations that do the Lord’s work. Donate your time, talent and treasure for other people’s well-being. You have enough. It’s not just MAGA that has lost its way. It’s Americans and the west more broadly. We’re paying for our sinfulness.
IJM
5/1/25 – Today is International Workers Day. It is also the Feast Day for St. Joseph the Worker, Jesus’s earthly father, a carpenter who taught Jesus the craft. We celebrate St. Joseph twice, as both beloved spouse and father (on March 19) and as humble worker (on May 1).
Strong families depend on parent(s) being able to provide for them and on having dignity for their labor. Caste or any other form of (institutionalized) slavery is a violation of God’s order, one that asks us to be productive and to not exploit each other. St. Joseph, international workers, indentured servants and all of us are human beings first. We are beloved by our maker and are endowed with inalienable rights granted to us by our creator. We belong to him and him alone.
On this day, let us pray that we use our gifts to serve God. Let’s also pray for all of the workers who are deprived of their basic human rights, who are treated as property and as disposable. Let us pray for all of the workers whose dignity is not respected. May they be liberated from bondage and be able to live and work in freedom and with respect for their humanity.
ECSPE Break the Chains
CSI-USA Slavery