Don’t Take the Bait

Brian Niemeier

5 years ago

First, a piece of good news for those who’ve rightly grown frustrated with the clergy’s often muddled response to the current wave of Death Cult iconoclasm.

To their credit, the Archdiocese of St. Louis is largely getting it right.

In a statement on Sunday, the Archdiocese of St. Louis defended the king as a saint who reverenced God and did much to care for the poor.

“The history of the statue of St. Louis, the King is one founded in piety and reverence before God, and for non-believers, respect for one’s neighbor. The reforms that St. Louis implemented in French government focused on impartial justice, protecting the rights of his subjects, steep penalties for royal officials abusing power, and a series of initiatives to help the poor. King Louis IX’s renowned work in charity helped elevate him to Sainthood,” the archdiocese said.

“His daily suppers were shared with numerous beggars, whom he invited to the royal table. On many evenings, he would not let them leave before he washed their feet. He personally paid to feed more than 100 poor Parisians every day. His care for the sick was equally moving; St. Louis frequently ministered to lepers. He also created a number of hospitals, including one for the blind and another for ex-prostitutes. For Catholics, St. Louis is an example of an imperfect man who strived to live a life modeled after the life of Jesus Christ. For St. Louisans, he is a model for how we should care for our fellow citizen, and a namesake with whom we should be proud to identify.”

Even better, Catholics of the diocese took the fight to the spiritual level by publicly praying the rosary and leading a procession past the king’s statue.

And the St. Louis Archdiocese isn’t alone.

Bishop Donald Hying of Madison, Wisconsin, was one of the first bishops to publicly denounce the destruction of statues and memorials, saying, “I cannot remain silent.” He released a letter decrying the vandalism. “The secular iconoclasm of the current moment will not bring reconciliation, peace and healing,” he wrote. “Such violence will only perpetuate the prejudice and hatred it ostensibly seeks to end.”

Even statues on church grounds are a target. St. Patrick’s Church in Joliet, Illinois, reported that vandals destroyed a small statue of the Blessed Virgin in front of the parish rectory during the night on June 23. The church pledged to replace the statue and build a grotto to protect it in the future. “We ask that you take this as a call to pray even more fervently for the conversion of hearts,” a representative of the church said on the church’s Facebook page.

National news outlets reported on San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone’s prayer service and exorcism in Golden Gate Park at the site of a destroyed statue of St. Junípero Serra. Archbishop Cordileone said the service was in response to “an act of sacrilege.”

If once is a fluke, twice is coincidence, and three times is enemy action, we have more than enough evidence to prove that the new iconoclasts are bitter enemies of the Church. Like the original heresy, this conflict is primarily spiritual, and those clergy and laymen who are deploying the weapons of prayer and fasting prescribed by Our Lord are taking exactly the right steps.

You can tell by the enemy’s response.

In St. Louis, vandals and Catholics clashed at the base of a statue of the city’s namesake. After Muslim convert and political activist Umar Lee created a petition to have the statue removed, the Gateway Pundit, a conservative blog, announced a public Rosary in support of St. Louis and the statue. Lee then announced a counterprotest, calling those planning to attend the prayer event “White Nationalists.”

It should be clear by now that the Death Cult labels anyone who won’t apostatize and join its heretical rebellion a White Nationalist/White Supremacist/Nazi. Like their father below, lying is their only tactic.

Fallen human nature being what it is, that tactic usually works. One case in which it doesn’t is when the Cult deploys its usual slanders against peaceful members of the religion it’s a heretical parody of as they humbly pray.

Smearing centuries-old Christian practices as white nationalism comes off as laughably absurd to all but the most hardened Cultists. Not even normies who blacked out their Instagram avis buy it. The net effect of Lee’s accusation was to make his mob of iconoclasts look deranged.

Unfortunately, Satan always seeks to sow division, even among those with good intentions.

Now, Dr. Jones is a consummate scholar and Christian gentleman. Few in the public sphere today can match him as a dialectician.

None of which matters, since having a dialectical debate with Lee will accomplish nothing but to give Lee a convenient high-profile target to paint with the Nazi brush.

In case you’ve been living in a cave, the Death Cult controls public morality now. They enforce their control by holding mystery plays and inviting audience members to don the black cape and twirly mustache.

Intelligent though he is, Jones hails from an older generation that finds the new rules difficult to accept. He can be forgiven for not seeing Lee’s debate challenge as the trap it is. The general rule governing such situations still applies:

Don’t take the bait.

The urge to rush out and confront the Christ-haters is tempting. The slow, humble work of prayer and penance isn’t glamorous. But the latter is the correct way to deal with spiritual evil. Playing the Cult’s game by their rules just gives them a nonbeliever to rally against and a scalp to display afterward.

Repent, pray, fast, and don’t fund people who hate you.