As the World Gets Meaner and Crazier, Follow Jesus Christ

Mihály Munkácsy, “Ecce Homo” (1896)
Mihály Munkácsy, “Ecce Homo” (1896) (photo: Public Domain)

Peoples is crazy. And they are getting crazier.

They are also getting meaner. And more deadly.

California’s euthanasia law locked on recently, allowing medical murder. The support for this law comes from claims that killing people is actually a kindness to them, and those who opposed this killing lack compassion.

New York City’s Commission on Human Rights recently released a “guidance” for employers and landlords, requiring them to learn a new language or be fined $125,000 for accidentally saying the “wrong” thing, and up to $250,000 for saying the “wrong” thing on purpose.

What does it take to fall afoul of this newness in employment behavior? Well, if you accidentally refer to a man who thinks he’s woman with the pronoun “he,” ka-ching! you’re out $125,000. If you do it on purpose, the cost will be $250,000.

However, it’s even a bit more complicated than that. You can’t settle the case by just calling “him” a “her.” There is what amounts to a new, legislated, language to be learned here.

It seems that men who say they are women, or women who say they are men must be addressed by such arcane pronouns as “ze,” and “hir.” Ze is supposed to be the third person singular, while “hir” is the third person possessive.

Also, if you have a dress code that differs between men and women, requiring, say, men to wear a tie, then you’re in for another $250,000.

Employers are required to provide health benefits for “gender affirming care,” and to make “reasonable accommodations” for “individuals undergoing gender transition.”

Then, of course, there’s the bathroom dealio. It appears that women employees in NYC need to adjust to going to the bathroom with any man who decides today that he is, in fact, a woman.

Meanwhile, the United States Departments of Justice and Education have issued a joint letter to public school administrators threatening them with loss of Title IX monies if they do not require little girls to share their bathroom and shower facilities with any boy who says he’s a girl. They are also required to destroy girl’s sports by allowing any boy who says he’s a girl and who wants to play on the girl’s teams to do so.

This little list doesn’t come anywhere near compiling the craziness afoot in our fair land. We all know that the two political parties have coughed up turnips in their presidential nominating process and that Congress has abrogated its duties in what appears to be a permanent commitment to partisan rabble-rousing.

We are aware that our elected officials don’t seem to care about this country except when they are campaigning for re-election, and even then not much. Our political campaigns have devolved down to myopic discussions of nonsense that are almost as crazy as the New York employment rules.

So what are we to do? How do we combat this fall into enforced nihilism, narcissism and flat-out reality-bending from our government?

Here’s how.

We stay the course.

What does staying the course mean?

It means, first of all, that we pray. I think it would be a good thing if we all started praying the Rosary every day. I try to do that, and it helps me a lot.

Then, we read Scripture, go to Mass and go to confession.

However, do not mistake any of those things for action. They are simply putting on the armor of faith so that we can take action.

Action, in a society as fallen as this one, means two things.

First, take care of your family. By that I mean take care of your elderly parents, nurture your spouse and, if at all possible, keep your kids out of the public schools.

If you must send your children to public schools, do it with the knowledge that you are placing them in harm’s way. You must — must — spend lots of time with them and talk to them often and thoroughly about what they encounter there. You must — must — make sure that they have family activities and friends from the saner world when they leave the place.

Frankly, I think getting kids out of the public schools is worth a great deal of sacrifice on the part of their families. It is certainly worth foregoing new cars, living in smaller houses and not eating out.

Do not sell your children for things that are worn out and used up in a few years.

The single most important way you can serve the Lord is by doing everything you can to raise the precious children that He has given you to follow Him all their days. You cannot have a successful life if you fail at raising your kids.

Second, engage the culture where you are. In this day of poisonous candidates and corrupt political parties, it doesn’t matter so much how you vote (although, as an American, you certainly need to vote) but what you do.

The first and best way to engage the culture is by living your Christian witness. In fact, a Christian witness that is all words is no witness at all. It’s just blowhard lies.

What does living your witness mean? It means you don’t cheat, don’t lie, don’t sleep around, raise your kids, protect your family and do the hard things in love. It means that you are kind to other people.

Most important, living your witness means giving yourself away to God. Stop trying to do it all yourself and just do your best with what you have. Trust Him. Really trust Him with your life and the outcome of your efforts.

If you don’t do these things, your words mean nothing. Living your Christian witness means that, in this insane world of vitriol and government bullying, you choose to be sane. The ultimate sanity is always and everywhere to trust Jesus.

The world is crazy and it’s getting crazier. The world is mean and it’s getting meaner. The lie has become the reality we must accept on pain of law. The government is fast becoming an overweening thought and speech controller and it is bent on using the public schools to propagandize our children out of their natural dignity into something twisted and sick.

In a crazy world, sane people are called insane. So be prepared. If you truly follow Christ in this mean and crazy world, you’re going to be called a few names. But follow Him anyway.

Choose sanity. Choose Christ.