The Fastest Growing Religion in America is LGBTQism

[00:00:14] Speaker A: A recent survey showed a more decline. [00:00:19] Speaker B: In the practice of Catholicism and other mainline religions in America. [00:00:23] Speaker A: And what is the reason? I mean, one thing is the rise. [00:00:27] Speaker B: Of the new LGBTQ religion. That's what we're going to talk about today on crisis point. Hello, I'm Eric Samuels, your host editor in chief of Crisis magazine. Before we get started, just the standard things I say, which is, first, you know, I'm going to say, smash that, like, button. Subscribe to Channel. Let other people know about it. We really do appreciate that. And by we, I mean me and other people who are associated with crisis. Also, you can follow us on social media at crisismag. Subscribe to our newsletter, email newsletter. Just go to crisismagazine.com, put in your email address, and we will send you our articles every day, two articles a day, right to your inbox. [00:01:05] Speaker A: Okay. [00:01:06] Speaker B: Also, a couple of things before I get into the topic of the day. First is I'm going to be at. [00:01:11] Speaker A: The blessed Carl symposium on April 13 in Dallas, Texas. [00:01:20] Speaker B: I encourage you to go just search for it online. I didn't put a link or anything. Sorry about that. I actually had this very nice blessed Carl bust right here behind me. Also, my blessed Carl holy card I have right here on my desk. So I. It was great when I went to it in 2022, and I'm looking forward very much to going to it again. So anyway, that's the blessed Carl symposium. Just look for that online. And it's on April 13 in Dallas, Texas. I think it's like Plano, Texas, which is a suburb of Dallas. So hope to see you there. Another thing I wanted to mention is there's a really nasty storm coming through town right now. There is a chance I'm not going to finish this podcast, that I'll lose power before we can get finished. Hopefully that won't happen, but if it does, Bolson, I go out. You know, it wasn't the Illuminati or the CIA or Joe Biden that took me out. [00:02:08] Speaker A: It was just a really bad storm. [00:02:11] Speaker B: And then finally, before I get on the real topic of today, happy Easter. Today is Easter Tuesday of 2024. You'll, you will notice if you're watching this podcast of just listening, I have this beautiful icon of the resurrection behind me. I've always had the icon of the resurrection of the heroine of hell, of Jesus going into hades and rescuing Adam and Eve and all the just from the Old Testament. But today I also have this icon of our Lord's resurrected appearance to the women, which I find very beautiful. So I thought I'd put that up there today in honor of Easter, which. [00:02:48] Speaker A: Of course, is an octave. [00:02:49] Speaker B: So it's all week. But in the course, Easter time is last for 50 days. So happy Easter. I just want to mention, when it. [00:02:57] Speaker A: Comes to that, just Easter is such. [00:03:00] Speaker B: A great time to be a Catholic. And part of it is you get to see all the people, the new Catholics, coming into church. We had, of course, some at our parish, I know of others at other parishes, new Catholics coming to church. And I just want to take this opportunity. I know there are non Catholics who listen, watch this podcast. I'm always happy about that. I would just say, please look into becoming Catholic. Consider becoming Catholic this year, coming to church next year. You will not regret it. It just the best thing in the world. It's 31 years now since I came into the church. I haven't regretted it one day. And I'm somebody who is well aware of the problems in the church, the human problems in church today. [00:03:40] Speaker A: But it is just infinitely. [00:03:43] Speaker B: I mean, I'll just say it bluntly. [00:03:44] Speaker A: It's infinitely better than being a Protestant. I mean, I have the sacraments. [00:03:48] Speaker B: That's why it's infinitely better, because the Eucharist is infinitely better than anything else we can receive here on earth. So if you are non Catholic watching this, thank you for watching. And I just want to say, consider coming in catholic church this year. If you're a Protestant and you are maybe thinking about it and you have questions, just email me, editoricismagazine.com, comma. Just email me with your questions, and I'll try to take care of them, or I'll point you to somebody who can, maybe better than I can. So. Okay, let's get into the topic of the day. I want to do a good news podcast, I admit, and I. [00:04:22] Speaker A: And I'm not, you know, because it's. [00:04:25] Speaker B: Easter, I'm gonna do, like, a good news podcast, but I'm not. [00:04:28] Speaker A: And the fact is, because even though. [00:04:30] Speaker B: It'S Easter and we should rejoice, the world, the fallen world we live in, continues on. I like this quote from Tolkien. He said, I am a Christian and. [00:04:39] Speaker A: Indeed a Roman Catholic, so that I. [00:04:41] Speaker B: Do not expect history to be anything but a long defeat. And I think that's a good way to put it, that when we see defeats in this world for the church, for the cause of Christ, we just know. That is the status of this. Of history, so to speak. [00:04:57] Speaker A: We do know, and Tolkien knew, that. [00:05:00] Speaker B: Even though history is a long defeat. [00:05:02] Speaker A: It ends in victory. That's the paradox. Just like Christ's life was a quote. [00:05:07] Speaker B: Unquote defeat, if you look at from a human perspective, he ends up losing in the end because he gets killed by his enemies, right? That's a loss. But of course, that's his greatest victory. And so I think that's the case here, too. So I think we need to just look at our defeats we're having, analyze them, see if we can rescue some people as we see the defeats. And I'm thinking about this because there's another survey came out, I think. I think they released it last week during Holy Week from PRRI. It's one of these organizations, like the Pew research, that does surveys on life in America, different things. And this was a religious survey. And what it showed was what we all know is happening. First of all, just America is becoming less and less religious in the sense of kind of traditional religions. I don't mean like traditionalist Catholic, but just in the sense of your mainline establishment religions. America is reject, is rejecting those. And. And Catholicism is the worst of those. As far as being rejected, it's being rejected the most. I'm going to pull up a few, a number of charts and surveys today. And so if you're listening to this, I will try to explain it some, but I'll be honest, it'd probably be better to watch this one rather than. [00:06:20] Speaker A: Just listen to it. [00:06:21] Speaker B: So this first table I'm going to bring up is religious switching in the US in 2016. So this is a baseline of eight years ago. [00:06:29] Speaker A: And what we see is that Catholics. [00:06:34] Speaker B: Had the highest net loss of any of the major religious groupings that they ask. [00:06:40] Speaker A: And so, for childhood affiliation, 31.2% of. [00:06:46] Speaker B: The population was Catholic. So, in other words, they grew up Catholic. [00:06:49] Speaker A: 2.5% of the population joined the Catholic. [00:06:54] Speaker B: Church of these people who were polled. [00:06:56] Speaker A: But twelve point 12.8% left, and so. [00:07:02] Speaker B: It'S down to only 20%. Current affiliation is 2016, so it's a negative 10.5% loss. That's by far the biggest unaffiliated gain by 15%. White, mainline, non evangelical Protestants lost by four and a half percent. That was the second highest loss, was. [00:07:20] Speaker A: Four and a half. [00:07:21] Speaker B: We more than doubled that as Catholics in 2016. So not good news. But now let's pull up the next table, which is 2023. They have a little bit more of a breakdown of different groupings. Like, they have white Catholic, Hispanic Catholic. They have various other things, but the. [00:07:40] Speaker A: News is still bad. [00:07:41] Speaker B: We're still in the lead for worst losses. Childhood affiliation of White Catholics is 17% in 2023, but only 11% are currently affiliated. [00:07:54] Speaker A: In this case, it was entering the. [00:07:56] Speaker B: Group was 0.7% and 6.7%, leaving a net loss of 6%. And so that's, again the largest of all of them. Of all the groupings, again, white mainline, non evangelical process was second worst at 4.4%. What we see very clearly here is. [00:08:14] Speaker A: That people are just leaving the catholic church. [00:08:18] Speaker B: This is not rocket science to people who listen to this podcast. We know this. I mean, I think anybody who's paying attention at all knows this, but it's still a reality we have to grasp. And I think these figures are very consistent with other polls we've seen. This is not something that we just, you know, that is somehow new news or somehow different from other surveys. [00:08:40] Speaker A: We see this, people are leaving the. [00:08:42] Speaker B: Catholic church, leaving other mainline, kind of more establishment religions. Very quickly, in the Catholic Church, unaffiliated, again, went up by 15, had a. [00:08:52] Speaker A: Net gain of 15%, went from 10%. [00:08:56] Speaker B: As a childhood affiliation to 26% current. That's a lot of people who went unaffiliated. Basically, they're just not going to identify with any christian or other religion. And so it really is just very distressing. I think we have to take this seriously. Another figure, I want to show you a few more figures just to kind of establish the mood here, which is the bad one. They ask, what's the importance of, say, you know, how important is religion to you? And it's a comparison between 2013 and 2023. [00:09:27] Speaker A: In 2013, this is all religions. [00:09:30] Speaker B: By not just catholic, 27% of Americans said religion is the most important thing in their life. In 2023, it was only 15%. [00:09:40] Speaker A: That's a huge drop, 12% drop. [00:09:43] Speaker B: I mean, it dropped by 12%. [00:09:45] Speaker A: So almost half as many Americans say. [00:09:49] Speaker B: Religions is the most important thing in their life in just a span of ten years. A lot has happened over the last ten years. We're going to get into that. What's going on in the last ten. [00:09:57] Speaker A: Years, but just a huge drop there. [00:09:59] Speaker B: And this is all religions. And then here, another one attending church, church attendance in 2013, people who went to church, this is, again, all religions in America, at least once a week, was 31% in 2013, and it was. [00:10:17] Speaker A: Down to 24% in 2023. [00:10:21] Speaker B: And the percentage that never go went up from 21% to 33%. So another huge drop in people who just attend church again, all religions. But now let's look at that. Church attendance at Catholics specifically, when it's broken down. Hopefully you can read this. I got to take on my glasses to see it myself. [00:10:39] Speaker A: But in 2013, 34% of white Catholics attended church weekly. [00:10:47] Speaker B: In 2023, only 25% went. That went from 34% to 25% in those ten years. Hispanic Catholics, it's actually worse. In 2013, 36% went to mass each week. [00:11:03] Speaker A: In 2023, only 16%. [00:11:07] Speaker B: It dropped more than half hispanic Catholics. [00:11:11] Speaker A: Attending church each week and again attending church each week. [00:11:16] Speaker B: For Catholics, this is baseline stuff. This isn't like some major thing, like, do you go to confession every week or something like that or whatever? This is just going to mass each week. Like, the baseline for a Catholic went down to only 16%. Hispanic Catholics, only 24% of white Catholics. So even so, what that shows is the first charts were saying how many people still identify as Catholic? Those last charts were saying, of the people who identify as Catholic, are they actually practicing? [00:11:44] Speaker A: So not only are tons of Catholics leaving the church and no longer saying. [00:11:50] Speaker B: They'Re Catholic, but those who are still. [00:11:53] Speaker A: Saying they're Catholic, they're now leaving. They're no longer attending mass weekly. [00:12:01] Speaker B: Even the ones who did are no longer. So the numbers are dire. [00:12:05] Speaker A: I mean, honestly, in my opinion, every. [00:12:09] Speaker B: Bishop should be spending about 99.9% of their time mulling over this fact that everybody is leaving the Catholic Church. That should be their number one priority. [00:12:20] Speaker A: Before everything else is. [00:12:22] Speaker B: Why is it everybody's leaving us now? The problem is, some of them will talk a good game and talk about, like, yeah, we need to bring them back, but their answers are terrible, and. [00:12:30] Speaker A: They'Re not seriously looking. [00:12:32] Speaker B: And I think that's a big factor here, and we're going to get into that here in a minute. [00:12:37] Speaker A: So the point is, though, that people. [00:12:40] Speaker B: Are just leaving the catholic church. I'm sorry, I'm saying this on Easter week. I'm not trying to put a big damper on our celebration. Like I said, super excited about the new Catholics coming in, but we have. [00:12:48] Speaker A: To recognize for every Catholic, every new. [00:12:51] Speaker B: Catholic, every person who's entered the catholic church at Easter this year, probably about. [00:12:55] Speaker A: Four or five left at least, and. [00:12:59] Speaker B: Even more stopped attending mass and still say they're Catholic. So we need to do something about that. And the first thing we have to do is we have to say, okay, why is it. Why are people leaving the Catholic Church and other religions? I do think we shouldn't recognize it's not just a catholic church, because we're doing the same things other churches are doing, other denominations are doing, and it's all failing. So why is that why are so many people leaving? So let's look at this a little bit now. First, let me show, I'm going to bring up another figure here. This is reasons for leaving childhood religion among unaffiliated Americans in 2016 and 2023. [00:13:39] Speaker A: The number one reason by far is. [00:13:43] Speaker B: Stop believing in the religion's teachings. I actually like that they made that one of the possible answers because that is basically what it comes down to. You don't go to church anymore. You stop saying you're Catholic because you just don't believe in Catholicism anymore. I mean, it is as simple as that. [00:13:58] Speaker A: Now, of course, that doesn't really answer. [00:14:00] Speaker B: The question, why do you stop believing. [00:14:02] Speaker A: In what the church teaches? [00:14:04] Speaker B: But I do think it's important to acknowledge that that is why people leave is because they stop believing. I think what that comes down to. [00:14:18] Speaker A: Is I think ultimately the church has failed to give a compelling reason to. [00:14:30] Speaker B: Be Catholic or in other religions too. But to be. Let's just talk about Catholics. [00:14:35] Speaker A: The church has failed to give a. [00:14:37] Speaker B: Compelling reason to be Catholic in the modern world. Now, I'm one of these people who argues that the world, that humanity has not changed any over time. We are the same fundamentally as we were 2000 years ago, 5000 years ago, whatever. We're the same type of people. I mean, we haven't changed fundamentally. [00:14:59] Speaker A: However, clearly the world has changed, the culture has changed. [00:15:04] Speaker B: And I think one of the things. [00:15:05] Speaker A: That the modern world has done, it. [00:15:08] Speaker B: Has given us. [00:15:11] Speaker A: Many pseudo replacements for religion. The ways in which true religion, the catholic religion, fulfilled people, has been replaced with other things that at least feel. [00:15:28] Speaker B: On the surface as if they are filling those needs. So the needs we have as humans. [00:15:35] Speaker A: As men and women, Catholicism fills them fully and completely. Other things attempt to fill them and. [00:15:45] Speaker B: Don'T fulfill them completely. But often we can mask that. We can say, okay, gives us some fulfillment. [00:15:51] Speaker A: And you see that in a lot of the movements that have happened in. [00:15:57] Speaker B: Our culture, over in the western culture, particularly over the past 50, 60 years. [00:16:01] Speaker A: Really since World War two, in the. [00:16:04] Speaker B: Aftermath of world War two, the ways in which we've had different things try to fulfill us. You see that in the different kind of revolutions of the world, like the sexual revolution, you can be fulfilled through this promiscuous lifestyle because it does give you a high to live like that, at least temporarily. And so it can mask that need we have for total fulfillment we find in marriage. You can mask that by this through the sexual revolution. Feminism is another example of this. [00:16:35] Speaker A: Women did not feel fulfilled for various reasons. [00:16:39] Speaker B: And so the answer was, okay, let's have empower them to sit in a cubicle all day and take, you know, take orders from their boss that somehow will fulfill them more than if they stay at home taking care of their. [00:16:54] Speaker A: Kids and helping their husband raise the family. [00:17:01] Speaker B: But it gave them a sense like, oh, I'm working, I'm making money. I get my first paycheck, I'm getting paid. I'm a good productive. In our society, these are things that give you a feeling of fulfillment, but they're not lasting. I also think the rise of the Internet is a perfect example of something. [00:17:17] Speaker A: That is a pseudo fulfillment that gives. [00:17:20] Speaker B: You a feeling of fulfillment, but does not, is not lasting. But it can help replace religion in people's minds. [00:17:26] Speaker A: Because you find community on the Internet. [00:17:30] Speaker B: You find like minded people. You find that dopamine hit. You get. I mean, let's be honest, like the liturgy. This isn't the reason for the liturgy. The category, when it's done well, does give you a dopamine hit. It's not the same as a dopamine hit you might get from arguing or, you know, doom scrolling on Twitter or on Facebook, whatever. [00:17:51] Speaker A: But it does give you a feeling. [00:17:52] Speaker B: Of fulfillment and contentment and all that stuff. And that's what doom scrolling does too, temporarily. So the Internet really does have that. I think these are all things that the church has failed completely to address and recognize, because what's happened is on a whole, church leaders, what they've done. [00:18:12] Speaker A: Is they've seen, okay, people are flocking. [00:18:16] Speaker B: To these movements, these isms that feminism or whatever, or the sexual revolution or the Internet or whatever. So let's mock. Let's not mock. Sorry. Let's copy those things and try to be more like that. Then they'll come to us instead. That is a failed strategy every single time. Because what it's doing is it's trying. [00:18:41] Speaker A: To imitate the imitator. [00:18:45] Speaker B: Because what those other things are doing. [00:18:47] Speaker A: They'Re imitating the church in a very. [00:18:50] Speaker B: Kind of distorted and pseudo way. Well, then the church, in response is, okay, let's try to imitate them. [00:18:56] Speaker A: No, no, no. [00:18:57] Speaker B: We're the originators. [00:18:58] Speaker A: We're the real thing. It's like if, you know, you have, okay, I'll just. [00:19:06] Speaker B: My geekness here, you have Star Trek and you have the real thing, Star Trek. And then you have these fan fiction Star Treks, which are nowhere near as good. I'm not talking about modern Star Trek. Minor Star Trek is crap. Talking about, like, maybe Star Trek Next Generation, deep space nine, stuff like that original series. You have these fan fictions that try. [00:19:24] Speaker A: To make it, and they imitate. [00:19:26] Speaker B: And then you'd see, like, the Star Trek people being like, okay, let's imitate them, instead of just going with what we've been doing. And so the catholic church should not be looking towards these things that are. That are getting our fancy, the Internet and things like that, and trying to imitate them. Instead, what we need to be doing is going back to what we always did well, which was the fullness of. [00:19:48] Speaker A: The truth, our catholic moral teaching, a. [00:19:51] Speaker B: Beautiful reverent liturgy, all these things. [00:19:54] Speaker A: That's what fulfills needs fully. [00:19:58] Speaker B: But we're forgetting that instead we're saying, let's do the imitation instead. [00:20:03] Speaker A: And I think that's a big reason why we're not answering the challenge of our day. We've not stood up to it. So people start to say, I don't. [00:20:14] Speaker B: Really believe what those people teach. I don't believe the church is teaching anymore. Why? Because they don't seem to believe it either. [00:20:21] Speaker A: If you don't think your bishop actually. [00:20:24] Speaker B: Believes fully what the catholic church teaches, why would you believe it? I mean, that's the thinking of a lot of people. Like, I hope people watching this, following this, they know, of course we don't believe it because the bishop does. [00:20:35] Speaker A: But the average. [00:20:35] Speaker B: Let's put ourselves in the shoes of the average Catholic who grows up with maybe a middling catechesis, bland liturgy, status quo Catholicism, I call it. They don't see the true truths of the faith. They see this mock imitation that's an imitation of the imitator of Catholicism. [00:20:58] Speaker A: And I think that's why we're just not compelling anymore. [00:21:02] Speaker B: Now, it might be that you might be thinking, why did he title this the fast growing religion in America is lgbtqism when he hasn't even talked about that yet? [00:21:11] Speaker A: Well, let's get to the second biggest reason why people have left their religion. [00:21:19] Speaker B: Says the religions negative religious teachings about or treatment of gay and lesbian people. That's 47% today. It was 29% 2016, 47%, almost half. Now, I want to make a caveat here. It's clear from this survey. I went through the full report. It's like 50 some pages, or seven, I can't remember. [00:21:40] Speaker A: They clearly have a liberal background, the. [00:21:43] Speaker B: People who did the survey, because they ask questions later about MAga, Christianity, stuff like that. And they're trying to, you know, they have an agenda, all surveys, you have to understand that. And I think they're quite like the options they give. They wanted people to answer this. [00:21:59] Speaker A: But I also think my own experiences. [00:22:03] Speaker B: My own anecdotal evidence and what I've seen elsewhere, I do think there is some legitimacy here. A lot of legitimacy. See here is that you have, when 47% of the people have left religion, say it's because of their religion's treatment of gay and lesbian people or they're teaching about it, I think it's something we have to stand up and take notice of. I think it's actually true. I know people like this. Now, here's the thing. I know people who have left Catholicism, and I know kind of their journey out of Catholicism, it really. They're not gay themselves. They had nothing to do with being gay or having gay friends. But when you ask them now, why'd you leave? They bring that up as a reason. I don't think it was actually a reason that got them out. I think what it was, though, is something that they. They realized. Now, okay, I've now embraced LGBTqism, and so, therefore, I have to say that's the reason I left. [00:22:55] Speaker A: And they probably would have left eventually. [00:22:56] Speaker B: Over that maybe as they embrace the gay. The gay stuff more and more, they. [00:23:01] Speaker A: Probably would have left, you know, Catholicism. [00:23:05] Speaker B: In the case of Catholics or other religion. So I do think there is. I do think there is a big. [00:23:12] Speaker A: Impact here, because here's the thing. [00:23:15] Speaker B: Over the past 50 years, there's been a growth in the promotion of the. [00:23:20] Speaker A: LGBTQ lifestyle, the LGBTQ religion, which I'll. [00:23:25] Speaker B: Explain in a minute, why I call it religion a religion, not just a lifestyle, but over the past ten years. [00:23:31] Speaker A: It has gone insane. [00:23:33] Speaker B: I mean, it's. I mean, you would say it's like it's increased gradually more and more, like, kind of just like a chinese wire torture. Am I allowed to say that? Is that politically incorrect? I don't know, but it's increased more and more, the promotion of LGBTQism, and it gets more and more and more. And then about ten years ago, when they overf, when Obama and Biden said, we now are our four gay marriage, and then the Supreme Court ruling, it's just skyrocketed now. It's just unbelievable how much it's become the thing. I mean, it is a religion, and. [00:24:09] Speaker A: Why do I say it's a religion? [00:24:11] Speaker B: Because it has all the trappings of a religion. I mean, first of all, they have high holy days. We just saw that. The trans day of visibility that Biden declared on Easter Sunday. Yes, I know it was March 31 before this year, but Biden didn't have to declare it, that they didn't have to make it something where they made a big deal, but they did. Why? [00:24:29] Speaker A: Cause religions need holy days, and that's a holy day. [00:24:34] Speaker B: Likewise, you see the religious aspects of a lot of the movement in that, for example, a coming out when a gay person comes out of the closet, that's like a baptism. It's like an entry into the family. You've now come out, get re, you get accepted. You get welcomed. I mean, just what we were doing after the Easter vigil on Saturday to our new Catholics, welcoming them, patting them on the back, saying, great job, you know, welcome, congratulations. We're praying for all that stuff. That's exactly what they're doing after somebody comes out publicly. Likewise, when a transgender person does their surgery or whatever, they do their medical treatment to transition, that's, that's a baptismal like event for them. Now they're no longer in darkness, hidden, but now they're in the light. [00:25:29] Speaker A: Now they're out there for all to see. [00:25:31] Speaker B: They're now officially members. Before, they weren't. They were maybe catechumens at best. [00:25:36] Speaker A: Now they're officially members also. [00:25:40] Speaker B: No way. It's like religion is because it spreads through proselytization. Proselytization, evangelization. I hesitate to use the word evangelization because evangelization, the root word, is good news. And, of course, this is the, is the anti good news, but that's how it spreads. Now people will say, you know, the proponents say, oh, no, you're born like that. [00:26:00] Speaker A: We know that's not true. [00:26:02] Speaker B: Now. [00:26:02] Speaker A: It is true that some people have. [00:26:06] Speaker B: Certain predispositions in them, like they're born. [00:26:10] Speaker A: With, combine that with environmental factors, how. [00:26:14] Speaker B: They were raised, their parents, maybe abuse in their past, things like that, that will lead them more disproportionately to embrace a gay lifestyle. That is true. And that's not like somebody who has, I want to make sure this is clear. [00:26:29] Speaker A: Somebody who has a homosexual orientation, that is not a sin. [00:26:36] Speaker B: And, in fact, that might not be something they can control. It might be due to a lot of deep seated psychological issues in their past. [00:26:44] Speaker A: And so we should always be clear about that. [00:26:46] Speaker B: That somebody who has a homosexual orientation. [00:26:48] Speaker A: Sexual orientation, that is not a sin in and of itself, and it's not. [00:26:54] Speaker B: Something that they necessarily chose in a lot case. In many cases, it's not. And if, but it is a disordered orientation. Catechism makes that clear. At least it's still in the catechism, and it's true. And we all have disordered orientations in some way. Maybe a disorder orientation towards lying, towards vanity, towards private, whatever the case may be, that's it's disordered, but it's not necessarily something they're. It's not like they're choosing. Like they choose what their favorite ice cream is. [00:27:23] Speaker A: So, that being said, though, what we. [00:27:25] Speaker B: See is in the numbers that the. [00:27:27] Speaker A: LGBTQ religion is growing through the promotion of it, through process, through pushing it. [00:27:35] Speaker B: And this is just simply the case that it's growing. Let me show you a few polls that show this. [00:27:42] Speaker A: So, for example, this is a Pew Research center poll. [00:27:47] Speaker B: Look at these numbers. If you want to know why I keep saying, on my glasses, I cannot read close up with my glasses on. I use it for distance, and this is close up on my screen. That's why I'm taking it off. Take them off. But look at these numbers of percent of us adults who think of themselves. [00:28:03] Speaker A: As gay or lesbian, bisexual, all adults, it's like 7%, either gay, lesbian, or bisexual. [00:28:12] Speaker B: But ages 18 through 29 is 17%. Ages 65 and up, it's 2%. What we see is that youth, that. [00:28:20] Speaker A: 18 to 29 has a much larger percentage. [00:28:25] Speaker B: Likewise with the trans percentage who say their gender is different from their sex assigned at birth. We know what that means. [00:28:31] Speaker A: Their actual gender opposed to what they say it is, the net is 1.6%. [00:28:38] Speaker B: Of all adults, but ages 18 to 29, it's 5.1%. And if it's 50 plus, it's 0.3%. [00:28:47] Speaker A: So what we see is if it. [00:28:50] Speaker B: Was really true that you're just born this way, this would be a lot more average out, much more even out. Now people say, oh, it's a cultural thing. They're not as willing to come out. I think that's just bogus. I think that's just false, and there's no evidence to support that. It's simply. They want that to be true. The fact is, is that the more people are embracing it at a younger age, because it's pushed more. You can't get a 55 year old to change his gender or decide all of a sudden now he's homosexual after years as a heterosexual, as easily as you can get a 15 year old or an 18 year old or a 20 year old. That's simply reality. [00:29:25] Speaker A: I also think it's true because I. [00:29:27] Speaker B: Think they have worse upbringings. In a lot of cases, they're surrounded by a word. They have, you know, upbringing. Worse parenting involved the younger generation more like, you know, cell phones hitting them early on. Smartphones, all that stuff. Internet. So I do, you know, pornography, all that being much worse. I think that's. That's part of it as well. Let me show you another one. Another survey. So this is from the survey center. [00:29:52] Speaker A: Of American Life, and this was from 2020. [00:29:55] Speaker B: Oh, this is actually from Gallup in 2022. Percentage of Americans who identify with the following sexual or gender orientations. Generation Z, 19.7%. [00:30:06] Speaker A: Are one of the LGBTQ Alphabet. [00:30:09] Speaker B: Baby boomers, 2.7%. [00:30:12] Speaker A: Even millennials, only 11%. [00:30:14] Speaker B: Generation X. [00:30:15] Speaker A: My generation, 3.3%. [00:30:19] Speaker B: That is recruitment right there. That is recruitment. [00:30:23] Speaker A: Plain, simple. [00:30:23] Speaker B: That's proselytization, evangelization, whatever you want to call it. What that is, that shows all the hallmarks of a religion. I saw somebody in the comments say, actually more like a cult. I think you're right. It is more like a cult than it is a religion. [00:30:37] Speaker A: But there's a. [00:30:38] Speaker B: There is a little bit of a. When it comes to false religions, there's a lot of overlap between a cult and a religion. You know, when it comes to one true religion, not so much. But we're talking about these false religions like this. There's a lot overlap. [00:30:51] Speaker A: So what we see, then, simply, is that the gay rights movement, the LGBTQ. [00:31:00] Speaker B: All those letters, whatever, it just simply. [00:31:03] Speaker A: Is growing as a religion because what's. [00:31:07] Speaker B: Happening is more and more younger people. [00:31:09] Speaker A: Are seeing it as a movement that. [00:31:12] Speaker B: They want to be part of because it's answering. [00:31:15] Speaker A: It's fulfilling them. [00:31:17] Speaker B: We have to be honest about this and recognize that they see Catholicism as unfulfilling. They see lgbtqism, which involves a lot. [00:31:25] Speaker A: Of things, you know, a lot. [00:31:27] Speaker B: It involves a whole worldview. That's what religion is. It's not just about, like, who you have sex with or what sex you think you are, but it's a whole worldview. [00:31:37] Speaker A: And, you know, with the love is. [00:31:39] Speaker B: Love and all this stuff, tolerance for all views, except for the ones we. [00:31:43] Speaker A: Don'T agree with, all that stuff, they. [00:31:46] Speaker B: Find more fulfillment in that. And I think that's something as Catholics, we have to recognize. We have to be very clear that. [00:31:53] Speaker A: Catholicism, as it's presented, does not appear fulfilling to a lot of people. [00:32:00] Speaker B: And this is also why, for example, I'm willing to bet if you run the numbers. I know this anecdotally, but it's hard to gauge these things. If you look, run the numbers, I almost can guarantee there are way more converts coming into the catholic church at non status quo parishes. This is my new thing. I like talking about status quo parishes. A status quo parish is the parish that just does things as we've been doing them for the past 50 years. They just print anything Pope Francis says. They go along with it. They just do a liturgy that's very bland and just, you know, the typical music we've been doing since the seventies. A non status quo parish. Obviously, every TLM parish is a non status quo parish, but also those unicorn novus ordo parishes, those. Those really serious novus ordo parishes that are much more conservative and very serious about, like their liturgy, about their music, about their what? The. The cat. The catechesis they offer. [00:32:51] Speaker A: I'd be willing to guarantee that they. [00:32:54] Speaker B: Have a higher percentage of converts than the status quo parishes. [00:32:57] Speaker A: Why? [00:32:57] Speaker B: Because they're presenting a fulfilling version of Catholicism that is. That is able to combat better against the lgBtqism. We're still losing to them. They're still gaining way more than even the most trad or most non status quo parishes, but at the same time, we're doing better than the status quo ones are. And so I would just say that. What's the answer? What do we need to do as kind of a response to this, um. This movement, this religion? As Catholics, I think we have to. What I've been doing here is be very clear about and realistic about our situation that we're losing. No question we're losing, that. [00:33:39] Speaker A: We are not presenting a fulfilling religion. [00:33:43] Speaker B: To a worldview, to the world, to at least the western world in America, western Europe, places like that. [00:33:50] Speaker A: So we have to do that. [00:33:51] Speaker B: So the way not to do it. I know this. Here's the thing. I do not know. I do not have the. [00:33:56] Speaker A: The answer. [00:33:57] Speaker B: Nobody can claim to have the answer. I have ideas that I think will work, and I've talked about them a lot. My book, old evangelization, I talk about them. You know, I think the answer is a more robust, traditional, unapologetic proclamation of full throated catholicism. In a nutshell, that's what I think the answer is. But I don't know all the details. I'm not claiming to have all the details how to do that best. I am saying I know what won't work. What won't work is conformity to the world, trying to be more like the world, to try to attract the people who are attracted to those other things. It's like when parishes try to have hip music. It's such a joke because it's always at least five years behind the actual hip and cool music. So what young people are actually listening. [00:34:45] Speaker A: To is way different than what catholic. [00:34:50] Speaker B: Music directors try to imitate in their. In the mass. When you try to do it, you're always gonna be at least five years behind. You can't keep up. So why would a young person, if they're attracted to that type of music, why would they go for something years ago instead of just going with the latest? Like I say, why? Why get up on Sunday morning and go to music from the seventies when you can just sit back and watch MTV or whatever they do these days, Spotify or whatever? I mean, there's just no point to it. So stop trying to conform to what a lot of people, a lot of young people are attracted to today because it's a pseudo imitation of Catholicism. It's not fulfilling. It's temporarily fulfilling. Don't try to imitate that because it won't work. Number one, it's not true, and number two, it's not as good as the. [00:35:37] Speaker A: Actual imitators out there. [00:35:39] Speaker B: Also, I think we need to be. [00:35:41] Speaker A: Very clear and stand up to the LGBTQ lobby. They are very good at their inquisitions. If we're talking about religion, they do. [00:35:51] Speaker B: Inquisitions better than anybody. I mean, they sometimes make the Muslims look like nothing when it comes to being very adamant about. You cannot deviate from what we believe. We will oust you from society if you dare to do that. We have to stand up to that. We have to call it out as lies for what it is. It's lies. We also, though, have to have a. [00:36:13] Speaker A: Computer compelling presentation of true human sexuality. And there have been attempts at this. [00:36:20] Speaker B: I know there's a big debate about, like, theology of body. How. How good is that? I have my concerns with it. I think it's better than some case, than. It's better than the modern, warped sexuality we get. But I do think it's got some issues, the presentation of it, at least. That being said, we really do need to have a robust understanding and an explanation of true human sexuality. That the fulfillment you're looking for will be only found in marriage between one man, one woman for life. Monogamous. That's where you get your true fulfillment. I was just thinking the other day, I don't know why this came to me. I was just thinking, even if I stopped believing one day and what the. [00:37:03] Speaker A: Church teaches, God forbid, you know, God. [00:37:06] Speaker B: Please help me to never do that. But let's say I did. [00:37:09] Speaker A: I feel like I keep living the. [00:37:11] Speaker B: Life I'm living because I just know it works in the sense that I don't have to worry about the heartache that comes with the modern lifestyle of promiscuous or, like, you know, being unfaithful, being. Lying to people, being unethical at work, all those things, they always lead to pain and suffering. So if you just follow what the church has always taught on things, even if you don't believe it, it actually ends up being a better life that, you know. So that's something we have to make. [00:37:40] Speaker A: Sure we're very clear about, that. [00:37:42] Speaker B: These things, it's lies that the LGBTQ lobby is saying. We have to make sure that clear. We also do have to have compassion, though, for those who struggle with this. Not the people, not the young people. We have compassion for young people who are. Who are just lost. Anybody who's lost, we have compassion for. But I think we really need to be careful. We need to distinguish between the father James Martin's of the world and the. The young person who's just struggling to understand his or her own sexuality, kind of what he believes and what he does. One, it's the difference between the groomer. [00:38:17] Speaker A: And the groom and the victim, because. [00:38:19] Speaker B: Ultimately, what somebody like father James Martin does is grooming. Grooming people, homosexual lifestyle, not necessarily for himself. I just mean, though, he's grooming them to be open to a destructive lifestyle in which they will be abused. And we need to have compassion on the victims. So when we fight against the LGBTQ lobby, we're talking about. Against those who promote it and push it, the activists, we're not talking about those who succumb to it. In fact, some of the people, the. [00:38:44] Speaker A: Most beautiful people in the world, as. [00:38:46] Speaker B: Far as holy souls are those who have escaped from it. And they talk about their are living in it before and how they now have escaped from it. So we have to do that. And then finally, I'm running a little. [00:38:57] Speaker A: Bit long here, but that's okay. The last thing I would say is. [00:39:01] Speaker B: We need to live out that fulfilling that true fulfillment. We find Catholicism in our families. [00:39:09] Speaker A: If we get married young, have lots of kids, sacrif. [00:39:15] Speaker B: You know, have the father taking care of the family, the mom staying at home, taking care of the kids, the. [00:39:22] Speaker A: More we can do that, the better. [00:39:25] Speaker B: Witness we are, and the better, the more we're going to be attractive people, because not only will people see it from the outside and say, wow, they're living way different than everybody else, but somehow they're happier than everybody else. Secondly, our own kids in that environment are far less likely to succumb to. [00:39:43] Speaker A: It in the future. [00:39:44] Speaker B: They're far more likely to stay within Kathalysim, to stay and to see that this really is fulfilling. They're going to look at what the LGBTQ people are saying, be like, boy, that's a joke. That's not fulfilling at all. I think that's not something I have any interest in. If we live it out, obviously, in our fallen natures, we're going to fail at times. And obviously, we might have had failures in the past. Like, we might already be divorced. We might already have gotten a vasectomy or something like that. [00:40:12] Speaker A: You just start today. That's the great thing about Easter. [00:40:15] Speaker B: The victory is ours now. We start today. Even if our past has. Maybe we didn't raise our kids the way we wanted to. I get that. But now we just start today, and we show that fulfilling life. If we do that, we show that true fulfillment only comes to Catholicism. [00:40:31] Speaker A: I think we can defeat the LGBTQ. [00:40:34] Speaker B: Religion over time and make Catholicism great again. Make Catholicism really the thing that people are attracted to more than any other. So I guess, in the end, I do have a message of hope here at Easter time. I think if we really live out Catholicism, full throated traditional Catholicism, non statistical Catholicism, I think we really will have more and more people coming to church and more and less and less people leaving the church. Okay, well, that's it for now. Until next time, everybody. God, love.