p/c Jeffrey Bruno
For the longest time, I believed the Right could reason with the Left with evidence on the many incendiary issues lighting up Church and State over the last decade. Because I had two conversions (from left to neo-con, and then neo-con to trad as I recounted in this video here) I believed everyone else had a desire to seek the truth as I did. “If the evidence were simply presented in charity,” I reasoned in regard to any dozen topics of Church and State, “then many more people would repent of their former errors and quickly convert.”
I actually still think that is true, but there’s a deeper and darker side we need to consider.
At one point in my adult life, I believed if we could just show pictures of the ripped-up unborn babies, the pro-aborts would become pro-life. If we could simply show evidence that the Novus Ordo was not based in the early Roman Church but rather Protestantism, many neo-cons would start attending the Traditional Latin Mass. If we could just demonstrate the mathematics that make evolution completely impossible, everyone would simply believe in creation. If we could just show how many people are injured by vaccines, health care experts and parents would quickly listen to our biostatistics. But I have discovered over the last decade that many people have an allergy to the truth. Why?
Vice-President JD Vance recently said in a Fox News interview: “A lot of the far Left has completely inverted that. They seem to hate the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside their own borders. That is no way to run a society.” VP Vance was referring to open-borders in that quote. But specifically that sentence, “The far Left… seem[s] to hate the citizens of their own country” reveals the very heart of a leftist: The left hates others only because they first hate themselves.
I would have never believed that last sentence of the last paragraph even five years ago. But since the scamdemic, I have seen pro-aborts openly admit they “want to kill their babies.” I have seen the vaccine injured seek more “boosters,” despite the fact they may know the shots are sinking their immune systems. I have seen leftists defending open-borders even after one of their sisters was raped by an illegal immigrant (under pretext of standing against “racism.”) Similarly, I have seen feminists defend open-restrooms to mentally-ill men, even at the expense of women’s safety and hygiene. How to explain this?
Psychology experts will tell you that narcissists are insecure. Exorcists will tell you that demons hate themselves as much as they hate God. When you understand the level of insecurity and self-hatred under which most leftists live, you understand their venom against you is not personal. In fact, it’s not even a hatred of conservatives. It’s a hatred of the truth because they hate what God has made, namely, reality. And in that reality, they find themselves. That is why they are willing to sterilize or even kill themselves.
How then do we present the truth to people who hate both themselves and the truth? First of all, pray when you notice you are approaching a situation of either evangelization or disagreement. Included in that initial prayer, we should discern if our presentation of the truth will do more harm than good. Surprisingly, St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that we must refrain from that fraternal correction if it includes little chance of success.
The Franciscans disagreed with St. Thomas and basically said “Go for the fraternal correction and let God sort it out!” Normally, I agree with Franciscans on the Dominican vs. Franciscan debates (like the Primacy of Christ debate) but in this case I agree with the Dominicans: Wait for the fraternal correction until the Holy Spirit’s gift of counsel in your intellect tells you that you have an open door for a reasonable chance of success in conversion. (It seems Our Lord Jesus meant the same thing when He said, “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.”—Mt 7:6.)
Then, listen to the leftist and what their deepest heart is saying to you (sometimes non-verbal wounds.) They probably expect you to be as rude to them as they are being to you. Surprise them by being calm, even as they try to rile you up. If they say something actually true (rare, but possible) affirm that truth. This is not to manipulate them, but to show that you are a reasonable person who will follow the evidence. There’s even a small chance they will imitate you by calming down and following your evidence to the truth on whatever topic you are discussing.
The key is unfortunately this: When you realize they hate themselves more than they hate you, you will refrain from taking their tactics personally.
Of course, there are certain situations where you may have to remove yourself from the conversation entirely, like if they blaspheme the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary or make false accusations against you or insult one of your family members. Even we Christians are called to have boundaries, not be doormats in our attempts of evangelization.
Boil them slowly in Christ’s charity without being smarmy or insincere. As long as you remember that you can never deny a single tenet of the traditional Catholic faith, and as long as you remember you can never lie or compromise the truth, you can slowly warm people up to the truth. Remember that you may have a chance for more than one conversation with them.
If they see you are not the boogeyman whom they expected, they may be a little bit more open to hearing the truth-in-charity in their next encounter with you. I too have made the mistake in the past of thinking I have to truth-bomb every topic in every situation. It’s just not a good strategy. Rather, we must remember that the left boils the right slowly as a frog in their lies. We too can boil them slowly in God’s truth, so as to win more people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Because there is a high-level of diabolic obsession in leftists, the best you can do is pray and offer penance for them, especially when you discern that evangelizing them will do more harm than good. The word “penance” may scare some of you, but remember Our Lord said to Sr. Lucy of Fatima in 1945, “The sacrifice required of every person is the fulfillment of his duties in life and the observance of My Law. This is the penance that I now seek and require.”
In other words, many Catholics do not know you can offer up the day of normal trials for the conversion of one neighbor, and maybe the next day for another neighbor. You don’t need to put on a hair-shirt or fast on bread and water to make conversions through penance (though some adults occasionally may be called to do more extraordinary penance at times, too.)
As Lent approaches, you may consider giving up one thing or another specifically for a loved-one who is under the power of the devil. God answers our prayers. But we want to approach such penance and prayer in a manner that is not condescending or arrogant. We should look to Saul of Tarsus who historically killed Christians but later became our best as a Catholic Apostle, priest, bishop, saint and martyr. As you know, he converted from being a Christian-killer to a Christian-champion.
Perhaps while reflecting on his miserable past, St. Paul wrote St. Titus (today’s saint) “to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.”—Titus 3:1-3.