Things Are Coming to a Head

By Charlie Johnston

This is Joe Biden’s America:

In Chicago, State’s Atty. Kim Foxx declines to press charges against five men arrested in a fatal gang shootout; In Washington, D.C. some 500 people continue into their ninth month of solitary confinement for “parading” in the Capitol.

In Arlington, Texas, a school shooter is released the day after the shooting on $75,000 bond while it is unknown whether all his victims will survive; In Washington, D.C. the Justice Department has ordered the FBI to go after parents who criticize local school boards.

On America’s southern border, illegal aliens are allowed, even encouraged, to freely come in (and hopefully vote Democrat); In Afghanistan, perhaps a thousand Americans were left behind in our disastrous retreat, with no serious effort (except by some private entities – which the government has tried to stifle) to get them out – no worries, too many of these were Republicans.

The Supreme Court ruled that there was not sufficient cause to issue an injunction against the Texas Heartbeat Law. A District Court judge in Texas (an Obama appointee) ruled that there was sufficient cause, overruling the Supreme Court. Talk about the cart before the horse! This ought to be a clear enough provocation to raise the ire of even the feeble John Roberts-led Supreme Court. If District Courts can now overrule the Supreme Court, so long as it serves leftist aims, our courts are utterly impotent in protecting civil liberty.

Joe Biden, the man who fraudulently occupies the White House, unconstitutionally ordered everyone to get the frankenshot gene therapy (which also violates the Nuremberg protocols) and bragged about it in a Chicago area appearance this week. He said that his mandates caused more people to “choose” to get the shot – just as people usually “choose” to give their wallet to a bandit with a gun in their face. Ninety years ago, Josef Stalin chose to improve Soviet harvests by forcibly starving millions of Ukrainian farmers. It extended famine – but the farmers who survived all did it Stalin’s way – which was the whole point. Now Joseph Biden seeks to improve health care by forcibly firing thousands of health care workers. It creates a critical shortage, but those left in the profession will do it his way – which, again, is the whole point.

Six thousand teachers protested the shot mandates last week, chanting “F… Joe Biden.” Seventy-two percent of black folks who live in New York are no longer allowed to eat in restaurants – because they have refused the frankenshot. There is now serious talk of requiring frankenshot passports for any travel between states.

I am not generally given to accept anecdotal evidence as decisive – but there are situations where it is. The most important is when the lie is big enough, the censorship is overwhelming against dissent, and active dissenters are punished by the government. The censorship and punishment of dissenters is enough for me to reject whatever narrative is being pushed by the censors and enforcers. But there is a self-defeating, practical flaw in the imperators’ insistence on pushing a big lie. When it is so big that normal people, in their own experience, see it for what it is, all it does is collapse whatever vestiges of confidence are left in institutions. That is why CNBC host Sara Eisen pressed Anthony Fauci on the reliability of his assurance on the rarity of “breakthrough cases” (cases where people who have gotten all the shots get Covid anyway). She asked because that applies to her and much of her family who are now fighting Covid cases.  I, personally, now know five otherwise healthy people who have died within weeks of getting the jab. I only know one who died of Covid. Even though many silly people attribute a sudden decline or medical problems that arise almost immediately after taking the jab as something else, as this continues to grow, the scales are going to fall ever more rapidly from those same people’s eyes. If a tidal wave is looming off your front porch and officials are telling you it is just a light rain, reality will intrude soon enough, however desperately you want to believe the officials.

There is a price to be paid when officials choose to live by lies. It may unfold in slow motion, as people react in astonishment as institutions they once trusted increasingly gaslight them and even punish them for noticing. Eventually, though, it reaches critical mass. In the best-case scenario, people just cease to listen to officials at all. In the worst case, widespread civil unrest grows into outright revolt. We are VERY close to ‘eventually’ right now.

How many people do you know who have died or have suffered major medical problems shortly after taking the jab? How many people do you know who have been fired or otherwise forced from their jobs for refusing the experimental gene therapy shot? When the bitter-enders say it is “just a vaccine,” I can only think, “Idiots!” It is genetic therapeutic approach that has never in history been used on humans before, has never had any long-term studies done in humans, and the long-term studies in animals have all been failures and, in most cases disasters in which all the animals died within a couple of years. When I hear Churchmen say that we have to consider the “common good,” I can only think, “Idiots!” How is it the common good to use a therapy that was never used on humans and has killed almost all its animal test subjects? I am horrified to find that most top religious authorities don’t even want to examine the evidence, but just do what the credentialed class tells them. I used to mistrust the Russian Orthodox Church because, when the Soviets came, they caved to temporal authorities with almost eager desire, even spying on the very people they were supposed to shepherd – for dissent against the party line. But I guess that all religious institutions, when composed of too many leaders without chests, fold like cheap suits when they are too lazy to do serious research and become too enamored of the paper and paste of temporal influence to care much about the riches that await those who live heroic fidelity.

Last December 14 I posted an article entitled, “The Beginning, Not the End.” I said, at the end of it, that the American Republic died on Dec. 11, 2020 when the Supreme Court refused, on faulty procedural grounds, to even look at the evidence of massive vote fraud. That is the only thing I got wrong in that piece (for which even some of my close friends accused me of being too alarmist at the time). Actually, Dec. 11 was the day our case became terminal. Now the question is whether we will just get a death rattle of the republic or will we have a revival and a new birth of freedom in this now-benighted land? Many people do not yet realize that America has become as internally restrictive as the old Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Communist China were and are. That is because the old system of freedom under God was so big that it takes time – and surrender – to fully get people under the heel of the tyrants. But the tyrants are steadily working at it. Do you know what one of the great historical facilitators of tyrannical takeover is? The smug belief of the short-sighted that, “it can’t happen here.”

In the semi-comic religious song, “Noah Found Grace in the Eyes of the Lord,” at one point Noah says, “Lord, it’s beginning to pour,” to which God responds, “Noah, hurry up and shut the door!” All the tyranny, lies, deceit, and censorship are close enough to critical mass that we will soon reach a flashpoint. My advice to you is to hurry up and shut the door on the ark carrying your friends and family who have not drunk the cultural Kool-Aid.

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I call on police officers throughout the country to pray carefully now. Soon, you will have to make some serious decisions. Watching police authorities in Canada, England and especially Australia, mace and beat up little old ladies and children who resist Covid tyranny has horrified me. A year ago I was confident that in any such eventuality, the police would stand with the people they serve, their friends and neighbors, rather than viciously carry out the ugly edicts of their government overseers. This last year has badly shaken my confidence on that score.

I have had some heartening evidence that, despite the degeneration of police morality in the above-mentioned countries, there is still hope we will hold the line here. One cop I know told his superiors over a year ago, when the Covid nonsense first began, that he would continue to do the extra work he had taken on for the department, but he would NOT enforce any Covid restrictions – and if that was a problem they should just tell him and he would turn in his resignation. They left him alone. Another cop, was asked at a gathering of fellow officers,  what he would do if a vaxx mandate came. He cheerfully said he would get another job. At almost all of my talks, there is usually at least one cop in attendance and often quite a few.

Officers, I deeply respect the work you do in good times. Two members of my family are in law enforcement. When crunch time comes, remember that almost all of your overseers already hate you and are glad to throw you to the wolves. If you alienate the ordinary people who love you, you will become the single most bereft people in the land. Every department has a few bad apples. Active officers know who those bad apples are. It will no longer be enough to just ignore them. You will have to ostracize them, or you will be spattered by the tar of their vicious misconduct.

Everyone, pray to St. Michael for our noble, local police officers.

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In case any of you were deceived by Frances Haugen, the purported “Facebook whistleblower,” her complaint is that there is not enough censorship of views she does not agree with on Facebook. I smelled a rat as soon as it was announced that she would appear on an establishment press outlet. The legacy press does not give a platform to anyone who supports liberty and open discussion. Sure enough, she wants to clamp down harder on conservatives and Christians. They set it up this way in the hopes that they could dupe conservatives and Christians who are angry with social media into further silencing themselves. Always read the fine print in these times.

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In my last piece, I drifted into error on when Jesus knew He was God. It was kind of idiotic, because I have covered this ground before while maintaining full fidelity to Magisterial teaching.

I erred in this one because I drifted into suggesting that Christ was ignorant of His divinity for much of His formative period. In prior discussions of the matter, I have noted that I believe Christ set aside His knowledge in order to genuinely grow in His human nature. St. Thomas Aquinas, as usual, said it far more elegantly and concisely than I can: “What He knew from His divine nature, He suffered Himself to learn in His human nature.”

The Catechism covers the subject more technically from Paragraphs 470-483.

While this drift into error was a mistake, I have provoked more than a little controversy on several subjects these last few weeks. That is intentional. For almost the first thousand years of Christianity, there was a lot of often passionate and spirited debate on doctrinal matters. While that meant there was no little error, it also meant that people thought seriously about it and had to defend their position. I want to provoke something similar now, for after centuries, we have become so smugly certain of some things that we are poorly armed to defend the faith from serious assaults – because we are not challenging our own assumptions and thinking seriously about it. I would not leave you unarmed.

The reactions were along the lines I expected. Some were shocked that others could see things differently than they did. Some relied on conditional or ambiguous statements from authority to declare absolute certainty that their interpretation was both correct and the only possible interpretation. Others denied absolute facts in order to support things that they want to believe. Still a few others pretended to an erudition they did not have to try to settle matters. I largely left much of it alone. I was tempted, when one commenter described an ancient Magisterial discipline as a mere “idea” to jump in, but I let it ride. I particularly loved the questions Steve BC started asking. They were serious and insightful without straying far afield from formal Magisterial teaching.

There is nothing wrong with having a different take than other faithful people you respect have. Many saints who were contemporaneous with each other found themselves passionately defending opposite ends during the great doctrinal disputes. There is not even anything wrong with being wrong for a time. That is the price you pay for going deeper. The only wrong here would be to stubbornly keep to your interpretation after discovering defined Magisterial teaching refutes it. It is sufficient to be docile to defined Magisterial teaching once you know it, but it is much better to dive deeper then and find why the Magisterial teaching is true.

Some nervously said we should not dig at all, just accept. Remember St. Paul’s injunction in 1 Corinthians 12:13-31. We are all members of the one Body of Christ. In that Body there is great and true diversity. Not all have the same calling, but we are all edified by each of the members living their calling truly. If you say we should not split hairs, would you oust Sts. Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, and most of the Fathers of the Church because that sort of philosophical and theological inquiry was exactly what they specialized in? If you say we should not engage in mystical speculation, would you dismiss Sts. Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Padre Pio and Faustina from the canon? If you are called to be an arm and not a foot, you are not obligated to do the things a foot must, in fact, it is best avoided. But take care lest you start condemning a foot for doing a foot’s job, instead of the job of an arm which you are called to and prefer. We all benefit from each member doing its job with fidelity.

I want you to think harder, to meditate more deeply because things are going to get worse. If you have not closely considered your faith – and your assumptions – when the assault rises to its most furious level, you risk losing that faith to despair rather than deepening it. I don’t mind a whit if people I love disagree with some of my interpretations. Do you notice that when I am being speculative, I almost always note that “I might be wrong”? The only way to explore new territory is to actually explore it – and sometimes you are going to go up some blind alleys. Shoot, the very groundwork for my eventual conversion into the Catholic Church was my relentless reading and re-reading of the whole Bible, and then my study of the historical cultural norms of the times in which they were written so that I could understand better what the original listeners heard beyond what it means to a 20^th and 21^st Century person. I used to begin RCIA every year when I was teaching it by telling inquirers I collected heresies – and would give five dollars to anyone who could come up with one I never heard of or, likely, even once believed. It gave them permission to explore what really troubled them and was really an invitation to them to cast out into the deep.

I am sometimes wrong – but my rock solid foundational convictions are that there is no error in God, who is truth, itself, and that truth will stand the test of examination. In fact, Truth welcomes it. If you don’t believe me, read Job again with fresh eyes. There is nothing wrong with sticking with what is simple. But for those who are called, what I am doing is inviting you to join me in casting out into the deep.

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We are in the second week of our fall fundraising drive for CORAC. We are now up to almost $15,000 raised on a goal of $50,000. Over a third of that has come from a wonderful woman in Alabama who tithed part of a recent inheritance she received. God bless her!

Some have asked anew what exactly CORAC is. A good question, as we are most certainly not a conventional activist group. CORAC is primarily a fraternal group that is committed to the traditional American and Judeo-Christian values of faith, family and freedom. First and foremost, it is a way to join a community of like-minded people who are open to discussion and dissent, so long as it adheres to the fundamental mission. In these times, when you have to self-censor at work, among family and friends, it is as refreshing as a wilderness waterfall to be able to talk freely about what is on your mind and in your heart without fear of being ostracized. We are a healthy family, often with disagreements, but without rancor or the desire that you should be forced to shut up. We seek to build each other up rather than tear each other down.

We engage in occasional activism, demonstrating in support of first reponders, conducting prayer rallies at various government offices. Since I am not big on directives, we are very open to letting you do what you love and, in fact, connecting you with people who are interested in the same. We engage in education on subjects that are useful to all. Your priorities do not have to match my priorities, so long as they are consistent with our mission. If you want to organize people to work to reform schools and protest, I encourage it and am glad to connect you with people who want to help and do the same. Whatever it is that supports those traditional American and Judeo-Christian values, we have people in our family focusing on it. I do not want to stifle people’s noble creative ability by rigidly directing what they must focus on; rather, I want to ignite that creative capacity in service to the larger organization and our communities. When you look at something wrong and say, “Someone should do something about that,” we give you the means to actually do something about it and help you find people who want to work with you.

We engage in educational activities that will be useful if times stabilize and vital if they keep disintegrating. We focus now on teaching natural medical techniques; developing means of surviving and thriving where you are with traditional home skills; keeping the channels of communication open by establishing a network of ham radios across the country (governments cannot shut down radio signals) and more accessible means of keeping people in touch at the beginning of any crisis; prayer teams that are uniting Catholics and Protestants throughout the country in building up the City of God and providing CORAC with a foundation of prayer. We will soon add an education team to help people work together to give their children a solid education no matter what the state of our culture or society.

In many of my talks, I have spoken of how the world will be transformed by the visible Triumph of the Immaculate Heart. People often ask me what that world will look like. I answer that it will be an entirely ordinary world, a place where we will have jobs and governments, bills and families, but a world transformed by love of God and love of neighbor. I tell them it will be similar to the idealized town of Mayberry in the old Andy Griffith show. At bottom, what CORAC is is Mayberry now. Whether you can participate a lot or just a little, whether you want to organize something or just learn some new skills (all classes and demonstrations are free of charge – though some may require materials – none of which we profit from. We won’t buy your radio or your homeopathy kit, but we are glad to teach you how to use them), or just want to spend some time visiting with friends where you don’t have to worry about being canceled, CORAC is a place you can do all of this and more. It is free to sign up and free to participate. We are entirely supported by donations (and some sales of CORAC-branded merchandise – but that is so small it doesn’t amount to much of anything). Thus, if you can, donate the largest amount you can by going here – and if you choose to become a monthly donor, we will send you a CORAC Rosary – complete with a little metal squirrel on it.

So what is CORAC? Simple…Mayberry Now!

(If only I could whistle, we would have a great theme song, too!)

Come join me on Gab. Look at Charliej373 or the CORAC group. If you send me a friend request on Facebook, I rarely go there anymore, but follow me on Gab and I will follow you back.

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Next Saturday, Oct. 16, I will speak in Estes Park, Colorado at 1 p.m. Before that, Region 12 is sponsoring a pilgrimage beginning at St. Catherine’s Church (sometimes called the Stone Chapel) at the foot of Mt. Meeker. All are welcome. To sign up, go here. I hope to see you then!

Mt. Meeker Now! (or something like that).

Donate to CORAC!

Join the Conversation!

The Corps of Renewal and Charity (CORAC)

18208 Preston Rd., Ste. D9-552

Dallas, Texas 75252