By Charlie Johnston
Just over a month ago I told my son about Trump Accounts for the kids. Frankly, these are the greatest things since Harry met Sally.
Because they give a seed deposit of $1,000 for every child enrolled who was born on or after Jan. 1, 2025, some folks have gotten the mistaken idea that those are the only kids who can be signed up. Wrong. Any child under 18 can be signed up for an account. Those born before Jan 1, 2025 just don’t get the initial seed money. You have to make the initial deposit yourself.
The truly exciting thing about them is that various philanthropic entities and people can make deposits themselves – and they are, based on regional and other criteria. Wealthy donors LOVE it. They can make donations directly in which ALL the money goes to kids, entirely bypassing the middlemen. Some do it by state. The left and professional charities HATE it, because they’re not getting their cut.
Well, my son and daughter-in-law went ahead and opened accounts for their kids, though they were not quite convinced about the random donations that would just appear. Fortunately, my son has a lifetime of experience that, when I am insistent, even if it seems improbable, I almost always have my facts straight. He called me excitedly last week to tell me that someone had already added $250 to each of the kids’ accounts – that I was right on the money, so to speak. I looked it up and found it was the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation (of Dell Computers). It made an incredible $6.25 billion dollar donation to give every kid who has an account an extra $250 – and every dime of it went to kids, no 10 percent for processing or even a penny to the various middlemen. Donald Trump has made it right tough for leftist compassion-mongers to skim money off the top of charitable giving.
At first, my son said it was hard to sign up. I told him that was strange, because I had told an Idaho woman about it a few days earlier and she had her kids’ accounts going the next day. The next day Chaz called me back and said his mistake was not downloading the app. He said once he did it from the app, it was easy as could be.
If you have kids or grandkids under 18, you should get on it. This is the coolest and best program to build a nest egg for them I have seen in my lifetime. Man, I wish we had had something like this when my kids were little. And I reckon next time I need to replace my laptop, it’ll have to be a Dell. (Unless, of course, Mr. Hewlett, Mr. Packard. Or Mr. Apple wants to up the ante with my grandkids )
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I thoroughly enjoyed my presentation at the Symposium on Transforming Culture at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas last weekend. In the end, I decided to work from my outline rather than give the fully formal text. After years of almost constant public speaking (okay, fine, decades) I prefer a spontaneous approach from an outline rather than a fully formal speech. I’m okay with a formal speech on the radio or with a teleprompter. Shoot, at my first radio station, I was considered the best “cold read” in the place. (In broadcast, cold reading is the ability to read a piece for the first time out loud and make it sound natural).
The great thing about working spontaneously from an outline is that you actually interact with the audience in a sort of tacit dialogue. Yes, you’re the only one speaking, but you can see – and more importantly, feel – what the audience is thinking and feeling. When I get on a roll, I can feel when the crowd clicks with me. It’s not any sort of mind-meld, more like a harmonious chord which nourishes itself as the ideas and the emotion processes between the crowd and the speaker, becoming more than the sum of its parts, at least so long as it maintains harmony as it grows.
Benedictine has asked us to submit formal papers from our presentations. It will publish them in a review of the symposium. That suits me just fine. My formal paper will just be the same as the column I publish here taken from my presentation. The title, again, is In God’s Own Image.
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I have long known that demons are opportunistic. They look for entry points where we short circuit our critical faculties by suspending reasonable disbelief or letting the precision of our minds fade to a blurry haze. A friend of mine often says, almost as a mantra, that all bad thinking is the result of bad philosophy. (The friend is eschatologist Desmond Birch, also a friend of many of yours). While I don’t entirely agree, it is a staggeringly powerful insight. Bad thinking is largely the result of philosophical slovenliness.
This fuzziness has HUGE consequences. The failure to provide (or even understand) sound sanitation practices was the platform upon which all the great plagues that afflicted mankind were built.
The Lindsay Clancy fiasco and her unhinged supporters are a perfect example of the opportunism of demonic entities. They have used slovenly thinking to infect a substantial cohort of people, certain types of angry women, in particular. Even that frightening cohort is just a subset of a much larger faction of atheist, materialistic, incoherent rebels. They call themselves compassionate as they revel in the harm and murder of people who don’t agree with them. They call rationality fascism even as they use the coercive tools of fascism to impose their fuzzy, unfocused will. Incapable of thinking clearly or arguing coherently, they have adopted the ultimate heckler’s veto of raw and murderous brute force – and call it righteousness. It has become almost a cliché to note that for all their self-righteousness, these people are almost uniformly angry, miserable, and brutish.
I know their pain is real. They have given themselves over to be flogged by the satan and his minions – and have allowed these demons to falsely convince them that it is those who have not given themselves over to satan who are the source of their pain. It becomes a cancer of the heart and soul, feeding on its own dysfunction and giving the demons greater sway over both individual souls and the culture at large.
My friend, Susan Skinner, author of the Veil of Veronica Blog, is convinced that the evil spirits of Jezebel and Molech are running rampant in our culture. I concur. I first met Susan when we discovered that both of us, on Dec. 20, 2014, had had a vision of demons spewing out upon the earth like lava from a volcano, intent on ensnaring as many as they could before their time was up, with a special focus on inflaming the vanity of the pious to ensnare them.
Twelve years later, the good news is that their time is almost up, which is probably why they are so intensely frenetic. The bad news is that they have ensnared many, with yet more to come. I spent a lot of time the last couple of weeks praying that these demons, these accusers of, these enemies of, mankind be bound, that the afflicted may begin to be delivered from the chains of their vicious and frenzied torment. A wounded and cornered animal is dangerous, but the torment it suffers is also real and intense.
The most consequential Novena for me every year is the dual, overlapping Novenas to the Immaculate Conception and to Our Lady of Tepeyac (commonly called Guadalupe). I am planning to talk to our Prayer Team at CORAC, and to several Priests and Religious I admire and respect, to put together a taped daily Novena Prayer Reflection to bind and banish the spirits of Jezebel and Molech…and all the evil spirits who prowl the earth like lions seeking whom they might devour. We must, indeed, fight the depravities of our time, but without deep prayer for deliverance of the afflicted (including ourselves) our fight will be in vain.
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This Sunday, September 20, we will hold a virtual retreat, a global ZOOM Meeting – and you are all invited. It is the 26th Anniversary of what may have been the most consequential day of my life up until now. I have been emphasizing to people that we must learn to walk on water, for that is the only way to get to the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart. Of course, there is no way to walk on water except through abandonment to Christ, in complete trust and confidence. The retreat will begin at 5 pm ET, 4 CT, 3 MT, and 2 PT. So you’ll have plenty of time to get to Mass, have Sunday dinner, kick back and relax. We will focus on some priorities going forward and your comments and questions will be moderated by our Executive Director, Michael Murray (better known hereabouts as MP).
Here, again, is the log-in link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86872716165?pwd=904f9I1yCL37oBDJFAzgdZkmB5u5aW.1
Meeting ID:
868 7271 6165
Passcode:
723889
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I strongly urge you to read the most recent edition of the CORAC Newsletter. In my column, I gave an intimate episode from my personal history to illustrate what is required of us in discernment in these times.
I said earlier that the demons are opportunistic. They look for the holes in our faith, the flaws in our daily lives. They especially look for vanity and self-righteousness.
Scripture constitutes public revelation – and the Church is the only authorized interpreter. So Scripture and the Magisterium of the Church are our reliable guides.
Private revelation – apparitions, visions, prophetic words, etc. – do not add to the fullness of revelation contained in Scripture and the Magisterium, but may be a useful tool in successfully navigating a particular time in Salvation History.
In many circles, there is a great hunger and eagerness for private revelation. Many people will take at face value the most specious nonsense if it is purported to be a message from God. Here are a couple of things you need to know:
Most purported private revelation is not revelation at all. It is just some mouthy crank trying to augment his private opinion by claiming it is from God. Of the rare private revelation that is of supernatural origin, more comes from the devil in an effort to deceive than from God. And the devil makes a right frothy presentation, with plenty of whistles, bells, fireworks and drama. The Lord usually comes in a small, gentle, whisper (1 Kings 19).
People often ask me why I do not speak more plainly and openly about what I am shown. It is because I know how clever and seductive the devil is. If you knew what lengths and pains I go to to vet and confirm everything I am given before I will publicly speak of it, you would give thanks that you do not have to deal with such things. I have a horror of unintentionally misleading people because I was fooled for a time – and I know just how easy it is to be fooled by the devil, who is constantly prowling, looking to exploit the unguarded seam in your armor. I have complete confidence in God – and little in my own prowess. And I will be held to account by God for everything I say and that I do.
A harder truth is that, even in canonized saints, not every word that falls from their mouths is necessarily accurate. Even if they have seen truly, they often interpret poorly. A nihil obstat does NOT guarantee the accuracy of a text, only that it does not contradict faith and morals. I always cringe when someone says, with confidence, that, “Mary said that…” and then cites some saying attributed to Our Lady from the vision of a saint as absolute fact. It is far worse when they cite a random, unvetted, purported mystic – who might just be a devil wearing a pious skinsuit.
You must know that the opportunistic demons are fully using this mania in some circles for private revelation to enthrall and deceive the faithful. If you know what every internet rando has to say about what God told them and do not have a solid foundation in Scripture, Church history, and formal doctrine, you have lost the narrative – if you ever had it. You are, to the devil, as a crippled elk is to a wolf. Stop bandaging yourself with unvetted private revelation until you have the firm foundation of Scripture and Church teaching with which to discern what is useful and what is not.
And yes, that includes what I say. What any of us say to each other may be useful, but without a firm foundation in Scripture and the Magisterium, you have launched into shallow, rocky waters without a navigational map. It would be hard enough to traverse it on your own without the demons constantly trying to lure you into the rocks. Your faith will lift you up, but it must be nourished by Scripture and the Magisterium.
Put on the full armor of God!
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Over a decade ago I casually wrote a phrase that I have come to think was one of the most inspired in my life. I will close with it.
“As you look at your life, you cannot measure it by the books published, the soup kitchens worked, the refuges built – though if you can do those things, they are good. Rather, you must judge it from the perspective of the hope you inspired, the peace you spread, the joy you engendered, the love you kindled – for these are the sure marks of the Kingdom and of God. All else is detail.”
If communication goes out for any length of time, meet outside your local Church at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Tell friends at Church now in case you can’t then. CORAC teams will be out looking for people to gather in and work with.
Find me on X at @JohnstonPilgrim
The Corps of Renewal and Charity (CORAC)
18208 Preston Rd., Ste. D9-552
Dallas, Texas 75252
A Sign of Hope 
Wow! Love your creative expression in the image, Charlie!!
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