Something is
wrong in Louisiana at a very deep level.
Stories of horrific crimes committed by Louisiana’s youths continue to
surface. Two recent examples [2024] illustrate
this. The first
is an act of human murder:
A former city councilman in the Webster
Parish city of Minden and his daughter are shot dead, and the suspect is a
ten-year-old boy.
Joe Cornelius, 82, and his daughter Keisha
Miles, 31, were found dead inside their home at around 6:30 Sunday morning.
There were two juveniles inside the home at
the time.
“Through piecing all the evidence together,
getting all the resources together, we were able to figure out that one of the
juveniles had committed this crime,” says Jared McIver, Minden police chief.
“Surprising that the juvenile is ten years old and just shot both victims.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Minden Police have
corrected the boy’s age to 11.)
Chief McIver says the investigation ruled
out any notion that this was an accidental shooting.
“It’s one thing if the juvenile was playing
with the gun and accidentally shot (the victims),” McIver notes. “But these
victims, they had multiple gunshot wounds, which signifies it was not an
accidental shooting or self defense or anything like that.”
At this time, it’s unclear what led to the
shooting.
A child
murdering his elders is one of the most subversive, satanic acts
imaginable. Yet we cannot dwell on this
act, for there is another
to look at as well, an act of cruelty to animals:
An 18-year-old Caldwell Parish man is
arrested for allegedly strangling a spotted fawn.
The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries
says Taryn Varnell of Grayson was captured on video taking the deer in Caldwell
Parish and choking it to death.
Back on July 9, investigators were looking
into an unrelated incident when they discovered the video.
“They stumbled upon the video,” says Senior
Agent Michael Thacker. “I wasn’t expecting it. It shocked the conscience,
that’s for sure.”
The video was graphic.
“The individual choked the fawn out,” says
Thacker. “He stood it up, lifted it overhead and slammed it back to earth in an
aggressive manner.”
Louisianans
have been watching evil acts like these occur for years, but have not responded
collectively in the necessary ways until recently. Yet even that has been timid: requiring signs in schools displaying the
words ‘In God We Trust’ and displaying the Ten Commandments (which have yet to
make it into classrooms). Better was the
law allowing Christian chaplains to be present in public schools again.
More robust
and confident actions are called for. The
Christian Faith is growing weaker; it needs to be strengthened. Pagan philosophies and religions are not
strong enough to conquer and heal disordered human passions that have been
damaged by the Fall. Reverend Alban
Butler writes,
Antoninus was in the dark as to the most
important of all points in morality, the end of man. If he believed that the
soul does not perish in death, and speaks sometimes like Plato of a future
state of rewards and punishments, he, in other places, doubts whether its
destination is not to pass by a metempsychosis or continual migration from one
being into another. To reform habitual offenders, he tells them that they act
in contradiction to their reason, and below the dignity of their nature. What
force can such motives have upon depraved minds, which this system makes
accountable only to themselves? Conscience is little more than an empty name,
if it do not bind men over to appear before a higher tribunal, or if moral
duties are not enforced by stronger motives of divine love made manifest by
revelation. Hence the practical treatises of most of the heathen philosophers,
are rather vain-glorious boasts, or high flights of eloquence, than suitable
antidotes against the more dangerous vices. The persuasives and reproofs which
they display are too feeble to support our courage under fiery trials, or
constantly to stem the impetuous torrent of the most unruly passions.
He contrasts
the pagan philosophies with Christianity:
Justus Lipsius, lying on his death-bed,
when some advised him to make use of that Stoic philosophy of which he had been
the great admirer, to comfort himself in those moments of distress, answered:
“It is not philosophy, but faith only that can now give me strength.” Neither
can empty exclamations on the beauty of virtue, or the dignity of our nature,
which are so pompously set forth by these heathens, and repeated by the noble
author of the Characteristics, and other modern enemies to revelation, restrain
all the sallies of human passions. This is the privilege of the law of holy
faith. (Ps. cxviii. 9.) For, as experience shows, the motives of the divine
love and mercy, and those of eternal punishments and rewards, subdue the most
rebellious, pierce to the bottom of the heart, and leave the dart deep fixed in
the soul. The mixture of folly, weakness, and blindness which is blended in the
moral writings of Plato and other infidel writers, shows the incompetence of
reason alone in our corrupted state, without the assistance of a superior
light. How much do the holy maxims of the gospel on vice and virtue excel in
purity and perfection the most admired and sublime lessons of philosophers
found in Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Dacier’s preface on Plato, Carpenter’s
Life of Socrates, Stanley’s Lives of Philosophers, &c.? How infinitely
superior are our divine principles of humility, resignation, meekness, charity,
&c.? What is the boasted contentedness of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, to
the calm and entire resignation of St. Paul! (2 Cor. vi.
10; Phil. iv.
11,) &c.
And yet,
what are we doing in Louisiana? Are we,
in every possible way, communicating to our citizens, especially our children,
the superiority of Christianity? We are
not. We are prattling about high school
and college football. We are planning
what restaurant to go to next, where to go on vacation, what show to
binge-watch on Netflix. Rev. Butler has
some harsh words for us:
Nevertheless, how great a reproach is it to
slothful Christians, that their lives, amidst the full light and most powerful
helps of faith, fall far short even of the morality of heathens; and that they
are strangers not only to the spirit and precepts of that divine religion which
they disgrace by professing it, but even to those maxims of reason itself which
heathen philosophers have delivered! How will Tyre and Sidon (Matt. xi.
21,) and the isles of Cethim (Jer. xi.
10,) condemn them at the last day!
Since
Louisiana’s children spend much of their early life in schools, it is
imperative that they become once again places where they can become acquainted
with the Christian Faith. The Orthodox
Church in Moldova lays out a vision
and principles that Louisiana would do very well to adopt as her own:
“The three pillars of religious education
are family, Church, and school,” the Church report reads.
It continues:
“The school is by definition the
institution that addresses the soul. The young person’s soul is like a
seedling; it contains all the possibilities for development and fruition. But
to realize these possibilities, it needs the light and warmth of a clean and
healthy living environment and the wise and loving guidance of parents, the
Church, the school, and all institutions called to contribute to the great work
of spiritual building of the nation. The school was considered the daughter of
the Church, and the Church without a school is like a mill without wheels.
“What young people seek is found in
Christianity, and therefore we must discover a way to refamiliarize them with
the Church. We don’t need to wait for someone to ask for our help to fulfill
the joy they need most. Whenever we give, we receive light; whenever we give,
we receive joy; whenever we give, we receive peace; and above all, whenever we
give, we receive love. Therefore, always learn that when you receive, you
should also pass it on.
‘For the beneficiaries, school should be a
joy, and they should have confidence that through education, they can make a
beautiful purpose in life.”
Bulgaria is also
taking steps to
re-Christianize her schools that we can learn from.
When the
Christian Faith is strong amongst a people, it manifests in actions that are
the opposite of what we have seen in Louisiana.
In contrast to the two opening stories, children
love and respect their elders and are even willing to suffer and die with
them for Christ’s sake:
The Martyr Babylas and 84 disciples with
him suffered in the city of Nicomedia for confessing Christianity during the
reign of the emperor Maximian (284-305). The emperor, who was then in
Nicomedia, renewed the persecution against Christians.
Like many other believers, Saint Babylas
was denounced as someone who was instructing children in Christian piety. When
Babylas was brought before the emperor, and after his confession of faith in
the true God, he was given over to many torments.
During his sufferings the holy martyr cried
to God, “I thank You, O Lord, that You have made me, who am old and infirm, to
be young and strong.” After being pelted with stones, he was clapped in irons
and they took him to prison.
Then the saint ‘s young disciples were
brought before the emperor. Neither flattery nor promise of gifts were able to
alter the Christian convictions of the children. Two of them, Ammonias and
Donatus, firmly declared, “We are Christians, and we will not offer sacrifice
to deaf and dumb devils.”
The emperor flew into a rage over the
unexpected and firm rebuke from the children. At first, he ordered them to be
whipped, and later to be put to death by beheading, together with their
teacher. On the way to execution, the holy Martyr Babylas quoted Isaiah,
“Behold, I and the children which God has given me” (Isaiah 8:18). With
spiritual rejoicing, first Saint Babylas, and then his 84 disciples, received
the crown of martyrdom.
And young
men do not abuse the Lord’s creatures, but can become so filled with God’s
Grace that they live in harmony with them much like Adam and Eve did before the
Fall in Paradise. From the
life of the Holy Martyr Mamas:
By means of prudent conversations and
personal example young Mamas converted many of his own peers to Christianity.
The governor, Democritus, was informed of
this, and the fifteen-year-old Mamas was arrested and brought to trial. In
deference to his illustrious parentage, Democritus decided not to subject him
to torture, but instead sent him off to the emperor Aurelian (270-275). The
emperor tried at first kindly, but then with threats to turn Saint Mamas back
to the pagan faith, but all in vain. The saint bravely confessed himself a
Christian and pointed out the madness of the pagans in their worship of
lifeless idols.
Infuriated, the emperor subjected the youth
to cruel tortures. They tried to drown the saint, but an angel of the Lord
saved Saint Mamas and bade him live on a high mountain in the wilderness, not
far from Caesarea. Bowing to the will of God, the saint built a small church
there and began to lead a life of strict temperance, in exploits of fasting and
prayer.
Soon he received a remarkable power over
the forces of nature: wild beasts inhabiting the surrounding wilderness
gathered at his abode and listened to the reading of the Holy Gospel. Saint
Mamas nourished himself on the milk of wild goats and deer.
The saint did not ignore the needs of his
neighbors. Preparing cheese from this milk, he gave it away freely to the poor.
Soon the fame of Saint Mamas’s life spread throughout all of Caesarea.
Louisiana, regrettably,
is not alone in sinking into a culture of nihilism. A school shooting in Georgia committed by a
14-year-old on 4 September is a powerful reminder of that. As is the continued
support for abortion in many States.
The answer to this ongoing tragedy is not difficult to express in words: a re-embrace of Christianity. But implementing it is difficult, for mankind
is stubborn; he wants to be autonomous, ruling himself, not yielding to
God. But such a refusal only keeps us in
the darkness and confusion of the demonic realm, and outside of the light and
peace of Paradise.
If we truly
love our children here in Louisiana, if we value the Christian heritage of our
ancestors from Africa
and Europe, we will do everything we can to hand on the Christian Faith to them
intact. This will necessarily be a lengthy,
multifaceted, laborious work, but the end result – a State full of folks young
and old who, like our Patron Saint Martin of Tours, experience the blessings of
the Kingdom of Heaven in every moment – will more than recompense us for the
effort.
***
Originally
published, but without some of the embedded links, at https://thehayride.com/2024/09/garlington-nihilism-is-alive-and-well-in-louisiana/.
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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us
sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to the Union!
