Please correct me if I am wrong, but I see we are losing the battle for souls because we are choosing not to fight. Whether it had been rumbling for ten years or one hundred years or one thousand years, the volcanic eruption of a far left secular liberalism with its pacifist ideology occurred in the 1960s, in the culture and in our Church.

For these past 50+ years, the calculation has been that we only need to be nice, and that this niceness alone will soothe the savage beast. The notion is that evil people will somehow be intoxicated by our niceness, and they will set aside all of their evil ambitions and, somehow, “see the light.” Therefore, we must suppress, or be silent about truths that threaten to antagonize those who remain oblivious to these truths; truths that are causing harm to themselves and others. The greatest sin, therefore, is intolerance.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said,

“America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance — it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded.”

This “niceness” calculation has been an abysmal failure. Now, we see in the world how evil smirks in our pacifist direction as it continues its ambitions of terror and conquest, literally, unabated. Our political leaders are shaking their heads; incredulous as to why evil is not converted by our niceness. In our Church, we are told to remain silent on some of the most horrific evils in the history of civilization, beginning with the dreadful slaughter of 50 million innocent children every year.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen once again pulls no punches:

“A religion that doesn’t interfere with the secular order will soon discover that the secular order will not refrain from interfering with it.”

Equally incredulous are our Church leaders. They simply cannot understand why there are an alarming number of folks staying away from church. “Aren’t we nice enough?” Add to this the steady increases seen in churches where they actually speak the truth and are unafraid to draw attention to the Four Last Things. “Why would they choose this over our niceness?” Why? Because people understand we are called to fight!!

“Love fights,” says Dr. Peter Kreeft (see video below) … “And, therefore, there is in Sacred Scripture something very clearly called the wrath of God. God hates all enemies of love, as the doctor hates the cancer that is killing his beloved patient. If you really love a human being, you will hate all of the dehumanizing forces that are harmful to that human being.”

Folks are going to churches where they feel they are “truly” loved. Not those places trying to increase their attendance by entertaining them and placating them. What’s a bad parent? It’s the one who wants to be the child’s friend rather than their parent, to satisfy their selfish need to “be loved.” A bad parent will let that child run wild, as long as the child “likes them.” A good parent; a truly “loving parent” wants the “best” for that child, even if it means coming down hard on the child, when necessary. The child of the bad parent, ultimately, ends up using the parent. The child of the good parent, ultimately, understands that the parent has their best interests at heart, and they are truly loved.

It’s time for our leaders to shift gears. It’s time for our leaders to be “good parents.”