I have been told that my “obsession” with evil as the primary, primordial property and major content of human nature and consciousness, and that my insistence that evil exists and is the prominent existential threat to human well-being in this world and the next, are bizarre, perhaps superstitious beliefs, intense but illusory, a vestigial reminder of my Roman Catholic upbringing, though I am a lapsed Catholic, but a Christian with a polytheistic/Unitarian-Universalist context (Whatever that means; though I can define it approximately.).
I do believe evil exists. I do believe in devils. I also believe that good spiritually exists, and that angels surround us (if we will let them guide, protect, counsel and direct us) and love us. I believe the battle between good and evil is eternal (not vanquished forever when Jesus comes back to earth—maybe He vanquishes it for part of the universe forever, or for all of the universe for the next three million years).
I believe that the good deities created us, and we are put in this world to help them fight spiritual, moral, worldly evil. If we fight the good fight with them, we will be rewarded. If we join the forces of darkness and fight against God and the Good Spirits, we will be punished for betraying our birthright to self-perfect for a lifetime asymptotically, self-sacrificing our ease and leisure in service of the Self-Realized Light Couple.
Yesterday (2/6/24, I came across this stirring, relevant article in Breitbart News online, entitled: Exorcist Calls for ‘Spiritual Warfare’ to Combat Rise in Demonic Oppression: ‘God Loves a Good Fight.’ The journalist’s name is Dylan Gwinn, and he wrote the article on 2/5/2024. I will quote Gwinn’s entire article, and then comment on included content.
Gwinn (G after this): “Father Chad Ripperger, a Catholic priest and longtime exorcist, is sounding the alarm over a rise in ‘demonic oppression’ while rallying the faithful to become ‘saints’ by confronting the dark forces.
Father Ripperger warned of the rise in demonic elements last week during a one-hour talk at the famous St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. While the levels of demonic possession, one of the most severe forms of demonic activity, have remained relatively steady in recent years, Father Ripper stressed that other forms of demonic activity such as demonic obsession and oppression, are on the rise.”
My response: I would have to read further to understand what he means by demonic obsession and demonic oppression, but clearly it indicates he believes evil is growing in private hearts and across the world, and that seems right. As fewer and fewer people believe in God, or at least attend church and are of high moral character, it is obvious that demonic forces will rush into human souls to replace areas forsaken by angels, or where angels were never invited in.
I see the rise and spread of wicked, radical, revolutionary, nihilistic altruist-collectivist ethics in the West as conducive with the increase and reach of evil in the West. The Progressives are selfless true believers and fanatics whose false religion is Communism, whose God is Big Totalitarian/Global One-World Government, and whose prophet is Karl Marx. This mass movement is on the march; it is pure evil, so its billions of followers will be filled with demonic hatred for themselves and all others on earth.
G: “The cause of this dramatic increase in demonic activity, according to Father Ripperger, stems from a large number of people doing ‘evil things’ and a decrease in holiness among the faithful.
‘Before 1963, the average time to liberate someone from full possession was one to two days. Maybe a week on the outside,’ he explained.
‘After 1963, what used to take one to two days went to eight months to two years to liberate the average person. Then it’s now, on average, four years to liberate somebody. There’s two reasons for that. One is because the world is much more evil, and the demons are a lot more powerful. The second component is (how) exorcisms work, what they call ex opera operantis Ecclesiae.
What does that mean? It means how holy people are in the Catholic Church determines how effective my prayers are when I walk into session. That tells us that there’s a fundamental problem with the members of the Church. They’re not as holy as their counterparts were in the past,’ he asserted.”
My response: Father Ripperger is correct. That exorcism is less effective and takes longer to free and poor afflicted person of demon possession is due to two reasons: people follow the Dark Couple more than they follow the Light Couple, so Evil Spirits are much more powerful, and the Good Spirits are much less powerful. Second, believers are much less holy now, so demons are empowered, emboldened, just stronger and more aggressive and confident.
Most of the churches and synagogues are Jewish or Christian in name only: they actually preach Progressivism. Pope Francis is a Marxist. If my take on morality is accurate, and it is, individualism and self-interest are virtuous and holy, and collectivism and other-interest are vicious and satanic, then all these Jews and Christians preaching Progressivism must weaken all that is good and holy in the world, so Satan and Lera and their underlings are emboldened and on the march.
The ethical system of traditional Jews and Christians was always more altruistic (evil) than egoistic (good) but the core idea of the West was that the individual was sovereign, and that the Golden Rule and Ten Commandments were assigned to each individual person so that he mighty, personal struggle to be virtuous and holy (if he willed to even try fight evil in himself); this religious assigning individual responsibility to each soul or agent in the West kept its people relatively good or individualistic, if they willed to be, pray and do good.
Nowadays, unfortunately, moderated Western morality of altruism-egoism or moderate collectivism has been pushed aside in favor of discontented masses being converted to frustrated psychosis and anxiety as true believers, joined at the hip to advance cultural Marxism, their holy cause, and this mass movement is on the march, close to achieving its goals. Its moral theory is pure collectivism, or pure demonic unleashing of evil forces upon the earth, so it is no wonder that exorcisms take longer, much longer to take effect.
G: “Though Fr. Ripperger cites mortal sin, an increase in the number of people doing evil in the world, and a decrease in holiness as primary factors for the increased activity among dark elements he reminds us that God himself will allow for demonic influence to sanctify the faithful.
‘One of the principal reasons that God allows demons in our lives is to sanctify us, because when we combat them and become instruments of justice to them . . . that is meritorious in the eyes of God, and it actually raises our place in heaven. St. Paul said it: ‘Engage the ancient serpent and win the crown of glory.’”
My response: To be sanctified is to be made sacred, holy, consecrated, and hallowed. God allows us to encounter demons in life, not to cause us pain and suffering out of sadistic pleasure, but as a tough-love opportunity for each person, a spiritual and moral agent, to wrestle with his inner demons and against outer demons to grow goodness inside herself, and outside of herself in the community. If she is victorious (Doable but not easy or permanent—the fighting the good fight anew each day.), she will be esteemed and be promoted by reward to a higher level in heaven.
G: “Ripperger continued, ‘Because in heaven, you take two things with you: your state of grace, how much grace you have in your soul and your virtue. That’s all you take. It’s a struggle. It’s a fight. We know that God loves a good fight; we know He does.
Part of the reason we know it is because . . . when Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden, they stepped out . . . from the authority structure of God and stepped underneath the power structure of Satan.
From that point on, every single one of us was conscripted into this spiritual warfare,’ Ripperger stressed.”
My response: Yes, we are fallen from and exiled from the Garden of Eden; we are called to serve the good deities and the Good Spirits. The Light Couple made us with free will and the power of reason; we are called to serve the good deities, and it is demanded by them of us and expected of us. We can refuse to obey and cooperate, but it will not go well for us if we offend the good deities and turn our backs upon the good deities that need our help.
G: “While Father Ripperger has witnessed dozens of exorcisms, he’s quick to note that it’s God who cleanses the afflicted of their demons.”
My response: This is why I trust Ripperger: he is a good and honest pastor. He takes no credit for the power to caste demons out; that power belongs to God alone, and the priest conducting the exorcism is God’s soldier conveying God’s message and power in the presence of the afflicted person. Ripperger is not the source of spiritual power, but is a human conduit for its delivery and deliverance of the possessed individual. He is a good, humble, honest, and credible man.
G: “’I liberate no one. Christ liberates everybody,’ Ripperger asserted, ‘ . . . One time, people asked me how many people I have liberated. I said, None. I’ve been around when Christ liberated a lot of people.’
When it comes to what people can do to avoid falling victim to demonic activity, Ripperger claims that the simplest medicine is the best medicine: Prayer and living a good Christian life.
‘ . . . leading an authentic Catholic life; staying out of sin, avoiding temptations, avoiding person, places or things that could cause us to fall; receiving the sacraments on a regular basis; prayer on a regular basis.”
My response: Ripperger, I know is the real deal, because he informs believers that their personal spiritual and moral efforts and consistent hard work are what will keep demons at bay. He is laying out a fundamental truth: millions of individuals are not leading virtuous and holy lives, so this makes it easier for evil to grow in the world, and for demons to invade people’s bodies and souls, often against their wills.
If more individuals return to leading good lives, then the demons are less able to invade people, willing or unwilling to receive these invaders, so then evil will be pushed back in the world.
G: “’Part of the reason prayer is so successful is because it uses the imagination. So, if you’re flooding your imagination with sacred things and the demons are there afflicting it, they’re going to bug out because they don’t want to deal with that stuff being pushed in their head all the time while they’re trying to tempt you, so they’re going to get away from you.”
Father Ripperger revealed one instance where a demon revealed to him the significance and holiness of Mary, the Mother of God.”
My response: I do not know why I think that God the Father is married to God the Mother and these Co-Equals co-created and co-rule the world, but it just came to me as a hunch.
I know many Protestants dislike and distrust Catholic reverence for Mary, the Mother of God, but I like this interest, and it may be connected somehow to my belief that we should worship God the Mother too.
G; “The interesting thing is what God compels them to reveal about the saints or our Lady, he recalled.
‘Beelzebub once had revealed that the reason Our Lady is different from every single other creature is because she sacrificed her entire life and never once counted the personal cost. That means she’s not like any angel because angels only got one choice to sacrifice.
‘She did it over and . . . over again, (Beelzebub saying) it was the perpetuity (it was) got me. And then she never counted the personal cost. There’s not one of us in this room that has not counted the personal cost. That’s why she’s different. That’s interesting. That’s beautiful, ‘ he added.”
My response: It is a novel idea that God forces demons to reveal powerful, important truths about saints and Our Lady. That is a new one on me, but I accept it; I wonder if Satan forces saints and pastors in good standing to reveal truths about devils and human monsters; it would seem likely, for the saints know much about evil somehow.
Note that Beelzebub revealed that Our Lady’s self-sacrifice was not once, but was repeated and significant many times, for more was expected of her than even of the angels, and each time she rose to the occasion, self-sacrificed and did not moan about person cost thought her suffering was very great.
I honor and admire her for her god-like, superhuman self-sacrifice. Exceptional self-sacrifice by a born great soul like Mary the Mother of Jesus is just that, exceptional self-sacrifice that is also her very enlightened self-interest so the line between competing self-interested and self-sacrificing personal moves becomes blurred and perhaps are not determinate.
My take is that traditional Catholic or Christian altruistic morality (altruism-egoism) can be made workable and powerful in the lives of everyday people, who are less saintly, heroic personages than Mary. Effective and useful each of the average persons can be to the Good Spirits, should each of these individuals elect to live as a self-realizing agent practicing his rational egoism in line with what the good deities want from him, and he lives their egoist moral theory (egoism-altruism).
The average person as an individuator, that is virtuous and holy, can do great work in the cause of goodness and justice, and that is where the cause of the good deities will be won or lost. Superhuman, great souls like Mary the Mother of Jesus are both inspirational and too good to be true in the sense of being so perfect that they could end up discourage the average sinner with feet of clay. The average sinner may feel so hopeless and worthless in comparison, that they feel they can never measure up on that level so why try. The average person, when maverized, can still do a great deal of good, if not on the level of Mary’s contribution, so that average person is expected by the Good Spirits to dot he best they can, to get going and get it done.
G: “Regarding how demonic forces operate, Father Ripperger indicated that the usual suspects are not always the most influential in the dark realm.
‘Satanists and witches that are public, are always, at the very best, middle-tier people,’ Ripperger explained. ‘Usually, they’re the low level people that are involved in the occult.
The high level people in the occult, these are people where witchcraft has been in their families for 300 or 400 years. Their knowledge about how this stuff works is almost on the same level as mine. They know exactly how this stuff works. They know exactly what rituals will get the specific effects, and they do it, and you will never know who they are.
They could be the person sitting next to you in the pew . . . They can be the police officer or the judge. They can be the guy that’s your baker. They can be totally normal people that seem really nice and kind to you.
Those people . . . are involved in the occult at the higher level. It’s a cult, it’s hidden, and it’s hidden because once it’s discovered, it guts the effectiveness of what they’re doing. And so they always keep it quiet.”
My response: It is true that we never know for sure who we are dealing with and whom someone may be underneath their surface appearance and demeanor as normal, sane, pleasant people. I would not want to see witch hunts occur against good witches and pagan worshipers that worship good pagan deities.
I would look to judge each tree by its fruit, and good comes from spiritual goodness, and evil flows from evil spirituality. I would also be skeptical and leery of anyone pushing any ideology as a true believer, any open satanist, any collectivist, or anyone that is not for liberty and capitalism. I would be suspicious of anyone downplaying rugged individualism in favor of group-living in hierarchies and institutors culminating in authoritarian, big government running every aspect of our lives.
It is interesting that Ripperger speaks of families long studied in the occult arts as high-level demon worshipers among humans. It rings true that they would work to and conspire to take over the world, for they crave power and dominance above all else. If we doubt that Satan and Lera exist, and that the children of darkness are active ideological satanists and demon-worshipers promoting the cause of evil on earth, then we are naive and the Evil Spirits undetected and unexposed are harder to defeat.
G: “Ripperger concluded by encouraging the faithful to fight the good fight in these dark times.
‘We also know that even in the Church, when it just seems to be in a meltdown mode, it doesn’t matter how bad things get; Christ said the gates of hell will not prevail. It’ll get bad for a while, but hell will not prevail.
If demons gained ascendancy, and if things are as evil as they are, we know from Scripture that where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. This means to those who are faithful to grace, that fidelity to grace, that when God gives you grace to go to church, He gives you the grace to pray.’”
My response: Fr. Ripperger seems like a wise and holy pastor. He does give us hope and reassurance that times of great evil are a time for great potential good coming about too, and that the gates of hell will not prevail against the children of light and the followers of the good deities.
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