The Left and the Devil each want you to believe the same three lies: Your past defines you, your mistakes are permanent, and you are incapable of doing good ever again.
None of those statements are true. We need to address these falsehoods head-on — both as conservatives and followers of God — because they are dominating our society and causing social dysfunction in leaps and bounds.
So why do progressives and Lucifer spread such evil? The simple answer is both parties involved want you to despair.
The Left wants you to feel demoralized so they can amass political power. The Devil wants you to feel hopeless so he can keep you away from God forever.
Of course, the Devil and progressives get you to that point of dejection in different ways. The Left does it after you err whereas the Devil partakes before, during, and after you sin.
For the purposes of this column, let us focus on Satan’s trickery first.
The Devil plays an active role in getting you to sin — separating yourself from God — and berates you afterward. He’s very good at it, and it’s part of the human condition. He does it through deception — which is the Modus Operandi for everything he does. He is the father of lies, after all.
He uses a simple strategy to achieve those ends. As explained by Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, “Before the sin, Satan assures us that it is of no consequence; after the sin, he persuades us that it is unforgivable.”
Or, as explained another way, also by Venerable Sheen, the Devil tricks us into believing he is “on our side before we sin.” He lies and says Christ is “our accuser.” But then, afterward, the roles are reversed, and “Christ becomes the defender and the Devil the accuser.”
Yet prior to falling away from God’s will, the Devil convinces you that you’re making the right choice, you deserve whatever it is you are about to do, and he offers rationalizations for your action.
Then you sin, feel guilty, and are looking for answers. The Devil now has a different lie for you.
Afterward, he pelts you with thoughts that you have gone down a dark path and can never return. Salvation is out of reach — so you might as well keep sinning or take drastic action to avoid the misery you find yourself in, his twisted argument goes.
That is not true, but millions — if not billions of people — every single day think God will never love them again or that they cannot escape who they have become.
Judas — Jesus’ betrayer — certainly believed that message. It drove him to suicide after he helped hand Jesus over for his trial.
And what do we see today? Suicide rates are rising while hopelessness is increasing. Many people believe their mistakes are everlasting — and the only way to escape their sadness is to end it all.
Which brings this column to the lies of the Left. Progressives also want you to believe that your past poor decisions are your true worth.
In an age where anything you said years ago can be pulled up and used against you, it is daunting to believe that you’ve put your past behind you — even if you have matured and had a change of heart.
So the Left, knowing full well that in order to win they must censor opposing viewpoints, will dig up whatever they can and use it as ammo. We all know the script: Somebody finds success in life, but when they were a teenager they said or posted something inappropriate, even slightly racist — and suddenly the woke mob is out for blood.
It doesn’t matter what somebody says or does today — there is no room for personal growth for the Left. The Left, like the Devil, wants you to believe the only way you can show your virtue is to either stay away from politics altogether or to march with them in lockstep agreement.
That idea creeps across the political spectrum as well. Personally, I have been told that I am a grifter because I used to have liberal views and have since changed my mind on topics from when I was 17.
To that I ask: I’m not allowed to learn the error of my ways and make a concrete change in my life? Will who I was more than a decade ago dictate who I will always be?
Nonsense.
If you’re reading this, you must know that you can wake up and make firm amends to become a better person.
You could have sinned for 10 years straight and said awful things on the internet, but you are allowed to change. There is no permanence. You are not stuck with wickedness. You are not stuck in spiritual or personal rot. You are allowed to strive to be better every single day.
You have worth, and you can become a positive force for good — no matter what the Left or the Devil say.