Hey fans! I'm slowly working on a new podcast episode, and a new experimental podcast, too. As I work on that I've also brought some existing exclusive content here to Locals. Some of it is for all members, and some is only for paid members. F

-Video Podcasts: At a point I'll do podcasts on camera rather than just behind a microphone. They'll include video reactions, and supplemental visuals (it's not all about my face!) Those will be for paid members only. 
-After-Shows: I'll produce after-show episodes to the free/public podcast. These will be for paid members only, but I'll provide "Minicasts" of the after-show to free members as well.

Content

Most paid content will have free previews for free members. Currently the podcasts that I'm bringing over from my website do not have free previews, but they will in the future. Articles will always have free previews.

-PODCAST  Disecting Trump's Accusations of a Biden-Era Catholic Crackdown. - Available to all members of my Locals community. Get it here

-ARTICLE: Rejection of God and Fatherhood, Part 2 (PAID MEMBERS) - Available for paid members. Read it now

-PODCAST  The Church is Not the Point (So what is?) - Paid members only. Listen Now

Thanks for being a member of my Locals community. I'm really humbled and grateful that you've signed up. More to come. God be with you all.

In Part-1 of this series, I examined the roots of the modern culture’s assault on and rejection of fatherhood. As Cultural Marxism began to take root in mid-twentieth century America, books and magazines employing the Marxist strategy of critical theory challenged and attempted to discredit (by casting doubt, not actually by building arguments) traditional beliefs of fatherhood and manhood. Over time, the culture developed a tendency to view male roles in society and the family with disdain, leading to the emergence of misguided attitudes and opinions about men.

But as Cardinal Sarah noted in his interview with Catholic Herald, rejection of fatherhood does not happen on its own but results primarily from rejection of God. The culture’s rejection of God and fatherhood, both so apparent today, are not independent of each other. Rejection of God was the precursor and predicate for rejecting fatherhood today, and for the consequent assault on manhood so prevalent in modern culture.

When and how did we reject God?

Rejection of God has become a cultural norm. It’s likely not unfamiliar to the reader’s own observations of society and cultural trends today. But it’s not uniquely a modern phenomenon. We can see this societal rejection of God across history, starting from biblical times. However there was a particular point in history that more directly laid the groundwork for the rejection of fatherhood and manhood we observe today. Let’s go through that history, starting with scripture and observe the domino effect that starts with rejecting our identity, proceeds to rejection of God, and culminates to rejection of fatherhood.

Rejection of Identity—>Rejection of God—>Rejection of Fatherhood

Rejection of Identity

What initially pries us away from the Heavenly Father is, as Cardinal Sarah mentions, a rejection of our identity as sons and daughters and replacing it with an ego-driven identity of self-reliance and agency separated from God, the creator, and provider of life and being (In Him we live, and move and have our being” Acts 17:28). When the Hebrews worshipped the golden calf (Exodus 32), choosing an idol in place of the true God, they rejected the true God for a false one. Pointing to the golden calf they cried out “This is our god…” (Exodus 32:4). In doing so, they were saying, “We are not children of the True God, but are children of an inanimate object—a ‘nothing.’ We inherit no identity from this ‘nothing,’ and so we take license to manufacture one for ourselves.”

"Sin is knocking at your door. It wants to rule over you. You must resist it"
-Genesis

In this first part of this series of essays on the connection between rejecting God and rejecting fatherhood, we’ll look at the culture’s war on fatherhood and manhood in general. The next two parts will cover the rejection of God in Western history and how these two rejections connect.

I recently came across an interview in the Catholic Herald with His Eminence, Cardinal Robert Sarah. I was struck by the Eminence’s warning that People in the West “are guilty of rejecting God.” While this may not be a novel observation, what was novel was his correlating it with a concurrent rejection of fatherhood. I found this point to be particularly prescient and I hope to explore this connection in the following work.  

After thinking it over, I can’t help but agree that the two rejections are connected and come from deep roots in Western history. Casting our gaze back through the history of Western civilization, we see the pattern of rejecting God and consequent suffering emerge again and again. We’ve seen rejection of God in Biblical history, European History, and in recent American History, but the inescapable and pervasive rejection of fatherhood is a novel to the Western world.

“Western people are convinced that receiving is contrary to the dignity of human persons. But civilized man is fundamentally an heir, he receives a history, a culture, a language, a name, a family. This is what distinguishes him from the barbarian.” -Cardinal Sarah

While the rejection of God doesn’t necessarily manifest as a rejection of fatherhood, it seems probable if not necessary that the rejection of fatherhood requires of a rejection of God. If we are not connected spiritually to our Father, then the earthly analogue of this connection (that of human fatherhood), is degraded in office.

You see, as His Eminence so astutely observes, it is a problem of identity.  Are we sons and daughters, as members of a family, heirs of a heritage, children of God? If not, then what are we?

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