The John-Henry Westen Show - Exorcisms, the culture of death, and fighting human trafficking

00:00:00.000 Parents have to realize that even if you have a kid-appropriate game, learning game, learning your letters and colors, things like that, the game might be appropriate, but that doesn't mean that it's safe.

00:00:15.260 I mean, ultimately, you wouldn't let your 11-year-old walk around the mall by herself. Why would you let her go around the internet by herself?

00:00:30.000 Hello, my friends. Do you ever wonder about the occult in today's world? Like, there's so much weird stuff going on. Not only do we have rampant abortion and now the whole alphabet people phenomenon, we have these weird things going on like we just had with the Olympics.

00:00:46.860 It looked like overt Satanism throughout the whole thing. First, they bash Christ, then the ending ceremony came that just wacko insanity. 0.68

00:00:55.560 I thought I'd talk with somebody who can give us an insider perspective on this. Someone who has just written a book called It's Not About the Devil, who really can go in-depth with us as to the occult in today's world, the dangers of it.

00:01:12.860 You're going to want to stay tuned to this episode of the John Henry Weston Show.

00:01:15.940 This October 17th and 18th, we are going to be running Rome Life Forum in Exile.

00:01:23.980 We're doing that in Kansas City, Missouri.

00:01:26.540 This fine bishop, Bishop Joseph Strickland, sort of in exile, is going to be joining us there, as well as Dr. Janet Smith, as well as prophecy expert Xavier Aral, and many more, including a special guest.

00:01:40.540 Hope to see you there.

00:01:41.580 Hope to see you there.

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00:01:45.940 John DiGirolamo, welcome to the program.

00:01:49.800 Hey, thanks for having me. Really appreciate being here.

00:01:52.300 Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross.

00:01:54.380 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

00:01:59.640 So, John, you've got this new book out. You describe your book as being dramatized non-fiction, and it's called It's Not About the Devil.

00:02:09.280 So, give us some background there. First of all, It's Not About the Devil? Wait a minute.

00:02:13.120 Isn't all evil come from the devil? What do you mean by that?

00:02:15.460 Yeah, so, what I mean by that is, it's about people who are standing up to modern evil.

00:02:21.580 And hopefully, people will find these stories as an inspiration to push back against a lot of what's happening in our society.

00:02:30.060 And what I mean by dramatized non-fiction is, these are real stories based upon, you know, actual individuals, testimony, case files, etc.

00:02:41.060 And I take all that information and create a compelling plot to tell their stories.

00:02:48.380 So, it includes action, dialogue, emotion, etc.

00:02:52.040 I go back and forth with the person profile to edit and make sure that it's as accurate as possible.

00:02:59.280 But there's some filling in the blanks, you know, some things that happened decades ago.

00:03:03.980 And so, my job is to take that information, take that testimony, and try to create a compelling plot line that people want to find out what's happening next in their story.

00:03:15.360 Indeed. And you're an author, you've done lots of in-depth research on much of this stuff and your cases individually.

00:03:22.000 But I'd like to focus first on the occult.

00:03:24.580 We just saw the Olympics, first of all, a bash on the Last Supper, our Lord, very directly.

00:03:29.220 Then they tried to say, no, it wasn't. Yes, it was, and all this nonsense.

00:03:31.900 In the ending ceremony, that was like full-on Satan.

00:03:34.680 That was unbelievable. Images of Antichrist and stuff like that.

00:03:37.740 And then we see these huge Baphomet statues.

00:03:40.320 Tell us what's going on.

00:03:41.140 I think we're seeing a culture that these evil images are not in the shadows.

00:03:46.500 They're not in the background.

00:03:47.480 They're really in your face about it now.

00:03:49.400 The reason why we're seeing this happening is there's less church attendance.

00:03:54.320 It's so easy for people to make fun of Christians these days.

00:03:58.820 People are rejecting Christ.

00:04:00.460 They're rejecting the church.

00:04:02.080 But as humans, we always yearn for something.

00:04:05.780 And so if you're not filling your heart up with Christ, it's going to fill up with something else.

00:04:12.600 And that's going to be dark forces.

00:04:14.800 And they've just popularized the occult.

00:04:17.680 You know, you've got people like witches of TikTok that are getting millions of views.

00:04:22.240 And especially young women, you know, they seem to be drawn to some of this witchcraft and things like that.

00:04:29.500 And they've just kind of made it, you know, fun and games.

00:04:34.220 And it tried to glorify it a little bit.

00:04:38.760 And it starts young.

00:04:40.020 You know, you see these after-school Satan clubs.

00:04:43.380 We have some of those in Colorado.

00:04:45.560 And they're just trying to make it all fun and games.

00:04:48.260 But we know it's not fun and games.

00:04:50.600 There's dark forces behind it.

00:04:52.600 When you say that, and you're talking about occult, occult practices, it's not only fun and games.

00:04:58.520 What are the real dangers there?

00:05:00.120 Sure.

00:05:00.520 So, you know, if you invite God into your life, he is going to answer.

00:05:05.820 But if you invite Satan or the demonic or forces other than God, that's going to be answered as well.

00:05:14.340 And so you're opening the door to these kinds of things, whether it's witchcraft or Ouija boards or seances.

00:05:21.220 You were at a college party 25 years ago playing a Ouija board.

00:05:25.640 You're going to all of a sudden get diabolically oppressed.

00:05:28.720 But like any risk, the more you do it, the more you open that door, the more you extend that invitation, the devil is going to step through that door.

00:05:39.040 It's just going to happen.

00:05:40.580 And if you are extending that opening, you know, he's going to respond and it's not going to be a good outcome.

00:05:48.340 In terms of outcome, what have you seen?

00:05:50.920 What are people experiencing?

00:05:53.180 Yeah.

00:05:53.440 So it can go into some kind of diabolical oppression or obsession.

00:06:00.240 You know, I interviewed a woman who did seances for a decade.

00:06:04.180 And it just eventually got really dark and she felt like that there were, you know, just mentally and physically tormented.

00:06:14.640 And eventually she got out of that situation, turned back to the church in Christ.

00:06:21.260 And now she's actually a counselor for people who have been through similar circumstances.

00:06:28.660 You know, that's just kind of one example.

00:06:30.500 It can lead to possession, but I don't want to over sensationalize possession, which an exorcist priest will tell you that that's pretty rare, pretty severe, where most of the time there's a little more diabolical influence going on as opposed to a full blow possession.

00:06:49.240 Tell us some of those.

00:06:50.500 So they're feeling tormented, but this lady, at least, she recognized it.

00:06:55.900 I think there's often a lot of people who don't recognize it.

00:06:59.060 But what are some of the signs, some of the symptoms, perhaps, that people can see, if not full on possession, at least, you know, negative spiritual, the devil actually affecting them in some way?

00:07:10.200 Yeah, I think, you know, it's sometimes hard to discern because you have free will, right?

00:07:16.760 So you can have free will to reject God, to pursue vice and sin, but the devil is going to be there encouraging you to do so, to reject God.

00:07:29.740 And so you may see things like where somebody is pulling away from their family, where they are, you know, having reactions to religious objects.

00:07:41.120 And they're really focused on themselves, and they're only going to look for people to affirm that lifestyle or affirm whatever they're doing.

00:07:52.340 And so you'll see them pull away from that.

00:07:55.500 You know, there are physical signs, but the people that I've interviewed, they really tell you that it comes down to having an unquiet mind.

00:08:03.560 And you just seem to always have a secondary voice of when they're being diabolically afflicted.

00:08:11.100 It's sort of a secondary sort of sinister voice.

00:08:13.620 God willing, you know, we've always had that image from cartoons and whatnot of the devil on one side and your guardian angel on the other.

00:08:22.100 Is there any of that kind of thing in those whom you've interviewed?

00:08:26.120 Having a positive influence is a real thing, but so is the opposite of having a fallen angel.

00:08:32.980 And it's really almost like that, you know, one is on one shoulder and the opposite's on the other one, trying to influence you.

00:08:42.800 You know, the devil's job, demon's job, is to have you reject God, pursue sin, and ultimately take your soul down to hell.

00:08:55.020 That's what their whole goal is to corrupt us.

00:08:58.280 It's just like the St. Michael prayer, where it's they're prowling around the world seeking the corruption of souls.

00:09:04.480 This lady you interviewed for the book, who did all the seances and whatnot, did she actually get possessed? 0.99

00:09:10.280 She did tell me that she was possessed, yes, for a short period of time.

00:09:15.500 And she was kind of more of a background, to help me with background information.

00:09:19.560 She did not show up as a character in the story.

00:09:22.120 Okay.

00:09:22.640 But there were several people that I interviewed to get background information, like a lady who was cursed. 1.00

00:09:30.000 And it took her, you know, two years to get rid of that and just some of the torment that she went through.

00:09:37.580 What do you mean by cursed?

00:09:39.160 It took her two years.

00:09:39.940 How does that play out?

00:09:41.240 What is that?

00:09:41.780 So I talked to two different people from two different areas, never told them anything.

00:09:47.160 And they told me that they went to a Bible study class and were given cursed objects from a self-professed witch.

00:09:57.660 And so completely separate.

00:10:01.300 So, you know, data point of only two.

00:10:04.500 But this is what they told me, that a lot of times, you know, those influenced by dark forces, they're going to go after the faithful.

00:10:12.080 These were faithful Catholics.

00:10:13.640 They were tricked and cursed.

00:10:16.640 They didn't realize it at first.

00:10:18.620 But until they went through a series of cleansing prayers, they were cursed.

00:10:24.320 And just like you can bless an object, you can curse an object.

00:10:27.740 In your research, what did these sort of deliverance prayers or cleansing prayers or exorcisms, what do they look like?

00:10:35.240 You know, how does that work?

00:10:36.580 There are different kinds of prayers.

00:10:38.000 Some are things that lay people or any Christian can say.

00:10:43.180 Others are more reserved for a priest during an actual exorcism of a possessed person.

00:10:50.380 And so there's definitely some differences.

00:10:53.220 But essentially what they do is they are invoking the power of Christ and they are telling the demon to go to the foot of the cross and have Jesus do what he wills to do.

00:11:04.720 And it's, you know, it's not something where you can just throw, you know, a little holy water on somebody and boom, you're done.

00:11:13.060 It's something that takes a lot of time because the demons aren't going to let go unless they're forced to do so.

00:11:20.160 And so it's something that there's a lot of repetitive prayers that you're rejecting the cult.

00:11:26.780 You're rejecting the power of the demons.

00:11:29.920 You're affirming, you know, your love of Christ, things like that.

00:11:32.860 And that eventually wears down the demon.

00:11:35.680 It's not a one and done, I guess, is what I want the audience to know.

00:11:39.140 That's really strange, of course, because in the beginning it was sort of one and done.

00:11:42.540 Well, Christ himself, obviously.

00:11:44.380 The apostles, you know, most of that was one and done, you'd think.

00:11:49.260 It seemed that anyway.

00:11:51.040 So why the lag time now?

00:11:53.160 Why so much longer?

00:11:55.100 Talking to exorcists, they will tell you it takes months, sometimes years.

00:11:59.340 And this was a kind of a surprise when I did my research, is the person has to want to be liberated from a demon.

00:12:07.640 Now, that sounds a little counterintuitive, right?

00:12:09.980 Why would anybody want a demon inside?

00:12:13.120 Why wouldn't they want to go to a priest?

00:12:15.400 And the answer is that in order for the exorcism to work, in order for any kind of cleansing to work, the person has to be in the frame of mind with their heart and soul to want to reject whatever situation, sin, occult practice that got them there in the first place.

00:12:36.700 You've got to get rid of that first.

00:12:39.600 And you have to couple that with your pursuit of Christ.

00:12:44.220 If you're not doing those two things, then the exorcist is going to, I don't want to say be powerless, but it's going to be pretty ineffective.

00:12:54.180 That person has to want to turn their life around.

00:12:57.680 And if they don't, then it's really not going to work.

00:13:02.120 And so, you know, part of the plot line in my book was showing how the person who was diabolically afflicted is going back and forth.

00:13:12.280 It's not a straight line.

00:13:13.500 They don't just walk in, you know, one and done, a couple prayers and some holy water, and we're all good.

00:13:20.220 And so the plot line shows that internal struggle.

00:13:24.020 And just like all of us, whether or not we have any, you know, demonic influence at all, we all struggle with sin.

00:13:31.760 We all struggle with trying to do the right thing.

00:13:34.900 It's just really exacerbated when somebody has pursued, you know, a vice and a rejected God.

00:13:42.780 And so you've got this long road to do it.

00:13:46.200 It didn't happen overnight, and it's not going to get solved overnight either.

00:13:50.200 And that's pretty much anybody, any kind of exorcist priest will tell you it can be a process.

00:13:56.440 What would you say, in terms of spiritual combat, what's a good takeaway for folks?

00:14:00.500 The plan is really not complicated.

00:14:04.060 You know, you've got to get yourself right.

00:14:07.520 You've got to pursue virtue instead of vice.

00:14:11.260 You've got to strengthen your relationship with Christ.

00:14:15.620 You've got to pray.

00:14:17.020 You've got to attend church regularly.

00:14:19.780 You should go through repentance, confession, et cetera.

00:14:23.220 You know, famous exorcist said that a confession is worth a thousand exorcisms.

00:14:28.640 And again, we all sin.

00:14:29.960 We all fall down.

00:14:31.620 We know that.

00:14:32.640 But, you know, if you're going to reject God, you're not going to destroy God.

00:14:38.300 You're going to destroy yourself.

00:14:39.700 And you've got to come to that realization.

00:14:42.800 So the plan, and that plan is whether or not, you know, at any age, whatever your relationship is with God, you could always strengthen it and make it better.

00:14:54.040 You could always go deeper.

00:14:55.780 And I think that's part of the lifelong journey that everyone should pursue.

00:14:59.960 One of the hints that I always like to give people is these, because it's so beneficial for me, these auxilium Christianorum prayers.

00:15:06.340 You can get it.

00:15:07.080 It's downloadable on most apps.

00:15:09.060 It's from Father Ruppiger and his group.

00:15:11.220 They've been super helpful to me.

00:15:12.700 When I was talking to Father Ruppiger about this subject, especially about the delays in terms of how it's not wanted done and it's now so, so protracted.

00:15:21.920 He has actually said to me, you know, years ago it was much shorter.

00:15:26.820 Now it can take years.

00:15:28.080 In your research, have you found it's related to the amount of evil in the world, the corruption even in the church, things like that?

00:15:35.500 I think that, you know, it's definitely an individual case-by-case basis.

00:15:40.560 And it just depends on how deep someone has gone away from Christ that that's going to take long.

00:15:49.120 You know, the people I've interviewed have said that they're getting more and more cases presented to them.

00:15:54.760 So I think, you know, these guys are really busy.

00:15:58.560 And, you know, I definitely want the audience to know that it is a lengthy vetting process.

00:16:05.500 You know, you generally just don't come in and all of a sudden that afternoon you're getting an exorcism.

00:16:11.920 There's a physical exam that's done.

00:16:15.080 There's a mental exam that's done.

00:16:17.180 They're examining what you're doing with your life.

00:16:19.760 And there's typically a 30-day program where you're praying certain prayers, certain times of the day, things like that.

00:16:29.040 So there's a pretty good vetting process.

00:16:31.660 That all takes time as well because a lot of times it could be a mental health issue, et cetera.

00:16:37.640 And so I think that's adding to the length of time because I think the church is getting better trained to do that instead of just, you know, kind of handing down this information through word of mouth.

00:16:54.300 I think it's getting a little more formalized.

00:16:56.580 So I think that's good.

00:16:57.780 But as you said, I think there is, you know, busy evil in the world.

00:17:02.920 And I think that's causing more cases to be surfaced.

00:17:06.440 So in your book, you talk about also an abortion doctor who converts to become pro-life.

00:17:11.380 Tell us a little bit about that.

00:17:12.760 I wanted to write a story to see how somebody transformed from doing abortions to seeing the value of human life.

00:17:23.320 And so I profiled Dr. Catherine Wheeler, and it was a decades-long journey.

00:17:29.400 And it's not just an abortion story per se, but, you know, Catherine, you know, kind of bought into the lie of, you know, helping women and health care and things like that.

00:17:41.960 But then there was this dramatic moment in the operating room where she truly felt the presence of evil.

00:17:48.920 And that really got her attention.

00:17:51.460 And what she calls it is kind of God shaking that tree, getting her attention.

00:17:56.140 Pope Pius XI said, men must look for the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ.

00:18:04.900 And he urged that the faithful give public honor to Christ the King so that individuals and states would submit once more to the rule of their Savior.

00:18:13.280 And that is why LifeSite News is raising up the image of Christ the King across the United States.

00:18:19.200 And you can help us reach millions more.

00:18:22.460 Please pledge your support today for these billboards at lifefunder.com slash Christ is King.

00:18:30.960 But the story doesn't end there because, you know, Catherine's personality was to needing to be kind of nudged along where it wasn't just this turn on a dime situation.

00:18:45.520 There was this decades-long journey where she said, you know, God was holding her hand, getting her through the process of realizing the value of the unborn, the lies from the pro-abortion lobby.

00:19:00.280 And it also paralleled her journey back to the church, back to Christ, and realizing that, you know, God is not there to crush you for your sins, but to save you from your sins.

00:19:15.280 And so there's these other sort of subplots going on in her story.

00:19:20.240 She goes through divorce, and so there's this emotional, you know, entanglement going through that.

00:19:27.120 And then just like a lot of people who have had abortions, a doctor needs to go through that abortion recovery program and get that healing.

00:19:37.800 And there were some miscarriages, guilt associated with miscarriages, something that doesn't really get talked about that much, but it's integrated into the story.

00:19:48.140 So to me, it's really coming from Catherine's heart and being able to go through this decades-long journey of hers to realize these things, get healed, get her relationship with Christ strengthened.

00:20:01.400 And that finally gave her the wherewithal to be an advocate, not just, okay, I agree with pro-life, but to be an outspoken advocate that really wasn't her personality when the story started.

00:20:16.400 So to me, it's kind of an inspirational story where you can see how somebody changed and just got the gumption to speak the truth.

00:20:25.300 Indeed. One of the neat aspects, or not neat, but interesting aspects of today's culture is that the abortion debate has sort of changed.

00:20:35.320 For a long time, it was like, oh, it's not a child. It's not killing. It's just a clump of cells, and we're just removing the cells.

00:20:41.960 It's become a lot more, yeah, we can acknowledge biology. It's a woman's right to choose. 1.00

00:20:46.600 And if that, you know, life is inconvenient to her, then she has every right to choose to have an abortion, and it's a good thing anyway. 1.00

00:20:53.300 And now they're having these weird funerals for your child that you aborted.

00:21:00.020 Things are sort of out and proud. Where do you think that's come from?

00:21:04.740 Yeah, it really has gone into the loud and proud, shout your abortion, things like that.

00:21:09.980 And I think it really ties back to the culture.

00:21:14.240 And you've got a culture where marriage is devalued. 1.00

00:21:17.980 You know, relationships are disposable.

00:21:20.180 And so if you don't love the person you're with, you don't really care about the relationship, then they don't care about a child that might be created as a result of that relationship.

00:21:32.960 And so, you know, the next logical step along that thinking is that, well, that unborn child doesn't have any value, so it's really not a big deal.

00:21:44.280 And when people try to remind them that it's a moral question, then they get really angry about it.

00:21:51.480 And they're just now emboldened to shout that out.

00:21:55.240 They've got celebrities who are also in that line of thinking.

00:21:59.960 And so they just don't want to hear that it really is a person with a soul, has value.

00:22:08.240 And they're just really angry when you point that out.

00:22:10.940 And it's no longer safe, legal, and rare.

00:22:14.020 It's shout it, and it's a good thing.

00:22:17.240 And then, you know, turning it around to say that it's health care and things like that is just, you know, completely illogical.

00:22:25.600 But they're just very loud about it.

00:22:28.320 And so in many places, certain states, you know, they're winning that narrative.

00:22:33.280 It's an interesting concept, you know, the whole idea about how it bugs the conscience, and then that creates this sort of violent counterreaction.

00:22:41.780 It is always what I thought about, you know, in Revelation, I think it's in chapter 11, they talk about the two end time prophets.

00:22:49.360 And the weird part of the story is that they get killed by Antichrist, and their bodies lie in the streets for like three days.

00:22:56.420 But the weirdest part of the story is that, first of all, everyone in the world sees this.

00:23:01.560 But secondly, they give gifts to one another because these two are dead.

00:23:06.260 And I was always of the conviction that they were so happy that they were dead because they tormented the consciences of the people just by being good, holy, and still faithful, whereas everybody else has left the faith.

00:23:18.180 Like, love your thoughts on that.

00:23:20.200 People don't want to be judged.

00:23:21.700 People in this culture want to find their own truth.

00:23:25.500 There's not a universal truth.

00:23:27.380 They reject biblical truth.

00:23:30.060 And so when you just make up your own rules, right and wrong is blurred.

00:23:35.080 Those lines don't exist anymore.

00:23:37.120 And when you try to point them out to say that, no, there is a universal truth, and they get really angry.

00:23:44.180 They have this visceral reaction because I think deep down they know that you're right, that you're correct.

00:23:51.980 But they just don't want to be told what to do.

00:23:56.320 And, you know, that's why they're going to come back and say, you can't judge me, et cetera.

00:24:00.620 And then use these bumper sticker mentalities of, like, you know, my body, my choice, things like that.

00:24:06.420 One of the very interesting aspects of your book I think that many people will be interested in is about online predators.

00:24:12.220 I think one of the things that a lot of parents are waking up to now is that many of the video games that their kids are innocently playing are these video games that are interactive.

00:24:26.340 And they can interact with predators just as part of the game.

00:24:30.440 Tell us about online predation and its dangers today.

00:24:33.940 Yeah, that's absolutely right.

00:24:35.780 You know, these games and social media apps advertise, play with strangers from all over the world.

00:24:41.300 And guess who's part of that population?

00:24:44.000 It's going to be predators.

00:24:46.280 You know, if you look at the why, where and how this happens, you know, these predators are either after pictures, they're after some kind of extortion scenario, or they want to meet in person.

00:25:01.560 And that's why they're doing what they're doing.

00:25:04.220 And where do they go?

00:25:05.780 Well, they go to where the kids and teens are.

00:25:08.040 They're going to go to social media, the two most popular applications, Instagram and Snapchat.

00:25:15.380 But they're also in kid games.

00:25:17.260 They're in ABC Mouth.

00:25:19.260 They're in Roblox.

00:25:21.060 And any time that there is a chat room or private messaging or group game, that's where these predators are going to hang out.

00:25:30.380 They know where to go.

00:25:31.340 They go to where the kids are.

00:25:33.020 And so parents have to realize that even if you have a kid-appropriate game, learning game, learning your letters and colors, things like that, the game might be appropriate, but that doesn't mean that it's safe.

00:25:49.620 I mean, ultimately, you wouldn't let your 11-year-old walk around the mall by herself.

00:25:54.460 Why would you let her go around the internet by herself? 0.99

00:25:57.800 What are some other tips for parents that you can give them?

00:26:00.880 Yeah.

00:26:01.280 So this story profiles Officer David Gomez, who is quoted as saying, when asked, when should I get my kid a smartphone?

00:26:11.620 And his answer was, when you want your kids to watch pornography.

00:26:14.960 It's really true, because the average age now is about 10 years old, and so you're really getting this warped sense of intimacy.

00:26:26.260 And at that age, they really can't handle it, and it can be very addicting, and it gives you this warped sense of what's going on.

00:26:33.940 And, you know, something like 53% of boys think that that's a real depiction of intimacy, and 40% of girls think that.

00:26:44.220 So that's just a recipe for relationship disaster, in my opinion.

00:26:51.480 So you've got to have that difficult conversation with your kids.

00:26:54.840 This is an opportunity to talk about your biblical values, and there is such a thing called dumb phones, which don't have internet access, cannot send or receive pictures or videos, but you can send a text that says, hey, you know, I'm done with soccer practice, for example.

00:27:10.900 You can use parental control software monitoring, but it's not 100%.

00:27:16.720 You've got to realize that kids are always one, two, three steps ahead of technology and what parents know.

00:27:26.540 So you really have to have that relationship with your kid, so if something looks weird to them, if somebody has approached them, they're going to come to you and not respond to that.

00:27:37.540 So it really takes being better parenting and less trying to be the kid's friend.

00:27:42.560 You have a concept in your book about sextortion.

00:27:45.180 Tell us what that is.

00:27:46.580 Yeah, so that's when somebody has taken a picture or gotten a picture and now is extorting that person for money.

00:27:56.680 That can happen with classmates.

00:27:58.660 It can happen with total strangers.

00:28:01.020 So one of the ways that a predator will do that is they'll target a teenage boy.

00:28:06.340 They will set up a fake profile of an attractive older female, say a college age, and they'll send a friend request, follower request.

00:28:15.960 They want to connect with that teenage boy on social media, and they'll start chatting him up.

00:28:21.520 And the girl will send some kind of explicit picture, probably downloaded from a pornography site. 1.00

00:28:28.240 They'll send it to the boy, and they'll tell the boy, well, I've sent you a picture of me.

00:28:33.260 Now you send a picture of yourself.

00:28:36.640 Many teenage boys will fall into this trap.

00:28:39.200 They will send a picture of themselves, and immediately that person will ask for money.

00:28:44.480 And if that boy pays, five minutes later, they're asking for money again.

00:28:50.700 This is a new trend where they are specifically targeting teenage boys.

00:28:55.800 This is sextortion. 0.99

00:28:57.500 But there's also going to be a lot of depression, potentially self-harm, a lot of embarrassment, all these negative feelings and emotions.

00:29:09.620 And I talked to a police officer specifically about this.

00:29:13.380 That scenario I just described can typically happen in less than 24 hours.

00:29:19.400 So it can happen really fast, and parents need to be aware of that.

00:29:24.820 It's not just predators going after girls.

00:29:28.160 They're going after boys as well, and parents need to be aware of that.

00:29:31.320 John, any final thoughts for us?

00:29:32.640 You know, the theme of the book is people fighting evil and how to stand up to it and seeing how three individuals profile do that.

00:29:41.720 You know, I tried to write it like a fast-paced fiction novel.

00:29:44.860 So, you know, it's not a research report.

00:29:47.680 It's not an editorial opinion page piece.

00:29:51.500 These are stories with plot lines, but they're about real people.

00:29:55.620 And I think people will walk away after reading it with learning some things.

00:30:01.540 How do online predators actually work?

00:30:04.300 The insider's view of what happens in an exorcism, that transformation of walking with Christ and walking away from being an abortion doctor.

00:30:14.780 John DiGirolamo, so good to be with you.

00:30:16.660 Thank you so very much.

00:30:17.960 Tell us, where can people get your book?

00:30:19.640 The books are selling on Barnes & Noble as well as Amazon.

00:30:23.680 And I do have other books, so I encourage the readers to check them all out.

00:30:29.280 And you can get it on e-book, paperback, audio, et cetera.

00:30:33.740 Beautiful.

00:30:34.500 Thank you so much for being with us.

00:30:35.720 God bless you.

00:30:36.460 Thank you for having me.

00:30:37.560 Really appreciate it.

00:30:38.880 And God bless all of you.

00:30:40.760 And we'll see you next time.

00:30:41.560 We'll see you next time.

The John-Henry Westen Show - September 12, 2024

Exorcisms, the culture of death, and fighting human trafficking

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