The John-Henry Westen Show - FBI Terrorized Pro-life Catholic Mark Houck. Now He Is Running For Congress

00:00:00.000 The Lord allowed me to be born in this wonderful country, and there's a degree of duty here

00:00:04.240 that I have as an American citizen, as a Catholic Christian, to help bring about change,

00:00:10.360 if I can, and help restore faith, family, and freedom.

00:00:20.660 Hey, my friends. It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to my next guest, whom you all

00:00:26.280 know very, very well. He was on this show before, and I was actually at his house before, after the

00:00:32.660 FBI came and raided his house, guns drawn, threatening his wife, his children, and took

00:00:39.360 him out of there in shackles. Oh, yes. None other than Mark Houck is running for Congress. And if

00:00:45.600 anybody can go to Washington to show him how it's done and shut down those guys who did

00:00:51.520 to him, the unconscionable, it's Mark Houck. This is the John Hennett Weston Show. Stay tuned.

00:01:00.500 You know that here on LifeSite, we love to tell amazing stories. There are a few so heroic and

00:01:07.640 amazing as the story we're about to tell you that's coming soon. You got to watch this.

00:01:12.860 When I was in seminary, I was reading a book by Henry Nowen. He talked about a nuclear man,

00:01:21.420 you know, and people who grew up in the 1980s were kind of formed by that immediate and constant

00:01:27.500 threat of nuclear annihilation. My generation has grown up, you know, under the specter of

00:01:36.000 priestly sexual abuse. I think that for many of us that has also been all-encompassing. You know,

00:01:47.040 I mean, I entered the seminary in January of 2004, and it's basically been there for me from in the

00:01:54.000 beginning. One priest's sacrifice for many priestly sins. The story of Father John Halliwell. Coming

00:02:07.800 soon from LifeSite News. Mark Houck, so good to be with you. Good to be with you, John Henry. Thanks

00:02:15.860 for having me. Well, let's begin as you always do with the sign of the cross. In the name of the

00:02:19.800 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Wow, my friend. So good to see you. Well,

00:02:28.520 why don't you start? Tell us what you've been up to, because this is, I think, for a lot of people,

00:02:33.120 they haven't heard from you in a while. What have you been doing? Ever since the acquittal,

00:02:36.480 we've been extremely busy as a family and traveling, sharing our story. People want to hear the story of

00:02:42.340 what happened, which that you alluded to. And I'm amazed at how many people don't even know what

00:02:47.840 happened around the country. So many do, but so many don't know, and they really don't know the

00:02:53.020 details. And so people are being enamored by the story and telling it and retelling it and

00:02:59.100 convicted by it. It's very compelling. We've been on the road a lot as a family. And actually,

00:03:05.400 back in early January, before my trial, people started to encourage me to run for office.

00:03:11.060 I quickly dismissed it. I was not that interested. But then more and more people of influence,

00:03:16.620 people that I highly respected said, you might consider this. This might be something to pray

00:03:21.580 about. And so there were so many of them. And of course, I went to the State of the Union. I met

00:03:27.580 some wonderful people in Washington, D.C. Congressman Scott Perry invited me. These men also

00:03:34.560 influenced me, like Jim Jordan, Chip Roy. These guys that are men of integrity, Mike Johnson,

00:03:40.740 who I've known for a while, started to influence me. So we took it to prayer. And this past month of

00:03:47.800 July, we went to St. Pio. We pulled out the special forces and we went to St. Pio because he was all

00:03:54.580 about Catholics voting. And I thought, you know, this would be a good one. And we asked for a clear

00:03:59.400 sign, clear signs, plural, that we should do this. And we got those signs. I don't really have the time

00:04:06.820 to get into it, but I could get into it, that God wanted us to at least run. And so we put our hat in

00:04:14.100 the ring. We made a left and went right into Jerusalem from the upper room. And we're in the

00:04:18.980 fray. And now we're running for Congress. So we're still a missionary guy. We're still mission-oriented

00:04:25.140 with the king's men. I can still do that. But now I'm also doing this side hustle, which is run for

00:04:31.120 Congress. Tell us one of those signs, just ones that really got to you, where you knew our Lord

00:04:38.840 was moving you to go forward with this. So I was down for the last month, from June 27th to July 28th,

00:04:45.140 I was on the road with the family. We basically left Pennsylvania, went down to Florida, made our way

00:04:50.060 back. And then we went back again via airplane. But in the first leg of that, the first half, I double

00:04:57.320 booked myself. I was booked for a speaking engagement here in Philadelphia, but I was in

00:05:01.620 Georgia. So I left the family and flew home, left them in Atlanta at a hotel with some decent food,

00:05:10.140 and came home for that speaking engagement. And at that speaking engagement, this was right in the

00:05:15.860 middle of the novena, the man that I was right next to, who I would be sitting next to at a Legatus

00:05:21.400 event, started talking about the incumbent that I would be that I was considering going up against

00:05:28.780 just out of the blue, and actually starts talking about his older brother, who was a former congressman

00:05:33.340 as well. And I said, Well, why did you why did you bring that up? And he said, I don't know, I just I

00:05:39.340 just felt like I should. I'm like, because we weren't talking politics at all, right? It was nothing.

00:05:43.700 And I said, Well, I'm actually considering running against Brian. And he said, Well, that's interesting.

00:05:49.660 So it's just one of those things where it was like, and then, of course, there was a lot of

00:05:53.520 fruit from that conversation. But just that it was like, no one knew there was no I didn't share

00:05:58.520 this with anybody that I was even considering this. And just out of the blue that this man starts

00:06:03.520 bringing up the exact guy that I'm going to be running against. And, and I, it was just so random

00:06:09.120 and unmistakably random that I thought, Okay, Lord, that could be one of those signal graces there.

00:06:14.520 And it was my wife was receiving similar kind of confirmations like that. And she shared with me

00:06:20.260 when I came back to Atlanta that that as well. So it kind of bolstered the resolve. We weren't

00:06:25.240 committed just yet at that point. But we felt like, All right, we're getting some signs here.

00:06:30.020 It's always great to hear how the Lord directs us because I think hearing the actual stories makes

00:06:35.320 a big difference so that people can recognize in their own lives, when our Lord is speaking,

00:06:39.920 because it's, it's a hard thing nowadays, not a lot of people just aren't paying attention. And

00:06:44.720 maybe our Lord has to use bigger hammers to knock us on the head with. But that was great with you.

00:06:50.380 So you're a pro-life activist, you are a Catholic man who's already involved with the Catholic

00:06:55.760 ministry. I know this because I ran for office for three times, actually, your case is different,

00:07:02.140 though. Because whereas when I ran for office, everybody knew I wasn't going to get elected.

00:07:07.580 This was way back. This was some, sheesh, nearly 30 years ago. But ran for a pro-life party with a

00:07:16.600 pro-life platform. They've never been elected. They've never had one person elected. But the

00:07:21.040 whole reason why was to run so that you can spread the message for life, for family, for faith,

00:07:27.100 for culture. In going in, I know you can do all that. Except in your case, there is a real chance

00:07:34.980 you have stunned America with what happened to you and the grace with which you dealt with it,

00:07:40.640 not only you, but your whole family. You have made an impression on the hearts of Americans because

00:07:47.000 they are stunned to learn that their own government agency is going after what should be the most

00:07:56.960 upstanding citizens. I want, I'm trying not to flatter you too much so you don't need to cover

00:08:03.660 your ears. But I mean, you're a model of model families. When I went, was graced to visit you and

00:08:09.040 your family. I was so moved. You're a man of great integrity of honor. You're everything Americans

00:08:17.400 should want America to be. So I have great hopes that you will get elected. Now, what's it in your

00:08:26.040 mind? I know the discernment process, but where are your thoughts going with what you think you can do

00:08:31.600 with this? You feel you're called to run, I'm sure, to spread the message. But what else?

00:08:36.840 We're not abandoning our faith or our ministry. And I don't think anyone would accuse me of that.

00:08:41.400 But some might question, like, why would you leave your ministry? You know, you're touching souls,

00:08:46.280 you're saving souls. And, you know, that's a good question. And frankly, there might be a superior

00:08:51.500 call here in the moment because the republic is falling apart. And the Lord allowed me to be born

00:08:57.200 in this wonderful country. And I was reflecting on George Washington, you know, this week. And just

00:09:03.900 as I knew these questions would come. And, you know, George Washington, our nation was founded on

00:09:08.380 his character. And, you know, he didn't want to be president, but he knew it was his duty. And he didn't

00:09:14.840 even want a second term, but he knew it was his duty. And so there's a degree of duty here that I

00:09:21.300 have as an American citizen, as a Catholic Christian, to help bring about change if I can. If I am able

00:09:29.140 to bring about change and help restore faith, family, and freedom, and that's kind of like the

00:09:34.820 slogan for the campaign, right? Restoring faith, family, and freedom. If I have the ability to do that

00:09:39.360 and I neglect that, or I refuse to do that, then I will be held accountable for it. So I have a duty

00:09:45.080 to pursue this to the degree that I can. And the first reason we want to go is because we want to

00:09:51.860 protect every American citizen from what happened to me happening to them, right? We're going to DC

00:09:58.400 so that this doesn't happen to them. And that's fundamental. And of course, that goes right down to

00:10:04.520 the micro level of my first district, right? Pee everybody in my district. And so we know we can

00:10:10.240 do something good there because we're bringing the narrative to DC and they can't run from it.

00:10:15.360 If I'm in Congress and I'm there, they're not going to be able to run from the weaponization of the

00:10:20.320 government because I will always be there in their face. And so they couldn't do congressional

00:10:25.340 testimony. They won't be able to do it if I'm allowed to Congress in 2024. So we know we're going

00:10:32.520 to change that way. It's just, again, it's going to continually be there. But to a larger extent,

00:10:39.900 you know, we have dot return or a row of return jobs, and we have a presidential administration

00:10:46.980 that wants to appeal that or bolster abortion on a federal level. It's going to be there to

00:10:54.120 fight that and protect what we've already achieved, the accomplishment of the pro-life.

00:11:01.800 But we also need to continue to fight what is now like currently at the core step, the clear and

00:11:09.420 present. We just had the vote in our district by my congressman for abortion funding in the military.

00:11:17.440 Even though abortion isn't really supported at a federal level, it's now we got all this being 0.78

00:11:22.080 pushed on our military. And so my congressman who I voted for, who is my incumbent that I'm against,

00:11:28.260 he's all about. So we got to continue to be vigilant on the cultural life issues, the cultural life

00:11:35.380 issues. So, you know, and there's so much more we can talk about, but those come to mind.

00:11:39.800 Take a look at this. This is Cardinal Burke talking in 2017 about demonic forces entering

00:11:48.220 the church at that time in 2017. Hard to believe that's so long ago. This was given at Rome Life

00:11:53.660 Forum, a conference that LifeSite has been running since 2014, actually. Do you know that we're running

00:11:59.520 another one this year, October 31st and November 1st? That is right at the end of this horrific

00:12:07.080 synod on synodality. October 31st, November 1st, 2023. Come join us in Rome. Go to RomeLifeForum.com

00:12:16.240 for more information. Watch Cardinal Burke give this snippet on demonic forces entering into the

00:12:22.140 Vatican from his talk at Rome Life Forum in 2017. It seems clear from the most respected studies of

00:12:30.820 the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima that it has to do with the diabolical forces unleashed upon the

00:12:37.820 world in our time and entering into the very life of the church. For the recovery of peace will be a

00:12:44.980 gift from heaven. But it is not properly speaking the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

00:12:51.800 her victory is of another order, supernatural, and then temporal by addition. It will first be

00:12:59.720 the victory of the faith, which will put an end to the time of apostasy and the great shortcomings of

00:13:08.240 the church's pastors. One of the things that is going on is not only is abortion being perpetrated in the

00:13:17.900 United States where, you know, little American children are being massacred every day to the tune

00:13:24.600 of, you know, 100,000 a day. You're actually exporting abortion and the whole LGBT agenda all 1.00

00:13:33.780 around the world at the taxpayer expense. So this is Americans funding the pushing of abortion

00:13:40.060 overseas to countries which really don't want it. But they're being told, we'll give you money

00:13:46.640 if you do, but none if you don't. Your take on that?

00:13:51.280 Defund all overseas funds. You know, once our newly elected president gets, he'll defund that too.

00:13:59.100 And that'll be the thing. He'll sign that Mexico City policy. But yeah, if it's not, you know,

00:14:04.880 we have to continually fight and be vigilant on the front and be a leader in that area. And so my

00:14:10.960 faith will inform, as it always is. And I don't think most of our congressional leaders are as well

00:14:18.840 informed on the life issue, because I spent my whole life in the pro movement. So we'll bring that,

00:14:24.860 we'll educate other congressional leaders and senatorial people in that way.

00:14:29.820 You know, it really has filled the cultural space. And therefore, it's in the minds of Americans

00:14:36.380 right now, is the whole, I call it the alphabet people, but the whole LGBT thing. And right now, 0.67

00:14:44.060 the transgender movement is just going nuts. Now, what is happening, of course, is that, you know, 1.00

00:14:51.200 children's locker rooms, not only children, girls locker rooms, but women's locker rooms everywhere

00:14:55.860 are being invaded by men. And then there's occasion when there's abuse that happens that way and all

00:15:00.980 sorts of nonsense. But this is being allowed. And then in addition to that, you have whatever became

00:15:08.740 of women's sports, weightlifting champion, the boxing champion, the wrestling champion, the running

00:15:15.960 champion. This is all men now who are masquerading again as women. And yet this is rife, not only culture,

00:15:25.380 but it's in the United States and being talked about in parliament, excuse me, in your Congress

00:15:30.460 with seemingly very few voices of sanity in there. What's your sort of plan for addressing some of

00:15:39.860 that? Well, we need legislation that is going to protect not only those girls, but, you know,

00:15:47.400 all sports and vice versa, you know, even, I'm not saying there's an infiltration of girls into 1.00

00:15:52.980 boys sports, but, but we need to, we need to have the girls protected. And I met Scott Smith down at

00:15:59.100 the Loudoun County father whose daughter was raped in school. I met him at the state of the union and I

00:16:05.680 looked in his eyes. And so we need that legislation that's going to protect his daughter, right. And,

00:16:11.320 and my daughters. And, and so we need sanity. We need common sense. I think when it comes to the

00:16:18.060 transgender issue, there's a lot of confusion. Look, as a, as a guy in ministry, I, I can, I have

00:16:24.500 to look at it through the lens of woundedness and people who are hurting and people who are identifying

00:16:30.680 with this agenda and, and giving themselves purpose in that regard. And so I have great compassion. It's

00:16:37.760 not misplaced. I need to be able to approach these matters, knowing that there's great sensitivity

00:16:43.720 there at the same time, educating and helping people and fellow legislators understand where

00:16:50.620 this comes from, that people aren't born this way, that there's no science that backs this up.

00:16:57.340 That's contrary to the creative wisdom of God. Pope Benedict said that when he was Cardinal Ratzinger,

00:17:01.820 prefect for the doctrine of the faith, this is contrary to the creative wisdom of God. So look,

00:17:05.920 we need to acknowledge that and, and do it in a way that makes sense. It's logical. And, and that we

00:17:12.380 recognize that if we continue to support policies like this, it's going to bring a whole world of

00:17:17.840 other problems and, and other issues and all sorts of dysphoria that that's going to come in other and

00:17:24.940 new and disgusting ways. So I hope to bring that logic, that faith and reason to the Hill in that

00:17:31.820 regard. You've got a large family. Your wife is supporting what you're doing. Praise God for that.

00:17:37.260 Because it's a, it's a hard thing to know that you already have a super busy ministry to know that

00:17:42.620 you're going to be spending a lot of time in, in, uh, in Washington. That's a, that's a hard thing to

00:17:47.480 swallow. What, what did your, what's your, been your wife sort of taken all of this? Well, again, 1.00

00:17:51.680 she was invited into that prayer and discernment too. So, you know, she knows that, that this is

00:17:56.980 an invitation and a call that she has to accept. It's kind of like a diaconate, you know, like

00:18:02.200 the wife has to be supportive. If she's not, forget it. It's not going to work. It's just 0.99

00:18:07.340 going to drive a wedge between you and her. And, uh, and that's not going to be good for your

00:18:11.380 marriage. So my wife and I, we need to pray even more. We need to be praying more. We need to be

00:18:16.160 getting up earlier and praying and having that time together. I know I'm going to be in the district,

00:18:21.780 in my district, at least two days a week and probably down in DC, uh, three days a week. So that's

00:18:28.240 going to be tough. So maybe we need to consider, you know, it doesn't make sense to like Josh Hawley.

00:18:32.920 He's a good guy. He moved his whole family to, to Virginia, Virginia area or Maryland. I forget

00:18:39.080 where he is. And those are things to consider. Um, I think initially we will see how it goes.

00:18:44.500 I'm not that far from DC, so I can take a train. If I, if I need to be home, I need to be home quickly.

00:18:50.780 Uh, I can get on a flight. So I'm not like living in Missouri or Utah. Uh, so hopefully that'll work

00:18:57.080 better for us. Uh, but you know what? It's kind of unknown, John Henry. I don't know what that's

00:19:02.120 going to look like. And, uh, after two years, I may say, you know, we've done as much as we can do

00:19:06.760 for, we need to protect the family, but hopefully, you know, we, we got the, the grace to sustain us

00:19:12.600 for longer than that, if necessary. Now you will be probably one of the only, uh, perhaps there might

00:19:20.080 be another one or two, but Congressman who actually actively goes outside of abortion clinics,

00:19:27.660 abortion where is to pray, to, uh, put yourself there to offer women help. It's an amazing witness.

00:19:36.480 I would think to, to people who were there, any thoughts about that intimidation you might have

00:19:42.580 or anything like that that's crossed your mind on that, on that score.

00:19:45.080 I was there yesterday. Right. So I was at my post for four hours prior to the announcement. And I

00:19:50.300 actually thought about that, John Henry. I actually thought like, am I going to continue this? And I

00:19:54.400 thought, well, why wouldn't I, I might just have to pick a different day, but why wouldn't I continue

00:19:59.160 it? It's who I am. It's part of who I am. And I think it's, it's important to stay in touch with,

00:20:04.520 with those realities and, uh, I'm good at it. So why should I give it up? Right. I'm going to continue

00:20:10.000 to be dad. I'm going to continue to be husband, all these sub vocation, like, you know, being an

00:20:15.620 activist and ministry guy, you know, they're all important to me. So I can still volunteer to go

00:20:22.360 lead a retreat as a Congressman. Like I can still do evangelization. Um, you know, it may not be as

00:20:27.960 much as I do now, but I'll be evangelizing. I can picture myself pulling the Josh Hollies of the 0.99

00:20:34.240 world and the Jim Jordan's in for a faith formation meeting in my office, you know, before we begin

00:20:39.600 our day. So we'll just take everything there. Uh, and we'll, we'll, we'll do it there, you know,

00:20:45.580 and, and we'll start to build brotherhood there. So, um, and I already have some of that, but, uh,

00:20:51.820 but we'll have more of it. And so I don't think it's going to change for me. I just might have to

00:20:55.500 pick a different day though. Hello friends to celebrate the momentous overturning of Roe v. Wade.

00:21:02.220 We at LifeSite have minted just under 10,000 of these brand new limited edition pro-life silver

00:21:07.480 rounds. Now each round is stamped with the image of the Supreme Court of the United States,

00:21:12.780 featuring the date that the high court delivered this historic victory. And on the front of our

00:21:16.880 pure silver rounds, LifeSite's logo surrounded by a brilliant sunburst and draped with olive

00:21:20.720 branches. They of course commemorate our 25 year anniversary of LifeSite news. We began in 1997

00:21:26.420 in September. So September of 2022 was 25 years. These one ounce silver rounds are available from

00:21:33.480 our partners at StJosephsPartners.com where you can fulfill all of your silver and gold needs in this

00:21:38.800 perilous time. May God bless you. Tell us before we go on, where can people find out, uh, about your

00:21:46.740 campaign and how can people support it? Cause I know these things don't come for nothing. There's, uh,

00:21:53.800 lots of money that needs to be raised. Um, and, uh, they do get tax breaks for doing that. So tell

00:21:58.820 us where we can go. Yeah, sure. So we just launched the website yesterday. So bear with us if there's

00:22:03.400 any hiccups and it's not that robust yet, but there's enough there. Go to Halk, H-O-U-C-K 0.98

00:22:08.600 for congress.com. That's Halk for congress.com. And there's a donate button there. There's a volunteer

00:22:15.140 button if anyone wants to get involved in the campaign, but Halk for congress.com will have the

00:22:20.720 ability to bring people to our platform, see some of the pictures of our family and see kind of where

00:22:26.100 we're going with the campaign and donate if they'd like to. Please do. So this is Bucks County,

00:22:32.240 Pennsylvania. And I know, uh, you know, people can donate to it, which would be great. You got to get

00:22:37.460 a lot of people. If you know them in Bucks County or that surrounding area, call them. You got to reach

00:22:45.060 out because this is very serious. If we've ever had an opportunity to have great people in Congress,

00:22:51.180 we've had none like this. I really, really encourage people, not only if you live there,

00:22:55.820 but if you're anywhere in and around there, you know, someone there, you got to pick up the phone

00:22:59.800 and make that call. Any final thoughts for us, uh, in terms of what your future is and, uh, what, uh,

00:23:06.440 what you're hoping for America? Yeah. You know, some people have asked me, you know, what, what,

00:23:10.100 what, what is it that's different about you? And, um, I was just on a program where they said

00:23:14.500 anomalies beat incumbents. And I guess I'm sort of an anomaly. I don't know with the guy that's

00:23:19.800 getting rated now. He's, he's going to go work for the, uh, for the, uh, for the company that rated

00:23:24.400 him. But, uh, nonetheless, uh, you know, I'm a former football player. I played college football and

00:23:30.100 it's really part of who I am. Just that identity as, as, as an athlete, a student athlete, a kid that,

00:23:36.380 you know, really understood what it meant to sacrifice to help his team win. And, uh, and it

00:23:43.240 wasn't always all about winning, uh, but we certainly understood sacrifice. I played defensive

00:23:48.820 back, which is in the, the, the defensive side, the last man on the defense was the free safety.

00:23:54.180 And that was me. And so I had the chance to back up everybody to support everybody to be the last

00:23:59.460 line of defense. And I think what it taught me and what it will help influence me as I move into

00:24:06.020 this, you know, new call in my life, uh, is that I can, I know when to be aggressive and I know when

00:24:11.400 to back off. I know what I got to fight for and I know when to live, to fight another day. And, and

00:24:17.800 so I think being a football player of all things that you weren't expecting me to say has, it will

00:24:24.220 really positively influence how we navigate, you know, I hate to say it, but the swamp, as they say,

00:24:30.960 how we navigate the Washington DC and, and the, and the pitfalls that are going to be there for me

00:24:37.020 and the minds that I might step on, we're going to really need to have that wisdom. We're going to

00:24:41.380 really need to have that prudence of Solomon where like, I know not how to lead in this way,

00:24:46.440 Lord, give me the prudence and the wisdom. And I think I'm going to leverage that time as a,

00:24:50.620 as a football player, uh, as I need to watch and observe and attack when is necessary and, uh,

00:24:57.020 and, and stay back when I have to. So that'll be a, a sure guide for me. And of course my faith,

00:25:03.700 you know, my faith, the sacred deposit is going to be my perfect guide as I move forward with these,

00:25:08.940 uh, important decisions for the country and the world.

00:25:11.560 It is an honor to speak with you, an honor for you to have you come on and, uh, you know,

00:25:16.500 make public your campaign here. And I hope that many, many people, uh, go to support you and,

00:25:22.980 uh, they can do that right now at hug for Congress, H O U C K for Congress.com. Thank you so much,

00:25:28.540 Mark. God bless you.

00:25:29.720 Appreciate it. God bless you.

00:25:30.980 And God bless all of you. And we'll see you next time.

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The John-Henry Westen Show - August 10, 2023

FBI Terrorized Pro-life Catholic Mark Houck. Now He Is Running For Congress

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