The John-Henry Westen Show - Modern Culture is LYING to YOUR KIDS... Here’s the FIX

00:00:00.000 I don't believe the cause of lust is ultimately the body of the woman. It's not. Any more than

00:00:05.980 the cause of robbery is the presence of jewelry in the window of the store.

00:00:11.560 Hey, my friends, John Henry Weston here for LifeSite News, and we have got with us today

00:00:16.680 an incredible guest. He's a man who I've admired for many, many years. He has been,

00:00:22.900 I would say, not a word of exaggeration, the best speaker on the issue of chastity ever.

00:00:33.360 I watched this guy, I showed this guy to my kids. He's been an amazing gift to the church,

00:00:38.140 especially young people where so much of his focus has been. He's on some incredible new projects.

00:00:44.280 Jason, so good to be with you. Oh, good to be back with you as well.

00:00:46.380 Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father,

00:00:49.900 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

00:00:54.460 Jason, good to catch up with you again. If I can get you to start off, how's your family? What are

00:00:59.320 you guys up to as a family right now? No, keeping busy. Crystal and I just celebrated our 22nd wedding

00:01:04.560 anniversary about two weeks ago, and then we're doing a family trip next week to Alaska, which I am

00:01:10.960 unbelievably excited about for my birthday, the 4th of July. Since it's daylight all day up there,

00:01:17.000 they don't really have fireworks, so they do the next closest thing. They launch cars off of a

00:01:22.020 mountain, and then you just gather at the bottom, watch them crash. I think it's kind of what the

00:01:26.000 founding fathers had in mind when they were signing the Declaration of Independence. But yes, we're just

00:01:30.460 going to go look for grizzly bears and fish with some salmon and just have a good week as a family

00:01:33.960 in Alaska. So can't wait for using up all my frequent flyer miles to dump on one good trip.

00:01:39.340 No, that's amazing. What's your family like? How many kids do you have?

00:01:42.280 We've got eight kids. The oldest is 21, and the youngest is five years old. We've got six boys,

00:01:48.880 two girls. It's kind of like owning a restaurant where your customers never leave. So never a dull

00:01:53.620 moment for sure. Indeed. As you might recall, and if you don't, our makeup is exactly the same. Six

00:01:59.860 boys, two girls. I know the life. It's quite something. Yeah. No, we had repairmen at the house

00:02:08.000 today fixing broken doors, closets, you name it. And they say, yeah, just give us a call. I'm like,

00:02:12.640 yeah, I'm sure we will. These boys tend to, it's like having a frat house or an Airbnb,

00:02:17.800 if only it's your own children. Indeed, indeed. So you have some new, very exciting projects. I'd like

00:02:25.420 to talk first about this one for young people. My kids are slightly older than yours. And once they're

00:02:32.200 out of the Catholic college, if they don't find their spouse there, or if you couldn't send them to a

00:02:37.640 Catholic college, because they weren't, you know, into that kind of thing, and they were into trades

00:02:42.380 or some other job that wasn't suited for that kind of thing, then they're out in the world. And

00:02:49.380 finding a Catholic spouse, honestly, is a challenge and a half. You've got something going now that is 0.96

00:02:56.440 so cool that I think a lot of parents will be interested in for their older children. I mean,

00:03:03.220 in their early twenties, tell us what's going on. Yeah. We led a pilgrimage to Poland several

00:03:07.600 years back. And on one of the days I asked the tour operator, can we just have one day in the

00:03:11.400 mountains, you know, where John Paul used to hike and I'll bring my copy of love and responsibility,

00:03:15.340 his book, and I'll kind of teach the young people. And so we went on this hike and we actually found

00:03:19.900 the John Paul to trail, literally the trail, John Paul, the second himself used to take up in the

00:03:24.600 mountains. And we took the hike and then we kind of sat down and, and I taught from love and

00:03:28.700 responsibility. And it was such a neat experience to literally doing what he did instead of just

00:03:33.600 teaching what he taught. And then we came back home and we're like, we got to do one of these

00:03:37.320 stateside. And so we announced, Hey, we're going to do a hike in the Rocky mountains. And we

00:03:40.760 announced then. And in the first 48 hours, 250 young adults signed up, applied. Like I want to go.

00:03:47.360 We realized, wow, there's really a demand here for just normal Catholic young adult singles who are 0.99

00:03:53.720 wanting to get their vocation going to go spend some time in the kind of the cathedral of God's

00:03:58.540 creation. So we did one of the Rockies. And then it was like, man, we should do one of those every

00:04:02.100 year. And we did one in Montana and like, wow, we should do this every month. And then it became

00:04:05.680 Canada and channel islands and Yosemite and here and there. And before, you know, we've rolled out

00:04:10.060 a dozen of these. We just got back from Switzerland. We always bring an awesome young dynamic priest

00:04:14.800 and we'll go on just the most Epic, beautiful hikes imaginable, and then teach the writings of St.

00:04:19.580 John Paul, the second. And so the next one we've got coming up is in Italy. We're going to do the

00:04:24.040 Dolomites. We're going to hike where blessed Per Giorgio himself used to hike. And some of

00:04:29.580 the hikes will be arduous and, but some of them will be really mild. So that hike to Italy is

00:04:34.620 grandparents can come and they can take the easier stuff. And then the more adventurous young adults

00:04:39.240 can go with us to the top of the mountain. And then we were going to go down for the canonization

00:04:43.440 of Per Giorgio, but Pope Leo moved the canonization date without even asking me. And so, I mean,

00:04:49.720 the audacity. And so we're still going to go for the youth jubilee. And then the next one coming up

00:04:54.320 after that is France. We're going to fly to Paris, go to Lisieux, then hike to Mount Saint-Michel on the

00:05:01.140 feast of St. Michael, and then go down to the Selem Monastery and live kind of a monastic life for a

00:05:06.400 couple of days with the monks for kind of a silent retreat. So this is the idea. Just let's get young

00:05:11.300 adults together, just go on an adventure and learn the writings of St. John Paul II.

00:05:15.360 Beautiful. Beautiful. You've been doing this 12 times already. So what are the fruits that you've

00:05:22.020 seen? The first one, the whole thing is given to the charism of St. John Paul II. The ministry is

00:05:26.520 called JP2 Trails. And so the very first trip we went on, a guy came back and said, you know,

00:05:31.200 I really think I am called to the priesthood. And he entered the seminary shortly thereafter,

00:05:35.240 and he's in the seminary today. And so why am I thinking of, hey, we're going to do some

00:05:38.760 Catholic matchmaking. God's like, yeah, but all I want you to do is just go away to a deserted place and 1.00

00:05:43.420 just rest for a while and listen to my heart. And so that's what the idea is. Let's just go

00:05:47.520 listen to what God is saying in your vocation. And that's the idea. Like, let's just get people

00:05:51.920 together, see what happens. And so a lot of the fruit isn't me giving a good motivational talk.

00:05:57.920 It's just the way the Holy Spirit is moving on the trails. The priest is hearing confessions,

00:06:03.100 going up the chairlift when we did one of these ski retreats. And so it's just a beautiful

00:06:08.400 opportunity to just let God do his thing and just get out of the way.

00:06:12.080 Beautiful. What's your program like? I presume it's daily mass and daily rosary.

00:06:16.860 Give us the flow of one day.

00:06:18.660 Yeah, we'll wake up in the morning and we always print out liturgy, the hours. We want people off

00:06:22.600 screen. So we print up liturgy, the hours. We'll do morning prayer, and then we'll typically take

00:06:27.840 a hike. And we find the most beautiful scenic outlook you could imagine. Then there we'll create

00:06:32.960 an altar and then we'll celebrate mass, kind of ad orientum facing with the priest into the beauty

00:06:38.020 of creation. After mass, maybe we'll have lunch, do a rosary, and then we'll hand out copies of a

00:06:43.800 meditation that John Paul wrote called Meditation on Givingness. Give that to the hikers for about

00:06:48.140 an hour of quiet time to chew on that. And then as we go down the hill, we'll do an hour of prayer.

00:06:53.560 Typically, we'll start with a rosary. And then the next 45 minutes, just quiet. You're not allowed

00:06:57.500 to talk to anybody. Just let God talk to you and just let nature pray for you. And so we'll go down

00:07:03.580 after the hour, resume socializing, get down to the base camp. We'll have dinner, bonfire,

00:07:09.100 and then around the fire, that's when I'll pull out love and responsibility. And I'll teach for

00:07:14.000 maybe an hour. And then we'll have just literally conversations sometimes till one o'clock in the

00:07:18.240 morning under the shooting stars, just discussing what John Paul meant and how do we apply that to

00:07:23.080 our lives, wrap up with a night prayer, or a point is so late as practically morning prayer,

00:07:27.900 wrap up with a night prayer, crawl back into our tents or cabins or whatever, and then go for round

00:07:33.000 to the next day. So some of the trips are just like an overnighter. Some of them, you know, four

00:07:37.200 or five days of hiking and backpacking. So we try to create different tiers according to people's

00:07:42.720 different ability levels. We're even brainstorming about doing one at Kodiak Island up in Alaska,

00:07:48.260 kind of a men-only grizzly bear retreat for a week up there. So it's just, you know, the typical

00:07:53.960 retreat doesn't need to necessarily be in a monastery for a week. You know, God created everything,

00:08:00.820 according to John Paul II, for man, every wildflower, every waterfall, every mountain. He

00:08:06.120 created that for us so we could find him in it and so that we could find ourselves in the same

00:08:11.380 process. And so that's the idea behind the ministry, JP2 Trails.

00:08:15.460 Beautiful. One of the things you mentioned there is this givenness. What is that? I never heard of

00:08:20.780 that.

00:08:21.360 Yeah, most Catholics have not. A friend of mine recommended it. And, you know, I said, you know, 1.00

00:08:25.640 I'm kind of ashamed. I've written and read so much about John Paul II, but I've heard of that

00:08:30.040 thing, but I've never read it. And so I found it online on the journal Communio, and that's an

00:08:35.560 online Catholic theology journal, but more for academia. So that's why not a lot of people have

00:08:40.940 read this. It turns out John Paul wrote this in 1994 during the year of the family, and he never

00:08:45.740 published it. And nobody knows why it was never published. So he passes away in 2005. 2006, it came

00:08:52.540 out only in Italian. And then in 2011, it came out in English, but only on like page 871 of this online

00:09:01.700 theology journal. So unless you're really into that, or you're taking some master's level course on

00:09:07.200 marriage and family, and your professor knows about it, assigns that his reading, you don't know about

00:09:11.480 this thing. And so I read this, and I thought like, this is, this is the most beautiful thing I think John

00:09:16.060 Paul's ever written. I got to buy copies of this. I'm going to give it to everybody who goes on our

00:09:20.260 campouts. So I get online and you can't buy it. It's not in print. And I'm like, this is, this is

00:09:25.120 crazy. How can this absolute jewel that synthesizes the Holy Father's thought on the dignity of

00:09:31.120 womanhood, theology, the body, human sexuality, creation, not be available? This is crazy. So

00:09:37.920 I reach out to Communio and I'm like, Hey, this is a, this is a bold ass, but can we have permission? 0.62

00:09:43.760 Can we have the rights to print this thing? And I said, wow, we'll look into this. And they email

00:09:47.720 back and they said, yeah, it's yours. And they literally gave us given this. They gave us John

00:09:52.860 Paul's meditation on given this. And so we just printed this thing and it just, we just all print

00:09:58.960 2000, boom, out the door, gone immediately sold out. It is a real short. It's only about 3000 words

00:10:05.920 long. So maybe about 30, 40 page meditation. It's not meant to be read like a book. It's like,

00:10:11.780 it's supposed to be simmered kind of like a fine wine. You want to take your time. And on the first

00:10:17.100 trip, we brought the printouts of it before we actually had the printed book. I told him, look,

00:10:22.100 this is a meditation, you know, savor it. Like you're sucking the nectar from a flower and just

00:10:27.620 take your time. If something hits you, you just stop, you pause, you ruminate. And then when you're

00:10:31.860 ready, you move on to the next point. And we gave young adults about an hour. And I asked one of the

00:10:35.960 young women on the way down the trail, I'm like, Hey, did you end up finish the book? She said,

00:10:39.660 I only got to page two, not because it was too hard, but because he would just say these things

00:10:44.760 that just stuck me in my tracks. And so why it was never released, nobody really knows. We reached

00:10:51.040 out to Cardinal Jivish, the Pope's personal secretary, and he graciously agreed to write

00:10:55.380 the introduction for the book just to really help put it on the map. So it gets the recognition

00:11:00.300 it finally deserves, but it's a, just a beautiful reflection. You know, one of the things he says in

00:11:05.940 there, he kind of calls out the guys in there because a lot of times in dating relationships,

00:11:11.180 even Christian men leave it to the woman to kind of be the chastity cop. You know, you will, 0.96

00:11:15.820 you tell me when I go too far and I'll, I'll be a good boy and stop there. But it's like,

00:11:19.720 wait a minute. It's, it's not really her job to be your chastity cop. You know, it's your job 0.99

00:11:23.780 not to put her in a situation where she'd need to say no to you in the first place. And what John

00:11:27.620 Paul says to that is he said, he reflects on Cain and Abel, this whole, my, my brother's

00:11:32.120 keeper mentality. And he says to the men, he said, yes, you know, you are, you are the

00:11:37.500 keeper. You are the keeper of the holiness of her body. It is to ever remain an object

00:11:43.740 of your respect. And if it is, then John Paul said, then you can delight in the beauty that

00:11:48.980 God has given to her and she will delight and she will rejoice in the gift that her womanhood

00:11:54.500 was created to be because she will feel safe under her brother's gaze. And it's so rich of what

00:12:01.380 he's saying is that she'll feel safe under your gaze if you're looking at her properly.

00:12:07.640 And then it says she will rejoice in you. And imagine that as a guy, like imagine the

00:12:13.420 satisfaction, the peace that you would have knowing that the woman I love can rejoice in

00:12:17.580 the fact that I know how to look at her rightly. And I see her as more than a collection of body

00:12:23.020 parts. And so this is the way I love John Paul. He doesn't just present what's good and what's

00:12:27.020 true. He shows you what's beautiful and what's beautiful is irrefutable. And so to me, it's

00:12:32.600 just a beautiful reflection on human love creation. Life is a gift. And, uh, yeah. So a meditation

00:12:38.200 on givenness by St. John Paul, the second, that can be really tough. So sometimes, um, uh, particularly

00:12:45.920 with the way people are sometimes dressed in a way that couldn't be called modest, that kind

00:12:53.300 of look is, is very hard to deliver. How do you square that? How do you, how do you do

00:13:00.260 that? Um, because you, you yourself, you're confronted with this all the time. You talk,

00:13:04.980 you talk to young people all the time and they're in various states of dress and undress.

00:13:10.660 How do we accomplish this proper looking?

00:13:14.020 Yeah, no, I was at a Catholic high school recently and, and I, you know, gave the talk.

00:13:17.320 The administration was very happy. And I, I pulled them aside afterwards and, you know,

00:13:20.920 said various words of praise for the good things they're doing to build Catholic identity on their

00:13:24.820 campus. But I said, you know, I'm going to shoot straight with you. Uh, the girls skirts on your 1.00

00:13:30.060 campus are the shortest skirts I have seen in the United States of America and the last hundreds of 1.00

00:13:36.020 presentations I've given, you know, they could be mistaken for a wide belt. You know, I didn't say

00:13:40.340 that, but that's pretty much where they're at. And the campus ministers, they're seeing me talk to the

00:13:44.200 principal and she said they were both really relieved that I called them out on that. And, you know,

00:13:50.400 and I said, look, I get, it's tough because you say, Hey, we got to lower these hemlines and 1.00

00:13:54.540 not just the girls, but the parents are going to have a fit. You got a mutiny on your hands. But

00:13:58.840 at the end of the day, you can't let the inmates run the asylum. And, you know, we've got to initiate

00:14:03.580 and not just to say, now you need to wear longer skirts. Hey, what about the guys when it comes to

00:14:07.700 modesty? Okay. What about the modesty of the men's intentions, the men's behavior, the men's dance, 0.61

00:14:11.540 the men's speech? Like this has to be a male, female modesty thing. Not we're just dumping on the 0.85

00:14:16.480 girls because it's their problem. Um, this has to be a mutual thing, but what should a 0.90

00:14:20.320 guy do in the event that women are not dressed modestly around him? Well, I think a couple of

00:14:25.420 things. One, if you can't look at a woman without lusting, then it's better to look away. But the

00:14:29.460 point isn't just to spend the rest of your life, just avoiding the sight of attractive women,

00:14:33.340 because something in us knows that the beauty of the woman is asking for a response of, of yes,

00:14:40.020 I respond to your beauty with love. But how do you respond to an immodest woman with love other than 1.00

00:14:45.380 just not, I'm not going to lust. I'm not going to lust. No one is you could see beauty and say,

00:14:49.000 thank you, God. Thank you, God, for making her beautiful. And you could think of that as an act

00:14:53.220 upwards towards God instead of shame and guilt. And thank you, God, for making her beautiful.

00:14:57.780 But then come down. But God, I'm sorry for the times I've lusted after your daughters. Give me a 0.99

00:15:02.280 clean heart. And this is kind of in the shape of the cross. Then you could think of up, look at her

00:15:06.160 hand. Does she have a wedding ring? Pray for her and her husband. No wedding ring. Pray for her future 0.66

00:15:10.400 vocation. So you're transforming temptation with intercession. But then don't stay focused on her.

00:15:16.320 Then go away from her. What is the beauty you ultimately crave? It's the blessed Trinity.

00:15:21.200 And, you know, adore that. And so this little Thanksgiving, contrition, intercession, adoration,

00:15:27.640 those are the four parts of prayer in the catechism. So you could even make a little sign of the cross

00:15:31.280 on your forehead when you're tempted or have a bad flashback of whatever. And just stop. Don't get

00:15:36.220 all neurotic and upset and scrupulous. Thank you, God, for making her beauty. Her beauty came from you,

00:15:40.720 not from the devil. Help me to look at her rightly. If we persevere in doing this,

00:15:45.920 then when we see a woman, even if she is dressed modestly, you know, we can rejoice in the beauty

00:15:50.260 that God gave to her, but not try to grasp onto that and lust after that. There was a Bishop Eric

00:15:56.080 Varden I had on our podcast recently. This is an amazing monk and bishop from Norway. And he told me

00:16:02.160 when he was a young priest, he came back to the rectory or as a young seminarian, came back to the

00:16:06.840 and there was an elderly priest who walked in the door there at their house of studies

00:16:10.680 in Rome. And the older priest walked in and he was just happy as can be. And the young Bishop Varden

00:16:16.360 said to the older priest, Oh, father, you look, you're really delighted. And the old priest said,

00:16:20.720 Oh, he said, I was just walking in the street and I saw the most beautiful woman you could imagine.

00:16:26.080 And I just wanted to stop and applaud. And then he walked on and that was it. Like he didn't get hung

00:16:32.040 up on the beauty. He didn't get like scrupulously. Oh my gosh, I was sexually attracted to somebody. I just

00:16:36.760 sinned. Like, no, he rejoiced in the beauty and he let it pierce him like light goes through glass.

00:16:43.220 And then he moved on with his day, a better man. And so to me, that is mature purity, mature

00:16:48.680 sensuality that I can allow myself in a sense to be pierced by beauty, but then not to get hung up on

00:16:54.740 that and see her as nothing more than a collection of body parts for my gratification. And so that 0.92

00:16:59.920 is a process. That's not just a decision. I'm going to be pure. That's no, just perseverance and

00:17:05.100 these little no's to lust. So you can say the big yes to authentic love.

00:17:09.980 Beautiful. I hope people take that in because that's the beautiful summary because you can't

00:17:15.040 go throughout life lying to yourself. Oh, she's not beautiful. I'm looking away. It doesn't work.

00:17:18.920 You have to admit that's beautiful and that's good and right. And God created that. And there's a way

00:17:24.000 to get there. Thank you for that. You mentioned something when you started talking about guys

00:17:29.080 that I think is so key. It's often not how guys are dressed because you know,

00:17:37.180 sure there can be something, but the dances and the inappropriate things they do that they might

00:17:47.200 not think about it, but can have a lifetime effects on women. Let's get into that for a bit because I 0.71

00:17:54.120 think this is one of those unsaid things because they talk about modesty and guys and it's about

00:17:59.360 dresses. Well, largely it's not about dress with guys largely, but it is definitely about the whole

00:18:06.180 dance culture. But what the, tell us what you've learned from that. Oh yeah. I mean, when it comes

00:18:12.900 to dancing, I think, you know, you look at the high schools, the clubs or whatever, a lot of these

00:18:16.420 young people dance that way because they don't know how to dance because if they actually knew how to 1.00

00:18:22.100 dance, actually how to lead a woman in a swing dance of waltz or this or that, she would be 0.57

00:18:26.600 thrilled with that. She would far more prefer a guy actually take the lead, show her some moves 0.91

00:18:31.180 doing this and that. Then some guy just like kind of rubbing up against her in some hot, musty gym

00:18:36.480 listening to whatever, you know, musician there is blaring over the loudspeakers. It's not really

00:18:41.720 what she's after, but a lot of guys don't know how to dance. And so we just settle for that stuff.

00:18:46.360 But yeah, the dance, you know, how modest is that? The speech, you know, this filthy talk makes

00:18:52.200 you comfortable with filthy action. And so a lot of times girls say, well, yeah, my boyfriend makes

00:18:56.700 these kinds of sexual jokes, but then he says, he's just kidding. I'm like, oh no, no, trust me. He's

00:19:00.480 not kidding. He's, he's trying to wear down your conscience to kind of see, okay, is she going to

00:19:05.100 giggle back? Is she going to slap me across the face? Like what's going to be the reaction? Cause if I

00:19:09.140 can kind of frog in the boiling pot of water with her and just kind of slowly change the temperature and

00:19:14.600 get these things into her head, maybe it'll actually materialize. And so, or is my dance

00:19:19.560 modest? Is my speech modest? Sometimes the immodesty of a guy's intentions are far more

00:19:25.560 immodest than any outfit a girl could put on to begin with. And so he might be taking her on her 1.00

00:19:30.480 date and being romantic and affectionate and sweet. But the question isn't, what is he doing? The

00:19:34.960 question is, why is he doing it? Am I doing all of these pure things because of an impure motive?

00:19:40.460 I want her to feel safe so that I can get what I want at 11 o'clock when her parents aren't around.

00:19:45.600 And so we've got to look into the recesses of our hearts. Like, why am I trying to be

00:19:50.640 affectionate to her? Is it because I want something in return or because I actually want to show her

00:19:55.560 that she's special to me and express that in a pure way. And so, yeah, the reason why the whole

00:20:01.540 thing has been dumped on the women is because we made a big mistake of reducing modesty to clothing. 1.00

00:20:06.360 And if modesty is nothing more than clothing, most guys are like, well, I got pants on. We're good

00:20:10.520 today. You know, like, I don't even know what I'd wear if I wanted to seduce a woman like a cowboy hat 1.00

00:20:15.780 or like a fireman hat. Like, I have no idea. Like, it's just not something that I, you know, struggle

00:20:20.300 with or contemplate. But John Paul II said for women to understand modesty, they need insight into the

00:20:25.600 male psychology, meaning that we are triggered more easily by the sight of a beautiful woman's body

00:20:31.620 because she's the most beautiful thing God put on earth. Because girls aren't as inclined to lust 1.00

00:20:38.380 after guys' legs or shoulder, whatever. It's not to say that they're not sexually attracted to men.

00:20:43.480 They are. But it's different. And we have to realize that. And this isn't to shift the blame

00:20:48.580 into the women. No, because I don't believe the cause of lust is ultimately the body of the woman.

00:20:53.940 It's not. Any more than the cause of robbery is the presence of jewelry in the window of the store.

00:20:59.200 No, the cause of robbery is the greed in the heart of the robber. You know, that's where it

00:21:02.860 comes from. That being said, we shouldn't just throw our jewelry out there for anybody to grab.

00:21:07.780 And so to me, there has to be a balance instead of it's all her problem. It's his fault if he's

00:21:12.620 got a bad imagination. It's like, no, we have to feel responsible for each other's imaginations

00:21:18.140 and hearts and longings if we're going to be able to build a civilization of love.

00:21:23.540 Amid the uncertainty and turmoil in the world and within the church, it's more important

00:21:28.780 than ever that families, the basic building blocks of society, anchor our children's hearts

00:21:34.600 and minds in the unchanging truths of the faith. Assumption Academy in Walton, Kentucky provides

00:21:41.820 children with a thorough Catholic education, guiding them to a life of holiness through

00:21:47.560 Christian doctrine, the traditional Latin mass and the lives of the saints. With many families

00:21:53.900 moving to the area, seeking this wholesome Catholic education, they are now expanding the school.

00:22:00.420 I encourage you to visit boysacademy.org to learn more about what this amazing center for faithful

00:22:08.680 learning has to offer. Now a really hard question for you, because you've been there, done that,

00:22:17.420 not only with telling young people about this for so much of your life, but you've done that with

00:22:22.620 your kids. How do parents go about this? Because, you know, these are hard conversations. When do

00:22:29.360 you do that? When do you start this with your kids? You've got six boys, there's girls in the mix. 1.00

00:22:34.860 How do you get there? What do you do? Yeah. Well, a lot of people ask me, when do I give my kid the

00:22:38.800 talk? And it's like, it's some chastity bomb, you drop on your kid when he's 13, it's going to like

00:22:44.100 inoculate him from lust for the rest of his life. It's like, no, you don't do that with English. You 0.99

00:22:48.520 don't do that with math. Like, when do I give my kid the English talk? When do we have the math

00:22:51.960 lesson? It's like, no, no, no. They better get 12 years of formation in that before they head out

00:22:56.400 the door to college. Or if you just try to do a talk, it ain't going to work. And so we have to

00:23:01.020 start early and often, obviously in a way that's age appropriate. You're not dropping the birds and

00:23:05.680 the bees talk too early. You know, no. And every kid is going to be different, right? I mean, some

00:23:10.180 kids are 13 years old and they couldn't care less where babies come from. It's just not even on the

00:23:15.340 radar. I don't care. And then your eight-year-old comes along, you know, mommy, how did the baby get in

00:23:19.500 your belly? Oh, you know, God put the baby in my belly. By what means did God put that baby in your 0.84

00:23:24.360 belly? This kid won't give up. And so that's why the church doesn't give us numbers. At 10, do this.

00:23:29.700 At 11, do that. Because every circumstance is different. Every child is unique. And that's why

00:23:34.100 the parents are not only the primary evangelists of their children, they're the primary sexual 1.00

00:23:38.960 educators of their children. An education in human sexuality. Not sex ed, which is what they get in

00:23:45.680 public schools, which is devoid of the virtue of love. That's the main missing component. What is

00:23:51.240 actual demands of love? That's just like pregnancy and risk reduction garbage. You need a heck of a 0.95

00:23:56.660 lot more than that when it comes to human sexuality education. So what we got to do, start early. When

00:24:02.200 it comes to like, okay, why are we getting dressed in private? And is this, and we're not going to talk

00:24:06.700 about their body parts as, oh, that's a bad body. That's dirty. That's dirty. Don't touch that. It's bad. 0.98

00:24:11.200 It's like, no, that's going to create some neurotic kid that thinks his own sexuality is 0.91

00:24:15.460 somehow intrinsically evil. No, you know, we veil certain parts of the body, not because they're

00:24:19.820 bad, because they're extra special. You know, like in the old Testament, remember the arc of the

00:24:23.920 covenant, you know, the God, you know, the glory cloud hovered above this and they put the arc of

00:24:29.280 the covenant in it, you know, was the 10 commandments and the bread of heaven and the staff of air. And it

00:24:33.680 was so special. And so around this arc, there was a veil. And then around that veil, there was

00:24:39.220 another veil and only one person, the high priest, after purifying himself on one day of the year,

00:24:45.420 the day of atonement could enter into the Holy of Holies and behold the glory of that unveiled

00:24:51.380 mystery. And you can explain to your daughter, you're like the Holy of Holies. And only one man

00:24:57.400 on one night, the day of your wedding deserves to see the glory of the unveiled mystery of you,

00:25:02.980 not because your body's bad because it's so special. And so we're kind of using these biblical

00:25:07.960 images to explain why we veil things, not because they're bad and dirty or inaccessible,

00:25:13.240 but because they're so special. And so we're gradually starting building the building blocks.

00:25:17.940 If you were to Google theology, the body books for kids, there's tons out there, whether it's from

00:25:23.900 Tobet, which is theology, the body evangelization team, um, Rual Woods creates good stuff,

00:25:29.820 Ascension with the theology body programs they have for junior high and high school, lots of great

00:25:35.460 content that you can get out there. But in the end, you just got to overcome your insecurities

00:25:40.180 when it comes to talking to your kids about this stuff. Because if you don't speak about chastity

00:25:44.540 to your kids, the world is going to fill the void of your silence with a very contrary message.

00:25:51.260 And so mom needs to talk, dad needs to talk, and it could be awkward, but that's fine. It's part of

00:25:56.880 the authenticity of it. Friend of mine does chastity talks and he's great at it. And he thought when I

00:26:01.500 told my kids how babies are going to be made, it's just going to be beautiful. And the kid's like,

00:26:04.760 oh, the theology body is so wonderful. Man, you told his son how babies are made. And the kid

00:26:08.720 was just disgusted. He was like, dad, he's like, oh, how long have people been doing this? And I

00:26:14.120 said, tell him the 1960s. And then he said, dad, like, is there any other way? And the dad's like,

00:26:18.780 that's, that's pretty much it kid. And then later on, the daughter came to the dad and said, dad,

00:26:22.780 I want to be like the blessed Virgin Mary. And the dad said, that's great. She said, yeah,

00:26:27.300 I want to get pregnant before I'm married. And the dad's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

00:26:31.200 that's not the moral of the court. So it could be a little awkward, but that's okay. It's part

00:26:35.160 of the authenticity. So, um, when you have this conversation with kids today, typically you're

00:26:42.540 doing a reversal because almost all the time they're exposed first, uh, they're exposed to

00:26:48.320 the internet and they're exposed usually to some horrific stuff that is, um, uh, totally obscene.

00:26:54.020 How do you do that? How do you, because almost all of us are like too late to the,

00:27:00.820 because even, even those of us who sort of were on track with where our kids are at,

00:27:04.920 they're not ready for this yet. I know they're not, but then they come a day later and they

00:27:08.560 were at so-and-so's house and they saw, and now what, what do we do?

00:27:11.960 Well, for one, try to be a proactive rather than reactive, meaning there are books you can get.

00:27:18.620 One's called, um, good pictures, bad pictures, or good pictures, bad pictures, junior.

00:27:22.940 You can read this little kids. And it basically says, look, there's lots of neat pictures

00:27:26.500 in the world and some on the computer. And some of those pictures are great. And some of the

00:27:30.220 pictures are not so great. And in fact, sometimes people show pictures on the internet of their

00:27:35.740 body and they're showing parts of their body that should be covered up with a bathing suit. 0.93

00:27:40.000 And if you ever see a picture like that, here's what you got to do. Step number one,

00:27:43.660 turn your head away. Step number two, shut the computer. Step number three, come to mom and dad

00:27:48.580 and just tell us. And we're sorry. We apologize to you that we didn't do a better job of blocking

00:27:55.640 that. And we apologize to you that the world has those kinds of pictures floating around. Thank you

00:28:00.440 for coming to us. We're really proud of you. And, and you help them process that instead of the shame

00:28:06.080 and isolation and guilt and addiction that can ensue. If you don't really have a game plan for them,

00:28:11.520 when these pictures inevitably show up, which they will show up. One of the most predominant places

00:28:16.720 they are is believe it or not grandparents houses. Cause the kid goes to visit grandma and grandma's

00:28:21.520 like, here's an iPad, have fun. And then grandma doesn't have like covenant eyes, you know,

00:28:27.060 accountability software set up on the iPad and a couple of clicks and a kid's playing what looks

00:28:32.580 like a benign little video game. And then bam, Oh, you want to play another game? You have to watch

00:28:36.300 this commercial. Whoa. That commercial had a lot of content that wasn't age appropriate. And so

00:28:41.620 we got to make sure we're becoming computer literate as parents. Some of parents don't

00:28:46.680 even know how to open a email attachment and their kids like hacking into the Pentagon's website for

00:28:51.520 fun after school. It's like, you got to catch up. You got to get filters on this stuff, not be giving

00:28:56.220 the kids screens before it's really a reasonable time. And even if you do all the stuff, stuff's

00:29:02.260 going to happen, but these are teachable moments. I was at a restaurant with my kids and, uh, the

00:29:08.100 guys serving the food behind the counter is like a buffet line deal, uh, was a guy presenting

00:29:13.120 as female. And it was, you know, very obvious. He was male from the hairy arms of the deep voice

00:29:18.880 and the facial structure and the, the, uh, the, the attempt with the makeup to present

00:29:23.140 as female. And my, I was there with my boys and they saw this and they're like, and then

00:29:28.000 the man went around behind the counter to get something. My kids are like, what do we do?

00:29:31.040 What do we do? And I said, just watch. And the guy came back and I said, how are you

00:29:35.040 today? You know, and you're having a good shift today. And I just talked to him and I had a

00:29:39.860 conversation with him and tried to brighten his day. And then we sat down and the kids were like,

00:29:44.040 what was, what's going on with that? I'm like, do you know what that is? That person there,

00:29:47.500 you know, there's a name for that. You know what that name is? A human being. That's a person.

00:29:52.300 Okay. And I, I restored the person's humanity to them instead of the kids saying that, oh, this is

00:29:58.000 like some freak of nature and we should be afraid. No, this person deserves love. And there's something

00:30:03.000 called gender dysphoria kids. And that's what this is. This person deserves the truth, but they also

00:30:07.680 deserve love not to be treated like they have leprosy. Do not be afraid to love individuals who

00:30:13.420 might perplex you a little bit. It's part of the gospel to love and to love with truth instead of

00:30:18.760 misguided mercy, which is just the love with no truth, which is just false love. But these teachable

00:30:25.280 moments are going to come one way or another, oftentimes before we want them to come, but realize, okay,

00:30:30.520 as much as I want to sweep this under the rug and protect that never happened, let's talk kids.

00:30:36.140 You know, let's, let's help them to see reality through the lens of the eyes of the church.

00:30:40.000 Last question for you. And this is very difficult too. So today in the church, we're, we're confronted

00:30:47.900 with some very confusing things precisely along those lines that you just mentioned, because well,

00:30:54.040 Father James Martin now is very famous for having spoken to, uh, uh, Secretary Buttigieg, uh, and, and

00:31:01.160 sort of, it's weird because in one way he's doing the humanizing thing. He's, he's really talking to

00:31:09.100 them in a friendly manner, humanizing, recognizing their humanity. But it's so confusing because at the

00:31:15.800 same time, it is never corrective, never steering them toward the truth and the beauty, uh, because

00:31:23.380 he's, he's talking about a guy who's, uh, quote unquote married to another guy who's adopted

00:31:28.600 children. And so they're discussing like the beauty of marriage in a real way, even with relation to God

00:31:35.660 and, and the Trinity even, and children and raising children. Yet it's in this context of Secretary

00:31:42.880 Buttigieg and his homosexual marriage and his adoption of two children with his homosexual 0.98

00:31:47.400 partner. And so it's mind blowing. And yet it all sounds so almost Catholic. It's, it sounds very 0.97

00:31:55.100 like, here we are, we're talking about the beauty of marriage and the beauty and its relation to the

00:31:59.240 Trinity. Wow. How are we supposed to make sense of that? With Father James Martin, God bless him.

00:32:04.460 But the language so often used is that he's, he's building a bridge. I reject that, uh, because I

00:32:09.420 don't think he's building a bridge. I think what he's building is a dock. A dock is a half constructed

00:32:14.360 bridge where it leads you halfway out into the water. And then the construction just ends.

00:32:19.260 It's almost like when Christ, you know, comes to the woman caught in the act of adultery. And imagine

00:32:23.120 if he were to say to her, does no one condemn you? Neither do I condemn you. Have a nice day.

00:32:28.900 And that's the end. Like, no, no, no, no, no. There is, there is a second part of it, but go and sin

00:32:33.760 no more. Now we have the second half of the bridge. Now we're actually connecting someone who's perhaps

00:32:39.480 alienated from Christ to the person of Christ through the act of mercy and repentance together

00:32:44.600 to offer them just mercy without repentance is misguided mercy. It's a false compassion.

00:32:51.300 And I can understand why it's so attractive one, because it doesn't place demands upon anybody,

00:32:56.340 but also because I think the church hasn't done the greatest job of reaching out to people who

00:33:01.540 experience gender dysphoria or who experience same-sex attractions. Oftentimes we feel like,

00:33:06.760 no, no, no, like they're those Catholics and then there's these Catholics. And, you know,

00:33:10.860 you, why don't you sort out your little dysphoria thing? Then you're welcome in the church with us. 0.99

00:33:14.680 So long as we have that pharisaical attitude, I mean, we'll reek of so much pride that they 1.00

00:33:19.160 wouldn't want to come near us to begin with. But we've got to understand what these individuals

00:33:23.200 are going through. In fact, I was at a high school recently and a student came up to me and honestly,

00:33:27.980 I wasn't quite sure if the student was a boy or girl. And, you know, after a few moments of talking,

00:33:33.660 it became clear she was female and she came up and started talking. And then she started laughing

00:33:38.780 hysterically and crying hysterically at the same time. And she started just unloading all of this

00:33:45.300 emotional baggage of what she had been through that when she was six years old, she had suffered

00:33:49.680 some really serious sexual abuse. And after that experience, she realized I'm not safe presenting as

00:33:55.360 female in this world. It'll just open me up to more abuse. So she transitioned to a male identity.

00:34:01.120 And when she was 12 years old, was abused in an even worse way, presenting as a boy and discovered

00:34:06.760 from that I'm not safe as a boy either. Perhaps I'll be safe if I jettison my entire sexuality and 0.91

00:34:13.760 identify as non-binary. There'll be a safe spot if I don't appear distinctly male or female.

00:34:20.280 And this poor girl had discovered this word non-binary that kind of for her was a safe haven. 0.95

00:34:27.300 And if anybody in the church looks at, oh, you're just some tranny freak, you know,

00:34:31.140 that type of attitude just misses the boat by such a wide margin of like, you have no idea.

00:34:37.240 This kid did not just choose. I just want to dress in a gender non-conforming way to just 1.00

00:34:42.580 be rebellious against the patriarchy. It's like, no, this is a child just basically having a trauma

00:34:49.700 response, dissociating from their own humanity in an effort to find a place that's safe in this

00:34:55.880 world. And so we need to listen up as a church to the crosses that these individuals have been

00:35:01.840 carrying instead of just being the mouth of orthodoxy to tell them, nope, this is the way it

00:35:06.740 is. It's got to be charity and clarity at the same time, truth and love, because if we're just doing

00:35:13.580 one and not the other, it's not the fullness of the gospel.

00:35:17.120 Yeah. Beautiful. In a world that is so tortured by so much of this, that's exactly what we need,

00:35:24.480 hard to get to and easy to go in either direction. Jason Everett, thank you so much for joining us.

00:35:30.760 I know you've got to run, but tell us, tell people where can they learn more about you and what you're

00:35:36.240 doing and sign up for your trips.

00:35:37.720 If you go to chastity.com, that's the website where we have most of our resources, the meditation

00:35:43.400 on givenness by John Paul II. You can get a copy of that there, as well as our other books for your

00:35:47.980 kids or yourself, your marriage and family. The website for the backpacking retreats is JP and

00:35:53.520 then the number two for John Paul II. So JP, the number two trails.com. So JP2trails.com. You can sign

00:35:59.740 up for the trips to Italy. We've got coming up in about four weeks. We still have a couple of rooms

00:36:03.860 left for that one. And then the next one coming out for that is going to be France. And then we've

00:36:08.520 got a whole load that we're going to be adding to the website, not just me speaking, but other

00:36:12.880 Catholic speakers that are going on hikes and teaching the writings of St. John Paul II. So

00:36:17.180 chastity.com and JP2trails.com. And then on social media, just put the name Jason Everett and

00:36:22.840 it'll pop up as well.

00:36:23.740 Jason Everett, thank you so much. God bless you. God bless your family and the great work that the

00:36:27.960 Lord has called you to do.

00:36:28.800 Thanks for having me back.

00:36:29.520 And God bless all of you. And we'll see you next time.

00:36:33.860 Aloha everyone. This is Jason Jones for LifeSide News. We hope you enjoyed this video. For more

00:36:41.400 content like this, check the link in the description. You can also connect with us on social media

00:36:47.420 to stay up to date with the latest news on life, faith, family, and freedom.

00:36:53.900 Thanks for watching and may God bless you.

The John-Henry Westen Show - July 02, 2025

Modern Culture is LYING to YOUR KIDS... Here’s the FIX

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