Modern Culture is LYING to YOUR KIDS... Here’s the FIX
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Summary
In this episode of Life Site News, John Henry Weston catches up with a man who has been a mentor to him and his family for many years, Jason Weston. Jason and his wife Crystal have been married for over 30 years and have 8 kids, 6 boys, 2 girls, and a dog. Jason talks about the importance of chastity, what it means to be a good Catholic parent, and how important it is to have a Catholic spouse.
Transcript
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I don't believe the cause of lust is ultimately the body of the woman. It's not. Any more than
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the cause of robbery is the presence of jewelry in the window of the store.
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Hey, my friends, John Henry Weston here for LifeSite News, and we have got with us today
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an incredible guest. He's a man who I've admired for many, many years. He has been,
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I would say, not a word of exaggeration, the best speaker on the issue of chastity ever.
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I watched this guy, I showed this guy to my kids. He's been an amazing gift to the church,
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especially young people where so much of his focus has been. He's on some incredible new projects.
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Jason, so good to be with you. Oh, good to be back with you as well.
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Let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross. In the name of the Father,
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Jason, good to catch up with you again. If I can get you to start off, how's your family? What are
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you guys up to as a family right now? No, keeping busy. Crystal and I just celebrated our 22nd wedding
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anniversary about two weeks ago, and then we're doing a family trip next week to Alaska, which I am
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unbelievably excited about for my birthday, the 4th of July. Since it's daylight all day up there,
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they don't really have fireworks, so they do the next closest thing. They launch cars off of a
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mountain, and then you just gather at the bottom, watch them crash. I think it's kind of what the
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founding fathers had in mind when they were signing the Declaration of Independence. But yes, we're just
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going to go look for grizzly bears and fish with some salmon and just have a good week as a family
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in Alaska. So can't wait for using up all my frequent flyer miles to dump on one good trip.
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No, that's amazing. What's your family like? How many kids do you have?
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We've got eight kids. The oldest is 21, and the youngest is five years old. We've got six boys,
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two girls. It's kind of like owning a restaurant where your customers never leave. So never a dull
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moment for sure. Indeed. As you might recall, and if you don't, our makeup is exactly the same. Six
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boys, two girls. I know the life. It's quite something. Yeah. No, we had repairmen at the house
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today fixing broken doors, closets, you name it. And they say, yeah, just give us a call. I'm like,
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yeah, I'm sure we will. These boys tend to, it's like having a frat house or an Airbnb,
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if only it's your own children. Indeed, indeed. So you have some new, very exciting projects. I'd like
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to talk first about this one for young people. My kids are slightly older than yours. And once they're
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out of the Catholic college, if they don't find their spouse there, or if you couldn't send them to a
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Catholic college, because they weren't, you know, into that kind of thing, and they were into trades
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or some other job that wasn't suited for that kind of thing, then they're out in the world. And
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finding a Catholic spouse, honestly, is a challenge and a half. You've got something going now that is
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so cool that I think a lot of parents will be interested in for their older children. I mean,
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in their early twenties, tell us what's going on. Yeah. We led a pilgrimage to Poland several
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years back. And on one of the days I asked the tour operator, can we just have one day in the
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mountains, you know, where John Paul used to hike and I'll bring my copy of love and responsibility,
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his book, and I'll kind of teach the young people. And so we went on this hike and we actually found
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the John Paul to trail, literally the trail, John Paul, the second himself used to take up in the
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mountains. And we took the hike and then we kind of sat down and, and I taught from love and
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responsibility. And it was such a neat experience to literally doing what he did instead of just
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teaching what he taught. And then we came back home and we're like, we got to do one of these
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stateside. And so we announced, Hey, we're going to do a hike in the Rocky mountains. And we
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announced then. And in the first 48 hours, 250 young adults signed up, applied. Like I want to go.
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We realized, wow, there's really a demand here for just normal Catholic young adult singles who are
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wanting to get their vocation going to go spend some time in the kind of the cathedral of God's
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creation. So we did one of the Rockies. And then it was like, man, we should do one of those every
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year. And we did one in Montana and like, wow, we should do this every month. And then it became
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Canada and channel islands and Yosemite and here and there. And before, you know, we've rolled out
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a dozen of these. We just got back from Switzerland. We always bring an awesome young dynamic priest
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and we'll go on just the most Epic, beautiful hikes imaginable, and then teach the writings of St.
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John Paul, the second. And so the next one we've got coming up is in Italy. We're going to do the
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Dolomites. We're going to hike where blessed Per Giorgio himself used to hike. And some of
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the hikes will be arduous and, but some of them will be really mild. So that hike to Italy is
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grandparents can come and they can take the easier stuff. And then the more adventurous young adults
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can go with us to the top of the mountain. And then we were going to go down for the canonization
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of Per Giorgio, but Pope Leo moved the canonization date without even asking me. And so, I mean,
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the audacity. And so we're still going to go for the youth jubilee. And then the next one coming up
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after that is France. We're going to fly to Paris, go to Lisieux, then hike to Mount Saint-Michel on the
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feast of St. Michael, and then go down to the Selem Monastery and live kind of a monastic life for a
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couple of days with the monks for kind of a silent retreat. So this is the idea. Just let's get young
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adults together, just go on an adventure and learn the writings of St. John Paul II.
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Beautiful. Beautiful. You've been doing this 12 times already. So what are the fruits that you've
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seen? The first one, the whole thing is given to the charism of St. John Paul II. The ministry is
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called JP2 Trails. And so the very first trip we went on, a guy came back and said, you know,
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I really think I am called to the priesthood. And he entered the seminary shortly thereafter,
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and he's in the seminary today. And so why am I thinking of, hey, we're going to do some
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Catholic matchmaking. God's like, yeah, but all I want you to do is just go away to a deserted place and
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just rest for a while and listen to my heart. And so that's what the idea is. Let's just go
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listen to what God is saying in your vocation. And that's the idea. Like, let's just get people
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together, see what happens. And so a lot of the fruit isn't me giving a good motivational talk.
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It's just the way the Holy Spirit is moving on the trails. The priest is hearing confessions,
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going up the chairlift when we did one of these ski retreats. And so it's just a beautiful
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opportunity to just let God do his thing and just get out of the way.
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Beautiful. What's your program like? I presume it's daily mass and daily rosary.
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Yeah, we'll wake up in the morning and we always print out liturgy, the hours. We want people off
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screen. So we print up liturgy, the hours. We'll do morning prayer, and then we'll typically take
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a hike. And we find the most beautiful scenic outlook you could imagine. Then there we'll create
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an altar and then we'll celebrate mass, kind of ad orientum facing with the priest into the beauty
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of creation. After mass, maybe we'll have lunch, do a rosary, and then we'll hand out copies of a
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meditation that John Paul wrote called Meditation on Givingness. Give that to the hikers for about
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an hour of quiet time to chew on that. And then as we go down the hill, we'll do an hour of prayer.
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Typically, we'll start with a rosary. And then the next 45 minutes, just quiet. You're not allowed
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to talk to anybody. Just let God talk to you and just let nature pray for you. And so we'll go down
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after the hour, resume socializing, get down to the base camp. We'll have dinner, bonfire,
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and then around the fire, that's when I'll pull out love and responsibility. And I'll teach for
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maybe an hour. And then we'll have just literally conversations sometimes till one o'clock in the
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morning under the shooting stars, just discussing what John Paul meant and how do we apply that to
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our lives, wrap up with a night prayer, or a point is so late as practically morning prayer,
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wrap up with a night prayer, crawl back into our tents or cabins or whatever, and then go for round
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to the next day. So some of the trips are just like an overnighter. Some of them, you know, four
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or five days of hiking and backpacking. So we try to create different tiers according to people's
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different ability levels. We're even brainstorming about doing one at Kodiak Island up in Alaska,
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kind of a men-only grizzly bear retreat for a week up there. So it's just, you know, the typical
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retreat doesn't need to necessarily be in a monastery for a week. You know, God created everything,
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according to John Paul II, for man, every wildflower, every waterfall, every mountain. He
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created that for us so we could find him in it and so that we could find ourselves in the same
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process. And so that's the idea behind the ministry, JP2 Trails.
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Beautiful. One of the things you mentioned there is this givenness. What is that? I never heard of
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Yeah, most Catholics have not. A friend of mine recommended it. And, you know, I said, you know,
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I'm kind of ashamed. I've written and read so much about John Paul II, but I've heard of that
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thing, but I've never read it. And so I found it online on the journal Communio, and that's an
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online Catholic theology journal, but more for academia. So that's why not a lot of people have
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read this. It turns out John Paul wrote this in 1994 during the year of the family, and he never
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published it. And nobody knows why it was never published. So he passes away in 2005. 2006, it came
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out only in Italian. And then in 2011, it came out in English, but only on like page 871 of this online
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theology journal. So unless you're really into that, or you're taking some master's level course on
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marriage and family, and your professor knows about it, assigns that his reading, you don't know about
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this thing. And so I read this, and I thought like, this is, this is the most beautiful thing I think John
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Paul's ever written. I got to buy copies of this. I'm going to give it to everybody who goes on our
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campouts. So I get online and you can't buy it. It's not in print. And I'm like, this is, this is
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crazy. How can this absolute jewel that synthesizes the Holy Father's thought on the dignity of
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womanhood, theology, the body, human sexuality, creation, not be available? This is crazy. So
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I reach out to Communio and I'm like, Hey, this is a, this is a bold ass, but can we have permission?
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Can we have the rights to print this thing? And I said, wow, we'll look into this. And they email
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back and they said, yeah, it's yours. And they literally gave us given this. They gave us John
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Paul's meditation on given this. And so we just printed this thing and it just, we just all print
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2000, boom, out the door, gone immediately sold out. It is a real short. It's only about 3000 words
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long. So maybe about 30, 40 page meditation. It's not meant to be read like a book. It's like,
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it's supposed to be simmered kind of like a fine wine. You want to take your time. And on the first
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trip, we brought the printouts of it before we actually had the printed book. I told him, look,
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this is a meditation, you know, savor it. Like you're sucking the nectar from a flower and just
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take your time. If something hits you, you just stop, you pause, you ruminate. And then when you're
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ready, you move on to the next point. And we gave young adults about an hour. And I asked one of the
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young women on the way down the trail, I'm like, Hey, did you end up finish the book? She said,
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I only got to page two, not because it was too hard, but because he would just say these things
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that just stuck me in my tracks. And so why it was never released, nobody really knows. We reached
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out to Cardinal Jivish, the Pope's personal secretary, and he graciously agreed to write
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the introduction for the book just to really help put it on the map. So it gets the recognition
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it finally deserves, but it's a, just a beautiful reflection. You know, one of the things he says in
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there, he kind of calls out the guys in there because a lot of times in dating relationships,
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even Christian men leave it to the woman to kind of be the chastity cop. You know, you will,
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you tell me when I go too far and I'll, I'll be a good boy and stop there. But it's like,
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wait a minute. It's, it's not really her job to be your chastity cop. You know, it's your job
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not to put her in a situation where she'd need to say no to you in the first place. And what John
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Paul says to that is he said, he reflects on Cain and Abel, this whole, my, my brother's
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keeper mentality. And he says to the men, he said, yes, you know, you are, you are the
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keeper. You are the keeper of the holiness of her body. It is to ever remain an object
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of your respect. And if it is, then John Paul said, then you can delight in the beauty that
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God has given to her and she will delight and she will rejoice in the gift that her womanhood
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was created to be because she will feel safe under her brother's gaze. And it's so rich of what
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he's saying is that she'll feel safe under your gaze if you're looking at her properly.
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And then it says she will rejoice in you. And imagine that as a guy, like imagine the
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satisfaction, the peace that you would have knowing that the woman I love can rejoice in
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the fact that I know how to look at her rightly. And I see her as more than a collection of body
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parts. And so this is the way I love John Paul. He doesn't just present what's good and what's
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true. He shows you what's beautiful and what's beautiful is irrefutable. And so to me, it's
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just a beautiful reflection on human love creation. Life is a gift. And, uh, yeah. So a meditation
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on givenness by St. John Paul, the second, that can be really tough. So sometimes, um, uh, particularly
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with the way people are sometimes dressed in a way that couldn't be called modest, that kind
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of look is, is very hard to deliver. How do you square that? How do you, how do you do
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that? Um, because you, you yourself, you're confronted with this all the time. You talk,
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you talk to young people all the time and they're in various states of dress and undress.
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Yeah, no, I was at a Catholic high school recently and, and I, you know, gave the talk.
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The administration was very happy. And I, I pulled them aside afterwards and, you know,
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said various words of praise for the good things they're doing to build Catholic identity on their
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campus. But I said, you know, I'm going to shoot straight with you. Uh, the girls skirts on your
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campus are the shortest skirts I have seen in the United States of America and the last hundreds of
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presentations I've given, you know, they could be mistaken for a wide belt. You know, I didn't say
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that, but that's pretty much where they're at. And the campus ministers, they're seeing me talk to the
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principal and she said they were both really relieved that I called them out on that. And, you know,
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and I said, look, I get, it's tough because you say, Hey, we got to lower these hemlines and
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not just the girls, but the parents are going to have a fit. You got a mutiny on your hands. But
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at the end of the day, you can't let the inmates run the asylum. And, you know, we've got to initiate
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and not just to say, now you need to wear longer skirts. Hey, what about the guys when it comes to
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modesty? Okay. What about the modesty of the men's intentions, the men's behavior, the men's dance,
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the men's speech? Like this has to be a male, female modesty thing. Not we're just dumping on the
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girls because it's their problem. Um, this has to be a mutual thing, but what should a
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guy do in the event that women are not dressed modestly around him? Well, I think a couple of
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things. One, if you can't look at a woman without lusting, then it's better to look away. But the
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point isn't just to spend the rest of your life, just avoiding the sight of attractive women,
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because something in us knows that the beauty of the woman is asking for a response of, of yes,
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I respond to your beauty with love. But how do you respond to an immodest woman with love other than
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just not, I'm not going to lust. I'm not going to lust. No one is you could see beauty and say,
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thank you, God. Thank you, God, for making her beautiful. And you could think of that as an act
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upwards towards God instead of shame and guilt. And thank you, God, for making her beautiful.
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But then come down. But God, I'm sorry for the times I've lusted after your daughters. Give me a
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clean heart. And this is kind of in the shape of the cross. Then you could think of up, look at her
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hand. Does she have a wedding ring? Pray for her and her husband. No wedding ring. Pray for her future
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vocation. So you're transforming temptation with intercession. But then don't stay focused on her.
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Then go away from her. What is the beauty you ultimately crave? It's the blessed Trinity.
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And, you know, adore that. And so this little Thanksgiving, contrition, intercession, adoration,
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those are the four parts of prayer in the catechism. So you could even make a little sign of the cross
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on your forehead when you're tempted or have a bad flashback of whatever. And just stop. Don't get
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all neurotic and upset and scrupulous. Thank you, God, for making her beauty. Her beauty came from you,
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not from the devil. Help me to look at her rightly. If we persevere in doing this,
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then when we see a woman, even if she is dressed modestly, you know, we can rejoice in the beauty
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that God gave to her, but not try to grasp onto that and lust after that. There was a Bishop Eric
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Varden I had on our podcast recently. This is an amazing monk and bishop from Norway. And he told me
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when he was a young priest, he came back to the rectory or as a young seminarian, came back to the
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and there was an elderly priest who walked in the door there at their house of studies
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in Rome. And the older priest walked in and he was just happy as can be. And the young Bishop Varden
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said to the older priest, Oh, father, you look, you're really delighted. And the old priest said,
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Oh, he said, I was just walking in the street and I saw the most beautiful woman you could imagine.
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And I just wanted to stop and applaud. And then he walked on and that was it. Like he didn't get hung
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up on the beauty. He didn't get like scrupulously. Oh my gosh, I was sexually attracted to somebody. I just
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sinned. Like, no, he rejoiced in the beauty and he let it pierce him like light goes through glass.
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And then he moved on with his day, a better man. And so to me, that is mature purity, mature
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sensuality that I can allow myself in a sense to be pierced by beauty, but then not to get hung up on
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that and see her as nothing more than a collection of body parts for my gratification. And so that
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is a process. That's not just a decision. I'm going to be pure. That's no, just perseverance and
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these little no's to lust. So you can say the big yes to authentic love.
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Beautiful. I hope people take that in because that's the beautiful summary because you can't
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go throughout life lying to yourself. Oh, she's not beautiful. I'm looking away. It doesn't work.
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You have to admit that's beautiful and that's good and right. And God created that. And there's a way
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to get there. Thank you for that. You mentioned something when you started talking about guys
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that I think is so key. It's often not how guys are dressed because you know,
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sure there can be something, but the dances and the inappropriate things they do that they might
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not think about it, but can have a lifetime effects on women. Let's get into that for a bit because I
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think this is one of those unsaid things because they talk about modesty and guys and it's about
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dresses. Well, largely it's not about dress with guys largely, but it is definitely about the whole
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dance culture. But what the, tell us what you've learned from that. Oh yeah. I mean, when it comes
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to dancing, I think, you know, you look at the high schools, the clubs or whatever, a lot of these
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young people dance that way because they don't know how to dance because if they actually knew how to
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dance, actually how to lead a woman in a swing dance of waltz or this or that, she would be
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thrilled with that. She would far more prefer a guy actually take the lead, show her some moves
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doing this and that. Then some guy just like kind of rubbing up against her in some hot, musty gym
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listening to whatever, you know, musician there is blaring over the loudspeakers. It's not really
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what she's after, but a lot of guys don't know how to dance. And so we just settle for that stuff.
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But yeah, the dance, you know, how modest is that? The speech, you know, this filthy talk makes
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you comfortable with filthy action. And so a lot of times girls say, well, yeah, my boyfriend makes
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these kinds of sexual jokes, but then he says, he's just kidding. I'm like, oh no, no, trust me. He's
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not kidding. He's, he's trying to wear down your conscience to kind of see, okay, is she going to
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giggle back? Is she going to slap me across the face? Like what's going to be the reaction? Cause if I
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can kind of frog in the boiling pot of water with her and just kind of slowly change the temperature and
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get these things into her head, maybe it'll actually materialize. And so, or is my dance
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modest? Is my speech modest? Sometimes the immodesty of a guy's intentions are far more
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immodest than any outfit a girl could put on to begin with. And so he might be taking her on her
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date and being romantic and affectionate and sweet. But the question isn't, what is he doing? The
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question is, why is he doing it? Am I doing all of these pure things because of an impure motive?
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I want her to feel safe so that I can get what I want at 11 o'clock when her parents aren't around.
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And so we've got to look into the recesses of our hearts. Like, why am I trying to be
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affectionate to her? Is it because I want something in return or because I actually want to show her
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that she's special to me and express that in a pure way. And so, yeah, the reason why the whole
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thing has been dumped on the women is because we made a big mistake of reducing modesty to clothing.
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And if modesty is nothing more than clothing, most guys are like, well, I got pants on. We're good
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today. You know, like, I don't even know what I'd wear if I wanted to seduce a woman like a cowboy hat
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
00:24:11.200
It's like, no, that's going to create some neurotic kid that thinks his own sexuality is
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.
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
00:31:47.400
partner. And so it's mind blowing. And yet it all sounds so almost Catholic. It's, it sounds very
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.
00:33:14.680
So long as we have that pharisaical attitude, I mean, we'll reek of so much pride that they
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
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.
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
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
00:35:37.720
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
00:36:23.740
Jason Everett, thank you so much. God bless you. God bless your family and the great work that the
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
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