If the World Does Not Hate You, You Are Doing Something Wrong

The world hates you.

How’s that for a pleasant way to start this blog?!

If you think that today’s secular culture – created and molded by members such as leftist politicians, godless celebrities, propagandist media, and marxist educational institutions – disapprove of your authentically Christian lifestyle, you are only partially correct. They don’t simply disapprove; they oppose, loathe, abhor, and detest your lifestyle. In essence, the secular culture and their members hate you!

Much of what our generation calls “culture,” Jesus and the writers of the Bible call “the world” – a system of practices, values, and social norms that are institutionalized into a culture which coordinates them into a rebellion against God and a redefinition of what constitutes good and evil, moral and immoral.

The world tells us that our opinions must conform to the secular values of the age—and if they don’t, then we are judgmental, close-minded extremists and should be shunned, silenced, and even “canceled” or physically or financially harmed in some instances.

If you are authentically Catholic, then you firmly believe Jesus Christ is the truth, and your lifestyle tries to live the truth as well as is willing to suffer for the truth. It is this obedience to Our Lord instead of obedience to the worldly culture that makes leftist, pagan-like opponents hate you. Since you refuse to bow to their idols and false gods – which include the so-called LGBTQIA2S+, BLM, and pro-abortion movements – you won’t simply be ignored by them; they make it their mission to hurt you.

You will be co-opted by the world if you succumb to their propaganda, but you also will be co-opted if you choose to simply stay quiet, hidden, and out of sight, therefore avoiding directly getting involved or getting your hands dirty. Regardless of if you concede to the opposition or merely lay low, you need to realize that both types of action lead to accepting the secular culture’s truth, not Our Lord’s, and your actions are basically agreeing to spend the rest of your life and eventually allowing your children to spend their future lives shouting, “Uncle!” and giving in to the bully who is twisting your arm behind your back as you writhe in pain.

By not taking noticeable, shameless action to resist the world – i.e., today’s profane culture – but instead hiding or giving in, and thus submitting yourself to a permanent anti-God society, you are turning your eyes from God. If you allow the world to assimilate you, you are refusing to use your free will to choose not only what Jesus told us we must do but also to avoid at any cost what He forbade us to allow.

So how do you keep from getting co-opted by the world?

The solution is to not fold or hide, but to stand firm and not fall for the opposition’s manufactured outrages that try to convince you your beliefs are so-called hate-speech, racist, or phobic. These labels will be screamed at you not only by immoral politicians, godless celebrities, propagandist media, and corrupt educational institutions, but, sadly, by a next door neighbor, some fellow school parents, and even a few of your relatives. With the thick skin that is required in these instances, calmly tell the opposition that you will never accept their lies and never stop telling the truths that you know are correct – such as that there are no such things as “gay marriage” or “transgenderism,” that gender is not “assigned at birth,” that belief in a “white privilege” philosophy actually undermines blacks, and that the baby in the womb is a person and not “just a clump of cells.”

Of course, unlike their side, you are not to resort to screaming and name-calling. In fact, you need to have compassion for those opponents who might be ignorant or who aren’t wise or strong enough to think for themselves, but instead like sheep easily get themselves corralled into the world. But please note, compassion does not mean capitulating to their delusional thoughts or ignoring their fictional misrepresentations. Ignoring or capitulating would be misplaced-compassion, not true compassion.

Burying your head in the sand and justifying it by telling yourself what other people do is entirely their own business and has nothing to do with you translates as you refusing to confront sin. You’re basically telling God that you’d rather embrace a worldly attitude than make yourself uncomfortable.

God expects us to exhort and encourage our fellow man and woman in relation to areas of struggle, whether it is them living in sexual sin or debasing human life. The Bible has no verse that reads, “If you find a brother or sister in sin, keep silent, leave them alone, and stay out of their business.”

Obviously, it doesn’t feel good to be hated, which is why there are so many sheep-like masses who either concede or stay quiet, so that society will not hate them and they can live comfortably. It is difficult to endure the scorn, persecution, and attacks of those who hate you.

There are other reasons besides not wanting to be hated that so many people either join the masses or at best stay silent when depravity and God-mocking is waved right in front of their faces.

We concede or hide because we are too weak to say “No,” or because we don’t want the hassle, or because we fear bad press (resulting in friends deserting us) or bad outcomes (like getting fired), or because our ethics have evolved and we don’t truly believe that what that other person is doing is that bad in today’s world.

Regardless of the reason for burying our heads or justifying and endorsing others rights to live their lives, we are wrong if we don’t point out immoralities and take a stance. We are not in this world to be liked or to feel comfortable. The path to Heaven is not only narrow, but it is not for the faint of heart.

Read what Jesus told his disciples right before he was about to be arrested and crucified:

“A little while, and you will see me no more; again a little while, and you will see me.”  Some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he says to us, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’; and, ‘because I go to the Father’?”  They said, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not know what he means.”  Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him; so he said to them, “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while, and you will see me’?  Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy... I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:16-20;33)

Reflect on these words of Jesus. He is not just trying to inform us, but He goes on to console us, letting us know that He offers us His strength and courage to endure the world’s hate with joy in knowing that all that matters is the way and the truth of Our Lord. We were not made for this world. We were made for Someone who is infinite, who alone can satisfy us.

So why in a “parenting blog” am I writing about the importance of adult Catholics/Christians not caving in to worldly temptations and not allowing peer pressure to make you accept the popular culture’s corruption and immorality? Because as your children’s most important role model, they will be observing you and seeing how you act and what you say during the times when the culture not only disapproves of your family’s authentically Christian lifestyle, but also opposes, loathes, abhors, and detests your lifestyle, demonstrating that the world hates you.

Your family shows the world that you are not a part of it when you do things that the popular culture sees as strange at best and hateful at worse. These actions could include:

• going to Mass weekly;
• saying grace before meals, even in public at a restaurant;
• not celebrating so-called pride-month and not attending a so-called gay-wedding;
• not continuing to shop at stores or do business with organizations that aggressively promote so-called gay pride or transgenderism;
• wearing modest clothing;
• not using curse words;
• attending a faithful Catholic school or home-schooling;
• not supporting movements such as BLM or DEI that much of today’s society views as virtuous but you know are actually racist or marxist;
• refusing to use one’s so-called preferred pronouns.

Your children need you to explain to them and demonstrate to them how if you live your life as Jesus expects, not as the world wants one to, the love and presence of Jesus and His Father will bring you encouragement and comfort.

There is a saying that says, “God reduced your circle of friends because he heard conversations you did not.” Your kids will most likely not want to be counter-cultural because they will see that standing firm in authentic Christian values will lessen their circle of friends. Explain to your sons/daughters that this is a type of sifting process in which God has a hand. Although losing a couple of “good” friends is initially painful, in time it will be obvious they weren’t true friends and these losses were actually wins. Every friendship they lose will eventually be replaced with a new, more purposeful connection or a needed lesson. You want your youngsters to have faith that as they continue on their life journey, God will send them a new circle of friends to help them live their lives well and get their priorities in order – unexpected friends whom they wouldn’t necessarily have chosen on their own.

There will still be despair and resistance from your kids as they experience their circle of friends shrinking before these new (God-endorsed) friends appear and new lessons are learned, so you will have to repeatedly assure them that there will be more grief in the long run if they try to hold onto what God is trying to take away. It will take strong spines for your kids to suffer persecution from the evil culture, but as a loving parent you will want to ingrain in your children the understanding that their objective is not to gain the acceptance of the world during their lifetime, but at the end of their life to gain acceptance into Heaven. The Catechism defines Heaven as “the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.” Doesn’t this sound like a better reward than being liked by a depraved society?

Use the various passages in the Gospel to teach your children that during His ministry on earth, Jesus spoke of three enemies of our soul – the flesh, the devil, and the world. At your children’s appropriate age-level and vocabulary, explain how if one belongs to the world, it means that this person allows himself or herself to be negatively influenced by the myriad of lies rooted in the world via everything from the media to the entertainment industry to powerful immoral movements. One is constantly drawn in to the world, tempted to believe that happiness is found in things such as attaining money, being seen as physically attractive, and satisfying our sexual desires.

Here are just a few examples of what you’ll find in Scripture and what you can use as discussion-starters with your children…

When you pray as a family, at times include something like this: “Lord, help us to understand that life is short and that this world is passing away. May we value the things of heaven more than we value the things of this world.”

As a faithful Catholic family, if you do not experience any form of hatred from the world, then this should be a concern and a cause for reflection. And if you do experience some form of hatred, you and your children need to know that our Lord prepared you for this and offers you His strength and courage to endure it with joy. In the end, all that matters is what our Lord thinks—and nothing else. In the end, if you experience hatred by the world in any form, know that this makes you more like Christ Himself.