Who Has Bewitched You?

     Galatians 3:1 is a scathing rebuke from St. Paul to the Galatian Christians who were turning away from their confirmed faith in Christ toward a legalistic acceptance of older laws and a societal pressure to conform to contradictory ideas. St. Paul exclaims, “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?” The Catholic opinion of this verse underscores the necessity of Christ's cross as the only pathway to salvific destiny. So, I ask this same question today: Who has bewitched our younger generation into abandoning what they know is intrinsically true and instead accepting radical, biological constructs which twist reality into a ghastly illusion? 

     I think I know who the real culprit was who bewitched the Galatians in St. Paul’s time and who is still doing so in our society today: He is the beggar of souls and the homeless fallen angel. He stalks around our human world brooding and sulking over his pitiful attempts to undo our salvation and our obedience to Jesus’ teachings. I can almost see his sulphuric trail of evidence which he leaves behind at every mass shooting and murder. His modus operandi is so familiar to those on the battle lines of spiritual warfare. It is surprising others cannot see the truth when they are human tools for evil—playing a part in this deception perpetrated on humanity. However, in defense of our youth, when I was college age I was duped, too. Worldly constructs blinded me for a period of time and I was spiritually adrift. I came back to my Catholic faith on a bumpy road.¹

     Societal and political bewitchment blinds the human being from understanding how hate or anger is transforming their very nature. As Evil peers out from under its sinister cloak with a rabid craving to destroy our salvation, we are at a crossroad. In this bewitched state many younger people, the next generation of potential ‘leaders’ in our country, are dismissing all reason and freedoms. So many young people today have consigned their hearts and minds to a virtual prison. Some have thrown away their keys!

     The core of the New Law is Christ’s commandment to love God and our neighbor. To love our enemies, not kill them because we do not agree with them. This love demands we go beyond the strict letter of the Old Law-the Old Covenant. We must reform our hearts and accept our mental weaknesses and overcome our raw emotions by filling our soul with God’s merciful grace, love, and perfect understanding. We struggle with God on this issue and He knows it. He knows our will is imperfect and easily susceptible to bewitchment. We have an individual choice to make: Seek God or Evil.

     Atheists continue to offer an enlightened alternative to every theological tradition. They thrive on the ability to create fictional versions of the Catholic faith.² Clearly, no mainstream Christian or Catholic denomination promotes neglecting the poor, mistreating immigrants, subjugating women, or alienating those with lifelong disabilities. But according to atheists, those of us who have a faith in God and who follow theology are guilty of every untamed and hateful point in religious history; depriving individuals of their right to dignity and self-control. By ensuring the younger generation hears these false characterizations over and over, atheists are effectively shutting down genuine theological discussion and education by labeling it “hateful” even before a fair discussion has begun. This approach lacks civil restraint.

     In my book, Speaking One’s Soul; Magnifying God’s Word in a Madly Godless World, we discuss the Catholic virtue of temperance (moderation). According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), subsidiarity proclaims that the “…community of a higher order should not interfere with or substitute for the internal life of a lower order (individuals and intermediary bodies), or depriving the latter of its functions, initiative and responsibilities, but rather should support it…always with a view to the common good.” (CCC 1883) “Solidarity is an eminently Christian virtue” that promotes the sharing of material goods, but even more so, spiritual goods. (In brief, CCC 1948). However, collectivism is opposed in all its forms as individual freedom is part of free will and one’s responsibility for their actions. (CCC 1734,1735,1738 and 1885). 

     What is the root cause of this devilish snare which bewitches those who have chosen to hurt or kill another human being simply because they disagree with their beliefs? It seems to me that woven into this web of deception is an excessive dependance on political or governmental systems. For example, teaching gender or social linguistic alignment alternatives to the marginalized or young is not true ‘education’ as we know it. Instead, we should be teaching neighborliness and citizenship while encouraging well-earned academic accomplishments in classrooms across America; self-agency. Teaching young people how to respect their neighbors and how to respect the United States of America, the country they live in and all it stands for, seems like a better way to stop “hate speech” from taking root in a young heart. 

     According to the Survey Center on American Life, “Since teenage socializing occurs less often than it once did, it is not surprising that feelings of loneliness and social isolation are more prevalent than they once were. More than six in ten (61 percent) Gen Z adults say they felt lonely or isolated during at least some of their teen years. Fifty-seven percent of millennials say the same.”³ Today, unlike a few decades ago, if a teen is isolated, feeling angry and confused, or has feelings of loneliness, a well documented medium called “social media” can become a friend-like, echo chamber and incubator for the dissemination of highly charged ideology. 

     Many of the marginalized groups in society right now, like those who experience gender illusion, bond together in these web chambers and act out against other people in a form of collectivism—static group think (gang mentality). Eventually, ‘group loneliness’ and isolation inside these echo chambers becomes a virtual prison. Pessimism becomes the poison they feed themselves day after day. 

     As a faithful Catholic society we must teach our young children to reject collectivism as it diminishes the value of the individual person (soul) and a male or female right to think freely. Collectivism squashes personal charity, hope, suppresses reconciliation with neighbors and enemies, and enslaves people to political movements which are ruled by a few atheistic elites. These elites use our youth as human shields to protect themselves from having to do the ‘boots on the ground’ dirty work of creating chaos themselves.⁴ Once the youth are completely indoctrinated they can become cruel human beings. 

     The assassination of Charlie Kirk is a classic example of how a young man can and did get lost in a radical ideology and killed another human being; this was not self-defense or temporary insanity. So what is it? A bewitchment which manifested the ideology it espoused. A false characterization designed to take impressionable or vulnerable people away from the truth; to lead them to an unmoored life, mentally adrift and spiritually homeless. 

     Exodus 20:16, the ninth commandment, reminds us to represent the view of others accurately, even when we do not agree with their views. “Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.” This commandment commands us to intellectual honesty rather than hyperbolic mischaracterization. Jesus exemplified this ability by engaging fairly in discourse with his opponents. Jesus did not create false versions of his critics, but they created false characterizations of Him. And in frustration for failing to disprove His truth and love for all men, they viciously murdered Jesus. 

     Rather than allowing deceptively false views to describe Christianity by what it supposedly ‘hates’ we might better define it by what it affirms: the dignity and individual right of every human being who is made by God in His image. We have the right to live our faith and speak about it freely and openly, to educate others about our faith, to accept the call for compassion and understanding for all of God’s children when we must, and to seek the transformative power of God’s Mercy that asks us to grow our soul and cultivate our salvation even in the face of threat or risk of death. 

Sources:

1. Patti Hershwitzky and Mary Sobel Ott, Speaking One’s Soul; Magnifying God’s Word in a Madly Godless World, St. Louis, Missouri, En Route Books and Media, LLC, (2025).

2. American Atheists, “A Catholic Asks a Question; An Atheist Responds”, (July, 2013) (https://www.atheists.org/ 2013/07/a-catholic-asks- questions-an-atheist-responds/ ).

3. Survey Center on American Life, “Generation Z and the Transformation of American Adolescence: How Gen Z’s Formative Experiences Shape Its Politics, Priorities, and Future.”, (November 2023), (https://www. americansurveycenter.org/ research/generation-z-and-the- transformation-of-american- adolescence-how-gen-zs- formative-experiences-shape- its-politics-priorities-and- future/).

4. Study.com, “Collectivist Culture | Definition, Countries & Examples”, (https://study.com/academy/ lesson/collectivist-culture- definition-examples.html#:~: text=For example, Japan, China,,4:38)