Mortal Sins in the Book "Original Sin"

 
Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s  Original Sin:  President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again should rightfully irritate faithful Catholics.  Mainstream articles and reviews to date ignore the “demons in the room” and that this spiritually abysmal tome teases a conversion of sorts, but,  in actuality, generates luciferian pokes at fidelity to truth.  Admittedly original sin is the root of our troubles, but it is mortal sin that  keeps us rolling down a slippery slope to hell; gives cover to the father of lies; and impels our marathon away from Truth revealed in Jesus Christ.  More crucially, our immersion into the darkness spreads much farther and further than the White House to every nook and cranny of governance in every state across the nation.

 
Given the audacious growing rebellion against God over the past two centuries, is it too much to hope for a mainstream “aha” book that finally admits grievous wrong doing with a promise to “confess, do penance, and amend lives”?  Rather we receive a tale about a sloppy, not admittedly sinful,  enculturation of tyranny under the banner of “saving democracy”— not souls — the collectivists’ objective all along.  

 
Original Sin, while outing some bad actors in this dreary drama,  avoids the multitude of chronic and pervasive, spiritually deadly offenses that led to this debacle.  It ignores the fatal flaws of those who either do not know God or outright reject him.  One glaring proof:  The White House sources for the book have not to date apologized for their hubris, and soul numbed Americans seem nonplussed by this. 

Of course what can we expect from authors (and perhaps the publisher) more intent on a catchy book title than any in-depth introspection?  It is telling that Tapper once interpreted his waxing and waning Judaism as God  “preferring that I spend more time devoted to doing good deeds.” (Jewish Insider, February 20, 2018).  Of course, how one defines “good” is another matter though Tapper presents a composite picture of a man with self developed morality.   Furthermore, nothing “pops” in determining his co-author’s religious beliefs, and Wikipedia shares a mere three sentences on Thompson’s personal life.  

 
In other words, this is the blind leading the blind, a book with salacious gossip as its foundation, and not even fresh revelations for those who had “sight”  all along, detected the evil swirling in DC and elsewhere, but have been silenced or denounced when warning anyone.  I suppose the authors would say that they never intended their work to be a spiritual treatise, and that is fair enough.  Then, do not tease “sin” at all.

 
We must denounce this slippery deceit and call for the intercession of the saints.  Herein are four, two of whom are Doctors of the Church,  and two patrons of writing and journalists at previous critical junctures in recent world history.  Based on the book’s title, it might be prudent to start with a genuine understanding of original sin, and who better than the “Angelic Doctor” and one of the Church’s greatest philosophers,  St. Thomas Aquinas.

 
Summarizing, this master theologian describes the wounds of original sin:  concupiscence,  whereby our nature, deprived of moderate reason inclines us towards sin.  Ignorance distorts that which is prudent, whereby we are deprived of the “order to the true. “Malice deprives us of “order to the good”; and we also experience general weakness, in spirit losing its arduousness, but physically including death. 

 
Thus, when man lost sanctifying grace, the will was much more sorely tempted and vulnerable to sin.  Consider that millions of our “neighbors”  have abandoned virtue or displaced them with humanistic values, lack  grace and so fall prey to the consequences of these defects, namely by actual sin and most lethally, mortal sin.

 
Moreover, a mortal sin is a mortal sin, breaking friendship with God,  regardless of darkened intellect.  Or, put another way that even secularists can understand, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse” though an individual person’s culpability is ultimately God’s judgment.  Still, presumption about God’s mercy is a fool’s gamble.

 
A truly helpful expose would (have) included the necessity of having an informed intellect about objective truth that includes the risk of separation from God, eternally.  However, this mandates authentically Catholic journalism, following in the footsteps of holy giants in this field.  

 
To name and describe a few such writers and journalists, St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), who confronted the Reformation;  St. Maximillian Kolbe (1894-1941), who is most known for his martyrdom in Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp, but prior prolifically addressed 20th Century spiritual turmoil; and most recently St. Titus Brandsma, a martyred Dutch Carmelite priest and theologian (1881-1942), who refused to publish Nazi propaganda, among other heroic deeds.  (As a side note, I find it intriguing that two identified patrons of journalism fought the evil of actual fascism  and anti-Semitism in contemporary history.)  However, all trustworthy Catholic journalists, through Church history, perhaps starting with St. John the Apostle, have remained steadfast and courageous but also sacrificially loving in authentically reporting on Truth.

 
Doctor of the Church St. Francis de Sales (Introduction to a Devout Life), patron of writers, journalists, and the Catholic press, while clear on obeying rightful hierarchical authority, also insisted that they (persons in authority over us) should discharge their duties in love and look to themselves in regard to their own conduct.  That might be restated as rulers’ need for regular examinations of conscience.  

 
In addressing the grave sin of slander, he provided the caveat that “we can speak openly of infamous, public, and notorious sinners, provided it is in the spirit of charity and compassion and not arrogantly and presumptuously.”  However, he excluded the declared enemies of God and his Church, and said, “It is our duty to denounce as strongly as we can heretical and schismatic sects and their leaders. (Italic emphasis mine.)  It is an act of charity to cry out against the wolf when he is among the sheep, wherever he is.( The Third Part, 28).  With respect to present anti-Christian government, he would have called Catholics to courageous and sacrificial witness, in print and word.

 
In an insightful essay on sin, Alice von Hildebrand, widow of another famous anti-Nazi journalist and prolific writer, Dietrich von Hildebrand, also addressed the wisdom of St. Francis de Sales for a troubled modern world.  While distinguishing between the sin and the sinner, she nonetheless emphasized that “Sin by its nature is hateful and should be condemned.”  Though the world has cleverly hijacked such condemnation under the cloak of compassion, she asserted that “not to condemn sin is a lack of charity.” (May 28, 2015 Catholic News Agency).  I would add, it is also a sin of grave omission that neglects souls on the path to perdition.  

 
St. Maximillian Kolbe, a patron saint of journalists, once aspired to be a soldier to save Poland.  In his role before surrendering his life for another, St. Kolbe founded the Knights of the Immaculata, a force for the Church Militant that relied on Mary, foremost in the battle against sin, to rescue souls in accordance with carrying one’s cross.  Also founder of the City of the Immaculata, a Roman Catholic religious community, all authentic journalism justly covers human persons and events through the prism of the City of God. 

 
St. Titus was acclaimed by Mr. Loup Besmond de Senneville, President of the International Association of Journalists for his spiritual advisement of the association encouraging Catholic newspapers to resist German Nazi pressure.  Ambassador Weijers, then Netherlands Ambassador to the Vatican,  noted that “The life of Titus shows the importance of having a strong moral compass.”  (Contrast this with another recent Biden pile on book whereby the human secularist authoress asserts she will be following her own compass.) Dr. Bahia Tahzib-Lie, Human Rights Ambassador at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, said  “He emphasized that love is stronger than an ideology that preaches hatred.”  (Vatican News, May 14, 2022)

 
Obviously Tapper’s Original Sin contains nothing of the wisdom of the Church Fathers, adherence to Church teachings, or lessons from these (or other)  Saints.   Yet, it is imperative always to pursue that guidance in order to ever cultivate virtue and avoid offending not just God, but then also our neighbors unjustly. 

While citizens of heaven, we are presently citizens of the world who are expected to be the “gatekeepers” when government goes awry and rebels against God.  While recognizing our weakened nature since the Fall that brought about original sin, we cannot excuse actual transgressions, often manifested in abuses of power and disorderly decrees and mandates that lead people away from truth and cause them to stumble on the way to their eternal native land.

 
In genuine charity we must decry today’s “progressives,” actually regressive,  and the audacity revealed in such works like Tapper and Thompson’s book Original Sin.  Explicitly, we must condemn that which opposes the eternal law and through candid analysis re orient society to right conscience.  We must pray to Jesus Christ, Our Divine Physician who seeks to free us—yes, from physical ailments—but always as a means to eradicate sin in our lives and avoid death in our souls.  

In the final analysis I hope and pray that Original Sin results in good,  demonstrating that the world hungers for a truly original thesis, like  Mortal Sin:  America’s Decline into Darkness, the Cover-up of the Father of Lies, and the Disastrous Choice to Run from Truth.