Lefty Nonprofits Hold Measure C Hostage

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've talked often about this phenomenon that happens in local
Fresno politics. These left wing nonprofit groups who find some
kind of governmental entity that they can hang around, some
governmental entity with a budget that they can hang out with,

(00:20):
hang around, and they sit in a nearby tree like
vultures waiting waiting for some carcass to fall on the
ground in the form of a government contract for some
kind of services. These left wing nonprofit groups, who call
themselves community groups, act as though they are the representatives

(00:43):
of the community, usually of South Presno, and they do
everything in their power to try to get as much
money for themselves as they can under the guise of
doing something good for the environment or doing something good
for the whoor or whatever it is. And we have
a big instance of that going on right now.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
With Measure C.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Measure C is the county sales tax to help pay
for roads. There was an effort to renew Measure C
in twenty twenty two.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
It failed. It got a majority of the vote, it
did not pass.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
I think it's a sixty percent threshold that it needed
to pass according to California law in order to become effective.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Why did it not pass well.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
It is alleged that Measure C did not pass, and
it seems that every local government wants this. All of
the mayors of all the different president county cities seem
to want it. It's thought that it did not pass
because of liberal activist groups working together under this umbrella

(01:58):
organization called Transportation for All, which is led by quote
advocacy groups Fresno Building Healthy Communities run by Sandra Burnham
all Down Celadon and the Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability.

(02:18):
These are two huge left wing nonprofits. So all these
local mayors they want Measure seat of pass because they
want to fix roads. Okay, the city of Fresno has
something like a billion dollars worth of delayed repair costs

(02:41):
for roads that it's behind on. All these local governments
are desperate for sources of tax revenue because they can't
spend in the red. Okay, this is a fundamental principle
by the way of how state and local governments act.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
They are desperate for funds.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
They are desperate sources of cash because, unlike the federal government,
they can't spend into the red. Right, if local governments
or state governments spend into the red they can't keep
printing money. So basically, local governments are desperate to get

(03:21):
some sort of new source of revenue on top of
whatever it is that they already get in order to
fix all the roads and build all the roads that
they think need to be built. So they're hoping that
a sales tax, often a sales tax is a decent
vehicle because you can make some claim.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
Well, it's only a quarter of a cent for every
dollar you spend extra, it's only half of a cent
for every dollar you spend will go towards roads, not
acknowledging that you know, if we do that for a
lot of things, you know eventually costs of goods really
goes up.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Anyway, the thought was that Measure C failed last time
in twenty two because of left wing groups, these left
wing groups who were frustrated who wanted the Measure C
funding to go towards other kinds of things other than
just road repairs. Now, basically what you have is the

(04:19):
Fresno county mayors who work together in this organization called
the Fresno Council of Governments and the Fresno Council of
Governments overseas. How Measure C spending is spent, they give
the final approval. However, it seems that what's happening is

(04:44):
they want to reintroduce Measure C, but they're afraid of
all these liberal activist groups like Fresno Building Healthy Communities
and Leadership Council for Justice Accountability. They are afraid of
these activist groups stopping Measure C, possibly by sponsoring a
competing ballot initiative. So it'll be hard for Measures C

(05:05):
to pass if there's some other ballot initiative on the
ballot about allocating county wide money for roads, because basically,
Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability for those who don't
know who they are, they hate all development, they hate
all movement of cars. Basically, all they're gonna want is

(05:28):
stuff for like public transportation and various kinds of green initiatives. So,
just for context, I've talked about it a bunch of
times on the show. The most ridiculous example of a
sequel lawsuit, the California Environmental Quality Act California Environmental Quality
Act's been on the books for forever, was signed by
Governor Reagan. Another terrible, horrible liberal thing that Reagan did

(05:51):
when he was Governor of California.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Where.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Basically one of the things it does is it allows
anybody to sue a business, a corporate entity, government entity
doing some kind of development or construction project, to sue
on the grounds that their environmental review for whatever this
new thing is that they're building is insufficient. That's what

(06:18):
Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability does.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
They sue people.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
For allegedly insufficient environmental reviews. They all basically they find
some community, they find something that's being developed, They will
find two people from that community willing to sign a petition,
and then they'll say, ah, yes, on behalf of the
poor citizens of whatever, of this part of Fresno or
this town in the San Juaque Valley, we are suing

(06:45):
to stop the production of this horrible, polluting whatever it is,
even though and they are pretending like they're standing for
the citizenry of whatever this town is, when really they
got like five people to sign a petition. The most
absurd example of this that Leadership Council for Justice and

(07:06):
Accountability did was when they sued to stop the establishment
of a clean energy, green energy hydrogen power plant in Pixley, California.
Why on the grounds that it would increase truck traffic
in Pixley. I don't know if any of you guys

(07:29):
have been to Pixley, you've probably driven through it, possibly
in your truck, because Pixley is just a pit stop
on the ninety nine. The whole town is not more
than a mile away from the ninety nine. About one
hundred million gajillion trucks drive through Pixley all the time.

(07:49):
The idea that four trucks a day or something stopping
in Pixley to drop off I guess liquid hydrogen in
order to be processed to produce energy, that four trucks stop,
or however many trucks stopping is going to appreciably increase
pollution in the town of Pixley is to my eyes,

(08:12):
completely absurd. But that's the extent to which they are
opposed to human activity. That they would stop the establishment
of a green energy power plant because they think it
causes too much environmental damage with no thought of like well,
you know, in the aggregate here, like you know, replacing

(08:32):
you know, gas power plants or oil power plants with
or coal power plant whatever, with green energy, you know,
zero emissions hydrogen plant, which Gavin Newsom has set a
lot of hopes and dreams on these hydrogen power plants.
Wouldn't that be a good idea to do? You know,
why should we stop that with an environmental lawsuit weapon

(08:54):
when it's going to have a better effect.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
No, No, there's going to be truck traffic. So that
that's the level of insane the these people are.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
So the Fresno Council of Governments is basically they want
to renew Measure C. They're afraid of this coalition of
left wing groups under the heading of Transportation for All.
They're afraid of Fresno Building Healthy Communities, which is run
by Sandra Seladon. Sandra Sladon, who's running for the State

(09:22):
Assembly and who famously, during the George Floyd riots, tweeted
out a video of a Minneapolis police precinct building burning
to the ground with the.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Heading burn them all Down, Burn them all Down. That's
her nonprofit that she runs.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
So you got Fresno Building Healthy Communities, Leadership, Council for
Justice and Accountability, all these other left wing groups, the
mayors of the different Fresno County cities, the mayors and
city councils of the Fresno county cities are afraid of
that group of left wingers running a competing ballot initiative

(10:04):
against Measure C to stop its passage and prevent the
kinds of road funding that the various Fresno County mayors
think is necessary.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
So what do they do. They broker a deal with
these left of wingers.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
To have Okay, even though the final decisions of how
Fresno how Measure C funding will still be in the
hands of the Fresno County Council, of the Fresno Council
of Governments, the final decision will still be in the
hands of the representatives of all the city councils in

(10:50):
Fresno County. They're going to create a steering committee for
Measure C funding, and they're gonna give the left wingers
twelve out of the thirty eight seats on the steering committee. Basically,

(11:13):
the steering committee, like the whole city of Fresno, only
has three votes on the steering committee. These left wing
nonprofit groups who represent exactly zero people elected by exactly
zero people, have twelve of the seats. So but the

(11:38):
thought is, we gotta get their input or else they're
gonna stop this thing. From getting passed. Frankly, I don't
know if it was them that stopped it from getting passed.
I bet Measure C failed in no small measure, probably
just as much on the strength of conservatives who just
and just remember Fresno County has it went read in

(11:58):
twenty twenty four, vote for Donald Trump in twenty twenty four.
There are a lot of conservatives in Presno County who vote,
who just say no to any tax.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Period. I don't know that it was just these this
liberal group.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
I don't know why we're going to bend over backwards
to placate this liberal group for fear that they're going
to screw the whole thing up. And here's the thing, Okay,
there's this steering committee, and then the actual decision is
made by the council, the Fresno Council of Government. So
the Fresno Council of Governments is composed of representatives from

(12:36):
the city councils or the mayors of all the different
cities in Fresno County. Fresno Council Governments has the last
say on how Measure C funds are going to be used.
But they have a steering committee and they're giving twelve
of the thirty eight seats to these left wing nonprofit groups.
They have more representation than the City of Fresno does

(12:57):
on this steering committee. So Gary Bredefeld, I think rightly
points out that this is basically blackmail. They're trying to
hold the process hostage under this threat that they're going
to run a competing a ballot initiative to try to

(13:18):
stop it.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
But their demands are silly. The huge majority of this
needs to.

Speaker 1 (13:24):
Go towards actual road improvements, not some kind of left
wing projects about public transportation or whatnot. Gary Brettefeld said,
the Council of Governments allowed themselves, in a sense, to
be blackmailed. That's really what this is about, Brettefeld said.
And they let them put twelve people on a steering
committee that has a total of twenty six before they

(13:45):
do it. The City of Fresno only has three. Most
of the cities in Fresno County only have one representative.
I think Brettefeld's right. Why do they have this much representation?
It's basically blackmail. And here's the thing. When we return,

(14:08):
I want to talk about what I think is the
dumbest quote and what this steering committee is going to
wind up doing the dumbest quote from this story.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Coming from unfortunately a.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
Representative from my own beloved the hamlet of Clovis, California.
And what this steering committee is going to function to do.
That's next on the John Girardi Show. So this is
the layout of the situation. The Fresno County Council of
Governments has representation from leadership of all of the cities

(14:46):
as well as the Fresno County Board of Supervisors in
Fresno County. They are supposed to decide how to direct
Measure C funding countywide sales tax for row in transportation.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
Measure C was.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Gonna get renewed in twenty twenty two. It failed to
get the necessary number of votes for renewal. It is
thought that the reason it failed is because it was
opposed by all the left wing nonprofit pressure groups like
Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability, Fresno Building Healthy Communities.
Now the Fresno Council of Governments is setting up a

(15:23):
steering committee. It's not going to determine how the measure
seed money is spent, but it is going to recommend
how the measure seed money is spent to the Council
of Governments, and they're gonna give the left wing nonprofit
groups twelve of the thirty eight seats.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
On the steering committee.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Again, left wing nonprofit groups who were elected by exactly
zero people who represent exactly zero people in Presno County who.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
Died and made them pope. I query to use one
of my dad's beloved expressions.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Now, I think the dumbest quote in this story about
this comes from Clovis City Council Member Lynn Ashbeck, who

(16:19):
seemingly is trying to shush criticism of giving these left
wing nonprofit groups this big seat on this steering committee
to quell opposition nonprofit Central Valley Community Foundation broker to
deal between Fresno Council of Governments and Transportation for All

(16:42):
in presenting the so.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
Lynn Ashbec is presenting this plan.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Lynn Ashbek, whom I've talked about a lot on this show,
who is I think a much more moderate to liberal
person on the Clovis City Council than a lot of
people give or credit for close. City Council Member Lynn
Ashbec told the Council of Governments that numbers the number
of representatives that these left wing nonprofit groups get on

(17:10):
this steering committee aren't relevant.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
The numbers aren't relevant. Why well, because the ultimate decision
remains with the Council of Governments. The number ASHBEC says
is sort of a red herring that people want.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
To argue about, because God forbid people argue. This seems
to be Lynn Ashbec's big thing. Don't anybody argue about anything.
There's boys competing in the girls track and Field championships
up you Canon, Hey, other members of the closed City Council.
Don't argue about it. Don't make a big deal about it.

(17:53):
Don't ever raise an argument against a liberal ever. Now
Kingsburg Mayor Brandon Percell, whose city gets only one vote
Mayor of Kingsburg, Brandon Purcell, who has actually been elected

(18:15):
by somebody somewhere, unlike anyone from Leadership Council for Justice
and Accountability, unlike anyone from Fresnobility and Healthy Communities, unlike
Sandra Celadon. Kingsburg Mayor Brandon Purcell, presumably elected by at
least some group of people in Kingsburg and whose city
only gets one vote on this steering committee said that

(18:36):
for a potential six billion dollar measure, numbers do matter.
He said much about the plan wasn't clear. He didn't
know what would happen if the group doesn't If the
Steering Committee doesn't come to an agreement with thirty three
percent of the vote, if the Transportation for All votes
were united, they could stall moving the plan forward, which

(18:58):
requires a seventy percent agreement. He also didn't understand why
having why Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability thought having
twelve votes was so important. I think I do because
you apparently you need seventy percent of the votes on

(19:18):
the Steering Committee to advance a proposal, and Leadership Council
for Justice and Accountability wants to block any proposal from
going forward, so they have slightly more than thirty percent
of the vote. He proposed that giving the group four

(19:39):
votes still more than other advocacy groups such as Fresno
County Chamber of the Presno Chamber of Commerce, Tree Fresno,
and the Building Industry Association, which each get one vote.
We're showing your respect by giving you four times the
amount as the rest of us have, Purcell said, if
it's not control, if it's not a future g if

(20:00):
there's no ulterior motives or anything which If that's the case,
it shouldn't be an issue at all. You're still taking
more than any other city transportation for all representatives. Representative
for the left wing groups. Andy Levine also a Fresno
Unified School trustee. Ah, so we know about Andy. Let's

(20:20):
mark down the name Andy Levine. Presumably going to be
running as a Democrat for the city council or something
in or maybe wait, was he already running for city council?

Speaker 2 (20:29):
He might.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
I know there were some people from the Presno County,
from the Presdent Unified Board of Trustees.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Who are like planning to run for city council. He said.

Speaker 1 (20:39):
The group represents a coal it represents nobody. It represents
a nonprofit organization. These nonprofit groups, these left wing nonprofit
groups constantly try to present themselves as the true voice
of the benighted in Fresno, in spite of the fact
that they were elected by nobody.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
They are nonprofit groups founded with outside money, much of
it from LA to do left wing crap. He said.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
The group represents a coalition of many voices and they
should all get a voice. No, it represents your nonprofit
It's frankly disrespectful. I think to our current coalition and
Steering Committee to say that only a couple of us
can represent the entire committee, and Seladan said that the

(21:29):
group would only reduce its representation if the Fresno County
Council of Governments reduced its numbers as well, because she
wants more than thirty percent.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
So again, the Steering Committee advances the proposal. To advance
a proposal, they need seventy percent of the vote. She
wants more than thirty percent of the vote, so she
can gear the proposal to her will with this blackmail
threat all along of we're going to run a competing
ballot initiative to stop Measure C if you don't PLACATEOS.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
This is total And here's Lynn Ashpeck saying, Oh, the
numbers don't matter. Clearly, the numbers matter. They clearly matter,
very deeply.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Because here's the thing, Okay, the Steering Committee gives some
stupid liberal ideal.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
It's not like the Council of Governments can just ignore it.
If the Council of Governments just ignores it, then huge
public stink. You're ignoring the input of community organizations. Fresno
b writes a bunch of negative stories and you're in
the same place. You'll have the left wing groups starting

(22:41):
a competing ballot initiative. You'll have the competing the left
wing groups opposing Measure C if they don't get what
they want. So how can you say the numbers don't matter.
Of course, the numbers matter because if these left wing
groups veto power, and they're obviously all united, they're all

(23:03):
kind of like working together. Because, by the way, a
bunch of these groups are funded by the same I
mean all these nonprofits that are part of this Transportation
for All group. They receive funding either from Building Healthy

(23:24):
Communities or Leadership Council for Justice and Peace like Cultiva
La Salute, the Central California Environmental Justice Network, Faith in
the Valley the Heresy in the Valley as it should
be called. It's basically a coalition of all the most
liberal churches in Fresno. So this idea that the numbers
don't matter, Yeah, they're probably gonna band together. They'll block

(23:45):
the Steering Committee from presenting anything they don't like. They'll
present something left wing from the Steering Committee or more
left wing from the Steering Committee. Council of Governments will
reject it, and they'll oppose Measure C. I mean, seems
like that's what we're setting up. And I'll bet, and
this was kind of hinted at in the article, whatever
they are proposing to do with Measure C, it's going

(24:05):
to be somehow involving a grant of government, a government
contract to them. I bet that's what's going to happen
when we return. A roundup of Catholic stuff next on
John Jerrardy Show. All Right, this is kind of a
scattershot segment, but I have a couple of different Catholic
things I want to talk about. If I had a
three hour show, I would talk about them over the

(24:26):
course of three hours. I only have one hour with
you Find People, So I'm gonna kind of scatter this
around here. So let's see where will I start. I
think I want to start with a Catholic priest in
England denied someone Holy Communion and it made it's making

(24:46):
a big stink in Catholicism across the pond. All right,
So you've got this big problem in Catholic life where
there is a genuine divide for way too many people
who identify as Catholics, who maybe go to Mass on
Sunday between of something ranging from either ignorance to knowledge

(25:10):
but lack of care about how your faith should impact
your public life and how it should impact your life
as it relates to politics. Not only individual rank and
file Catholics who have to decide how am I going
to vote, what do I support, what do I oppose?

Speaker 2 (25:30):
How do I vote?

Speaker 1 (25:31):
How should I exercise my right to vote? How should
I encourage my politicians, what kinds of policies should I
support or oppose?

Speaker 2 (25:39):
Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Not just for individual Catholics, but also for Catholics in
public life who hold some kind of public office. So
you have this member of Parliament, a Catholic member of
Parliament who in the same way I think he voted.
I know he voted for the assistant for the assisted

(26:06):
suicide bill in the UK. I think he may have
also voted for the abortion bill. So in one week,
the United Kingdom legalized abortion up to birth, massively expanded
their legal abortion statute, and voted to legalize physician assist
at suicide. So this Catholic member of Parliament does this,

(26:32):
his priest tells him privately, Hey, it's really wrong that
you did that. What you did was a public act
of rejecting the teaching of the Church, manifest public evil
thing that you did, so I can't give you holy communion. Now,

(26:54):
as Catholics, we think holy communion is really really important,
all right. We think that the Christ is the body
and blood and soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. That
it is Jesus Christ, really truly and substantially present. So
the reception of holy communion is a big deal. It's
not just a symbol of allowing ourselves to be fed

(27:19):
by grace from God or you know, being joined as
part of our Christ's.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
Body the church. It's a more serious engrafting.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
Into Christ's body because it's his actual body that He
allows us to take into ourselves, to receive into ourselves.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
And it's also a sign of having union with the Church.
Basically that because you're saying, I wish to unite myself
to Jesus on a personal level.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
Individually, you're not supposed to receive holy communion if you've
committed some serious sin without first seeking repentance and forgiveness
through the sacrament of confession. Now that's for private individual
sins Priests are not authorized even if they know someone
has done something in private that is bad. It's kind

(28:22):
of an impossible situation for the priest to judge when
he's distributing holy communion during mass.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
Oh did he go to confession? Is he actually sorry?
I know, but other people don't know.

Speaker 1 (28:32):
So the rule of thumb is that priests give Holy
Communion to people as they present themselves, and it's up
to the individual person receiving communion to examine their own
conscience and determine am I really in the right place
right now spiritually to be receiving Holy Communion. The only
exception to this is when giving someone communion is a
public scandal, because this person is manifestly and publicly not

(28:56):
living a life that's in accordance with Christianity.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
All right.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
If I don't know if Hugh Hefner was a baptized
Catholic or not, let's assume for the sake of argument.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
That he was.

Speaker 1 (29:09):
If Hugh Hefner showed up to church and presented himself
for receiving Holy Communion, the priest would have to be like, Hugh, buddy,
hold on here, we got to straighten some stuff out
first before you start receiving communion.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Okay, you've been supportive of some pretty heenous stuff. So
I'm not going to give you communion.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Now.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
You got to get yourself right. And that's the other thing. Wait,
priests will can make the decision to withhold communion from
someone who is engaged in manifest public actions contrary to
the faith.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
He's not doing it as a punishment. It's a it's
desired to be a corrective. It's a wake up call. Hey,
you're not living in accordance with our faith. You're doing
something that's seriously wrong, and you need to fix yourself
or you know, allow the prevenient grace of God to

(30:11):
you know, be effective and cooperate with the grace of God,
to repent of what you've done right, get your situations,
you know, fixed first, and then we will willingly and
joyfully welcome you back to the Holy community. The desire
is not that this person be kicked out of the church.
It's to correct the problem. So this priest in the

(30:39):
United Kingdom said, hey, you got to fix your situation
first before you come to receive community. And what this
member of Parliament has revealed is basically that he this
member of Parliament revealed the priest told this guy before

(31:01):
he voted on this stuff. Hey, if you vote for
these things, I have to deny you communion. The guy
voted for these things, and he still tried to present
himself for a communion. And so basically this priest said, well,
I have to follow through on this. You've publicly caused
this scandal. I have to publicly correct it. And it's

(31:25):
interesting because there was such resistance to this among sort
of more soft liberal leaning bishops in the United States
who kept trying to say, well, we shouldn't use the
Eucharist as a political weapon. Shouldn't are are we meddling
in the separation of church and state. First of all,
the argument of anything having to do with separation of
church and state is a red herring argument. It's completely ridiculous.

(31:48):
That has nothing to do with what's going on here.
This is a matter of internal Catholic Church discipline. This
person is engaged in a manifestly publicly sinful activity. Okay,
we have to decide internally how we're going to deal
with this as a church. It is not the church
interfering in politics. It's politics interfering with the church. And secondly,

(32:14):
again this is not intended to be using the Eucharist
as a weapon. It's the Church trying to correct a
wayward lost sheep. All right, So that whole story has
been raging. I hope that this priest gets supported by
whoever's bishop is. I assume it's one of the two

(32:37):
big bishops in London.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
I'm not sure. But the argument over that has been.

Speaker 1 (32:45):
It's been revealing how this member of parliament acts so aggrieved,
Like my my friend's children were, my kid's friends were
at these masses where this priest said he wasn't going
to give you a community.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
How terrible.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
Oh well for him to do this, Oh, this is
so threatening, this is terrible, and it's like, well, what
do you think this Catholic thing is. Do you think
it's something that's sort of a traditional thing having to
do with your heritage as having been I.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
Don't know for this particular member of parliament being.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Descended from Recusenting English Catholics or being a Irish descent,
or being Italian whatever. Is it something having to do
with your ethnic heritage and it's a community event that
you go to and with a social setting for friends,
or do you think that this is the revelation that
God gave to the human race for how to have

(33:41):
eternal life with him. That is that, do you think
that this Jesus Christ person was a good teacher or
is he the way, the truth in the life around
towards whom you should orient your entire existence, including your
in your personal life, your professional life, everything that everything

(34:05):
should be in reference to him. Because the Catholic Church
does not claim to be a social club. The Catholic
Church does not claim to be, you know, a nice
gathering where people receive a cracker and have a sip
of grape juice and we hang out with each other. No,
the Catholic Church thinks it's the revelation of Jesus Christ,

(34:26):
the things that it is teaching, the teaching of Jesus Christ,
that Jesus Christ is God made man, and that he
offers us eternal life, and that he is the way
and the truth in the life, and we should orient
everything we do around and towards him. So I think

(34:47):
the level of commitment that a lot of suburban Catholics
have sort of imbibed that this is what religion demands
is It's not. It's more your religion demands more of you.
And if that's not what you're willing to give, especially
when you're in a public setting. Then you got to
face some kind of consequence for that. You cannot live

(35:11):
your public life in a fashion that's totally discordant with
what the church teaches. All right, when we return a
couple of Popelio thoughts, but smacking the microphone with them
wildly gesticulating, that's next on the John Girardi Show. There
are all these old institutions in American Catholic life. Many

(35:32):
of them have died, Some of them still exist that
were built on the backs of extremely faithful, good Catholics,
and in the nineteen sixties and seventies became perverted and
corrupted by liberals, and they still kind of exist on
the strength of whatever institutional heft they were supposed to
have had prior to the nineteen sixties and seventies. One

(35:54):
of those is America Magazine, published by the Jesuits, which
is the largest community of Catholic religious in the world,
people who take vows of poverty in addition to living
lives of chastity and obedience within their specific religious structure.
They have this ridiculous article written by some young gal

(36:19):
named Grace cops. What zoramm Donni's mayoral campaign can teach
the Catholic Church about reaching gen Z. Now, my first
instinct to see this is nothing, nahing, no thing, There's
nothing the Catholic Church needs to learn from.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
Basically, I I sort of hate the lack of like
institutional confidence when people say, here's some flash in the
pan modern thing, here's what the Catholic Church needs. You know,
the Catholic Church, which is too.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Millennia old, has survived like the Roman Empire, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalins,
And I don't know however many the Holy Roman Empire
arose of, like how many different things has the Catholic
Church outlived?

Speaker 2 (37:07):
And for some reason the Catholic Church needs to take
advice about.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
The Zoron Mamdani campaign anyway, So I hate the lack
of institutional confident. Hey, maybe the Zoron Mamdani as a
thing or two he should learn from the Catholic Church,
like I don't know, don't support abortion, don't support transgenderism,
don't support this anyway.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
Her thoughts for how what the.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
Catholic Church could learn is one, get out into communities.
Because the Mamdani campaign knocked on a lot of doors,
plenty of Catholic neighborhood association getting out into communities.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Two be Cool, do a lot of social media.

Speaker 1 (37:48):
There are so many Catholic social media things you just
look just they're out there. The number one podcast in
America for a while was a Catholic priest going through
the Bible.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
In a year. Third be People of the People. Help
support more food, soup kitchens, clothing dripes. The Catholic Church
is the biggest charitable giving entity in the United States
of America. It already does all those things anyway.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
I don't think the Catholic Church needs to learn anything
from some stupid New York socialsts.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
That'll do it. John Rody Schocie next time on Power
Talk