Something is wrong in Louisiana at a very deep level. Stories of horrific crimes committed by Louisiana’s youths continue to surface. Two recent examples illustrate this. The first is an act of human murder:

A former city councilman in the Webster Parish city of Minden and his daughter are shot dead, and the suspect is a ten-year-old boy.

Joe Cornelius, 82, and his daughter Keisha Miles, 31, were found dead inside their home at around 6:30 Sunday morning.

There were two juveniles inside the home at the time.

“Through piecing all the evidence together, getting all the resources together, we were able to figure out that one of the juveniles had committed this crime,” says Jared McIver, Minden police chief. “Surprising that the juvenile is ten years old and just shot both victims.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Minden Police have corrected the boy’s age to 11.)

Chief McIver says the investigation ruled out any notion that this was an accidental shooting.

“It’s one thing if the juvenile was playing with the gun and accidentally shot (the victims),” McIver notes. “But these victims, they had multiple gunshot wounds, which signifies it was not an accidental shooting or self defense or anything like that.”

At this time, it’s unclear what led to the shooting.

A child murdering his elders is one of the most subversive, satanic acts imaginable. Yet we cannot dwell on this act, for there is another to look at as well, an act of cruelty to animals:

An 18-year-old Caldwell Parish man is arrested for allegedly strangling a spotted fawn.

The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says Taryn Varnell of Grayson was captured on video taking the deer in Caldwell Parish and choking it to death. Back on July 9, investigators were looking into an unrelated incident when they discovered the video.

“They stumbled upon the video,” says Senior Agent Michael Thacker. “I wasn’t expecting it. It shocked the conscience, that’s for sure.”

The video was graphic.

“The individual choked the fawn out,” says Thacker. “He stood it up, lifted it overhead and slammed it back to earth in an aggressive manner.”

Louisianans have been watching evil acts like these occur for years, but have not responded collectively in the necessary ways until recently. Yet even that has been timid: requiring signs in schools displaying the words ‘In God We Trust’ and displaying the Ten Commandments (which have yet to make it into classrooms). Better was the law allowing Christian chaplains to be present in public schools again.

More robust and confident actions are called for. The Christian Faith is growing weaker; it needs to be strengthened. Pagan philosophies and religions are not strong enough to conquer and heal disordered human passions that have been damaged by the Fall. Reverend Alban Butler writes,

Antoninus was in the dark as to the most important of all points in morality, the end of man. If he believed that the soul does not perish in death, and speaks sometimes like Plato of a future state of rewards and punishments, he, in other places, doubts whether its destination is not to pass by a metempsychosis or continual migration from one being into another. To reform habitual offenders, he tells them that they act in contradiction to their reason, and below the dignity of their nature. What force can such motives have upon depraved minds, which this system makes accountable only to themselves? Conscience is little more than an empty name, if it do not bind men over to appear before a higher tribunal, or if moral duties are not enforced by stronger motives of divine love made manifest by revelation. Hence the practical treatises of most of the heathen philosophers, are rather vain-glorious boasts, or high flights of eloquence, than suitable antidotes against the more dangerous vices. The persuasives and reproofs which they display are too feeble to support our courage under fiery trials, or constantly to stem the impetuous torrent of the most unruly passions.

He contrasts the pagan philosophies with Christianity:

Justus Lipsius, lying on his death-bed, when some advised him to make use of that Stoic philosophy of which he had been the great admirer, to comfort himself in those moments of distress, answered: “It is not philosophy, but faith only that can now give me strength.” Neither can empty exclamations on the beauty of virtue, or the dignity of our nature, which are so pompously set forth by these heathens, and repeated by the noble author of the Characteristics, and other modern enemies to revelation, restrain all the sallies of human passions. This is the privilege of the law of holy faith. (Ps. cxviii. 9.) For, as experience shows, the motives of the divine love and mercy, and those of eternal punishments and rewards, subdue the most rebellious, pierce to the bottom of the heart, and leave the dart deep fixed in the soul. The mixture of folly, weakness, and blindness which is blended in the moral writings of Plato and other infidel writers, shows the incompetence of reason alone in our corrupted state, without the assistance of a superior light. How much do the holy maxims of the gospel on vice and virtue excel in purity and perfection the most admired and sublime lessons of philosophers found in Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Dacier’s preface on Plato, Carpenter’s Life of Socrates, Stanley’s Lives of Philosophers, &c.? How infinitely superior are our divine principles of humility, resignation, meekness, charity, &c.? What is the boasted contentedness of Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius, to the calm and entire resignation of St. Paul! (2 Cor. vi. 10; Phil. iv. 11,) &c.

And yet, what are we doing in Louisiana? Are we, in every possible way, communicating to our citizens, especially our children, the superiority of Christianity? We are not. We are prattling about high school and college football. We are planning what restaurant to go to next, where to go on vacation, what show to binge-watch on Netflix. Rev. Butler has some harsh words for us:

Nevertheless, how great a reproach is it to slothful Christians, that their lives, amidst the full light and most powerful helps of faith, fall far short even of the morality of heathens; and that they are strangers not only to the spirit and precepts of that divine religion which they disgrace by professing it, but even to those maxims of reason itself which heathen philosophers have delivered! How will Tyre and Sidon (Matt. xi. 21,) and the isles of Cethim (Jer. xi. 10,) condemn them at the last day!

Since Louisiana’s children spend much of their early life in schools, it is imperative that they become once again places where they can become acquainted with the Christian Faith. The Orthodox Church in Moldova lays out a vision and principles that Louisiana would do very well to adopt as her own:

“The three pillars of religious education are family, Church, and school,” the Church report reads.

It continues:

“The school is by definition the institution that addresses the soul. The young person’s soul is like a seedling; it contains all the possibilities for development and fruition. But to realize these possibilities, it needs the light and warmth of a clean and healthy living environment and the wise and loving guidance of parents, the Church, the school, and all institutions called to contribute to the great work of spiritual building of the nation. The school was considered the daughter of the Church, and the Church without a school is like a mill without wheels.

“What young people seek is found in Christianity, and therefore we must discover a way to refamiliarize them with the Church. We don’t need to wait for someone to ask for our help to fulfill the joy they need most. Whenever we give, we receive light; whenever we give, we receive joy; whenever we give, we receive peace; and above all, whenever we give, we receive love. Therefore, always learn that when you receive, you should also pass it on.

‘For the beneficiaries, school should be a joy, and they should have confidence that through education, they can make a beautiful purpose in life.”

Bulgaria is also taking steps to re-Christianize her schools that we can learn from.

When the Christian Faith is strong amongst a people, it manifests in actions that are the opposite of what we have seen in Louisiana. In contrast to the two opening stories,
children love and respect their elders and are even willing to suffer and die with them for Christ’s sake:

The Martyr Babylas and 84 disciples with him suffered in the city of Nicomedia for confessing Christianity during the reign of the emperor Maximian (284-305). The emperor, who was then in Nicomedia, renewed the persecution against Christians.

Like many other believers, Saint Babylas was denounced as someone who was instructing children in Christian piety. When Babylas was brought before the emperor, and after his confession of faith in the true God, he was given over to many torments.

During his sufferings the holy martyr cried to God, “I thank You, O Lord, that You have made me, who am old and infirm, to be young and strong.” After being pelted with stones, he was clapped in irons and they took him to prison.

Then the saint ‘s young disciples were brought before the emperor. Neither flattery nor promise of gifts were able to alter the Christian convictions of the children. Two of them, Ammonias and Donatus, firmly declared, “We are Christians, and we will not offer sacrifice to deaf and dumb devils.”

The emperor flew into a rage over the unexpected and firm rebuke from the children. At first, he ordered them to be whipped, and later to be put to death by beheading, together with their teacher. On the way to execution, the holy Martyr Babylas quoted Isaiah, “Behold, I and the children which God has given me” (Isaiah 8:18). With spiritual rejoicing, first Saint Babylas, and then his 84 disciples, received the crown of martyrdom.

And young men do not abuse the Lord’s creatures, but can become so filled with God’s Grace that they live in harmony with them much like Adam and Eve did before the Fall in Paradise. From the life of the Holy Martyr Mamas:

By means of prudent conversations and personal example young Mamas converted many of his own peers to Christianity.

The governor, Democritus, was informed of this, and the fifteen-year-old Mamas was arrested and brought to trial. In deference to his illustrious parentage, Democritus decided not to subject him to torture, but instead sent him off to the emperor Aurelian (270-275). The emperor tried at first kindly, but then with threats to turn Saint Mamas back to the pagan faith, but all in vain. The saint bravely confessed himself a Christian and pointed out the madness of the pagans in their worship of lifeless idols.

Infuriated, the emperor subjected the youth to cruel tortures. They tried to drown the saint, but an angel of the Lord saved Saint Mamas and bade him live on a high mountain in the wilderness, not far from Caesarea. Bowing to the will of God, the saint built a small church there and began to lead a life of strict temperance, in exploits of fasting and prayer.

Soon he received a remarkable power over the forces of nature: wild beasts inhabiting the surrounding wilderness gathered at his abode and listened to the reading of the Holy Gospel. Saint Mamas nourished himself on the milk of wild goats and deer.

The saint did not ignore the needs of his neighbors. Preparing cheese from this milk, he gave it away freely to the poor. Soon the fame of Saint Mamas’s life spread throughout all of Caesarea.

Louisiana, regrettably, is not alone in sinking into a culture of nihilism. A school shooting in Georgia committed by a 14-year-old on 4 September is a powerful reminder
of that. As is the continued support for abortion in many States. The answer to this ongoing tragedy is not difficult to express in words: a re-embrace of Christianity. But
implementing it is difficult, for mankind is stubborn; he wants to be autonomous, ruling himself, not yielding to God. But such a refusal only keeps us in the darkness and
confusion of the demonic realm, and outside of the light and peace of Paradise.

If we truly love our children here in Louisiana, if we value the Christian heritage of our ancestors from Africa and Europe, we will do everything we can to hand on the Christian Faith to them intact. This will necessarily be a lengthy, multifaceted, laborious work, but the end result – a State full of folks young and old who, like our Patron Saint Martin of Tours, experience the blessings of the Kingdom of Heaven in every moment – will more than recompense us for the effort.