Keith Lee
3.9K posts
Keith Lee
@therealkeithlee
CEO at Locust Park Capital | Real Estate JV/GP Equity & Debt
The Rosary is from the devil and I’ll prove it! First, A Catholic on X (who blocked me) said that Numbers 15:37-41 supports the Catholic Rosary. Numbers 15 is a command given specifically to Israel under the Old Covenant as a visual reminder to obey God’s law, not a method of prayer or repetition. The rosary, on the other hand, is a later Catholic devotional practice involving repeated prayers, often directed toward Mary. Even the Catholic Church doesn’t claim the rosary comes from or is supported by Numbers 15. So they’re not the same category, and one can’t be used to justify the other. Christians don’t imitate and do everything that the people of Israel did. For example we don’t use a fleece like Gideon in Judges 6 to get a sign from God. Christians do what Christ taught the Apostles to teach believers through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit! Praying without ceasing is not a command to pray without ever pausing but a principal given to Christians to be prayerful in all that they do as Christians. However the Rosary and all that goes with it, along with different Marian devotions, is far more problematic then what is briefly mentioned by most Catholics posting online. In CCC 971 The rosary is called “The epitome of the gospel” - “The liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the rosary, an "epitome of the whole Gospel," express this devotion to the Virgin Mary.” It also says: ”The Church's devotion to the Blessed Virgin is intrinsic to Christian worship.” Where exactly is the Gospel in the rosary? Sure it quotes from the Biblical books called “Gospels” but where does the Rosary itself share the good news that the uncreated creator of the universe became a man and died on the cross to pay the debt we could not pay for Sin and resurrected on the third day in victory? CCC 971 even goes so far as to say that without devotion to Mary, your Christian worship is lacking. It is a lie to claim that the “Hail Mary” is in the Bible. Sure the first part is referenced from the gospels but where is the “Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death”? Where is the last part, the “Hail, Holy Queen”, That asks for prayer so that we are “worthy of the promises of Christ”? Pope John Paul II in his apostolic letter “Rosarium Virginis Mariae” wrote, “Through the Rosary the faithful receive abundant grace, as though from the very hands of the Mother of the Redeemer.” vatican.va/content/john-p… A Catholic Priest said this about the Rosary: “Tradition ascribes the popular use of the rosary to St. Dominic, founder of the Dominican Order. When the Albigensian heresy was spreading through the south of France and the north of Italy in the year 1200, Dominic was commissioned by the Pope to preach against it. His efforts were unavailing. He then besought the aid of Mary. Appearing to Dominic, Mary gave him the rosary bidding him to use it as a weapon against the prevailing heresy. The devotion spread rapidly and in a short time had effected the conversion of more than a hundred thousand heretics.” “The rosary may well be called the thermometer of Christianity. When it is used, Christianity is flourishing. When it is neglected, Christianity falls to a low ebb. Pope Pius IX was accustomed to say: "In the whole of the Vatican there is no greater treasure than the rosary.”" Quoted from “The Faith Of Millions” By Rev. John A. O’Brien p. 375 (1963 edition) The Rosary contains many repetitions of identical prayers (Hail Mary, etc.), which could easily become mechanical or lifeless prayer. The Rosary heavily involves praying to Mary, asking Mary’s intercession, meditating on Mysteries often through her viewpoint. If people recite the Rosary without meditating on the actual Biblical meaning, it becomes a ritual or routine, disconnected from heart and faith. The practice could become more about performing a religious duty to obtain graces rather than genuine faith in Christ, which may lead people away from relying upon Christ’s work. Another Catholic source said this: “In the year 1208, the 13th century, Our Lady appeared to St. Dominic (founder of the Dominican Order) in the church at Prouille (now The Monastery of Notre-Dame-de-Prouille) in Languedoc, France. Tradition holds that she handed St. Dominic a rosary and asked him for Christians to pray the Hail Mary, Our Father, and Glory Be prayers instead of the Psalms. She gave St. Dominic the original 15 decades to pray of the rosary. The additional 5 decades (additional mysteries) were added by Pope John Paul II in 2002. When the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Dominic, she also gave him 15 promises for those who would be devoted to praying the rosary. The promises are as follows:” catholic365.com/article/30170/… First, just to restate: the 15 Promises are a set of traditional promises said to have been given by the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Dominic (founder of the Dominicans) and later to Alanus de Rupe (Alain de la Roche, a Dominican preacher in the 15th century), for those who faithfully pray the Rosary. Catholics are not required to believe in them as essential doctrine. Because they stem from private revelation (Alan de Rupe), they are optional. Even more heretical are the 15 alleged promises given along with the rosary by “Mary”: The 15 Promises Made by the Blessed Virgin to St. Dominic and Blessed Alanus: THE PROMISES: 1. To all those who recite my Rosary devoutly, I promise my special protection and very great graces. 2. The Rosary shall be a very powerful armor against hell; it shall destroy vice, deliver from sin, and shall dispel heresy. 3. Those who trust themselves to me through the Rosary, shall not perish. 4. Those who will recite my Rosary piously, considering its Mysteries, shall not be overwhelmed by misfortune nor die a bad death. The sinner shall be converted; the just shall grow in grace and become worthy of eternal life. 5. Those who will recite my Rosary shall find during their life and at their death the light of God, the fullness of His grace, and shall share in the merits of the blessed. 6. I will deliver very promptly from purgatory the souls devoted to my Rosary. 7. The true children of my Rosary shall enjoy great glory in heaven. 8. What you ask through my Rosary, you shall obtain. 9. Those who recite my Rosary faithfully are all my beloved children, the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. These are just a few of the promises which are still widely published in Catholic devotional materials (e.g. prayer cards, rosary pamphlets) today. While not dogmatic, many Catholic devotional sources treat the promises with devotion, often presenting them as spiritually enriching, encouraging, helpful for meditation, etc. The National Catholic Register has published an article “Are the 15 Rosary Promises Reliable?” which outlines that while many Catholics accept them devotionally, there is no strong historical documentation before Alan de Rupe; and that some scholars express doubts about their authenticity. ncregister.com/blog/are-the-1… CATHOLIC ANSWERS says the prayers are “reasonable to believe”: “Our Lady has made many promises to those who pray and promote her great prayer. Traditionally there are fifteen, going back to the writings of the great Dominican preacher of the rosary, Blessed Alan de la Roche. He gathered these promises together from various sources and although they are not revelation in the strict sense, they are reasonable to believe, given the great force with which Our Lady has asked us to pray her rosary through the years. Just one of these promises would be enough motivation for us, in like fashion to the Jews of old, to set Mary’s rosary before our eyes and bear it in our hands and keep it in our homes and on our persons and venerate it with our kisses! catholic.com/magazine/onlin… Catholic theology on meditation even introduces New Age practices. You will see below how this is an occult practice to obtain hidden knowledge. CCC 2708 Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith, prompt the conversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayer should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him. St. Josemaria: St. Josemaria turned to the Scriptures to get closer to Jesus. Every day he looked in the Gospel for the one who was the object of his love: “Live close to Christ! You should be another character in the Gospel, side by side with Peter, and John, and Andrew. For Christ is also living now: Iesus Christus, heri et hodie, ipse et in saecula! — Jesus Christ lives! Today, as yesterday, he is the same, for ever and ever” (The Forge, no. 8). escriva.org/en/forja/ “If you wish to get close to Our Lord through the pages of the Gospels, I always recommend that you try to enter in on the scene taking part as just one more person there. In this way (and I know many perfectly ordinary people who live this way) you will be captivated like Mary was, who hung on every word that Jesus uttered or, like Martha, you will boldly make your worries known to him, opening your heart sincerely about them all no matter how little they may be. Text in chapter 'The Strength of Love' in the book 'Friends of God' of Josemaría Escrivá. Link: escriva.org/en/amigos-de-d… (Friends of God, no. 222). escriva.org/en/amigos-de-d… “My advice is that, in your prayer, you actually take part in the different scenes of the Gospel, as one more among the people present. First of all, imagine the scene or mystery you have chosen to help you recollect your thoughts and meditate. Next apply your mind, concentrating on the particular aspect of the Master's life you are considering — his merciful Heart, his humility, his purity, the way he fulfills his Father's Will. Then tell him what happens to you in these matters, how things are with you, what is going on in your soul. Be attentive, because he may want to point something out to you, and you will experience suggestions deep in your soul, realising certain things and feeling his gentle reprimands. Text in chapter 'A Life of Prayer' in the book 'Friends of God' of Josemaría Escrivá. Link: escriva.org/en/amigos-de-d… (Friends of God, no. 253). escriva.org/en/amigos-de-d… Then you have Ignatius of Loyola: The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola - The aim of Spiritual Exercises is to assist people in finding God's will for their life, and to give them the motivation and courage to follow that will. IV. On the Bodily Senses - ccel.org/ccel/ignatius/… Or read here: ccel.org/ccel/ignatius/… IV. On the Bodily Senses Way. About the five bodily senses the same order always will be kept, but changing their matter. Note. Whoever wants to imitate Christ our Lord in the use of his senses, let him in the Preparatory Prayer recommend himself to His Divine Majesty, and after considering on each sense, say a Hail Mary or an Our Father. And whoever wants to imitate Our Lady in the use of the senses, let him in the Preparatory Prayer recommend himself to her, that she may get him grace from Her Son and Lord for it; and after considering on each sense, say a Hail Mary. This all has an Occult/New Age aim. Many guided-visualization and creative-visualization traditions aim to manipulate outcomes, access inner power, or attain “enlightenment”/union as an immanent self-realization. Christians today don’t need beads to remind them of God. Christians today have God dwelling inside them, they are now a Temple of the Holy Spirit. Christians today, and especially today, have God’s holy living and powerful Word written and accessible. If after reading just this short explanation on why the Rosary is occult and not biblical and you still prefer to remain Catholic or call Catholics Christians… Then you are under a powerful delusion and are deceived (2 Thessalonians 2:11). In short, the Rosary was allegedly given to a man by a spirit claiming to be Mary. Remember you can’t just say something and it be true. This is obviously another spirit, a demon spirit encouraging devotion to a counterfeit Mary and away from God and His Word. The devil’s counterfeits and deceptions always mix a little truth with error. There is always real cheese in a rat trap! The whole thing from its beginning is wrapped up in demonic deception. Unfortunately Catholics will defend the rosary appealing to emotion and experiences, something the devil is a master at manipulating. May the Lord Jesus continue to rescue souls from the Roman Catholic Cult.
Were they really on our side? The finger flickers/fence sitters don't get to change the movement. Every time you compromise your values to appeal to the minority you lose your core. Just like you visiting guest don't get to tell you how to live in your home.
Trump's huge loss of support has primarily been with the first-time voters of 2024. Old heads like me understand that donors are in control. Money makes the world go 'round. Trump ran on idealism, good people trusted him, they feel deeply betrayed. I hear it every day.
Propaganda and Information Warfare: The Battlefield is Your Mind Most folks don't realize this, but you're literally being inundated with propaganda all the time. We live in a society in which our political leaders derive power through consensus. If many people, ideally a majority, support a specific policy, it becomes easier to enact. If there is little support, and much opposition, enacting it is more difficult. Consensus can be manufactured. It can be cajoled into existence. This is achieved through propaganda. Most people have some innate level of distrust for propaganda. When they notice that it is propaganda, their defenses go up. They may become even harder to convince. So the propaganda has to be good. It has to be believable. It has to feel natural - organic. Daily I see people panicking online about the War in Iran. It's not just on X. I see it on Facebook, amongst real people I know in real life - often folks who are not even that political active or involved. But they suddenly have strong opinions about a war they don't truly understand. How did this happen? It was accomplished through an all-out assault on your frontal cortex. It starts with the traditional sources. The mainstream media talking heads push fear-mongering narratives. They call everything unprecedented (in the most negative terms). They micro-focus on the negative. They emphasize the dissent of other nations and international organizations. They catastrophize, musing constantly about how bad things could go. They cast Iran as a victim, and the US (especially Trump) as a big bully. They underplay or straight-up ignore Iran's history of killing Americans, Israelis, and other people worldwide. They forget all about the constant rocket attacks, the threats, and the ever-forward march of their nuclear program. The mainstream media takes are all that some folks need. Frankly, they're ready to swallow it all, hook, line, and sinker, and they do. But many folks need more. This is where the influencers come in. Big and small, they use X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and every other social media platform you can think of to take a more personal, "organic" approach to it all. They drop the "official" tone of the talking heads on the MSM, and express feelings with raw emotion. They ask questions like, "Why would they do this? Am I crazy?" Their approach provides plausible deniability of perceived neutrality, while leading their audience towards a negative conclusion about the subject. And there are thousands of them. Maybe tens of thousands. Political pundits. Comedians. Fashion bloggers. Entertainment news. Even gun guys. Why are they doing this? It's not organic. They're not simply doing it because they feel so strongly about it. They're part of a large, international propaganda apparatus. They are paid to do it. In addition to being able to influence their own audiences, collectively they are able to influence the world of influencers. Whether its algorithms, bots, or armies of foreign users, the propagandist influencers are able to create the perception that their propaganda content works well to grow their audience and help them get paid. Other influencers who aren't even paid by the propaganda apparatus see this, and they give it a try. They see success. Their numbers go up. They keep doing it. More see it and do the same. They may never even get paid directly by the apparatus, but have essentially become captured by it. Some of these folks can have large audiences, but many have tiny audiences, which means they can reach all kinds of very niche groups, and their "small time" nature makes the ideas they spread seem all the more natural and organic. You may think your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and beliefs are organic and spontaneous, but many of them are not. Post of them are probably not. It's possible that none of them are. If you're not good at spotting propaganda, fake news, AI (photos, videos, and text), and outright lies already, then you're going to have a hard time figuring it out in the future. This is probably not something I can help you fix with a few paragraphs on X, but nevertheless, I'd like to point out a few things to help: 1) Short-form videos on your feed are one of the most effective propaganda mediums. Incredibly powerful propaganda can be inserted in a 30-second video from a person that you have literally never seen or heard of before, but you innately trust because they speak with confidence and sincerity. The same idea gets repeated and re-emphasized by other videos, and suddenly it feels like "everyone" is saying the same thing. It feels like there is consensus, and "everyone knows it." The idea is now in your head, and you can't even remember where you heard it. TAKEAWAY: Do not trust things you learn from these videos, and better yet, try not to watch them at all. 2) KNOW THEM BY HOW THEY CIRCLE THEIR WAGONS - I have to credit @ConceptualJames for repeating this one all the time. When one of the propagandists says or does something objectively atrocious, the other propagandists will start defending them. Pay attention to who those people are. Recognize it's not spontaneous. These people have mutual interests, and they protect those interest by protecting each other. When you know WHO the propagandists are, it protects you because you know they are not credible. If you listen to their messaging, and then pay attention to who else is saying the same thing, now you're recognizing other propagandists. This requires paying attention. If you don't have the ability to sort through this stuff on social media, then maybe you shouldn't be on social media. 3) Don't be surprised when people you thought you trusted turn out to be compromised. One big mistake a lot of people make is they give someone spouting nonsense a pass because they seemed good before, maybe even for years, maybe even decades. Tucker Carlson is a great example of this. Millions of Conservative Americans followed Tucker for years before he showed himself to be a tool of China, Russia, and Islam. I'm not saying that any and all loyalty is bad, or that you should never give anyone the benefit of the doubt. But if you start from the premise that people can change, or that they may not have been who you thought they were to begin with, you'll become more resilient to this particular problem. If you're not actively paying attention to the propaganda, who it works, and who is doing it, then it will work on you. Don't be arrogant about this. Don't assume you'll "just know." Social media has some great features about it. Wasson Watch has been able to leverage it to grow our brand AND to speak truth boldly and unapologetically. But it's a dangerous place. Tread carefully.
JUST IN: Karoline Leavitt says Iran's initial ten point plan was "fundamentally unserious, unacceptable and completely discarded." "It was literally thrown in the garbage by President Trump and his negotiating team." "The idea that President Trump would ever accept an Iranian wish list as a deal is completely absurd."
Gas prices collapse and CNN removes the gas price graphic from their home page.
