FLASHBACK: I Was The FIRST Head "Cancel Culture" Claimed, And I've Never Stopped Thanking Them
On Today's 30th Anniversary of The Mike Church Show, Here Is The Story of How My 13 Years On SiriusXM Satellite Radio Ended, By Christopher Ferrara
The only truly Catholic voice in “conservative” talk radio has been silenced.
Here is what we Catholics can do about it.
Christopher A. Ferrara
The Mike Church Story (originally published on 11 July, 2016. I am republishing this in the exact form that Chris submitted it to me. Some of this was originally published at Michael Matt’s Remnant Online but seems to have been removed!)
Richmond, VA, 16 July, 2016 - Perhaps, like me, you have long wished that someone in the vast wasteland of “conservative” talk radio would actually tell the truth about what really ails American politics and American society: that our nation has turned its back on Christ the King and the Law of His Gospel.
A Catholic Media Breakthrough Without Precedent. In short, there was nothing like the Mike Church Show in the entire history of American talk radio. - Christopher J Ferrara, Contributor of The Remnant Newspaper and author "Liberty The God That Failed".
Well, Mike Church, who had the longest-running conservative talk show on Sirius Radio (Channel 125)—thirteen years of growing popularity—decided two years ago that he would do just that. He took the courageous step of defying the idiotic taboo of American life: that one must “keep religion out of politics.”
Through reading, prayer, and his encounters with traditional Catholics, Mike came to understand that it is impossible to “keep religion out of politics.” He realized that, in fact, our supposedly “religiously neutral” republic, like all political societies, has at its foundation a theological dogma—the dogma that there is no one true religion and that, accordingly, America must not allow herself to be guided in her laws and institutions by the truth of the Gospel, which is merely a matter of “private opinion.”
As Mike put it in on his hugely popular talk show, he had swallowed the “red pill of enlightenment” and unplugged himself from “the Matrix” of our “pluralist” society. His eyes had been opened to the reality that the inevitable end of “pluralist” social order is that only error has rights and that the truth will be driven into hiding by howls of derision and banishment from public life. And that is exactly what we now see happening in our country, and indeed throughout the Western world.
And so Mike began speaking the truth. On the air. Every day. Day in and day out. He undertook the immense task of educating his audience about the root causes of the crisis that now threatens the very existence of our civilization.
NO, Mike told his one million listeners, it is not merely a disregard of the Constitution, nor a lack of reverence for the wisdom of the Founding Fathers, that has led to the collapse of politics and the moral order in this nation. The ultimate cause is rebellion against God and His Law as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.
Mike was changing minds and hearts and making converts almost weekly. He began receiving one email after another from Protestants whose eyes had been opened by the truth he was presenting. They were joining the Catholic Church because of the Mike Church Show.
Mike was blazing new territory in the history of what passes for “conservative” talk radio. He was talking about God and His law in the realm of politics. He was showing that, without God, politics degenerates into neo-pagan mob rule, and that all forms of evil and corruption—from divorce, to abortion and contraception, to “gay marriage”—become “the law of land” while those who try to follow God’s law become the victims of persecution by government and the lords of public opinion.
All of this was an incredible—indeed almost miraculous—development. A veritable oasis of truth had suddenly emerged in the midst of the talk radio desert, where the same dry and lifeless prescriptions for America’s ills have been prescribed for decades by so-called conservative pundits—without results—as America sinks deeper and deeper into moral depravity.
Mike interviewing Tradition, Family, Property's John Horvat of "Return To Order" fame. 10 March, 2017.[/caption]
A Catholic Media Breakthrough Without Precedent
But Mike is a man of faith. And he knows that in God’s providence the good he was able to do in two years of fearless truth-telling infinitely outweighs any material losses he may suffer from the loss of his show on Sirius Radio.
But Mike went even further into “forbidden” territory. He began to tell his vast audience that in order to restore the Gospel of Christ as the only secure foundation for political life, it was necessary to look to the guidance of the Catholic Church.
Yes, Mike dared to stand up to what Arthur Schlesinger has called “the last respectable prejudice” in America: anti-Catholicism. He began to defend the teaching of the Church on the air and to show how the Church has the answers our society needs to pull itself back from the brink of self-destruction. Mike dared to echo what Pope Pius XI said at the turn of the 20th century:
The empire of Christ over all nations was rejected. The right which the Church has from Christ himself, to teach mankind… was denied. Then gradually the religion of Christ came to be likened to false religions and to be placed ignominiously on the same level with them…. The rebellion of individuals and states against the authority of Christ has produced deplorable consequences…. The result is that human society is tottering to its fall, because it has no longer a secure and solid foundation.
Mike had discovered the one truth that modern society tries to bury: that the Church was founded by God Himself to serve as the conscience of the State, and that without the Church the State becomes sociopathic and an enemy of the common good it pretends to serve.
For two years Mike was able to pursue the new orientation of his show toward a politics of the soul rather than a politics that concerns only money, material goods and power. And his roster of guests reflected this dramatic change of orientation. I found myself becoming a regular on the show, invited to speak with complete freedom on such “forbidden” topics as the Social Kingship of Christ and the proper relationship between Church and state—not “separation” but cooperation, with each in its own sphere. Other Catholic guests did likewise.
But Mike went still further. He began broadcasting explicitly Catholic material on the air, showing how Church teaching is intrinsically related to a just and moral resolution of political questions and that religion has everything to do with politics rightly understood.
In short, there was nothing like the Mike Church Show in the entire history of American talk radio.
And the results were astonishing: Mike was changing minds and hearts and making converts almost weekly. He began receiving one email after another from Protestants whose eyes had been opened by the truth he was presenting. They were joining the Catholic Church because of the Mike Church Show.
And even those who did not take that step told Mike they respected his position and could see the logic of it.
Mike was conducting a spiritual revolution on the air—the very thing America so desperately needs in order to save herself.
The Door Closes, but Another Opens
I think you know what happened next. Mike and his friends, supporters and guests knew that it was only a matter of time. But at this point in his life, Mike could not in conscience sacrifice the truth people needed to hear to the advancement of his radio career.
And so, two months ago, Mike received word from the Sirius Radio management that after thirteen years his show was being cancelled. The only reason given was “editorial decisions.” In other words: Mike had become too Catholic for Sirius Radio. He had dared to speak the truth that has been banished from polite society by the forces of political correctness. He had to go.
But Mike is a man of faith. And he knows that in God’s providence the good he was able to do in two years of fearless truth-telling infinitely outweighs any material losses he may suffer from the loss of his show on Sirius Radio.
Moreover, as a man of faith, Mike knows that in the designs of God the closing of one door means that another one has been opened.
And that is where you come in.
Mike knew what was coming when he began to speak the truth about God and his Church on the air, and so he prepared for the day when Sirius Radio would shut him down. Almost from the moment he heard the news, Mike was ready to launch the project I am personally asking you to support now: