Latest / Check with Chip / Martyr's Example of True Faith

Transcript

Martyr's Example of True Faith · Check with Chip

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Check with Chip, brought to you by Operation
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Blue Dot Red, turning the Blue Dot Red one podcast
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: at a time. Adjust your schedule now to see the
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: movie American Martyr. Its limited run ends today. It's at
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the West Roads at 1 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. I'm
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: not sure if it's anywhere else. The movie is about
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Blessed Stanley Rother, a Catholic priest who was martyred in
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Guatemala in 1981. He is called blessed because he has
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: been beatified, a step toward possible canonization as a saint.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: He was an Oklahoma farm boy who became a priest
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and then answered a call for missionary help in Guatemala.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: He lived there 13 years until he was killed, probably
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: by military or paramilitary executioners who were killing Catholic priests.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: The people in Guatemala loved him so much that his
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: heart is enshrined in a church in Guatemala. The rest
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: of him was buried back in Oklahoma. When word reached
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Rother in 1980 that his name was on a death list,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: at the insistence of his parishioners, he went back home
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to Oklahoma. That didn't last long. He wrote that a
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: shepherd cannot run when things get dangerous. He needed to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: be with his people. God wanted him to be with
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: his people. He was back in Guatemala for Easter in 1981.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: In July of that year, he was assassinated. Masked gunmen
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: entered the rectory and shot him in the head. I
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: enjoyed the film. He was one of us, just a
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: regular guy from the Midwest trying to do good in
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the world. I think you'll find it inspiring. My wife
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: knew about the film because she had heard buzz about it.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: She did missionary work in the same region of Guatemala
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: as Rother. Fourteen years later, she did not know him,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: but certainly knew of him. Our two oldest children are
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: from that region of Guatemala. What does this have to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: do with turning the blue dot red? Part of blue
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: dot Democrat liberal progressive socialist orthodoxy is that Catholicism and
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: any conservative brand of Christianity is Is white nationalism or
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: white supremacy masquerading as religion? I defy anyone to watch
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: American Martyr and conclude that Stan Rother was a white
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: supremacist and was seen as such by the people he
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: served in Guatemala. There are numerous testimonials from locals about
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the ways he humbled himself and gave everything he could,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: ultimately his very life, for them. He learned Spanish and
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: then learned the local indigenous language and translated the Bible
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: into that language to meet the people where they were
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: and engage them on their terms. That's what Christian missionaries
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: have been doing for 2,000 years. The message they bring
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: and the witness they provide are not white. It's natural
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: law and 4,000 years of Judeo-Christian teaching that apply to
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: people and societies of all races and ethnicities in all
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: times and places. A cousin of Rother said Rother told
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: him during that interim in Oklahoma before he went back
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: to Guatemala in 1981, You have your family here. Those
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: people in Guatemala are my family. I must go back
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: to them. Then the cousin started to break down and cry.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I did not know, Rother. but I got the sense
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: from the profile of him in the movie that he
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: would be uncomfortable with all the fuss about him today.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: He was a generic Midwestern white guy trying to do
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: God's will. He found himself in a tight spot. He
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: could have ducked it and stayed in Oklahoma. Another person
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: interviewed in the film said the interim period in Oklahoma
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: was his Garden of Gethsemane moment. Lord, if there's an
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: easier way to proceed, I'll take it, but your will
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: be done. Stanley Rother, you were a stand-up guy. You
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: were part of a legacy that includes Christian missionaries of
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: all denominations who gave the last full measure of devotion,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: and you were the kind of Catholic priest that provides
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: inspiration not only for other Catholic priests, but for all
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: people of goodwill. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: and let perpetual light shine upon him. That's Check with Chip.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I'm Chip Maxwell. Thank you for listening.