America is being poisoned by a lie: that nearly every failure is someone else’s fault, every consequence is oppression and every destructive choice deserves another excuse.
It is nonstop victimhood—and it is destroying people.
Turn on daytime television. Scroll through social media. Listen to politicians, celebrities and professional grievance merchants. The message is relentless: You are wounded, therefore you are powerless. You were mistreated, therefore you are not responsible. Find an oppressor, announce your trauma and demand that everyone else accommodate whatever you do next.
That is not compassion. It is moral surrender.
Yes, real victims exist. Children are abused. People are assaulted, trafficked, exploited and unjustly discriminated against. Racism is sinful. Mental illness is real. Addiction can become brutal bondage. Christians must defend the innocent and care for the suffering.
But suffering does not make every action innocent. A wound is not a lifetime exemption from responsibility. A diagnosis is not permission to destroy yourself, terrorize your family or endanger strangers. Explaining misconduct is not the same as excusing it.
Consider the terrible death of Presley Gerber at 27. His official cause of death remains under investigation, although police are investigating a suspected overdose. He worked as a model and publicly described his battles with addiction and mental health. His death should not be exploited for ridicule. It should terrify us. Associated Press
Here was a young man with wealth, access, family support and treatment – and still the machinery of addiction ground forward. Our culture knows how to publicize pain, celebrate “vulnerability” and attach therapeutic language to every struggle. What it does not know how to say is: Stop. This is killing you. You must surrender the drugs, accept discipline and change your life.
Calling bondage an identity does not break the chains.
Then there is Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of The 1619 Project. She has acknowledged choosing struggling public schools for her daughter partly to serve larger ideals about integration and equality. Her daughter later said she had not received the education she wanted. Hannah-Jones admitted regret and told her daughter that she had been cheated. Report summarizing Hannah-Jones’s essay
That admission matters. But so does the lesson: ideology does not absolve adults of responsibility. A child is not a political experiment. You do not sacrifice your daughter’s education to prove your virtue and then hand the bill to “the system.” Institutions may fail and society may contain injustice. Parents still have duties. Responsibility cannot disappear whenever ideology enters the room.
The same hard truth applies to homelessness. It is false that every homeless person refuses to work; federal guidance says many are employed, and most do not have a severe mental-health or substance-use disorder. We should never slander an entire population.
But we should stop lying about what citizens can plainly see. Open drug use is not freedom. Needles beside playgrounds are not compassion. Human waste on sidewalks is not social justice. Theft, assault, vandalism and threats do not become acceptable because the offender has suffered.
A civilized society must offer shelter, detoxification, psychiatric care, long-term rehabilitation and job training. It must also enforce laws. When people repeatedly endanger others, courts should require treatment where legally appropriate. Recovery should include structure, sobriety, service and work when the person is medically able. Leaving someone drugged, filthy and dying on a sidewalk is not mercy. It is cowardice disguised as tolerance.
Work is not punishment. Honest work creates rhythm, accountability, usefulness and dignity. Saint Paul said that the person unwilling to work should not eat. Unwilling – not unable. The sick need treatment. The disabled need protection. The capable should be expected and helped to contribute.
This is the Catholic position: neither cruelty nor indulgence. Every human being possesses God-given dignity, and dignity carries responsibility.
Jesus Christ was merciful, but He was never weak. He forgave sinners and commanded them to sin no more. He confronted hypocrites. When men profaned His Father’s house, He overturned their tables and drove them out.
There are moments when love bandages a wound. There are also moments when love overturns the table.
This is such a moment.
Stop teaching people to worship their wounds. Stop rewarding helplessness. Stop pretending that accountability is hatred. Tell the addict the drug is killing him. Tell the parent to protect the child. Tell the criminal that suffering does not excuse violence. Tell the politician that slogans cannot clean a street or restore a family.
Christ was crucified, died and was buried. On the third day, He rose from the dead. Christianity is not a religion of permanent victimhood. It proclaims that sin can be forgiven, chains can be broken, lives can be rebuilt and the dead can rise.
America does not need more excuses. It needs truth, repentance, discipline, courage and God.
Enough victimhood. It is time to stand up.
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