Misc How the Rosary Became an Extremist Symbol

Terriannie

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I don’t subscribe to The Atlantic so I can’t bring the article but it has been quoted below from another source. What’s strange is, before I posted this, I pulled up the link and noticed they changed the title to something a little less extreme I guess but no matter. I took a screen shot of the original.

Bottom line is, why am I not surprised? Frankly, I wonder why it took to long for the left’s anti-rosary vitriol to come out of the shadows.




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As quoted from PacificPundit.


NOW CONSIDERED AN EXTREMIST SYMBOL BY THE LEFT: CATHOLIC ROSARY

Are you Catholic? Do you have rosary beads? If so, the left and especially some Canadian Marxist from The Atlantic left wing filth magazine thinks you are some sort of radical Christian extremist. The left’s war on Christianity is getting crazy.

Quote from The Atlantic: Just as the AR-15 rifle has become a sacred object for Christian nationalists in general, the rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or “rad trad”) Catholics. On this extremist fringe, rosary beads have been woven into a conspiratorial politics and absolutist gun culture. These armed radical traditionalists have taken up a spiritual notion that the rosary can be a weapon in the fight against evil and turned it into something dangerously literal.

Their social-media pages are saturated with images of rosaries draped over firearms, warriors in prayer, Deus Vult (“God wills it”) crusader memes, and exhortations for men to rise up and become Church Militants. Influencers on platforms such as Instagram share posts referencing “everyday carry” and “gat check” (gat is slang for “firearm”) that include soldiers’ “battle beads,” handguns, and ̶A̶s̶s̶a̶u̶l̶t̶ Defense Rifles. One artist posts illustrations of his favorite Catholic saints, clergy, and influencers toting AR-15-style rifles labeled sanctum rosarium alongside violently homophobic screeds that are celebrated by social-media accounts with thousands of followers.



As one along with millions of others who say the rosary faithfully, I find it interesting to see this ramped up propaganda rhetoric, going from the usual thinking that the rosary is a foolish prayer to now “extremist???” Why is it targeted now? What warrants such an attack?

(Methinks that maybe it’s targeted because even though we can't see, it’s having some affect and they can’t have that now can they??? :flngl:)

I never heard of "battle beads" before but here's some cool trigger pictures of “battle beads” and the “warriors” who hold them:

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Reasonable Rascal

Veteran Member
Temporary free account, and the last article I can access using same.

RR


How Extremist Gun Culture Is Trying to Co-Opt the Rosary


Why are sacramental beads suddenly showing up next to AR-15s online?

By Daniel Panneton

A rosary

Getty

August 14, 2022, 8 AM ET

About the author: Daniel Panneton is a writer based in Toronto, Canada.

Just as the AR-15 rifle has become a sacred object for Christian nationalists in general, the rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or “rad trad”) Catholics. On this extremist fringe, rosary beads have been woven into a conspiratorial politics and absolutist gun culture. These armed radical traditionalists have taken up a spiritual notion that the rosary can be a weapon in the fight against evil and turned it into something dangerously literal.

Their social-media pages are saturated with images of rosaries draped over firearms, warriors in prayer, Deus Vult (“God wills it”) crusader memes, and exhortations for men to rise up and become Church Militants. Influencers on platforms such as Instagram share posts referencing “everyday carry” and “gat check” (gat is slang for “firearm”) that include soldiers’ “battle beads,” handguns, and assault rifles. One artist posts illustrations of his favorite Catholic saints, clergy, and influencers toting AR-15-style rifles labeled SANCTUM ROSARIUM alongside violently homophobic screeds that are celebrated by social-media accounts with thousands of followers.

The theologian and historian Massimo Faggioli has described a network of conservative Catholic bloggers and commentary organizations as a “Catholic cyber-militia” that actively campaigns against LGBTQ acceptance in the Church. These rad-trad rosary-as-weapon memes represent a social-media diffusion of such messaging, and they work to integrate ultraconservative Catholicism with other aspects of online far-right culture. The phenomenon might be tempting to dismiss as mere trolling or merchandising, and ironical provocations based on traditionalist Catholic symbols do exist, but the far right’s constellations of violent, racist, and homophobic online milieus are well documented for providing a pathway to radicalization and real-world terrorist attacks.

The rosary—in these hands—is anything but holy. But for millions of believers, the beads, which provide an aide-mémoire for a sequence of devotional prayers, are a widely recognized symbol of Catholicism and a source of strength. And many take genuine sustenance from Catholic theology’s concept of the Church Militant and the tradition of regarding the rosary as a weapon against Satan. As Pope Francis said in a 2020 address, “There is no path to holiness … without spiritual combat,” and Francis is only one of many Church officials who have endorsed the idea of the rosary as an armament in that fight.

In mainstream Catholicism, the rosary-as-weapon is not an intrinsically harmful interpretation of the sacramental, and this symbolism has a long history. In the 1930s and ’40s, the ultramontane Catholic student publication Jeunesse Étudiante Catholique regularly used the concept to rally the faithful. But the modern radical-traditionalist Catholic movement—which generally rejects the Second Vatican Council’s reforms—is far outside the majority opinion in the Roman Catholic Church in America. Many prominent American Catholic bishops advocate for gun control, and after the Uvalde school shooting, Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, lamented the way some Americans “sacralize death’s instruments.”

Militia culture, a fetishism of Western civilization, and masculinist anxieties have become mainstays of the far right in the U.S.—and rad-trad Catholics have now taken up residence in this company. Their social-media accounts commonly promote accelerationist and survivalist content, along with combat-medical and tactical training, as well as memes depicting balaclava-clad gunmen that draw on the “terrorwave” or “warcore” aesthetic that is popular in far-right circles.

Like such networks, radical-traditional Catholics sustain their own cottage industry of goods and services that reinforces the radicalization. Rosaries are common among the merchandise on offer—some made of cartridge casings, and complete with gun-metal-finish crucifixes. One Catholic online store, which describes itself as “dedicated to offering battle-ready products and manuals to ‘stand firm against the tactics of the devil’” (a New Testament reference), sells replicas of the rosaries issued to American soldiers during the First World War as “combat rosaries.” Discerning consumers can also buy a “concealed carry” permit for their combat rosary and a sacramental storage box resembling an ammunition can. In 2016, the pontifical Swiss Guard accepted a donation of combat rosaries; during a ceremony at the Vatican, their commander described the gift as “the most powerful weapon that exists on the market.”

The militarism also glorifies a warrior mentality and notions of manliness and male strength. This conflation of the masculine and the military is rooted in wider anxieties about Catholic manhood—the idea that it is in crisis has some currency among senior Church figures and lay organizations. In 2015, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix issued an apostolic exhortation calling for a renewal of traditional conceptions of Catholic masculinity titled “Into the Breach,” which led the Knights of Columbus, an influential fraternal order, to produce a video series promoting Olmsted’s ideas. But among radical-traditional Catholic men, such concerns take an extremist turn, rooted in fantasies of violently defending one’s family and church from marauders.

The rosary-as-weapon also gives rad-trad Catholic men both a distinctive signifier within Christian nationalism and a sort of membership pass to the movement. As the sociologists Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry note in Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, Catholics used to be regarded as enemies by Christian nationalists, and anti-Catholic nativism runs deep in American history. Today, Catholics are a growing contingent of Christian nationalism.

Helping unite these former rivals is a quasi-theological doctrine of what Perry and another sociologist, Philip S. Gorski, have called “righteous violence” against political enemies regarded as demonic or satanic, be they secularists, progressives, or Jews. The hostility toward liberalism and secularism inherent in traditionalist Catholicism is also pronounced within Christian nationalist circles. No longer stigmatized by evangelical nationalists, Catholic imagery now blends freely with staple alt-right memes that romanticize ancient Rome or idealize the traditional patriarchal family.

Some doctrinal differences and divisions remain. Many radical-traditional Catholic men maintain the hard-line position that other forms of Christianity are heretical, and hold that Catholics alone adhere to the one true Church. Christian nationalism’s nativism and its predilection for “Great Replacement” theory alienate some radical-traditional Catholics who are not white or who were not born in the United States, and deep veins of anti-Catholicism persist among far-right Protestants.

Yet the convergence within Christian nationalism is cemented in common causes such as hostility toward abortion-rights advocates. The pro-choice protests that followed the leaked early draft of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, led to a profusion of social-media posts on the far right fantasizing about killing activists, and such forums responded to Pride month this year with extremist homophobic and transphobic “groomer” discourse. Rad-trad networks are also involved in organizing rosary-branded events that involve weapons training.

Catholics are taught to love and forgive their enemies, that to do otherwise is a sin. But the extremist understanding of spiritual warfare overrides that command. To do battle with Satan—whose influence in the world is, according to Catholic demonology, real and menacing—is to deploy violence for deliverance and redemption. The “battle beads” culture of spiritual warfare permits radical-traditional Catholics literally to demonize their political opponents and regard the use of armed force against them as sanctified. The sacramental rosary isn’t just a spiritual weapon but one that comes with physical ammunition.

Daniel Panneton is a writer based in Toronto, Canada.
 

Terriannie

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Anything you think, feel, like, love, pursue, believe, is fair game for for the demented commies who we have allowed on center stage.
Gonna be a hard slog to get rid of them.
I hear ya. Look how long it took for Roe/Wade to be overturned? We know it's not over and the battle is still there, but still, that intention was usually recited before most rosaries along with other Christians praying daily, so, no doubt about it, that reversal was stupendous regardless!!!

I guess we should remember God works in mysterious ways and in His time, so, whatever it is, maybe the left senses something in their agenda is in jeopardy, necessitating the attacks? I don't know about y'all but I sense a more openness in the manifestations of evil spirits. Maybe they sense the same manifestations of our good and Holy Angels?
 

Mprepared

Veteran Member
I was raised Catholic and my dad could not handle all the changes in the church and we stopped going when I was about 17 and later in my 30s I got married, but we did not marry in a church, so a few years later we both discussed religion and I told about being Catholic and he was raised Baptist. We tried the Catholic church and there was just so much that was different than I was raised. He went to adult Catholic education classes and I listened and they said Adam and Eve was not real and just symbolism and Noah and the flood. Frankly, I was embarrassed and mad. He said he could not deal with this and the Baptist church he said he did not want to go back, so we studied on our own and listened to a lot of different church on shortwave and television. When our children were a little older we did go to a Baptist church and my daughter and her family still go.

My brother found his way back to the Catholic church. I wish I could get to that point and forget all of what I heard that basically I almost believe are lies attacking the church or twisted, but I do not see the church the way I did before and I see some lies in the Baptist church twisting the belief of Catholics, but my brother told me something the other day that his church said that the city council was letting ANY FAITH have prayers before meeting EXCEPT CATHOLIC PRAYER WAS NOT ALLOWED. That really has me wondering what is up. Catholics are the only faith that the left sees as an enemy????? That rosary with Christ on the cross terrifies them?
 

Meemur

Voice on the Prairie / FJB!
Interesting, I fully expected to see an article about gangs who use the rosary as a war symbol. google it, it's an actual thing, the wrong color rosary and you could end up dead.

Used to be the same with bandana colors, too. Wearing the wrong color in the wrong place may have resulted in a beating or death. This is why schools in some gang-infested areas went to mandatory school uniforms.

Some public schools also banned rosaries, although that was challenged in several places as I recall. The students were wearing the rosaries, not keeping them in a pocket. They were being used as gang symbols. Remember that Madonna used to wear several rosaries around her neck as a fashion statement in the 1980s.

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SSTemplar

Veteran Member
The Globalist must destroy you heritage and culture. That is the only way they can start over. Your job is to keep shoving your heritage and culture in their face. With a bullet if needed.
 

Terriannie

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Mprepared, sadly many, many priests, Bishops, educators and POPES will have a lot of "spaining" to do when they meet Jesus.

I hold on to my faith knowing all will be sorted out and soldier on. (How strange we use the word, "soldier" almost without thinking and that just hit me. :eek:)
 

Walrus Whisperer

Hope in chains...
It doesn't seem to terrify piglosi in any way, shape, or manner.
It doesn't faze her when her home priest said she was not to receive communion because she supports abortion and she runs around the whole world getting communion from priests who aren't aware she's banned from it. There's gonna be a figurative massive hole when her master comes for her.
 

packyderms_wife

Neither here nor there.
It doesn't faze her when her home priest said she was not to receive communion because she supports abortion and she runs around the whole world getting communion from priests who aren't aware she's banned from it. There's gonna be a figurative massive hole when her master comes for her.

Didn't the pope also give her communion?
 

eens

Nuns with Guns
I was raised Catholic and my dad could not handle all the changes in the church and we stopped going when I was about 17 and later in my 30s I got married, but we did not marry in a church, so a few years later we both discussed religion and I told about being Catholic and he was raised Baptist. We tried the Catholic church and there was just so much that was different than I was raised. He went to adult Catholic education classes and I listened and they said Adam and Eve was not real and just symbolism and Noah and the flood. Frankly, I was embarrassed and mad. He said he could not deal with this and the Baptist church he said he did not want to go back, so we studied on our own and listened to a lot of different church on shortwave and television. When our children were a little older we did go to a Baptist church and my daughter and her family still go.

My brother found his way back to the Catholic church. I wish I could get to that point and forget all of what I heard that basically I almost believe are lies attacking the church or twisted, but I do not see the church the way I did before and I see some lies in the Baptist church twisting the belief of Catholics, but my brother told me something the other day that his church said that the city council was letting ANY FAITH have prayers before meeting EXCEPT CATHOLIC PRAYER WAS NOT ALLOWED. That really has me wondering what is up. Catholics are the only faith that the left sees as an enemy????? That rosary with Christ on the cross terrifies them?

The True Faith is still here. Find a Traditional Latin Mass. That's where you'll find the Truth preached and taught, it will all be familiar to you . I see that you're in Idaho, but I don't know where in ID. Here are some





I hope these help.




 

Terriannie

Has No Life - Lives on TB
No, he did NOT give her Communion. He was present when another priest did that.

But he is just as responsible.

I don't recognize him as 'pope'. I call him frank...not even a capital letter frank.
While I still personally consider him a technical "Pope," he's what I consider a "space saver" and at the bottom. In other words I ignore him and keep him in prayer.

While most of our Popes have ranged from average, good, to VERY good, to be sure, we've had a few bad ones in our long history enacting sorrow and hardship. What's interesting, is that whenever a bad one pops up, even as they inflict much confusion and distrust, NONE of them were able to change dogmas and doctrines, even though they tried because Jesus literally prevented them. He is after all, in charge.

Like I said, God has mysterious ways and for some reason He allows these second-rate men to sporadically exist in their perspective roles. I don't know why, I just trust, knowing Jesus Christ, son of the living God, is the one in front of the boat surveying and controlling ALL, no matter who's hand is steering.
 

gillmanNSF

Veteran Member
Saw the article this morning and first thing I thought of was, "They have no idea how much more powerful the rosary is!" Think, the Siege of Vienna and defeat of the Ottoman Turks. The Rosary. Think, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. The Rosary. And, the author of the article got it wrong; it is not in honor of Mary, but a meditation on the mysteries of the faith. It is prayed daily in our household.
 

Mprepared

Veteran Member
The True Faith is still here. Find a Traditional Latin Mass. That's where you'll find the Truth preached and taught, it will all be familiar to you . I see that you're in Idaho, but I don't know where in ID. Here are some





I hope these help.




My brother goes to one of these I think. Thank you.
 

eens

Nuns with Guns
Saw the article this morning and first thing I thought of was, "They have no idea how much more powerful the rosary is!" Think, the Siege of Vienna and defeat of the Ottoman Turks. The Rosary. Think, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. The Rosary. And, the author of the article got it wrong; it is not in honor of Mary, but a meditation on the mysteries of the faith. It is prayed daily in our household.
In my home too. I keep one under my pillow and pray when I wake up. Some people keep their gun under their pillow, my weapon of choice is the rosary. LOL. At least I won’t blow my head off with it.
 

SwampTiger

Watching…to go Home
Nothing to do with catholics or rosary.....but a call to battle in this war of good and evil.
Well worth 3 minutes of your time to watch the video.

CRIES OF THE CRUSADERS

Lyrics:

God gave us light
But somebody hit the breaker
Lost in the dark 'til I met my maker
Fighting for peace while I'm here on God's acres
Love thy neighbor
I don't even hate haters
They say don't be violent
In the face of my traitors
We can talk about it later
My savior came in flipping the tables
I'm a crusader
My heart is my anchor
The angels are crying and smearing their makeup
You dance with the devil, I march to their cadence
Feeding my kids with the fruits of my labor
I paid all my payments, I'm all out of patience
So save all your statements you say from your basement
I stand on the pavement and fight for my people against you dictators


I put my armor on
Hear the cries of the crusaders
We show 'em what we're made of
I put my armor on
Hear the cries of the crusaders
We show 'em what we're made of

I stand for what's right
Even if I stand alone
I'd rather be losing this battle than winning
While fighting for something that I know is wrong
I've known all along, I have a purpose
Gotta reach all my people
Ain't no common ground on the battlefield that were standing on
It's a war going on of good and evil
I'm a crusader screaming my prayers
I'm hoping that God hear my word and finds favor
Speaking my truth and my tongue is a razor
That opens the wounds, leave the devil disabled

I'm standing in light so the darkness surround me
My heart keeps on pounding, the trumpets are sounding
I'm not backing down and they counted me out
But I just keep on counting

I put my armor on
Hear the cries of the crusaders
We show 'em what we're made of
I put my armor on
Hear the cries of the crusaders
We show 'em what we're made of

God has not given us the spirit of fear
But of power
And of love and light
And of a sound mind
Put on your armor and fight
I put my armor on
Hear the cries of the crusaders
We show 'em what we're made of
I put my armor on
Hear the cries of the crusaders
We show 'em what we're made of
I put my armor on

Runtime 3 minutes
View: https://youtu.be/zgBeuxqcmw4
 

wintery_storm

Veteran Member
While I still personally consider him a technical "Pope," he's what I consider a "space saver" and at the bottom. In other words I ignore him and keep him in prayer.

While most of our Popes have ranged from average, good, to VERY good, to be sure, we've had a few bad ones in our long history enacting sorrow and hardship. What's interesting, is that whenever a bad one pops up, even as they inflict much confusion and distrust, NONE of them were able to change dogmas and doctrines, even though they tried because Jesus literally prevented them. He is after all, in charge.

Like I said, God has mysterious ways and for some reason He allows these second-rate men to sporadically exist in their perspective roles. I don't know why, I just trust, knowing Jesus Christ, son of the living God, is the one in front of the boat surveying and controlling ALL, no matter who's hand is steering.
I do not like this Pope and I agree there have been some good Popes and others- well.
 

maric

Short but deadly
I'm Catholic. Have been all my life. I'll pray the beautiful Rosary where and when I dang please! I even have a set from the Vatican that were blessed by Pope John Paul 2.
But for the record, I can't stand this 'poop' Yes POOP. Because that's how I see him.
 

Cardinal

Chickministrator
_______________
I'm Catholic. Have been all my life. I'll pray the beautiful Rosary where and when I dang please! I even have a set from the Vatican that were blessed by Pope John Paul 2.
But for the record, I can't stand this 'poop' Yes POOP. Because that's how I see him.
He styles himself 'Bishop of Rome", (which he is) rather than Pope, which is rather telling.
He also refuses any and all trappings of a traditional Pope, which means he is admitting he is not the true Pope.

As far as the Rosary being attacked, the enemy understands how powerful a prayer it is.
 

pauldingbabe

The Great Cat
He styles himself 'Bishop of Rome", (which he is) rather than Pope, which is rather telling.
He also refuses any and all trappings of a traditional Pope, which means he is admitting he is not the true Pope.

As far as the Rosary being attacked, the enemy understands how powerful a prayer it is.
Amen.
 

vessie

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I'm a traditional old timey Latin Mass Catholic and my rosary is a "first class reclic" of St. Catherine Laboure.

It has one of the first and rare "Miraculous Medal" on the rosary, which looks different that the ones obtained today.

This rosary was given to my dad's family when she was still alive and I can't even describe the power it has.

About St. Catherine Laboure

"Her body was encased in glass beneath the side altar in the Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Paris. Her body was discovered to be incorrupt after being exhumed in 1933. She was beatified by Pope Pius XI on May 28, 1933 and canonized by Pope Pius XII on July 27, 1947."

I have it locked in my safe and I took it out and had a friend hold it.

He didn't know the provenance of the rosary and is not a Catholic, he is a Lutheran.

He has many health issues, especially his lungs.

So I took it out of the safe, as an experiment, I told him to hold the rosary. He for some reason felt compelled to hold it up to his forehead (third eye area) and on his chest.

He started immediately breathing hard and loudly. He broke out into a sweat and I just watched what was happening to him.

When he was done holding the rosary, and breathing normally, he handed it back to me and I asked him what he felt and maybe 'saw' in his mind.

He said that the minute he held the rosary, he felt his whole body stir physically and had visions of the Blessed Mother and then he felt a great 'heat' all over his body and like 'something' was leaving his body from his chest/lungs area.

He then said that he has not breathed normally and clearly for decades and it's like he has the lungs of a teen now.

He is now breathing normally since he held the first class relic rosary, back in November of 2021. V
 
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