(LifeSiteNews) — Sometimes we feel it is difficult to speak the truth in the face of falsehood and evil, especially when everyone around us seems to imbibe a culture saturated with it. Imagine, however, facing backlash and losing business for doing precisely that, and God providing after the fact and giving you the opportunity to promote devotion to His Heart.
My guest today is Ross McKnight, a father, husband, and farmer who lost significant business for defending traditional Catholic values on social media in the midst of “Pride Month.”
McKnight tells me that he and his wife figured there would eventually be a conflict between him and his clients, as he always promoted the traditional Catholic calendar and devotions online. When the conflict finally arrived earlier this month, he tells me, the situation at home was “mad,” with his wife suffering a debilitating migraine.
His neighbors, however, began buying from him almost immediately. When his friend Harrison stopped at the farm to buy from him, McKnight was surprised to know that Harrison was unaware of the backlash received for the post. Explaining Harrison’s reaction, McKnight tells me that “he got so angry with righteous anger and went on Twitter and posted something. And that’s where The Federalist took it up, and then … ‘Fox & Friends,’ and it spiraled from there.” At some point, meanwhile, Harrison had set up a GiveSendGo for the McKnights to help with the loss of income, he explains.
McKnight attributes the outpouring of support he and his family received to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Stressing the “tremendous graces” that have showered him and his family amid their ordeal and the ability to “witness” divine providence, McKnight tells me that “the Sacred Heart takes care of His own, and … I just want that to remain front and center here.”
“If we continue, all of us, to make reparation and pray to the Sacred Heart, make our novena, enthrone our home, maybe start that nine months devotion,” McKnight explains. “That’s obviously what He’s asking for … He wants to be promoted, and He’s going to be promoted throughout the world.”
McKnight explains that the devotion to the Sacred Heart is the devotion to the love of God for men, the flames surrounding the cross on top of the Heart representing the burning love of God unable to contain Its love for men, the thorns surrounding the Heart representing the sins of men. McKnight further notes that June is the month dedicated to the Sacred Heart, and that the devotion to the Sacred Heart is the antidote to the cultural ills brought about by LGBT “pride.”
“So the battle is very clearly pitched,” McKnight says. “And so all we have to do is choose the Sacred Heart, devote ourselves to the Sacred Heart, pray to the Sacred Heart, make reparation. … It’s very simple, and it’s beautiful to have something so simple.”
McKnight also explains that culture is linked to religious practice. A man who prays the Rosary in French, he tells me that Louisiana culture is inseparable from Catholicism, with the Acadians coming to the bayous of southeast Louisiana from Nova Scotia after refusing to swear their loyalty to a Protestant king.
“The minute you [separate the culture of Louisiana from Catholicism], you start to forget what you’re about,” he tells me. “And it’s like, what is it that we’re preserving? So [there are] a lot of secular efforts around to kind of preserve French … preserve the … food, the cuisine. But what it’s lacking is the glue, which is the faith, because everything stems from that. The love of life in general stems from the faith.”
“Our culture is so tied to our French heritage, which cannot be extricated from the eldest daughter of the Church,” he continues. “That’s where we come from.”
He also explains that he would not want to work in a society that “doesn’t have a hope of a renewal of faith or … doesn’t have a hope of renewing the culture.” “What is the point of all these things that we do … if we can’t uphold those things when the rubber meets the road?”
“The moment [to fight] chooses you,” he continues, giving his opinion on when someone should make a stand for what he believes. “I think most of us will know when it’s time to say something in a very … overt and external way.”
McKnight says he would publish the post that caused him to lose clients again, explaining that “the greatest honor is to serve the King.”
“It’s a tremendous honor and I don’t deserve it,” he continues. “And I feel extremely blessed in so many ways to just have been able to have that one moment of usefulness, if it even was useful, or I guess just … God allowing me to be a part of it … because He doesn’t need me … So just having been allowed to be part of the promotion of the Sacred Heart, and having been allowed to fight in one moment for the King of Heaven and Earth, yes a tremendous honor.”
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