Those who know me personally know that one of my favorite phrases is “it’s a slippery slope,” or some variation of it.
I especially employ this personal favorite when I want to warn about a potentially dangerous compromise a person, institution, the Church, or society wants to make, or an evil they want to tolerate.
This is, of course, not just some personal eccentric concern I have. We see the danger of compromise or tolerating evil also in Holy Scripture.
Again and again, God warns His people not to make peace with what He has called sin. In Revelation 2:20, Christ rebukes the church at Thyatira for having tolerated false teaching and immorality in their midst, saying: “But I have against thee a few things: because thou sufferest the woman Jezabel, who calleth herself a prophetess, to teach, and to seduce my servants.”
We see a similar warning, making it clear that evil is not something we are called to accommodate or quietly overlook, in Ephesians 5:11, where St. Paul commands, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
Isaiah 5:20 gives an even more sobering warning when the prophet says, “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” This is one of the clearest warnings that when we begin to redefine what God has called wrong, or excuse what He has forbidden, we place ourselves on extremely dangerous ground.
Repeatedly in the Old Testament, God warns of exactly this as well. We see the same danger in Israel’s failure to completely remove the inhabitants of the Promised Land, when God warned them in Numbers 33:55 that “if you will not kill the inhabitants of the land, they that remain shall be unto you as nails in your eyes, and spears in your sides, and they shall be adversaries to you in the land of your habitation.”
What they tolerated and failed to remove would eventually become a source of continual trouble and spiritual danger.
St. Paul gives the same clear warning in Galatians 5:9 when he writes to this community that “A little leaven corrupteth the whole lump.” This is surely one of the clearest illustrations that what may appear to be a small compromise can gradually spread and corrupt the whole.
Although there are many reasons that prompted the writing of this essay, the single biggest one is the case of Lindsey Clancy, which has made both American and international headlines.
I doubt anyone doesn’t know the story by now. Clancy is a Massachusetts mother and former labor-and-delivery nurse who stands accused of killing her three young children in January 2023 at her family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts.
Clancy does not dispute that the children died at her hands, but blames her “mental state” at the time. Her defense has argued that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness that can occur after childbirth, and that she therefore was not criminally responsible.
Those are the bare-minimum facts, which are sufficient for the purpose of this essay. This essay is not about analyzing the case. Personally, I think she should pay with her life for this atrocious crime, but you might disagree.
Why this case triggered me to pose the question that is also the title of this essay is because of a subplot to this shocking, tragic, and gruesome tale.
I was about equally as disturbed by the details of this case as I was to note that a trend developed where many women on social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram started expressing sympathy and support for Lindsey Clancy, allegedly using the defense of “maternal mental health.”
These supporters used hashtags, videos, and online discussions to supposedly raise awareness about postpartum mental illness, while others organized public demonstrations and online fundraisers.
I saw something completely different taking place: The final destination at the bottom of the slippery slope of abortion.
I am going to use the United States as the example to defend my argument. There are, of course, worse and better countries when it comes to this matter, but for the sake of the essay, the U.S. will do.
Abortion in the United States was legalized nationwide in 1973 through Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion and generally protected the procedure before fetal viability, while allowing greater state regulation later in pregnancy.
In 1992, Planned Parenthood v. Casey reaffirmed that basic protection, but in 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, returning abortion regulation to the states.
Massachusetts, though, has remained one of the states with the strongest abortion protections. In 2020, the state enacted the ROE Act, which protected abortion before 24 weeks and allowed abortions after 24 weeks under specified circumstances, which of course can never justify the murder of a baby.
Under Governor Maura Healey, who identifies as “Catholic,” Massachusetts has recently expanded those protections, including a law she signed in earlier this month that eliminates the previous statutory 24-week restriction and allows physicians to determine, according to their “professional medical judgment” and “accepted standards of care”, whether abortion (i.e. murder) later in pregnancy is “medically appropriate”.
See the slippery slope? Fifty-three years after allowing the murder of babies under certain conditions, we are now at the point where they can be killed right up to birth.
But it gets worse.
The Clancy case, or rather the support she is receiving, exposes an even darker reality. After normalizing abortion for more than half a century, these “supporters” are merely taking it to the next satanic step: a license to kill your baby in the womb is no longer enough. They are telling us that getting rid of your children after birth should also be an option.
One commentator rightly pointed out that chances are most of these supporters have had abortions, and therefore they are only defending Clancy because they see themselves in her.
Not convinced? Let us look at another example.
Before 1945, the criminalization of homosexuality was practically a global phenomenon.
Between 1950 and 1960, a major wave of decriminalization began, and by 1969, 57 countries had decriminalized it. By 1985, the number of countries that had made same-sex activity legal shot up to 72, and today even more countries have decriminalized it.
It didn’t take long before decriminalization was no longer enough. Next they “just” wanted to get “married” and “just” wanted the same legal rights as heterosexuals. The compromise was made. The sin was tolerated.
Being “married,” they wanted to adopt children and now they even obtain them through the wicked practice of surrogacy. The slope quickly got increasingly slippier.
Fast-forward to 2026, and where are we now?
Men dressed as women are reading stories to our children in libraries. Every show on TV is shoving the LGBTQ agenda down our throats. Men pretending to be women can use the same public bathroom as your daughter and wife. It has become illegal in many parts of the world not to indulge their pronoun lunacy. Many young people can no longer tell you what a woman is and believe men can get pregnant.
But remember when they “just” decriminalized it? Remember when they “just” wanted to get married?
Believe me when I tell you that the normalization of pedophilia is closer than you think. All the signs are pointing that way.
And then? Somewhere in the shadows, bestiality is waiting for its cue to join the Alphabet of Iniquity.
Think I am being histrionic or hyperbolic? What do you think the “Furry” movement is a precursor to?
There are countless other examples in all spheres of life. Take for example the similar pattern with pornography, which went from being illegal, to being legalized, to turning into a multibillion-dollar industry.
Today? The culmination of this journey down the slippery slope is OnlyFans, which gives any person the opportunity to degrade themselves for money by committing the most wicked sins. Suddenly, after many years of normalization, women of all ages are online “porn actresses”, and no one is batting an eyelid.
A further problem arose from this. Because the competition for views has become so fierce, the extremity of the perversion involved has also exponentially intensified.
Make no mistake. Platforms such as Instagram were instrumental and acted as the “gateway” drug for many of these girls who now commit horrific sins on OnlyFans. After all, on the slippery slope of pornography, it was a short distance from posing on Instagram in a bikini to indulging in perversion on OnlyFans.
But we saw the same thing happen in the Church.
The Second Vatican Council opened the door to “just” dialogue with false religions instead of converting them, and today bishops, priests, and “popes” are engaging in open pagan worship, as we saw in multiple cases involving Pachamama.
After Vatican II, they “just” wanted to afford the laity greater participation, and today we have Eucharistic Ministers committing sacrilege, lay preaching of homilies, and women demanding to be priests.
The “pastoral” approach to the LGBTQ movement, instead of condemning their sin and calling them to repentance, led to the Church hierarchy being infested with sodomite clergy. The reality of “marrying” same-sex couples is around the corner, and Robert Prevost seems to be appointing only pro-LGBTQ bishops.
The slippery slope principle is evident everywhere.
But it is also important to look at ourselves.
It is easy to condemn compromise when we see its fruits elsewhere.
We look at the destruction of the family, the normalization of abortion, the corruption of public morality, the abandonment of Christian education, and the ever-deepening apostasy of our age, and we rightly ask: How did we get here?
The answer is, of course, in large part, that men compromised. But we need to ask an even more uncomfortable question: Where have I compromised, or where am I busy compromising?
In a conversation this past week, my colleague and friend Sean Wright, in response to someone’s observation that a well-known influencer “has been blinded,” captured the dangerous truth beautifully when he responded that it “could happen to any of us if we fail to live up to the light of truth given to us at any moment.”
All it takes is one little compromise that goes against the truth.
The slippery slope never begins with some spectacular indiscretion, but always with what we ourselves deem to be insignificant.
Just one sin excused. Just one obligation neglected. Just one worldly influence tolerated. Just one Catholic doctrine treated as optional. That is all it takes to set this downward journey into motion.
I myself look back at my own journey and remember so many times I ended up in a dark place, only to realize it started with justifying one bad habit, allowing myself to be near the occasion of sin, or deciding to keep silent because the truth would be too inconvenient.
Almost without fail, the first compromise was followed by another, and then another, and then another.
It is almost impossible for the devil to convince the average Traditional Catholic I know to renounce the faith and betray Christ overnight. The only way he can get to them is to convince them to make that first little compromise.
That is all it takes to weaken the will and to start the process of dulling the conscience.
The restoration of Mother Church will not begin with everyone else, but with ourselves. That is why it is so important to be counter-revolutionary and integral Catholics.
We cannot give an inch in any arena of our lives.
If we want Catholic families, we must live as Catholic families. If we want Catholic children, we must raise them as Catholics. And if we want a Catholic society and the restoration of the Catholic Church, we must first become Catholics who actually practice the perennial Faith without apology and without compromise.
It is either fidelity unto martyrdom or taking that first step down the slippery slope.
There is no third way.
Our Lady, Co-redemptrix, pray for us…
Our Lady, Mediatrix of all Graces, pray for us…
Viva Christo Rey!
ALSO READ:
You Were Warned, and Will Have No Excuse
Video Shows Nuns “Concelebrate” Mass with Priest Who Changes Eucharistic Prayer
Synodal “Church” in Peru Prepares for Leo’s Visit with an offering to “Mother Earth”
I do not accept the false pretense that "they" are the Church. "They" have taken the buildings and the judicary but it is no longer the Catholic church. The Church lives on in the catecombs of the sedevacantist parishes across the world faithfully guarding and guiding the flocks towards heaven.
If God wills it, the Church will regain possession of the Vatican and all the Diocese but that is up to Him.
Until then we watch the Ape church destroying souls, but please no longer call it THE Church.
There has never been a third way.
Even in the debauchery of the 70’s Mick Jagger retained the truth in his sacrilegious songs: “Yes, there are 2 paths you can go by, but in the long run, there’s still time to change the road you’re on.”
But there isn’t “still time”; we are staring into the abyss. We are required to do more than change (only or just) the road WE are on. We have always been called to teach, obey, and lead others to Jesus. Even if His Apostolic Church finds itself on the wide path, we cannot follow them down. There is no Gate at the end of that slippery pathway, it slopes directly into Hell.
Thank you Chris. People need to hear (from all of us) how to articulate that their “just” accommodations, put their own souls at risk of a final Judgement that no one ever wants upon their eternal soul.
Silence is acquiescence. Or as Aquinas said, only one immoral element is sufficient for evil.