{"id":463,"date":"2012-04-05T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T06:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=463"},"modified":"2025-09-12T20:19:26","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T00:19:26","slug":"the-great-vacuum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/the-great-vacuum\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Vacuum","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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First published June 1st, 2007…<\/em><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\nA<\/span>\u00a0vacuum<\/em> has been created in the souls of the youth generation\u2014whether in China or America\u2014by an onslaught of propaganda<\/a> which centers on self-fulfillment, rather than on God. Our hearts are made for Him, and when we do not have God\u2014or we refuse Him entry\u2014something else takes His place. This is why the Church must never cease to evangelize, to proclaim the Good News that the Lord wishes to enter our hearts, with all His<\/em> Heart, to fill the vacuum.<\/p>\n
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Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. (John 14:23)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But this Gospel, if it is to have any credibility, must be preached with our lives<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\nCRISIS OF LEADERSHIP<\/p>\n

However, a crisis of leadership has developed over the past 40 years or so, beginning with the sexual revolution. In nearly every facet of society, true heroes and role models have grown steadily fewer in number, indeed have become rare, creating a moral void, adding to this Great Vacuum<\/em>. Politics is polluted with deception. Sports seems more about salaries than saves. Pop stars are increasingly pornographic or popping drugs.\u00a0 Peacekeepers have been unpeaceful.\u00a0 Televangelists have been untruthful.\u00a0 And some pastors and priests have been found to be pedophiles. When one looks across the horizon of humanity, it is harder and harder to find genuine role models\u2014leaders who provide unwavering examples of moral courage and integrity.<\/p>\n

This vacuum of leadership, then, prepares the way for someone<\/em> to arrive on the scene, someone to provide an “ideal” for this generation.<\/p>\n

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Britain has suffered from a severe lack of solid religious leadership for decades… There, in North America and elsewhere, that same phenomena has left the door wide open for the entire culture of death…<\/strong> \u2014Steve Jalsevac, editor of LifeSiteNews.com<\/em>; May 21st, 2008<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\nTHE NOISY CANDY STORE<\/p>\n

The motor of this Great Vacuum is materialism<\/em>. Through the pursuit of temporal “success,” many leaders have lost their way… and thus youth have been deprived of spiritual substance to fill their souls. This materialism is a “noise”\u2014an unceasing, blaring, deafening noise blocking out the voice of God who continually offers us Himself, but has been replaced by hedonism.<\/p>\n

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While the volume of this noise continues to be turned up, it is as though a diet of candy, a menu of sweet deceptions<\/em> is being fed to our youth by the media and entertainment industries. The youth, like every soul, are hungering for Truth. But in this crisis of leadership, in which the light of truth is being eclipsed, [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf. On the Eve<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span>