Candace Owens describes history as perpetual 'holy war being waged against goodness'
A prominent political commentator is characterizing history as an ongoing “holy war that is being waged against goodness” as she continues to adjust to her newfound Catholic faith.
Candace Owens, a conservative political commentator who used to work for The Daily Wire until her dismissal earlier this year, addressed the advocacy group Catholics for Catholics in Phoenix, Arizona, on Thursday.
Owens converted to Catholicism earlier this year and began her speech by referring to her address as her “first Catholic event.” In her remarks, she elaborated on how her journey to Catholicism began “with just a curiosity of the Catholic faith, seeing what it had done in my husband’s life.”
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Owens described herself as “overwhelmed but interested in why this had done so much good in my husband’s life.” She noted that he attends Mass every day and goes to confession weekly, expressing her excitement at seeing “somebody have that sort of a commitment” and “everything in their life become better.”
In addition to curiosity stemming from her husband’s embrace of and conversion to Catholicism, Owens cited “things that were happening politically” and the belief that Evangelicalism was “starting to feel like a political party” rather than a philosophy based on adherence to “truths that are incontrovertible” as other factors that pulled her toward the religion.
“My husband used to say to me … to become a student of history is to become a Catholic,” she said. “I never knew what he meant until I started getting interested in what was motivating people, what was driving people.”
After researching certain topics as she engaged in debates with Protestants, Owens recalled, "I would find myself discovering things that I thought, ‘wow, that’s weird, seems like this was an intentional time in history that was an attack on the Catholic faith.'"
Owens detailed how she began to “re-examine those history books” that she read from in school and questioned why she had a “weird thing about Catholics,” specifically seeking to find out “who was putting that in my mind” that Catholics have been a negative force in history and “where is this brainwash coming from?” She credited her change in feelings about the Catholic faith to her examination of “true history,” which she contrasted with “the stuff that you learn in public school.”
Identifying history as a continuous story of “good versus evil,” Owens determined that “it has forever been a holy war that is being waged against goodness.” While she recalled hearing a voice in her head telling her, “you could just say nothing” and “just keep on going and saying the thing about the left versus the right, and you could live a really nice life doing that” as opposed to focusing her commentary on “the topic of faith,” she concluded that taking that course of action “didn’t sit right” with her.
“Suddenly, I understood that my entire career, which I felt like I was going into this nice easy spot in, was going to be upended because everything else that we were talking about was nonsense,” she asserted. “I understood the attacks that I was going to endure for my faith.”
Owens ultimately decided to press on, sharing her belief that “persecution is the beginning of the Christian faith.”
She added, “I have never endured more attacks than when I tweeted last November that ‘Christ is King.’ Never in my life have I seen anything like it.”
The political commentator pushed back on the claim that her post was “an expression of antisemitism” as opposed to a statement of faith. She condemned “the amount of lies told about something that was so simple and so true.”
“One of the most beautiful things about coming into the Catholic Church is that I didn’t come here to be a celebrity,” she added. “For the first time, my celebrity made sense to me because it was a gift.”
Owens continued, “There is only one that we should be celebrating ever: that’s it.” She explained that she came to understand that “this platform was given to me because the platform’s not mine, it isn’t mine,” but rather, “a megaphone for me to do the real work.”
Reflecting on the success she's achieved as a political commentator, she stressed that she “no longer had this panic about money because I had decided that it didn’t mean anything if it came at the expense of truth.”
After she concluded her speech, Owens sat down for a question-and-answer session where she revealed feeling “pressure” not to “let Catholics down” because of how much she had to learn about the faith.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: [email protected]
