Paul Harvey bridged the generation gap, at least he did in my family. He was featured on the radio show my dad listened to as he drove us kids into the city (Chicago) to visit relatives. Later, when I got one of my early jobs pumping gas, he was featured on the radio shows my boss preferred.
This is Paul Harvey’s most famous broadcast and, I believe, it is timelier now than when he first broadcast it in 1965.
If you’re not familiar with it, here it is:
“IF I WERE THE DEVIL…IF I WERE THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS, I’D WANT TO ENGULF THE WHOLE WORLD IN DARKNESS. AND I’D HAVE A THIRD OF ITS REAL ESTATE, AND FOUR-FIFTHS OF ITS POPULATION, BUT I WOULDN’T BE HAPPY UNTIL I HAD SEIZED THE RIPEST APPLE ON THE TREE— THEE. SO I’D SET ABOUT HOWEVER NECESSARY TO TAKE OVER THE UNITED STATES. I’D SUBVERT THE CHURCHES FIRST—I’D BEGIN WITH A CAMPAIGN OF WHISPERS. WITH THE WISDOM OF A SERPENT, I WOULD WHISPER TO YOU AS I WHISPERED TO EVE: ‘DO AS YOU PLEASE.’
“TO THE YOUNG, I WOULD WHISPER THAT ‘THE BIBLE IS A MYTH.’ I WOULD CONVINCE THEM THAT MAN CREATED GOD INSTEAD OF THE OTHER WAY AROUND. I WOULD CONFIDE THAT WHAT’S BAD IS GOOD, AND WHAT’S GOOD IS ‘SQUARE.’ AND THE OLD, I WOULD TEACH TO PRAY, AFTER ME, ‘OUR FATHER, WHICH ART IN WASHINGTON.”
“AND THEN I’D GET ORGANIZED. I’D EDUCATE AUTHORS IN HOW TO MAKE LURID LITERATURE EXCITING, SO THAT ANYTHING ELSE WOULD APPEAR DULL AND UNINTERESTING. I’D THREATEN TV WITH DIRTIER MOVIES AND VICE VERSA. I’D PEDAL NARCOTICS TO WHOM I COULD. I’D SELL ALCOHOL TO LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF DISTINCTION. I’D TRANQUILIZE THE REST WITH PILLS.
“IF I WERE THE DEVIL I’D SOON HAVE FAMILIES AT WAR WITH THEMSELVES, CHURCHES AT WAR WITH THEMSELVES, AND NATIONS AT WAR WITH THEMSELVES; UNTIL EACH IN ITS TURN WAS CONSUMED.
“AND WITH PROMISES OF HIGHER RATINGS I’D HAVE MESMERIZING MEDIA FANNING THE FLAMES. IF I WERE THE DEVIL I WOULD ENCOURAGE SCHOOLS TO REFINE YOUNG INTELLECTS, BUT NEGLECT TO DISCIPLINE EMOTIONS—JUST LET THOSE RUN WILD, UNTIL BEFORE YOU KNEW IT, YOU’D HAVE TO HAVE DRUG SNIFFING DOGS AND METAL DETECTORS AT EVERY SCHOOLHOUSE DOOR.
“WITHIN A DECADE I’D HAVE PRISONS OVERFLOWING, I’D HAVE JUDGES PROMOTING PORNOGRAPHY—SOON I COULD EVICT GOD FROM THE COURTHOUSE, THEN FROM THE SCHOOLHOUSE, AND THEN FROM THE HOUSES OF CONGRESS. AND IN HIS OWN CHURCHES I WOULD SUBSTITUTE PSYCHOLOGY FOR RELIGION, AND DEITY SCIENCE. I WOULD LURE PRIESTS AND PASTORS INTO MISUSING BOYS AND GIRLS, AND CHURCH MONEY. IF I WERE THE DEVIL I’D MAKE THE SYMBOL OF EASTER AN EGG AND THE SYMBOL OF CHRISTMAS A BOTTLE.
“IF I WERE THE DEVIL, I’D TAKE FROM THOSE WHO HAVE, AND GIVE TO THOSE WHO WANT UNTIL I HAD KILLED THE INCENTIVE OF THE AMBITIOUS.
AND WHAT DO YOU BET I COULD GET WHOLE STATES TO PROMOTE GAMBLING AS THE WAY TO GET RICH? I WOULD CAUTION AGAINST EXTREMES AND HARD WORK IN PATRIOTISM, IN MORAL CONDUCT. I WOULD CONVINCE THE YOUNG THAT MARRIAGE IS OLD-FASHIONED, THAT SWINGING IS MORE FUN, THAT WHAT YOU SEE ON THE TV IS THE WAY TO BE. AND THUS, I COULD UNDRESS YOU IN PUBLIC, AND I COULD LURE YOU INTO BED WITH DISEASES FOR WHICH THERE IS NO CURE. IN OTHER WORDS, IF I WERE THE DEVIL I’D JUST KEEP RIGHT ON DOING WHAT HE’S DOING.
PAUL HARVEY, GOOD DAY”
I have probably heard this at least one hundred times. If you haven’t heard Paul Harvey’s presentation, do a search for “Paul Harvey, If I were the devil.” I offer a money back guarantee if you don’t enjoy it. When I heard it, even as a young boy, I felt he was right on target. As I get older, I am even more impressed with how his “prophesies” are coming to be.
1 According to gallup.com in a 1980 post, in 1965 less than 5% of U.S. citizens claimed “No religious affiliation” 22% identified as Catholic and 70% identified as non-Catholic Christians. That came to 92% of those polled identified as Christians while only 5% claimed no affiliation. A PEW RESEARCH CENTER post from December 14, 2021, reported that 63% of U.S. citizens self-identified as Christians while 30% identified as “non-affiliated.” It appears to me that when Paul Harvey intimated in 1965 that Christians in America were listening to “whispers” from the devil and falling away he was right on target. The number of citizens identifying as Christian has fallen 29% while the number of those claiming “No affiliation” has risen 25%.
2 Harvey’s next paragraph mentions that the devil might whisper, “The Bible is a myth,” and “…What’s bad is good and what’s good is ‘square.” I look at how the world has changed since 1965- Abortion went from illegal to, “A woman’s right” with 63,459,781 babies/fetuses being legally aborted since Roe V Wade (Guttmacher.org). A scandal involving Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse of those they were charged with caring for broke in 2002, but the allegations went back as far as 50 years, other sex scandals including Jeffrey Epstein who was thought to have arranged “sex vacations” for numerous public officials providing sex with underage victims, Epstein was found dead in his jail cell under suspicious circumstances, there are pages more- but this gives an outline of how far down the sewer our country has gone since 1965.
3 Another suggestion Paul Harvey had for the devil was “I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa.” There is so much here. Movies offer more sex than girls on the worst street corner in our major cities. It is hard to find a clean movie nowadays. I watch TV to go to sleep late at night and find it hard to find movies with no nudity, profane language or sexual situations. You may say that of course I see that, it’s because I’m looking at shows written for adults. I am. I ask why can’t a movie written for adults stay out of the gutter? Unfortunately, the problem is not limited to adult shows. An article written in The Federalist confirms my suspicions about Disney. The Federalist review of “Baymax” (A recent Disney release) includes these lines, “Disney is targeting kids by inserting its self-avowed, highly sexualized, ‘not-at-all-secret-gay-agenda’ into children’s shows.” Really? That’s not Disney’s only trek into the LGBTQ realm. Variety.com May 18, 2022, tells its’ readers that, “Restoring a same-sex kiss in ‘Lightyear’ comes after years of thwarted efforts to include LGBTQ identity into Pixar’s films, sources say. There are many more examples. I’d like you to mention the one’s that bother you in the comments.
4 Another line from the Paul Harvey piece is, “If I were the devil I’d soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed.” Later he says, “I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.” When Hillary was running for president, the last time, women were encouraged to “punish” men who chose to vote for the man- Trump- over her. My, just out of college, daughter took it to heart and seldom speaks to me as a result. In a response to Covid 19 (The pandemic that never was) churches were closed, while airlines, bars and strip clubs remained open. As a result of some ministers choosing to close their churches, in compliance with government mandates, some congregants fell away, others chose to go to churches that defied the mandates. Strife ensued, just like Harvey predicted. War isn’t hard to predict, but Paul called that one too in his piece. Some of the religions that have gained strength on the world scene are using “religious” reasons to attack bordering nations. As far as the press “fanning the flames” have you ever seen our country so divided. I place much of the blame for that on a press that, seems to me, to be in bed with one faction of the government to the exclusion of truth. I cite the examples of “The Hunter Biden laptop,” (Many of the press who, at the time, called the laptop Russian collusion are now admitting that the whole scandal was real- a day late and a dollar short) “The 2020 election” (Say what you want, there are thousands of affidavits signed under the penalty of perjury/imprisonment written by citizens who reported election abnormalities- That again deserves at least a hearing, but the press was, and still is, calling it “disinformation).
5 “If I was the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions-just let those run wild, until before you knew it, you’d have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.” Since that wise statement many schools have installed metal detectors and hired armed security. Many schools have suffered from students shooting other students. At the time Paul Harvey made this presentation school prayer and The Pledge of Allegiance were a common practice. After that ended, school shootings, other violence in schools and heavy drug use began and grew more common.
6 “Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing, I’d have judges promoting pornography— soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. And his own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and deity science, I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money. If I were the devil I’d make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.” WOW! Prisons are overflowing- so much so that many misguided State’s Attorneys are failing to prosecute serious crimes! Judges are promoting pornography; some judges were implicated in the Epstein scandal. God has been evicted from the courthouse, the schoolhouse and from Congress. I addressed earlier that there are less people identifying as Christian and more claiming no affiliation. As far as replacing The Easter Cross and Resurrection with the egg, that’s hard to argue against. I don’t believe that Christmas has been replaced with a bottle- I do think there are more people who identify Santa Claus with Christmas- or should I say “The Holidays or X-Mas” than those who think of Christmas as the celebration of the day that Christ was born.
7 “If I were the devil I’d take from those who have and give to those who want until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.” Anyone who has listened to the new tax proposals has heard some pompous filthy rich politician saying his new tax proposal was ok because it targets the “one percent” or “the rich” or “those who make over 400 thousand dollars a year”…or some other political hogwash designed to whitewash the FACT that our political climate has deteriorated to a point where we do not even talk about a “balanced budget” anymore. We have a national debt over 30 trillion dollars! Politicians go into office with modest wealth claiming to have high ideals and morals and come out millionaires (or better). In my state (IL) we sent a retired gym teacher wrestling coach to represent us. When he came out a few years later, the scandal surfaced (Which is not unusual for Illinois politicians) and it was proven that he was paying 3.5 million dollars in hush money to keep a sex scandal quiet. Where did he get that kind of money? Anyone who can afford a 3.5 million dollar bribe is, obviously, making much more than that. He served in congress for 20 years. Politico reported that at the time of his indictment his net worth was between 4 and 17 million dollars. I am a police officer who retired after 35 years. If I could get the low estimate of his wealth, it would increase my total net worth by about 3.9 million.
Another point I would like to make is that I was always taught it is good to aspire to great things, wealth, business success. I now hear the rich being denigrated regularly. I don’t believe in “hero worship” of those who have succeeded, but I do believe that it is better to aspire to greatness than mediocrity. A friend recently posted on Facebook, “I’m so old I remember when unemployment was a temporary situation that brought shame, not a status to aspire to.”
I believe Paul Harvey had the right idea! He really had our nation’s situation scoped out, didn’t he?
God Bless you Paul Harvey. God help The United States!
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