In response to Michael James Farrow’s latest video on the Divine Will Era channel.
Based on his latest video, it looks as if Michael Farrow (Dr “Michael James” from the Divine Will Era channel) might be positioning himself for a particular narrative that he will soon tell his audience in order to explain or excuse his behaviour and make himself look like the victim.
He said (1) that in the past (many years ago, I assume) someone had sent a threatening letter to his workplace in response to his podcast. He said (2) that there are dangerous religious people out there, implying that we need to take measures to keep ourselves safe.
He talked about (3) how there might hypothetically be a website out there telling his family, friends and coworkers that he is a “loser”. He says he hasn’t achieved much in the academic world and he linked this with his being, in the minds of others, too obsessively religious or something like that.
I’ve never stood over Michael James/Farrow saying that he is a “loser”. I did say that he was a coward for attacking me under a fake name—””Michael James” rather than Michael Farrow. In response to his ad hominem attack (and Fr Iannuzzi’s ad hominem attack) on the “low academic rating” of the University of Tasmania, I applied objective international standards comparing my university with his. Let me just say that Rowan University didn’t come out of this comparison very well. I also compared his area of expertise and thesis topic with mine. I showed how my research interests and acheivements make me far more qualified to get involved in theological discussions compared to him.
In response to my objective intellectual critique of Fr Iannuzzi, he launched an attack against me, and then I defended myself with equal force. Arguably, I used less force. Because I didn’t make up lies about anyone. He is not the victim here.
From the stories people are telling me, and judging from his latest video, Michael Farrow is not used to people fighting back. He wasn’t expecting this. It appears to me that, for strategic reasons, he has “flipped” into being the vulnerable victim. I’m not saying that there was no moment of soul-searching remorse or sorrow in his video whatsoever. Things are never that simple, never that black-and-white. Humans are complex. What I am saying is that I am dubious, and that it would be naive to take his vulernable speech at face value. Actions are what count. And he has not issued an apology. He has not removed the slanderous comments about me and others from the Divine Will Era Facebook page. He continues to block my attempts to defend myself in the comments. Both on Facebook and on the YouTube page. Here is a screen shot taken around 5:09 PM Sydney time, 10th March 2025 (today).
If Farrow is genuinely becoming more “human” and “vulnerable”, I welcome that. That is—or it would be—a laudable step toward justice and reconciliation. But let’s keep in mind that narcissistic abusers are known to do exactly the same thing. They become more human and vulnerable and remorseful and tell their sob stories and make a great performance of all that in order to get their victims back on side. And then they go back to the same old patterns, the same abusive behaviour.
What am I saying? Am I saying that Farrow is a narcissist? No, I am not saying that. I said that narcissistic bullies/abusers do X. Does it follow from this that whoever does X is a narcisstic bully/abuser? No. To think in that way is to commit a logical fallacy (affirming the consequent).
But Farrow’s audience might be inclined to commit the same logical fallacy, for a different conclusion. Their argument or thought-process would go like this.
People who are genuinely sorry (or sympathetic/humane/good) sometimes do Y. Let Y stand for: express their vulnerable side with outbursts of sorrow and/or remorse and narratives about the tragic and painful elements in their lives. The argument / thought-process then proceeds as follows:
(1) People who are genuinely sorry do Y.
(2) Farrow is doing Y.
Therefore
(3) Farrow is genuinely sorry.
The argument is invalid. There is a logical error. For the argument to be valid, it’s necessary to change the first premise as follows.
(1*) Only people who are genuinely sorry do Y.
(2) Farrow is doing Y.
Therefore
(3) Farrow is genuinely sorry.
But this altered version of the first premise is false, and so the argument is unsound. (For an argument to be sound, there has to be no logical errors AND all the premises have to be true).
Returning to my point. I’m not saying that Farrow is a narcissist, or that he isn’t sorry, or that it’s all a deceptive performance. What I’m saying is that I’m not convinced that Farrow is genuinely sorry for what he has done, and that nobody else should be either. Farrow needs to convince me—and everyone else—of his sincerity with his ACTIONS. Anyone can tell stories and show emotions and make themselves vulnerable. Even the most cruel and unrepentant of abusers can do this. And they are very good at it.
Right now, all around the world, even as we speak, thousands of victims of ongoing abuse are being duped by their abusers as they (the abusers) give another highly-refined performance of vulnerability. “Things are so difficult for me. Can’t you see how tragic my life has been? I’m in so much pain, honey. “This time it will be different”. “I am so sorry for what I did. It will never happen again.”
This is a concrete illustration of a more general point. I’m not suggesting that Farrow treats his family like this. Not at all. For all I know, Farrow could be the best family man ever. He could be a better father than me. I am in no position to comment on that. Nor would I ever want to. My observations are directed only at the “Michael James” on screen. The “Michael James” who has committed slander against me. The “Michael James” who has now put out a video of himself speaking vulnerably about his sins and foibles, his struggles and his difficult situation. I’m hardly in a position to make any judgements about the whole person. God alone is able to do that.
Nor am I in a position to say how much of this is mere performance. My point is that I’m not taken in by it, and that nobody should be. Actions count the most. As I pointed out already, his slanderous post is still up there on the Divine Will Era Facebook page. He has never reached out to me in person. The two communications I have had from him were obviously the work of some bot.
Some of Farrow’s words give me the impression that in future he might attempt to construe me as doxing or harrassing or threatening his family members. For that reason, I’ll share with you here the single email I sent to Professor JeanMarie Farrow, his sister, whose email address is easy to find on the university website (she has a prominent position there). I haven’t contacted anyone else in Michael’s family. I don’t even know who they are, and I don’t want to. I am not somebody who would act recklessly or harrass or threaten people. Never. In NO WAY DO I ACCEPT OR CONDONE THAT SORT OF BEHAVIOUR. I made that very clear in a previous post on the 7th of March:
I will demonstrate now that Michael James from the Divine Will Era YouTube channel (and Facebook group) is Michael James Farrow from Rowan University, NJ.
Note first that I DO NOT ENDORSE, ENCOURAGE, SUPPORT OR CONDONE THE ACT OF HARRASSING, STALKING OR INTIMIDATING ANYONE. Quite the opposite. I would be horrified if anybody were to do such a thing. I am not “doxing” anyone because the information provided here is neither private nor sensitive. For example, no personal addresses or phone numbers are provided (I don’t even have this information, nor do I want to). Besides not revealing any sensitive information, I don’t even have any reason to think that someone might want to harm or harrass Michael Farrow. There are politically-related contexts in which extreme prudence is required, for example, when an extremist group such as Antifa might be motivated to harm or harrass a certain individual. But that doesn’t apply here. There is no reason to think that Michael Farrow, in particular, might be a potential target for an extremist group. Initially I didn’t even think of adding this paragraph because the target audience of my posts is Catholics who have some interest (positive or negative) in the Divine Will movement. It never crossed my mind that anybody in my target audience would even consider harrassing, stalking or intimidating another human being.
The email that I sent is as follows:
Dear Professor Jean-Marie Farrow
My name is Brendan Triffett. I'm concerned for your brother Michael. Please hear me out.
I live far away from you in Australia.
I'm sorry that I had to bring you into this--he won't respond to me. I couldn't think of another way.
I know that Michael runs the Divine Will Era Facebook group and YouTube channel under a different name, Dr Michael James. He works as a sort of assistant to Fr Joseph Iannuzzi. … worked out his real identity in a few different ways. Michael dedicated his thesis to you--that's how I made the link to yourself.Michael has done something quite serious--defamation of my character through large email lists and on a public Facebook site. In a big way, saying that I went to a school of low academic level, and other things that simply aren't true. As far as I can tell, he does many of the things he does because Fr Iannuzzi pressures him to. I've been looking at the Divine Will Era group and the behaviour of this priest for some time now. I've been writing about it lately on my blog.
I've come to the conclusion that the group under Fr Iannuzzi behaves in a cult-like way.
I have a strong suspicion that Michael has come under the psychological influence of Fr Iannuzzi in a bad way [redacted reference to someone else]. Basically, Michael is doing the dirty work for Fr Iannuzzi. Michael is on the frontline, publishing lies about me (and anyone else who dares to question Fr Iannuzzi) and participating in defamation and things like that. I believe Fr Iannuzzi is behind it all. It's very unhealthy. If I'm right, then you should be concerned about Michael.
I did try to reach out to Michael. I said in an email that I'm only trying to expose the deception and bullying behaviour of Fr Iannuzzi. I said that I don't want him to get in the firing line, and that I don't want him getting involved. He didn't respond to me, and he didn't listen.
Things are escalating, Professor Farrow. It's a volatile situation. Michael could easily land himself in a lot of trouble. It could affect his reputation too. This is not my goal. But it could well be the fall out.
I'm not going to back down on Fr Iannuzzi. It looks like Michael is going to continue to act as Fr Iannuzzi's attack dog.
I don't know what else to say. I've done all I can to warn him. I'm now appealing to you to talk him around. I don't have any other avenues. If he just walks away, and stops acting as Fr Iannuzzi's agent, he won't be in the line of fire any more. If he retracts his slander, I'll leave him alone. I won't hold a grudge or pursue that side of things any further. I have nothing to gain if Michael gets hurt.
As I said, I do really think that Michael is caught up in a cult, or something like it.
If you'd like to contact me anonymously, or from another email address, please quote [redacted]
Sincerely,
Dr Brendan Triffett
monokosmos.com
As I’ve said before, reconciliation is possible. As I’ve said before, my email inbox is always open (but I won’t have a conversation with a bot). But it’s not possible when someone refuses to own what they did, apologise and make amends. It doesn’t help when the guilty person is under pressure to keep their followers happy and not disappoint them. And under pressure to keep up the appearance that all is well in Divine Will Land.
That’s what I’m going to call it, as long as there is denial and delusion. Divine Will Land. So many people off with the fairies, floating about in a lovely religious cloud and a magical wand of wishful thinking—continuing to think the best about everyone in their own club, about everything in their peaceful inside world, continuing to defend and cover for and believe in their leaders, ignoring all the evidence that points in the other direction.
How long until they wake up and return to reality?
Dr Brendan Triffett
Quick links to other posts:
Fr Joseph Iannuzzi, we need answers NOW. The two incorporated entities you refer to DO NOT EXIST*
Namely: “Missionaries of Divine Will, Inc.” and “The Divine Fiat, Inc.”
On Father Joseph Iannuzzi’s Alleged Violations of Academic Integrity
This is the post that got a lot of attention and elicited a slanderous response from Team Iannuzzi
A summary of what I’ve uncovered so far about Fr Iannuzzi and Dr Michael James
My response to Dr Michael James’ false accusations and ad hominem attacks
A brutally honest response to Dr Michael James Farrow—Part 1
In which I demonstrate that Dr Michael James is Michael James Farrow
In response to Michael James Farrow’s latest video on the Divine Will Era channel
Fr Iannuzzi’s curious statement about Admiral Byrd
Following on from the hollow Earth theory post
