Brendan Triffett Brendan Triffett

In response to Michael James Farrow’s latest video on the Divine Will Era channel.

In response to my objective intellectual critique of Fr Iannuzzi, he [Michael James/Farrow] 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.

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

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A brutally honest response to Dr Michael James Farrow—Part 1.

I prove that the true identity of Dr Michael James from the Divine Will Era channel is actually Dr Michael James Farrow. Farrow graduated from Rowan University, New Jersey, in 2019. So “Michael James” has been deceiving the Divine Will audience about his surname for years. The research area of Farrow’s thesis is diversity and inclusivity in education. This has nothing to do with Catholic theology. Rowan University is not even in the top 1000 universities in the world. Unlike my own university, the University of Tasmania, which consistently ranks around 300.

The same defamatory comment (and the rest of it) was also circulated in a large email list. Apparently Fr Iannuzzi has no qualms about committing slander. Nor does Dr “Michael James” have any qualms about publishing the slanderous comments that Fr Iannuzzi came up with and passed on to him.

You want to play that game? Are you sure? You’re going to end up looking very silly.

You’re locked in then?

Okay. Let’s play.

The first thing I will do is reveal Dr Michael’s full name. James is his middle name, not his surname. Farrow is his surname. All these years this man has been deceitfully implying that his surname is James, when in fact it is Farrow. When someone writes two names following the title “Dr” everyone knows what that means: the two names are first name and surname. That is the universal convention. Nobody ever gives their title followed by first name and middle name and nothing else. Michael knows this. He knows perfectly well how everyone in his audience naturally understands “Dr. Michael James”. For one reason or another, he has presented himself falsely as “Michael James”, and he has done this for a number of years.

Don’t tell me that Fr Iannuzzi didn’t know this. Think about it, folks.

In this post I will prove that “Michael James” is Michael James Farrow, with an abundance of undeniable evidence. I have every right to do this because he has participated in defamation. On top of this, people have the right to know the real identity of the spineless coward who wants to remain anonymous while engaging in character assassination (against others too, not just me), while standing on high moral ground—high ground, where his hypocrisy has now become visible for all to see.

I warned Michael on more than one occasion. I didn’t want this to happen to him. I was concerned about him. I am concerned. Because in my judgement, he has let himself be controlled/influenced by Fr Iannuzzi in a bad way, and for a long time. However, Michael rejected all my offers. I pleaded with him to walk away, to get out of the line of fire. To stop being Fr Iannuzzi’s attack dog. He refused. He made his choice.

If you think that my “pulling out all the stops” and fighting back against the one—the two—who have slandered me is unjust, or an offence against charity, then frankly, you have a warped view of justice and charity. That sort of warped thinking is what enables abusers at home and abusers in the Church and gives more power to bullies. It is what makes possible the formation of cults and other disordered communities and relationships. If after these posts you think I’m doing this simply for myself (though I have every right to) or that I’m merely acting emotionally, then you haven’t understood a thing. I might have the occasion to explain this more another time—but this three-post series will go a long way already.

In the second post of this series I will prove that my university, the University of Tasmania, is the very opposite of a “low ranking” institution. I will then compare the world ranking of the University of Tasmania with the world ranking of Rowan University, which is where “Michael James” did his postgraduate studies. The University of Tasmania ranks around 300 in the world. Rowan University doesn’t even make it to the top 1000. [Muted trumpet embarrassing failure sound from Wheel of Fortune—wha, wha, whaaaaaaaa.] Oh, and it’s no less “secular” than UTAS.

Dr Michael James Farrow. Let me apply to you, the same standards that you and Father Iannuzzi applied to me. Your university, Rowan University, whose world rating is so low their PR team advised them not to mention it on their self-promotion page—the best they can manage is to say that it’s the third-fasted growing university in the whole of the United States [wha, wha, whaaaaa]; they did manage to get Rowan U in a Top 100 in the Nation list by using the rather contrived category of “national public research university and best value”—your university put your thesis under the category of interdisciplinary and inclusive education. Now that is as far away from theology as New Jersey is from Tasmania. And we can thank God for that. May inclusiveness studies never become the handmaid of theology.

I suppose I should also mention that my PhD is in philosophy, which is “the handmaid of theology”—and that I studied the incredibly sophisticated thought of a highly renowned Christian theologian (Professor John Milbank) from a philosophical viewpoint, and that I was required to understand the theological debates over nature and grace (de Lubac versus Garrigou-Lagrange), and the theological epistemology of Hans Urs von Balthasar, and compare Milbank’s epistemology with that of Aquinas, and explore the themes of gift and participation in Milbank and Aquinas. When you consider all this, it turns out that I am far more qualified for the role of “theologian” compared to Dr Michael James, the one who organises the Divine Will Era group. The one upon whom Fr Iannuzzi so much relies.

In my third post in this series I will say some things that need to be said. I reflect at a more general level on

  • true vs false religion

  • corruption in the Church

  • corruption in spiritual movements within the Church

  • the necessity of shaking things up, waking people up, stepping up and speaking out when there is corruption.

I relate all these themes to the Divine Will movement as it currently exists. I pull no punches.

*

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.

Commencement Video

See the 2019 Rowan University Commencement for the College of Education here.

Watch and listen from 1:28:56 to 1:29:21. The link I just shared will take you to the location you need to watch from.

Any of the videos on the Divine Will Era channel featuring “Dr Michael James” can be compared to Michael James Farrow on the above video. Clearly it is the same person.

Below I’ve taken some screen shots of Dr Michael James from the Vatican & Aliens YouTube videos series, Part 1. For comparison I’ve collated a number of screen shots of Michael James Farrow in his 2019 Commencement ceremony at Rowan University (from the video linked above).

o

Michael James Farrow’s employment at Farleigh Dickinson University, NJ.

The image above is an April 19 2024 snapshot of the following website, recorded by Internet Archive (Wayback Machine). Look at the top right for the date.
The original web address is https://www.fdu.edu/program/graduate-certificate-ma-certified-teachers-literacy-reading-specialist-nj-state-certificate/

This address has to be put into the search bar at

https://web.archive.org/

And then click on 2024, then the April 19 button.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240401000000*/https://www.fdu.edu/program/graduate-certificate-ma-certified-teachers-literacy-reading-specialist-nj-state-certificate/

This will take you to https://web.archive.org/web/20240419001523/https://www.fdu.edu/program/graduate-certificate-ma-certified-teachers-literacy-reading-specialist-nj-state-certificate/ — which is where the image of Dr Michael James from Divine Will Era is found. Compare the backgrounds too. Same religious painting, and what looks like the end of a guitar.

Coursicle Listing for Education at FDU

https://www.coursicle.com/fdu/professors/M.+Farrow/

M. Farrow is listed as a professor presenting courses at FDU. In particular: EDU 6763 – Theoretical Foundations of Lit and EDU 6767 – Sem in Rdng Actn Res & Ldrshp. It says “Recent Semesters Teaching: Spring 2024, Fall 2023.”

The snapshot that includes the image of Dr Michael James was taken by the Wayback Machine on April 19 2024 – which is right in the middle of Spring 2024, which matches up with the information about M. Farrow teaching an education subject at FDU in Spring 2024.

If you scroll down on that snapshot you see the subjects listed.

EDU 6763 and EDU 6765 are listed there clearly: and these are the subjects listed under M. Farrow at https://www.coursicle.com/fdu/professors/M.+Farrow/

*

The video of the commencement ceremony is already proof that Michael James is Michael James Farrow. Solid proof.

But there is a second, independent collection of evidence proving the same thing. From web.archive.org we have an image of a man who is clearly the same person as Dr Michael James from the Divine Will Era Facebook page and YouTube channel. He is clearly presented on the FDU website as the presenter of an education subject. We also have independent evidence that there is a Michael Farrow who is one and the same as Michael James Farrow, M. J. Farrow and Michael J. Farrow (see the next section). We know that there is a Michael J. Farrow who, in his thesis, on page iv., expressed gratitude (in the Acknowledgements) to his sister JeanMarie Farrow. JeanMarie Farrow is an employee (program advisor/director) at the same university (FDU) where her brother Michael Farrow has worked as a professor, and in the same department (Education).

https://www.fdu.edu/news/faculty-staff-update-in-memoriam-welcome-12/

“The University welcomes new full-time and part-time employees who joined FDU as of February 3, 2023.” The list includes JeanMarie Farrow as “assistant professor, education (Metro)”.

Click on the next link to search for Farrow at FDU:

https://www.fdu.edu/?s=farrow&sa=Search&siteurl=fdu.edu%2F&ref=&ss=

https://www.fdu.edu/program/graduate-certificate-ma-certified-teachers-literacy-reading-specialist-nj-state-certificate/
About 2/3 down this page a testimonial says:

“I have found this degree to be easy to navigate, as well as a program that sets all candidates up for success. The program’s advisor, Dr. JeanMarie Farrow, is consistently available to address my concerns”.

Their research interests overlap, are in the same area of research, and they have published articles together (see the links below).

This is abundant evidence here establishing—a second time—that Dr Michael James from the Divine Will Era group is the Michael James Farrow identified and described in this post.

Add to this the fact that FDU and Rowan University are both in New Jersey, about 110 miles apart (2 hours drive).

Published work of Dr Farrow

M.J. Farrow, Michael Farrow, Michael J Farrow and Michael James Farrow all refer to the same author at Research Gate and at APA Psychnet.

https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Michael-J-Farrow-2199437514

Here five (5) co-published articles are listed. Three are co-authored with Jeanmarie Farrow. Two articles have Michael James Farrow listed as first co-author. Two articles have him listed as fourth co-author. One article has him listed as second co-author. Both articles that he is first co-author in are published in the research area: diversity studies in education. One is published in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. The other is published in the Journal of Childhood Studies.

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2021-71777-001

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fdhe0000342

https://sites.rowan.edu/president/_docs/12.08.2021-bot-open-meeting-minutes.pdf

Michael Farrow’s Area of Research: Interdisciplinary and Inclusive Education

https://sites.rowan.edu/president/_docs/12.08.2021-bot-open-meeting-minutes.pdf

On p 42 Farrow is listed as an Adjunct.

“Farrow, Michael PhD, EdD Interdisciplinary & Inclusive Ed 09/01/2021-06/30/2022”*

https://sites.rowan.edu/president/_docs/12.8.21-audience-copies.pdf

On on p 48 Farrow is listed as an Adjunct.

“Farrow, Michael PhD, EdD Interdisciplinary & Inclusive Ed 09/01/2021-06/30/2022”*

*”PhD, EdD” in the context of the two cited documents is a broader category (made for administrative purposes) into which Farrow’s postgraduate degree falls. He doesn’t hold both degrees. He holds an EdD (Doctor of Education), not a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy).

It’s my understanding that an EdD is more practically oriented, involving a method of research called “action research” and geared toward the transformation of local educational practices and spaces, whereas a PhD (in any subject, including Education) is more purely theoretical. I hold a PhD in philosophy—literally, a Doctor of Philosophy in philosophy.

The next post [in this series] will be a direct response to the absurd and recklessly slanderous claim that the University of Tasmania is an institution of “low academic rating”. Ironically, and rather humorously, Fr Iannuzzi’s attempted put-down misses me entirely and hits his personal assistant “Dr Michael James” instead. It’s likely that he wasn’t counting on anybody discovering and publishing Michael James’ true identity.

In other words, Fr Iannuzzi’s defamatory action was based on his over-confident assumption that nobody will know who Michael James really is, and that from this strategic position of anonymity—combined with Iannuzzi speaking and acting indirectly, through an anonymous mediator—that they would remain unassailable.

I am pulling this castle down. Actually, I am blowing it up, one section at a time (obviously this is a metaphor; I’m no Guy Fawkes). If you’re into that sort of thing—watching old and unsafe buildings get demolished through implosion—you might like to subscribe.

*

I suspect that Fr Iannuzzi has never been hunting out bush with other men. One of the first things you learn is never to shoot forwards until the rest of your team is safely out of your line of sight. Preferably, behind the horizontal line upon which are you standing. And for this you need to know the location of all your men. At all times. No shooting until all men are accounted for. Fr Iannuzzi did not check the location of his partner before shooting at me. Because as it turns out, Farrow’s mediocre American university (Rowan U) has a low academic rating, not the University of Tasmania. (Both are “secular”. However, the content and context of my PhD are intimately related to theologians and theological/metaphysical themes—though the method of the thesis is philosophical. The same cannot be said for Farrow’s thesis or specialised area of research.)

Fr Iannuzzi obviously didn’t check to see whether Michael Farrow might be in his line of slight.

Pun intended.

Dr Brendan Triffett

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