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This is the story of Walter and Judith Lazuka, told by one of their sons.

Many years ago, before my mother developed dementia, my mother and I were very close. At one point, I began to ask her about her life and our family history. She began to open up more and more about her life to me. I think she sensed that I was sincere and genuinely wanted to know the truth.

It was during one of these deep talks that she began sobbing. With a look of extreme sadness, she finally broke down and told me things about her life and her marriage to my father she had never told anyone else. She trusted me with her inner most suffering. At the end of that conversation, she made me promise to stay quiet while my father was alive, but to one day tell this story to the world after he passed.

This is my attempt to keep that promise to my mother.

Some people will be very upset about me writing this. They will accuse me of lying. They will accuse me of writing this out of hatred and vengeance. There are many reasons for all this hatred towards me. Jealousy for my success.  Outraged that I would leave the catholic religion and just choose to follow Christ. 

But sometimes the truth just cries out to be told. Sometimes honoring our father means staying quiet. Other times God calls us to be brave and courageous and speak the truth and trust him to deal with the consequences.

Some of the things I will reveal are disturbing, but everything I say in this blog is 100% true. Many of the things I share about my father aren't even my own thoughts or words. They came straight from my mother. My mom told me my father was a fraud. She said he cruel and heartless, but knew how to act like he was godly, but it was all false. She said he was incapable of empathy or compassion. My mom told me she hated him and tried to leave him many times and she only stayed with him out of physical fear of him. My mom told me how my father would beat her physically, torture her mentally and spiritually, and even sexually abuse her. These are my mother's words, not mine. If these words make you upset, don't blame me. Instead of getting mad at me, perhaps you should start questioning the false reality that was created and start accepting the truth so you can begin to truly heal and grow.

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Let me be clear about one thing... I dont hate my father. He hated me for leaving the catholic religion and putting my faith in Christ alone. He hated me for leaving and going out on my own and achieving business success in a legitimate business, unlike his criminal business. He hated me for calling him out for his self righteousness and abusing my mother, and abandoning his own daughter. But I dont hate my father. I hope to one day see him again and when I do, I hope to be able to hug him and tell him I love him. Even with all his bad qualities, he is my father and I love him and miss him.

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But all that being said, I must speak the truth.

Many of you may have known by father, Walter Lazuka, as the jolly old man who donated money to your church or organization. Many of you wish to just hold onto that view of him.  But we all have another side to us and it's important to understand both sides of people we know. Especially those who have created an image of godliness and holiness. Those are the ones who we tend to idolize and admire and look up to. But its not good to think too highly of anyone, because we are all sinners. Only God is good. We must acknowledge the deep sin and filth, especially in those we look up to. Otherwise we open ourselves up to trusting in man rather than in God alone. We must be willing to accept that we are ALL full of sin and death, and our salvation has nothing to do with our own religious deeds, but only by faith in Christ.

So why would I feel the need to reveal my father's "other side"? I mean, after all, we are all sinners. Should we all be going around revealing each other's deep sin every time we see it? No, of course not. If we live by the true gospel of grace, we understand our own deep sin, so we don't live our life condemning others and preaching at them to be more religious. That would make us a hypocrit.

But here's what's different about this case: my father lived his entire life condemning others for not living a strict, catholic, religious, ritualistic life. He truly believed that he was righteous because he followed the catholic rules. He believed "good works" meant performing religious rituals. He not only went to church, but he even watched church on TV afterall. He set up a religious station right on the table so everyone could see it when you walked into his house. It had all his catholic writings (but no scriptures - just words written by popes and priests, not by God.) In fact, he admitted he never read the bible.  He didn't walk in grace. He lived by the LAW. He didn't trust in Christ. He trusted in his own religious works.

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So here's the bottom line:

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If you are going to spend your life judging and condemning others, you had better be perfectly pure yourself. Otherwise, when the truth of your secret sin is discovered, it will be scandalous and people will talk about you. And if you spend your life judging and condemning others, all while living in deep sin, than people SHOULD talk about you because that is the only way those you affected can process and heal from all the pain and confusion you caused them.

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There are several reasons Im writing this blog:

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1. To keep the promise i made to my mother to share her story and finally let her voice all the pain and suffering my father (and those he paid to do his bidding) caused her right up until the day of her death

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2. To illustrate the incredible damage and suffering that results from believing in law based, man made religion, rather than the true gospel of grace taught in the scriptures

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My father's false religious beliefs allowed him and even encouraged him to believe he was a good person because he "followed the rules".  It caused him to become self righteous. This caused him to constantly condemn others who he believed were not following the rules. The problem is, he did this all while running a criminal empire, being consumed by power, control, and greed, and physically and emotionally abusing his wife. So, he was following all the catholic rules, but not the rules of the spirit of Christ.

It caused him to spend his entire adult life trying to put others under the bondage of the law, rather than preaching the freedom we have in Christ. It caused him to use his money and power to reward those who propped him up and enabled his self righteousness, while severely punishing anyone who dared to question him or try to break away from his control. And it caused him an astounding lack of discernment that resulted in him not only allowing, but actually encouraging his own children to hang out with homosexuals and pedophiles simply because they were fellow catholics.

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The final moral of the story for the life of Walter and Judy Lazuka is this:

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Catholicism, like all works-based religions, cannot bring you true peace and grace. It will cause you to become either wretchedly depressed when you fully realize you are unable to follow all the rules, or it will cause you to become wretchedly self-righteous when you come to believe that you actually ARE following the rules.  The truth is, we are all sinners who deserve eternal punishment, and it is only faith in the blood of Christ that can save us.  So, don't live your life condemning others and putting them under the law unless you are prepared to be judged by that same law when you die. Turn to the truth found in the only source of infallible truth: the scriptures. Turn to Christ and Christ alone.

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​For Mom...

I dedicate this to my mother, Judy Lazuka, who selflessly gave her life for her husband and children. And to Dory, my long lost sister. Both suffered greatly and deserve to have a voice.