PAGE COLLECTIONS -- CHECK THEM OUT!

Monday, June 30, 2014

Semantic Gymnastics and Verbal Engineering

I've been having a friendly disagreement with Catholic in Brooklyn over the situation in New York
with Holy Innocents and St. Francis of Assisi and the pre-pride Mass. She calls me angry and judgmental and, frankly, I think she's a little clueless.

Anyway, the conversation got me thinking about another New Yorker, Msgr. William Smith, a holy moral theologian who often spoke at pro-life and home schooling conferences. (He died in 2009, a great loss to the Church Militant here on earth..) I was blessed to hear him speak on several occasions. One of his maxims was "verbal engineering always precedes social engineering." He described how effectively Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups took the spotlight off abortion by renaming it "choice." It created the ludicrous situation of many, even Catholics, claiming to be both pro-life and pro-choice. Feminists and pro-abortionists advanced abortion acceptance with this brilliant strategy! You can hear it in almost any Catholic Church and, in fact, I have a number of practicing Catholic relatives who claim they are "not pro-abortion, but pro-choice" ignoring the obvious moral contradiction of saying they support both the right to life of an unborn baby and the right of the mother to kill her child if that's what she chooses.

How is this related to the issue at hand? The homosexual community engages in the same kind of verbal engineering with the term "pride" to advance acceptance of homosexuality. It takes the focus off what homosexuals do (sodomy, fisting, fellatio, S&M, etc.) and focuses on self-affirmation and celebration of "sexual diversity" including all its permutations - LGBTQXYZ. The fact is "gay pride" (like "choice") is a political term emphasizing acceptance and celebration of homosexual activity. You certainly don't see Courage and Encourage featured at "gay pride" events because those groups promote chastity. "Gay pride" is the opposite. (Although what, pray tell, is there to be proud of in having a disordered inclination toward sinful behavior?)

When the Franciscans at St. Francis of Assisi embrace the word "pride" they join the same verbal game as the pro-aborts with the word "choice." That their order also promotes the misreading of Pope Francis' out-of-context "Who am I to judge?" statement indicates (to me at least) a disingenuous promotion of the gay lifestyle. And certainly selling all kinds of merchandise featuring the rainbow flag and the "Who Am I to Judge" statement, as St. Anthony Shrine in Boston does, promotes the gay lobby, something Pope Francis specifically condemned.

Consider a religious order offering a "pre-choice Mass" before a feminist march featuring Planned
http://www.cafepress.com/shrinepride
Parenthood and NARAL. Would that be acceptable? Not to me! Unless it were booked as a Mass of reparation for the sin of abortion.  which was certainly not the case with the "pre-pride Mass." The fact that the Franciscans used an ad featuring a variation of the rainbow flag, a symbol of homosexual activism, is also problematic.

Words and symbols have meaning that are not only explicit, but reach one at a subliminal level. More and more young people are embracing the gay agenda philosophically. I believe we can thank the Franciscans for contributing to the confusion, deliberately perhaps? Verbal engineering does, indeed, lead to social engineering and we are rapidly moving toward sexual social chaos.

6 comments:

  1. Verbal Engineering Alert!! A word that gives me the heeby jeebies is WELCOME. Cardinal Dolan loves to use it when speaking about illegals -- and LGBTXYZs. You remember when Jesus uttered the word "welcome?". Oh, I'm sorry, I meant to say, when he said: If they hated me, they will hate you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I replied to one of your comments - I had no idea the Boston friary had a booth at the Pride gig. I think the Guardian of the Boston Friary was recently elected Provincial - so I suspect there is a rather gay friendly policy across the province.

    Having a booth at a Pride event implies approval and support.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Terry, I think I'm going to drop out of the conversations at Catholic in Brooklyn. I think reverts to the faith are somewhat like new converts -- they want to close their eyes to the evils that are within the Church. Fr. John Hardon, S.J. pointed that out at a board meeting of NACHE (National Association of Catholic Home Educators) over the controversy in the home schooling community over some bishops attempts to control parents. These same bishops were allowing scandalous things in their own Catholic schools like the use of anatomically correct dolls to teach sex ed IN KINDERGARTEN. Father was roundly chastised by a recent convert who was on the board and a frequent speaker at conferences. She wanted to see all the bishops as saints. But when you consider that 2/3rds covered up sex abuse, I think Bishop Bruskewitz's comment about this "hapless bench of bishops" was more accurate. In 2000 when Fr. Hardon died he said he only knew six bishops in the U.S. who were completely faithful to the teachings of the Church. I think that situation is better now, but there are still many who advance error and dissent, or at the least, mass confusion.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have to agree with you. Thanks Mary Ann.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm always happy to have someone who's common sense I admire agree with me. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is the first time i read your blog and admire that you have posted on this...I really found useful.Keep updated. gymnastics phoenix

    ReplyDelete