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Saturday, September 8, 2018

Riding the Rail


We had the pleasure of going to Alaska recently on a cruise with a group of about 150 people who are supporters of the Media Research Center, headed by Brent Bozell.  There was a list of “celebrity guests” along to speak daily in panel discussions and one on one interview with Brent about things that concern conservative Republicans in today’s world. 

No one minced words.  The leaders in the celebrity group were as blunt and honest as you would hope they might be, unlike anything you’d hear from the mouths of politicians.  One was a retired Colonel in the Marines, another was a past leader in the NAACP, another was a retired Congressman who now works on Fox News, and another was an economist who worked on the Trump campaign team.  As varied as their resumes were, the thing they all had in common was their love for the USA, their support of Donald Trump, and the fear of the left whose mission it seems is destroying what we love any way they can. 

It is a healthy fear, but not an overwhelming one.  Their message to the attendees was that the left is definitely a threat, but not one we can’t fight if we use the right weapons, which includes prayer and obedience to God.  One day the panel discussed gay marriage, homosexuality, and transgender culture and particularly how each of these things are affecting the nation’s children as public schools demand more and more that our kids are indoctrinated with these hideous ideas. 
Sitting on the fence is a choice, not a safe space

What a wonderful thing, I thought, that I am here with a group of like minded people who understand the corruption of the left and how offensive their agenda is to God.  Until, that is, the wife of one of the speakers decided to take the microphone during the Q and A part of the session and tell the audience that she loves her gay sister and supports her and her partner and she can never turn away from them. 

Then, another person took the microphone and said he had been a Republican since he was in college and that he had voted for Trump.  He said he has four daughters and all of them are conservative Republicans but the youngest is a lesbian and she is in love with another girl she has committed to marry.  And, he said, I plan to walk her down the aisle this fall at their wedding.  Again, the whole room sat silent and wondered exactly how the panel up front would respond.  Fortunately, a well known black pastor of TV fame took the mic and said to this man,

“Of course you love your daughter.  And as a parent, we must always let our kids know that we will always love them as God loves his children.  So, I understand how you must feel in this situation which is very difficult for you and your family.  What we must never do is forget what God tells us about this and stay focused on working out these things with his help.”

I may not have his words exactly right, but they are close.  The audience breathed a sigh of relief that the pastor had the fortitude to say something positive to this man without betraying the truth.  It was one of those occasions when the “rubber meets the road,” as they say, when what you believe is put to a test and you have to express the truth as we all know it, or abandon what is right to make ourselves comfortable with the world around us.  Clearly these two people have taken the side of their homosexually active relatives.

Many prefer to not make any commitment at all, just sit on the fence, making no bold demonstrations of where they stand or of what they believe.  In today’s world I wonder how the fence manages to remain standing with the weight of all the undecided’s on its rail, people who fell in love with the pope’s comment, “who am I to judge.”  It should be the Fence Sitter’s Motto of Operandi. 
On the fence, Holy Father?  

I have been in a women’s Bible Study group in my parish for the past five or six years and I have enjoyed the experience very much.  I have decided to leave the group this year, however, as scandal continues to rock the Church.  I believe my presence in the group this upcoming year as more and more detail is exposed about the homosexual corruption in the Church will do more harm than good. 

I was told by one in the group whom I trust and am especially in tune with that I am a “lightening rod” in the group.  I bring up things and say things that get people uncomfortable.  I talk about things that most of the group doesn’t know about or understand.  Such as the corruption and lies in the Catholic Campaign for Human Development collection.  Such as Vatican II being a terrible thing that has greatly harmed the Church.  Such as sodomy is a sin. 

After I had forwarded a Les Femmes article about the CCHD to the group I had a response from one saying, “Don’t ever send me email like this again.  I looked up that group, Les Femmes, and they are orthodox, which means they don’t believe in the pope, and I don’t want anything to do with things like that.  I got in this group to study the Bible and not to be on anyone’s email list.”

Another time, when we were discussing homosexuality, two in the group said they have had gay men friends and they think they are lots of fun to be around.  (These two also commended themselves for never watching the news because it is so bad, preferring instead to just focus on happy things.)  No one challenged them, including me, the lightening rod.  After all, they continued, “Aren’t they made that way?”  When my best friend in the group said, “Actually, there is no DNA evidence of that at all,” they didn’t believe her.  They understand what the Bible says on the subject, but they aren’t prepared to believe that either. 

I was recently told by my daughter that one of her Catholic High School classmates from years ago, named Megan, is now “married to her partner.”  One of their other girl friends, Marilyn, has accepted this relationship and frequently goes with her husband to have dinner at the lesbian couple’s house.  When I mentioned this to Marilyn’s mother, she said, “I know.  I just don’t understand this whole gay thing.”

Is that it in a nut shell?  Are we willing to tolerate this filthy sin simply because “we just don’t understand this whole gay thing”? 
Is it easier to just “not understand” it than it is to get off the fence and say, I will not tolerate what offends God and reject this behavior once and for all?  When will we reject this in the priesthood?  Instead of saying, “Fr. John has such great uplifting homilies, why should I care if he’s gay”?

When are we going to get off the fence and say, "No more!"  The priesthood is simply not the profession for you because you can’t live with men, especially as disordered as you are, and expect to remain celibate.  When are we going to say to our kids, I love you but, I will not accept a behavior and a lifestyle choice that offends God?  When are we going to say, we can’t change the world, but we can influence and demand better of our own brethren within the Church and our immediate families?

Doing nothing is a choice and it isn’t the right one.    

7 comments:

  1. I've posted the following here in the past Mary Ann, but it seems appropriate now in the present:


    "Silence is never a virtue when charity demands speech." St. Poemen, 4th century Egyptian monk and early Desert Father.

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  2. This morning at Mass the music director chose a song called "We break bread together"...on our knees; we drink wine together on out knees. Know that one? Lovely melody but heretical words as are found in many of our music issues. We do not "break bread" and we do not "drink wine"! At mass we receive the precious Body and Blood of Christ! I mentioned this to her after Mass and she just said that all the songs are approved by the bishops. I mentioned that all things approved by the bishops may not be correct. And I noticed this lady walking in front of the Tabernacle with no reverence or acknowledgement of it. These heretical songs are a diminishment of our reverence, and our knowledge that Jesus is the Eucharist and that It contains His Body and Blood. I also mentioned this song to the priest and a member of the liturgy committee. It is a small thing in one way but in another way it is part of the whole mess that has led to the loss of faith: this and other heretical and bad songs and music.

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  3. In reading this essay, I was struck by the silence of the conference attendees in the face of these sodomy supporting statements by their peers. These are conservative intellectual elites; one of them a USMC Colonel(!), gathered to discuss leftist socio-political attacks on the moral fabric of our society, but except for the "Pastor", silence in response to a specific, personal example. Just another opinion. Empathy, (fear?). Tolerance.

    Why was no one there willing to tell the mother that her daughter was going to hell; despair, not happiness? And that by "walking her down the aisle", in a pseudo-fake-"marriage ceremony", she was risking the flames herself? Her choice to support and facilitate sodomy was the opposite of love. Love wants the best, leading to heaven. Hate allows, facilitates the worst, leading to hell. There is no nice way to say that: she hates her daughter.

    Why can't we say this? For the same reason Bishops for decades were unwilling to say this to their sodomite Priests and their fellow sodomite Bishops, (wink, wink). They hated the Church, because they allowed sodomy to overwhelm Her. Everyone sits on the fence. We observe. We think proper thoughts. And we.do.nothing when it counts. The other side is active in their beliefs. We are not.

    We sit comfortably on the fence ... thinking proper thoughts .... not willing to go all in, live a proper life and act .... unwilling to commit to either one side or another.

    It reminds me of these fellows in Paris, sipping espresso and eating croissants, when a young woman gets attacked by a Muslim male just inches away from their tables. Reality intrudes. Violence on an innocent young woman. And they do nothing. The woman gets face-punched. Muslim male walks away, unscathed. Diners, continue to dine, with a few feeble exceptions.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f-jKpEWJEg4

    It is one thing to think correct beliefs among friends who agree. What, when among enemies or those who simply disagree? This Faith should cost us, a lot.

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  4. Amen to that! Someone needs to send a memo to Pope Silence.

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  5. Sorry, Chriss. :^(

    I did not look to see who posted this entry.

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  6. I once saw a video testimony of a black woman who left the lesbian lifestyle. Why? Because her mom said to her sadly one day, "I'm afraid after I die, I'll never see you again." Now THAT was love! Many parents today care more about their children's opinion than God's. They will do anything to avoid the wrath of their children, but seem to have NO fear of the Lord. And, as you say, Aqua, they endanger the souls of their children. What kind of love is that?

    I once had a friend tell me I was too rigid in my opinions and that when my children were teenagers I'd change my mind. Well, my children became teenagers and I didn't. When I thought they were wrong I told them and I told them all if they married outside the Church we couldn't go to their weddings -- not because we didn't love them, but because it was a mortal sin and we couldn't celebrate it. Same sex "weddings" are much worse because they attack not only the faith, but reality itself. How many children will fall into hell with their parents' blessing. But, of course, the parents will be condemned as well like Eli in the Old Testament who did not discipline his sons.

    We need to pray and fast very much for our world's return to sanity.

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  7. Every comment here is spot on. When it comes to WHY didn't any of these stellar conservative people do something, or say something.

    I think of Peter when people said to him, "Aren't you one of them?" He denied even knowing Christ. We think we are going to be brave and stand up for what we know is right, but it is harder than that and more than one of us has run from our duty to stand up in public when we should have.

    The pastor was C. L. Bryant. I thanked him afterward for what he said.
    The situation was a panel discussion and any of the four of the panel could have taken the microphone after these statements were made. It was great that Bryant was the one to address the issue. It would not have been appropriate in the moment for anyone else in the audience to have shouted out.


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