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.