Kim Davis: the Canary in the Mine

The treatment of Kentucky county
clerk Kim Davis who refused to issue a same sex marriage license is a warning to Christians. Like the canaries in the coal mines who let miners know when the air was getting impossible to breathe, the jailing of Kim Davis for refusing to bend to a federal judge's demand indicates exactly where this is going. Like the poisoned air in the mine threatening the life of the miners, the cultural air is poisonous for Christians. They will not be tolerated when they stand up for the natural law or listen to the voice of the people. Kentucky voters rejected same-sex marriage in 2004, but liberal judges have been making law for years. Who cares what the voters want, the bigots in black robes will make the rules even when they overturn thousands of years of moral rule. So despite the fact that the state constitution of Kentucky says marriage is between a man and a woman, Davis must bow to the liberal tyrant judge. When she wouldn't, she was jailed for contempt. But the real contempt is on the part of the judge for the Judeo-Christian ethic.

What is the reality here? Kim Davis engaged in a courageous act of civil disobedience against a mad judiciary. Suppose you were a government employee who lived in Germany in 1939 and you received an order to arrest Jews and load them on cattle cars heading for concentration camps. Would you comply? Suppose you were a doctor ordered to carry out the euthanasia laws against the handicapped. Would you participate in gassing the innocent?

Homosexuals have framed the debate as one of civil rights equal to discrimination against blacks. It's a diabolical lie. Blacks suffered because of the color of their skin, a genetic trait. Homosexuals want special privileges based on their BEHAVIOR, i.e., same-sex sodomy.

But the fact is that "gays" don't really want marriage at all. In a recent article in The Nation, four authors outline an agenda that includes disestablishing marriage altogether. What they appear to want is for all things to be viewed through a "gay" lens: relationships, economic factors, health care, work, social issues -- all must be seen according to the LGBTQ vision. The authors promote the "progressive" left and call for crushing the right. No one may dissent from their viewpoint. Christians will bend to the beast or be fed to the lions.

Like I said, the treatment of Kim Davis is the canary in the mine. The Christians in this country will either join together to fight, or they will "hang" separately.

Marriage: The Heart of the Matter

Since the Supreme Court's terrible ruling my pastor, Fr. Michael Dobbins, has given several homilies pointing out our own culpability in bringing about this evil assault on God's plan for marriage. It's a good time to examine our consciences and reflect on how our past (and perhaps present) sinful choices contributed to the ruling. 

There has been much discussion in the past week and a half regarding the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to legalize same sex marriage in every state of the union. Many people rejoiced and many were outraged by the decision. As Catholics, we do not believe that marriage can be anything other than the union of one man to one woman for the totality of life. To look at this decision with anger and to be angry with the justices who rendered the majority decision is to be very short sighted. This is a decision very long in the making.

At the heart of the issue is a question: What is marriage?

Two Thumbs Up for my Pastor who Gave a Great Homily on Marriage!

We often hear some in the Church lamenting how bad Vatican II was, but here's a quote that is right on target, one to meditate on frequently:

"The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws....God himself is the author of marriage."
                                                     Gaudium et Spes #48

This is the portion quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that Father read to us this morning, but it would be well worth while to pull out your copy of the documents of the council (You have one right?) and read the entire section on marriage. I'm leaving for retreat tomorrow and I'm taking it as a source of meditation so I can reflect on how I'm doing after 45 years.

Talk about a Prophet! Join the "Filial Appeal" to Pope Francis

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) wrote this in 1970. Let me repeat the year -- 1970!

"And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals. But I am equally certain about what will remain at the end: not the Church of the political cult, which is dead already...but the Church of faith. She may well no longer be the dominant social power to the extent that she was until recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming and be seen as man's home, where he will find life and hope beyond death."                                                                                              "Faith and Future," 1970

Again, note the year -- about two generations ago. And see the "terrific upheavals" we've experienced since then: collapse of the nuclear family; extensive spread of contraception, abortion, and divorce; the insanity of treating same-sex perversion as equivalent to the marital bond; poor Third World women treated as sex slaves with the first world elites buying their eggs and renting their wombs. The list of atrocities goes on and on, part of the "real crisis" that had "scarcely begun" in 1970.

What are you doing, soldiers of Christ, to bring about the "fresh blossoming?" Are you home schooling your children? Fleeing immoral practices like contraception, pornography, etc.? Fighting the abortion juggernaut? Are you speaking the truth when all around you people are embracing lies about divorce and remarriage and homosexuality?

Here's something practical you can do today to defend authentic marriage, the image of the Holy Trinity. Sign the filial appeal to our Holy Father "to reaffirm categorically the Catholic teaching that divorced and civilly remarried Catholics cannot receive Holy Communion and that homosexual unions are contrary to Divine and natural law."  See more here.  Please pass this on to every orthodox Catholic you know. And pray for Pope Francis and for the Ordinary Synod. We have faith that God will protect us, but we demonstrate our faith by our actions.