Well, the thought police are among us. They want to not merely regulate how things are done legally — where there is a need to disinterest and fairness on the part of officials [1] — but wanting to shut up they do not agree with. As if their political and lobbying interests are the only things to worry about.
Its rogue’s gallery of offending bishops includes Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield.
The media guide accuses the bishops of being “anti-LGBT” and of using “intentionally inflammatory” rhetoric when speaking about gays.
Though GLAAD claims that the blacklisted bishops have said “extreme and damaging things about LGBT people,” a quick review of the long list of quotations from the offending bishops provided by the media guide reveals no such thing. In fact, the bishops make no mention of LGBT people at all. The real beef seems to be that these bishops have been vocal opponents of same-sex marriage in the United States, which has earned them the wrath of the gay lobby.
All of the bishops have spoken with respect about gay and lesbian people, and have carefully distinguished between the sin of homosexuality and the persons who engage in it.
What the list of offenses reveals, in fact, is that these have been the bishops courageous enough to come out against gay marriage, and to insist on religious liberty to opt out of performing gay marriages.
Along with the bishops, GLAAD’s guide provides media with a list of prominent lay Catholics whom it considers to be antagonistic to the gay agenda.
We are fodder for extremists to yell at. But the extremists are blind, deaf and dumb. We are more than that. We are the holders of salvation, and we better act like it.
This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.
I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Now, in this time, we supposed to be disciplined and shamed by twitter, and walk on eggshells. But that is no way to live. You cannot let the rhetoric of the irrational rule you. You have to instead have some compassion for them.
It’s a pity, but Mr. Spooner left me with little choice. So, please leave your comments as usual and Markku, Matt, and I will approve them without too much of a delay. And you might spare a moment to pray for the guy. Something is clearly not right with him and the whole thing stinks of the spiritual world. The Enemy always attacks through weak links, and despite whatever he is going through now, Andrew Spooner has been one of us for years.
We must pray for them. We must continue to pray for them: here I am confronted by my own faults, for I hate all too easily, and it is far easier to account your enemies as somehow not human, but as targets to be serviced. Our enemies do this. We should not.
Instead we should call people out: confront them: call their sin.
We will be called haters, but allowing a person to continue in error has never been merciful or loving.
I guess we have to put these numbers down to the fact that for many people, religion is about feeling good, and not about surrendering one’s own selfishness in order to comply with the way the universe really is. “Thou shall not murder”. Do we believe that? I think we believe in going church for fun and feelings, but when it comes to restricting our own selfishness in sexual areas, it’s pretty clear that many people who claim to be Christians think that God’s moral rules are just garbage. Barack Obama certainly believes that.
What does Obama’s support for born-alive abortion and organ-harvesting say about his character? Well, it says that he is very comfortable with the idea of slavery, which is the idea that the strong should use and exploit the weak, and even kill the weak, if they get in the way of the strong enjoying themselves. He has no respect for the lives of other people if they get in his way, in short. Why did so many people who claim to be Christian for such an extremist on abortion? If Obama had lived during the time of slaves, he would have owned slaves – it’s very much in keeping with his character of exploiting the weak for profit, up to and including harvesting their organs – while they are still alive – for profit.
We are the only generation that can preach right now. We are the only people who can bear witness. We must do our duty.
And let the elite fall: let our nations crumble. But hope we will still have. For the church is not ours, but Christ’s. He will bring it to the last day purified and without spot. We will be accounted as more righteous than the Pharisees by the work of Christ.
And those ancient Pharisees will stand up and damn this generation: for this generation have both Christ and Moses and have rejected both.
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1. The courts should not acknowledge petunia (snowflake, or SJW) status nor protected group status but apply the laws equally. If you assault someone you go down: male, female, and whatever. If you disagree and you are an official you are breaking the law: that is civil disobedience, and expect to be imprisoned.
