Signs of Moral Collapse in the UK

Have you been following what’s going on in the U.K. these days? Believe me, it’s not pretty. Trouble is, it might be coming this way sooner than we think. The U.K. is creeping down a path that leads only to the extinction of public morality and the destruction of a once renowned system of justice. Here are just a few examples…

Teacher Fired For Being Christian.  Okay, teachers get fired all the time, and for all kinds of reasons. But have you ever heard of a Christian college firing one of its teachers because he openly expressed Christian teaching? 

Dr. Aaron Edwards, a teacher of theology at Cliff College, a Methodist college in Derbyshire, was sacked because he posted a tweet claiming that “homosexuality is invading the church.” Here’s his complete tweet:

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Homosexuality is invading the Church.

Evangelicals no longer see the severity of this b/c they're busy apologising for their apparently barbaric homophobia, whether or not it's true.

This *is* a "Gospel issue", by the way. If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Saviour.
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I agree completely, and I especially like his last line. But it seems the presiding powers at Cliff College were displeased when his little social media post went viral. Not only did they fire Dr. Edwards, but also threatened to report him to the U.K. counter-terrorism police, an ever-vigilant team of professionals who apparently look for terror in all the wrong places. That Dr. Edwards is a politically incorrect father of five might also have placed him in the counter-terrorism crosshairs. How un-Green of him to sire so many little polluters.

Dr Edwards is appealing the decision. He claims the college’s accusation that he violated the school’s social media policy ignores his right to express freely his religious beliefs. He also denies that his beliefs are in any way homophobic, but merely express theological insights that to many Christians are certainly not controversial. As he said when interviewed by The Telegraph: “Anyone concerned about academic freedom, Christian freedoms, and free speech should be deeply concerned about what has happened to me.” We are concerned, and troubled, and will pray that Aaron Edwards’ appeal is successful.

U.K. Street Preacher’s Conviction Overturned. Here we have some good news, a successful appeal of an unjust conviction. On June 8, 2021 Dave McConnell, a Christian street preacher, was doing his thing in Leeds when a transgender individual came up to him and asked if God accepts the LGBTQ community. Mr. McConnell, who encourages questions, said that God hates sin, but then referred to the questioner as a “gentleman.” The crowd didn’t like this and responded with hostility and profanity. The unruly crowd continued to abuse the preacher, and some even stole several of his possessions. All of this, of course, drew the police.

The police officer who responded, sporting a pentagram tattoo, arrested Dave because he went on to call a biological man a man, and not a woman. Apparently, the U.K. has a law (Section 5 of the curiously named Public Order Act) that empowers police to arrest anyone who causes “harassment, alarm, or distress” within the hearing of those who might be nearby. It’s one of those marvelous laws that can be applied to anyone in almost any circumstances. The local police station, where Dave was detained for 14 hours, proudly flies an LGBTQWhatever flag. 

Dave McConnell was convicted by a local judge and sentenced to pay costs of £620 and given 80 hours of community service. And then, to top it off, his probation officer reported him to the U.K. Prevent counter-terrorism police because McConnell was “viewed to be persistently and illegally espousing an extreme point of view.” Just reflect on those words and their impact on freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and even freedom of thought. 

Fortunately, the Leeds Magistrates’ Court overturned the conviction, although the presiding judge in the appeal offered a rather squishy comment, stating: “We live in a time when free speech is important and vital and we live in a time when people’s attitudes towards gender are very different from how they were years ago…All these issues need to be properly respected, so I make no criticism whatsoever of the Crown bringing a prosecution in this case.” Two cheers for the appeals court. Three cheers for Dave McConnell.

Woman Arrested Again for Silent Prayer. When I mentioned above that freedom of thought is under attack, I wasn’t kidding. 

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was first arrested back on December 6, 2022, outside an abortion clinic (the BPAS Robert Clinic) in Birmingham, England. At the time she was asked by the arresting police if she were praying. She replied that she “might be praying silently.” That was enough to arrest her. Yep, engaging in silent prayer — that is, your unexpressed internal thoughts — is now illegal in the U.K. If those thoughts might be considered by an observer to be prayer, especially if that prayer reflects opposition to politically correct activities such as abortion, you'll probably be arrested.

Isabel Being Arrested for Silent Prayer

Note that Isabel, this potentially violent praying woman, was arrested not by one, but by three police officers (actually, there was a fourth present) who were apparently patrolling the streets of Birmingham searching for latent terrorists engaging in dangerous thinking or praying. 

As it turned out, the charges against Isabel were dropped on February 3, but she said they might well be revived. In her subsequent statement she said, "It can't be right that I was arrested and made a criminal, only for praying in my head on a public street." She then added, "So-called 'buffer zone legislation' will result in so many more people like me, doing good and legal activities like offering charitable support to women in crisis pregnancies, or simply praying in their heads, being treated like criminals and even facing court." 

Two weeks after the earlier charges were dropped, the Birmingham police arrested Isabel once again, and on the same charges. In a video of her arrest, a police officer informed her that silent prayer "is the offense." It violates the Public Space Protection Order banning any protest that includes "Graphic, verbal or written means, prayer or counseling." The officer told her, "But people know who you are and they know why you're here...And it's their perception of events, isn't it?"

Just consider this. Public Spaces are now "protected" from such evils as prayer, especially Christian prayer. Perhaps I'm taking too far a leap here, but I suspect there would be no arrest if a Jihadist prayed openly and loudly on the streets of Birmingham and asked Allah to destroy the United Kingdom. The increasingly woke establishment seems to consider Christianity their primary enemy, so we can expect to encounter more frequent and more intense attacks on Christians and Christian institutions.

Keep Isabel Vaughan-Spruce in your prayers. She is a courageous woman. I wonder what would happen if a few thousand people wandered into that buffer zone and simply prayed together in silence.
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Pray for the United Kingdom, which provided our nation with the much of the foundation of our system of justice. And pray, too, that as a people we Americans will continue to respect the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution.

More News Brought to Light

Our faith is truly under attack, not just here in the good ol' USA, but throughout the world. I don't have to search for examples of this, for these attacks are not only evident but also celebrated by those who despise Christ and His Church. These misguided people wrongly think that by attacking Jesus Christ, they will somehow destroy Him. Such attitudes do nothing but underscore their tacit disbelief. Here are just a few stories that highlight this.

Abortion Industry Discretely Targets Black Babies.  In recent years, the abortion industry (aka, Planned Parenthood) has tried to separate itself from its founder, Margaret Sanger, a notorious racist who planned and hoped for the destruction of the "lesser races" and came up with a diabolical plan to accomplish this. But with the rise of cancel culture, Sanger's racism could cause Planned Parenthood some problems, so it seemed best to downplay her involvement as perhaps the founder of the industry. 

Sanger's plans, though, have never really been discarded. For decades Planned Parenthood has targeted minority communities, and they continue to do so. CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, is a wonderful organization that has investigated the abortion industry's attack on our nation's Black communities.

As a recent press conference, leaders of CURE and a number of other organizations devoted to helping minorities thrive, focused on the Abortion industry's targeting of minority communities. Quite simply, the industry hasn't left Margaret Sanger behind but has actually increased its attack on Black women and Black babies. The percentage of abortions obtained by minority women, particularly Black women, continues to increase, making them "disproportionately, the leading consumer of abortion service." Black women account for more than 1/3 of abortions although they make up only 15% of the childbearing population.

And this wholesale murder, this genocide, of the unborn is supported by the vast majority of Democrat politicians.

Canada Attacks Christian Belief. That's a nice way of saying it. About a week ago, the Canadian Senate and House of Commons unanimously approved a ban on what it called "conversion therapy." In truth, though, it condemns Christian doctrine on the sinfulness of homosexuality and so-called transgenderism, and "ism" that does not exists in reality. The legislation also threatens pastors with up to five years imprisonment if they actually are faithful to the Gospel.

These Canadian pastors aren't preaching hell and brimstone. In fact, like Pastor David Lynn, of Christ Forgiveness Ministries, they're preaching a theology of love, of forgiveness, or mercy. And as they preach, as they share the Gospel, they receive nothing but hate from those who can't stand to hear any criticism of their sinful way of life. "We hate nobody..." Pastor Lynn explained as he described the enduring love of God.

Pastor Lynn was, of course, arrested as he preached the Gospel publicly in Toronto. Even though surrounded and physically assaulted by the crowd of LGBTQ+ whatevers, he was the one arrested.

One result of this has been the outpouring of support by thousands of American pastors who preached last Sunday on the immorality of the homosexual and transexual lifestyles. Unfortunately, I have yet to find an article in praise of Catholic pastors preaching similar homilies. That's the subject of another post...perhaps soon.

A Catholic University Denies Church Teaching. Isn't it interesting that so many universities and colleges love to claim and proclaim their Catholic identity, presumably to placate Catholic parents who will foot the exorbitant education bill, and yet regularly deny major aspects of the Catholic Church's magisterial teaching? It's just a wild guess, but I suspect 75% of so-called Catholic institutions of higher education are really not Catholic. 

The latest school to hit the headlines is DePaul University in (where else) Chicago. DePaul advertises itself as the nation's largest Catholic university. On the "Mission Page" of its website. DePaul declares:

"Guided by an ethic of Vincentian personalism and professionalism, DePaul compassionately upholds the dignity of all members of its diverse, multi-faith, and inclusive community."

As someone who has read many of St. Vicent de Paul's homilies, studied his life, and ministers in a parish blessed with his name, I'm not all that certain the saint would grasp what "Vincentian personalism and professionalism" actually means.

On its home page the school also states that "Chicago is Our Classroom, The World is Our Focus," a motto that (despite its strange capitalization) seems to ignore its supposedly Catholic foundation.

And then, under a heading proclaiming the school's "commitment to Anti-Discrimination," we encounter the following:

"DePaul University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, pregnancy, parental status, family relationship status, physical or mental disability, military status, genetic information or other status protected by local, state, or federal law in matters of admissions, employment, housing, scholarships, loans, athletics and other school-administered programs. Individuals who believe they have been subjected to discrimination, harassment or retaliation are encouraged to report what happened."

Heavens! What a list of potential bases for discrimination! Although some are a bit confusing. Why both sex and gender? In fact, why gender at all? I'm pretty sure sex is what separates male from female, and I have always considered gender to be a grammatical term; you know: feminine, masculine, or neuter nouns. Ah, well, the more things change...

DePaul University, however, has determined that sex comes in many more forms than the obvious two that have served humanity well since pre-historic times.  The university's web-based Campus Connect system was established to aid communication among students, faculty, and staff. Since January 4, "In addition to the Legal Gender, students may now also include a gender identity." Here are the choices: male, female, intersex, non-binary, transgender male, transgender female, cisgender, unspecified, and "I do not wish to self-identify." 

Having these options is especially important at DePaul since the university's student government has declared misgendering an "act of violence," a rather unique way to define violence.

The Church, of course, teaches the existence of only two sexes: male and female. And so, from the perspective of DePaul University's students, who seem to set the policies, the Catholic Church is committing repeated acts of violence. Maybe it would be best if the school just dropped its Catholic identity so prospective students (and their parents) understood that they were about to pay thousands of dollars to be educated by idiots.

That's enough...I'm tired.

Cardinal Pell, Suffering Apostle

Given the climate in most dioceses today, I thank God that we still have men who respond to God's call to the priesthood. All that's needed to destroy permanently a priest's (or a deacon's) reputation is a single "credible" charge of sexual abuse. Such a charge leads to the immediate removal of the priest from his ministry, and even if that charge is investigated and the priest is cleared of any wrongdoing, it's unlikely he will ever again return to pastoral ministry. Guilty until proven innocent...and then never really innocent, but always guilty in the minds of many, certainly in the secular media.   

All of this exists in a cultural environment where the Catholic Church, as well as Christianity in general, is not just under attack, but despised by the media and political elites. The media has framed the story as one of pedophilia, so the public will assume it's all about priests abusing young children. The truth is something quite different. The vast majority of cases concerning priestly abuse of minors involve not young children but post-pubescent teenaged boys. That's right, it's really all about predatory homosexuality. But this would conflict with the zeitgeist that extols the "normality" of homosexual behavior. 

In recent decades far too many bishops have ignored the blatant homosexuality of candidates for the priesthood and have ordained men who have gone on to become predators. Others live lives of near open homosexuality in total opposition to Church teaching. In writing this I am not merely reporting what others have written; no, I can speak here from first-hand knowledge. And it's not limited to seminarians and priests; sadly, active homosexuality of the Cardinal McCarrick kind, is a trait possessed by more than a few of our bishops. It took over 20 years before the bishops decided that maybe their draconian policies should perhaps apply to bishops as well. 

In the face of this, the prevailing culture, then, must conjure up abuse allegations against those who most strongly support and preach the Church's orthodox beliefs. The culture's most famous victim is George Cardinal Pell, who for years had been, and remains, one of my ecclesial heroes. Cardinal Pell was convicted of several counts of child abuse despite hard evidence that should have exonerated him. After serving 13 months of a six-year sentence he was finally freed in April when Australia's high court unanimously overturned his conviction. 

George Cardinal Pell

About his trial and his time in prison, the Cardinal said, "I was quite confident that my small sufferings -- and they weren't enormous -- were something that could be offered, with Christ's suffering, for the good of the Church...I knew I was innocent, I knew logically and forensically that I had a very strong case, that I would be vindicated. But in a spectacular failure, the most senior judges in Victoria were unable to see that." (It was a 2 to 1 decision.)  Ultimately, the nation's high court recognized the injustice that had been committed, and unanimously acquitted him. 

Cardinal Pell, as every Christian should be, is the ultimate optimist: "The irony of it is -- and it's demonstrated in the Catholic world in Belgium, Holland, Quebec, and to some extent in Switzerland and Austria -- the more you adapt to the world, the faster the Catholic Church goes out of business...but aversity is not necessarily bad for the Church. Adversity can bring the best out of us." 

If you'd like to read more about legal issues surrounding this apostle's journey in the midst of today's world, read this article by Gerard V. Bradley, law professor at Notre Dame: Cardinal Pell Acquitted

Ignatius Press plans to publish the Cardinal's prison journal early next year, a book that is already being praised as a likely classic. Read about it here: Spiritual Classic.

Is there a message in all this to our bishops? From my limited and lowly perspective I would encourage our bishops to turn to the Apostles, to be Apostolic in their approach to the world. The Apostles gave their lives for the faith. They didn't fear bad publicity. They didn't fear the loss of federal funds. They didn't fear the loss of tax exemptions. They didn't turn to their lawyers, asking, "What should I do?" No, they proclaimed the truth, constantly, loudly, and boldly, but always mercifully. They listened to and followed the Lord Jesus' command:

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the ned of the age" [Mt 28:19-20].

Pray for Pope Francis and our bishops.

Strange Doings

Just a few of the random thoughts that have arisen in my often confused and certainly aging mind as I try to understand the more confused minds of those who make the headlines.

Oh, Canada! A few days ago an acquaintance asked me, "Did you read what Canada has done? What's with those Canadians? Have they gone insane?" He was referring to a law passed overwhelmingly (67 to 11) by the Canadian Senate that makes it a crime to refer to a person's sex by other than the term the person desires. In other words, should a Canadian decide that he/she/it is none of these but prefers to be called by another manufactured pronoun, such as "zir" or "zie" or "zit" or whatever, you must acquiesce to the loon's desires or face criminal prosecution. As my friend suggested, this is, of course, insane. But rest assured, the Canadians have not "gone" insane, they have simply remained insane. Indeed, a mild form of insanity has been their occasional mental state for the past few hundred years. After all, rather than join us in our quest to free ourselves from tyranny, they remained loyal to King George III, a man whose madness is rather well documented. So...the Canadians rejected George Washington -- a good guy and a very smart and sane man -- and instead placed their future well-being in the hands of another George, who happened to be a madman. I rest my case. I have only one question: Will those 11 senators who voted against the measure be prosecuted for discrimination? This would seem to be the most likely outcome for a nation comfortable with insanity.

LGBTQetc and Islam. Isn't it a bit odd that the Alphabet Corps of self-declared victims of sexual discrimination has become another voice decrying what they perceive to be Western (i.e., once Christian) Civilization's rampant Islamophobia? I do find this odd since virtually every Muslim-majority nation has sharia-based laws prohibiting homosexual and "related" behavior. And in many of these nations -- including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Sudan, and others -- the punishment under these laws includes the death penalty. Strange bedfellows...so to speak. It only confirms the late James Burnham's belief that liberalism is just another form of suicide. (See his remarkable and prophetic 1964 book, Suicide of the West.) 

Violence on the Left. What do Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Tse Tung, Fidel Castro, and Bernie Sanders have in common? Well, OK, four of them are dead, but all five are (or were) Marxists. And once we establish that basic fact, the violence we encounter on the political left today becomes understandable. Socialism is just a seemingly "soft" form of Marxism. But it is Marxism nonetheless and accepts the basic tenets of Marxist faith. One of these tenets is the need for revolution to accomplish its ends. In the words of Elton John: "We go up the revolution, freedom strike another blow. Yeah, strike another blow." In this context, of course, freedom includes only the freedom to believe what the Marxist believes.

That's why all of those young collegiate Marxists, who have been indoctrinated by all those aging professorial Marxists, get violent whenever someone who holds an opposing view dares to show up on campus. Yeah, strike another blow.

That's why a mediocre comedian can hold up an effigy of the decapitated head of the president and get rave reviews from her fellow travelers. Yeah, strike another blow.

That's why a Bernie Sanders toady can decide it's fine to shoot up a Republican congressional baseball practice. Yeah, strike another blow.

That's why a Nebraskan Democratic official can say he wished the baseball-field shooter had actually killed that  Republican representative instead of just wounding him. Yeah, strike another blow.

Interestingly, according to a recent poll, registered Democrats now prefer socialism to free-market capitalism by a double-digit advantage: 49% to 37%. I can only assume this will lead to increased violence on the left and quite likely an increase in violent responses from the far right.

Yes, indeed, we live in a strange, confused world. Thank God for God.

Atrocity in Orlando

Early Sunday morning, not far from where we live here in central Florida, a young Muslim man murdered at least 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub before being shot dead by law enforcement. The FBI quickly declared the murders an act of terrorism and indicated that the lone terrorist had possible connections with the Islamic State.  The FBI also revealed that this young man, a native-born American citizen of Afghan descent, had made two trips to Saudi Arabia in recent years and had been investigated several times for connections with terrorists and for threats of violence, but they had subsequently "closed the case." 

His beliefs, however, were nothing new and seem to have been formed years ago. His high school classmates report that on the morning of September 11, 2001, he openly celebrated the terrorist attacks. We have also learned that his ex-wife had to be rescued by her parents after only four months of marriage because he had beaten her so frequently she feared for her life. And it now seems his father, an Afghan living in the USA, actually ran for the presidency of Afghanistan. His father also hosted a California-based satellite TV show in which he regularly condemned the United States and strongly supported the Taliban. Indeed, despite this questionable background the Orlando terrorist was permitted to continue his employment with a major security firm that is a key subcontractor with the Department of Homeland Security and the Central Intelligence Agency. 

None of this apparently triggered any alarms within the local, state or federal law enforcement bureaucracies. As a security professional, he therefore had no problem legally purchasing the two weapons he used in the attack.

I realize that, unlike the FBI investigators, we have the advantage of hindsight, but I can't help but wonder whether political correctness played a role in the lack of scrutiny this man received from both his employer and law enforcement. Did his immediate supervisors fear the backlash that might arise if they had disciplined or fired him because of the threats he had made to coworkers and others? Did he get a pass because he was a Muslim? After all, that's exactly what happened in the case of the Fort Hood terrorist, an Army psychiatrist who was investigated by the FBI for his terrorist connections and then went on to murder 13 innocent human beings. Lots of red flags that seem to have been overlooked.

My major concern, however, is that as a nation we apparently have not accepted the obvious fact that we are at war and have been since well before September 11, 2001. Equally disturbing, we seem unable to define the enemy. For example, just moments ago I  heard one supposed expert declare that we are engaged in a "war on terror." It would seem that few people recognize the stupidity of such a statement. Terror is not our enemy; rather, it is a means of waging war. One might as well say we are engaged in a war on strategic bombing or a war on anti-personnel mines. It makes absolutely no sense unless one's purpose is to obfuscate. It's not unlike the president blaming the Orlando atrocity on guns rather than on the Islamist terrorist who repeatedly pulled the trigger. At some point, if we hope to defeat our true enemies, we must be willing to identify them. Quite simply, we are at war with Islamic Jihadists, those Muslims who believe that Islam must wage war with the infidel nations -- i.e., the rest of the world -- and are more than willing to use terrorism to achieve this goal.

Of course, most Muslims just want to live their lives and have no desire to join the jihadists in their war against infidels like you and me. But a surprisingly large percentage of the world's Muslims accept much of what the jihadists preach. Islam's teaching on homosexuality is particularly relevant given what happened in Orlando where the terrorist chose as his target a nightclub catering to the LGBT community. By doing so he actually carried out the demands of sharia or Islamic law which calls for the death sentence for homosexuality. It's important to realize that many, if not most, of the world's Muslims believe that sharia should be the "law of the land" throughout the world. In many Muslim nations a majority believe the death penalty should be applied for such offenses as adultery, homosexuality, and apostasy. Indeed, in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and several other Muslim nations, homosexuals are regularly executed. Even here in the United States too many Muslim leaders preach the same. Ironically, just a few weeks ago, an imam speaking in Orlando stated that gays should be executed "out of compassion."  (See the video below.)

To see the eye-opening results of the Pew Research polling of Muslims worldwide on these and other issues, click here: Muslim Beliefs about Sharia.

Strangely, though, the notables of the political left are so blinded by political correctness they cannot accept even the most obvious truths. Yesterday I read that lawyers of the American Civil Liberties Union had declared, quite incredibly, that the "Christian Right" was responsible for the terrorist attack in Orlando because "they created this anti-queer climate." And, trust me, the ACLU includes the Catholic Church among the Christian Right because of its moral teaching on the homosexual lifestyle. The Church, of course, does not in any way condemn homosexuals, who like the rest of us are sinners for whom our Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died. We don't condemn the sinner; we condemn the sin.

The left simply cannot bring itself to criticize Islam and instead attacks the soft target of Christianity knowing it has little to fear from Christians. I cannot recall having heard any Christian leader call for the killing of homosexuals, and to my knowledge no terrorist attacks have been perpetrated by Methodists, Episcopalians, Jewish rabbis, Benedictine monks, or the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Pray for the dear souls, God's children, who lost their lives in Orlando. Pray for those who mourn them. And pray for our nation as its citizens try to decide which adolescent to elect as our president.

Sign of the Times

Earlier this morning I came across an article that should cause all Americans to shudder. The likelihood that it will have little effect on most people is perhaps even more disturbing.

Mayor Parker

Annise Parker, the openly lesbian major of the city of Houston, Texas, has had the city issue subpoenas demanding that several of the city's pastors turn over any of their sermons addressing homosexuality. The issuance of these subpoenas is, of course, completely unconstitutional since it violates the pastors' clear First Amendment rights, both to freedom of religion and speech. As you might expect, the mayor will not state why she wants the sermons, but one can only believe that she hopes to be able to prosecute one or more of the pastors because of "discriminatory" statements they may have made. You can read more about this in an opinion piece here and in a local news story here.

For several years now I have joined many others in predicting increased pressure on the Church to be silent in the face of political correctness imposed by various levels of government. We have already seen this in a number of states where the Catholic Church has been prohibited from facilitating adoptions because it will not permit homosexual individuals or couples to adopt children. We've also seen it in Obamacare as it relates to the provision of "health" services involving both contraception and abortion. 

Among those on the political left there seem to be two issues that trump everything else: homosexual "rights" and abortion. One is no less than a direct attack on the sacrament of marriage with the goal of destroying the traditional family, and the other is an attack on the sanctity of life. Both, of course, are at the same time direct attacks on the Church, and in particular, the Catholic Church. Once the Church and its moral objections are removed, the state can claim its complete authority over virtually all aspects of private life, even life itself.

Cardinal Francis George

In a post written a few weeks ago I quoted Cardinal George, the now retired Archbishop of Chicago, who once stated: "I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison, and his successor will die in the public square.” Many who heard the Cardinal say this probably dismissed it as a gross exaggeration, as an example of episcopal hyperbole; but given what is now taking place in our nation and elsewhere in the world, I suspect they may be reconsidering their doubts.

As for myself, I can't recall ever preaching against homosexuality per se, since the Church does not teach that a person's sexuality is, in itself, sinful. The Church, however, does teach that living a homosexual lifestyle and all that it entails is indeed sinful. Homosexual activity is sinful just as heterosexual activity outside of marriage is sinful. And since the Church clearly defines marriage as a sacrament that can be received only by a man and a woman, any homosexual activity must take place outside of marriage. On several occasions, therefore, I have preached against the homosexual lifestyle. To date, however, no politician -- mayor, governor, president, or dogcatcher -- has demanded copies of my homilies. But since I post most of them on this very blog, they really won't have any trouble finding them.

Friday Thoughts

Prayer Breakfasts. Our president, the nation's self-proclaimed leading aficionado of religious freedom, decided to address the issue at Thursday's National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC. And let me tell you, it was an uplifting, hopeful address and was doubtless equally well received by the politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists, justices, and other holy folk who came together to ask God to advance their respective ideologies.

President and Mrs. Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast

Okay, let me give the president his due. I was very pleased to hear him mention Pastor Saeed Abedini, an American who has been imprisoned in Iran simply because he is a Christian. I may be wrong, but I believe this is the first time the president has mentioned Pastor Abedini publicly. He also referred to another American, Christian missionary Kenneth Bae, who has been imprisoned by the even more barbaric regime in North Korea. The president stated that “The United States will continue to do everything in our power to secure his release because Kenneth Bae deserves to be free.” Later, speaking of Pastor Abedini, he said, "Today, we call on the Iranian government to release Pastor Abedini.” It was good to hear these comments and promises, regardless of their efficacy. [Note: As I write this I just heard a news report that North Korea has transferred Kenneth Bae from a hospital to a labor camp, where he will serve out his 15-year sentence. Sad news indeed. We await the president's response.]

Pastor Abedini and his family

The president also referred to the blasphemy laws used by Muslim nations to persecute non-Muslims, especially Christians. As one might expect, Mr. Obama's reference was somewhat circumspect and avoided mentioning Islam: "Going forward, we will keep standing for religious freedom around the world.  And that includes, by the way, opposing blasphemy and defamation of religion measures, which are promoted sometimes as an expression of religion, but, in fact, all too often can be used to suppress religious minorities." 

The president drifted off into political correctness a few times, as when he said, "We sometimes see religion twisted in an attempt to justify hatred and persecution against other people just because of who they are, or how they pray or who they love" [my italics]. With this comment, of course, the president accuses those who believe homosexual acts to be sinful of twisting religion and justifying hatred. I guess that makes me and the Catholic Church and most orthodox Christians twisted haters. I've been called worse things.

Kenneth Bae

Political correctness was also obvious in what the president didn't address. His administration's attack on the Catholic Church and others who object to being forced to use health insurance that funds contraception, abortion, and sex-change procedures was conspicuously omitted, as was the fact that our nation has slaughtered 55 million unborn human beings since 1973. 

My problem with prayer breakfasts is that they center less on on prayer and more on poorly veiled political speeches. The president's comments [you can read his entire address here] are not addressed to God but rather to the gathered Washington insiders, and their purpose is less worshipful than political. But I suppose we should be happy they actually get together once a year to talk about God...a far better subject than what they usually talk about.

Persecution of Christians. The Pew Research Center has released its latest findings on global religious persecution, and not surprisingly Christians are the most persecuted of all believers. The persecution of Christians has been reported in a mind-boggling 110 countries. Jews, who make up a tiny percentage of the world's population, experienced persecution in 95 countries. Interestingly, the harassment and persecution of believers increased in every region of the world, except the Americas. Furthermore, the number of nations experiencing religious terrorism and sectarian violence also increased significantly, doubling over the past five years. These trends are less than encouraging.

The Internet as Teacher. There's a lot of trash on the web, actually more than a lot, but there's also some very interesting stuff. You can read virtually all of the world's great literature. You can access the minds of experts in every field. You can work your way through courses offered by some of the world's great universities. You can even read this blog. And you can do much of this absolutely free! It's truly remarkable. Another fascinating online resource is Youtube. Yes, I admit that there are a lot of strange and ridiculous videos on Youtube, but there are also some very useful things. YouTube is eminently practical. For example, if you want to learn how best to re-grout the ceramic tile in your shower, there's a video showing you how. If you want to clean your Mossberg shotgun...yep, there's a video. Even more remarkable, however, Youtube can teach you how to open a bottle of wine using only your shoe! This is something I've been aching to learn for decades, and now, here it is, wonderfully encapsulated into a 49-second video, thanks to Mirabeau Vineyards.



One can also learn how to open a bottle of beer without a bottle opener, but for some reason it requires over six minutes of instructional video. Perhaps beer drinkers are slower learners.

Strange, Unexpected and Tragic Things

(Late Note: my apologies for the bad links in the earlier post. They have now been fixed.)

Every once in a while I can't help myself and I get "political". Here are Just a few interesting and strange things I encountered in the news today...

John Kerry. It seems our Secretary of State, a man by the way, who shopped for combat decorations and told some whoppers about his service on swift boats in Vietnam, apparently doesn't realize that North Korea already has nuclear weapons. In an interview with Martha Raddatz of ABC News, Secretary Kerry said, "To have a nuclear weapon, potentially, in the hands of somebody like Kim Jong In - Jun just becomes even more unacceptable." Potentially? Uh, Mr. secretary, the North Koreans have tested nuclear weapons at least three times. Kim Jong Un already has these weapons. Ain't nothin' potential 'bout that. Read the transcript here.

Presidential Polls. As of today polling shows that a sizable majority of Americans believe the president lied when he repeatedly told the nation that under the so-called Affordable Care Act -- aka Obamacare -- we could keep our health care plans and doctors, period! The 2014 election cycle should be really interesting, especially for the Democrat House and Senate members who supported Obamacare and are up for reelection. Oh, yeah, as I recall every single Democrat in the Senate and the vast majority of Democrat House members voted for the act...without ever reading it.

Duck Dynasty. Interesting stuff. Phil Robertson, the Duck Dynasty patriarch, has been placed on indefinite hiatus (i.e., fired) by the A&E Network for his blunt comments about sin and the homosexual lifestyle in a GQ magazine interview. Since then, the vast majority of TV's talking heads have labeled the interview a big mistake by Robertson, who they believe didn't consider what his "inflammatory" words might lead to. One wag, Howard Bragman, of reputation.com stated, "There's too much money at stake. Although he plays kind of a hick on TV, I don't think he's dumb. I think he gets what's at stake here. And I hope people on his team, the network and his producers get the message that what he did was wrong." Dana Perino, a regular on the Fox News show, The Five, just couldn't stop wringing her little hands over the fact that gays and many others were so very offended that Robertson called homosexual activity sinful and lumped it together with greed, bestiality, adultery, terrorism, and other sins. Well, Dana, duh! Orthodox Christianity -- and here I'll include Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and most Evangelicals, etc. -- all believe and teach this. These things are sinful, but like Phil Robertson, we hate the sin but love the sinner. And like Phil, too, we know we're all sinners.

I suspect most of these inside-the-beltway folks have never watched the show or they'd realize what is truly important to the Robertsons. What all these upwardly mobile, dollar-driven, and PR-obsessed media flacks don't realize is that for Phil Robertson and his family, the money, the show's success, and the "bad" PR resulting from his comments are all secondary concerns. This family is a Christian family that accepts Christian moral teaching. Living and professing their faith is more important to them than a TV show and they will gladly walk away from their lucrative A&E gig rather than compromise their beliefs. Phil Robertson may have been overly graphic in his choice of words, but he spoke only what he and many Christians believe. Personally, I consider him a courageous man. May his tribe increase!

And for those homosexuals who see Phil Robertson and other believing Christians as threats, I suggest they look east and see what's happening to homosexuals in Islamic nations. Indeed, even in India Muslim clerics are issuing fatwas against homosexuals, calling for the execution of gays and unmarried couples who have live-in relationships:  "A person may be burnt alive, pushed from a high wall or be beaten publically with stones if he indulges into either of the two behaviours." I predict the gay activists who have been so vocal about the Robertson clan will say nothing about these atrocities since they're not committed by Christians. The photo below shows two young homosexuals, Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, about to be hanged in Iran. Read more here.

Lying is OK. That's right, according to some in the mainstream media it's okay to lie if by doing so you support the progressive agenda. Several media types have recently stated openly that it's perfectly acceptable to lie for politically correct reasons. During a panel discussion, MSNBC host, Toure Neblett, stated, “If a lie is being told to a corporation, it’s not really a lie" -- an interesting comment coming from an employee of Comcast, a major corporation. Panel member Josh Barro agreed, saying in effect that corporations lie in their advertising so we can lie to them. And then there was Matt Yglesias, the liberal blogger at JournoList who confidently included this missive on Twitter: “Fighting dishonesty with dishonesty is sometimes the right thing for advocates to do..."  It's all reminiscent of an interview with Dan Rather back in 2001 when, speaking of Bill Clinton and honesty, he said, “I think at core he’s an honest person...but I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things.”

Killer of Christians Convicted. Two years ago, on Christmas Eve, a bomb exploded in St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, a suburb of the Nigerian capital. The attack killed 37 Catholic parishioners and wounded 57 more. It was carried out by the Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram, a group that believes Christians must either convert or be killed. This week a Nigerian court sentenced Kabiru Sokoto to life imprisonment for his role in the deadly attack. This was a courageous decision by the court since Boko Haram has not hesitated to target government officials who act against it. Read more here.

The devastation of Nigerian Christian communities is ongoing and over 200 Christians have been murdered by Islamist terrorists in the past six months. Condemning the attacks on Christian communities, Bishop Michael Apochi of the Diocese of Otukpo, stated that “Life has become unbearable for our church members who have survived these attacks, and they are making worship services impossible.” You can read more on the persecution of Nigerian Christians here.

Prince Charles Surprise. The future King, assuming he outlives his mum, is usually very careful not to utter a disparaging word against anything Islamic. But even Charles has apparently been forced to admit that Islamists are systematically killing Christians. For Christians in the Middle East and North Africa, the so-called Arab Spring has resulted only in dramatically increased persecution. At a London reception at Clarence House, the prince informed his guests that "For 20 years I have tried to build bridges between Islam and Christianity to dispel ignorance and misunderstanding...The point though, surely, is that we have now reached a crisis where bridges are rapidly being deliberately destroyed by those with a vested interest in doing so. This is achieved through intimidation, false accusation and organised persecution including to the Christian communities in the Middle East at the present time." Read more here.

Inside the Beltway...They Really Hate Us. The Washington Post, the fish-wrapper of record in our nation's capital, has let the cat out of the bag by revealing how the DC types really feel about those who live elsewhere. Because much of America disapproves of how these parasites feed greedily on their money, the Post calls them "haters". (Click here to read the Post piece.)  

Republicans winning big among haters, Post-ABC poll finds

It's been an interesting year. I have a feeling 2014 will be far more interesting. Reading about all the strangeness in the world, I find myself especially comforted knowing that God is in charge...because we sure aren't.

Olympics and other things

I must be getting old, turning into a kind of curmudgeon, because I find myself increasingly at odds with what our society offers up as good and worthy. No, that's not quite right. Society doesn't simply offer these things to us and tell us they're good; rather it throws them at us, rubs our noses in them, submerges us in their squalor, and then tells us to inhale deeply. It then attacks and intimidates any who might in the smallest way object to such treatment. Examples abound...

The reaction to the comments of Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy are beyond belief. Well, they should be beyond belief, but in our increasingly decadent society, you can safely believe them. Mr. Cathy, speaking of his company, simply said:

"We are very much supportive of the family -- the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that. We intend to stay the course. We know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles." 

Omigosh! The man unwittingly pulled a half-dozen politically incorrect triggers and apparently exposed himself as an ignorant, intolerant, homophobic troglodyte. No doubt Eric Holder has already put together a team of prosecutors to investigate the criminal acts that obviously lie behind such comments. The reactions from across this once-great land were near instantaneous.

Mayor Menino "talking"

Mayor Tom Menino, perhaps the most inarticulate mayor in America, reacted with remarkable stupidity and declared that Chick-fil-A didn't belong in Boston, the city that boasted the Freedom Trail. It would seem Mr. Cathy, by exercising his freedom of speech in support of values held by the vast majority of Americans for over two centuries, is to be denied that freedom in a city that played such a major role in our nation's fight for freedom. The mayor only reinforces my decision almost a decade ago to leave Massachusetts for Florida. In Chicago too -- where else but corrupt, murderous Chicago? -- Chick-fil-A's despicable values were declared not to be "Chicago's values." Similar comments gushed forth from many of the nation's self-proclaimed smart people.

Personally, I'm with Mr. Cathy. Homosexual marriage is an abomination. The homosexual lifestyle is sinful, just as fornication and adultery and abortion and theft and murder are sinful. One cannot engage in any of these and lead the kind of holy life God wants for us.

I've also decided to visit our local Chick-fil-A on Monday and consume one of their salads (I'm on a diet) in support of Mr. Cathy and his family. I'd go tomorrow after Mass, but Chick-fil-A, in open defiance of market economics, has a "closed on Sunday" policy. Our local Chick-fil-A has also supported one of the ministries dear to my heart: the Wildwood Soup Kitchen, thus giving me another reason to support them in turn.

To read more on Chick-fil-A and its maniacal detractors, check out Mark Steyn's latest column.

Some still enjoy the Olympics

Then there are the Olympics. In truth, I really don't care about the Olympic Games. I don't care if the US athletes win or lose. I don't care about gold medal count or new world records. Why bother? The Olympics are no longer the global venue they once were for amateur athletes to compete worthily in a display of true sportsmanship. The games have simply become another arena for professional athletes to display their oversized egos on a grander scale. Gone is any pretense of gentlemanly competition among amateur athletes. The Olympics have been transformed into a series of in-your-face events, more similar to Roman gladiatorial bouts than real sport. The fact that all athletes must be tested for drugs, blood doping, and other performance enhancing techniques says much about the place of sportsmanship in the Olympics and our society at large. And have you noticed the almost religious nature of so many of the Olympic ceremonies? Watching them is like participating in some ancient pagan ritual -- all very bizarre. Most readers probably disagree with me, but, hey, we all have a right to waste our time in different ways. For me, I will find something else to occupy me during the next few weeks

Perhaps one of the best indicators of the direction of our society is how much we pay professional athletes and entertainers. Have you noticed how business people come under constant attack for the money they make, but we rarely hear a word about the compensation enjoyed by celebrities? And yet businesses create jobs for the rest of us and provide useful products and services rather than mere entertainment. I suspect, though, that celebrities and even many business people make far more money than they truly deserve, and I fear for their salvation because so many never seem satisfied with what they have. Don't they realize that their talents aren't self-generated but are gifts from God? Their praise and thanks should be directed toward Him and not toward themselves. And their energies should be directed not toward the pursuit of more money, but toward the pursuit of good. How did St. Paul put it?

"For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains." [1 Tim 6:10]

Excess is never attractive, nor is it good for the soul. (All you celebrity junkies might want to read this article on celebrity excess -- both sad and funny.)  I certainly don't envy the rich, whether they are business people or athletes or rock stars or actors or corrupt politicians. Money has never been a particularly strong motivator for me and certainly no sane person can possibly enjoy being envious. (I am far more susceptible to other of the deadly sins.) The trouble is, the extravagant lifestyles fueled by all this money can be very attractive to young people. This becomes evident when one observes the more talented college athletes as they enter the ranks of professionals. They seem to be afflicted with a sense of entitlement, an attitude nourished and encouraged by parents, coaches, and school administrators from the time their talent first manifested itself. At some colleges, and Penn State is just one obvious recent example, the standing of the school's athletic programs trumps most other considerations, even basic morality. Many of our society's newly discovered "values" have apparently migrated from the world of professional sports and entertainment to the rest of society. Of course, many of these values originated in the academic halls, so it is only fitting that they should ultimately infect the field house and the stadium.

Focusing only on the health of the college and university, I offer a most radical solution: the complete elimination of intercollegiate sports and their replacement with intramural athletic programs. This, of course, will never happen, not because of a love for sport, but because of a love for money. These programs are simply too profitable. And, as always, St. Paul is proven correct.

Lest I sound too pessimistic about our society, let me conclude with a more positive observation. It relates to one of the good things that came out of the tragedy in that Aurora, Colorado movie theater. The manly virtue of sacrifice above self is still alive within many Americans. A number of the men who lost their lives did so by intentionally placing their own bodies in the line of fire to protect the women they were with. God bless them and keep them. You see, it's the good people of this country, the hard-working folks we know and see every day, who live and keep the values we hold dear, who truly set this nation's standards. It's not the politicians or the baseball players or the movie actors. It is the people who give me hope, not the president.

Something Is Rotten in Denmark

The Danish parliament passed a law, and did so overwhelmingly (85 to 24), requiring churches in the nation's established Evangelical Lutheran Church to perform homosexual marriages. Although a Lutheran priest may choose not to perform the marriage, the bishop must assign a replacement who will. How progressive and open of these Danish legislators to enact such a law, a law that displays their tolerance for everyone except Christians. Read more here.


And so another Western European democracy has decided to redefine religious freedom by forcing its own interpretation of religious belief on a religion. Given the number of European nations that have passed similar laws, I suspect it won't be too long before one of these nations demands that the Catholic Church knuckle under and follow suit. Only one thing is stopping them: how to exclude Muslims from such laws.

Can't happen here in the USA? We hope not but things seem to be moving in that direction.

This news from Denmark helps one understand why our founders expressed an inherent distrust of democracy which they believed would inevitably move towards a dictatorship of the majority. Only a constitutional republic with its checks and balances, well-defined governmental limits, and personal freedoms can protect all of the people from both the government and the mob. Of course the appreciation of our form of government will surely wane as our courts interpret these freedoms out of existence. Once that occurs we'll be no different from Western Europe, just another decaying, doomed society.

The politicians cleverly define these issues in terms of freedom  -- freedom to choose, freedom to marry whomever one wants, freedom to use contraceptives, and on and on -- while the real issue is exactly the opposite: the absence of freedom. It's not about freedom; it's about compulsion. It's about using the power of government to force believers to give up their religious freedom. The real question for our society is, "Will we be strong and determined and courageous enough to resist?"

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Archbishop Wenski on the President

Thomas Wenski, our former bishop here in Orlando and now the Archbishop of Miami, spoke to a reporter while in Rome for his ad limina visit with Pope Benedict. During the interview the archbishop commented on President Obama's recent public support for homosexual (aka, "same-sex") marriage. He considers the president's statement strictly a political move meant to distract the voters from the real issues that will ultimately define the election in November. Here's a brief video, thanks to Rome Reports, that includes Archbishop Wenski's comments:

The Obama/Clinton State Department & the U.N. -- Liars All

Now that's a headline to grab your attention...but it's true. There's just something about abortion and so-called gay rights that causes the activists behind these issues to say and do anything to accomplish their goals. And because the perceived number-one enemy of these activists is the Catholic Church, the Church is their primary target.

The most recent example is an intentional lie told by the Obama-Clinton State Department. A U.S. representative told the U.N. delegations of several Latin American countries that the Vatican agreed with and supported an agreement calling for the inclusion of "sexual orientation and gender identity" as categories that would be protected from discrimination under international law. Apparently, the delegates of some of these countries believed the lie and went on to sign the joint agreement. As you might expect, the Vatican had actually strongly and actively opposed the agreement. This lie by our government is not an anomaly; rather it is just another in a series of lies designed to undermine the Holy See on moral issues.

If you want the whole story -- and it's certainly worth your time to read it -- see Austin Ruse's article on The Catholic Thing: State Department Lies About the Holy See. Mr. Ruse is President of C-FAM, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. C-FAM describes itself as a "non-partisan, non-profit research institute dedicated to reestablishing a proper understanding of international law, protecting national sovereignty and the dignity of the human person." It is heavily engaged in the challenging task of monitoring United Nations activity in the area of social policy. (Catholic Online has also covered this story which I expect will be a non-story in the mainstream media: US Falsely States Vatican Position.)

As I have stated before, for those drowning in the ideological swamp of abortion and homosexual rights, these issues trump virtually everything else, including such basic concepts as truth and honestly. We can expect the lies to continue.

Things Unreported

I don't spend a lot of my time roaming the worldwide web because I actually have much better things to do. But if one is judicious the web is perhaps the only place one can access the important news that most media outlets ignore. And so every few days I check out a few favorite sites just to see what's really new in the world. Here are a few items I came across this morning. I doubt that you'll see them on the evening network news.

From American Thinker: Will the Real Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf Please Stand Up? Includes some interesting facts about the Arab/Muslim world's treatment of Palestinians.

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From Pajamas Media: The eminent classicist and historian, now gentleman farmer, Victor Davis Hanson, gives us his thoughts on societal decline: With a Whimper or a Bang -- or Not at All.

From Front Page Magazine: If you thought China was just an economic superpower, check out this analysis of the Pentagon's 2010 report on China's extraordinary military buildup. Are we once again all prepared for the last war instead of the next? China Rising.

From Catholic Online: Deacon Keith Fournier tells us about the demise of the last Catholic adoption agency in the UK. Catholic Care will no longer offer adoptions because they refused to compromise Church teaching and arrange adoptions for homosexual couples. The 2007 Equality Act Sexual Orientation Regulations demand that Catholic Care accede to these regulations or close it doors. Last Catholic Adoption Agency in UK Refuses to Compromise With Caesar.

From The Catholic Thing: If you want to learn about the persecution of Christians throughout the world,  don't bother looking in the mainstream media because it's not there. But here's an interesting story about Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) who, along with several colleagues, is demanding an investigation of an incident in which Vietnamese government authorities used deadly force against a religious procession. US Lawmakers Urge Probe on Vietnam Catholic Clash.

One morning's collection of interesting unreported news...