WHO HAS THE BETTER MESSAGE, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OR THE LIBERAL MEDIA?
By Gary L. Morella
he only thing more certain than death and taxes is the inordinate amount of weekly liberal drivel in the national media per the likes of Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe. Ms. Goodman, as is the penchant of her ilk, has once again wrapped herself up in the cloak of inclusion, tolerance, and compassion by describing Proposition 22 in California, which would not recognize so-called gay marriages, as a gratuitous slap at
gays. The message of Ms. Goodman, of course, is that only those like her, namely the radical left of the democratic party, are caring individuals capable of wearing this cloak thereby given them sole authority to criticize the rest of us who aren t so caring. Proposition 22, for Goldman, is a referendum on normalcy with those horrible institutional hierarchies of the Mormon and Catholic Churches supporting it. The piece de resistance of Goodman s diatribe against the religious right in her Tuesday column of March 7, 2000 was the insinuation that by defeating Proposition 22, gays would have the delusion of living someplace where they are not despised.
Let me see if I understand this. By opposing something oxymoronic such as gay marriages , which, if the norm, would doom civilization to extinction due to that nagging problem of propagation of the species, we re intolerant, not compassionate, and noninclusive, a trio which has become a bigger sin in the eyes of the secularists than sadism, masochism, and pedophilia, which like homosexuality, are all perfectly normal traits per the diagnostic manual (DSM-IV) of the American Psychiatric Association since no problem exists unless the agent suffers an anxiety attack.
I recently had the privilege of driving a priest friend of mine to St. Marys PA where he gave a pre-lenten retreat for Catholic students from the area high schools in the diocese of Erie.
His talk centered on the last things, death, judgment, Heaven and Hell. He pulled no punches in giving one of the most dynamic apologies for faith and reason that I ve heard in my lifetime.
His presentation included a video on sexuality with the emphasis on chastity, and marriage as a sacrament with the sexual act presented as holy only within the confines of monogamous marriage between a man and a woman as God intended. The risks of ignoring this truth were reported in the most graphic terms letting the students know that there are consequences for their actions despite the incessant media bombardment to the contrary; peddling the lie that safe sex outside of marriage exists.
He talked about the contraceptive mentality overtaking the world enveloping it in a culture of death leading to the new paganism of our age. He showed how divorce and abortion are the direct results of this contraceptive mentality whereby the procreative is totally divorced from the recreative aspect of the sexual act, thereby allowing all forms of perversion.
He made a poignant appeal to these young people that they were at risk of forever destroying their lives both physically, and especially spiritually by falling for the bait that Satan is constantly putting in front of them in a society that is Godless with the epitome being the leadership of the so-called free world where authentic freedom to do what you ought is confused with license to do what you want.
He gave specific examples of the new paganism using the nationally televised Grammy Awards with Ellen Degeneres's calling for a fellow entertainer to put his sperm in a cup so that she and her lesbian lover could conceive a child, and the celebrity appearances of almost naked women. He talked of harvesting baby parts for fetal tissue research, and the horrors of cloning which could raise this macabre concept to even more heinous degrees. He vividly described just what happens during an abortion, with particular emphasis on the barbaric procedure known as partial birth abortion which is infanticide.
He asked the students, Is this the kind of family you want, this new radically defined family where abnormality becomes normal? Do you want a marriage partner for life who has slept with multiple partners? Is that evidence of the commitment required in sacramental marriage? Do you want to be at risk of a myriad number of STDs by making one mistake as a result of listening to the propaganda of a world totally devoid of reason?
I put it to you. Who has the better message? Who has more compassion, tolerance, and inclusion in the sense of truly caring for individuals for a greater good, this priest or the Ellen Goodmans of the world whose first reaction when they don t get their way is to pout and accuse everyone else of being, uncaring, intolerant, and oppressive of their right to not only destroy themselves but propagate it as a cause celebre for society at large such as the defeat of Proposition 22 in California?