I can recall when sodomy was not a “protected right” but a “perverse crime.” It was that way not too long ago. Indeed, any sexual activity, even with a woman, if outside of marriage, was often judged as criminal and there were set penalties. There is division in the Church on the subject and it may be that some have too closely aligned themselves with the American Psychiatric Association which redefined homosexuality from a mental illness to an acceptable sexual orientation.
One of my favorite television programs was DRAGNET. There is one episode where Joe Friday (Jack Webb) is railing against the sins of the city. Among them he lists “sodomy.” When the episode was repeated recently on television, the sound failed precisely when he moved his lips to say the word that is no longer politically correct. In another episode, The Big Kids, there is a dialogue which shows the change in secular morality:
Capt. Lou Richey: It’s not just a problem of law enforcement, it’s a community problem.
Sergeant Pearson: Trouble is there is no community captain. These people come piling in here from every where. They dont know each other and don’t want to. They come out here, make a down payment on a house and move in with a couple of kids. That doesn’t mean they made a home no more than givin’ a name to a place makes it a community.
Sergeant Joe Friday: Yeah and you get a littele weary of hearing every kid give you the same excuse when you tag them. You don’t understand, I just wanna to belong thats why I did it. Belong to what?
Capt. Lou Richey: What it boils down to is the new morality, doesn’t it, a whole new sense of values. The kids see it on television, in magazines. Even hear it from the pulpit. God is dead. Drug addiction is mind expanding. Promiscuity is glamorous. Even homosexuality is praiseworthy. How you gonna fight that?
Officer Bill Gannon: It ain’t easy.
Capt. Lou Richey: What you got to remember that, the vast majority of the juveniles you’re handling are the kids next store. They’re not hard core criminals. It’s just that for them it’s a great deal more important to be accepted by the other kids than to please their parents.
Today, the “love that dare not speak its name” (citing Lord Alfred Douglas) is proclaimed a civil right and thrown into our faces where ever we look, even in Cowboy movies… I know John Wayne is rolling in his grave!
The Church in Boston had to shut down its adoption services because the government made it illegal to discriminate against gay couples. The Archdiocese of Washington has done likewise. Catholic Charities in Los Angeles was almost shut down by a law mandating benefits and insurance (analogous to a spouse in marriage) to the bed-partners of homosexual men and lesbians. Renters are being compelled to permit gay men and women to live and commit mortal sin in their premises.
My faith in our society and the legal system is much shaken. I cannot say that I would generally trust activist judges or spineless legislators to make decisions that would please me or others with traditional values. I concur with the Church that homosexuality is “disorientation” and that to live it out is a grievous offense to God and a corruption of others.
Our compassion and love for them should not translate as utter toleration and/or approbation. We should encourage chastity and celibacy. While it is controversial, where possible, we should pursue proven treatments that have helped thousands to adjust to a heterosexual orientation (as in the work of Dr. Fitzgibbons). This issue is very emotionally charged. We are sorely tempted to look the other way and give homosexual advocates what they want. They insist that not to accept their form of sexuality is a denial of them as persons of worth. But such is not the case. The old cliché still holds, “Love the sinner but hate the sin.” Both natural law and the Scriptures condemn same-sex activity. Sexual expression is restricted to marriage and such is only between a man and a woman. No judge, legislator or shrink can truly change the truth about this. Going through the motions will not make vice into virtue or that which is false into something real. The pendulum is swinging. While gay sex was once illegal; it is now legally protected. Indeed, those who reject it are being subjected to charges of discrimination. I would err on the side of preserving our traditional values but not pursuing matters which would intrude into the privacy of people’s homes. I guess you could say that I would favor bringing back the proverbial closet.
Of course, even if we were willing to leave such people in peace, there will be no peace today for those who oppose the homosexual agenda.
Filed under: Anti-Catholicism, Commandments, Homosexuality, Marriage, Morality, Sexuality, Sin, Social Justice |
Blogger Priest 
Dear Fr Joe,
I agree that The Church is both physical and spiritual and there may well be a need, at times, for a certain restraint in too much ‘public’ exposure, B-U-T.look at your header. Jesus was certainly not prepared to compromise the truth and physically drove the money changers out of God’s House. OK perhaps these so called ‘troublesome priests’ did not have quite the same authority as Jesus had, but they were true to their beliefs and The Truth.
It is little wonder that satan is able to change attitudes in this world, and how things have become so distorted. Sadly The Church appears to support the aggrieved lesbian at a recent funeral rather than support a Priest who did the right thing. Jesus may well have acted in exactly the same way, the impression that I get from scripture is that He hated hypocrites and unrepentant sinners. He sent the rich man away because he was rich and could not sell what he had and give it to the poor; what He didn’t do was to compromise the Truth and fudge the issue.
He was also quite specific in condemning divorce, and even lustful oggling. And although homosexuality was probably less of a known activity amongst the Chosen Race, it was still severely condemned so much so that all homosexuals had to be stoned to death. We have compromised our integrity and it’s only one very small step removed from sex with animals and then children; believe me that’s where the angel of darkness will take society next.
I also believe that the Book of Revelation is not specific only to the long past but very much relevant to the present. There are definite components that relate to today and the near future. God destroyed all the practitioners of perversions by a flood because, in the times of Noah, there were few ‘good men’ to be found. Now is as it was in the times of Noah. The sabre rattling coming from Israel also is ominous. I expect to hear the Angelic trumpet before I die, it’s that close and I will not see another decade, indeed I expect just a few years at the most.
As far as I can tell Fr John O’Connor told the truth and preached Christ’s message without compromise. He challenged satan and satan used some very corrupt members of The Church to silence him. Fr O’Connor was a ‘flogger priest’ and tried to drive the sinners from the House of God; he emulated Jesus in that respect and was under orders from a higher authority than the corrupt human superiors.
satan entered the world and also entered The Sanctuary. he’s on the ascendant, and the rise of sinful sexual practises even within a heterosexual marriage to become publically proclaimed as normal and healthy and even expected as ‘variations on a theme’ is proof positive.
I rest my case.
Paul
Given how many hours people watch television, I suspect that it has a notable impact on our worldview and opinions about things. Homosexual lifestyles are going mainstream. Those who oppose it will face recrimination as bigoted and probably legal sanctions.
Father I’m sick and tired of the media constantly portraying homosexuality as ok. I turn the television on and there is all sorts of perversion. I watched the news on CNN, ABC, and UNIVISION and these networks are always portraying homosexuality as a right and not a perversion. CNN did a report in which there was a lesbian pastor; the anchor went on to say, see acceptance, it’s nice to see someone practice what they preach. On Univision I saw a little girl who believes she was born in the wrong body and believes she is a boy; to top it off she also has a girlfriend and her mom supports her. The media like always portrayed them as a victim. My parents are Hispanic so they watch the television network UNIVISION and there is this show it’s called La Rosa de Guadalupe Or the Rose Of Guadalupe referring to our lady. It’s a show were they show miracles from our lady but even in that show I have seen a lot of favorable approval of homosexuality. This angers me because many watch the show thinking is good because the the name of the show is la rosa de Guadalupe and whatever they see on the show is what must be right but is not. My question is how much of an impact does television or other media really have on society considering when there was no television people were less liberal.
Dear Fr Joe,
Sadly, with Satan on the ascendant, sodomy is not reserved to the secular society only, but has even filtered into The Church.
I remember reading much from that seriously maligned priest Fr John O’Connor about the dangers of the present with the Church being under attack by Satan, and he was silenced as only The Church knew how. Similarly Fr Malachi Martin also warned about the contamination that existed within.
There are some positions within the Higher Echelons of the Hierarchy that seem to embrace the Powers of Darkness, and what better way to destroy the True Church that Jesus left us than to cause an implosion.
Recent exposures, even though great efforts have been made to limit the ‘co-lateral damage’ as it were, have started to expose some of the corruption within, even to the point of financing the building of Concrete Cathedrals with funds of sinister origin.
Neither John O’Connor nor Malachi Martin were deluded; they spoke only a terrible truth, and it is extraordinary even how O’Connor’s Cannon Lawyer was killed.
Satan truely is on the ascendant, and surely God will not allow this situation to carry on for much longer. I fear that our time here on Earth is seriously short and we will all hear that trumpet before long.
I believe it was Pope Paul Vl who said that the smoke of Satan has entered the sanctuary. He was not wrong.
With loving concern,
Paul