Control the language …
The persecution of the Catholic Church and other morally conservative religious bodies has begun in the United States. As predicted, it isn’t—thank God—bloody persecution like the persecution of Christians in many countries. But it’s real persecution, and likely to get worse.
This new persecution currently has two prongs.
One consists of pressuring individual religious believers to cooperate with public policies inimical to faith. The other prong is pressure targeted at religious groups and institutions to adapt their programs to the promotion of values hostile to the sponsors’ moral convictions. […]
Consider the case of the Oregon couple, Christian owners of a bakery (now closed), who recently were held liable for $135,000 in damages for declining to bake a wedding cake for a lesbian couple. They did nothing to prevent the lesbians from marrying—their offense was not wanting to lend a hand to the celebration.
As for the second prong of persecution—pressure to adapt religious programs and institutions to the promotion of hostile values, coupled with vitriolic denunciations of whoever says no to doing that—it has been visibly in operation lately in San Francisco, where Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone came under attack for saying that teachers in Catholic schools shouldn’t teach things contrary to Catholic morality.
This is astonishing. Why on earth should the Catholic Church, in its own schools, be obliged to provide a platform for teaching that contradicts Catholic moral doctrine? Yet this is what Archbishop Cordileone’s critics, including San Francisco media, would require of the Church. […]
“The biggest problem we face as a culture,” Archbishop Chaput said, “isn’t gay marriage or global warming. It’s not abortion funding or the federal debt…The deeper problem, the one that’s crippling us, is that we use words like justice, rights, freedom and dignity without any commonly shared meaning… .Our most important debates boil out to who can deploy the best words in the best way to get power.”
You will be made to care.
“The biggest problem we face as a culture, . . . “
Oh my. There’s a problem standing front and center all right.
Right next to the morally conserative relibious bodies problem.
Since I’m pretty sure a Catholic moralist would argue that his morality is neither conservative nor liberal, or even religious, but rather Catholic.
What to make of Russell Shaw’s decision to embrace the ** Look, look! We’re victims! ** or *** Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help, help! I’m being repressed! *** with nary a hint of further questions needing answers?
Seen as comedy though “public moral discourse” is pretty good stuff.
**** My goodness. Thank you all for coming out today. Katie and the kids and I want to thank you for being here. And we have a little announcement we’d like to share with you.
[applause]
I want to talk with you today about the American Dream. About the American Dream we share; its powerful history, its current condition, and its urgent need of rebuilding.
Our nation was founded on two self-evident truths; that all of us are created equal and that we are endowed by our Creator with certain rights to life, to liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
And with these words, the American dream began. No fine print. No expiration date.
All of us are included.
Women and men. Black people and white people.
Native-Americans, Irish-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latino-Americans, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim-Americans.
Young and old. Rich and poor. Workers and Business owners. Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender and straight Americans.
All of us are needed.
[applause]
For in our idea of country, there is no such thing as a spare American.
There is, however, a growing gap of injustice in our country today.
[…]
Baltimore is our country, and our country is Baltimore. ****
But I don’t wanna be an Oriole!
Behold the New Tolerance. No more “Live and Let Live”, but a daily Two-Minute Hate against anyone who doesn’t applaud the cause du jour loudly enough. Why, just look at what Kim Jong Un did for a senior official – someone who had scratched and clawed his way to the very top of his service – for falling asleep!
http://www.dailymirror.lk/72353/kim-jong-un-executes-defence-minister-for-sleeping
Two means of attack that I’m sure are being contemplated:
1) Church teaching/commentary/sermons regarding things like abortion or the sanctity of marriage as a God-ordained institution between one man and one woman will be held to be political statements necessitating revocation of tax-exempt status; and
2) Ministers/Pastors/Priests who are allowed to solemnize marriages will be considered agents of the state for purposes of requiring them to solemnize same sex marriage.
The Progressive Left will not be satisfied until every bedrock institution of Western Civilization is destroyed.
Well, now that we’ve extended inaction is a form of action, and government regulates action from the exchange of goods (farming) to services (healthcare), it’s only a matter of time before it gets extended into sacraments* (marriage). Thanks John Roberts. Thanks W. You didn’t do any better in your appointments than 41, but at least daddy didn’t make Souter Chief Justice.
So I guess that means we can safely predict that Obama’s lies extend to his so-called freedom of worship.
*if you prefer symbolic behavior/action, I won’t squawk
Also, the more I think about it, the more I’m bothered by that “morally conservative religious bodies” phraseology. Morally conservative implies morally liberal, and the problem with that is morality is an objective category (right/wrong) not a subjective one (conservative/right–liberal/left). Abortion, just to take the most obvious and contentious example, is either moral (right) or immoral (wrong), period. There’s no it’s wrong for “morally conservative religious bodies” / it’s right for “morally liberal religious bodies” to it; one of those two religious bodies is objectively wrong
That’s just offered as an example. I have no intention to start an abortion flame war thread, nor do I desire to see one.
There is only one Morality and no one owns it.
Although, just as with the facts of life, it happens to be conservative, but only because the conservative philosophy is rooted in said one Morality.
people what say that our most important debates “boil out” should not be in the word deployment business
On a completely different note, I understand Lindsey Graham is running for the Republican nomination on a Democratic platform of higher taxes and expanding entitlements.
effin’ liar news
Obama Tells Audience: One of My “Core Principles” Is to Never Divide People
Ernst: …I understand Lindsey Graham is running for the Republican nomination….
I have the perfect VP choice for Miss Lindsey: ‘Caitlyn’ Jenner!
Makes all kinds of sense in this world of nonsense, eh?
[…] of the fedora to Ernst Schreiber and Darleen Click for […]
He should run with the first AI simulated VP D0N4lD Trumpr00m