Why Do the Liberal Activists Rage?

March 18, 2016 | John Horvat II

Why Do the Liberal Activists Rage?

So many of the moral issues that polarize the nation are now having legal consequences. Liberal activists insist upon forcing acceptance down the throats of countless Americans who disagree.

The violence of this forced acceptance is something unseen in American history.

Photographers, florists, bed & breakfast owners, and bakers who refused to service same-sex weddings are being fined and put out of business for simply following their consciences. Schools are being sued by angry plaintiffs who insist upon using bathrooms of the opposite sex.

Employers who use the wrong pronoun for someone who self-identifies as something else than the sex given them by God face crippling fines. Satanists insist upon holding a sidewalk ceremony blaspheming and committing sacrilege in front of a Catholic Church.

In face of these acts, one has to ask: Why do these activists and their corresponding base rage over these cases? Why do they insist upon publicly forcing their opinions upon others?

After all, although morally wrong, one has to admit that all of the behaviors in question are legally permitted. In the case of the weddings, alternatives are plentiful. Indeed, there was nothing to stop “transgender” people from acting out their fantasies in the privacy of their home. Why do these activists resort to such intimidation tactics? Why do they not adopt a live-and-let-live attitude toward those who disagree?

It would certainly make all lives easier if they would abandon their rage. It hardly seems proportional that all society must change to accommodate someone’s demand to publicly sin.

The answer lies in that little word: sin. The nature of sin calls forth this rage. It also lies in the word “public.” The social nature of man will not allow a live-and-let-live attitude.

Of course, liberal activsts will not admit this. The very concept of sin “sins” against their worldview. Indeed, the only real sin for them is to affirm the existence of sin … and sinners.

This however does not change reality. Aristotle claims man is a social being made for society, which exists to facilitate virtuous life in common. The social nature of man craves a unity around this purpose. That is where the problem begins.

When one sins, one commits an anti-social act that breaks the bonds that unite the individual to society. A liar, for example, breaks the bonds of trust that must exist in relationships for society to function well. Persistence in lying causes others to avoid the person. The individual must repent and ask forgiveness to restore a social unity.

When a person is vitiated to sin, publicly manifests this vice, and will not change or repent, it has the effect of severing these bonds. It also awakens a sense of guilt that results in loneliness. By man’s social nature, this isolation creates an urgent and furious need for reconciliation to feel whole again. Hence, the rage. 

When one sins, one commits an anti-social act that breaks the bonds that unite the individual to society.

As Prof. J. Budziszewski explains in his masterful book, What We Can’t Not Know, the frantic need for reconciliation explains why activists “cannot be satisfied with toleration, but must propagandize, recruit, and convert.”

Their rage is not centered on the acts they insist upon practicing since there is now nothing to stop them from doing so. Rather it is caused by the social stigma that these acts trigger. They desire to belong to society but do not wish to change. The only way to resolve the problem is to force their position upon the whole society, which must “reconcile” to accommodate their fancies.

In the case of sexuality, Prof. Budziszewski explains, “the shape of human life must be transformed. All of the assumptions of normal sexuality must be dissolved: marriage, family, innocence, purity, childhood—all must be called into question, even if it means pulling down the world around their ears.”

Indeed, these activists now seek to unleash social ostracism against those who affirm natural law and an objective morality. These nonconforming absolutist adversaries must be crushed. The media and liberal establishment are recruited to isolate, intimidate, and socially and legally browbeat opponents (including Little Sisters of the Poor) into compliance.

That is why there can be no peace in the Culture War. That is why the liberals rage.

http://www.tfp.org/why-do-the-liberal-activists-rage/

Being Nice Isn’t Good Enough

Fr. Jerry J. Pokorsky

We often hear that religion is a very private matter. It’s a nice sentiment. It’s inclusive and non-judgmental. And nice non-religious people are really quite pleasant to be around. Catholics can be nice people too. We drive to work to nice offices—I walk to work from a nice rectory—and we return to our households with a nice “live and let live attitude.” And nice people keep religion to themselves, aside from a pious bumper sticker or two.

The other day I found myself pondering a WWII photograph. It’s a famous picture, maybe you’ve seen it. A German soldier is about to execute a Jewish prisoner and the body of the prisoner will soon tumble into a mass grave. About a dozen soldiers are looking on. The facial expression of the executioner is not particularly cruel but it is matter-of-fact. The face of the prisoner, a split second before the soldier would pull the trigger, is angry and defiant. The prisoner doesn’t look like a very nice man.

I zoomed in to view the faces of the bystanders. They are all soldiers, but they could have been people like you and me. I didn’t see expressions of horror. I didn’t see any of them averting their eyes. Nobody is weeping or expressing distress. And if any of them are praying they are keeping their religion to themselves. Individually, they look like they could be very nice people.

A couple of soldiers appear curious and attentive. One is stretching his neck to get a better look. Others seem to be bored. But all eyes are on the scene of the impending execution—a bullet in the back of the head. There’s a time for war, and there’s a time for peace, and there’s even time for entertainment. And this is high entertainment in the execution of Jews in the midst of the prison camp boredom. Taken as a whole, I saw sheep.

After the war many of the soldiers probably lived happily ever after, allowing for the pain of reconstruction.  In time, what they witnessed and what they did likely became distant memories. Perhaps they could take comfort in saying to themselves that at least they did not pull the trigger. Or they pulled the trigger with reluctant necessity. Life in the close quarters of Army barracks can be uncomfortable if there are divisive and polarizing views. Disrupting the process wouldn’t be nice. It’s nicer to have unity in the community, as spectators, allowing the cruelties of war to go without comment.

After pondering the picture for about ten minutes, I averted my eyes. As I said, the image isn’t particularly horrifying. The soldier had yet to pull the trigger, but I had a thought that became difficult to bear. The more I pondered the faces, the more I was able to see my own face among those soldiers. I saw the faces of my parishioners among them as well. Except for the angry face of the prisoner, they looked like nice people and we’re nice people. We are also sheep.

Catholics make up only 25 percent of the U.S. population. And most of us live as if religion is a very private thing. It’s nice to have unity in the community. So it’s tempting to suggest that we good Catholics had nothing to do with the moral collapse of our culture. It must have been somebody else, those people. We didn’t pull the trigger. We’re not executioners. We’re nice people. And we belong to the flock of Jesus.

But if Jesus the Good Shepherd defines his flock, one would think that 25 percent of our culture would be recognizably Catholic. So what went wrong? Maybe too many of us are huddling in the barracks of our workplaces, our families. Pretending that if we have our families in order—a continuing holy imperative—we need not busy ourselves with the plight of our neighbors. Families, like religion, we may insist, are very private things.

Or maybe we’ve reduced our faith to a spectator sport. So we look on with fascination as others pull the trigger. Because expressing disapproval wouldn’t be nice. And we might be accused of hate for identifying and opposing sinful behavior. A few of us—Catholics in very high places—are actually pulling the triggers, executing the enemies of progress. Regardless, the gunshots coming from the camps or the smoke belching from the ovens somehow happen without us. Religion is a very private thing. And it’s not nice to be divisive.

In truth, we are all visible members of a flock of sheep. The defining flock is either the polite company of our social or political circles or the flock of Jesus. What we believe is observable, verifiable, and points to our shepherd, whoever he or she is. So our religion and our morality really are not private. And our professed Catholic faith indicts us when we really belong to another flock.

Except for Confession, the Catholic faith is not at all private. And the Catholic faith is not a spectator sport. The Good Shepherd directs and defines us because we are the valuable sheep of his flock. We are his witnesses. Our job is to be nice and faithful sheep, but when there is a conflict, to cluster around the Shepherd, to be truly faithful in the face of adversity.

At the moment we still have the freedom in this country to punch back—even beyond a pious bumper sticker or two—and to reclaim our membership in Christ’s flock. A few modest suggestions:

• Risk alienating friends and family by using words like fornication, adultery, sodomy, immorality, and perversion when the subjects invariably come up at social gatherings.
• Write your pastor or bishop and asking him to replace his use of “transgendered” with “surgically mutilated”—and while you’re at it ask him never to use the word “gay” except in quotation marks.
• Write monthly letters to the editor (wherever) pushing back on the Sexual Revolution.
• Cancel cable TV and let people know why (other than saving a few bucks).
• Take on your Congressman for his pro-abortion and pro-“gay” voting record and don’t let up when you fail.

With Jesus as the Good Shepherd, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” (Mt 10:28)

https://www.crisismagazine.com/2018/nice-good-enough

Editor’s note: Pictured above is a 1941 photo taken by an Einsatzgruppen (SS) soldier titled “Last Jew of Vinnitsa” (Ukraine).

Same-sex marriage: A novel notion of justice :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Same-sex marriage: A novel notion of justice :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)
EXCERPT -Unfortunately, this solipsistic view of reality has reached high places. In the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs. Casey ruling, the Supreme Court opined that, "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." Well, actually not. The universe is already here. It has already been defined for us; otherwise, it would not be in existence. Our choice is not to make up the meaning of the universe, but to discern its meaning and then either conform ourselves to it, or revolt against it. The choice today is revolt. Igor Stravinsky once wrote, "The old original sin was one of knowledge, the new original sin is one of non-acknowledgment." It is the refusal to acknowledge anything outside the operation of the human will - most especially "the good" toward which the soul is ordered. "The good" is what ultimately informs human justice.

The modern premise, so evident in the campaign for same-sex marriage, is that any pre-existing rational end constitutes a limitation on human freedom. Therefore, "freedom" requires the denial that rational ends inhere in things. Things aretabula rasa, blank slates upon which we can write anything we desire. Things, being purposeless themselves, only have the ends we give them by our will and choice. They serve whatever purpose we wish. This is a very dangerous teaching, especially as it affects the issue of justice.

As mentioned earlier, it is necessary to apprehend things as they are in order to act justly. A simple example suffices. If one does not know the difference between a man and a dog, one may end up treating a man as if he were a dog. This would be acting unjustly. Justice in no way pertains to how we feel about things but rather to what they are. In our anthropomorphic enthusiasm, we may feel that our pet dog is human.

However, it would be absurd to pass legislation requiring the dog's consent to its owner's rule, because the dog is not human and is incapable of giving its consent. Dogs do not have free will. It is therefore just for men to rule over dogs.

Likewise, no feeling can justify the enslavement of another human being, because a human being has the inalienable right to consent in his or her rule. This, of course, was the problem with slavery. Only the understanding of what a human being is allows one to make this vital distinction between the human and the nonhuman. It is something one knows, or does not (or refuses to acknowledge), with huge consequences. It is precisely the loss of this distinction upon which the practice of abortion is based.

Once we know what something is, we can know what it is for. Its purpose is within it. How does this pertain to the issue of the justice of same-sex marriage? It has to do with the procreative and unitive powers of our sexual organs. What are they for? Today, we seem to know what every other part of our body is for, except our genitals. This is a case of selective epistemological amnesia.

Preying on the Mentally Disturbed-Chaz Bono

ABC and “Dancing With the Stars”: Preying on the Mentally Disturbed

Pray for Chaz Bono and the
sexual sins of society that
offend God Almighty so much.

Chaz Bono, the surgically-altered daughter of Sonny and Cher, has become America’s newest celebrity by appearing on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” 

Chaz Bono is not a “he,” Chaz Bono is a “she.” She is a “she” in every single cell of her body, and will be until the day she dies.  Her DNA from the moment of conception was indisputably female, and it will always be female. 

No amount of surgical mutilation and hormone injections can change that. God designed her to be a female and a female she will be for the rest of her life. 

Chaz Bono had her breasts surgically removed by a surgeon, and has been receiving injections of male hormones, but remains unmistakably female from the waist down.

It’s bizarre, by the way, to find ourselves as a culture celebrating Chaz Bono’s sexual mutilation while at the same time we try to stop the female genital mutilation of young girls in Islamic countries. This kind of schizophrenia is certainly a sign that Chaz Bono is not the only one with mental health issues. Our entire society is suffering from a severe mental disorder on the whole subject of human sexuality. 

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) - not a part of the pro-family movement, you will note - Chaz Bono suffers from “gender identity disorder.” 

According to the dictionary, a “disorder” is “a state of confusion” or a “disruption of normal physical or mental functions; a disease or abnormal condition.” 

The “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition” (DSM-IV), the Bible of the APA, has a section devoted to gender identity disorder. In this section, the word “disturbance” is used no less than six times. 

DSM-IV is quite frank: “The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.” You will note that the “distress” and “impairment” here is caused by the disorder itself, not by the imaginary hate from supporters of sexual normalcy. 

Opponents of the truth about sexuality admit that suicidal ideation is very high among homosexuals and transsexuals. But they argue that the fault should be assigned to the pro-family movement for making such people pariahs. 

This is absurd on its face. The pro-family movement is relentlessly demonized by those who want to normalize sexual aberrations. We are accused without ceasing of being hateful, homophobic bigots. Our organizations are tagged as hate groups. If anybody has been demonized, marginalized, and turned into social pariahs, it is the pro-family movement. 

Meanwhile, Chas Bono is hardly a pariah by anyone’s definition. She is the talk of Hollywood, and when the dancing starts will literally be the belle of the ball. 

If the left’s template is correct - that turning folks into social pariahs makes them kill themselves - then we should be awash in suicides here at the American Family Association. Our staff should be suffering from an epidemic of self-murder. But here we are, enjoying our lives, our families, our friends and our churches while nary a thought of suicide crosses our minds. 

The bottom line here is that, according to America’s mental health professionals, Chaz Bono is a mentally disturbed individual. 

Chaz Bono needs to be helped, not lionized. She needs restorative therapy rather than stardom. She needs to become a patient, not a celebrity. 

Anyone who cares genuinely about people will want that for her. No one who loves people would want anyone to be stuck in the swamp of pathologies that accompany such a disorder. When individuals are so mentally unsettled that they start cutting body parts off themselves, it’s time to get them some help. 

And it is possible for an individual like Chaz to reconcile her psychological identity with her biological identity. 

As Dr. Keith Ablow of the Fox News Medical A-Team wrote, “It would be wrong to think that gender dysphoria -- discomfort with one’s gender -- must always end either in misery or sexual reassignment surgery. It can end with coming to terms with deep psychological conflicts that are fueling the gender dysphoria.” Help is possible and change is possible. 

This means the issue here is ultimately about ABC, not Chaz Bono. ABC executives are unashamedly preying on her mental illness, cannibalizing her psychologically disturbed soul for ratings, and profiting handsomely in the process. This is immoral, uncaring, greedy and just plain wrong. 

If “hate” is the opposite of “love,” then the producers of “Dancing With the Stars” are the true haters here. ABC is helping to forge the chains that will imprison Chaz Bono for the rest of her life in a dark dungeon of confusion and despair. 

This is not a proud moment for ABC. And every advertiser who spends money to promote such sexual abnormality should be embarrassed even to be connected to this charade. 


http://www.rightsidenews.com/2011091214479/life-and-science/culture-wars/abc-and-dancing-with-the-stars-preying-on-the-mentally-disturbed.html


FOR FURTHER READING--'HOSTAGE TO THE DEVIL' BY MALACHI MARTIN, NY TIMES BEST SELLER, CHAPTER, 'THE VIRGIN AND THE GIRL FIXER' - TO UNDERSTAND HOW THIS IS SO FROM satan.

(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)

Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at “Focal Point”Bryan Fischer is the Director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy at the American Family Association, where he provides expertise on a range of public policy topics. He hosts the "Focal Point" radio program on AFR Talk,which airs live on weekdays from 1-3 p.m. Central on American Family Radio's nationwide talk network of 145 stations.