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/

Why the Culture Wars Don’t Evangelize Souls

Constance T. Hull

I recently started reading Bishop Robert Barron and John L. Allen Jr.’s book To Light a Fire on the Earth: Proclaiming the Gospel in a Secular Age. I’ve read quite a few of Bishop Barron’s more theological books and I own both the Catholicism series and the most recent Pivotal Players series. He approaches evangelization in a deeply human and intuitive way. Many of his experiences are similar to my own. He emphasizes the beauty, depth, and richness of our Catholic Faith.

As I’ve written here before, beauty has had a foundational and significant impact on not only my reversion, but my spiritual journey as a whole. All of these experiences of beauty are grounded in Christ, most especially through an encounter both body and soul with Him in the Holy Eucharist. Barron leads with the beauty of the Faith fully realized in an encounter with Jesus Christ. It is a message that is so desperately needed in a culture that largely does not know how to relate to the beautiful, the good, and the true.

For Catholics one of the biggest mistakes we make in evangelization is getting too caught up in the culture wars. I made this mistake for a few years after my reversion. I thought: “If only we could explain Theology of the Body to people, then people would stop contracepting, ignoring Church teaching, the young would come back to the Church, etc.” Theology of the Body did have a profound impact on both me and my husband, but it didn’t cause my reversion. It took me a while to understand what took place within me that led me to give my life over to Christ and fully accept what the Church teaches.

The answer quite simply is that I had a real and tangible encounter with Jesus Christ. I saw Him through the beauty of the Mass. I wanted to give my life to Him because He had pierced me utterly at the deepest levels of my soul. I fell in love with Him and His Church. Only then was I ready to say: “Here, Lord. I give everything to you, even my sexuality.” Far too often, we lead with the Church’s doctrine and it doesn’t work. People are not converted by great moral theology, they are converted because they fall in love with Jesus Christ. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI put it best in Deus Caritas Est:

Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and decisive direction.

Those of us who are actively following Christ as disciples did not become Christian or remain Christian because we fell in love with ethics and the moral law. Instead, we fell in love with Christ and came to understanding all the demands placed upon us through Love. When we love others, we seek to empty ourselves. In our relationship with Christ, we are not only turning to Him in self-emptying love, we are conforming ourselves to Him, we are becoming more like Him. It is this self-emptying and desire to be in conformation to Him that leads us to throw our birth control pills away, give up lying and cheating, seek chastity, stop stealing, turn away from materialism and the lies of the culture in order to repent.

The most common approach Catholics take today in evangelizing the culture is engaging in the culture wars. This is well and good as far as it goes. Certain voices are adept at engaging intellectually with the culture on issues related to human sexuality especially since these are the most prevalent issues of our day. We need those voices. Our culture is obsessed with sex and in turn we have allowed ourselves to become obsessed with it, so much so that people only see the Catholic Church as a list of rules limiting how people can engage and live their sexuality. We cannot effectively evangelize from this vantage point and it is an error we all seem to make across the board.

Bishop Barron’s approach to evangelization is the same approach used by the Apostles. It is to declare the Good News of Christ risen from the dead and to lead people to an encounter with Our Living God. Our Faith is about Jesus Christ. He is the center of our Faith. He is the reason for our Faith. He is the One we love even to the point of death. We must draw people into this dynamic relationship between God and humanity. To do so, we must introduce people to the beauty of our faith and we must show them Christ. We ourselves must be actively living holy lives and seeking day-in-and-day out to lay down our lives in love to God and our neighbor.

Our example is one of the most effective evangelical tools at our disposal. Joy is infectious and people will begin to be drawn in because they will see Jesus Christ alive within us.

In order to evangelize effectively we also need to make sure we understand the centrality of our faith: Christ. Have we become obsessed with sex, the Liturgy wars, politics, etc. to the point that we are a stumbling block to others? Are our own preferences or even destructive ideologies getting in the way of our ability to lead others to Christ? Social media is a cacophonous din of competing ideologies. We cannot possibly help people encounter Christ if all we are doing is screaming at one another about pieces of the puzzle that is Catholicism, a good part of which is merely our own preferences.

Are we leading with Christ? Not in a beating people over the head with morality sort of way, but rather, with the gift of salvation that He wants to offer to all peoples. We have far too little faith if we assume that people must understand the Church teaching on sexuality first. No. People need to know Christ first. Only then can they give up those disordered desires in love to the One Who made them. It is our job to plant seeds. The Holy Spirit tends the garden. We cannot possibly help people who are struggling with certain sins if we come at them in attack mode all of the time.

Yes, the moral teaching of the Church matters. We must proclaim it boldly in all of its truth, beauty, and depth. It is a gift and it helps lead us to the happiness we are made for: beatitudo. We must always remember, however, that the moral teaching of the Church comes from Christ Himself through an encounter with Him. It is a relationship. One that is dynamic, exciting, and life-giving. We ourselves must be living the great adventure of holiness and drawing people on the path, not because we primarily want people to submit on sexuality, but because we want people to live the joy they are made for. The joy that can only come from loving God and accepting the gratuitous love He pours out on us each day. A love that leads us to abandon our lives to Him, even our sexuality. Let’s put Him at the center of our evangelical mission so that the world can hear t

he Good News.

https://catholicexchange.com/culture-wars-dont-evangelize-souls

Constance T. Hull is a wife, mother, homeschooler, and a graduate with an M.A. in Theology with an emphasis in philosophy.  Her desire is to live the wonder so passionately preached in the works of G.K. Chesterton and to share that with her daughter and others. While you can frequently find her head inside of a great work of theology or philosophy, she considers her husband and daughter to be her greatest teachers. She is passionate about beauty, working towards holiness, the Sacraments, and all things Catholic. She is also published at The Federalist, Public Discourse, and blogs frequently at Swimming the Depths (www.swimmingthedepths.com).

Interacting with the Angels

Interacting with the Angels

These activities may seem to be extraordinarily broad, especially when we think of the angels directing every aspect of the material world and participating in the work of salvation.  And yet, when we consider that the scientific principles that guide our world — the laws of gravity and so on — are not just created but sustained by God, then it shouldn't seem to be so far-fetched that He might delegate some part of the management of the universe to His ministering spirits.

Indeed, in the ancient world, philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato believed that this was so — and they did not have the benefit of revelation.  They knew nothing of Scripture or of what God had revealed to the Jewish people.  In the early Church,  St.  Augustine believed that every visible thing in the world has an angelic power placed over it, and later on Cardinal Newman, the great convert who wrote in the nineteenth century, went as far as to say in a sermon that, when it comes to the mysteries of existence, "we have more real knowledge about the Angels than about the brutes [animals]."[22]

How Many Angels Can You Fit . . . ?

Holy Scripture speaks to us on many occasions of the great number of angels that exist, a number that is impossible for our minds to calculate or even to estimate.  In the book of Daniel, we  read that the prophet saw the Lord as "the Ancient of Days"— an image of God's eternity — and saw that "a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him" (Dan. 7:10, 22).  These massive numbers of angels are meant to communicate to us a numberless multitude far too great for our minds to understand.  And in the New Testament, St. Luke tells us that "a multitude of the heavenly host" appeared to the shepherds in Bethlehem on the night the Savior was born.  St. Thomas Aquinas taught that the number of angels was far greater than that of any of the material creatures.  He wrote in the same article of the Summa Theologiae that the more perfect creatures were made in greater numbers because God's creation is primarily ordered toward the perfection of the universe (I, q. 50, art. 3).

The Scriptures really do not reveal anything to us about the number of fallen angels or demons, though some theologians argue that a proportion of good angels to bad can be found in the book of Revelation, which says that a dragon's tail sweeps a third of the stars out of the heavens (12:3).  "Stars of heaven" may be a metaphor for the angels, and the dragon a metaphor for the Devil.  In any case, we can safely assume that the number of faithful angels far exceeds those who fell away.

Our Lord Himself alludes to the great number of angels during His arrest when He tells Peter, "Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matt. 26:53).  In the time of Our Lord, a legion of Roman soldiers consisted of nearly seven thousand men, so Our Lord here seems to be impressing upon Peter — and upon us — the truth that He has all the hosts of Heaven, "a great multitude," at His command.

One of those angels had appeared a moment before, comforting Jesus in Gethsemane after He had accepted the chalice of suffering for us and for our salvation (Luke 22:43).  Popular devotion has identified that angel as a special comforter of the sick and those who care for them.  Catholic nurses, particularly after the 1940s, often recited prayers to the angel of the Garden of Gethsemane so that they could be strong in tending to the patients entrusted to their care, particularly during the long and lonely hours of the night.  For those who take care of suffering relatives or sick children, and for those who work in health care, devotion to this angel may be a source of great grace and wisdom to help them find the right words to say to those who suffer.  It is in Christ and His Sacrifice that we find significance and meaning for our human pains.  If we are called to be angels of consolation for the sick, we can call down the grace of God through the intercession of that angel who was chosen by the Lord to bring comfort to His Divine Son on the night of His Passion.

O Angel of Gethsemane, chosen by the Father to bring strength and consolation to Jesus during His agony, I ask you to be with me now as I keep watch over my loved one who is sick and suffering.  Help me to offer my best care, love, and protection to this child of God.  May my words and my touch be filled with gentleness, my presence bring comfort, and my prayers bring rest and healing sleep.  Do what I cannot do, O loving Angel, to bring healing and strength to soul and body, according to the Father's will.  Amen.

The Angelic Nature

When we say that angels are pure spirits, it means that there is nothing material about them at all.  They lack a permanent body and even a physical shape.  Nonetheless, we often have very definite ideas of what angels should look like, ideas that have come down to us from paintings and sculpture, Christmas cards and pop culture.  Although these representations are often charming and attractive, we have to remember that they are all the product of imagination — robes and wings and swords and chubby little faces may have symbolic or emotional value, but they can also mislead us about the real nature of the angels.

We human beings are formed with and limited by matter; that is, we have a certain size, a certain shape, a certain weight, and so on, and we move from one place to another at a certain speed.  Our material self binds us to a definite framework— the laws of the material world, including time and space.  But angels have none of the limitations— nor the capacities— that come with a material body.  Touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing, passions, emotions — these are all tied to the physical nature of human persons but are totally foreign to the angelic experience.  These capacities affect us in many ways, allowing us to experience pleasure and mirth, suffering and death.  But the angels are subject to none of these.

So, when we see depictions of angels as winged humans, we have to remember that this has very little in common with the presentation of the angels in the Holy Scriptures, the Tradition of the Church, or the lives and experiences of the saints.  Holy men and women of all ages always described angels in terms of light, power, and majesty.  Even when they appear in "gentle form," like the angel in the form of a child who appeared to St. Catherine Labouré, there is something unworldly about them that fills the soul with awe and reverence.  They have been sent to us with a message, and their purpose is to communicate it to us in words and signs.

The powers and faculties of the angels are purely spiritual ones.  This means that angels have an intellect, a mind, and a free will.  Angels can know and can love.  But the ways in which angels arrive at knowledge and love are very different from the ways in which we do.

Our way of getting information and ideas into our minds is through the senses— for instance, through hearing when we converse or through sight when we read, as you are doing right now; then our intellect works through the information and processes it.  We observe the world around us and our observations are carried to our mind, which sorts and analyzes and forms conclusions.  We eventually reach the truth, but sometimes only after errors have crept in, due to misperceptions, misunderstandings, and so on.  The human intellectual process is one of trial and error.

The angels don't have to go through this process.  With them, there are no trials because there are no errors.

Learning from the Angels

Studying the nature of the spiritual beings can help us to purify the aspect of our nature that corresponds to theirs: the soul.  The soul is usually thought of as having three faculties: (1) memory, the sum total of the experiences of our lives with which we construct our identity; (2) intellect or mind, by which we reason and understand and grow in knowledge; and (3) will, by which we love and choose what is good and true and beautiful.  These spiritual faculties are "who we are" after we die; when we come into the Lord's presence for the particular judgment, they are flooded with His light.  When we enter Paradise, we experience the Beatific Vision and the Communion of Saints through them.

Here on earth, we can be attracted to and choose what is sinful because our intellect is clouded and our will is weak.  As part of the spiritual life, we must progress in purifying our memory, our will, and our intellect so that Christ may reign in us, ruling all these powers of our soul.  That is how we become holy.

The angels can help us in this task by leading us to and teaching us about prayer and adoration.  Further, they lead us to see comprehensively God's plan for us.  The example and prayers of the angels can help us to cease cultivating the memory of past sins and nursing past hurts; to direct our mind to the truth of God; and to strengthen our will so that we might choose what is good and right day after day.

Cardinal Newman points out the difference between the way human beings and angels think and understand.  This is his description of human learning:

We know, not by a direct and simple vision, not at a glance, but, as it were, by piecemeal and accumulation, by a mental process, by going round an object, by the comparison, the combination, the mutual correction, the continual adaptation, of many partial notions, by the employment, concentration, and joint action of many faculties and exercises of mind.[23]

Angels don't do any of these things.  An angel's intellectual knowledge starts about where ours leaves off.  His knowledge of the world is part of his very nature; it is innate and total.  He starts off with the complete picture that you and I, with time and hard work, have to piece together.  The turn-of-the-century theologian Cardinal Alexis-Henri-Marie Lépicier wrote this about the angelic intellect:

Although an angel's intellect is not his own substance, just as our intellects are not our own substances, yet he possesses such penetration, that he is able, by a single glance, to take in the whole field of science lying open to his perception, just as we, at a glance, can take in the entire field of vision lying exposed to our view.[24]

Now, angels do grow in knowledge because they have participated in the history of salvation and in the revelation of Christ.  As Christ has progressively disclosed Himself through the course of salvation history, the angels, too, have added to their understanding and experience of God.  We might say, too, that an angel grows in knowledge and understanding through his ministry on our behalf.  As an angel accompanies a man or woman as guardian and sees how the grace of God grows in that person, and how he or she experiences fulfillment through the love of God and the life of the sacraments, the angel comes to know the ways of God in a new and powerful way.

And what does that knowledge serve in the angels?  What is its purpose?  Well, it must be for the increase of their love and adoration because, as we have said, the angels were created for adoration.  They constantly behold the face of God in Heaven (Matt. 18:10).  They live to proclaim His glory.  Their entire being, all of their activities, and all that they experience  in  their  relationship  with  us contributes to this praise and magnifies in them a happiness that is beyond the comprehension of anyone who has not experienced it.  Even while they are watching over us, even while they are declaring their dominion over all creation as servants of the Lord, they are at the same time gazing on the face of God in Heaven.  It is this loving and adoring union with God that is the source, not only of their praise, but also of all the help and clarity they offer to us — that is, the grace they communicate to us that flows from God Himself.

Praying with the Angels

If we want to benefit from the companionship and guardianship of the angels — if we want our minds, our hearts, and our memories to be purified and sanctified— we must look to the angelic way of adoration.  Remember: Mankind, too, was created to adore and to love God above all else.  We can adore Him here with these bodies on this earth, but we can view Him only with the eyes of faith; as St. Paul wrote, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face" (1 Cor. 13:12).  Even so, our worship is, by the grace of God, true and good and worthy.

The angels, though, can amplify our praise by reflecting it directly to God, "face to face."  This is what we call upon them to do in every Mass when we pray the Gloria, adapted from the angelic praise the Shepherds heard on Christmas night and found again in the book of Revelation: "Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!" (Rev. 7:12).

It is precisely because the angels never turn their faces from the Lord that they can carry out His missions for them on earth.  In the same way, if we want to grow in the spiritual life; if we want to become holy; if we want to be divinized, as the Fathers of the Church describe the life of grace, then we should ask the angels to help us never to turn our faces away from the face of God and to be mindful of Him always and in everything, just as they are.  In loving our neighbor, we love God; in loving our God, we learn to love our neighbor.  Let us ask the angels, therefore, for three gifts: First, to pray always; second, never to withdraw our face from the face of God; and third, to live, to act, to move, and to choose always in the presence of God.  Whenever we pray the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy), we can remember these three angelic characteristics and order our prayer of petition in union with their praise.

We learn how to pray always by remaining united to the will of God, by asking that the Lord's will be done in us and through us in our every action.  One way to make this possible is to offer up short prayers throughout the day.  Every time we finish something — whether it's writing a work memo, finishing class preparations, correcting a law brief, washing the dishes, or changing a diaper— we can offer up our efforts to the Lord with a little prayer: "For the love of You, my God."  Or: "Jesus, I offer You this work for Your glory and that I may be transformed and changed."  And when we have this spirit of prayer, addressing the Lord with little aspirations throughout the day, we will also learn to offer up to the Lord the crosses and the hardships of daily life.

One of the most powerful and thought-provoking prayers that we can say is the very simple, "Jesus, I want what You want for me."  It is a prayer that little children can learn in just a moment and that we can pray until the very last moment of our lives.  To say these words means that we believe and trust that Jesus not only wills what is the best for us but that He knows better than we do what is best for us.  It is a prayer that expresses dogmatic faith and personal loving trust.

Of course, in a very real sense it is no different from repeating the words of the Our Father, "Thy will be done," or the Blessed Mother's reply to St. Gabriel, "Behold the handmaid (or, for a man, servant) of the Lord.  Be it done unto me according to thy word."  However, sometimes we need to take the words of Scripture or the formal prayers of others and make them our own by repeating them in simple, short, and direct language that is adapted to our needs and our stage in the spiritual life.  Even the saints did this; for example, one holy Italian priest and famous spiritual writer, Father Dolindo Ruotolo (1882–1970), used to say in moments of anxiety or frustration, "O Jesus, I surrender myself to you; take care of everything!"

"I want" is an expression that we hear our children say constantly; but if we are honest, it is even more often repeated, even if silently or subtly, by adults.  We grown-ups also mistake wants for needs and are thus drawn to things that may satisfy us for a moment but soon leave us empty and hurting.  Overcoming our selfishness, bending our pride, submitting our will to that of another out of love — these are lessons that we must learn and live in our family life, in our human loves, and in our friendships as well as in our relationship with Almighty God.  Yet, because we do not always realize the full consequences of our actions for ourselves and others and because our previous sins (even if they are forgiven) and our unexamined emotions often influence our decisions, such learning may take an entire lifetime.

The holy angels, unlike ourselves, have an intelligence and a way of understanding that sees a decision in all its dimensions, as well as the potential consequences of each possible choice.  They are not influenced by past sins, since they remained faithful to the Lord in their moment of trial, and they are not subject to emotions as we experience them.  If we turn to them in our moments of choice and decision, asking for their clarity, strength of purpose, and obedience to the will of God, our minds will become ever clearer and our wills shall become ever freer as we pray, "Jesus, I want what You want for me."

There will be times when it will be difficult to say this little prayer because it is not always easy to let go and to let God act.  And there may be moments when we clearly know that what we want is not what Jesus wants for us or from us.  Love and obedience begin in the will before they are expressed in our actions.  If we do our best to will what He wills and to ask for His grace with humble and trusting hearts, He will not refuse us.  And our little prayer, however weak, will be magnified by our angel's presence and his joyful shout, "Here I am Lord, I come to do Your will."

The angels will always watch over us with wonder and awe if we give ourselves to Our Lord, remaining in His presence and uniting our daily crosses to His.  As we do so, we'll find that we will make Him present to others.  Other people will find in us a magnetically attractive beauty — the beauty of holiness, the beauty of Christ shining through us.  And we will find that the Lord makes use of us to be messengers to others, to collaborate with His holy angels, and to bring our brothers and sisters closer to Him, the Source of love and life.

https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/spiritual-life/interacting-with-the-angels.html

Endnotes

22  John Henry Newman, Sermon 13, "The Invisible World," in Plain and Parochial Sermons.
23  John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University, discourse 7.
24  Alexis-Henri-Marie Lépicier, The Unseen World (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1906), pp. 27–28.

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The real-life exorcism that inspired ‘The Exorcist’

The popular 1973 film was based on a haunting exorcism that occurred in St. Louis.

Philip Kosloski

In 1949, a young 13-year-old boy in Maryland was hearing and seeing strange things in his house after playing with a Ouija board. His family didn’t know what to do, so they contacted their Lutheran pastor.

According to an historical account of the events, the pastor said, “Go to a Catholic priest; the Catholics know about this kind of thing.”

They visited a local priest who later asked permission to perform an exorcism at Georgetown University Hospital. It didn’t end well, with the boy breaking off a spring from the mattress and slashing the priest.

Supernatural events persisted and so his parents felt they needed to do something more. The boy’s mother was from St. Louis and thought it would be good to find a priest there who could help.

The family ended up staying at a relative’s house, who graduated from St. Louis University. They were familiar with the Jesuit priests at the university and asked them for advice. After getting permission from the local bishop the Jesuits performed an exorcism that spanned almost 2 months.

Initially the exorcism was performed at the house, but it was later moved to St. Louis University as well as the Alexian Brothers Hospital.

According to a Jesuit seminarian at the time, “I got in on the business with the prayers of exorcism, and the little boy would go into a seizure and get quite violent. So Father Bowdern asked me to hold him … Yes, he did break my nose.’

The Jesuit exorcist who was chiefly responsible for performing the Rite of Exorcism fasted on bread and water throughout the entire span of events and took his role very seriously. It was a spiritual battle and he was poised to do everything necessary to defeat the assaults of the evil one.

Surprisingly, many of the events portrayed on film did happen, including a vomit that shot across the room at one of the priests. Yet, the boy never remembered any of it and woke up in the morning with no recollection of the great struggle that happened the night before.

St. Louis University relates on its website, “The exorcism continued on almost a nightly basis, even though the boy seemed to be get­ting worse. The priests asked his family for permission to teach him about Catholicism and con­vert him as a way to strengthen the fight against the supposed demonic possession. As he got closer to conversion and making his first holy Communion, his episodes become increasingly violent.”

Everything culminated with the celebration of Easter, when the priests were finally able to expel the demonic influences.

The day after Easter Sunday the extraordinary events ceased and the boy went on to lead a normal life, getting married, having children and a successful career. The Jesuits believed the exorcism was a success.

While The Exorcist may seem like a work of fiction, it was inspired by real-life events and remind us all that the devil is real and the only way to defeat him is through a life of prayer, united to the sacraments of the Church.

https://aleteia.org/2018/06/12/the-real-life-exorcism-that-inspired-the-exorcist/

When the Dark Screams of Death Metal Corrode the Culture

John Horvat II

Extreme Noise, Terror, Pungent Stench and Pestilence are all disagreeable topics of conversation for most people. They should be avoided in polite company. However, these repugnant things enjoy some favor in today’s postmodern society.

The four topics are actually the names of death metal bands casually mentioned in a recent newspaper article. These names are joined by others like Hate Storm Annihilation, Arch Enemy, and Misery Index. Their songs are characterized by screams, screeching and guttural groans. Some of the song titles include “First Day in Hell,” “Regurgitated Guts,” “Slowly We Rot” or “Masked in Leeches.”

Such group names and song titles are typical in the world of heavy metal and death metal bands as are band members wearing studded leather jackets or blue-streaked hair. Their music is accessible to any who want to find it, and the genre enjoys a large following. The band names that would be disgusting topics of conversation are apparently desirable branding labels.

Culture Doesn’t MatterAll of this hurts the national culture. However, few people express concern about the influence of the bands’ violent and morbid messages upon the nation. Some might even dismiss objections as prudish and exaggerated. After all, they claim, it is all about freedom. The music is not hurting anyone. The names, while disgusting, really don’t matter.

The reason for such a dismissive attitude is that most people really don’t think culture matters. For them, culture is only about personal fun, gratification, and entertainment.

Politics, business and money do matter. However, culture merely represents individual choices separated from those things that matter. One can see, hear or do anything cultural without real consequences.

This culture-doesn’t-matter mantra facilitates the extremes reached by postmodern phenomenon like death metal bands. It allows a cultural revolution to progress unimpeded. While everyone is talking about politics, business and money, postmodernism’s dark messages corrode the culture and gradually destroy society.

The Postmodern WorldviewCzech poet Vaclav Havel once defined postmodernism as a state in which everything is possible and almost nothing is certain. Indeed, the postmodern worldview holds nothing need have any definition and meaning. Everything, even the most blaring contradictions, must be accepted. There are no narratives into which things can be inserted. Rules must be broken to prove that nothing has consequences.

The example of the death metal bands is a typical expression of this definition in action. For postmoderns, bands can be called Extreme Noise, Terror, Pungent Stench and Pestilence since they are just words that annihilate meaning. The band names are made to shock by their powerful associations that defy convention and propriety. When a band sings “First Day in Hell,” it challenges everything that is related to Heaven.

Likewise, the bands’ morbid imagery and bizarre scenes shock the sensibilities by the lack of rational connection to the real world. It creates instead a macabre fantasy world, which undermines the rules and conventions of modern society.

Finally, postmodern music need not be beautiful; it is enough that it be presented as “music.” The most irrational and blasphemous lyrics are not meant to be understood. Its screeching melodies need not be harmonious because harmony itself must be challenged.

Indeed, the only sensation left is that of sensation itself. Sensations must be ever more brutal and violent to impress the numbed soul.

Art Upside DownPostmodern culture is not true culture. It does not represent art or beauty. Postmodernism turns art upside down. It is anti-beauty disconnected from truth. It is music expressed as “extreme noise.”

The purpose of any art is to lead to the good, true and the beautiful. Postmodernism celebrates the evil, false and ugly by destroying art’s metaphysical foundation in truth, logic and order. By its dynamism, it naturally tends toward the most radical manifestations of all that is disordered and offensive.

Hence, Extreme Noise, Terror, Pungent Stench and Pestilence present themselves in this bizarre context.

The Culture Does Have ConsequencesSuch considerations do not impress those who think culture doesn’t matter. Heavy metal bands do not determine elections, create jobs or boost economic productivity. They claim that how people entertain themselves is no one’s business, however outrageous it might seem.

And yet these same people will lament the decline of civility, family and community. They will complain that the “social capital” that kept society and markets together isn’t working like it used to work. Society is coming apart.

That is why culture does matter. Culture is by definition not restricted to individual preferences. It embraces the breadth of human knowledge as reflected in the arts, economy, politics and education. Culture affirms values that permeate all society. It contributes to the structuring of all human relationships, institutions and the State itself. Its action is often subtle and indirect, but it nevertheless has consequences.

Postmodernism Destroys OrderIn fact, culture is much more powerful than political or economic forces. This is because culture is the glue that keeps things together in order. Russell Kirk maintained that freedom, justice, law, or virtue are all very important, but “order is the first and most basic need.”

Postmodernism destroys order by depriving a society of certainties, logic and identity. It corrupts art by depriving it of its proper end in beauty.

While death metal bands alone will not destroy order, they do contribute to it. They raise a standard of chaos toward which society slowly marches. They push the envelope of what is tolerable ever farther. When a society fails to see terror, stench and pestilence as evils, it works contrary to its ordered nature. To use the title of one of the death metal bands’ songs, “Slowly We Rot.”

The natural result of this cultural rot is the breakdown of society today. When people are exposed to crazy things, they will do crazy things. When ugliness and bizarre fashion dominate, they will take over the public square. When all cultural restraints are lifted, people lose control and kill others. All of these are effects of a culture gone awry.

Culture does matter. It should be the principal battleground upon which conservatives and Christians should fight—not a sideshow to generate votes.

The Correct Orientation of a Culture WarTo be effective, this Culture War must be properly oriented.

Both modernity and postmodernism fail to recognized culture’s ultimate end. Secular modernity looks upon culture as an ordering influence leading to prosperity. Postmodernism sees it as a way of facilitating gratification.

The end of culture, especially when expressed by the arts, is to serve as a means to the knowledge and love of God. The corruption of culture will inevitably lead to its ugly and repulsive contrary. This anti-culture will always find its way to the greatest evils, often found openly in its Satanic references and imagery.

Culture should be properly understood as Christian and oriented by the Church. Saint Paul calls upon Christians to look to “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things”(Phil. 4:8).

Saint Bonaventure magnificently states that such a worldview allows Christians to clearly see “art as productive, exemplifying and ordering, given to us for looking upon God.” Thus they serve to “lead the mind of the one contemplating and attaining wisdom to the Eternal God.”

CLICK ON LINK TO LISTEN TO THE YOUTUBE OF PICTURE ABOVE

https://www.crisismagazine.com/2018/dark-screams-death-metal-corrode-culture

(Photo credit: Aetherian music video / Youtube)

God Made You This Way—Not!

Regis Nicoll

According to a gay victim of the clerical sex scandal in Chile, Pope Francis told him, “You have to be happy with who you are. God made you this way.” It’s the conclusion reached by many Christians with same-sex attraction, whose stories share telling similarities.

They knew they were different at a young age. Throughout life, they struggled to hide their feelings and appear normal. After years of enduring rejection, low self-esteem, and depression, they learned to accept homosexuality as part of “who I am.” Eventually, they went public with their “true” identity.

Two StoriesIn an editorial for The Huffington Post, country music artist and professed Christian, Chely Wright wrote about growing up in rural Kansas. As a young girl, she developed a love for God through the influence of her Christian home and community. It was also as a young girl—aged nine, as she recalls—that she realized she was gay.

At age nine? When I was nine, I had some knowledge of the physiological differences between boys and girls, no knowledge of sexual orientation, and as for same-sex orientation … you’re kidding, right?

Nevertheless, over time Chely came to believe “that God had made me exactly as I was supposed to be.”

More familiar in Christian circles is Ray Boltz. After a two-decade career of no. 1 singles, gold albums, and Dove awards, Boltz tired of living “the lie.” The lie. Despite a 33-year marriage that produced four children, the Christian music superstar was gay. Says Boltz,

“I’d denied it ever since I was a kid. I became a Christian, I thought that was the way to deal with this and I prayed hard and tried for 30-some years and then at the end, I was just going, ‘I’m still gay. I know I am.’ And I just got to the place where I couldn’t take it anymore.”

Boltz talks of years in the hidden life, enduring depression, undergoing therapy, taking various psychiatric medications, and becoming suicidal. Then, on December 26, 2004, he disclosed the life-long secret to his family.

It was at that point, Boltz recounts “where I accepted my sexuality and who I was.” It was also the point where his marriage crumbled. (Within a year, he and his wife separated; three years later they divorced.)

Boltz eventually moved to Florida where, he says, he could be himself, free to date and live a “normal gay life.” “If this is the way God made me,” Boltz reflects, “then this is the way I’m going to live. It’s not like God made me this way and he’ll send me to hell if I am who he created me to be … I really feel closer to God because I no longer hate myself.”

Common to Chely Wright, Ray Boltz, and Christian gay advocates is the belief that our desires are fundamental to our essence, part of our God wiring. Since that is the way God created us, they reason, satisfying our desires is not only not sinful, but sanctified.

The truth is that while some desires come from God—the desire for transcendence, for example—others come from an unsettled combination of nature and nurture.

Orthodox Christianity holds that creation, as God made it, was originally good and later became corrupted by man’s rebellion. Today, the whole world bears the pathologies of a virus that has been infecting planet Earth for untold millennia. So, when a person claims that an unbiblical desire is part of “how God made me,” they are conflating dysfunction with design.

Form and FunctionAn axiom in architecture is “form follows function.” That is, the form, or design, of a thing depends on the purpose, or function, the designer intended it to serve. A John Deere tractor is designed for clearing and plowing fields. A Daimler Smart car is designed for high gas mileage and tight parking. Both products are perfectly engineered for their specialized purposes.

If, per chance, a person wanted to plow his field with a Smart car, or commute to the city in his tractor, it would be the desire of the owner, not the intent of the designer or the design of the product, that was disordered. Setting aside the moral arguments about same-sex desire, from physiological considerations alone, it is disordered because it is contrary to the function its “form” is intended to serve.

Human sexuality is uniquely designed to satisfy an essential biological purpose: reproduction. In a very real way, when a husband and wife come together they form a single biological unit through their “hand-in-glove” complementarity. It is a function that same-sex individuals are incapable of accomplishing. They can only transmogrify the sex act to indulge in sensual gratification.

Sex involves pleasure but, as C.S. Lewis once pointed out, that is no more the purpose of sex than it is the purpose of eating. In both cases, sensual enjoyment is the byproduct of functions that are indispensable to life and the continuation of the species.

Since form follows function, it is reasonable to conclude that God, as Master Architect, would not implant a desire within us that is inconsistent with our form and his purpose. What’s more, we can be sure that whatever causes same-sex orientation, even if it is ultimately traced to inheritance, it is not God, any more than he would be the cause of other congenital disorders, like club feet or cleft palates.

The book of Nature is clear: the “form, fit, and features” of a man and woman are complementary to fulfilling a basic function of life that no single individual, or same-sex pair, can. It’s a point that the Book of Scripture is clear on as well.

The Book of ScriptureIn the opening chapter of Genesis, God forms two types of creatures—male and female—born out of his desire to create and fill the universe. God could have given Adam a male “helper.” Instead, he gave him one whose design was such that, when joined with his in perfect fit, enabled them to accomplish the first divine command given to man: “Be fruitful and multiply.”

Because of their harmonizing architecture, Adam and Eve were more than the sum of their parts. For when they came together, they became one; but in their oneness produced a third, and then a fourth. Such is the mystery of biblical math.

Same-sex couplings, by contrast, can never be unitive or multiplicative because they lack the complementary features to do so. Consequently, the biblical reproach of homosexual sex is not some religious relic proved false by modern science; it’s a timeless judgment against behavior that is contrary to our God-given design and purpose.

Jesus reaffirms the human design in the Gospel of Mark: “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one.”

That would have been an opportune time for Jesus to be inclusive and expand marriage to other constellations of relationships (man-man, woman-woman, groups, human-nonhuman, etc). Instead, he expands the reach of the Law. (Evidently, he didn’t foresee the revelations of twentieth-century science!)

In a series of “You have heard … but I tell you,” Jesus informs his audience that not only is adultery wrong, even lustful looks are wrong. Notice that Jesus does not limit this teaching to married people, but to those who entertain desires for someone other than their spouse. Since there is no biblical provision for same-sex marriage, all unrestrained homosexual desire would also be, in Jesus’s judgment, sinful. (But then, Jesus probably wasn’t aware of modern insights from “personal experiences” either.)

All that said, as sinners, homosexuals are no different from anyone else. Each of us is grappling with our own menu of sinful thoughts and behaviors. The church is to be a place where we are neither affirmed in our sins (whatever they may be) nor condemned for them; but a place where we are joined together on the life-long journey of transformation, overcoming sin’s gravitational pull, if incrementally and incompletely, through the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit and the caring community of faith.

https://www.crisismagazine.com/2018/god-made-way-not

Editor’s note: Pictured above is a detail from “Idyll, Ancient Family” painted by William Bouguereau after 1860.

The Power of Intermittent Fasting-Prayer with Fasting!