Abbey-Roads2

Everyone lies.

Tim Gill the “billionaire” from Colorado has funded gay causes throughout the country over the years, pretty much without notice - except by those willing to accept a portion of his millions - and maybe Rick Santorum, former US Senator from Pennsylvania, for whom Mr. Gill takes credit in ending the Senator’s career.  Speaking to the LGBT delegates at the Democratic National Convention last night, Mr. Gill told his listeners:

“The only way bigots are going to learn is if we take their power away from them.”

“Every single advance for gay rights has come at the state level,” Gill said, saying the most important thing the Democratic LGBT delegates could do is “go back and support those pro-gay state legislators, and eliminate the anti-gay state legislators.” - CNA 

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.

Noise.

“I can’t talk now, I’m on the phone!” was a line from “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman” - Louise Lasser’s character was explaining to the party she was speaking to on the phone, why she couldn’t talk at the moment.  I know!  Although it kind of makes sense in todays culture, when everyone seems to be always on the phone, or texting, or plugged into their ipod, or just online.  Interconnected… and yet still so superficial.

The sounds of silence…

Is now listening to other people’s phone conversations on the street corner or in the grocery store.  These days I’m cat-sitting and taking care of a friend’s house while he is home in Washington, D.C. taking care of his mother who is ill.  He lives in a very fashionable area of Minneapolis called Kenwood, and in order to get there I drive through the Lake neighborhoods and pass through a trendy area of town, known as Uptown.  The area has long been the cool area of town, it was the same when I hung out there, and it was the same for the generation before me - which makes me laugh because we all grew up, got old, are on our way to the grave, and that coolness, along with its youthful beauty and freaky clothes is long gone - just as it will be for the new cool people in a few years.  Although they are all VIP now.  But I digress.

I can’t talk now, I’m online. 

Anyway, what I have noticed going back and forth is how it seems everyone is plugged into something.  Drivers seem to always be on the phone, as do walkers.  I noticed several people carrying grocery bags as they walked with ipods plugged into their ears, although some were using hands-free phones - you know, the ones with the ear piece that looks like a hearing aid.  No one is quiet any longer, silence seems to be a lost art.  Reflection is only something one experiences in a mirror or store window.

“Shut-up!”

It occurred to me that not only is the new attention-craving generation more coddled than any before - even in employment their need for affirmation and approval cannot tolerate the least bit of indifference - but they have been raised with unending noise and entertainment which accustomed them to require a steady flow of music, conversation, and distraction.  Think about it - most of them were raised with toys that were interactive - they spoke, they sang, they had bells and whistles - and these were the inanimate objects.  Then of course they got their computers and computer games, and spent a great deal of time in front of the television - and music was everywhere.  It’s amazing isn’t it?  Noise baby-sat the kids.  No wonder text messaging can be in code or reduced to a couple of words - that is how many speak:  ”Dude!” “Whatever!”  “Shut-up!”  Inarticulate, one or two word sentences.

Got religion?

A week ago the world watched several thousand youth at World Youth Day, where once again noise seemed to be an essential ingredient.  Not a few people thus conclude all the youth of the world are becoming religious.  It is true, WYD is a very encouraging sign of young people’s openness to religion, but the fact is many others have no interest in it at all, and if they do, it is often occult based (Harry Potter generation), or else they are just media junkies.

Silence and solitude would kill them.

It seems to me everything in contemporary culture militates against all that is authentically spiritual, due in part to the noise factor.  I wonder if people are really afraid of silence and just being?  Even New Age spirituality, though emphasizing a certain type of silence, frequently calls for one to voice affirming mantras while the practitioner works to empty his consciousness - therefore avoiding anything associated with authentic self-knowledge.  Thus - even if the Holy Spirit was trying to get in, he might be rejected as a distracting thought.

Mary Hartman really meant to say - “I can’t think now…”

Something is off here.  I wonder if there isn’t an inability to think and meditate, to actually reflect on all of the information that bombards us today.  Critical thinking is often mistaken for dissent and criticism of what someone either doesn’t understand or of what contradicts an individuals preferences.  We seem to be becoming a society totally other-directed by media and technology, while any introspection is drowned out by the noise of popular cultures communication toys.

No wonder there is so little faith on earth.  When the Son of God returns, will there be any left at all?  The readings from todays Mass may speak to this as well:

“Two evils have my people done:  they have forsaken me, the source of living waters;  They have dug for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.” - Jeremiah 2: 12-13

And:

“They look but do not see, and hear but do not listen or understand…” - Matthew 13: 10-17

Thousands of women in the UK have had four or more abortions.

I know, I know.  In our pro-life vs. pro-choice age we can’t say anything bad about the mother who kills her unborn child,  because she is really the  victim in all of this.  Just because she is pregnant - in or out of wedlock - doesn’t mean the choice to kill her baby was entirely her fault.

Long ago, in the olden days, it was common to say an unmarried woman who became pregnant and opted for marriage, “had to get married“.  Now days, when marriage is out of fashion, many say, she “had to get an abortion“.  See how the woman is victimized?  And to suggest that the woman acted immorally, or that her dead baby was the real victim, is to victimize the poor mother twice.

Department of Health figures uncovered by this newspaper show that during 2006 more than 3,800 women underwent at least their fourth abortion, including more than 1,300 who were on their fifth or more. Of more than 60,000 women who underwent a “repeat” abortion, almost 15,000 were on their third.

These included 65 women who had their sixth abortion by the age of 30, and 82 girls aged under 18 who had already experienced three, and more than 50 women who had had eight abortions or more.

On Saturday night, campaigners for legal changes expressed shock at the picture uncovered. Dr Peter Saunders, general secretary of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said: “This is just so grotesquely bleak.” He said the situation was “approaching the sorts of things we used to hear about Soviet Russia.

“When you try to imagine a woman who has had eight abortions, or perhaps more, it is absolutely clear that she is using it as a form of contraception.” - Telegraph 

Evidently repeated abortions are so much more convenient than carrying a baby to term. 

And not just the unborn.

Well, we already know Planned Parenthood is harmful to black folk - that story was just in limited circulation  a couple of days ago.  We know the organization is harmful to the unborn and their mothers by providing abortion services.  We also know they promote teen sex, and now the organization is not only teaching about the joys of pornography - they are providing it for the kids as well.

“Outercourse”

“A Planned Parenthood web site for teenagers is promoting pornography to young people, Cybercast News Service reports. An article posted on the Planned Parenthood-sponsored Teenwire.com web site advises teens that pornography is a “lower-risk form of outercourse.”

“Many couples can read or watch sexy stories or pictures together,” the article, originally posted on Teenwire.com in 2007, states. “They can also share or act out sex fantasies.”

Another piece of advice on the website, “Porn vs. Reality,” warns that it is against federal law for anyone under 18 to view pornography. But, says the article, “not everyone follows the rules, and you may run across some porn before you turn 18.”

Many people enjoy pornography “alone or with a partner,” says the article. “People have different ideas of what is arousing, and there are many different kinds of porn that appeal to people’s different interests.”  - California Catholic

Politicians such as Obama offer full support to organizations  such as Planned Parenthood, and yet they claim to be pro-family.  Talk about an “evil empire”.

Links:

What would be the first thing Obama would do if elected? 

Christmas could die of consumption.

I heard on network news today, that FAO Schwartz  in Manhattan was open on Christmas Day for shopping.  I imagine it was done as  a “courtesy” for the poor  children who received Gift Cards instead of real toys.  Other shoppers were out simply to enjoy the festive holiday atmosphere on 5th Ave. - which is fun to do in NYC!

Although, I predict consumerism (as well as Gift Cards and dysfunctional families) will change the way Christmas Day is observed in the very near future.  Next year, more stores will probably open - so people can redeem their Gift Cards - or just entertain themselves with America’s favorite past-time, shopping.  And if the shopping mall has an amusement park - it will be open, Shirley.

And other bull$#!@.

Eat, Pray, Love.  Oprah is promoting this book by Elizabeth Gilbert- in fact, yesterday she just did another show on the book.  It is a best seller which is apparently liberating women from whatever keeps them back from self-pleasuring themselves with the freedoms they are missing out on in life.  (Not a few end up leaving their husbands as the author had.)  You can read a review of the new age spiritual classic here. 

Anagrammatic coincidence.

The so-called war on Christmas is fought on many fronts.  One familiar enemy of Christmas has always been the Evangelical/Fundamentalist Christians, once known as Puritans.  For these folks, any tradition associated with Christmas that smacks of Roman-ism is deemed satanic.  (And Catholics are worried about “The Golden Compass” maligning the Church!)

Writing on his blog, author John Shore claims that Santa is Satan:  “And Santa being Satan certainly explains a lot. For one, it explains the red suit. It also explains the flying reindeer. Remember how scary the flying monkeys were in The Wizard of Oz? Clearly, making mammals fly is an earmark of the malevolent. And seriously, what would you rather have flying over you: a 50-pound monkey, or a 500-pound reindeer? That wide-brimmed hat the Wicked Witch of the West wears might protect her from monkey droppings, but is it really going to help against a team of reindeer flying overhead?” - Read more.

As every good Christian ought to know, Santa traces his origins to St. Nicholas   - and he is definitely not the anti-Christ.  I’m not saying the commercialized version of santa Shore describes has much to do with the Catholic saint, but he certainly is not a danger to children’s souls either.  Christian parents, especially Catholics, should have enough faith to be able to differentiate the reality from the myth for their kids - at an appropriate age.  All too often religious people imagine the devil in the wrong places and disguises… while he is busy fitting-in  elswhere.

Circumventing authority.

Gay activists in the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis are making an issue over Archbishop Nienstedt’s authority  to defend faith and morals for Catholic faithful.  These unhappy people, otherwise known as dissident Catholics, are writing letters of resistance to the editors  of various newspapers, calling television news to document protests, while using their blogs to put pressure upon the Church to change Her traditional teaching regarding homosexual sexual activity. 

Many of these people are the same ones who insist there is no gay agenda to change culture, the Church, or the world.  Ah!  But there is an agenda.  On one “Catholic” blog site, which is against just about anything that is traditionally Roman Catholic (such as papalism- as the author refers to it), I found an offering suggesting ways dissidents may discreetly circumvent authority.  The presentation was given by a sister of the nearly extinct order of women religious known as the Sisters of St. Joseph.

How to dress up in sheep’s clothing - strategies for the wolf.

What follows is from a local gay activist’s weblog:  “Sponsored by the Homophobia and Heterosexism Working Group of the Justice Commission of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Sister Jeannine’s talk was entitled “Transforming Hierarchical Structures,” and offered a number of “guiding principles” for such transformation within the Catholic Church, along with some concrete strategies by which this much needed transformation can and is being achieved.

1. Active compliance: when we work actively with those within the hierarchical system and abide by whatever decision comes about. We make our position known but nevertheless comply. In this way the hierarchy at least knows of an alternative position and seeds of change may well have been planted.

2. Creative circumvention: when we follow the letter of the hierarchical law but not its spirit. An example: Lay people, forbidden to preach during Mass, give a “talk” before or after Mass.

3. Prophetic obedience: when one follows in the tradition of Jesus and the prophets and publicly name and confront structures that are oppressive to people.” - The Wild Reed

“Homophobia and Heterosexism Working Group of the Justice Commission of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet” - HUH?

No earth-shaking revelation from Sr. Jeannine, to be sure.  However, the above excerpt from The Wild Reed helps to demonstrate that these people spend a great deal of time researching ways in which to circumvent Church teaching.  Through a more in-depth examination of the literature disseminated by a couple of the organizations associated with this local movement,  I couldn’t help but be impressed by the extent to which these people immerse themselves in gay studies programs and ongoing education, comprising questionable academic and scientific research as regards homosexuality.  The group seems to be very well equipped and organized in their assault upon Church teaching and discipline.  Riding the coat-tails of a well-established reputation, once enjoyed by the formerly vibrant order of the Sisters of St. Joseph, these false teachers have created a convenient platform from which to carry on their battle.  Yet hopefully, not for long.  

A National Holiday. 

Today in the United States, its protectorates and military bases throughout the world, Thanksgiving Day is commemorated.  It is essentially a day of thanksgiving for an abundant harvest, although tradition has it that the first colonists celebrated the day in thanksgiving for a safe voyage from Europe, the harvest, and those nice native Americans who welcomed them and ended up giving them their land.

It’s really a harvest festival.

This week Catholics are claiming the first Thanksgiving actually took place in Florida with a Mass of Thanksgiving by the Spanish.  Truth be told, the native Americans celebrated a harvest festival of thanksgiving long before the Europeans got here.  (I wouldn’t be surprised if the Mormons trace the origins of the feast to that lost tribe of Israel they claim made it here first.)

And the start of the shopping season. 

Whatever, each year we celebrate a Thanksgiving feast in gratitude for all of God’s blessings to us throughout the year, the President proclaims the holiday, a turkey is officially pardoned and allowed to live, Macy’s has a parade, and Santa opens the shopping season - which promises to be bleak this year because of the high cost of oil and the devalued dollar, not to mention that record numbers may have their home mortgages foreclosed.

It is also an American Catholic holiday.

Nevertheless, we Americans always look on the bright side of things - at least we have our family and lots of food.  In addition, the devout Catholic family especially has so much to be grateful for (seriously!); Pope Benedict XVI, the return of the Latin Mass, a return to traditional Catholic teaching and morality, and now of course, the discovery that the first Thanksgiving was actually Catholic.

The  ”New”  Norman Rockwell Catholic Family.

I was imagining what a Thanksgiving dinner might be like in an average Catholic family today - in fact I know just such a family.  They are a large, close knit clan, the mom and dad are pretty much Sunday Catholics, but they have always abided by the rules of the Church - no contraception, no meat on Fridays, so on and so forth.

All our children.

The kids were all baptized and confirmed, but that was the extent of their religious formation.  Nevertheless, Mom insists they are all spiritual and good people.  Seated around the table are the three daughters and their families - one girl was married outside of the Church, the other two just live with their significant other.  One of the sons who is married is there with his wife and one child - they are Episcopalians.  Another son is present with his same-sex lover, while three other single brothers are there alone, two of them drinking heavily.  (The boys are not religious.)  The four grandkids are either watching TV or playing on the computer.

Don’t mention the war or morality.

Religion is not brought up in any way, shape, or form in the conversation.  The discussion starts out about the food, then touches a little bit on politics, but is mostly centered upon entertainment news and celebrity gossip, shopping, sports, and economic woes - which leads back to shopping and what sales the ladies are going to attend the next day at 5am.  Finally, dinner is over when everyone talks about how much they ate and how sleepy they feel from being so full.

That’s pretty much it.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!