Sunday, June 30, 2013

Cannae, not Cana

Pat Archibald at the National Catholic Register:

Marriage Is Dead And The Church Is Next

DOMA is dead. 
And, technicalities aside, Prop 8. in California is dead, paving the way for same-sex marriage there.

While many people will try to dissect these opinions and look for legal silver linings based on the narrowness of this or that part of the rulings, make no mistake, as a practical matter marriage as we knew it is over. The dam has burst even if all the water has not yet traversed the breach. 
Marriage, as the union of a man and woman for the purposes of raising children and for mutual support as recognized in culture and law, has ceased to exist. The only reason that marriage needs be recognized by law is that previous generations understood its value and wished to confer certain legal and societal privileges to it so as to encourage it. They rightly understood that marriage is the cornerstone of a society. 
Advocates have used those legal and societal privileges to beat, twist, and deform the very meaning and purpose of marriage. We now view the purpose of marriage solely as the conferring of these legal and societal privileges, and thus they can be granted to anyone and anything. 
While many states have sought to forestall the redefinition of marriage in their states by statute or constitution, today's ruling basically invalidates their efforts and has opened the floodgate to approval of same sex marriage across the nation with no reasonable recourse. Marriage as we knew it is dead. 
With the universal legal recognition of same-sex marriage a fait accompli, the next fight will on the Church doorstep. The next battle will be to force Churches, most particularly the Catholic Church, to recognize and conduct same-sex marriage. The refusal to do so will result in a series of escalating legal and financial ramifications. 
Eventually, becuase of its refusal to recognize immoral unions as marriage, the state will refuse to recognize Church marriages. As a result, more and more people will bypass Church marriage altogether, further marginalizing faith in this country. This effort is and has always been a war against religion and in particular a war against the Catholic Church. Right now, it is a war we are losing and after today, perhaps it is fair to say that we lost. 
Yes, the Church has the guarantee that it will ultimately prevail, but that does not mean it will prevail in the United States. The failure to see the real target of this war and frankly the weak response to the threat by Church leaders and rank and file have doomed marriage and put the target squarely on the sanctuary. 
I don't know if religious liberty can be saved in this country, but it is worth fighting for. I for one will continue to fight, but at least now everyone should understand that the battle is real and we are losing. I just hope that we haven't already lost.

The succinct truth.

We are well into this cultural war. The rout is next, and is probably inevitable.

Of course, we Christians are just visitors on this battlefield, and our final victory will be total. But our culture is in a collapsing vortex, and it's going to get much much uglier for us. 

I believe in teleology. There are ends in things. There is goal-directeness in nature, and I believe that human affairs hew to ends, even though few of the protagonists really understand the ends for which they work. This is certainly true in the gay marriage debate.

The gay marriage movement-- tsunami really-- has nothing to do with marriage. Since homosexual unions aren't marriage, and we heterosexuals have made a pretty big mess of real marriage all by ourselves, the "marriage" aspect of this debate is a chimera.

The gay marriage movement, like the contraception mandate, is a devastating attack on Christianity. It is a brilliant application of Saul Alinsky's fourth rule for radicals:

4) Make the enemy live up to his own book of rules.  

That's precisely what they're doing. Christians are the guests of honor in gay weddings-- the only guests that matter, really. Attendance is mandatory. Non-compliance is homophobia. We will be forced to either abandon our faith or live in accordance with Christian teaching, which will result in our legal and cultural annihilation. Christians who refuse to collaborate with gay marriage or comply with the contraception mandate will be isolated and systematically reduced to penury or silence. Don't count on the courts to save us. Our victories will be small and brief. Our defeats will be massive and lasting.

For Christians this is Cannae, not Cana. We have been out-flanked by modern Carthaginians. We have been enveloped by brilliant ideological and political maneuvers, and we will likely share the fate of the Romans. Our enemies aren't Hannibal. They're totalitarians, who are much worse-- "Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state."

Have no illusions about what they plan for us.

So whence this unholy, albeit brilliant, attack on Christians? It's worth noting that Alinsky, who was a dark genius, dedicated his book "Rules for Radicals" thusly:

“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history... the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”

There are ends at work in this.

21 comments:

  1. There is absolutely no argument in favor of same-sex marriage that could not be used in favor of polygamy as well.

    --Francisca S.

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  2. I used to believe that government forcing churches to perform same-sex marriages was a bit far-fetched. Not anymore. I saw what the government did to Catholic Charities when it refused to give children to homosexual couples. I've seen what they've done with the contraceptive mandate. I've seen states prosecute businesses for not wanting to bake cakes for gay weddings. I see no reason why they wouldn't, or why they can't.

    JQ

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  3. The only reason I don't delete your commentary here, troy, is that I want people to see what we're fighting. The venom, the ignorance, the simple hate.

    Regarding your last question, the steady disintegration of Christianity in many parts of Europe-- a disintegration aided by gay "marriage" and a host of pagan reveries-- is obvious to any honest observer.

    To your question, I reply: Malmo, Stockholm, Golden Dawn, birth dearth,...

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/world/europe/swedens-riots-put-its-identity-in-question.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

    http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/1229/european-governments-battle-the-continents-birth-dearth

    Stanley Kurtz:

    "MARRIAGE IS SLOWLY DYING IN SCANDINAVIA. A majority of children in Sweden and Norway are born out of wedlock. Sixty percent of first-born children in Denmark have unmarried parents. Not coincidentally, these countries have had something close to full gay marriage for a decade or more. Same-sex marriage has locked in and reinforced an existing Scandinavian trend toward the separation of marriage and parenthood. The Nordic family pattern--including gay marriage--is spreading across Europe. And by looking closely at it we can answer the key empirical question underlying the gay marriage debate. Will same-sex marriage undermine the institution of marriage? It already has."

    (http://old.nationalreview.com/kurtz/kurtz200402050842.asp)

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  4. Marriage was already on life-support, having been brutally battered by the State Almighty (from whom all blessings flow):
    "What is a single parent with three children eligible to receive from the state and federal governments in a given year, working a part time job at minimum wage living in Florida (a relatively benefit-frugal state)? Free and subsidized benefits include: housing, welfare, utilities, telephone, school breakfast and lunches, child care, medical care, food stamps, commissary food, prescription and non-prescription medications, education, education testing, and refundable tax credits. All of these benefits are in excess of $47,000 per year, exceeding the poverty level in Florida by 200 percent." Source

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    1. The State has also undermined marriage with the introduction of "no-fault divorce" (which is really unilateral divorce-on-demand) in the 1970s. Read "Five Myths about No-Fault Divorce" which concludes "No-fault divorce has exacerbated the divorce epidemic on almost every count."


      Five Myths about No-Fault Divorce

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    2. I believe you misspelled "Five Complete Fabrications About No-Fault Divorce". But then again, the author is affiliated with the sham of Patrick Henry "College" so lying is expected.

      Delete
  5. Adm. G Boggs, Glenbeckistan NavyJune 30, 2013 at 9:03 AM

    The Vaterland/Rodina/Village is replacing the family. Many people are more comfortable with that. I wish them well, but previous aborted attempts suggest it might not be so desirable as it appears from a distance.

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  6. Often times when I think of these type of issues (gay marriage, the destruction of the family etc), I tend to think that the Christian faith needs to be redirected towards it's true moral stance.
    What I mean by that is that all the denominations from the Catholic, to the Orthodox, to the Protestant, to the Evangelical have become far too political. Far too partisan.
    That they each have each picked a camp to promote, and in doing so, both diluted the message and been divided among themselves. It is the age old Faustian bargain, and we must repent.
    If the many houses of Christ could only focus on the core of the values that make us Christian, and not the ritual differences of religion, we would have a much more potent MORAL influence on the direction of the nations we inhabit.
    Instead we have swapped principle for temporary political influence and find ourselves with little of either left. We have 'bent' the rules for favour here and there - often in the name of tolerance. Now the rules no longer apply.
    We have become complacent and arrogant. We need vigilance and humility.
    Time to wake up, folks.

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    Replies
    1. crus:

      [What I mean by that is that all the denominations from the Catholic, to the Orthodox, to the Protestant, to the Evangelical have become far too political. Far too partisan.]

      I don't agree. While explicit party alignment by churches is problematic, the fact is that there are public policies that are immoral and virulently anti-Christian, and policies that are moral and pro-Christian.

      We care called to works as well as faith. Our Christian forbearers fought infanticide and bloody Coliseum spectacles and slavery and segregation. Why would we want to withdraw the Christian voice from politics?

      Half of Catholics and a substantial fraction of other Christians voted for the most anti-Christian president in American history. He is now waging war on our faith.

      We need louder Christian voices in public affairs.

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    2. crus:

      I agree with your view that we must become a stronger moral and cultural force. That is more important than what we do in politics.

      But we must not turn our government over to people who hate us and what we stand for.

      We need to fight on political and moral turf.

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    3. Mike,

      I think you mistake my meaning, or perhaps I have not been clear enough in it. I am not suggesting Christians should not engage in politics or that we should not make our voices heard in those circles. I am suggesting that many of us have sold our souls for political gain. Our true strength is in our morality. The politicians should feel the need to pander to us, not us to them.
      I feel as if when we allow ourselves to be divided into liberal and conservative camps, we dilute our strength.
      We are Christian, first and foremost. The denominations, politics etc should all be secondary to that unified aim of morality. That, of course, includes opposing abortion et al. from a moral standpoint. The politics of the nation should be subject to that morality, not our morality subject to the politics of the day.
      I hope that makes more sense.

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  7. I asked for evidence of damage done by gay marriage. A large percentage of first-born children being born out of wedlock is (a) not damage, and (b) nothing suggests this is related to gay marriage in any way.

    Having lived for a while in Scandinavia, I can tell you that they are incredibly family-friendly societies, probably more so than anywhere else in the world, and certainly more than the US. In fact, I'm a bit jealous of the generous paternity leave in Sweden, where couples get to split 16 months paid leave between them, of which 13 months at 80% of previous pay. In about 10 weeks from now, when our son will be born, I can look forward to a meager 2 days of paid paternity leave and my wife to 16 weeks.

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  8. @troy:

    I do not argue that gay marriage is a direct immediate threat to actual marriage.

    I argue consistently that the disintegration of actual marriage is an enormous harm to all of us, especially children. Your idiot experiences in Sweden not withstanding, children born out of wedlock face real problems.

    You have not yet addressed the point I made in my post (you never do). Gay marriage is not particularly about marriage. It is about demolishing Christian participation in society.

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  9. If it is any encouragement at all, remember that even after Cannae Hannibal lost and Rome won.

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  10. "With the universal legal recognition of same-sex marriage a fait accompli, the next fight will on the Church doorstep. The next battle will be to force Churches, most particularly the Catholic Church, to recognize and conduct same-sex marriage. The refusal to do so will result in a series of escalating legal and financial ramifications."

    True.

    Yet, it's *also* true that, for *at least* the past century, the Catholic Church -- the bureaucracy that *is* the RCC in America -- has been an enthusiastic proponent of the socialism, and its concomitant statism, that has brought all Christians in America to this pass.

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  11. Ilion:

    You're quite right. While the American RCC has admirably defended Christian principle on life issues, it has been seriously wrong on many economic and social issues. It is swinging back to sanity a bit now, but much too late.

    The Church bears real responsibility for aiding the enemy. There needs to be clarification on genuine Catholic social teaching, from the Catechism, which unconditionally condemns socialism and teaches the principle of subsidiarily, which requires that social action for the public good take place as close to the family as possible.

    Massive federal programs that yoke the poor to government dependence are pharisaic rejections of basic Catholic social doctrine, although you'd never know it from the public statements of the Catholic bishops.

    With the rise of Obama, some of the bishops are beginning to get it, and the conservative bishops are in ascendance.

    There should be an accounting for the left-drift of the princes of the Church, of which Mahoney and Weakland are disturbing and corrupt examples.

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    1. Massive federal programs that yoke the poor to government dependence are pharisaic rejections of basic Catholic social doctrine, although you'd never know it from the public statements of the Catholic bishops.

      In a word, holier-than-thou.

      Hoo

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  12. Gay marriage is not particularly about marriage. It is about demolishing Christian participation in society.

    A ludicrous proposition, but not unexpected from a narcissistic bigot like you. Gay marriage is not about gays wanting equal rights, no sirree - it's about us-us-us poor Christians being suppressed. It's all about us, self-centered bigots. Millions of gays have been persecuted and murdered by Christians and other religious wackos, but that means nothing to Egnor the narcissist. As always, it's all about him, the sanctimonious bigot Egnor.



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  13. The next battle will be to force Churches, most particularly the Catholic Church, to recognize and conduct same-sex marriage.

    Of course. Just like churches that oppose interracial marriage have been forced to conduct interracial marriages. Oh wait, that hasn't happened and there is no likelihood that it ever will.

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  14. Blaming gay marriage and the “gay agenda” for bringing down the church may make you feel better and give you a target for your anger, but you’re missing the real reason. The church is being dragged down by its association with right-wing politics. The most extreme right wing politicians cloak themselves in Christianity and infuse their politics with Christianity, to the point where the politics and Christianity become indistinguishable. The conservative Christian position has become the Republican position and visa-versa. From bigotry toward gays and shoving vaginal probes in women, to global warming denial and rampant corporatism, much of American Christianity is now seen in the same light as the Republicans, and the Republicans are extremely unpopular with many people. The fate of Republicans and Christianity are now tied together, and they’re dragging each other down.

    -KW

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    1. @KW:

      You hate the Church first, and all of your hate stems from that.

      The political, philosophical, and scientific battles we fight are proxies for the real battle, which is about God.

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