Indeed…
Category: Culture
Just Saying…
If one believes marriage is simply about the state providing a legal and benefit framework for people centered on their personal understanding of attachment or relationship then a person cannot be for “marriage equality” without also supporting any or all forms of arrangement that consenting adults might wish to pursue in this regard. The polyamorist, the polygamist, the relatives, the platonic friends, all and more are citizens, and if the state cannot in the name of “equality” respect gender in marriage then on what grounds can one declare themselves for “equality” while still allowing the state to discriminate on number, relationship status, age, or however a person may choose to define themselves and their potential marriages? It is not “equality” in the actual sense to say we want the gender of the participants in a marriage to not matter but, for example, the number still limited to two. What one is doing then is simply creating a new kind of exclusivity, broader for sure than the prior definition but nevertheless enshrining a kind of discrimination in law. In effect one is saying “equality” for us but not for the rest.
The proponents of traditional marriage have no such burden. We frankly admit that natural law, the experience of human society over time, the teachings of all major religions, and the laws of nearly all human societies until now have, while supporting various levels of tolerance for other arrangements, limited the understanding of marriage to relationships of male and female. This argument in no way limits the freedom of people to enter into other kinds of relationships. We argue only one point, namely that the marriage of a man and a woman has been and remains an ideal that should be supported for reasons of the common good above and beyond other, but lesser, options.
People can disagree with this but they need to understand that unless they are prepared to remove all defining categories for marriage they and we are asking for the same thing, the sanctioning of the state for a particular kind of relationship against options considered other or less. When the two men and three women come to apply for a marriage license the proponents of marriage “equality” had better be there in support or they risk exposing their argument to charges of hypocrisy. Until that time, and that time is soon upon us, at least they can stop calling people who support heterosexual marriage names because in truth all we differ on is which “two” we believe should have the potential for marriage.
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Chastity Works…
Forget anything about religion or morals or higher principles. Following a traditional Christian sexual morality will just flat out keep you from being a statistic.
Please note that the link is from a right leaning political site but it does provide links if you want to check the data for yourself.
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A Sign for the Times…
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One of the Great Mistakes…
we make in this culture is the equation of technological progress with progress in the very essence of humanity itself. Because we have cell phones and the internet doesn’t make us, or our insights into things, automatically better than those who have gone before us. Our culture’s greatest arrogance is to assume that we since we have better machines we must also be better souls.
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Lent vs. Culture…
Yes, I Know…
our country, our culture, is in moral crisis. I see it every day and part of me dreads what new lows to which we may yet sink. Yet this I do know. The task of changing this to the better is not a task for kings and princes. They are already compromised. It may not even be a task for religious leaders because many, even in unexpected places, have sold their inheritance for a bowl of this world’s pottage.
Two things present themselves. The first is the call of God in all of this. We cannot go back to some mythical yesterday and live our lives in dreams. The world we have around us is the world as it actually is. We need, as Christians, to see the events around us as a call from God to wake from our slumber and realize that for the sake of the love of God and neighbor we must always commit ourselves to be who we claim to be. If we are not who we claim to be than how will those looking for help know if there is an alternative to what they see around them? How deep the hopelessness must be for people who see everything in decay around them and no way out. Jesus is the way out and we are the ones who need to present Him to the world in thought, word, and deed. Even if it is actually the end of the world, and no one but God knows this for sure, we are still not exempt from being a witness until the very moment of the angel’s trumpet.
Second, we need to do God’s things in God’s way. For too long we’ve played the world’s game of politics and economy as our path and we shouldn’t be surprised we’re losing because the game was rigged from the beginning. As Christians we live in many kingdoms but we belong to only one, the Kingdom of God and how we act in the world has to be on its principles if we are to succeed. The time of idolizing nations and institutions of power and wealth is long past. They are only tenants on this world. When we seek the Kingdom everything else will find its true place and order.
It’s possible that things are going to get tougher for observant Christians of all kinds in the near future. We may rediscover we really are pilgrims and strangers on this planet. The depths of our faith may be tested. Deviance will become normal and those who attempt to live righteously will be identified as deviants. What did we expect? Jesus told us that if the world hated Him they would also hate us. Such a day may be coming. Such a day, in part, may already be here.
Yet don’t be afraid. It is also possible that God sees in this generation a people holy and wholly up to the task of being His in a dark world. There are lights among us, lights that can only be discovered and lit by the encroachment of shadows, lights that will draw strength from the Light which is never overcome. Prepare, be ready, but do not be terrified. The hostility of the world is a sign that they cannot win by conversion so force must be applied. The night is desperate because it knows morning is coming.
Remember Gideon.
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Thoughts for Lent…
From Fr. Guy Winfrey:
I’ve been reading the history of the Church of Holland recently. What strikes me is that political strength (whether of William of Orange or Obama) usually tends to duplicity and tyrannical use of power. The only place for Christians to stand is firmly in the Faith with humility, but with courage and strength. We cannot be silent to evils, nor slow to respond in love to those who are in need. But we would be foolish if we thought that we shall overcome the world’s misuse of power (which usually masquerades as love). We are not to surrender our struggle against the evils of this world, but we are not to place our hope here for we are Christians, not political parties. We struggle for the Kingdom of God.
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Lent is a…
kind of war. If you participate in it at all you’ll realize how counter cultural the whole thing is, how defiant it is of the prevailing order of things. In a gluttonous culture you decide to fast. In a promiscuous culture you stand for chastity. In a consumerist culture you decide to share. In a culture of immediacy you choose to see eternity. Face it, Lent is making war on just about everything American pop society values.
So why should you be surprised when the whole thing decides to push back? Think of the sheer amount of money invested in you being promiscuous, gluttonous, greedy, and self-centered. Whole industries would collapse if the spirit of Lent caught on in the general population. Important people would lose their jobs. Politicians would be out of power. A whole political – economic system that thrives on human depravity would fall into disuse.
That’s why it’s easier to stigmatize you as a relic, someone out of touch with the “real” world, a throwback to a less civilized time. If someone asks questions they may not get the answers our world has predetermined to be correct. If someone stands back from the whole mess and sees that it really is a mess they might consider opting out. If the emperor really is naked then the people selling us invisible clothes will stop having their sway. What will the plantation owner do if the slaves taste freedom and decide to act on it?
So they tell you its a burden, an unrealistic expectation, even a kind of oppression. Lent is warfare. Lent is the animal looking up from trough and slaughter and seeing the sun beyond the pen. Lent is the realization there is so much more than toys and games and endless work to pay for it all. For the price of a little less food we get to see eternity. For the sacrifice of moments we would waste in front of the TV we get to experience the presence of God. For 40 days, we get to taste authentic life, which is what, when you boil it down, the Kingdom of God actually is.
Yet don’t except this without a fight. Your soul is on the line and you can give it to God or sell it on the open market for the next new gadget.
Do the right thing.
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So…
if truth is just whatever a person believes to be true why are you trying to change my mind?
The Beautiful Path 