OSV Editorial: Now is not the time to obfuscate on marriage...

[Michie]

On Aug. 29, 2017, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention drafted a text to reaffirm, in the wake of the Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex “marriage” nationwide, a biblical understanding of Christian marriage. The preamble to the document the commission produced, known as the Nashville Statement, reads: “By and large the spirit of our age no longer discerns or delights in the beauty of God’s design for human life. Many deny that God created human beings for his glory, and that his good purposes for us include our personal and physical design as male and female.”

Now, five years later, the American public, across party and religious lines, overwhelmingly supports the legal redefinition of marriage. Public figures have backed en masse the deceptively named Respect for Marriage Act. The proposed legislation has passed the U.S. Senate 62-37 and will likely be voted on in the House of Representatives this week. President Joe Biden has promised to sign the measure into law without delay.

Facing these staggering odds, people of faith may find themselves without the social capital, political resources and clarity of thought to peacefully dissent. As the public considers the Respect for Marriage Act, the defenders of secular orthodoxy do not welcome or respect the believer’s defiance, much less civilly engage with those who hold fast to the Christian understanding. Because of this, many Christians find themselves privately holding to the biblical view of marriage, perhaps teaching it to their children, but disengaging from the current debate.

The response of Catholics everywhere to the Respect for Marriage Act can and must be peaceable but determined opposition. Now is not the time to acquiesce, concur or assent. Out of respect for the true understanding of marriage — namely, that God calls one man and one woman to be united in an exclusive and lasting partnership ordered to the generation of offspring and the goods of family life — we must stand and defend Catholic teaching.

Continued below.

Editorial: Now is not the time to obfuscate on marriage - Our Sunday Visitor

Recently, the Respect for Marriage Act passed the U.S. Senate 62-37, and it will likely be voted on in the House of Representatives this week. President Joe Biden has vowed to sign the measure into law without delay. Facing these staggering odds, many people of faith will likely lack the social...

www.oursundayvisitor.com

 

[pdudgeon]

Agreed! Now is not the time to hide our light, but to gather together and raise our lights high, that they may be seen from far away,
That others may be drawn to God's light,
And that the darkness may be banished forever!

These are days when Satan has the nerve to walk in the open, across the screens of our TV's, but we must not let him!

 

[Wolseley]

It's entirely possible that we may find ourselves back in the catacombs. Or, since we refuse to sign on to the idea that two men can "marry", we could wind up imprisoned inside psychiatric hospitals, since anyone rejecting such things is obviously psychologically disturbed. The Soviets used to do the same thing with people who rejected Communism. Everybody knew that Communism was the finest system in the history of the world, so if anybody rejected it, they obviously had to be insane---and they'd wind up in the psychiatric ward of the Lubyanka Prison, being fed psychotropic drugs and massive amounts of propaganda in order to "re-educate" them.

 

[ZephBonkerer]

There is one thing I couldn't quite fully understand: why people in same-sex relationships want this so bad. Many of them seem to talk as if marriage were nothing more than a slip of paper. If that is all marriage is, why all this activism and legal challenges over a mere slip of paper?

If they wanted to live together and do the things that any other married couple can do, what was stopping them? Some states (CA did this) had something like a "Registered Domestic Partner" which was legally the near-equivalent of marriage. They had maybe 95% of everything they were asking for, but that last 5% was a big deal to them. Why?

 

[chevyontheriver]

There is one thing I couldn't quite fully understand: why people in same-sex relationships want this so bad. Many of them seem to talk as if marriage were nothing more than a slip of paper. If that is all marriage is, why all this activism and legal challenges over a mere slip of paper?

If they wanted to live together and do the things that any other married couple can do, what was stopping them? Some states (CA did this) had something like a "Registered Domestic Partner" which was legally the near-equivalent of marriage. They had maybe 95% of everything they were asking for, but that last 5% was a big deal to them. Why?

They want YOU to approve of what they do. They will not be happy until YOUR church will marry them and until YOU bake them a wedding cake and until you gushingly approve of it all.

And they have the cultural power now to make most people do it. For the rest of us there is the psychiatric hospital. Save a bed for me.

 

[boughtwithaprice]

They want YOU to approve of what they do. They will not be happy until YOUR church will marry them and until YOU bake them a wedding cake and until you gushingly approve of it all.

And they have the cultural power now to make most people do it. For the rest of us there is the psychiatric hospital. Save a bed for me.

I don’t go to the psychiatric hospital, I work in an allopathic secular hospital, and I had my lawyer draft a letter that I will not participate in sterilizations. Contraception is the first step down this slippery slope and how we got to gay marriage. Sex is for reproduction and I will not participate in any acts which are contrary to that end. It is not a Catholic hospital, but I have the backing of the chief of surgery and the chief of anesthesia. My lawyer drafted the letter that according to current US law, title VII, I do not have to participate in any procedure that is a violation of conscience.
So far I have been met with silence. Some people asked me to give anesthesia for a tubal ligation or a vasectomy , and I told them that I do not participate in those procedures. They asked no follow up questions.
My advice to all of you is take a stand. Know your rights, know the law. Do not bend to the agenda of evil. Go forth with the full armor of God.
Homosexuals can never be married, not because I am mean, it’s just a fact. The two can never become one flesh. It’s just not possible and it’s a relationship of lust, not love. We will not pretend otherwise. If they want to have the delusion, the US law allows them, but they cannot force us to join them, but oh they want to force us so bad
So far we are protected by the constitution, and the Supreme Court decision in June should seal our rights. Compelled speech has never been a part of English common law nor American law, and by the grace of God, it won’t start now
If it does, the prepare to be martyred. Love not your lives unto death, and you will receive a crown of life.

 

[Wolseley]

There is one thing I couldn't quite fully understand: why people in same-sex relationships want this so bad. Many of them seem to talk as if marriage were nothing more than a slip of paper. If that is all marriage is, why all this activism and legal challenges over a mere slip of paper?

If they wanted to live together and do the things that any other married couple can do, what was stopping them? Some states (CA did this) had something like a "Registered Domestic Partner" which was legally the near-equivalent of marriage. They had maybe 95% of everything they were asking for, but that last 5% was a big deal to them. Why?

Because it has nothing to do with "gay rights" or "marriage equality" or "diversity and inclusion" or any of the rest of that crap that they constantly bleat about.

What they want is the absolute, complete, total capitulation of the existing system that modern Western civilization is built upon. They want Christianity gone, they want capitalism gone, they want our concepts of marriage, gender, and liberty gone. They want the Caucasian race gone. They want to do this not by outright conflict and destruction; they want to do it by absorbing all of those concepts, and corrupting them, subverting them, to fit their own ideas. They want to favor their own groups (primarily anti-American minorities and the proponent of the sexual perversion of your choice) at the expense of everyone else; they want to build themselves up by tearing everyone else down, which makes all of their "tolerance, diversity and multiculturalism" labels a load of balderdash.

This is why they tear down statues of historical figures. It's why they burn American flags. It's why they embrace Communism. It's why they despise the Christian Faith. All of those things stand in the way of their idiot ideas of Utopia. And White people (shudder, shudder, shudder!) are what they view as the main problem behind all the others that they want to do away with, which is why they favor eliminating our borders allowing anyone and everyone into the country---so long as they are NOT Caucasian.

The movers and shakers in this revolution are fully aware of exactly what they're doing. The rest of them, the followers and useful idiots, probably don't even see what's going on. They've been steeped in the mantras of Acceptance and Diversity for so long, they think it's merely a case of opposing Mean Religious People who want to hold onto cultural norms that are---to them---outdated and irrelevant, roadblocks on the Highway of Luv.

They'll probably get their way, eventually, or at least in part. If there isn't a massive civilizational collapse or a global war, I predict that the West, primarily North America, but also Western Europe and the ANZAC countries, will break down into opposing pockets, basically a tribal structure of sorts, with each territory being held by whatever norms are upheld by the people who live in those areas.

Myself, I'm old enough now that while I hate seeing it happen, it's not going to affect me too much; I have twenty years or less to inhabit this polluted little rock, and as I believe I have mentioned before, I won't be unhappy to leave when my time comes to go.

 

[boughtwithaprice]

Because it has nothing to do with "gay rights" or "marriage equality" or "diversity and inclusion" or any of the rest of that crap that they constantly bleat about.

What they want is the absolute, complete, total capitulation of the existing system that modern Western civilization is built upon. They want Christianity gone, they want capitalism gone, they want our concepts of marriage, gender, and liberty gone. They want the Caucasian race gone. They want to do this not by outright conflict and destruction; they want to do it by absorbing all of those concepts, and corrupting them, subverting them, to fit their own ideas. They want to favor their own groups (primarily anti-American minorities and the proponent of the sexual perversion of your choice) at the expense of everyone else; they want to build themselves up by tearing everyone else down, which makes all of their "tolerance, diversity and multiculturalism" labels a load of balderdash.

This is why they tear down statues of historical figures. It's why they burn American flags. It's why they embrace Communism. It's why they despise the Christian Faith. All of those things stand in the way of their idiot ideas of Utopia. And White people (shudder, shudder, shudder!) are what they view as the main problem behind all the others that they want to do away with, which is why they favor eliminating our borders allowing anyone and everyone into the country---so long as they are NOT Caucasian.

The movers and shakers in this revolution are fully aware of exactly what they're doing. The rest of them, the followers and useful idiots, probably don't even see what's going on. They've been steeped in the mantras of Acceptance and Diversity for so long, they think it's merely a case of opposing Mean Religious People who want to hold onto cultural norms that are---to them---outdated and irrelevant, roadblocks on the Highway of Luv.

They'll probably get their way, eventually, or at least in part. If there isn't a massive civilizational collapse or a global war, I predict that the West, primarily North America, but also Western Europe and the ANZAC countries, will break down into opposing pockets, basically a tribal structure of sorts, with each territory being held by whatever norms are upheld by the people who live in those areas.

Myself, I'm old enough now that while I hate seeing it happen, it's not going to affect me too much; I have twenty years or less to inhabit this polluted little rock, and as I believe I have mentioned before, I won't be unhappy to leave when my time comes to go.

We should not be afraid of death, but rather a bad death that dishonors our Lord. Generations before us would not even burn a pinch of incense to Caesar to save their lives and dishonor God.
What are we willing to do? Let the forces of evil desecrate the family, marriage, and faith, or stand and fight?
Yes, America was great and we had it easy in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and even 90s, but we live in a different world now. We do not look for the easy times to come back, but fight for what really matters. We fight for a city whose builder and maker is God. There is nothing left for us here.
Step out of complacency, pray and fast. The chastisement is almost upon us if it is not here. Even our hierarchy has given into the
Spirit of the age. Fight for the Church, do not leave her or forsake her. The Grace of God flows through the sacraments instituted by Christ himself, despite the hierarchy. Salvation is not in the world, it is in Christ and His Church

Peace be with you