First, let me extend a very hearty THANK YOU!! to the Catholics United for Life in Wyoming for their wonderful hospitality and a very successful conference on Defense of the Traditional Family. Thank you too for the wonderful Mystic Monk Coffee! I hope many of you will try this smooth and delicious treat.

While I was with the good people of Cody Wyoming we necessarily addressed the homosexual  push to legalize same-sex unions in every state in the union.

I’ve only been home a week and in those few short days there have been at least two critical new developments.

The first is the passage of “hate crimes” legislation in the House.

Disguised under the title “Defense Authorization Bill”,  hate  speech” becomes criminal — but 15 Democrats and 131 Republicans voted NAY.   It will become law after the Senate passes the measure and Mr. Obama signs it–as he has promised to do.  This  effort in the House follows an earlier expansion of “hate crimes” language in April. (see also http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/jul/09071505.html)

Before an examination of the news, may I point out an important statistic? According to the FBI, the rate of “hate crimes” by heterosexual persons on homosexuals is less than 1% –less than 1%!     The most common assault on a homosexual is by another homosexual. Domestic violence among homosexual pairs is far greater than in the heterosexual domiciles.

In short, a homosexual person is 99 times more likely to suffer violence at the hands of another homosexual than at the hands of someone who deliberately attacks a “gay” person.

The key point for people of faith is that the law essentially creates two classes of citizens: those with ordinary rights as guaranteed by the Bill of Rights and a special protected class of citizens whose rights trump your rights to free speech and the free practice of your religion.

I understand that many people are sympathetic to the horror of being attacked physically simply because one is a homosexual. Such attacks are heinous. But, such attacks are heinous NO MATTER if the victim is homosexual or heterosexual. A physical assault is not more of an assault because one is tall, or short, rich or poor, old or young.  The very premise behind “hate crimes” is illogical.   It is not the thought  but the ACT that we prosecute. If you are robbed and beaten and left for dead your suffering is the same whether you attacker was motivated by greed or revenge.

If a victim is murdered, the penalty for this capital offense if life in prison  or the death penalty. In other words, it is impossible to punish a murderer any more than to take his life in exchange or take his freedom forever.  The motivation for murder does not  and cannot increase the punishment because the punishment is already the maximum possible. Adding a special category of motivation does not increase punishment.  The idea that hate crimes proponents push is that we should be punished for what we think as well as what we do. This concept is exceedingly dangerous. To insure equal protection under the law we must confine or prosecutions t the acts committed, not the thoughts one has about the victim.

What then is the true purpose of “hate crimes” ? If increased punishment is not possible, what can be the true reason for the legislation?  What is to be gained?

The real purpose is to shut down true open debate and to severely penalize persons of religious faith who would share their faith with others.   How is that if the crimes are not words but acts? Because once the term “hate speech” is introduced into law, as the precursor of a “hate crime” it is just a short step to  legalizing arrests for speech, not  only acts. Why ? Because the speech alone will be considered a threat.  Already a Canadian minister has been jailed for teaching against homosexuals even though his comments were made IN HIS CHURCH!

To imagine how this special category of thought, or special category of protection works,  think of this: suppose we could arrest and prosecute homosexuals who defiled and attacked St. Patrick’s Cathedral– and that their crimes would be of a separate category  because their hate-filled attack on the church was motivated by their homosexual beliefs?  Do you think for one minute that Congress would consider such measures? Of course not–nor should they.  If ANYone attacks and defaces private property the penalty is the same REGARDLESS of motivation. We simply cannot start guessing the thought patterns of persons and assigning an arbitrary penalty based on what they were thinking when they committed the act.

The second item of news was the speech that the president  gave at a homosexual gathering, the  organization,Human Rights Campaign.  Mr. Obama called persons who oppose homosexual acts people of “old attitudes” who needed conversion. He  said that those opposed to homosexual unions “fail to see your families like their families.”  The president made a promise to the homosexual lobby–that if elected he would overturn DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act).  This president is beholden to the homosexual lobby. He stated, ” And I’m here with a simple message: I’m here with you in that fight.”

Mr. Obama urged the homosexual guests to continue their fight by electing “people who share your values” to office.

This is the fight we Christians  and Jews and others who revere the natural order must wage: elect persons to office who share OUR values.  We MUST take back lost ground at the grassroots. That is, elect NO ONE to any office who does not promote the natural family.  People of faith must support others in the effort to gain positions on school boards, city and county commissions, state legislatures and judgeships. EVERY local office counts. Each elected office (and many appointed offices) are stepping stones to higher office.

If we  are to reclaim the culture, to reestablish the morals and values that made this nation great, we have to be prepared to fight the same long haul, the same “long march through the institutions”, the same 50 years that the militant homosexual lobby has fought.

We can do no less.

Tags: homosexual lobby, marriage, natural families.

Well, not really. The vice of sloth (acedia) is properly applied to the spiritual life.  It is an attitude of sluggish commitment to the pursuit of virtue. (yes, we faithful must continuously strive to be more patient, humble, charitable…)

Yet I confess a certain slothfulness in the secular sense for not keeping this blog current.   My sincere apologies to those of you who have been checking in to see if anything new was EVER going to be posted.

Family duties and a marvelous pilgrimage trip in France are an excuse on– the surface.  But in all candor,  like many of you, I’ve struggled with something constructive to say about the state of our culture.  One cannot ONLY decry the grave conditions–we live amidst such dehumanizing policies (abortion, homosexual unions, cloning, embryonic stem cell research, etc.) and even within Christian populations apathy seems to dominate discourse. The stock market holds more importance than the devolving culture, it seems.

Alas, some of you are tapping me on the shoulder with a “get moving” message. A few days ago Inside Catholic ran an article I wrote a few years ago, Eight Habits of Highly Effective Bishops. New readers arrived here from the link only to find a post from February. Mea Culpa. Pray that I reform my slothful ways!

There are many topics I want to touch upon in the coming weeks.  Just tonight I sent a friend a copy of a YouTube video that i making a strong impact on Evangelicals and Catholics. It is a very graphic look at how Christians are loosing the demographic war.  The information is not new, we have known these figures for years now. But this video is visceral:

watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU

What remains unsaid is that we Christians have ignored God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply.”   In short, we are reaping what we have sown.  Muslims have been largely immune to the massive population control measures pushed on the world by the United Nations.

Five years ago I gave a talk at a women’s conference and quipped, “Westerners want three TVs, two cars and one child.”  Now we see that  our materialistic values have brought us to the precipice of extinction.

On a mystical plane we must remember that God has honored us with the privilege of co-creating with Him each time  new baby is born. These are the children who will live for eternity. If we refuse to cooperate with God’s plan, deny the reality of the body and its theological import, then we have denied a soul an eternal life with God.

The video ends with “This is a call to action” …but what action?  To evangelize  Muslims? Evangelize them to what? A lukewarm Christianity that no longer acknowledges that God is a Father who commanded us to populate  heaven for eternity?  (”Be fruitful and multiply”).

What do you think about our collective failure on the matter of contraception?

Tags: contraception, Depopulation, Islamic threat.

A new law effetive Feb 1o bans children’s books published before 1985. This “safety” move is also an effective censorship of American history and culture as a CHRISTIAN nation.

Please follow link to Properly Scared.

Tags: censorship, erase cultural memory.