The Hypocrisy of Our Culture and Our Condemning Silence

By now, most people have already heard how former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling was fired from his position at ESPN. (see story here).The reason for his termination was a post he put on his personal Facebook account that some found offensive to the transgender (or whatever we are calling them this week) community. ESPN then went so far as to remove virtually any reference to Curt Schilling in documentary they produced about the Red Sox 2004 World Series win, in which he played a large part in.

You can view his facebook post at this link. While I agree that it is somewhat unpleasant to look at, it points out the absurdity of the transgender bathroom debate in our culture right now. To sum it all up, the "progressive" minded folks in our society are willing to put our children at risk in public bathrooms in order to appease a very minuscule, but very vocal, percentage of the general population that due to a mental disorder, cannot identify with their God given gender. Schilling agrees with those of us who see the need for states to pass these "bathroom laws" to protect the most vulnerable in our society.

Spiritual Warfare and Catholicism Under Attack.

I want to share with you a presentation I gave recently to the Christian Men's Breakfast Meeting Group at the Cathedral of Sts Peter and Paul in Providence RI:

Good morning. I want to begin our discussion about the attacks on our faith with some examples from my own experiences. As some of you know, I have written quite a few letters over the last few years to state, and federal leaders and to the news media on topics such as gay marriage, abortion, and in defense of our Bishop. What you may not be aware of is the disturbing reactions and backlash I have gotten from these letters. Many times people have written back to the Providence Journal and left comments on their website viciously attacking our faith and me personally. I have been called a hater, bigoted, sexist, racist, a closet homosexual, and a dangerous fanatic. I have also been accused several times of brainwashing and psychologically abusing my children because I dare to teach them the truths of our faith such as homosexual behavior is disordered and abortion is murder. Even my wife has been harassed. Several months ago, during the time that the civil unions bill was being rammed through the state house, my wife was driving home from work when another driver started yelling and cursing at her. Why? Because she dared to have a bumper sticker on her car that displayed our support for traditional marriage.

I could go on, but all this pales in comparison to the way other Catholics, our Church and even Bishop Tobin have been attacked for preaching the truth. It goes far beyond just a disagreement or a difference of opinions. There is a feeling of darkness and evil behind the open hostility shown toward Catholics and even Christians in secular world and especially in the media. Just a couple of weeks ago, a Catholic writer in Massachusetts who writes for the Diocese of Worcester’s newspaper, wrote an article on her own website about how she was not comfortable taking her young children to a local park because of the open display of affection she had seen there between two gay men. Being a devout Catholic mother, she only wanted to protect her children from inappropriate behavior. She ignited a firestorm of hatred from athiests and gay advocates because of this article. She and her family were viciously attacked on-line when gay advocates found her article and spread it to other gay friendly websites. They somehow found her street address and phone number and actually posted it online and encouraged people to contact her at home and harass her. It got to the point where she actually received a death treat and finally contacted the police. The police investigated the matter but as you would guess, they never classified it as a hate crime. As in the norm in our society, hate crimes don’t matter when they are against Catholics because it seems this is an acceptable form of bigotry.

One Christian's Perspective on The Death of Bin Laden

I haven't blogged in a few weeks because I busy studying for a certification exam for my job. I have been looking forward to getting back into blogging, but I wasn't expecting Osama Bin Laden's death to be the first thing I would write about. However, since the news broke, I have been struggling with what the right response should be to his death. My initial gut reaction was to celebrate like so many did across our nation. On the other hand, I know as a Catholic, that we should not celebrate at the loss of any life. So this has caused me to reflect on what the right reaction to this event should be.

I came across two well written articles today that I feel best describes what the most appropriate Christian reaction would be to this whole affair.  The first piece is titled "Bin Laden died long ago" and is written by Presbyterian minister David Lewicki. The second is titled Osama Bin Laden! How Much Do You Love Your Enemies? and is a homily by Fr. Timothy Henderson. The main point of both was that we should follow the words of Christ to "love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us." This is a very radical way of thinking especially towards someone like Bin Laden. However isn't that what Christ calls us to do - live contrary to what the world is telling us to do?

As Fr. Henderson pointed out, this isn't about whether or not Bin Laden's killing was justified, but about how our reactions measure up to Christ's teachings. I'll leave you with a powerful excerpt from David Lewicki's post. Please read both articles above and take some time to reflect on the messages in each.

Beyond our feelings, Christians might also spend time considering our Lord’s call to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. This is not easy. If we call ourselves Americans as well as Christians, we may feel a strong civic sense that what our government did in our name was the embodiment of public justice.

But our political identity and our identity as followers of Jesus are rarely reconcilable. Jesus did not meet enemies with violence. He asserted that the way to loose ourselves of our enemies was, counter-intuitively, by loving them and forgiving them — by wanting God’s best for them and believing in the Holy Spirit’s power to convert any person to faithful obedience. Jesus implied that if the Spirit does not convert them to goodness in this life, any judgment of their deeds is to be left in the hands of their creator — God alone. Our job is to never cease praying that they receive God’s blessing.

I have been praying for Osama bin Laden for 10 years. I was not surprised by news of his death. As I asked myself why, I suspect it is because, in my eyes, bin Laden died long ago. He died to goodness; he died to mercy; he died to peace. He died to the things that God cares most about. He was alive until this week — but he died to life a long time ago.

I have wondered over the years what God tried to do to win him back to love. I wonder about the confounding ability of human beings to resist the love of God. I wonder about these things for Osama bin Laden and I wonder about same things with respect to my own life. Today, as I have many days before, I pray for my enemy — I pray him into the hands of the God of justice and of mercy.