Iron Works: Political Correctness

Showing posts with label Political Correctness. Show all posts

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.

Forced To Accept Immorality

Stacy Trasancos at Accepting Abundance wrote a great commentary on her experience as a practicing Catholic and mother of young children, having to face the immorality our society finds acceptable. Specifically, she mentions her children encountering public displays of affection among gays in a local park in her town.

As expected the gay-rights crowd, whose mantra is tolerance, have flooded her blog with comments attacking her and even making threats against her and her family. In other words, they refuse to tolerate her beliefs and her rights to free speech. As Mark Shea, in his own unique way, states on his blog: "Tolerance is not enough. You. MUST. Approve. And you MUST force your daughter to approve as well."

Stacy responded bravely to these attacks with two more posts on her blog, You duped me, O LORD and Accepting Evangelization. In the latter posting, she discusses one important lesson she learned from these ugly attacks. It is an important lesson all Catholics should remember:

Be willing to suffer, but know that you in fact may not. Grace will conquer suffering and turn it into rejoicing. And that, dear fellow Catholics, will make you never want to give up or shut up! It will instill in you an abundance of joy that will bless you in ways you will not even expect.

Thank you Stacy for having the courage to speak the truth and to stand by our faith. May God bless you and please continue your good work.

Please click on the links above to visit Stacy's blog and to leave words of encouragement and support for her.

Happy 4th of July - May God Bless America.

In an age where Christianity in under attack by a secular world and God is being forced out of the public sector, let us take some time to reflect on this song and its lyrics. Hopefully this will help us remember a time when we were proud of our nation's Christian roots, a time when all Americans proudly declared in the pledge that this is a nation that was founded "Under God". May God pour His blessings and grace upon our nation again, because our nation and our world desperately needs it now more than ever.

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:

He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:

His truth is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,

They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;

I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:

His day is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:

"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;

Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,

Since God is marching on."

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!

Our God is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:

As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,

While God is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,

He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,

So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,

Our God is marching on.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

Our God is marching on.

He Created Them Male and Female

I'm actually feeling some hesitation about writing this post because the subject matter really makes my blood boil. There are so many things wrong on so many levels in these following news stories that I am not even sure where to start.

I'll begin with the story that has been creating a lot of buzz on the internet over past week:

Parents keep child's gender secret

In the latest episode of "political correctness gone wild", these "enlightened" and "progressive" parents have decided to turn their children into a lab experiment by raising them "free of societal norms regarding gender". They have actually refused to identify the gender of their newborn baby to anyone even family and friends. I can only shake my head is disbelief at these quotes from the parents as they try to rationalize the harm they are doing to their children:

Witterick and Stocker believe they are giving their children the freedom to choose who they want to be, unconstrained by social norms about males and females.

In an age where helicopter parents hover nervously over their kids micromanaging their lives, and tiger moms ferociously push their progeny to get into Harvard, Stocker, 39, and Witterick, 38, believe kids can make meaningful decisions for themselves from a very early age.

“What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It’s obnoxious,” says Stocker.

“In fact, in not telling the gender of my precious baby, I am saying to the world, ‘Please can you just let Storm discover for him/herself what s (he) wants to be?!.” Witterick writes in an email.

Now if this isn't enough proof that our society is spiraling out of control, there is this next story about "Gender Spectrum training" in California:

Transgender Clownfish? Gender Diversity Lesson at California School Riles Critics

As part of the latest fads in anti-bullying education, children as young as kindergarten in public schools in California are being taught about being transgender as well as the following:

“Gender identity is one’s own sense of themselves. Do they know themselves to be a girl? Do they know themselves to be a boy? Do they know themselves to be a combination?” Baum said. "Gender identity is a spectrum where people can be girls, feel like girls, they feel like boys, they feel like both, or they can feel like neither.”

I have had several reactions going through my mind about these news stories. The first is that my wife and I have sacrificed a lot to put our three children in a Catholic school. While I may not be able to afford the biggest houses or fancy cars or great vacations, I thank God every day for the fact that my children are in a school with a very orthodox Catholic environment. I can sleep easy at night because I know my kids will not get exposed to this politically correct insanity.

Secondly, while I am tempted to harshly criticize the parents in the first story and the educators in the second story for their harmful decisions, I want to focus on the bigger picture. When did gender become a dirty word in our culture? When did having a specific, clearly defined gender become such a negative in our society? In other words, why are we so afraid to let men be men and women be women?

My point is that God "created them male and female." (Genesis 5:2) God created specific roles for men and women. In His infinite wisdom, He created gender for very specific reasons. This was so beautifully detailed by Blessed John Paul II in the Theology of the Body. We are all created in the Father's image and likeness and our body, including our gender, is an integral part of who we are along with our soul. These parents and educators, by believing that gender is something we feel or should decide for ourselves, are making the same mistake that Adam and Eve made in the Garden of Eden. It is the basis of all sin. Rather than submit to the will of God, we foolishly think we know more than God and choose to follow our own wills. We want become our own gods when we think that gender and sexuality is something we can determine more appropriately than the Creator.

God in the Public Square

As I sit here and write this, our society is witnessing the growing effects of when the spiritual and the secular collide. The Federal government and several states are in political battles to defund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. The homosexual agenda and the fight for gay marriage continues to spread to more states. The common theme I see in debates between those on both sides of these issues is whether or not our faith has a place in politics. I have personally witnessed this in discussions I had regarding gay marriage and abortion. Countless times I have been told to "keep my religion to myself" and to "stop acting like the taliban and shoving my beliefs down the throats of others". I have also been told many times that I have lost touch with reality by believing in an "imaginary friend in the sky and a fairy tale book written thousands of years ago".

It does little to help the situation when many of our politicians, who claim to be Christians, openly profess that it is their duty to separate their private beliefs from their public office. They usually go on to quote JFK's famous campaign speech about his religion as if were scripture. The truth is that for many years our culture has slowly but deliberately been pushing Christianity out of the mainstream and into the sidelines. It has become extremely politically incorrect to even mention the name of Christ in public. How ironic is it that the same so called "progressive" mindset that is advocating homosexuals to come out of the closet and live openly, is also behind the push to shove Christianity in the closet as if it were something to be ashamed about. Let me be clear here. This is not meant to be a tirade blaming homosexuals for all the ills in society. My point here is that our culture has turned 180 degrees to where it is now taboo and even shameful to openly live your life as a Christian. Any mention of our faith as our guide in our personal and political beliefs is met with scorn and accusations of extremism and bigotry.

As a Catholic and a father of three, I am deeply troubled by the legacy of moral decay we will be leaving our children and grandchildren if we as Catholics continue to remain silent. The reason that this secularism has been so successful in marginalizing Christianity is because many Christians leave their faith at home or at Church and not live it openly. Positive change in our society will only come about when we stop being afraid to let our faith permeate every area of our life both public and private. Father Larry Richards once said that God is either the God of everything in our life or he is the God of nothing. The point of that statement is that we can't compartmentalize God. Our faith in Him has to be a part of everything we do. Unfortunately many Catholics and Christians are allowing God to be marginalized and any mention of Him to be removed from our society. The results of that have been disastrous.

I started thinking about all of this more deeply after reading Men of faith should be involved in politics -- Moses is proof by Bryan Fischer and Be Brave - Be Uncomplicatedly Catholic. These articles raise two important points that many of Catholics seem to have forgotten. The first is that as Christians, God expects us to get involved with politics. The author used Moses as an example. I also see John the Baptist, and the Apostles as examples. John the Baptist and most of the Apostles were martyred because they dared to challenge the political leaders of that time by proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. These saints challenged unjust and oppressive anti-Christian rulers and willingly gave up their lives for their faith. Yet here we are 2,000 years later and we are afraid to publicly stand for our Church teachings because we don't want to be seen as intolerant or politically incorrect.

The second point comes from Be Brave - Be Uncomplicatedly Catholic, which is a review of the book The Courage to be Catholic: Crisis, Reform, and the Future of the Church by George Weigel. In his book Weigel writes:

“The answer to the current crisis will not be found in ‘Catholic Lite.’ It will only be found in a classic Catholicism — a Catholicism with the courage to be countercultural, a Catholicism that has reclaimed the wisdom of the past in order to face the corruption of the present and create a renewed future, a Catholicism that risks the high adventure of fidelity.”

This goes hand in hand with what I have been thinking about. Unless we have the courage to be authentically Catholic - which means living in stark contrast to the culture around us - we are part of the problem and not the solution. As Catholics, God calls us to share His message not only through words but how we live our lives. Our actions will often have more impact than just our words. This includes speaking out and opposing our political leaders when they are advocating laws that are contrary to God's natural and moral law.

The truth is that our society today wants to shove our faith and our God in the closet and out of the public square. This hostile society wants us, as Christians, to be silent and just fall in line with everyone else. But God wants us to remember that only a dead fish goes with the current. Our duty as Catholics is to swim against that current and wake up this culture that has become intoxicated on its own "freedoms". It is our moral obligation to remind this culture that freedom is not right to do anything you want but the ability to do what is right.

Christian Persecution

As you can probably guess by reading this blog, I am no fan of the mainstream media here in the United States. This is due to the obvious bias and distortion of facts in journalism today. What I am about to post here is probably one of the worst examples of this poor reporting that I have ever seen. Take a look at these stories from MSNBC and CNN below:

Elected president's forces storm Gbagbo's residence in Ivory Coast

Gbagbo negotiating surrender, Ivory Coast foreign minister says

Please keep in mind this last line of the last paragraph in the CNN article above:

In one of the bloodiest incidents yet, the International Committee of the Red Cross reported the killings of 800 people last week in the western cocoa-producing town of Duekoue.

Now please take a look at some of the stories in the links below:

Reprisals rock Ivory Coast after strongman deposed

MASSACRE: MUSLIM TROOPS SLAUGHTER 1,000 CHRISTIANS IN IVORY COAST

Rebel Forces Target Catholic Priests in Ivory Coast – Church Facilities Destroyed

Atrocities at Catholic mission in Ivory Coast a sign of things to come

More Than 1,000 Shot and Hacked to Death in Ivory Coast Town

Massacre of 800 to 1,000 Catholics in Ivory Coast likely work of Islamists

The next Rwanda? ‘In all districts of Abidjan there is gunfire’

The difference between the CNN/MSNBC report and these stories from alternative sources is that CNN and MSNBC, in their politically correct blindness, neglect to mention that this massacre of 800 to 1000 civilians in the Ivory Coast occurred in a Catholic mission. These victims were predominantly Catholics and Christians, and the murders responsible were mainly from Muslim tribes. In their rush to support the Obama backed new leader of the Ivory Coast, these so-called journalist willingly ignored the fact that these tribes are using the political turmoil to cover their motivations for an ethnic and religious war in the Ivory Coast.

It disgusts me that the news media of this country either don't care or don't find it news worthy when Catholics and Christians are being forced from their homes and raped and murdered by Muslim tribes. Now I am not condemning all Muslims or all of Islam. I realize those responsible for inciting these horrific acts are only interested in spreading their radical views of Islam. My point is that the media is quick to condemn anyone who portrays Islam in an unflattering light, such as the preacher burning the Koran recently. Our media is leading this insane charge to coddle and protect anything remotely tied to Islam, while attacking and completely disrespecting anything Christian. This goes far beyond the tragic events of the Ivory Coast. While heralding the regime changes and new goverments in countries like Egypt, again these journalists completely ignore the fact that Catholics and Coptic Christians are being forced from their homes, attacked, jailed and their chruches bombed by this aggressive radical Muslim element that is now gaining control of these governments. Just look at the articles below for examples of this. When was the last time that CNN, MSNBC, ABC, FOX, CBS, NBC, or the New York Times reported these truths?

Egyptian Army Attacks Coptic Monastery

Iraqi Christians search for havens

This negligence and distortion of truth by the mainstream media is criminal in my opinion. There is no excuse for this deplorable behavior by these journalists. To ignore the persecution of thousands of Christians in Africa and the Middle East all in the name of ratings and political correctness, makes these news organizations complicit in these horrible crimes against these innocent civilians. By suppressing the truth, these reporters are helping these crimes go unnoticed and unpunished.

Please pray for our Christian and Catholic brothers and sisters in these regions of Africa and the Middle East. Pray for God's comfort, strength, and healing for these victims. Pray also for God's mercy for the conversion of those that allow these crimes to happen.

The Inevitable Collision of Gay Marriage and Religious Rights

This is a video that anyone on the fence about gay marriage should watch. This is a talk given by Rhode Island attorney Scott Spear gave to the Knights of Columbus in Providence. I have had the privilege of hearing Mr. Spears in person on two occasions. This is a powerful presentation that I hope will open eyes to the looming legal threat that the gay marriage agenda is to our faith.

Thanks be to God that same sex marriage was defeated in Maryland. We are in the middle of this battle again in Rhode Island and the fight is far from over in other states as well. The erosion of religious freedoms has already begun in several states and in Europe. Do a quick search on the web and you will see headlines about children, as young as kindergarten, indoctrinated in the gay agenda in public schools against their parents wishes. Catholic Charities as been attacked in some states for upholding Catholic teaching against same sex marriage. A Christian couple that own a bed and breakfast in England is being sued for not allowing a gay couple to share a bed because it is against their faith. It each of these cases, those opposing same sex marriage are accused of bigotry and discrimination. As Attorney Spears discusses in the video, institutions such as Christian Churches, that were at the forefront in the battle for civil rights in the 60's are now being charged with discrimination as same sex marriage laws take hold in our society. This collision course of gay marriage and religious freedoms is not some exaggeration or conspiracy theory. It is happening right before our eyes and will get worse as long as we remain silent. Please watch the video and pass it along to others.

Thanks to Air Maria for this video.

Why Barack Obama has to be seen as an enemy of the Catholic Church

Why is it that so many here in the U.S. are totally blind to what is obvious to our friends in the U.K.? Click on the headline below to read a great piece from U.K.'s Catholic Herald:

Why Barack Obama has to be seen as an enemy of the Catholic Church

Let's see look at President Obama's track record. All these points are verifiable in the above article as well as through an easy Google search:

Strong supporter of abortion on demand
Supports federal funding of abortions in this country and abroad
Supports partial birth abortion.
Supports minors getting abortions without parental notification
Supports embryonic stem cell research
He voted for a proposal to vote $100,000,000 for the funding of sex-education and contraceptives for teenagers.
He opposed the “Born Alive Infants Protection Act” on the Senate floor and in 2003 killed the bill in committee. This would have outlawed “live birth abortion,” where labor is induced and an infant is delivered prematurely and then allowed to die.
Supports the repeal of Don't ask, Don't tell in the military
Recently weakened conscience protection laws
Refuses to defend Defense of Marriage Act
Has referred to the concept of traditional families as "discriminatory" and "products of outworn arguments and old attitudes".

Yet so many Catholics continue to support him and make excuses. I don't want to get too political here, but if you are going to call yourself a Catholic, or a Christian for that matter, then act like one. When any politician has such a vile track record against life and families, then it is our obligation as Catholics to pray for their conversion and to oppose their political agenda. It's time to stop making excuses. If people in the U.K. can see how opposed Obama is to the Catholic Church, why are we still so blind right here in the U.S.?

What Some People Find Offensive

Take a look at the video below, and ask your self if you find this offensive. Unfortunately Fox Sports had decided not to air this ad during the Superbowl because of their policy against commercials with religious doctrine. They do not want to risk offending anyone.

I personally didn't find any religious doctrine in this ad. It simply directs viewers to look up John 3:16 for themselves in the Bible or on-line. I admire the creators of this ad, Fixed Point Foundation, in how they responded to Fox Sports:

“Fox Sports isn't the enemy,” said Taunton [Larry Taunton Executive Director of Fixed Point]. “We aren't out to demonize them. We think this is more of a cultural issue than it is a Fox Sports issue. Their solution was just to run from it because they think this is something that would offend their viewership. I think we have become so utterly sensitive and politically correct that the result is we end up doing absurd things like this.”

Because of the twisted values of our culture and the media, anything with a Christian message is deemed offensive. However Fox Sports and the Fox Network in general have no problem airing the usually racy ads from Go-Daddy and other sponsors that in the past have been borderline pornographic and have openly mocked religion. Fox Network also does not find it offensive to air their usual lineup of violence and sex filled shows on prime time each evening. Most recently Fox deemed it appropriate and inoffensive to air openly the show Glee, which contains explicit sexual content, teen promiscuity, and graphic scenes with gay teens and their same sex partners.

I agree with Mr. Taunton about this whole matter. The isn't just an issue with Fox, but it is symptomatic of our sick society in which so much immorality is accepted and "normal" and "good". However any mention of Christ and His message of hope and truth and turning away from sin is found offensive and met with ridicule and scorn. Our culture is submersed so deeply in darkness that it attacks anything that points to the Light. It is like a person who has been sitting in the dark for a long time. Once a bright light is turned on, it causes pain to the person's eyes. They can either be patient and accept the light and bear with the pain until their eyes adjust or they can choose the darkness by shielding their eyes and try to extinguish the light. It is easy to see which option our society is choosing.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. (Isaiah 5:20)

Putting Masculinity back in Church

I recently came across these three articles by Doug Giles about the lack of men in churches and its affect on society.

Christianity with Cojones, Part 1
Christianity with Cojones, Part 2: Rebels With A Cause
Christianity with Cojones, Part 3

I have to admit that I liked the author's choice of words for the titles. But more importantly are the very strong arguments that the author makes for the need to bring men and real masculinity back into our churches. I have highlighted below some of the main points from each article:

The current lack of strong men within the Church, both in the numeric and leadership sense, has crippled our churches and has helped devastate our nation.

The masculine spirit being absent from the pulpit, the pew and subsequently the public square has not only slowed down the forward progress of the Church, it has also weakened our nation’s morality and security, increased our country’s secularity, and has assisted [owing to our absence] the lascivious Left’s re-definition of life, sex, marriage and law. That’s all.

Get it right, folks: It wasn’t the church’s belief that Jesus is God, or their love of covered dish dinners, or their Christian rock music that got them the ax; it was their holy defiance to the demonic edicts that Caesar attempted to slap them with. Rome didn’t give a rat’s backside whom or what they believed in just as long as that belief didn’t rock the boat of the Roman state. And that’s exactly what first-century Christianity did: It adhered to God’s laws versus Rome’s. The Church believed that Christ was Lord and therefore, respectfully of course, Caesar could kiss their fish sticker. Indeed, following the teachings of Jesus, the initial Ichthus crowd was rowdy when it came to an oppressive state.

Priest to Catholic voters: Stop being stupid!

My first reaction about this statement from Fr. Father Richard Perozich of San Diego is: WOW! This priest has some serious guts. Why can't more bishops and priests do what God called them to do and lead their flocks like this priest? Thank you Fr. Perozich for being a true priest of Christ and boldly telling Catholics everywhere what they should have been told long ago. Too many Catholics blindly follow Catholic-in-name-only politicians who promise economic prosperity and supposed "social justice". But the ultimate price for this is the lives of the unborn and the destruction of the family.

I have tried to stay away from politics in this blog, but as we approach election day, I felt I had to speak up. I am disgusted with moral decay of this nation. It causes me to fear greatly for the future of my children and grandchildren. I feel as if I don't even recognize this society any longer. In my 40 year life span, our society has declined to where human life holds little value and supporting traditional families is bigotry. Our nation was founded on Christian principles and Catholics are the largest religious denomination in this country. Yet we continue to vote for those who promote death and sexual immorality to our children. This is nothing short of insanity. We have politicians and huge corporations publicly supporting groups like Planned Parenthood and the Human Rights Campaign, which are responsible for promoting abortions, sexual immorality and anti-Christian bigotry. Yet we foolish Christians are afraid to speak up against this evil for fear of being "intolerant" or "bigotted" or "politically incorrect". We keep selling ourselves and our children's future to these politicians for promises of "hope", "change" and financial gain. Before you go and vote this season, read Fr. Richard Perozich's statement and then spend time thinking about what it means to vote as a Catholic should.

Thank you to Matt Abbot and RenewAmerica for spreading this important message.

Priest to Catholic voters: Stop being stupid!

Elections are coming up November 2, 2010. Catholics must engage in the political process to form a nation that reflects the values held by Christ's followers. Learn who you are and act like a Christian. 1 Peter 2.9 But you are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises" of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Your job is to announce to the whole world that Jesus is the anointed King of God's everlasting reign — and to offer all men His salvation given by grace and received by faith. One forum in which you do this is politics. Politics comes from the words pole and polarity. Poles are opposite ends of an idea, of a temporal structure, or of a force.

Catholics, even though we live in a country and are citizens of that country, have a higher calling and responsibility to God and to our neighbor to promote God's truth even when others hate it, reject it, and hate us for proclaiming it. We are citizens in an earthly realm, but more importantly we are citizens of the new kingdom of heaven with Jesus as the Lord, His laws as our prime way of life, and called to live them and to promote them even to unbelievers.

We live in a society where many people with power, possessions, and prestige are promoting ideas that are not founded in Christ. In order to promote their ideas over ours, they tell us we must stay in our churches, keep our religion to ourselves, and that their idea of separation of the church from the state (which does not exist in our American Constitution as they say it does) trumps any ideas we might have, so we have to shut up.

And Catholics sheepishly keep quiet and vote for men and women who promote evil.

Every year at this time we are forced to endure political correctness run wild in the form of a barrage of attacks on Christopher Columbus. Unfortunately those behind this revisionist history have chosen to portray Columbus as some kind of blood thirsty genocidal tyrant who was single handedly responsible for the slave trade. In my opinion, political correctness is castrating this country and forcing us to be apologetic for any accomplishment in this history of this great nation.

I just want to add my two cents into this debate with this article by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J. in defense of Christopher Columbus.

In Defense of Christopher Columbus the Catholic

I will end this with a couple of quotes from the above article. Please read Fr. Hardon's article as it reveals the seldomly heard truth about Columbus.

Those who criticize Columbus for destroying, in their words, the precious culture of the American Indians, ignore the grim facts of pre-Columbian American history.

A fair example is the Aztec civilization in Mexico. Seemingly advanced in other ways, the Aztec religion sank to some of the worst excesses of superstition. It is so extreme as to be almost incomprehensible to us who are familiar with the barbarous atrocities of the concentration camp and nuclear war.

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