(Editor's Note, Bill and I have been discussing homosexuality and the problem of faith for the last few posts. So I encourage you to read Welcome Bill I LGBT Agenda II and Welcome Bill II The Problem of Faith, Welcome Bill III: Same Sex Attraction is not a Sin and Welcome Bill IV: No Man is an Island . Susan Fox)
"So unfortunately there are no private and personal matters that do not spill out into society and harm it." (Susan Fox)
Bill's Response: Even if that were really true, which it is not, there is nothing that you can do about it other than complain. You have no right to interfere with private and personal matters that are legal. And there are private and personal actions that the government has no right to make illegal.
You can't legislate morality. Even if we have more crime and social ills due to people abusing their freedom, the solution is not to eliminate that freedom for everyone. It is to eliminate the freedom for the offender. Denying all gays the right to marry because of the socially harmful acts of some gays is not what this country is all about. This country prides itself in its freedom and does not restrict that freedom to only those activities not deemed by the Catholic Church to be "sins".
Dear Bill,
We are getting close to an agreement! It's true I personally can do NOTHING to stop people from abusing their freedom. My only goal is to help form people in the image and likeness of Christ by sharing His viewpoint. It's their choice what they do with it!
Through your comments you have told me an awful lot about yourself. What a good man you are called to be! You have a great hunger for goodness and fair play. When you lectured me on courtesy, you showed that you value the virtue of gentleness and kindness, and you showed this virtue in many of your remarks.
When you said, "let me try to comment without being deleted," you showed you were a lover of truth because you anxiously wanted the truth to come out.
You obviously admire the virtue of faith because you mentioned you admired mine. Again, you showed regard for truth when you questioned whether the Bible is true.
Then you demonstrated your humanity by asking us reading this to acknowledge and accept same sex attracted people. I do accept such people. They are human beings deeply loved by our Father in heaven. They are His children, and in fact if someone has any flaws at all, they have more right to God's mercy than Miss Goody Two Shoes! (Do we know anyone like that?)
You exhibited an anxiety and concern for others in your question about personal acts being harmful or not harmful.
Now you ask me about the wedding between two men or two women. And this shows you are called to deep personal intimacy with God and with others. This is obviously something you desire, and don't we all?
When I was a little girl, a friend of my mother's gave me a beautiful blond doll. She had made the clothes and created a closet for them to rest in. I was a very spoiled little girl, and so when I saw the doll, I said, "I don't want a blond doll. I want a red head!" That poor elderly woman confronted by my selfish outburst and ingratitude, very humbly withdrew the gift and promised to change the hair color of the doll to red. She did so, but all the joy she might have gathered from my enthusiastic response drained away.
I recognized this. I was only four or five years old. And when she returned the same doll with red hair, I was horrified. What had been a very pretty doll was now ugly! I honestly never once in my life played with that doll.
So it is that as the active homosexual person seeks recognition and acceptance by the add-on of "marriage," he or she destroys the very thing they desire, that is the institution of marriage.
When my sister-in-law was preparing to become a Dominican nun, my husband and I took her on a trip to Williamsburg, VA. She was very annoying. She was totally in love with Jesus, so she wasn't much company. She reminded me of what Lawrence and I had been like when we were courting! Nobody could get in, we were just wrapped up in one another. My sister was being courted by Our Lord, and she was preparing to become His Bride!
I did door-to-door work with a short little nun in Washington State and at every door I introduced her as Jesus' bride. She was happy to be introduced in that manner, and even non-Catholic people were delighted to have Jesus' bride on their doorstep.
But should a Catholic nun, called to be a bride of Christ, turn her heart against the true teachings of her Divine Spouse given to the Catholic Church, she has destroyed her domestic bliss. She is like the shrewish wife rebelling against her husband's love. And that is a broken unhappy household.
Now married couples dedicated to life-long chastity -- sexual activity to be shared wholly in the context of married love -- model that intimacy that every soul is called to share with God. And their union is usually fruitful in a very physical way -- they have children. It's a little microcosm of the Holy Trinity: The Holy Spirit is the Love between the Father and Son.
And the Holy Spirit does not bear another Divine Person, but He makes Jesus Christ incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, confects Him in the Eucharist at the words of the priest in the Mass. Then with Mary's human help, He recreates the image of Christ in
the human heart.
The homosexual man or woman, longing for this Community of Persons to be active in his own life, naturally finds himself attracted to marriage. It's a beautiful estate. It models intimacy with God. But say the government says, "Okay, you can legally marry." Does anything change in his relationship with his gay partner? Not really. Everything is just the same. They may or may not be faithful to one another. Both partners' sexuality is identical. The driving reason for the marriage is to gain acceptance for their lifestyle. They may even adopt children with this goal in mind.
Now in a Catholic marriage a man and woman become one. That is their goal. In the Middle Ages, a married couple was allegorically displayed as a ball with four legs and four arms. They physically complement one another. Over time, two people find themselves serving the family and the world with one focus in mind -- to be the arms and legs of Jesus Christ. It is the only sacrament where two people bestow it on each other. With the Church's blessing on the union, there is grace to overcome selfishness, there is the openness to new life, and the excitement of anticipation that soon little persons with different personalities will be joining the family.
A father can marry his own son to guarantee inheritance. A woman can marry her dog. A man may marry five women at one time or a woman marry a woman and a man. And they can all get a quick divorce if their partner proves to be inconvenient. What happens to children in this case? They are cast aside with the spouse or spouses. They have no security.
Marriage has gone from the symbol of lifelong fidelity and fruitfulness to just another household of inconstant roommates. In fact, it is no longer marriage.
speech. She said,
"So unfortunately there are no private and personal matters that do not spill out into society and harm it." (Susan Fox)
Bill's Response: Even if that were really true, which it is not, there is nothing that you can do about it other than complain. You have no right to interfere with private and personal matters that are legal. And there are private and personal actions that the government has no right to make illegal.
You can't legislate morality. Even if we have more crime and social ills due to people abusing their freedom, the solution is not to eliminate that freedom for everyone. It is to eliminate the freedom for the offender. Denying all gays the right to marry because of the socially harmful acts of some gays is not what this country is all about. This country prides itself in its freedom and does not restrict that freedom to only those activities not deemed by the Catholic Church to be "sins".
Dear Bill,
We are getting close to an agreement! It's true I personally can do NOTHING to stop people from abusing their freedom. My only goal is to help form people in the image and likeness of Christ by sharing His viewpoint. It's their choice what they do with it!
You are Hungry for Goodness, Fair Play and Truth
Well Bill,Through your comments you have told me an awful lot about yourself. What a good man you are called to be! You have a great hunger for goodness and fair play. When you lectured me on courtesy, you showed that you value the virtue of gentleness and kindness, and you showed this virtue in many of your remarks.
When you said, "let me try to comment without being deleted," you showed you were a lover of truth because you anxiously wanted the truth to come out.
You obviously admire the virtue of faith because you mentioned you admired mine. Again, you showed regard for truth when you questioned whether the Bible is true.
Then you demonstrated your humanity by asking us reading this to acknowledge and accept same sex attracted people. I do accept such people. They are human beings deeply loved by our Father in heaven. They are His children, and in fact if someone has any flaws at all, they have more right to God's mercy than Miss Goody Two Shoes! (Do we know anyone like that?)
You exhibited an anxiety and concern for others in your question about personal acts being harmful or not harmful.
Now you ask me about the wedding between two men or two women. And this shows you are called to deep personal intimacy with God and with others. This is obviously something you desire, and don't we all?
Sometimes When We Reach for Something . . .
It's unfortunately part of the human condition that sometimes as we reach for something we want, we destroy it in the very act of reaching.When I was a little girl, a friend of my mother's gave me a beautiful blond doll. She had made the clothes and created a closet for them to rest in. I was a very spoiled little girl, and so when I saw the doll, I said, "I don't want a blond doll. I want a red head!" That poor elderly woman confronted by my selfish outburst and ingratitude, very humbly withdrew the gift and promised to change the hair color of the doll to red. She did so, but all the joy she might have gathered from my enthusiastic response drained away.
I recognized this. I was only four or five years old. And when she returned the same doll with red hair, I was horrified. What had been a very pretty doll was now ugly! I honestly never once in my life played with that doll.
So it is that as the active homosexual person seeks recognition and acceptance by the add-on of "marriage," he or she destroys the very thing they desire, that is the institution of marriage.
Priests' Celibacy Models Whole-Hearted Love of God
In the Catholic Church we have priests, who model the life of Christ by celibacy. They refrain from sexual activity their whole life long. Conformed to Christ, married to the Church, they become like a beacon to the rest of us, expressing wholehearted love of God, something we all want. But if the priest is unfaithful to this vocation, then all we see is a muddied brook.When my sister-in-law was preparing to become a Dominican nun, my husband and I took her on a trip to Williamsburg, VA. She was very annoying. She was totally in love with Jesus, so she wasn't much company. She reminded me of what Lawrence and I had been like when we were courting! Nobody could get in, we were just wrapped up in one another. My sister was being courted by Our Lord, and she was preparing to become His Bride!
I did door-to-door work with a short little nun in Washington State and at every door I introduced her as Jesus' bride. She was happy to be introduced in that manner, and even non-Catholic people were delighted to have Jesus' bride on their doorstep.
But should a Catholic nun, called to be a bride of Christ, turn her heart against the true teachings of her Divine Spouse given to the Catholic Church, she has destroyed her domestic bliss. She is like the shrewish wife rebelling against her husband's love. And that is a broken unhappy household.
Now married couples dedicated to life-long chastity -- sexual activity to be shared wholly in the context of married love -- model that intimacy that every soul is called to share with God. And their union is usually fruitful in a very physical way -- they have children. It's a little microcosm of the Holy Trinity: The Holy Spirit is the Love between the Father and Son.
And the Holy Spirit does not bear another Divine Person, but He makes Jesus Christ incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, confects Him in the Eucharist at the words of the priest in the Mass. Then with Mary's human help, He recreates the image of Christ in
the human heart.
The homosexual man or woman, longing for this Community of Persons to be active in his own life, naturally finds himself attracted to marriage. It's a beautiful estate. It models intimacy with God. But say the government says, "Okay, you can legally marry." Does anything change in his relationship with his gay partner? Not really. Everything is just the same. They may or may not be faithful to one another. Both partners' sexuality is identical. The driving reason for the marriage is to gain acceptance for their lifestyle. They may even adopt children with this goal in mind.
Now in a Catholic marriage a man and woman become one. That is their goal. In the Middle Ages, a married couple was allegorically displayed as a ball with four legs and four arms. They physically complement one another. Over time, two people find themselves serving the family and the world with one focus in mind -- to be the arms and legs of Jesus Christ. It is the only sacrament where two people bestow it on each other. With the Church's blessing on the union, there is grace to overcome selfishness, there is the openness to new life, and the excitement of anticipation that soon little persons with different personalities will be joining the family.
Marriage: a Household of Inconstant Roommates
But what about when the state says gays can marry. What happens to the marriage of the man and woman? Suddenly, in society's eyes, their marriage doesn't exist anymore -- in a legal sense -- because it doesn't mean anything.A father can marry his own son to guarantee inheritance. A woman can marry her dog. A man may marry five women at one time or a woman marry a woman and a man. And they can all get a quick divorce if their partner proves to be inconvenient. What happens to children in this case? They are cast aside with the spouse or spouses. They have no security.
Marriage has gone from the symbol of lifelong fidelity and fruitfulness to just another household of inconstant roommates. In fact, it is no longer marriage.
Lesbian Activist Agrees With Me
Lesbian Activist Masha Gessen confirmed this is the plan in a surprisingly honest 2012speech. She said,
- “I agree It’s a no-brainer that we (gays) should have the right to marry, but I also think equally that's it's a no-brainer that the institution of marriage should not exist.”
- “Fighting for gay marriage generally involves lying about what we’re going to do with marriage when we get there. Because we lie that the institution of marriage is not going to change, and that is a lie. The institution of marriage is going to change and it should change, and I don't think it should exist. I don't like taking part in creating fictions about my life. I have 3 kids who have 5 parents, and I don't see why they shouldn't have five parents legally. ” Then she goes through the elaborate way these five parents came together to make two different families with three children. And concludes, "I would like to live in a legal system that is capable of reflecting that reality. And I don't think that's compatible with the institution of marriage."
So what happens to the more traditional lesbian or gay couple when they marry to gain acceptance, and then find that marriage is nothing more than a sham, nothing but a legal arrangement with numerous possible variables? Will they be disappointed?
You are right Bill. I do oppose gay "marriage." But not because some gays do bad things. I object to it because it will lead to the destruction of the family, the destruction of society, and the loss of freedom and economic prosperity in this country. But it already exists in 13 states and Washington, D.C.
Bill, every law legislates morality. A law that says you can't steal legislates morality. A law that says it's okay to kill your baby legislates morality. A law that says you can't shoot someone on the street legislates morality.
Now if you saw someone about to shoot a child on the street, and I started to intervene, would you shout at me, "Stop, Susan, you can't legislate morality!"
Bill, given the virtues you've shown that attract you, I don't think you'd say that!
God bless you. Susan Fox
"But what about when the state says gays can marry. What happens to the marriage of the man and woman? Suddenly, in society's eyes, their marriage doesn't exist anymore -- in a legal sense -- because it doesn't mean anything."
ReplyDeleteThis is the major fear that must be overcome. Masha Gessen's statements are harmful to the gay marriage cause and I don't know why she said what she said about wanting to do away with traditional marriage. It is truly puzzling.
I guess neither of us is going to convince the other on this issue. We'll have to agree to disagree. The fact that you believe in a God who has a plan for us and that gay marriage is not part of that plan and that I believe that there is no God and no plan has a lot to do with our opposing views.
I respect your beliefs but I don't share them.
Aww Shucks, Bill, you are using the infallible argument, "We have to agree to disagree." Masha Gessen said what she said because she admires the virtue of honesty. I admire honesty as well. Can you answer a question for me. I thought you said at National Catholic Register that you were Catholic? Is that not correct? Because you also say here, "There is no God." And if you are Catholic, how did you get from that to "There is no God." God bless you. Susan Fox
ReplyDeleteI am Catholic and that is the conclusion I have come to. There is no God and there is no plan. I came to that conclusion by practicing the Catholic faith to the extreme and then looking into what I was doing and why I was doing it. Sorry if I gave you the impression that I was still a believer. I'm not. But I go to church every week for the sake of my wife because it makes her happy. I participate in discussions with people of faith to see what I can learn from them. What I have learned is that belief works and unbelief doesn't even though the belief is in something that is not true. When believers take stands like denying a woman's right to control her own body or gays the right to marry, I feel compelled to disagree with them and tell them so. That doesn't mean I hold any ill will toward them. I just think they need to be told the truth in order for them to better understand the situation.
DeleteDon't worry, Susan! Bill will be neither agreeing nor disagreeing when his civilization lies in burned wreckage, sacked by a foreign military sent as judgment against the United States of Embarrassment. I'm glad I got out of America years ago. I'll never go back.
ReplyDeleteIs that what you believe? That this country is going to be punished for providing freedom and opportunity to people of all walks of life? And you left why? Because you oppose freedom and opportunity?
DeleteAdonis Devereux,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I hope you are in a safe place! I'm in the United States biting my nails waiting for said foreign power. Pray for me! God bless you. Susan Fox
What do you mean? Do you fear that a foreign power is going to destroy this country? Do you want it to happen to prove that God is angry at this country? What if this country's biggest problem is its budget deficit because it tries too hard to take care of all its citizens' (and non-citizens') needs. Should it be punished for being too good to us?
DeleteNo Bill, I don't think God is going to punish this country. I think we are doing it all by ourselves. As to being taken over by a foreign power, we already have been. We have the Muslim Brotherhood in the CIA and the State Department. They were at least partially responsible for our stance on Egypt, which erupted into civil war, and they were responsible for why our U.S. Ambassador in Benghazi was killed. God bless you. Thank you for answering my question. I'm glad you go to church with your wife. That makes you a good husband. Susan Fox
ReplyDeleteHi Bill and Adonis, I thought your idea of God punishing America was an excellent idea for a blog post. So I addressed the issue in the next posting called, "Is God punishing the United States."
ReplyDeleteHope you enjoy reading it. God bless you both. Susan Fox
http://christsfaithfulwitness.blogspot.com/2013/08/is-god-punishing-united-states.html
This is a very thought provoking post; the destruction of marriage is paralleling the attempted destruction of the priesthood. Cardinal Ratzinger once said that the more consistent feminist position was its abolition; though,
ReplyDeletemany claim to desire it out of power. The same applies to "gay marriage". Homosexualists are using it to destroy it. When you redfine something, you subjectify it, you change it, you destroy it.
Marriage pre-dates the State; a State can protect marriage; a State may not and cannot redefine something beyond its power to do so; no more than the State can say 2 + 2 = 5. Gays may not realize it, but they are playing a part in growing State power into fascism. The use of the State to create a new morality and enforce it is pure, classical fascism. Look it up.
As to punishment: yes, God will - and is indeed right now, punishing all apostate nations. The problem with the United States is not in Peking, Moscow, Saudi Arabia; the problem is in Washington, DC. When the leaders of the SU get down on their knees and actually ask God for help, guidance, and when they actually make a public act of repentance, of even consecration, then God will bless America. Just as he will bless other great powers who have committed mass apostasy: Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and so on: each of these nations needs to repent and public officials MUST recognize Christ as King.
May those who are suffering form same-sex attraction draw near to Christ.
Barona, It is interesting to note (in light of your comment) that Pope John Paul II predicted that nations that accept abortion are paving the way to totalitarianism. (Gospel of LIfe) That's why we see the "civilized" world unraveling so quickly. Why does abortion lead to totalitarianism? Because we legally allow bullying. One human being (the parent) has greater rights than another (the child). And now we see this bullying extended to children already born and partially raised for in Belgium they are preparing to legalize child euthanasia. God bless you. Susan Fox
ReplyDelete