Lessons from the Local Pub: UK Conservatives Savor the Victory

The UK Labour Party forgot, “Thou shalt not steal.” But Brits remembered the 10 Commandments.

by Christopher Woodford, Reformed Socialist

(Don't miss the fascinating discussion on how to vote responsibly in the comment section below. Click on comments)

Watching Election Results from the Local Pub
in Southampton, England:
Christopher Woodford
On Twitter, he can be found @Crimbo51

I love elections. I always book the day off work after a General Election because I'm up all night watching the results unfold. Since 1992 the outcome has been predictable by using calculations based on the earliest results and exit polls. This year May 8 was no different, but the early revelations were shocking.

It was 1 a.m., May 9, and a sudden flash of hope came to me: “YES!”

In that moment I allowed myself to believe we might escape Labour Leader and would-be Prime Minister "Red" Ed Miliband and his ”Borrow against Tomorrow” policies. Our grandchildren might escape the Labour party sell-out of their future for short-term popularity. We might be able to continue the delicate Conservative repair of our economy, destroyed by Labour British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown from 1997-2010 in profligate leftist spending excesses. Goodbye European Union. Sorry, Greece, you will have to pay your own debt.

Dear Chief Secretary, I'm afraid there is no money.

When the Labour party left office in 2010, the Treasury minister Liam Byrne, left a note on his cleared desk for his Conservative successor:

Dear Chief Secretary, 

I'm afraid there is no money.

Kind regards and good luck. Liam

Before May 8, my country (England) had steeled itself for more acts of leftist lunacy. We remembered when Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown stopped tax relief on pension providers in his first budget in 1997, effectively robbing £118 billion ($183 billion) from pensioners. It meant that many older people would have to rely on welfare. Their own savings were stolen!

Also from1999 to 2002 the same Chancellor sold 400 tons of British gold reserves at one fifth of its value.

Now at 1 a.m., I realized we might be spared disaster. 

Infamous and "unsinkable" RMS Titanic departed from the 
City of Southampton, England, where Christopher Woodford lives,
 five days before it sank on  April 15, 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean
with the loss of over 1500 lives. 

Until this magical moment, all the pundits predicted that another coalition government either between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, or, God forbid, Labour and the Scottish Nationalist Party, was inevitable. The shock on various faces in the TV studio was a joy to behold. British Conservatives won a majority – 331 seats – five seats more than necessary to form a majority administration, and to govern without a coalition or formal agreement with other parties.

  

So why did the left-leaning BBC and Guardian get it so wrong? Why did Obama campaign consultant David Axelrod – after being paid $500,000 by Labour to provide a strategy of economic populism -- get it so wrong?

Maybe it was because the Tory Party Conservatives were getting it right! “Let’s not throw away our progress!”

The English and Welsh voters clearly witnessed the Conservatives fixing the economy with prudent policies not designed solely to foster popularity. As the right-leaning Daily Mail put it, “Middle England rose up to humiliate the pollsters and save the nation from Red Ed.”

The hard-left SNP (Scottish National Party) were the game changers in this election. The pro-same sex marriage party swept aside all opposition in Scotland, which has always been a Labour stronghold. Labour will never get Scotland back again. Everyone expected the SNP to do well, but they took 56 of 59 seats! In the long term, this may lead to Scottish independence. Northern Ireland as always, elected its patchwork quilt of MPs based on local interests.

The other wild card in the election was UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party), the far-right anti-immigration party. They polled nearly 4,000,000 votes nationwide, nearly 10% of the electorate, but, thanks to our “first past the post” system they took only 1 seat. The UKIP believes in controlling our borders and not adding to the national debt. Like many Brits, Americans and Canadians, they feel successive governments have not represented the will of the British people.

Of course, now they have joined the Liberals in whining for Proportional Representation. PR produces weak governments and removes the ability of the electorate to stand the political spectrum on its head every few years; Europe runs like this. Many have forgotten there was a nationwide vote held on Thursday 5 May 2011 on this very PR issue, and it was rejected. Game, set and match.

UK Independence Party is a ”one trick pony” standing on the anti-EU ticket. Its candidates were a motley bunch of extreme characters who, if they established a power base, may have turned nasty, even Nazi.

Conservative Ranil Jayawardena

RobertBlay, UKIP candidate for North East Hampshire, when it was mentioned to him that his rival Conservative Ranil Jayawardena could one day be the first Asian PM said, "If this lad turns up to be our Prime Minister I will personally put a bullet in him. That’s how strong I feel about it. I won’t have this f***** as our Prime Minister. I absolutely loathe him.” His comments were clearly based on Jayawardena’s ethnic origins.

So, how long would it be before peaceful, harmonious Britain is plunged into ethnic cleansing. I have a half-Thai grandson, born in the UK and holder of a British passport. Would they

Chris Woodford's beloved
half-Thai grandson

say about my grandson, ''His eyes are the wrong shape. He has to go''?

Quite a few of those I spoke to who supported UKIP were people who give more thought to football and reality TV than to politics.

The Liberal Democrat party was wiped out simply for getting into bed with the Conservatives after the 2010 election. Good. They are a pro-EU, tax and spend, removal of freedoms party, favoring an increase in income taxes, protecting the Education budget and wasting money guarding against climate change.

Another factor in this election was that for the first time, the electorate and opposition parties knew the date of the election years in advance thanks to the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011. Five years always was the maximum term a government could stay in power, but in all previous elections, the Prime Minister could and would choose a date and spring it upon the nation. The certainty of the date of this election altered the predictability of the 2015 outcome. There was time to ponder!

The Conservatives took 331 seats. It is a slim majority, but it means they don't have to rely on the support of spoilers like the Liberal Democrats as they have for the past five years. Now they can renegotiate our EU relationship and put it to the people in a referendum. They can tighten the noose on benefit scroungers. They can continue with the “austerity” package that has benefited the economy. Unemployment is falling and UK economic growth is faster than our Group of Seven partners, including the world’s richest industrialized countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United States and Canada.

Britain is again a net exporter of cars. Critics say the manufacturing companies are foreign, but it is a sign of confidence in our economy and national stability that these worldwide companies wish to be based here. A myriad industries are thriving and traffic is bad both morning and evening everywhere. That means that people are working.

The Labour Party and its leader,  “Red” Ed Miliband,  would have sold our souls to the EU. Germany and France would have made us the cash cow for the Greek debt. France would have redoubled its policy of shunting the refugees of the world to Calais and moving them across the English Channel.

A minority Labour administration – ably assisted by the left-wing  Scottish National Party -- would have been no different.

Where do we go from here?

The EU referendum will be worth watching. Maybe we can stay in if we can work out some kind of two-tier, arms-length membership. After all, when we joined in 1973, it was a free trade bloc of nine nations, not an undemocratic Soviet style super state.

The 2016 U.S. Presidential election is of huge interest to us. The outcome matters greatly to the UK. Let's not forget David Axelrod, who was hired to advise the UK Labour Party campaign. I expect his $500,000 fee came from the weekly union subscriptions of millions of British workers.

Will the American People confound the pollsters and return a Conservative President? The outcome of our elections certainly rocked the assumptions of the Hilary Clinton

Hillary Clinton: We imagine she said,
"The Conservatives in England did
what!?!"

Campaign for President. It's in American hands to look at the possible outcomes and decide as the UK electorate did, but they must vote with their heads.

The USA has a straight fight between two major parties. The only thing that could muddy the waters is if early primary states, which allow Democrats and Independents to pick Republican candidates, choose a weak conservative. Then – as in the last election – some conservatives could decide in fury to sit out the election, guaranteeing a liberal choice.

  

Will the U.S.  watch through the night to view a future unfolding which restores the values of individual enterprise and freedom, the values which the founding fathers intended?

Or, will they see the new day dawn under an administration that feels it necessary to micro-manage their lives and keep one hand in their pockets.

It has long been said in Britain that what America does follows here. Let's hope the USA follows Britain this time.

Sign in United Kingdom before the May 8 election

And a final sinister point to show that even the victorious Tory Party are not all sweetness and light. I was listening to a program on BBC Radio, which was doing a post mortem on the election. A representative of the BBC's election coverage was repeatedly asked if it was true that his team had been threatened by senior Conservatives in the lead up to the election. The poor man used hundreds of words to cleverly avoid saying “Yes” or “No.”

So, pick the devil you know. Perhaps it's just a matter of picking the least damaging devil. He can be identified as the one who doesn't want to tax and spend the peoples' money. If the devil is dressed like Robin Hood, look out! Robin Hood supported Richard the Lionheart and he taxed England dry to pay his ransom. Sounds familiar.

See fascinating discussion on how to vote responsibly in comment section below!

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Did you enjoy this piece by Christopher Woodford? He has written more! Don't miss History Recalls its Tragedies: Our Job is to Forgive

and British People are Like All People: We Want Peace

The United Kingdom prides itself on having multiple political parties, which form changing coalitions over time.

Conservatives (Tory):  UK Center-Right political party believes in more limited government, low taxes, European Union under our terms through an in and out referendum and growth through free private enterprise. Currently largest party in the UK with 331 seats.

Labour:  UK Center-Left political party. It was born of the trade union movement and socialist political parties of the 19^th century. It is the second largest party, and has more recently backed down from its stance in favor of common ownership of the means of production. In favor of big government, high taxes, pro-EU, 232 seats.

Liberal Democrat: UK Centrist Party, pro-EU, tax and spend, removal of freedoms party, favoring an increase in income taxes, protecting the Education budget and guarding against climate change. They were the Tories’ coalition partners 2010-2015. They used to be a large liberal party, but Labour eclipsed them in the 1920s. They now have 8 seats, down from 57!

SNP:  Left-wing Scottish Nationalists. Supports same-sex marriage, progressive taxation, government housing, unilateral nuclear disarmament, lowering the voting age to 16. Stands for Scotland's interests only, pro-EU, 56 seats.

UKIP: U K Independence Party is against UK involvement in the European Union. The UKIP believes in controlling UK borders and not adding to the national debt. Like many Brits, Americans and Canadians, they feel successive governments have not represented the will of the British people. 1 seat.

Green:  Stands for the environment. Tree huggers, 1 seat

Sinn Fein: Irish Republicans. Stands for Northern Ireland to reunite with Republic of Ireland. They never take up their London seats as they will not take the oath of allegiance. 5 seats. 

UUP/DUP: 13 seats between several small parties.
Stands for Northern Ireland to stay in UK (N. Ireland British Loyalists) 

Plaid Cymru: Welsh Nationalist Party stands for independent Wales  with close links to Scottish Nationalists. 3 seats

Independent MPS (1 seat)

Speaker of the House of Commons, doesn't vote unless it's a dead heat, and then will usually vote with the government -- 1 seat. 

Thank You

By Christopher Ziegler

Learning to accept your love for me
Has required a leap of faith.
I cannot see why I am precious to you.

My whole life you guarded me
As a mother guards her child.
I was a thankless brat.

When I was broken you embraced me
And held me in your arms.
So I came to feel I was in your debt
And wanted to repay you.

But you wanted more.

You told me you wanted all of me—
To give myself to you completely.

I did not believe in a love like that
So you allowed me to walk away.
But immediately miseries crept into me
And I withered inside.

How can I merit your love? I feel vile.

My soul cleaves to the darkness.

Yet you were still chasing after my heart.

I open myself to you and your love pours into me.
You flood my body with waves of joy.
Your love is better than anything I ever wanted.
Your words, soft and earnest, give wisdom.
My heart swells with tenderness.

Author Christopher Ziegler 

I cannot see why I am precious to you.
All I want to do is thank you—thank you.

Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces from God 

Did you enjoy this poem? Chris has written another about Mary: The Hardest Thing

Here's another poem on Mary: The Hands of the HandMaid: God Rocking in the Cradle

Ascension: Christ's Journey into Heaven

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

Ascension of the Lord, May 17, 2015

Saints Peter and Paul Parish, Tucson, AZ

Today we celebrate the wonderful feast of the Ascension of Our Lord where we celebrate Christ’s journey into heaven.

As we reflect on today’s celebration, we look at  our journey as Christians. The Ascension of Our Lord shows us that our lives here on Earth are temporary. We are only passing through, and our destiny is to live eternally with God in heaven.

In today’s first reading (Acts 1:1-11), we hear that after the Resurrection, Our Lord presented himself alive to His disciples by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days. Our Lord teaches and tells them to remain there until they receive the power of the Holy Spirit.

Then, as Our Lord is being taken up, we hear that two angels appear in the sky! They say, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” In other words, these angels are saying, “Get busy! Don’t just sit here! Go to work! Go out and proclaim the Gospel!

Our Lord wanted His disciples to focus on the most important part -- proclaiming the message of  salvation! This proclamation continues with each new generation of disciples. It has been handed onto our Church for the salvation of souls until Our Lord returns at the end of time.

My brothers and sisters, today’s feast is about preparing our hearts and souls for eternal life. Through His Ascension, Our Lord has become our bridge between heaven and earth. He came to establish His kingdom on earth and has given us His church so that we can prepare our hearts and souls for when He comes again at the final resurrection.

But if we want to live in the Resurrection, our Lord tells us that we must begin now. We can’t expect to live with Our Lord for eternity if we use our minds and bodies for what is not holy  today. This is why our Lord came to earth and established His Church -- the Voice of God in the world today. He calls his children to conversion. Listen. 

At His Ascension, Our Lord commands His disciples to “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned.” 

Notice that Our Lord does not simply tell us to be baptized. He tells us that we must also believe. Baptism gives us grace and makes us members of our Lord’s flock. But, if we do not truly believe, then we  condemn ourselves. 

It is when we believe that our hearts are changed, that we that we live for God and not for the world. 

Saint Paul says in today’s second reading (Ephesians 1:17-23), “May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his for us who believe.” 

Today’s feast calls us to look at the big picture. The world we live in today is passing away. Our Lord therefore calls us to set our

hearts on greater things. He wants us to focus on what is eternal. Our Lord has come to set up His kingdom on Earth, and He calls us to prepare our hearts for this Kingdom today.

The Catholic Church sees the Resurrection and Ascension of Our Lord as end-time events. Through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus has initiated the kingdom of God. He has brought His kingdom into the world. But, His kingdom is not yet fuflilled. The kingdom of God was inaugurated in Christ, but creation doesn’t yet fully participate in it. Full participation in the kingdom of God will come at the second coming of Christ and the final resurrection of our bodies. 

We are now in the time that the Church calls, eschatological tension. It is a tension between the old age and the new age. We began the new age at Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension, but the old age continues until Our Lord returns. This is why there are so many struggles in our world today. And, as we come closer to the end of the age, this tension is becoming more intense.
 
At the time of Jesus there were only about 2 to 3 hundred million people on the Earth. Today we have nearly seven billion. We not only have more people, but we are experiencing a rapid increase in technology unlike we've ever seen before in modern history. Yet, even with all this technology, we do not have true peace. As a world society, we are not happy because we have turned away from the laws of God. 

We are destroying our communities through war, violence and terrorism. We are destroying our families through contraception, sterilization, abortion and divorce. We are destroying our purity through pornography,

homosexuality, promiscuity, lust and abuse. We are destroying cultures through selfishness and disregard for the poor. We are destroying our environment through greed, overdevelopment and pollution. 

My brothers and sisters, because our world has turned its back on God, we are destroying the very life that God gave us! But Our Lord wants to give us a new life, not only in the life to come but even right now today, if only we believe in Him and change our lives accordingly. 

Let us not focus our attention on a world that is passing away. Let us focus our hearts on the Ascension of Our Lord so that our hearts and souls will be lifted toward the greater meaning of life which is eternal salvation.

Don't miss Fr. Shea's sermon from last week:
Love One Another as I Have Loved You

Love One Another as I Have Loved You

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 10, 2015

Saints Peter and Paul Parish, Tucson, AZ

“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.”

(John 15:12) 

Today’s Gospel (John 15:9-17) teaches us about our call as Christians. 

Last week, we heard about the vine and the branches from the passage before the scene in today's Gospel.

Our Lord was reminding His disciples that their entire ministry of discipleship is completely dependent upon Him, and He was explaining their need to allow Him to prune in them whatever is not good and holy.

Now He is reminding them that if they are to bear fruit, then they must follow Our Lord’s example of love. They must love one another for Christ’s sake and according to His example.

My brothers and sisters, today’s message of

Ordination of
Fr. John Paul Shea

love encompasses the fullness of all the commandments of Our Lord.

We are reminded, however, that true love is not about fuzzy feelings. True love is not simply affection.

Christ’s example of love to His disciples was a love that was self-abandoning and self-sacrificing. Jesus shows us that love is a commitment. True love seeks the best for the other person.

In today’s Gospel, Our Lord says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one’s friends.”

Our Lord gave us the most perfect example of greater love by dying on the cross, and He expects us, His disciples, to follow in His

footsteps by laying down our lives for one another, each in our own way and within our own circumstances. Our Lord laid down His life for us out of pure love, and He calls us to imitate His example by laying aside our own desires. Seek the good regardless of cost. Love -- not for our selfish sake -- but for God's. 

Our world does not know  true love because our world has strayed from God. This is why there is so much sex and gratification exploited in all areas of our culture and society.

Our culture teaches us not the way of love, but of selfishness. Our society says, do not give. Take! Do not sacrifice. Enjoy!

Today’s second reading from 1 John 4:7-10 says, “Everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.”

So many persons in our culture today do not know God because they do not know what true love is. Instead of a culture of love, we have turned to death. People and relationships have become disposable. We are becoming a manufactured society. That is why we are having so many problems.

So much immorality around us… So many kids from broken homes… So many persons who are addicted to drugs or sex or pornography … So many who do not love themselves because they do not know how precious they are….

When God is removed from society, then true love is removed. Persons are viewed as a commodity, whereas we are really God's children. Sex becomes an object of lust instead of a gift of love.

But, God does not want this. He does not want His children to live for our death culture and hedonistic society. He is calling us to live for Him, to live in Truth. 

Jesus tells His disciples, “It was not you who

chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain.”

My brothers and sisters, we have been chosen! Each one of us! We would not be

here at Mass today if we were not hand-picked children of Our Lord.

The question we must ask ourselves is, “How are we responding to our Lord’s call? How are we accepting His commandment to love in our daily lives?

Each one of us has a different vocation in life. Some of are priests. Some are married. Some  are mothers. Some are fathers. Some are single. We have different jobs and occupations. We have different interests, but there is one commandment that Our Lord requires of each one of us. Our Lord commands each one of us to live in His love.

As we receive our Lord in the Holy Eucharist today, let us come to know the depth of our Lord’s love in our lives. And let us strive to follow His example of true love by loving one another as He has loved us.

The Myth of the "Gay Holocaust:" Lessons from the Nazi Experiment

By Christopher Ziegler

“Most men start revolutionary changes for reasons connected with their private lives.” (Aristotle) 

This month marks 70 years since the fall of the Third Reich.

A senile German President Paul von Hindenburg
ushered in the Nazi era in 1933 by appointing
Adolf Hitler Chancellor of a  "Government of
National Concentration" though the Nazis were in
 the minority 

Despite the passage of time, much about Hitler and the Nazis remains enigmatic. How did this small band of evil men gain absolute control over a civilized nation in such a short time?

The Nazis pursued power with a unique brand of ruthless pragmatism, and they pioneered many modern propaganda techniques in the process. Yet for all their intelligence and skill, the downfall of the Nazi party was as swift and decisive as its rise. When Hitler gained power he immediately set Germany on a course for war—against everyone. His catastrophic military blunders led to the destruction of everything he had achieved within a few years. 

Furthermore, why was it that, as writer David Berlinski once asked: “For reasons that they could not make clear, even to themselves, the men controlling the Third Reich determined that it would be a fine thing to exterminate 9 million European

Author Christopher Ziegler
can be found @CZWriting 

Jews?” Even during the last 18 months of the war, they continued to divert needed men and resources from the front in order to ramp up “production” in the death camps. This peculiar combination of political acumen, self-destructiveness, and unfathomable hatred remains a puzzle. To solve it, we must rediscover some not-so-hidden clues about who the Nazis really were.

In May 1994, a group of American homosexuals staged a “pilgrimage” to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. The LGBT movement has made impressive political advances in America in the past 20 years. This success has depended on the movement’s skillful portrayal of themselves as victims in need of protection. In this spirit they have cast their cause as an extension of the American Civil Rights Movement and have spearheaded numerous anti-bullying campaigns. Part of this effort has included raising awareness about Nazi persecution of homosexuals during the Holocaust. Richard Plant’s The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals(1987) and Frank Rector’s The Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals (1981) are classics of this genre.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the pity party. When the American homosexual contingent arrived at the memorial in Jerusalem they were met with resistance by a group of Jewish Holocaust survivors, some of whom were so filled with rage they had to be physically restrained from attacking the activists. One man yelled “My grandfather was killed for refusing to have sexual relations with the camp commandant. You are desecrating this place…” (The Jerusalem Post, May 30, 1994). It seems that these Holocaust survivors had a somewhat different recollection of history.

The myth of the “Gay Holocaust” is a product of revisionist history. Homosexuals who died in the Holocaust were only a fraction of less than one percent of homosexuals in Nazi-occupied Europe (S. Katz, Holocaust and Genocide Studies). The camp with the highest number of “Pink Triangles” was Buchenwald, and the number of these prisoners peaked in 1944 at a mere 189 (Grau, Hidden Holocaust?). Many of these "Pink Triangles" were actually non-homosexuals who were falsely accused of homosexuality for political reasons. Communists and religious dissidents, for example, were often given the Pink Triangle designation. Although Nazi leaders often talked tough about gays, there was no systematic or sustained effort to persecute homosexuals as there was with the Jews.

Even The Washington Blade, a gay newspaper, admitted to the falsity of the “Gay Holocaust” narrative after looking into the research of historian John Fout. Most homosexuals “were imprisoned for relatively short sentences and in regular German prisons, not concentration camps as has been generally believed.” Furthermore, “The overwhelming majority of those arrested…were charged with engaging in sex in public places” (The Washington Blade, May 22, 1998). In other words, they were guilty of violating laws that pre and post-dated the Nazi regime. The Washington Blade article went on to say that the gay subculture of German cities mostly survived the Nazi era intact.

Although very few homosexuals were sent to the camps simply for the crime of being gay, some of those imprisoned did happen to be gay. Of these, many Holocaust survivors have said that they received privileged status in the camps. The Nazis administered their camps through the use of kapos, who were overseers chosen from among the prison population, and violent homosexuals were often chosen to fill this role. Stephen Ross, founder of the New England Holocaust Museum, was imprisoned for five years in the

camps as a child. He testifies that he was forced to perform

oral sex on some of these guards (Holocaust Survivor: Molested by Guards, The Massachusetts News, April 5, 2000). Holocaust literature abounds with examples of homosexual abuse. In his definitive account, Night, Elie Wiesel writes of Auschwitz: “there was considerable traffic in young children among homosexuals here.” (Wiesel 59).

These things may be hard to believe for Americans who have been sold on the image of the “gentle gay,” a harmless effeminate creature who is more likely to be the victim than the victimizer. But throughout the ages and in many cultures, homosexuality has been a common feature of ultra-masculine warrior cults. The ancient Spartans provide the most salient example of this behavior. High rates of violence and sadomasochism exist in gay cultures today. Indeed, although homosexuals are frequently the victims of violence, it is violence suffered most often at the hands of another homosexual.

According to a 2014 CDC study, less than 3 percent of American adults identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual. Yet, of 43 serial killers studied between 1966 and 1983 by the Midwestern Psychological Association in Chicago, 19 or 44 percent were homosexual. And many of America’s most vicious serial killers have been homosexual. These include John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dhamer. Many criminologists have noted that murders committed by homosexuals very often involve overkill—which is when a corpse exhibits wounds far beyond what is required to cause death. Overkill indicates that the murderer had an intense and irrational hatred toward the victim.

These facts shed light on the brutality of the Nazis. Until the 1970s, it was widely acknowledged in American culture that the leaders of the Nazi party were homosexuals. This fact was documented in a book written by Samuel Igra in 1945 titled Germany’s National Vice. Igra, a German Jew who closely observed the rise of the Nazis through the 20’s and 30’s before fleeing the country, called homosexuality the "poisoned stream" that ran through the heart of Nazism. He  writes that Hitler was “The central figure around which a number of men grouped themselves, from the 1920’s onwards, in a movement to gain supreme control of the German people. As the movement developed they were aided and abetted and supported financially as well as politically by the industrial capitalists of the Rhineland; but the initiative did not come from the latter. It came from Hitler as the condottiere of a band of evil men who were united together by a common vice.”

What was called “Germany’s national vice” was well known in Europe at the time. H.R. Knickerbocker, in his 1941 book Is Tomorrow Hitler's? said: “It remains characteristic of the Germans, that they -- outwardly the most brutally masculine of all European peoples -- are the most homosexual nation on earth.” Wilhelm Reich, a renown German psychoanalyst and author of The Mass Psychology of Fascism wrote that homosexuality was the breeding ground of fascism. Susan Sontag once tried to explain the phenomenon of sadomasochism in gay subculture as the “eroticizing of Nazism” and said that there is a natural link between homosexual sadomasochism and fascism. Even today, gay

Nazi chic

fashion (particularly among sadomasochists) retains points of commonality with the accouterments of Nazi military garb. Coincidentally, the words “fascist” and “faggot” both derive from the same Latin root word, fasces (meaning a bundle of rods).

In the Soviet Union in the 1930s, homosexuality was labeled the “fascist perversion,” and Soviet writer Maxim Gorky once remarked that there was a saying in Germany at the time that went: “Eradicate the homosexual and fascism will disappear.” Historian Mary Beard wrote in The Sex Life of the Unmarried Adult that “the Fascist movement in Germany, as in Italy and Japan, is essentially a dynamic of unmarried males…Adolf Hitler, [is] a bachelor like the majority of the thirty or forty leaders of the Nazi Party…A number of the prominent Nazis are men with a record of sexual perversions as well as of military daring.” Our residual cultural awareness of the implicit homosexuality of the Nazis is forever enshrined in the hilarious rendition of “Springtime for Hitler” in Mel Brooks’ The Producers.

The most notorious homosexual among the Nazis was Ernst Rohm. William Shirer, author of the definitive work The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, wrote that Rohm was “A tough, ruthless, driving man—albeit, like so many of the early Nazis, a homosexual — he helped organize the first Nazi strong-

arm squads.” A thick, heavy-set man, Rohm was the archetypal “butch” homosexual and pederast. (Pederastry, or “Greek love,” is the relationship between an adult male and a boy between the ages of 12-18.) Rohm had been a professional soldier since 1906 and after World War I he became a member of the terrorist group the Iron Fist, where he met a young Adolf Hitler. He helped groom Hitler for leadership and together they founded the National Socialist German Worker's Party on April 1, 1920. Rohm was the commander of the Brownshirts, also known as the SA (whose name meant Storm Troopers, named in honor of the Nordic god Wotan, the god of storms).

“[Rohm] projected a social order in which homosexuality

would be regarded as a human behavior pattern in high

repute…he flaunted his homosexuality in public and insisted that his cronies do the same. What was needed, Rohm believed, was a proud and arrogant lot who could brawl, carouse, smash windows, kill and slaughter for the hell of it. Straights, in his eyes, were not as adept in such behavior as practicing homosexuals,” according to Louis Snyder, a prominent historian of the Nazi era.  Through the SA, Rohm was able to live his dream of belonging to a modern Greek warrior cult. The Brownshirts terrorized Germany by beating up and harassing their political opponents until the Nazis became the most feared nationalist party. Homosexual historian Alfred Rowse writes of the Brownshirts that, “Theirs was a very masculine brand of homosexuality. They lived in a male world, without women, a world of camps and marching, rallies, and sports. They had their own relaxations, and the Munich SA became notorious on account of them.”

Many other Nazi leaders were homosexuals or rumored to be homosexuals, but perhaps no one else deserves more attention than Adolf Hitler himself. In 2001, German historian Lothar Machtan published The Hidden Hitler, in which he settled the matter of Hitler’s homosexuality by drawing on

Portrait of Hitler 

hundreds of period documents. Hitler never married until the day he killed himself, suggesting that he was none too keen on the issue of marriage. (He was probably not exclusively homosexual, but it should be noted that two of the women he is believed to have had relations with ended up committing suicide, while another attested to his having freakish sexual perversions.) 

During his “artist” years before World War I, Hitler spent time in a Viennese flophouse known as the Meldemannstrasse hostel. Machtan writes that, “Municipal hostels for homeless males were hubs of homosexual activity…[where many young men] kept themselves afloat by engaging in prostitution. Hitler spent over three years in this environment.” As a young man, Hitler was often referred to as “Der Schoen Adolf” (“the handsome Adolf”). 

Hitler was a big fan of the German composer Richard Wagner. From 1925 to 1933, Hitler became close with the Wagner family and made numerous trips to the Wagner estate in Bayreuth. According to Machtan, Hitler would often make these trips with male homosexual companions, including a man named Julius Schreck, whose photograph hung next to that of Hitler’s mother in his private quarters.

Hitler and Richard Wagner's two grandsons.

Hitler was known to be fond of Wagner’s grandchildren, Wolfgang and Wieland Wagner. In a Time Magazine article in 1994, the Wagner family made the accusation that, “Hitler sexually abused young Wieland during the ‘20s.'” This was revealed in an interview with American author and diplomat, Frederic Spotts, who investigated the Wagner family while writing the book Bayreuth (Time, August 15, 1994). Wieland would later become Hitler’s protege and was exempted from military service by Hitler’s personal intervention (Machtan).

This information helps us to make sense of the mystery which still rightly haunts us: Why did the Nazis want to exterminate the Jewish people? For the answer to this question we are indebted to the work of Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams, authors of The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party. Lively (a Christian) and Abrams (a Jew) argue that the Holocaust can only be understood as spiritual warfare. To put the question another way, what did the Jews believe that could have incited such irrational hatred?

The condemnation of homosexuality in the Bible is, shall we say, something that has never gone unnoticed among men who self-identify as homosexual. It is not a matter of selective interpretation, as some liberals and modernists of today would have us believe. Homosexuality is repeatedly condemned in both the Old and New Testaments in the harshest terms. Every time the practice is mentioned it is linked to personal or societal destruction. In the Torah, homosexuality is designated as toeva, meaning abomination. Some people today (mostly those who have never read the Bible) believe that such prohibitions must have been commonplace in ancient times, and that the Biblical code is just a relic from this period. But nothing could be further from the truth. As those who have read the Bible know, the prohibitions found in the Torah, especially those against homosexuality and other non-procreative sex acts, are what set the Jewish people apart and made them unique among their neighbors in the ancient near east. 

Most pagan worship never contained strict prohibitions against homosexuality. In fact, homosexuals -- gay and lesbian -- were often the priests of these ancient cults. "The Jews were the people responsible for the demise of the pagan world domination. Their theology (especially in its Christian form) banished pagan practices, including

The "Poisoned Stream" that runs through Nazism

homosexuality, to a hidden and often reviled subculture. At its very root there is a spiritual element to the Holocaust that suggests that it was, in some respects, vengeance against the people whose moral laws had relegated pagan sex-religions to obscurity and ignominy” (Lively and Abrams).

The Nazis, who were occultists (the swastika and the SS double lightning bolt were occult symbols), adhered to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche wrote that Christianity was a Jewish conspiracy, through which Jewish morality was able to triumph over the “superior” masculine ethos of the Greeks. Following Nietzsche, the Nazi architects believed that their great goal was to undo the “damage” Christianity had done to the German race. “Christianity was perceived by the Nazis as merely the theological puppet of Judaism; a tool to enslave the minds of otherwise rational people of every race” (Lively and Abrams).

A pamphlet distributed by the Nazis called Race Defilement told the story: "The way in which Christianity is directed in the interests of world Jewry and its attitude toward Judaism is traceable to the undeniable fact that the founders and proclaimers of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth were full-blooded Jews…It cannot therefore be coincidence, or negligence or ignorance that consciously makes Christians…deviate from the fundamental tenets of conserving nationality and cultivating race. The reason for this is to defile non-Jewish races, weaken and destroy them so that Judaism, as the 'chosen people,' can…[erect] a world sovereignty on the ruins of the non-Jewish races which Christianity has destroyed” (Author Dietrich Hutton).

The Nazis believed they had to take apart Judeo-Christian morality root and branch. Their strategy to implement this

American Soldiers view corpses found in newly
liberated Buchenwald concentration camp in
April 1945

was two-fold: for ethnic Jews, extermination; for Christians, re-education. The Nazis were practical enough to understand that a Christian Holocaust was not feasible. But killing off most of the nations ethnic Jewish population was an attainable goal. As the Jews were being wiped out, German Christians were being propagandized with the neo-pagan race ideals. Those pastors and priests who resisted were sent to the death camps right along with the Jews, while the rest of the congregations would be intimidated into silence.

In March 1935, 700 Protestant pastors were arrested by the Gestapo for condemning neo-paganism. The Nazis accused them of “violating the moral instincts of the German race by references to Abraham, Joseph and David in the course of their teachings.” In May 1941, a Nazi decree banned all Catholic periodicals and newspapers. As soon as the Nazis came to power they replaced many Christian holidays with pagan celebrations like “The Day of the Summer Solstice.” Marriage ceremonies invoked “Mother Earth” and “Father Sky.” Crucifixes and prayer were gradually removed from schools and hospitals, and teachers were prohibited from attending voluntary religion classes organized by the Catholic Church (Lively and Abrams). It is impossible here to document the full extent of the Nazis’ evil designs, but the facts collected here help paint a picture of the true spiritual meaning of the Holocaust.

The Apostle Paul said that, “The carnal mind is enmity to God.” All people have God’s law of right and wrong written in their hearts. Violating this law through repeated acts of sodomy hardens one’s heart against God, making it easier to transgress other moral statutes. The homosexual agenda, past and present, is easily understood as a war against God’s law and authority. People who self identify as homosexual have always been at the vanguard of the sexual liberation movement (war on God’s law) with abortion, prostitution, transgenderism and bestiality trailing in their wake.

The reason the Bible so frequently singles out homosexuality is because it is the most politically aggressive, and therefore the most socially dangerous, of all the sexual sins. Most sexual sins do not have a social component. Two adulterous men cheating on their wives or two women who have had abortions do not typically get together to form societies centered on their transgressions. They tend to keep their actions secret and hidden from public. But homosexuals, because of the very nature of their sin, do tend to get together and form societies. They agitate for public recognition and, because they are often talented and unburdened by the demands of family life, they are able to accumulate wealth and exert influence well beyond their limited numbers. 

These characteristics endow homosexual movements with potentially revolutionary power. This is why almost every human society was permeated with homosexuality before the rise of Christianity, and why wherever and whenever the Judeo-Christian influence weakens, homosexual movements are able to reassert their strength.

An estimated 25,000 to 40,000 Germans were killed in the Dresden
bombing Feb. 13-15, 1945. The city was destroyed.

70 years ago this month, the world witnessed the destruction of the once great German nation. They had the world's best scientific minds, the hardest workers and a charismatic

leader who promised them their Reich would last 1000 years. Nevertheless, their cities were destroyed by fire from the sky, the names of their leaders are now universally reviled, and their descendants are cursed with shame. Meanwhile, God’s chosen people have been restored to their ancestral homeland promised to them in the Bible. Some might call this a curious turn of events. 

But an exiled demon is not a destroyed demon. It wanders the earth looking for someone else to devour. As the smoke rose from the burned  German cities, we have to wonder what nation that demon chose to enter into next….

U.S. Supreme Court will decide the issue of same-sex "marriage" in June. 

Did you enjoy this piece? Christopher Ziegler has written more.   The Battle for the Identity of Man: A House Divided


Editor's Note: I will be out of town May 9-17, 2015. I would love you hear your polite comments on this piece. If you post one after May 9th, it won't be published until May 17. 

I AM THE TRUE VINE

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 3, 2015

Saints Peter and Paul Parish, Tucson, AZ

On this fifth Sunday of Easter, we hear of a special vine and its branches. 

Meditating on today’s Gospel passage (John 15:1-8), we are given the opportunity to reflect on the importance of having a strong relationship with Our Lord so that we can strive to become fully human -- all who He calls us to be. 

Our Lord tells His disciples, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower… You are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.”

Our Lord' words emphasize our need to deepen our relationship with Jesus. Jesus is the Vine, the true Vine. He is the Word made flesh, the union of the human and divine natures. 

Our Lord has come into our world so that we can we can share in the life of His divinity. He has come to give us life within us so that we

may not perish but have life everlasting! 

Yet, we are told that if we want to live with God in His Spirit, then we are called to make changes in our lives now. 

Our Lord reminds us that His Father “takes away every branch in Him that does not bear fruit, and every one that does He prunes.” 

We all have seen a tree or bush before and after it has been pruned… Before it is pruned the tree has all wild branches and thistles. Yet, when it is pruned, it is cut to a small size and grows back very healthy. The dead branches are cut off, and the wild branches are trimmed. 

This is what God must do if His grace will live inside us. We must allow God in our lives to cut off what is not of His Kingdom and prune what comes from this world. We must die to our old sinful nature so that we can live in the Spirit of truth and goodness.  

When we hear and accept the word of Our Lord, He already prunes us.  However, this life-giving bond with the vine must not be taken for granted! Our life of union begins at baptism, but it is not perfected yet. 

Being pruned hurts. We go against our fallen nature.  God is clipping away our bad habits and lifestyles that go against holiness and the natural law in which He created us. 

You see, each one of us was born into original sin. Sin has brought corruption into our human nature. We are wounded. We have inclinations or innate tendencies for fleshly appetites that lead us away from living as God created us to live in our original innocence. 

Jesus has come to save us from sin, but we each have disordered passions or habits that God is calling us to strive to overcome. 

Sin means we are missing the mark. We are not living the full holiness and happiness for which we were created. Not only that, but sin separates us from God. Sin removes us from the vine of His grace. Jesus said, “Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither. People will gather them into a fire and they will be burned.” 

Hell is a real place, and we are reminded of this truth time and time again throughout the Gospels. But Our Lord does not want anyone to go there. This is why he died on the cross. 

God created our minds and our bodies to be holy. He created us to use our intellect and our physical nature for His proper order in our humanity. Our Lord has come to point us to this reality so that we can repent and change our lives… He calls us to deny our sinful nature and take up our cross and follow Him!

Being pruned hurts, but it is worth it. God wants to make us into something great! God wants to form us as a diamond is cut, shaped, and polished to look beautiful. 

God invites us to be part of His very being, one with Him in His Son. 

But we must remain in the Lord: “Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.” 

Fr. John Paul Shea

My brothers and sisters, we live in a time where there are a lot of temptations that pull us away from a deep relationship with God.

Therefore Our Lord calls us today more than ever to strive to live in His grace. We live in grace by receiving Him frequently in the Eucharist. We come to understand His grace through daily prayer,  reading Scripture and living our lives in conformity to the Word of God. We experience Our Lord’s grace by acknowledging our sins and by going to the Sacrament of Confession. We feel our Lord’s grace when we love others and not tear them apart.

As we come to receive Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist this day, let us seek a strong relationship with Jesus so that we can become a fruitful branch -- all He calls us to be and remain with Him forever in eternity.

Did you enjoy this homily? There are more. 

His Easter Homily is "Repentance for the Forgiveness of Sins." 

The Hardest Thing

By Christopher Ziegler

Learning how to be loved is the hardest thing I’ve done.

Not learning how to love, but how to be loved.

I was a failure—an undeserving fool. 

My life was a self-made wreck.

Yet, you loved me.

I wept with anguish—and you heard me.

You spoke a gentle word and gave a gentle touch.

When you touched me—my body sang with pleasures.

You delivered me from my misery—even my extreme misery.
You have loved me more than I ever loved myself.

Years of regret you washed away.

Whole decades of regret—are gone.

All my lonely nights are only memories now.

Christopher Ziegler can be
found @CZWriting 

I wish I had a heart that could love you,

The way you deserve to be loved.

I wish I knew a way to serve you,

The way you deserve to be served.

Let me pour forth my love for you

In every word spoken, in every thought thought,

In every deed done and in every day—until I die.

I cannot forget you—I feel you in my bones.

Did you enjoy this piece? Maybe you'd like to read Christopher Ziegler's thoughtful piece:  The Sadness of Socialism