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The Five Stages of the Democratic Party

2/20/2015

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JOHN ZMIRAK ON THE SYNOD: "THE DAMAGE IS DONE"

10/24/2014

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Amid the flurry of reactions to the Vatican's recent Synod on the Family, one article stands out. In an opinion piece at the Daily Caller, John Zmirak gives a grave, honest account of the Synod's concluding statement, and of what we can expect from the Ordinary Synod that is scheduled to bring the chaos to a conclusion in 2015.

Zmirak first points out the obvious tension between traditional Catholic morality on the one hand, and the overarching message of the recent Synod's statement on the other:

Rather than speaking prophetically in defense of the uniqueness and holiness of marriage, the task of Christians today includes “recognizing positive elements” in “imperfect” unions such as cohabitating couples, divorced couples living in what Jesus called “adultery,” and even homosexual relationships.

As for those, the Church must find a way of “accepting and valuing their sexual orientation,” a condition which the Catholic Catechism still (for the moment) calls “an objective disorder” for very important reasons: It “orders” people to activities which the Church has always reasoned are unnatural and sinful. By the laws of logic, the Church cannot welcome and value such an “orientation” without accepting what it orients people to crave: erotic relationships that are incompatible with marriage.
He goes on to point out what is at stake in next year's synod if it "ends up approving the radical proposals that are before it" - the very legitimacy of the Roman Catholic Church's claim to authority:
Marriage is, by Christ’s command, indissoluble. That was taught infallibly by the Council of Trent. If the pope denies that doctrine, if he re-shapes one of the seven sacraments so radically, he will be proving something that the Orthodox have been saying since 1870: That he is not infallible on matters of faith and morals.

...He would be demonstrating that ... Councils such as the Lateran, Trent, and Vaticans I and II, would be merely local Western synods, exactly as the Orthodox have been insisting since 1054. In other words, the pope would be proving that Roman Catholic assertions of papal authority are grossly exaggerated, and that the Eastern Orthodox have the better claim as the heirs of the twelve apostles.


What really struck me in Zmirak's piece was his somber observation that, when it comes to the cultural impact of the Synod, "the damage is already done." I was disturbed when the "discussion document" that the Synod produced midway through its meetings was hailed by the American LGBTQ Taskforce as a "step in the right direction in tone," though it failed to promise "fundamental change" in Church doctrine, presumably the ultimate LGBTQ goal.

Of the millions of Catholics in the world today, only a small, solid percentage have remained faithful and continued to conduct themselves according to the Church's traditions. That the Vatican seems to be in dialogue with those who wish to fundamentally change Church doctrine shows a deliberate and, from my perspective, harsh decision to abandon the embattled faithful in favor of those who have learned to avoid trouble by conforming with the progressive social tide. In other words, faithful Catholics will more or less have to shepherd themselves.


In reaction to the Synod, I have taken a big step back from the institutional Catholic Church. While I'm grateful for the Church's sacraments, I have reason to be unsure how much I can obey its current leaders. I doubt I'm alone.

Read John Zmirak's full article HERE.
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The (Sex) Appeal of Jihad

10/4/2014

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Over at Crisis Magazine, William Kilpatrick makes an important observation regarding the phenomenon of young Western men joining Islamist terror organizations: "For many a young man, the certainty that there are seventy-two high-bosomed maidens waiting for him on the other side is reason enough to risk the sacrifice of life and limb."

But if this explanation accounts for the attraction of young men to Islamist extremism, it doesn't say much about those who have inherited and held Islam as their traditional faith for centuries. ...Or does it?


What can we say of a religion whose martyrs died for nothing more than what the average 16-year-old from California wants to do next time his parents go on vacation? What does the Muslim concept of ultimate beatitude say about Islam?


I can't imagine the answers to those questions would be very flattering to Muslim faith. But now that the radical ISIS is threatening to knock down the door of civilization, it seems as good a time as any to ask these questions about the religion that motivates them. One thing is certain: It's no longer enough to merely condemn "religious violence" without acknowledging the nature of the enemy, as so many Western leaders have been doing. Kilpatrick continues:

Although it would be greatly to our advantage to shake belief in the virgins-in-paradise deception (You do believe it’s a deception, don’t you?), we hesitate to go there. Perhaps we intuit that we can’t shake the branch without shaking the whole tree. The heavenly garden of delights is a main theme of the Koran. To question it is to question the integrity of the Koran as a whole, and also to question the integrity of the man from whom the whole system flows.
It would take courage to seek to undermine our enemies in this way. And courage is exactly what we need from our religious and political leaders. As William Kilpatrick writes, "For our own survival, we need to rethink the idea that the other person’s deeply held beliefs can never be questioned. The Islamists’ touching faith in the Stepford brides seems like a good place to start."


Read the rest of William Kilpatrick's piece here.
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