Will We Dedicate June to the Heart of Jesus or the LGBT Lifestyle?

Let us pray to the Lord and ask him to protect the family in the crisis with which the devil wants to destroy it. Families are the domestic church where Jesus grows in the love of a married couple, in the lives of their children. This is why the devil attacks the family so much- Pope Francis

In 1993, the late Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, wrote an essay entitled Defining Deviancy Down in which he wrote these words - I proffer the thesis that, over the past generation... the amount of deviant behavior in American society has increased beyond the levels the community can afford to recognize and that, accordingly, we have been re-defining deviancy so as to exempt much conduct previously stigmatized, and also quietly raising the normal level in categories where behavior is now abnormal by any earlier standard. By defining what is deviant, we are enabled to know what is not, and hence to live by shared standard.  That same year Charles Krauthammer, offered a response in a Bradley Lecture entitled Defining Deviancy Up, in which he noted - Moynihan is right. But it is only half the story. There is a complimentary social phenomenon that goes with defining deviancy down. As part of the vast social project of moral leveling, it is not enough for the deviant to be normalized. The normal must be found to be deviant.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - On May 30, 2014, the Presidential Proclamation -- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2014.It contains these words in its concluding sentences:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2014 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.

This Proclamation has been issued by the Obama administration for several years. On Monday, June 30, 2014, there will be reception at the White House to celebrate what they routinely call Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender pride.

Anyone who disagrees with the proclamation - and will not celebrate being proud of this kind of sexual practice when embraced as a lifestyle - is now routinely dismissed as a bigot. That includes all classical Christians - be they Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Charismatic, or Orthodox.

The cultural decline does not stop there. Time Magazine dedicated its June cover story to the theme of the "Transgender Tipping Point." 

In 1993, the late Democratic Senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, wrote an essay for the American Scholar entitled Defining Deviancy Down in which he wrote these words:

"I proffer the thesis that, over the past generation, since the time Erikson wrote, the amount of deviant behavior in American society has increased beyond the levels the community can "afford to recognize" and that, accordingly, we have been re-defining deviancy so as to exempt much conduct previously stigmatized, and also quietly raising the "normal" level in categories where behavior is now abnormal by any earlier standard."

Moynihan was correct in his prediction. He noted in the same article that, "By defining what is deviant, we are enabled to know what is not, and hence to live by shared standard."  The Senator would be shocked to see what has happened to the Nation which he loved and served, in such a short time.

That same year, a man whose name was only just emerging among the ranks of those who opine, Charles Krauthammer, offered a response in a Bradley Lecture entitled Defining Deviancy Up, in which he astutely noted:

"Moynihan is right. But it is only half the story. There is a complimentary social phenomenon that goes with defining deviancy down. As part of the vast social project of moral leveling, it is not enough for the deviant to be normalized. The normal must be found to be deviant."

Now, the President of the United States leads the cheering section for just such a moral leveling. In his efforts to reject the moral foundations of a free society, President Obama seems to have decided to go all in. The malady is not confined to the Executive Branch of the Government.

On Tuesday, May 20, 2014, Federal US District Judge John E Jones III of Pennsylvania discarded marriage as solely between one man and one woman to what he called in his opinion, "the ash heap of history."  Those were his very words!  Of course he hid them in the judicial sophistry which now accompanies these frequent acts of judicial imperialism.

He maintained he was opening the door to the oxymoron called "gay marriage" and claimed to be somehow liberating our entire social order because, in his words, "We are a better people than what these laws represent".

The laws to which he he referred were passed by the people of Pennsylvania in 1996 defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Of course, those laws also reflected the Natural Moral Law, the Bible, the Christian and Jewish tradition -and almost every other major religious tradition.

The laws concerning marriage as between one man and one woman cross cultural and religious lines. They are universally accepted precisely because they are true and they serve the common good.

Ontology is a philosophical term referring to the essence of something. There is an ontology of marriage. It is what it is. The effort to redefine the word marriage - and then use the mechanisms of the State to restructure the social order - is underway. The goal is to jettison the institution inscribed in the Natural Moral Law - and replace it.
 
And, the branch of government which the founders thought should be the "least dangerous branch" (See, Federalist Papers #28, Alexander Hamilton) are leading the charge. The President of the United States is well aware of the effort and is actively cheering it on. He instructed the Justice Department to cease defending marriage, in spite of the Federal Law requiring that defense.

Judge Jones used his interpretation of the constitutional doctrines of due process and equal protection to sound noble. However, his words spoke volumes: "In future generations, the label same-sex marriage will be abandoned, to be replaced simply by marriage. We are a better people than what these laws represent, and it is time to discard them into the ash heap of history."

The truth is that we cannot be better than marriage! Marriage between one man and one woman reflects the plan and love of God for the whole human race! This Federal Court Judge is a proponent of what I have long called the homosexual equivalency movement. It is the devolved expression of the moral leveling which Moynihan and Krauthammer predicted.

The proponents of this moral leveling insist there is a moral equivalency between homosexual and lesbian relationships and marriages between one man and one woman. They further insist that the full force of the civil and criminal law enforce this new social construct on everyone else. They intend to use the police power of the State to enforce this scheme. Those who oppose such a moral leveling will suffer the consequences.

There is a warning in the words of this Presidential proclamation, especially for Catholics in America. Catholics follow a very different practice in the month of June. We dedicate the month of June to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The heart in the biblical sense is the center of a person, the place from which he/she makes the choices which will affect the world within them and around them. Devotion to the Heart of Jesus reminds us that in the Sacred Humanity of Jesus we find the pattern for becoming fully human ourselves. In His Incarnation - His saving life, death and Resurrection - we receive the means to become like Him, as we cooperate with grace. 

The leaders of the Second Vatican Council in the Pastoral Constitution on the Mission of the Church in the Modern World wrote:  "The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear."  (GS #22)

Two years before he became Pope, Karol Cardinal Wotyla (Saint John Paul II) spoke to the Catholic Bishops of the United States. His frank observation was republished in the Wall Street Journal on November 9, 1978: "We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel and the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine providence. It is a trial which the whole Church must take up."

His words were prophetic.

We are living under what Benedict XVI called a Dictatorship of Relativism. Relativism denies the existence of any objective truths which can be known through the exercise of reason and govern our life together as a society. Divorced from norms to guide the exercise of human choice and govern our behavior, we are rapidly declining as a culture.

When there is nothing objectively true which can be known by all and form the basis of our common life then there is no basis for authentic freedom. Instead, we teeter on the brink of anarchy. Marriage, solely possible between one man and one woman, is now the target in the advance of the tyranny of social and cultural engineers. 

In his apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Charity, Pope Emeritus Benedict summarized the duty of Catholics when confronted with an assault on marriage: "Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself."

The Catholic Church marks time by the events of the life of Jesus Christ and the Christian Faith. In so doing she invites Christians to live differently - in every culture and in every age. She also keeps the truths of the faith before a world which needs to be set free from misguided choices.

Nations also mark time. In their days and months they express their values. For example, we recently celebrated "Memorial Day" in the United States of America by honoring those who gave their lives to protect our freedoms. In so doing, we affirmed values which join us together.

The various proclamations of our Presidents setting months apart speak to what we as a Nation believe and value. So, the question arises, what does this Presidential proclamation reveal about the Nation we love and what is being promoted?

This weekend, Pope Francis addressed over 50,000 people identified with the charismatic renewal in the Church. He reminded the faithful that the devil is real and asked for heartfelt prayer:

"Let us pray to the Lord and ask him to protect the family in the crisis with which the devil wants to destroy it. Families are the domestic church where Jesus grows in the love of a married couple, in the lives of their children. This is why the devil attacks the family so much."

At its spiritual root, the attack on marriage and the family is a demonic attack. There are two very different visions of the human person, human love and the dignity of human sexuality, human flourishing, marriage and the family - and the society founded upon them - contending for the heart, soul and future of the West. One will lead to true human progress, flourishing and freedom, the other to human degradation and cultural collapse.

No-one denies that all human beings have fundamental human rights and human dignity because they are human beings. That includes those who self identify as homosexual, lesbian or transgendered. However, God loves them because they are human persons, not because of their non-marital sexual practices.

This kind of recognition of the dignity of all human persons is not what this proclamation dedicating June as LGBT Month is really about. The President of the United States is not only defining deviancy down he is proclaiming that claiming the normal is now deviant.This is a part of a cultural and social agenda.

Let us spend the month of June in Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, lifting up our Nation, indeed the whole world, to the One in whom we place all of our trust. He will not disappoint; His Heart still beats with Mercy and Love for the world.  "Sacred Heart of Jesus, We Place our Trust in Thee."

We are living in a new missionary age. We are the missionaries.

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