The following comes from an April 7 story on LifeSiteNews.
Dozens of Christian leaders have vowed they will not remain silent, as they did following the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, promising to take nonviolent direct action if the High Court votes to redefine marriage.
The Supreme Court is deciding two separate issues: Whether the 14th Amendment guarantees same-sex “marriage” as a constitutional right, and whether states must honor same-sex “marriages” contracted in states that have voted – or, more likely, where an unelected judge has forcibly determined – to redefine marriage.
“We believe that the majority of the Court will rule in favor of elevating what we have always taught to be a sinful lifestyle to the stature of a civil right — forcing us to choose between their ruling and our religious convictions that are based on Scripture,” said Rick Scarborough, a former Southern Baptist minister who now heads Vision America Action. “Christians are being declared the lawbreakers when we are simply living by what we have always believed and by a set of laws that the culture historically has agreed to.”
He envisioned the Obama administration acting by executive order and federal fiat to promote the LGBT agenda.
“With the current administration there is every reason to believe that the executive branch will use the full weight of the federal justice system to enforce this,” Scarborough said in a conference call attended by some 30 national ministry leaders, as reported by James Robison, a noted evangelist and founder of TheStream.org.
“This is a Bonhoeffer moment,” Scarborough said, according to Robison. “What will we do and how will we respond?”
Others on the call affirmed his urgency. “This is Roe v. Wade all over again. I am standing shoulder to shoulder with all who will stand up for God’s Word concerning marriage,” said Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Family Talk Radio. “To the extent that I am able to influence anybody, I will do it with passion.”
A Supreme Court decision, following a string of lower court rulings that struck down democratically enacted amendments protecting marriage as the union of one man and one woman, would further fracture society and restrict the free exercise of religion, participants in the call warned.
The ruling follows an ongoing controversy over whether states like Indiana and Arkansas should adopt state versions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a Clinton-era federal act aimed at preserving private citizens’ First Amendment rights.
….Staver warned that, in some ways, this decision would be worse than the 1973 landmark decision that legalized abortion-on-demand in the United States.
“Roe v. Wade was a time when the church should have said no, regardless of what seven Supreme Court justices said,” Staver told the call. “The difference is Roe was a wrong decision that resulted in a loss of life – but people were not forced to participate….”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/a-bonhoeffer-moment-evangelical-leaders-vow-civil-disobedience-if-supreme-c
God bless Dr. James Dobson. He might not have the fullness of the Faith, but he does have the Faith.
“The difference is Roe was a wrong decision that resulted in a loss of life – but people were not forced to participate….”
We are forced to participate by federal government support of Planned Parenthood with our tax dollars.
Regarding Homosexual Acts:
Gen 19:1-29; Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:9-10; 1 Tim 1:10; Jude 1:7.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church: CCC # 2357, 2358, 2359, & 2396.
Unfortunately under the OBAMA Administration (and his Democratic Party of Death), all taxpayers are now being forced to pay for the intrinsic evils of Abortion and Contraception.
Any Catholic who voted for OBAMA should be ashamed of themselves.
And Bishops who do not teach, correct and if necessary discipline so-called “Catholic” politicians who support intrinsic evils – have sinned. These Bishops have not done their required jobs, and further they participate in Scandal.
CCC: ” 2285 Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it
or the weakness of those who are scandalized.
It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others.
Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep’s clothing. “
Contraception an intrinsic evil? C’mon. Ninety-nine percent of women have used contraception in their lifetime — 98% of CATHOLICS have used contraception. Or maybe we should consider you part of the 1%.
Panthermom – yes Contraception is an intrinsic evil. If you did not know it before, you know it now. No excuses for ignorance or going to Holy Communion while in the state of Mortal Sin.
CCC: ” 2399 The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood.
Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception). ”
CCC: ” 2370 Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality.
These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom.
In contrast, “every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible” is INTRINSICALLY EVIL:
Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other.
This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality. . . . The difference involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality. “
Pan: The 98% of Catholic women using contraception is a false claim and is not based on any validly conducted study. Many subjects are self reporting to be Catholic and are not; if they ever were, they are no longer. And yes, it is an intrinsic evil. Either you are not Catholic or not a practicing Catholic and in any case have not read the CCC. This mortal sin is not based on your personal opinion of what is moral or not. Catholics are called to live according to the Faith. C’mon.
The birth control pill is a carcinogen (cancer causing), even according to the United Nations, and has many other bad or life threatening side effects. It has helped cause the epidemic of breast cancer in this country among younger and younger women. It always has cause deformity in some of the fish in our waterways when it gets into the water from estrogen laden urine in the sewage or pills thrown the toilet. Just look up “Estrogen from the birth control pill deforms fish” on line. Articles are on many non Catholic websites. Some times of the pill are also abortifacients.
The Natural Family Planning method of the Couple to Couple League for married women is far more “green” and safer for women who need to space pregnancies or avoid them for health reasons. It can also help a woman get pregnant if the couple are having difficulty in that area. With all the hormones being put into eggs, meat, etc. what smart women would want to add to the problem with the estrogen filled birth control pill?
Please excuse all my typos in my last post. I had had a very tiring day, and it was probably written in haste.
Yes, yes, yes. And the USCCB also said that it would — what, what, you say, the USCCB has said nothing???
Isn’t this organization the model for what bishops can do in America to uphold Catholic doctrine and to advance the Faith and the Church? No??
Perhaps the absence of Catholic opinion in the increasingly urgent voices of (mostly) Protestant faithful, is because (1) many (?most?) Catholic clergy are themselves, or were, or simply believe in, homosexuals and their right to have sex, (2) are careerists who figure that standing up would at least irritate their bishops (see #1 above), (3) are cowards and do not want HomoFascists to say bad things about them (or investigate and publish their prior/ongoing homosexual histories, and (4) have little faith and see no reason to rock the boat on a comfortable, lifetime job.
Civil disobedience is exactly, precisely what should be done to stop the homosexual juggernaut. It will not be pretty and their could be violence, but at least you will see men of conscience and faith witnessing to their beliefs. The HomoFascists are smart and have time (there are rarely any family duties) and money (see parens immediately above). They will want blood, because they know what is at stake and, because they are abnormal and cannot have a family like man-woman marriage relationships can produce, want to destroy normalcy and the ideal of the American life.
Oh my garsh!
Your supercilious comment is noted, “peter”. Nothing said here will interest you in the slightest. Your involvement on this blog site must have some purpose; let’s see, to try to lead any real Catholic off of the topic, perhaps?
Still, the USCCB will love you and want to cherish your “gifts”. And, who knows, perhaps most of our lovely bishops and cardinals will too.
Where is the loud, uncompromised voice of the Catholic Church? [ Pause here for any sound other than crickets.] Will AmChurch behave like the Lutheran Church under Hitler or will they accept the chalice? Let us pray.
Where are those leaders with the “fullness of the faith”? USCCB — I’m not hearing you…
Since the Supreme Court decision seems a fait accompli, the Catholic Bishops have several months to plan their response. What will it be? Typical milquetoast whining about the media or some real action?
Christian churches ‘must be made’ to affirm homosexuality, says New York Times columnist
https://therightswriter.com/2015/04/christian-churches-must-be-made-to-affirm-homosexuality-says-new-york-times-columnist/
4-7-15 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New York Times columnist and a corporate leader have agreed that Christian churches “must” be convinced, or coerced,
to change their teachings on sexual morality and abandon an “ossified” doctrinal teaching that sex outside heterosexual marriage is immoral.
Frank Bruni wrote that traditional Christianity – whether among evangelicals, Catholics, or Orthodox – provides the greatest resistance to normalizing homosexuality in the United States in a recent column in the New York Times…
– furniture tycoon Mitchell Gold, who has used his millions to found a liberal pressure group Faith in America – Gold believes Christian churches “must be made ‘to take homosexuality off the sin list.’”
– But even refraining from calling same-sex relations a sin – or, in the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “intrinsically disordered” – is not enough for the modern LGBT movement.
“The LGBT militants are not asking to be left alone,” said – Pat Buchanan: “They are demanding that we accept the morality of homosexuality and same-sex marriages, and manifest that acceptance, under pain of law and sanctions, in our daily lives.”
Buchanan said – orthodox Christian churches must have one response to demands that they alter their teachings to fit the modern zeitgeist: “The answer is no. If it comes to civil disobedience, so be it.”
– prominent evangelical Christian leaders have called for open acts of nonviolent resistance if the Supreme Court forces states to accept homosexual “marriages”
“Woe to the shepherds who have been pasturing themselves…” Ezekiel 34. Lord, we long to be rescued from these dark and cloudy days where we, the sheep, have been scattered, lost, injured, weakened.
There will come a time when decent Americans (those of us who are left) will have to take up the sword (literally or figuratively) and drive out the vipers that are attempting to destroy our country. However, it will take more than the apathy that has been exibited so far. 74 million Catholics in this country, led by courageous Bishops, would constitute an unstoppable voting bloc. What? Did you say “Pipe dream? So far, that is what it has been.If all those Catholics would get off of their hind ends and vote, if all of those Bishops would stop cowering and exercize the powers that have been given them, results might be different. If the CINO politicians were excommunicated or publicly denied the Sacraments, an impact could be made. That is, if any of those tinhorns even cared. A public relations campaign loudly exposing their excommunications might change some minds. C’mon, Bishops, find your cojones and get busy. The Church still has power, my friends, if we would only unite and use it. Almighty God is on our side, why are we cowering before an enemy who has already been defeated?
Unfortunately this goes back further than even our current crop of bishops, some who, (prior to appointments by Pope Francis) are quite orthodox. We have a generation (or more like two generations now) who know nothing of their faith. the message that was given to the faithful following Vac II by “sister Kumbaya” was that you can do whatever your (poorly formed) conscience tells you is OK. Many Catholics today think anything is OK. They vote and they vote for the likes of Obama & Co.
This isn’t about bishops finding their cojones, OK? It’s not about lack of courage on their part, it’s about lack of faith. The bishops do not believe the teachings of the Catholic Church on homosexuality. No amount of courage is going to get them to defend those teachings. Houston, we’ve got a problem. A huge, huge problem.
https://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/homosexuality/
If homosexuality is a trait with which one is born, why is it evil; that is a key question that must be answered? If homosexuality is a chosen state, different questions need to be asked. I think that is the situation our Bishops and Priests find themselves in. Science, except for fringe elements, pretty much has confirmed that homosexuality is a born trait, not a chosen state. So, if they go against science they are called stupid and if they go against science they are thought to not holding up the faith. 66% of younger American Catholics have no problem with gays or for that matter, gay marriage. I would venture that 50% of Americans don’t believe in any religion, so how can you use faith as an argument? As we try to bomb our Bishops out of their palaces, we need to consider the unintended consequences. In too many parts of the country, the Church is thought of as a hate group.
Bob One:
If homosexuality is a defect that one is born with, why has science not discovered a marker by which this malady may be detected? A ‘GAY’ gene? Some deviation in the cerebral cortex? Nada.You say “pretty much” proven? I do not think so. You cannot take “pretty much” to the bank. And if homosexuals are created deliberately by God, why is this defect called “evil” in God’s Sacred Word? The reason that 66% of young Americans have no problem with homosexuality is that their moral formation has been defective, thanks to the failure of the Bishops (go back as far as you like) to impart and defend the Faith. Too many American Catholics are guilty of apathy and of failure to know and uphold their Faith. Too many are satisfied with the Catholic Lite being purveyed by ther so-call “Shepherds.” And you say “Hate group?” Those who stand idly by and see the abominations being foisted on this once-great nation are the real “hate group.” Almighty God will withdraw His blessings from this country and we will see how a nation under the Prince of this world will fare.
hosemonkey, it’s not a defect, but it is a trait. We have yet to figure out to what extent the trait is genetic. If you want biological markers that conform to the trait, please read the very comprehensive, if a bit dated, book by Dr. Simon LeVay that goes into all the data about the “markers”, if you will. Some are better than others, and we can debate if any are relevant. But “nada” is hardly a word that can be used to describe the immense scientific literature that sexual orientation is in fact a biological if not genetical trait.
The genetic evidence is growing too, since this book was published. So I would advise not going out on a limb just yet on the gene theory.
Bob One, there have been identical twins where one was a practicing homosexual and the other a heterosexual. How do you account for that?
Two men improperly using their body will never be okay. Sooner or later it results in a torn lining and anal or colon cancer, among a host of other diseases of that part of the body. Cancer and diseases of the mouth are more prevalent in those who practice sodomy as they are less careful of what they do. Many people who engage in such behavior take illegal drugs or misuse alcohol, which makes things even worse.
To Bob One: In Mother Nature, created by God– we clearly see, Male and Female, and “the two shall become one,” as the Bible says! A man marries a woman, in the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony— and they have babies! Man, Woman, and Baby, are a reflection of the Blessed Trinity! Millions of people are born, however– with various abnormalities, or disabilities! (Such as “LGBT” people!) The Church clearly states, we must show God’s LOVE to ALL people– ESPECIALLY those who suffer greatly!! However, someone with an abnormal “LGBT” condition– should never ABUSE the power of sex, or procreation– meant for Man and Woman, in the Holy Sacrament of Matrimony– to make BABIES, by God’s hand! All Christians are called to CHASTITY (according to one’s state in life!) CHASTITY means, among other things– to SEE CHRIST in one another– not LUST, which is a CORRUPTION!! Our bodies and souls do NOT belong to the corrupt, “fallen” world!! ALL things belong to GOD!! Best to do as God says– then one will find true happiness!!
Bob One is obviously putting his stamp of approval on sin. What other sins do you advocate Bob One?
Sorry, “Bob One” — difficult to see if you are Catholic or not, but your question, and that follow-on comment by your philosophical pal “Your Fellow Catholic” is simply foolish, although predictable. The point, and only point, is the choice of a homosexually-inclined person to engage in homosexual sex.
It is the homosexual sexual act that is unnatural, and sinful. See Paul’s letter to the Romans !:26-27: “For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature”; and “And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another [.]”
No, people are not entitled to engage in sex, even if the urge to do so is strong, and if circumstances favorable to the act are presented. You must remain chaste, unless married to a person of the opposite sex.
If you are urged to have sex with a person of the same sex, it is unnatural to God (even if it is not unnatural to you). This is what Paul meant, and it is what the Bible means and what the Church says. Try to learn the Catechism: “Homosexual persons are called to chastity” (Sec. 2359; “Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed.).
There is no other answer and no other way. Happy to see what the Zombie-Liberals try to do in October at the Synod. No guarantees as to Francis, however, as anyone that elevates a lost soul like Cardinal Daneels (and Cardinals Kasper, Wuerl, Dolan, Abp. Forte, Abp. Cupich and others) is simply not listening to the Holy Ghost.
Before making any laws– a country needs an education in religion and morals! The churches (and synagogues) cannot let secular laws be the lone, guiding force of our country– without God, and Biblical Morality! What an empty farce– and far too idealistic, for a country of extremely selfish, immoral, immature, Godless HEDONISTS!! Instead– the churches (and synagogues) all need to WORK HARD, to deeply instill Biblical Faith in God, and Morals, in our Nation’s citizens!! Once we have (again) firmly established a true, Judeo-Christian Nation— our people will (again) make laws, following God’s Laws, on a true, firm, Judeo-Christian moral foundation!! But currently, since the 1960’s– we do NOT have a Judeo-Christian Nation, any longer! Nor do we have the selfless WORK ETHIC— and a SENSE OF RESPECT AND ADULT RESPONSIBILITY, to God!! Instead, we have a horrible, lawless, selfish, filthy, hedonist, agnostic “HIPPIE” COUNTRY!! Where are the Missionaries– for conversions???
To claim the Catholic Bishops of America have said “nothing” about this homosexuality issue is ridiculous – the Bishops talk about everything!!!
They make statements about every possible issue, as you can tell from the website of each Diocese.
Anyone who imagines the Bishops of this country are silent about homosexuality, abortion, family, etc. must never read a newspaper, turn on a television, or visit the internet.
The Bishops are non-stop in their proclamations and condemnations, which makes me wonder if they get any actual work done in their dioceses.
Scarborough’s statement, translated from Baptist into Catholic would read: “This is a Pius XII moment.”