The following comes from a June 16 story by Larry Tomczac on CharismaNews.com.
1. Pray continually (1 Thess. 5:17). From the moment of the initial confession throughout the entire journey, pray and fast in faith the same way you would engage with God for someone’s salvation or healing. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matt. 19:26). Reject all fatalism and leanings towards some predestination of your child to this lifestyle. Do not believe this to be a life sentence!
2. Listen lovingly and intentionally. “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…” (James 1:19). Make a quality decision to keep the lines of communication open from the initial disclosure and beyond. It will take time to process what’s unfolding so avoid any knee-jerk response. “Pressure reveals the person” so draw on the grace of God to be gracious and self-controlled, remembering that youthful confusion about sexual identity is common.
Young people also are usually very uninformed on the serious health risks associated with the not-so-gay lifestyle. Counter the ignorance by sensitively sharing CDC facts—not made up “scare tactics”. (See Why Homosexual Love Stories Don’t have Happy Endings on my website, larrytomczak.com.) Read it aloud to your child.
3. Clarify exactly what your child means by “coming out as gay.” “The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out” (Prov. 20:5). Is your son or daughter struggling with temptation toward the same sex or acting on the attraction? Is this an incident or a persistent pattern? If the openness is there (it’s advisable to go dad with son/ mom with daughter) gently go further to inquire about origins, fantasies, gay pornography, frequenting gay bars and hanging with gay friends. Finally, try to ascertain what adults/friends are influencing your son or daughter’s thinking at this vulnerable and impressionable season of their life.
4. Encourage disclosure by calm and skillful inquiry. Ask if there has been sexual abuse; youthful curiosity and experimentation; adult manipulation or molestation; masturbation with gay pornography; etc. Lead the way here with humility, wisdom and age-appropriate transparency regarding any of your youthful indiscretions (being discreet and avoiding names) and what lessons you learned.
5. In your prayerful preparation for times of discussion, avail yourself of the right resources. “Wolves in sheep’s clothing” (Matt. 7:15) are out there like Matthew Vines, Jay Bakker, Ray Boltz and other gay–affirming leaders. They must be avoided like the plague! They’re smooth and sneaky and seducing multitudes.
Instead go to the websites of biblically faithful leaders like Dr. Michael Brown, Dr. David Foster, Dr. Robert Gagnon, Stephen Bennett and, may I humbly submit, myself, for resources that will keep you on the right path and encourage you in your time of need. At the right time, may I suggest that you sit and watch together with your struggling son or daughter, Such Were Some of You by David Foster’s ministry or Is Gay OK? 10 Things Everyone Needs to Know at my website listed above. If your son or daughter is living at home under your authority, make this a directive not an elective. Remember you are not their buddy but their parent and one day you will give an account to God for their life.
6. Take your thoughts captive (2 Cor. 10:5) knowing “fear has torment” (1 John 4:17). Be intentional in renouncing all negative thoughts such as “We’ll never get through this,” “God is punishing us,” “What will our church think?” “Our other children may follow,” “He’ll bring his ‘lover’ over and neighbors will see,” “He’ll die of AIDS,” or “She’ll kill herself.” Be radical in replacing these destructive thoughts with faith-building thoughts as you wield the “sword of the Spirit which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). Go to larrytomczak.com and listen regularly to Biblical Declarations to Build Your Faith as a free resource to keep you “strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might” (Eph. 6:10). In 42 years of ministry, this has always been the No. 1 requested resource!
7. Confide in trusted friends and, ideally, a pastor. “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up” (Eccl. 4:9-10). The Christian life was never intended to be lived in isolation but rather true community. Pray and then approach those you trust so they can hold up your arms during this season.
8. Consider contacting Lead Them Home Ministry (leadthemhome.org) for supplemental help. This wonderful ministry trains church leaders and families how to minister to those with same-sex attraction. Their Posture Shift seminar and Family Care support team can come alongside of those in need until they find their breakthrough.
9. Extend compassion and care to your child without compromising or condoning the homosexual lifestyle. God requires absolute purity before marriage and total fidelity in marriage, as He ordained it, between one man and one woman. All sex outside of covenant marriage is sin, strictly prohibited, including ALL homosexual involvement.
When a child casually or flippantly says, “I’m coming out—I’m gay. I’m just affirming who I really am” a parent has a solemn responsibility to charitably and clearly set the standard straight. “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
At God’s appointed time, ideally the father in a united front with the mother must resist any manipulation or intimidation and state something like the following: “My son/daughter, we love you more than you can imagine, and God allowed us as a couple to unite in a procreative act that brought you into this world. Your thinking is totally unacceptable to God and us. It dishonors our Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to save us from our sins. It is contradictory to His eternal plan for marriage, which has been upheld for over 5,000 years of human history. Therefore this ‘coming out’ needs to be a coming out of deception and, like the prodigal son, returning to the God and Father who created you, loves you and has a wonderful destiny for your life. Have we made ourselves perfectly clear?”
10. Never forget your child is Jesus Christ’s purchased possession whom He loves immensely and will fight to rescue from this deception.
No matter what the culture conveys about the beauty and finality of homosexuality, it is built upon lies propagated by Satan himself. Only God knows how many hundreds of thousands of formerly deceived men and women have been set free from the bondage of this sinful and shameful lifestyle through the proclamation of the gospel and biblical truth.
To read the entire article, click here.
10 easy steps to forcing your gay child into the streets or committing suicide. Great advice.
How exactly does loving them and encouraging them to chastity “force them” on the streets and toward “committing suicide? You don’t need to answer, you’re clearly just trolling this site.
Mayer .. in the 70’s the founder of NARTH wrote a Ph.d. dissertation at UCLA about an experiment where he devised a “therapy” to make a 5 year old boy act more masculine. If he played with girl toys instead of boy toys his mother withheld all affection. If he persisted in “girl behavour” the “therapist” had the dad beat him when he got home from work The boy conformed and the experiment was declared a success. At age 32 he killed himself. Today we’d call the “research” child abuse.
This is the same guy who hired a “rentboy” to “handle his luggage” on a European vacation. Just the two of them, no wife no kids. Conversion therapy is no different than witchcraft.
And there are cases of parental child abuse, too, C&H. Does that mean that all parents are evil, base, incapable of doing a good job by their children? No. Horror stories happen in all areas of human activity. But that hardly means that we should just give up.
Ann .. George Rikers (sp?) founded the whole school of reparative therapy. Kind of like Frued and psychoanalysis, Then he ends up showing all the signs of being a closet case of the highest order.
I mean.. how would your husband respond to being told you were going on vacation alone and had hired the lesbian from “Rentgirl.com” to handle the luggage and give you massages? Think about it. This whole thing is quackery
Right, Ann Malley, you are right when you say “Horror stories happen in all areas of human activity. But that hardly means that we should just give up.” Can you please remember that when folks want to banish gay folk from schools, from child rearing, from the priesthood, from a non-discriminatory workplace??
Of course, YFC, those who suffer from same sex attraction should never give up their struggle against it. As a fellow Catholic, I would hope that you would advocate for the continued struggle to live life in accordance with that which is in accordance with God’s law.
If folks stopped wearing their struggles on their sleeve, however, perhaps everybody could just get to business. But when folks such as yourself confuse the issue by intimating that one should fight to promote the dignity of that which is disordered and unhealthy – especially in the position of parent or priest – you help nobody. As the struggle then isn’t merely to keep going while carrying one’s cross, but rather to teach and lead others to view disordered sexual practices as somehow healthy, good, beneficial, etc which is not true.
You know that.
And those who invented the alphabet may have been sexual deviants, C&H, but that does not dismiss the benefits or the need for written communication.
But pointing out that this George Rikers (?) might very well have suffered from same sex attraction himself is no cause to dismiss his therapies out of hand. If I had cancer and were a physician, I might very well use my particular knowledge to focus on finding a cure even if I may eventually die of cancer.
Excellent metaphor Ann. And to your point, would you continue to receive cancer “treatments” (or waste your time on researching such treatments) that were known not to work, could not work as evidenced by a recidivism rate of 100%, and in fact create even more potential suffering? And all this despite the fact that you we misdiagnosed? That is indeed the metaphorical equivalent of “reparative therapy”.
I wouldn’t embrace the cancer as good, peter, and/or attempt to convince myself and others by way of cognitive behavioral therapy (or even a massive propaganda campaign) that it is merely my opinion that cancer is unhealthy.
Cancer is inherently not healthy and is opposite that which is good for man’s nature. Homosexual sex is also inherently not healthy and opposite to that which is good for man’s nature and for society as a whole.
Face reality, peter. If my particular cancer treatment didn’t work, that doesn’t equate to all cancer treatments not working.
Ann, you missed my point and misread my post. But you’re not interested anyway. Blind faith. Go figure.
Faith, peter, takes a bit of trust. Not blindness.
Standard response for one who ‘chooses’ to promote non-accountability for behavioral choices, but rather blame others by way of saying they were ‘forced’.
peter, You mean you should encourage them to get STD’s – which can ruin their entire lives?????
All Teens should be taught abstinence from sex. – They will never be sorry later in life.
The Homosexual population in the USA has the highest percentage of Sexually Transmitted Disease – per the 2013 report from the Center for Disease Control.
(Teens and very young adults are next.)
where did you come up with that number there are a lot more straight teens coming down with std than gay parents need to tell there kids gay or straight about std
I would give him a copy of this:
http://www.tinyurl.com/10SodomiteMyths
Get them into proper therapy to mitigate as much confusion and damage as possible. Next, the confessional for both of you. Pray!
Kristin, your comment is nonsense. The only answer is support your child and talk to them.
Supporting someone is aiding them in obtaining the help they require, Will, not endorsing or rejoicing in that which leads to a disordered behavior. Or would you give an alcoholic a fifth of Scotch in a show of support?
Will, best not to support your child in a sinful lifestyle. Back to my point. Therapy can provide the talking you suggest, and confession certainly isn’t nonsense but a bulwark against sin and an avenue of grace.
Thank you for restating the perfectly rational and Catholic response, Kristin. Too many attempt to devalue the benefits of frequent confession and the reality of the grace that flows from it.
Kristin therapies to cure kids from homosexuality don’t work. In fact, they have been shown to damage the teens who are forced to enter into them. Many of these ex-gay therapies/ministries have shut down, and many revelations have come out about some of the founders continuing to frequent gay bars, hire gay valets, etc.
There is nothing wrong with allowing one to seek therapy for a behavioral inclination that they need assistance in resisting, YFC. That’s getting help in carrying one’s cross – nobody is saying one has to make the cross disappear. But empowering people to make choices according to their will instead of fleshly inclination is a good thing.
That said, stumbling and falling, doesn’t mean one has no other choice but to chuck the cross. Or that carrying one’s cross doesn’t work or cannot work.
Courage has been very successful I hear. Not only that group but other groups which don’t advertise widely for fear of retaliation from the intolerant radical gay lobby also are leading those with same-sex prferences back to Christ. Those whose hearts are closed to the possibility of change object for fear of letting go of their sin and truly letting God in.
Your Fellow Catholic, never did I mention “cure”, rather discussion, penance and prayer. Following the teachings of the Church and allowing God’s grace are the ways we all should live.
A parents’ first responsibility is to teach their children, and help him get to Heaven for eternity.
One never knows how much time they do or do not have on earth.
Love your child; let him know how much he is truly loved by God and by yourselves.
Never tolerate mortal sin.
Pray for them and try to straighten them up. If unsuccessful, cut yourself off from this downward spiral of sin.
With the constant indoctrination in our culture/schools, it will be a miracle if even one family will not face this at some point. Children are losing their innocence at an alarming rate. What seems cool and “in” is something that everyone is “doing” . Just this morning during a “toddler” activity–the substitue leader referred to everything as “rainbow this and rainbow that”. It was a primary colored mat and a primary colored parachute! Stop shoving this crap down our throats (exuse the pun) and stay away from my children!
Be well armed, you will need it when the sodomites come after your boys. Make no mistake, their ultimate is not “marriage” or “nondiscrimination” or any other of these “rights”, but rather legal access to your boys.
If your Child told you “I’m Happy” – why would that be a problem?
By Contrast, if they told you they wanted to engage in Physically Harmful and deeply Pathological Homo-Anal Coprophile Behaviors – Or join with the Separatist / Exterminationist Misandrists (Those Hateful to Men & Boys, Masculinity & Normal Heterosexuality) taking over and banning Males from the public streets during the annual Anti-Male Hate Riot / SF Dyke March…
Would such a Factually accurate statement change your response?
In other words – if the Choice of Bad Behavior is cloaked in intentionally Sanitized and deliberately Misleading Euphemisms – would you duck the real issue?
“If your Child told you “I’m Happy” – why would that be a problem?”
“In other words – if the Choice of Bad Behavior is cloaked in intentionally Sanitized and deliberately Misleading Euphemisms – would you duck the real issue?”
Excellent post! Thank you Michael McDermott! Speaking of ducking issues…It is also so terribly offensive and misleading to teach young children to use the word “rainbow” as a sign of pridefulness when mocking God’s natural law. The rainbow IS the majestic sign of God’s grace and mercy and look what many have chosen to do with this great sign! God instituted this beautiful reminder of His protection after the Great Flood of Noah. Due to Original sin, the father lies still tempts and preys on many in order to make cooperative use of the weak, the unsuspecting and most of all the *pride*-fully sinful. Leave it to the cleverness of father of lies to be so successful in enlisting so many (trolls included) into becoming his ardent aid and supporter. These blinded minions have turned into the personal assistants of the devil, especially when they wickedly invert the true meaning of God’s rainbow and then attempt to turn it into a sign of pride in showcasing perversions and disorders as something to be celebrated. Same sex attraction is not a rainbow sign of hope.
I believe the mother of Saint John Eudes told him, “I would rather see you dead than commit ONE mortal sin!” Look how far we have fallen within the last couple of hundred years.
Bottom line here!!!! This list of direction is a good one. Children are NEVER set in their ways until they become entrenched adults, and then those adults have opportunities to change if they decide to change.
Homosexual behavior is not entrenched in the genetic make up of any human, that much is certain. It has never been proven, and besides, I have relatives who were horrific alcoholics, but I hardly ever drink (Rick Perry aside).
If anyone advocates that leaving a child to his own devices is a good idea, you may be a pro-homosexual advocate (entrenched in that behavior?). I personally am decidedly NOT anti-homosexual. What I believe is that children deserve better than neglect, which is what leaving them to their own devices definitely IS.
Brand new evidence suggests you are incorrect, Life Lady. https://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/14/study-finds-genes-on-x-chromosome-linked-to-male-homosexuality/
My grandmother once looked over our family tree and saw a line running through relatives who were, or whom she believed, were gay. She was convinced that homosexuality runs in our family.
C&H, Old wine and old cheese may ripen in tasty flavor but old age in humans has NEVER been a sure sign of gaining wisdom and your post certainly exposes that. If you have the opportunity and your grandmother is still alive, please tell her that the tree line she should first be focusing on is the “redemptive crucifix” on Calvary and to also remember that God never created souls so that they could claim that they were designed by God to be a generational tree line of homosexuals. Now if your goal as a troll is to promote the acceptance of the normalcy of homosexuality, then you are being too transparent. Many children could say, “My grandmother says that there are many of our past relatives who struggled with particular disorders.” What’s you’re grandmother’s point or you’re point C& H? Are you trying to infer that there is nothing greater than these disorders to help them to become ordered?
Wow no Catherine is going after wisdom acquired by decades of life. Unbelievable! Catherine, honor your father and your mother!
Catharine – C&H is simply claiming from personal experience that YFC’s link to studies identifying a “homosexual” gene bears some consideration. Why pounce on her with overt zealotry over that? And insulting her grandmother on top of that?
Observing that there is an inclination to same sex attraction in a family is no indication of wisdom, YFC, but rather observation. The same could be said in family trees with regard to alcoholism, diabetes, anxiety/depression, and a host of other issues.
Wisdom is passing on how to deal with said inclinations in a godly fashion. And any Catholic, aged or otherwise, who would just give the subsequent behaviors a pass on the merits of it ‘running in the family’ would be either foolish, uncaring, or not very wise. You wouldn’t consider it wisdom if someone in the family were suicidal and grandma’s response was to just opt to point out all those in the family line who were similarly inclined or in fact killed themselves.
As to ‘honoring’ one’s mother and father, honoring them would be to opt to do the right thing and correct the family tree for love of your parents… and future generations.
Your Fellow Catholic says:
June 27, 2014 at 5:28 am
“Wow no Catherine is going after wisdom acquired by decades of life. Unbelievable! Catherine, honor your father and your mother!”
YFC, It is good to honor our mothers and our fathers, especially when they have taught us to always defend the truth. Were you honoring the memory or telling the truth a while back when you wrote a very disrespectful post that clearly dishonored your own mother on CCD? Your trolling activities have you confused. Have you already forgotten that you posted some extremely disloyal and unflattering comments about your very own mother’s behavior when she was sick and dying? That was not honorable and it did not honor the memory of your mother. For the sake of any new readers who might not realize that you are a homosexual troll who undermines Church teaching, I charitably addressed you about making those terrible comments at the time. YFC, Keep track of your posts, you seem to be falling down on the job of trolling Catholic websites.
Catherine, another vicious accusation from you. I have never disrespected or dishonored my mother on CCD (or anywhere) NEVER. Your ability to sling accusations at others never ceases to amaze. Sometimes people say horrible things on CCD, such as what you have just written.
No YFC, It was actually YOU who sounded cold and vicious when you denigrated your own mother by telling everyone how she lashed out at everyone who tried to help her in her final days. You had an opportunity to retract your vicious comments when you made them back then and you chose not to because you only have one thing on your mind. Attacking the authentic teachings. It was a very big slip up to paint a dying woman in such a bad light, let alone dishonoring the last memories of your own mother to the entire blogosphere. It demonstrated just how hell bent you are to achieve your ill fated agenda. My grandmother was wise. She said, “If a person can easily and consistently betray Almighty God, then don’t ever be that surprised when that same person betrays another human being.”
Please re-read Canisius’s June 27 excellent truthful response to your many Saul Alinsky tactics that attempt to undermine Catholic Church teaching.
Canisius says:
June 27, 2014 at 10:16 am
YFC all you do is lie, lie, lie
Catherine, I was describing her behavior as it was affected by debilitating decade long struggle with dementia. Describing her behavior was not in any way demeaning her or disrespecting her. But because you are hyper-critical of me, and because you apparently have know compassion for those with dementia and their caregivers, you think that describing her behavior is disrespectful. She did in deed lash out, sometimes physically. I loved her through it all until her death, and to say that I was being disrespectful of her is truly stunningly cruel.
Wise words from your grandmother, Catherine. Thanks for sharing them!
# 1. “Unbelievable! Catherine, honor your father and your mother! ” = Why didn’t you?
# 2 “I have *never* disrespected or dishonored my mother on CCD (or anywhere) NEVER.” = Not true
# 3. “Catherine, I was describing her behavior as it was affected by debilitating decade long struggle with dementia. Describing her behavior was not in any way demeaning her or disrespecting her.” = Still not being completely honest
I see all of the sudden that your memory has been somewhat refreshed by facts and that you are now forced to admit that you did show dishonor. You are conveniently leaving something important out. Please let me help you to completely refresh your memory to the fullest. You are the stunningly cruel individual who verbally attacks faithful posters on CCD for simply teaching and defending the Catholic Faith. You threw your own mother under the bus, accusing faithful Catholics of acting like your dying debilitated mother with dementia who lashed out at anyone who tried to help her. No undoing that ugly one YFC so YOU best buck up and admit that it was a very unflattering and disloyal picture to paint of your deceased mother. YOU are the one who CHOSE to use the uncomplimentary insulting words about your mother by comparing her debilitated demented behavior to that of faithful Catholics.
Thank you Ann Malley. My grandmother WAS wise. She was head of the obstetrics ward of Columbus Hospital in Chicago where she met Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, M.S.C., who was also called Mother Cabrini. My grandmother had asked if it was God’s will if she could please have her purgatory while still living on this earth. She had a debilitating stroke and was bedridden for nine years before she died. A large crucifix was placed on the wall at the foot of her bed and she prayed faithfully with an incredibly sweet and joyful spirit. She had one of the most holy peaceful deaths that one could be graced with. She was monetarily poor, widowed and raised five children but she was rich in the treasury of her Catholic faith!
Thank you for relating more about your grandmother, Catherine. It would seem she lived the third joyful mystery to the fullest.
Would that we could all ask for the grace to be as strong and loyal. Suffer the faith!
God bless.
Don’t care about your evidence YFC.
Keep your eye on the prize of getting to Heaven, not temporary sexual gratification – acts that are Mortal sins.
What an incredible woman, Catherine. I love grandma stories! She sounds almost like a mystic. Do you have her rosary beads or Bible? What a witness to her children and grandchildren! She probably offered up her suffering everyday before she died.
Dana,
Thank you for your question. My grandmother was truly incredible in her faith. She absolutely offered up ALL of her sufferings. She also raised a son with Spina Bifida after she was widowed. They were so poor that the firemen from the fire station next door to their house used to knock on my grandmother’s door and say, “We made too much food for the firemen today, could you please help us by taking some.” My uncle said that these kind firemen knew that the food that they brought was crucial to helping this bedridden widow. May God bless all firemen! Another interesting tidbit is the story of how my grandmother met my grandfather. He was one of the patients at the hospital where she worked. He was instantly attracted to her beauty from the moment he saw her and he asked her if she would ever consider marrying an older gentleman. My grandmother said, ” Are you kidding me? I don’t think so, especially because I have read your entire medical chart and I also see that you own a saloon.” Then she said, “Lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine.” My completely smitten grandfather replied, “If you would please consider courting me and then marrying me, then I promise I will never touch another drop of liquor for the rest of my life.” And the rest is history and my grandfather kept that promise until the day he died.
Continued from July 1, 2014 at 6:45 pm
Dana, You asked if I had a Bible or rosary and I do not. What I do know is that the heavy crucifix that faced her every day while she was bedridden, is still placed every day on the pillow of my uncle, the Catholic priest. The weight from the heavy metal crucifix sinks deeply into the pillow as a daily reminder of Our Lord’s carrying the heavy weight of the cross for the redemption of all sinners. I never got to personally meet my grandmother because she died long before I was born but my mother and uncle and all of her relatives shared many remarkable stories and said that she was exceptionally faithful to God as well as being very influential in inspiring hearts and souls as witnessed in her ability to influence a proud Irishman to sell his prized saloon.
The research quoted of Michael Bailey at Northwestern University contradicts the theory the orientation is determined by a genetic link. If you read the account, Bailey states in his own words that less than 50% of the individuals had orientation was quote determinative unquote, so Michael Bailey himself says environmental factors are involved. So there is no “DNA link” to a specific sexual orientation.
Steve, you really misunderstood what Bailey wrote. He is saying that the genetic link he found does not account for all incidences of sexual orientation. And by “environment”, he is including epigenetic factors, hormonal expsosure in utero, and potentially even nutritional influences by the mother in utero and during breast feeding. He is not saying that there is no “DNA link”, as you put it, or that there are ways to manipulate the environment (as in via counseling or a different parental upbringing) that could change a persons sexual orientation.
This research misleadingly quoted in the site ‘Raw Story,’ about Michael Bailey at Northwestern University does NOT establish that there is a determinative genetic link to sexual orientation. Having established there is no DNA link, now some would propose other ‘epigenetic’ factors are determinative, such as early natal behavior or hormonal influences. But these are vague claims and of course cannot be proven. At the end of the day, once again, if you read the research of Michael Bailey at Northwestern, and what he states himself , there is no determinative genetic link to sexual orientation.
I would do what I would with a homosexual child just as I would a heterosexual child. To a girl I would say, “Do your duty to God and country. Marry, lie on your back and think of England”. To a boy, I would read aloud the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling, and tell him how important it was to look to the great men of history, and most especially to Jesus, the perfect man. I would then ask if any of these men were preoccupied with sex, and then ask why not. I would then give either the girl or boy the usual pep talk about the importance of service, sacrifice and sacramental living. I would then ask them what has sex got to do with any of that. “If your sex is causing you to fail in your duty, live chastely” Jesus said …” if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell,” Keep it simple, I say. :o)
Small world…my post was written on June 26. I was reading a piece by Brendan King on the St.Austen Review’s website and he dedicated Kipling’s poem to St.Thomas More, whose Feast Day was June 22. As I wrote in another post, More was the quintessential male role model. Here’s the poem, which I should have posted earlier. All sons should be given this poem when they’re about 12 or 13…I gave it to my own son then, explaining that we might not have Bar Mitzvahs at a boy’s coming of age, but he was still becoming a man. I said that from then on he was responsible for his decisions but that as parents, we would still be there for him always. Stop treating pubescent boys like little children and they mature to be leaders.
“IF” by R.Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
In case it got cut off:
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
Thank you Dana! : )
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;”
Second Epistle Of Saint Paul To The Corinthians Chapter 12
” And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For which cause I please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ. For when I am weak, then am I powerful.”
Beautiful, Catherine. That could be your Grandmother’s own verses!
I hope you have put all the stories you can gather about her in a book for your children. I made one of all my grandmothers for my granddaughter and sewed it up and bound it myself, with a few favorite recipes, poems etc. from each of them. I’m sorry you never met yours, but what a joy when you’re reunited. My mom’s mom came to me in a dream the night she died. I was living thousands of miles away and hadn’t been told she died, but I knew the next morning she was gone before anyone called.
As someone who has had the experience of coming out, let me say that everyone’s situation is different. In most cases, certainly in my family the parents know or suspected the child was gay long before the kid came to them. That was certainly true in my case and with both of my brothers who were gay.
C&H. Your family would make an interesting case study.
Both of your brothers, and yourself are all homosexuals. This is very unusual.
For each of you is it merely same sex attraction, or living in mortal sin?
DF … The current edition of the CCC wisely says that “the causes of homosexuality are largely unexplained.” The “is it nature or nurture” question keeps popping up here. Some right wingers tend to get hysterical screaming that we somehow choose to be gay. Does our big Catholic family’s experience shed any light on this? I don’t know. With six older brothers, two gay, the rest straight and married … to women… well one’s divorced. All this “weak father, smothering mother” voodoo, put out by the holy rollers, didn’t happen with us. Brother #2 has been with his partner for many, many years. They were married in the Episcopalian church and, last year, by the state of Washington. Also, I have a lot of cousins who are gay. As for living in sin, are you referring to sexual sins? Speaking for me, the sinful side of my life currently consists of missing mass without a real excuse, nursing a long standing anger towards some people who almost destroyed my business long ago, cursing and not being respectful of others by making jokes about them. As for my love life, right now at least, it’s not an issue. However … … If Ms. Right ever comes along… I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
As an opening to the conversation I would also ask Two Questions:
1. At what Age did you have your First Homosex encounter?
2. What was the Age of your ‘partner’?
Given that Homosex Abuse by Older Ephebophles while Young is A (Perhaps The) Major contributing factor in acting out such behaviors later in life, I would at the very least look for a Statutory Rape Case to be made against the older Perv who Raped the Child – even if they pretend it is a ‘coming of age’ ceremony.
This is also true for the Chastity Bono type situation (Abuse by an Older Dyke while young) that led to her surgical mutilation / steroid abuse – and a host of problems associated with the ‘Butch – Bride of Frankenstein Buzz Kut’ Coven – relating to the severe wounding by older Pervs while young..
Hence – given that Genetics Does Not (no matter how desperately Anonymous Harpy Trolls want it to) Cause one to act out Homosex Behaviors – as studies of Identical Twins amongst other things show – we should look at Tammy Bruce’s discussion of the Wounding such Abuse causes – as a path to treatment helping them break the cycle.
McDermott, why should any of us trust you with such intimate details of our lives when you have demonstrated over and over again how abusive your words are to us? Nobody wants to put their personal sexual history on line for you to attack, and the editors should remove your question as being improper from the start.
I suspect they will not remove the questions. And if they do they will allow your lies following your quesitons to remain. THere is no evidence that your statement is true when you say “Given that Homosex Abuse by Older Ephebophles while Young is A (Perhaps The) Major contributing factor in acting out such behaviors later in life, “, and there IS evidence that being gay has a genetic component, despite your ignorance of the science.
Please stop with lies. As the catechism says, lies to real violence to persons.
There is no evidence that same-sex attraction is genetic or caused by other physical ailment.
Check the Center for Disease Contol web site.
However there is evidence that some are related to sexual abuse by older homosexuals.
DF, what you write is not true. For only the LATEST evidence of a biological/genetical source of homosexuality, please consult https://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/14/study-finds-genes-on-x-chromosome-linked-to-male-homosexuality/
In addition, there is a very in depth book that reviews the mountain of biological/genetical evidence: https://www.amazon.com/Gay-Straight-Reason-Why-Orientation-ebook/dp/B0041OT9SA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403885915&sr=1-1&keywords=gay+straight+and+the+reason+why {By the way this book is now about 5 years old, so does not include another mountain of findings}
.
On the other hand, here is absolutely no evidence, NONE, that homosexuality is “related to sexual abuse by older homosexuals”. This is a story made up by people, and there is no basis in fact for it.
DF, thanks for the invitation to see what the Centers for Disease Control have to say about the origins of homosexuality. I couldn’t find any post there that seemed to correspond to what you were talking about, but I did find these things on their site:
https://www.cdc.gov/msmhealth/stigma-and-discrimination.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/msmhealth/mental-health.htm
and CDC links to this document: https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/orientation.pdf
Did you find something different that you’d like to share?
If you purport to follow the catechism, YFC, follow it yourself and stop putting forth ‘science’ as the new god. And stop castigating CCD for being somehow unfair when they allow you to continually post your personal musings.
Ann Malley, it is interesting to me that instead of attacking the science I referenced, you choose an ad hominem attack against me as a person (once again) when you make the false claim that I have put science as the new god. When the truth is indisputable, attack the truth teller.
In case you forget, science and faith are not at odds with each other. Here is a passage from the very good wikipedia article that summarizes things nicely:
“The Church itself rejects the notion of innate conflict. The Vatican Council (1869/70) declared that “Faith and reason are of mutual help to each other”.[3] The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1912 proffers that “The conflicts between science and the Church are not real”, and states that belief in such conflicts are predicated on false assumptions.[4] Pope John Paul II summarised the Catholic view of the relationship between faith and reason in the encyclical Fides et Ratio, saying “Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.”[5]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_science
No, YFC, science and Faith are not at odds. You are correct. Our Lord is the Master of Science and therefore we shouldn’t fear it. But neither should we attempt to use our surface-scratching *discoveries* as a means to dismiss God’s law. For we are not God and do not see the whole as He does.
God’s law is in place for good reason, despite our believing we have discovered something that would give us permission to engage in that which is sinful. So saying, you shouldn’t make a god out of God’s tools, but rather use them in the fashion that He has set down.
If you find that to be a personal attack I cannot help you.
It’s amazing how quickly this web-site allows topics to devolve into pure hatred.
peter, it’s not hatred. On the part of some it’s annoyance when homosexuals come on a Catholic media site to flaunt their sinful lifestyles.
And its very offensive when someone who supports mortal sin such as YFC – pretends to be Catholic. If he is Catholic at all, he is a Catholic heretic and schismatic, and should call himself a “Catholic heretic”.
(He supports sodomy marriage.)
If you don’t like what any Religion teaches – then don’t frequent a media site related to that Faith.
You are not going to change people’s beliefs, and you only make matters worse by promoting Mortal Sin.
Well said DF….
DF,
Thanks!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika and His Church!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc
I would posit the issue differently. It is not a matter of belief that is getting out of hand. The church’s teachings are clear! The issue, it seems to me, is the way in which some comments are posted. Rather than pastoral and helpful there are too many that spew hate. We should all be able to state our beliefs without sounding hateful.
Don’t confuse pastoral with weak, Bob One. Often stiff and bitter medicine is required, especially with those who stubbornly promote that which will lead to physical and spiritual death.
The ways of the husbandman are not pastoral fairy tales. Our Lord was very straight speaking with the Pharisees (those spewing false doctrine) who were, when you get down to it, still His children. Why? Because their ways were damaging to the flock, much like militant homosexual lobbyists who insist on hijacking the word charity to equal the embracing of filth.
Then do not stir the pot, peter, with your rabid, anti-Catholic assertion of the homosexual agenda. You cannot call out a so-called problem while being a major instigator, at least not with any credibility.
Eye roll . . .
What I’m seeing is a drift away from conservative Catholic thought into the neither world of Protestant fundamentalist extremism.
No C&H what you are seeing is a visceral reaction and response to years of gay infiltration into the Church and Society as a whole. As someone who was brought up in evil and abusive world of lesbians, I am sick of seeing gays/lesbians march and scream and demand my acceptance.
There is nothing extreme in the position that homosexual sex is inherently disordered to the nature of mankind, C&H.
C&H, What I’m seeing is that you’re finally realizing the drift regarding the ineffectiveness of your homosexual activism or trolling capabilities on faithful Catholic websites.
1. Based on their insensitive comments, I rather doubt that “peter” or “Will” have any experience being a parent of children.( Experts, nonetheless, they are of course.)
2. The overwhelming response of my children, some of whom are now adult has been the aggressive pressing of the sexual agenda upon them and their peers by the Agenda crowd. Beware, Fellow Agenda Agitprops. Perhaps this is what engenders the fear in the Happy Agents: a future reckoning in response to their increasingly shrill oppressiveness is coming.
3. The true issue is what is the essence of the human soul. Christ teaches the Sadducees unequivocally that the glorified life transcends sexuality:no one has sexual orientation in the risen life: “For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage,” Mt. 22:30. Aquinas pierces the veil of our present carnal confusion in his typical clarity: sexus not est in anima, lit. “sex is not in the soul” i.e. as a permanent condition. Resultingly, those who wish to define themselves based merely on their sexual drives and inclinations are greatly deceived.
HOLY MOLEY … Check this out …… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Tomczak
This Tomozak guy is a fallen away Catholic who started his own Calvinist cult and was sued for sexual abuse … Folks .. this Holy Roller and his program arn’t Roman Catholic in any way, shape or form.
C&H,
Are you trying to say that because the monitors of CCC did not practice better monitoring of this Site, that everything the true Catholic Church teaches about homosexuality is wrong? Good luck with that when you try to convince the Supreme Judge of your knowledge!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika and His Church!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
Kenneth … Today there is another fundamentalist Protestant posting, this one from convicted felon Chuck Colson’s site.
Today on the feast of St. Peter and Paul, maybe we ought to focus on our one true Roman Catholic Church and its message and not get caught up with fringe elements be they the Roman Catholic Womenpriests, Inc. or the SSPX or the sedvacandists, or nasty Michael Vorhiees nor the various Protestant fundamentalists who get quoted more and more here. All these are not legitimate successors to Peter, the rock upon which our Church is built
Then stick to the catechism, C&H. Homosexual sex is disordered. Not even the ‘legitimate successors’ of Peter can change that as these men are called to be defenders/protectors of Truth, not writers of new truth despite how the media likes to twist and pressure Church leaders into silence or rash interviews.
In other words, Chair of Peter or no, there is no authority to institute spitting on the Cross or denigrating the Precious Blood. Much like being a parent doesn’t give one the authority to kill one’s children.
He C&H Michael Voris is loyal to See of Peter and is very much Catholic, hardly “fringe” he is authentically Catholic much more than you and Church gay, where sin is the order of the day…and judgment is the cardinal sin…
I am taken aback by many of the comments above! The question posed asks what you would do if your child told you s/he was gay. It didn’t ask if gay was good or bad, just what would be your reaction and what would you tell them. I find, and I know it is a personal observation, that most of the answers are not very sensitive to the situation. Think of the courage it took to tell you in the first place. I would think that telling the child you love them is the most important thing we could do as a parent. If we are not genuinely of our kids, we have lots them already. Then we can talk about our feelings and theirs about the gay issue. But if they don’t think we love them deeply they are lost and we will have lost them. This is not an issue of theology, religion. This is an emotional issues. We know that you don’t deal with emotions with rational thinking. The focus has to be on the child. By the way, it is not a sin to be gay. Our catechism tells us that.
Bob One – In addition to loving each of your children,
as a parent you have a responsibility to teach them right from wrong.
Homosexual Acts are mortal sins, temptation is not a sin provided every effort is made to avoid the temptations at all times. Impure thoughts are sinful.
CCC: ” 2223 Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children.
They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues.
This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery – the preconditions of all true freedom.
Parents should teach their children to subordinate the “material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones.
Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. By knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, parents will be better able to guide and correct them:
He who loves his son will not spare the rod. . . . He who disciplines his son will profit by him.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
The focus should also be on what precisely has led a child to believe himself or herself to be ‘gay’ per se. What and/or who has led them to this conclusion.
Often times, “Why would you say that?” is the proper response to a person’s seemingly definitive proclamations. IOW: There are many factors that contribute to conclusions. It is a parent’s responsibility to find out what those contributing factors are before ‘supporting’ anyone, let alone seemingly lending credence to that which goes against the natural law. For while homosexual inclinations may not be sinful in themselves, they are disordered according to the nature of man. That’s in the catechism, too, Bob One.
Ann .. Just FYI, I had my first crush on a girl when I was in the third grade. Can you recall when you you first started thinking of boys in a romantic way?
C&H,,,,this will be as irrelevant as your comment… if it was not for my twin sister and the neighborhood lady (spent many nights at her home) who lived down the street from me growing up, and my years in the military, I think my real dark side would manifested toward most women, or I would be dead from suicide.
Like I said, C&H, a child should be asked why they feel a certain way. What does having a ‘crush’ mean to a child in third grade? One of my sisters was a late bloomer and was convinced she must really be a boy. Nothing could be further from reality. She has a lovely family and a strong marriage of 27 years. (That said I was in kindergarten when I picked a boy out and said we were going to get married. Why? Not because of ‘romantic’ notions, but because one of my sisters was getting married and I wanted to be grownup, too.)
There are children that are convinced they are dog ugly, too. Or worthless. Or any number of other things. Kids can fixate on a lot of different things. A parent’s job isn’t necessarily to take at face value the ‘label’ a child has put on themselves, but to get to the root of why they feel they should have that label. And go from there.
Otherwise, we run the risk of our children unfairly pidgeon holing themselves into popular notions that are often incorrect and dangerous. You had *that* feeling? That *automatically* means you’re this. Or, you had *that* reaction, that must mean you’re a *this*. No.
What a hateful article. You are abusing children.
Chris J – parents abuse children when they do not love them, and do not teach them, and do not correct them when necessary.
The ultimate goal must be to prepare our children so that they can get to Heaven.
Thumbs up, Dottie, for your succinct and accurate response to Chris J.
Yet more mau mauing by the Homosex Trolls via ‘ Alinskyite Shaming’ tactics, trying to excuse and champion the promotion of what the Church clearly teaches as Evil…
CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH
LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
ON THE PASTORAL CARE OF HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS
“>>> an overly benign interpretation was given to the homosexual condition itself, some going so far as to call it neutral, or even good. Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.
Therefore special concern and pastoral attention should be directed toward those who have this condition, lest they be led to believe that the living out of this orientation in homosexual activity is a morally acceptable option. It is not.
There is an effort in some countries to manipulate the Church by gaining the often well-intentioned support of her pastors with a view to changing civil-statutes and laws.
This is done in order to conform to these pressure groups’ concept that homosexuality is at least a completely harmless, if not an entirely good, thing. Even when the practice of homosexuality may seriously threaten the lives and well-being of a large number of people, its advocates remain undeterred and refuse to consider the magnitude of the risks involved….
Quoting your own quotation of the CDC missive, “Therefore special concern and pastoral attention should be directed toward those who have this condition,”, I would ask you McDermott, when you have ever demonstrated special concern for gay people? All you do is denigrate, denigrate, denigrate.
“All you do is denigrate, denigrate, denigrate.” YFC all you do is lie, lie, lie
Canisius, where once have I lied? Show me one example, please, so that I can make correct it and make amends.
I saw your earlier posts about your aweful childhood. Your healing has been and remains in my prayers.
YFC you recently claimed that the early scriptures relating to marriage were manipulated through the years so that marriage could be between a man and woman. This is a giant lie.
Canisius, I did not say that. I believe what I said is that whatever jesus may have said about marriage was clearly misinterpreted by Saint Paul, who taught that it is best not for anyone to marry. If the early Church had headed Pauline teaching on marriage, Christianity would have died out long time ago. 1 Corinthians 7:8: ” Now to the unmarried[a] and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.”
“…special concern and pastoral attention,” could very easily be ‘defined’ as having a care for the soul of those who are otherwise told homosexual sex is okay. It isn’t, YFC. So you are receiving an abundance of special concern and pastoral attention.
Dear ‘Your Fake Catholic – If you continue to cravenly hide your identity and affiliations – Cease Addressing Me.
I do not respond to Homosex Trolls – and your behaviors on this board clearly show this is your sole interest in the Catholic Church & its Teachings.
If you want to remain an Anonymous Troll – that is your business, but pretend ‘Shaming’ using my name by someone too cowardly to identify themselves only shows how useless interaction is with your type Anti-Catholic Alinskyite Troll.
Either Put Up – as in Identify Who You Are and What Your Affiliation to the Church / Homosex Lobby is – Or Stop Harassing me.
Clear enough?
Don’t bother to reply until you quit hiding your identity.
Nothing brings out the responses to articles like homosexuality! Of course, at about 30 repeats per poster, the conversation gets a little same-y.
I doubt there’s a person from any family of decent size who doesn’t have at least a homosexual cousin or two, and who know them well-enough to understand their individuality.
I recommend thinking of them when thinking about homosexuality, and not the grandstanders and cartoon characters who parade in their chaps and jock straps. Of course, maybe the dude in the chaps IS your cousin….
My cousin died of AIDs
How about a New Topic Thread – titled “If you child came home and told you they were Raped by a member of the Larry Brinkin Racist Pederast posse – What would you do?
Would you Celebrate this as an act of Tolerance meaning your child had ‘come out’ and discovered a true ‘happy’ identity – Or would you call the Police and Report a Rape?
One hopes this story shows the Church has Learned to Do What is right in the face of Homosex Abuse:
Vatican ex-ambassador convicted of sex abuse, defrocked
VATICAN CITY – The Vatican’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic has been convicted by a church tribunal of sex abuse and has been defrocked, the first such sentence handed down against a top papal representative.
The Vatican said Friday that Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski was found guilty by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in recent days, and sentenced to the harshest penalty possible against a cleric under canon law: laicization, meaning he can no longer perform priestly duties or present himself as a priest.
… As a papal diplomat and citizen of the Vatican City State, he also faces criminal charges by the tribunal of Vatican City, which can carry a prison term.
I would read him Jude 1:7:
“Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of ETERNAL FIRE.”
sure to be helpful….then give them a Jack Chick tract…
Jack hates both gays and Catholics. I don’t think he and I would get along.
Cowardly Anonymous,
Congratulations, you just exposed your true thoughts. You compared a “Jack Chick tract” with the real Word of God, Jude 1:7!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika and His Church!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher
D-Day Drill
Today is the annual Tax Subsidized Anti-Male Hate Riot – San Francisco Dyke March, which takes over Dolores park around 4pm or so – and then begins taking over the public streets – gridlocking much of the city around 6pm.
While Mission Dolores Church Steps is where many start from, it is best to remember that these Hate Driven Misandrists are often hyped up on booze & drugs & Hate – before they stage the march…
– And frequently act out their Hatreds (Particularly Against Men) in the Gridlocked Streets as well as On the Church Steps – so no one is really ‘safe’ (even on Church Grounds) when the Dykes are on a Rampage.
The following statement is from their website – regarding the Ban on Male Citizens from said Public Streets …
And who knows – perhaps from the Church Steps too; provided they get “Fat, Feminist & Feisty” enough to enforce their rabid frothing hind foot thumping Misandry on Church Property too:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
“We continue to hold the Dyke March as dyke-only space.
We invite our male allies to enjoy our Dolores Park rally with us, and to please support us from the sidelines during our march to Castro.”
SF Dyke March Website
The Dyke rally and march began yesterday from 18th- 19th and Dolores [Dolores Park], not at the “Mission Dolores Church Steps” – 2 blocks away – as McDermott has REPEATED MANY TIMES. Why do you suppose it is that he repeatedly lies about this? I am happy to provide a link to the Dyke march site as proof, or you can use the google machine yourselves.
Michael … I’m glad you were able to go and pick up so much good info for your research on the lesbian community.. I’ll try and make it next year. See you then!
If my adult child told me he was gay, I would tell him:
“So am I, my love. So am I.” Everyone should be gay, but not aberrosexual or engaging in biologically aberrant sexual behavioral choices. As your proud, openly gay mom, I take deep offense at ever being compared with an aberrosexual, or someone that engages in biologically aberrant sexual behavioral choices. Aberrosexualism is not gay. It is extremely sad. Those who engage in biologically aberrant sexual behavioral choices cannot enjoy peace because they are at war with their own nature.
Aberrosexualism is self-destructive. It is contrary to our biological design, function, and purpose. Aberrosexualism is not a lifestye, it is a deathstyle. If you want you to be truly happy, you should be orthosexual, or one that engages in biologically correct sexual behavioral choices. Be true to yourself, to how you were born, to how nature made you, so you can be happy in this life and the next.
Let me guess. You have a PhD in something unrelated to biology?
Yikes! – Or reality . . . such an oddly aberrochristian response. “Be true to yourself, to how you were born, to how nature made you, so you can be happy in this life and the next.” Sounds like great advice . . . except for the other quack mid-level clinician nonsense that comes before it.
And by so disrespecting your child, Dr. Meissner, you would increase the chances that your child would become a victim of suicide, substance abuse, and HIV. Here is a better evidence based answer: https://familyproject.sfsu.edu/
Lying to your child is not respecting them, YFC, or respecting their God given dignity. Rather lying to children is to negate their dignity, insult their intelligence, and perpetuate the myth that they are incapable of picking up the cross and following Our Lord. How cruel and crippling! Like tethering a baby elephant so that it will never learn that it has the capacity to be more than a chained entertainment for its keepers.
Why the perpetual fear mongering, YFC? Attempting to bamboozle people into lying to their children? Would you have those you consider brothers and sisters afflicted with same sex attraction chained to sinful disorder? Stunted in the will which is the superior faculty of man?
Sounds like the work of the Devil to me. Negating God’s grace by plucking up fear.
Ann Malley, I’m just telling it like it is, I’m not fearmongering. There is very good data that approaching a child who is LGBT with the kinds of rejecting words and actions suggested by some of these posters hampers their ability to lead a successful life. Rejected kids have a much harder life:
From a study in Pediatrics: “Higher rates of family rejection were significantly associated with poorer health outcomes. On the basis of odds ratios, lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults who reported higher levels of family rejection during adolescence were 8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide, 5.9 times more likely to report high levels of depression, 3.4 times more likely to use illegal drugs, and 3.4 times more likely to report having engaged in unprotected sexual intercourse compared with peers from families that reported no or low levels of family rejection.” https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/123/1/346.abstract
There you go again, YFC, fear mongering. That is painting parental concern and rightly ordered guidance as rejection. YOU need to get off the broken wheel of intentionally misrepresenting parenting and/or correction and proper support and guidance with rejection.
It is that misrepresentation intended to separate parents from children and logic from love that is most disgusting. Much like Planned Parenthood seeks to separate young, vulnerable girls from the ones they need the most. Solid parents. And using the precepts of so-called science, freedom, help, compassion and a load of other claptrap designed to bring girls to the harvest instead of protecting them.
You confuse what human beings are and what we are called to be with that which we ‘think’ we are and ‘limit’ ourselves to be. You limit parents by branding them as rejecting or harming their own children for discouraging a lifestyle that is inherently disordered and harmful. And you abuse children by attempting to convince them that there is no other alternative but to embrace that which is harmful and disordered while stripping them of protection of parents by devious means.
Disgusting. Aberrant. Predatory!
Again, the misleadingly cited research above (https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/123/1/346.abstract) noted from the American Association of Pediatrics publication is an abstract: so I don’t think the person presenting this tendentiously martialed research knows what an abstract is. However, even so, research studies such as these are a dime a dozen, especially on popular topics that “find” exactly what they are intended to find: It is a good way to keep the research money and appointments flowing.
It is also an “old” study (2009), and unless you want to purchase the PDF, we dont know what other factors affecting the research populaiton might have been “controlled for”, if at all; factors such as might have contributed to “negative health” effects (such as drug or alcohol use, mental health issues, etc). Pseudoscience being turned out at the equivalent of the sausage factory.
So the clearer I make the case for how your side of the coin is harming our children, the more shrill your claims that I am “predatory” become. Prove, provide any evidence you have, show, for once, how your ideas lead to lives lived long and faithfully. Show any evidence you have. Let us see it. But don’t just dispute hard science with your silly claims of “predatory” behavior.
Steve Pheonix, because you are too cheap to pay for the full article does not make the abstract of the article pseudoscience. Show in a convincing way that it is pseueoscience, and I will join you in condemning the article. For the record, I have written many scientific articles, and all of them have abstracts. Both are reviewed by the editors and peer reviewers for faithfulness to the scientific process underlying the findings. Ad hominem attacks – and appeals to your cheap-skatedness- do not constitute real scientific conflict.
Your resorting to ‘shrill’ is a compliment, YFC. Thank you! And your written preference for appealing to so called ‘hard’ science outside of God and His law is just another proof that you are not a ‘fellow’ Catholic, but a confirmed dissenter bent on dividing the flock. To include driving the faithful away from faith and children away from their parents. That’s predatory.
Prove that there is no God behind this science you worship and perhaps you’d have a leg to stand on when addressing believing Catholics. Until then, Brave New World, by Your Dissenting Catholic will get a highly logical pass. For while you may be forthcoming about your academic credentials when writing for scientific journals, you are not being honest about your credentials here, Sir, or your methods.
Good luck with that.
Dear Ann Malley. The world does not revolve around you. I did not call you “shrill”, unless you and Steve Pheonix are the same person. So, I reject your “thanks”. Then you go on to castigate science once again, and those of us who understand science and how it works, even though you said a few days ago that you agree that there is no conflict between science and faith. Yet every time we dip our toes ever so slightly into science, you scream for your bloody life, as though your faith might drown in a Pool of Science. I worship not at the altar of science, but I do worship at an Altar that sits next to a lab bench and both are important for understanding the world around us.
Actually, I take back parts of my last post at 10:04 AM. Ann Malley did call me predatory, not Steve Phoenix. I apologize to both of you for mixing you up. If you think science is predatory, then I suppose I am predatory. And that would make you a Republican. Probably a Tea Party Republican.
You are predatory in attempting to fault Catholics for believing the faith, YFC, while attempting to raise Science above the One who gifted us with it. That said, there is no disconnect between God and Science, per se, but rather there is an overwhelmingly arrogant disconnect in your attempt to use what little piece of the big picture you believe you have to quash the natural law.
That’s your problem as science and reality does not revolve around your little piece.
Thank you for addressing this issue, Dr. Judy, with logic, understanding man as having an inherent nature.
Yeah, but with blind mis-recognition of that inherent nature. Come on Ann, really? Next thing you’ll be trying to tell us is that NARTH and AFTAH are legitimate institutions of scientific research and discovery.
Yes, really, Peter. It is not in the nature of the digestive system to assert functionality with the reproductive system. So saying the ‘nature’ to which I refer is the nature of mankind. The ability to reproduce is in the nature of mankind, that which it is ordered to do. Frustrating that overriding nature is a disorder.
Much like it is not in the nature of mankind to be blind or paralyzed.
Always boils down to sex with Catholics. Such an odd obsession.
You might just want to study the ways in which the reproductive system does indeed interact with the reproductive system. Then again I know science isn’t popular on this blog.
Science is just another proof and magnificent reflection of God’s existence, YFC. I don’t know why you confuse yourself by believing there is some disconnect. That said, move within the realm of God’s nature as He intended. If you play with that which you think you know, but you do not, you will get burned.
God’s lab, after all. But if you do as He asks, someday He’ll lift you up so you can actually see what’s going on. Attempting to connect A to Z without using the letters that lead from one to the other or linking AC to DC and wishing for the reaction you want is child’s play.
God bless.
Disrespecting your child and his or her sexual orientation has negative consequences for the health of the child. https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/123/1/346.full?ijkey=NrncY0H897lAU&keytype=ref&siteid=aapjournals
This is the same link to the same abstract being pasted again by a fellow uninformed pseudo-science type. He has not read the original article.
Steve Phoenix you claim I have not read the original article. How, pray tell, could you possibly know this, and what does it matter one way or the other? Have you read the article or the abstract? Do you have anything to offer here, other than to make silly claims?
“What does it matter one way or the other, “[ to have read the article?], he says, = admission the uninformed pseudo-scientist has not read articles that he quotes against other people here. It is dishonest and unethical to cite a source that one has not even read. And to top it off, it is from a secondary source (an abstract). But no one is surprised by our follow deceptive one. if this person does research, as he claims, war sausage from the sausage factory. Could anyone trust any of his studies?
I have read it Steve Phoenix!!! You have not!!! Yet you condemn that which you have not read!!!
Now, Steve, note the excess of exclamation marks. When called on the carpet, resort to excessive punctuation and the word silly. Perhaps that is ‘new’ science?
God bless :)
Actually, if a fellow uninformed individual had originally read the AAP article (he probably has now, having been forced to defend it) he would have noted the serious flaws in it (instead he originally quoted only from the abstract in alleging that “disrespecting your child and his or her sexual orientation has negative consequences for the health of the child.” (6/30/14). This now-“old” research (study samples were from prior to July 2008) relied on subjective recall of young adults’ experiences from several years earlier (recall bias); the survey individuals were involved in participatory research, meaning they were actively engaged with providers, other youths, and family members, also entailing significant subjective bias; Bias is obviously inherent in the questions (One Q: “Between age 13-19, how often did your parents/caregivers blame you for any anti-gay mistreatment that you experience?” ; and most tellingly, the sample group (now in their 20’s) showed high rates of mental health problems, substance use/abuse, and sexually promiscuous activity. As a result, it is spurious to claim that none of these factors might have had a greater impact upon the “negative health risks” of the individuals — than alleged parental rejection of one’s not sexual orientation.
At least you are making a serious attempt, finally, to point out shortcomings in the research. And I actually agree with you that these are factors that mitigate the strength of the findings. But I would ask you whether you have any counter research, free of those shortcomings you (correctly) cite, that prove the findings to be false?
Disregarding one’s duty as a parent has negative consequences for the health of the child, too, YFC. Both physical and spiritual.
That said, respecting one’s child is about respecting that the child is precisely that, not fully grown and in need of solid guidance. That is why children have parents, YFC, not facilitators.
So Ann Malley, if you told your child that you would pick him up on the steps of Mission Dolores Church on Dolores street at 16th, but you knew you were going to pick him up on the steps of Mission High School on 18th Street, that would be OK? Then you make fun of your child because you had lied to him and he was too gullible to pick up on the lie? It would be pretty bad to lie to your child like that right? And it is probably even worse when the child believes you and then you make fun of him for believing your lie, right?
YFC, you are a confused individual. You promote lying as if it were truth, evading entirely the reality that Our Lord says the Truth shall set us free. But you are at liberty to do what you will as you are doing everyday in attempting to misguide, reinterpret, wheedle, cajole and convince others that truth doesn’t exist. All under the supposed umbrella of ‘helping’ children and ‘saving’ lives.
“…For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it. 26For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? 27For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works.”
I am simply taking the lie that McDermott told over and over again – that the Dyke March started on the steps of Mission Dolores Church, when instead it started on the steps of Mission High School, a lie which he knows and has repeated often – and placed those lies in a different context in order to ask you about them. I am not the one who justifies these lies, it is our fellow commentator McDermott. Please call him out on his lies, for a change.
The more I read these posts, the more I’m convinced Isaiah 5:20 is for “Christians” such as these . . . such evil being called “good”, and blindly defending it as “good”. Such hate masked as righteousness, even when it comes to the dignity of children. There is nothing “loving” about child abuse even if it is based in religious dogma.
There is nothing loving about child abuse, peter, which is why parents need to protect their children from a perverse generation set on replacing God with man. That is abusive.
Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but human dignity is a gift from God. It cannot be defined by what we feel it should be, but rather by the Creator who inspired the very verse from Isaiah that you cite.
Yes, you’ve proved my point exactly.
Your point is based on replacing ambiguity for the Creator, peter. So if you do not trust that God inspired the Bible or the Faith or is the basis on which Nature takes her beauty, why do you quote Isaiah?
” Such hate masked as righteousness, even when it comes to the dignity of children.” = Same ol’ trolling tactic
The dignity of men, women and children has NEVER once been the concern of these quasi-caring charlatan candy stripers also known as the Saul Alinskyite trolls. One of their chief methods employed against the Church, (and there are many other different mechanisms of destruction being waged) has been through the sly workings of the homo-heresy lobby within the Church. Their only goal is the internal destruction of the dignity of the authentic teachings of the Catholic Church. The more we read their scheming posts, the more we are able to see that CCD exposes these obvious tactics daily. Thank you California Catholic Daily!
You too Catharine. You’ve proved my point exactly.
peter writes to Ann Malley, “Yes, you’ve proved *my point* exactly.”
peter writes, “You too Catharine. You’ve proved *my point* exactly.”
The name of this website is not “my point exactly” by peter the troll. The name of this website is California Catholic Daily. The POINT of this website is to TEACH, UPHOLD and DEFEND the *authentic teachings* of the Catholic Church.
The trolls are ONLY proving Dr. Meisner’s posted point…… “It certainly looks like an unmedicated loony using different names has infiltrated this blog.”
The father of lies is never at a loss when trolling for willing helpers and assistants by prowling about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Especially on faithful Catholic websites. The trolls are the showcasing evidence of the devil’s preying on the varied weaknesses and varied disorders of all human beings. Look to the authentic magisterial teachings of the Catholic Church for guidance….and never from a roaming troll, lest you fall victim to their many lies too.
YFC = peter = Jon J = Brian S = C & H + anonymous drop ins who all have the same ill-fated agenda which is to try and undermine the DIGNITY of the teachings of the Catholic Church. IOW They all reject and detest the Fullness of Truth.
Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible – Matthew 12:30
“He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth”
The GOAL OF THE TROLL is to scattereth!
THE GOAL OF THE TROLL IS TO SCATTERETH THE FLOCK
Matthew 12: 34 “O generation of vipers, how can you speak good things, whereas you are evil? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. [35] A good man out of a good treasure bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of an evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”………Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible
For the record, as can be proven, I am ‘YFC’, I am not, however, Peter, JonJ, Brian S, or any other peoples populating this comment section.
For the record, as can be proven, whether it is just *you* or several *trolls* just like *you*…..*you* and the other *trolls* are all intentionally and deliberately undermining and attacking the DIGNITY of the teachings of the Catholic Church. The goal of the troll is to try and silence the TRUTH and scatter the flock and *you are legion.*
THE GOALETH OF THE TROLLETH IS TO SCATTERETH THE FLOCKETH.
ROTFL.
There will be NO rolling and laughing on the floor of hell for those who while living on this earth laughed at, mocked and ignored God and Revealed Truth. The only laughing that will be heard will be from the father of lies, the minute he claims full ownership of their souls. Hell is the eternal PRIDE parade.
“Why are those who are notoriously undisciplined and unmoral also most contemptuous of religion and morality? They are trying to solace their own unhappy lives by pulling the happy down to their own abysmal depths.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, Seven Words of Jesus and Mary: Lessons from Cana and Calvary
Yes, YFC, I can see it all now! Ann would wait til the temperature was 10 deg. below zero, with icy winds causing tiny pits in the frosted windows from it’s relentless force. “Ah’, Ann cackles with glee, ” here you are at Mission Dolores Church, Johnny. It’s six o’clock (the church belltower rings seven!!) and I’ll pick you up when the blizzzard is over.’ “But ma, I’ve no coat! No gloves!” “Ha haha hah ha” she laughed. “You’re so gullible, kid!” . Ann, I never knew! tsk tsk Sorry, YFC, I just couldn’t resist. Bring out the hook and pull me off stage right. yadayadaya
And don’t forget, Dana, that I likely had my children with the intent purpose of behaving as such. Bahahahahehehhewaoooahhhahha. Better still, I had my children so that I could someday draw YFC out of the shadows to expose the reality of why all God-fearing/loving parents have children at all only to mock YFC! Oh, the twisted horror of creation!
God bless us, every one!
Ann Malley… only the shadow knows! (fiendish laughter fades into really scary organ music with lots of arpeggios)
Dear Ann Malley: Peace and good!
It certainly looks like an unmedicated loony using different names has infiltrated this blog.
This is the mentally unbalanced type that will harm himself and insist that others are to blame. If his condition were not so serious, I would be tempted to laugh at his absurd posts. They can easily pass as sick humor. But we must pray for this poor joker.
Partisans of the aberrosexualist ideology (it is an ideology!) pushing the macabre “celebration” of biologically aberrant sexual behavioral choices, insist on turning logic on its head and decapitating reason. Remember that for Aberrosexualists, every day is Opposites Day!
It should be noted that the term “gay” is NOT scientifically descriptive of any type sexual behavior or practice. Nor is it descriptive of any medical, sexual or psychological condition. Aberrosexualism, or biologically aberrant sexual behavioral choices, is far from being “gay.” It is actually quite sad, depressing and injurious to both physical and mental health. Happiness eludes the aberrosexual because he is at war with his own nature.
With every passing year aberrosexualist extremists further remove themselves from relevance and reality. Eventually, society will tire of them.
Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us a standard by which to judge everything: BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM (Matthew 7:16). The rotted fruits of Aberrosexualism are the three (3) Ds: Disease, Destruction, and Death.
BTW: Aberrosexualism, the ideology that pushes the macabre celebration of biologically aberrant, morally deviant sexual behavioral choices, is both intolerant and discriminatory. Aberrosexualist ideologues exploit for sheer ideological purposes those who engage in aberrosexual behavioral choices. We must differentiate between those that push the anti-Life, anti-social aberrosexualist ideology and those that engage in the biologically aberrant sexual behavior.
Want a clearer idea of what we are up against? Please check this page: https://aberrosexualism.blogspot.com/2014/04/is-aberrosexualism-agenda-or-ideology.html
https://aberrosexualism.blogspot.com/2014/04/sexual-behavioral-choices-cannot-be.html
Well said, Dr. Meissner. I wish others could open their eyes to the reality that they are being *used*, not protected, not compassionated, not… understood. So sad. And yet, completely predictable. Much like Satan who commiserates with the poor soul who ‘shall not’ right up until they do something and then condemns them mercilessly for it.
That’s internal conflict to be sure.
God bless and, please, keep posting when you can. A breath of fresh logic and reality is always a plus!
You coin a term, Dr. Meissner, then you use this blog to promote its unscientific bases. You do not engage in science, but in sophistry.
You engage in attempting to play God with only a snipped of what you can see from three feet below the lab table. Good luck with that.
Ann, I just want you to know that I generally only answer responses that need to be answered. Yours would be one I would choose to ignore, as you provide not even a smidgeon of something that need be responded to. Try looking up The Scientific Method. You might come to understand that we don’t look at things three feet below the lab table (whatever that is supposed to imply), but we seek to objective observation first, supply an hypothesis, then seek experimental tests to the hypothesis. Dr. Meissner supplies NONE of these components of The Scientific Method, and you make fun of those of us who do.
YFC, you demonstrate what you ‘generally’ do, so your clarification is wasted save to placate yourself in responding to me. Getting your scientific knickers in a knot is bound to happen now and again. It’s okay.
As to the rest, refer to your Catechism if you are in fact Catholic. Try applying the Catholic method. Logic works, too. Don’t expect to be respected for your god of Scientific Method while making fun of those who actually hold to the Catholic Faith on a Catholic blog.
That is get out from beneath the lab table, the very same you blind yourself with, and get to know your audience. You may believe that your credentials somehow qualify you to speak with authority, but believing Catholics know otherwise. By their fruits you shall know them. So saying, I am this or I sit in the pew next to you, means nothing. Especially when you have shown yourself to be so completely biased as to be incapable of positing a true, unadulterated hypothesis. You are too close to the subject at hand. Therefore your interpretations are invalid.
Dr. Meissner, on the other hand, has approached the subject with true respect, that is respecting the nature of mankind.
What this means is that you have just supplied further evidence that you don’t actually have any respect for science or scientific credentials. You go through life blindly believing – God knows what. You don’t accept science as an authority on any issue, even when the Church agrees that there is no conflict between faith and science. And you don’t even accept the Church when she requires of you that you attend her Masses. So you listen to neither Church nor Science, but instead create your own little reality bubble that you surround yourself with.
You are the master of personal bubbles, YFC. Call it scientific if you’d like. Your ‘credentials’, whatever they may be, preclude logic. Even the most base logic. Just like your personal bias would eliminate the ‘validity’ of any of your attempted scientific stabs at negating the natural law. Take your grass roots rebellion somewhere else.
Your reference to accepting the Church is a joke, Sir.
pretty funny ann. pretty funny. you show no logic yourself but you claim others to be illogical. pretty hilarious.
And you YFC engage in sodomy…..
Where is your evidence, Canisisus, that I engage in ANYTHING?
Why don’t the trolls go on to their own homosexual media sties, and leave the rest of us alone.
This is what they always do. They have to harass other people.
All those promoting sodomy (homosexual acts) whether through homosexual marriage or otherwise, are NOT Catholics.
True Catholics believe that homosexual acts, fornication, and adultery, and pornography are mortal sins.
This is all in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and in the Bible.
So watch for the dishonest trolls.
Because, Sandra, we are Your Fellow Catholics. We sit next to you in the pews, we worship God as you do, we answer to Jesus, as you do.
If indeed I am “trolling” as some of you assert, I most certainly cannot be accused to trolling a “Catholic” web-site. When people the likes of McDermott, juergensen, Canisuis, the Ann’s, and the other regular extremist zealots who frequent this site are its primary subscribers, it ceased being a “Catholic” web-site long ago. You’ve all so adequately degraded Catholicism as a religious doctrine to nothing but a thinly masked veneer of bigotry and hate that it takes no real effort from any would be troll dedicated to that end. The fact that Cal-Cath allows links to publications of known and well documented hate groups such as the FRC is proof that it’s acquiesced to a new low in political utility completely at odds with its stated mission: to speak out against the false gods and idols of the day … holding up for all to see a body of moral truth based on human dignity and rights […] and unconditional respect for all human life […]. Human dignity? Respect for human life? Yes, I may not be Catholic, and I may disagree with and challenge much of what Christianity teaches; but I’ve never attacked your humanity, your individuality, or attempted to define you in terms no more complex than a single sexual act. Each of you is so quick to willfully vilify, and degrade anything and anyone in defense of your brand of religion.
” Yes, I may not be Catholic, and I may disagree with and challenge much of what Christianity teaches; but I’ve never attacked your humanity, your individuality, or attempted to define you in terms no more complex than a single sexual act. ”
peter, You flatter yourself with your own dishonesty! You have been passionately attacking Christ for quite some time on this website.
“The refusal to take sides on great moral issues is itself a decision. It is a silent acquiescence to evil. The Tragedy of our time is that those who still believe in honesty lack fire and conviction, while those who believe in dishonesty are full of passionate conviction.”
― Fulton J. Sheen
“We become like that which we love. If we love what is base, we become base; but if we love what is noble, we become noble.”
― Fulton J. Sheen, Life Is Worth Living
If it were only a particular groups’ ‘brand’ of religion, peter, then you may have something in your assertions. Believing Catholics, however, believe that the teachings of the Church come from God which is why we defend them. Not because it is easy or because it is fun, but because it is our duty.
That’s why folks like YFC making assertions that they sit in the pews and worship just like everyone else are playing false. For if one sits in the pews where one is in dissent, one is not being honest. He is either stating that everyone in the pew dissents in their heart as he does or rather he is indicating that nobody in the pews takes what the Church teaches seriously. That is painting those in the pews as false and without true belief in God or their Catholic Faith.
So the whole “We are your fellow Catholics” movement is nothing more than those wish to claim the name Catholic and the benefits while openly promoting the undermining of Catholic teaching, the same teaching faithful Catholics believe comes from God Himself. He may as well say, “We are legion,” because that is what his ideology represents.
Ann Malley, at least i sit in a Catholic pew. You, on the other hand, attend churches not in communion with Rome.
Another personal attack: Brave, brave Anonymous
I am greatly impressed by the smug orthodoxy of our brave Anonymous. Were you silent, Anonymous, when Archbishop Niederauer gave communion to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence? Were you silent when a priest like the late Fr Richard Purcell invited people to the Gay Pride March after Mass? Were you silent, Anonymous, when Bishop McGrath said that Dr. Lisa Fullam was teaching according to the Catholic faith? Or when the same bishop said that the Gospels were not actual written accounts? And the abortion clinics, have you been there? We have been. I’m terribly impressed with your silent orthodoxy, Anonymous. Pray that Christ will be, too.
Upon this Rock I will build my Church.
Gee, I feel quite overpowered by Pete’s love and Christian concern. I’m sure if he were able he would extend his warm wishes in person so that many of us would be writhing in agony from a blast of vitriol! I extend the other cheek, Pete , and may am truly sorry you feel so persecuted here…maybe if you took an interest in the sufferings of our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, China and all of the Middle East, you might find your situation quite secure and comfortable. Did anyone bomb your church yesterday? Were you imprisoned for sexual deviance? Did you go hungry today? Perhaps your witness here is making you feel rather small and hypocritical? Rather than spend so much time finding fault with everyone else you might look to your own sins. The Church teachings have not changed in 2000 years. If you can’t accept them, join the Episcopaleans. If priests or bishops imply you’re okay living in grave sin they lie. That should worry you. If a priest told me it was okay to commit adultery, should I believe him, Pete?