Tolerance is over

WDTPRS ^ | March 31, 2015 | Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

[NYer]

The world is going nuts. I have often felt a bit like Cassandra, but … Cassandra was right.

Here is another take.

From the pen of John Zmirak at The Stream with my emphases and comments:

The expected Supreme Court decision imposing on 50 states an entirely newunderstanding of marriage, and the frenzy of hatred that gay activists have stoked against Indiana for trying to shelter religious believers from crippling lawsuits should wake us to a cold and stark reality: The age of tolerance in America is vanishing before your eyes. The question is how Christians and other people of faith and good will are going to respond.

Let’s break this down in stark and simple terms: Not only were gay activists willing to overturn an act of Congress (the Defense of Marriage Act) on spurious grounds; they also wish to force their libertine idea of marriage onto voters in each of the 50 states, voiding dozens of laws on an issue that has always rested with the states. [So, it is not just an issue of sodomy.  This is a constitutional issue.]

Not satisfied with that, these activists want the full force of the regulatory state to compel every single American to affirm and accept the delusion of same-sex “marriage,” under the same civil and criminal penalties that now forbid discrimination by race. [BUT… the “gay” thing is nothing like the civil rights issues of the 60’s.  Comparing the “gay” thing and race is like comparing apples and carrots.] A famous case was a 70-year-old Christian florist who declined to decorate a gay wedding, and was crushed by a successful lawsuit and the full force of the ACLU’s legal team. She was one of the Brave New Law’s first victims. She will be far from the last.  [That’s for sure.]

These activists use the power of city governments (as in San Francisco) to try to intimidate isolated Catholic schools into abandoning Christian teaching on sexual ethics. Such zealots corrupt the academic authorities who grant accreditation in order to financially cripple schools such as Gordon College that maintain Christian “morals” clauses as part of their hiring policies.

Those who defend the reality of marriage, including even unbelievers who defend freedom of religion and association, are not simply wrong — they are “bigots” and “haters” who deserve to be fined, boycotted and bankrupted; [Crucifige! Crucifige eum!] to lose their jobs like Brendan Eich, the ex-CEO of Mozilla, and face financial ruin — as Elton John hopes to break Dolce & Gabbana, and [follow the trajectory] as Apple CEO Tim Cook hopes to break the entire State of Indiana. Politicians are joining in, with the Connecticut governor, and Seattle and San Francisco mayors, banning official travel to Indiana.  [It goes from bakers and florists, to schools to entire states.  What’s next?]

As Austin Ruse points out, states such as Indiana are not giving Christians a pass to broadly discriminate against gays. Such religious freedom laws “deal with the very narrow question of whether vendors can be forced by the state to participate in religious ceremonies that violate their own religious consciences.”

Given the fanatical response to a modest bill virtually identical to a federal law upheld by courts and bills on the books in twenty other states, [QUAERITUR…] how long before the call comes out for the “bigots” to be imprisoned? The First Amendment won’t protect us, if leaders like Hillary Clinton have their way; in public statements she followed President Obama in replacing the Constitution’s “free exercise” with “freedom of worship.”

The implicit message shouldn’t be missed: Say what you want in church for an hour every Sunday, but the rest of the week belongs to us.Your homophobic beliefs deserve no more protection than the religious use of peyote.

Scary.

Get your heads into that mental place where you will be able to face the persecution that is coming.  You will be vilified, in especially venomous ways, even within the Church by catholics seeking to twist the Church into an instrument of social re-engineering.

[EternalVigilance]

So, some people are screwing up the principle upon which our entire civilization and form of government is premised and organized, and your solution is to dispense with the principle.

[Zionist Conspirator]

Mao’s reign of terror was sane compared to the New America. Maoism was based on economics. Even he didn’t push “gay rights.”

[laplata]

We do a disservice to religious freedom using the word “tolerant” and its variations. To do so lets the Left frame the debate.

---

Exactly right!!

Political Correctness was developed by the Communists after the Russian Revolution to CONTROL THE NARRATIVE.

[laplata]

I’ve also been saying that for years.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping to this anti-Christian crusade.

[theBuckwheat]

People can be married apart from government’s attempts to regulate and approve their action. For example, should some people get shipwrecked on a deserted island in the Pacific, they could enter into a marriage all by themselves, without any contact whatsoever with any government.

That is the history of marriage up until progressives wanted to intrude upon it for the purposes of eugenics. It is time to remove that usurped power from government and return government to merely recording and recognizing the marriages that people notify it of.

[EternalVigilance]

People can be married apart from government’s attempts to regulate and approve their action.

Nobody said they couldn't.

For example, should some people get shipwrecked on a deserted island in the Pacific, they could enter into a marriage all by themselves, without any contact whatsoever with any government.

Of course they could. There are all sorts of things people can do in a state of nature.

But when they enter into a society and enjoy the benefits of that society they have certain responsibilities to that society.

Wise folks like John Locke and Samuel Adams spelled all of this out in great detail centuries ago, forming the premises of this great free republic.

[NYer]

America is indeed entering into a new phase. A new cultural phase of darkness and totalitarianism. We are seeing it form before our very eyes. The country is becoming disconnected from everything it once was and once represented.

Back in the late 60s, an Italian immigrant friend came to visit. In Italy, he had received a "classical" education, where they study all aspects of the history, language, and culture of an ancient civilization. He studied Ancient Rome and Greece. After surveying the American culture at that time (this was the early period of American feminism with Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug), he pointed to both Roman and Greek history. He claimed that throughout history, once women rose to power, they were soon followed by a rise in the homosexual movement, after which the culture collapsed under the burden of legislation.

He pointed to those feminists and predicted that in my lifetime, I would witness the collapse of the US. I bristled at the notion, then laughed. It seemed so absurd and far fetched. All they were asking for was "equal pay for equal work". I stopped laughing around the year 2000 as what he predicted began to unfold before my eyes.

You may find this to be relevant and quite enlightening.

Why are we in Decline - Cultural Marxism

[Grateful2God]

I’m sorry for being dumb, but what was that red thing in 48? Thank you!

[DuncanWaring]

It was a short-term variation on this thing:

It was an indication of the end of the "Era of Tolerance" and a beginning of the "Era of Celebration of Buggery - Or Else".