One more senseless act of gun violence or any kind of violence that leads to the deaths of innocent men, women and children. What to do?
In most of these cases of mass murder, the murderer is compromised in one way or the other. He is psychopath, a sociopath or under the influence of drugs or Satan himself. He is open and easily manipulated to all that our culture of death promotes, especially the media with its pro-choice ideology, the choice between killing or letting live another life, innocent or guilty.
Commentators on all of this point to the ready ability of a person to buy a weapon of war to kill people. But they fail to identify the 24 hour news media and the mania about non stop reporting of these kinds of crimes that play into the hands of the compromised seeking world wide attention.
And there is no talk about limiting the first amendment right to free speech and expression when it comes to the violence of the movie industry, video games and the pro-choice agenda of half the country. All of these need to be limited too and laws in place to guide the movie industry through censorship as it was done prior to the 1960’s. It worked very well then and was even applied to make sure offensive situations on television would be curtailed. If resurrected it could be applied to all social media platforms and could lead to the elimination of pornography and graphic sex and violence.
These mass murderers are compromised and from a moral point of view their sin is “venial” if it was committed without full consent of the will, the rational will.
But what about all those who procure abortions and all who assist in this genocide. Are they compromised? No, doctors want to make a buck and mask their murderous results by calling it doctor/patient relationships. Never mind that one of the patients is always killed in the abortion.
And then you have Catholic politicians no longer saying they are personally opposed to abortion, but they are pro-choice by not shoving their Faith onto others. No they advocate for abortion on demand and to the final moments of a full term pregnancy. It is repugnant to say the least. And if it is politically helpful to them, they would promote killing an infant after birth and would be open to negotiating how many days, months or years this could take place.
These are sane people and do this with full consent of the will and then gladly receive Holy Communion declaring they are good and faithful Catholics accompanied by a grateful hierarchy who doesn’t want to get political with them. How mortally sinful is this mentality?
Yes, I accept the Church’s teaching about the sanctity of human life and I will not condemn, though, those politicians and jurists who believe that justice demands the death penalty for those who are guilty of heinous crimes against humanity.
I also believe we must respect creation and love all creation. But the apex of God’s creation, supported by creation itself is human life and its dignity is the highest dignity. We can use creation for our benefit, for food, clothing and shelter, but we can’t use humans in a like fashion. There is a difference.
6 comments:
One thing is to stop letting our leaders use us as cannon fodder for political points. The dehumanize us and use rhetoric that inflames sick assholes like this. Then rather than any feeling of contrition they double down for personal career points.
What do Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden all have in common.
We all know the predictable answer, but it's MORE than that. They moved WAY BEYOND "personally opposed" a long time ago. These "Catholics" have made abortion their first priority and all else be damned. If anyone can name any issue which these "Catholics" have defended more stridently than abortion, it's news to me.
Maybe we can get a bust of Kennedy placed next to one of the Pachamama idols in the Vatican.
At the risk of some generalization and reductionism, and pious rhetoric and practices notwithstanding, most people in this country (and in the West generally but especially the United States), do not really worship God; they worship Mammon and the hyper-individualism that fuels the pursuit of money and the other extrinsic goods and pleasures such as power and celebrity (oh, almost forgot, guns too). Unless and until this mindset changes, nothing else will really change. As the great late Leonard Cohen explained, deep down everybody knows this even if they don’t or can’t express it because we are all, to a greater or lesser extent, trapped or coopted by the system. We should listen to the prophets among us, such as Cohen, before it is too late:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxd23UVID7k
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=everybody+knows+lyrics
Mark,
I agree with much of what you say, but worshipping guns? Non criminals have guns for two reasons: hunting and protection (for when seconds count, the police are minutes away). If you care to look, there are stories after stories of people stopping either their own demise or serious criminal activity because they had a gun, although I doubt the New York Times carry these stories. Full disclosure: I have never even held a gun but I have been fortunate to live in relatively safe areas. If I lived in Chicago or New York, I certainly would own and carry a gun.
Now this is from a Washington State Senator, Democrat of course:
"As churches and pregnancy centers come under assault, Democrat State Senator Emily Randall (D-WA26) is celebrating the vandalism of a pro-life billboard in Gorst.
In a pre-produced Instagram video, Randall giddily reports that a pro-life message was “decorated” by a pro-abortion extremist. She smiles as she tells her constituents that she “had to pull over when I saw the decorated/corrected billboard.”
The billboard originally declared, “Some choices are wrong” and “End abortion,” alongside a photo of a young fetus. The video posted by Randall shows the UnjustChoice.com billboard defaced.
The graffiti crosses out “wrong” and replaces it with “healthcare!!!” The words “End abortion” are crossed out. During the video, Randall plays “Rebel Girl” by Bikini Kill because she wants you to think she’s edgy."
She would have fit in perfectly in Hitler's Germany, no?
Mark,
Here is something that should horrify you and any right thinking person. Why would any sane person vote to support this Party and its adherents? You wonder if any of our bishops are seeing this? I certainly doubt Pope Francis has.
"Democrat Party faithful held a march and rally in Washington DC on Saturday in support of unrestricted abortions at any stage of a pregnancy.
The left is furious that the US Supreme Court nullified Roe v Wade and now states get the right to decide their laws on the gruesome procedure adored by the left.
This protest was part of their Summer of Rage activities in Washington DC.
One young woman was filmed screaming, “We love killing babies!… We love killing babies!…” over and over in front of pro-Life protesters."
TJM:
It would be helpful if you could post a cite to the sources for the passages that you quote. It saves me and other readers having to track them down. I have now tracked down the sources for the reports you quoted in your last two comments. One of them is the website of a conservative talk show host and the second is another conservative website. Please correct me if I am wrong—perhaps you get these posts on Facebook or something:
https://mynorthwest.com/3547788/rantz-democrat-senator-celebrates-pro-life-vandalism-abortion/
https://www.lucianne.com/2022/07/09/tomorrows_democrat_party_leader_young_demon_screams_we_love_killing_babies_at_pro-abortion_rally_in_front_of_white_house_89071.html
Assuming these reports are accurate, indecent behavior is not the monopoly of some “liberals” and Democrats. It is also displayed by some “conservatives” and Republicans. And it testifies to the deeper rot in our politics that so exercises me.
As for worshipping guns, I take your point about the felt need to be able to defend oneself, one’s family, and one’s home when living in dangerous areas. And no-one is seriously suggesting confiscating all guns, right wing and pro-gun lobby propaganda notwithstanding (at least since the 2008 Supreme Court decision in Heller it is constitutionally impossible anyway). But is such self-defense the only reason people have guns? And do they really need military style semi-automatic (or even automatic) weapons?
As I have said before, to those of us from Britain and Europe, the American obsession with guns seems just nuts. I am not sure we will ever be able to understand it because it seems so deeply pathological to us. For example, I once wanted to take a stun gun—a stun gun, not a firearm—with me to Britain to use against any aggressive dogs I might encounter. My father asked a police officer friend of his about it before my trip and was told in no uncertain terms that this was not permitted and that I would be arrested for possession of an offensive weapon. I have just checked again and according to the following source someone possessing a stun gun without special permission could face up to 10 years in prison:
https://www.theukrules.co.uk/rules/legal/police/faq/weapons/firearms.html
I strongly suspect this is because Britain is truly in many ways a conservative society where law and order has a high value. To our way of thinking, people running around with guns (or apparently even stun guns) is inconsistent with being a country of law and order! Admittedly, knife attacks are a problem. But the level of knife homicides does not even begin to compare with the level of firearm homicides in the United States, even allowing for the difference in population.
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