BORN TO BE WILD

Amnesty International is promoting abortions for all of the usual reasons in areas of violence where women are often raped. Many Catholics have withdrawn their support of AI because of it. There are at least two debates there that could go on for a thousand years, but what I found most interesting was the debate that ensued over what exactly Catholics should believe (mostly by non-Catholics).

On one particular radio program the same old trunk was drug out. “This is the modern age,” slogan was slung around. A slogan by the way that was used since way before the time of Christ to justify just about anything and which means nothing in particular. A twist on an old rant was that there are really two Catholic Churches. There is the laity and the hierarchy (the latter being of course increasingly out of touch. That line has been used so often and for so long that they should be so out of touch by now as to be living on the moon.)

I find it interesting that people care. It is not enough for people to disagree with the Church, it's that they also want the Church to agree with them; to change its teachings. There is an incredible amount of proselytizing going on to win Catholics over to a much more secular viewpoint. I suppose a true Catholic can be annoying, like a conscience, a tiny voice in the back of your head asking, “Is this really right?” If you can get that tiny voice to say, “Yes, everything you are doing is good,” what worries have you?

True Catholics keep the debate alive, keep the conversation going, make people stop and think. Few would have even noticed what AI was doing if not for a large organization such as the Catholic Church. Most other voices in this conversation are too small or too fragmented. In a supposedly pluralistic society you would think that a contrarian voice would be welcomed, but such is not the case. Instead the voice that stands for life from womb to tomb is labeled “Intolerant” and is thus not tolerated.

It is so much easier to go through life with blinders on, just trotting on ahead down a road called Progress. But the road is simply named Progress and does not necessarily mean that anything good will come of trotting down it. There is one good strong voice that keeps saying, “Are you sure this is the way you want to go? Do you really understand where this is leading you?”

I have a few friends who are teachers in the public school system. They do not approve of the Catholic school system, the private school system, or home schooling because of the notion that all American children should be given the same education and thus the same start in life. I reply that I have never heard of anything so un-American. Thank the Good Lord that there are people who will be taught differently and have different opinions and thoughts. Why not have diversity?

Thank you to you Catholics who are strong in your faith. Thank you for standing for something other than the same old pile of gunk that is dumped on you in large doses daily through media, news, advertisements, by marketing campaigns, and opinion poles. Far from being a Catholic automaton as you are often labeled by those who want you to change you are actually one of the few who stand out, who risk thinking differently, who are not intimidated, who don’t just go along with the flow, who are not out just to be liked but to love.

Keep thinking! Don’t be sloganed or ridiculed or manipulated or intimidated or hoodwinked or just simply worn down into just fitting in and being quiet. Even within the Catholic Church you are in the minority. You are important despite what messages you might pick up. Be strong. Be positive. Be loving. But be a rock around which the stream going over the falls must move around. Be that tiny voice in the back of the American mind that makes it think also.