August 19, 2012 / MariaNews.com

When Defending Marriage is Called Hate Speech: Shooting at the Family Research Council

By Catholic Online

WASHINGTON,DC (Catholic Online) – At 11 A.M on Wednesday, August 15, 2012, 28 year old Floyd Lee Corkins II, of Herndon, Va. walked into the Washington DC headquarters of the Family Research Council posing as a candidate for an internship and carrying a bag of Chick-Fil-A sandwiches.

He was also carrying a gun and multiple rounds of ammunition. He had the evil intent to kill people who worked for this public interest organization precisely because they believe that marriage is between a man and a woman and have dedicated their lives to defending the family.

The shooters evil intent was thwarted by the courage of an unarmed security guard named Leo Johnson who was shot in the arm while preventing Corkins from using the 9mm handgun and 50 rounds of ammunition to take more lives. Clearly, his heroism prevented what could have been another tragic massacre in a Nation which now seems to experience them all too frequently.

The charging affadavit of Special Agent Garrett Nabors of the F.B.I. can be read in its entirety here. Corkins was arraigned on Thursday, August 16, 2012 in Federal court.

He was charged with “Interstate Transportation of a Firearm and Ammunition” and “Assault with the Intent to Kill While Armed.” The Federal magistrate, Alan Kay, ordered that Corkins be held without bond. He also set a bond hearing for Aug. 24 and ordered a psychiatric evaluation.

For six month Corkins volunteered at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. The acronym stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgendered. The group condemned the attack through these words from their executive director:

“I was shocked to hear that someone who has volunteered with the DC Center could be the cause of such a tragic act of violence. No matter the circumstances, we condemn such violence in the strongest terms possible. We hope for a full and speedy recovery for the victim and our thoughts are with him and his family.”

Tony Perkins, the President of the Family Research Council, expressed his concern that an increasingly charged atmosphere is being promoted by groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center. This allegedly “public interest” legal group has included the Family Research Center in its list of “hate groups” because it is committed to the defense of marriage as only between one man and one woman.

On Thursday, Perkins told the Press “”Let me be clear that Floyd Corkins was responsible for firing the shot yesterday. But Corkins was given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center that have been reckless in labeling organizations hate groups because they disagree with them on public policy. And I believe the Southern Poverty Law Center should be held accountable for their reckless use of terminology that is leading to the intimidation and what the FBI here has categorized as an act of domestic terrorism.”

Tony Perkins makes an important point. There are few news reports concerning this incident using the word marriage for what it is, the lifelong union between one man and one woman ordered toward love, the conception and rearing of children and the formation of family. The family is the foundation of society because it is its first vital cell.

Most of the reporting uses loaded language. The Family Research Council is accused of “opposing gay marriage” rather than defending marriage as what it is. Those who defend marriage as between one man and one woman are increasingly depicted as intolerant or, as demonstrated by the Southern Poverty Law Center, accused of using “hate speech”.

When sexual behavior between two men or two women is viewed as the foundation of some manufactured “right” to marry – and those who oppose this are characterized as being against the “freedom” to marry and “equal rights” - we must not remain silent.

True marriage is the preeminent and the most fundamental of all human social institutions. It is a relationship defined by nature itself and protected by the natural law that binds all men and women. It finds its foundation in the order of creation.

Civil institutions do not create marriage nor can they create a “right” to marry for those who are incapable of marriage. The institutions of government should, when acting properly, defend marriage against those who would redefine it.

Government has long protected and regulated marriage for the common good. For example, the ban on polygamy and age requirements were enforced in order to ensure that there was a mature decision at the basis of the Marriage contract. Heterosexual marriage, procreation, and the nurturing of children form the foundation for the family, and the family forms the foundation of civil society.

To “limit” marriage to heterosexual couples is not discriminatory now, nor has it ever been. Homosexual couples cannot bring into existence what marriage intends by its very definition. To now “confer” the benefits that have been conferred in the past only to stable married couples and families to homosexual paramours is bad public policy.

Marriage is the first vital cell of society. It creates the first society of the family wherein children are to be raised so that they can fully develop and flourish. Children have a right to a mother and a father. Yes, there are broken homes and single parent homes and we should provide a compassionate social framework for those families. However, marriage and family are the social foundation of any truly just society.

The shooting at the Family Research Center needs to be watched closely. Perhaps it was the act of a man with psychological problems. Perhaps, it reflects something more ominous. When defending marriage is called “hate speech”, the very future of western culture is placed at risk. The Family Research Council does wonderful work and deserves our prayers and full support.

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June 22, 2012 / MariaNews.com

Southern Baptists: gay rights not civil rights

By FoxNews

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA (Foxnews.com) – A day after electing their first African-American president in a historic move that strives to erase its legacy of racism, Southern Baptists passed a resolution opposing the idea that same-sex marriage is a civil rights issue.

Thousands of delegates at the denomination’s annual meeting in New Orleans on Wednesday were nearly unanimous in their support for the resolution that affirms their belief that marriage is “the exclusive union of one man and one woman” and that “all sexual behavior outside of marriage is sinful.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/18/southern-baptists-meet-during-challenging-times/#ixzz1yXEyy3Ls

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June 9, 2012 / MariaNews.com

First same-sex marriage controversially performed by an army chaplain on military base

By Catholic Online

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – Rep. John Fleming, M.D. reported that the U.S. Army had confirmed that the chaplain had performed the ceremony a few weeks ago in the base chapel at Fort Polk. “It is my understanding that this is the first ceremony of its type on an American military base and that is, as it’s reported, it was a wedding ceremony between two members of the same gender who are uniformed members of the Army,” Fleming told CNSNews.com.

Fleming, who is also a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the Army confirmed that the ceremony was not billed as an official marriage.

“As its characterized, this ceremony occurred only as a religious ceremony, it was not intended or advertised to be a lawful or legal union,” Fleming said. “Such marriages between persons of the same-sex are not recognized by the state of Louisiana, so it can’t be a lawful or legal marriage ceremony.

“That’s a bit distressing in itself, because, why go through this, except for social or cultural experimentation, or to push forward or propagate somebody’s agenda?” Fleming asked.

“I just think it’s inappropriate to use military facilities for that purpose,” he added.

Fort Polk military officials, in addition to the Army Office of Chief of Chaplains did not respond to further inquiries about the case.  A Fort Polk spokesman told the Associated Press described the event as a “same-gender private religious ceremony.”

A Disciples of Christ chaplain performed a “marriage-like” commitment ceremony for the two lesbian soldiers, Dr. Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Freedom says.

“They were very careful in the wording, from what I understand, to make this only a religious ceremony,” Crews says, noting that the Disciples of Christ denomination allows its clergy to perform same-sex “commitment” ceremonies.

“That raises the question about the new DOD policy that allows a chaplain to do a marriage-like ceremony in a military chapel in a state that has a clear definition of marriage in their state law,” Crews says. His organization represents more than 2,500 Christian military chaplains.

In dissent, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), chairman of the Seapower & Projection Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, loudly denounced the military for allowing the ceremony to be held in a military chapel.

“It is very concerning that a same-sex ceremony would occur on a military base in a state where the definition of marriage has been clearly defined as between one man and one woman,” Akin said.

© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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June 6, 2012 / MariaNews.com

Which way for America? Dedicate June to the Sacred Heart of Jesus or ‘LGBT Pride’?

By Catholic Online

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) – The month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Catholic Church. On the Friday after the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ we celebrate the actual Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This is a moveable Feast and falls on June 15 in 2012. The Church calls us to spend the month reflecting on what it means to live our lives in such a way that we reveal the Loving Heart of a Merciful God to the whole world.

The Church marks time by the great events of the life of Jesus Christ and the Christian Faith. In so doing she invites Christians to live differently. She also keeps the truths of the faith before a world which needs to be set free. The early Christians referred to the Church as the world reconciled. They believed, as should we, that the Church is the home of the whole human race. She is a seed of the coming Kingdom. The Catechism affirms:

“To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son’s Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is “the world reconciled.” She is that bark which “in the full sail of the Lord’s cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world.” According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah’s ark, which alone saves from the flood.”(CCC#845)

Nations also mark time. In their special days and months they send important signals. For example, we recently celebrated “Memorial Day” in the United States of America by honoring those who gave their lives to protect our freedoms. In so doing, we affirmed values which join us together. The various proclamations of our Presidents setting months apart speak to what we as a Nation believe and value. The question is what our commemoration says about who we are and who we are becoming.

By way of a Presidential Proclamation President Barack Obama has once again declared the Month of June to be “Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender Pride Month”. He ends the declaration with these words:  “NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2012 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month.”

No-one denies that all human beings have fundamental human rights and human dignity because they are human beings. However, that is not what this proclamation or the proclamations of the last two years dedicating June as “LGBT Month” are about. There is an accelerating effort to make homosexual partnerships the equivalent of marriage and use the Police Power of the State to enforce such a restructuring on the rest of civil society.

When sexual behavior between two men or two women is viewed as the foundation of a “right” to marry and those who oppose this equivalency movement are characterized as being against the “freedom” to marry and “equal rights”, the revolutionary plan is obvious.

In May, President Barack Obama gave an interview to ABC News announcing that he no longer supports marriage as between one man and one woman. The politically correct way of writing about that announcement was to say that the President supports “marriage equality”. I did not do so. The President opposes true marriage.

In the interview, the President attempted to make his decision seem to be a thoughtful evolution, he spoke of his administration’s decision to no longer enforce what he called the “Defense against Marriage” Act. The Federal Law his administration refuses to defend is called the “Defense of Marriage “Act. That slip of the tongue was revealing.

The interview sent a signal. The Presidential Proclamation dedicating June to “LGBT Pride” continues the message. Homosexual Equivalency activists want us all to hail the Presidents “evolution” as an enlightened act when it is plain wrong and dangerous for the Nation.

I was not surprised that the President told Robin Roberts of ABC news “it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.” It has been his position for a long time. He followed the strategy he has used in the past to sound as though he “struggles” with such profoundly important moral and social decisions. Then, he comes down on the wrong side.

To defend marriage is NOT to discriminate against any person, including those who define themselves as homosexual or lesbian or even “transgender”. To limit marriage to heterosexual couples is not discriminatory now, nor has it ever been. Homosexual couples cannot bring into existence what marriage intends by its very definition. To “confer” the benefits that have been conferred in the past only to stable married couples and families to homosexual paramours is bad public policy and will seriously injure the common good.

Marriage between one man and one woman, intended for life and open to the bearing and rearing of children is the fundamental building block of society. The family is the first cell of society. It is a relationship defined by nature itself, revealed and affirmed by the natural law that binds all men and women. Civil institutions do not create marriage nor can they create a “right” to marry for those who are incapable of marriage.

The institutions of a just government are supposed to defend marriage against those who would undermine it – not redefine it out of existence. Government has long regulated marriage for the common good. For example, the ban on polygamy and age requirements were enforced in order to ensure that there was a mature decision at the basis of the Marriage contract.

The truth about marriage is not simply a “religious” construct.  The Natural Law reveals – and the cross cultural history of civilization affirms – that marriage is between a man and a woman, open to children and intended for life. Marriage is the foundation for the family which is the privileged place for the formation of virtue and character in children, our future citizens. The family is the first society, first economy, first school, first civilizing and mediating institution and first government.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Catholic Church wrote these words in 2003, “The Church’s teaching on marriage and on the complementarity of the sexes reiterates a truth that is evident to right reason and recognized as such by all the major cultures of the world. Marriage is not just any relationship between human beings. It was established by the Creator with its own nature, essential properties and purpose.

“No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman, who by mutual personal gift, proper and exclusive to themselves, tend toward the communion of their persons. In this way, they mutually perfect each other, in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human lives.”

On May 31, 1992 in Rome, Blessed John Paul II canonized the Jesuit Priest Saint Claude de la Colombiere, the Spiritual Director of Saint Margaret Mary of Alocoque. She was the religious sister to whom the Lord gave a special revelation of His Sacred Heart, filled with redemptive and merciful love for the world. The priest shared Margaret Mary’s devotion to the Heart of Jesus and helped to spread that devotion. This occurred at a critical time when the culture of Europe was steeped in darkness – and the Church staggered from corruption within – a time very much like our own.

At the Mass of canonization the late Pope proclaimed: “For evangelization today, the Heart of Christ must be recognized as the heart of the Church: It is He who calls us to conversion, to reconciliation. It is He who leads pure hearts and those hungering for justice along the way of the Beatitudes. It is He who achieves the warm communion of the members of the one Body. It is He who enables us to adhere to the Good News and to accept the promise of eternal life. It is He who sends us out on mission. The heart-to-heart with Jesus broadens the human heart on a global scale.”

The heart is the center of a person, the place from which he/she makes the choices which will affect the world within them and around them. Devotion to the Heart of Jesus reminds us that it is in His Sacred Humanity that we find the pattern for becoming fully human ourselves. In His Incarnation, saving life, death and Resurrection, we receive both the pattern – and the means – to become more like Him.

The leaders of the Second Vatican Council in the Pastoral Constitution on the Mission of the Church in the Modern World wrote, “The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come, namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.”  (GS #22)

Two years before he became Pope, Karol Cardinal Wotyla (Blessed John Paul II) spoke to the Catholic Bishops of the United States. His frank observation was republished in the Wall Street Journal on November 9, 1978: “We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel and the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine providence. It is a trial which the whole Church must take up.”

We are living under what Pope Benedict XVI called a “Dictatorship of Relativism” Relativism denies the existence of any objective truths which can be known through the exercise of reason and should govern our life together as a society. Divorced from norms to guide the exercise of human choice and govern our behavior, we are rapidly declining as a culture.

When there is nothing objectively true which can be known by all and form the basis of our common life then there is no basis for authentic freedom. Instead, we teeter on the brink of anarchy. Marriage is the next target in the advance of the tyranny of the social and cultural engineers.

In his apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Charity, Pope Benedict summarized the duty of Catholics when confronted with an assault on authentic marriage:  “Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself.”

This is a new missionary age. These two very different visions of the human person, human love and the dignity of human sexuality, human flourishing, marriage and the family – and the society founded upon them – are contending for the heart, soul and future of the West. One will lead to true human progress, flourishing and freedom, the other to human degradation and cultural collapse.

Let us spend the month of June in Prayer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, lifting up our Nation, indeed the whole world, to the One in whom we place all of our trust. He will not disappoint; His Heart still beats with Mercy and Love for the world.  “Sacred Heart of Jesus, We Place our Trust in Thee.”

An artist's rendition of the revelation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

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COL Reports: Students All Set to Learn about ‘Gay History’ in California Schools

Monday, December 12, 2011 8:59 PM |  (Catholic Online)

In January a new law takes effect in California that will affect what kids are taught in school about those who self identify as lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered people. They will now be treated in the same way as members of racial or religious minorities. The law is known as the California Fair Education Act and mandates that school districts and schools are to individually decide how this subject should be approached.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – One of the common objections to the new law is that these topics are subjects which are best discussed at home and in the church or religious institution because they deal with fundamentally moral issues. However, some California lawmakers have disagreed.

Another objection is that how one engages in non-marital sexual acts with a person of the same gender – or if one struggles with confusion over their own gender identity – will now, as a result of the law, be elevated to the level of a civil right. That the law is a part of a cultural agenda.

Another objection is that parents are once again being bypassed by a State government which fails to recognize their primary role in the teaching and formation of their children.Their input is not valued. In addition, the parents seriously question the propriety of having the public school classroom used for this purpose at all.

Schools in Los Angeles have already made changes to their curricula to comply with the new law. Danielle Tacklender, an English teacher at Los Angeles’ Grover Cleveland High School complies with the law by having her students read the book “Luna” by Julie Anne Peters. In fact, Tacklender says she has been teaching the book for seven years. The book is about a “transgender” teen boy who dresses as a girl and claims his body “betrayed him”.

Tacklender says she does not teach the book any differently than others in her 10th grade class. She uses “Luna” to teach new vocabulary and different ways of thinking about pronouns. Class discussions and lectures focus on gender identity, sexual orientation, and gender roles in literature. What is clear is that gender is no longer being viewed as a given; a gift. Rather, students are being taught that gender is now a choice.

Tacklender explains that she has not had any negative feedback from parents, students, or the schools. She said, “no students ever say they change their sexual orientation because of it.” Of course, many parents would say that this response from the teacher betrays the problem. It reveals an agenda aimed at the restructuring the moral and social norms of culture.

Advocates of the homosexual equivalency movement claim that efforts like Tacklender’s are necessary because only a small percentage of students think favorably about lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people. In fact, Scott Hirschfeld, director of curriculum at the Anti-Defamation League explained that students can go through their entire education without ever learning about LGBT people. He explained, “they are really getting an incomplete history. The reality is that in most schools this is not a standard part of the curriculum.”

Whether or not this should even be a standard part of the curriculum is an issue that is a matter of debate in California. Although the law will take effect in January, ballot initiatives responding to it are already being prepared.

According to the attorney general there are at least five initiative measures waiting to be reviewed and they could appear on the November 2012 ballot in an effort to repeal the changes taking effect in January.

Defenders of the law argue that what are now called “LGBT issues” are not the only ones covered by the law, but that the law also applies to Native Americans, people with disabilities, and other minority groups.Of course, the laws are already in place to encourage diversity and promote fundamental human rights. The elevation of “LGBT” to the category of a “civil right” is a much bigger issue, according to opponents of the law. It reflects an effort to elevate sexual behaviors to a civil right.

The homosexual equivalency advocates say the law bans instructional materials that reflect poorly on a person because of their sexual orientation. Opponents of the law say there are no such materials. Rather, that the subject of “sexual orientation” is not handled at all, and rightly so. They maintain it is a matter which is best handled in another forum, like the home, and not in a classroom.

They maintain that the law actually advocates for an entirely different approach to human sexuality. That the law is actually a part of the propaganda advocating an agenda intended to change the culture. The changes in the law are in addition to already existing law which mandates that various ethnic groups and people with disabilities receive a proper share of attention in the classroom.

If any of the counter-initiatives pass, they will undo the changes that are taking effect in January.

What do you think? Is it right for this approach to these issues to be taught in California public schools? Share your thoughts below.

© 2011, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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