Whining Liberal = Catholic
I had to drive to Battle Creek yesterday afternoon, so I had a chance to listen to Rush Limbaugh for the first time since I heard him declare Ron Paul a "liberal." I've never listened to Rush much, but I'd always enjoyed his show.
I lost a lot of respect for him that day he wrote off Paul as a liberal. After repeatedly denigrating the "drive-by media," Rush engaged in the Ron Paul bashing that had become endemic to the drive-by media: call him a name, then move on, without addressing his views. Rush's posture toward Ron Paul would've made the fastest drive-by journalist proud.
But there was nothing else to listen to, so I tuned in. I hated it. All the CPAC and Romney talk. Yikes. It's grotesquerie at its grossest. Do conservatives really want to be lined up with raving lunatics like this? My gosh, after watching this nut, I was actually rooting for the freaks shouting ". . . anti-gay! Right-wing bigots, go away." Politics are for morons. If you need to be titillated that badly, just buy a bunch of porn and lock yourself in a small room.
But then Rush got into the Catholic problem. I was then reminded why politics matter: because there are evil and complacent people in this world (the two traits go together like hand-and-glove). I still won't sully myself with the election this year, but I will take an interest in how my fellow Catholics respond to Obama's latest abomination against the Church.
My hunch: My fellow Catholics will vote for him. American Catholis are complicit in the entire over-reaching by the federal government. The history is spelled out splendidly in this article (that Rush read from generously over the air yesterday): American Catholicism's Pact with the Devil.
I haven't had a chance to read all of it yet, but its basic tenet is correct: The American Catholic Church has, for decades, confused "charity" with taxation/coercion/redistribution of wealth. It undermined the relationship between generations when it helped implement social security under FDR. By undermining the relationship between generations, it helped push our society toward a contraceptive mindset: people no longer needed children to care for them in old age. Excerpt:
In the 1930s, the majority of the bishops, priests, and nuns sold their souls to the devil, and they did so with the best of intentions. In their concern for the suffering of those out of work and destitute, they wholeheartedly embraced the New Deal. They gloried in the fact that Franklin Delano Roosevelt made Frances Perkins ”“ a devout Anglo-Catholic laywoman who belonged to the Episcopalian Church but retreated on occasion to a Catholic convent ”“ Secretary of Labor and the first member of her sex to be awarded a cabinet post. And they welcomed Social Security ”“ which was her handiwork. They did not stop to ponder whether public provision in this regard would subvert the moral principle that children are responsible for the well-being of their parents. They did not stop to consider whether this measure would reduce the incentives for procreation and nourish the temptation to think of sexual intercourse as an indoor sport. They did not stop to think.
In the process, the leaders of the American Catholic Church fell prey to a conceit that had long before ensnared a great many mainstream Protestants in the United States ”“ the notion that public provision is somehow akin to charity ”“ and so they fostered state paternalism and undermined what they professed to teach: that charity is an individual responsibility and that it is appropriate that the laity join together under the leadership of the Church to alleviate the suffering of the poor. In its place, they helped establish the Machiavellian principle that underpins modern liberalism ”“ the notion that it is our Christian duty to confiscate other people's money and redistribute it.
Rat own, brother, rat own.
The American Catholic Church did more than its fair share to raise this monstrous beast known as "the federal government." And now to hear the bishops whine? Please. Apologize first. Apologize for 80 years of big government thinking. Apologize for conflating "charity" and "coercion." Apologize for hiding behind your tax-exempt status every time a pro-choice politician runs in your diocese. Apologize for giving Communion to Biden and Pelosi. Apologize for confusing "pro-life" with every left-wing policy decision you favor.
Apologize, then apologize again, and then apologize a third time.
Then we can talk.
Until then, consider me Odysseus' sailor: A man with wax in his ears.
(You'll excuse the rhetorical flourish. No one, especially a bishop, owes me personally an apology.)
