Apocalypse Now

A young woman recently described her father as so distressed by what America is becoming that he’s had to stop watching the news, can’t listen to another Obama speech, for the sake of his health.

I hear from friends in France, Britain, Italy who say they don’t recognize their own countries anymore. And that’s not counting wars and rumors of wars.

The Supreme Court, for example, voted 7-2 last week to allow gay marriage in Alabama, though the state’s courts had blocked it. This suggests full national legalization of gay marriage will come later in the Court’s Spring term. In one way, just another bad decision. But in another, the culmination of an aggressive movement – supported by serious foundation monies, as has been recently reported – to force gay, as self-evidently good, on everyone now.

Thus, sexual mores since Moses are lightly dismissed, and their historic importance in Jewish and Christian life declared sheer bigotry.

Don’t be deceived: this will not lead to “live and let live.” Especially for the churches who resist, it will very much be: we’ll live, and you can go die, for all we care, in your “religious animus.” (Justice Kennedy) Sadly, many liberal Catholics and Protestants have already joined that chorus, and more will.

The Court generally protects religious liberty, but as we’ve seen with the HHS mandates, things hang by a thread. Declaration, Constitution, Bill of Rights, rule of law have all been distorted under the regime of new-found rights. Recall, when Obama announced the HHS mandates, he implied that “women’s health” somehow was more “first” than the First Amendment guarantees of free exercise.

This time will be much worse than Roe v. Wade. That decision has faded under evidence and analysis, hence the absurd and desperate recourse to claiming a “war on women.” Gay marriage – given the enflamed nature and even medicalization of the issue (“homophobia”) – will bring relentless legal pressure on religious and secular communities who won’t go along. Besides what this means to religious groups, it’s a serious threat to America’s long history of tolerance and pluralism.

So be prepared: if you’re old enough to read this, unless you choose to fall in line, you will probably be the target of nasty demonization for the rest of your life.

http://www.thecatholicthing.org/2015/02/16/apocalyptics/