Posted on 11/14/2012 8:23:23 AM PST by marshmallow
President Obama’s re-election and the prospect of a second Obama administration, freed from the constraints imposed by the necessity of running for re-election, have created a crisis for the Catholic Church in the United States. In the thought-world and vocabulary of the Bible, “crisis” has two meanings: the conventional sense (a grave threat) and a deeper sense (a great moment of opportunity). Both are applicable to the Church in America these next four years.
The immediate threat, of course, is the HHS (Health and Human Services) mandate requiring Catholic institutions and Catholic employers to include coverage of contraceptives, sterilizations, and abortifacient drugs in the health insurance offered to their employees. The legal challenges mounted against this obvious violation of the first freedom, religious freedom, may well be vindicated. But with Obamacare now seemingly set in concrete, the Church will face a host of such implementing “mandates” and it will be imperative to contest those that are morally unacceptable, time and time again. Authentically Catholic health care in America is now in mortal danger, and it is going to take a concerted effort to save it for future generations.
A further threat comes from the gay insurgency, which will press the administration to find some way to federalize the marriage issue and to compel acceptance of the chimera of “gay marriage.” Thus it seems important to accelerate a serious debate within American Catholicism on whether the Church ought not pre-emptively withdraw from the civil marriage business, its clergy declining to act as agents of government in witnessing marriages for purposes of state law.
If the Church were to take this dramatic step now, it would be acting prophetically: it would be challenging the state (and the culture) by underscoring that what the state means by “marriage” and what Catholics mean by.......
(Excerpt) Read more at firstthings.com ...
Where was the Catholic vote? Where were the Christians?
When push came to shove Church leaders showed how timid they really are.
They needed to regularly, forcefully, and in direct language, tell the flock that “You CANNOT vote to re-elect this man. Doing so is tantamount to a mortal sin”.
Instead they engaged in a nuanced dance so as not to offend Hispanics, union members or Democrat politicians in heavily Catholic cities (leaving the flock confused, or worse, feeling justified in however they wanted to vote)
All the church needs do to meet this challenge is to dramatically downsize; the Amish/Menonite communities were exempted from the mandates because their services are limited to their members and only their members work at their services. The “church” needs to close the public facilities and re-open what they can but only to members. Its purely and simply that simple. And of course, the church needs to formally direct that all Democrats and those independents who vote for Democrats are permanently excommunicated from the Body of Christ. Not that difficult really; shrink the Church and condemn the traitors to Hell!
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Yes --
They are freed from the political weight of another election in four years...
YET--
They remain accountable via the checks and balances built into the Constitution and body of U.S. Law ( i.e. ...it's not a blank check-- or a "mandate" to do these things)
The real variable here -- the courage of the people...
And our elected reps/voices to uphold the law of the land, and as needed--take a stand to oppose the Dems plans....
Until that courage and commitment is clearly evident and demonstrable...
... The DEMS will run roughshod over anyone they wish....
And trample the Consitution willy-nilly -- along with existing law/precedents along their merry way....
Just sayin'
The reason the American Catholic Church can’t muster a credible defense is because so many of the clergy are gay and so their loyalties are divided. We laity can’t trust the clergy to actually go to bat for us on these issues.
It's a fact of life that people who have to learn the hard way, have to learn the hard way.
CINO bishops catering to dwindling numbers of CINO laity hopped aboard the Federal fox for a ride across the river to the land of milk and honey. They thought they would be able to play the role of the CoE as an established part of the power elite. Now that they're all packed together on the fox's snout they've finally begun to realize that the fox has been lying to them all along.
Well, welcome to reality where unless you walk the walk Christ doesn't have your back.
The source of your statement, please, or is it just hearsay?
I take it that you're not Catholic, else you couldn't have possibly asked the question.
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