Church ‘obsessions’ As culture pushes abortion and sex outside of marriage, the Church...with truth

Church ‘obsessions’ As the culture pushes abortion and sex outside of marriage, the Church is called to respond with truth

Question: My sister-law is hostile to the Church and says that we are obsessed by sex and abortion and don’t care about the same things Jesus did, like the poor. Is there an effective answer to this charge?

Answer: The charge that the Church is “obsessed” with sex and abortion — and many today add homosexuality — is not sustainable.

Any look at the Catechism of the Catholic Church will show a holistic concern for the human person ranging from the call to faith, accepting our dignity of being made in the image of God, how God reveals himself to us, how he saves us, liturgy, prayer and spirituality, and the whole scope of the moral life, including care for the poor.

The American bishops and the pope speak on a wide range of issues such as immigration, trafficking, education, the economy, etc. And yes, they do also speak to life issues, and issues of sexuality and marriage.

Anecdotally, most practicing Catholics not only fail to see an “obsession” about sex in the Church, but note with frustration a silence from parish pulpits regarding critical issues related to sex and family life.

So it is hard to see how the charge of obsession in the Church with such issues can stand. If there is an obsession with these issues, it is more likely to be found in popular culture. It is in the movies, music, on the news, and in recent years there have been strident demands for legal recognition and support of abortion, cohabitation, pornography and now same-sex unions and the redefinition of marriage.

To such initiatives with their strident and increasingly absolute demands, the Church must make a response. But it is a response to an already existing revolutionary issue that is passionately demanded along with legal penalties for objectors. Hence these issues look to be very obsessional in themselves.

Jesus certainly did care for the poor. And the Catholic Church, too, has long practiced extensive care for the poor, the sick and the dying.

But Jesus also spoke to other moral issues such as lust, divorce, greed, anger, the requirement of faith, etc. Any survey of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7) will reveal that. So Jesus ought not to be reduced to a social activist who only cared about the poor and social justice. He spoke and taught on many issues.

Seems more and more churches are trying to reconcile God’s word and truth with world view in order to ‘soften the message’ in an apparent effort to ‘make it more palatable to the masses’. But in reality they are ‘softening their stances’ because they are afraid of the threats by the voices that wish to silence them. Why are they afraid? Why do they compromise when God is their Ally? Why do they, like Peter, say that they don’t know Christ when pressured by the crowd? (Not literally denying they know Him, but by hemming and hawing and giving politically correct answers instead of standing strong for God DESPITE the outcome!)

Acts 4:29New International Version (NIV)

29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

God specifically forbids certain sins that we as a nation, and the church body by it’s silence on the issues, have committed ourselves to accepting- is it any wonder God has turned His face from this nation and withdrawn His blessings? We tolerate all manner of sin because we are afraid to speak out against it because we see what happens to those who do (IE the baker who lost their business, the photographer who was severely punished financially, etc etc etc)

More and more churches cower In the shadows, hoping not to be seen and singled out by evil ones infesting society and corrupting this nation of ours. And the downslide of morality WILL continue UNLESS the remnants that remain- God’s people, HUMBLE themselves before God, Asking Him to please forgive us for being cowards, and asking Him to heal and restore US FIRST, Heal us from our cowardice, and then heal the nation and restore His blessings

Tiny remnants can accomplish, through God, tremendous results WHEN they COMMIT to forsaking their sins, forsaking their cowardice, and begin relying on the God Who PROMISSES that all things work together for good to those who LOVE Him (IE: COMMIT to FORSAKING our sins [this does NOT mean we become sinless, it simply means that we come to the point where we recognize how truly wretched and helpless we are without Him, and ask Him to help us, bit by bit, throw m ore and more sins out the window as we grow and mature In our relationship with Him])

2 Chronicles 7:13-15New International Version (NIV)

13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.

I ask You good people, Is God not shutting up the heavens and withholding His blessings from us because we have gone so far astray? Do you wonder why He doesn’t hear your prayer? Do you wonder if He will ever help us again? It’s all answered in these three verses

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