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"What will happen to Catholics and others . . . ?"
Mirror of Justice ^ | Jan 2, 2012 | Robert George

Posted on 01/08/2012 12:46:11 PM PST by bkopto

One of my superstar former students, writing about his experience at one of our nation's premier law schools, sent me a note after reading my MOJ post on marriage, religious liberty, and the "grand bargain." Here is the text, with names removed to protect the innocent:

I had a first-hand experience with this reality in law school. One of my constitutional law professors taught the section of our course relating to same-sex marriage under the "inevitability" banner. I met with him in office hours later to talk to him about something else, but I brought up a question that I have been wrestling with: if the SSM advocates are right and opposition to SSM becomes analogous to racism in our society, what will happen to Catholics and others whose views on SSM cannot and will not change? Are they to be excluded from public office, political and judicial appointments, or places of trust and responsibility within private institutions (e.g., law firm partnerships)? I posed the question to him because I was curious to hear his response, since he is generally a kind and reasonable person who seemed open to other viewpoints.

His response was very disappointing, and it shook my confidence in him. He responded to me by saying something along the lines of: "Well, they [Catholics and others] will either have to change their views or be treated in the same way that white supremacists and the segregationist Senators were treated. They were excluded from the judiciary entirely for decades because of the South's views on race."

He evinced no sympathy for the traditional marriage position or those who hold it. They were to be relegated to the ash heap of history. He said all of this to me knowing full well (because I had foolishly just told him) that I was a Catholic who opposed SSM.

Is anyone prepared to say that the view expressed by the professor is merely a fringe opinion in the contemporary academy? Is anyone prepared to say that it is the view of only a small minority, or a minority at all, in what University of Virginia sociologist Jonathan Haidt calls the liberal tribal-moral community of contemporary academia? Would anyone deny that there is a significant element in the elite sector of the culture---an element with real power over the lives and careers of people like my former student---that wishes to penalize or discriminate against those who refuse in conscience to yield to the liberal orthodoxy on issues of sex and marriage? Consider the professor's own words. He made no effort to hide his goals and intentions. On the contrary, he made it abundantly clear that Catholics and others who persist in their dissent are to be treated the way we treat white supremacists. They are to be stigmatized, subjected to discrimination, and denied the right to hold certain offices.

And this professor, as my student observed, is a "generally a kind and reasonable person who seems open to other viewpoints." What are we to expect, then, from those who are even less "open to other viewpoints"?


TOPICS: Catholic; Evangelical Christian; Judaism; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: academia; catholic; christophobia; democrats; homosexualagenda; liberalfascism; liberals; misotheism; moralabsolutes; progressives; ssm; tolerantleft
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To: savagesusie

I don’t think you quite understand what’s going on here. You need to grasp how the professor could so calmly and cooly say what he said and not realize how chilling its implications are.

The professor is probably correct in his prediction. This situation will come about because legal positivism triumphed in America beginning with Oliver Wendell Holmes ca. 1900. Legal positism believes that “the law” is simply what people declare it to be, that Law is not limited by perennial principles or natural law principles. That’s why already in the 1980s Robert Bork was borked over “natural law” and Clarence Thomas was almost borked. Believe in unchangeable natural law principles is anathema to legal positivists.

The legal positivists have won the war over the various sexuality issues and they are in control. Believers in natural law and unchangeable principles and inalienable rights are the only remaining threat to their “might makes right”victory. In legal positivism, those in power make laws, and no one can rightly or intelligently or credibly reject such “already-made” laws because they violate natural law.

The professor’s matter-of-factness is illuminating—he just takes it for granted that the shift from heterosexual-only marriage to “marriage is whatever one proclaims it to be” has taken place, it’s a fact, it’s positive (enacted) law or inevitably will be. To claim that marriage has some intrinsic, perennial, natural meaning is meaningless to the legal positivists. They are, pure and simply, might-makes-right believers.

Those who believe otherwise are simply destined to become outlaws. They have no moral “right” to complain and should not expect sympathy as being persecuted for their beliefs. If law and right is whatever we say it is, then those who disagree should accept that as simple fact. If they choose not to accept it, it’s their own fault and they are to blame for their own persecution.

To reply, as you did, with natural law principles is right, yes, indeed. But it’s meaningless to the professor. Really and truly meaningless. We need to grasp this if we are to understand what we are up against.

The professor is in the minority in raw terms. But his views are dominant among the Ruling Class. Really. Truly. And he knows it. Which is why he was so matter-of-fact and unempathetic about it.

THAT is what we are up against.


61 posted on 01/08/2012 6:28:21 PM PST by Houghton M.
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To: G Larry

Sorry, but to the Ruling Class, the Constitution is infinitely malleable. You can know it and appeal to it all you want. But they hold the power and they are cold as ice about Might Makes Right.

We can and must try to turn things around electorally. We can and must try to turn things around by argument, by reaching the minds and hearts of the vast middle.

But we should have no illusions about what we are up against. The Ruling Class for decades has operated by “might makes right” (legal positivism). This is as true of the old Blue Blood/Country Club GOP Establishment as it is of the Democrats. That’s why the Blue Blood Repubics hated the Reaganites (including especially the Catholic Reaganites, converts to the party).


62 posted on 01/08/2012 6:33:25 PM PST by Houghton M.
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To: bkopto; 185JHP; 230FMJ; AFA-Michigan; AKA Elena; APatientMan; Abathar; Absolutely Nobama; ...
Homosexual Agenda and Moral Absolutes Ping!

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Gulags and re-education camps for those whose religions faith condemns immorality and perversion - not too far off. Unless those of us on the right side develop more courage and fighting spirit.

63 posted on 01/08/2012 8:20:08 PM PST by little jeremiah (We will have to go through hell to get out of hell.)
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To: Jim Noble

yeah, I want to quit except I can’t.

I want off the merry go round. It seems to me that if you are a Christian, and a Catholic, everything should get better not worse. However, I am God’s puppet. I have to follow His will as best I can discern it. I am very different from my neighbors.

This is why the Bible says “love the family of believers”. ‘Love your enemies”. It does NOT say love everybody.


64 posted on 01/08/2012 8:24:54 PM PST by yldstrk ( My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: metmom

Indeed. Thanks for the ping, dear sister in Christ!


65 posted on 01/08/2012 8:26:06 PM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: Rashputin

AMEN! Perfectly put rashputin!


66 posted on 01/08/2012 8:40:49 PM PST by thesaleboat (Pray The Rosary Daily (Our Lady, July 13, 1917))
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To: Biggirl; steve86

I’m with Biggirl. I think it won’t be long now when sane and good people are shoved against the wall so much that change will come. Troubles, and change. I mean real change, for the better. As my tagline says.


67 posted on 01/08/2012 9:00:29 PM PST by little jeremiah (We will have to go through hell to get out of hell.)
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To: iacovatx
"These sorts of views and this culture is pervasive at colleges throughout the US and in such nations as Australia. It has been pervasive for a couple of decades.

Unfortunately you are spot on.Say anything publically,that isn't outright glorious praise towards homosexuals and you can pay dearly.

Even the typical Aussie male,who used to consider 'poofter bashing' almost as a right of passage,is now tentative talking about it and very quickly apologetic when something unsavoury about homos slips out.

I couldn't tell you how many times I've heard the phrase "not that there's anything wrong with that" when homosexuality is discussed,either privately or publically.

The media here is either $*#t scared of,or in full agreement with, the gay-lobby.

For a lot of Aussies,Christianity and practically anything alse religious is looked upon as a sort of leprosy.

That;s how I'm seeing it FWIW.

68 posted on 01/08/2012 9:47:06 PM PST by mitch5501 (My guitar wants to kill your momma!)
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To: bkopto

This article isn’t surprising to me in the least. Many people equate anti-homosexual beliefs to be the same thing as racism. If you want to know where that leads, just study the civil rights movement. These people want to use the full force of government, federal, state, and local, to squash opposition, because that is what they did before.

Citizens might be permitted to believe what they want in the privacy of their own homes, but anyone opposed to the homosexual agenda who dares express that opinion will be ostracized. Anti-homosexual public expressions will be deemed hate speech, and no one will be permitted to discriminate against homosexuals in any way, constitutionally protected religious exceptions notwithstanding.

This is what happened for black civil rights, and this is what the left plans for the homosexual rights movement. The legal precedents have already been set.


69 posted on 01/08/2012 10:25:59 PM PST by CitizenUSA (What's special about bad? Bad is easy. Anyone can do it. Try good instead!)
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To: little jeremiah; Dr. Brian Kopp
Oh, I'm not saying there won't be pushback, but when I look at Fatima, Akita, the apocalyptic prophecies of Hildegard of Bingen, et. al., there isn't reason to be hugely optimistic (until the very end). And none of these hint at a second golden era for the "great country between the oceans". Quite the opposite. As a point of interest concerning one of our dearly loved departed FReepers, Judith Anne, one of her last comments was in Dr. Kopp's thread about Hildegard, in which she said:

To: Dr. Brian Kopp

Fascinating...I have a problem with apocalyptic prophecies in general, I’ll have to look more specifically at this one.

5 posted on Sun 18 Dec 2011 11:15:46 PM PST by Judith Anne (For rhe sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us, and on the whole world.)

70 posted on 01/08/2012 10:51:13 PM PST by steve86 (Acerbic by nature, not nurture (Could be worst in 40 years))
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To: bkopto

I say it’s going to be worse than anything we’ve experienced: heterosexuals will have to submit to participating in gay sex once a month as a sign of their allegiance and solidarity to sexual diversity. It will be paying like union dues. The Catholic Church will have died and in its place will be the Church of the Anus, worshiping a god — Orifice Rex — who jumped out, fully formed from somebody’s rear end.


71 posted on 01/09/2012 12:26:36 AM PST by Blind Eye Jones
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To: little jeremiah

As proof, if my memory is correct, late last year, on news reports, gun sales were very high, that does say something as well as send a warning signal.


72 posted on 01/09/2012 3:35:51 AM PST by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: ConorMacNessa

The question needs to be asked.
Do we go quietly or not?

I fear we are getting closer to that time where it must be asked.


73 posted on 01/09/2012 5:28:04 AM PST by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: CynicalBear
The life of those “left behind” will not be a pleasant one. Those who will be shocked to realize that the disappearance of millions

You've been reading way too much Tim LaHaye. That's fiction, not reality.

74 posted on 01/09/2012 5:45:02 AM PST by Campion ("It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins." -- Franklin)
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To: Campion
Tim LaHaye is fancy not fact.

But I have to say that reading this conversation between the young Catholic college student and the "professor" made me sick.

I don't believe that it has anything to do with gulags or concentrations camps that sicken me or frighten me ... it is the loss of my RIGHT of FREEDOM of RELIGION.

I believe it would be sinful to allow this to continue to proceed as if it is some natural progression. I believe that Confirmation made me a SOLDIER of Christ.

I believe that it is not only our right but our SOLEMN DUTY to fight against the perversion and taint that is falling on our society.

I believe we have to draw people out (of all beliefs) on their honest opinions and encourage their involvement in fighting the homosexual agenda in our schools and campuses and which is pervasively becoming "acceptable" and worse, is being "accepted and forced upon our society".

Those who cherish their freedom to be perverse ... will soon be winnowed from those who believe in their hearts that this perversion WILL AFFECT them and is not a private matter.

Pray, without ceasing that we find a strong General, our Soldier and our Paths in this fight.

As far as abortion is concerned, we have started a tangible fight and we are winning one heart at a time ... this is our second battlefront and we must engage the innocent and those who are actively involved in the titillation of unnatural and freakish sex.

As I hear and read so often ... Just sayin'...
75 posted on 01/09/2012 6:07:07 AM PST by AKA Elena (St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle!)
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To: bkopto

Authentic Christianity will be driven underground within one-two decades in America. Our role today is to prepare our children to such a life.


76 posted on 01/09/2012 6:12:38 AM PST by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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To: All

As I have said, a second American revolution down the road, make no doubt about it.


77 posted on 01/09/2012 6:29:40 AM PST by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: All

Editing: “a second American revolution will happen” down the road.


78 posted on 01/09/2012 6:31:13 AM PST by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: Campion
>>You've been reading way too much Tim LaHaye. That's fiction, not reality.<<

I can envision the people watching Noah build the Ark saying the same thing. You’re not in good company.

79 posted on 01/09/2012 7:04:57 AM PST by CynicalBear
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To: verga
Not Southern Baptists! We stand by the Word of God that homosexuality is an abomination.
80 posted on 01/09/2012 7:11:16 AM PST by Former Fetus (Saved by grace through faith)
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