As our country celebrated its 239th year of
freedom from the tyranny of England, it occurs to me that we are surrendering
that hard fought freedom in a gradual descent into a new brand of socialism
that promotes an ideology of radical autonomy.
The promise of no consequences to a departure from morality is
buttressed by the guarantee of government regulation and assistance to ensure
that everyone is taken care of, and income equality is attained, regardless of ability,
effort, or poor decisions. As evidence
of this changing moral landscape, consider our public schools. In Washington State, students are not allowed
to purchase soda or candy, but are offered free Long-Acting Reversible Contraceptives, (LARCs)
including IUDs, and hormonal implants, without parental consent, from sixth
grade and up. The program, ironically called Take Charge, makes no mention of the possible serious side effects
and risks associated with these devices, nor the fact that IUDs work by causing
spontaneous abortion of fertilized eggs. In effect, what our schools are teaching
kids is that they cannot be trusted to exercise good judgement or self control
with regard to their diet, much less practice sexual continence. Rather than taking charge of their behavior
and morality, they are offered government assistance in keeping their parents
in the dark about their sexual activity and its consequences.
After last week’s SCOTUS decision on gay marriage, the US
Department of Education changed their web page to a rainbow theme, celebrating
gay marriage which it undoubtedly will continue to teach as the new
normal. The public schools are
inculcating children with the ideology of the left which is unable to perceive
the Truth about human sexuality, and has no intention of tolerating dissent on
the basis of religious belief. In the
euphoria surrounding the new law of the land, no one seems to have noticed that
we have also surrendered the most basic tenet of our democracy:
self-governance. The very first
provision of our Constitution stipulates that only Congress, the representatives
of the people, can pass laws.
Nevertheless, the vast majority of law under which we now live, is being
written not by Congress, but by administrative agencies and by judges. Hundreds of thousands of pages of
administrative law is now on the books, promulgated and published by the
departments of Health, Environmental Protection, Education, Commerce, Treasury,
Agriculture, etc. On top of this, the
Judiciary no longer merely interprets and enforces law, they establish
precedent on the basis of their own ideologies and imagined rights that appear
nowhere in the Constitution. In many
cases federal courts override actual
laws that have been passed by State Legislatures and even Congress (e.g., DOMA,
the Affordable Care Act, Immigration law, etc.). This is no longer government by the people;
it is government by dictate, in the hands of a small number of people who have
usurped power that was never intended by the Constitution. In fact the Constitution goes to great length
to expressly prohibit such a takeover.
Historically, much of this goes back to FDR, who, in his
famous “… the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” speech, also declared
himself the sole ruler of a greatly expanded government. He then set up numerous departments
authorized to regulate much of American life. His meddling in the economy is acknowledged by
economists to have delayed recovery from the Great Depression by as much as 6
years. When the Supreme Court tried to
put limits on FDR’s power grab, he pitched a royal fit and threatened to have
them all removed and replaced. Now we
have Democrats like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Bill deBlasio offering
a socialist agenda they call the “new contract with America,” (kind of like ‘the
New Deal”). The centerpiece of their platform
is to raise the minimum wage and “invest in schools, not jails.” Despite obvious evidence from Washington and
California where minimum wages have been raised to the detriment of small businesses,
and resulting in numerous business failures, job losses, and companies fleeing
their state, Democrats insist on foisting this blunder on the rest of the
country. In a weird bit of irony, the Los
Angeles Federation of Labor lobbied for the California minimum wage hike, but
insisted that they be exempted from it because, as their presidents said, “If a
business owner and employees negotiate an agreement that works for them, it’s
nobody else’s business.” The trio of
Dems’ other big idea is to dump even more money into our failing education
system, as if that has worked so well in the past.
As I looked over the scripture readings for last Sunday, a
couple passages stood out. When God
called Ezekiel to become a prophet, He warned him that the people had rebelled
against God. “Hard of face and obstinate
of heart are they to whom I am sending you.”
In Sunday’s gospel when Jesus was in His home town, “They took offense
at Him.” There is a certain Order to
creation, established by God who brought everything into existence out of
nothing, and from primordial chaos into incredible order and complexity. Despite how awestruck we are with the beauty
and intricacy of the order of nature, an ideology of radical autonomy prevents
many of us from seeing God’s Truth, including the nature of our sexuality as
revealed in our bodies, and the amazing dignity of every human life. Pointing this out now often results in
repudiation and condemnation. It is not enough
to “tolerate” the views of others, the government and courts insist that we
must support the liberal agenda by participating with our businesses and our
tax dollars, despite religious convictions that prescribe otherwise. Just a few days after the SCOTUS gay
marriage decision, the US. Department of Equal Employment Opportunity certified
“justifiable cause” in the case of a gay teacher who was fired by a Catholic
school when he married his partner. The
courts will now decide whether or not the Catholic school has violated the law
of the land.
At this point, about all we can do is pray and work
toward electing a conservative majority and president next year, in hopes of
reversing some of this madness. Here’s
an excerpt of an Independence Day prayer from Cardinal Dolan that sums up our
needs and hopes quite nicely:
“May we know the Truth of your
creation, respecting the laws of nature and nature’s God, and not seek to
replace it with idols of our own making.
Give us the grace not to cast aside the boundaries of righteous living
you first inscribed in our hearts even before inscribing them on tablets of
stone. May you ‘mend our every flaw,
confirming our soul in self-control, our liberty in law’. Most of all, Almighty God, we thank you for
the great gift of our beloved country. For
we are indeed ‘one nation under God,’ and ‘in God we trust’. Dear God, bless America. Amen.”
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