"Breeders" and "Baby Makers" -- When Name-Calling Reaches Absurdity

Believe me -- in no way do I want to -- but I can't get inside the heads of militant homosexuals who try to insult others for using their private parts according to their natural use.

According to a Reuters report, "Provincetown, New England's summer gay capital, is facing a rise in harassment and discrimination. But this time it's straight people who say they are being ridiculed as 'breeders' and 'baby makers.'"

That's like a community of bulimics taking shots at "digesters" and "nutritionists," or Muslim terrorists calling us "freedom-loving peacemongers." How can anyone take serious offense?

God's first command for us was to breed and make babies (Genesis 1:28). Even from a Darwinist perspective, breeding and baby-making are essential to the survival of the fittest. Without breeding, only death would survive.

Not surprisingly, the Catholic Church continues to be targeted by the culture of death crowd. Faithful Catholics stand for the sanctity of life at all stages, and those who embrace corruption and death are fierce in their opposition (as if their lives depended on it).

It appears that the couple pictured on the left (where else?) feels a need to display their disloyalty to Catholic moral teaching. They proudly refused to sign a recent ammendment petition in Massachusetts that reads:

When recognizing marriages entered into after the adoption of this amendment by the people, the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall define marriage only as the union of one man and one woman.

Admittedly, they may just have different political views, in which they see no need to legislate what constitutes a marriage, but somehow I think their gay-marriage sympathies run deeper than disputes over civil legalities.

To me it illustrates our need to stand by the light of the Church's teaching in our dark world of immorality. It's important for us Christian "breeders" to promote life and the sanctity of marriage and the family. It's God's will, and it makes sense. After all, children must first be born if they are to be "born again."

Just as the earliest followers of Christ embraced the label "Christian," which was first used as a contemptuous epithet, so we can accept "breeders" and "baby-makers," as silly as such name-calling is.

View From Israel on Pope's Call for Peace

Dawn Eden posts a clip from an Israeli blogger with some of her own comments, with which I agree: View from Israel.

What I find interesting is the blogger's observation:

I know I may upset some people by what I am going to write. But it seems the history of Popes to call for prayers for peace is only when Israel strikes back. Where were the calls for peace and pressure on the Palestinians for the last 11 months as they fired rockets out of Gaza.

The Dawn Patrol

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Marian Devotion: Honor or Worship?

In the eyes of many non-Catholic Christians, it would be scandalous to show great honor to Mary or ask for her intercession because they can't distinguish these practices from adoration, which is the worship due to God alone. They view pious Marian devotions as the worship of Mary.

The other day I imagined how these same critics might react if Michael the archangel visited them suddenly one day in person, appearing as a man. They would never even think to themselves, What's the big deal? He's nobody -- just a created messenger whose purpose is to serve us. Rather, I believe these people would be awestruck by his holiness, and would thank him for doing the work God commissioned him to do. They would treat him with the greatest respect. And because of the special assignments given to him (see, e.g., Daniel 12:1; Jude 1:9; Revelation 12:7), they might even go so far as to ask for special, personal protection against the evil one.

Would these people feel guilty about worshiping the great archangel Michael? No way! They would know they weren't worshiping Michael. They would explain that they were seeking his intercession because of his special relationship with God.

It is the same with Catholics and Mary. As the mother of God (that is, the human mother of the divine person born of her), she adores the Lord like no one else. More than any other creature, she is close to God's heart. And we know that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous mom availeth much.

That's why we petition her:

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Pope to Finish New Book by Summer's End

Reports are that Pope Benedict XVI will have completed a new book by the end of this summer. Apparently the book "focuses on Jesus, the human race and Christianity's relationship with other faiths." Sounds good.

After the election of B16, I went to Amazon.com and ordered the then-Cardinal Ratzinger's book, Introduction to Christianity. I didn't know anything about the book, but the title was enough for me. I wanted it.

After tearing it out of the box, I started on it right away, but found it very difficult reading. I propose three reasons for this:

1. It's incredibly deep, discussing concepts beyond my level.
   
2. It was originally composed in German and was translated into English.
3. The author is a bad writer according to popular English writing standards.

I don't mean the third reason as an insult. I'm just used to clear, lean writing that's suited to the intelligent novice who likes his info straight to the point. B16's book was like an advanced college textbook. Actually, that is what it was written for -- for his students in seminary.

On the other hand, B16's encyclical, "Deus Caritas Est," was just right for me. It was profound and scholarly, yet practical and readable.

It would be nice if he would hire a smart, clear-writing American editor (how about Peter Kreeft?) to fix up his new book so us dummies can appreciate it, too.

A Flock Blog Test

I just downloaded and installed a new Web (2.0) browser called Flock, and I'm testing its blog feature. The coolest feature apparent to me from the start is the ability to drag-n-drop pictures all over the place. I've only used it for literally a few minutes, so I can't know for sure whether Flock is worthwhile, but it seems pretty neat. Give it a try -- it's based on the Mozilla engine (i.e., Firefox).

It's going to be 100 degrees up here again today, so I need to get some mowing done this morning before we reach skin-melting temperatures.

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