satan in hell
\One of the many reasons why there should be a free and independent press in Chicago…call it a variant of “Radio Free Chicago”…is that you have never heard of some organizations formed by chastity-seeking homosexuals who are working collectively to lead wholesome lives in concert with the precepts of the Judeo-Christian rubric. You only read about homosexuals when they’re called “gays” and when they march and demonstrate for what they call self-affirmation. But there are homosexual people who are determined to lead straight lives and who pray very hard to overcome temptations that, happily, do not come to many of us but which they have determined to win mastery over.
The kept politically correct media in this town glorify “gays” and because they do this, many of us are deceived to suppose all homosexuals are striving to overturn the moral law to gain a kind of civil rights victory. The only way the two major newspapers here and the other major newspapers in the state and most radio and all TV outlets describe it is in terms of combat, in terms designed to please Rick Garcia, the officer of “Equality Illinois”: the oppressive heterosexual majority either purposely or thoughtlessly discriminating against the rights of gays in this state. But there are other kinds of homosexuals, people who know that the homosexual act is disordered and sinful and who are determined to mount individual personal campaigns to keep themselves untouched by the gross sexual culture; they are victims of injustice as well: shunned by gay rights people, shunned by liberals, ignored by the media, often set aside by churches wishing not to offend powerful constituencies; sometimes attacked by some mal-educated right-wing bigots. Their selfless cause is harmed by virulent anti-gay groups that claim “God will get you” if you disagree with them in method. This 10 to 1 preponderance underlines the power of one whom Christ in yesterday’s gospel (when the original King James or earlier standard versions are used) referred to as “the Prince of This World.” You know who this Prince is: he has won all the battles since the beginning of time except two. In this one he intends as the father of lies to mislead by misrepresenting it as a glorious battle for human rights: when it is not.
The most vivid allusion to the Prince of This World is not Christ’s, interestingly enough. It was made by the Puritan John Milton. His Paradise Lost opens with fallen angels lying beside their rebel leader, all stunned in Hell, where they have just made a crash landing. They get up and apply a kind of American ingenuity about them: going to a part of Hell that is slightly cooler and there, resolving a comeback, build a devilish city and draw up a plan to action…and wage at least two more on the Prince’s chosen turf—this world.
As we know the second battle was waged against Christ wherein the Prince of this world exulted too early that he had won with Christ’s crucifixion by the very people He sought to save. Looked promising, only to have it elude his grasp smash him down with the resurrection. The entire post-resurrection period from then to now is preparing for the third and climactic round—a round which we Christians know Christ will win but which the Prince as underdog, feverishly working (which makes him able to tolerate Hell) resembles modern man, the energy liberating in him a kind of workaholic exultation of misplaced freedom and a semblance of dignity.
The climax will be waged here, on the Prince’s turf. For the wounded souls of whom I am to refer, the battle is being engaged now. In self-defense, some selfless and courageous recovering homosexuals who are embracing chastity and innocent friendships have formed an inter-faith organization called “Overcomers.” Others, within the Catholic fold, have joined a group called “Courage.” There are such organizations in Chicago. They do not demonstrate or picket but use the sacrificial gifts of charity, penance and prayer to stand up to the culture—a culture that glorifies the antithesis of Judeo-Christian sexuality…TV series like Will and Grace, films like Brokeback Mountain, classroom materials like Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy’s Roommate. They are besieged by media editorials favorable to “gay rights” from the Tribune and Sun-Times (which endorses same-sex marriage). They are on the defensive because so many Christian churches—particularly the Catholic—are weakened by sexual scandal. Then come the politicians.
Many modern politicians understand that by compromising with the gay culture, they can get votes. So in this state you have two bipartisan panderers: the governor and Judy Baar Topinka. Moreover there is that great pillar of quivering Jello—a man who has disdained fixed moral compass but yet, behind the red-faced shouting and ungrammatical tirades, knows better—Richard M. Daley who unaccountably has a national reputation as a kind of centrist when in fact he has endorsed same-sex marriage, attends and co-hosts gay rights benefits. Crushing down on homosexuals who are fighting to be straight—or at least not to go wrong—are Daley-sponsored events that are drawing a panoply of favorable media huzzaing. Leather Weekend is an annual occurrence; so is the Gay Pride Parade in which Daley, Blagojevich and Topinka march. The next super-charged media event will be the 7th quadrennial Gay Games, modeled on the Olympics to be held July 15-22. Criticize them and in the eye of the media you are a bigot much like Sheriff Jim Clark in Mississippi, Orval Faubus of Arkansas and George Wallace of Alabama. The so-called upright righteous outraged morality of popular newspaper columnists are all arrayed on one side: and it is not on the side of those homosexuals fighting against loneliness and isolation; it is on the side of permissiveness.
And right in the middle of the permissive political majority is the jowly pragmatic visage of the all-things-to-all-men pillar of Jello, Richard M. Daley, honorary chairman of the events, who uses his evident Irishness as substitute for the morality he has so adroitly repudiated (never mentioning the glaring contradiction between his policies and his public church-going, their kneeling together to receive the Eucharist at Old St. Pat’s, the contradiction the media are fearful of referring to)…Daley and his wife Maggie who enthusiastically countenances it since it will get her husband reelected, both hugging and smooching to give a kind of Mom and Pop baptism of consent to the carnivals: all of which bring pain to the down-the-line homosexuals and upset to many more who have no recourse save a few Blogs like this one for sustenance.
How to stand up to it when all forces are arrayed against? “Overcomers Ministry Report” for April/May counsels prayer for those afflicted, ask faith communities which have never directly addressed the problem of homosexuality to begin learning about the issue. (For example with very few exceptions, the Catholic community, weakened, ultra-fearful, emblematic of all that is represented by the phrase “earthen vessels” is overwhelmingly terrified of the issue since homosexuality has invaded the priesthood by leaps and bounds over the past four decades).
Overcomers asks how many Christian churches have the courage to discuss it, how to encourage the ones in their midst who want to find freedom. It urges congregations, ministries and campus groups which are experienced in the area to consider fasting and praying about the outreach they may ultimately want to do. “It’s important to stay alert to the spiritual warfare that will be involved,” the leaflet says. “In addition to keeping close personal connection with the Lord, we need to be interceding for a cover of protection over the city—particularly for those who are most at risk from the Games’ impact. Attending some part of the event purely out of curiosity wouldn’t be advisable for anyone. The `weaker brother’ who recognizes he could be susceptible to the atmosphere or spectacle might consider it best to remain at home as a prayer warrior.”
Then there are the Conferences where like-minded straight-leaning prayerful homosexuals can gather: the Pastoral Care Ministry School June 25-30 at Wheaton www.pcmschool.com …the Exodus International Conference June 27-July 2 at Marion, Indiana www.exodus2006.org,/u> ; the Cornerstone Festival July 5-8, Bushnell, Illinois www.cornerstonefestival.com .
Ministries that help with sexual addictions include BraveHearts: www.bravehearts.net …Pure Life Ministries: www.purelifemnistries.org …New Life Partners: www.newlifepartners.org …Pure Intimacy at www.pureintimacy.org …Purity Exposed at www.purityexposed.org …Stone Gate Resources at www.stonegateresources.org …Be Broken Ministries at www.bebroken.com Setting Captives Free at www.settingcaptivesfree.com/home . Then there is the Catholic organization Courage which can be reached by calling the Catholic archdiocese wherever you live, national headquarters of which is in New York City.
To all Overcomers, to all who seek to overcome: prayers of this Blog are with you. God bless.
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