So-called same sex marriage is rooted in 1960. It was then that the second most significant event in history occurred with the invention of the pill; the first most significant event of course being the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The pill radicalized the moral landscape, tearing down the value of sex as a gift from God and turning it merely into sterile recreation.
Pope Paul VI warned us. When he wrote Humanae Vitae (On Human Life) he called on leaders and educators to create a climate “favorable to the triumph of healthy liberty over license by means of respect for the moral order.” He also appealed to scientists to provide a secure basis for regulating births in union with nature, “…for man cannot find true happiness, for which he yearns with his whole being, unless he respects the laws inscribed in his nature by God.”
By all sociological measurements, the sexual revolution collapsed on the family and in turn, on much of the culture. Hindsight is 20/20 for those willing to focus their cultural vision. “I think there can be no question that the Pill gave incredible license to everything from adultery and affairs to premarital sex and within marriage to a separation of the sex act and procreation,” Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological seminary is was quoted in the must-read book On Human Life.
But once unleashed, the dominos keep falling. Sex has nothing even to do with marriage in the minds of most people these days, so why can’t two men or two women do whatever they like with each other including marrying?
Pope Paul was no prophet since he simply did what every other Pope did and what every Christian and even Jewish church once did—defend the sacredness of procreation in marriage. “Those who make use of this divine gift while destroying, even if only partially, its significance and its finality,” Pope Paul wrote in the encyclical, “act contrary to the nature of both man and woman and of their most intimate relationship, and therefore, contradict also the plan of God and His will.”
And so, God’s plan has been contradicted again and again. During a recent interview with Father Patrick, (not his real name) an exorcist who is also a parish priest, he said people often ask where is God or why aren’t the angels protecting us and stopping all this insanity? “When the world began, it was the angels’ mission to protect certain areas,” he said. “The world is engaged in a spiritual battle. The angels are part of God’s forces, but they operate under the power of God. If we reject God’s authority over us, then how can the angels help us?” According to him, When we reject God’s laws, the devil easily moves in and has greater influence over us.
“The angels have the power to protect and guide us only when we seek to operate under God’s authority,” Fr. Patrick explained. We remove ourselves from his protection by going against God’s plan for creation. “If people don’t give God authority, what can the angels do? Demons—the unholy angels– move in,” he said. So choosing against God ultimately has wide implications for our culture. “But I’ve seen changes when God is given authority and where angels were able to be called upon again. “
In the end, it is a matter of the choices made by all of us along the way. As many of the things that people want has grown further and further from the Christian values that were once a template for our country, the further we wander from God’s plan and protection.
Many feel—shoot, this isn’t my fault so why do I have to live in a country that is not really under God? But how many of us at one time or another were a part of rejecting God’s plan? We cannot change any of that. For now, however, we can put God over our lives. The more we do this, the more we will feel the protection of his angels and be divinely guided into the future.
21 thoughts on “Same-Sex Marriage, the Pill, and the Angels”
I suppose we’ll have to let it slide that you’re ranking the Pill above the Bible, but just be aware that, as far as I’m concerned, you’re suspect. I’ve taken the liberty to compile what I can only then assume would be your top-5.
Most Significant Events in Human* History, Ranked:
1. Jesus (~0 BC – 33 BC)
2. The Pill (1960 AD)
3. Finalization of Bible (late 300s AD)
4. Use of tools (+2 million BC)
5. Harnessing of Fire (+ 125,000 BC)
…
*I guess technically Homo Sapiens come around ~50,000 BC, but you know…whatever.
Why are you separating the Bible from Jesus? If there was no Jesus, there would be no Bible (not the New Testament part.) Jesus includes everything connected to him. Tools and harnessing fire changed civilization but not morality. When considering eternity, does lifestyle or morality matter more?
I mean, why are you separating the Pill from Jesus? Without Jesus (God) there’s no universe, right?
Firstly, Patti is correct about who is separating what. You can separate the pill from Our Lord because Our Lord has told us that a family is morally correct. The pill breaks this apart. He knew divorce would wreak havoc on peoples lives. He knew children would suffer. He knew mankind would, through free will, dispense with God and succumb to evil. There is a reason why “The path least trod” is so! Because of our fallen nature, our free will to choose between good and evil. We as free willed humans will tend toward the broad path because it is easier.
Yes the pill ranks second on the list.
The bible finalization is a red herring because it could have been finalized at any point throughout Christian history without affecting the fundamentals of the faith because the Church always had tradition and the deposit of faith handed down by Our Lord to his apostles.
The same applies to the others on your list. They too are red herrings because God was always going to create the world as part of his plan.
Not sure why you would want to excuse the pill’s priority and importance at destabilizing society and its morality. The two are inseparable.
Perhaps we should reflect on Pope Francis’ suggestions, Patti, especially #1 and #9
http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1403144.htm
Provide evidence that women were better off before the Pill? We are richer, more influential in public life, better educated, and livve longer and healthier lives now than before contraception. So, what is the benefit of abandoning our achievements?
You are right on! Thank you for those good words, KarenJo12!!!!!!!
Family life was better. There were less single-parent homes which was better for children by every measurable standard. For instance 85% of youth in prison grew up in fatherless homes and 63% of suicides grew up without fathers. The book I mentioned in the article, “On Human Life” cites numerous studies and non-Catholic sources that all agree that the sexual revolution decimated the family. KarenJo12, your list to prove women are better off are all worldly things you can’t take with you. So what is the benefit of achievements at the sacrifice of children and our souls? And BTW, I have a masters degree, published 10 books and have 10 kids. Not everyone has to have 10 kids–it’s about working in union with God. Thwarting his plan for worldly gain has dire consequences.
You are exceptionally lucky and must have an amazing support system to have a career and a large family. Only a very tiny number of women are that lucky. I paid 3/4 of my salary to day care for two kids for four years, and no, I would never have considered not working. No way does my husband get to tell me that the money is HIS.
As for education and influence being things of this world, it’s really bloody easy to denigrate them if you’ve always had them and know your kids will be secure as well.
Yes that is the typical marriage; there is “Our” money and “Her” money. THere is rarely “His” money, unless it is an allowance out of “Our” money that “She” gives to “Him”/
Funny how that works out.
Congradulations for being the first Catholic author to not say Pope Paul VI was prophetic. Now permit me to give you a small hard time.
. What if no fault divorce is an equal revolution. I think Catholic writing on what destroyed the family is too narrowly sexual because it has a goal.: promote Humanae Vitae. Pope Paul VI should have done that ( promote HV) by debating all opposition on TV like his own Catholic theologians. Instead he softened the strictures placed on them in Washington DC by their Bishop…when a hundred of them dissented publicly against HV. HV will continue to have bad stats as long as Popes have less zeal on it than internet writers. When a Pope is so zealous on this that he goes on TV and debates opposition from Oxford or Harvard, then you’ll know that stats are about to change big …not incremental and glacial. As long as Popes do not debate publicly like Christ did, we remain at the level of a monarch who doesn’t debate either…Kim Jun Il and Queen Elizabeth…who also never give access to debate. It’s theatrical like the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain.
When thinking has an a priori goal, it must edit reality…and can’t afford to look at other issues. Catholics should also point to no fault divorce but doing so doesn’t buttress HV.
There are no recurring Catholic essays against no fault divorce because such essays would not buttress Humanae Vitae. Women file for the majority of divorces but in a brand new world unlike previous to the world wars which flooded them into the work place. Women work now at livable salaries/ you don’t need a good reason to divorce and you get the house plus alimony plus children….plus the man visits the children so there’s no tragic goodbye. Oi veh.
The car also increased infidelity. There are no essays on the auto as making spouses very mobile unlike all previous history. An adultererous couple could use NFP which is now more reliable than the pill….plus use his car to meet in a distant city. Where’s the Catholic essays on the car as destructive of marriages? There are none. We have one issue because our goal is to promote an encyclical that Pope Paul and his successors should have promoted on tv in public debates like Christ….the public debater.
After the pill, divorce rates when up and no-fault divorce became the norm. And it’s not just “Catholic writing” that narrowly focuses on the sexual revolution. Most of the studies that confirm it’s damage to family life are not religion based and some give no credit to Catholic teaching but recognize and measure what happened to society.
It’s ridiculous to say Popes hide behind the curtain like the Wizard of Oz. Was JPII not public enough for you? His teaching on Theology of the Body was clear. And Pope Francis seems to get out from behind the curtain quite a bit. The fact that much of society ignores them is not their doing.
Being public and facing public debate are entirely different realities and you know it. JPII had a bad habit of deleting scriptures he didn’t like. Debate with tough theologians might have cleansed him on that proclivity. On wifely obedience in TOB and Dignity of Women he did it ( citing Ephesians only and ignoring 5 other passages ) and in Evangelium Vitae on the death penalty he did it ( citing Gen.9:5-6 in section 39 of EV but only after he removed the death penalty mandate). The results: wifely obedience is not in the catechism at all despite being 6 times referenced in the NT….and it was solidly supported in section 74 of Casti Connubii. And the new death penalty position will get many murder victims killed in the Phillipines alone….yearly as far as the eye can see. Check the UN figures on murder rates. Countries with no lower classes get along fine without execution…Scandinavia, Iceland, Austria, Monaco, Vermont, Luxembourg etc. Countries with large poor populations ( Mexico and Brazil and a host of other Catholic countries) are the opposite such that the worst murder rate in the entire world by UN figures is Catholic northern Latin America which has virtually no death penalty and over twenty times the murder rate of East Asia which is largely poor and death penalty….Japan, Singapore, Macao, China ( the locus of the poor but with a murder rate 25 times lower than Brazil).
Sociologist all point to the sexual revolution as having annihilated family life. Not the car, tv, etc. You criticize the Popes for not debating on TV. The pope speak out all the time and do interviews. Who are you to demand a venue? And TV is to blame for a lot of moral decline. The secular media puts spins on stories and don’t cover others. For instance Brittany Maynard became the media darling for assisted suicide but all the terminally ill patients speaking out against it and living their life to the fullest right up until the end were ignored. The Catholic Church is against the death penalty by the way, but I’m not going to debate all the issues you are bringing up. The article is about sex being taken out of marriage and sterilized as leading to same-sex marriage because it led to redefining marriage.
The sexual revolution has many pieces. In the 19th century, the theolgian John Gury wrote from France than coitus interruptus was widespread among laity. Yet no divorces. Ergo the divorce onslaught needed more than contraception….ie affluence and permissive laws that made divorce a mini goldmine for some women but not all.
Read ccc #2267 which allows for the death penalty which it had to do because of Romans 13:4…you know….God. So Catholicism is not against the death penalty as you state. But the same ccc 2267 then said it’s rarely necessary because modern penology is so secure…except it’s the opposite of secure in the two biggest Catholic countries….Brazil and Mexico ( both over 20 times the murder rate of East Asia) where in the latter, cartels effectively control the majority of prisons according to a Mexican justice official. To see what he means, go to you tube and type in…murder Mexican prison. You’ll see cartel members stroll into a prison and get a cell key from terrified guards….and then they machine gun inmates from a rival cartel. The catechism writer was thinking of safe Europe. But 40% of Catholics are in Latin America where penology is not secure.
I know the controversy re: naming one’s guardian angel-but I have done so – named him after Babe Ruth and St Joseph – George Herman Joseph Angel; and I have begun thanking him for what he does in response to “to light, to guard, to rule and guide” me every day. I have also thanked him for all those times since I was conceived when he did these things and I was totally unaware. I call on him daily and he is there. I also, when needed, for me or for a family member or friend, have him gather up all the retired guardian angels of the family so that a heavenly host can assist or help me or someone else. I just had him and them fill and fly with an airplane to Geneva that took my daughter and a granddaughter for a visit with another daughter’s family there. I have also apologized to GH Joseph Angel for all the times in my life I have shamed him by what I have done and what I have failed to do. I hope I did not mess up his angel rating. Guy McClung, San Antono, Texas
“But how many of us at one time or another were a part of rejecting God’s plan?”
An excellent and especially pertinent question that we all must take to heart. The 50+ year decline in marriage, in both attitude and practice, that we are experiencing in the West is, in no small measure, a result of this rejection, by embracing the temptation to put our own desires and needs before God.
And, most recently, the radical redefinition of marriage is a direct reflection of the long-term decline of marriage in the West, of the rejection of God’s plan.
“the second most significant event in history occurred with the invention of the pill”
Oh come on, really? Not the Protestant Reformation, not the A-bomb or the printing press or Internet…I am as anti-pill as you are, but I find that hard to swallow (no pun intended), and if I do, my liberal friends certainly will. Please justify.
I stand by the pill being being the second most significant event in history. It changed sexual morality and family life and thus society like nothing else has. So in that way, it is more significant than any other modern invention. The book I mention in the article, “On Human Life” gives sociological evidence that the sexual revolution has decimated families like no other time in history. Read the book and see for yourself.
The book you are referring to is “Humane Vitae” by P Paul VI, with Eberstadt (forward),Hitchcock (afterward) and Fulweiller (postscript)?
That’s the one.