There has been a recent think-storm over a recent (supposed) statement that Pope Francis made to a man from Chile. It was a statement that appears to condone homosexuality. Well, quite a few opinions have begun circulating around; one of them from the journalist and past American presidential candidate, Patrick J. Buchanan, in an article on the WND website. A few noted paragraphs are here:
“On the issue of homosexuality, have we ascended to a higher moral plateau? Or has America jettisoned the truths we believed and replaced them with the tenets of an ideology that may be politically and culturally ascendant but is rooted in nothing but baseless assertions and lies?”
“Consider the views of Cardinal Gerhard Muller, lately removed as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as to what is behind the drive to have “homophobia” regarded as a mental disorder.”
““Homophobia (is) an invention and an instrument of the totalitarian dominance over the thoughts of others. The homo-movement is lacking scientific arguments, which is why it created an ideology which wants to dominate by creating its own reality.””
“In short, cultural Marxists and their progressive allies have taken an ideological assertion – homosexuality is normal, natural and moral – without any historical, biological or scientific basis, and asserted it as truth, established it as law, and demanded that we accept and act upon this truth, or face the wrath of the regime.”
“Said Muller: “It is the Marxist pattern according to which reality does not create thinking, but thinking creates its own reality. He who does not accept this created reality is to be considered as being sick.”
““It is as if one could influence an illness with the help of the police or with the help of courts. In the Soviet Union, Christians were put into psychiatric clinics. These are the methods of totalitarian regimes, of National Socialism and of Communism.””
“As Russell Kirk wrote, ideology is political religion. And the dogmas of the political religion by which we are increasingly ruled have displaced the teachings of Christianity and tradition.”
What I gleaned from those paragraphs has very little to do with homosexuality, and I want to make the point that this post has nothing to do with homosexuality, so if there are any SJW trolls who are looking for a good fight on recent social dogma, forget about it. Rather, what I did see in those paragraphs is an interesting tidbit about human evolution on the grand scale of things.
We look at such trends in our society as more political, than physical evolution (rarely ever considering the evolutionary impact of our decisions), and in most cases such considerations would be correct. A short review of past history, just since 1900, reveals social events and trends that pushed humanity in one direction and then another, as if we were all participating in a flashmob. The world experienced fascist revolutions, collapsing economic markets, eugenic war, Marxist encroachments into capitalism’s claim of moral superiority, and now a whole array of social “rights” cast before the newly reminted (redefined), down-trodden castes that grovel at the feet of White Privilege and Male Patriarchal Domination (MPD). (By the creation of this acronym, we can lend this the fetid scent of a social disease to be avoided at all costs.)
All of these events, right up to the last one, blossomed, surged forward, and met its fate on the field of time, temperance, and judgment. Their fate: bankruptcy; it was, after-all, a flashmob. Simple reasoning is that they all failed to integrate into their ideological foundation enough of the inherent, genetic characteristics of the human species; at least at this point in human evolution. Another time, perhaps in the past or future, but not right now.
And what is “now”? “Now” seems, in this accelerating economy of the human mind, to be short; very, very short. Human patience, at least in the modern world of the social dynamics of the meme, has no more presence than the fliting butterfly, pirouetting from clover to daisy as it fades into the eternal sunshine of fulfilled desires. As our technology continues to raise our intellect over the other aspects of the human soul, we can expect that the ride’s going to continue to accelerate for some time to come. And here’s where I come around to Mr. Buchanan’s paragraphs.
I see the following within his dissertation:
Humanity is crossing a threshold – having perhaps come to its River Jordan – that entails a shift, or adjustment, in the power-sharing balance within humanity’s social being as a species. Humanity was birthed into a physicality, albeit with a budding intellect that would eventually reach critical mass and become self-conscious. In the beginning, our intellect was more for basic discrimination for survival than it was an assault on pleasure, academics, and technology. Our intellects defined what to eat, where to take shelter, and how not to be eaten by the local saber-tooth cat. With some sense of security eventually established, our intellects began to create and define the more abstract aspects of our existence; such as beauty, truth, morality, the arts, the sciences, hot babes, handsome hunks, cool cars, big houses, the boogie-woogie, and hip-hop.
As lush as that sounds, though, our physical natures have continued to clearly dominate our existence. Pure evidence of that are the mass grave sites around the world; testament to the simple truth that today’s definition of free will, authority, and power demands the physical removal of our rivals, as well as the intellectual removal of their ideas and historical record. Our senses are still in control and as demanding as ever, and I expect that, unless humanity follows the course of a remembered Star Trek episode (Season 2, Episode 20, ‘Return to Tomorrow’) where Captain Kirk must contend with an English-speaking, human-like species that ultimately shed its skin and evolved into pure consciousness, we will continue to reside impatiently in our current configuration.
Are we heading for Episode 20? Not anytime soon, but then evolution has all the time in the world and it doesn’t seem to be in a hurry. Just perhaps, Mr. Buchanan has inadvertently provided us all with a glimpse into the evolutionary future of humanity. He sees his topic as but another opportunity to fight the good fight for some fixed and moral truth – in this case, Christianity – but the obvious truth is that stability has never been an asset of God’s creation. All things move, and if you are in my meager camp of philosophy, all movements are of God’s will and plan.
I left off of my list of social failures, that I had noted earlier in my post, the last one – the social “rights” movement – for one reason. We are still experiencing this social movement. Will it preserve, intensify, equalify, or will it fade like all the rest; leaving humanity once again with its prehistoric norms and Darwin’s survival of the fittest? Personally, I believe it is but another manifestation of the budding existence of a future human species; one where the intellect will eschatologically yield the good news for God’s most inclined creature.
In protecting the ground one is standing on, one invariably invokes the moral precedent of a status quo. This unappetizing aspect of humanity’s temporal behavior is responsible for more unintentional and intentional suffering than one would care to remember. It is the worst of our species, and if there was anything God should be displeased with us about, it is that.
I suggest there is nothing adverse about looking into the future and recognizing that when we individually and socially turn away from the progressive nature of our species – believing Creation to be an ecological, sound-dead bubble of harmony, balance, and immutability – we are turning away from God.
I have no idea whether Mr. Buchanan, and others, are correct in their assertions. If we are not ready for such changes, or if these are not the right set of changes, then the social rights movement – at least certain aspects of it – will fade like so many other ideological movements had in the past. Keep in mind that the term “ideological” implies a truth unknown by anything other than faith, and faith ultimately can only become knowledge when it is born from God’s good plan.
I referenced that humanity might just be crossing a threshold of some sort; perhaps even a new phase in our evolution. Humanity has done it in the past; crossing other major thresholds, whether it be from homo erectus down through homo sapiens, or from simple sentience to consciousness and reason, or from creation, to the Fall (if you’re Christian), to a future, hopeful atonement and unification. We’re moving.
We talk little of humanity’s physical future, and our intellectual future seems even more obscure (having most recently placed our two-dollar bet on number 5, in the third race: Artificial Intelligence. Curious, isn’t it? However, what we are continually and intensely discussing is our spiritual future. In the past, we have been doing it through the lens of religion; that search for meaning, our meaning. As we have broadened our knowledge base, we have broadened the alternatives to religion in aiding us in our search for that meaning. The Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Age, and now the age of AI have all been movements in humanity’s evolution that are unhurriedly and irreversibly traversing humanity along God’s timeline. What has been multiple adjustments over the last 600 years, is but the blink of the eye in terms of any significant evolution of any species, but they are perhaps necessary tweaks for humanity; not errors, but more like the simple action of driving a car in one’s proper lane. It is what is. After all, God is.
As a Christian – for that matter, almost anyone who has every contemplated one’s own existence and a group-hug future – one looks to a time in which there is a spiritual consummation or perfection of humanity. There’s little physical or intellectual concern in comparison. Keep this in mind as you move. What consummate state are you heading for?
God Calls Us All Into His Service – Reese
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