Some Catholics today are asking, “How did all this happen?”
In 1968, the Pope had Humanae Vitae published. He said he knew about The Pill and other forms of artificial contraception, and warned men and women that they were going to be more tempted to promiscuous sex and that they would value the love of their life less. This document also warned about the dangers of living a promiscuous lifestyle. But too many Catholics were distracted. The sale of millions of ‘Birth Control’ Pills was at stake.
Send in the hippies. Mom, dad, priests and nuns did not know anything. Don’t trust anyone over 30! And some Catholics out of a sense of misplaced trust believed them. Some started smoking dope and not listening to their parents.
By the 1970s - Adult Bookstores began to appear everywhere. Topless go-go bars. It’s OK! It’s legal !! High-powered lawyers were paid millions of dollars to defend “Free Speech” and “Freedom of Expression.” It’s OK.
As the 70’s wore on, TV began getting more sexually suggestive. It was talking about things that were not allowed in the 1950s and early 1960s. We were told that this was “pushing the envelope.” The full phrase is “pushing the envelope of what people find acceptable.” Which people? Christian people.
There used to be a phrase, “Will it play in Peoria?” This was in reference to a place where some things were banned because they offended public decency.
A comedian named Lenny Bruce was arrested for the language he used. You can now here that same language on TV.
In 1973, Homosexuality was removed by a bunch of gay radicals from the Psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual.
Head Shops (head meaning Dope Head) began to open, including one in my neighborhood. There were underground newspapers and underground comix. A man named Robert Crumb wrote and drew comix with titles like Zap! and Big A** Comix. They were sexually perverted. National Lampoon was another outlet for his and similar work.
By the 1980s - No-Fault Divorce completed its sweep of the country, after the National Organization for Women scared women to death, telling them they were or would soon be, the victims of the eternal enemy – Men.
Women had to be empowered. They had to be 100% equal. They had to join the Army. Dating was turned into a power struggle. Men were called “male chauvenist pigs.”
Television became meaner and cruder. Sue Ellen of Dallas drinking liquor straight out of the bottle while driving.
Cable TV appears and then you have porn in hotels and motels.
By the 1990s, it’s hard to tell a Christian from a non-Christian, and the continuing assault on the family and morality in media gets worse. Shock jocks on the radio talking about sex, degrading rap songs disrespecting women and glorifying violence, and the internet with porn 24/7.
Church parking lots are almost empty and mall parking lots fill up.
And the whole time, some people are talking about “alternative lifestyles.” Alternative to what? Using illegal drugs, fornication, swinging, immersion in movies where boy meets girl and they fornicate?
Wake up my fellow Catholics. The only freedom desired during the ‘Sexual Revolution’ was freedom from God and His commandments.
Peace,
Ed
Ed, thanks for expanding on my point. The truth is hard to deny, but there are those who will try.
Todays Gospel is very appropriate;
Gospel
Lk 17:26-37
Jesus said to his disciples:
“As it was in the days of Noah,
so it will be in the days of the Son of Man;
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage up to the day
that Noah entered the ark,
and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Similarly, as it was in the days of Lot:
they were eating, drinking, buying,
selling, planting, building;
on the day when Lot left Sodom,
fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy them all.
So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
On that day, someone who is on the housetop
and whose belongings are in the house
must not go down to get them,
and likewise one in the field
must not return to what was left behind.
Remember the wife of Lot.
Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it,
but whoever loses it will save it.
I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed;
one will be taken, the other left.
And there will be two women grinding meal together;
one will be taken, the other left.”
They said to him in reply, “Where, Lord?”
He said to them, “Where the body is,
there also the vultures will gather.”
