Ride out and meet them in battle!

[LittleSoldier]

There are two things that really bother me.

The first is the idea of a battle of us vs. them. Who is really them? My concern is that we are creating a escape goat in Obama and his team and that we do not properly target the right enemy with the right actions. I really agree with the article by Peter Kreeft
How to Win the Culture War
especially under the section Who is our enemy?. It seems easy to get a firearm and get into a holy war, that is a reaction that I see in a lot of young people in reaction to the movie For the Greater Glory. I used to be that way, but now I am an older man that has a better grasp of his religion, spent time in the army and knows what firearms can do to bare flesh. I really believe that we are at war and that we should not be comfortable at all.

My impressions are that this is being called a “Crusade” by some and a football game by others. I hope we all know what happened during some of the Crusades. Mob mentality took over and innocent people were killed.

I also have gotten the impression that some people who look upon this as a Crusade or football game say “Rah! Go get 'im!” and then don’t do anything themselves but sit back and watch, if even that.

This *is *a war! We *all *need to fight! This is the biggest battle that I, personally, have ever been involved in (with the exception of my personal battle with trying to find out what Truth is and that led me straight back to the Church I had abandoned). Everyone can do something. If I can’t go to a demonstration or speech (and I can’t) I can still pray with all my heart and soul. If I can do it anybody can. I’m next to nothing. There is the Rosary. There are other prayers; the Psalms would obviously be appropriate. People can pray while cooking dinner or changing the baby’s diaper. God isn’t offended. Prayer is so powerful.

The second thing is that I am skeptical of hay fires that burn really fast, they do not provide heat to warm up a room in winter time. Unless we are constant and we teach the younger generations how to build a proper fire we will end up freezing in hell. Make sure that we truly are saintly role models and things will work out. To answer to the original question “Am I over-reacting, or have we been that passive in the face of evil?” my answer would be “You are being emotional but you are not over-reacting, we are too passive”.

Ah. I agree. Most of us are too passive and most of us certainly do not give a good example to the young. Perhaps it will take something like this to drag us out of our complacency and teach us how to be good role models. We are all members of the Church Militant; we are supposed to fight to defend the Church.

So let’s do it. Whatever one can do, do it. Pray, vote, go to rallies & demonstrations, speak to people about it as Christians should speak, and be good role models for the young. They are the future soldiers.

 

[ArthurQArch]

Not the greatest turnout. We had 550-600 people at the rally in Lincoln, Nebraska whose list of speakers included the bishop.

I still do not think that people realize the consequences of this mandate if it is not repealed or severely amended before this time next year. Multiple bishops have said they will CLOSE Catholic schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and social services before they will co-operate in the murder of unborn children. I think that a lot of people are hopeful that the Supreme Court will overturn ObamaCare - and I hope they are right. But if they do not, or they only overturn part of it, then the clock is definitely ticking. Pray.

 

[JimG]

Not the greatest turnout. We had 550-600 people at the rally in Lincoln, Nebraska whose list of speakers included the bishop.

I still do not think that people realize the consequences of this mandate if it is not repealed or severely amended before this time next year. Multiple bishops have said they will CLOSE Catholic schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and social services before they will co-operate in the murder of unborn children. I think that a lot of people are hopeful that the Supreme Court will overturn ObamaCare - and I hope they are right. But if they do not, or they only overturn part of it, then the clock is definitely ticking. Pray.

I hop they will not close the schools, hospitals and social services.

I hope that they will simply continue to do what they have always done. Offer services in accord with Catholic teaching, refuse to comply with the mandate, and refuse to pay any fines. If the government wants to send the Army to close them down, that’s the government’s doing. But they should not comply, and not pay fines, and not close.

 

[Mickey_Finn]

I hop they will not close the schools, hospitals and social services.

I hope that they will simply continue to do what they have always done. Offer services in accord with Catholic teaching, refuse to comply with the mandate, and refuse to pay any fines. If the government wants to send the Army to close them down, that’s the government’s doing. But they should not comply, and not pay fines, and not close.

While I like the idea of drawing a line in the sand. AND I’ll do everything in my power to support the Bishops if they choose defiance. Opposing the government, can have dire consequences. Maybe, if people see hospitals and other Catholic works Closing up shop…

Interesting times, to say the least.

 

[ACCT]

“Ride out and meet them in battle” is a quote from Lord of the Rings. It captures my thoughts today after our priest explained why he did not do more promotion for the Stand up for Religious Freedom rally this coming Friday when I asked him about it after Mass. It only recieved two lines worth of mention in the bulletin, while the diocese sent out a pdf flyer with a list of speakers (including our Bishop), parking arrangements, along with a sample bulletin announcement which was much more detailed. Nor did he mention it in the announcements. He said that he would not get too excited about it until after the late June Supreme Court decision.
I felt like I was in that scene of Lord of the Rings where the king saw the enemy coming for miles and miles, but was to scared to ride out and fight. The enemy has been approaching for more than just the last four years, but he has certainly picked up the pace since that time. Am I over-reacting, or have we been that passive in the face of evil?

---

“Modern man has become passive in the face of evil. He has so long preached a doctrine of false tolerance; has so long believed that right and wrong were only differences in a point of view, that now when evil works itself out in practice he is paralyzed to do anything against it (Sheen).”***

 

[JimG]

While I like the idea of drawing a line in the sand. AND I’ll do everything in my power to support the Bishops if they choose defiance. Opposing the government, can have dire consequences. Maybe, if people see hospitals and other Catholic works Closing up shop…

Interesting times, to say the least.

It is true that opposing the government can have dire consequences. Francis Cardinal George, after Illinois approved gay civil unions, said this:

“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square”.