Why are we so timid?

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I am intersested in making a difference in society. I am a Catholic, a husband and father, living in Australia, seeing our laws changing more and more to attack life, to push for abortion, sex in the media, giant billboards advertising brothels, gay **** in schools, euthanasia being openly pushed, tv always pushing the boundaries, child abuse, drug abuse, lenient sentencing for terrible crimes, pornography, contraceptives sold everywhere and people attacking the church. And, most of all, I am seeing Catholics fragmented, confused and ineffective, with weak leadership and not knowing how to make a difference. I don’t know how to really make a difference myself, though I know what I would like to happen. I would like for us to be united in our efforts to pressure government, I would like for us to show strength in numbers and change what is happening. I think that it is absurd how different groups in the past, like for example blacks in America, have shown people power, marched in the streets and ended up changing the laws of their country by getting in their governments face.
Why are we so weak and fragmented? Why are we so timid? We know the truth, we know what abortion really is. It is more serious than segregation, it is more serious than unfair wages, more serious than the war in Iraq, than some cartoon of mohammed, so why are we sitting at home writing letters to politicians who have someone else send us a reply that brushes off our concern? All over the country there are people gathering in little groups to gently protest and pray, but if they were united they would be more effective.
I guess the thing that really gets me is that what we are concerned about is extremely serious and we do not much but other groups do a lot about things that pale in comparison. We need to stand up and be counted. The rest of the world sees the Church as a toothless tiger, but we have almighty God on our side and I don’t like the thought of letting Him down. Imagine if every parish was informed of ways in which Catholics could make a difference; at least people would have a choice of whether or not to join, as it is we don’t know what to do, we write letters, we pray and nothing much happens, and half the time we hear about it too late. I know that there are good things that happen, there are effective and brave souls out there making a difference, but let’s know each other, let’s start a network.
About myself, I’m 30, have 3 children, am the youngest of 10, grew up on a sheep farm, have a brother a priest, a sister a nun in the Missionaries of Charity, work in a nursing home, am loyal to the Holy Father, home school our kids, have no tv, love good food, good music and love life and God. I’m no fanatic, know about the things in life that I’ve turned my back on that attract me but will suck me down and I want to be a saint. I love our Holy Church and I realize that it’s up to individuals to make a difference and that we can’t sit around complaining that our priests and bishops don’t do enough, sometimes it’s up to us to get together and get active because it’s our job.
Thank-you for your time.
 
People can still make a difference today. I went to this years Walk for Life West Coast in San Francisco. It was an awesome display of unity among Catholics and others. There were 25,000 people that participated. Many take notice of this event and more people attend it every year. This kind of action can get results. It’s a great educator.

Voting can accomplish a great deal. If every Catholic and every Christian in America would vote according to a pro-life conscience, abortion would be eliminated in a short time. Activism starts with each of us. We cannot be silent when we hear something objectionable in our midst. Educating people and helping them develop a moral compass will help.

Everytime we discover a company aiding or supporting immoral causes we should boycott them and encourage others to do the same. We need to stop paying money to the purveyors of immorality and we should let them know that we are doing so. Movies and videos are a great place to start.

When you see something immoral published and supported in the newspaper or a magazine send an email or letter to the editor. Let your voice be heard by your political leadership by phone, mail, or email. If we all did such things we could turn things around. People need to care and need to get energized. Teaching our children to do the same is another step in the right direction.

Currently, the situation is frustrating and we need to do something about it. When we can’t be proactively involved, we need to pray and to offer sacrifice. We need to teach our children to do this as well. There are many great organizations out there that we can participate in. We can do so through direct help, financial assistance and prayer.
 
Voting can accomplish a great deal. If every Catholic and every Christian in America would vote according to a pro-life conscience, abortion would be eliminated in a short time. Activism starts with each of us. We cannot be silent when we hear something objectionable in our midst. Educating people and helping them develop a moral compass will help.
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Well, there is such a thing as a society aborting and contracepting itself out of existence. Cultures that believe in highly procreating (Hispanics, Poles, Muslims, and other immigrants) will be dominant. Problem solved.
 
I understand your frustration. First, realize clearly that the gates of Hell will not prevail against Christ’s Church on earth. Pray and look to places on the internet where Catholics congregate. You may be the one who will lead. Once again, in light of all your responsibilities, pray to God for guidance and He will surely answer you.

In the United States, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., is rarely referred to as a Christian. When he was jailed, he wrote that Jesus was in that jail cell with him. He and his supporters endured bricks and bottles, police dogs and water hoses, but sometimes, not all his supporters marched with him. He knew that some could not take that but he did not exclude them.

There have been Million Man Marches to Washington, D.C. There is the Promise Keepers, a group of men who pledge their lives to God and reaffirm their marriage commitment. Some Christian groups here are including a document between soon to be husbands and wives so that they have a “Covenant Marriage” where they promise not to divorce.

Even a few letters and a few e-mails can make a difference. As an adult, I can say with confidence that persistence is the key. Such long in gestating problems may take a while to return to a state where the good prevails. In my view, in the U.S., in England, Canada and Australia, the same poison has infiltrated the lives of the faithful. Too many distractions and too many well publicized examples of immoral behavior being paraded about as good, or normal or average.

When an actress or singer can appear on a magazine cover dressed in little more than her underwear, I have to ask why? The fact of the matter is this. A small minority in all of Western Civilization want the following: No guilt, no shame, no sin, and are actively agitating for no God.

When I was a boy, God was on my mind all the time. I experienced an appropriate sense of guilt when I sinned, and depending on the circumstance, an appropriate amount of shame. There was also such a thing as common decency, especially in dealing with strangers. Now, all media presents people as significantly dysfunctional, disturbed, obsessive about sex and shameless. Sin? What’s that?

Go to your priest, your Diocese or other Catholic organizations and ask how you can help, or start thinking about what you can do to stem the tide of a civilization that no longer wants to be civil or endure sound doctrine.

God bless,
Ed
 
I’m so timid because I have my own monumental problems to deal with. Other peoples problems pale in comparison much of the time. If you’ve never dealt with mental illness, you won’t understand.
 
So far this thread is right on. We should do more. We should make a difference. I’ve heard many say they try to make a difference by just living well themselves. I know next-to-nothing about my next-door neighbors, so I don’t see how that technique could ever work.

National marches, etc., are rare and short. All everybody else has to do is plug their ears and shut their eyes for a few hours and then watch us happily pack up our things and go home. So something more local and frequent would be better.

How about taking care of your local church? It is an outpost that is part of a huge network, can organize marches, charities, and educate voters. It is plugged into a huge network of resources. And it sorely needs help! We’ve found that sometimes the priest is just waiting for resources to come along to get the ball rolling. All you have to do is share your thoughts with him and then put your time where your mouth is.

For instance, most people CAN’T do anything because they don’t KNOW anything. They go to Mass and go home, and whatever they don’t learn in that hour they either make up or pick up from their anti-Catholic surroundings. We need to stand strong and refute these other sources through our own education programs. My faith has become part of my life because I learned a few key teachings that made it real to me. Now I actively work with God’s help to fix myself the rest of the way. We need to perfect the process of bringing people to that point.

Many churches offer special classes and events where they teach their parishioners, but the people willing to go are the people who need it least. You need to address the one hour per week crowd. They want everything fast and convenient. We have to teach hard-line morality during Mass, and put the apologetics to back it up in the bulletins they take home. If they want easy and convenient, we should put apologetics in a to-go box and open a drive-through window!

The Church is a reflection of all the faces in it, so make sure yours is there and always prominent, and it will start to resemble you.
 
Hey Grinch.

I read your post and I am 100% with you. I’m sick of being on the recieving end of whatever the filth mongers, infidels, heretics and enemies of God have to push on us.

Give me a crusade and I’ll join it. If only someone could organize us, if only someone could give us a glimmer of hope.

Maranatha.
 
I think the assumption is that we could accomplish more by our own efforts? Correct me if I misunderstand. 🙂

Many times I’m frustrated as well, seeing in our media the activists for this and that, the political success (sometimes) of the various secularist agendas.

But then I think of those who quietly go about their business, those Catholic Christian men and women that I know in our parish and otherwise who you would pass by and never see what all they’ve accomplished by their example.

It does seems like we should do something, doesn’t it?

So, yes, if any one of feels a calling to do this or that, pray on it and go for it…but never discount the quiet way that the Lord often chooses to work either. 👍
 
Hello again.
Thanks for the interest. One kind of idea I had was something like each state in a country having an organisation/office like a collective brain where information from all the parishes could be collated and from where information could be sent to parishes. Obviously it would take the cooperation of parish priests. If each parish had at least one member involved with the office then they could be active with such things as collecting signatures, informing people about votes taking place in parliament, etc.
The thing that really gets me above all is hypocrisy. I see Catholics who don’t accept the teachings of the church yet publicly call themselves Catholic and influence our parishes and they give Catholicism a public face that non-Catholics see and judge our religion by. They are like people who say they play soccer but they use their hands…that’s not soccer! Just like what they portray to others is not Catholicism. I would like for there to be a way for dissent/hypocrisy to be brought to the light so that people could be aware of what they are seeing.
One example of this is priests who tell their parishoners that contraceptives are ok and that gay relationships are ok and all that rubbish. Surely we can at least shame them by highlighting to the public that they are hypocrites.
Sorry this is a little fragmented, I’m juggling a crying baby whilst my son strolls around strumming a guitar and my daughter is asking me to pick her up!
So, I like the idea of evryone who knows their faith being connected, informed and aware of what they can do. I think that maybe a lot of the organisations, for example here the National Civic Council founded by Bob Santamaria, have been very effective but maybe now are a little staid and have settled into routine rather than being as militant as they could. I agree with the last post about quiet men and women and their effective lives, definately true. However, the secular world is impressed by secular means and there are times when a fight is needed.
Here’s an example. In America I am led to believe that a lot of young black men end up turning to islam because they see that it is serious and strong. I wouldn’t want to join a religion if I percieved it as being weak and fragmented and wishy-washy.
It’s just a man made religion and ours is the real thing, we need to show people what the nature of this real thing is in a public and serious way. It’s a quiet war we are involved in and I hope that it doesn’t get loud when it’s too late and we start to fight when our children are already stolen from us.
Thanks again.
 
After only 18 months in the Catholic church, I’m still a followers. I’m very frustrated with current parish because they have provided very little causes for me to follow and become involved in that will truly help others.

I’m very seriously considering a parish about three miles up the street from my current parish. The parishoners are younger and much more enthusiasthic. I’m hoping to learn more about Christianity which will enable me to be of more help to others.
 
However, the secular world is impressed by secular means and there are times when a fight is needed.
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One of the biggest problems I see is that the media is controlled by the liberal secularists who, for the most part, are extremely anti-Christian. It’s not that we are failing or falling short in our efforts to reign in the chaos. It’s simply that no one knows (including other Catholics) what we are achieving because the media will not cover anything positive about Christianity. I could probably list 100’s of examples, but let’s just start with the recent CNN idiocy “God’s Warriors”. Billed as an in-depth look at the religious “extremists”, Christian pro-lifers were lumped in with radical jhidaists and palestinian terrorists. Look at the recent hullabaloo over the letters of Mother Theresa. MSM billed this as the “controversial and shocking” revelations about M.T.'s loss of faith. What utter rubbish. TV bills a new show “Saving Grace” as a study on the conversion of a troubled and dysfunctional woman. Turns out to be nothing more than anti-Catholic soft porn masquerading as “redemptive” to appeal to Christian viewers.

I believe that Catholics and Christians would do well to find ways to get involved in media. Witness the amazing success (spiritual as well as monetary) of The Passion of the Christ. Look at EWTN. Check out talk radio, especially those radio personalities that devote time to issues that matter to Christians like abortion. Talk radio has been so successful that the Dem’s want to put a stop to it. There is a huge audience out there filled with people who are starving for information, support, good family entertainment, news reports that are relevant to them and their lives. We need to find ways to spread our message through the same media resources that the liberals have used to drown us with their agendas.
 
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BobP123:
Hispanics, Poles, Muslims, and other immigrants) will be dominant. Problem solved.
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Problem Identified.
 
Hi Mr G. read the book of Acts, the Apostles were so Bold because they were filled repeatedly with the Holy Spirit. No you don’t have to speak in tongues with the filling. D. L. Moody explains this nicely in his book “Scret Power”. In short, ask God to fill you with his Holy Spirit on a daily basis. Romans 12 tells us to kill the sin nature daily, have our thinking transformed. Basically, in Acts, people were filled with the Holy Spirit, were bold for the gospel, and for doing God’s work, then they by sharing God’s power with others became drained, then they were refilled agian, were bold again, were powerful for God again. Simply follow the advice of Romans 12 and Eph 5:18, kill your sin nature daily, transform your mind, be filled with the Holy Spirit and boldness should follow. Note: the fruit of the spirit in gal 5.

👍
 
My brothers and sisters, we are on the internet. What is stopping anyone from making a phone call and asking questions? All that can happen is you’ll hear a no or I don’t know, but don’t let that stop you. Keep looking. Try the next number.

In Australia, I’ve found the following links:

cathlink.acu.edu.au/
catholicmission.org.au/

We have no need to rely on the secular media and there are many Catholic magazines and newspapers:

catholicpress.org
osv.com

I encourage you, brothers and sisters, make contact. But I also caution you to look, and pray, before you leap. Find out more about the organization or group you want to join. Be certain that they are legitimate and that their goals and sincerity are evident.

Something as simple as passing out gospel tracts could be helpful. For those unfamiliar, a small booklet giving a basic message of salvation through Christ is what I’m talking about. I have stood in front of an abortion clinic. But not for my benefit, but out of compassion for the young women going inside.

God bless,
Ed
 
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