Nailhead? Meet Hammer.

Columnist Maggie Gallagher writes (excerpts):

Pope John Paul the Great is not yet buried, but the divisions among American Catholics have already taken center stage on cable television: Will the next pope be Catholic?

Of course, JP II’s critics don’t put it that way. But the long-deferred hopes of this group (call them sexual liberals) — that the Catholic Church is about to abandon its ancient teachings on premarital sex, abortion, divorce, homosexuality and, above all, birth control — have burst out anew in the 24-hour coverage of the pope’s death.

Sexual liberalism has a lot of powerful things going for it in terms of attracting adherents: passion, for instance, the difficulty of self-restraint, the attractiveness of choice as the highest moral good. But sexual liberalism’s most powerful ally is the myth of progress. Sexual liberals, like Marxists of old, see themselves as the inevitable wave of the future. The Catholic Church is "out of step" with the future, they believe, and must eventually get in line with the poll numbers, or fade into irrelevance.

Puncture this myth, and see how quickly the power of this set of ideas drizzles away.

Like Marxists of old, sexual liberals are going to be shocked and disappointed to find how irrelevant and outmoded their ideas seem. In 1968, the advice of sexual liberals — accommodate the sexual revolution or die — may have seemed tempting, even to the College of Cardinals. By 2004, it has become clear that Christian denominations that accepted this advice have not experienced religious revivals. Instead, such mainline Protestant sects are rapidly dwindling in numbers.

Sexual liberalism has a lot going for it, but it does have this one little drawback: Religions or societies that adopt it appear to die out.

GET THE STORY.

(Cowboy hat tip to the reader who e-mailed!)

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

16 thoughts on “Nailhead? Meet Hammer.”

  2. Yep. They compromise and get so integrated into the Culture of Death that they’re no longer intact.
    IF we adopted those beliefs, the policies on…say…everything? Would be abandoned by most within the next 2 years.
    Boom. The Catholic Church is no longer really a Church, but…a…get-together!! Our masses would cease to be even useful. Our beliefs would just…die out.
    Yep. They would cease to exist. Check out the billions of protestant variations. (not billions, obviously, but there are a LOT!!)
    ~Kosh

  3. It is high time we as a society start to aim a little of our cynicism, skepticism, and revulsion at secular movements that shun faith. The Nazis, Communists, and “free” love hippies have done more damage to the human condition in the last century than all supposedly religious movements of the past centuries combined.
    Those who wave such flags should be marked for the self-serving, rationalizing, and destructive maniacs they are. Just like Hitler, Mao, Stalin, and the Supreme Court judges who voted for Roe v Wade.

  4. And who are those nuts who want the Catholic Church to be just like all the other churches just down the street? Seriously, what is the impetus for such destructive behavior? Perhaps they see themselves as the “saviors” of Christ’s Church. I don’t know. I have never been able to understand them…

  5. This is my spoof on such people.
    To ‘God’,
    We the Heretical Catholics of Australia have decided that you’re one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church has been too centralised. The Pope may be you’re representative on earth but why should he have the last say on faith and morals? We want the church to be more democratic and have decided to vote on what is and what is not a sin. The following are no longer sins.
    Adultery, divorce, premarital sex, necrophilia, homosexuality, theft, contraception, drug abuse, Abortion, Bestiality.
    We would also like to inform you that despite 2000 years of tradition and the symbolic union between Christ (male) and his church( female) we have decided to have women priests. This makes the relationship between the priestess and the church lesbian but as we have accepted homosexuality any way we don’t think it matters.
    We would also like priests to be married. For some reason avoiding having children and aborting the children we do have has reduced the number of young men. We are sure having married priests will fix the problem as well as send a positive message “ you can have sex now!” We believe this despite the fact that the Anglican church which has married and women priests is also low on vocations.
    We the Australian Heretical Catholics believe that you (‘God’) are not so much out of time and behind the times. We request you to update your eternal laws and absolute truths to be more in tune with our barbaric age.
    Sinfully your‘s
    Australian Heretical Catholics

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