Perspectives of a Wanderer

Consider this Sunday’s (September 28, 2008) Gospel reading:

“What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he repented and went.  And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go.  Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him.” (Mt. 21: 28-32 RSV)

This Gospel reading holds a special place for me since it was the first reading when I came back to the Chuch in my freshman year of college.

For me, I kind of see my self as the First son, but there is a little of both of them in all of us.  Yes, we say we are going to follow the teachings of Our Lord, but we often do not follow through (i.e. The Second Son).  Later we repent and go to confession (i.e. The First Son).  It seems to be a constant struggle between the two sons depending on the situation.

Yes, I would like to ramain the First Son after he repents, but that seems not to be possible.  Thankfully, there is the Sacrament of Reconcilliation for those who stray from the path of the Lord.

This is a follow-up to “Is Welfare just another form of Slavery?”

What I am talking about is the radical socialism of today based in Marxist (with tints of Fascism and Nazism) ideology. In this socialist system, the person is not free. They are property of the state with no rights or freedoms. Religion is abhorred and Free Will is squashed with violent intent.

Yes, the end of the cold war and he fall of the Soviet Union did eliminate some of the threat, but it did not wipe it out completely. Far from it. The rise of China as an economic power and the Marxist takeover of Venezuela by Chavez are two prime examples.

Even in non-Marxist Socialist countries, we are seeing more and more freedoms taken away, especially when it comes to Religion and Speech. Moral issues are being politicized and thus being turned against religion. This is especially true when it come to homosexuality, abortion, and euthanasia.

Finally, within the United States, we have seen stealth Marxism taking over via the liberal agenda. This is especially true when it comes to the Democratic Party. There is growing dissatisfaction within the part with it incessant leftward march. Those who do not follow the “party line” are censured and punished.

Socialism in this form is incompatible with Catholic Social Teaching and was condemned with Liberation Theology that tried to combine Marxist Socialism and Catholicism. This form of Socialism must be opposed at every step before it robs us all of our rights and makes us slaves of the State.

Now that I got the “shock title” out of the way, let me explain.

There is a talk radio station in Detroit that is conservative in slant (which I prefer) and I listen to it a lot (surprise surprise).

More than once on this station, Welfare has been likened to Slavery for what it does to people’s desire to better themselves and how it tends to destroy the family especially within the African-American community. There now seems to be multiple generations in the same families that are on welfare.

Before I am accused of racism, it is not only whites that are saying this. There is a 2 hour program on Saturday (2nd hour rebroadcast on Sunday) hosted by a African American Elder (i.e. Pastor) that echos this same theme.

With the way the welfare system is set up right now (the reforms of the 90’s did not change that much), I tend to agree with this position.

Being a student of history, I am a firm believer that history is a good source to understanding the roots of today’s liberal societal and moral diseases. This includes reading the writings of people who, let just say, are the bases for these ills.

Some of these people I believe are the basis are Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and even Adolf Hitler (yes, I am one of the few who put Hitler with the rest of his Socialist brethren)

Now some will say reading these works sets a dangerous precedence and may even give credence to their philosophies, but I must disagree. To know one’s enemy, you must know how they think and there is no better way than to read them.

In the near future, I do plan start reading some of the works by the aforementioned authors and using them as a basis for countering their collective effects on society.

This is a brief follow up on the post “Rejecting The World”.

WorldNetDaily has an article titled: Record 259 corporations honored for ‘gay’ support.  In it there was a link to the companies that made the list.

Part of rejecting the world is to avoid (if possible) those who knowingly support and advance the perversions of the world and are so inflexible of their support that it is doubtful that they will never change that position.

While I am not saying we need to immediately boycott these companies, we need to be careful on how we do business with them.  At some point in the future, we may have to cease doing business with them until they change.

It may even come to the point were we will need to set up a separate societal/economic structure separate from the perverse one we now live in.  That is a topic of a thread/poll that I have opened over on Catholic Answers Forums.

No. I am not talking about a complete removal of one’s self from the world.

From St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Rom. 8: 2-8 RSV)

What I am talking about is the rejection of worldly things and serving God.  I seems the world today is one big temptation.

Materialism, for example, is one of the greatest obstacle to obtaining eternal life.  People these days are obsessed with obtaining as much wealth as they can get, just to have more than the next person.  Sorry, but, as the saying goes, you cannot take it with you.  Greed is one of the seven deadly sins and must be guarded against. This does not mean one cannot earn a living and save to retire from the toils of working at some later time.  It does mean that one must be prudent in what they do with this money.

A second area, and just as dangerous, seems to be the sexualization of today’s society (especially when it come to the entertainment industry) whether it be porn, homosexual marriage, or the likes, it seem everything is coming down to a perverse level that society wants to “normalize”.

A third area, is the “death culture”.  Today, abortion, embryonic stem cell, and euthaniasia are all becoming more and more acceptable.  These are all forms of murder which is expressly forbidden by the Commandments.

Underlying all of the above is Relativism.  Relativism allows one to say there is no real moral truths and everything is acceptable if one believes it is “all right”.  When the Seven Deadly Sins are not considered sins anymore, society is in big trouble.

We must all reject the immoral trappings of the world to better serve God.  There is no way around it.

As Our Lord says:

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” (Mt. 6: 24-25 RSV)

The answer is Yes and No.

I have come to the conclusion that very little of what you see on the news can be considered purely news these days.

Yes, the Main Stream Media does report about actual events (most of the time), but it seems that there always has to be a hurricane force spin to it to the left.  This is especially true when it come to politics and the economy.

In addition, it seems that only bad news is “real news”. If it does not involve disasters or making someone (i.e. non-Liberals) look bad, it is not news.

The news has turned into Tabloid News and it seems you need a anti-media spam filter to eliminate spin to get to the news.