It is a very long time since I watched Bill O’Reilly on Fox. Many years ago, when I still watched TV, I thought O’Reilly occupied a niche that was strong on common-sense rather than ideology. I mostly agreed with his views. I think over the years he became more arrogant and pleased with himself but it seemed to me that he was in both the conservative and Christian camps. I assumed that he was that rare creature on TV – a committed Catholic. I now read that he is criticizing conservatives for putting forward lame arguments in support of real marriage. I assume that he is arguing that it is simply not good enough to oppose same-sex marriage on the ‘flimsy’ grounds that a couple of verses in the Old Testament condemn homosexuality.
He has a point at this time in history when probably most Americans take the Old Testament with a pinch of salt and a growing minority of Americans is hostile to Christianity. For committed Catholics however, the Old Testament is not to be taken with a pinch of salt and as far as I can judge the previous Pope recently rejected SSM on more grounds than the Old Testament. I attend a Pentecostal Church almost every Sunday – for the record I am not a member and I am a Christian skeptic – and it is my understanding that all the traditional Christian Churches in the USA consider both the OT and the NT to be literally true. Since most members of the congregation I meet each Sunday seem to be very rational and intelligent people, I am wary of dismissing their belief in both Testaments. Indeed I am always hopeful that I will discover the Faith that seems to carry them so happily through life’s troubles.
The Pastor however preaches an increasingly liberal message each week, castigating for their failings both his congregation and Christians in general. To me it seems that he erects straw men in order to knock them down, for amongst the Church’s members I have yet to meet a racist, anyone hostile to divorced people, anyone who makes political jokes or anyone who would be cruel and insensitive to any minority. Indeed I would say that the Church is full of minorities if one counts the Asians, divorcees and women that he includes as current victims. I have always made it clear that I am not a Church member and am a skeptic, yet have never encountered anything other than toleration, acceptance and kindness in over four years of attendance. In fairness I would have to include him in that praise.
Hidden amongst his list of ‘victims of the Church’ are homosexuals, who he has several times mentioned in wholly positive terms during sermons. My impression of his congregation is that should a homosexual or lesbian come to the Church and confess past actions, with a commitment to ‘sin no more’, he/she would be greatly welcomed. This Pastor significantly reserves his few political attacks for Republicans, always stressing that Republicans are no more Christian than Democrats. This seems to fly in the face of reality, since Christians have more or less been purged from the Democrat Party and Obama has energetically pursued policies that have sought direct conflict with America’s Bishops. Neither does the Pastor ever mention, let alone condemn, abortion. He never mentions the unrelenting worldwide and systematic killing of Christians by Muslims despite his Church sponsoring missions around the world. He has mentioned the failure of heterosexuals to respect marriage vows (he must be getting at those divorcees he has cast as victims of the congregation!) but has carefully avoided the looming crisis that will confront all Pastors and Church schools when SSM results in compulsory acceptance of it (including Church weddings) and homosexual indoctrination in all schools. He is, and I suspect he is not alone amongst Pastors in Liberal States, politically correct.
What has this to do with Bill O’Reilly? Well, on this website, like old farmers, we always pay attention to our lying eyes and straws in the wind. It might be concluded that the Pastor is simply a child of the 1960’s, a broken marriage, a College education, a product of the secular computer industry and a man greatly influenced by Hollywood. However I think other more insidious pressures are at work, as they may be on O’Reilly, when it comes to SSM, the homosexual agenda and progressive views.
We are now governed by a Ruling Class – the first in American history – and a mighty powerful one it is. It may be rooted in the Media, but such is its power and wealth that no-one who is successful wishes to be outside the magic circle, especially when it includes the famous, the celebrities, the glamorous and the richest people. We must not underestimate the attractions of a Ruling Class. Their people have all the fun, are liberated from the old restraints and can confer wealth and success on aspirants. On the other side of the coin, the Ruling Class punishes those who stand in its way. Now it has a lawless Government and bureaucracy to do its bidding and a judiciary that is rapidly making socially progressive law. Underpinning this great power and exerting its control over News and mass opinion is the Mainstream Media (MSM), the most important tool and weapon of our Rulers. A smart person would be wary of upsetting George Soros, for who knows where his reach extends. Add to him billionaires like Tim Gill, Bloomberg, Spielberg – and the list seems endless – and who can resist their agenda? And what fool wishes to draw the hostile attention of Obama and Eric Holder?
If all this power does not seem enough to intimidate good men and women, we must remember the climate of opinion that this Ruling Class has been so quickly able to generate. It is a nebulous thing but who wants to feel on the wrong side of history, a member of a shrinking minority, a party-pooper, an obstacle to progress, (and the following denunciatory words have been turned into common currency by the Media and Government) a bigot, a hate-monger, a reactionary, a sinner practicing discrimination, an enemy of equality and – when it comes to sodomy – a nit-picker picking around anal matters?
O’Reilly is right that a few Biblical verses are not very powerful stuff with which to oppose SSM, sodomy and the rest of the grotesque sexual practices that some unfortunate people are driven to. But polite, decent people are unwilling to get into the mechanics of perversion. Many are ignorant of them for the Media Class only promotes SSM as issues of ‘equality’ and ‘love’.
For the record, let us state here the obvious, that sodomy is a perversion whether it is practiced by heterosexuals or homosexuals. It is unhygienic and sado-masochistic, and as we often point out on this website, heterosexual rapists, when they have the opportunity, frequently sodomize their female victims as the final hate-filled act of humiliation. Some violent heterosexual criminals even sodomize their male victims for the same motive.
Perversion is perversion and it is a moral sickness and it has absolutely nothing to do with love. All same-sex sex is perverted though this is not to deny any of those afflicted with any of the many unnatural appetites that some human beings are driven to, relief with willing adult partners or animals. But let us not pretend that such behavior is normal, desirable, worthy of promotion in schools and scout troops, and beyond public criticism. It is best restricted to private bedrooms and discreet clubs.
Our response to O’Reilly is that the really unchallengeable arguments against SSM are those we have set out above, but our Ruling Class and its MSM will not permit those arguments to reach beyond a small corner of the Internet. They intend to restrict the issue to the false context of ‘equality’ and ‘love’ and draw a parallel to past racial discrimination.
My prediction is that O’Reilly is about to ‘evolve’ like Obama and many others, including more than a few Pastors. The combination of ‘climate of opinion’, a Media-driven momentum, a speeding bandwagon, gushing Media approval and not wanting to be on a losing side, all when set against being labeled a ‘bigot’, is enough to encourage a change of opinion. Who wants to be on the losing side with Brian Brown’s NOM and its impoverished campaign of little people? Certainly not a TV celebrity who needs popularity and whose job depends on ascertaining which way the licensing winds are blowing! Come to that, modern Pastors also seek popularity and do not like martyrdom any more than the rest of us for they have families to maintain and a status in the community. They too can see which way the wind is blowing and where legislation is heading, especially in Leftist California.
Weather – Seasonal warm weather has at last reached middle California and the UK, even though more blizzards are hitting the Mid-West and Eastern States. In the South West of England, the first signs of spring, with its typical heavy rain showers topping up the near-full reservoirs, has brought forth the first official warnings of water shortages this summer! I suppose even seasonal weather is proof of MMGW.
Music Choice – More Latin music and once again the great, late Tito Puente! I recommend “Spain” from the album ‘Sensacion” by Tito Puente and his Latin Ensemble. The composer was the brilliant jazz pianist Chick Corea.