FGF E-Package
From Under The Rubble
November 6, 2013
Hail to the Dictators!
by Christopher Manion
fitzgerald griffin foundation
FRONT ROYAL, VA — It's the Redskins versus the Crybabies in the Victims Bowl. Washington's beloved pro football team is just the latest target of opportunity for the racial hucksters who are writing the next edition of Big Brother's NewSpeak Dictionary.
Like Orwell's Ministry of Truth, however, the professional malcontents are actually conducting a false flag operation to keep the nation's eyes off the other news from Washington, all of it disastrous.
And you thought the Redskins were off to a lousy start? Consider Obamacare.
In the Analects, Confucius stressed the importance of words, but they're an endangered species these days. UCLA has banned the term "illegal" — but LA hasn't banned illegals: apparently, some ten percent of Angelinos are indeed "Undocumented Future Democrats" who plan to stay put.
After all, Mexican-Americans can still vote in Mexican elections at the Consulate on West 6th Street in downtown LA.
Talk about an absentee ballot!
Well, the Associated Press, ABC News, and America's Catholic bishops have joined the ban. The word "illegal" is now illegal, so to speak.
In 1984, Syme overplayed his hand in his efforts to stuff Confucius down the Memory Hole, so he was vaporized by the Thought Police. Our own Thought Police are more subtle, furtively scrounging around for new reasons to be offended and indignant.
Hail to the Rainbows!
The Rubble learns from the intrepid Catholic World News that our bishops have won a new federal contract. The USCCB's Migration and Refugee Services has updated and expanded its training manual, in part to "'address the needs of particularly vulnerable groups of children, including youth who may be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered.'"
The revised manual notes that "it is important to be alert for homophobic remarks among the staff. If any are made, discuss in a non-judgmental way how these kinds of remarks may make a young gay resident feel."
Admittedly, it is HHS, and not the USCCB, which is obsessed with sex. But the Rubble wonders, are the bishops so obsessed with keeping their government funding that they are willing to write this kind of drivel for hire — taking Caesar's coin from the same agency that they are suing because its "Contraceptive Mandate" forces Catholics to violate their conscience?
And what's with this "homophobe" stuff, anyway? The term most often appears in attacks on the Catholic Church and those that follow her moral teaching. Why are the bishops embracing it?
...at UCLA you can't say "illegal," but you can attend seminars and working groups galore on the dangers of homophobia.
"Homophobe" is popularized by lawyers, specifically, the folks at the ACLU who have employed it for years to designate anything and anyone the ACLU doesn't like.
Of course, homophobia is conveniently irrational, designed for a population raised to "feel good about themselves."
Or, merely to "feel good."
And remember, you can't argue with a feeling.
The word homo appears in both classical Greek and classical Latin. In Greek, homo means "the same" – e.g., "homogenize," "homonym." In Latin, however, homo means "man," or "mankind": ecce homo, as Pilate said of Christ; or homo sapiens, "man, the species capable of wisdom" (which apparently excludes the folks at the ACLU).
Now, phobia means the same thing in Greek and Latin: "fear," "flight" (from phebesthai, "to flee") or "to avoid."
So the person who is hydrophobic fears water and avoids it, fleeing if necessary.
Now, if the term homophobe is derived from the Greek homo, it means "fear of the same" or "flight from the same."
Well, that doesn't make much sense.
If homophobe is derived from the Latin homo, it means "fear of man or of mankind," which doesn't make much sense either.
The only other possibility is that the neologism is derived not from the Latin or the Greek, but from the English homosexual; if this is the derivation, then the term refers to the fear of, or the flight from, the homosexual (which term employs the Greek homo, not the Latin).
By the way, those "vulnerable LGBTQ youth" might well want to flee homosexuals, if the Church would charitably tell them (as the CDC does) that 94% of HIV/AIDS is transmitted by same-sex relations.
...there are some "Catholics" who not only deny those truths, they go on to demand that the Church deny them. For these I have invented the term veraphobes — people who fear, avoid, and ultimately hate the truth.
But only a homophobic killjoy would tell them that — even if it saves their lives. In order to keep that HHS money coming, USCCB employees must remain silent about their faith.
Yet, Pope Francis repeatedly insists that the Church is "not just another NGO." Have our bishops read the memo?
After all, in the common usage among the homosexual community and its supporters, homophobia is employed to assert that those who condemn homosexual acts as immoral — especially Catholics — are guilty not only of fear, but of hatred.
Now, at UCLA you can't say "illegal," but you can attend seminars and working groups galore on the dangers of homophobia. It's also much more advisable there to be an illegal than a homophobe, given the linguistic lay of the land.
Many of our bishops also eschew the term "illegal." In fact, many bishops — especially those in Mexico, as well as American prelates of Mexican descent — assert that opponents of amnesty for illegal aliens are guilty of bigotry, xenophobia, and yes, even hatred.
Unfortunately, what Pope Francis has called the Gay Lobby has used the same tactic, due to the Church's opposition to same-sex "marriage" initiatives in various states and other jurisdictions.
Yes, the bishops are now "homophobes," according to the "Rainbow Sash" movement, which comprises homosexuals opposed to Catholic moral teaching.
And yet, instead of rejecting that slander, the bishops embrace the term, granting it authenticity.
Let's face it: According to the Gay Lobby, if you're Catholic, you're a homophobe.
And according to the USCCB's copyrighted training manual, if you mention Catholic moral teaching to vulnerable youth, you're a homophobe.It's stunning, really. What could account for such a severe case of DoubleThink?
The Blade, Washington's leading homosexual newspaper, offers a helpful hint: It quotes Sister Jeannine Gramick, described as "a Catholic nun and one of the founders of New Ways Ministry, which provides support for LGBT Catholics.
"Catholic Charities (another arm of the USCCB) in general have been the most progressive wing of the church other than the nuns," Sister Gramick says. "I feel they personally are pro-gay but they can't do this publicly."Well, far be it from the Rubble to be judgmental. But the bishops' federally-funded bureaucracy appears to be on a major collision course with Catholic teaching here.
As Cardinal Dolan has affirmed, the bishops seem to have a phobia of their own when it comes to teaching the basic moral truths of the Catholic faith.
Could this be why they're losing in their efforts to defend the sacredness of marriage?
Beware the Veraphobes!
The Rubble now endeavors to undertake some philology of our own.
Folks who deny the truths of the Catholic faith are a dime a dozen these days. The Church readily but regretfully affirms their right to reject the faith, even as she exercises her duty to teach it.
However, there are some "Catholics" who not only deny those truths, they go on to demand that the Church deny them. For these I have invented the term veraphobes — people who fear, avoid, and ultimately hate the truth.
The world is full of them. They are the foot soldiers of the City of Man.
Their target is Jesus Christ, Who is "The Way, the Truth, and the Life."
Christ warned us that they were coming: "If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated me before you." (John 15:18)
But He comforts us, too: "In the world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, for I have conquered the world."
So cheer up!
From Under the Rubble archives
From Under the Rubble is copyright © 2013 by Christopher Manion. All rights reserved.
Christopher Manion is Director of the Campaign for Humanae Vitae™, a project of the Bellarmine Forum. He served as a staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for many years. He has taught in the departments of politics, religion, and international relations at Boston University, the Catholic University of America, and Christendom College. This column is sponsored by the Bellarmine Forum.
See a complete biographical sketch.
To subscribe or donate to the FGF E-Package online or send a check to:
P.O. Box 1383
Vienna, VA 22183
© 2013 Fitzgerald Griffin Foundation