Like Macro, Like Micro

One of the songs popularized back in the 1970’s by The Carpenters (the brother-sister singing act of Richard and Karen Carpenter) was entitled Bless the Beasts and the Children.  The Carpenters had a mellow, “heart-warming” singing style, which was very well suited for this particular song, because it dealt with the “innocence” and “helplessness” of children and animals.  The song’s opening lyrics were the following: “Bless the beasts and the children / For in this world they have no voice / They have no choice.”  The song’s message was that animals and children are both powerless and unprotected, and have no advocate -- no “voice” -- to stand up for them and shield them from harm's way.

Although the song pleaded for both “beasts and children,” in reality, it was the “national poster song” for animals’ rights, while the rights of children were being totally ignored.  It was true then, and it is true now: while there is public outrage whenever someone mistreats an animal, the killing of unborn babies is not only routinely tolerated but upheld by law – and even reimbursed at taxpayer expense.  And while someone can be sent to prison for starving an animal, Terri Schiavo was starved and dehydrated to death by legal decree.  When done to an animal, it is “inhumane”; but when done to a human, it is – according to Anthony Cekada -- “exercising one’s husbandly prerogative” and “lessening the burden on society.”

The fact is, wanton mistreatment of any creature is wrong – whether it be human or animal.  But in today’s animals’ rights “climate,” mistreatment has come to mean that animals cannot be “exploited” in any way – whether it be the slaughtering of them as food for human consumption, or using animal by-products (such as milk and cheese) for nourishment – or even using them as “beasts of burden.”  Our Godless generation seems to be of the opinion that humanity should “self-destruct” so that the world can be “given back to the beasts.”  And even some “Catholics” share this opinion – at least in principle.  They conveniently seem to forget (or ignore) the fact that Our Lord Himself -- the God-Man, the Word made Flesh – partook of both animal flesh and byproducts (not to mention that He “exploited” a donkey one Palm Sunday by riding on it) – any of which, according to that line of logic, makes Him a sinner -- which, of course, He cannot be.

As far as “advocacy” for children is concerned, we all know how that has panned out:  Roe vs. Wade has opened up the floodgates for the slaughter of untold millions of human beings that continues to this day.  The only thing that has been “done for children” is that a series of laws was passed that has hampered  parents’ ability to discipline them.  Spanking a child can now be prosecuted as a crime, punishable by imprisonment; and parents can be prosecuted -- with no proof whatsoever -- based on unsubstantiated testimony from children asked “leading” questions by over-zealous prosecutors.  All that these laws accomplished was to give children a license to be licentious.

Parents who try to discipline their children in public are routinely harassed by passersby – and often reported to the authorities.  It is getting to the point where parents have little to no say-so in how to raise their children.  Parents who “home-school” their children, for example, have had to organize into “home-school defense leagues” to protect them from state school boards who want to dictate to them what the children will learn – and who scrutinize everything every move they make.  In fact, in some states, it is illegal to home-school one’s own children!  It has come to the point where “children’s services” can come into people’s homes and take their children away from them – for almost any reason.

And has all of this “children’s advocacy” curbed child abuse?  Not really.  Real abuse is on the rise, becoming ever more heinous and widespread.  Almost every day, one hears in the news about a child who has been brutalized, sexually molested, or victimized in some particularly sadistic way.  And the proliferation of laws passed to “protect” children from being “exploited” by their parents (and holding parents “accountable”) has only resulted in parents becoming less accountable, and -- more and more -- abandoning their parental responsibilities, because the laws are actually punishing them for carrying out those responsibilities.  The result is that children are losing their innocence, and parents are being robbed of their ability and their right to raise their children as they see fit.

Meanwhile, while humans are committing self-genocide through abortion and birth control, animals are overrunning the planet: areas that were once devoid of wildlife are now being deliberately “re-stocked” by animal rights advocates (i.e., the animals are being raised by them, then released).  Urban areas now see not just deer, but their predators as well – including coyotes, and even bears and cougars.  National parks in the American West have been “repopulated” with wolves, that are now decimating ranchers’ livestock.  And in many areas in the southern U.S., giant pythons are multiplying exponentially and threatening animals and humans alike -- especially in the Florida Everglades (the pythons supposedly “accidentally got out” – but other areas of the country have been deliberately “re-populated” with poisonous snakes, as part of “re-introduction” programs).  It is getting to the point where people do not feel safe going outdoors – even in their own neighborhoods.

And while we are being told that we are “taking over” animals’ habitats, the opposite is in fact happening: Not just Florida’s Everglades, but any area designated by the U.S government as “wetlands,” is being set aside for “animal use,” and being declared “off-limits” to humans.  It is now a criminal act to drain such wetlands  – even on one’s own property (and, yes, people have been sent to prison for draining their own land) – because these wetlands “belong” to such things as ducks and other critters who use them as a “habitat.”  In fact, anything can be declared a “habitat” – for any creature – and be declared “off-limits” for humans.  In California, a housing development was shut down because the land was proclaimed to be the habitat of the kangaroo rat – an animal heretofore considered to be a pest.  We have come “one-eighty” from the Biblical view that animals were put on this earth for our use, to the environmentalists’ attitude that we humans are here for their use and convenience.

And what has all this “concern” for animals accomplished?  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.  As noted before, animal abuse is actually on the rise -- as is child abuse -- leading to new depths in bestial cruelty and de-humanizing debauchery (both of which are being legitimized, systematized, and – through the internet and other media venues – being made accessible to everyone).  Under the umbrella of “freedom of speech,” one can access “on-line” anything from pornography to animal-torture videos (as the SGG principal’s sons did  -- and which Dannie Dolan laughed off as “boys will be boys”).  The day will come – through patient (and relentless) “gradualism” – when things like “child porn” and other forms of on-line bestiality will not only be permitted but be the norm.

What is happening today is truly frightening – in every sense of the word -- and we’re not just talking about “the beasts and the children.”  What is happening on all fronts is frightening.  Many things that used to be wrong are now right -- and vice versa: one’s “right” to an abortion is protected by law, yet attempting to prevent Terri Schiavo from being put to death is a criminal act; homosexuality, which used to be considered a crime, is now a guaranteed “right” under the law; and teaching utterly fictional Evolution is “exercising one’s freedom of speech,” while teaching Creationism is “violating freedom of religion.”  Pretty soon, homosexual “marriage” will not only be universally legal (as abortion and the teaching of Evolution already are); but anything short of caving in to the entire “gay” agenda will be treated as a “hate crime” (just as defending oneself against a hooded, drug-crazed black thug was prosecuted as “attempted murder”).

Today’s world is one of self-contradictions and double standards – an increasingly Orwellian world, where truth and fiction are merging, where words are losing their meaning, where demagogues wax poetically about “rights” yet consistently deny those rights -- where they say one thing but do another: a world that Dannie Dolan and Tony Cekada fit right into.  Dannie can wax poetically about “protecting our innocents” on Guardian Angel Sunday, yet tolerate (actually, condone) a school principal's institutionalized brutality on those innocents (while he and Tony callously ignore the pleas of their outraged parents).  He can excuse one of the principal’s sons fornicating with (and impregnating) a fellow student, yet have another student beaten with a wooden paddle simply for missing a homework assignment.  And, as noted before, he can dismiss the watching of porn and animal-torture videos as “boys will be boys.”  He can do (and has done) all this and more – all the while maintaining a cool façade of faux piety. 

This is what Dolan and Cekada do – and have done -- for years.  In their own little “micro” world, they have faithfully mimicked the “macro”: they preach one thing but practice another.  They give their parishioners “the show” – a caricature of Catholicism – but ignore (and violate) its precepts.  As long as they put on a glitzy extravaganza every week, they can lie, cheat, victimize, and intimidate; and the cultlings lap it all up -- like mother’s milk.  But what they are serving up is not “mother’s milk,” but something more like chalk water – all appearance and no substance.  They are charlatans, not shepherds, who can only thrive in SGG’s dumbed down, numbed down environment.  We only hope that one day these folks will wake up, and come to the realization that there is more to Catholicism than elaborate rites and rubrics, that being Catholic means keeping God’s commandments – and that the “dynamic duo” are nothing more than a couple of mammon-loving hucksters who are out to lift their wallets, not their souls.