American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property - Update

Over the weekend I posted about the self-styled, Catholic Church affirming "American Society for the defense of Tradition, Family and Property" which took out full page ad in three major newspapers last week attacking gay marriage and homosexuality in general and espousing a Christianist view of how government should impose the organization's religious beliefs on the country. Bob Felton at Civil Commotion has picked up on the story and will be doing some posts as he reviews in detail the propaganda set out in the ad. While Bob and I do not agree on everything, we are in full agreement as to the danger to the nation and the world by fundamentalist religions be they allegedly Christian or something else. Here's a few highlights from Bob's post today that discusses why confronting and defeating these religious fanatics is so important:

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The language of the advertisement is so overwrought that I doubt it will have much influence beyond the oddities who dug into their pockets to pay for it, but it needs remark anyway because it points to some continuing and worsening problems we have in this country. First, the rise of radical Christianity and, second, our snippet-based mass communications prize the quick, cheap insult more than careful discussion of ideas.

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And ideas matter — a lot. Behind every statement or action there is an idea, a worldview, a set of assumptions about reality. I mean to spend the next few days parsing this advertisement because it reveals much about the ideas of radical Christianity, about the worldview that drives it, and it will be defeated by only a comprehensive refutation of its ideas. We must, for our own well-being and persistence as a nation, understand these ideas and be able to say plainly, and confidently, why they are wrong.

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The thing to notice here is the rhetorical tricksterism: You are a Christian, grounded in reality, or you are out-of-touch with reality and serve the forces of evil. And make no mistake, that is how radical Christianity views the world.

More "Catholic" Hypocrisy

A Pennsylvanis based organization calling itself the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP) ran full page ads in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Times on Thursday bearing the title "Battling for America’s Soul: How Homosexual “Marriage” Threatens Our Nation and Faith—TFP Urges Lawful and Conscientious Resistance." Among other things and after citing numerous Catholic Church statements, some issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (f/n/a, the Inquisition), these ads stated:

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We must join the Crusade like many who “preceded us with the sign of faith.” Unlike the Crusades of old, ours is not physical, but spiritual. Being part of this spiritual crusade means being an untiring apostle for marriage and the family; to never lose an opportunity to tell others—family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers—that homosexual acts and same-sex “marriage” are wrong, unnatural and “intrinsically evil.”

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It is clear, therefore, that the battle for marriage in America is the clash of two worldviews. On the one hand, those Americans who still defend a moral law. On the other, the homosexual revolution and its secularist allies. The stakes are also clear. This is a battle for the soul of America. The so-called Cultural War is gradually becoming a Religious War. For one cannot modify the lex agendi (rules of morals) without thereby modifying the lex credendi (rules of belief) given the profound relationship between the two. He who accepts as good and even exalts homosexual practice cannot adore the true and living God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of that sin. (Gen. 18-19)

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Not surprisingly, and in all too typical form for self-styled "devout Catholics" who blather on and on about supporting the Roman Catholic Church, I can find no evidence that TFP has taken even the slightest step to demand that the Vatican clean house and remove from office all bishops and cardinals (and perhaps the Pope) who enabled and/or covered up the sexual abuse of minors. Rather, all too typically, TFP seems to have its nose stuck up the Vatican's and hierarchy's ass to the point of near suffocation. What kind of Kool-Aid are they dispensing?.