Wednesday, February 19, 2014

President Barack Obama elevates homosexual sex to the level of a "right" and a "fundamental freedom"

Ben Johnson over at LifeSiteNews is reporting that:

"President Barack Obama has elevated the right to have sex with a member of the same sex to the level of universal 'fundamental freedoms' in a new presidential statement criticizing Uganda. But critics say his promotion of homosexuality in a continent that overwhelmingly opposes that behavior amounts to a form of liberal 'cultural imperialism.'

Obama wrote on Sunday that he opposed a proposed bill in Uganda that would criminalize same-sex 'marriages' and impose life imprisonment for repeated homosexual acts, among other provisions, because 'as a country and a people, the United States has consistently stood for the protection of fundamental freedoms and universal human rights.'

Obama said the bill represents 'a serious setback for all those around the world who share a commitment to freedom, justice, and equal rights.'

He added that he had 'conveyed' the message that 'enacting this legislation will complicate our valued relationship with Uganda.'" Read full article here.

President Obama's notion of what constitutes "freedom" is gravely distorted.  Pope Leo XIII, in Libertas Humana, explains that: "Liberty, then, as We have said, belongs only to those who have the gift of reason or intelligence. Considered as to its nature, it is the faculty of choosing means fitted for the end proposed, for he is master of his actions who can choose one thing out of many. Now, since everything chosen as a means is viewed as good or useful, and since good, as such, is the proper object of our desire, it follows that freedom of choice is a property of the will, or, rather, is identical with the will in so far as it has in its action the faculty of choice. But the will cannot proceed to act until it is enlightened by the knowledge possessed by the intellect. In other words, the good wished by the will is necessarily good in so far as it is known by the intellect; and this the more, because in all voluntary acts choice is subsequent to a judgment upon the truth of the good presented, declaring to which good preference should be given. No sensible man can doubt that judgment is an act of reason, not of the will. The end, or object, both of the rational will and of its liberty is that good only which is in conformity with reason.

Since, however, both these faculties are imperfect, it is possible, as is often seen, that the reason should propose something which is not really good, but which has the appearance of good, and that the will should choose accordingly. For, as the possibility of error, and actual error, are defects of the mind and attest its imperfection, so the pursuit of what has a false appearance of good, though a proof of our freedom, just as a disease is a proof of our vitality, implies defect in human liberty. The will also, simply because of its dependence on the reason, no sooner desires anything contrary thereto than it abuses its freedom of choice and corrupts its very essence. Thus it is that the infinitely perfect God, although supremely free, because of the supremacy of His intellect and of His essential goodness, nevertheless cannot choose evil; neither can the angels and saints, who enjoy the beatific vision. St. Augustine and others urged most admirably against the Pelagians that, if the possibility of deflection from good belonged to the essence or perfection of liberty, then God, Jesus Christ, and the angels and saints, who have not this power, would have no liberty at all, or would have less liberty than man has in his state of pilgrimage and imperfection. This subject is often discussed by the Angelic Doctor in his demonstration that the possibility of sinning is not freedom, but slavery. It will suffice to quote his subtle commentary on the words of our Lord:    'Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin.'  'Everything,' he says, 'is that which belongs to it a naturally. When, therefore, it acts through a power outside itself, it does not act of itself, but through another, that is, as a slave. But man is by nature rational. When, therefore, he acts according to reason, he acts of himself and according to his free will; and this is liberty. Whereas, when he sins, he acts in opposition to reason, is moved by another, and is the victim of foreign misapprehensions. Therefore, `Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin.' Even the heathen philosophers clearly recognized this truth, especially they who held that the wise man alone is free; and by the term 'wise man' was meant, as is well known, the man trained to live in accordance with his nature, that is, in justice and virtue.
 
Such, then, being the condition of human liberty, it necessarily stands in need of light and strength to direct its actions to good and to restrain them from evil." (Nos. 5-7).

As human beings, we possess only contingent rights. Those which have been given to us by God. There can never be a "right" to choose that which is evil. And homosexual acts are evil.
When moral liberty is detached from Natural and Divine Law, it degenerates into license. Pope Leo XIII reminds us in his Encyclical Letter Libertas Humana that, "Liberty, the highest of natural endowments, being the portion only of intellectual or rational natures, confers on man this dignity - that he is 'in the hand of his counsel' and has power over his actions. But the manner in which such dignity is exercised is of the greatest moment, inasmuch as on the use that is made of liberty the highest good and the greatest evil alike depend. Man, indeed, is free to obey his reason, to seek moral good, and to strive unswervingly after his last end. Yet he is free also to turn aside to all other things; and, in pursuing the empty semblance of good, to disturb rightful order and to fall headlong into the destruction which he has voluntarily chosen...

Therefore, the nature of human liberty, however it be considered, whether in individuals or in society, whether in those who command or in those who obey, supposes the necessity of obedience to some supreme and eternal law, which is no other than the authority of God, commanding good and forbidding evil. And, so far from this most just authority of God over men diminishing, or even destroying their liberty, it protects and perfects it, for the real perfection of all creatures is found in the prosecution and attainment of their respective ends, but the supreme end to which human liberty must aspire is God."

President Obama is serving the Devil.  There is no sin in speaking the truth.  And this truth must be acknowledged by Christians who have not apostacized.

2 comments:

Siobhan said...

There's no doubt in my mind that this guy is a forerunner of anti-christ. I think he and Francis are setting the table.

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

Things are not looking good Siobhan. Traditionalist Catholics are viewed with disdain or constantly criticized while we are constantly told to respect the dignity of homosexual persons. I fully accept (and have defended with vigor) what the Catechism teaches in 2358 about avoiding unjust discrimination of homosexual persons.

But what about unjust discrimination directed at orthodox Catholics who, as Obama says, "cling to religion"?

It is becoming increasingly obvious that there is no place at the table for those of us who still condemn the sin even while loving the sinner.

Site Meter