The Great Divide
By REY FLORES
What does a wolf do when it attacks a flock of sheep? He distracts the shepherd, then scatters and splits the flock up until he can devour as many as possible. This is exactly what Satan does to our Church at every chance he gets.
Again, we all know how the story ends with Christ triumphant. But in the meantime, we are all actively participating in the great divide among Catholics here in America and abroad as some of us are taking hard-line stances against the immorality, sin, and depravity of the popular secular culture, while some “Catholics” decide to stand with those on the other side.
Exhibit A: Michael Hichborn, president and founder of The Lepanto Institute, calls a spade a spade and gets promptly called “diabolical” by Michael Sean Winters of the National Catholic Reporter.
Recently, Hichborn pointed out that Tony Spence — now the former director and editor in chief of Catholic News Service, the official news service of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops — had tweeted out messages of obvious protest about recent proposed legislation in several states that would protect religious freedom and deny men pretending to be women the “right” to enter women’s bathrooms.
As LifeSiteNews reported: “Over the past few weeks, Spence had tweeted criticism of a new North Carolina law that requires individuals to use bathrooms that correspond with their biological sex. The Catholic bishops in North Carolina had previously encouraged the state legislature to overturn a city ordinance that allowed men to access women’s bathrooms.”
And, wrote LifeSiteNews, Spence called the laws “pro-discrimination” and “stupid.”
In the first place, how in the world did Spence ever get that USCCB position?
Spence had held that job since 2004 until now, 12 years later, when the general secretary of the U.S. Catholic Conference asked him to resign — which Spence did on April 13.
And had it not been for Hichborn’s keen eye and investigative prowess, Spence would still be on Twitter conveying those same messages.
Winters of the National Catholic Reporter came to Spence’s defense. Winters wrote on his own website: “If Spence had tweeted support for the anti-LGBT laws, I am confident he would still be at his desk this morning.”
That is absolutely correct! Spence would still be sitting at his desk because he would have been supporting the position of the Church on sexual morality.
It is one thing to be kind, loving, and charitable to our fellow human beings, but it’s a whole other matter when we denounce measures that persecute Christians and heterosexuals for not wanting men in dresses invading women’s public restrooms.
Winters further wrote: “As the editor of a news agency, the tweets were ill-advised and confirmed me in my decision to use my Twitter account solely to send out links to my articles.”
No kidding! The tweets certainly were ill advised.
But, in other words, what I believe is coming across here is that one as a “Catholic” can support radical agendas — just don’t be dumb enough to expose yourself in the public sphere of high-profile social media like Twitter.
I still can’t believe that I am sitting here and writing about the subject of “bathroom bills” and their implications. How did we get here? When a victorious Obama spoke that cold and dark night in Chicago back in 2008 about fundamentally transforming our nation, he was not kidding. We never expected things to go this far, but we have certainly been proven wrong.
While men like Hichborn are fighting the battle against evil, many liberal Catholics are cowering to the pagan world, presumably hoping in some twisted way to win some kind of popularity contest.
This great divide is one created by none other than the Father of Lies himself.
Even with atheist radical homosexuals like the vile and offensive Dan Savage, we at least know what a poor deprived soul he is and what to expect from the likes of him.
But it’s some “Catholics” that we have to really worry about.
You know, kind of like the nuns who have pushed Obamacare, as another example.
Let’s not even get into the insanity and evil that is Catholics for Choice.
I am convinced that many of these individuals and institutions which claim to be Catholic, but are anything but, are bent on undermining if not destroying the authentic Catholic Church.
But: You don’t scare me! We’ve got Jesus and His truth on our side.
A friend recently posted on Facebook that if and when his daughter is forced to use a gender neutral restroom, he will have to accompany her just to make sure she is safe — despite what some of these cross-dressers and their crazy supporters say.
The great divide is here, folks, but remember who the real enemies of the Church are and how we must combat them more fervently than those who are our obvious enemies. It’s the wolves in sheep’s and shepherd’s clothing whom we must be most on guard against.
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(Rey Flores is a Catholic writer and speaker. Contact Rey at reyfloresusa@gmail.com.)
