Oddly, what seems to be the least relevant problem imaginable has fallen on the tinder of a frayed Western Civilization and threatens to burn the whole forest. It's hard to bring up the topic without sounding like the 1950's "Boys Beware" movie. But by now the Bear trusts you don't need a movie to understand the manifold dangers of homosexuality. When examining how the Church has arrived at the current disaster, we always seem to return to the same destructive charge.
Homomania
Emblematic of our culture's sudden embrace of homosexuality is a recent study on support for gay marriage published by the prestigious journal Science. It proved that if people just got to know homosexuals, then, by golly they couldn't help but like them, and turn in favor of gay marriage. The scientific findings were hailed in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and other papers. After all, didn't the findings confirm what they all knew anyway? Homophobia was the product of ignorance.
Unfortunately, this study joined the long line of science fakes. One of the co-authors had simply made up data from whole cloth. (Compare with climate change. There are those who will happily fake the data in furtherance of their cause.)
Homosexuals are 1-2% of the population. But polls show Americans believe that figure is 25%. Their cultural impact is grossly magnified by the entertainment industry, social media, lobbying, litigation and laws. Even our churches must be homo-friendly. The predilections of such a small percentage of the population would be of little concern were it not for the disastrous challenge to Christianity. When President Obama can talk about "antisemitism, racism and homophobia" in one breath, you must appreciate what is going on. Oppose gay marriage and you're lumped in with Nazis and Klan members. Imagine the Church trying to operate wearing the white sheets of the Klan, or the brown shirts of Neo-Nazis.
There are only two choices for Christians. It can stay true to the revelation of scripture and unbroken witness of tradition, and maintain that homosexuality is a sin. Or, it can ignore that, and unlink homosexuality and sin. Just a pinch of incense to satisfy the state and mob. The first guarantees unpopularity and persecution. The second wins the friendship of the world. You would think it would be an easy choice, given the Church's long history. This has not proved to be the case..
A Flaming Scandal
The Bear has said it before, but it bears repeating. The Church's sexual abuse scandal had very little to do with pedophiles. It was always about predatory homosexuals. Their crimes and those of their protectors weakened the Church. How ironic that the very cause of the sex abuse scandal is now part of the Church's P-R efforts!
It has been the Bear's unpleasant duty as a trial lawyer in criminal court to review the activities of many pedophiles. (These cases were mostly what the Bear did, along with murders.) Pedophiles like children young, starting as young as babies -- yes, babies -- up to prepubescent children. Most often toddlers, it seems. For whatever reason, pedophiles are sexually attracted to very young children. That's been the Bear's experience as both a prosecutor and a defense counsel.
Pedophiles usually seem to prefer children of the opposite sex (although some are indiscriminate).
Now predatory male homosexuals, on the other hand, will most often (in the Bear's experience) seek out boys who are adolescent, or nearly so. While pedophiles usually rely on their victim's tender years to cover their predations, homosexual predators will form a bond of trust with their adolescent victims, with an additional element of shame.
Why has it been necessary to cover this unpleasant business? The Bear introduces the Jay Report. It was an exhaustive study of the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Of particular interest is the victim ages. It shows that the victim population was overwhelmingly comprised of pubescent males. This is exactly what the Bear would expect from predatory homosexuals, not pedophiles.
Now, in fairness, the Jay Report found that homosexuals were not implicated. Of course. Nonetheless, the "finding" makes no sense in light of the data. The Bear is confident that the abuse was conducted, for the most part, by homosexual priests. He would speculate that most of them did not feel there was anything wrong in what they did.
The destruction of the Church's moral authority by homosexual priests was devastating, as we all know. This was the direct result. It was caused by a not insignificant, well-protected, cabal of homosexual clergy. Indeed a "gay lobby" that is not so funny as the Pope's one-liner at 35,000 feet.
I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (and It Can Name the Tune)
The Bear believes that in the wake of the abuse scandal the Church developed a man-pleasing, don't-rock-the boat mentality. An unhealthy premium was placed on good publicity in the world. The trajectory may be arguable, but when you look at what's going on today do you not see a Church as concerned with its image as any celebrity? One sometimes wonders if the Vatican has hired Bono's public relations firm.
Climate Change is a cause that all the right people, the smart people, the people in the UN and the people with Facebook pages are backing. Let's simplify for the purposes of illustration. Obama, leftists, pro-abortion, atheists, one-wolders, Communists, pagans, homosexuals, jr. high school kids, and everyone who gets their news from Comedy Central. All the people who live their life with a damp finger in the air lest they get caught on the unpopular side of an issue. Or worse, find themselves agreeing with Christians.
Strange company for the Church, one might think. On the other hand, it can put that Galileo business behind it by smiting the "science deniers."
Souls? If you put a gun to the Bear's head (and you wouldn't be the first) and asked him who, exactly, Pope Francis believes is on the path to salvation, this most Catholic Bear would have to confess he has no idea what self-proclaimed "loyal son of the Church" Francis believes. His public statements are often little better than a word salad of liberal soundbytes. When he recently tried to make a point about first-worlders wasting money on pets and makeup, his statistics were, to put it nicely, made up. (Or maybe he got them from La Repubblica, the far-left newspaper that is his only source of news.)
In three years your confession will be: "bless me Father, I have sinned. My carbon footprint grew by twenty meters. And I have a Golden Retriever." Don't bother with sins of the flesh. After sodomy was normalized they said, "What the Hell. God doesn't care about that stuff."
It must be exhilarating to take over a Church with no credibility, from an unpopular pope, and overnight turn it into a powerhouse of legitimacy courted by the movers and shakers of the world. What a sore temptation it must be to learn that you can get your face on the cover of the Rolling Stone by simply dropping an ambiguous statement about homosexuality. Obama just held him up as an example!
Back to Homosexuals
The Bear wishes he could forget about homosexuals, but here's the thing. The Bear doesn't really care what 1-2% of the population does to achieve sexual release. They're not driving this derangement.
After civil rights, and gender equality, someone had the stroke of infernal genius to hammer homosexuality's square peg into the round hole of civil rights. Once gay rights was out of the closet and into the noble tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King, it all fell into place. To oppose it was not merely mistaken, but evil. Haters were beyond the pale of polite society. Soon the law will provide no wall for the normal to take cover behind. Most of this isn't so much pro-homosexual as anti-Christian.
If the Pope is really all that popular, why isn't he mounting the counterattack?
Easy. That popularity comes at a price. The referendum in Ireland? Did you find it odd that there was not a peep from the Vatican? The only way Pope Francis keeps his seat at the table is by going along with the world. Christians who fight are going to be mercilessly suppressed. The Church wants the Prince of the World's favor right now. That's why it will bend over backwards to accommodate the sin of Sodom.
In the great Christian classic Pilgrim's Progress (yes, the Bear knows it isn't Catholic, but he still likes it) there are two allegorical characters that the Bear is thinking of, Mr. By-Ends and one Mr. Worldly Wiseman. Mr. By-Ends sees religion as a means to an end, and does quite well for himself trimming his sails with changes in beliefs. One Mr. Worldly Wiseman keeps busy about his practical affairs and leads a well-ordered "religious" life quite subordinated to the world.
These gentlemen are in charge. Homosexuals first undermined the Church by their abusivness, and then were held out as the way for it to make its peace with a wicked generation. How sick is that?