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Who’s Out of Tune?

Today on the news I heard a Catholic claim that the American bishops are out of tune with the times because of their opposition to the Health Care Mandate.  I wanted to scream. 

The Church isn’t supposed to be in tune with the times.  We’re supposed to be in tune with Jesus.  The Church was created by Jesus to lead people to Him.  The Church is supposed to stand for eternal values not these times.

Do we really want to be in tune with these times?  Are they really that good?  How much more pain and destruction can we endure?

Anyone who knows anything has to see that there is something terribly wrong with our society.  Just look at marriage.  Over half of all modern marriages fail.  Some people end up marrying multiple times.  This is good?  What about all of the psychological pain involved, not only for the couple, but for the children and in laws as well.  Children are being hurt deeply and many bear the scars for life.

What about the problems and cost of teen promiscuity?  How many are hurt psychologically by being used and dumped?  How many pregnancies occur and how many women are scarred by the fact that they had an abortion?  Something is terribly wrong when a nation kills over a million babies a year.  Obviously, sex education, condom distribution, and Planned Parenthood programs are failing.  Otherwise there would be no need for abortion.

What about the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases?  It is scary how many young people are infected.  Then we have the Aids epidemic.  How many people must be infected before we learn to change our behavior?  How many must die?  Trying to prevent this by condom distribution has failed.  Maybe it is time to try the Lord’s prevention program.

What about the spread of violence across this country?  It used to be that people talked about New York City.  Now you are just as likely to be killed in rural towns and small cities.  Gangs seem to be spreading everywhere.  There seem to be no place to move to get away from them.  Crime is everywhere.  We rely on locks and security systems, guards and gated communities.  It wasn’t always like this.

What about the problem of alcohol abuse?  How many kids are getting drunk over the weekend?  How young are they drinking?  What about drugs?  We have been fighting a “war on drugs” for decades, yet we seem to make no progress.

What about the problem of greed in our society?  Our economy is in as much chaos as the rest of society.

Do we really want to be in step with society?  Haven’t we learned anything?  If you teach people that they can ignore some of the Commandments, why are you surprised that others are ignored?  Wouldn’t we be better off if we were trying to live in harmony with God rather than society?

It isn’t the Church or bishops who are messed up.  It is our society.  All of the so-called progress has brought us nothing but pain and destruction.  Any of this progress will lead to the destruction of this country.  We used to be the most blessed nation on earth but we are no longer worthy.

Maybe we should try to be in tune with the bishops!


Ron Quinlan is a former teacher in the Archdiocese of Newark, now living in South Carolina.