Because if there is anything men who can freely have sex without consequence want, it is a 200lb ball-and-chain named Todd.
According to Thomas Peters, this gay marriage in New York thing is simply political shenanigans and, in a way, Politico corroborates his analysis. As much as I am for political end-runs to grasp power and enforce certain points of view (my points of view), when legislative bodies perform top-down revolutions in democratic societies, the results are always fleeting.
It is about time I got around to writing something Catholic in this purportedly Catholic blog...
These past few weeks two big sex scandals have run their course. One is quite well known. The other; not so much. I am talking about shameful fall of full-time politician Anthony Weiner and the dis-robing of the very fiery and well-loved priest, John Corapi. Both men have been taken down by scandal. Although the truth behind the scandal is anything but certain in the case of the latter.
While Weiner in his resignation video decries the damage he caused himself, Corapi (in honor of his decision to not be recognized as a priest any longer I forgo his former title of "Father") chooses to walk away from the scandal out of respect for the hierarchy of the Church. Weiner exhibits all the signs of someone locked in vicious cycle of uncontrollable behavior mixed with dangerously high levels of narcissism. Corapi is, by his own personal testimony, a former addict: someone who has fought his personal demons in their most corrosive forms: sex, drugs, and money. He fought them and I believe him when he says he beat them.
Now I am by my own admission a recovering sexual behavior addict. This does not make me an expert but by bearing the scar of this most heinous of sins, I know my own when I see them. You do not have to trust my instincts. Look at the facts. Most people who suffer from unhealthy sexual behaviors have three things in common:
1) Intelligent
2) Sensitive
3) Spiritual with a well-defined value system.
Anyone who hears Corapi speak knows he has these traits in spades. He is an extremely passionate and compassionate man. He has as many degrees as I have appendages. If he was never held within the Satanic thrall, then he would have been extremely lucky. If he was lying about anything, it would be his triumph over these glamours. Still, I believe he had the profound experiences he claims and he reached a state of mastery over his internal darkness.
On the other hand, one could argue that, at one point at least, Anthony Weiner may have exhibited these traits. I really feel there is something more going on with this one. In the many ways he so casually resorted to outrageous lies to create political cover and quickly resorted to contemptuous slander to protect what little honor he had left, I would say that this man never really had any value system or principle beyond the sickly facade meant as cover for a life of virtual pedophiliac leering.
But Weiner is a politician and we as a nation have really lost all faith in our public servants. We truly hold them to such low standards that during one MSNBC show, it became a topic of argument about whether Democrats needed to have any standards at all.
Meanwhile in the world of popular Catholic apologetics and punditry, a number of people (ie, The Anchoress and Mark Shea two people who I admire and trust) have confused disgust at the appearance of scandal with righteousness.
Despite the great differences in how Corapi and Weiner handle their given situations, in the eyes of too many bloggers these personages are virtually interchangeable.
These bloggers are also forgetting a really important fact:
Some saints have been known to be less than patient in waiting for those who would play the Church's own administrative processes against them. Case in point: the Carmelite Saint Teresa was denied permission by her order to create a new convent on the basis that they were endlessly awaiting approval from Rome. What did she do? She founded the convent anyway. Because she was responding to a call from God. Permission from Rome was eventually granted but only after construction was already completed. Remember her confrere St. John of the Cross was himself an escapee from a Carmelite jail. Like Corapi, none of these people played the victim, though their treatment was an outward sign of deep institutional disorder.
And what did Corapi rail against the most in his life as a priest? That's right, the deeply institutional disorders that have beset the Church in America and elsewhere. Is it possible that Corapi left the priesthood not because he is guilty but because he is innocent and wants to follow God's call?
Also for generations now, women have been raised to think that their true power lies in their sensuality and appearance. In addition to this, females are increasingly shallow and will offer more and more terrible revenge for ever more petty perceived offenses. In my travels around the country, I have personally seen a congregation go after a priest with a phony sex scandal because he was not their brand of Catholic. The priest, though innocent, was dismissed by the bishop.
We live in a country where fear of litigation means teachers fear to touch students who get unruly and violent. That same political timidity is starting to infect our Church. Nowadays what teacher or priest or caretaker cannot be destroyed by the mere semblance of scandal? Do not judge too harshly, folks, we live in dangerous times when it comes to being openly virtuous. It is easier to be openly gay than openly pro-self-control.
The world out there is a minefield designed to trap the good men who serve as the most worthy of trophies. Every day is a chess match to do one's job while still somehow retaining one's dignity. As Corapi was one who made himself a lightning rod for these same forces of societal decay, he was bound to set off some sparks at one time or another.
Really. Ignoring the simple political facts behind his life is silly. Of course politics are involved.
This blog is written mostly tongue-in-cheek where I portray myself as the villain in opposition to the "good" forces of the world (you know: contraception, social engineering, environmentalism, tolerance), but there is a lot more to this than mere schtick, if you get it (and most probably do not).
I believe Johnathan Corapi is very likely telling the truth. There is nothing nefarious nor selfish about his desire to take the route he has. Nor is his inaugural video melodramatic and full of self-pity as some critics say. These are easy assumptions based on unfounded accusations.
He is not on drugs. He is not calling for pitchforks against the unknown female who brought unknown charges against him. He is very intelligent and, like Saint Teresa, he understands there is no service to God to be done in simply waiting out the rest of his life while someone uses procedural processes to keep a priest who believes in limbo in just such a state until his lifeblood and ministry wither away with years of indecision. (Especially if he is innocent.) And like Saint Teresa, he is A) innocent until proven guilty and B) Right as long as Rome is on his side.
He joins Monster Mohel as my latest new ally (which is a step up from Nefarious Cohort). The Black Sheepdog deserves our support.
As I said earlier, I have decided to confront a personal demon in the form of internet porn addiction through a scientifically-based online program called Candeo. My identity as the owner of this blog is relatively anonymous, but I no longer feel like the shame of this problem is something so rare that I cannot write about it openly because in my personal experience, more often than not, men live their lives in a manner which is centered around pornography, strip clubs, hook-ups, and other forms of weakness.
Many of the stats for this type of activity are old, but my general sense is that people are becoming acclimated to having porn in their lives. They are resigning themselves to the idea that men are monsters and that giving in is just natural, a part of life, and perhaps even a sign of their strength and virility.
But I am here to tell you friends, that is a dangerous dangerous road we are going down and the longer we stay on that path, the more difficult it is to recover. It is a place of darkness, anger, self-loathing, and destruction. But the terrible thing is you never notice until something snaps inside and you start to fight against it.
The cold black fingers of evil have worked their way into my flesh, squeezing into every pore. They wrapped around my heart and only when I resisted did I realize that it was this dark force controlling the beating of my heart and the direction of my mind. The habit had become an integral part of me. Removing it is going to feel like ripping my own arm from its socket.
For the first time in years, I am forcing myself to look into the real void of what I have done and what that means for my family. I listen to a lot of the "look into the void" genre of music in order to get into the right mindset when I do some novel writing. The genre is known alternately as dark or industrialist ambient and the artists go by names like Lustmord and Sephiroth. What these artists try to conjure with their gloomy sometimes theophobic and probably even occasionally Satanic lyrics and sounds is simple child's play compared to the real thing.
There are going to be a lot of popular big-budget movies this summer and many of them are going to deal with climatic scenes of mass destruction in order to portray the danger of ultimate evil. The real Satanic punchline is every theater is going to be full of men and women who hold themselves in opposition to the bad guys: Nazis, invading aliens, and marauding cosmic forces. Yet the true battleground of evil is not necessarily upon the plains, in the hills, or among the stars. It is in our hearts. Death is such a minor victory for evil. What evil really wants is for hearts to fall into darkness.
And all those eyes wide with spectacle, identifying with the projection of the hero, have already secretly resigned themselves to lives of darkness and self-hatred -- daily consumers of the new forbidden fruit -- now available for free and without social penalty in every hearth and home across our fading land.
They are relieved the villain has been vanquished without at all realizing the greatest victory of Satan over good has already been won in their hearts. Hearts which now convulse in the iron grip of the dark hand.
Yeah, I will admit it. Only because I am a guy and I know how prevalent the problem of "addictive behavior" is. The way I see it, there are two ways everyone will respond to this issue:
1) They will plead that it is in their nature, and that it is "healthy" to act on these impulses. Sexual gratification is the ultimate goal of living and finding your dream makes Oprah cry from heaven.
2) They will fight "nature" and be unwilling to accept the accidents of their formative past as a life sentence.
I fall in the second category. I intend to fight. So I enrolled in this program. Will it work? I am so far quite impressed with it, especially their take on the maddening avoidance cycle.
I intend to combine the elements of this program with the elements of my faith, availing myself of meditative prayer and the sacraments.
