The Lie of Gender Neutrality

Who am I? Our search for identity begins as soon as we are able to put together coherent thoughts. It involves understanding our own character and finding where we fit into the world. We know through the Gospel of Jesus Christ that each of us was "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14) by the hands of God. Each of us has a purpose, a vocation, a calling.

Part of this identity has to do with our gender. In fact, it's a big part. For the last couple of thousands of years (up until the last century) whether you we're a man or a woman decided a lot; whether you were a protector or a nurturer, a warrior or a child-raiser, a hunter or a gatherer. I'm not saying that all of this was a good thing or that women shouldn't leave their homes (I'll leave that to Islam). The feminist movement, when it wasn't trying to promote abortion or throw off the "burden" of sexual morality, did advance the rights of women and give them the opportunity to play a more important role in the public sphere. That is good. 

But somewhere along the line, something went wrong. We went from the positive message of enhancing the position of women to the autocratically egalitarian statement that all genders are the same. There's a huge difference here. While women certainly deserve to vote and get paid the same as men, that doesn't mean that there are no differences between men and women. There are! It's biological. Men are the providers and protectors. Men are the hunters and the warriors. Women, on the other hand, are designed to be nurturers. Their bodies have been perfected for the beautiful mystery of the creation of life. They are emotionally much stronger than men. This is the reality of masculinity and femininity. We cannot blot out these essential differences!

But we have done just that. The thought that there is a difference (not a superiority) between men and women has become "sexist", "bigoted", and "ignorant." And where does that take us? If there's really no difference between men and women, what's the big deal about which of the two you are? If I was born a man but feel like a woman, what difference keeps me from deciding that I am in fact a woman? A logical response would be the Y-chromosome, a male body, etc.... But this is not a logical movement. It is one driven by rabid passions and intolerant "tolerance."

This brings us to the philosophy of Gender Neutrality: the idea that gender is a social construct, distinct from biological sex, that is determined by the preference of the individual. Hence the 79 "genders" recognized by Facebook. They claim that your biological sex is distinct from your gender "identity". Anyone can decide what they want their gender to be at any given time, a gender for every mood, even. Gender Neutrality is not just wrong, it is insane. It is completely divorced from science, reason, and, most importantly, the Truth. 

Gender Neutrality owes much of its modern following to the work of one man, Dr. John Money. He wrote about the subjectivity of gender for years before the case that would make him famous. David and Brian Reimer were identical twins born in 1965. Both required circumcision for medical reasons, but David's operation failed, resulting in serious mutilation. Worrying about the effects his injury might have had on his development, David's parents brought him to John Hopkins Hospital where they met Dr. Money. He suggested that David's interests would best be served if he were to receive a surgical transformation that would attempt to give him the body of a girl. And so, until the age of 14, David was raised believing that he was a girl. Now, if the Gender Neutrality theory is true, David would have lived our the rest of his life as a "girl." If gender is just a social construct, then shouldn't David, who was treated like a girl throughout his childhood, encouraged by Dr. Money's self-interested and often unethical treatment (he forced the twins to engage in "childhood sexual rehearsal play"), and even injected with estrogen, have accepted the lie that he was in fact a girl? 

But he didn't. Ironically the case that is lauded for validating Gender Neutrality was an utter failure. Unfortunately it was also a tragedy. David rejected the lie that he was a girl as soon as his parents revealed the truth about his upbringing. Beforehand he had been struggling with suicidal depression. In his young adulthood, David reversed Dr. Money's operations and began speaking out against his treatment, wanting to protect other children from the same fate. But the abuses of Dr. Money had left their mark. Both David and his twin brother, Brian, committed suicide two years apart. 

Dr. John Money, on the other hand, received awards and fame for his "innovative" work. He went on to, and I'm not making this up, write that pedophilia is not a behavioral disorder and that its stigma is just another social construct. I would not be surprised, as insane as it sounds, if by the end of this decade speaking out against pedophilia will become just as "intolerant" as saying that there are only two genders. 

Gender neutrality has gone from the absurd fantasy of a depraved psychologist to a widely accepted "truth." This progression was gradual up until Bruce Jenner decided he wanted to be a woman and the legalization of same-sex marriage, both in 2015. Then the movement reached a fever-pitch, an acceleration that continues to this day. Now, children can receive the same operations as David Reimer, sometimes without their parent's consent. Our president personally led the noble charge to allow grown men who identify as women to enter the same bathrooms as little girls. Just a county over in Anne Arundel, boys confused about their gender can now sleep in the same hotel rooms as girls on overnight school field trips. And their parents apparently have no right to know who will be sharing a room with their children. 

This is not progress. This is insane! Brothers and sisters, we have become a society that sticks its head into the sand, ignoring reality in order to avoid offending anyone. We cannot, as faithful believers in Christ, allow this error to continue. 

The philosophy of Gender Neutrality is blasphemous. We read in the book of Genesis that "In the day that God created man, He made him to the likeness of God. He created them male and female" (Genesis 5:1-2). As Christians, believe that God created each of us intentionally, with "plans for your welfare" (Jeremiah 29:11). God does not make mistakes. Gender neutrality says that He does. 

If God made you a man, then you are a man, regardless of your inclination. If you quite seriously believe that you are a woman, that does not change the reality of who you are. Rather, it is a psychological disorder known as gender dysphoria, which has been linked with depression and suicidal tendencies. 

Instead of indulging the illusions of people struggling with their gender identity, we need to embrace them with the love of God which is inseparable from the Truth. Especially when children experience these difficulties, we must give them compassionate care while not ignoring the essential reality of their gender. 

To put it bluntly, there are not 79 genders. There are two genders. The rest are mental illnesses. 

We cannot sit back and allow our culture to destroy itself in a rabid frenzy of egalitarianism. The reality of human sexuality is the glue that holds the family together. The family is the foundation of society. When the family crumbles, as we are trying so hard to do with the legalization of same-sex marriage and now this Gender Neutrality ideology, society will follow. Just think about how far we have fallen! Forty years ago, of you were to suggest that there were more than two genders, you would have been ridiculed. Today, if you were to say that there are in fact only two genders, you will be persecuted. We need to draw a line in the sand, brothers and sisters. The progressive forces have gone too far. They are tampering with the essential facts of life. 

If not now, when? Will I be forced to write this same piece when pedophilia becomes legalized? If we do not stand now, we will have no voice when things get even worse. We need to be willing to suffer for the Truth about human sexuality, to endure momentary affliction in order to safeguard future generations from the insidious lie of gender neutrality, to make sure that our children will not be forced to drink this poison! Stand and fight men and women of God!

DEUS VULT!

Who Do You Serve?

Last Sunday's Gospel asked a simple question of each of us. Who do you serve? It is simple because there are only two answers. You can either serve God or serve something else: "No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16:13). There is no middle ground. It's not about how hard you try or whether or not you did the "best that you could." It's about who you serve.

Most of us don't like that word, "to serve." It sounds beneath us, humiliating. These days we like to talk a lot about "freedom." We adore the idea of utter independence, a man who acts without regard to any restriction. We have freed ourselves from many things: from having to form relationships by using pornography; from working any harder than we have to; from procreation as a gift and an essential part of the marital act with contraceptives and abortion; from pain with alcoholism, rapidly legalizing drugs, and euthanasia; from the responsibility of raising our children by shoving an iPhone in their hands; from the Truth about masculinity, femininity, and human sexuality; from every last taboo; from decency; from common sense; and even from God Himself.

But our "freedom" is a lie! Is a man free if he is addicted to pornography or ruled by his passions? Is a child free when if they are struggling with perversity, they are told that sin is good? Something to be proud of?

The man of the twenty-first century is one emancipated from the good and enslaved to that which is evil. Everyone is the servant of someone or something, even themselves.

Why isn't it good to serve yourself? You'll be more comfortable. You'll probably be more successful. You might even think you'll be happier. The problem is that you aren't alone. God didn't put us in our own little bubbles. If He did, it might make sense to live for ourselves. But the reality is that each and everyone of us, if we're not a hermit, has people we live with, people we work with, people we pass every day on the street or in the hallway. God put those people there for a reason. They are not objects to be used, that is the evil of the sinners described in last Sunday's First Reading: "We will buy the lowly for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals" (Amos 8:6). God gives us other people so that we can love them in a reflection of His love for us.

And yet we are not just called to serve the people around us. This too can lead to error if we try only to satisfy everyone. It's impossible and may even be harmful. A child might want to eat a whole chocolate cake for breakfast, but that doesn't mean it would be good for them. Sometimes loving people can make them angry. Because of our fallen and sinful nature, we are inclined to sin. You are not loving someone if you tolerate their sin! You are only allowing them to live in slavery! Tolerance is just another word for apathy. If you truly care about your brothers and sisters, you will show them the Truth that Christ has revealed to us. And sometimes that hurts.  If sin has become a habit, it is as if we are living in a dark cave: it hurts our eyes to see the light, the light of Truth. It's like pulling off a Band-Aid: it's something we have to do, but it's certainly not pleasant. We cannot tiptoe around each other's sensitivities trying our best just not to "offend" anyone. In our service to those around us, we must take our directions from a Higher Authority.

We must serve God above all else. By serving Christ, we will most perfectly love each other and ourselves. Serving Christ is not something to be afraid of, "For my yoke is sweet and my burden light" (Matthew 11:30). In fact we read in Imitation of Christ that "Go where you may, you will find no rest except in humble obedience to the rule of authority."

What does serving God look like? For one thing, it is radically different than the ways of the world. There are two paths: one wide and well-trodden and the other narrow and thorny. Though His "yoke is sweet", following Christ is not always easy. You will be mocked, you will be persecuted, and you may even be killed, just ask the host of Martyrs. There might be times that it looks like you are totally alone on this path. You're not. Saints have walked this path ahead of you, but most importantly Christ walks with you. He took on the weakness of our flesh, He understands our temptations and struggles. As the old story goes, sometimes you will be walking besides God and sometimes He will be carrying you. No matter what, persevere until the end!

A servant of God stores up treasure in heaven. He speaks and acts with love. He suffers without complain, offering it up for his intentions and the Holy Souls of Purgatory. He goes to Mass, not out of an obligation, but because of a fervent love for Christ truly present in the Eucharist. He defends the innocent, the weak, and the downtrodden. He stands up for the Truth, even when it hurts. He conforms his will to God's in all things.

And even though he may suffer in this world, the servant of God knows that he runs after a greater prize than man can offer. His hope is in heaven and in the infinite mercy of God. Christ is reaching out His pierced hands to each and everyone of us. All we have to do is accept His mercy and become His servant.


DEUS VULT!

The Word: The Love Story

Sunday's Readings:
    1st Reading: Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14
    Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 51: 3-4, 12-13, 17, 19
    2nd Reading: 2 Timothy 1:12-17
    Gospel: Luke 15:1-32

God loves you.

It's a pity those words have become cliché, because all too often we fail to recognize the significance of that simple Truth. God loves you.

We hear those words and shrug our shoulders. Of course He does. And then we seek "real" love in things, celebrities, and one another. how often has that terrible, hear-rending cry of "No one loves me" been heard? And yet it's not true. God loves you.

And it isn't a wishey-washy, general warm feeling for mankind as a whole. God loves you the individual. In the words of St. Augustine, "God loves each of us as if there were only one of us." He doesn't just like you. He loves you. He loves you passionately. The romantic poetry of the Song of Songs: "Behold thou art fair, O my love, behold thou art fair, thy eyes are as those of doves" (Song of Songs 1:14), "In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him and found him not" (Song of Songs 3:1); of the Spiritual Canticle of St. John of the Cross: "In search of my Love I will go over mountains and streams; I will gather no flowers, I will fear no wild beasts"; and of St. Augustine: "Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient and ever new! Late have I loved you! And, behold, you were within me, and I out of myself, and there I searched for you"; we read not of the love between a man and a woman, but of the love between God and the soul. He loves us more perfectly than the most enamored of lovers. You were created, not by chance, not by mistake, but by the love of God.

His is a jealous love. It is easy to look at the wrath of God in the Old Testament and wonder why it is brought forth by something so simple as crafting a golden calf, as in today's reading from Exodus. But we are interpreting the Law as if it were a law of men and not one of Divine love. When the Israelites fashioned the golden calf, they were not just breaking a rule. They were betraying God's love. It was an act of infidelity, of adultery to attribute their salvation from Egypt to a molten image. That is why we hear a God that might startle us a bit: "Let me alone, that my wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them"(Exodus 32:10). Part of God's love requires justice.

But His mercy exceeds our sinfulness. God allowed Himself to be "appeased from doing the evil which He had spoken against His people" (Exodus 32:14) by the prayers of Moses, His servant, because of love.

God's mercy is overwhelming. He loves us so much that He was willing to die on a Cross for our redemption. Our response to that mercy must be one of awe-struck humility: "Wash me yet more from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin" (Psalm 51:4).

It is easy to think that we are not worthy of God's love because time and time again we fail to follow His will. But as the song in Jonah, the Veggietales movie, goes, "Our God is a God of second-chances." The Israelites failed time and time again to remain faithful to God's love and yet He chose them as His Son's people. St. Paul persecuted His Church and yet "I obtained mercy" (1 Timothy 1:16) because "Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief" (1 Tim 1:15).

God does not hate us when we sin, He hates our sin because it separates us from Him. He is restless until we return to Him, like the man who leaves ninety nine sheep in the desert to "go after that which was lost until he find it" (Luke 15:14), like a woman searching for a single coin, like a father running to meet his son.

We are the prodigal children of God. Time and time again we squander our inheritance on created things. We prefer our will to God's plan. But this sinfulness leaves us empty, so hungry that we want to eat "the husks the swine did eat" (Luke 15:16).

Unsatisfied in the flesh, we have nowhere else to turn but to the Father. And we fall on our knees in the Confessional, heavily burdened by our sins saying "Father, I have sinned before heaven, and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son" (Luke 15:18).

The beauty of God's love is that He does not wait for us to climb up to Him; when we turn towards Him, he runs to meet us where we are. The Father rejoices for in our sin we had become dead in the spirit and now have come alive again.

Are you afraid of the Confessional? Don't be. It might be painful, but so is resetting a dislocated shoulder. Both are necessary for our health.

"So I say to you, there shall be joy before the angles of God upon one sinner doing penance" (Luke 15:10). God loves you so much that He eagerly awaits your repentance. He waits, the perfect Lover separated from His beloved.

God loves you. He loves you no matter who you are or what you have done. Sin is repulsive in His eyes, not because of our wickedness, but because it creates a wall between us and His Sacred Heart.

Remember that no matter how many friends you have, whether or not you feel appreciated or understood, regardless of if you feel totally alone, the One who created the universe loves you so much that He took on the weakness of our flesh and died on a Cross for you. He would have suffered the ignominy and torment of His Passion even if it was just for you alone.

To quote Veggietales yet again, "God made you special and He loves you very much."

DEUS VULT!

Bribing God: George Soros' Dirty Money

The Church is not a political tool. She is the rock of human history. Only the Cross stands, and the rest of the world revolves around it - as the motto of the Carthusians goes. The Church doesn't endorse candidates for office or change her position at the whim of its constituency. She is the stronghold of the faithful. Of course this doesn't stop men like George Soros.

Soros is one of the biggest names in the world of finance. His Soros Fund has made billions in investments, most famously by betting against the British pound just before it was massively devalued. Not all of his deals are so lauded. The government of Thailand accused him of launching speculative attacks against the Thai baht in 1997. In 2002, Soros was convicted of insider trading by a French court. Long story short, Soros is a money man with a not-so-clean track record.

What's worse is that he's using that money to spread an agenda that is totally opposed to the Truth.

Thanks to documents released by WikiLeaks, it was discovered that George Soros is using his massive fortune to try to influence the Catholic Church. In addition to funding subversive elements within the Church, Soros' pet political organization, the Open Society Foundation, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars ahead of Pope Francis' visit to the United States in an order to shift the policy of the Catholic Church so that it would better fit the extreme progressivism of Soros.

What exactly does Soros believe in? One of the best ways to know what a man values is to pay attention to how he uses his wallet. George Soros, albeit a man with a rather large wallet, is no exception.

Soros is the founder of the Open Society Foundation and the Center for American Progress. Both groups are agents of the culture of death. They are zealously pro-abortion and seek to undermine the Sacrament of Marriage through pushing the gay agenda, especially in developing countries. The Open Society Foundation goes so far as to support the decriminalization of prostitution!

In 2012, Soros donated $1M to the effort to legalize marijuana in California. He is also pro-euthanasia, an issue that is getting more and more important with its legalization in Belgium, a policy that could better be called suicide on demand. Soros has even said publically that he offered to help his mother kill herself!

Now it would be unfair to overlook the large amount of philanthropic work Soros supports. He donates millions of dollars to various charities. Without a doubt some of that money has done a lot of good. The problem is that many of those organizations combine helping the poor with providing abortions and euthanasia and lobbying for the destruction of marriage. Let us remember the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians: "And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:3). It is impossible to truly love your fellow man if you support his being butchered in abortion.

Let us now turn to the recent scandal reported by the Washington Times and the Catholic League. Leaked documents unveiled a deliberate attempt by Soros' organization to attack the Tradition of the Catholic Church. He paid grass-roots activists to spread lies about the social teachings of the Church and even discussed the "buy-in of individual bishops" to give his agenda the momentum to "shift the Catholic Church."

Brothers and sisters, we ought to be outraged! This modern day tax-collector is interfering in the Church. His activism is just as harmful to the Church as an armed invasion, even worse because of his subtlety.

This is not the first time Soros has tried to change the Church. He is a regular supporter of Catholics United, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, and Catholics for Choice.

Catholics United was founded to get Catholics to vote for pro-abortion politicians. Their president is a regular guest of the White House.

Catholics in Alliance is even worse. They have hijacked Pope Francis' message for their anti-marriage ends. Their website is filled with such drivel as "Could Pope Francis be a Feminist Pope?" that confuses and divides the laity. Catholics in Alliance also has a history of supporting heretic-priests universally condemned by the Church for their schismatic efforts.

I can't do the perversity of Catholics for Choice justice. They are a pack of wolves masquerading as the flock of Christ. Saying abortion can be consistent with the Catholic faith is nothing but lies. This group steals our name and supports the killing of children! Not hard to see why George Soros bankrolls them.

Soros makes it apparent that he sees the Church as a tool, something to be manipulated for his own gain. He supports the spread of contemptible falsehoods and misguidance under the pretext of faith. Soros would in fact like nothing more than the destruction of the Catholic Church, despite his charitable pretenses.

He is not the first. The Romans owned the known world and threw Christians into torture pits for their entertainment. King Henry VIII outlawed Catholicism, established his own false breed of Christianity, and beheaded St. Thomas Moore. The radicals of the French Revolution executed countless priests and religious in the name of liberty. Hitler, the Soviets, and countless kings and warlords have all tried to subvert, divide, or destroy the Catholic Church. Every single one of them failed.

Soros will be no different. No matter how much money he wastes, he will never shake the foundation established by Christ.

That doesn't mean we should remain inactive. No Catholic organization, or bishop for that matter, should accept one cent of Soros' money. It is bloodied by his support for abortion and euthanasia. Furthermore, we ought to call out these faux-Catholics groups, these wolves in sheep's clothing. They are "traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasure more than God" (2 Timothy 3:4). If a group supports abortion or the destruction of marriage, they are not Catholic. Period. Catholics for Choice is a sham; they and their ilk need to be exposed as the liars they are. "Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city" (Psalms 54:10).

Being a Christian can be intimidating. The foes of the Church always seem to have more money, more power, and more votes. But in the words of St. John Paul the Great, "Do not be afraid!" Brothers and sisters, continue thou in those things which thou hast learned, and which have been committed to thee: knowing of whom thou hast learned them" (2 Tim 3:14). Stand for the Truth even if it means you're the only one standing!

DEUS VULT!

Imprisoned by Desire: Pornography and the Road to Death

What is the most dangerous addiction of our time? Is it gambling, video games, tobacco, alcohol, heroin or cocaine? None of those. We worry about keeping drugs off of our streets, taxing cigarettes, and keeping the bottle beyond our child's reach. But all too often we pay far too little attention to an insidious poison, a thief that can reach into our homes and snatch away our children, destroy marriages, and annihilate the family. I'm talking about pornography.

Porn is a dirty word. Though it has become far less stigmatized than in ages past - we have the sexual revolution to thank for that - we still shudder when we hear the word whether from the pulpit or at the dinner table. And this is good. At the same time however, we cannot allow our revulsion to keep our heads buried in the sand while we pretend pornography isn't a problem.

The fact of the matter is this: a lot of people are addicted to porn. The statistics are hazy because of the shame involved, but I would go so far as to say that three quarters or more of Americans are addicted to pornography.

Addicted? Isn't that a little harsh? Can't there just be people who watch it every once and a while, recreationally? Most people could just stop any time they wanted to, couldn't they? It's an innocent habit.

Absolutely not. There is no such thing as a casual porn-user just as there is no such thing as a casual heroin-user.

The relationship between pornography and heroin is closer than you'd think. When you see a pornographic image or ingest an opioid like heroin, the same thing happens in your brain. Both trigger the release of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. Neurotransmitters are like the brain's messengers, and dopamine is a reward message. It not only makes the brain feel good, the brain wants to feel that way again. But there's a catch. The high levels of dopamine released from stimulus like pornography and hard drugs dull the receptors in your brain - you build up a resistance. It's the addict's tolerance. So there is a need for more of the stimulus for longer periods of time and in stronger dosages. This applies whether the trigger is cocaine or pornography. Both lead to addiction. Pornography is highly, dangerously addictive.

If you think an addiction to pornography is just something you can step away from, just look up the symptoms for going cold-turkey with cocaine.

But porn doesn't just hurt the individual. It hurts society. It drives a wedge into relationships. If a man is watching pornography, he cannot love his wife with his whole heart as he ought to. He falls for the lies portrayed in pornography and inevitably his real wife cannot meet those absurd and distorted standards of beauty. The high divorce rate in our country is certainly influenced by the increased availability and perversity of pornography. There is also a well-established link between sexual trafficking and the porn industry. One study found that as many as 49% of women involved in sexual trafficking are also coerced into participating in the production of pornography.

And it gets worse. There is a proven correlation between pornography and sexual violence. Pornography trains the brain to view women as objects. It trivializes sexual violence. What type of men does this training create? Men like Ted Bundy. The day before his execution for the rape and murder at least 28 women, serial killer Ted Bundy gave an interview. Hours before he faced the judgement of God, Bundy did not blame society or his parents for his horrible crimes. He did not insist his innocence.  Instead, he wanted to talk about the role pornography played in making him who he was.

He said that he came from a "fine, solid Christian home," but became addicted to pornography at the age of 12 or 13. He did not remain satisfied with the first magazine he stumbled across and was compelled to find more and more violent forms of pornography in order to satisfy his addiction. This played a huge role in the development of a sexual fantasy that he sought to fulfill by killing women.

It is incredibly significant that in his last chance to speak to the world, Bundy said that "If you don't want people like me, don't burn Catcher in the Rye, burn Hustler." The most chilling thing that Bundy said in the interview is that "There are lots of other kids playing in streets around the country today who are going to be dead tomorrow, and the next day, because other young people are reading and seeing the kinds of things that are available in the media today."

It's not an innocent habit.

While not every porn-addict is a Ted Bundy, every Ted Bundy is a porn-addict. He mentioned in the interview that the one thing all serial killers had in common was an addiction to porn.

The problem is that pornography trains you to see women, and human beings in general, as objects for your own pleasure, devoid of personhood. To see them as pieces of meat on display. And once you begin to look at people as meat, you are a fine line away from treating them like meat. Just like Ted Bundy did.

But the worst part of pornography is that it kills the soul. Christ tells us that adultery is not just an action: "But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). In his masterpiece on our human identity, The Theology of the Body, St. John Paul the Great wrote about the "ethos of the image." He defines pornography as taking place "when the limit of shame is overstepped, that is, of personal sensitivity with regard to what is connected with the human body with its nakedness." Reproducing the image of the human body carries with it an ethical responsibility to ensure its dignity. Otherwise, a grave sin is committed. For as man was created in the image and likeness of God, destroying the dignity of the human body through its objectification in pornography is a blasphemy against God. Pornography isn't just wrong because the Church says so (in fact nothing is). Pornography involves violating the inherent dignity and beauty of the human body and using it for self-gratification.

Real men and women are far more beautiful than the lies sold by porn. Love is far more than meaningless sex. Each and every one of us has a uniqueness given to us by God, a soul. We are far more than things to be used.

A great group, Fight the New Drug, uses "Porn Kills Love" as their slogan. And it doesn't get any simpler than that. Pornography is the antithesis of love. It seeks your wants and needs before the dignity of the human being you see on the screen. Real love puts the good of the other before yourself.

Pornography is not okay. We cannot accept it in ourselves, in our spouses, in our families, or in our society. What we face today is not a new problem. Porn has been around for a long time. The issue is that it has become so available. Nearly everyone of us can just whip our smartphones and have access to pretty much anything you could think of through the Internet. And I mean anything. Yes, it's convenient, but without the proper safeguards, it is also incredibly dangerous. Whereas a few decades ago you actually had to get your hand on a dirty magazine, today you have an unlimited supply of pornography through a device that has become ubiquitous.

And what is inexcusable is that parents give their children these Pandora's boxes, sometimes before they are even in school, and expect them to exercise a level of self-control that most adults don't have! To quote one of my favorite priests yet again, "Giving a child access to the Internet is like leaving them alone in an adult bookstore." The Internet can be a very nasty place. In caving to the fad of for every kid a smartphone, we are exposing them to incredible temptations.

If a kid stumbles across pornography, it's rarely even their fault. The porn industry is just that, an industry. They profit from every new user they get hooked just like your everyday neighborhood drug dealer. Matt Fradd is one of the greatest Catholic writers of our generation and a leading voice in the battle against pornography. In his podcast, Integrity Restored, he addresses this reality: "The pornography industry is looking for our children.... because our children, to the porn industry, are like dollar symbols." Pornographic websites target children through meta-tagging. They're sort of like hashtags in Twitter. That's why when you type "awesome Catholic blogs" in your web browser, you get The Crusade for Truth, even though that's not my URL (or you would if I paid Google for advertising). Porn sites use meta-tags like the names of cartoon characters so that children will accidently stumble upon their material and become addicted. What could be more despicable or perverse?

 Brothers and sisters, we have to make a stand against pornography. We have to protect ourselves, our families, our friends, and our children. Pornography is not just an idle pleasure. It is the crowbar of the Devil. It pries apart the soul from God, husband from wife, child from family, man from masculinity, and woman from femininity. Pornography reduces us to inanimate objects for the fulfillment of a passing pleasure.

What can you do? First, protect yourself. You can't defend anyone else if you are addicted yourself. "Cast first the beam out of thy own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to take out the mote from thy brother's eye" (Luke 6:41). If you are controlled by your passions, you must let God set you free. Do not let shame keep your sin in the dark and out of the light of the Confessional. Know that you are not alone. I have struggled with porn, many of the strong Catholic men I look up to have struggled with porn. Know that this is not something you can beat alone. No slave can remove his own shackles. The Lord is "the strength of my salvation" (Psalm 139:8), "our refuge and strength: a helper in troubles" (Psalm 45:2). Trust in God and His mercy, discipline your spirit, avoid the near occasion of sin, and you will find freedom. For a practical, Catholic approach to beating your porn addiction, Integrity Restored is a great place to start.

Next, you must protect your family. There's a lot of great software out there like Covenant Eyes that will block pornographic sites from your computer or even your Wi-Fi network. If your husband or wife is struggling, support them. Do not tolerate the sin, but remember to love the sinner. Maybe your kid really doesn't need a smartphone. It can be useful and convenient, but it can also be a door to sin.

Finally, we must protect our society. There is something deeply wrong in a culture that has no shame. Our culture of death is also a Playboy culture. Just look (or rather don't) at the music videos, red carpet, or the beach. Listen to our music. It has become acceptable to expose our bodies in the name of expression. It has become acceptable to treat women like objects in the name of sexual liberation. Remember that the ways of the world are not the ways of God! The Truth of our faith tells us that these things are not acceptable!

And so we must preach the Truth. In our dress, our thoughts, our words, and most importantly our actions, we must bear witness to the inalienable dignity of the human body. We must defend love as being more than sex and sex as being more than pleasure. Fight porn with purity and love!

DEUS VULT!