Being a third generation American of half-Irish descent (with a grandfather who was an actual Irish Nationalist and only came here in the 1920's because the Brits had his number and were about to arrest him), I as saddened by the societal collapse in Ireland as I am of the same in the US.
I have never visited Ireland, but what I have read about the attitudes of many modern Irish leaves me wondering if French are the only Western people that has any hopes of taking back what is theirs. Americans, British, Netherlanders, Belgians, and Germans (along with others) seem to be perfectly willing to allow the methodical destruction of their societies to continue unabated. The French a least have made efforts to protect both the identity of their nation and rallied against the governmental dismantling of marriage (and the massive overreach of authority that granting new rights entails), but the rest of Western Europe seems to be as blind as one of my otherwise staunchly conservative friends who asserts that he supports gay marriage because he believes "in freedom".
Again, all of my information is gleaned about the Ireland of today from articles that I have read, but what I have seen is disturbing. While being fully aware of how it has turned out in the rest of Western Europe, they seem to be quite happy with the increasing amounts of Muslim immigrants. Anti-Israeli attitudes appear to be rife in the Emerald Isle. Not much more than two centuries after the worst of the Penal Laws, they have done little (as a people) to make Gaelic a language for everyday use - this while the Jews brought back Hebrew after it had been dead for well over two thousand years (note that I find nothing wrong with the idea of being a truly bi-lingual nation for the obvious advantages of being fluent in English). One report I read a while ago gave a number for church attendance at less than 20% while the rest of the nation goes either secular or embraces the modern teachings of Evangelical Christianity.
On the subject of marriage, the cosmopolitan Irish (it's the only way that I could think to describe Dubliners) seem to have assumed attitudes as hateful and intolerant towards their opponents as are now routinely demonstrated in the US. In fact, the plight of the journalist featured in the Breitbart piece is virtually identical to those of many Americans who stand for both the truth and the preservation of Liberty against a government that takes upon itself the power to create new rights and institutions. The power to create new rights is the power to severely curtail or eliminate Natural Rights.
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/04/13/John-waters-unsafe-in-ireland
"Ireland, once a rock-solid Christian country, has now become so intolerant of Christian beliefs that its leading opponent of gay marriage may be forced to leave the country because of fears for his personal safety.
After repeated threats and obscene verbal attacks, John Waters, a nationally-known newspaper columnist, author and broadcaster who supports Christian family traditions, says he is now unable to go into the centre of Dublin at night because he fears for his own safety.
The attacks began after Waters threatened the state-owned broadcaster RTE with legal action after a drag queen called ‘Panti Bliss’ appeared on a television programme and called Waters and other conservatives "homophobic."..................
[Following a legal settlement with a broadcasting service in which he was slandered]........... gay-rights activists and left-wing politicians have continued to criticise RTE for paying damages to Waters. The journalist has been the target of a campaign of abuse online and from the anti-Catholic left-wing both in the media and in the Dail, the Irish parliament.
In the interview Waters said his opposition to gay marriage and adoption was “about free speech. It is about the rights of people to speak about what is important without being demonised.”
He is now frequently subject to obscene abuse in shops and in the streets by people who, he says, “are cowards, they shout something and keep walking, they don’t want to engage.”
“I won’t go into Dublin city centre at night. When you have that kind of toxicity generated out of nothing, what are you going to do?”
He says he has become frightened “almost in a metaphysical way, that people could be so full of hatred. That, in accusing me of hatred, they could manifest a hatred infinitely greater than anything I could possibly imagine.”
Waters described how the backlash had damaged his health: “I lost nearly a stone [14 lbs.] in the first few weeks of this. I didn’t sleep.” He said he considered abandoning journalism and is still considering leaving Ireland to work elsewhere. “I have no friends in the media anymore.”
“You have a certain hope that somebody, somewhere knows you for who your are, you kind of have some kind of naïve hope that one of these people are going to stand up and say, ‘hang on, this is wrong, this is not this guy’ and that moment never came.”He said his lowest point was when he realised no one would speak out in his defence:"
The Hot Gates - 480BC. An event that was to determine what path much of the Western World would follow occurred as the Persian army threatened to overwhelm Greece in 480BC. The West today again faces both external and internal threats to its identity and existence.
(Reading the Passion of Christ this Palm Sunday)
ReplyDeleteDid you hear about the Man who said "from the Beginning it was not so, male and female He made them." ? He was abandoned by almost everyone, even close friends, he suffered, died and was buried.
But that is not the end of the story, on the third day he rose again.
Even though we may not see the way out of this mess, we can always trust that God does see the way out, and He will bring about great good from this. Somehow. We just don't see it. Nothing can be worse than that Passion 2000 years ago, and look how large the Church has become.