Somehow “Hate the sin, love the sinner” has become “Love the sin.” I think the second proposition would be a good motto for the Devil. Think about it. Loving sin is what the Devil is all about. Loving sin. It isn’t that surprising that atheists and anti-theists would drift this way. But it is shocking when Christians and [sad to say] Catholics drift this way. I have read all Four Gospels and I do not once find something like: “Love the sin. ” Have you? But this is what Christian tolerance sometimes has come to mean. If I cannot say that abortion is wrong for fear of hurting the feelings of the abortionist, for fear of appearing intolerant, for fear of being judgmental, then I will never be able to be able to protest evil anywhere.

Do you think I am being a reactionary here? Dostoevsky said it best: “If God does not exist, everything is permissible? Of course I cannot and do not want to judge the physician who kills children for a living. I do not know whether through God’s grace he or she will turn around and become a Saint Paul or Saint Augustine. I hope and pray they do!!! I do not know the completeness of their knowledge of what they are doing or the completeness of their lack of compulsion. Only God can judge the heart. But if I cannot say that abortion is evil, then what am I to say when society says we should tolerate cannibalism? What am I to say when someone says that the aborted fetuses would be a good source of protein in the diet? What am I to say when society says that incest isn’t so bad and maybe is a good thing? What am I to say when society says maybe it is okay to kill children up to the age of two or up to the age of ten? Or when society says everyone over 65 should be humanely terminated?

I lived through the sixties when the mantra was: “Good Christians don’t judge other people.” Now that has morphed into: “Good Christians don’t say that certain things are sinful.” An Evangelical preacher involved in the pro-life movement recently told me that he was convinced that the birth control pill was morally evil but that he was afraid that preaching such a thing would literally empty out his church? He said that preaching such a thing would make him so unpopular that he would be unable to continue his fellowship ministry. Is that why public prayers against abortion are not that common during General Intercessions in the Catholic Church? I sure hope not.

I find it interesting what constitutes General Intercessions at Mass. If we are to love both sinners and sin, then we cannot ever pray for criminals to repent of their lives of crime. It would be too Pharisaical and judgmental. After all there may be some criminals in the pews who would be offended by such a message. And we cannot pray that some parents considering abortion will choose life over death. Why? Because there might be some people in the congregation in that exact situation and it would make them uncomfortable, uneasy. It will be terribly uncharitable of us. I am surprised sometimes that liberals even allow the words of Jesus to still be read in Church. Of course they can reinterpret the words during the Homily. And they do. But I wonder when the liberals will try to protest reading the very words of Jesus at Mass? I wonder when they will make the case that the words of Our Lord are just too polarizing, too alienating for modern sensibilities?

The modern “faith” is this: belief in the perpetual progress of secularism and an earthly utopia.
Christian faith is tolerable to secularism as long as it has been “reinterpreted” by those who have lost their faith and only then. Christian faith now means nothing but toleration of sin, even love of sin, appreciation of sin. While the Syncretists of the 1960s taught that no one has the whole truth. The “modern” dogma today is that there is no sin [except of course the belief in sin]. The belief that there is no sin is the unifying force of modern secularism. Christianity has no place in this worldview unless it consents to being reduced to amorphous fellowship and togetherness and a morality of “I’m okay, you’re okay.” We are not to call evil, evil. We are to appreciate it. We are to look with tolerance on evil so that we can find its spiritual riches and treasures. How far we have fallen!!!

Today someone told me: “Why should Catholics care about the dead babies from abortion. They are in Heaven anyway. It’s a non-issue. Talking about abortion just makes women who have had abortions feel bad. No good can come of it.” I was reminded of an interview with Osama bin Laden when he was asked whether he would fire a machine gun at his enemy if there was a busload of schoolchildren in the way. And he said that yes, he would fire, because those innocent school children would go straight to Paradise anyway. Is that where we are today? Is that where we are?