THE WANDERER, SEPTEMBER 4, 2003
JOSEPH SOBRAN'S
WASHINGTON WATCH
Death of a Pervert
The murder of the defrocked priest John Geoghan, the
central figure in Boston's pedophile scandals, comes as a
shocking, portentous event. Geoghan was strangled by a
fellow inmate who was already serving a life sentence for
murdering another homosexual. The killer had evidently
planned the attack carefully.
One wonders if the wretched Geoghan, accused of
molesting as many as 130 boys, had repented his sins and
returned to God's grace. He had lived a life of profound
hypocrisy and cynicism for many years, and such habits
are so corrosive to the conscience that genuine remorse
may become difficult.
We can only hope that the shock and infamy of his
downfall forced him to face himself, and that humiliation
led to humility. Sometimes the best thing that can happen
to a criminal is getting caught.
There was a terrible fitness in his death. Like all
child molesters, he lived in danger of murder during his
months in prison -- and he was the most notorious child
molester in the United States. He had betrayed not only
his direct victims, but Christ's Church.
We should also count as his victims those who suffer
at the stain he left on the priesthood; as the old saying
goes, he was the type who gives the whole group a bad
name. Every faithful priest must now bear the obloquy and
suspicion brought on by a few rotten priests like
Geoghan.
This burden has been aggravated by lax discipline,
and worse, within the Church. Not only have many
perverted priests been reassigned to unsuspecting
parishes, rather than suspended or punished; an
aggressive homosexual underworld has taken hold in many
seminaries. The priesthood, like other occupations
parents used to be able to trust implicitly, has actually
attracted perverts who see it as providing endless
opportunities to exploit the young in their care.
Media accounts of the problem define it as one of
"pedophilia." They studiously avoid the word
"homosexual." We are told that pedophiles and homosexuals
are wholly distinct categories; that most pedophiles are,
in fact, heterosexual. Since the great majority of men
are heterosexual, this is superficially plausible.
But I no longer believe it. The other word that
inevitably occurs in these scandals is "boys." Only a few
have involved girls, particularly small girls. There is
some connection between homosexuality and pedophilia.
On this score, the media have conducted their own
cover-up, ignoring the participation of the North
American Man/Boy Love Association in "gay" events. The
homosexual movement insists it has nothing to do with
pedophilia, but where is its emphatic repudiation of sex
with boys?
Candor, Anyone?
In an age that prides itself on "candor" about sex,
we have seen the emergence of new forms of hypocrisy, as
well as new taboos on frank discussion. Liberals sneer at
the phrase "the homosexual agenda," as if there were no
such thing -- even as that agenda extends to demands for
"same-sex marriage"!
I'm a little puzzled by the passion this issue
excites, since "same-sex marriage" is literally nonsense.
Lincoln is said to have asked, "How many legs does a dog
have if you count the tail as a leg?" Answer: "Four.
Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg." In the same
way, calling a homosexual union a marriage doesn't make
it a marriage.
Even societies that tolerate sodomy have seldom if
ever seen any reason to treat such unions as marriages.
The practical reason for marriage has always been the
breeding and upbringing of children. Even most
homosexuals have always understood that. Homosexuals,
especially males, are notoriously promiscuous, so even if
the law recognizes such unions as marriages, I doubt that
many of them will choose monogamy.
Tolerance of sodomy is by no means a regular feature
even of pagan societies. The ancient Greeks, contrary to
what we are told, generally regarded it with disgust and
punished it as a crime. Every society has some sort of
sexual morality, which inevitably favors marriage and
usually excludes sodomy; and even where sodomy is
allowed, it's usually between men and boys. The Roman
poet Juvenal, who had seen just about everything in that
swinging city, describes homosexuals in the most scathing
terms.
The propaganda of perversion is forever reminding us
that homosexual acts occur even in the animal kingdom. It
neglects to mention, however, that these are very rare,
and even then they are performed for simple relief or to
assert dominance. Monogamy also occurs among many higher
species of animals, but they never mate permanently with
their own sex. Nature is trying to tell us something.
Obviously the call for same-sex marriage could occur
only in a society that already takes marriage very
lightly. Homosexuals demand it in the secure knowledge
that it won't necessarily be till death do you part. The
vow isn't really a sacred promise anymore; it's viewed as
the expression of a romantic impulse, made, so to speak,
with fingers crossed.
Thanks to new adoption laws and artificial
insemination, same-sex couples, homosexual and lesbian,
are now having children. Again we are assured that
there's nothing to worry about. The kids will be fine,
raised by two loving "parents." Sexual child abuse will
be rare.
Again a bit of skepticism is in order. At a time
when the traditional family is under relentless attack
and its failures are publicized and dramatized, only the
hypothetical homosexual family is idealized and
sentimentalized, even before the results are in.
We are told that homosexuals are as normal as you
and I, though we're also told that you and I are in
pretty sad shape. It's easy to get the impression that
homosexuality is a positive qualification for marriage
and parenthood.
We'll see about that. When the children of these
brave new families grow up, they'll have some stories to
tell, and the results may not quite match the rosy
picture painted by the propagandists. It can be hard
enough for a child to grow up in a broken home,
especially when his friends and classmates all have
normal families (though this is rarer and rarer); imagine
growing up with two "parents" of the same sex, when the
other children all have real parents.
Remind you of anything? Well, it reminds me of the
early years of the "sexual revolution," when all the
propaganda heralded a new era of carefree, antiseptic
sexual indulgence. That revolution has reached its
dreadful fulfillment in our inner cities, where
uninhibited behavior has resulted in bastardy, crime,
poverty, disease, and general disorder.
Not quite the glossy ads for easy sex we were shown;
now we have to talk about "safe sex," a phrase that
didn't occur to us when sex was really safe because it
was confined to marriage.
Opposite-sex marriage, that is.
--- Joseph Sobran
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