He's blind to the fact that young people are just as radical as they've ever been. They're just as idealistic and fed up with the complacent status quo. What the aging hippie didn't see is that the complacent status quo is the brave new world he and his generation have created.
The new radicals aren't really the unwashed and angry young people occupying Wall Street, they are the well scrubbed and happy young people marching up Constitution Hill. What the sour old hippie didn't realize is that you don't have to be angry to protest injustice. You can have a peaceful, well organized and legal protest and still be radical.
The new radicals are the hundreds of thousands of college aged and high school students who thronged into Washington yesterday for the March for Life. All statistics show the future belongs to them. Anti abortion sentiment is strongest among the young, and the young people who marched on Washington yesterday are not only young and joyful. They're smart.
The new radicals won't drop out. They'll get involved in life and they'll change the world. They will do so because they not have faith, but they come from solid families, good communities and from a people who know how to work hard, achieve solid results and do so with a positive, upbeat and can do attitude.
They know how to use the new technologies and overcome the MSM bias. They know how to get involved and stay involved--not just launch a few noisy protests. They know how to work together with others and communicate their message. They will do so with intelligence, shrewd new ideas, hard work--and most of all--joy!
Then I thought of another reason why the aging hippie isn't seeing any of his grandchildren espousing his radical causes....he probably doesn't have any.
I watched the national news last night on NBC. There wasn't a single word about the March for Life in Washington. I wonder if any of the other networks mentioned it.
ReplyDelete@ Bernie: The MSM is still under the impression that they own the news and can therefore put news they don't like in an "information prison" akin to the USSR's control of Pravda and Isvestiya. They simply don't know — or don't know what to do with the fact — the new social media has maed an information prison much harder to impose without control of the Internet.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I watched the March for Life live on EWTN, it was like watching a news station with GOOD News for a change! The passion and commitment and joy of the young marchers was SO impressive and fun to watch. Next year I want to be there! And hopefully, next year we will be able to celebrate the end of abortion!
ReplyDeleteI hope it's true that young people are the most pro-life, but if that were the case wouldn't the abortion rates be plummeting? Yet the rate seems to be stable, or only slightly falling (given a constant number of abortions in an increasing population).
ReplyDeleteIt's not 60 year old women having abortions: it's 17-23 year old girls, whose boyfriends are a similar age: the same demographic that's supposed to be the most prolife.
Maybe they say one thing and do another like the other generations
Fr. Longenecker,
ReplyDeleteSince the Obama mandate is causing quite a stir among Catholics on this issue.
I have come across those who argue that since the church has no official stance on contraceptive use outside of a marriage.
It does not apply to those who engage in illicit sex.i.e. non-marital sex.
How far is this true?
It would be nice for someone to clarify all this confusion.
artificial contraception is an intrinsic evil and the Catholic Church states that it is always so.
ReplyDelete@ben: I don't think that young people say one thing and do another. The young women who are having abortions are not, I suspect, the same ones who are in the March for Life.
ReplyDeleteAs I talk to young people it seems like God is stirring a passion, an intensity, and a boldness in this generation. To me it seems like God and the church have been somewhat quiet for a few years - but it also seems that within that silence God is working behind the scenes creating a thirst for His presence and for His existence to be made known again in a very real and tangible way. My prayer is that this generation of "radical" young people will be radical in their love for Jesus and their love for people. God will avenge, we do not need to use violence or force, His Spirit within us will accomplish His work in the earth, just as in the days of Moses and Elijah. The fields are definitely ripe for harvest and I am extremely excited to see what God is going to do in the coming months and years.
ReplyDelete"artificial contraception is an intrinsic evil"
ReplyDeleteVicki Thorn talked about the bio-chemistry of sex/artificial contraception here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnNtSsMlam4
Worth knowing.
I am a Catholic Youth Music artist responding to that "Why I hate religion but love Jesus video" by releasing my debut album in a couple days. Its not what you may think so please give it 1 listen. Youtube.com/321pots or Joepots.com. God Bless You
ReplyDelete