The Powerful Benefactors Of The'Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence'
Present-day irrationality espoused by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is that acknowledging the scientific definition of the sexes is 'judgmental.'
Credit: Joe Mabel, Flickr.
Religious prejudice is alive in America, as demonstrated by the praise lavished this month (Gay Pride Month) on the so-called Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence by the Los Angeles Dodgers and the White House, among others.
Who, you may ask, are the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence who receive the plaudits of politicians and business leaders?
Let me explain.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are actually men (and only men) who dress in the robes of Catholic nuns, wear garish facial make-up, adapt bizarre names which ridicule religious titles, openly insult Catholic beliefs and celebrate satanic rituals which desecrate the Holy Eucharist, Catholicism’s most sacred belief.
This month, the Los Angeles Dodgers (ordinarily an athletic organization) awards the “Sisters” their Community Hero Award. Here is the Catholic Bishops’ response:
Here’s what the bishops are saying about the Dodgers honoring an anti-Catholic group | Catholic News Agency
Other Catholic sources have also spoken. For example:
It is also worth noting that the “Sisters” were also honored this month by (among others) the California Legislature:
California Legislature's honor for drag activist angers state Republicans (msn.com)
A Ministry Of Mockery
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI) first appeared in 1979 in San Francisco. As I say, these “Sisters” are actually men who dress in degrading “drag” outfits similar to the religious habits of Catholic nuns, while these “men” preen in flamboyantly cosmeticized faces.
At first blush, the eerie behavior of these “men” might seem merely ridiculous and quite unstable - were it not for the fact that they intentionally demean the Catholic Faith and employ sexual effrontery as public spectacle.
The SPI website reports that these “men” pursue a “ministry of spiritual enlightenment.” They claim to use “humor and irreverent wit to expose the forces of bigotry, complacency and guilt that chain the human spirit.” To this end, they indulge in a self-defined “ministry” by flaunting civility, offending common decency and demeaning the Catholic Faith.
For example, SPI’s spiritually “ministry” includes “Hunky Jesus” contests, in which men wear as little as possible, while mordantly mocking the sufferings of Christ carrying His Cross, to the delight of raucous onlookers who applaud this perverse form of “spiritual enlightenment.”
The SPI website features lengthy lists of their contributions to social betterment, including marching in a Gay Pride parade “…inside the shaft of a 40-foot penis covered in a huge condom … with two flesh covered beach balls connected to umbilical cords bouncing the entire length of the parade…”
Thus does SPI’s enlightened ministry proceed in “unchaining the human spirit.”
But Wait . . . There’s More
During Gay Pride Month, celebratory events are also held at the White House and the Pentagon. “Drag queen” events were praised by Department of Defense and military officials. (Contrarily, at one Pride event, police arrested a man for reading the Bible in public).
Enlistments in America’s armed services are at an all-time low; our military preparedness is in serious question … but the transgendered agenda is “de rigueur” in the military, and organizations such as the SPI are feted, while our military readiness and our concern for American Exceptionalism lag.
Pentagon Officials Slam 'Anti-LGBTQ' Legislation at Pride Event (breitbart.com)
Oddly - and tragically - we hear no commemorative remarks from Pentagon or Oval Office honoring the sacrifices of our American soldiers on June 6, 1944, D-Day; no galas to express respect for the many real men who gave their lives and limbs so that true - true - freedom might prevail. But the White House just held the largest Gay Pride celebration ever. See this link for a small summary of D-Day:
Remembering the Horrors of D-Day (dailysignal.com)
Celebrations of SPI and Drag Queens by our political, military, legislative and corporate leaders render insult to the Catholic Church and to the courageous work of authentic Catholic Nuns throughout this world; work which these Good Women do sometimes at the risk of their own deaths.
For a few courageous examples of the generosity of Real Nuns in spirit and heart, see this link:
Global Sisters Report | A Project of National Catholic Reporter
My Gratitude To These Women
I personally owe much to the Real Nuns of my youth. They were the first teachers (after my parents) to introduce me to the satisfactions of life-long learning and the value of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. They taught me to read, to think and to study, to respect self-discipline and self-restraint, and to observe the rights of others.
The Good Nuns taught me to appreciate imagination and symbolism as avenues to reality and to understanding the mystery of life. They taught me how to honor the poetic nature of human need; how to reconcile the contrary urges of the flesh with the heart’s yearning for clarity and peace.
They taught me how to believe as a Catholic, to recognize our inescapable human thirst for God; to recognize that Faith is indeed quite practical, and makes far more sense than the ambiguities of agnosticism or the barbs of cynicism.
Only later in my life did I realize the price these Good Women pay for their dedication and fidelity. They vow their lives to God, sacrificing the consolations of a solid marriage and the incomparable gifts of family and motherhood. They lead by example in our human search for life’s meaning, both here and hereafter.
Fidelity And Dedication
The dedication which the Good Nuns exemplify is – thank God – still found in authentic religious orders among these faithful Servants of God who seek nothing of the world’s applause. They give more than they are asked to give, take less than they are allowed to take, and offer everything to God, so that our lives and our families may be enriched in Hope and Faith and, finally, Love.
Thus, am I astonished by the incalculable arrogance and blatant ill will of the SPI and their shallow, contemptuous flippancy.
I am further bewildered by legislators (starting in the Oval Office) and corporate executives who reward such abysmal behavior as “heroic.”
Certainly, no organization would applaud “men” who assume female garb and mock the demeanor and beliefs of gays or Muslims or pronoun-bending transgendered folk; “men” who knowingly insult the most sacred doctrines of others. No one with a shred of common sense would - or should - find such behavior worthy of applause and recognition.
Yet, the SPI receives public accolades from American leaders, beginning with our President. The logic of this thinking and the degrading message it sends regarding the character and moral sensibilities of much of our nation’s leadership is beyond my comprehension.
I can only conclude that our nation’s moral acuity is gravely wounded.
The Loss Of Civility
Let us be clear: a person’s chosen lifestyle is a private affair, to be respected as his right to choose. That’s why we have access to just laws when basic civil courtesy breaks down and common decency is not honored.
I recall a time in America when mutual respect for other people’s moral traditions and religious beliefs held public sway. Common decency and good will dictated civility throughout our society. A person’s beliefs were a private matter, between that person and his God. Everyone was entitled to his own beliefs – unless and until …
… until mutual good will was jettisoned and some people imposed their lifestyle on me or my family, especially my children;
… until some people deliberately belittled my moral beliefs; … until some people incited violence against me, my family or my own private lifestyle choices.
The craven antics of the SPI tells us that the spirit of public respect has been abandoned in our nation in favor of distorted freedom-gone-mad. This is worsened by today’s intolerant rhetoric of accusation. But America is paying a price: we are morally and culturally diminished. We have become a darkly polarized nation.
Catholics As Villains
Here is one example of present-day irrationality:
My Catholic Church believes the incontestable, scientifically verified fact that there are two – and only two – sexes.
Because Catholics acknowledge this fact, we are called “oppressors,” “judgmental,” “haters,” and a litany of similar fatuous epithets.
Despite the tidal wave of disapproval which we Catholics receive from adherents of the Preferred Pronoun Generation, facts remain stubborn realities which no amount of weaponized disdain can change.
Furthermore, we Catholics believe that human behavior is moral before any other consideration. We believe it is evil to encourage a child to pretend to be other than God made him. It is unquestionably evil to offer a child transgender medication and surgery. It is evil to forbid or punish parental involvement in their child’s choice.
When we state these actions are morally wrong, our critics become frothily apoplectic. Even the mere mention of the morality of human acts is cultural “sin.” Nonetheless, facts are facts. Here is yet another link to many sources which explain Catholic beliefs and medical facts:
Catholic Teaching, Church Documents, and Diocesan Policies – Person and Identity Project
How Far Shall It Go ?
One more time, let me re-state a basic truth which has been lost in much of America:
Our sexual identity is the first, absolute, and fundamental identity which Nature assigns to all human persons. Our sex is not assigned to us at birth by some medical functionary who randomly checks off boxes on a form, with disregard to Nature’s clear and immutable message and God’s creative intent.
This truth is vehemently denied by the “spiritually enlightened” Woke culture and by the rancid antics of SPI. To the “enlightened” disciple, being born a man – a male – is now an indefinite state of existence. “Men” and “women” are merely indeterminate “things” whose sexual selves can be manipulated with pills and surgical methods. We are even at the point at which parents who do not “affirm” their child’s desire to change their sex are guilty of child abuse.
California Bill Would Classify 'Not Affirming Child's Gender' as Child Abuse (dailysignal.com)
Many of our leaders now applaud the self-evident lies of transgenderism. Our nation’s highest officials (and, God forbid, some educators) further the deception and perpetuate the lie to our children - to our children - that men need no longer be men, nor act as men, nor aspire to that state of sacrifice and goodness to which manhood is called; no longer need pay the price of true manhood; no longer aspire to stand proudly as fathers, nor act honorably as brothers, nor serve as our nation’s natural defenders of our common hopes.
I cannot help but wonder how American leadership has so corrupted the priceless principle of true freedom as to honor people who perpetuate this deception, thus dishonoring the laws and limits which God and Nature establish.
Searching For Truth
So … the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and their fans are the latest example of America’s celebration of religious prejudice, the latest declaration of our blindness to the anger and hubris which prejudice spawns and by which it polarizes our citizenry. Our society now elevates deception and foments condemnatory rhetoric on a national scale. A norm of irrationality now infects America.
As I write, I am again reminded how grateful I am to be a Catholic. My Catholic Faith starts and ends with the Love of God revealed in the Life of Christ and in His parables. Indeed, His parables are actually moral lessons which are the bases for our Christian doctrines and laws, our Traditions and customs. The parables are moral messages which the Catholic Church still unfolds, as it has done throughout history to this day and into the future.
As Catholics, we celebrate both the reality and limits of life’s inherent mystery. We realize that each human being shares in the staggering mystery of Creation. We are all conceived and born as individuals, as persons endowed by God with identity and dignity as male or female, as man or women, not as some indeterminate “gender,” not as an arbitrary pronoun-of-choice in search of a surgically-defined “self.”
Experience has also told me that criticism of the transgender craze is anathema to people who prefer false tolerance and phony “inclusion.” Criticism is anathema to folks who are blind to facts and history; anathema to people who naively accept the colossal lies upon which Woke culture and groups such as SPI rely.
The Heart Of Catholic Life
Christ told us that He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. This is Catholicism’s foundational belief, my belief. Catholics understand that much of God’s work in our lives is mystery-by-design. On the other hand, much of God’s work is readily self-evident, available to us, knowable through our Reason, as well as knowable through Revelation and Faith; knowable as our Way to Truth and Life.
So, Catholics emphasize that Faith and Reason are not opposed. They are two sides of the same hand. What Reason cannot explain, Faith allows us to accept. Revelation and Faith deepen and complement Reason, so that we accept God’s Word as His people. We understand our need to know, and yet we accept our unknowing with Faith and Hope and, one day, Love.
To know and accept in our hearts and souls what we cannot comprehend solely with our Reason is the beginning of Wisdom. And, God knows, there is an overwhelming amount we will never grasp solely with our minds.
But this is as it should be, for it is God – our Creator and our Loving Friend - Who merits our full fidelity; God alone Who offers each of us eternal clarity; God alone Who, first and finally, makes eternal sense.
Daniel Boland PhD is a psychologist and counselor who writes at Away With Words.