Southie Says No; Let’s Join Them
By NBP Editorial Board | March 8, 2017, 17:56 EDT
Pro-family people often complain about the way the world is going today. The forces of darkness seem to win most of the time, except when they win all of the time. Who will do something about it?
Well, with the announcement that the organizers of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade have denied a pro-homosexuality advocacy group permission to march, we have such an example.
The South Boston Allied War Veterans Council has rejected the application of OUTVETS, an organization that includes homosexual veterans of the U.S. military. The same group marched in 2015 and 2016, after years of resistance by parade organizers to pro-homosexuality advocacy.
Led by the late hero John “Wacko” Hurley, parade organizers more than 20 years ago lost court cases at every level in Massachusetts before the U.S. Supreme Court taught corrupt local judges what the First Amendment means. (The final tally was 9-0, meaning even Ruth Bader Ginsburg sided with Southie.)
Now, after a couple of years of following the Left-ward drift, parade organizers have shaken off the clutches of the Left and taken control of their vision of their parade.
Let’s stop the insulting claims that this has something to do with veterans. Let’s also stop the nonsense about the parade organizers barring people who are attracted to members of the same sex, as many newspaper stories report. Nobody asks any parade participant about sexual orientation.
This is about advocacy. Pro-homosexuality activists advocate a political, social, and moral point of view. It boils down to this: There’s nothing wrong with being sexually attracted to members of the same sex or acting on that attraction; and everyone else needs to drop any sort of opposition to it.
This is a point of view that would have been unintelligible to the chief honoree of the South Boston parade: Patrick of Armagh. As a Roman Catholic priest and bishop, St. Patrick preached the Gospel to pagans in Ireland and persuaded many of them to follow Jesus. His autobiography quotes Scripture so extensively that it’s hard to find where the Bible ends and Patrick begins.
Patrick’s good news to the pagan of Ireland was about love and mercy for every child of God — but not acceptance of everything that every child of God does. It sets forth commandments based on love to regulate lives and bring people happiness — including commandments regarding sexual conduct.
We recognize that not everybody accepts those commandments. But St. Patrick did.
At this writing the parade organizers haven’t spoken publicly about their decision. Possibly they would put it in less philosophical terms — maybe something as basic as “We don’t want hardline political agendas in our parade.” Or maybe something like: “We don’t like the way these people and their enablers have treated us the last couple of years.”
Whatever their reason, the parade organizers have done something right. And they are getting an avalanche of criticism for it, from the usual suspects. Governor Charlie Baker and Mayor Marty Walsh say they won’t march in the parade unless the parade organizers flip flop. The parade’s marshal quit. Left-wing publications are having a hissy fit. Politicians are lining up to get quoted as condemning the decision.
It’s time for pro-family people to stand up. Are you Irish? Catholic? From South Boston? Not? It doesn’t matter. If you believe in Judeo-Christian morality, or just respect traditional morality … this is your chance to support people under siege for doing the right thing.
Even apart from the merits of this decision — which is brave, just, and correct — there’s a larger point to be noticed. We are constantly presented with a neo-Marxist narrative when it comes to tearing down sexual morality. That is: the sexual relativists not only claim their goals are good, they claim they’re inevitable — that history is not only on their side but that there’s no other possible outcome. (That sort of talk saves a lot of energy that might otherwise have to be put to arguing, and reduces the likelihood of getting defeated.) This decision interrupts that narrative.
If the parade organizers stick by their decision — and that’s a big “if”; the forces of darkness are coming out in much of their fury — then stick by them. Say something. Let people know you agree with them. Go to the parade. There’s a welcome there for you.
After all, we’re all Irish that day.
