{"id":2129374,"date":"2023-12-19T18:49:02","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T23:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-government-wants-you-to-listen-to-dancing-unicorns\/"},"modified":"2023-12-19T18:49:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T23:49:59","slug":"the-government-wants-you-to-listen-to-dancing-unicorns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-government-wants-you-to-listen-to-dancing-unicorns\/","title":{"rendered":"The Government Wants You To Listen To Dancing Unicorns"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-government-wants-you-to-listen-to-dancing-unicorns%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2129374&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Surgeon General Worries About Our Sad Social Lives<\/h2>\n<p>On\u200b Monday, Politico ran a long <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2023\/12\/18\/surgeon-general-tools-loneliness-00131734\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview<\/a> with Surgeon General Vivek \u2063Murthy. Murthy \u200bis apparently \u2064\u201cworried about our sad social lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Politico, \u201cAmericans are burned out, disconnected, isolated and starved\u200b for time. Maybe \u200cit\u2019s post-pandemic \u200cblues. Maybe it\u2019s our smartphone addiction. Whatever the \u200dcause, it\u2019s serious \u2064enough that Murthy has \u2062issued a formal advisory to the nation calling for action \u200cto\u2064 address this \u2018epidemic.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What are Murthy\u2019s solutions? He is hosting events trying to put\u200c people in proximity with \u2063one another and speaking about the \u201cpower of friendship.\u201d At these\u200c events, as Politico describes, \u201cPeople dressed as dancing \u200cunicorns handed out prescriptions for five minutes\u2062 of social connection. (Quantity: Endless.\u2063 Refills: Daily.)\u201d Murthy then encouraged people to spend 45 seconds\u200c writing a text to a\u2062 loved one. He asks people to engage\u2063 in what he calls \u201cthe\u200c connection exercise.\u201d\u200c He \u2063says that such exercises can\u2063 be \u201csupplemented by\u200c investments in social infrastructure, which is where policymakers come\u2063 in.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Or, alternatively, it\u2019s \u200bprecisely where policymakers should butt out.<\/p>\n<p>There\u200b is \u2063a reason for our loneliness epidemic. Sure, it has to do with \u200bsmartphones and the internet and the increasing\u2062 atomization\u200d of\u200c our lives as we hunker down with\u2062 our screens. But screens are just a tool to be used for good or ill. The real problem is that our social institutions have\u200d been summarily destroyed over the course of decades by government.<\/p>\n<p>Those social \u200binstitutions used to begin with and center around \u200cchurch.<\/p>\n<h3>WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show<\/h3>\n<p>Historically, churches fulfilled three interwoven functions. First, they provided \u2062common orientation around\u200b a\u200d higher goal, complete with rules and regulations that required skin in the game in order to be accepted into the\u200d group. Second, they provided economic benefits and social reinforcement, ranging from charity to the helping \u200bhands of neighbors. Finally, emerging from the first two functions, they created a feeling of\u200d community.<\/p>\n<p>That feeling of community, as\u2063 sociologist \u00c9mile Durkheim wrote, \u200dcould only be \u200cattained with reference to the\u200b sacred: a series of\u200c beliefs so worthwhile that\u200c they were\u200c not to be questioned. As\u2064 Robert Nisbet writes, \u201cIt is community that gives to the sacred\u200c its most vital \u2062expressions everywhere: birth, marriage,\u200c death, \u200dand other \u2062moments in the human\u2064 drama.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The sacred, then,\u2063 undergirded the community.<\/p>\n<p>And\u2063 the \u2062community provided \u2062the support structure necessary for \u200dthe flourishing of the family.<\/p>\n<p>And then government tried \u2063to replace church and destroyed community.<\/p>\n<p>The first step was the substitution of government benefits for the earned membership\u2063 of a church. \u2064People no longer \u2063had to have skin in the game of a community in order to be given charity\u2064 \u2014 now they had \u201centitlements\u201d \u2062by dint \u200cof breathing. \u200dAccording \u2063to \u200ba National\u200c Bureau of Economic Research study, New Deal policies crowded out 30% of \u2063all charitable spending by churches. \u200dGovernment benefits were \u2062made exponentially greater. Family structure itself was dramatically undermined by government spending since you were \u2062no \u2064longer responsible for your kids or\u2064 your parents. Government was. Your call on your neighbor no longer required you to sacrifice for the community. Instead, you could point the government gun at him and steal his wallet.<\/p>\n<p>Able to\u200c reap the rewards without the costs, many people stopped going\u2062 to church. \u2064And\u200d over the course of decades, churches began \u2064to adjust to that reality not by reinforcing common orientation around \u2064a \u2063higher goal \u200b\u2014 sanctity \u2014 but by\u2064 trying to get\u200d rid \u200cof \u201cjudgment\u201d \u2064so as to include more people. Churches began to \u2063try \u200cto mirror government: no skin in the game, plenty of benefits.\u200c As Gertrude Himmelfarb \u200dwrote\u200d two decades ago, \u201cThis\u2064 process of [religious] accommodation has since gone\u2064 on apace, so that today many mainline churches offer little or no\u200d resistance to the prevailing culture. On the contrary, some are very\u2062 much part of it, priding themselves on being cosmopolitan and sophisticated, undogmatic\u200d and uncensorious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thus the sacred has been wiped away, leaving\u2062 us all alone with our subjective senses of self, catered to by a \u2062broad welfare state. Are we happier? Will that problem be cured by government?<\/p>\n<p>Of\u2063 course not.<\/p>\n<p>It can only be cured by a return to community. Historically,\u200d that community means religious community, which is why it continues to be so\u2063 sad to see religious leaders playing around the edges of conciliation with value\u2063 systems that undermine sacredness at every turn.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, according to the vast majority\u2063 of the legacy media, Pope Francis apparently\u200c decided that it was fine for \u2063priests to \u200cbless \u200bsame-sex couples. The New\u200c York Times said \u2062this move was \u201chis most definitive step yet to \u200dmake the Roman \u2063Catholic Church more welcoming to LGBTQ Catholics \u200band more \u2064reflective of his \u200dvision of a\u2062 more pastoral and less rigid\u200d church.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If true, of course, that \u2063would mark a massive shift \u2063for the\u2062 Catholic Church, which \u2063has \u2062held fast to the traditional teaching that marriage is between one man and one woman and\u2063 that\u2063 sexual union within\u2062 marriage is the \u200conly morally permissible form of sexual union. \u2063The Church\u200c has held fast\u200c for thousands\u2062 of years not only\u200c to the\u200b sanctity of marriage but also to the natural law philosophy inherent in that sanctity \u2014 a philosophy that says the world of God\u2019s creation \u200ccarries within it certain obvious\u2064 rights and wrongs, teleological ends. Man and \u2063woman were \u2063created to become one flesh, \u200bthis philosophy \u200csays,\u200c and creation is designed to end in the creation of new human life.<\/p>\n<p>Catholic\u2062 philosopher Robert George has explained\u2062 this point further: \u201cWhat is unique\u2064 about marriage\u2064 is\u200d that it truly is a\u200b comprehensive sharing of life, a sharing\u2062 founded on\u2064 the bodily\u200b union \u2064made uniquely possible by the sexual complementarity of man and woman\u2014 a complementarity that makes it \u200cpossible for two human beings to \u2062become, in the language of the\u2064 Bible,\u2063 one\u2062 flesh,\u200c and thus possible for this one-flesh union to be \u2063the foundation of a relationship in which it is intelligible\u2064 for\u200d two\u2062 persons to bind themselves to \u2063each other in pledges of permanence, monogamy, and fidelity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It would\u200b certainly\u200b be \u2064a massive surrender for the \u200bCatholic Church\u2063 to reject that \u2062teaching on \u2063behalf\u200b of a broader teaching\u200c that morality now encompasses sexual relationships of\u200d other sorts \u2014 particularly\u2063 sexual relationships without any potential whatsoever for the creation of human life.<\/p>\n<p>So, \u200dwhat did the Pope actually say?<\/p>\n<p>His defenders say that he changed nothing. According to Catholic\u2063 publication The Pillar, \u201cFiducia\u200c supplicans says clearly that that the \u200dVatican\u200b does not intend to permit same-sex marriage, or \u2064anything that resembles it \u2014 and says that the Church \u200cdoes not actually have the power or authority to\u200b do that. While the\u2064 text\u200b does create a \u200cframework \u2063for blessing gay couples, it says that\u200d those blessings should \u200cnot be confused\u200c with marriage, or \u2064even with approval of same-sex unions, or\u2062 homosexual activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fiducia suppplicans says blessings are a \u201cpastoral resource to be valued rather than a\u200c risk or \u200ca problem\u201d\u200b and they may be bestowed \u2064upon\u2062 those persons who \u201calthough in a union that \u2064cannot be compared in\u200c any way\u2064 to \u2062a \u200cmarriage, desire to entrust \u200bthemselves to the Lord and his mercy, to invoke his help, and to be guided to a greater understanding\u2063 of his plan \u200cof love and truth.\u201d Such blessings \u200cought \u200cnot be given in\u2063 any circumstance resembling\u2062 a sanctification of same-sex unions,\u200c says the Pope, and \u201cthere is no intention\u2064 to \u2062legitimize\u200c anything.\u201d\u200b Furthermore, says the document, the blessing ought to descend on those who \u201cdo not claim a legitimation\u200b of their own status, but who beg that all \u200dthat is true,\u200d good, and\u2064 humanly\u2062 valid \u2063in their lives and their relationships be enriched, healed, and elevated by the presence of\u2063 the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But there is reason\u200b for the controversy.\u2064 The document itself suggests \u200cthat blessings should not be \u2062\u201csubjected to too\u200d many moral prerequisites\u201d and\u2062 that priests ought not\u200c to \u201close pastoral\u200d charity, which should permeate all our decisions and attitudes\u201d and to avoid \u2062being \u201cjudges who only deny, reject, \u200band exclude.\u201d Furthermore, it is not clear whether the \u200bChurch will crack down on liturgical blessings it does \u2064not approve in the document.<\/p>\n<p>The Pope, in other words, is being vague, and others are supposed to clean up for\u200b him. My friend Larry\u2062 O\u2019Connor\u200b has\u2064 a good rundown of his interpretation \u200bof the latest missive. Here is what he writes: \u201cI am not in full communion with the Church. As \u2064such, I am required to abstain from partaking in the Eucharist \u2062at Mass. I walk up to the altar with my\u2064 arms crossed on my chest and the presiding priest offers me\u2063 a blessing. He is not blessing the situation that I am \u2064in that keeps me\u200d from being in communion with the\u200c Church. He is offering me a priestly blessing so that\u200c I can continue my \u200dfaith journey and \u200bmove forward closer to Christ despite my situation. This is \u200dexactly what the Vatican has confirmed\u2063 the pastors may do for individuals who have same sex attraction and are also not in full communion with the Church because of their situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Some thoughts on the \u2062hysteria and lies surrounding the \u200bVatican&#8217;s \u200cstatement on blessings\u200c today. <\/p>\n<p>First\u2026 Read <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EdMorrissey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@EdMorrissey<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Done? Good. Now\u2026<\/p>\n<p>If you are a Christian but not Catholic, then your religion might not have formal\u200d &#8220;blessings&#8221; \u2063as part of your rites, liturgy or faith\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 L A R R Y (@LarryOConnor) \u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LarryOConnor\/status\/1736823331616121325?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December\u200d 18, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But is that all the Pope is doing? Because Larry isn\u2019t approaching the altar as a member\u2062 of a same-sex \u200ccouple. He \u200dis approaching individually. Of course religions should\u200d bless\u200c the sinner but\u2063 hate the sin. But when a \u2062same-sex\u2063 couple approaches a priest\u2064 for a blessing as a same-sex couple, the distinction \u2064falls \u200daway. The Pope here is not allowing blessing for\u200b individuals who participate in same-sex unions \u2014 every traditional religion \u2063allows sinners to receive blessings individually, so far\u2064 as I\u2019m aware. He\u200d is apparently, instead, greenlighting blessing same-sex couples as \u2062couples, then pretending it doesn\u2019t mean anything so long as the blessing isn\u2019t an outright sanctification of the \u200csame-sex\u2064 relationship.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly that\u2019s how the\u200c Left is reading \u2062it. Rep. James Martin, a radical Left-wing Catholic, says, \u201cThe new declaration opens the door to nonliturgical blessings for same-sex couples, something that had been previously off-limits for\u200b bishops, priests and deacons. Along with many priests,\u2064 I will \u200dnow be delighted to bless my friends in same-sex unions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So,\u200d why ought \u200cwe to care? We ought to care because\u200d when historical pillars \u2062of Western tradition including natural law begin to carve away at those pillars in the \u2063name\u200c of tolerance and diversity, the entire edifice begins to crumble. That is a problem for religious \u200bbelievers of all traditional stripes.<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CLICK\u2064 HERE TO GET\u200c THE DAILY WIRE APP<\/a><\/h4>\n<p>It\u2019s\u200b not unique to Catholicism.\u200b On the\u200d same day the Pope issued his\u200b statement, celebrated by \u2062the New York Times, the Times issued a piece about the\u200b collapse of the United Methodist Church,\u200c riven by controversy\u2062 over LGBTQ issues. \u2063As the \u2063Times \u2063describes, \u201cAt issue \u200bfor Methodists is the question of ordaining and marrying L.G.B.T.Q. people, a \u200dtopic that\u2063 has splintered many other Protestant denominations and which Methodists have been \u200bdebating for years. \u2026 There were eight million Methodists in the United \u200cStates in 2020,\u200c according to the U.S. Religion Census. Between \u200clarge-scale\u2063 departures and the broader trend of decline, Dr. Burge said, that number could drop by half in a decade. The exodus \u200cmarks a calamitous decline for the broader tradition \u200bof mainline Protestantism, which once \u2062dominated the American religious, social and \u2064cultural landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And herein lies the problem: There is no substitute for traditional religion\u2063 in the American landscape. And\u200d traditional \u200dreligion requires\u2062 skin in\u2062 the game. The minute religion \u2062becomes merely a nonjudgmental \u201cblessing\u201d dumped on top of subjective self-glorification, religion loses its value.<\/p>\n<p>And when \u200dreligion loses its value, social society crumbles. We\u2019re relegated to Vivek Murthy lecturing us with dancing\u2062 unicorns who hand out prescriptions for social connection.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> How can\u200d the Catholic Church balance its commitment to tradition with the evolving perspectives on LGBTQ+ issues in today&#8217;s society<\/h2>\n<p><span>  -sex\u200d couples and could lead to further changes in the church\u2019s stance on LGBTQ+ issues.\u201d And that\u2019s the problem. Once you open the door, it\u2019s difficult to control what\u2062 comes through.<\/p>\n<p>So, should the Catholic Church change its teaching on homosexuality? That\u2019s not\u2064 a question I can answer.\u2062 But it is a question that has significant implications \u2062for the institution and its followers. \u200dIt is a question that should \u2063be debated and discussed openly \u2063and\u2062 honestly, without resorting to name-calling or personal attacks. And it is\u2064 a question that deserves \u200bcareful \u2063consideration of the theological, moral, and\u200b social implications involved.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the role of the Pope and the Catholic Church is to uphold and \u2063protect the teachings of the faith. It is not to succumb \u2063to societal pressures or conform to popular opinion. \u200cWhile it is\u2063 important to show love and compassion to all individuals, it is \u2062equally\u200d important to\u200d remain faithful to the principles and values\u200c that have guided the\u2064 church for centuries.<\/p>\n<p>So, let us\u2064 have a robust and respectful discussion about the role of the \u200bCatholic Church in \u2064today\u2019s society.\u2063 Let us consider the implications \u200dof changing longstanding \u200cteachings and traditions. And let us remember the\u200d importance \u200dof community and\u200d the sacred in our lives, as we \u200cnavigate the challenges \u200dof modernity.<\/p>\n<p>Our social \u2062lives\u2063 may indeed\u200b be sad, \u200das Surgeon General Murthy suggests. But the solution does not\u200c lie solely in government interventions \u200bor changes to\u2064 religious doctrine. \u200bIt lies in rediscovering the power\u200d of community, \u200dthe \u200cvalue of meaningful relationships, and the pursuit of a\u2062 higher purpose. Let us be open to exploring new avenues for connection and support, \u2062while also \u2063cherishing\u2062 the traditions and institutions that have sustained \u2063us throughout history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday, Politico ran a long interview with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Murthy is apparently \u201cworried about our sad social lives.\u201d\u00a0 According to Politico, \u201cAmericans are burned out, disconnected, isolated and starved for time. Maybe it\u2019s post-pandemic blues. Maybe it\u2019s our smartphone addiction. Whatever the cause, it\u2019s serious enough that Murthy has issued a formal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":161,"featured_media":2129375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2129374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/161"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2129374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2129374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2129375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2129374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2129374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2129374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}