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The Murder of a Word

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Deacon Keith A Fournier
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"The Church's teaching on marriage and on the complementarity of the sexes reiterates a truth that is evident to right reason and recognized as such by all the major cultures of the world. Marriage is not just any relationship between human beings. It was established by the Creator with its own nature, essential properties and purpose.3 No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman, who by mutual personal gift, proper and exclusive to themselves, tend toward the communion of their persons. In this way, they mutually perfect each other, in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human lives."

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

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It was the late great C. S. Lewis who coined the phrase, "verbicide" in his Book entitled "Studies in Words". The term refers to the murder of a word. In the past when writing concerning the fundamental human rights issue of our age, the right to life, I have referred to the current assault against words as "verbal engineering" and maintain that it is the first step in social, legal, political, and cultural engineering.

I have practiced law for 23 years and been involved in what is often called the "culture war" for over thirty. I learned long ago that the one who frames the issue first - and most effectively - often wins the cause or case. Unfortunately, some of my friends with whom I am joined in seeking to build a new culture of life and civilization of love have apparently not yet learned this lesson.

Repeatedly I am witnessing sincere defenders of marriage and family using the oxymoron, intentionally used by the fringe elements of the homosexualist movement, "homosexual marriage". There simply is no such thing nor can there ever be no matter what Court or legislature may try to impose! However, the more the phrase is parroted, the closer we get to this vision of a brave new world. By even using the phrase, some well intended opponents commit a major strategic error in efforts to defend marriage and serve the common good.

One has only to watch the daily news or read any paper to see that there is a well funded and growing effort by a small fringe element of the radical homosexualist movement to force legal recognition (and legal equivalency) of homosexual unions on the rest of society. The goal is clear, the total re-ordering of society. Proponents of this effort have a clear social, legal, cultural, political and yes...verbal strategy.

The last example of the effective use of such Orwellian doublespeak was the phrase "pro-choice". It was designed strategically as a description of those who advocate abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy. The origins of the phrase "pro-choice", a phrase now unfortunately used even by those who seek to defend the dignity of every human life from conception to natural death, are instructive for us as we embark upon the next chapter in our contemporary human rights struggle.That is what it is my friends. Defending marriage, protecting the inviolable dignity of every human life, these are the true human rights struggles of our age!

I know one of the masterminds of this last propaganda campaign. He helped think of the phrase with other abortionists. Decades later, having discovered the truth about life and through that having come into the fullness of Christian faith, the Catholic Church, he still does penance for the impact that this simple turn of a phrase had on catapulting the current culture of death into predominance.

After all, who wants to be perceived as against "choice"? To oppose "choice" sounds so intolerant, it strikes at the heart of our freedom loving character as Americans. That is why it was such effective verbicide. The aftermath of this verbal strategy is the current horror of our culture of death. Some choices, like the taking of innocent human life, at any age or stage, are always and everywhere wrong. Words pave the way for actions.

What if the law were to change next month and allow one the "choice" to kill a disabled infant after delivery, calling it "mercy"? Most sane people of good will would still insist that such a "choice" would never be right, insisting rightly that it is anything but "mercy" and should be prosecuted! Yet, some of the proponents of the expanding concept called the "right to choose", enamored with the notion of an autonomous self and infected with a view of "freedom" as a raw power over others, are actually seeking to expand this newly discovered "right to choose". Calling it "a choice", rather than barbarism, they march ahead in their crusade of death on demand.

Well, the verbal engineers are at it again. Now it is the word "Marriage". If they can simply persuade people to use the oxymoron, "homosexual marriage", they will soften the debate, frame the issue in a manner that enables them to use their sophistry and devious appeals to "tolerance" (ever notice how terribly intolerant the new "tolerant" activists have become?) and thereby pave the way for the strategic building of their brave new world through legal, social, political and cultural engineering. Words have consequences!

In my social justice work I am constantly telling my friends - those with whom I labor in the struggle for life, the defense of marriage and family, the protection of an authentic understanding of freedom and the obligations of solidarity - to "watch your mouth". That was what my mother always told me! She was right!

Well, holy mother Church has the same instruction to her children. The Church in her pronouncements, like the recent outstanding document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith entitled "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons", does not use the term! Neither should we!

In our sincere desire to respect the dignity of every human person, including "homosexual" persons, we all too often want to sound, well, "sensitive". Be careful, marriage is what it is! It is written in the order of the universe and it is confirmed by both faith and reason. Unions between persons of the same sex can never be a "marriage", even if a legislature or a court should seek to enforce this contemporary counterfeit on the rest of society.

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Hopefully, that will not happen. However, every time anyone uses the oxymoron "homosexual marriage", they play right into a strategy to murder another word, marriage.

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Deacon Keith Fournier is a Catholic Deacon, constitutional lawyer and the Editor in Chief of Catholic Online. He is one of the founders of the Your Catholic Voice movement and serves as the President of the Your catholic Voice Foundation. He is a graduate of the Franciscan University of Steubenville, the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the John Paul II Institute of the Lateran University.

Your Catholic Voice is a movement to promote faithful citizenship based on the fundamental truths of the Catholic Church relating to Life, Family, Freedom and Solidarity. For information go to Your Catholic Voice

Contact

Your Catholic Voice Foundation
http://www.ycvf.org VA, US
Deacon Keith Fournier - President, 757 546-9580

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Keywords

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Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

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