In the Meantime . . .

Soon we will post the Emmaus Road Initiative schedule for November, which is slightly altered from the September and October schedules. By mid-week, we should have the free downloadable audio file of the October E.R.I. session on our website. (For the audio file of the September session, go to our website and click on the Store and then on the link "The Cornerstone Forum Store" and then on "Downloadable MP3 Audio Files.")

When we have the October audio file on the website, I hope to post an excerpt from the October talk along with a reminder about how to locate the downloadable file.

In the meantime . . .

The ever-vigilant "Diogenes" over at the "Off the Record" section of Catholic World News has a post that deserves to be simply passed along as is -- a sign of the times.

Here it is:

If, in 1997, you claimed the day was nigh in which guardians would be compelled to give their foster children gay-positive education, you'd have been denounced as a hate-monger, as someone trying to frighten the gullible with a maliciously improbable scenario. In the U.K., it appears, that improbable day has come, and -- surprise! -- you're a hate-monger if you fail to welcome it.

From the Daily Mail.

They are devoted foster parents with an unblemished record of caring for almost 30 vulnerable children. But Vincent and Pauline Matherick will this week have their latest foster son taken away because they have refused to sign new sexual equality regulations. To do so, they claim, would force them to promote homosexuality and go against their Christian faith.

The 11-year-old boy, who has been in their care for two years, will be placed in a council hostel this week and the Mathericks will no longer be given children to look after.

The devastated couple, who have three grown up children of their own, became foster parents in 2001 and have since cared for 28 children at their home in Chard, Somerset. ...

Officials told the couple that under the regulations they would be required to discuss same-sex relationships with children as young as 11 and tell them that gay partnerships were just as acceptable as heterosexual marriages. They could also be required to take teenagers to gay association meetings.

When the Mathericks objected, they were told they would be taken off the register of foster parents. The Mathericks have decided to resign rather than face the humiliation of being expelled.

Some of us can remember back to the days when Supreme Court justices argued against anti-sodomy laws on the grounds that gays inhibited by those laws were only claiming their share of "the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men, namely the right to be left alone" -- and this in the minority opinion.

One wonders how much longer the "right to be left alone" will be accorded to orthodox Christians. Will your children dare to speak against the love (ahem) that dare not speak its name? Will they have a choice in the matter?