18 12, July, 2020 C omment catholicweekly.com.au matters to lefty ideologues or greedy corporations who would prefer money to mo- rality. When Manchester City ap- peared with the BLM Jersey (which you can have shipped to you for only $185), and players took a knee for a min- ute before the game, I was confused. “On behalf of everyone at City, we stand together with the fight against racism,” a player read in a video posted to the club’s Instagram. “Let’s work together for a better, more equal future,” said another, before the video ended with the team’s man- ager reciting dramatically, When virtue signalling is just good public relations W hen I woke ear- ly to watch Ar- senal play Man- chester City in the English Premier League recently and saw ‘Black Lives Matter’ on the back of player’s jerseys, I was hit with a famil- iar wave of disappointment – but a distinct lack of surprise. The pervasion of supposed ‘social justice’ issues into the corporate world, popular culture and sport is hardly a shock. I have no issue with the BLM sentiment, as a Christian I believe that Man being made in the image of God makes treating people on the basis of things such as skin colour in- herently wrong. What does shock me, how- ever, are the constant remind- ers of how willing our society is to accept the hypocrisy of opportunistic political activ- ists and businesses trying to get ahead. So quick are peo- ple to jump on the bandwag- on of a nice sentiment, signal- ling their virtue to friends and family, that they don’t stop to see who’s driving. The BLM organisation is a radical left-wing political front for the US Democrat party. Money donated to BLM goes to ActBlue, an organisa- tion that “enables left-leaning non-profits, Democrats, and progressive groups to raise money on the internet”. BLM’s national organisers have admitted on video to being trained Marxists and have photos posted with the likes of Nicolas Maduro, So- cialist President of the crum- bling Venezuela. None of this “Black Lives Matter.” I recalled those opening words “On be- half of everyone at City ... ” I wonder if this applies to Manchester City’s owner, Sheikh Mansour, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Presidential Affairs and a member of the Royal Family in the United Arab Emirates – the same UAE with the atro- cious human rights record, where it is illegal for Chris- tians to evangelise or pray in public and apostasy by Mus- lims is punishable by death under Emirati law. In Sheikh Mansour’s UAE it remains legal to discrimi- nate against women and ho- mosexuality is still punishable by law. Of course, all of this is for- gotten when they stick the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ on a football jersey. They speak the code, they must be good. Examples of this sort of pervasion throughout the cor- porate world of supposed ‘so- cial justice’ is not rare, but can no longer be ignored. If public institutions and private corporations contin- ue to appease radical ideo- logues for votes and profit, it won’t be long until they are hung with the rope they sold, destroying our culture in the process. Black Lives Matter em- bodies left-wing antipathy to Western Civilisation and its deep roots in Judeo-Christian tradition. It speaks of “engaging com- rades” and seeking to destroy what it calls the “Western-pre- scribed nuclear family.” Its activists aim to disman- tle cisgender privilege (‘cis’ meaning a male or female at- tracted to the opposite sex), foster a queer-affirming net- work and build a space that is free from sexism, misog- yny, and environments in which men are centered … Yet somehow they’ve found a friend in the ultraconservative Islamic UAE. Benjamin Conolly is a Multi Media Journalist for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, writing for the Cath- olic Weekly newspaper and the Archdiocese’s Connect Newsletter. Upset? Look at yourself first A nother minor tizzy on Facebook when an earlier article of mine appeared again in electronic form. Comments usually fall into two camps: people telling me I’m right, and people telling me I’m a shill for Big Cathol- icism. True on both counts. I wouldn’t say these things about the Church if I didn’t believe they were right. And it makes me laugh out loud to be seen as a defender of the hierarchy. But I love my non-fans be- cause they’ve inadvertently given me material for a few columns. A gentleman corre- spondent recently said to me – in terms of church reform - that while he didn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, he did want clean water, and he thought Jesus would like that as well. I realised two things. First, the clean water is already there, and always has been. Second, the reason the water If you are asking for clean water in the church go to communion, go to confession. PHOTO CNS/KAREN BONAR,THE REGISTER Sheikh Mansour. PHOTO:AUSTRIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY We can fall into assuming the goodness of the Church depends on others. No. It starts with us is dirty is us. The clean water is already there. Clean, liv- ing water has been running through the Church since Je- sus’ side was opened on the Cross. I think quite a few Cath- olics have forgotten that the validity of the sacraments doesn’t depend on the purity of the minister. For example, I was confirmed in around 1983 by an archbishop who protected a serial clergy sexu- al abuser. I still received the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and I’ve had them ever since. But that didn’t stop me feeling sick when I met one of his victims years later and heard his story. The Church is dark but beautiful (Songs 1:4). Impris- on and laicise the clergy sexu- al offenders, because they’re not safe and they’re usual- ly not sorry. But remember that the sacraments still work their wonders even through sinful hands. Grace – clean water – flows through the Church 24 hours a day, flush- ing out the dirty water. The reason the water is dirty is not just because of sexually abusive clergy. The water in the Church gets dirty because of people like us – the laity. Clerical sin doesn’t get the rest of us off the hook. We make up most of the Church, but we’re less likely to be put on trial for our se- cret vices – our porn hab- its, our domestic abuses, our thefts, our addictions. But our sins make the water just as dirty. We also stop the clean wa- ter flowing. If we don’t re- ceive the Sacraments with the right heart, we get little benefit from them. Clean wa- ter can flow out of a sinful priest’s Mass, but if we sleep- walk through Mass and re- ceive Holy Communion like a zombie, the clean water stops flowing with us. You want clean water in the Church? Go to Confes- sion regularly. Receive every single Holy Communion be- lieving fiercely that this is the actual flesh of Jesus Christ Himself. Love your enemies. Become what you say you are. And you can have all the clean water you want, and the Church and the world will both be better places. Dr Philippa Martyr is a Perth-based historian, lecturer and researcher. She can be contacted at: Philip-
[email protected] Benjamin Conolly Philippa Martyr I wonder if [Black Lives Matter] applies to the owner, SheikhMansour, the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Presidential Affairs andMember of the Royal Family in the United Arab Emir- ates. The same UAE with the atrocious human rights record ...”