Cruel Torments of the Devil

Transcript of exchange between Perez Hilton and Miss California USA Carrie Prejean at the Miss USA Pageant, Las Vegas, Nevada, 19 April 2009

Perez Hilton: "Vermont recently became the 4th state to legalize same-sex marriage. Do you think every state should follow suit. Why or why not?"

Carrie Prejean: "Well I think its great that Americans are able to choose one or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what, in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be between a man and a woman. Thank you very much."

There were four other contestants at that point but Perez Hilton knew what he was doing by saving that particular question for Carrie Prejean. He knew that she was a Christian and he wanted to put her under some pressure: Live TV, the desire to win, the desire to give the acceptable answer. He wanted to put her faith to a test - if she dodges the question, or equivocates, or agrees with him, he can exult in the knowledge that another Christian can be bought with fame and fortune, that faith isn't real and neither is God, and a flaming homosexual who mocks the Almighty is on the winning side.

She fumbled a bit, caught off-guard by the potent question but quickly realized that she was being ambushed and found her courage. With everything on the line, with victory so close, she gave not the answer that Perez Hilton wanted to hear but the answer that he and America needed to hear. She didn't attack him or homosexuals in general, but stated her case and said, "Thank you very much." Doing so cost her the crown she had worked so hard to win but Carrie Prejean can look herself in the mirror today knowing that her conscience is clear.

The crowd in the Planet Hollywood theatre booed. The title went to Miss North Carolina. Perez Hilton ranted hysterically on his blog, insulting Prejean with language both crude and revealing: For his fans, this is what he's really like. The left-wing press has excoriated Carrie Prejean for accepting breast implants provided by the Miss USA pageant, for posing for topless photos now splashed across the Internet, for appearing in a commercial supporting traditional marriage, for not going away broken and silenced. She has discovered how angry Satan can be when Christians oppose him.

While not diving for the gutter, Perez Hilton has expressed "disappointment" that Prejean "didn't leave her politics out" of her answer. He and his morally naked allies have smugly announced that Miss California USA represents all of that state and should be more inclusive, by which they mean that when Carrie Prejean leaves her politics out, their politics are left in and the millions of Californians who agree with her and who twice approved constitutional amendments have no right to be heard. But beyond beauty pageants and free speech lies a larger issue, one that the press ignores and Perez Hilton, in his malignant glory, doesn't comprehend: The reversal of order that is at the heart of Satan's war with God.

Let's say that tomorrow a Constitutional amendment is passed legalizing gay marriage throughout the United States. TV cameras would pan across throngs of homosexual couples queueing up at the courthouse, champagne bottles would pop all over the country, liberal politicians would give excited speeches about civil rights and liberty and lofty ideals, thousands more children would be adopted into the homosexual lifestyle. Then a little movement would be felt. Some chatter would race across the Internet, advocacy groups would be formed, money would be raised, more speeches about civil rights and liberty and lofty ideals. Bills would be introduced and lawsuits would be filed, and eventually, polygamy would be legalized. After all, if traditional marriage is no longer the standard, then why exclude polygamists? Then we would see similar demands by pedophiles, the North American Man-Boy Love Association, groups wanting to marry groups, siblings and so on, obliterating the traditional view of marriage until only a confused, chaotic mish-mash is left, reversing the institution that God established and which has sustained human civilization for 7000 years. With the decision to move the line having been made, there will exist no reason not to move it a hundred times and certainly not for some moral objection, and America will disintegrate. That's why Carrie Prejean spoke up and why buffoons like Perez Hilton persecute Christians like her.

There have been other buffoons and other persecutions. Read on:

Letter from Pliny the Younger, Governor of Bithynia-Pontus, to Trajan, Emperor of the Romans, 112 AD:

It is my practice, my lord, to refer to you all matters concerning which I am in doubt. For who can better give guidance to my hesitation or inform my ignorance? I have never participated in trials of Christians. I therefore do not know what offenses it is the practice to punish or investigate, and to what extent. And I have been not a little hesitant as to whether there should be any distinction on account of age or no difference between the very young and the more mature; whether pardon is to be granted for repentance, or, if a man has once been a Christian, it does him no good to have ceased to be one; whether the name itself, even without offenses, or only the offenses associated with the name are to be punished.

Meanwhile, in the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure: I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians; those who confessed I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment; those who persisted I ordered executed. For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished. There were others possessed of the same folly; but because they were Roman citizens, I signed an order for them to be transferred to Rome.

Soon accusations spread, as usually happens, because of the proceedings going on, and several incidents occurred. An anonymous document was published containing the names of many persons. Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ--none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do--these I thought should be discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians, but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all worshipped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.

They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food--but ordinary and innocent food. Even this, they affirmed, they had ceased to do after my edict by which, in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden political associations. Accordingly, I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.

I therefore postponed the investigation and hastened to consult you. For the matter seemed to me to warrant consulting you, especially because of the number involved. For many persons of every age, every rank, and also of both sexes are and will be endangered. For the contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the cities but also to the villages and farms. But it seems possible to check and cure it. It is certainly quite clear that the temples, which had been almost deserted, have begun to be frequented, that the established religious rites, long neglected, are being resumed, and that from everywhere sacrificial animals are coming, for which until now very few purchasers could be found. Hence it is easy to imagine what a multitude of people can be reformed if an opportunity for repentance is afforded.

Letter from Trajan answering Pliny the Younger:

You observed proper procedure, my dear Pliny, in sifting the cases of those who had been denounced to you as Christians. For it is not possible to lay down any general rule to serve as a kind of fixed standard. They are not to be sought out; if they are denounced and proved guilty, they are to be punished, with this reservation, that whoever denies that he is a Christian and really proves it--that is, by worshiping our gods--even though he was under suspicion in the past, shall obtain pardon through repentance. But anonymously posted accusations ought to have no place in any prosecution.

For this is both a dangerous kind of precedent and out of keeping with the spirit of our age.

In Pliny's day, it was a capital offense simply to be a Christian and that is where we are headed today. As long as there have been Christians, there have been people who hated them, whence Perez Hilton's vulgar rage, but someday the most important question that moron will ask will not be, "What do I think of Christ?" but rather, "What does Christ think of me?"

Good Riddance

So Arlen Specter is a Democrat again - big deal. For 28 years the man has had it both ways by getting huge support from the GOP during election season (like when the RNC supported him against conservative Pat Toomey in 2004 even when Specter had opposed President Bush's tax cuts) but voting whith the Democrats on stuff like the Obama stimulus package, illegal immigration and check-card voting for union elections. He's pro-abortion, pro-affirmative action and he joined John McCain's Gang of 14 four years ago that hijacked the review process for President Bush's judicial nominees. With friends like him, who needs enemies?

Sen. Specter admits that the political situation in Pennsylvania had the greatest influence on his decision. Mr. Toomey is mounting a serious challenge for Specter's seat and the senator believed that he would lose the GOP primary next Spring and, if he declared as an Independent like Joe Leiberman, the general election. Given that he doesn't want to retire, the only option left was to switch back to the Democrats he abandoned in 1965 and count on massive support from President Obama and the DNC next year which he's sure to get. So at least Senator Specter is honest enough to say that craven political survival drove his announcement and not some highfalutin philosophical reason like the tax policies of the Club for Growth.

The Democrats are exultant, of course. With Al Franken near to closing the deal in Minnesota, Specter's defection brings them a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate (at least on paper) and no real threat to their agenda through next year. They can run through every wild-eyed piece of legislation they've dreamed of submitting for the past forty years but which was simply too dangerous to consider until now: passage of the Kyoto Protocols, cap-in-trade limits on industry, mandatory union membership for every job, citizenship for illegal immigration, Federal legalization of gay marriage and euthanasia, outright government ownership of every major industry from airlines to real estate. The future is bright if you're a socialist now that Arlen Specter is on your side.

For the Republicans, Specter's betrayal is both a kick in the groin and an opportunity. They are weaker in the Senate than at any time since 1976 and have virtually no chance of even slowing down the radical agenda I described above, yet are closer to their conservative core. The country club Republicans who chafed at Ronald Reagan and who sneer at the NASCAR dads who voted for them have pushed the Party to the left for years, away from the principles that brought them victory after victory and toward bigger government, higher taxes and spending, acceptance of abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, illegal immigration and so on, blurring the distinction between Republicans and the Democrats they ostensibly opposed. These misguided blue bloods thought by emulating the liberals and differing in policy only by degree, they could avoid the bitter debates that are at the heart of American democracy, get along with their enemies and keep their jobs longer. However, as was demonstrated in the past two elections, becoming more like the Democrats only gave more power to the real Democrats, and as Dr. Phil is fond of saying, "How's that workin' for you?" The answer, of course, is disastrously. The American people want and deserve a real choice when they go to the polls, not two shades of gray. By abandoning the Republicans, Arlen Specter gives them a chance to rediscover the power of conservative ideas: Let's hope they take it.