The Rite of Sodomy: Homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church. Volume I. Historical Perspectives from Antiquity to the Cambridge Spies.
New Engel Publishing, Export, Pennsylvania.
Paperback, 366 pages.
By Randy Engel.
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Reviewed by Gregory L. Jackson, PhD
Engel’s book will focus on the Roman Catholic Church in the second volume, which is still being finished. Delusional people think this book applies only to Catholics or those gay activists in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
WELS Hypocrisy
For example, Wisconsin Synod President Mark Schroeder has publicly criticized the ELCA for its approval of homosexual ordination. But Schroeder has done nothing about Martin Luther College (WELS) students uploading their own gay video to YouTube and promoting it with a Facebook page:
Party in the MLC - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kSdADOIG3Y –
was filmed as a frame by frame copy of
Party in the Fire Island Pines - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ezfk7s1NyY
The differences between the two videos are slight, except for a WELS student grabbing his crotch, in the outdoor scene with the slide, which appears again in another version in the outtakes at the end of the video. Both scenes would be enough to arrest the man for public indecency, but WELS thought he should be a Lutheran school teacher.
The MLC video came to my attention via a member of the synod, who was too disgusted to watch more than a few seconds. I posted it on my blog. The MLC students attack me for posting it and claimed in print (Wisconsin Lutheran College paper) that they had no idea they were copying a gay video filmed at a gay resort. They pulled the video but it was already appearing on the websites one would expect to find it. Next they posted a Facebook page – Bring Back Party in the MLC. The video was uploaded a second time to YouTube, and nothing has been done since that time.
LCMS Hypocrisy
The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod had a “study” posted on their website, a few years ago. Studies are a wonderful Lutheran tradition. Horrible ideas can be promoted without claiming any official actions will follow. Studies can appear and disappear without notice. This particular study was gayer than lavender hose, an Amen chorus to everything going on in ELCA. Homosexuals were more talented, loving, and sensitive than heterosexuals.
Randy Engel, Author
Randy Engel is a woman who began in the field of Viet Nam studies, working with refugees, starting in the mid-1960s. In 1970, she received the Distinguished Service Medal for “exceptional and meritorious service to Vietnam.”
She moved into pro-life issues and the destructive effect of sex education. She has published in many different Catholic periodicals. She found great resistance, even among conservatives, when moving into this area of research. She is a meticulous researcher and a fine writer. Fortunately, she spares us many details, although the section on Oscar Wilde contains enough facts to keep anyone from reading him again.
My Background
I attended Notre Dame and earned a PhD in theology in 1982. This gave me informal training in Roman Catholicism in America. Teaching and publishing have given me a broad historical background in the areas covered by Engel’s book.
E. Michael Jones was fired as a professor at the sister school, St. Mary’s across the road from Notre Dame, because he was pro-life.
He provided the information below in one of his published articles in Fidelity magazine.
One worship professor at Notre Dame “committed suicide.” He was a homosexual and an atheist. His homosexual atheist friend (also a professor of worship) became his spokesman post mortem. The dead atheist did not want a funeral, so Notre Dame gave him two. Evidence pointed to murder, but that would have been unpleasant, since the professor was seen hanging out with a biker leather gang. He left behind a bowl of melting ice cream. No one shoots himself when a bowl of ice cream is on the table.
History of Homosexuality
Engel has attempted an extensive history of homosexuality, as a prelude to the second volume on the Roman Catholic Church. Her thesis is - a homosexual network has taken control of her denomination, aided by the election of a homosexual pope. Massive cover-ups have protected homosexual offenders all over the world.
The only section lacking is one on the Muslim world. That would probably involve another volume by itself. The rapid increase of Muslims in the West, and their monetary influence on the media, will lead to additional propaganda efforts.
Engel has a detailed chapter about ancient Greece. Many people associate that era with unbridled homosexuality. The issues are more complicated. Societies set up rules for vice, such as excusing prostitution. Likewise, Greece had its rules, but they would not be appealing to the typical reader.
Engel unearths a wealth of valuable resources for those who want to pursue the topic. So much propaganda is being produced by gay activists that this book is a necessary counter to their claims.
Early Christianity
Much of what we value in the Western tradition has come from the Christian faith, where the Creation of the family by the Word was honored. Engel has many important quotations for anyone doing research on this topic.
I knew the game was up in the Lutheran Church in America when their national magazine (The Lutheran) published a critique of homosexuality (against natural law) and changed to active promotion of the agenda, which was officially started by Lutherans Concerned and funded by The American Lutheran Church. I was being interviewed at the Philadelphia seminary for a job when I heard seminary professors congratulate their colleague on his published critique.
As I wrote in another review, Carl Braaten shared that view. He wrote in his memoirs that every faculty member who disagreed with the gay was threatened into silence. His LSTC colleague from Seminex was arrested for soliciting a male policeman in a St. Louis park, and the Seminex faculty which trooped into their new location (Chicago) had already
The mainline academics are now providing a new history of the Christian Church, one which overlooks the very material Engel has reproduced.
Renaissance
Various factors led to an emergence of the Greek homosexual culture in Renaissance Italy. The Black Death was one, leaving devastating effects on the entire population. Savonarola campaigned against corruption and also against the abuse of teen-aged boys from the spread of homosexuality.
Engel has plenty of material about charges of homosexuality aimed at various Roman Catholic figures. She is even-handed about her sources and analytical about the facts known. Anyone can follow the debate from her chapter on the Renaissance, and read the many works she cites in the chapter. The footnotes are also illuminating. For instance, the note on Christopher Marlowe, the playwright, details reasons for charges against him and his mysterious death.
The Modern Secular State
Engel blames Protestantism for dividing the Church and hampering its authority, a claim diminished by what happened in the Medieval Church. As Luther observed, “People worshiped those cardinals as gods if they were satisfied with a woman.” Protestantism, led by Luther, established the parsonage family as the ideal, instead of holding up a vow of chastity that few could follow.
The loneliness created by the vows of Catholic religious has always fostered immorality rather than holiness. Ironically, the Catholic religious have elevated emotional tension by making normal relations a sin, so the closeness of the clergy enables them to cloak what they are doing.
Engel has observed what British histories often describe – homosexuality spread through the ease and luxury of the upper classes. They had the time, money, and upper class protection to allow it to happen.
Engel’s treatment of the Oscar Wilde scandal is a good example of her mastery of detail. She allows her research to show what actually happened, a picture contrary to the popular imagination. Wilde and his boyfriend engaged in the prostitution of minors to satisfy their whims and lusts. The father of “Bosy” taunted Wilde into suing him for slander, which was disproved by Wilde being examined in court. As the lawyers say, it is not slander if the charges are true. Wilde was perhaps protected from additional penalties because Bosy was engaged in the same crimes – using underage boys. Wilde went to prison, not entirely repentant, leaving a wife and children in shame. Wilde has become a modern homosexual hero with a fairly frank movie made in his honor.
Cambridge Spies
Those who read about government intelligence services will invariable run across the Cambridge spy ring, made up of homosexuals at the top of the British intelligence. They worked together to undermine Western governments while serving their Soviet masters. The five included Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, and perhaps John Cairncross. Each one of the five did enormous damage through their activities. Philby said he only worked for one intelligence service his entire life – the Soviet’s.
The Soviets took advantage of the decadence of the wealthy British and their American friends. The Profumo affair involved prostitution (Christine Keeler), British officials, and a doctor (Stephen Ward) who served as a pimp, party arranger, and abortionist. Ward, a homosexual, included Hugh Montgomery in his circle. Engel’s book closes with the charge that Montgomery engaged in a homosexual affair with Msgr Giovanni Montini, later Pope Paul VI (1963-1978). If true, the Soviets had a channel into the Vatican and the power to manipulate the pope.
I did a search for rumors about Pope Paul VI and found plenty of published material. The most significant, in my opinion, was his own public denial of homosexuality. This is the final paragraph from the Wikipedia article:
“Pope Paul VI caused considerable surprise in 1968 when, to the consternation of his aides, he publicly denied rumours of "scandalous behaviour". Though rumours had circulated periodically in anti-papal and anti-Catholic publications as to Paul's sexual orientation and possible homosexuality, with suggestions of a past relationship while he was an archbishop with a priest who had served as his secretary, when what Paul called these suggestions began to feature in some elements of the Italian media, he made the controversial choice of issuing a public denial. It was the first time in the modern era that a pope had commented in any way about his sexual identity.[120]” [Peter de Rossa, Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy (Corgi, 1989) p.538]
Goodbye Good Men is a good parallel study, showing that American Catholic seminaries have become recruiting grounds for homosexual priests. For many years, a few authors have tried to show Catholics that their church has been taken over completely. Efforts to reform the situation has been met with conservative denial and activist opposition.
Vast amounts of information are available, but both sides resist the conclusion. The conservative Catholics do not want to admit how badly corrupted Holy Mother Church has become. They do not want Protestant converts to be repelled by rumors and facts. The liberal Catholics and gay activists love their new-found freedom, which they are not going to surrender to their ecclesiastical enemies.
Audience
Any serious student of the modern church should read this volume and its upcoming companion. Few authors have the ability to research and discuss the vast amount of detail provided in The Rite of Sodomy. The topic is unpleasant but all around us, because many secular authorities and church authorities endorse the gay agenda, whether covertly or overtly.
Lutherans will find many parallel efforts among the synods. I visited Trinity Lutheran Seminary [ELCA] in Columbus in the 1980s, where I found materials provided to future pastors, about how to answer evasively the ordination committees when asked about their orientation. One suggested answer was, “I appreciate your concern about this issue and I agree with you about how important it is.” In 25 years the ELCA has moved from playing games to apologizing to all those excluded merely for being homosexual or lesbian.
The issue affects the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod. All three groups work closely with ELCA on a variety of religious projects. The agenda is always ELCA’s, because ELCA is the largest and richest of the four.
