If You Want to Be Catholic, Tony Blair, Be Catholic

My brother-in-law, "Dave", is a bartender and a very good one. He has been a bartender ever since he was in his twenties. Not only does he enjoy it, but has enjoyed a certain amount of notoriety for his "flipping" skills and creation of new drinks, much to the delight of his customers. In the same year that my husband I were married, he also married. The woman he married was a nurse who eventually went back to school to become a lawyer. It wasn't long after that she started to complain about Dave's "lack of ambition." She felt he was "capable of so much more" and started to push him toward getting a job in an office.

I knew Dave enjoyed being a bartender and would loathe working in an office. I told my husband: She fell in love with a bartender. She knew what she was getting into and now she wanted him to change. I thought it was not only arrogant, but selfish and short-sighted. 

I feel the exact same way right now about former British P.M. Tony Blair and his wife.

Tony Blair converted to Catholicism in 2007. I am certain he was presented with a catechism but cannot be certain about the type of spiritual formation he received (or his wife). At any rate, just two years after his conversion, they feel it is their duty to tell the Catholic Church that they've got it all wrong on homosexuality and condoms. In fact, Tony Blair said this:

"Actually, we need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of evolving attitudes becomes part of the discipline with which you approach your religious faith," Blair said in an interview published in Attitude, a magazine aimed at gays.

Tony Blair Criticizes Vatican Attitude Toward Gays

"Concept of evolving attitudes," Mr. Blair? I'd give anything to have ten minutes with him. My first question would be: Did you understand the church's position on homosexuality according to the Bible and the catechism? My second question would be: Do you understand that what God declares and nature confirms, is an incontrovertible truth that cannot be changed? And if you understand the concept of an unchanging nature - what, pray tell, does "evolving attitudes" have anything to do with it?

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Period.

Tony Blair's position (which just may change next year, you never know) causes me to wonder if he understands the nature of God. God doesn't change according to the winds of popular opinion. He doesn't bend to the wishes of a sinful world. He has created a natural order which includes procreation between a man and a woman, and life only springs forth from that union. God is all about life.

But what really irritates me is that Tony Blair and his wife aren't alone. There are many who convert to Catholicism and then suddenly, once received in the church, want to change whatever they think is unnecessary or outdated. My question to them is: if you didn't like it before you became a Catholic, you shouldn't have converted. I've watched even those born into Catholicism complain about the "women priest" issue. My opinion is the same to them: you know what the church teaches and if you don't agree with it - leave.

It isn't that difficult to do. There are plenty of churches that allow women to be ordained and welcome practicing gays. Maybe, Mr. Blair, that is where you and your wife belong.