This week on Register Radio, Jeanette De Melo talks with author Robert Reilly about his new book Making Gay Okay: How Rationalizing Homosexual Behavior Is Changing Everything. In the second half of the show, Dan Burke discusses serving the poor and disenfranchised with the director of Martha’s Village and Kitchen, Magdalena Andrasevits.

Robert Reilly and Making Gay OK

Robert Reilly is a writer and senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council (since 2008). He was Senior Advisor for Information Strategy (2002-2006) for the US Secretary of Defense, after which he taught at National Defense University. He was the director of the Voice of America (2001-2002) and served in the White House as a Special Assistant to the President (1983-1985). A graduate of Georgetown University and the Claremont Graduate University, he has written widely on "war of ideas" issues, foreign policy, and classical music.

Reilly spoke about the increasing acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle.“If you base your life upon something that’s wrong, such as the act of sodomy, you have to invert reality in order to justify it and live with your own conscience. Now, that requires the universalization of rationalization. In other words, it’s not enough for you and your confreres to say it’s okay, you have to get everyone to do it,” Reilly said. He pointed out that anyone who “holds out” threatens the “integrity of your rationalization” and may “call you back to your conscience.”

Reilly maintains that these are the reasons why this is the “new norm” in American society. The “last man standing,” he said, is the Catholic Church, which is why the Church has become the object of attack and vitriol.

People have also been rationalizing heterosexual misbehavior too, Reilly pointed out, since the 1960s and the sexual revolution. It’s become a “if you rationalize my misbehavior, I’ll rationalize your misbehavior” paradigm. He called this a “self-reinforcing dynamic.”

“Everyone who is living within a rationalization of this kind,” Reilly said, “understands that they’re all interdependent.” Once you start raising the questions about the unitive and procreative nature of human sexuality, you are not only affecting those in favor of homosexual unions. The rationalizations for heterosexual misbehavior are under threat too.

Reilly pinpointed the acceptance of contraception as the start of the unraveling of our sexual ethics. “It’s very hard to see where the barrier is between the acceptance of contraception and the approval of homosexual behavior,” he said. 

“The first thing we have to do,” Reilly maintains, “is tell the truth and refuse to comply with this new rationalization.” He points out that this will come with a high price. One person said, Reilly noted, that “to speak out against this issue is a career killer.”

“This truth, if it’s held, will lead people back to the consideration of the fundamental nature of human sexuality and how its use properly leads to human flourishing in the family,” and we can make this case just through logic and reason, Reilly says. In his book, he does not use any appeal to religion.

Science has been overturned by force, and Reilly explains how. 

Read more about and order Making Gay Okay at the Ignatius Press website.

Magdala Andrasevits and Martha’s Village and Kitchen

A native of Redondo Beach, Magda did her undergraduate work at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, then earned a Master of Public Administration degree with emphasis on health-care services and non-profits from the Unviersity of Missouri-Kansas City.  She moved to the Coachella Valley eight years ago.  

She worked from home for Icon Clinical Research, based in Dublin, Ireland, until the realization that she had a strong desire to become more involved in her own community.  Andrasevits was named Executive Director of Martha’s Village and Kitchen on August 1.

Martha’s Village and Kitchen serves around 6,000 homeless folks, Andrasevits said, in Riverside Valley. Martha’s Village offers not only meals, but also services such as case management to help individuals get their G.E.D., job interview training, children’s services, health care, classes, and much more.

“It’s really a comprehensive facility in which we’re trying to…provide that [help] through services and hope to ensure that we’re doing what we can to get them back on their feet,” Andrasevits said. 

There are about 300 people who are served a meal daily; Andrasevits said that they serve 250,000 meals a year. Anyone in the community can walk through their doors and have a nutritious, tasty meal every day of the year.

In addition to the people who come to eat, there are people who stay at Martha’s Village. These residents have no place to live. They are taught through the programs and services so that they can succeed on their own. There are addiction recovery services and support.

“We collaborate with the community,” Andrasevits said, so that if Martha’s Village can’t help, they can refer to an organization that can.

Andrasevits shared about Jackie, who is now a case manager, who came to Martha’s Village with her children. She had been an addict since she was a teen. Thanks to Martha’s Village, Jackie experienced a transformation and can now not only help other people, but relate with those who come in for help and support.

To support the work of Martha’s Village and Kitchen financially, you can give online or call 760-347-4741.

Dan Burke wrote about Martha’s Village on his Register blog and Joseph Pronechen highlighted Martha’s Village in a piece on the corporal works of mercy at the Register.

Listen to this week’s show online or on your mp3 player.