Leading the Parade into Madness

Political leaders celebrate decadence while treating faith as a threat

If the Canadian Prime Minister wants to consort with grown men wearing BDSM dog suits, well then that is his right.

This is the West, after all.

People are free to identify as they wish and to celebrate whatever, erm, tickles their fancy.

Dressing as a leather-clad Labrador isn't on my bucket list. But hey … each to their own.

The question isn’t whether adults can wear dog masks. The question is whether it’s healthy that a nation’s leader eagerly celebrates it.

Because let’s not pretend the gentleman in the leather hood is at Gay Pride to celebrate his love of WeetBix. Everyone knows exactly what the costume represents.

Yet somehow we’re expected to applaud as if it’s an expression of profound human dignity rather than something that, until about five minutes ago in historical terms, would have prompted friends to quietly suggest professional help.

Perhaps I’m just old-fashioned.

Then again, I suppose it could be worse.

Islamists could conquer the West and ban Pride marches altogether.

What fascinates me isn’t the leather. It’s the applause.

There is something deeply unsettling about Western leaders enthusiastically celebrating what previous generations - left, right and centre - would have regarded as public indecency.

Merely asking whether this represents cultural decline is now considered more offensive than the spectacle itself.

That’s modern morality in a nutshell.

The only remaining sin is questioning the new virtues.

Take Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

He happily marched in Toronto Pride, posed with half-naked fetish enthusiasts and even encouraged the crowd to spray him with water - or at least I sincerely hope it was water.

Yet Toronto’s recent Walk for Israel?

Apparently that was a bridge too far.

One event was a photo opportunity.

The other, too controversial.

Mark Carney at last year’s Pride Festival

If that doesn’t tell you something about the hierarchy of modern virtues, nothing will.

This inversion of morality is everywhere. And it’s not talked about anywhere near enough. Probably because even talking about it is so dangerous.

Look at Major League Baseball.

When a handful of players wrote Bible verses on their Pride-themed caps, they were accused by critics of “desecrating” LGBTQ apparel.

I found the accusation of “desecration” fascinating.

To desecrate something, it first has to be sacred.

And there, almost accidentally, the game was given away.

The rainbow has become holy. The Bible has become the blasphemy.

Some think that’s progress. Others differ. Can we at least admit that’s what’s happening and discuss the long term affects?

Our civilisation is rearranging its moral furniture at remarkable speed, and anyone who points out the renovation is treated as though they’ve committed the only unforgivable offence: noticing.

Nowhere is this inversion clearer than in New York, where a hospice for terminal cancer patients is in danger of being shut down unless the Catholic staff bow to the new religion of Woke.

The sisters provide palliative care free of charge because their Catholic faith teaches them that every human life possesses inherent dignity.

Remarkably, that same faith is now considered the problem.

The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne and The Servants of Relief for Incurable Cancer face jailed or deregistered unless they bow to gender ideology

Unless they comply with New York City’s gender identity regulations, the hospice faces crippling fines - and potentially closure.

The sisters are required to use preferred pronouns, even when speaking about patients who aren’t present.

They must permit biological males identifying as women into female rooms and bathrooms.

They must undergo LGBTQ training.

They must display notices throughout their Catholic hospice affirming the city’s gender ideology.

Refuse, and the penalties begin. Persist, and fines can climb to thousands of dollars. Eventually, the hospice itself could be shut down.

Pause for a moment and appreciate the extraordinary moral calculus.

Activists would apparently rather a hospice caring for terminally ill cancer patients cease operating than permit the possibility that someone might be addressed by the wrong pronoun.

And they insist they occupy the moral high ground?

The nuns’ faith inspired them to spend their lives caring for the dying. Now that very faith is portrayed as dangerous.

Not because they refuse to care. Because they refuse to lie.

That is the defining feature of our age. Not merely changing moral standards. Every civilisation does that. It’s the complete inversion of them that is unique to our time.

Vice is rebranded as virtue. Conviction becomes intolerance. And compassion is measured not by feeding the hungry or comforting the dying, but by affirming the latest ideological orthodoxy.

And increasingly, Western leaders aren’t merely tolerating this inversion. They’re leading the parade.

Quite literally.

We do, indeed, live in interesting times.

The question is whether future generations will remember them as enlightened - or insane.