Remembering the Transfiguration & slaughter....
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My Young Adulthood
Way back when I was a young adult and dinosaurs ?????? roamed the earth (circa, 1980 to 1985), I loved the mega pubs / dance clubs of Long Island's south shore. Foremost was OBI, the Oak Beach Inn. While I did not drink or dance, my twentysomething self thought the Oak Beach Inn to be one of the coolest spots on the planet.
Oak Beach is at the Eastern end of the same barrier island off Long Island as Jones Beach - 54 miles and an entire world away from midtown Manhattan.
Between Jones & Oak Beaches, there is a 13 mile ocean highway, which defined "desolate" for me. In the 1980s, one could easily miss "Gilgo" on that drive. That changed in the 2010s!
Gilgo Beach Murders
In 2010, Gilgo Beach and surrounding areas were discovered to be spots for heinous post-killing body dumping:
"For more than a decade, a string of unsolved killings [at least 11] known as the Gilgo Beach murders terrorized residents and confounded authorities on Long Island’s South Shore after a woman’s 2010 disappearance led investigators to find at least 10 sets of human remains and launched the hunt for a possible serial killer" (CNN, 7/15/2023).
A Long Island architect has been charged with three of the killings. Yet in some minds, he has already been tried and found guilty of barbaric atrocities. In addition to wishing him the worst imaginable earthly punishment, some have decided - on God's behalf (!) - that he also merits eternal damnation.
The Sanctity of Human Life
I believe in the sanctity of all human life from the very first moment of fertilization/conception till natural death. I am most especially bothered by assaults on innocent human life. As a weak human, I especially need God's grace to forgive.
I find it peculiar when I hear people who are not fervent in their own faith announcing candidates for Hell.
Left to our own devices, eternal damnation would be the best for which any of us could hope.
All of us desperately need God's love and redemption!
Joe Tevington is a proudly orthodox Catholic, a husband since 1986, a dad to two adult children, a grandpa to two, and a civil service retiree. He is a sign language fluent certified rehabilitation counselor with graduate degrees in deafness rehabilitation, religious studies/moral theology, & Christian counseling psychology, as well as a catechetical diploma and certificates in benefits planning and Catholic social ministry. He deeply appreciates Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life and the sanctity of the transmission of human life, as well as how they are to inform us in our apostolates and ministries.
On much lighter notes, he fancies himself to be the foremost authority on his native Brooklyn, when it comes to architecture, cinema, geography, history, Italian food, stick ball, stoop ball, or wiffle ball.
