Catholic Values in a Hostile Political Climate

The current administration in Washington continues to exhibit their commitment to their ideology at the expense of those they purport to help. To any clear thinking individual, it seems apparent that victims of human sex trafficking do not need condoms or other barrier birth control devices, sterilizations, or abortions. It seems intuitively obvious that these are an advantage to the perpetrators of these crimes and not to the victims. See article in the National Catholic Register.

The low income Americans who are buying into the current administration’s tactic of promoting class envy to push through their socialistic agenda need to study this action and determine whether the end result is really what is best for them and for America.

All of this is very serious; however, it pales in comparison to Obama’s position on the Catholic principles regarding Abortion, Artificial Birth Control, and Sanctity of Marriage. Let us all pray that Catholics will be true to their faith in the upcoming election (54% of us voted for Obama in the last election). Let us not continue to contribute to the moral decay of our Country regardless of the politics of it. Vote for LIFE.

According to a USA Today / Gallup poll, 92% of Americans believe in God.

Can this be true? If 92% of Americans truly believed in God would a large percentage of us (maybe a majority)

• Approve of abortion
• Approve of Homosexual lifestyles
• Approve of multiple sexual partners
• Approve of divorce on demand
• Approve of pornography

Obviously not; so what is going on here in America? 92% of us claim to believe in God, we are traditionally a Judo-Christian nation which means that our belief system has its roots in the bible (both the old and new testaments). The bible very clearly tells us, all of the above issues that we approve of are against God’s commandments and His will. (These issues are also condemned by virtually every religion)

So, are the 92% who say they believe in God lying? Do they actually not believe in God but say they do for some unknown reason? Do they actually believe in God but do not know these issues are against his will? Do they believe in God, know these issues are against his will, but also believe that God is so understanding and forgiving that we can have it both ways? We can disobey and dishonor God by doing our own wills in direct conflict of God’s will and He will forgive us in the end regardless of our regret or lack thereof?

If we truly believed in God; even those of us who think we are following His will most of the time, would we spend one second doing things contrary to His will? Would we not spend every waking moment trying to please Him who will be our final judge?

The most obvious answer to these questions is that most of us believe in a merciful and generous God who will forgive us in the end. But this raises the issue of a “Just” God. Like the biblical story of the rich man who ignored the poor beggar who laid outside of his door during his lifetime and did nothing to help him and when the rich man died and went to his eternal life he saw the beggar (Lazarus) in the lap of luxury and he himself was in torment (Luke 16:19-31) God is Merciful AND Just. Does it seem reasonable that God will treat those who sacrificed to please Him during this life the same as those who spent their lives pleasing themselves?

Maybe 92% of us need to rethink how we are living our lives and make some much needed adjustments.

In spite of the powerful abortion lobby, their puppets in congress, the executive branch, and the Supreme Court; the pro-life movement’s prayers and actions seem to be gaining ground.

More and more, people are becoming aware of the reasons for abortion and the reality of it. The abortion industry has been successful in its growth by concealing its true nature. They have operated on the theory of “out of sight, out of mind”; abortion has been presented as a nice safe clean medical procedure on women to remove an unwanted growth. This message has been beaten into Americans for 40 years and as long as the average person does not have to witness the actual abortion and its results they have been able to perpetuate the lie. If anyone raised an objection to abortion, its proponents would immediately launch into an argument about how legal abortion prevents the back alley abortionist with coat hangers and unclean instruments. Then they would launch into justification of millions of abortions because of a small number of rapes and life threatening illnesses of the mother. Now because of the efforts of pro-life groups the truth is coming out. The only thing making abortion legal did was greatly increase the number of abortions but the dirty instruments and unqualified abortionist have remained and increased. In the forty years since abortion was made legal it has grown into one of the most profitable businesses in the world; thousands if not millions of individuals derive their livelihood from the taking of the life of others born and unborn. Many have become extremely wealthy and many maintain power in our government by accepting blood money donations from this immoral industry.

Through the prayers and actions of the pro-lifers things appear to be changing and there is new hope for the unborn. Many Church leaders who have previously been silent are beginning to speak out against this atrocity. More and more new pro-life groups are becoming active in spreading the truth about the abortion industry. Groups such as;

• Priests for life – http://www.priestsforlife.org/images/index.aspx
• Knights of Columbus – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR4aXIqV98c
• Rachel’s Vineyard – http://www.rachelsvineyard.org/aboutus/ourstory.htm
• Silent No More – http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/

And many others have been working diligently for years to bring an end to the lies, the murder of innocents, and the destruction of the lives of the mothers, fathers, and families of the aborted.

The Knights of Columbus for instance has launched a program they call the “Ultra Sound Initiative”, this program provides through the contributions and fund raising efforts of the 1.8 million members Ultra Sound machines to pregnancy centers that do not currently have Ultra Sound capability. Surveys and polling have indicated that if a pregnant woman is considering an abortion and has an opportunity to see an Ultra Sound image of her baby, 90% of the time she “chooses” life.

For more information on process of how the abortion industry works, visit this website and obtain a copy of the movie “Blood Money” which the abortion industry has worked very hard at keeping out of the theaters http://bloodmoneyfilm.com/.

The more people become aware of the truth and horror of abortion the less they want to be involved in it; recently the pro-life movement was successful in bringing to the attention of the Ryder System, a group that had been leasing trucks to “Stericycle” a company that removes the dead babies from abortion clinics; that their trucks were being used for this purpose. As a result Ryder has stated that their trucks will no longer to be used for this purpose. See the news article here. http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=315189

One of the biggest challenges the pro-life groups currently face is the defunding of Planned Parenthood. This would be a tremendous win for the unborn; no longer could our government use our tax dollars to support Planned Parenthood and their evil mission. Once Planned Parenthood lost this money they could no longer feed it back to the campaigns of their supporters of abortion in congress. Obviously, this is not something the pro-abortion congress legislators want passed, so it remains an uphill battle, however, the House now supports this measure, in the next election it is critical that we remove all of those who continue to support abortion.

Todays Divine Office reading reminds us that the world leaders of today are no different than those in biblical times and our world suffers because of their failure to follow Christ.

Psalm 2
The Messiah, king and victor

It is I who have set up my king on Sion.
Why are the nations in a ferment?
Why do the people make their vain plans?
The kings of the earth have risen up;
the leaders have united against the Lord,
against his anointed.
“Let us break their chains, that bind us;
let us throw off their yoke from our shoulders!”
The Lord laughs at them,
he who lives in the heavens derides them.
Then he speaks to them in his anger;
in his fury he throws them into confusion:
“But I – I have set up my king on Zion,
my holy mountain.”
I will proclaim the Lord’s decrees.
The Lord has said to me: “You are my son: today I have begotten you.
Ask me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance,
the ends of the earth for you to possess.
You will rule them with a rod of iron,
break them in pieces like an earthen pot.”
So now, kings, listen: understand, you who rule the land.
Serve the Lord in fear, tremble even as you praise him.
Learn his teaching, lest he take anger,
lest you perish when his anger bursts into flame.
Blessed are all who put their trust in the Lord.

The left attempts to present themselves as a higher moral authority. They accuse conservatives of being unfeeling toward the poor, under privileged, illegal immigrants, homosexuals, other less fortunate groups of people and women in particularly. They promote more government entitlement programs in the name of their perceived more humanitarian compassion. They promote same sex marriage, they promote teaching our young (and everyone else) how to use contraceptives (and even pass them out) to allow sexual promiscuity and to (supposedly) avoid unwanted pregnancies; they insist that women should be able to have abortions on demand; they want open boarders for all comers regardless of immigration laws or past crimes. The left wants anyone who does not follow their insistence on how these groups should be treated to be labeled as haters; and have even gone to great lengths to get laws passed to fine and or imprison those who would even dare to speak out against their ideals. This includes especially conservative talk radio.

Are conservatives really insensitive to these groups and does the left walk the walk? Obviously not, but where does the truth lie? Considering myself a conservative and knowing many conservatives; the label of being insensitive or unfeeling toward these groups of people is totally false. The problem is not one group or the other (liberal or conservative) being deliberately and maliciously hostile to any of these groups of people, but one of differing opinions as to how one should deal with these issues. I know many conservatives and only a few liberal friends; most of my conservative friends donate their time, talent, and money to many charitable organizations and causes, most liberals I know think this is the governments job. The basic difference is the old adage is it better to “give someone a fish, or teach them to fish”?
Obviously liberals think it is best to give them a fish, conservatives think it is best to teach them to fish.

The proof that the conservative approach is the correct one is all around us and taught by eons of history. The problem starts with an apparent conclusion by liberals that God no longer exists or if he does exist he has left us to fend for ourselves and that the bible and Catholic (or any Christian) teaching is for fools. I am sure that many liberals will disagree with this statement and challenge that they too are Christian and go to church regularly. While I agree that many liberals go to church (even our President, vice president, and ex-speaker) the basic ideology of the liberal is the dismissal of Christian teaching (the bible) and the placement of the highest authority in the government. The bible very clearly and explicitly explains the evil of homosexual acts and abortion, yet liberals push these issues as normal and acceptable. Any claim by a liberal to Christianity while supporting these evils cannot any longer legitimately claim to be living a Christian life.

The proof is in the pudding; while liberals extol the insensitivity of conservatives they have become proficient in character assassination; anyone who dares to disagree with their ideology has their character viciously attacked, the liberal media will stop at nothing to dig up dirt on the offending individual and if they cannot find anything dirty enough they will invent something. One such individual who has been attacked in this manner is Sarah Palin; this is so contradictory to what the liberals say that it is amazing that they continually seem to get away with it. Liberals claim to be for the advancement of women, yet when a women (Sarah Palin) rises to high political recognition and runs for vice president of the United States; a women who has accomplished more in her life time than any of the pundits who constantly bombard her with unfounded claims of inaptitude, illegal activities, unacceptable family situations, etc.; because she is conservative and does not subscribe to their liberal ideology she is painted as incompetent, uncultured, and unfit for political office. This strategy has been used on numerous conservatives in the past, Dan Quayle, George Bush, Sr, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and more. If anyone could still be harboring a misconception that our main stream media is not biased, all they need to do is look at video clips of the gaffs made by George W. Bush during his 8 year administration and how they were played over and over and over again with lots of commentary, then compare this to the many more gaffs by our current liberal president and see if you can find any repeats or ridicules of them. It is impossible to go through this exercise and not come away acknowledging that our mainstream press is not only biased but biased to a ridiculous extreme. Those who continue to be fooled by this press (fewer and fewer every day) think Fox is biased because they at least attempt to be unbiased and by comparison Fox appears to be more conservative than they actually are.

Now, let me address this issue of which group (liberal or conservative) is more pro woman. Which would you consider more pro women?

1. A group that wants women treated as very special human beings that deserve respect, consideration, and not as sex objects; or a group that wants to distribute condoms so men can use women as sex objects.

2. A group that wants to maintain a respectable and holy institution of marriage; or a group that wants to change the institution into one of lust and sodomy.

3. A group that wants to subject women to abortion in order to provide a profit for Planned Parenthood, eliminate a temporary inconvenience for others, and a potential life time of trauma for the woman; or a group that wants to provide for the distressed woman and her unborn baby.

It is not difficult to determine which group fits where in the above scenarios’. The abortion industry has grown into one of the biggest plagues on the human race in our history. It has developed a life of its own. In spite of all of the evidence of not only the millions of babies that have been murdered in their mother’s womb, but the tremendous physical and emotional harm done to the women involved; a large number of our politicians are committed to and controlled by the abortion lobby. The abortion providers spend millions of dollars (much of it your tax dollars) every year to suppress legitimate and truthful information, spread their own mis-information, and to put and keep their political congress people in their seats there-by usurping our legitimate claim to our own representatives. If you wondered why your representative has not been representing you, this is the reason. It is time for America to wake up and to seek and find the truth so we are not fooled by the rhetoric used by these devious politicians to get elected and once in office are slaves to the abortion industry.

How many good Catholics and or other Christians who read this tend to reject all arguments for environmental concerns, social justice, and women’s rights? I have struggled with these issues; as I sit in our bi-monthly meetings of our Saint Vincent DePaul conference and hear the discussions about these issues I often find myself disagreeing or reacting negatively about these issues. What has happened? As I ponder this dilemma I begin to realize that it is not these issues I disagree with it is the warped view of them that has been caused by the high jacking of these issues by the far left and those who use these issues in an attempt to legitimize their ungodly agendas.

In their efforts to gain illicit power over people, these forces have twisted environmental issues into a “global warming” scare tactic enabling them to get laws passed restricting people’s freedoms and enabling them to gain greater control over the lives of the masses. They manufacture false claims that massive changes to our climate will occur in the near future unless we stop drilling for oil, and if we don’t stop burning coal to produce electricity, greenhouse gases will destroy the planet. They have caused people like myself who have always considered the care and maintenance of our earthly home a moral responsibility, to automatically reject every argument for environmental regulation. These forces flatly repudiate God’s design and plan for our earth; they place themselves in a position of claiming to know better what is good for us than our creator. They have changed God’s command to go forth, multiply and fill the earth to; thou shalt abort your unborn children.

They have twisted “social justice” to mean a welfare state. To these forces, every person should have equal wealth regardless of the effort invested. One who has worked hard and attained a comfortable level of wealth should be forced by legislative means into giving up a portion of his wealth and giving it to someone who has nothing and has earned nothing. The most egregious part of this is that those who are pushing for such laws also exempt themselves from these laws. This process is stripping productive people of their ability to voluntarily donate their resources to the needy because the government is confiscating their wealth before they can donate. Fortunately, from my prospective this has not happened to any large extent yet, most Catholic and Christian people I know still donate a substantial portion of their resources to various charities. However, the ability to do this will eventually be taken away if this trend continues. They have caused people like myself who donates money, time, and talent on a regular basis to cringe when I hear the phase “social justice”.

Now let’s discuss the worst violations of God’s law; women’s rights (abortion) and gay rights (same sex marriage). Advocates of these abominations have distorted the meaning of women’s rights and gay rights to mean that anyone who follows God’s law on these issues is a mean spirited individual who has no regard for women or gays. Nothing could be further from the truth, but truth is not one of the strong points for those whose only truth is relativism. They have attempted to (and in some cases already have) turned moral law upside down and passed laws they absurdly call hate crimes so anyone living according to God’s law and does not approve of abortion and same sex marriage is labeled a hater. And even worse than labeled can actually be placed in prison ( and we thought that religious persecution was a thing of the past). The massive amounts of money these forces have extorted from victims of abortion, corporations, labor union employees, etc. is used to fund campaigns of politicians who support their immoral agendas.

It is time for Americans to wake up and take their county back; these forces have been able to take a majority of our representatives away from us and have them work solely for them and their immoral agendas. The American electorate needs to become informed and ignore the propaganda being dumped on them by every media source and paid for by the moneys being extorted from victims of abortion, corporations, labor union employees, etc.

Many of the charities that we have supported for years have become complicit in these immoral agendas. It has become almost impossible to find well known charities to donate to that are not tainted with their involvement with organizations such as Planned Parenthood who are deeply involved in abortion for profit.

The list of companies who donate large sums of money (our money spent to buy their products and services) to Planned Parenthood, Charities who support Planned Parenthood and Gay rights organizations is staggering. These companies buckle to the threats of labeling them as homophobic or anti women’s rights if they do not get on their list of gay and women’s rights friendly companies. It is out and out extortion and these companies are going along with it in a big way. I have tried boycotting some of these companies but quite honestly the number of companies in this trap is so large it has become impossible to have any effect this way. The companies are more afraid of these groups than they are of losing business to a halfhearted boycott. What we need is a full blown defense to this onslaught and get the American voter informed with the truth about how we have been deceived. Hopefully, we can then start to replace the corrupt politicians that have fallen trap to this insidious cancer that threatens to destroy our country.

Link to article

Liberalism is killing our Church and our Country. These “Catholic” leaders are wrong in their charges against Boehner and their misguided thinking is why our culture is in decline. While they point their fingers at one of the few politicians that are legitimately attempting to correct the ills of our society they themselves want to dump the responsibility for helping the poor on the government instead of taking up their own crosses, rolling up their sleeves and going to work themselves. As Catholic leaders they should be setting the example for the rest of us; instead they continue to ignore the very real lessons of history and push our government more and more toward the disproven theory of providing fish instead of teaching people to fish.

More and more of our citizenry are becoming more and more dependent on the government for their livelihood and less and less able to fend for themselves; this is NOT charity. They bemoan tax breaks for oil companies instead of giving that money to the needy. They do not understand basic economy 101; oil companies are not being given anything by the government, the government is bleeding the oil companies of their money with taxes that the government is using unwisely. The oil companies are providing much needed jobs to people who can then provide for themselves and for the truly needy.

To do as these “Catholic” leaders demand of Boehner is to continue the destructive welfare system, continue to “encourage” people to look to the government for their livelihood, continue the destruction of the job creators in this country, and to continue the immoral saddling of our children and grandchildren with a debt that can never be repaid.

What these Catholic leaders should be doing is spreading the gospel of Christ and speaking out against  our immoral government and the legal abortion and declining morality of our lawmakers instead of encouraging more and expanded government of the same.