Catholic values in a hostile political climate

Christianity has been split by the various denominations since the reformation in the middle ages. Even the Catholic Church has been split between Rome and the Eastern orthodox Churches since the sixth century. In spite of the efforts and desires of most Church leaders to bring all Christianity back together, these divisions remain. With the new challenges placed on the Christian community by the advancing secular world and the continuing attacks on Christianity, will this be the catalyst that finally starts the movement of bringing Christ’s Church back together?

Unfortunately, there are still a majority of Catholics who do not believe or support the Catholic Church’s teaching of Humanae Vitae. This is largely because they do not understand the truth of this teaching. Whether they do not understand because of a lack of information from the Church leaders, they have just not applied themselves to learning their faith, they have been brainwashed by the secular media, or a combination of all of the above; the fact is they (we) need to reexamine our position on this important truth and become supportive of it.

One cannot watch and absorb the content of the video linked below without realizing the truth of Humanae Vitae. This deplorable situation started with Catholics and others accepting contraception as an acceptable form of birth control. This seemly simple step (in the mind of some Catholics) opened the door to all kinds of problems as was predicted by Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Humanae Vitae. Indeed all of these problems have manifest themselves since that most regrettable period in the 1960’s. The separation of sex and reproduction has started a chain of events that seems unstoppable and according to the linked video is indeed unstoppable at this point. While this may mean the end of ours and many cultures in the coming decades, it is not too late to turn around our own attitudes and actions in this direction. We need to get the word out to all people of good will to quit promoting contraception, abortion, and all sin related to attacks upon the family unit. This is our minimum responsibility to our future generations.   

Please watch the video at the link below and pass this post to all of your contacts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU

It happened to St Paul, why not Obama? It would be hard to find any American President who has done more to undermine Christianity in this Country then our current President. St Paul also undermined Christians in his time until his eyes were opened by a sudden divine intervention.  If it were up to us, from our limited knowledge of God’s will, we would like to see a similar thing with Barack Obama; however, God may have a different plan for Obama. One thing is certain; Barack and this period in history are but a blink of an eye in God’s plan. The bible and human history are filled with King’s, President’s, Prime Ministers, Caesar’s, or whatever they are called in their small period of history that they either follow God’s law or think themselves as god’s.  One merely needs to look to this well documented history to know which is the correct path.  

In spite of the high pedestal that the left and the main stream media have placed Obama on; he is merely human like all of us. He will have his short life in this world and then return to dust. His legacy unless he changes directions, will be like that of his likeminded predecessors – and this will not be like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or even John Kennedy. This current phase of selfish “if it feels good do it” and Government promises to fill all of our desires is a sham that should be easily understood and avoided.  We all know from personal experience that God has built into our human nature and the current world in which we live an imperfect life. This is obviously because as Jesus has promised, our true happiness is our reward for living our life in this world has he has demonstrated. We think something will make us happy, however, after we attain it we desire something more. If we deny ourselves something such as a favorite dessert for some period of time, when we again allow ourselves to partake of that which we denied ourselves, it somehow is much more satisfying. God does not expect or allow perfect happiness in this present life. This SHOULD be obvious to everyone. No one has ever attained perfect happiness in this world or escaped death except Jesus. Why would we not follow him instead of Obama?

We need government, I am not advocating civil disobedience or disrespect for our leaders, however, as Christ said “give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s”. This is contrary to the message we are currently getting from our government; Obama, seems to be saying give everything to the government, leave God out of this, and we will take care of everything. I don’t know about the rest of you, however, I am not comfortable with that. I put more trust in God than I do Obama.

For those who have not yet seen this turn in our government and do not believe those of us warning of impending problems for Christians; read some of the following quotes and recent actions from our leader;

“We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation.” Instead, he said, “We are a nation of citizens”, essentially assigning fealty to ‘the state’ over fealty to God.

He appointed a gay-rights activist to the federal government’s faith-based initiative. Said activist described Pope Benedict XVI and certain Catholic bishops as “discredited leaders.

He has filled his cabinet with anti life pro choice anti religion people

“…I will stand with them [Muslims and Arabic Immigrants] should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.”

“Therefore, the Bible isn’t common ground for all Americans.”

“Therefore, the Bible can’t be the template for how we govern.”

“We must base our laws on the only sacred text that all Americans worship: the U.S. Constitution.”

He must be speaking here of the Constitution according to the interpretation of the far left, because he seems to have no more respect for the Constitution has he has for the bible.

For a further understanding of what we face please read the article below is a reprint of an article by Nancy Morgan a columnist and news editor for RightBias.com.  

While speaking in Ankara, Turkey this week, President Obama made an astonishing proclamation. He claimed, “We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation.” Instead, he said, “We are a nation of citizens”, essentially assigning fealty to ‘the state’ over fealty to God. The world listened, and nodded.

Back home in the U.S., Newsweek editor Jon Meacham welcomed The End of Christian America: “The decline and fall of the modern religious right’s notion of a Christian America creates a calmer political environment and, for many believers, may help open the way for a more theologically serious religious life.”

I guess its settled. God is now outdated, at least among our political and media elite. In their world view, what they sneeringly call the religious right is now merely a fringe group. America itself has evolved to a higher plane. A more progressive plane, if you will.

The election of Barack Obama has ushered in a new era in the war for hearts and minds in America. Obama, representing the left, believes that man, not God, is omnipotent, thus paving the way for man (Obama) to take control of every facet of life in America. Obama and the government know best. They are now in charge.

 President Obama is asking for your blind faith, the faith usually reserved for God. Without any record of achievement, he asks that you believe in him, that you follow his dictates. That you allow him to lead us from the wilderness.

 What Obama is doing has been done before. Successfully. In the former Soviet Union, churches operated only with permission of the state. In China, the crackdown continues on underground churches. The ’state’ knows it must20have supremacy over God in order to effectively rule (subjugate) its citizens.

 Pol Pot knew this. Lenin knew this. Mao Tse Tung knew this. Any dictator who conquers a country through force knows this. And Obama knows this.

 In order for the state to be supreme, fealty to God, to family and to communities, must be replaced with fealty to the state. This strategy is now being implemented in America, with increasing success.

The traditional family, the backbone of our nation, is being redefined as we speak. The institution of marriage is being undermined by the creeping acceptance of gay marriage. Faith in God is being replaced with faith in Mother Earth.

Its no mistake that the Obama administration is jumping aboard the environmental bandwagon. They recognize the basic human desire to believe in a cause or ideal greater than ourselves.

By making the environment the new religion, all those higher feelings may be directed and manipulated by the state. And all that money, formerly called tithing, may now be directe d towards supposed efforts by the government to ’save the planet.’ In other words, God can’t save the planet, only man can.

Liberalism frees man from pesky moral restraints and abolishes sin in favor of  the celebration of self. Guilt may now be assuaged by advocating for environmental purity. Best of all, total redemption is available for those who care enough to become ‘carbon neutral.’

In order for this to work, government has to get God out of the way. And they’re doing a bang-up job. The ACLU has terrorized cities across the country with threats of lawsuits for allowing the barest hint of religion into state policy.

The secularist media portrays anything smacking of Christianity as totally beyond the pale. Newspapers, magazines and television are of one mind, depicting any show of faith in God as a fringe mentality, as unseemly as picking one’s nose in public. 

God is now passe, at least according to those elites who set the agenda in our country. Environmentalism is the new religion for all right thinking people. And if you don’t agree, well, it doesn’t matter. Obama won, haven’t you heard? He has claimed a mandate, and, so far, no one is challenging it. We voted for it. We got it.

Today’s news item is proof that God still lives in the hearts and minds of many faithful people. Mary Ann Glendon is obviously more concerned for our Country and Church than for personal glory. Indeed a rare thing in today’s world.

Ms Glendon released to the press this morning her letter declining Father Jenkins invitation to the Notre Dame commencement to receive the Laetare metal

Text of letter can be found here:

http://www.firstthings.com/blog/2009/04/27/declining-notre-dame-a-letter-from-mary-ann-glendon/

The Laetare Medal is an annual award given by the  University of Notre Dame  in recognition of outstanding service to the Roman Catholic Church and society. The award is given to an American Catholic layperson “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity.” First awarded in 1883, it is the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics. The medal is an external award which can be given to a person from outside the University of Notre Dame. It is named the Laetare Medal because the recipient of the award is announced in celebration of Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent.

Link to Catholic Citizens post – Killing the Consititution Obama style.

Please write or call your Senators and ask them to fight this ploy…..

http://catholiccitizen.stblogs.com/2009/04/27/killing-the-constitution-obama-style/

We must stop believing that we have out grown the knowledge of our forefathers and the teachings of scripture. We need to understand that right and wrong do not change with time. The secular complaint of the Catholic Church being “out of date” and that it and the Popes need to adapt to the immorality of the current society is ridiculously absurd.  If reasonable people would stop the emotional response for a long enough period to use logic to study history they would understand that we are not as smart as we think. Many prior civilizations have made the same mistakes we are making now; ancient Rome being a classic example.  Our forefathers obviously remembered this during our country’s founding; we desperately need to relearn the lessons of our forefathers and most of our leaders since then;

Quotes from Newt Gingrich book “Rediscovering God in America”

During the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Benjamin Franklin (often considered one of the least reli­gious of the Founding Fathers) proposed that the Convention begin each day with a prayer. As the oldest delegate, at age eighty-one, Franklin insisted that “the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the Affairs of Men.”

Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore, who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure, which denounces against the wicked, the eternal misery, and insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundations of morals, the best security  for the duration of free governments.

                                                                   Charles Carroll

“Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free.”

Inscription on the Jefferson Memorial –

   “I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all of this Book upon reason that you can, and the balance by faith, and you will live and die a better man.”

                                                                   Abraham Lincoln

0 Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but a fleeting moment, let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.

Franklin Roosevelt

I believe that faith and religion play a critical role in the political life of our nation-and always has-and that the church-and by that I mean all churches, all denomi­nations-has had a strong influence in the state.

And this has worked to our benefit as a nation. Those who created our country-the Founding Fathers and Mothers-understood that there is a divine order which transcends the human order. They saw the state, in fact, as a form of moral order and felt that the bedrock of moral order is religion… .

Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

Ronald Reagan August 1984

“The real fire within the builders of America was faith—faith in a Provident God whose hand supported and guided them: faith in themselves as the children of God…faith in their country and its principles that proclaimed man’s right to freedom and justice.”

                                                Dwight D. Eisenhower

“The rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God”

John F. Kennedy

And this one doesn’t sound much like the democratic platform anymore;

“Ask not what your Country can do for you; rather ask, what you can do for your country”

John F. Kennedy

Sounds like we have (temporarily I hope) lost the wisdom of these great leaders of our past. Let us never forget their inspiration and let us pray for the return to this truth.

S.270 Aid for pregnant women

While is seems unlikely we will in the short term convince those supporting abortion that Humanae Vitae and Catholic Church teaching on the sanctity of human life is the key to a better society, there is a small glimmer of hope that we can come together on one small step for the safety of some future people that may otherwise have been aborted.

Democratic Senator Lincoln Davis of Tennessee first introduced H.R. 6145 in the 109^th Congress in 2006. It became bogged down in typical bureaucracy and the 109^th Congress closed without taking action. Sen. Robert Casey (D) Pennsylvania reintroduced the bill as S.2407 Dec 4^th 2007 in the 110^th Congress, again the bill died on the floor. Now Senator Lincoln Davis has reintroduced the bill to the current congress as S.270.  According to the “Washingtonwatch.com” website the current polling for this legislation is 23% for and 77% against.  I have to believe that those opposing it do not understand its purpose. Many tax payers are so over burdened with taxes that they just say “no” to everything. This bill however should be passed with all speed. Please let your representatives know that you want them to insure this bill passes. The mainstream media as always is silent on this important issue. Any issue that does not cause dissent is instantly dismissed. I could not even find any discussion about this bill on blogs or news sites from either side of the abortion issue. Unless we make this bill more visible and inform pro life (and pro choice) people to get behind it; it will also face the same fate as H.R. 6145 and S.2407.

Please check out information on this important legislation and pass the word to all you can to support it. Most importantly, Send emails, letters, and fax’s to all of your representatives.

U.S Bishops’ Pro-Life Chief Praises Democrats http://www.usnews.com/blogs/god-and-country/2009/04/24/us-bishops-pro-life-chief-praises-democrats-abortion-reduction-bill.html

Casey Editorial: Aid for pregnant women key to fewer abortions

http://www.scrantontimes.com/articles/2009/03/29/editorial/guest_columnists/sc_times_trib.20090329.d.pg4.tt29casey_s1.2404232_gue.txt

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops – Office of Domestic Social Development

http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/projects/2008PWSA.pdf

Cardinal Rigali Praises House Re-Introduction of ‘Pregnant Women Support Act,’ Urges Co-Sponsorship

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20090424/pl_usnw/cardinal_rigali_praises_house_re_introduction_of__pregnant_women_support_act___urges_co_sponsorship

Casey Reintroduces Pregnant Women Support Act

http://casey.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=f4577a46-d28f-42ca-a356-e9dde9d5d5db

The bill (For some reason this link does not always work, if you have trouble with it try to copy and paste the link into your browser.)

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.270:

S. 270, The Pregnant Women Support Act

Take action

http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/111_SN_270.html

H.R. 6145 Pregnant Women Support Act 109^th congress 2005-2006

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-6145

S. 2407, The Pregnant Women Support Act

110^th congress 2007-2008

·         This item is from the 110th Congress (2007-2008) and is no longer current. Comments, voting, and wiki editing have been disabled, and the cost/savings estimate has been frozen.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-2407

Contributors to charitable organizations should carefully study that organization prior to donating or supporting them. Many well meaning charitable organizations that may have started with high moral standards; have fallen victim to the massive left wing forces that are pushing to change our Christian Judah culture to one of secularism. These forces obviously believe that for them to be successful they must undermine many Christian Judah firmly held beliefs. Among these beliefs that are currently under attack are; Sanctity of human life issues such as abortion, euthanasia, and traditional marriage.

One should watch in particularly for any association between the charitable organization one is considering support for and Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a not very well disguised organization in the forefront of pushing the culture of death on our nation.  Planned Parenthood has been very successful in associating themselves with many previously legitimate charitable organizations. Once one of these previously legitimate organizations becomes associated with Planned Parenthood, one cannot know that their well intentioned donations will not end up funding Planned Parenthood and their sinister work of ending the short sacred life of millions of our unborn citizens. Planned Parenthood has made a very successful and profitable business of collecting donations from ill informed or misdirected individuals, organizations, your tax dollars, and also charging their unsuspecting victims for killing their babies. This all goes on under the noses of us all because we have – God help us -for too long looked the other way.

This abortion mill has become so ingrained into our society that many have become numb to it. I have spent many hours communicating with supporters of pro choice politicians attempting to make them see the error of their support and I have found that most of these individuals are so deep in their denial that they absolutely refuse to learn about what abortion really is. They openly admit to not allowing any information about how abortions are performed to be presented to them. In their minds ignorance is bliss. Whether or not these individuals realize it, they are condoning it by their silence.

The truth about Planned Parenthood – link to

http://www.traditionalvalues.org/pdf_files/TVCSpecialRptPlannedParenthood.pdf

Susan G. Komen big supporter of Planned Parenthood – Links to 

http://www.lifeissues.org/AbortionBreastcancer/komen/master_report.pdf     

http://abortion-not.org/komenbclink.htm

Unicef Calls for Legal Abortion in Dominican Republic – Link to

http://www.c-fam.org/publications/id.1118/pub_detail.asp

 Please don’t misunderstand me, I encourage charitable contributions to worthy charities and there are plenty of good ones out there. Just know how your contributions are being used.

How many of us prolife Catholics were afraid of a Hillary Clinton Presidency one year ago? Most of us now would welcome that versus what we have now. Yes, Hillary was certainly not prolife and was in favor of continuing the tragedy of abortion, however, as we have so painfully discovered, there are degrees of support for abortion. The President we now have not only wants to continue the current laws permitting abortion; he wants to make abortion more accessible to the poorly informed couples who seek abortions.   

The irony for Hillary (and us) is that she was such an outspoken critic of the imaginary “vast right wing conspiracy” (I guess that term was given to us prolife people; who if we were a conspiracy, we were pretty inapt at achieving our goals); and it was the vast “left” wing conspiracy that kept her from being our current President.

It was the enormous resources of the radical left that turned on Hillary in favor of Obama that removed her from the front runner for the next democratic nominee. In particular George Soros and his support for “moveon.org” and other far left activist groups. They were highly successful in convincing many well intentioned Americans that they were for the poor. And they further convinced those Americans that this was more important than the protection of our unborn future generations. Both of these things were obvious lies; a very sad commentary on the gullibility of many American voters.

As undesirable as it was one year ago to think of a Hillary Presidency, oh what a step forward it would be now!  The ironic thing is now we who consider all human life sacred are labeled “racist” because we do not support a President who does not consider all Human life sacred, regardless of his ethnic background. Are the racist those who support equality of all human life or those who chose to use race as a wedge to separate us? What separates us is “right” and “wrong” not race, homosexuality, or political party.  

What is wrong with the thinking behind the following quotes?

Keith Lewis, executive director of California’s Miss USA operations, said in a statement released to Hilton that “religious beliefs have no place in politics in the Miss CA family.”

Unfortunately this anti Christian mantra has permeated the mindset of many basically good people including many Christians and Catholic’s. Pawns of the devil have devised a clever scheme to drive Christ out of our everyday lives by inventing a separation of Church and state that was never intended by our founding fathers. When Mr. Lewis states that “religious beliefs have no place in politics in the Miss CA family”; he means that “Christ” has no place in politics. Exactly where does Mr. Lewis think Christ (or his term religion) belongs? I guess according to these builders of destruction; religion is okay in Church on Sunday, however, it should be left there so we can get on with living a nice fun immoral life the rest of the time.

More quotes from the left;

Now Britney (Spears) has said she disagrees with the beauty queen’s stance, and has given her thoughts on the issue.

The US singer wrote on her Twitter page: “Love is love! People should be able to do whatever makes them happy!”

Meanwhile, Hannah Montana star (Miley) Cyrus has also entered the debate and insists that Jesus loves people of all sexualities equally.

On her Twitter page, Cyrus said: “Jesus loves you AND your partner and wants you to know how much he cares!

“That’s like a daddy not loving his lil boy cuz he’s gay and that is WRONG and very sad! like i said everyone deserves to be happy.”

It is a very clever ploy of the devil and is explained by Saint Augustine in an earlier post on this blog  http://gkroeger.stblogs.com/2009/04/17/actions-are-not-alway-what-they-seem/ , in order for this ploy to work they must use half truths and attempt to give themselves the high moral ground. Take Ms Cyrus’s comment that Jesus loves people of all sexualities equally. True statement, however, it does not complete the thought. Does Jesus approve of the homosexual behaviour? When we as parents or children do something wrong that offends the other, does that mean we stop loving them? Obviously not, does it mean we approve of their actions? Again obviously not.

Or Ms. Spears comment that people should be able to do whatever makes them happy. Oh really? Sounds good on the surface doesn’t it, however, if Ms. Spears would think just a little deeper, does she really think that someone else should be able to punch her in the face if it makes them happy?

As mentioned in the Humanae Vitae articles on this website all of these issues of homosexual behaviour, sex outside of marriage, pornography, abortion, etc became easy and acceptable to many after contraception was widely accepted contrary to Christ’s and his Church’s teaching.