Catholic values in a hostile political climate

There are many deceivers about in the world, refusing to admit that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. They are the Deceiver; they are the Antichrist. Watch yourselves, or all our work will be lost and not get the reward it deserves. If anybody does not keep within the teaching of Christ but goes beyond it, he cannot have God with him: only those who keep to what he taught can have the Father and the Son with them. If anyone comes to you bringing a different doctrine, you must not receive him in your house or even give him a greeting. To greet him would make you a partner in his wicked work.

Regardless of our affiliation with one or the other political parties, if we call ourselves Christians or even if we do not consider ourselves Christians but want to do the “right” and moral thing, we need to step back and look at where are leaders are taking us. If this is where we really want to go?

Are we buying into concepts and ideas being perpetrated by some of those in positions of power for their own personal aspirations without using our own intelligence and conscience to confirm or deny their positions?    

In the battle of the culture of death versus the culture of life I have frequently heard the statement by individuals who have bought into the necessity of abortion that they would not watch an actual abortion or listen to a description of how an abortion is performed. I can certainly understand why no one would want to watch or hear about such a horrendous act, however, to deliberately keep oneself ignorant about the tragedy of abortion so they can keep themselves isolated from this reality in order to maintain their silence or approval is irresponsible to say the least.

All of the arguments about women’s rights is a diversion created by those who benefit financially by promoting and defending the barbaric act of abortion. If these individuals and groups were truly concerned about women’s rights they would be just as concerned for women who choose life. Anyone who has listened to groups such as NOW and planned parenthood with an open mind will have to agree that they not only do not treat women who choose life equally but they are extremely critical and offensive toward them.

Women such as Sarah Palin and Gianna Jessen are their enemies because they choose life.

 We do not often get to hear from the victims of abortion, however, in at least one case the target of abortion survived to express her feelings on the matter. Although Gianna Jessen who survived an abortion attempt does not consider herself a victim but a victor, she is a voice that abortion attempted to silence but failed. The least we can do is listen to this voice and take her words to heart.

Gianna Jessen Part 1

Gianna Jessen Part 2

Why doesn’t the old issue of Obama’s natural born citizenship status go away? Why are hundreds of thousands still pushing this issue? Maybe it is because it has never been answered by President Obama or anyone else. It seems such a simple request, why is it continually stonewalled by the Obama administration? If indeed President Obama is a natural born citizen as required by the constitution why would he not want to provide documentation to prove it; why would he want this doubt hanging over himself?

I followed this issue closely all during the Presidential campaign last year; I read many threads on Catholic Answers Forum debating this issue. As with most of the arguments with Obama supporters there was little substance to the rebuttals to questions about Obama’s legal status and eligibility for the high office of POTUS. The main argument from Obama supporters was that those asking the question were either racist or right wing nuts, but no solid proof that Obama was eligible to Run.

I really did not think at that time that Obama would have a chance of actually being elected. I am still at a loss to understand it.

Now 4 months into Obama’s administration I consider this question and it is as unclear as it was last year during the campaign. It seems that there must be some legitimacy to this question or it would have gone away by now. On the other hand it seems almost inconceivable that Obama could have been elected and not been eligible for the office. Is it possible that our government has become so corrupt that this issue could be buried to the extent that the courts, congress, and every government agency were complicit in this conspiracy? Even if this was the case, why would the opposition party (Republicans) not expose this ineligibility? Is it possible that the Republicans did not press this issue because they were so afraid of having to run against Hillary and if Obama were declared ineligible, Hillary would have been a shoe in?

I think back to the Rush Limbaugh strategy he called “operation chaos” where he encouraged Republicans to vote in the primaries for Obama to keep Hillary from clinching the nomination. In retrospect this was ill advised and probably unnecessary; however, this thinking may have prevented Republicans from challenging Obama’s eligibility to run for POTUS.

While searching the internet for information on this ongoing saga, the following two links are current articles. Most of the material found is old and from last year. There are many stories on lawsuits being dismissed by various judges all over the country; the reason every law suit I found was dismissed was either that it was deemed frivolous or that the filer did not have “standing” (reason) to file the suit. None was dismissed because Obama had actually proved he was eligible for office. If you search for further information on this subject be careful to avoid this website  deathby1000papercuts.com  when I hit this website my virus checker software went nuts warning of potential damage if I entered this site. Obviously a trap set by an Obama fan.

Grand juries cite Obama for ineligibility, treason    

Americans vote with wallets to see Obama birth certificate

Apparently, all of the noise created by the recent campaigns and national elections has caused some Republicans (hopefully the Catholic ones) to rethink their position on several moral issues. The Gallup poll indicates that Republicans have moved further right on the following issues;

·        Embryonic stem cell research with only 41% now considering it moral versus 53% two years ago; Democrats remain at 74%.

·        Divorce for Republicans moved from 64% believing it moral one year ago to 52% today. While the majority still does not believe divorce immoral, it has moved dramatically toward an understanding of Church teaching. Democrats remain at 74%.

·        Abortion acceptance for Republicans moved from 28% believing it moral one and two years ago to 23% today. Democrats remain at 52% believing abortion morally acceptable.

·        Gay/Lesbian relations; Republicans back down to 35% approval from 37% last year. Democrats moved from 59% acceptable last year to 66% this year.

The bottom line is that St Augustine was right. When the Church is attacked for its moral teaching, it actually strengthens it by calling attention to its truth.

One glaring issue in the results of this poll for me is the huge difference in people’s opinions of morality between abortion and embryonic stem cell research. For Republicans; 41% believe embryonic stem cell research is moral and for abortion only 23% think it is moral. For Democrats; 74% believe embryonic stem cell research is moral and for abortion only 52% think it is moral. Obviously, these responders do not understand what embryonic stem cell research is. They apparently do not understand that the embryo must die to obtain the stem cell. To approve of embryonic stem cell research one must also approve of abortion.

This is further proof that those approving of embryonic stem cell research and abortion do not understand the implications of their approval.

From today’s office of readings

Ephesians 4: 17-24

 In particular, I want to urge you in the name of the Lord, not to go on living the aimless kind of life that pagans live. Intellectually they are in the dark, and they are estranged from the life of God, without knowledge because they have shut their hearts to it. Their sense of right and wrong once dulled, they have abandoned themselves to sexuality and eagerly pursue a career of indecency of every kind. Now that is hardly the way you have learnt from Christ, unless you failed to hear him properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus. You must give up your old way of life; you must put aside your old self, which gets corrupted by following illusory desires. Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth.

At his speech at Notre Dame this weekend; Obama said he wants to find common ground on the abortion issue. How can anyone with any sense of morality expect that their opposition should abandon their conscience and accept that the other party has a right to murder the innocent?  There is no common ground between morality and immorality, it is right or it is wrong. Wrong is never right under any circumstances, it is always wrong. Was there common ground between slavery and freedom? Was there common ground between Nazis and those they persecuted and murdered? Is there common ground today between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Israel?

On Catholic radio this morning a host read a letter from a Catholic listener chastising her for her angry and hateful criticism of Obama and Notre Dame President Father Jenkins. I continue to be amazed at the thinking and complete lack of understanding by this caller and the many Catholics that seem to be stuck in the same mindset. They seem to place politeness and decorum above human life. This listener to Catholic radio expressed how wonderfully polite, articulate, friendly, and accommodating Obama was while these uncivilized protestors were shouting him down and generally being obnoxious. This listener and those of her ilk are so self assured in their superior intellect and righteous position that they do not see the forest for the trees. Do they not realize that killing babies in the womb is not at all polite or friendly? If they are so taken by politeness and articulate speech why are they not appalled like the rest of us at the uncivilized and rude killing of the unborn? The answer, I believe is that they are able to compartmentalize these two totally opposite conditions and not associate the man (Obama) with the two conditions. When they see him speak, they do not associate him with the atrocities that he supports. In a similar manner they separate their daily lives from their religion. God has no place in politics for them.

This is the thing that Obama and the liberal progressives miss. Because they want (as we all do) peace among all peoples and they do not seem to understand that evil truly does exist.  They miss the fact that perfect happiness and peace among all people will never exist in this world. They seem to believe that compromise will solve everything. Since they themselves are unwilling to compromise their rigid positions one would think they would understand that this is not possible. Compromise to Obama seems to mean, you change your mind to match mine. When someone will not accept anything other than your death (such as Mahmound Ahmadinejad’s requirement of Israel) what possible “common ground” is there?  How about if I let you kill only half of us?

Obama wants to find common ground by asking pro life people to accept abortion if he will agree to help reduce abortions. This is common ground? Of course we would all welcome fewer abortions; however, what we want Obama to understand is that the taking of one innocent life is seriously wrong, and no one should condone it let alone have their government who promised everyone, Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to promote it.

http://content.usatoday.com/dist/custom/gci/InsidePage.aspx?cId=news-press&sParam=35073328.story

There are those who easily “choose” abortion, then there is this Saintly lady..

This lady who bravely sacrificed her own one shot at life for her baby greatly contrasts with the millions who choose abortion not for their life but for their convenience.

If you can read this story without the tears starting, you are stronger than I.

The saddest thing about this story is our government is rapidly moving toward taking these decisions away from us as individuals. There is no doubt in my mind that if some doctor had taken this case to court, the judge would probably force the woman to have the surgery and probably kill both her and her baby.

Is there any doubt THIS LADY  is now safely in the arms of our Lord and Savior?

In a related story; I saw on the news today that a Catholic family with a 13 year old son diagnosed with cancer had elected to delay chemotherapy to give his own immune system (and prayers) a chance to defeat his disease. They felt that chemotherapy was a last resort; they did not want the drugs to kill his immune system. A doctor disagreed and took the family to court; a judge issued a court order forcing the boy to undergo chemotherapy.  Our government; executive branch, judiciary, and legislative are all out of control and slowly but surely usurping our individual rights and freedoms. We need to awake up soon and start removing these power hungry representatives. And we need to stand up and prevent these good old boys from appointing politicians who have been removed from office by their constituents to positions of authority, like they have done with Tom Daschle.        

The Catholic Church is plagued by many heresies today just like it was by Manichaeism, Arianism, Pelagianism, and Nestorianism in the early Church. These groups continually attempt to bend Christ’s Church to their way of thinking. I guess this is a human failing we must constantly be on guard against. The early Church was filled with saints such as St Augustine who with Christ’s help fought off all of these attempts to dilute Christ’s message to us.

Today we have groups like “Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good” still attempting to dilute Christ’s message and to attempt to bend the teaching of the Church to their own idea of Christ’s word.

This group and others like it insist on calling themselves Catholic but preach in direct conflict with the Church and the Holy Fathers teaching.

Many Catholics are led away from the true Church and its teaching by these self serving and damaging groups. Christ ordained the Apostles and their successors to head His Church for good reason. The Holy Spirit has faithfully guided the Church under the direction of St. Peter’s successors for 2000 years, why would anyone listen to these splinter groups?

If anyone has any question about whether a group is in union with the Catholic Church or not, one only need to listen to their mantra, if it is in conflict with the Catholic Church and the Holy Father, it is NOT in union with the Church and you should shake the dust from your feet and leave it behind quickly.

It is easy to see why these groups form; they find it difficult or impossible to live with one or more of the Church’s teachings, so instead of doing the regrettable but  more honorable thing like the protestant churches, and split away, they attempt to usurp the authority of the Church and continue to claim Catholicity and preach heresy.

In this modern age, the thing that most of these groups could not live with and caused them to split with the Church was and is contraception. Which also lead them in some cases to support abortion and in this case a radically anti life president.    

Like the overall movement and groups such as ACLU, ACORN, and Planned parenthood (who many of these splinter groups have aligned themselves with) they attempt to falsely grab the high moral ground by latching on to some phase or mantra that they present as their primary objective, such as Catholics in Alliance for the “Common Good”. Their actual objective is to legitimize their inability to follow Christ.

THIS LINK WILL TAKE YOU TO A LETTER PUBLISHED BY “Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good” in support of Notre Dame and Father Jenkins honoring the most anti life president this country has ever seen.

Read it and weep, then pray for them to rejoin Christ’s Church     

Why do we so easily fall prey to the world? We see all around us people acting contrary to God’s law, we know right from wrong, we pray every day for our faith and the faith of others, we know of the strong messages sent to us via scripture and miracles both everyday miracles of creation and those such as Fatima; yet we spend most of our time absorbed in worldly day to day problems and easily forget our main goal of eternal salvation.

It is good that the Church reminds us frequently of the volumes of evidence supporting our faith. Even though the influence of the world – in particular the current state of our political environment – keeps leading us astray; we need to listen to the good news and let it sink in. Yesterday was the 92^th anniversary of the appearance of Our Lady to the children at Fatima. No wonder people have trouble relating to the events of 2000 years ago, here we have a miraculous event that happened only 92 years ago – eyewitnesses have testified to this event in our life time – and we do not take seriously the warning issued to us by the Blessed Virgin Mary only 92 years ago.

I have been relearning the lessons of Fatima yesterday and today. I urge all who happen upon this note to revisit the message from Mary at Fatima 92 years ago.

Remember the 3 secrets of Fatima? All the visions and information given to the three children at Fatima have been verified through years of investigation and validation. Sister Lucia who died in 2005– one of the three children – reconfirmed her vision several times throughout her 97 year life; and there were 50 to 75 thousand eye witnesses to the miracle promised to the children by the Blessed Virgin so “everyone” could believe their vision and accompanying message.

The first secret was the 1 or 2 minute vision of Hell given to the children. The children expressed how horrifying it was and if Mary had not promised the children that they would all be taken to Heaven they would have died from fright because the vision was so terrible. In spite of this very strong evidence of the reality of hell and Mary’s love for us that she wanted to warn us; many people today are in denial not only of hell but of sin. Mary told the children that the vast majority of souls being cast into the fiery pit were going there because of sins of the flesh (sex outside of sacred marriage). If many souls were being dammed because of sins of the flesh in 1917, how many more would fall into that category now with the growth of pornography, multiple sex partners, homosexual acts, pedophilia, etc.?

The second secret was that the current war (world war I) would soon end, however a warning that if people did not turn to devotion of the Immaculate Heart of Mary  there would be a much worse war (the Second World War), and finally the prediction of the immense damage that Russia would do to humanity by abandoning the Christian faith and embracing Communist totalitarianism. 

Now, 92 years later most of Europe has if not totally abandoned their Christian faith has most definitely placed it on a back burner and this disease is creeping across the ocean to the new world.

I recall thinking to myself (and I think it is still the general consensus) that although the first part of this warning (World War II) came to past, that the second part did not. Russia after all was defeated, right? Well, the old powerful military of Russia may be no more; however, godless totalitarianism certainly does not seem to be dead; in fact it appears that now that part of the secret is also coming true.

The third secret published in 2000 describes a vision remarkably like the vision of St John written about in Revelation, a pope walking with bishops through a devastated city with dead people all around, then up a hill with a huge cross on top. When the pope reaches the top, at the foot of the cross he is shot in a hail of bullets along with the bishops and others with him. Many equate this to Pope John Paul II being shot on May 13^th 1981 on the 54 anniversary of the first vision at Fatima; coincidence?

There are many articles claiming Fatima was fabricated by the Catholic Church, that Sister Lucia was brainwashed by the Church. Even if the Church was so inclined (anyone who knows the thoroughness of the Church’s investigations of all claims to miracles, knows this to be ridiculous) did they also brainwash the 50 to 75 thousand eye witnesses to this miracle, some of which were non believers? Talk about faith, if only we had that much faith. The anti religion crowd ridicules Christians for their faith and they must have a much stronger faith to believe that truth is not truth. They must believe that the world and mankind is some kind of a freak accident of nature; that in spite of the marvelously intricate intelligence designed into creation it did not have a designer. Now that is faith. Maybe we can learn something from them after all.    

FROM A LETTER TO DIOGNETUS