Do I like getting caught?
1 week ago
Showing posts with label Catholics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catholics. Show all posts
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience
Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience
Nov 20, 2009
One hundred forty-eight Signatories
Preamble
Christians are heirs of a 2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God’s word, seeking justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering.
While fully acknowledging the imperfections and shortcomings of Christian institutions and communities in all ages, we claim the heritage of those Christians who defended innocent life by rescuing discarded babies from trash heaps in Roman cities and publicly denouncing the Empire’s sanctioning of infanticide. We remember with reverence those believers who sacrificed their lives by remaining in Roman cities to tend the sick and dying during the plagues, and who died bravely in the coliseums rather than deny their Lord.
After the barbarian tribes overran Europe, Christian monasteries preserved not only the Bible but also the literature and art of Western culture. It was Christians who combated the evil of slavery: Papal edicts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries decried the practice of slavery and first excommunicated anyone involved in the slave trade; evangelical Christians in England, led by John Wesley and William Wilberforce, put an end to the slave trade in that country. Christians under Wilberforce’s leadership also formed hundreds of societies for helping the poor, the imprisoned, and child laborers chained to machines.
In Europe, Christians challenged the divine claims of kings and successfully fought to establish the rule of law and balance of governmental powers, which made modern democracy possible. And in America, Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement. The great civil rights crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians claiming the Scriptures and asserting the glory of the image of God in every human being regardless of race, religion, age or class.
This same devotion to human dignity has led Christians in the last decade to work to end the dehumanizing scourge of human trafficking and sexual slavery, bring compassionate care to AIDS sufferers in Africa, and assist in a myriad of other human rights causes—from providing clean water in developing nations to providing homes for tens of thousands of children orphaned by war, disease and gender discrimination.
Like those who have gone before us in the faith, Christians today are called to proclaim the Gospel of costly grace, to protect the intrinsic dignity of the human person and to stand for the common good. In being true to its own calling, the call to discipleship, the church through service to others can make a profound contribution to the public good.
Declaration
We, as Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Christians, have gathered, beginning in New York on September 28, 2009, to make the following declaration, which we sign as individuals, not on behalf of our organizations, but speaking to and from our communities. We act together in obedience to the one true God, the triune God of holiness and love, who has laid total claim on our lives and by that claim calls us with believers in all ages and all nations to seek and defend the good of all who bear his image. We set forth this declaration in light of the truth that is grounded in Holy Scripture, in natural human reason (which is itself, in our view, the gift of a beneficent God), and in the very nature of the human person. We call upon all people of goodwill, believers and non-believers alike, to consider carefully and reflect critically on the issues we here address as we, with St. Paul, commend this appeal to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
While the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, claims our attention, we are especially troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions.
Because the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as a union of husband and wife, and the freedom of conscience and religion are foundational principles of justice and the common good, we are compelled by our Christian faith to speak and act in their defense. In this declaration we affirm: 1) the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every human being as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, possessing inherent rights of equal dignity and life; 2) marriage as a conjugal union of man and woman, ordained by God from the creation, and historically understood by believers and non-believers alike, to be the most basic institution in society and; 3) religious liberty, which is grounded in the character of God, the example of Christ, and the inherent freedom and dignity of human beings created in the divine image.
We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right—and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation—to speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence. It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season. May God help us not to fail in that duty.
Life
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10
Although public sentiment has moved in a pro-life direction, we note with sadness that pro-abortion ideology prevails today in our government. The present administration is led and staffed by those who want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and who want to provide abortions at taxpayer expense. Majorities in both houses of Congress hold pro-abortion views. The Supreme Court, whose infamous 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade stripped the unborn of legal protection, continues to treat elective abortion as a fundamental constitutional right, though it has upheld as constitutionally permissible some limited restrictions on abortion. The President says that he wants to reduce the “need” for abortion—a commendable goal. But he has also pledged to make abortion more easily and widely available by eliminating laws prohibiting government funding, requiring waiting periods for women seeking abortions, and parental notification for abortions performed on minors. The elimination of these important and effective pro-life laws cannot reasonably be expected to do other than significantly increase the number of elective abortions by which the lives of countless children are snuffed out prior to birth. Our commitment to the sanctity of life is not a matter of partisan loyalty, for we recognize that in the thirty-six years since Roe v. Wade, elected officials and appointees of both major political parties have been complicit in giving legal sanction to what Pope John Paul II described as “the culture of death.” We call on all officials in our country, elected and appointed, to protect and serve every member of our society, including the most marginalized, voiceless, and vulnerable among us.
A culture of death inevitably cheapens life in all its stages and conditions by promoting the belief that lives that are imperfect, immature or inconvenient are discardable. As predicted by many prescient persons, the cheapening of life that began with abortion has now metastasized. For example, human embryo-destructive research and its public funding are promoted in the name of science and in the cause of developing treatments and cures for diseases and injuries. The President and many in Congress favor the expansion of embryo- research to include the taxpayer funding of so-called “therapeutic cloning.” This would result in the industrial mass production of human embryos to be killed for the purpose of producing genetically customized stem cell lines and tissues. At the other end of life, an increasingly powerful movement to promote assisted suicide and “voluntary” euthanasia threatens the lives of vulnerable elderly and disabled persons. Eugenic notions such as the doctrine of lebensunwertes Leben (“life unworthy of life”) were first advanced in the 1920s by intellectuals in the elite salons of America and Europe. Long buried in ignominy after the horrors of the mid-twentieth century, they have returned from the grave. The only difference is that now the doctrines of the eugenicists are dressed up in the language of “liberty,” “autonomy,” and “choice.”
We will be united and untiring in our efforts to roll back the license to kill that began with the abandonment of the unborn to abortion. We will work, as we have always worked, to bring assistance, comfort, and care to pregnant women in need and to those who have been victimized by abortion, even as we stand resolutely against the corrupt and degrading notion that it can somehow be in the best interests of women to submit to the deliberate killing of their unborn children. Our message is, and ever shall be, that the just, humane, and truly Christian answer to problem pregnancies is for all of us to love and care for mother and child alike.
A truly prophetic Christian witness will insistently call on those who have been entrusted with temporal power to fulfill the first responsibility of government: to protect the weak and vulnerable against violent attack, and to do so with no favoritism, partiality, or discrimination. The Bible enjoins us to defend those who cannot defend themselves, to speak for those who cannot themselves speak. And so we defend and speak for the unborn, the disabled, and the dependent. What the Bible and the light of reason make clear, we must make clear. We must be willing to defend, even at risk and cost to ourselves and our institutions, the lives of our brothers and sisters at every stage of development and in every condition.
Our concern is not confined to our own nation. Around the globe, we are witnessing cases of genocide and “ethnic cleansing,” the failure to assist those who are suffering as innocent victims of war, the neglect and abuse of children, the exploitation of vulnerable laborers, the sexual trafficking of girls and young women, the abandonment of the aged, racial oppression and discrimination, the persecution of believers of all faiths, and the failure to take steps necessary to halt the spread of preventable diseases like AIDS. We see these travesties as flowing from the same loss of the sense of the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life that drives the abortion industry and the movements for assisted suicide, euthanasia, and human cloning for biomedical research. And so ours is, as it must be, a truly consistent ethic of love and life for all humans in all circumstances.
Marriage
The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.” For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:23-24 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:32-33 In Scripture, the creation of man and woman, and their one-flesh union as husband and wife, is the crowning achievement of God’s creation. In the transmission of life and the nurturing of children, men and women joined as spouses are given the great honor of being partners with God Himself. Marriage then, is the first institution of human society—indeed it is the institution on which all other human institutions have their foundation. In the Christian tradition we refer to marriage as “holy matrimony” to signal the fact that it is an institution ordained by God, and blessed by Christ in his participation at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. In the Bible, God Himself blesses and holds marriage in the highest esteem.
Vast human experience confirms that marriage is the original and most important institution for sustaining the health, education, and welfare of all persons in a society. Where marriage is honored, and where there is a flourishing marriage culture, everyone benefits—the spouses themselves, their children, the communities and societies in which they live. Where the marriage culture begins to erode, social pathologies of every sort quickly manifest themselves. Unfortunately, we have witnessed over the course of the past several decades a serious erosion of the marriage culture in our own country. Perhaps the most telling—and alarming—indicator is the out-of-wedlock birth rate. Less than fifty years ago, it was under 5 percent. Today it is over 40 percent. Our society—and particularly its poorest and most vulnerable sectors, where the out-of-wedlock birth rate is much higher even than the national average—is paying a huge price in delinquency, drug abuse, crime, incarceration, hopelessness, and despair. Other indicators are widespread non-marital sexual cohabitation and a devastatingly high rate of divorce.
We confess with sadness that Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage and to model for the world the true meaning of marriage. Insofar as we have too easily embraced the culture of divorce and remained silent about social practices that undermine the dignity of marriage we repent, and call upon all Christians to do the same.
To strengthen families, we must stop glamorizing promiscuity and infidelity and restore among our people a sense of the profound beauty, mystery, and holiness of faithful marital love. We must reform ill-advised policies that contribute to the weakening of the institution of marriage, including the discredited idea of unilateral divorce. We must work in the legal, cultural, and religious domains to instill in young people a sound understanding of what marriage is, what it requires, and why it is worth the commitment and sacrifices that faithful spouses make.
The impulse to redefine marriage in order to recognize same-sex and multiple partner relationships is a symptom, rather than the cause, of the erosion of the marriage culture. It reflects a loss of understanding of the meaning of marriage as embodied in our civil and religious law and in the philosophical tradition that contributed to shaping the law. Yet it is critical that the impulse be resisted, for yielding to it would mean abandoning the possibility of restoring a sound understanding of marriage and, with it, the hope of rebuilding a healthy marriage culture. It would lock into place the false and destructive belief that marriage is all about romance and other adult satisfactions, and not, in any intrinsic way, about procreation and the unique character and value of acts and relationships whose meaning is shaped by their aptness for the generation, promotion and protection of life. In spousal communion and the rearing of children (who, as gifts of God, are the fruit of their parents’ marital love), we discover the profound reasons for and benefits of the marriage covenant.
We acknowledge that there are those who are disposed towards homosexual and polyamorous conduct and relationships, just as there are those who are disposed towards other forms of immoral conduct. We have compassion for those so disposed; we respect them as human beings possessing profound, inherent, and equal dignity; and we pay tribute to the men and women who strive, often with little assistance, to resist the temptation to yield to desires that they, no less than we, regard as wayward. We stand with them, even when they falter. We, no less than they, are sinners who have fallen short of God’s intention for our lives. We, no less than they, are in constant need of God’s patience, love and forgiveness. We call on the entire Christian community to resist sexual immorality, and at the same time refrain from disdainful condemnation of those who yield to it. Our rejection of sin, though resolute, must never become the rejection of sinners. For every sinner, regardless of the sin, is loved by God, who seeks not our destruction but rather the conversion of our hearts. Jesus calls all who wander from the path of virtue to “a more excellent way.” As his disciples we will reach out in love to assist all who hear the call and wish to answer it.
We further acknowledge that there are sincere people who disagree with us, and with the teaching of the Bible and Christian tradition, on questions of sexual morality and the nature of marriage. Some who enter into same- sex and polyamorous relationships no doubt regard their unions as truly marital. They fail to understand, however, that marriage is made possible by the sexual complementarity of man and woman, and that the comprehensive, multi-level sharing of life that marriage is includes bodily unity of the sort that unites husband and wife biologically as a reproductive unit. This is because the body is no mere extrinsic instrument of the human person, but truly part of the personal reality of the human being. Human beings are not merely centers of consciousness or emotion, or minds, or spirits, inhabiting non-personal bodies. The human person is a dynamic unity of body, mind, and spirit. Marriage is what one man and one woman establish when, forsaking all others and pledging lifelong commitment, they found a sharing of life at every level of being—the biological, the emotional, the dispositional, the rational, the spiritual—on a commitment that is sealed, completed and actualized by loving sexual intercourse in which the spouses become one flesh, not in some merely metaphorical sense, but by fulfilling together the behavioral conditions of procreation. That is why in the Christian tradition, and historically in Western law, consummated marriages are not dissoluble or annullable on the ground of infertility, even though the nature of the marital relationship is shaped and structured by its intrinsic orientation to the great good of procreation.
We understand that many of our fellow citizens, including some Christians, believe that the historic definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is a denial of equality or civil rights. They wonder what to say in reply to the argument that asserts that no harm would be done to them or to anyone if the law of the community were to confer upon two men or two women who are living together in a sexual partnership the status of being “married.” It would not, after all, affect their own marriages, would it? On inspection, however, the argument that laws governing one kind of marriage will not affect another cannot stand. Were it to prove anything, it would prove far too much: the assumption that the legal status of one set of marriage relationships affects no other would not only argue for same sex partnerships; it could be asserted with equal validity for polyamorous partnerships, polygamous households, even adult brothers, sisters, or brothers and sisters living in incestuous relationships. Should these, as a matter of equality or civil rights, be recognized as lawful marriages, and would they have no effects on other relationships? No. The truth is that marriage is not something abstract or neutral that the law may legitimately define and re-define to please those who are powerful and influential.
No one has a civil right to have a non-marital relationship treated as a marriage. Marriage is an objective reality—a covenantal union of husband and wife—that it is the duty of the law to recognize and support for the sake of justice and the common good. If it fails to do so, genuine social harms follow. First, the religious liberty of those for whom this is a matter of conscience is jeopardized. Second, the rights of parents are abused as family life and sex education programs in schools are used to teach children that an enlightened understanding recognizes as “marriages” sexual partnerships that many parents believe are intrinsically non- marital and immoral. Third, the common good of civil society is damaged when the law itself, in its critical pedagogical function, becomes a tool for eroding a sound understanding of marriage on which the flourishing of the marriage culture in any society vitally depends. Sadly, we are today far from having a thriving marriage culture. But if we are to begin the critically important process of reforming our laws and mores to rebuild such a culture, the last thing we can afford to do is to re-define marriage in such a way as to embody in our laws a false proclamation about what marriage is.
And so it is out of love (not “animus”) and prudent concern for the common good (not “prejudice”), that we pledge to labor ceaselessly to preserve the legal definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman and to rebuild the marriage culture. How could we, as Christians, do otherwise? The Bible teaches us that marriage is a central part of God’s creation covenant. Indeed, the union of husband and wife mirrors the bond between Christ and his church. And so just as Christ was willing, out of love, to give Himself up for the church in a complete sacrifice, we are willing, lovingly, to make whatever sacrifices are required of us for the sake of the inestimable treasure that is marriage.
Religious Liberty
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. Isaiah 61:1
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. Matthew 22:21
The struggle for religious liberty across the centuries has been long and arduous, but it is not a novel idea or recent development. The nature of religious liberty is grounded in the character of God Himself, the God who is most fully known in the life and work of Jesus Christ. Determined to follow Jesus faithfully in life and death, the early Christians appealed to the manner in which the Incarnation had taken place: “Did God send Christ, as some suppose, as a tyrant brandishing fear and terror? Not so, but in gentleness and meekness..., for compulsion is no attribute of God” (Epistle to Diognetus 7.3-4). Thus the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the example of Christ Himself and in the very dignity of the human person created in the image of God—a dignity, as our founders proclaimed, inherent in every human, and knowable by all in the exercise of right reason.
Christians confess that God alone is Lord of the conscience. Immunity from religious coercion is the cornerstone of an unconstrained conscience. No one should be compelled to embrace any religion against his will, nor should persons of faith be forbidden to worship God according to the dictates of conscience or to express freely and publicly their deeply held religious convictions. What is true for individuals applies to religious communities as well.
It is ironic that those who today assert a right to kill the unborn, aged and disabled and also a right to engage in immoral sexual practices, and even a right to have relationships integrated around these practices be recognized and blessed by law—such persons claiming these “rights” are very often in the vanguard of those who would trample upon the freedom of others to express their religious and moral commitments to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife.
We see this, for example, in the effort to weaken or eliminate conscience clauses, and therefore to compel pro- life institutions (including religiously affiliated hospitals and clinics), and pro-life physicians, surgeons, nurses, and other health care professionals, to refer for abortions and, in certain cases, even to perform or participate in abortions. We see it in the use of anti-discrimination statutes to force religious institutions, businesses, and service providers of various sorts to comply with activities they judge to be deeply immoral or go out of business. After the judicial imposition of “same-sex marriage” in Massachusetts, for example, Catholic Charities chose with great reluctance to end its century-long work of helping to place orphaned children in good homes rather than comply with a legal mandate that it place children in same-sex households in violation of Catholic moral teaching. In New Jersey, after the establishment of a quasi-marital “civil unions” scheme, a Methodist institution was stripped of its tax exempt status when it declined, as a matter of religious conscience, to permit a facility it owned and operated to be used for ceremonies blessing homosexual unions. In Canada and some European nations, Christian clergy have been prosecuted for preaching Biblical norms against the practice of homosexuality. New hate-crime laws in America raise the specter of the same practice here.
In recent decades a growing body of case law has paralleled the decline in respect for religious values in the media, the academy and political leadership, resulting in restrictions on the free exercise of religion. We view this as an ominous development, not only because of its threat to the individual liberty guaranteed to every person, regardless of his or her faith, but because the trend also threatens the common welfare and the culture of freedom on which our system of republican government is founded. Restrictions on the freedom of conscience or the ability to hire people of one’s own faith or conscientious moral convictions for religious institutions, for example, undermines the viability of the intermediate structures of society, the essential buffer against the overweening authority of the state, resulting in the soft despotism Tocqueville so prophetically warned of.1 Disintegration of civil society is a prelude to tyranny.
As Christians, we take seriously the Biblical admonition to respect and obey those in authority. We believe in law and in the rule of law. We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral. The biblical purpose of law is to preserve order and serve justice and the common good; yet laws that are unjust—and especially laws that purport to compel citizens to do what is unjust—undermine the common good, rather than serve it.
Going back to the earliest days of the church, Christians have refused to compromise their proclamation of the gospel. In Acts 4, Peter and John were ordered to stop preaching. Their answer was, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Through the centuries, Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes required. There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than the one offered by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Writing from an explicitly Christian perspective, and citing Christian writers such as Augustine and Aquinas, King taught that just laws elevate and ennoble human beings because they are rooted in the moral law whose ultimate source is God Himself. Unjust laws degrade human beings. Inasmuch as they can claim no authority beyond sheer human will, they lack any power to bind in conscience. King’s willingness to go to jail, rather than comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring.
Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.
Dr. Daniel Akin President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC)
Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola Primate, Anglican Church of Nigeria (Abika, Nigeria)
Randy Alcorn Founder and Director, Eternal Perspective Ministries (EPM) (Sandy, OR)
Rt. Rev. David Anderson President and CEO, American Anglican Council (Atlanta, GA)
Leith Anderson President of National Association of Evangelicals (Washington, DC)
Charlotte K. Ardizzone TV Show Host and Speaker, INSP Television (Charlotte, NC)
Kay Arthur CEO and Co-founder, Precept Ministries International (Chattanooga, TN)
Dr. Mark L. Bailey President, Dallas Theological Seminary (Dallas, TX)
His Grace, The Right Reverend Bishop Basil Essey The Right Reverend Bishop of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America (Wichita, KS)
Joel Belz Founder, World Magazine (Asheville, NC)
Rev. Michael L. Beresford Managing Director of Church Relations, Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn. (Charlotte, NC)
Ken Boa President, Reflections Ministries (Atlanta, GA)
Joseph Bottum Editor of First Things (New York, NY)
Pastor Randy & Sarah Brannon Senior Pastor, Grace Community Church (Madera, CA)
Steve Brown National radio broadcaster, Key Life (Maitland, FL)
Dr. Robert C. Cannada, Jr. Chancellor and CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando, FL)
Galen Carey Director of Government Affairs, National Association of Evangelicals (Washington, DC)
Dr. Bryan Chapell President, Covenant Theological Seminary (St. Louis, MO)
Scott Chapman Senior Pastor, The Chapel (Libertyville, IL)
Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, CO
Timothy Clinton President, American Association of Christian Counselors (Forest, VA)
Chuck Colson Founder, the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview (Lansdowne, VA)
Most Rev. Salvatore Joseph Cordileone Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, CA
Dr. Gary Culpepper Associate Professor, Providence College (Providence, RI)
Jim Daly President and CEO, Focus on the Family (Colorado Springs, CO)
Marjorie Dannenfelser President, Susan B. Anthony List (Arlington, VA)
Rev. Daniel Delgado Board of Directors, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference & Pastor, Third Day Missions Church (Staten Island, NY)
Dr. James Dobson Founder, Focus on the Family (Colorado Springs, CO)
Dr. David Dockery President, Union University (Jackson, TN)
Most Rev. Timothy Dolan Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, NY
Dr. William Donohue President, Catholic League (New York, NY)
Dr. James T. Draper, Jr. President Emeritus, LifeWay (Nashville, TN)
Dinesh D’Souza Writer & Speaker (Rancho Santa Fe, CA)
Most Rev. Robert Wm. Duncan Archbishop and Primate, Anglican Church in North America (Ambridge, PA )
Joni Eareckson Tada Founder and CEO, Joni and Friends International Disability Center (Agoura Hills, CA)
Dr. Michael Easley President Emeritus, Moody Bible Institute (Chicago, IL)
Dr. William Edgar Professor, Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia, PA)
Brett Elder Executive Director, Stewardship Council (Grand Rapids, MI)
Rev. Joel Elowsky Drew University ( Madison, NJ)
Stuart Epperson Co-Founder and Chariman of the Board, Salem Communications Corporation ( Camarillo, CA)
Rev. Jonathan Falwell Senior Pastor, Thomas Road Baptist Church (Lynchburg, VA)
William J. Federer President, Amerisearch, Inc. (St. Louis, MO)
Fr. Joseph D. Fessio Founder and Editor, Ignatius Press (Ft. Collins, CO)
Carmen Fowler President & Executive Editor, Presbyterian Lay Committee (Lenoir, NC)
Maggie Gallagher President, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy and a co-author of The Case for Marriage (Manassas, VA)
Dr. Jim Garlow Senior Pastor, Skyline Church (La Mesa, CA)
Steven Garofalo Senior Consultant, Search and Assessment Services (Charlotte, NC)
Dr. Robert P. George McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
Dr. Timothy George Dean and Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School at Samford University (Birmingham, AL)
Thomas Gilson Director of Strategic Processes, Campus Crusade for Christ International (Norfolk, VA)
Dr. Jack Graham Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church (Plano, TX)
Dr. Wayne Grudem Research Professor of Theological and Biblical Studies, Phoenix Seminary (Phoenix, AZ)
Dr. Cornell “Corkie” Haan National Facilitator of Spiritual Unity, The Mission America Coalition (Palm Desert, CA)
Fr. Chad Hatfield Chancellor, CEO. And Archpriest, St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (Yonkers, NY)
Dr. Dennis Hollinger President and Professor of Christian Ethics, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, MA)
Dr. Jeanette Hsieh Executive VP and Provost, Trinity International University (Deerfield, IL)
Dr. John A. Huffman, Jr. Senior Pastor, St. Andrews Presbyterian Church (Newport Beach, CA) and Chairman of the Board, Christianity Today International (Carol Stream, IL)
Rev. Ken Hutcherson Pastor, Antioch Bible Church (Kirkland, WA)
Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr. Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church (Beltsville, MD)
Fr. Johannes L. Jacobse President, American Orthodox Institute and Editor, OrthodoxyToday.org (Naples, FL)
Jerry Jenkins Chairman of the board of trustees for Moody Bible Institute (Black Forest, CO)
Camille Kampouris Publisher, Kairos Journal
Emmanuel A. Kampouris Editorial Board, Kairos Journal
Rev. Tim Keller Senior Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church (New York, NY)
Dr. Peter Kreeft Professor of Philosophy, Boston College (MA) and at the Kings College (NY)
Most Rev. Joseph E. Kurtz Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville, KY
Jim Kushiner Editor, Touchstone (Chicago, IL)
Dr. Richard Land President, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the SBC (Washington, DC)
Jim Law Senior Associate Pastor, First Baptist Church (Woodstock, GA)
Dr. Matthew Levering Associate Professor of Theology, Ave Maria University (Naples, FL)
Dr. Peter Lillback President, The Providence Forum (West Conshohocken, PA)
Dr. Duane Litfin President, Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL)
Rev. Herb Lusk Pastor, Greater Exodus Baptist Church (Philadelphia, PA)
His Eminence Adam Cardinal Maida Archbishop Emeritus, Roman Catholic Diocese of Detroit, MI
Most Rev. Richard J. Malone Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, ME
Rev. Francis Martin Professor of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Heart Major Seminary (Detroit, MI)
Dr. Joseph Mattera Bishop & Senior Pastor, Resurrection Church (Brooklyn, NY)
Phil Maxwell Pastor, Gateway Church (Bridgewater, NJ)
Josh McDowell Founder, Josh McDowell Ministries (Plano, TX)
Alex McFarland President, Southern Evangelical Seminary (Charlotte, NC)
Most Rev. George Dallas McKinney Bishop, & Founder and Pastor, St. Stephen’s Church of God in Christ (San Diego, CA)
Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns Missionary Bishop, Convocation of Anglicans of North America (Herndon, VA)
Dr. C. Ben Mitchell Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy, Union University (Jackson, TN)
Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY)
Dr. Russell D. Moore Senior VP for Academic Administration & Dean of the School of Theology, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY)
Most Rev. John J. Myers Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, NJ
Most Rev. Joseph F. Naumann Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City, KS
David Neff Editor-in-Chief, Christianity Today (Carol Stream, IL)
Tom Nelson Senior Pastor, Christ Community Evangelical Free Church (Leawood, KS)
Niel Nielson President, Covenant College (Lookout Mt., GA)
Most Rev. John Nienstedt Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, MN
Dr. Tom Oden Theologian, United Methodist Minister and Professor, Drew University (Madison, NJ)
Marvin Olasky Editor-in-Chief, World Magazine and provost, The Kings College (New York City, NY)
Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, AZ
Rev. William Owens Chairman, Coalition of African-American Pastors (Memphis, TN)
Dr. J.I. Packer Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology, Regent College (Canada)
Metr. Jonah Paffhausen Primate, Orthodox Church in America (Syosset, NY)
Tony Perkins President, Family Research Council (Washington, D.C.)
Eric M. Pillmore CEO, Pillmore Consulting LLC (Doylestown, PA)
Dr. Everett Piper President, Oklahoma Wesleyan University (Bartlesville, OK)
Todd Pitner President, Rev Increase
Dr. Cornelius Plantinga President, Calvin Theological Seminary (Grand Rapids, MI)
Dr. David Platt Pastor, Church at Brook Hills (Birmingham AL)
Rev. Jim Pocock Pastor, Trinitarian Congregational Church (Wayland, MA)
Fred Potter Executive Director & CEO, Christian Legal Society (Springfield, VA)
Dennis Rainey President, CEO, & Co-Founder, FamilyLife (Little Rock, AR)
Fr. Patrick Reardon Pastor, All Saints’ Antiochian Orthodox Church (Chicago, IL)
Bob Reccord Founder, Total Life Impact, Inc. (Suwanee, GA)
His Eminence Justin Cardinal Rigali Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, PA
Frank Schubert President, Schubert Flint Public Affairs (Sacramento, CA)
David Schuringa President, Crossroads Bible Institute (Grand Rapids, MI)
Tricia Scribner Author (Harrisburg, NC)
Dr. Dave Seaford Senior Pastor, Community Fellowship Church (Matthews, NC)
Alan Sears President, CEO, & General Counsel, Alliance Defense Fund (Scottsdale, AZ)
Randy Setzer Senior Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church (Lincolnton, NC)
Most Rev. Michael J. Sheridan Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs, CO
Dr. Ron Sider Director, Evangelicals for Social Action (Wynnewood, PA)
Fr. Robert Sirico Founder, Acton Institute (Grand Rapids, MI)
Dr. Robert Sloan President, Houston Baptist University (Houston, TX)
Charles Stetson Chairman of the Board, Bible Literacy Project (New York, NY)
Dr. David Stevens CEO, Christian Medical & Dental Association (Bristol, TN)
John Stonestreet Executive Director, Summit Ministries (Manitou Springs, CO)
Dr. Joseph Stowell President, Cornerstone University (Grand Rapids, MI)
Dr. Sarah Sumner Professor of Theology and Ministry, Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, CA)
Dr. Glenn Sunshine Chairman of the history department of Central Connecticut State University (New Britain, CT)
Luiz Tellez President, The Witherspoon Institute (Princeton, NJ)
Dr. Timothy C. Tennent Professor, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, MA)
Michael Timmis Chairman, Prison Fellowship and Prison Fellowship International (Naples, FL)
Mark Tooley President, Institute for Religion and Democracy (Washington, D.C.)
H. James Towey President, St. Vincent College (Latrobe, PA)
Juan Valdes Middle and High School Chaplain, Flordia Christian School (Miami, FL)
Todd Wagner Pastor, WaterMark Community Church (Dallas, TX)
Dr. Graham Walker President, Patrick Henry Univ. (Purcellville, VA)
Alexander F. C. Webster Archpriest, Orthodox Church in America and Associate Professorial Lecturer, The George Washington University (Ft. Belvoir, VA)
George Weigel Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, D.C.)
David Welch Houston Area Pastor Council Executive Director, US Pastors Council (Houston, TX)
Dr. James White Founding and Senior Pastor, Mecklenberg Community Church (Charlotte, NC)
Dr. Hayes Wicker Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church (Naples, FL)
Mark Williamson Founder and President, Foundation Restoration Ministries/Federal Intercessors (Katy, TX)
Dr. Craig Williford President, Trinity International University (Deerfield, IL)
Dr. John Woodbridge Research professor of Church History & the History of Christian Thought, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL)
Don M. Woodside Performance Matters Associates (Matthews, NC)
Dr. Frank Wright President, National Religious Broadcasters (Manassas, VA)
Most Rev. Donald W. Wuerl Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
Paul Young COO & Executive VP, Christian Research Institute (Charlotte, NC)
Dr. Michael Youssef President, Leading the Way (Atlanta, GA)
Ravi Zacharias Founder and Chairman of the board, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (Norcross, GA)
Most Rev. David A. Zubik Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, PA
Bookmark and Share
Nov 20, 2009
One hundred forty-eight Signatories
Preamble
Christians are heirs of a 2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God’s word, seeking justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering.
While fully acknowledging the imperfections and shortcomings of Christian institutions and communities in all ages, we claim the heritage of those Christians who defended innocent life by rescuing discarded babies from trash heaps in Roman cities and publicly denouncing the Empire’s sanctioning of infanticide. We remember with reverence those believers who sacrificed their lives by remaining in Roman cities to tend the sick and dying during the plagues, and who died bravely in the coliseums rather than deny their Lord.
After the barbarian tribes overran Europe, Christian monasteries preserved not only the Bible but also the literature and art of Western culture. It was Christians who combated the evil of slavery: Papal edicts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries decried the practice of slavery and first excommunicated anyone involved in the slave trade; evangelical Christians in England, led by John Wesley and William Wilberforce, put an end to the slave trade in that country. Christians under Wilberforce’s leadership also formed hundreds of societies for helping the poor, the imprisoned, and child laborers chained to machines.
In Europe, Christians challenged the divine claims of kings and successfully fought to establish the rule of law and balance of governmental powers, which made modern democracy possible. And in America, Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement. The great civil rights crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians claiming the Scriptures and asserting the glory of the image of God in every human being regardless of race, religion, age or class.
This same devotion to human dignity has led Christians in the last decade to work to end the dehumanizing scourge of human trafficking and sexual slavery, bring compassionate care to AIDS sufferers in Africa, and assist in a myriad of other human rights causes—from providing clean water in developing nations to providing homes for tens of thousands of children orphaned by war, disease and gender discrimination.
Like those who have gone before us in the faith, Christians today are called to proclaim the Gospel of costly grace, to protect the intrinsic dignity of the human person and to stand for the common good. In being true to its own calling, the call to discipleship, the church through service to others can make a profound contribution to the public good.
Declaration
We, as Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Christians, have gathered, beginning in New York on September 28, 2009, to make the following declaration, which we sign as individuals, not on behalf of our organizations, but speaking to and from our communities. We act together in obedience to the one true God, the triune God of holiness and love, who has laid total claim on our lives and by that claim calls us with believers in all ages and all nations to seek and defend the good of all who bear his image. We set forth this declaration in light of the truth that is grounded in Holy Scripture, in natural human reason (which is itself, in our view, the gift of a beneficent God), and in the very nature of the human person. We call upon all people of goodwill, believers and non-believers alike, to consider carefully and reflect critically on the issues we here address as we, with St. Paul, commend this appeal to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.
While the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, claims our attention, we are especially troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions.
Because the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as a union of husband and wife, and the freedom of conscience and religion are foundational principles of justice and the common good, we are compelled by our Christian faith to speak and act in their defense. In this declaration we affirm: 1) the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every human being as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, possessing inherent rights of equal dignity and life; 2) marriage as a conjugal union of man and woman, ordained by God from the creation, and historically understood by believers and non-believers alike, to be the most basic institution in society and; 3) religious liberty, which is grounded in the character of God, the example of Christ, and the inherent freedom and dignity of human beings created in the divine image.
We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right—and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation—to speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence. It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season. May God help us not to fail in that duty.
Life
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10
Although public sentiment has moved in a pro-life direction, we note with sadness that pro-abortion ideology prevails today in our government. The present administration is led and staffed by those who want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and who want to provide abortions at taxpayer expense. Majorities in both houses of Congress hold pro-abortion views. The Supreme Court, whose infamous 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade stripped the unborn of legal protection, continues to treat elective abortion as a fundamental constitutional right, though it has upheld as constitutionally permissible some limited restrictions on abortion. The President says that he wants to reduce the “need” for abortion—a commendable goal. But he has also pledged to make abortion more easily and widely available by eliminating laws prohibiting government funding, requiring waiting periods for women seeking abortions, and parental notification for abortions performed on minors. The elimination of these important and effective pro-life laws cannot reasonably be expected to do other than significantly increase the number of elective abortions by which the lives of countless children are snuffed out prior to birth. Our commitment to the sanctity of life is not a matter of partisan loyalty, for we recognize that in the thirty-six years since Roe v. Wade, elected officials and appointees of both major political parties have been complicit in giving legal sanction to what Pope John Paul II described as “the culture of death.” We call on all officials in our country, elected and appointed, to protect and serve every member of our society, including the most marginalized, voiceless, and vulnerable among us.
A culture of death inevitably cheapens life in all its stages and conditions by promoting the belief that lives that are imperfect, immature or inconvenient are discardable. As predicted by many prescient persons, the cheapening of life that began with abortion has now metastasized. For example, human embryo-destructive research and its public funding are promoted in the name of science and in the cause of developing treatments and cures for diseases and injuries. The President and many in Congress favor the expansion of embryo- research to include the taxpayer funding of so-called “therapeutic cloning.” This would result in the industrial mass production of human embryos to be killed for the purpose of producing genetically customized stem cell lines and tissues. At the other end of life, an increasingly powerful movement to promote assisted suicide and “voluntary” euthanasia threatens the lives of vulnerable elderly and disabled persons. Eugenic notions such as the doctrine of lebensunwertes Leben (“life unworthy of life”) were first advanced in the 1920s by intellectuals in the elite salons of America and Europe. Long buried in ignominy after the horrors of the mid-twentieth century, they have returned from the grave. The only difference is that now the doctrines of the eugenicists are dressed up in the language of “liberty,” “autonomy,” and “choice.”
We will be united and untiring in our efforts to roll back the license to kill that began with the abandonment of the unborn to abortion. We will work, as we have always worked, to bring assistance, comfort, and care to pregnant women in need and to those who have been victimized by abortion, even as we stand resolutely against the corrupt and degrading notion that it can somehow be in the best interests of women to submit to the deliberate killing of their unborn children. Our message is, and ever shall be, that the just, humane, and truly Christian answer to problem pregnancies is for all of us to love and care for mother and child alike.
A truly prophetic Christian witness will insistently call on those who have been entrusted with temporal power to fulfill the first responsibility of government: to protect the weak and vulnerable against violent attack, and to do so with no favoritism, partiality, or discrimination. The Bible enjoins us to defend those who cannot defend themselves, to speak for those who cannot themselves speak. And so we defend and speak for the unborn, the disabled, and the dependent. What the Bible and the light of reason make clear, we must make clear. We must be willing to defend, even at risk and cost to ourselves and our institutions, the lives of our brothers and sisters at every stage of development and in every condition.
Our concern is not confined to our own nation. Around the globe, we are witnessing cases of genocide and “ethnic cleansing,” the failure to assist those who are suffering as innocent victims of war, the neglect and abuse of children, the exploitation of vulnerable laborers, the sexual trafficking of girls and young women, the abandonment of the aged, racial oppression and discrimination, the persecution of believers of all faiths, and the failure to take steps necessary to halt the spread of preventable diseases like AIDS. We see these travesties as flowing from the same loss of the sense of the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life that drives the abortion industry and the movements for assisted suicide, euthanasia, and human cloning for biomedical research. And so ours is, as it must be, a truly consistent ethic of love and life for all humans in all circumstances.
Marriage
The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.” For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:23-24 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:32-33 In Scripture, the creation of man and woman, and their one-flesh union as husband and wife, is the crowning achievement of God’s creation. In the transmission of life and the nurturing of children, men and women joined as spouses are given the great honor of being partners with God Himself. Marriage then, is the first institution of human society—indeed it is the institution on which all other human institutions have their foundation. In the Christian tradition we refer to marriage as “holy matrimony” to signal the fact that it is an institution ordained by God, and blessed by Christ in his participation at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. In the Bible, God Himself blesses and holds marriage in the highest esteem.
Vast human experience confirms that marriage is the original and most important institution for sustaining the health, education, and welfare of all persons in a society. Where marriage is honored, and where there is a flourishing marriage culture, everyone benefits—the spouses themselves, their children, the communities and societies in which they live. Where the marriage culture begins to erode, social pathologies of every sort quickly manifest themselves. Unfortunately, we have witnessed over the course of the past several decades a serious erosion of the marriage culture in our own country. Perhaps the most telling—and alarming—indicator is the out-of-wedlock birth rate. Less than fifty years ago, it was under 5 percent. Today it is over 40 percent. Our society—and particularly its poorest and most vulnerable sectors, where the out-of-wedlock birth rate is much higher even than the national average—is paying a huge price in delinquency, drug abuse, crime, incarceration, hopelessness, and despair. Other indicators are widespread non-marital sexual cohabitation and a devastatingly high rate of divorce.
We confess with sadness that Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage and to model for the world the true meaning of marriage. Insofar as we have too easily embraced the culture of divorce and remained silent about social practices that undermine the dignity of marriage we repent, and call upon all Christians to do the same.
To strengthen families, we must stop glamorizing promiscuity and infidelity and restore among our people a sense of the profound beauty, mystery, and holiness of faithful marital love. We must reform ill-advised policies that contribute to the weakening of the institution of marriage, including the discredited idea of unilateral divorce. We must work in the legal, cultural, and religious domains to instill in young people a sound understanding of what marriage is, what it requires, and why it is worth the commitment and sacrifices that faithful spouses make.
The impulse to redefine marriage in order to recognize same-sex and multiple partner relationships is a symptom, rather than the cause, of the erosion of the marriage culture. It reflects a loss of understanding of the meaning of marriage as embodied in our civil and religious law and in the philosophical tradition that contributed to shaping the law. Yet it is critical that the impulse be resisted, for yielding to it would mean abandoning the possibility of restoring a sound understanding of marriage and, with it, the hope of rebuilding a healthy marriage culture. It would lock into place the false and destructive belief that marriage is all about romance and other adult satisfactions, and not, in any intrinsic way, about procreation and the unique character and value of acts and relationships whose meaning is shaped by their aptness for the generation, promotion and protection of life. In spousal communion and the rearing of children (who, as gifts of God, are the fruit of their parents’ marital love), we discover the profound reasons for and benefits of the marriage covenant.
We acknowledge that there are those who are disposed towards homosexual and polyamorous conduct and relationships, just as there are those who are disposed towards other forms of immoral conduct. We have compassion for those so disposed; we respect them as human beings possessing profound, inherent, and equal dignity; and we pay tribute to the men and women who strive, often with little assistance, to resist the temptation to yield to desires that they, no less than we, regard as wayward. We stand with them, even when they falter. We, no less than they, are sinners who have fallen short of God’s intention for our lives. We, no less than they, are in constant need of God’s patience, love and forgiveness. We call on the entire Christian community to resist sexual immorality, and at the same time refrain from disdainful condemnation of those who yield to it. Our rejection of sin, though resolute, must never become the rejection of sinners. For every sinner, regardless of the sin, is loved by God, who seeks not our destruction but rather the conversion of our hearts. Jesus calls all who wander from the path of virtue to “a more excellent way.” As his disciples we will reach out in love to assist all who hear the call and wish to answer it.
We further acknowledge that there are sincere people who disagree with us, and with the teaching of the Bible and Christian tradition, on questions of sexual morality and the nature of marriage. Some who enter into same- sex and polyamorous relationships no doubt regard their unions as truly marital. They fail to understand, however, that marriage is made possible by the sexual complementarity of man and woman, and that the comprehensive, multi-level sharing of life that marriage is includes bodily unity of the sort that unites husband and wife biologically as a reproductive unit. This is because the body is no mere extrinsic instrument of the human person, but truly part of the personal reality of the human being. Human beings are not merely centers of consciousness or emotion, or minds, or spirits, inhabiting non-personal bodies. The human person is a dynamic unity of body, mind, and spirit. Marriage is what one man and one woman establish when, forsaking all others and pledging lifelong commitment, they found a sharing of life at every level of being—the biological, the emotional, the dispositional, the rational, the spiritual—on a commitment that is sealed, completed and actualized by loving sexual intercourse in which the spouses become one flesh, not in some merely metaphorical sense, but by fulfilling together the behavioral conditions of procreation. That is why in the Christian tradition, and historically in Western law, consummated marriages are not dissoluble or annullable on the ground of infertility, even though the nature of the marital relationship is shaped and structured by its intrinsic orientation to the great good of procreation.
We understand that many of our fellow citizens, including some Christians, believe that the historic definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is a denial of equality or civil rights. They wonder what to say in reply to the argument that asserts that no harm would be done to them or to anyone if the law of the community were to confer upon two men or two women who are living together in a sexual partnership the status of being “married.” It would not, after all, affect their own marriages, would it? On inspection, however, the argument that laws governing one kind of marriage will not affect another cannot stand. Were it to prove anything, it would prove far too much: the assumption that the legal status of one set of marriage relationships affects no other would not only argue for same sex partnerships; it could be asserted with equal validity for polyamorous partnerships, polygamous households, even adult brothers, sisters, or brothers and sisters living in incestuous relationships. Should these, as a matter of equality or civil rights, be recognized as lawful marriages, and would they have no effects on other relationships? No. The truth is that marriage is not something abstract or neutral that the law may legitimately define and re-define to please those who are powerful and influential.
No one has a civil right to have a non-marital relationship treated as a marriage. Marriage is an objective reality—a covenantal union of husband and wife—that it is the duty of the law to recognize and support for the sake of justice and the common good. If it fails to do so, genuine social harms follow. First, the religious liberty of those for whom this is a matter of conscience is jeopardized. Second, the rights of parents are abused as family life and sex education programs in schools are used to teach children that an enlightened understanding recognizes as “marriages” sexual partnerships that many parents believe are intrinsically non- marital and immoral. Third, the common good of civil society is damaged when the law itself, in its critical pedagogical function, becomes a tool for eroding a sound understanding of marriage on which the flourishing of the marriage culture in any society vitally depends. Sadly, we are today far from having a thriving marriage culture. But if we are to begin the critically important process of reforming our laws and mores to rebuild such a culture, the last thing we can afford to do is to re-define marriage in such a way as to embody in our laws a false proclamation about what marriage is.
And so it is out of love (not “animus”) and prudent concern for the common good (not “prejudice”), that we pledge to labor ceaselessly to preserve the legal definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman and to rebuild the marriage culture. How could we, as Christians, do otherwise? The Bible teaches us that marriage is a central part of God’s creation covenant. Indeed, the union of husband and wife mirrors the bond between Christ and his church. And so just as Christ was willing, out of love, to give Himself up for the church in a complete sacrifice, we are willing, lovingly, to make whatever sacrifices are required of us for the sake of the inestimable treasure that is marriage.
Religious Liberty
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. Isaiah 61:1
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. Matthew 22:21
The struggle for religious liberty across the centuries has been long and arduous, but it is not a novel idea or recent development. The nature of religious liberty is grounded in the character of God Himself, the God who is most fully known in the life and work of Jesus Christ. Determined to follow Jesus faithfully in life and death, the early Christians appealed to the manner in which the Incarnation had taken place: “Did God send Christ, as some suppose, as a tyrant brandishing fear and terror? Not so, but in gentleness and meekness..., for compulsion is no attribute of God” (Epistle to Diognetus 7.3-4). Thus the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the example of Christ Himself and in the very dignity of the human person created in the image of God—a dignity, as our founders proclaimed, inherent in every human, and knowable by all in the exercise of right reason.
Christians confess that God alone is Lord of the conscience. Immunity from religious coercion is the cornerstone of an unconstrained conscience. No one should be compelled to embrace any religion against his will, nor should persons of faith be forbidden to worship God according to the dictates of conscience or to express freely and publicly their deeply held religious convictions. What is true for individuals applies to religious communities as well.
It is ironic that those who today assert a right to kill the unborn, aged and disabled and also a right to engage in immoral sexual practices, and even a right to have relationships integrated around these practices be recognized and blessed by law—such persons claiming these “rights” are very often in the vanguard of those who would trample upon the freedom of others to express their religious and moral commitments to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife.
We see this, for example, in the effort to weaken or eliminate conscience clauses, and therefore to compel pro- life institutions (including religiously affiliated hospitals and clinics), and pro-life physicians, surgeons, nurses, and other health care professionals, to refer for abortions and, in certain cases, even to perform or participate in abortions. We see it in the use of anti-discrimination statutes to force religious institutions, businesses, and service providers of various sorts to comply with activities they judge to be deeply immoral or go out of business. After the judicial imposition of “same-sex marriage” in Massachusetts, for example, Catholic Charities chose with great reluctance to end its century-long work of helping to place orphaned children in good homes rather than comply with a legal mandate that it place children in same-sex households in violation of Catholic moral teaching. In New Jersey, after the establishment of a quasi-marital “civil unions” scheme, a Methodist institution was stripped of its tax exempt status when it declined, as a matter of religious conscience, to permit a facility it owned and operated to be used for ceremonies blessing homosexual unions. In Canada and some European nations, Christian clergy have been prosecuted for preaching Biblical norms against the practice of homosexuality. New hate-crime laws in America raise the specter of the same practice here.
In recent decades a growing body of case law has paralleled the decline in respect for religious values in the media, the academy and political leadership, resulting in restrictions on the free exercise of religion. We view this as an ominous development, not only because of its threat to the individual liberty guaranteed to every person, regardless of his or her faith, but because the trend also threatens the common welfare and the culture of freedom on which our system of republican government is founded. Restrictions on the freedom of conscience or the ability to hire people of one’s own faith or conscientious moral convictions for religious institutions, for example, undermines the viability of the intermediate structures of society, the essential buffer against the overweening authority of the state, resulting in the soft despotism Tocqueville so prophetically warned of.1 Disintegration of civil society is a prelude to tyranny.
As Christians, we take seriously the Biblical admonition to respect and obey those in authority. We believe in law and in the rule of law. We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral. The biblical purpose of law is to preserve order and serve justice and the common good; yet laws that are unjust—and especially laws that purport to compel citizens to do what is unjust—undermine the common good, rather than serve it.
Going back to the earliest days of the church, Christians have refused to compromise their proclamation of the gospel. In Acts 4, Peter and John were ordered to stop preaching. Their answer was, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Through the centuries, Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes required. There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than the one offered by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Writing from an explicitly Christian perspective, and citing Christian writers such as Augustine and Aquinas, King taught that just laws elevate and ennoble human beings because they are rooted in the moral law whose ultimate source is God Himself. Unjust laws degrade human beings. Inasmuch as they can claim no authority beyond sheer human will, they lack any power to bind in conscience. King’s willingness to go to jail, rather than comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring.
Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.
Dr. Daniel Akin President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC)
Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola Primate, Anglican Church of Nigeria (Abika, Nigeria)
Randy Alcorn Founder and Director, Eternal Perspective Ministries (EPM) (Sandy, OR)
Rt. Rev. David Anderson President and CEO, American Anglican Council (Atlanta, GA)
Leith Anderson President of National Association of Evangelicals (Washington, DC)
Charlotte K. Ardizzone TV Show Host and Speaker, INSP Television (Charlotte, NC)
Kay Arthur CEO and Co-founder, Precept Ministries International (Chattanooga, TN)
Dr. Mark L. Bailey President, Dallas Theological Seminary (Dallas, TX)
His Grace, The Right Reverend Bishop Basil Essey The Right Reverend Bishop of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America (Wichita, KS)
Joel Belz Founder, World Magazine (Asheville, NC)
Rev. Michael L. Beresford Managing Director of Church Relations, Billy Graham Evangelistic Assn. (Charlotte, NC)
Ken Boa President, Reflections Ministries (Atlanta, GA)
Joseph Bottum Editor of First Things (New York, NY)
Pastor Randy & Sarah Brannon Senior Pastor, Grace Community Church (Madera, CA)
Steve Brown National radio broadcaster, Key Life (Maitland, FL)
Dr. Robert C. Cannada, Jr. Chancellor and CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando, FL)
Galen Carey Director of Government Affairs, National Association of Evangelicals (Washington, DC)
Dr. Bryan Chapell President, Covenant Theological Seminary (St. Louis, MO)
Scott Chapman Senior Pastor, The Chapel (Libertyville, IL)
Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, CO
Timothy Clinton President, American Association of Christian Counselors (Forest, VA)
Chuck Colson Founder, the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview (Lansdowne, VA)
Most Rev. Salvatore Joseph Cordileone Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, CA
Dr. Gary Culpepper Associate Professor, Providence College (Providence, RI)
Jim Daly President and CEO, Focus on the Family (Colorado Springs, CO)
Marjorie Dannenfelser President, Susan B. Anthony List (Arlington, VA)
Rev. Daniel Delgado Board of Directors, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference & Pastor, Third Day Missions Church (Staten Island, NY)
Dr. James Dobson Founder, Focus on the Family (Colorado Springs, CO)
Dr. David Dockery President, Union University (Jackson, TN)
Most Rev. Timothy Dolan Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, NY
Dr. William Donohue President, Catholic League (New York, NY)
Dr. James T. Draper, Jr. President Emeritus, LifeWay (Nashville, TN)
Dinesh D’Souza Writer & Speaker (Rancho Santa Fe, CA)
Most Rev. Robert Wm. Duncan Archbishop and Primate, Anglican Church in North America (Ambridge, PA )
Joni Eareckson Tada Founder and CEO, Joni and Friends International Disability Center (Agoura Hills, CA)
Dr. Michael Easley President Emeritus, Moody Bible Institute (Chicago, IL)
Dr. William Edgar Professor, Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia, PA)
Brett Elder Executive Director, Stewardship Council (Grand Rapids, MI)
Rev. Joel Elowsky Drew University ( Madison, NJ)
Stuart Epperson Co-Founder and Chariman of the Board, Salem Communications Corporation ( Camarillo, CA)
Rev. Jonathan Falwell Senior Pastor, Thomas Road Baptist Church (Lynchburg, VA)
William J. Federer President, Amerisearch, Inc. (St. Louis, MO)
Fr. Joseph D. Fessio Founder and Editor, Ignatius Press (Ft. Collins, CO)
Carmen Fowler President & Executive Editor, Presbyterian Lay Committee (Lenoir, NC)
Maggie Gallagher President, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy and a co-author of The Case for Marriage (Manassas, VA)
Dr. Jim Garlow Senior Pastor, Skyline Church (La Mesa, CA)
Steven Garofalo Senior Consultant, Search and Assessment Services (Charlotte, NC)
Dr. Robert P. George McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
Dr. Timothy George Dean and Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School at Samford University (Birmingham, AL)
Thomas Gilson Director of Strategic Processes, Campus Crusade for Christ International (Norfolk, VA)
Dr. Jack Graham Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church (Plano, TX)
Dr. Wayne Grudem Research Professor of Theological and Biblical Studies, Phoenix Seminary (Phoenix, AZ)
Dr. Cornell “Corkie” Haan National Facilitator of Spiritual Unity, The Mission America Coalition (Palm Desert, CA)
Fr. Chad Hatfield Chancellor, CEO. And Archpriest, St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (Yonkers, NY)
Dr. Dennis Hollinger President and Professor of Christian Ethics, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, MA)
Dr. Jeanette Hsieh Executive VP and Provost, Trinity International University (Deerfield, IL)
Dr. John A. Huffman, Jr. Senior Pastor, St. Andrews Presbyterian Church (Newport Beach, CA) and Chairman of the Board, Christianity Today International (Carol Stream, IL)
Rev. Ken Hutcherson Pastor, Antioch Bible Church (Kirkland, WA)
Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr. Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church (Beltsville, MD)
Fr. Johannes L. Jacobse President, American Orthodox Institute and Editor, OrthodoxyToday.org (Naples, FL)
Jerry Jenkins Chairman of the board of trustees for Moody Bible Institute (Black Forest, CO)
Camille Kampouris Publisher, Kairos Journal
Emmanuel A. Kampouris Editorial Board, Kairos Journal
Rev. Tim Keller Senior Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church (New York, NY)
Dr. Peter Kreeft Professor of Philosophy, Boston College (MA) and at the Kings College (NY)
Most Rev. Joseph E. Kurtz Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville, KY
Jim Kushiner Editor, Touchstone (Chicago, IL)
Dr. Richard Land President, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the SBC (Washington, DC)
Jim Law Senior Associate Pastor, First Baptist Church (Woodstock, GA)
Dr. Matthew Levering Associate Professor of Theology, Ave Maria University (Naples, FL)
Dr. Peter Lillback President, The Providence Forum (West Conshohocken, PA)
Dr. Duane Litfin President, Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL)
Rev. Herb Lusk Pastor, Greater Exodus Baptist Church (Philadelphia, PA)
His Eminence Adam Cardinal Maida Archbishop Emeritus, Roman Catholic Diocese of Detroit, MI
Most Rev. Richard J. Malone Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, ME
Rev. Francis Martin Professor of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Heart Major Seminary (Detroit, MI)
Dr. Joseph Mattera Bishop & Senior Pastor, Resurrection Church (Brooklyn, NY)
Phil Maxwell Pastor, Gateway Church (Bridgewater, NJ)
Josh McDowell Founder, Josh McDowell Ministries (Plano, TX)
Alex McFarland President, Southern Evangelical Seminary (Charlotte, NC)
Most Rev. George Dallas McKinney Bishop, & Founder and Pastor, St. Stephen’s Church of God in Christ (San Diego, CA)
Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns Missionary Bishop, Convocation of Anglicans of North America (Herndon, VA)
Dr. C. Ben Mitchell Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy, Union University (Jackson, TN)
Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY)
Dr. Russell D. Moore Senior VP for Academic Administration & Dean of the School of Theology, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY)
Most Rev. John J. Myers Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, NJ
Most Rev. Joseph F. Naumann Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City, KS
David Neff Editor-in-Chief, Christianity Today (Carol Stream, IL)
Tom Nelson Senior Pastor, Christ Community Evangelical Free Church (Leawood, KS)
Niel Nielson President, Covenant College (Lookout Mt., GA)
Most Rev. John Nienstedt Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, MN
Dr. Tom Oden Theologian, United Methodist Minister and Professor, Drew University (Madison, NJ)
Marvin Olasky Editor-in-Chief, World Magazine and provost, The Kings College (New York City, NY)
Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, AZ
Rev. William Owens Chairman, Coalition of African-American Pastors (Memphis, TN)
Dr. J.I. Packer Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology, Regent College (Canada)
Metr. Jonah Paffhausen Primate, Orthodox Church in America (Syosset, NY)
Tony Perkins President, Family Research Council (Washington, D.C.)
Eric M. Pillmore CEO, Pillmore Consulting LLC (Doylestown, PA)
Dr. Everett Piper President, Oklahoma Wesleyan University (Bartlesville, OK)
Todd Pitner President, Rev Increase
Dr. Cornelius Plantinga President, Calvin Theological Seminary (Grand Rapids, MI)
Dr. David Platt Pastor, Church at Brook Hills (Birmingham AL)
Rev. Jim Pocock Pastor, Trinitarian Congregational Church (Wayland, MA)
Fred Potter Executive Director & CEO, Christian Legal Society (Springfield, VA)
Dennis Rainey President, CEO, & Co-Founder, FamilyLife (Little Rock, AR)
Fr. Patrick Reardon Pastor, All Saints’ Antiochian Orthodox Church (Chicago, IL)
Bob Reccord Founder, Total Life Impact, Inc. (Suwanee, GA)
His Eminence Justin Cardinal Rigali Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, PA
Frank Schubert President, Schubert Flint Public Affairs (Sacramento, CA)
David Schuringa President, Crossroads Bible Institute (Grand Rapids, MI)
Tricia Scribner Author (Harrisburg, NC)
Dr. Dave Seaford Senior Pastor, Community Fellowship Church (Matthews, NC)
Alan Sears President, CEO, & General Counsel, Alliance Defense Fund (Scottsdale, AZ)
Randy Setzer Senior Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church (Lincolnton, NC)
Most Rev. Michael J. Sheridan Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs, CO
Dr. Ron Sider Director, Evangelicals for Social Action (Wynnewood, PA)
Fr. Robert Sirico Founder, Acton Institute (Grand Rapids, MI)
Dr. Robert Sloan President, Houston Baptist University (Houston, TX)
Charles Stetson Chairman of the Board, Bible Literacy Project (New York, NY)
Dr. David Stevens CEO, Christian Medical & Dental Association (Bristol, TN)
John Stonestreet Executive Director, Summit Ministries (Manitou Springs, CO)
Dr. Joseph Stowell President, Cornerstone University (Grand Rapids, MI)
Dr. Sarah Sumner Professor of Theology and Ministry, Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, CA)
Dr. Glenn Sunshine Chairman of the history department of Central Connecticut State University (New Britain, CT)
Luiz Tellez President, The Witherspoon Institute (Princeton, NJ)
Dr. Timothy C. Tennent Professor, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, MA)
Michael Timmis Chairman, Prison Fellowship and Prison Fellowship International (Naples, FL)
Mark Tooley President, Institute for Religion and Democracy (Washington, D.C.)
H. James Towey President, St. Vincent College (Latrobe, PA)
Juan Valdes Middle and High School Chaplain, Flordia Christian School (Miami, FL)
Todd Wagner Pastor, WaterMark Community Church (Dallas, TX)
Dr. Graham Walker President, Patrick Henry Univ. (Purcellville, VA)
Alexander F. C. Webster Archpriest, Orthodox Church in America and Associate Professorial Lecturer, The George Washington University (Ft. Belvoir, VA)
George Weigel Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, D.C.)
David Welch Houston Area Pastor Council Executive Director, US Pastors Council (Houston, TX)
Dr. James White Founding and Senior Pastor, Mecklenberg Community Church (Charlotte, NC)
Dr. Hayes Wicker Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church (Naples, FL)
Mark Williamson Founder and President, Foundation Restoration Ministries/Federal Intercessors (Katy, TX)
Dr. Craig Williford President, Trinity International University (Deerfield, IL)
Dr. John Woodbridge Research professor of Church History & the History of Christian Thought, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL)
Don M. Woodside Performance Matters Associates (Matthews, NC)
Dr. Frank Wright President, National Religious Broadcasters (Manassas, VA)
Most Rev. Donald W. Wuerl Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
Paul Young COO & Executive VP, Christian Research Institute (Charlotte, NC)
Dr. Michael Youssef President, Leading the Way (Atlanta, GA)
Ravi Zacharias Founder and Chairman of the board, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (Norcross, GA)
Most Rev. David A. Zubik Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, PA
Bookmark and Share
Sunday, March 29, 2009
How Are Your Golden Idols Coming Along?
Obama: 100 Days of Abortion
by Tom Hoopes
Saturday, March 28, 2009 4:06 AM
National Catholic Register
As his April 29 100-day mark nears, the Register is compiling an editorial about president Obama’s abortion record, starting with his days as an Illinois state senator. Let me know if it’s missing anything.
March 28, 2001: Voted “No” to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee.
March 6, 2002: Voted “No” to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee.
April 4, 2002: Voted “No” to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act on the Illinois Senate floor.
March 13-14, 2003: Voted “No” to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in the Illinois Senate after voting for an amendment that made it identical to the federal law of the same name.
2005-2008: 100% pro-abortion record in U.S. Senate.
July 17, 2007: Tells Planned Parenthood, “Well, the first thing I’d do, as president, is, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” which would wipe out all state laws regulating abortion.
Sept. 2, 2008: Obama campaign releases an ad putting abortion in the center of its effort.
Nov. 24, 2008: Names Melody Barnes domestic policy advisor; she previously served on the boards of both Emily’s List and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
Dec. 1, 2008: Nominates Sen. Hillary Clinton as secretary of State. Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards praises the pick on abortion grounds, saying: “Sen. Clinton understands that women’s quality of life directly affects the major issues confronting the globe: national security, environmental sustainability and global poverty.”
Dec. 11, 2008: Nominates Sen. Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services head. Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) Pro-Choice America, says: “We appreciate his recent efforts to help defeat two abortion bans in South Dakota. We had a good working relationship with him.”
Dec. 12, 2008: Appoints Jeanne Lambrew to become the deputy director of the White House Office of Health Reform. A Planned Parenthood statement quoted by LifeNews.com says: “She is one of the leading health-policy experts in the country, and someone who is an advocate for” abortion.
Jan. 5, 2009: Appointed David Ogden deputy attorney general; he’s a pornography lawyer who opposed the Children’s Internet Protection Act and has also fought for Planned Parenthood.
Jan. 5, 2009: Appointed Dawn Johnsen assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel; she’s a former legal director for NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Jan 5, 2009: Appointed Thomas Perrelli associate attorney general. He was counsel to Michael Schiavo, who sought and received permission to starve and dehydrate his wife to death during Holy Week 2005.
Jan 23, 2009: Reversed the Mexico City Policy, allowing taxpayer dollars to go to organizations that perform and promote abortions overseas. In a Gallup Poll, just 35% approved of the action, making it his least popular move as president so far.
Jan 23, 2009: Released a statement pledging to work with Congress to restore funding to the U.N. Population Fund. In 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell requested that Congress halt the funding, tying it to China’s “program of coercive abortion.”
Feb. 17, 2009: Signs stimulus package into law. The new law will fundamentally change the standard that Medicare follows in paying for medical care and, in so doing, may place seniors at risk of not receiving necessary, life-sustaining care.
Feb. 28, 2009: Nominates Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a pro-abortion extremist who has been publicly rebuked by her bishop and who has ties to Kansas abortionist George Tiller, to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Feb. 4, 2009: Signs into law the SCHIP reauthorization. The Senate rejected an amendment extending health benefits to the unborn. (As senator, Obama voted against that amendment.) Under SCHIP, states are granted the authority to decide which health plans and services can be offered to children. “It’s alarming that this has happened with virtually no public debate,” said Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute. “Many people do not understand the implications of SCHIP as it is written.”
March 5, 2009: Holds a health-care summit; invites Planned Parenthood and Human Rights Campaign but no pro-life groups.
March 6, 2009: Creates a new position and appoints pro-abortion activist Melanne Verveer ambassador-at-large for Women’s Issues. Pro-lifers worry that the position was created to “promote abortion and overturn pro-life laws in nations across the world,” the Catholic News Agency reports.
March 9, 2009: Obama overturned President Bush’s restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research. Now, money from taxpayers can go to scientists who do fatal research on human beings created for the purpose. Obama stopped the Bush preference for proven, moral adult stem-cell therapies.
March 10, 2009: The Obama administration’s Health and Human Services department opens a 30-day review period with an eye to challenging freedom-of-conscience rights that help Catholic doctors opt out of practices they deem immoral.
March 17, 2009: Nominates David Hamilton U.S. circuit judge for the 7th Circuit; he’s a former ACLU leader who blocked pro-life legislation as a Clinton-appointed federal judge.
Additional Appointments:
Nov. 7, 2008: Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff; he earned a 100% pro-abortion voting record as a U.S. representative.
Nov. 22, 2008: Ellen Moran, White House communications director; she was executive director of the pro-abortion political committee Emily’s List.
Dec. 17, 2008: Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, Interior secretary; he scored only 28% with the National Right to Life Committee.
Dec. 17, 2008: Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Agriculture secretary; Iowa Right to Life Committee Executive Director Kim Lehman, citing his record, said: “We definitely consider him anti-life.”
Feb. 12, 2009: Leon Panetta, CIA director; as a U.S. representative in 1990 he co-sponsored the Freedom of Choice Act.
by Tom Hoopes
Saturday, March 28, 2009 4:06 AM
National Catholic Register
As his April 29 100-day mark nears, the Register is compiling an editorial about president Obama’s abortion record, starting with his days as an Illinois state senator. Let me know if it’s missing anything.
March 28, 2001: Voted “No” to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee.
March 6, 2002: Voted “No” to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee.
April 4, 2002: Voted “No” to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act on the Illinois Senate floor.
March 13-14, 2003: Voted “No” to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act in the Illinois Senate after voting for an amendment that made it identical to the federal law of the same name.
2005-2008: 100% pro-abortion record in U.S. Senate.
July 17, 2007: Tells Planned Parenthood, “Well, the first thing I’d do, as president, is, is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” which would wipe out all state laws regulating abortion.
Sept. 2, 2008: Obama campaign releases an ad putting abortion in the center of its effort.
Nov. 24, 2008: Names Melody Barnes domestic policy advisor; she previously served on the boards of both Emily’s List and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
Dec. 1, 2008: Nominates Sen. Hillary Clinton as secretary of State. Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards praises the pick on abortion grounds, saying: “Sen. Clinton understands that women’s quality of life directly affects the major issues confronting the globe: national security, environmental sustainability and global poverty.”
Dec. 11, 2008: Nominates Sen. Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services head. Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL (National Abortion Rights Action League) Pro-Choice America, says: “We appreciate his recent efforts to help defeat two abortion bans in South Dakota. We had a good working relationship with him.”
Dec. 12, 2008: Appoints Jeanne Lambrew to become the deputy director of the White House Office of Health Reform. A Planned Parenthood statement quoted by LifeNews.com says: “She is one of the leading health-policy experts in the country, and someone who is an advocate for” abortion.
Jan. 5, 2009: Appointed David Ogden deputy attorney general; he’s a pornography lawyer who opposed the Children’s Internet Protection Act and has also fought for Planned Parenthood.
Jan. 5, 2009: Appointed Dawn Johnsen assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel; she’s a former legal director for NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Jan 5, 2009: Appointed Thomas Perrelli associate attorney general. He was counsel to Michael Schiavo, who sought and received permission to starve and dehydrate his wife to death during Holy Week 2005.
Jan 23, 2009: Reversed the Mexico City Policy, allowing taxpayer dollars to go to organizations that perform and promote abortions overseas. In a Gallup Poll, just 35% approved of the action, making it his least popular move as president so far.
Jan 23, 2009: Released a statement pledging to work with Congress to restore funding to the U.N. Population Fund. In 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell requested that Congress halt the funding, tying it to China’s “program of coercive abortion.”
Feb. 17, 2009: Signs stimulus package into law. The new law will fundamentally change the standard that Medicare follows in paying for medical care and, in so doing, may place seniors at risk of not receiving necessary, life-sustaining care.
Feb. 28, 2009: Nominates Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a pro-abortion extremist who has been publicly rebuked by her bishop and who has ties to Kansas abortionist George Tiller, to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Feb. 4, 2009: Signs into law the SCHIP reauthorization. The Senate rejected an amendment extending health benefits to the unborn. (As senator, Obama voted against that amendment.) Under SCHIP, states are granted the authority to decide which health plans and services can be offered to children. “It’s alarming that this has happened with virtually no public debate,” said Grace-Marie Turner of the Galen Institute. “Many people do not understand the implications of SCHIP as it is written.”
March 5, 2009: Holds a health-care summit; invites Planned Parenthood and Human Rights Campaign but no pro-life groups.
March 6, 2009: Creates a new position and appoints pro-abortion activist Melanne Verveer ambassador-at-large for Women’s Issues. Pro-lifers worry that the position was created to “promote abortion and overturn pro-life laws in nations across the world,” the Catholic News Agency reports.
March 9, 2009: Obama overturned President Bush’s restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research. Now, money from taxpayers can go to scientists who do fatal research on human beings created for the purpose. Obama stopped the Bush preference for proven, moral adult stem-cell therapies.
March 10, 2009: The Obama administration’s Health and Human Services department opens a 30-day review period with an eye to challenging freedom-of-conscience rights that help Catholic doctors opt out of practices they deem immoral.
March 17, 2009: Nominates David Hamilton U.S. circuit judge for the 7th Circuit; he’s a former ACLU leader who blocked pro-life legislation as a Clinton-appointed federal judge.
Additional Appointments:
Nov. 7, 2008: Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff; he earned a 100% pro-abortion voting record as a U.S. representative.
Nov. 22, 2008: Ellen Moran, White House communications director; she was executive director of the pro-abortion political committee Emily’s List.
Dec. 17, 2008: Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, Interior secretary; he scored only 28% with the National Right to Life Committee.
Dec. 17, 2008: Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Agriculture secretary; Iowa Right to Life Committee Executive Director Kim Lehman, citing his record, said: “We definitely consider him anti-life.”
Feb. 12, 2009: Leon Panetta, CIA director; as a U.S. representative in 1990 he co-sponsored the Freedom of Choice Act.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Maryland Requires Parental Permission for Body Piercing but Not Abortion
How interesting, really, that for many many years now schools can't give a student a Tylenol without a written parental consent but abortion could be done without parental consent. Just as pathetic is Maryland:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Parental Consent Required For Tattoos in Maryland, But Not For Abortion
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
BALTIMORE, February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Maryland House of Delegates has unanimously approved a proposal to require "parental consent" for tattoos and body piercings done on minors. However, the state still only requires that one parent be notified that a minor is going to have an abortion, with no need for the parent's consent.
Republicans in the House tried and failed to amend the "tattoos and body piercing" measure to include parental consent for abortion when Del. Gail H. Bates, a Howard County Republican, asked to have the measure include parental consent for "other invasive surgical procedures."
However, House Speaker Michael E. Busch declined to consider the proposed amendment, arguing that it changed the purpose of the bill and was, therefore, out of order, according to a Baltimore Sun report.
Maryland's Parental Notification for Abortion Law (Article 20-103) requires that one parent or guardian be notified before a minor has an abortion. The parent/guardian does not need to consent to or agree with the minor's choice, but does need to know the minor is planning to have an abortion.
Maryland's parental notification law also says specifically that no notification is required if, in the judgment of the doctor performing the abortion: the minor is mature and capable of giving her informed consent to the procedure, or notification would not be in the minor's best interest, or notice may lead to physical or emotional abuse of the minor, or the minor patient does not live with her parent or guardian, or a reasonable effort to give notice has been unsuccessful.
Scott Davis of National Pro-Life Radio commented that the Maryland parental notification law is so full of loopholes that it is rendered practically meaningless.
"This gives the abortionist sole and unreviewable discretion in regards to parental rights," Davis explained.
"The physician may perform the abortion, without notice to a parent or guardian of a minor if, in the professional judgment of the physician, notification would not be in the interest of the minor.
"So a teenage girl's parents could be kept in the dark about an abortion, a medical procedure with grave physical and psychological risks, simply because the abortion provider thinks it's a good idea."
Davis also pointed out that each year approximately 22.6% of Maryland abortions are performed on girls 16 and under.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Parental Consent Required For Tattoos in Maryland, But Not For Abortion
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
BALTIMORE, February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Maryland House of Delegates has unanimously approved a proposal to require "parental consent" for tattoos and body piercings done on minors. However, the state still only requires that one parent be notified that a minor is going to have an abortion, with no need for the parent's consent.
Republicans in the House tried and failed to amend the "tattoos and body piercing" measure to include parental consent for abortion when Del. Gail H. Bates, a Howard County Republican, asked to have the measure include parental consent for "other invasive surgical procedures."
However, House Speaker Michael E. Busch declined to consider the proposed amendment, arguing that it changed the purpose of the bill and was, therefore, out of order, according to a Baltimore Sun report.
Maryland's Parental Notification for Abortion Law (Article 20-103) requires that one parent or guardian be notified before a minor has an abortion. The parent/guardian does not need to consent to or agree with the minor's choice, but does need to know the minor is planning to have an abortion.
Maryland's parental notification law also says specifically that no notification is required if, in the judgment of the doctor performing the abortion: the minor is mature and capable of giving her informed consent to the procedure, or notification would not be in the minor's best interest, or notice may lead to physical or emotional abuse of the minor, or the minor patient does not live with her parent or guardian, or a reasonable effort to give notice has been unsuccessful.
Scott Davis of National Pro-Life Radio commented that the Maryland parental notification law is so full of loopholes that it is rendered practically meaningless.
"This gives the abortionist sole and unreviewable discretion in regards to parental rights," Davis explained.
"The physician may perform the abortion, without notice to a parent or guardian of a minor if, in the professional judgment of the physician, notification would not be in the interest of the minor.
"So a teenage girl's parents could be kept in the dark about an abortion, a medical procedure with grave physical and psychological risks, simply because the abortion provider thinks it's a good idea."
Davis also pointed out that each year approximately 22.6% of Maryland abortions are performed on girls 16 and under.
Brain Death Criteria -- Really? Or Maybe Not.
By Hilary White - Rome correspondent
ROME, February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - If a patient is able to process oxygen from the lungs into the bloodstream, maintain a normal body temperature, digest food and expel waste, grow to normal adult size from the age of four to twenty, and even carry a child to term, can he or she be considered dead? Can a person who is "dead" wake up and go on later to finish a university degree? Can a corpse get out of bed, go home and go fishing? Can he get married and have children?
These are among the real-life stories of patients declared "brain dead" presented by medical experts at the "Signs of Life" conference on "brain death" criteria held near the Vatican in Rome last week. Ten speakers, who are among the world's most eminent in their fields, sounded a ringing rebuke to the continued support among medical professionals and ethicists for "brain death" as an accepted criterion for organ removal.
Dr. Paul Byrne, the conference organizer, told LifeSiteNews.com he was delighted with the success of the conference, that he hopes will bring the message that "brain death is not death" inside the walls of the Vatican where support for "brain death" criteria is still strong.
Dr. Byrne, a neonatologist and clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Toledo, compared the struggle against "brain death" criteria with another battle: "I'm sure that slavery was at one time well-accepted in the United States, and that people saw big benefits to slavery. And yes, it was difficult to go away from that but it was absolutely essential."
"Slavery was doing evil things to persons. This issue of 'brain death' was invented to get beating hearts for transplantation. And there is no way that this can go on. It must get stopped."
Participants came from all over the world to attend the Signs of Life conference, with speakers from Quebec, Alberta, Ontario, Germany, Poland, the US, Brazil and Italy. The conference hall was packed to standing-room only with physicians, clergy, students, journalists, and academics. Clergy included two senior officials of the Vatican curia: Francis Cardinal Arinze, the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sergio Cardinal Sebastiani, the President Emeritus of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See. Two senior members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith were also present. Conference organizers told LifeSiteNews.com that they had expected no more than a hundred to attend and were surprised but very pleased with the crowd of over 170 for the one-day event.
Conflicting voices on "brain death" criteria are still battling in the Church. In February 2005, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS) refused to publish the findings of its own conference after the speakers roundly denounced "brain death" as a cynical invention to further the monetary interests of organ transplanters. The speakers said that using "brain death" for the purpose of organ harvesting results in the death of helpless patients. The PAS convened a second conference in 2007 with different speakers who, with only two dissenting, supported "brain death" for organ transplants. Papers from the 2005 conference that opposed "brain death" were excluded without explanation to their authors.
During a Vatican-sponsored conference last November on organ transplantation, at which not a single speaker raised their voice against "brain death," Pope Benedict XVI warned in an address that "the removal of organs is allowed only in the presence of his actual death." But on the Monday following the Friday organ transplant conference, only the PAS conference report in favor of "brain death" was posted to the Vatican website and not the Pope's warning.
Dr. Byrne said that a major function of the Signs of Life conference was "to support Pope Benedict," whose address in November, he said, had started to turn the Church against "brain death."
"It's here to demonstrate clearly that 'brain death' never was true death. What we're trying to do is come back to the truth and protect and preserve the life that comes from God.
"When there are attacks on life, then we, as physicians, defend it and that is what this conference is for."
The Signs of Life conference, sponsored privately by various pro-life organizations, including Human Life International, the Northwest Ohio Guild of the Catholic Medical Association, American Life League and the Italian organization Associazione Famiglia Domani, stood in opposition to the second PAS conference, which was titled, "The Signs of Death."
ROME, February 26, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - If a patient is able to process oxygen from the lungs into the bloodstream, maintain a normal body temperature, digest food and expel waste, grow to normal adult size from the age of four to twenty, and even carry a child to term, can he or she be considered dead? Can a person who is "dead" wake up and go on later to finish a university degree? Can a corpse get out of bed, go home and go fishing? Can he get married and have children?
These are among the real-life stories of patients declared "brain dead" presented by medical experts at the "Signs of Life" conference on "brain death" criteria held near the Vatican in Rome last week. Ten speakers, who are among the world's most eminent in their fields, sounded a ringing rebuke to the continued support among medical professionals and ethicists for "brain death" as an accepted criterion for organ removal.
Dr. Paul Byrne, the conference organizer, told LifeSiteNews.com he was delighted with the success of the conference, that he hopes will bring the message that "brain death is not death" inside the walls of the Vatican where support for "brain death" criteria is still strong.
Dr. Byrne, a neonatologist and clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Toledo, compared the struggle against "brain death" criteria with another battle: "I'm sure that slavery was at one time well-accepted in the United States, and that people saw big benefits to slavery. And yes, it was difficult to go away from that but it was absolutely essential."
"Slavery was doing evil things to persons. This issue of 'brain death' was invented to get beating hearts for transplantation. And there is no way that this can go on. It must get stopped."
Participants came from all over the world to attend the Signs of Life conference, with speakers from Quebec, Alberta, Ontario, Germany, Poland, the US, Brazil and Italy. The conference hall was packed to standing-room only with physicians, clergy, students, journalists, and academics. Clergy included two senior officials of the Vatican curia: Francis Cardinal Arinze, the head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Sergio Cardinal Sebastiani, the President Emeritus of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See. Two senior members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith were also present. Conference organizers told LifeSiteNews.com that they had expected no more than a hundred to attend and were surprised but very pleased with the crowd of over 170 for the one-day event.
Conflicting voices on "brain death" criteria are still battling in the Church. In February 2005, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences (PAS) refused to publish the findings of its own conference after the speakers roundly denounced "brain death" as a cynical invention to further the monetary interests of organ transplanters. The speakers said that using "brain death" for the purpose of organ harvesting results in the death of helpless patients. The PAS convened a second conference in 2007 with different speakers who, with only two dissenting, supported "brain death" for organ transplants. Papers from the 2005 conference that opposed "brain death" were excluded without explanation to their authors.
During a Vatican-sponsored conference last November on organ transplantation, at which not a single speaker raised their voice against "brain death," Pope Benedict XVI warned in an address that "the removal of organs is allowed only in the presence of his actual death." But on the Monday following the Friday organ transplant conference, only the PAS conference report in favor of "brain death" was posted to the Vatican website and not the Pope's warning.
Dr. Byrne said that a major function of the Signs of Life conference was "to support Pope Benedict," whose address in November, he said, had started to turn the Church against "brain death."
"It's here to demonstrate clearly that 'brain death' never was true death. What we're trying to do is come back to the truth and protect and preserve the life that comes from God.
"When there are attacks on life, then we, as physicians, defend it and that is what this conference is for."
The Signs of Life conference, sponsored privately by various pro-life organizations, including Human Life International, the Northwest Ohio Guild of the Catholic Medical Association, American Life League and the Italian organization Associazione Famiglia Domani, stood in opposition to the second PAS conference, which was titled, "The Signs of Death."
Monday, February 2, 2009
What Is Happening 4 Years After Terri Schiavo's Deydration
As for my column, which you will find below in English and Spanish, we are approaching the fourth anniversary of the death of Terri Schiavo, who was killed by deliberate, court-sanctioned dehydration. March 31 is “Terri’s Day,” and we urge individuals, families, parishes, dioceses, and pro-life groups to observe that day (see www.TerrisDay.org for details). Please spread the word!
+++++++++
Blessing the Grave -- Fr. Frank Pavone
I had the privilege of blessing the grave of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, who was murdered on March 31, 2005 by dehydration. Her grave is not far from the place where she died, and where people from around the world had gathered to protest and pray.
Those who visit the gravestone, however, will notice something highly unusual. While on most graves there is an inscription of two dates – when the person was born and when he or she died – on Terri’s there are three. Here’s exactly what the grave says:
Born December 3, 1963
Departed this Earth February 25, 1990
At Peace March 31, 2005
The whole world knows that she died on March 31, 2005. National and global media were present at the scene for days, covering every detail. Media were present again when I preached at her funeral mass. We know when she died.
But her gravestone has become a pulpit for the euthanasia movement. Those who killed her are now using her grave as a platform for their twisted ideology. What they are trying to say is that once her brain was injured in 1990 and she was no longer functioning like most of us, she wasn’t one of us anymore. She “departed this earth.”
This is actually a variation on an ancient heresy, which says that we are really spirits inhabiting a body. Terri couldn’t communicate normally. So, her “spirit” must have left her. The body was just a shell left behind. Those who believe she really “departed this earth” in 1990 can therefore pretend it was OK to kill her in 2005. After all, it wasn’t really her. She was already gone.
This is heresy, because Christianity teaches that we are a unity of body and soul, not simply a soul “using” a body. The body matters. What we do to the body, we do to the person.
Moreover, the gravestone inscription is a deep insult to all who are disabled, and to all those who love and care for them. Should they be considered already dead, too? Are we just wasting our time caring for them? Euthanasia advocates would have us think so.
A recent news story about a disabled unborn child quoted one as saying, “There’s no human life there.” Isn’t that the same idea? They think the baby has already “departed this earth,” so they don’t hesitate to abort the body.
As I blessed Terri’s grave, I also prayed that God’s people would be kept safe from this falsehood. And I recalled being in Terri’s room the day she died. I remembered her face, dehydrated from not having had a drop of water in two weeks. I recalled seeing the flowers, inches away, on her night table. They were immersed in water. And as I left the grave, I gave a final glance to the vase of flowers that was standing by the stone.
This column can be found online at http://www.priestsforlife.org/columns/columns2009/09-01-26blessinggrave.htm
Fr. Frank's columns are podcast. See http://www.priestsforlife.org/podcast
Comments on this column? Priests for Life, PO Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314; mailto:mail@priestsforlife.org; Phone: 718-980-4400; Fax: 718-980-6515
Bendiciendo la Tumba
Yo tuve el privilegio de bendecir la tumba de Terri Schindler-Schiavo, quien fue asesinada por deshidratación el 31 de marzo del 2005. Su sepulcro no queda lejos del lugar donde murió, donde gente de todo el mundo se reunió para protestar y rezar.
Quienes lo visitan notarán algo muy inusual en la lápida. Mientras que en la mayorÃa de los tumbas hay una inscripción con dos fechas, la del nacimiento y la de fallecimiento, en la de Terri hay tres. He aquà exactamente lo que dice la tumba:
Nació el 3 de diciembre de 1963
Dejó este mundo el 25 de febrero de 1990
En paz el 31 de marzo del 2005
Todo el mundo sabe que ella murió el 31 de marzo del 2005. Los medios nacionales de comunicación y los globales estuvieron presentes en la escena durante dÃas, cubriendo cada detalle. Los medios también estuvieron presentes cuando prediqué en su funeral. Sabemos cuando murió.
Pero su lápida se ha convertido en un púlpito para el movimiento a favor de la eutanasia. Quienes la mataron ahora usan su tumba como una plataforma para su ideologÃa perversa. Lo que están tratando de decir es que una vez que su cerebro se dañó en 1990 y dejó de funcionar como la mayorÃa de nosotros, dejó de ser una de nosotros. “Dejó este mundo.”
Verdaderamente, esta es una variación de una antigua herejÃa, que dice que realmente somos espÃritus habitando en un cuerpo. Terri no se podÃa comunicar normalmente. Luego, su “espÃritu” debÃa haberla abandonado. El cuerpo era sólo un caparazón que quedó. Quienes creen que realmente “dejó este mundo” en 1990 pretenden, por lo tanto, que estuvo bien matarla en el 2005. Después de todo, no era realmente ella. Ya se habÃa ido.
Esto es una herejÃa, porque el cristianismo enseña que somos una unidad de cuerpo y alma, no simplemente un alma “usando” un cuerpo. El cuerpo importa. Lo que le hacemos al cuerpo, se lo hacemos a la persona.
Más aún, la inscripción en la lápida es un insulto a todos los discapacitados y a todos aquellos que los aman y cuidan de ellos. ¿Debe considerarse también que ya han muerto? ¿Estamos perdiendo el tiempo al cuidarlos? Los promotores de la eutanasia quieren que pensemos eso.
Una noticia reciente sobre un niño por nacer discapacitado citaba a alguien que decÃa: “Allà no hay vida humana.” ¿No es acaso la misma idea? Creen que el bebé ya “dejó la tierra,” por eso no dudan en abortar al cuerpo.
Mientras bendecÃa la tumba de Terri, también recé para que el pueblo de Dios fuera protegido de esta mentira. Me acordé de haber estado en el cuarto de Terri el dÃa que murió. Recordé su cara, deshidratada porque no habÃa tomado ni una gota de agua en dos semanas. Recordé haber visto unas flores, apenas a unas pulgadas de distancia, sobre su mesita de noche. Estaban inmersas en agua. Y cuando me alejaba de la tumba, le di una última mirada al recipiente con flores que estaba junto a la tumba.
Esta columna se puede encontrar en la pagina de Internet http://www.priestsforlife.org/spanish/09-01-26span.htm
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Let me also provide you with the upcoming schedules for our own TV shows and Radio programming:
Hear us on EWTN radio on Catholic Connection with Teresa Tomeo. Fr. Frank Pavone is her guest every Wednesday at 9:30am ET and Janet Morana is her guest every Friday at 9:10am ET. For radio station information and to listen to the live show on the internet, go to www.avemariaradio.net
Defending Life: Watch on EWTN every Friday at 10pm ET and Saturday at 2:30am ET. Listen on EWTN radio every Friday at 1am ET, Saturday at 6:30pm ET and Sunday at 5am ET. For more information or to listen online go to www.ewtn.com
February 6-8: The Abortion Child Abuse Connection. Why has child abuse skyrocketed in America? In this program Dr. Philip Ney explores the mutual relationship between abortion and child abuse/neglect.
February 13-15: Abortion Survivor Syndrome. Our youth carry a heavy burden - abortion survivor syndrome. There are various types of survivors. Dr. Philip Ney explores some of the symptoms and the road to healing.
Gospel of Life: The shows air on "Angel One" Channel 101 on Sky Angel IPTV and channel 262 on Dish Network every Wednesday at 11:30pm. It also airs on Catholic Familyland (www.familyland.tv) - Sunday at 1am, Monday at 9am, Wednesday at 3:30am and Thursday at 11:30 pm. (All Times Eastern). Listen to Gospel of Life episodes online at www.gospeloflife.com
Week of February 1: Ask Fr. Frank. Fr. Frank answers some common questions we have received from our viewers.
Week of February 8: Reflections from Alveda King, Niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Please tune in and spread the word! In fact, you can help us – and your whole parish -- by asking your pastor to place in the parish bulletin an announcement about our TV shows. Thanks in advance!
Blessings and prayers,
Fr. Frank Pavone
+++ +++ +++
Blessing the Grave -- Fr. Frank Pavone
I had the privilege of blessing the grave of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, who was murdered on March 31, 2005 by dehydration. Her grave is not far from the place where she died, and where people from around the world had gathered to protest and pray.
Those who visit the gravestone, however, will notice something highly unusual. While on most graves there is an inscription of two dates – when the person was born and when he or she died – on Terri’s there are three. Here’s exactly what the grave says:
Born December 3, 1963
Departed this Earth February 25, 1990
At Peace March 31, 2005
The whole world knows that she died on March 31, 2005. National and global media were present at the scene for days, covering every detail. Media were present again when I preached at her funeral mass. We know when she died.
But her gravestone has become a pulpit for the euthanasia movement. Those who killed her are now using her grave as a platform for their twisted ideology. What they are trying to say is that once her brain was injured in 1990 and she was no longer functioning like most of us, she wasn’t one of us anymore. She “departed this earth.”
This is actually a variation on an ancient heresy, which says that we are really spirits inhabiting a body. Terri couldn’t communicate normally. So, her “spirit” must have left her. The body was just a shell left behind. Those who believe she really “departed this earth” in 1990 can therefore pretend it was OK to kill her in 2005. After all, it wasn’t really her. She was already gone.
This is heresy, because Christianity teaches that we are a unity of body and soul, not simply a soul “using” a body. The body matters. What we do to the body, we do to the person.
Moreover, the gravestone inscription is a deep insult to all who are disabled, and to all those who love and care for them. Should they be considered already dead, too? Are we just wasting our time caring for them? Euthanasia advocates would have us think so.
A recent news story about a disabled unborn child quoted one as saying, “There’s no human life there.” Isn’t that the same idea? They think the baby has already “departed this earth,” so they don’t hesitate to abort the body.
As I blessed Terri’s grave, I also prayed that God’s people would be kept safe from this falsehood. And I recalled being in Terri’s room the day she died. I remembered her face, dehydrated from not having had a drop of water in two weeks. I recalled seeing the flowers, inches away, on her night table. They were immersed in water. And as I left the grave, I gave a final glance to the vase of flowers that was standing by the stone.
This column can be found online at http://www.priestsforlife.org/columns/columns2009/09-01-26blessinggrave.htm
Fr. Frank's columns are podcast. See http://www.priestsforlife.org/podcast
Comments on this column? Priests for Life, PO Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314; mailto:mail@priestsforlife.org; Phone: 718-980-4400; Fax: 718-980-6515
Bendiciendo la Tumba
Yo tuve el privilegio de bendecir la tumba de Terri Schindler-Schiavo, quien fue asesinada por deshidratación el 31 de marzo del 2005. Su sepulcro no queda lejos del lugar donde murió, donde gente de todo el mundo se reunió para protestar y rezar.
Quienes lo visitan notarán algo muy inusual en la lápida. Mientras que en la mayorÃa de los tumbas hay una inscripción con dos fechas, la del nacimiento y la de fallecimiento, en la de Terri hay tres. He aquà exactamente lo que dice la tumba:
Nació el 3 de diciembre de 1963
Dejó este mundo el 25 de febrero de 1990
En paz el 31 de marzo del 2005
Todo el mundo sabe que ella murió el 31 de marzo del 2005. Los medios nacionales de comunicación y los globales estuvieron presentes en la escena durante dÃas, cubriendo cada detalle. Los medios también estuvieron presentes cuando prediqué en su funeral. Sabemos cuando murió.
Pero su lápida se ha convertido en un púlpito para el movimiento a favor de la eutanasia. Quienes la mataron ahora usan su tumba como una plataforma para su ideologÃa perversa. Lo que están tratando de decir es que una vez que su cerebro se dañó en 1990 y dejó de funcionar como la mayorÃa de nosotros, dejó de ser una de nosotros. “Dejó este mundo.”
Verdaderamente, esta es una variación de una antigua herejÃa, que dice que realmente somos espÃritus habitando en un cuerpo. Terri no se podÃa comunicar normalmente. Luego, su “espÃritu” debÃa haberla abandonado. El cuerpo era sólo un caparazón que quedó. Quienes creen que realmente “dejó este mundo” en 1990 pretenden, por lo tanto, que estuvo bien matarla en el 2005. Después de todo, no era realmente ella. Ya se habÃa ido.
Esto es una herejÃa, porque el cristianismo enseña que somos una unidad de cuerpo y alma, no simplemente un alma “usando” un cuerpo. El cuerpo importa. Lo que le hacemos al cuerpo, se lo hacemos a la persona.
Más aún, la inscripción en la lápida es un insulto a todos los discapacitados y a todos aquellos que los aman y cuidan de ellos. ¿Debe considerarse también que ya han muerto? ¿Estamos perdiendo el tiempo al cuidarlos? Los promotores de la eutanasia quieren que pensemos eso.
Una noticia reciente sobre un niño por nacer discapacitado citaba a alguien que decÃa: “Allà no hay vida humana.” ¿No es acaso la misma idea? Creen que el bebé ya “dejó la tierra,” por eso no dudan en abortar al cuerpo.
Mientras bendecÃa la tumba de Terri, también recé para que el pueblo de Dios fuera protegido de esta mentira. Me acordé de haber estado en el cuarto de Terri el dÃa que murió. Recordé su cara, deshidratada porque no habÃa tomado ni una gota de agua en dos semanas. Recordé haber visto unas flores, apenas a unas pulgadas de distancia, sobre su mesita de noche. Estaban inmersas en agua. Y cuando me alejaba de la tumba, le di una última mirada al recipiente con flores que estaba junto a la tumba.
Esta columna se puede encontrar en la pagina de Internet http://www.priestsforlife.org/spanish/09-01-26span.htm
+++++++++
Blessing the Grave -- Fr. Frank Pavone
I had the privilege of blessing the grave of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, who was murdered on March 31, 2005 by dehydration. Her grave is not far from the place where she died, and where people from around the world had gathered to protest and pray.
Those who visit the gravestone, however, will notice something highly unusual. While on most graves there is an inscription of two dates – when the person was born and when he or she died – on Terri’s there are three. Here’s exactly what the grave says:
Born December 3, 1963
Departed this Earth February 25, 1990
At Peace March 31, 2005
The whole world knows that she died on March 31, 2005. National and global media were present at the scene for days, covering every detail. Media were present again when I preached at her funeral mass. We know when she died.
But her gravestone has become a pulpit for the euthanasia movement. Those who killed her are now using her grave as a platform for their twisted ideology. What they are trying to say is that once her brain was injured in 1990 and she was no longer functioning like most of us, she wasn’t one of us anymore. She “departed this earth.”
This is actually a variation on an ancient heresy, which says that we are really spirits inhabiting a body. Terri couldn’t communicate normally. So, her “spirit” must have left her. The body was just a shell left behind. Those who believe she really “departed this earth” in 1990 can therefore pretend it was OK to kill her in 2005. After all, it wasn’t really her. She was already gone.
This is heresy, because Christianity teaches that we are a unity of body and soul, not simply a soul “using” a body. The body matters. What we do to the body, we do to the person.
Moreover, the gravestone inscription is a deep insult to all who are disabled, and to all those who love and care for them. Should they be considered already dead, too? Are we just wasting our time caring for them? Euthanasia advocates would have us think so.
A recent news story about a disabled unborn child quoted one as saying, “There’s no human life there.” Isn’t that the same idea? They think the baby has already “departed this earth,” so they don’t hesitate to abort the body.
As I blessed Terri’s grave, I also prayed that God’s people would be kept safe from this falsehood. And I recalled being in Terri’s room the day she died. I remembered her face, dehydrated from not having had a drop of water in two weeks. I recalled seeing the flowers, inches away, on her night table. They were immersed in water. And as I left the grave, I gave a final glance to the vase of flowers that was standing by the stone.
This column can be found online at http://www.priestsforlife.org/columns/columns2009/09-01-26blessinggrave.htm
Fr. Frank's columns are podcast. See http://www.priestsforlife.org/podcast
Comments on this column? Priests for Life, PO Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314; mailto:mail@priestsforlife.org; Phone: 718-980-4400; Fax: 718-980-6515
Bendiciendo la Tumba
Yo tuve el privilegio de bendecir la tumba de Terri Schindler-Schiavo, quien fue asesinada por deshidratación el 31 de marzo del 2005. Su sepulcro no queda lejos del lugar donde murió, donde gente de todo el mundo se reunió para protestar y rezar.
Quienes lo visitan notarán algo muy inusual en la lápida. Mientras que en la mayorÃa de los tumbas hay una inscripción con dos fechas, la del nacimiento y la de fallecimiento, en la de Terri hay tres. He aquà exactamente lo que dice la tumba:
Nació el 3 de diciembre de 1963
Dejó este mundo el 25 de febrero de 1990
En paz el 31 de marzo del 2005
Todo el mundo sabe que ella murió el 31 de marzo del 2005. Los medios nacionales de comunicación y los globales estuvieron presentes en la escena durante dÃas, cubriendo cada detalle. Los medios también estuvieron presentes cuando prediqué en su funeral. Sabemos cuando murió.
Pero su lápida se ha convertido en un púlpito para el movimiento a favor de la eutanasia. Quienes la mataron ahora usan su tumba como una plataforma para su ideologÃa perversa. Lo que están tratando de decir es que una vez que su cerebro se dañó en 1990 y dejó de funcionar como la mayorÃa de nosotros, dejó de ser una de nosotros. “Dejó este mundo.”
Verdaderamente, esta es una variación de una antigua herejÃa, que dice que realmente somos espÃritus habitando en un cuerpo. Terri no se podÃa comunicar normalmente. Luego, su “espÃritu” debÃa haberla abandonado. El cuerpo era sólo un caparazón que quedó. Quienes creen que realmente “dejó este mundo” en 1990 pretenden, por lo tanto, que estuvo bien matarla en el 2005. Después de todo, no era realmente ella. Ya se habÃa ido.
Esto es una herejÃa, porque el cristianismo enseña que somos una unidad de cuerpo y alma, no simplemente un alma “usando” un cuerpo. El cuerpo importa. Lo que le hacemos al cuerpo, se lo hacemos a la persona.
Más aún, la inscripción en la lápida es un insulto a todos los discapacitados y a todos aquellos que los aman y cuidan de ellos. ¿Debe considerarse también que ya han muerto? ¿Estamos perdiendo el tiempo al cuidarlos? Los promotores de la eutanasia quieren que pensemos eso.
Una noticia reciente sobre un niño por nacer discapacitado citaba a alguien que decÃa: “Allà no hay vida humana.” ¿No es acaso la misma idea? Creen que el bebé ya “dejó la tierra,” por eso no dudan en abortar al cuerpo.
Mientras bendecÃa la tumba de Terri, también recé para que el pueblo de Dios fuera protegido de esta mentira. Me acordé de haber estado en el cuarto de Terri el dÃa que murió. Recordé su cara, deshidratada porque no habÃa tomado ni una gota de agua en dos semanas. Recordé haber visto unas flores, apenas a unas pulgadas de distancia, sobre su mesita de noche. Estaban inmersas en agua. Y cuando me alejaba de la tumba, le di una última mirada al recipiente con flores que estaba junto a la tumba.
Esta columna se puede encontrar en la pagina de Internet http://www.priestsforlife.org/spanish/09-01-26span.htm
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Let me also provide you with the upcoming schedules for our own TV shows and Radio programming:
Hear us on EWTN radio on Catholic Connection with Teresa Tomeo. Fr. Frank Pavone is her guest every Wednesday at 9:30am ET and Janet Morana is her guest every Friday at 9:10am ET. For radio station information and to listen to the live show on the internet, go to www.avemariaradio.net
Defending Life: Watch on EWTN every Friday at 10pm ET and Saturday at 2:30am ET. Listen on EWTN radio every Friday at 1am ET, Saturday at 6:30pm ET and Sunday at 5am ET. For more information or to listen online go to www.ewtn.com
February 6-8: The Abortion Child Abuse Connection. Why has child abuse skyrocketed in America? In this program Dr. Philip Ney explores the mutual relationship between abortion and child abuse/neglect.
February 13-15: Abortion Survivor Syndrome. Our youth carry a heavy burden - abortion survivor syndrome. There are various types of survivors. Dr. Philip Ney explores some of the symptoms and the road to healing.
Gospel of Life: The shows air on "Angel One" Channel 101 on Sky Angel IPTV and channel 262 on Dish Network every Wednesday at 11:30pm. It also airs on Catholic Familyland (www.familyland.tv) - Sunday at 1am, Monday at 9am, Wednesday at 3:30am and Thursday at 11:30 pm. (All Times Eastern). Listen to Gospel of Life episodes online at www.gospeloflife.com
Week of February 1: Ask Fr. Frank. Fr. Frank answers some common questions we have received from our viewers.
Week of February 8: Reflections from Alveda King, Niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Please tune in and spread the word! In fact, you can help us – and your whole parish -- by asking your pastor to place in the parish bulletin an announcement about our TV shows. Thanks in advance!
Blessings and prayers,
Fr. Frank Pavone
+++ +++ +++
Blessing the Grave -- Fr. Frank Pavone
I had the privilege of blessing the grave of Terri Schindler-Schiavo, who was murdered on March 31, 2005 by dehydration. Her grave is not far from the place where she died, and where people from around the world had gathered to protest and pray.
Those who visit the gravestone, however, will notice something highly unusual. While on most graves there is an inscription of two dates – when the person was born and when he or she died – on Terri’s there are three. Here’s exactly what the grave says:
Born December 3, 1963
Departed this Earth February 25, 1990
At Peace March 31, 2005
The whole world knows that she died on March 31, 2005. National and global media were present at the scene for days, covering every detail. Media were present again when I preached at her funeral mass. We know when she died.
But her gravestone has become a pulpit for the euthanasia movement. Those who killed her are now using her grave as a platform for their twisted ideology. What they are trying to say is that once her brain was injured in 1990 and she was no longer functioning like most of us, she wasn’t one of us anymore. She “departed this earth.”
This is actually a variation on an ancient heresy, which says that we are really spirits inhabiting a body. Terri couldn’t communicate normally. So, her “spirit” must have left her. The body was just a shell left behind. Those who believe she really “departed this earth” in 1990 can therefore pretend it was OK to kill her in 2005. After all, it wasn’t really her. She was already gone.
This is heresy, because Christianity teaches that we are a unity of body and soul, not simply a soul “using” a body. The body matters. What we do to the body, we do to the person.
Moreover, the gravestone inscription is a deep insult to all who are disabled, and to all those who love and care for them. Should they be considered already dead, too? Are we just wasting our time caring for them? Euthanasia advocates would have us think so.
A recent news story about a disabled unborn child quoted one as saying, “There’s no human life there.” Isn’t that the same idea? They think the baby has already “departed this earth,” so they don’t hesitate to abort the body.
As I blessed Terri’s grave, I also prayed that God’s people would be kept safe from this falsehood. And I recalled being in Terri’s room the day she died. I remembered her face, dehydrated from not having had a drop of water in two weeks. I recalled seeing the flowers, inches away, on her night table. They were immersed in water. And as I left the grave, I gave a final glance to the vase of flowers that was standing by the stone.
This column can be found online at http://www.priestsforlife.org/columns/columns2009/09-01-26blessinggrave.htm
Fr. Frank's columns are podcast. See http://www.priestsforlife.org/podcast
Comments on this column? Priests for Life, PO Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314; mailto:mail@priestsforlife.org; Phone: 718-980-4400; Fax: 718-980-6515
Bendiciendo la Tumba
Yo tuve el privilegio de bendecir la tumba de Terri Schindler-Schiavo, quien fue asesinada por deshidratación el 31 de marzo del 2005. Su sepulcro no queda lejos del lugar donde murió, donde gente de todo el mundo se reunió para protestar y rezar.
Quienes lo visitan notarán algo muy inusual en la lápida. Mientras que en la mayorÃa de los tumbas hay una inscripción con dos fechas, la del nacimiento y la de fallecimiento, en la de Terri hay tres. He aquà exactamente lo que dice la tumba:
Nació el 3 de diciembre de 1963
Dejó este mundo el 25 de febrero de 1990
En paz el 31 de marzo del 2005
Todo el mundo sabe que ella murió el 31 de marzo del 2005. Los medios nacionales de comunicación y los globales estuvieron presentes en la escena durante dÃas, cubriendo cada detalle. Los medios también estuvieron presentes cuando prediqué en su funeral. Sabemos cuando murió.
Pero su lápida se ha convertido en un púlpito para el movimiento a favor de la eutanasia. Quienes la mataron ahora usan su tumba como una plataforma para su ideologÃa perversa. Lo que están tratando de decir es que una vez que su cerebro se dañó en 1990 y dejó de funcionar como la mayorÃa de nosotros, dejó de ser una de nosotros. “Dejó este mundo.”
Verdaderamente, esta es una variación de una antigua herejÃa, que dice que realmente somos espÃritus habitando en un cuerpo. Terri no se podÃa comunicar normalmente. Luego, su “espÃritu” debÃa haberla abandonado. El cuerpo era sólo un caparazón que quedó. Quienes creen que realmente “dejó este mundo” en 1990 pretenden, por lo tanto, que estuvo bien matarla en el 2005. Después de todo, no era realmente ella. Ya se habÃa ido.
Esto es una herejÃa, porque el cristianismo enseña que somos una unidad de cuerpo y alma, no simplemente un alma “usando” un cuerpo. El cuerpo importa. Lo que le hacemos al cuerpo, se lo hacemos a la persona.
Más aún, la inscripción en la lápida es un insulto a todos los discapacitados y a todos aquellos que los aman y cuidan de ellos. ¿Debe considerarse también que ya han muerto? ¿Estamos perdiendo el tiempo al cuidarlos? Los promotores de la eutanasia quieren que pensemos eso.
Una noticia reciente sobre un niño por nacer discapacitado citaba a alguien que decÃa: “Allà no hay vida humana.” ¿No es acaso la misma idea? Creen que el bebé ya “dejó la tierra,” por eso no dudan en abortar al cuerpo.
Mientras bendecÃa la tumba de Terri, también recé para que el pueblo de Dios fuera protegido de esta mentira. Me acordé de haber estado en el cuarto de Terri el dÃa que murió. Recordé su cara, deshidratada porque no habÃa tomado ni una gota de agua en dos semanas. Recordé haber visto unas flores, apenas a unas pulgadas de distancia, sobre su mesita de noche. Estaban inmersas en agua. Y cuando me alejaba de la tumba, le di una última mirada al recipiente con flores que estaba junto a la tumba.
Esta columna se puede encontrar en la pagina de Internet http://www.priestsforlife.org/spanish/09-01-26span.htm
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
March for Life Media Blackout -- Mom of 12 Shares Photos
Mother of 12 shares photo journal from National March for Life
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14908
Washington DC, Jan 28, 2009 / 06:27 am (CNA).- Becoming frustrated with the lack of media coverage of the National March for Life, writer and mother of 12, Barbara Curtis decided to create a photo journal on her blog to document the nearly 300,000 people defending the rights of the unborn.
The Virginia-area mother has released 477 photos displaying the diverse races, ages and religions of the pro-life movement on her blog website.
“The annual March for Life is the most under-reported event in the nation,” she explains on her blog. “This is my fourth year redressing the lack of Dinosaur Media coverage with an online photo journal. If a picture says a thousand words, then people can see the truth about Pro-Lifers here: a dazzlingly diverse movement filled with youth, vitality and joy.”
She also recalls 2007 and 2008, when the number of supporters was nearly 200,000. Prior to the recent march, “we wondered what would happen in 2009 - two days following the inauguration of the most proudly pro-abortion president in this sad episode of our nation's history. This year there were 300,000!”
On the site, MommyLife.net, those who attended the March last Thursday in Washington, D.C. can find photos of their groups. “I stood on a column in front of the Department of Labor for 2 1/2 hours shooting over 700 pictures. I have cut them to 477 - preserving such a large number for the sake of documentation and so that marchers can find their groups.”
Along with being active in the pro-life movement, Curtis is also a writer and cares for 12 children ranging from 8 to 39. Her three youngest children are adopted and have Down’s Syndrome like one of their older brothers. She explained to CNA, “While I’m old enough to be a grandmother - and do have 12 grandchildren so far - I am energized and excited about the younger generations, so being at the March with so many young people gives me great hope for the future!”
To view photos of the 2009 March for Life, visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/BarbarasMommyLife/MarchForLife2009
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14908
Washington DC, Jan 28, 2009 / 06:27 am (CNA).- Becoming frustrated with the lack of media coverage of the National March for Life, writer and mother of 12, Barbara Curtis decided to create a photo journal on her blog to document the nearly 300,000 people defending the rights of the unborn.
The Virginia-area mother has released 477 photos displaying the diverse races, ages and religions of the pro-life movement on her blog website.
“The annual March for Life is the most under-reported event in the nation,” she explains on her blog. “This is my fourth year redressing the lack of Dinosaur Media coverage with an online photo journal. If a picture says a thousand words, then people can see the truth about Pro-Lifers here: a dazzlingly diverse movement filled with youth, vitality and joy.”
She also recalls 2007 and 2008, when the number of supporters was nearly 200,000. Prior to the recent march, “we wondered what would happen in 2009 - two days following the inauguration of the most proudly pro-abortion president in this sad episode of our nation's history. This year there were 300,000!”
On the site, MommyLife.net, those who attended the March last Thursday in Washington, D.C. can find photos of their groups. “I stood on a column in front of the Department of Labor for 2 1/2 hours shooting over 700 pictures. I have cut them to 477 - preserving such a large number for the sake of documentation and so that marchers can find their groups.”
Along with being active in the pro-life movement, Curtis is also a writer and cares for 12 children ranging from 8 to 39. Her three youngest children are adopted and have Down’s Syndrome like one of their older brothers. She explained to CNA, “While I’m old enough to be a grandmother - and do have 12 grandchildren so far - I am energized and excited about the younger generations, so being at the March with so many young people gives me great hope for the future!”
To view photos of the 2009 March for Life, visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/BarbarasMommyLife/MarchForLife2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
By Bishop Robert J. Hermann, Archdiocesan Administrator, St. Louis Archdiocese
Bishop Hermann: 'I thought you should know’
By Bishop Robert J. Hermann, Archdiocesan Administrator
January 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - I was very edified this past Saturday to see the Cathedral almost filled for the Pro-Life Mass. Then to see such a large contingent, on a very cold day, make a pilgrimage to the abortion clinic, praying the Rosary for Life, was truly heartwarming.
At the very moment I am writing this, our new president, Barack Obama, is being sworn into office. We congratulate him, and we pray for him, but we cannot condone his pro-death policies, even while we are happy that so many people feel they have new hope. We must do everything we can to oppose his pro-death-to-children efforts.
Joseph Bottum, in an article entitled "Abortion after Obama," writing in the January 2009 edition of First Things, pages 13-15, tells us, "Now the 2008 election has brought us the presidency of Barack Obama, the most consistent supporter of legalized abortion ever nominated by a majority party."
When asked about making decisions as to when a baby gets human rights, President Obama answered that "is above my pay grade." He also stated that he would not want his daughters "punished with a baby."
He has made it known that, upon taking office, he will remove all federal restrictions on funding embryonic stem-cell research. He also intends to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Seldom has our nation ever been confronted with such an extreme measure. The Freedom of Choice Act will invalidate for the entire country all restrictions on abortion before viability, including parental notification, waiting periods and partial-birth abortion bans. President Obama has no problem supporting legislation that would even kill a child who survived a botched abortion.
If at this stage our anger is directed at President Obama, our anger is misdirected. Obama is not the enemy. He needs and deserves our prayers, not our condemnation.
As Catholics, we are not guiltless. It seems to me that when President Kennedy compromised Catholic teachings and accommodated political pressures in order to be elected to the highest office in the land, he set the tone for many Catholic leaders to follow and to compromise their Catholic principles to get ahead.
In our Supreme Court and in our Congress, we have a plethora of so-called Catholics who are failing to live their Catholic identity. Over 50 percent of our electorate voted for a president who is one of the most pro-culture-of-death candidates from a major party to run for the highest office of the land.
Yes, we can thank one-half of our Catholics for bailing out on their faith!
After almost 50 years of having 50 percent of Catholics abandoning their Catholic identity, we cannot expect to turn this culture around by short-term political efforts.
In order to bring about a transformation from a culture of death to a culture of life, we have to restore our Catholic identity.
This means that all of us, as Catholics, have to undergo a profound transformation. It means that we have to take a good look at every facet of our Catholic life, including the serious study of life issues, the regular and devout use of our Sacramental system, especially the devout and weekly attendance at Mass, the regular reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the devout praying of the daily Rosary, and then the faithful, loving and firm witness to lax Catholics about our Catholic beliefs and practices.
We have to live our lives in such a way that we will be unafraid to witness to what we believe and live.
I may courageously say that I am willing to die to end abortion, but am I equally willing to say that I am ready to let my ego get ruffled daily for the same cause? Yet … that is where I need to arrive if I am to be a credible witness.
What a glorious opportunity we all have to make a difference in the pro-life cause. Until we are willing to be politically incorrect in order to be biblically correct, we will never convince anyone that our religion is worth living.
It does not take 100 percent of our Catholics to transform this country. If 75 percent of our Catholics were steeped in Catholic identity, the abortion issue would be over for our entire country. We have many, many evangelicals on our side in the culture of life. Look at how many more of them would flock to our side if we really lived our Catholic teachings! They, too, are looking for changeless principles lived out in practice.
But there is more! Our laxity in living our Catholic life has blinded us into not seeing the role of Satan in the culture of death. Satan is having a heyday in our midst, because he has managed to remain invisible in the culture of death, and our laxity has granted him that luxury. Since we are not steeped in the Word of God as we should be, we do not recognize his darkness in our society. Our first reading from Hebrews tells us, "The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart."
St. Paul tells us that our warfare is not against flesh and blood but against the power and principles of darkness. He also tells us that we should not let the sun go down upon our anger so as to give Satan a foothold. These readings are wake-up calls for us all. I bring this up deliberately, because I do not want us to fall into Satan's trap of getting us to hate President Obama or any of the pro-choice Catholic legislators in Congress. Being pro-life means that we engage far more in spiritual warfare than in political warfare.
That Satan is very alive in influencing all of us is his best-kept secret. Becoming steeped in the Word of God and the teachings of the Catholic Church exposes his evil machinations.
President Obama, pro-choice legislators and Planned Parenthood are not our enemies. Our enemies are the invisible forces masked behind these people. Most of them do not have a clue that they are being deceived by our common enemy, the devil. They are used by our common enemy, Satan, and his evil forces, to get us to hate so that we, too, will end up in a culture of death. President Obama and all pro-choice and pro-abortion legislators, as well as members supporting Planned Parenthood (and we have in our own state a national legislator who has received over $900,000 from groups that advocate for abortion rights) — these are not our enemies. They are used by the evil one to get us to hate them in our efforts to be pro-life and thereby ditch our pro-life efforts. We cannot fall for that trap!
We owe all of them prayers and fasting for their conversion. At one point, Gov. Reagan was California's very pro-abortion governor. Yet he became a very pro-life president. He repented and regretted the evil he supported.
We must bravely witness against supporting pro-choice and pro-abortion candidates in political elections, but pray daily for their conversion.
By Bishop Robert J. Hermann, Archdiocesan Administrator
January 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - I was very edified this past Saturday to see the Cathedral almost filled for the Pro-Life Mass. Then to see such a large contingent, on a very cold day, make a pilgrimage to the abortion clinic, praying the Rosary for Life, was truly heartwarming.
At the very moment I am writing this, our new president, Barack Obama, is being sworn into office. We congratulate him, and we pray for him, but we cannot condone his pro-death policies, even while we are happy that so many people feel they have new hope. We must do everything we can to oppose his pro-death-to-children efforts.
Joseph Bottum, in an article entitled "Abortion after Obama," writing in the January 2009 edition of First Things, pages 13-15, tells us, "Now the 2008 election has brought us the presidency of Barack Obama, the most consistent supporter of legalized abortion ever nominated by a majority party."
When asked about making decisions as to when a baby gets human rights, President Obama answered that "is above my pay grade." He also stated that he would not want his daughters "punished with a baby."
He has made it known that, upon taking office, he will remove all federal restrictions on funding embryonic stem-cell research. He also intends to sign the Freedom of Choice Act. Seldom has our nation ever been confronted with such an extreme measure. The Freedom of Choice Act will invalidate for the entire country all restrictions on abortion before viability, including parental notification, waiting periods and partial-birth abortion bans. President Obama has no problem supporting legislation that would even kill a child who survived a botched abortion.
If at this stage our anger is directed at President Obama, our anger is misdirected. Obama is not the enemy. He needs and deserves our prayers, not our condemnation.
As Catholics, we are not guiltless. It seems to me that when President Kennedy compromised Catholic teachings and accommodated political pressures in order to be elected to the highest office in the land, he set the tone for many Catholic leaders to follow and to compromise their Catholic principles to get ahead.
In our Supreme Court and in our Congress, we have a plethora of so-called Catholics who are failing to live their Catholic identity. Over 50 percent of our electorate voted for a president who is one of the most pro-culture-of-death candidates from a major party to run for the highest office of the land.
Yes, we can thank one-half of our Catholics for bailing out on their faith!
After almost 50 years of having 50 percent of Catholics abandoning their Catholic identity, we cannot expect to turn this culture around by short-term political efforts.
In order to bring about a transformation from a culture of death to a culture of life, we have to restore our Catholic identity.
This means that all of us, as Catholics, have to undergo a profound transformation. It means that we have to take a good look at every facet of our Catholic life, including the serious study of life issues, the regular and devout use of our Sacramental system, especially the devout and weekly attendance at Mass, the regular reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the devout praying of the daily Rosary, and then the faithful, loving and firm witness to lax Catholics about our Catholic beliefs and practices.
We have to live our lives in such a way that we will be unafraid to witness to what we believe and live.
I may courageously say that I am willing to die to end abortion, but am I equally willing to say that I am ready to let my ego get ruffled daily for the same cause? Yet … that is where I need to arrive if I am to be a credible witness.
What a glorious opportunity we all have to make a difference in the pro-life cause. Until we are willing to be politically incorrect in order to be biblically correct, we will never convince anyone that our religion is worth living.
It does not take 100 percent of our Catholics to transform this country. If 75 percent of our Catholics were steeped in Catholic identity, the abortion issue would be over for our entire country. We have many, many evangelicals on our side in the culture of life. Look at how many more of them would flock to our side if we really lived our Catholic teachings! They, too, are looking for changeless principles lived out in practice.
But there is more! Our laxity in living our Catholic life has blinded us into not seeing the role of Satan in the culture of death. Satan is having a heyday in our midst, because he has managed to remain invisible in the culture of death, and our laxity has granted him that luxury. Since we are not steeped in the Word of God as we should be, we do not recognize his darkness in our society. Our first reading from Hebrews tells us, "The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart."
St. Paul tells us that our warfare is not against flesh and blood but against the power and principles of darkness. He also tells us that we should not let the sun go down upon our anger so as to give Satan a foothold. These readings are wake-up calls for us all. I bring this up deliberately, because I do not want us to fall into Satan's trap of getting us to hate President Obama or any of the pro-choice Catholic legislators in Congress. Being pro-life means that we engage far more in spiritual warfare than in political warfare.
That Satan is very alive in influencing all of us is his best-kept secret. Becoming steeped in the Word of God and the teachings of the Catholic Church exposes his evil machinations.
President Obama, pro-choice legislators and Planned Parenthood are not our enemies. Our enemies are the invisible forces masked behind these people. Most of them do not have a clue that they are being deceived by our common enemy, the devil. They are used by our common enemy, Satan, and his evil forces, to get us to hate so that we, too, will end up in a culture of death. President Obama and all pro-choice and pro-abortion legislators, as well as members supporting Planned Parenthood (and we have in our own state a national legislator who has received over $900,000 from groups that advocate for abortion rights) — these are not our enemies. They are used by the evil one to get us to hate them in our efforts to be pro-life and thereby ditch our pro-life efforts. We cannot fall for that trap!
We owe all of them prayers and fasting for their conversion. At one point, Gov. Reagan was California's very pro-abortion governor. Yet he became a very pro-life president. He repented and regretted the evil he supported.
We must bravely witness against supporting pro-choice and pro-abortion candidates in political elections, but pray daily for their conversion.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Catholics Abandon the Unborn in the 44th Presidency
Catholics for Obama...this is for you.
William Blazek
Catholics Abandon the Unborn in the 44th Presidency
A simple web search for the order of presidential succession in the newly-minted Obama administration makes clear what a profound debacle the '08 election was for the pro-life movement in the United States. The country's top leadership now looks like a Who's Who of the National Abortion Rights Action League's "100% pro-choice" club. Largely ignored in the last election, abortion remains a massively important political issue. Catholics who did so should be ashamed of themselves for voting with disregard for a ticket and party that is inimical to a central moral tenet of their Church's teaching. Abortion kills.
This nation daily tolerates the willfully procured death of over 3,200 innocent and defenseless human beings, and that slaughter is an abomination far beyond other considerations that entered into electoral decisions last year. To maintain any sort of credible witness to the value of human life, Catholic leaders and faithful must choose to directly and publicly reengage the pro-life movement and to put John Paul II's Gospel of Life at the very top of their social and political agendas in the battles that lie ahead.
The new Cabinet, White House staff and top Congressional leadership, several so-called "pro-choice Catholics" among them, look to be clearly unfriendly to the protection of embryonic life. From House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, voting records indicate a steeply pro-choice political trajectory for the coming years. (Vice President Biden actually received only a "mixed" pro-choice rating, based in part on his support of the partial birth abortion ban.) Worse than having these elected and appointed officials around for the coming term, can it be imagined that President Obama will not nominate as lifelong Supreme Court members jurists as radical on life issues as his cabinet and staff? The new administration is headed by a man who said that one of his first actions as President would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, as extreme a piece of pro-choice legislation as can be imagined. A clear and chilling harbinger of things to come, his first executive orders are likely to be targeted at overturning Bush era restrictions on using federal funds for abortions overseas and for research that destroys embryos.
The Respect Life community failed to make abortion a meaningful issue in the past election and the current situation is the sour fruit of that negligence. Catholics especially abandoned the unborn at the polls. At least 54% of those identifying themselves as Catholic supported President Obama, while "Church-going Catholics" voted 50% for McCain to Obama's 49%. Either number demonstrates an inability in the ecclesial hierarchy and the lay leadership in the Catholic Pro-life movement to make a convincing argument about the nature of the abortion act and the issue's relative importance versus other weighty but lesser political questions such as the election of African-American leaders, the economy, or the war on terror.
Abortion kills and its deadly impact is orders of magnitude beyond the violence of the Iraq war or any indignities visited upon detainees held at Guantanamo. However many millions of visitors may have journeyed to the Capital for this week's inaugural, it is certain that several million Americans never had the slightest chance of making it to the festivities. At least 45 million to be more accurate: all those aborted since the handing down of Roe v Wade. While the election of President Obama means good things for progress in racial integration in this nation, it cannot be ignored that abortion continues to heavily disproportionately target African-Americans, 13 million since 1973.
While claims that embryos and fetuses are members of the human family are often dismissed as based on faith alone or merely a matter of personal opinion, from a scientific standpoint this is entirely untrue. At the moment of conception, when egg meets sperm, either in the petri dish or the fallopian tube, the complete genetic blueprint of a new unique human individual comes together. This is scientific fact. It was at the moment of conception that each and every reader of this article began to journey through the developmental stages of life. Those destroyed in an abortion are genetically human except under the most bizarre circumstances. They are also certainly alive, consuming nutrients, excreting waste products of metabolism, growing, possessing the potential to reproduce, and responding to external stimuli such as local pH, availability of oxygen, and the presence of hormones in the fetal and maternal circulation. Abortion kills a human being in the earliest days, weeks or months of its development, period.
Today, as the bunting comes down and crews disassemble the reviewing stands on Pennsylvania Avenue, the annual March for Life will stream quietly by the Capitol dome and Congress will prepare to debate the Freedom of Choice Act as a first order of business. This government is poised to push the pro-life movement in America into oblivion. Whether they decide to do so in the pulpit, the media, or in their extensive school networks, bishops, clergy and lay leaders in the Catholic Church will have to motivate their flocks to action if they want to see any movement out of the moral quagmire this country finds itself in on abortion.
Dr. William Blazek, a Jesuit scholastic and physician, is a board certified specialist in Internal Medicine and a Research Scholar in the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University School of Medicine. He teaches ethics and clinical skills as an Adjunct Assistant Professor while preparing for ordination to priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church.
Posted by William Blazek on January 21, 2009 10:57 AM
William Blazek
Catholics Abandon the Unborn in the 44th Presidency
A simple web search for the order of presidential succession in the newly-minted Obama administration makes clear what a profound debacle the '08 election was for the pro-life movement in the United States. The country's top leadership now looks like a Who's Who of the National Abortion Rights Action League's "100% pro-choice" club. Largely ignored in the last election, abortion remains a massively important political issue. Catholics who did so should be ashamed of themselves for voting with disregard for a ticket and party that is inimical to a central moral tenet of their Church's teaching. Abortion kills.
This nation daily tolerates the willfully procured death of over 3,200 innocent and defenseless human beings, and that slaughter is an abomination far beyond other considerations that entered into electoral decisions last year. To maintain any sort of credible witness to the value of human life, Catholic leaders and faithful must choose to directly and publicly reengage the pro-life movement and to put John Paul II's Gospel of Life at the very top of their social and political agendas in the battles that lie ahead.
The new Cabinet, White House staff and top Congressional leadership, several so-called "pro-choice Catholics" among them, look to be clearly unfriendly to the protection of embryonic life. From House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, voting records indicate a steeply pro-choice political trajectory for the coming years. (Vice President Biden actually received only a "mixed" pro-choice rating, based in part on his support of the partial birth abortion ban.) Worse than having these elected and appointed officials around for the coming term, can it be imagined that President Obama will not nominate as lifelong Supreme Court members jurists as radical on life issues as his cabinet and staff? The new administration is headed by a man who said that one of his first actions as President would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, as extreme a piece of pro-choice legislation as can be imagined. A clear and chilling harbinger of things to come, his first executive orders are likely to be targeted at overturning Bush era restrictions on using federal funds for abortions overseas and for research that destroys embryos.
The Respect Life community failed to make abortion a meaningful issue in the past election and the current situation is the sour fruit of that negligence. Catholics especially abandoned the unborn at the polls. At least 54% of those identifying themselves as Catholic supported President Obama, while "Church-going Catholics" voted 50% for McCain to Obama's 49%. Either number demonstrates an inability in the ecclesial hierarchy and the lay leadership in the Catholic Pro-life movement to make a convincing argument about the nature of the abortion act and the issue's relative importance versus other weighty but lesser political questions such as the election of African-American leaders, the economy, or the war on terror.
Abortion kills and its deadly impact is orders of magnitude beyond the violence of the Iraq war or any indignities visited upon detainees held at Guantanamo. However many millions of visitors may have journeyed to the Capital for this week's inaugural, it is certain that several million Americans never had the slightest chance of making it to the festivities. At least 45 million to be more accurate: all those aborted since the handing down of Roe v Wade. While the election of President Obama means good things for progress in racial integration in this nation, it cannot be ignored that abortion continues to heavily disproportionately target African-Americans, 13 million since 1973.
While claims that embryos and fetuses are members of the human family are often dismissed as based on faith alone or merely a matter of personal opinion, from a scientific standpoint this is entirely untrue. At the moment of conception, when egg meets sperm, either in the petri dish or the fallopian tube, the complete genetic blueprint of a new unique human individual comes together. This is scientific fact. It was at the moment of conception that each and every reader of this article began to journey through the developmental stages of life. Those destroyed in an abortion are genetically human except under the most bizarre circumstances. They are also certainly alive, consuming nutrients, excreting waste products of metabolism, growing, possessing the potential to reproduce, and responding to external stimuli such as local pH, availability of oxygen, and the presence of hormones in the fetal and maternal circulation. Abortion kills a human being in the earliest days, weeks or months of its development, period.
Today, as the bunting comes down and crews disassemble the reviewing stands on Pennsylvania Avenue, the annual March for Life will stream quietly by the Capitol dome and Congress will prepare to debate the Freedom of Choice Act as a first order of business. This government is poised to push the pro-life movement in America into oblivion. Whether they decide to do so in the pulpit, the media, or in their extensive school networks, bishops, clergy and lay leaders in the Catholic Church will have to motivate their flocks to action if they want to see any movement out of the moral quagmire this country finds itself in on abortion.
Dr. William Blazek, a Jesuit scholastic and physician, is a board certified specialist in Internal Medicine and a Research Scholar in the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University School of Medicine. He teaches ethics and clinical skills as an Adjunct Assistant Professor while preparing for ordination to priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church.
Posted by William Blazek on January 21, 2009 10:57 AM
To Catholics for Obama
Catholics for Obama, congratulations in getting the change you sought. And, every day now a portion of your work every day will go to the killing of babies in foreign countries, and this is just the beginning of the lovely change you voted for. And, how do you sleep at night? I am praying that you repent and make full purpose of ammendment to "change" and take a firm stand against Obama's pro-death policies.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Obama Abortion Agenda Launched Today
With Order Promoting Abortion in
U.S. Population-Control Program
WASHINGTON (January 23, 2009) -- President Obama today signs an order that will put hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into the hands of organizations that aggressively promote abortion as a population-control tool in the developing world.
Obama's order overturns the "Mexico City Policy," under which funds in the U.S. "population assistance" program go only to overseas organizations that pledge not to "perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning."
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), commented, "This is the first in an anticipated series of attacks on longstanding pro-life policies, as the new administration pushes Obama's sweeping abortion agenda. That agenda includes repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which would result in tax-funded abortion as a birth control method in the U.S., and imposition of sweeping pro-abortion mandates on private employers through health-care reform legislation.
"One effect of Obama's order will be to divert many millions of dollars away from groups that do not promote abortion, and into the hands of those organizations that are the most aggressive in promoting abortion in developing countries. President Obama not long ago told the American people that he would support policies to reduce abortions, but today he is effectively guaranteeing more abortions by funding groups that promote abortion as a method of population control."
Contrary to some misunderstandings, enforcement of the Mexico City Policy did not reduce the amount of money spent on the program, nor will Obama's order increase the amount (which is $461 million in the current fiscal year). Rather, the policy affects what type of groups qualify for grants under the program. "Obama's order will predictably result in a redirection of funds to groups such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which are ideologically committed to the doctrine that abortion on demand must be universally available as a birth control method," Johnson said.
Although Obama's order will result in major subsidies for organizations that promote abortion overseas, the direct use of the U.S. funds to perform abortion procedures will remain unlawful under the Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act. "The Helms Amendment can be changed only by an act of Congress, but because the Obama Administration is joined at the hip with the abortion lobby, we will be watching carefully for any evidence that the Administration is failing to enforce the Helms Amendment," Johnson said.
The details of the Mexico City Policy are spelled out in an official handbook issued by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is available on request from NRLC (in PDF format). Basically, the policy required grantees to refrain from performing abortions (except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest), or lobbying to legalize abortion, or otherwise promoting abortion as a family-planning method. The policy explicitly allowed responding to questions about where abortions may be obtained, in countries in which abortions are legal.
The National Right to Life Committee is the nation's largest pro-life group with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide. National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted suicide.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Obama Abortion Agenda Launched Today
With Order Promoting Abortion in
U.S. Population-Control Program
WASHINGTON (January 23, 2009) -- President Obama today signs an order that will put hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into the hands of organizations that aggressively promote abortion as a population-control tool in the developing world.
Obama's order overturns the "Mexico City Policy," under which funds in the U.S. "population assistance" program go only to overseas organizations that pledge not to "perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning."
Douglas Johnson, legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), commented, "This is the first in an anticipated series of attacks on longstanding pro-life policies, as the new administration pushes Obama's sweeping abortion agenda. That agenda includes repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which would result in tax-funded abortion as a birth control method in the U.S., and imposition of sweeping pro-abortion mandates on private employers through health-care reform legislation.
"One effect of Obama's order will be to divert many millions of dollars away from groups that do not promote abortion, and into the hands of those organizations that are the most aggressive in promoting abortion in developing countries. President Obama not long ago told the American people that he would support policies to reduce abortions, but today he is effectively guaranteeing more abortions by funding groups that promote abortion as a method of population control."
Contrary to some misunderstandings, enforcement of the Mexico City Policy did not reduce the amount of money spent on the program, nor will Obama's order increase the amount (which is $461 million in the current fiscal year). Rather, the policy affects what type of groups qualify for grants under the program. "Obama's order will predictably result in a redirection of funds to groups such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which are ideologically committed to the doctrine that abortion on demand must be universally available as a birth control method," Johnson said.
Although Obama's order will result in major subsidies for organizations that promote abortion overseas, the direct use of the U.S. funds to perform abortion procedures will remain unlawful under the Helms Amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act. "The Helms Amendment can be changed only by an act of Congress, but because the Obama Administration is joined at the hip with the abortion lobby, we will be watching carefully for any evidence that the Administration is failing to enforce the Helms Amendment," Johnson said.
The details of the Mexico City Policy are spelled out in an official handbook issued by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is available on request from NRLC (in PDF format). Basically, the policy required grantees to refrain from performing abortions (except to save the life of the mother, or in cases of rape or incest), or lobbying to legalize abortion, or otherwise promoting abortion as a family-planning method. The policy explicitly allowed responding to questions about where abortions may be obtained, in countries in which abortions are legal.
The National Right to Life Committee is the nation's largest pro-life group with affiliates in all 50 states and over 3,000 local chapters nationwide. National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Outcry as BBC depicts pro-lifers as killers
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000462.shtml
Outcry as BBC depicts
pro-lifers as killers
By Andrew M Brown
23 January 2009
Catholics and media standards campaigners protested this week at
BBC One’s broadcast of a thriller showing pro-life activists as child murderers.
In Hunter two police officers played by Hugh Bonneville and Janet McTeer investigate the abduction of two boys. A hooded figure delivers a package to a television station’s offices containing a video showing footage of an abortion. The kidnappers threaten that unless the video is screened on the news the two children will be killed.
Josephine Quintavalle of the ProLife Alliance said she was “outraged” at the BBC’s presentation of the movement, given that the alliance had tried to show an abortion on television when it was a political party.
Mrs Quintavalle said: “Everyone should be outraged at such a manipulative representation of abortion politics. There is nothing in Hunter which has any relationship to the abortion debate as played out in the UK, and I think turning the other cheek is not an option.” She encouraged members of her organisation to protest to the BBC. The concluding episode was, in Mrs Quintavalle’s view, the worst.
John Beyer, from Mediawatch-UK, said television companies should apply the same rules of impartiality to drama programmes as they do to current affairs output in cases where “ethical, political or moral issues” were being aired.
“This clearly concerns a lot of people,” he said. “I really think the broadcaster should observe proper impartiality. Anybody who’s undecided could be persuaded because TV is an influence for good or bad,” Mr Beyer said the same concerns would apply in a forthcoming television drama about euthanasia In the final episode the pro-life campaigners who have abducted the boys proceed to kidnap a small girl who has spina bifida. The kidnappers are a female doctor and a nurse from a neonatal intensive care unit, as well as a man who has a less severe case of spina bifida. The criminals have used their access to medical records to unearth details of patients who have had abortions. The kidnapped children have the feature in common that their mothers have all had abortions.
When the BBC fail to screen the abortion video on the news as demanded by the kidnappers, the nurse kills one of the boys and lays his body in a blanket embroidered with the word “sacred”.
It turns out that abortion runs through the lives of the central characters. At the end, Detective Sgt Foster says: “Thank God for abortion, I say. It would have ruined my life.”
A spokesman for the BBC was unavailable for comment.
Outcry as BBC depicts
pro-lifers as killers
By Andrew M Brown
23 January 2009
Catholics and media standards campaigners protested this week at
BBC One’s broadcast of a thriller showing pro-life activists as child murderers.
In Hunter two police officers played by Hugh Bonneville and Janet McTeer investigate the abduction of two boys. A hooded figure delivers a package to a television station’s offices containing a video showing footage of an abortion. The kidnappers threaten that unless the video is screened on the news the two children will be killed.
Josephine Quintavalle of the ProLife Alliance said she was “outraged” at the BBC’s presentation of the movement, given that the alliance had tried to show an abortion on television when it was a political party.
Mrs Quintavalle said: “Everyone should be outraged at such a manipulative representation of abortion politics. There is nothing in Hunter which has any relationship to the abortion debate as played out in the UK, and I think turning the other cheek is not an option.” She encouraged members of her organisation to protest to the BBC. The concluding episode was, in Mrs Quintavalle’s view, the worst.
John Beyer, from Mediawatch-UK, said television companies should apply the same rules of impartiality to drama programmes as they do to current affairs output in cases where “ethical, political or moral issues” were being aired.
“This clearly concerns a lot of people,” he said. “I really think the broadcaster should observe proper impartiality. Anybody who’s undecided could be persuaded because TV is an influence for good or bad,” Mr Beyer said the same concerns would apply in a forthcoming television drama about euthanasia In the final episode the pro-life campaigners who have abducted the boys proceed to kidnap a small girl who has spina bifida. The kidnappers are a female doctor and a nurse from a neonatal intensive care unit, as well as a man who has a less severe case of spina bifida. The criminals have used their access to medical records to unearth details of patients who have had abortions. The kidnapped children have the feature in common that their mothers have all had abortions.
When the BBC fail to screen the abortion video on the news as demanded by the kidnappers, the nurse kills one of the boys and lays his body in a blanket embroidered with the word “sacred”.
It turns out that abortion runs through the lives of the central characters. At the end, Detective Sgt Foster says: “Thank God for abortion, I say. It would have ruined my life.”
A spokesman for the BBC was unavailable for comment.
Monday, December 22, 2008
The Huffington Post Writer Geoffrey Dunn -- Wordsmithing Lies About Catholics
Below is a piece written by the Huffington Post writer, Mr. Geoffrey Dunn. As the list owner of "Catholics for Sarah" which he has cited as a member group of Team Sarah, I feel that this article deserves my response.
On behalf of Catholics for Sarah, Mr. Dunn, I can clearly see that you have mentioned my group but you have conveniently separated the name of my group, Catholics for Sarah, from the quotes you mention having found on Team Sarah. And, of course, you needed to do that for two reasons.
1) You wish to try to insinuate that people on my group, Catholics, happen to be hate filled and you hope that the reader isn't smart enough to notice that you never directly quoted anyone from my group.
2) You separated the name of my group from the quotes because YOU DID NOT FIND ANYONE ON THE CATHOLIC GROUP SPOUTING HATE OF ANY KIND.
My Catholics for Sarah group is almost 1700 strong, the largest group on Team Sarah. And yet, you could not find ONE thing said that spews hate. It would appear that your agenda was clear....to try to make people think that Catholics are racist.
If you, Mr. Dunn, sent in spies that reported back to you of ill mannered words spoken on Team Sarah, they forgot to tell you that no remarks of this type are said in my group. I will not have any type of conversation like what you have reported.
I will not have racist remarks, nor bigot remarks, nor cussing. And, I am happy to report that I have never had to ban anyone on the group. All the Catholics...all 1700...are caring, praying, charitable people.
If you were to do homework on the Catholic Church, you would discover that the Catholic Church excommunicated Catholic politicians for being racist many many years ago. Why? Because the Catholic Church is not racist nor is it a bigot Faith.
And, if you or anyone else on your staff were to have read the posts on Catholics for Sarah, you would find that we PRAY for Mr. Obama and rarely, if ever, mention his wife, Mrs. Obama. We pray for Mr. Obama to have a conversion of heart for the unborn.
As well, I might add, that whomever entered Team Sarah to dig up dirt, probably went to the chat and deliberately incited a hateful speech just to get someone to react for the purpose of giving you material to use in your article. However, I will bet my bottom dollar, it was NOT a Catholic who spoke the words you quoted. And, we ALL know that because you separated your quotes WAY away from your mention of Catholics for Sarah in your article.
I INVITE YOU, MR DUNN, TO JOIN CATHOLICS FOR SARAH SO THAT YOU CAN BE HONEST AND FORTHRIGHT ABOUT WHAT WE SAY AND DO NOT SAY. COME ON IN ! I CAN GUARANTEE YOU THAT EVEN THOUGH WE CATHOLICS KNOW WHAT YOU TRIED TO IMPLY ABOUT US, WE WILL GREET YOU WITH CHRIST'S LOVE FOR NEIGHBOR.
Now....the following for all to see is your article, Mr. Dunn, where you deliberately try to wordsmith Catholics into your intention to incite hatred.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
'Watermelon Roll': More Racism from 'Team Sarah'
RSS stumble digg reddit del.ico.us news trust mixx.com Share this on Facebook
Read More: Alaska Racist Emails, Barack Obama, Mccain Racism, Night Befo Crizzmus, Obama Racism, Palin Racist Emails, Politics News, Racial Identity, Racism, Racism In Politics, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin Scandal, Sarah Palin Vice President, Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund Project, Politics News
There is something very ugly happening out there in the hinterlands these days--a brewing cauldron of racist anger being directed at President-elect Barack Obama as he and his family get ready to move into the White House. It's a mean-spirited bigotry that is finding its way onto the internet and right-wing blogs across the country. It makes for a troubling portrait of a significant cross-section of the American polity as Obama prepares to take the oath of office as the 44th President of these United States.
Nowhere have these tendencies been more out-front and prominent than at TeamSarah.org, a website organized by "a coalition of women dedicated to advancing the values that Sarah Palin represents in the political process." Men, according to an exclamatory notice, are welcome, too.
The web site is funded--and hosted--by the Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund Project, a national right-wing, pro-life Political Action Committee headed up by one Marjorie Dannenfelser, an ardent pro-life advocate. I know about Dannenfelser and the Susan B. Anthony group because earlier this year, the San Francisco Chronicle pitted Ms. Dannenfelser and me against each other in an op-ed page debate over the qualifications of Governor Palin to speak for families with special-needs children. Needless to say, Ms. Dannensfelser championed the activities of Governor Palin in this regard, while I did not. I have a special needs child and I find the idea of Palin speaking on my child's behalf an absolute outrage. No friend of special needs families is she.
So I was not surprised to find that the Anthony group was behind the Team Sarah web site. According to Ms. Dannenfelser "Team Sarah was formed to capitalize off the enthusiasm of the Palin Vice Presidential candidacy with the goal of reaching women voters and urging them to support John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin. Our goal was to win the Election. Several prominent women are involved with the project, including D.C. veteran Barbara Comstock, former First Lady candidate Jeri Thompson, FRC Action Vice President Connie Mackey, and actress Janine Turner, formerly (appropriately) of Northern Exposure." Now they are carrying the banner of Palin for President in 2012. (According to their website, membership is 62,639 and counting.)
Nor was I surprised when I went to the site to find all sorts pro-life and anti-abortion links, with lots of Christian hyperbole. There are also links to "Catholics for Sarah," "Christians for Sarah," and, of course, obligatory links to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. There's also a good amount of "clinging to our guns and our religion" in rhetoric that sounds straight out of the 17th century.
You can even find out why so many people hate Sarah Palin--"Her husband is a masculine hottie ," writes Dana. "Now I'm a straight guy, but I know when a guy is hott and Todd is hott. [sic] The left usually views masculine hotties as wife beaters who oppress their woman." Okay. And you are correct to presume that spelling and grammar do not seem to be highly valued on the site. (And, because of that, all spelling from the site is left exactly as it appears.)
There's also an incessant whine about the left-wing media bashing Palin, especially on the Huffington Post. Says Ronald: "Most people (like the media) who try to make others believe that Sara is dumb and stupid or inexperienced actually fear her because of her faith and goodness." So that's it.
But what's interesting is that there are actually more blog topics about "Obama" than about "Palin." Of course, Obama's citizenship, birth certificate, and alleged Muslim upbringing are constantly questioned, along with his youthful drug use (though funny, Palin's admitted use of marijuana is not, and we won't even mention Levi Johnston's mother). There are also a lot of references to Obama being the anti-Christ: "He is the antichrist sent here to destroy America. Nobody knows who he is or where he was born."
And then there's some plain, downright nastiness and plenty of good ol' fashioned racism that, well, certainly doesn't sound Christian, if you catch my drift. When a blogger named James asks if anybody has bought the new Obama coins, SavantNoir responds: "[Y]es James, and i melted it down to see the look of agnoy on his face, made it a BB pellet and shot it into a pile of shit."
On one blog Heather describes Election Day as the "most terrible" in history and asks "how long until obama is shot??????" Josie responds: "There are plenty of people that would like to see Obama end that way."
Nice. Then there's the "Obama the Snowman" song:
Obama the Snowman
Was a very scary soul
With a marijuana pipe
And two eyes made out of skoal
Obama the Snowman
Is a Kenyan they say
He liked his white nose snow
But the Americans know
How he stole their country one day
And guess what? It sounds exactly like the kind of racist remarks that were being sent recently on State of Alaska government emails.
Under a post entitled "Police prepare for RIOTS," by one BarbaraJo, one concerned blogger named Tommygun responded:
"For people in urban/Obama areas--do this now: 1. Stock up on some basic supplies--food, health and hygiene, water, etc. 2. Keep track of where your family members are. 3. Work up meeting points in your community for your family (different spots in town where members are to go if problems occur). 4. Check and prepare any weapons you may have."
In response, a blogger named Johnny got more to the point:
"Well niggers will occasionally chimp out like this, am I right?"
While several Team Sarah members condemned that particular post, it's remnants are still up on the web site.
Then there's the probing political analysis you can find on Team Sarah:
"Funny thing, when voters are offered the chance, they always vote to ban gay marriage. What I really find hilarious though, is the gays supported Barry Obama in force. And yet, thanks to Barry's "blackness" the negroes came out in force in California to vote for him! And negroes are pretty conventional when t comes to values. Most are rather conservative, which is why I can't understand for the life of me why the vote for democrats."
There's also a lot of Michelle Obama bashing, too, where she is often referred to as "Bitchelle." Take this current thread:
GaryP: This Obama worship has got to stop! Politico is now saying that since Michelle "gave up so much", that she should get a salary as well!
Biruta: She should be paid millions of counterfeit money, just as fake as her husband and as worthless as herself.
AmericanDog: Pay her the sum of $1.oo and then tax her at the rate of 53 % to appease her husbands new tax plans. And she would still be over paid.......
Ava M: I have never actually HATED anyone in politics before now....She is stupid, mean, power hungry, manipulative, corrupt, essentially ignorant--a poster girl for Institutionalized Black Racism and Agression, a take-no-prisoners warrior for Political Correctnes aka Socialist Realism and a racially driven Communist fellow traveller. Let her go run an African country. She doesn't fit in here with the American People.
Apparently, she, like her husband, isn't one of us. Sound familiar?
Then there was the musing about the Obama Inaugural, first reported in the Alaska Dispatch by its fine reporter, Amanda Coyne:
Wendell: I just can't wait to see the Inaugeral ball... I heard the Presidential Waltz will be replaced by Barack and Michelle "Crumpin".
tami: I am sure michelle will dance like a horse
Wendell: followed by the new cabinet break dancing...
Christopher: Not trying to get too racial, but I have never met a black woman who could not dance.
tommykb3grz: the 4th of july watermellon roll on the south lawn
Wendell: a 4-inch diameter Presidential Seal in gold hanging from Obama's neck
Surely, by now, you get the point. And just when you think you've seen it all, "Team Sarah" member Jarhead comes up with this:
"Aside form Obama being an utter Moron I suppose he is a nice enough person. I personally put his happy little smile on every Terrorist face in Rainbow six [a video game], just before my cross hairs line up..."
So much for Christian charity. As for Sarah Palin herself, she has yet to officially sign up for the web site, though she did send a note to the founders of the organization. "I received the packet of letters through Team Sarah and am inspired!," she wrote. "Thank you for all you are doing for women, families, children... America!"
On behalf of Catholics for Sarah, Mr. Dunn, I can clearly see that you have mentioned my group but you have conveniently separated the name of my group, Catholics for Sarah, from the quotes you mention having found on Team Sarah. And, of course, you needed to do that for two reasons.
1) You wish to try to insinuate that people on my group, Catholics, happen to be hate filled and you hope that the reader isn't smart enough to notice that you never directly quoted anyone from my group.
2) You separated the name of my group from the quotes because YOU DID NOT FIND ANYONE ON THE CATHOLIC GROUP SPOUTING HATE OF ANY KIND.
My Catholics for Sarah group is almost 1700 strong, the largest group on Team Sarah. And yet, you could not find ONE thing said that spews hate. It would appear that your agenda was clear....to try to make people think that Catholics are racist.
If you, Mr. Dunn, sent in spies that reported back to you of ill mannered words spoken on Team Sarah, they forgot to tell you that no remarks of this type are said in my group. I will not have any type of conversation like what you have reported.
I will not have racist remarks, nor bigot remarks, nor cussing. And, I am happy to report that I have never had to ban anyone on the group. All the Catholics...all 1700...are caring, praying, charitable people.
If you were to do homework on the Catholic Church, you would discover that the Catholic Church excommunicated Catholic politicians for being racist many many years ago. Why? Because the Catholic Church is not racist nor is it a bigot Faith.
And, if you or anyone else on your staff were to have read the posts on Catholics for Sarah, you would find that we PRAY for Mr. Obama and rarely, if ever, mention his wife, Mrs. Obama. We pray for Mr. Obama to have a conversion of heart for the unborn.
As well, I might add, that whomever entered Team Sarah to dig up dirt, probably went to the chat and deliberately incited a hateful speech just to get someone to react for the purpose of giving you material to use in your article. However, I will bet my bottom dollar, it was NOT a Catholic who spoke the words you quoted. And, we ALL know that because you separated your quotes WAY away from your mention of Catholics for Sarah in your article.
I INVITE YOU, MR DUNN, TO JOIN CATHOLICS FOR SARAH SO THAT YOU CAN BE HONEST AND FORTHRIGHT ABOUT WHAT WE SAY AND DO NOT SAY. COME ON IN ! I CAN GUARANTEE YOU THAT EVEN THOUGH WE CATHOLICS KNOW WHAT YOU TRIED TO IMPLY ABOUT US, WE WILL GREET YOU WITH CHRIST'S LOVE FOR NEIGHBOR.
Now....the following for all to see is your article, Mr. Dunn, where you deliberately try to wordsmith Catholics into your intention to incite hatred.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
'Watermelon Roll': More Racism from 'Team Sarah'
RSS stumble digg reddit del.ico.us news trust mixx.com Share this on Facebook
Read More: Alaska Racist Emails, Barack Obama, Mccain Racism, Night Befo Crizzmus, Obama Racism, Palin Racist Emails, Politics News, Racial Identity, Racism, Racism In Politics, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin Scandal, Sarah Palin Vice President, Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund Project, Politics News
There is something very ugly happening out there in the hinterlands these days--a brewing cauldron of racist anger being directed at President-elect Barack Obama as he and his family get ready to move into the White House. It's a mean-spirited bigotry that is finding its way onto the internet and right-wing blogs across the country. It makes for a troubling portrait of a significant cross-section of the American polity as Obama prepares to take the oath of office as the 44th President of these United States.
Nowhere have these tendencies been more out-front and prominent than at TeamSarah.org, a website organized by "a coalition of women dedicated to advancing the values that Sarah Palin represents in the political process." Men, according to an exclamatory notice, are welcome, too.
The web site is funded--and hosted--by the Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund Project, a national right-wing, pro-life Political Action Committee headed up by one Marjorie Dannenfelser, an ardent pro-life advocate. I know about Dannenfelser and the Susan B. Anthony group because earlier this year, the San Francisco Chronicle pitted Ms. Dannenfelser and me against each other in an op-ed page debate over the qualifications of Governor Palin to speak for families with special-needs children. Needless to say, Ms. Dannensfelser championed the activities of Governor Palin in this regard, while I did not. I have a special needs child and I find the idea of Palin speaking on my child's behalf an absolute outrage. No friend of special needs families is she.
So I was not surprised to find that the Anthony group was behind the Team Sarah web site. According to Ms. Dannenfelser "Team Sarah was formed to capitalize off the enthusiasm of the Palin Vice Presidential candidacy with the goal of reaching women voters and urging them to support John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin. Our goal was to win the Election. Several prominent women are involved with the project, including D.C. veteran Barbara Comstock, former First Lady candidate Jeri Thompson, FRC Action Vice President Connie Mackey, and actress Janine Turner, formerly (appropriately) of Northern Exposure." Now they are carrying the banner of Palin for President in 2012. (According to their website, membership is 62,639 and counting.)
Nor was I surprised when I went to the site to find all sorts pro-life and anti-abortion links, with lots of Christian hyperbole. There are also links to "Catholics for Sarah," "Christians for Sarah," and, of course, obligatory links to Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. There's also a good amount of "clinging to our guns and our religion" in rhetoric that sounds straight out of the 17th century.
You can even find out why so many people hate Sarah Palin--"Her husband is a masculine hottie ," writes Dana. "Now I'm a straight guy, but I know when a guy is hott and Todd is hott. [sic] The left usually views masculine hotties as wife beaters who oppress their woman." Okay. And you are correct to presume that spelling and grammar do not seem to be highly valued on the site. (And, because of that, all spelling from the site is left exactly as it appears.)
There's also an incessant whine about the left-wing media bashing Palin, especially on the Huffington Post. Says Ronald: "Most people (like the media) who try to make others believe that Sara is dumb and stupid or inexperienced actually fear her because of her faith and goodness." So that's it.
But what's interesting is that there are actually more blog topics about "Obama" than about "Palin." Of course, Obama's citizenship, birth certificate, and alleged Muslim upbringing are constantly questioned, along with his youthful drug use (though funny, Palin's admitted use of marijuana is not, and we won't even mention Levi Johnston's mother). There are also a lot of references to Obama being the anti-Christ: "He is the antichrist sent here to destroy America. Nobody knows who he is or where he was born."
And then there's some plain, downright nastiness and plenty of good ol' fashioned racism that, well, certainly doesn't sound Christian, if you catch my drift. When a blogger named James asks if anybody has bought the new Obama coins, SavantNoir responds: "[Y]es James, and i melted it down to see the look of agnoy on his face, made it a BB pellet and shot it into a pile of shit."
On one blog Heather describes Election Day as the "most terrible" in history and asks "how long until obama is shot??????" Josie responds: "There are plenty of people that would like to see Obama end that way."
Nice. Then there's the "Obama the Snowman" song:
Obama the Snowman
Was a very scary soul
With a marijuana pipe
And two eyes made out of skoal
Obama the Snowman
Is a Kenyan they say
He liked his white nose snow
But the Americans know
How he stole their country one day
And guess what? It sounds exactly like the kind of racist remarks that were being sent recently on State of Alaska government emails.
Under a post entitled "Police prepare for RIOTS," by one BarbaraJo, one concerned blogger named Tommygun responded:
"For people in urban/Obama areas--do this now: 1. Stock up on some basic supplies--food, health and hygiene, water, etc. 2. Keep track of where your family members are. 3. Work up meeting points in your community for your family (different spots in town where members are to go if problems occur). 4. Check and prepare any weapons you may have."
In response, a blogger named Johnny got more to the point:
"Well niggers will occasionally chimp out like this, am I right?"
While several Team Sarah members condemned that particular post, it's remnants are still up on the web site.
Then there's the probing political analysis you can find on Team Sarah:
"Funny thing, when voters are offered the chance, they always vote to ban gay marriage. What I really find hilarious though, is the gays supported Barry Obama in force. And yet, thanks to Barry's "blackness" the negroes came out in force in California to vote for him! And negroes are pretty conventional when t comes to values. Most are rather conservative, which is why I can't understand for the life of me why the vote for democrats."
There's also a lot of Michelle Obama bashing, too, where she is often referred to as "Bitchelle." Take this current thread:
GaryP: This Obama worship has got to stop! Politico is now saying that since Michelle "gave up so much", that she should get a salary as well!
Biruta: She should be paid millions of counterfeit money, just as fake as her husband and as worthless as herself.
AmericanDog: Pay her the sum of $1.oo and then tax her at the rate of 53 % to appease her husbands new tax plans. And she would still be over paid.......
Ava M: I have never actually HATED anyone in politics before now....She is stupid, mean, power hungry, manipulative, corrupt, essentially ignorant--a poster girl for Institutionalized Black Racism and Agression, a take-no-prisoners warrior for Political Correctnes aka Socialist Realism and a racially driven Communist fellow traveller. Let her go run an African country. She doesn't fit in here with the American People.
Apparently, she, like her husband, isn't one of us. Sound familiar?
Then there was the musing about the Obama Inaugural, first reported in the Alaska Dispatch by its fine reporter, Amanda Coyne:
Wendell: I just can't wait to see the Inaugeral ball... I heard the Presidential Waltz will be replaced by Barack and Michelle "Crumpin".
tami: I am sure michelle will dance like a horse
Wendell: followed by the new cabinet break dancing...
Christopher: Not trying to get too racial, but I have never met a black woman who could not dance.
tommykb3grz: the 4th of july watermellon roll on the south lawn
Wendell: a 4-inch diameter Presidential Seal in gold hanging from Obama's neck
Surely, by now, you get the point. And just when you think you've seen it all, "Team Sarah" member Jarhead comes up with this:
"Aside form Obama being an utter Moron I suppose he is a nice enough person. I personally put his happy little smile on every Terrorist face in Rainbow six [a video game], just before my cross hairs line up..."
So much for Christian charity. As for Sarah Palin herself, she has yet to officially sign up for the web site, though she did send a note to the founders of the organization. "I received the packet of letters through Team Sarah and am inspired!," she wrote. "Thank you for all you are doing for women, families, children... America!"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
