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Pro-life

I see red

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

U2 rock star and humanitarian Bono has come in for some recent criticism. According to Advertising Age (registration required), his (RED) campaign has spent upward of $100 million on advertising to produce a mere $18 million for the Global Fund to support African AIDS programs.

A little more than a year ago, Bono and Bobby Shriver launched the (RED) campaign in London. It would go on to attract attention (and advertising) from such media elites as Steven Spielberg, Chris Rock, and Oprah Winfrey, while attracting sponsorships from AOL and MySpace. It created quite a buzz: Ads were all over the place and the world would be changed.

The idea was simple: new lines of consumer goods—all from the trendiest companies, Gap, Giorgio Armani, Motorola, Apple iPod—would be launched with the (RED) logo. When you bought one of these products, the company would give a fraction of the proceeds to the Global Fund. The (RED) Manifesto put it simply: “You buy (RED) stuff. We get the money, buy the pills and distribute them. . . . If they don’t get the pills, they die. We don’t want them to die. We want to give them the pills. And we can. And you can. And it’s easy. All you have to do is upgrade your choice.”

So I guess they will rename it to the "In the Red" campaign. Ryan T. Anderson’s article is well worth reading in critique of the problems of global funds and the use of a consumerist approach to help those in Africa.

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Pro-life

Pro-life Mitt

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Mitt Romney on the Terri Schiavo case.

"I generally think that it’s not a good idea for courts to legislate. Nor is it great idea for legislatures to adjudicate in a specific circumstance."

This is quite a dumb statement. This was no case of the legislature adjudicating since what they were doing was allowing the case to be judged at a higher level. This was providing access to the courts and adjudicating, not legislating what the outcome was to be. This was a case of the legislature legislating. Another silly part of the statement is that he "generally" thinks that it is not a good idea for the court to legislate. How about it is never a good idea for the court to legislate. Mitt Romney should have a little better understanding of the Schiavo case considering that his state tried to kill 11 year old PVS diagnosed Haleigh Poutre who is now talking.

But remember the meme that Romney has had a conversion to the pro-life cause. Yes life is precious, but don’t let the government get involved to help to save a life.

[Via AMDG]

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Pro-life

Stem cell research gains ground in Catholic church

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

As is often the case the headline means absolutely nothing and is in no way indicative of the actual story. The article covers New Jersey’s adult stem-cell research, something that the Catholic Church has never been against. The whole idea of gaining ground when absolutely nothing has changed is just another case of MSM perversion of truth relating to the Church.

Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine signed a bill last December providing $270 million in state aid to build five research centers, including a $50 million center at the New Jersey Institute of Technology that will be devoted to adult stem cell research. Such work is morally acceptable, according to the Catholic viewpoint, because no living thing is destroyed in the process of extracting the "adult" cells. They are found in placentas, umbilical cords, bone marrow, fat cells and nasal membranes.

I found this paragraph to have a couple of odd things. For one why is adult surrounded by scare quotes? The other is "no living thing is destroyed." It is just so hard for them to say human in connection to stem-cell research. That they have to replace human with thing just shows how deep the bias is on this issue. Congratulations your pregnant with a thing. Though pregnant moms who are fans of the Fantastic Four might pass out to find there pregnant with a Thing (it would be Grimm news).

"As we go along," he said, "we’re learning more and more." Breakthroughs in both embryonic and adult stem cells seem to be coming constantly, he added.

Hold the presses there has been a breakthrough in embryonic stem-cell research. Funny I must have missed it and strangely this breakthrough has received no coverage. I guess the number of cures due to ESCR have increased from zero to nothing.

One problem is the whole terminology of adult stem-cells, this is rather confusing considering that these stem-cells are being recovered via umbilical cord blood and other methods. Though at this stage of the game it is a term that just is not going to go away.

[Via Jill Stanek]

Interestingly the same reporter Kitta MacPherson wrote another column on the subject today Promising results in stem cell research that really spins ESCR.

"Everybody is always saying to us, ‘Well, you guys studying the human embryonic stem cells, you haven’t benefited anyone yet,’" said Evan Snyder, a neuroscientist who has published breakthrough papers on both embryonic and adult stem cells. "Well, this is it."

The international team, headed by Snyder, a physician-scientist at the Burnham Institute in California, also compared the effectiveness of embryonic stem cells versus the "adult" variety and found them to be equally effective.

The data is so strong, Snyder said, he plans to call upon the federal Food and Drug Administration to allow him to launch clinical trials immediately to test the effectiveness of the treatment against Tay-Sachs disease, a genetic disorder affecting Ashkenazi Jews.

Wesley J. Smith notes:

But note this part of the story. The scientists used both adult and embryonic stem cells in their experiments, with interesting results: The international team, headed by Snyder, a physician-scientist at the Burnham Institute in California, also compared the effectiveness of embryonic stem cells versus the "adult" variety and found them to be equally effective. In other words, in mice adult stem cells were just as therapeutic as embryonic! That should have been the headline and the story’s emphasis. Moreover, if this is so, why use ESCs in human trials, as these scientists want to do, given their propensity to cause tumors and their ethical contentiousness?

Yes the breakthrough in ESCR is that for this test it has the exact same effectiveness of adult stem-cells. If anything this only shows the effectiveness of adult stem-cell treatment and the need for problematic sources as unnecessary.

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Punditry

Corban

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, `Honor your father and your mother’; and, `He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die’; but you say, `If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God) –then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do." Mark 7:10-13

Now I don’t quite understand why Jesus was so upset about this, after all it was the first use of a Corban offset. The Pharisees were just working on their Corban footprint. The logic of the Corban offset is quite understandable in modern times. You can neglect taking care of your parents just as long as you say you have given your assets to God while at the same time still making full use of them and their benefits. You can neglect something and not change your own consumption just as long as you say your neglect is being offset by something supposedly good. Extra points if you can find a way to do a Corban offset by buying them from your own company.

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Punditry

Logical fallacies and Sean Hannity

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Elena at My Domestic Church reviews the confrontation between Sean Hannity and Father Thomas Euteneuer from Human Life International on the topic of Sean’s public dissent on contraception. This was in response to a column Father Euteneuer wrote taking Sean Hannity to task on this issue. Not surprisingly Elena notes the multiple logical fallacies that Sean Hannity made during the exchange such as Sean talking about his educational background and that contraception reduces abortion. And of course he trotted out the NFP equals contraception argument. The argument is always made as if this was a devastating critique that could not possible be answered by Church teaching. As if the first thing that pops into people’s mind on this subject could not possibly be answered by the Church who has thought long and hard on contraception.

I use to listen to Hannity’s show more frequently, but rarely listen to it now. For one he does not have much to offer in tehe area as a conservative philosopher and his reasoning to defend issues (that I usually agree with him on) are pretty much stock replies that he just uses over and over. His cafeteria Catholicism has repeatedly shown itself in the area of torture and contraception. Mostly his own defense of contraception in his own life was to put off children while he built his radio career. Because obviously children could get in the way of such a lofty goal. Darn those gifts of God for possibly getting in the way of a career. Gee you just might have to make sacrifices, and of course God would never want you to make sacrifices or to perhaps to pick up a cross. In fact it is really quite unfair of God to make us fertile so early and not have it timed to a perfect storm of optimum career path and are willingness of finding that it is time.

Gerald posted the transcript.

Update: Why Fret has some appropriate merchandise.

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Other

Loyal to the ancient regime

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Speaking for myself, I was not an anti-abortionist until after I read the decision of Roe v. Wade. It was in fact the very first legal decision we read: it was passed out during orientation in Law School. It was also the poorest bit of legal reasoning of all the cases I read in all three years of Law School: it quotes no authority, no precedent, gives no guidelines to distinguish the case under considerations from parallel cases.

It was not until I saw a picture of my firstborn in the womb that I became committed emotionally to antiabortion. The doctor advised us to abort Orville. Seeing that these people were trying to get me to kill my son, whom I am honor bound to love and protect, washed the scales from my eyes.

I was also raised to believe in the axioms of the sexual revolution. It was merely part of the atmosphere of the age: everyone from Robert Heinlein to Ayn Rand told me that sex was recreation, not reproduction. Seeing that these people were trying to get me to fornicate, to cheat on my wife before I even had a wife, when honor demands self-control, began to offend my cold Vulcan heart. Why were all of them cheering for the lack of self-command? Why, suddenly, was self-discipline, trustworthiness, purity, honor, and goodness to be mocked? Why was virginity shameful and harlotry admirable? Would Epictetus or Seneca or Cicero or Marcus Aurelius have said, "Well, if your emotion is stronger than your reason, indulge! Wallow like a swine in heat with a sow! You need no live like an honest man. Surrender your brain to your loins, and act without regard to consequences."

It also began to offend my ferocious poet’s heart. Where was the romance, the glamour, the allure? The Sexual Revolution made sex boring, robbed it of meaning, robbed life of its adventure. Why are so many romance novels set in the years long before this revolution? Because the mystique was still alive.

As far as the sexual revolt goes, count me as loyal to the ancient regime.

I do so enjoy John C. Wright’s blog whether he is writing on SF, morality, or for that matter any subject. When he does write on morality it is always excellent and interesting since he came to much of his understanding while still an atheist.

I would also highly recommend his Golden Age Trilogy, War on Dreaming series, and The Chaos Chronicles series which are all great reads. He also has a new book in the Chaos Chronicles coming out next month.

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Other

Former advocate for female priests now explains Church teaching

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Dawn Eden sent me a link to this cool article.

YONKERS – Polls generally show that 50 percent to 60 percent of Roman Catholics in the United States believe that women should be eligible for the priesthood.

Sister Sara Butler understands this impulse – because she once felt the same way. In 1978, she headed a task force of the Catholic Theological Society of America that came out in support of female priests.

But as she continued her work as an increasingly prominent theologian, her thinking began to change. Now, in a new book – "The Catholic Priesthood and Women: A Guide to the Teaching of the Church" – she attempts to explain the underpinnings of the all-male priesthood to doubters and skeptics who think the way she used to.

"The tradition is traced to the will of Christ, not to decisions made by the church," Butler said last night at St. Joseph’s Seminary, where she has taught for four years.

The church’s teachings must be better explained, she said, because many Catholics see the all-male priesthood as a symbol of patriarchal power and sexism, and many more who stay silent are probably befuddled.

"Their confidence in the church’s teaching authority has been badly eroded," she said.

Several hundred priests, nuns, seminarians and lay visitors greeted Butler with sustained applause, a measure of their respect for her and their approval of the church’s position.

Critics of the all-male priesthood were in short supply.

Butler made Catholic history two years ago when she became one of the first two women appointed to the Vatican’s International Theological Commission, an influential group that advises the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"This appointment places Sister Sara among the highest-ranking women in our church today," Monsignor Peter Finn, rector of the seminary, said when introducing her.

Butler made the case last night that the all-male priesthood is grounded in Jesus’ choice of 12 male apostles and the Catholic Church’s sustained understanding of what this meant for the priesthood.

"The answer is discovered in a tradition of practice that is traced back to the Lord’s choice of the 12," she said.

To change the church’s traditional understanding of the priesthood, she said, would be to change the priesthood itself and disconnect the church from the apostles, ending what Catholics believe to be their church’s God-given power to teach.

…Polls continue to show that Catholics are divided. But Cardinal Francis George of Chicago hopes that Butler’s book will alter the conversation. "If this book is well used," he writes in a blurb, "it will change the presently sterile discussion of who can be ordained to the Catholic priesthood."

We hear so much in the press about dissenters on the issue of women’s ordination that it is truly nice to see one from a person now inline with Church teaching. Another nice thing about the article is that the usual critics are not trotted out for a refutation, though there is too much emphasis on polls. Christianity and polls have a bad track record – just ask Jesus when he asked "Who do men say that I am?" Only one got it right and he had help from an outside source – the Holy Spirit.

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Pro-life

Pill Patrol

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Dawn Eden sent me this latest bit of Planned Parenthood activism.

Join the Planned Parenthood Pill Patrol and ensure women in your neighborhood have access to EC.

Just last week, we learned that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Office of Women’s Health, which was at the center of the fight to make EC available over the counter, just had more than one-quarter of its operating budget cut. Now people are asking — is this payback for the prolonged EC controversy?

Over the past three years, Planned Parenthood has worked with large pharmacy chains, urging them to change their policies to stock EC and ensure that women can access their birth control in-store, without discrimination or delay. Some pharmacies, like CVS, have stepped up to the plate, changed their policies, and worked to ensure that those policies are enforced to protect their customers. Other pharmacies have flatly refused to adopt such policies. In the wake of EC going over the counter, Planned Parenthood has had numerous reports of women being denied access in their pharmacies. We are asking for your help. Today, Planned Parenthood is launching the next phase of its campaign to protect women’s health — a nationwide grassroots effort to ensure that EC is available in every neighborhood in America.

Sign up to survey a pharmacy in your area now.

During the month of March, Planned Parenthood needs hundreds of volunteers to join its Pill Patrol and attempt to purchase emergency contraception at neighborhood Costco, Target, Wal-Mart, and Supervalue/Osco stores.

Joining the Pill Patrol is easy. When you sign up to survey a store in your neighborhood, you’ll receive an activist toolkit that includes easy instructions, a script, and a phone number to call if you have any questions.

Isn’t their support of EC a tacit admission that their quest to make sure that not only that everyone is sexually active, but already taking a contraceptive pill a failure? Or do they want people to come to rely on EC which would have a lower effectiveness and when it fails they will pick them up on the rebound in one of their abortion clinics?

As for the supposed budget payback, I wish that was actually true. The idea that birth control pills require a prescription, but that a stronger dosage of the same thing doesn’t is pure insanity. Though I am sure they will turn it into an argument to make the pill OTC also.

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Punditry

It's not my fault

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Via Roman Catholic Blog.

California Catholic Daily News writer “runs into” His Eminence at the March 1-3 Religious Education Congress. Their conversation follows.

Hi, Cardinal Mahony, I’m with California Catholic.

Mahony: Oh.

Yes, I just want to ask you, how is it that last year we had Father Timothy Radcliffe asking people to go see Brokeback Mountain and read gay novels and make gay friends, and you were sitting right there. Why would a priest be allowed to say that right on the stage here in the arena during his keynote speech?

Well, why are you asking me? Ask him.

Well, don’t you have anything to say about him telling Catholics to do those things?

Well, ask him.

Why don’t you ask him? You were right there on the stage with him. It’s terrible that he did that. It’s terrible that a priest would come into this religious education congress and tell people to go see a homosexual movie. Why would you invite somebody to speak that would say that to the faithful?

Do you know how many speakers we have here?

Yes, I’m aware of it.

There’s 198 speakers. There’s no way to know in advance what every single speaker is going to say in the talk or in a question-and-answer period.

Um-hmm.

There’s no way to know. I mean, you do your best…. [remainder unintelligible on the tape due to crosstalk]

Could you issue a statement afterward saying that you didn’t agree with what he said?

Everybody knows what the Church position on that movie was, and I think everybody knows what we thought about it.

Okay, and is that why a gay and lesbian ministry booth is allowed to be here in the exhibition hall?

Well go ask them, go ask the ministry.

A ministry with them or to them — to people who suffer from same-sex attraction?

Go ask them.

I’m asking you. You’re the cardinal archbishop of Los Angeles.

And I know … what all sides are knowing and doing every second.

Well, I would think that you would understand something about what’s going on in your archdiocese.

Well, we’ll look into it.

Thank you.

I had really hoped after reading this that it was cleverly crafted satire. Unfortunately it appears to be a real interview. It reminds me of the line from Captain Renault in Casa Blanca "I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! " Here is a shorter transcription I created.

Interviewer: Are you aware that their is a wolf among your sheep currently munching on one of your flock? Should a wolf be allowed to destroy sheep under your control?

Cardinal: Well, why are you asking me? Ask him.

Interviewer: Should wolves have been invited to come share the pasteur with your flock?

Cardinal: Do you know how many speakers we have here? There’s 198 speakers. There is just no way to tell in advance which ones are wolves and which ones are true shepherds faithful to the flock.

Interviewer: Could you issue a statement afterward saying that you don’t agree with wolves devouring your flock and killing their spiritual lives?

Cardinal: Everybody knows what the Church’s position on wolves eating sheep is and I think everybody knows what we thought of it.

Since the Cardinal knows of no way to check their speakers ahead of time I wish I had his email so that I could send him to this site called Google.com.

Strangely using this amazing new technology I was able to pick at random one name from this years conference and do a quick check. Sister Fran Ferder FSPA who will be speaking on Sex and the City of God is part of the women’s ordination movement (written a book in support of it) and has also written countless books on sexuality that are totally at odds with Church teaching. She is also part of the Quixote Center a left leaning advocacy group that discounts Church teaching on abortion and homosexuality. She has also been involved with pro-homosexual groups like the Vatican suppressed New Ways Ministry and Dignity. So of course this dissenter against the Church’s teaching on sexuality is invited to teach two classes on it.

What is also amazing is that since he has no way to know ahead of time about the speakers is that the speakers chosen are largely dissenters to one degree or another. Quite amazing that this year and in years past they never have a Christopher West, Dr. Janet Smith or equivalent to teach on sexuality. With their amazing luck they could shoot an error into the air above a crowd and only hit dissidents.

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