Punditry

Twenty million young women rose to their feet with the cry, “We will not be dictated to,” and proceeded to become stenographers – G.K. Chesterton

I was reminded of this quote do to the recent trend of S&M porn for women. It seems I can hardly get away from the book “50 Shades of Gray” which shows up in searches at Audible, Amazon, and appears on shelves in warehouse stores such as Costco. Recently I started seeing advertisement for a book of the same sick genre at Goodreads on their main page. This disturbing trend has hardly had any outcry from the professional feminist and some people even see it as female sexual emancipation. So we went from women who didn’t want to be tied down at home to women that want to be tied up at home – to update Chesterton’s phrase.

In related news of the perverse Mark Shea posts another example of sexual perversion moving from the “just a taboo stage” to arguments for acceptance.

Being part of the Amazon Vine program I eagerly scan through the books and other merchandise available for review when they send out their emails.

Recently one book I saw was called Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak for Themselves.  Seeing that title the thought that came to me was if there was one book that had about zero chance of catching my interest this was one.  Sounds just like a title given to a typical Catholic dissent-fest.  Later the same day on EWTN I heard the same book referenced in a positive manner, so I dug up the email from the trash and had them send it to me.

Considering all the media coverage and the  phony “war on women” meme  and the fact that Catholic women who are dissenters are constantly being presented to us this book is quite timely.  This book is partly a response to the attacks on religious freedom and how the narrative was shaped concerning Catholic women and the use of contraceptives.

This book in some ways could have been called “Surprised by the truth of the Church’s teachings on sexual morality” as it is partly a “Surprised by Truth”-like format of conversion stories.  Not the common Protestant-to-Catholic conversion stories but mostly concerning Catholic women who were in opposition to Church teaching and who came to see the wisdom and the truth of her teaching.  These women from a variety of backgrounds and professional experience not only provide the genesis for how they came to accept Church teaching, but explain those teachings in a very accessible way.  All of these chapters were very well written and had me quite captivated by their personal stories. Along with these stories are also a couple of essays that go with the subject at hand.

Seeing how God worked in these women’s lives was a joy to see and a couple of the stories related really had me praising God – which unfortunately is not something I do as much as I should.  The story of one women’s affect on another headed to get an abortion is worth the price of the book – just so awesome! This book covers a lot of topics including: fear of children, contraception, same-sex attraction, beauty, the ends of dating, the sexual abuse crisis, stable marriages and family life, etc.

Even as a man I could relate to some of the background of the stories on how secular feminism had shaped their lives.  Being raised in a house that subscribed to Ms. Magazine and Psychology Today and where Alan Alda was the pinnacle of what a man should be — it is not just women who get subverted by this message.

This book is a great antidote to so much of what we hear and it presents faithful Catholic women who can fully articulate their faith and who have had the same struggles as so many others.  Maybe the title that confused me is a positive thing and I sincerely hope that those who struggle with the truth of what the Church teaches will pick this book up.  They might be seriously challenged by what this book presents, but they won’t be talked down to or feel attacked by it.

Excellent speech give by Cardinal Dolan on religious freedom which as per her usual delivery combines humor, history, and analysis. The Venerable Archbishop Sheen story he shares is also hilarious.

Which brings us to now. For the threats to our “first and most cherished freedom” are abundant, but let me list just two.

One comes from those called secularists, who will tolerate religion as long as it’s just considered some eccentric private hobby for superstitious, unenlightened folks, limited to an hour on the Sabbath, with no claim to any voice in the public square. Such, of course, is hardly “free exercise,” as Michelle Obama recently pointed out: “Our faith . . . just isn’t about showing up on Sunday . . . it’s about what we do on Monday through Saturday.”

Here is the PDF for the speech.

You can have you “deeply held beliefs” just as long as you don’t act on them is part of the pushing freedom of religion to mean being allowed to go to church

Well, as the Democratic National Convention also revealed, add another marquee Democrat to the list of blind faithful—a notably religious one, another former Democratic president: Jimmy Carter.

Carter has said many times, including very recently, that he can’t see how or where or why God or Scripture could ever justify abortion. That’s for sure. The Georgian Baptist has scoured his Bible on that one, and indeed found no justification for killing unborn human life. And Carter certainly never stumped for gay marriage.

And yet, there was Jimmy Carter, at the convention last week, stumping for Barack Obama, a president with a party platform that supports these things, and then some. To raucous applause from the “pro-choice” faithful, Carter gushed that Obama has given everyone an “equal chance in life,” creating a “fairer, stronger, and more inclusive America.”

The 87-year-old said he will be casting a vote for Obama “with confidence and conviction,” knowing that Obama has the “right policies” to lead America to a “better future.” [Source]

There are a lot of things that annoy me about Jimmy Carter – other than that I voted for him when I was 18. Mostly though what annoys me is the fact that he never really stood up for life in a meaningful way.  He could have been the conscience of the party calling them back from the brink of full throated apologists for the culture of death. He might have been able to assert some leadership as a former Democratic President, instead he will mention that he is pro-life at times – yet it never stops him from endorsing increasingly pro-abortion candidates. This type of behavior from pro-life Democrats is pretty much the norm with few exceptions such as Rep. Rebecca Hamilton.

Now if only this type of behavior was restricted to Democrats.  Unfortunately excuse making on the Republican side can be just as egregious.  Often social conservatives are treated as an embarrassment and many pro-life issues are not even addressed.  The issue of contraception is one that the GOP won’t touch despite the fact it is a gateway to abortion and that some forms of contraceptive are abortion-inducing.  When Sen. Santorum would bring this up there was pretty much a collective shoooshing for him to be quiet about such issues.  What was the last time you heard a “pro-life” politician talk about the numbers of children killed via IVF?  Then there was the recent defense of the rape and incest abortion exception.  Whenever it comes to fully following through on pro-life convictions it becomes more about political expediency than doing what is right.  We point out the hypocrisy of pro-life Democrats voting for Obamacare and then push through a presidential candidate with no pro-life trail consisting of any action other than words. We make fun of how President Clinton focused-group everything and then make pro-life policy decisions with a concern towards polls.  Certainly we can move forward incrementally in creating a culture of life – but we will achieve not even that when we compromise the protection of life and advance the fiction of the 100% pro-life politician.

It is one thing to vote to reduce evil, the problem is that we are minimizing the extent of the evil.  Politics might be the art of the possible, but it is easy to forget that with God all things are possible – even being fully pro-life and supporting those that are the same.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan praying at each of the conventions was something I had no problem with in contrast to what I saw as problems with the Al Smith Dinner invite. Much is being made at what he said in his prayer with this being the relevant sections. The closing prayers is something not covered by the networks and usually something that gets no coverage other than those who look for it.

Thus do we praise you for the gift of life. Grant us the courage to defend it, life, without which no other rights are secure. We ask your benediction on those waiting to be born, that they may be welcomed and protected. Strengthen our sick and our elders waiting to see your holy face at life’s end, that they may be accompanied by true compassion and cherished with the dignity due those who are infirm and fragile.

We praise and thank you for the gift of liberty. May this land of the free never lack those brave enough to defend our basic freedoms. Renew in all our people a profound respect for religious liberty: the first, most cherished freedom bequeathed upon us at our Founding. May our liberty be in harmony with truth; freedom ordered in goodness and justice. Help us live our freedom in faith, hope, and love. Make us ever-grateful for those who, for over two centuries, have given their lives in freedom’s defense; we commend their noble souls to your eternal care, as even now we beg the protection of your mighty arm upon our men and women in uniform.

I really like the turn of phase “those waiting to be born” as evoking something much more than the term the “unborn.” Classing as “unborn” is accurate, but it has a divide too much like the term “undead.” The Cardinals phrase illustrated to me my slight uneasiness with the word “unborn” and focuses more showing a person awaiting an event other than an event making the person.

Now you can always find a fringe in any political party and often it shows a feeling that is only displayed by the fringe. So the vileness of a Twitter stream relating to what the Cardinal said could be just the temper tantrum of the fringe – but boy are some Democrats reactions to a rather mild prayer vile and so full of f-bombs that they could populate every weapons warehouse in the world. I happen to think that this reaction is not just indicative of the fringe and expresses the very anti-Catholic animosity of many Democrats.

It was inaccurate when it was reported that Democrats booed God. The booing was a response to the fact that the vote taken on the amendment to add the mention of God and the Jerusalem being the capitol of Israel back to the party’s platform. This fraud on the ironically named Democrats in this instance deserved more than just booing. You can’t break down exactly the majority “no” votes as to whether the objection was to God, Jerusalem, or both – but certainly there was a majority objection and the whole event was scripted and the convention attendees forgot to follow the script. Are the majority of Democrats really against God particularly? Probably not, but there is certainly an atheist contingent of the party that is represented all out of proportion to the general public. A general idea of God can get by them, just not a personal God that actually means “Thou shalt not kill” and includes those waiting to be born. The anti-Catholicism of the party is mostly because of the particularity of God and the fact that the Church teaches those particular details that can be inconvenient. The pelvic-central nature of the convention is in opposition as the Church sees the whole person in the image of God. If the gates of hell prevailed and the Church just became the theological flavor of the month, the Democrats anti-Catholicism would disappear. But it is everything else that will disappear, before the Church stops teaching the truth.

Photo Credit

Sr. Simone Campbell at Democratic National Convention

TWS: On the legal question, do you think there should be penalties against abortion doctors? I mean, should it be illegal to perform abortions?

CAMPBELL: That’s beyond my pay grade. I don’t know.

Wow that seems like a very similar reply dodge. The very same one then-Candidate Obama gave during the forum at Saddleback Church. I wonder which of the other 10 Commandments are above her pay grade? Bless me Father I am not sure I sinned because it is beyond my pay grade. Plus doesn’t it seem rather odd for a women religious to be speaking in terms of pay grade anyway? Strangely it seems to me that if you are the Executive Directory of an organization that lobbies for social justice this might just possibly be within your pay grade? Really for every Catholic it it within our pray grade.

She is part of the Nuns on a Bus and somehow she didn’t notice the the President had thrown Catholic consciences under the bus.

Ironically for a Democratic convention there was a large elephant in the room that Sister Campbell studiously ignored. To rant on the Ryan budget that had no chance of going through at a convention where abortion is not only enshrined in their platform but something cheered every night of the convention. If anybody that wants to take up prudential points concerning a budget that is there prerogative – though it is rather amazing that the complexity of the Federal budget was not above her pay grade. To ignore the abortaphant in the room is another story. Giving the party of death a Catholic veneer by speaking at their convention without mentioning this is an act where usually the pay grade is compensated with 30 pieces of silver. Jesus’ request was “Not let the little children come to me – in pieces.”

I would further rant about what she did, but I think I will spend some time praying for her instead.

Article via Father Z

photo credit: Eelke de Blouw via photo pin cc

Marc Barnes of Bad Catholics looks at  Christina Pesoli’s article, Why This Catholic Girl Is Praying for a Schism  that appeared on the Huffington Post (so you know it is bound to be theologically insightful).

The article is mostly typical boilerplate of complaints such as the Vatican and the LCWR and it is written in some humor so it is a kind of piece you can enjoy while pretty much disagreeing with every point made.

Contrary to Jesus High Priestly Prayer to the Father that “they may be one”,

For decades I prayed that the Catholic Church would evolve, but not anymore. Now I’m holding out for a schism, instead. We’ll be the Social Justice Catholic Church and they can be the Conservative Catholic Church.

In part this is an understandable temptation and even faithful Catholics can sometimes wish for a smaller but more faithful Church and that some of the less-faithful divisions would just pick up and move.

The piece makes me wonder if there is some strange genetic learning disability for people’s whose last name uses the letters “eilpso” such as Christina Pesoli and Nancy Pelosi.

Marc Barnes though replies to this article quite thoughtfully and makes many good points in reply.  There were many parts I loved about his reply

… Her singular focus on women’s issues. And yes, it’s truly novel, this bizarre move by the Church to call her universal claims universal, her doctrines doctrinal, and her dogmas dogmatic.

…The heart and soul of the Catholic Church cannot — therefore — be social justice. The heart and soul of the Catholic Church must be Christ Himself, for the command to love and work for justice rests on the reality of Him and His love.

Well I can just keep on quoting from it, but ignore me and just go straight to his post.

A lot has already been written on the word God being removed from the Democratic Party’s plank.  Though that never stopped me before from weighing in.

It does remind me of Jesus saying”let you yes mean yes” in that to some extent there plank is more truthful.  Besides do we really want them using the word in a plank that is so in love with abortion and same-sex marriage?  It is a positive thing to some extent that they removed God from the plank since the writers of the document had already removed God from their heart.  To the extent that is true I find nothing to rejoice about.

Besides why mention God when his replacement is already President since Barack is a jealous god and admits no rivals.  That the exclusion of God from the plank coincides with Obama’s presidency is no coincidence.  After all the President has omitted God from Thanksgiving Day speeches and also censored the word when reciting the famous passage from the Declaration of Independence.  The man who complained about people clinging to religion will have no problem with this exclusion.

Recently a video from the host committee for the Democratic Convention stated “Government is the only thing we all belong to” – yikes!  The Obama campaign is not trying to distance itself from this video played at the convention and that is understandable since it states to plainly what they believe.  They believe in a kind of bureaucratic pantheism where the government is in all of us and we are all part of the government.  From the New Deal to the New Age.  All intercessions are to be rerouted from God to Government as the nanny state has much higher aspirations than just nannyhood – more like what motivated Babylon tower building – but they didn’t build that.

While God is removed from their plank, Moloch is not.  While Moloch does not get specifically referenced his hove prints are all over this document and the convention.

I’m stealing this in full from Marcel LeJeune.

Most Catholics have never heard of Cardinal Martini, the former Archbishop of Milan, who died August 31. But, that didn’t stop almost every major news organization in the Western world in carrying the story that he said the following before he died:

“The church is 200 years out of date. Why don’t we rouse ourselves? Are we afraid?”and:

“Our culture has aged, our churches are big and empty and the church bureaucracy rises up; our rituals and our cassocks are pompous,”But is this true? Is the Catholic Church out of touch, out of date, and does it need to change? Well, let us consider the evidence.

The Church has suffered a great deal from clashing with modern cultural trends. Some have left the practice of the faith. Many criticize the Church as behind the times when it comes to sexuality, contraception, abortion, the role of women, bureaucracy, and esp. the scandals of individual Catholics (including leaders) who shame The Church.

It is true that when we look at the Church through the lens of modern western culture, that the Church is not trendy. Church leaders are not interested in changing doctrine to keep up with the times. It seems the Church is too old and stuck in her ways.

To be quite honest, this is a good thing.

What has our culture brought us:

• Abortion on-demand
• Hyper-sexualization
• Addiction
• Culture of death
• More wars (in the 20th Century) than any other time in history
• More slavery TODAY than any other time in history.
• Divorce and broken families.
• Pornography and selfishness.
• etc.

Why would we ever think this culture is healthy or good enough to be a model for the Catholic Church to follow?
Why would we ever believe the modern way of thinking is really true?
Where is the beauty in this modern culture?

Here are just a few of the problems with believing the Church just needs to be updated to keep up with the culture:

1. this belief makes the mistake of thinking our modern culture is good for us (see the list above). If it were so great, why do we have growing evil in our midst still?
2. with this mindset we jettison all of the teachings of Christ, believing they are not applicable to us today.
3. we make ourselves smarter than God. If we believe that the Church needs to change her ways, to line up with our thinking, then we are making ourselves the final judge of what is true and good = making ourselves a god.

“Doctrine” is a teaching of the Church that comes from or is necessarily connected to the deposit of faith the Church was given by Christ and from the Apostles. The Church teaches that these doctrines are not “owned” by the Church, therefore she can’t arbitrarily change them.

The Church (you and I) needs to change the culture – not vice versa.

The world needs the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has the answer for all the world’s problems in the fullness of truth and the fullness of grace she offers to the world. The Church gives us a moral anchor, an answer to broken families, addiction, sin, war, violence, abuse, and all the other issues in our culture. More than ever the world needs the Catholic Church, if our society is to last. This answer is the personal relationship with Jesus that the Catholic Church offers to us all through the Sacramental grace, teachings of the Church, and in our own personal prayer we all need.

Jesus created one Church. We are that Church, the Catholic Church and if the world needs the Catholic Church, then the Church needs saints. We need to be holy if we are to change the world.

Time to do our part. Time to be holy. Time to change the world. This is what we all need to know – and do.

Without the Catholic Church – imagine where our culture would be today…

In some ways I can’t consider a worse thing for the Church than to be considered up-to-date. As if truth needs a constant upgrade and point revisions. How we propagate the faith is another matter and certainly this is an area that needs vigilance. Catholics in general have lagged behind in adapting to new ways to spread the Gospel.  Though this is not mean jumping on board with every social networking fad – that the Vatican never had a presence on MySpace is a good thing.

Though it is rather funny the world-views that can see the headline that the Church is out of date.  One group would see the truth that the Church teaches as being out of date and the other the way the truth is preached.

CHARLOTTE — Mere steps away from the site of the upcoming Democratic National Convention, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte has posted two larger-than-life messages about the sanctity of life, marriage and religious liberty – proclaiming the teaching of the universal Church to the thousands of party delegates, visitors and the national media who will descend on Charlotte starting next week.

The diocese has suspended two banners on property at St. Peter Catholic Church on South Tryon Street: one on St. Peter’s administrative building and another on a large brick wall adjoining the church.

A six-foot by 10-foot banner will hang from St. Peter’s administrative building, stating: “A Message from the Catholic Church: Religious Liberty, The Soul of Democracy.” This building looks out over The Green between South Tryon and College streets.

A six-foot by 27-foot banner will be posted on a large brick wall behind the church, and will read: “A Message from the Catholic Church: Protect the Unborn, Defend Marriage, Safeguard Religious Liberty.”

This wall faces an area designated as The Legacy Village, where Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx will host special guests during the convention to highlight community efforts to support Foxx’s Legacy Projects. Some of the topics that will be discussed in programs there will address children, families, youth employment, civic education, the economy, energy, technology and sustainability.

These very visible banners are meant to provoke dialogue and encourage evangelization, diocesan officials said, during a time when the national spotlight will shine on Charlotte like never before – and where attention will especially be drawn near St. Peter Church, the oldest Catholic church in the diocese and located in the heart of the convention area.

Bishop Peter J. Jugis of the Diocese of Charlotte was personally involved in the planning for the banners, along with diocesan Respect Life Director Maggi Nadol, diocesan spokesman David Hains and St. Peter’s pastor, Jesuit Father Pat Earl.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for evangelization,” Bishop Jugis said.

Though likely the dialogue that will occur will involve vandalism.  The words of this banner could be used directly during the Democratic convention, just as long as you replace “Protect”, “Defend”, and “Safeguard” with “Attack”