Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things pass away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing;
God alone suffices. — Saint Teresa of Avila

“God does not call us to be successful. He calls us to be faithful.” — Blessed Mother Teresa.

For the last month I have been preparing myself for a Sen. Obama win. I am by nature a pessimistic-optimist. I am though much more calm than I expected I would be in the aftermath of President-Elect Obama. It is much easier to remember today that my trust is in Jesus. Though I am also in mourning for the unborn who will die as a result of an Obama Presidency. They will never get to vote in an election, much less get healthcare or participate in the economy. The economy goes up and down. Dead babies stay dead.

Maybe we need to pray for the health of Supreme Court members so that they stay healthy another four years and have no desire to retire. Yeah I am only saying this jokingly, but no doubt some will retire and have a replacement named by a President Obama and another generation of children will be killed with the permission of the court. One thing you can say about Democrats is that they never pick a nominee that “grows” in office – they are reliably strict deconstructionists who will find a foreign law that matches their biases or grab a penumbra in a pinch.

Being thankful for little things the Democratic Senate does not have 60 seats so I hope this will keep the misnamed Freedom of Choice Act from being able to be signed into law. At least I hope that it is not able to be passed. Unfortunately the Mexico City policy will be history in an Obama administration. Plus I can only imagine the type of people that will be sent to represent us in the U.N. Say hello to CEDAW and the United Nations efforts to make abortion a universal “right.” Plus President Bush’s restrictions on Federal funding of embryonic stem-cells will be gone and surely the taxpayers will be funding destructive embryonic research regardless of the progress of ethical sources of stem-cells. Federal money will be used for cloning research and yet more embryos will die at the hands of scientists killing in order to preserve life.

This is the affirmative action presidency. Affirmative action is notorious for placing skin color above qualification and the electorate decided accordingly. There was hardly a dimes worth of difference between any of the Democratic presidential wannabees other than varying levels of experience. Obama’s main qualification was that his father was from Kenya and he was capable with a teleprompter. Though once he became the nominee he had a cascade of forces historically helpful for a Democrat to take the office this time around.

Though at least now we know how many racists there are in the United States. Those 56,280,668+ that voted for Sen. McCain are obvious racists for not voting for “The One.” And just because you might have voted for Alan Keyes – well you’re racist too for not voting for Obama. The idea that the election of Sen. Obama is going to heal race relations I think is laughable. The media will frame every opposition to a President Obama’s policies as racially tinged just as they did during the election.

As far as the media goes I don’t know which I liked worse. The media that use to pretend to have some objectivity or the one that simply became campaign operatives. Media bias is nothing new and selective reporting has been with us for quite a time. The editing of the Palin interview to make her look worse and the L.A. Times withholding of a video tape are just some of the egregious examples this time around. The media can determine what the Palin family ate the night before by inspecting their garbage can, but could find nothing worthy to investigate on Sen. Obama. Gee remember the media trying to pin cocaine use on President Bush, yet Obama’s biographies detailing drug use get a yawn. I hear that the Main Stream Media is going to be elevated to a cabinet position by President Obama because of the good work they did for him. No longer will dissent be patriotic as the media said during the Bush years.

Now we will also have a culture of death Catholic Vice President who will be putting the vice into Vice President with his support of many forms of abortion. I bet the media can hardly wait to snap a picture of him receiving Communion to gloat. The USCCB meets soon to discuss “practical and pastoral implications of political support for abortion.” Will the scandal of Sen. Biden be addressed? Probably not, but I would love to be wrong.

I hear that Sen. Obama will be FedExing 30 pieces of silver to Doug Kmiec. Moloch is quite happy with all of the Catholics that voted for Sen. Obama. According to Catholic Culture “Among Catholic voters who attend Mass weekly, McCain won majority support: 54- 45%. Among those who do not attend weekly Mass, the margin for Obama was an overwhelming 61- 37%. Thus Obama drew his support from inactive Catholics.” So 45 percent of Mass going Catholics supported the most extreme supporter of abortion ever in a Presidential race. The unborn chopped up via scalpels will be glad to hear about hope and change.

I also hear that Gov. Palin will be stepping down so that she can get some experience by becoming a community organizer.

I find it strange that all of the pro-life measures lost and that all of the anti-same-sex marriage measures won. Somehow their is still some idea of what marriage means, but the preciousness of life is another story. Washington State now has doctor assisted suicide like Oregon. So all we need to do is have California join in and we can call it the Kevorkian Coast or simply the Death Coast. In Michigan voters approved ESCR (supported by a Catholic Governor Jennifer Granholm). Modern liberalism means more dead people. If you don’t get them at the beginning of life you can always catch them when they get old or sick. The endless pursuit to make the distance from cradle to grave to be zero. Modern feminism says “Give me liberty and give them death”

Oh and by the way thanks a lot Jack Ryan (the Senator and not Tom Clancy character) whose divorce papers led to him withdrawing and giving us a Senator Obama in the first place. What a maroon.

But like many American I will be praying for a President Obama. May his campaign promises be typical campaign promises that never come into fruition. I pray that he realizes the definition of life is not “beyond his paygrade” and the the protection of life and liberty includes those who have been conceived. That he will realize his mother choose life in a situation that so commonly leads to abortion. The law is a teacher and as long as abortion is legal there will be many abortions but as this story works out we can still work to save lives on a personal level.

The Paragraph Farmer on Single Issue Voting.

Charcoal Fire offers Election Primer for Catholics and An Obama Supporter comes to the door

Chuck Norris unleashes attack on Obama over abortion

Four years ago strong statements by bishops on voting were as rare as hen’s teeth. This time around we have had a pethora of excellent statements including this one a reader sent me issued by Bishop Ronald W. Gainer of the Diocese of Lexington.

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In the months preceding Election Day, we have witnessed several elected officials who are Catholics publicly address the Church’s teaching on the grave matters of conscience formation, the inviolability of innocent human life and voting. Several of these Catholic politicians have cited the document of our United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, entitled “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” in a way that misrepresents the intent of the document and the authentic teaching of our Catholic Church – misrepresentations that warrant clarification.

For many people in our increasingly secularized culture, conscience is erroneously reduced to a collection of personal preferences that are thoroughly subjective and relative. In this wrong understanding of conscience, every individual opinion is assigned moral correctness and the existence of objective truth is denied. Yet, the very mission of the Church as a teacher of right and wrong rests on the existence of objective truth and the conviction that this truth can be known by us.

In our Catholic moral tradition, conscience is not an inclination inside of us that allows us to justify doing whatever we want. It is not a mere feeling about what we should or should not do. Conscience is the voice of God in the human heart, revealing the truth to us and calling us to do what is good while shunning what is evil.

Before following our conscience, we are obliged to form our conscience. A well-formed conscience requires that we have a sincere openness to embrace goodness and truth. We must be students and learners, shaped and challenged by the Word of God and the teachings of the Church, rather than embracing a partisan position and then stretching for ways to justify it.

Conscience formation requires that we examine the facts and the background information on issues. Conscience formation requires that we evaluate each candidate’s past record on issues and the general direction each candidate would give to the issues. In forming our conscience then it is critical that we see beyond party affiliation, analyze campaign rhetoric carefully and choose according to moral principles rather than self-interest.

Finally, since a well-formed conscience seeks always and everywhere to discern the will of God in some matter, prayerful reflection is essential.

In summary, rigorous study, moral reflection and prayerful consideration are the primary elements in forming one’s conscience. When our Church takes a position on some moral issue, you can absolutely trust that these three elements have been vigorously involved.

Catholic moral teaching is not a hodge-podge of competing and equally valid opinions.

Granted that there are many and complex issues that are in our hearts and on our minds as we go to the polls on November 4th. For that matter, Catholics and all people of good will can arrive at different opinions and various solutions for such issues as the delivery of health care, the revitalization of the economy, the use of military force, taxation policies, and the many other issues that face voters in the upcoming election.

However, we must be aware that not all political issues carry the same moral weight and that there is a serious moral obligation on all of us to oppose in conscience and in action those issues that are intrinsically evil. We are not free to choose whether or not we shall oppose those things which in and of themselves are always and everywhere morally evil.

From this, it is clear that the defense of the sacredness of human life from the very moment of conception to natural death is THE paramount issue of our time. Abortion, euthanasia, human cloning and embryonic stem cell research are intrinsic evils – actions that are always and everywhere wrong and no circumstance can justify their use. Each is a direct attack on innocent human life. The fact is that since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision, every medical and genetic discovery has underscored the human personhood of the unborn from conception.

We have all heard fellow Catholics say that “I can not be a single issue voter.” Fair enough – there are many issues on all of our minds. But consider this. If someone were to break into your home – your place of security and well-being – and hold a scalpel to your throat with the intent to kill you, I suspect that you would in that moment become a single issue person. In that instant, everything would focus on the one question: What must I do to survive?” Everything else immediately becomes secondary. Many of the unborn are precisely in that situation. They cannot act in their own defense. You and I must.

Throughout the United States Catholic parishes have been praying The Novena for the Election, seeking God’s direction for our nation as Election Day approaches. In these final hours study, read, pray. As a faithful citizen, cast your vote. May the Holy Spirit guide all of us to act on consciences conformed to the will of God.