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A Catholic priest cannot be reduced to a "social worker," Pope Benedict XVI told a group of priests in Rome on March 12. Adopting that model of priestly ministry, he said, runs "the risk ...
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Opposing Subterfuge
Written by Administrator
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
I was sent the following article to post on the Truth Warriors Mailing List. My response is on the Newsweek site (in parts) and below.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/234430
My Response
Ms. Miller, true to her occupation, is a wordsmith extraordinaire. She skillfully balances truth and innuendo, fact and subterfuge. This is the power of distortion. It's gone on since the beginning, "No you shall not die...?" (Gen 3)
Early on Lisa Miller says,
"It goes without saying that the Catholic hierarchy has always been pro-life."
Here she gives a nod to the consistency of the Bishops' position and even the term "pro-life", which is a mouthful for those of the pro-abortion camp (they prefer "anti-choice"). She fails to mention that when she says hierarchy, she actually speaks of nearly 2000 years of service by those successors of the very Apostles of Jesus Christ, to whom Jesus Commanded to "teach them to obey all that I have commanded you." This brings us to the next point.
Ms. Miller later says,
"... half of American Catholics believe you can be a good Catholic and disregard the bishops' teachings on abortion."
This statement positions the teachings of the bishops solely in the mouths of the bishops, as if they themselves are the source for the teaching. All the while the author is reminding the typically uneducated reader that it is also bishops that are at the center of the clergy molestation scandal, failing to note that it is these uncompromising bishops, "of a much bolder stripe" that are the fix to the keep-the-peace-at-all-cost bishops who shuffled molesting priests around hoping the problem would take care of itself.
Obviously, it's not Ms. Miller's place to provide ALL the facts - just enough to send her message out as one more arrow of innuendo like those who called Jesus a "glutton and a drunk." in an attempt to provide an easy "out" for those wishing to dismiss his (their) sometimes difficult message (Luke 7:34).
She could have saved the reference to the sex abuse scandal for another pertinent article and focused on the merits, or lack thereof, of the bishops position. But I imagine it's more fun play the Pied Piper to gullible Americans.
Ms. Miller could have simply said,
"... half of American Catholics believe you can be a good Catholic and disregard THE CHURCH'S CONTINUOUS teachings on abortion."
It's funny that Ms. Miller had to go all the way back to 1999 to find a poll on American Catholic views when Pugh, Gallop and probably Zogby do a poll on Catholic positions on social issues every year. Did I mention that none of the recent polls I saw can substantiate the unreferenced poll's 50 percent claim. I don't doubt she found one because it's so much more powerful to say "half the people think this way and half the people think that way. You are free to choose too." But you are only free to choose one thing. Eat the fruit or obey God. Believe in your own moral clarity, as did every tyrant and evildoer, even Judas who said "the money should be spent on the poor." A little morality is a bad thing. But true saints say that they are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked and they "buy ointment to smear on your eyes so that [they] may see." (Rev 3:18)
No one can say to God, "It's complicated" as though God was hasty in his moral framework - that he forgot compassion or the realities of real-world life down here on planet earth.
But finally there's this common misstatement that any Newsweek writer should be able to determine is a far cry from an accurate or clear statement,
"But the 40 million Americans without health care might not agree."
So what does she mean?
1. "... 40 million who aren't currently receiving health care services at this time"? I'm sure you'd agree that the bigger the number, the better - all things being equal.
2. "... 40 million who could not get heath care under any circumstance, should they become ill"? That would horrible! But alas, it's not the case. We currently share the cost of those who don't pay for health care - for whatever reason. They simply go to a provider that offers services without proof of payment (a hospital near me has a big sign that reads that they can assist if you can't afford health care). This is not equivalent to the uninsured, as many individuals pay for care as they go (I have paid for health care out-of-pocket several times during my life). So it clearly doesn't mean that.
3. "... 40 million who don't have an active health insurance policy." Oh, that makes sense. But remember that some people, especially young males on their own, pay as they go. They rarely get sick and they probably come out ahead by saving the premiums every month. Yes, there are some who should have insurance, but they don't. I'd much prefer to cover a small portion their cost while we look for common sense solution as opposed to attempting to reshape one sixth of our national economy in a giant government experiment. Duh!
Simply put she could have, should have said,
"But the 40 million Americans without health care COVERAGE might not agree."
But she didn't because she's a master manipulator - or a writer who lacks enough mastery of the English language to accurately convey a point.
In either case over one third of America has been wordsmithed into unrighteousness and ignorance by fair sounding people like Lisa Miller who apparently cares more about the approval of her psuedo-intellectual friends than her own integrity, accurately informing her readers, and most importantly her eternal soul's right standing before God.
Unfair? I think it's unfair to give people like Ms. Miller this potent platform that sedates the gleefully ignorant and encourages defiance, rebellion and sometimes apostasy among the once faithful. I've seen too many victims to stay silent. Ms. Miller is a player or a pawn - either way she needs to see the error of her ways. Write Comment
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 March 2010 )
Science & Abortion
Written by Administrator
Friday, 10 October 2008
“The cell (zygote) results from fertilization of an oocyte by a sperm and is the beginning of a human being. Each of us started life as a cell called a zygote.” Dr. Keith L. Moore1
“(Fertilization is) that wondrous moment that marks the beginning of life for a new unique individual.” Dr. Louis Fridhandler2
“A new individual is created when the elements of a potent sperm merge with those of a fertile ovum, or egg.” Encyclopedia Britannica3
“I have learned from my earliest medical education that human life begins at the time of conception….I submit that human life is present throughout this entire sequence from conception to adulthood and that any interruption at any point throughout this time constitutes a termination of human life….I am no more prepared to say that these early stages [of development in the womb] represent an incomplete human being than I would be to say that the child prior to the dramatic effects of puberty…is not a human being. This is human life at every stage….” Dr. Alfred M. Bongioanni—professor of pediatrics and obstetrics at the U. of Penn.4
“[A]fter fertilization has taken place a new human being has come into being.” “[This] is no longer a matter of taste or opinion,” and “not a metaphysical contention, it is plain experimental evidence. Each individual has a very neat beginning, at conception.” Dr. Jerome LeJeune—professor of genetics at the U. of Descartes in Paris, discoverer of the chromosome pattern of Down’s syndrome5
“It is incorrect to say that biological data cannot be decisive….It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception….Our laws, one function of which is to help preserve the lives of our people, should be based on accurate scientific data.” Professor Micheline Matthews-Roth, Harvard University Medical School6
“The beginning of a single human life is from a biological point of view a simple and straightforward manner—the beginning is conception. This straightforward biological fact should not be distorted to serve sociological, political, or economic goals.” Dr. Watson A. Bowes, University of Colorado Medical School7
“The basic fact is simple: life begins not at birth, but conception.” Ashley Montague, geneticist and professor at Harvard and Rutgers (unsympathetic to the pro-life cause)8
“Modern technologies have convinced us that beyond question the unborn child is simply another human being, another member of the human community, indistinguishable in every way from any of us.” Dr. Bernard Nathanson, internationally known obstetrician and gynecologist, cofounder of NARAL9 (statement made as an atheist, views based on the biological facts, nothing even remotely religious).
“I oppose abortion. I do so, first, because I accept what is biologically manifest—that human life commences at the time of conception—and second, because I believe it is wrong to take innocent human life under any circumstances. My position is scientific, pragmatic, and humanitarian.” Dr. Landrum Shettles, obstretrician-gynecologist at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York10, his intrauterine photos of preborn children appear in over 50 medical textbooks
“The majority of our group could find no point in time between the union of sperm and egg, or at least the blastocyst stage, and the birth of the infant at which point we could say that this was not a human life.” The First Internation Symposium on Abortion11
“Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception marks the beginning of the life of a human being—a being that is alive and a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings.” The Official Senate Report on Senate Bill 158, the “Human Life Bill”12
For further reading, please visit: http://www.prolife.com/life_begins.html (Life Begins at the Beginning—A Doctor Gives Scientific Facts on When Life Begins). 1The Developing Human:Clinically Oriented Embryology, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1977), 1 2“Gametogenesis to Implantation,” Biology of Gestation, vol. 1, ed. N.S. Assau (New York: Academic Press, 1968), 76 3“Pregnancy,” The New Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th ed., Macropedia, vol. 14 (Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1974), 968 4Report, Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, 97th Congress, 1st Session 1981. 5,6,7,8Id. 9Bernard Nathanson, Aborting America (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1979). 10Shettles and Rorvik, Rites of Life, 103 11John C. Willke, Abortion Questions and Answers (Cincinnati: Hayes Publishing, 1988), 42. 12Report, Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, 97th Congress, 1st Session 1981, 7. 13Raul Hillberg, The Destruction of European Jews (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1967), 567-68. Write Comment
Last Updated ( Friday, 10 October 2008 )
An Influential Muslim Converts
Written by Administrator
Monday, 24 March 2008
Magdi Allam, an Italian journalist received Christian baptism at the hands of Pope Benedict at the recent Easter vigil mass celebrated at St. Peter's. Allam has been an outspoken opponent to radical Islamic extremistism even to the point of writing a pro-Israel book, Viva Israele (Long Live Israel: see more at Wikipedia). Many westerners have criticized Pope Benedict for this bold move, but the Pope will not let extremists set the agenda by allowing freedom of conscience take a back seat to terrorism. No doubt the journalist begged the Pope to allow him to make his profession a very public one, and the pontiff certainly admires Allam's willingness to risk his life for his faith. I believe the Pope sees multiple opportunities in this Muslim's conversion, not the least of which is to rouse western cafeteria Catholics from their pick and choose mentality - so ready to avoid the hard teachings of Christ for those that conform to a modern view of expediency.
Like many Catholic converts, Allam seems to have "thought" his way into the Catholic Church. His writings point to a delineation between the path that Islam has taken compared to that of Christianity - with Christianity holding to a standard of a God who shares his rational nature with his creatures over a God who imposes only his will.
It should be said that Allam considered conversion upon his arrival to Italy with his Catholic wife for the sake of "fitting in", he never took the step, waiting for something more compelling. I believe in the not-to-distant future we will discover his path as he makes public his conversion story.
I wanted to thank Siva Nadarajah of Chicago for the photograph of the lovely stained glass image used on the website. Here is the whole image.
