President Obama, Can't You Hear the Irony?

The latest soundbite from President Obama really strikes a nerve with me.  He asked the members of Congress to consider "what message will we send if a dictator can gas hundreds of children to death in plain sight and pay no price."  The President is talking about Syria of course, but we Americans - and especially us Catholic Americans - need to be publicly making this point to him and the hundreds of other lawmakers who support abortion.

He is morally outraged at the thought of Syria's President Assad using chemical weapons against the children of his nation.  Obama understands, and expects all of us to understand, that the killing of children is especially heinous and cannot be tolerated.  And yet, he supports the ongoing atrocity of legalized abortion, even going so far as to ask God to bless Planned Parenthood, our nation's largest abortion provider.

Why can't he see, why can't so many of us see, that when we support the killing of  unborn children, we degrade the lives of all children?  If Assad did use chemical weapons on the children of his nation, then he only took the evil we perpetrate upon our own children to its logical end.  We speak of the innocence of children, human dignity, and inalienable rights; and yet our nation has killed 53 million of its children since 1973.  We stand agasp at events such as the chemical strike in Syria and the shooting in Newtown, never stepping back to consider how abortion insidiously, subconsciously, lessens the value of all human life.

Mother Teresa saw this clearly and warned us:

"Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching the people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion ... if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?"

In my quest to distance more friends ...

So I went against my desire to be liked and commented on a friend's Facebook post.  She's a wonderful young woman; her father is a Protestant minister, and she has always been a passionate follower of Jesus.  It has been several years since we went to college together or have seen each other face-to-face for a conversation. I've seen her FB posts supporting President Obama who, given his history of supporting abortion and his attack on the religious freedom of Catholics, I am not a fan of; but I haven't said anything.  Her post this evening was different though.

She shared a link to a blogpost, 7 Things Every Christian Should Know About Politics, along with the statement that she both loves Jesus and is a Democrat and how those two things are not mutually exclusive.  Now, I am most definitely not saying that they are; BUT I do believe that it's morally wrong to vote for a candidate who works to keep abortion legal in the U.S. and/or export it to other countries.  Also, my stomach turns when I read a political platform that includes working to keep abortion legal.  I do not belong to either of the two main political parties in the United States, but it is clear to me the way I need to vote.  Sorry for the tirade.  Let me get back to that blogpost, 7 Things.  The points, in and of themselves, are quite good (although I disagreed with one or two of the author's explanatory comments).  Here they are:

1. Democrats go to church too.
2. Political talk radio and cable "news" only want ratings.
3. Those who argue over politics don't love their country more than others.
4. Thinking your party's platform is unflawed is a mistake.
5. Scripture tells us to pray for our governing leaders (2 Tim.2:1-4) and to respect those in authority (Rom.13:1-7).
6. Don't be paranoid.
7. When you promise to leave the country if your party loses, follow through.  (People will respect you.)

See, nothing there for a Catholic-Christian to be upset by.  But then the gentleman added a bonus point, with commentary:

8.  Stop saying, “This is the most important election in the history of our nation.”  It’s not. The most important election in the history of our nation was when Abraham Lincoln was elected President. Before that, we thought it was okay to own people.

I bet you know what my mind went to.  At the risk of offending my friend, I had to comment below her FB  link to the blog article:

I think he was doing fairly well until he threw in the bonus with #8. By bringing up the election of Lincoln and the subsequent reversal of the Supreme Court's decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford he brings to mind the parallel decision in Roe v. Wade and the 53 million Americans since then who were denied their fundamental right to life. With a president's power to appoint members of the Court, every election since that time is extremely important - as are Congressional elections. I don't belong to either party, but my vote must go to the candidates and party that will bring us closer to overturning legal abortion - just as if I lived at the time of Lincoln's election my love for Jesus would have bound me, despite every other issue at stake in that election, to cast my vote for the candidate and party moving toward freeing people of African descent from slavery (their recognition as human beings with fundamental rights). There is room for legitimate disagreement among Christians regarding political policies and budgets, etc.; but the lives of a million children a year is not one of them. Until that fundamental issue is resolved, there does seem to be a very clear choice between party platforms. 

Will it bear good fruit?  Please ask the Lord that it does.

Throwing Down the Gauntlet

Just read an article over at Catholic News Agency that made me smile. My former archbishop, Raymond Burke, flew into Phoenix, AZ, this morning to preside at a Mass for legal professionals. In the course of his homily he shared his conviction regarding our country: "It is a society which is abandoning its Judeo-Christian foundations, the fundamental obedience to God’s law which safeguards the common good, and is embracing a totalitarianism which masks itself as the 'hope,' the 'future,' of our nation. Reason and faith teaches us that such a society can only produce violence and death and in the end destroy itself.” Prescient.

B.A. Baracus Award

And the B.A. Baracus Award for 2009 goes to Benedict XVI, for his presentation of the Church's most recent document on bioethics, Dignitas Personae, to Barack Obama! You da man Benedict,
you DA MAN!

(Note: Referring to Benedict as "da man" is in no way a slight to Josh Huddleston, whose "da man"-ness is firmly in place and apparent to all.)

Freaking Me Out

So I came home today and flipped on the television. I start flipping channels and, hey - that's Jon Bon Jovi sitting next to Oprah. That I had to see. They were talking about the inauguration. Hey, there's Forest Whittaker too. I left the show on in the background as I started the computer and logged on to check my e-mail.

I heard them as they spoke about how our new president's attitude of hope and public displays of affection for his wife had already begun our country's "healing process." PDA and national healing? Jon, don't you go giving love a bad name! My next thought was, "People, you've got to put the brakes on. Your expectations are just too high; no man can live up to them." Just then I spotted an e-mail from my buddy Pete, directing me to the White House's site, where President Obama's team had laid out his social agenda:

Gay Rights

• Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples...
• Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: President Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.
• Expand Adoption Rights: President Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. He thinks that a child will benefit from a healthy and loving home, whether the parents are gay or not.
• Promote AIDS Prevention: ...The President will support common sense approaches including age-appropriate sex education that includes information about contraception, combating infection within our prison population through education and contraception, and distributing contraceptives through our public health system. The President also supports lifting the federal ban on needle exchange, which could dramatically reduce rates of infection among drug users. President Obama has also been willing to confront the stigma -- too often tied to homophobia -- that continues to surround HIV/AIDS.

Embryonic Stem Cells and Abortion

• Supporting Stem Cell Research: President Obama and Vice President Biden believe that we owe it to the American public to explore the potential of stem cells to treat the millions of people suffering from debilitating and life-threatening diseases. Obama is a co-sponsor of the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, which will allow research of human embryonic stem cells derived from embryos donated (with consent) from in vitro fertilization clinics. These embryos must be deemed in excess and created based solely for the purpose of fertility treatment.

• Supports a Woman's Right to Choose: President Obama understands that abortion is a divisive issue, and respects those who disagree with him. However, he has been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving women's rights under Roe v. Wade a priority in his Adminstration. He opposes any constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in that case.
• Preventing Unintended Pregnancy: President Obama was an original co-sponsor of legislation to expand access to contraception, health information, and preventive services to help reduce unintended pregnancies. Introduced in January 2007, the Prevention First Act will increase funding for family planning and comprehensive sex education that teaches both abstinence and safe sex methods. The Act will also end insurance discrimination against contraception, improve awareness about emergency contraception, and provide compassionate assistance to rape victims.

What good things are we expecting President Obama to accomplish, that they can outweigh this social agenda coming to fruition?

And when Jesus drew near and saw Jerusalem he wept over it, saying, "Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes" (Luke 19:41-42).