March 2006 Archives

We spend a lot of time on this blog criticizing protestants for leaving Christ's Church, but on a positive note there are some things protestants do very well. Joe (from this blog) and I began discussing this earlier today and I wanted to point out the items we came up with:

• Evangelization. No one doubts that protestants evangelize very well. From the groups of people going through a neighborhood to a push to bring God into conversations, protestants do a great job of bringing others closer to Christ
  
• Scripture Study. Clearly most protestants do a better job of studying Scripture than most Catholics do. This was Luther's push when creating the protestant church and it has carried on through the years.
  
• Emphasizing Prayer. Protestant churches also do a good job of keeping the faithful focused on their prayer lives. Prayer is what develops our relationship with God, so this is extremely important in our spiritual lives.
  
• Baptism. Baptism and marriage are the two Sacraments protestants kept (for the most part - there are some fringe groups that I'm not counting). Most protestant churches still do a good job of encouraging baptism for believers and keeping marriage sacred.
  

Individual protestant churches do other things well, but in general I think these are the things virtually all protestant churches do well. Any thing I missed?

In saying this it's important to note that this does not mean it's okay to just be a protestant. Christ calls us to a deeper relationship to Himself in the Eucharist and the other Sacraments, so we are all called back to the Catholic Church. However, our protestant brothers and sisters do an excellent job of living the faith in these areas.

God bless,
Jay

Be sure to check out the Catholic Carnival for this week, which is another great roundup of Catholic thought throughout the blogosphere. From Eucharistic miracles to being a man to the pain of losing a child. Worth reading.

God bless,
Jay

Going along with my pro-life shopping posts, I found this pro-life shopping site that looks interesting. It's basically an affiliate site that donates a significant amount of each purchase to pro-life organizations. You can see who they support here.

Overall it seems to focus on smaller websites, but there's a lot of opportunity to do some good. So go check out Counter Click.

God bless,
Jay

In a case I brought up this weekend, Abdul Rahman was arrested in Afghanistan for converting from Islam to Christianity. However, it was announced yesterday that Mr. Rahman will be released from prison, probably today. I haven't seen a full explanation of why he was released, but I did read earlier that Afghani authorities were suggesting he was "mentally ill" and not fit to stand trial. Perhaps this was the reason. In that same article is a powerful quote:

I am serene. I have full awareness of what I have chosen. If I must die, I will die. Somebody, a long time ago, did it for all of us. - - Abdul Rahman

Now the problem is with Muslim clerics who have called for his murder even if he is released (and probably will so in stronger terms now). What astonishes me is the lack of Muslim clerics calling for moderate Muslims to leave him alone and/or help him escape. If a crazy Christian sect called for a man's murder, we would see dozens of Christian leaders on television explaining why that person was wrong. Where are these moderate leaders?

Let's continue praying for Mr. Rahman's safety as he leaves the country. This publicity could give him a special place to speak directly to Muslims about Christianity and provide a door that most Christians don't have.

God bless,
Jay

Sorry for the sarcasm, but when I read stories like Abdul Rahman it makes me wonder how blind you have to be to miss the incompatibility between the Muslim faith and any other religious belief.

In short, Mr. Rahman, a citizen of Afghanistan, converted from Islam to Christianity, so he was arrested. The courts are deciding whether he should receive the death penalty for leaving Islam. However at least four clerics have publicly stated that Rahman should die even if the courts let him go. Mr. Rahman has rejected any conversion back to Islam in exchange for his life.

This is a clear picture of the state of Christianity and Islam today. If a Christian converts to Islam in a Christian country, he is free to do so. However, Muslims converting to Christianity in Muslim countries are given the death penalty almost immediately. At this point the historical Crusades start making more sense - remember they were a defensive action against Muslim agression no matter what you may have been told.

Much prayer is needed - both for Mr. Rahman and for our world.

One interesting note: Can you imagine the witness of this man who has chosen death over conversion back to Islam? Martyr's blood is the seed of conversion and provides a powerful example for non-believers. He has already said he received numerous requests for Christian Bibles from other Muslims. The publicity of his action underlines the strength of his belief.

God bless,
Jay

Always room for love

This is the byline for a new website No Room for Contraception. It includes several fascinating articles on the problems with contraception and one I really liked: Nature has a Way to Plan Your Family. Contraception was condemned by every Christian church until the 1930's and only the Catholic Church has remained firm. Do you really believe God wanted Christians to use it but couldn't communicate that until 1930? Or is it more likely that we are moving further from Him with the continued shattering of the Christian community?

I have four small girls and I've been asked more than once "Don't you know what causes that?" My answer is always the same, "Yes, love."

God bless,
Jay

In my recent post, Wal-Mart as the World’s Biggest Abortion Provider?, I argued that we should not shop at Wal-Mart because they are selling the Plan B abortion pill (as Fr. Pavone’s conscientious objector). But Kaffinator made a great point in the comments:

Albertsons, Costco, K-Mart, Rite-aid, Safeway, Target, and Walgreens already offer Plan B. You are asking for a boycott on the last major pharmacy chain to have held out against Plan B pills. Are you saying you will boycott all of those stores as well?

Is it even possible to shop when you start banning companies because they sell this pill? And one friend even pointed out that the Birth Control Pill also causes abortions from time to time and virtually every pharmacy sells it (and lots of stores now have pharmacies). So how can we have a clean conscience about where we spend our money?

Well, some people are smarter than others and my friend’s mother called American Life League to get their opinion. They offered a two-part plan that turned out to be exceptionally good advice, so here’s my take on it.

Part A: Think Local
First, start with your local stores. Call the pharmacies of your local Wal-Mart, Costco, and grocery stores. Specifically ask them if they sell the Plan B pill. In my experience, you have to ask very directly and possibly more than once (the pharmacists are not eager to share their moral values with a stranger over the phone). If they don’t, then thank them politely for doing so and let them know you will be shopping there because of it. If they will sell it, let them know that you won’t be shopping at their store until they stop selling it.

But this isn’t enough, it’s important to take it to the next step. Write the store manager and copy the pharmacy and the corporate office to let them know you won’t be shopping at the store until they stop selling the Plan B abortion pill. Once you have a list of the stores that do sell it, write your local newspaper and your congressman. Tell your friends and family as well. In other words, make sure it is publicly known that this store sells the abortion pill (remember most people in the US are against abortion). And explain why contraception and abortion are so bad (also see more information here.

If they don’t sell it, I would recommend writing the corporate office and the manager as well, letting them know you will continue shopping there because of it. This is as important as protesting against the ones that do sell it.

Part B: Think Positive
The second thing to do is positively affirm the companies that do good. In other words, if you’re going to eat fast food, try to choose Chick-fil-a (except on Sunday) or Carl’s, Jr (bad ads, but they do support pro-life causes). If you’re having a beer, choose Coors (they give heavily to pro-life causes). Need to workout? Choose Curves (if you’re female). There are plenty of good companies out there, but it requires some research to find them. Also think locally. Even though we are going to have to shop at Wal-Mart, try to move some of your money to a local farmer’s market or small grocery store. We have a small pharmacy in a town near our home, for example. These small stores are more likely to be run by moral people (you should ask about Plan B, just in case) that don’t have corporate pressure to sell these things. I know there are grocery chains (not public companies) that adhere to a Christian moral outlook.

Tell your friends and family why you support these companies and why you are willing to drive a little further or pay a little more. This is the slow, steady way to win the race.

Conclusion: Shop your Conscience
Why do these companies feel secure in selling something has horrible as the Plan B abortion pill? Because they know most Americans are either too lazy or too cheap to do anything about it. They know we’ll keep shopping even if they sell abortion cheap. It’s time to draw a line in the sand and choose what you are willing to accept. I do believe we will be required to explain why we spent our money (a gift from God) the way we did. Can you spend it freely knowing (or wondering) if the pharmacy 20 feet away is helping to kill babies created by God?

Take action now. It’s almost too late.

God bless,
Jay

The newest Catholic Carnival is now up - be sure to take a few minutes and check it out. As usual, it's a great roundup of Catholic thought throughout the blogosphere.

God bless,
Jay

Watch out, Planned Parenthood, there's a new abortion provider in town and they tend to be the biggest at everything they do: Wal-Mart. The world's largest seller of toys is getting into the abortion business by selling the Plan B abortion pill. And they are proudly proclaiming it on their website (see the link).

One thing that really irks me is the name "emergency contraception" for these pills, which attempts to tie them back to contraceptives rather than abortificients. But make no mistake, these pills achieve only one purpose: the abort the baby after conception. In other words they provide you with a fast, cheap abortion without a doctor. Wal-Mart does like to lower prices on everything, I guess this is just an extension. Maybe no one has explained that this will help to kill future Wal-Mart customers? Maybe the giant seller of third-world sweatshop goods just doesn't care about people. I'm guessing employees (especially those without health insurance) would agree.

I have to admit that up until I read this we spent a good amount of money at Wal-Mart on groceries and other household items. However as of today I won't shop there. Period. I don't support Planned Parenthood and I have no plans to support Wal-Mart as it has now become the cheapest place to get an abortion. Sickening.

God bless,
Jay

PS - I'm sure someone will immediately suggest that these pills do not perform abortions. I'm sorry, but you are incorrect. Plan B causes abortions:

Those who promote "emergency contraception" omit facts and publish inaccuracies and half-truths, depriving women of their right to informed consent. The foremost claim is that ECs do not cause abortion and have "no effect on a pregnancy." To make this claim they have had to redefine "pregnancy" as beginning after an embryo has implanted in the uterine lining, and redefine "abortion" as terminating a "pregnancy." Terminating a human being's life prior to successful implantation is not counted. These word games are designed to obscure what ECs do, and to prevent state abortion regulations from applying to the destruction of embryos' lives by synthetic hormones. They also prevent conscientiously objecting health care personnel–doctors, nurses and pharmacists–from being able to cite state and federal "conscience clauses" on abortion in their own defense.

I must take a moment and applaud the state of South Dakota, which earlier this week banned all abortions in which the mother's life is not in danger. What a heroic move by the politicians of that state! May God bless them tremendously for being the first and taking the heat.

Also, congratulations to those who fought for years to get this passed. May other states follow in the path of South Dakota. It is our obligation to take up this fight in our individual states and save the lives of children who are simply inconvenient or unwanted. Abortion kills babies and - psychological studies show - significantly hurts the mental health of women. South Dakota deserves much praise for taking this courageous stand for life.

A quote from South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds:

In the history of the world, the true test of a civilization is how well people treat the most vulnerable and most helpless in their society. The sponsors and supporters of this bill believe that abortion is wrong because unborn children are the most vulnerable and most helpless persons in our society. I agree with them.

God bless,
Jay

The newest Catholic Carnival is up at Our Word and Welcome To It. It is one of the bigger Carnivals to date, so you're sure to find something of interest in it. Take a moment and check it out - I daresay you'll be surprised if you haven't seen it before.

God bless,
Jay

I recently read Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam which includes a speech and a letter written by then Cardinal Ratzinger, who is now our Pope. In it he gives what I thought was a very insightful analysis of the protestant movement:

Today’s [religious] panorama is quite varied. To do it justice we would have to go well beyond the scope of this short statement. Despite the apparent diversity of the phenomena of state churches, evangelical movements, secularization, and the search for a renewal of the faith, Protestantism as a whole seems to be characterized by a consciousness of its profound intertwining with modern culture. This is both its strength and its weakness, since the fatal tendency to conform to the times – which led Protestantism to the brink of dissolution during the Enlightenment – is alive and well today, as the traditional Protestant churches in the United States demonstrate. Protestantism has thus become, for the most part, a cultural fact: it is somehow still called Protestant, although no longer connected to any particular denomination.
In this regard, the words of the former Prime Minister of France, Lionel Jospin, are telling. He called himself an atheistic Protestant. He characterized his atheism in terms of his Protestant cultural origins. I say this because Protestantism – given its openness toward the modern culture, which it helped mold to a remarkable extent – could appear to be the ideal representative of a civil religion. Yet its current crisis and the deep transformations it has undergone demonstrate that “de-confessionalization” does not automatically produce something that resembles a broad Christianity encompassing other denominations.
Today, in the old confessional churches of Protestantism, there is a steady, disconcerting loss of vitality. Free churches of an evangelical model are being formed that their enemies call “fundamentalist,” but that are nonetheless able to attract thousands of people in search for a solid foundation in their lives. Statistics tell us that the more churches adapt themselves to the standards of secularization, the more followers they lose. They become attractive, instead, when they indicate a solid point of reference and a clear orientation. An ambiguous light is thus cast upon the concept of civil religion: if it is no more than a reflection of the majority’s convictions, then it means little or nothing. If instead it is a source of spiritual strength, then we have to ask what feeds this source.

In my mind when you conform to the times – such as allowing contraception, abortion, divorce and homosexuality – you choose to put God second. In other words, rather than offend people, you ignore Truth. Rather than call people to sacrifice for their beliefs, you choose to maximize something other than God. This is the problem of many protestant churches that are now even changing their worship to accommodate the whims of those who want church without wanting obligation, sacrifice, or change.

God bless,
Jay

The abortion debate is a funny one: every poll suggests that Americans are clearly pro-life, yet the Democrats hold on to their pro-abortion stance as if it's helping them in elections. I wanted to bring up two interesting things. First, the suggestion that Roe vs. Wade is going to become a pyrrhic victory for Democrats. Philip Longman in Foreign Policy magazine (he's liberal):

Meanwhile, single-child families are prone to extinction. A single child replaces one of his or her parents, but not both. Nor do single-child families contribute much to future population. The 17.4 percent of baby boomer women who had only one child account for a mere 7.8 percent of children born in the next generation. By contrast, nearly a quarter of the children of baby boomers descend from the mere 11 percent of baby boomer women who had four or more children. These circumstances are leading to the emergence of a new society whose members will disproportionately be descended from parents who rejected the social tendencies that once made childlessness and small families the norm. These values include an adherence to traditional, patriarchal religion, and a strong identification with one's own folk or nation.

This dynamic helps explain, for example, the gradual drift of American culture away from secular individualism and toward religious fundamentalism. Among states that voted for President George W. Bush in 2004, fertility rates are 12 percent higher than in states that voted for Sen. John Kerry.

James Taranto of Opinion Journal fame has pointed now to numerous studies showing that pro-lifers are rapidly out breeding pro-aborts - and much of this is actually due to abortion. Obviously pro-abortion advocates are much more likely to have an abortion, so they are literally killing the supporters of their cause. Another way of saying this is that children are likely to believe as their parents did and pro-life parents are having several times the children that pro-abortion parents are having. Mr. Longman continues:

The key difference is that during the post-World War II era, nearly all segments of modern societies married and had children. Some had more than others, but the disparity in family size between the religious and the secular was not so large, and childlessness was rare. Today, by contrast, childlessness is common, and even couples who have children typically have just one. Tomorrow's children, therefore, unlike members of the postwar baby boom generation, will be for the most part descendants of a comparatively narrow and culturally conservative segment of society.

To be sure, some members of the rising generation may reject their parents' values, as always happens. But when they look around for fellow secularists and counterculturalists with whom to make common cause, they will find that most of their would-be fellow travelers were quite literally never born.

As if the underline the futulity and error in their message, 55 'Catholic' Democrats give up their faith for politics. This is one of the reasons the Democratic party is on the decline: they have sold their souls to the cause of abortion and can't seem to find their way back. Nothing - not even their faith - is more important than being able to kill unborn children.

Non-Catholics often see this as a bit odd, since there is no specific creed that they must adhere to in order to be a member of their church. But the Catholic Church is clear: you must adhere to the doctrine (or Truth) of the Church in order to be Catholic. To accept abortion is to reject the teaching authority of God's Church and put yourself as a higher authority of Truth. It is to reject your beliefs and choose apostasy over faith. The sad thing is that these 55 men are doing it for something as horrific and unjustified as abortion.

It's an interesting question. At some points in the U.S. we seem to be running into an even worse moral and spiritual situation by the day. And yet we are seeing more and more studies that suggest the pendulum is swinging back towards morality and faith (such as the one above). Which is the correct perception? It's difficult to tell. This is similar to the Catholic connundrum of whether we are headed for a smaller, more faithful Church or whether faithfulness increases the size of the Church. Right now we know that faithful dioceses see many more priests and religious, but do they see fewer members? Something to ponder as we as a nation move forward. And perhaps a glimmer of silver lining in the dark clouds overhead.

God bless,
Jay

Be sure to check out the new Catholic Carnival - this week's theme is naturally Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras has always been a Catholic tradition tied to Lent (when we imitate Christ by fasting and penance for 40 days before Easter). But of course the New Orleans version of Mardi Gras is a secularized (and obscene) version of what Catholics envision. What to understand more? Go visit the Carnival. There's more there.

God bless,
Jay