Dis-Beliefnet

I ran across more garbage about how we should all embrace intrinsic evil so we can get discounted prescription drugs and a tax break. Since so many people (including so called Catholic scholars) still seem confused on this issue, I'll put this in terms that liberals can understand:

Calling yourself Catholic and pro-life and then supporting the rights of unborn children by voting for Obama is like calling yourself a vegan PETA member and supporting animal rights by sponsoring an all you can eat pork BBQ charity dinner and a dog fighting contest with a fur coat door prize. Proceeds go to protecting the rights of swine, pit bulls and chinchillas.

Absurd articles like this are metastasizing like stage 5 cancer. It's so bad that I am now becoming more worried about the Catholic Church losing its identity in America than I am about the election or the economy. The Catholic Church is truly under attack. If you think I'm overreacting, let me give you another example.

The following video was put out by a group calling themselves "Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good"



Doesn't really seem all that threatening until you realize that a large portion of the funding for the video came from George Soros. Do you think Bobby Jindal knows that this site is using his image (among all the others) to add legitimacy to an anti-Catholic position in support of Obama? Can he sue over this? Let's take a closer look at the video.

First of all, the pretty background music is John Lennon's atheist anthem, "Imagine". As in, "Imagine there's no heaven" and "Imagine there's no religion". I guess they wanted it to sound more acceptable so they had it chanted by fake monks.

Second, the anti-abortion protesters at the beginning of the video are referred to as, "Them." Them??? Really??? Wouldn't the correct term be, "Us"?

Now I admit that these first two issues may seem a bit trivial, but they definitely set the tone. The bigger problem is that when you follow the link at the end of the video, you will be bombarded with a pile of liberal talking points attempting to convince you that right to life issues should take a back seat to social issues in this election. That is not a Catholic message. That is a liberal message.

The positions taken by these people are not at all Catholic positions and I question whether any of the people involved with this group are even Catholic. There seems to be a deliberate attempt on the part of far left liberals to subvert the very definition of Catholicism away from the Church. What is worse is that there are people within the clergy who are sympathetic to this position. All of this manufactured controversy gives the appearance of legitimacy to these liberal positions and provides an excuse for cafeteria Catholics to vote for intrinsic evil.

Presidential election not withstanding, I think we are rapidly coming to a point in this debacle where Nicholas P. Cafardi, M. Cathleen Kaveny, Douglas W. Kmiec, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden and many others need to be told in no uncertain terms that they are not in communion with Catholic teaching on this issue. Given the fact that several clergy members (including B16) have already established the primacy of right to life issues on numerous occasions, I think the Church's only remaining recourse is to excommunicate the people mentioned above at the rate of one each week, starting with Nancy Pelosi since she has already been reprimanded by name by the USCCB and remains unrepentant to this day. I realize how extreme this sounds, but I see no other way for the Church to demonstrate its authority on the matter and regain control of a situation that is now spinning out of control and will continue to do so long after this election if it is not dealt with swiftly.

Ash Wednesday Watch

Unfortunately I'm a little late with this one but better late than never. I've found the perfect watch for Ash Wednesday (and the rest of Lent actually). Mr. Jones Watches has come up with a novel way of reminding us of our own mortality. They offer several interesting variations on this theme.

P.S. - It would also make a good gift for many Catholic politicians (Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, etc.) if you happen to have one on your Christmas list.

Are You a Catholic Democrat?

If you are a Catholic Democrat, you might be interested to know what kind of company you are keeping. I ran across this article by Bill Roth on the Catholic Democrats website. Highlights and my comments:

"The abortion rate is roughly equivalent to what it was in 1973, and many religious people have been duped into thinking that one party is in favor of abortion and the other is opposed to it."

FALSE! According to the Guttmacher Institute (a pro-abortion entity) the abortion rate is NOT roughly equivalent to what it was in 1973. There were 16.3 abortions per 1000 women in the US in 1973. By 1981, that number had skyrocketed to 29.4 per 1000 (almost double). In 2005 the number was down to 19.4 per 1000. 19.4 is not roughly equivalent to 16.3, especially when counting human lives.

With regard to being "duped", one party IS in favor of abortion and the other IS opposed to it (with few individual exceptions).

"Pro-Choice" is not the appropriate term either, because "The Choice" will happen whether or not this "Choice" is legal."

What kind of an argument is that? Are you trying to say that you can't legislate morality? OK. Agreed. Should we now abandon all forms of civil society and embrace anarchy because some people will still "choose" to do the wrong thing? Are laws pointless and futile in this regard? I think not. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important." I'm inclined to believe that if unborn children had a voice in the matter they would feel the same way.

Notwithstanding any statistics or flawed philosophical views, abortion is the murder of an unborn child and that is simply and intolerably wrong! Why any self proclaimed Catholic would go to such great lengths to obfuscate an issue that is so clear and so important is beyond my comprehension. What is going on in that head of your's Mr. Roth?