The Paper It's Written On

I wonder whether it has occured to Bart Stupak and his group of pro-life democrats that in the hours after the announcement of the deal they've brokered with the White House, there is a deafening silence from the left, and especially from the abortionist left (if one need distinguish).  Granted, it has only been a few hours.  NARAL's website makes no mention.  The online stories carried by the MSM make no mention.  Nobody is mentioning the reaction of the abortionists.

I suspect that's because there isn't any.

They know what Bart Stupak and his (I believe sincere) colleagues have allowed themselves not to know.  The abortionists know that the vaunted executive order to clarify how a health-care plan that expressly covers abortion does not in fact do so, if it is ever actually issued, will not be worth the paper it is written on.  With the television cameras off, and they will be off, the President will never get around to it; and the calls from Stupak and his group that he do so will not be heard outside of Congress, or perhaps outside of congressmen's offices, perhaps.  And if the order is actually, in some imaginary world, issued, it can as easily be rescinded.

If any of the above were false - if an executive order carried more weight than legislation, rather than less - the abortionists wouldn't have fought so tenaciously to keep it out of the law, and they wouldn't be so taciturn about the whole thing suddenly.  But wait, I do hear noises, after all: the sound of snickering in sleaves.
I am trying hard not to judge Stupak and his group.  The amount of pressure that they have been receiving has been enormous.  I think it safe to say that the spiritual combat is not yet over.

State Nullification is Back

For those of you who are unaware, there is a constitutional law concept called "state nullification."  What it is, in a nutshell, is the theory that a state has the right, as the source of authority and the basic unit of governance in the United States, to void a federal law within its boundaries.  Nullification was a big deal before the Civil War, especially in the 1830s.  The question was settled by the Civil War.  The federal government's in charge.  That's it.

Until now.

Different theories of nullification have existed from the beginning.  The most plausible one says basically, "Hey, we've got this Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that says:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

So therefore, if a power is not delegated to the federal government, but reserved to the respective states, then if the federal government tries to use that power, a state should have override within its boundaries, because the power is reserved to the state."

Now, with the healthcare reform effort becoming more and more divisive and partisan, and more and more expensive (remember when it was supposed to be budget neutral?), states are fighting back to protect their citizens from this economic trainwreck-in-the-making as best they can.  Read this New York Times article to see how Virginia is leading the way.

So why is this appearing on a blog dedicated to the spiritual life?  Well, simply, because I believe that we are being lied to.  We are (were) being told it will cost nothing, when in reality it will add to the mounting debt that is literally going to enslave our children and grandchildren to foreigners who do not live near them or care about them.  We are being told it will not damage the private sector, but "rein it in."  In reality, it will destroy the insurance industry that has served most of us reasonably well for decades, leaving only government programs to help us - DMV-style and at massive expense.  Further government involvement in private life will further replace family and community bonds of charity, and seemingly absolve those who neglect the need of their family and neighbors.  Lastly, and perhaps most deviously, I believe that the American people is being deliberated manipulated emotionally to make this government expansion possible - they are playing to our real hard feelings about people we've known who've needed treatment and - many times for reasons not actually related to lack of coverage - been unable to get it.  They are offering us a health-panacea.  For materialists, who believe there is nothing beyond this life, health is the highest good, and a panacea is the key to happiness.  They are essentially promising, in so many words, heaven - or a piece of it - on earth.  They are doing so without reference to Christ, our only real hope of real salvation.  The government is proposing itself as a provider, as a caretaker, as a father.  It is setting itself up increasingly over and against Christ.  That's not good.

We need to pray very hard for our country.  We Christians need to lead the way in depoliticizing this issue so that we can look for creative ways to extend our society's immense resources to those who go without basic needs met - ways that will not further empower a massive, inefficient, power-hungry government bureaucracy - ways that will actually address the real problems of real people.

I Think He Means It

Bart Stupak (D-MI) has been saying all along that he and his ten pro-Democrat colleagues will not collaborate with the expansion of Federal funding for abortion. Nor will they vote for any bill that draws Americans into further material collaboration with that monstrous evil.



Coincidentally, Bart Stupak is a former state trooper, and he kinda looks like it, doesn't he? I mention that, because even though he has also practiced law, state troopers don't strike me as the sorta cats that are given to b.s. and clowning around. You hear him talk, and that kinda comes through. When he says that he and his little caucus aren't going to let abortion expand on their watch, I think he means it.

Keep praying, Christians.

DC vs. the Church

The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., announced on Tuesday that it had to close its adoption program
within the District of Columbia.  The decision to do so was made as the only feasible alternative to compliance with an unjust law promulgated by the DC City Council several months back.  The law prohibits discrimination against "married" gay couples in numerous matters, including adoption.  The fact that so many people cannot see the difference between holy matrimony and homosexual unions shows the depravity into which our culture has descended.

The Church in DC has very manfully despised the opinion of the world on this matter, and very maternally cared more for the authentic welfare of her children than for the esteem of reprobates.

It's time to get praying, very, very hard.

Wall Street in Ashes (Lent for Everyone)

Today is Ash Wednesday. Don't forget to go get your ashes!

Here's an article from the Wall Street Journal about Lent and how the lenten principle of disciplined self-sacrifice can be very useful even for unreligious people and for non-Christians.  You would think that such insight wouldn't be rocket science or even newsworthy, but there it is.  I am grateful all the same that a major media outlet sees the sensibility in sensible living.  And I am grateful to Erin Johnson for pointing the article out to me.

The article makes the point that little sacrifices, like a cup of latte, can add up to a lot of savings.  These little things that add up can be the key to getting out of debt and building up substantial savings.  The article doesn't go a step further: that we might give some of the fruit of that savings to the poor, thereby fulfilling another precept of Lent: almsgiving.

Don't forget, during Lent we are called by the Church to deepen our Christian living in three chief areas: prayer, fasting, and giving to the poor.  Each of our Lenten disciplines should be something that is difficult, a challenge for us, but also something that is doable.  It does no good to "blow it" three times a week.  Our disciplines should also be things that are good in themselves and also things that we are allowed to give do.  So that means no prayer routines that interfere with our real duties, and no giving up fornication for Lent, either - don't wait for Lent to give that up!  And no giving up homework, either!  It's an added bonus if our Lenten prayer, fasting, and almsgiving can all interrelate to each other somehow, and a double bonus if we retain them to some extent after Lent.

For example, one might
Prayer: Spend 10 minutes with a daily devotional;
Fast: Abstain from morning latte on the way to work, thereby saving $3 and 10 minutes for prayer;
Give to the Poor: $3/day saved from the morning latte, paid upfront early in Lent if possible, to make sure.

Doesn't sound too dramatic, does it?  Nope.  But what a change a little prayer can make in your day, and how many prayers can be answered by your leftover change!

To help you out, Busted Halo has come up with a Lent Calendar, kindova twist on an Advent Calendar, to help you "get your ash in gear."  American Catholic also has some good resources up, and Catholic.org has a nice article and some good resources, too.  Now seems a good time to re-embed Fr. Tim Naples' video on confession.




Lent is the time for penitence, which we Catholics know entails confession. Let's make this one a good one. But let's remember why we do it. Yesterday at the National Shrine, Msgr. Kevin Irwin preached about the need to do Lent for Jesus, and not as a score-card of holiness or as a self-help program to lose weight or save money. Those all miss the point. We are to learn humility - and that can happen in failure, too, so we shouldn't be discouraged if we accidentally eat that chocolate we gave up. We should just let it remind us how desperately we need God - if giving up chocolate is hard, how hard is resisting the devil's wiles and living in grace til the end of our days!?

An Interesting Article about Vampires and Moral Relativism

Defanged: about how a culture unable to say, "Evil," when it sees evil is a culture that cannot defend itself, from a blog I just encountered for the first time called Hey Miller.  The article basically argues that the media, what Peter Kreeft calls informal educators in his book How to Win the Culture Wars, have for some time been teaching us moral relativism.  In his blog, Miller shows how a number of very successful novels, plays, and movies have been conducting a sly campaign to teach us that right isn't right and that wrong isn't wrong.  They have been doing so by sleight of hand, substituting the psychological complexity of persons for the morality of their acts.

Thanks for the link, Eric.  (For those of you who have never read it, the Daily Eudemon is a genuinely intelligent blog with a variety of topics routinely covered.)

Over THIS?

Pro-Abortion America (NOW, NARAL, etc.) have fought like a bunch of linebackers to keep Tim Tebow's extremist advertisements off the air. Check 'em out; but brace yourself, they'll make even the most resolute pro-lifer grimace.

Lol. Now that you've watched the entirely innocuous ads with Tim Tebow and his mom, are you as perplexed as I am about why the abortionists would try to keep these off the air? Their whoopin' and hollerin' has caused more of a fuss than these ads could ever have done by themselves. It's awesome, really. Normally, we traditionally-minded Christians are the ones who drive up the ratings of our enemy's propaganda. We get all worked up about a nasty movie or play and make all sorts of otherwise unaware bystanders suddenly become very interested. This time, the shoe is on the other foot.

Now, of course the ads aren't exactly innocuous. In fact, even though they say so little, they are deadly poison to the abortion industry. The have two attractive people, who clearly love each other immensely, and one of whom is famous - now even outside of his professional reputation. (In fact, opposition to the ad has probably turned Tim Tebow, at least for now, into a household name.) So why are these ads poison to those people? Because the ads undermine the mentality that makes abortion possible. For decades and decades, America has slowly been buying the lie that most of us know from our own experience isn't true: babies are a burden and it's better not to have them if there's a real chance that its not gonna work out just right. These advertisements remind us of what we all know: not only that nothing in life is guaranteed, but that somehow, with a bit of grit, optimism, friendship, and faith - heck, with just a little of any of hose things - life has a way of turning out OK, unless by OK we mean two kids and a dog and a white picket fence and two nice cars with annual vacations overseas. In that case, our odds narrow somewhat. But if we can roll with the punches just a little, we don't typically have to resort to murder to get things to work out passably. Sometimes, oftentimes, if we have eyes to see, things will turn out far better than we could have planned (not dreamed, but planned) ourselves anyway.

Actually, scratch my metaphor about poison. These ads are ingenious little bits of warm sunlight casting in among fungus that had been hidden in shadows. Just like fungus avoids sunlight, the abortionists avoid truth:

Life is worth living.

That's a LOT

That's how much money the President wants to spend in his budget proposal more than the federal government will be "earning" in tax revenues.  That's right.  That's his proposed additional debt.  And it doesn't appear to count the various emergency appropriations that will be sought midyear for this or that.  After all, one never knows when more rich bankers or unions will need bailing out of their own suicidal greed.

I did some quick math, and that deficit is $5333 per resident in the U.S., give or take.  Since most residents aren't taxpayers (too young, too old, not gainfully employed), it is considerably more per taxpayer.  There were 99,880,223 taxpayers in the US in 2005, which is close enough to now, meaning that the president is asking us each to borrow approximately $16000 more.  Again.

So much for reducing the deficit.  Does this strike anybody else as insane and immoral?  Who will have the courage to tell these lunatics that enough is enough?!

Keep Your Eyes Open

You may not have heard, but Haiti was struck today by an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale.  That's the same as the earthquake that beat San Francisco down in 1986.  Only Haiti is poor, very poor, and hasn't got a very stable government, and hasn't got a broad tax base.  The quake hit very close to the capital, Port-Au-Prince, so many houses and hospitals designed to withstand storms, but not shaking, have collapsed into piles of rubble.  Catholic Relief Services is estimating that thousands will be found only after they are dead.

The people there are going to need some help getting themselves back up on their feet again. Keep a look out for ways to help. I recommend Catholic Relief Services (which has, as far as I know, had nothing like the scandals attached to the CCHD lately) or Food for the Poor.  Don't forget to pray for the Haitians, while you are at it.

More Beating of Drums for Death...

Montana's high court rang in the New Year by ruling that it's OK to murder sick and, presumably, very old people.  Oh, wait - that's right, it's to be called mercy killing or assisted suicide or death with dignity or some such nonsense.  The court affirmed a lower court's December 6 ruling to the same extent.

Why Montana?

Hmmm... cash-strapped state... aging population...  Well, I suppose it doesn't matter why Montana, because the whole country is headed in that direction.  It will be a perfect storm - a trifecta of previously unlikely scenarios inevitably colliding:

1. Economic pressure from our incomprehensible national debt;
2. Demographic pressure of our aging baby-boomers who are now beginning to retire in earnest;
3. Foreign pressure from our Chinese debt-masters to impose the same sort of draconian measures that we impose upon our debtor nations.

When these three factors coincide - and they will - we are gonna start gassing 'boomers like you can't believe.  Mark my words; this prediction takes no great foresight, only commonsense.  We've long since been solving our unborn problems by killing them in the privacy of the womb; now Montana's court, the first such state high court ruling in the land, says that privacy protects the "right to kill granny."  They didn't call it that, but will the aged infirm or the sick have much more voice than those in the womb?

Christians, let's resolve in 2010 to pray harder.

The Slaughter of the Innocents Goes On...

Today, Monday 28 December 2009, is the feast of the Holy Innocents, those children slaughtered by Herod (Mt 2:16) in his demented plot to destroy the Christ Child, thereby winning the notorious distinction of being the first manifestation of anti-Christ in history.  The Church recognizes his little victims as something like martyrs, even donning red on their feast day in honor of their blood.  They did not voluntarily give their lives rather than deny Christ, yet their innocence poured out still bears witness to His.

In our times, anti-Christ has been powerfully active in many modern regimes.  The Nazis and the Soviets were both explicitly anti-Christian.  They were defeated, but we must not lull ourselves into thinking that anti-Christ was, or even that his plan was delayed.  The Evil One is crafty beyond our reckoning.  I believe that part of his plan was to discredit evil itself - he has done this by psychologizing sins into mere neuroses on the one hand, and by making us think that a plan or idea cannot be evil unless it is proposed by a short man with a funny mustachio and a German accent.  We are mistaken if we believe either of those two lies.  Sin is sin, and we are all guilty of it.  Some sins are small, and others are immense.  We must use our meager powers and whatever grace God gives us to resist it all.  We cannot compromise with it, and must realize that the Enemy always tries to sell us sin by bundling it with genuine goods, because only a lunatic would pick sin otherwise.  So intimacy and pleasure, both good, are used to sell adultery; adventure and profit, both good, are used to convince people to burgle or rob.

Now health care is being used to push abortion.  Make no mistake - unless the law specifically forbids the funding of abortion, it will be slipped in as one more entitlement.  If the developers of the health care proposals under consideration did not want abortions to be funded directly or with subsidies, they would include prohibitive provisions in their bills.  And I can think of no better way - nor can Uncle Sam - to encourage something, other than to pay for it.
Please pray for Bart Stupak (D-MI) and the group he is rousing to resist this atrocity, this holocaust to Moloch. Rumor has it that he and his group are already being brought under tremendous pressure from the highest levels.

Fellow Americans, we are capable of helping each other out without paying to kill each other's babies.  America, we can do better than abortion!

The War in the House

Leaders among pro-life Democrats in the House of Representatives include Bart Stupak, Tim Holden, Kathy  Dahlkemper, James Oberstar, Dan Boren, Gene Taylor, and Jim Marshall.  Of these, only one (Dan Boren) is non-Catholic.  We've all heard about how many of the leaders of the pro-abortion lobby in the House describe themselves as "Catholic."

This is huge.  It means, as far as I can tell, that what we are witnessing unfolding is not a battle between Democrats and Republicans over abortion or abortion-funding.  We are witnessing a battle among Catholics, with the United States House of Representatives as the battlefield, and government-funded abortion as the current strategic target.  This is huge.  It may be apocalyptic in the truest sense of the word.

The Greek word apocalypsis means "unveiling" and is translated into Latin as revelatio, from which we get the word "revelation."  The Book of Revelation, by prophesying about events at the end of the time, ought to expose us to ourselves.  It ought to make us stop and think, "Say, what side am I on?  Have I really given it over to Christ?  Or do I just want to feel good about myself by calling myself a Christian?"  We are seeing such a revelatory conflict now in our legislature.  It is to some degree a microcosm of America, where the same conflict as a whole is underway.  It is easy to call oneself Catholic and to play that card whenever convenient, as a sort of credential about having roots or deeper values or something.  It is a lot more difficult to actually sink roots and stand for something, like, say Jesus Christ.  It might sound revolutionary, I know, or radical, or even revolting, but that's what I thought "Catholic" meant.

Now we are seeing in our legislature and in our society as a whole who has actually believed that, and who has only used that popular belief to their own personal gain.

Again, no need to worry.  This stuff is all over the gospels and epistles.  Jesus himself told us that these things would happen so that when they did, our faith in Him would be deepened rather than shaken.  Let's keep praying, doing what we can, and trusting in Him.

Will Stupak Strike Again?

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) has said that he finds the Senate's "pro-life" amendment to be unacceptable. Some people are hoping he'll lead a sally of House Democrats to kill Obamacare when the reconciliation committee is done building its Frankenstein from the House and Senate bills.

I am not too worried about Obamacare passing - at least, not worried enough to go on a crusade about it. I think it will be a catastrophic mistake, but merely a economic-political one, that is, a merely this-worldly mistake. It will be a secular mistake rammed down the throats of Americans by a secularist minority. That's bad, but it's also nothing new. Entitlements are created, entitlements can be eliminated or privatized - look at welfare reform.

It's abortion that's the problem. Funding abortion, subsidizing abortion, paying for other things so that people have leftover money to buy abortions - it's all just one big encouragement, especially for the poor and vulnerable - to murder their babies and to lose their souls. Lost lives are never reclaimed, and alas, too many lost souls go unredeemed. We Christians cannot sit by idly and chatter aimlessly about such things.

I do not hope that Stupak will kill Obamacare, though that would be nice because our country is teetering on the edge of economic ruin - and I don't mean the recession - I mean the colossal debt we've racked up. I DO hope that Stupak will be willing and able to kill Obamacare, and will do so, rather than let it finance the slaughter of innocents.

We need to pray for Rep. Stupak, a fellow Catholic who is faithful to the teachings of the Church, and also for those Democrats especially that are aligned with him.  He will certainly come under intense pressure from the unscrupulous faux Catholics that run the House.

Does THIS Bother Anyone?

Do you know what this number is?

Don't look to see what this link is about before you click it. Just trust me and click here and watch it for four or five minutes.  We need to pray very, very hard for our country.  We Christians need to lead the way in learning to live a life of disciple and self-sacrifice if we are going to get ourselves out of this mess in a morally legitimate way.

The Anchoress and the President

First Things has on its website a blogger who goes by the moniker, "The Anchoress."  She is very lucid and recently wrote a post that is mind-blowing.  Her language is simple, straightforward, and so elegant.  Her theme important.  Her thesis correct, I believe.  And she provides excellent guidance for understanding President Obama and what we are to do about him, as Christians; at least, part of what we are to do about him.

Here it is.

Strategies for a Pro-Life America

Here's the beginning of a paper that I recently wrote about the general approach of our bishops to overturning Roe v. Wade and creating a culture of life:

In January of 2008, Georgia Catholic Bishops Kevin Boland and Wilton Gregory announced that they would not lend their support to the Georgia state human life amendment that many pro-life leaders were pushing. Why would two Catholic bishops refuse to back a bill that sought to defend life from the moment of conception? In order to understand the pro-life position today and the various strategies that are promoted in the movement, it is first necessary to review the impact of Roe v. Wade. This paper will first review the Court’s decision in Roe and analyze the past pro-life strategies for overturning it. It will investigate the two predominant “camps”—those who seek state constitutional amendments and those who favor an “incrementalist” approach—and detail how each envisions bringing about a pro-life legal system and culture. Lastly, the brunt of this paper will evaluate the state human life amendment approach and show how it is fraught with theological, philosophical, legal, and political
misunderstandings.

Click here to read the rest of the paper...

More on the Manhattan Declaration

Click here to download the entire Manhattan Declaration.

The Manhattan Declaration on Religious Liberty

Today at noon at the National Press Club, a coalition of about 150 leaders of the Christian community in the United States have issued a statement called the Manhattan Declaration. In the statement, numerous Catholic and Orthodox bishops and seminary rectors, Evangelical and Protestant ministers, and other Christians involved in culture, politics, and public life have all vowed that they will not budge one inch on traditional morality pertaining to abortion and marriage; they have insisted upon the primacy of religious liberty in public life. The statement is truly inspiring.

The Manhattan Declaration can be found here, on the website First Things. Additionally, a website has been established called www.ManhattanDeclaration.org, with a place for visitors to sign onto the declaration alongside Archbishop Donald Wuerl, Chuck Colson, Marjorie Dannenfelser, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, Fr. Joseph D. Fessio, Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola, and a host of others. Unfortunately, right now the link is having trouble and redirects to Chuck Colson's website, which is still an interesting read.

What's monumental about this is the strength and courage of the statement and its ecumenical breadth.  It is a clarion call to the nation's Christians - 80% of America.  With 60% of Americans saying that religion is important in their lives, this statement should be something of a wakeup call against the militant atheism that, in the name of maintaining a secular government (and secular it should be), is attempting to secularize the entire nation, and to bully anyone who objects or refuses to play along.

Here are some more articles related to it: from the Catholic News Agency and another about the Declaration's special place in current DC local politics.

Especially as we approach the Solemnity of Christ the King, this weekend, it behooves us to remember that nothing Caesar or his cohort can say or do has any authority over us except inasmuch as it aligns with the Law of God.  No matter who is president, no matter what lobby gets whatever law passed, Jesus Christ is Lord!

What's Caesar Got Behind His Back?

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is hiding some data behind its back. Rather, it's hiding the data from the public. Our policymakers are given access to it, but we, the policymakers' bosses, are to be kept from seeing it.  It seems the CDC is recommending that the Federal government put the kabosh on abstinence-only sex education because their stats on its effectiveness are "inconsistent." 

Perhaps the results are inconsistent with their ideology.  The fact that "comprehensive risk reduction" approaches, ones that favor the use of prophylactic measures, show "limited direct evidence of effectiveness," doesn't seem to stop them from recommending those approaches.

It is telling that there will be no public scrutiny of the data until after public policy is set.  So much for transparency in government.

Our cultural powers are making ceaseless war upon the ways of life developed over eighteen or nineteen hundred years.  They feel Christianity responsible for the misery they experience in lives evacuated of meaning by the expulsion of God.  The economic powers that be are funding this war in order to enrich themselves.  Christians, it is our job, to show the beauty of the Christian way of living by our conduct of life.  While doing what we can to advance the Christian vision, we must brace ourselves for the likelihood that our triumph will not follow obvious victory, but apparent defeat.  Look to a crucifix for a role model.

To Our Nation's Servicemen and -Women

Dear Sir or Madam:

I have never served our country under arms.  I have never endured the rigors of basic training or the deprivation of the campaign.  I have never been away to a foreign for many months or years.  I have never been shot at or shelled.  I have never been put on alert, standby, or shipped away from my family.  I have never been maimed.  I have never been killed, or seen my best friend killed.

You have done all these things for the rest of us, so that we might enjoy a land of peace, where people are ruled by laws, rather than by tyrants, so that we may build a culture of civility and opportunity.  Because of your heroic conduct and generous hearts filled with a willingness to sacrifice, we have a country that is the envy of the world, and in a good way.  Foreign nations might detest our nation for any number of reasons, but not for the conduct of our soldiers abroad, which, with very few exceptions, has been exemplary and a source of national pride.  When the odd bad seed has caused problems, the rest of you have nobly stepped up your own service to stand in the breach and to restore our national honor.

I read an account of a Muslim woman in the Middle East who converted to become a Christian at great personal risk.  She was inspired by you, good soldiers, because of your conduct: after a battle, you care even for the enemy wounded, and treat the bodies of their fallen with respect and dignity.  You do not seek to heap catastrophe upon the enemy, but use your prowess in battle to minimize the number who must perish.  You do not demand sacrifice of others, but sacrifice yourself, very much as our Lord willed to do.  You give chocolate bars to children, and play sports even with the sons of your fallen enemies.

You are inspirations and role models to us all.

May God bless you and keep America from ever ceasing to be grateful for you.  For what it is worth, you have my thanks.

Yours Gratefully,
Ryan Haber
Kensington, Maryland