The three types of men who support abortion

The other day I read perhaps the best article on abortion that I've ever read, and I started looking through the combox. There was one man, John, who seemed to be making the bulk of the pro-"choice" arguments, and so, like many others there, I engaged him.

He and I went back and forth a bit, but a red flag came up for me when the answers to very simple questions were met with multiple long and (seemingly) lofty philosophical treatises, metaphysics trumping science (the old "personhood" question), a limited understanding of history, and analogies that didn't make logical connections and/or proper distinctions. I tried to pull him back to basics, attempting a pseudo-socratic dialogue, but his words and paragraphs -- and justifications -- kept multiplying.

John insisted that his arguments for the killing of the unborn are based on "nuanced" considerations about which he has given much thought. And don't get me wrong, I am sure that he has indeed given a lot of thought to how he and society can justify abortion.

But as his academic theories, word play, and relativism reached higher and higher into the ethers, I came back with this:

Don't whitewash what you believe. Own it. Don't multiply words to justify it. Own it. You believe that an entire class of human beings may be killed at will by the stronger and more powerful. There is hardly a more fitting description of oppression. When the strong kill the weak, and champion it, it is most dishonorable. As a woman, it's the most disturbing thing in the world to find men such as yourself, who instead of protecting and providing, join the cads and the players who love nothing more than to help women get rid of their "mistakes." 

I hope you will be an honorable man one day and protect the weak, not champion their killing. We have a crisis of manhood in America, and a strong, honorable, decent man is hard to find these days. Step up to your role, John.

His response was to quickly wave away my challenge ("One person's strong, honorable, and decent man is another's trash," he said, whatever that means), and return to the ethers of philosophy and why he has decided that some humans are less human than others.

Which brings me to my thoughts today. What follows is pretty much a stream-of-consciousness in which I attempt my own amateur (!) psychoanalysis of men who support abortion.

As I see it, there are three general types of male abortion supporters.


1. The Ignorant Apathetic

The ignorant and/or apathetic man supports abortion for no other reason than it's legal and it's what we have done in America for some 40+ years. "Sure, I support a woman's right to choose." And that's it. Not much thought goes into it, not much investment one way or the other. Just your typical man in the mushy-middle of morality and policy, a ball bearing who goes with the tilt of the culture.


2. The Lech (otherwise known as the cad, the reprobate, the rake, the libertine, the debaucher...)

The lecherous man supports abortion for obvious reasons: He uses women as objects for his own selfish pleasure, eschews any responsibility for her heart or her human dignity, and needs abortion to be readily available in case the baby-making act makes a baby. The lech demands consequence-free sex, and he must have freedom to use and abuse at will, with no respect for life, love, honor, or moral obligation. Abortion is a necessary "good" in his life, and he will vociferously defend its legality and accessibility.


3. The Man Trained Against Manhood

This man, in my humble opinion, is the saddest case. I believe this man is exemplified by Barack Obama. Stay with me.

I've often wondered why Obama, who is generally such a weak and unmanly man, would be so fierce, unyielding, and completely committed to abortion (even voting to let a child die who survives abortion). Why? How could this be? But it's a phenomenon that makes sense if we consider his background.

Obama was raised by a radical-leftist-secular-feminist-socialist mother. His father wanted nothing to do with little Barack, essentially abandoning him, and became simply a myth and a longing in young Barack's life and dreams. It's actually incredibly tragic to ponder, truly heartbreaking.

So, this fatherless boy was not raised to know what it means to be a strong man who stays, protects, provides. He had no idea, and in fact the opposite was modeled to him by his absent, negligent father. Meantime, he had his strong, outspoken, and deeply committed feminist mother who taught him what a "man" should be, according to her radical template. Obama himself has described his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, as "the dominant figure in my formative years.... The values she taught me continue to be my touchstone when it comes to how I go about the world of politics." He called her "a lonely witness for secular humanism."

Not surprisingly, he grew up and married another strong radical feminist, Michelle Robinson. Both these women were and are the dominant forces his life, and they no doubt pounded it home to him that women have an absolute right to abortion. I'd be surprised if Barack Obama has ever had a true friendship with a strong pro-life woman, or even meaningful interaction with one. But the message he received time and again, from all the women in his life -- the woman that raised and formed him, the woman that married him, and even the radical women he hung out with at Columbia and later in politics -- goes like this: "You men have no right to tell us women what to do with our bodies. We have a right to abortion on demand and without apology. You are either with us on this most basic of freedoms, or you are a misogynist brute oppressor."

What is a fatherless, lonely, ungrounded boy/man to do? I can hardly blame men like this, because at least for a time, they simply don't know any better. They defer to the women they love regarding "women's issues" and "women's bodies" and "justice for women", because they really believe it's not their place to speak. These men really believe that this is how one "supports" women.

They don't know that millions and millions of women do not believe that our liberation, success, and joy hinges on a contrived death match between mother and child.

They don't know that legions of strong, outspoken, intelligent women (including the classical feminists) do not accept that the "right" to shred and dismember our own offspring is essential to being "a fully participating member of society".

They don't realize that inherent in honorable manhood is the loving protection of the most weak and vulnerable.

I can only speculate that it's because they have rarely seen an honorable man up close. Maybe they haven't had a role model of a man who sacrifices his life for others, keeps his commitments, and steps up to defend and protect women and children.

But at base, this type of man champions abortion because he believes that's what he's supposed to do to show that he cares about women. His manhood is deeply impoverished, for sure, and it's been trained out of him, and I feel most sorry for this kind of man.


So there you have it. My thoughts for this day. Take them or leave them.

But women, we have a huge role here in supporting our men. We must continue to impress upon the men in our lives (and online, frankly) that real men, honorable men, are those who step up and protect the weak and the vulnerable, not try to find pseudo-intellectual loopholes to strip human rights from a whole class of defenseless human beings. We must impress upon them that they are hard-wired for this task, and that we women want them to be good men.

John from the combox, I don't know what shaped your views on abortion, but I want you to be a good, strong man. We women are cheering you on. You were made for this challenge. Live up to it, my friend. We need you.

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What Obama forgot to mention in his welcome to Pope Francis!

Forgive me, I promised not to be negative, but then I woke up to this.

A welcoming speech by the President (well, by his speechwriter) that made me choke a little.

I thought I'd take a few excerpts of the speech and add some words that Obama surely inadvertently omitted (in red, with links to evidence provided)...

Photo: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

...all Americans, from every background and of every faith, value the role that the Catholic Church plays in strengthening America. From my time working in impoverished neighborhoods with the Catholic Church in Chicago to my travels as president, I’ve seen firsthand how, every day, Catholic communities, priests, nuns and laity feed the hungry, heal the sick, shelter the homeless, educate our children and fortify the faith that sustains so many.

[Aaaand....I am suing the Little Sisters of the Poor, all the way up to the Supreme Court, demanding that they either violate their religious vows or face crushing fines and ruin.]

What is true in America is true around the world. From the busy streets of Buenos Aires to remote villages in Kenya, Catholic organizations serve the poor, minister to prisoners, build schools and homes, and operate orphanages and hospitals. And just as the Church has stood with those struggling to break the chains of poverty, it has given voice and hope to those seeking to break the chains of violence and oppression.

[Except for the thousands of victims of sex trafficking that the Catholic Church was most effective in helping over many years. My administration pulled all federal funding for those programs because the Church would not violate her sacred tenets by providing contraception and abortion advocacy and services.]

You call on all of us, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, to put the “least of these” at the center of our concern. You remind us that in the eyes of God our measure as individuals, and as societies, is not determined by wealth or power or station or celebrity, but by how well we hew to Scripture’s call to lift up the poor and the marginalized, to stand up for justice and against inequality, and to ensure that every human being is able to live in dignity – because we are all made in the image of God.

[Well, "all" except for millions upon millions upon millions of human beings against whom I advocate with vigor. I am hugely thrilled to consistently and unashamedly promote and ensure the killing of unborn human beings, and even the newly-born if they survive an attempt on their life, in the name of what I hold most sacred -- abortion.]

You remind us that “the Lord’s most powerful message” is mercy. That means welcoming the stranger with empathy and a truly open heart – from the refugee who flees war-torn lands to the immigrant who leaves home in search of a better life. It means showing compassion and love for the marginalized and the outcast, those who have suffered and those who seek redemption.

[Oh, except for the increasingly desperate and specifically Christian refugees who are the victims of an ongoing genocide in the Middle East. Those folks I will not welcome.]

You remind us that people are only truly free when they can practice their faith freely. Here in the United States, we cherish religious liberty. Yet around the world at this very moment, children of God, including Christians, are targeted and even killed because of their faith. Believers are prevented from gathering at their places of worship. The faithful are imprisoned. Churches are destroyed. So we stand with you in defense of religious freedom and interfaith dialogue, knowing that people everywhere must be able to live out their faith free from fear and intimidation.

[Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Whee-boy, that is funny!! Whoops, sorry, back to my speech, and watching carefully for bolts of lightning....]

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Well, you get the picture. I'm trying to be less of a cynic, but when I wake up to this load of bunk, it's hard!

And I didn't even go into how Obama's administration decried Catholics in Poland as dangerous bigots for opposing gay "marriage"! But let's just pretend that Obama is a friend of the Church.

God bless the Holy Father! May his very presence bless our troubled land!

Jonathan Gruber and abuse of power

I'm getting political because this is about morality. This touches on sins that, according to Catholic tradition and Scripture, "cry out to heaven for vengeance": oppression of the poor and defrauding the worker of his just wages. Not to mention a violation of the Eighth Commandment against bearing false witness. 

This man, this Professor Jonathan Gruber of MIT, this elite, arrogant academic who called the American people stupid time and again (watch the video), happily pocketed a cool six million of those taxpayers' dollars (suckers!) while admitting to deceiving and manipulating the public in order to force through Obamacare (watch the video), a scheme that has cost many working folks their health care plans and has raised premiums and deductibles through the roof. 

I repeat: For the privilege of perpetuating a massive fraud about which he openly brags, Gruber was paid $6 million dollars. Take a look:

The question isn't Why does Jonathan Gruber still have a job at MIT? (though it's a good question), but why is he still walking around free?

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Government has unlimited power and resources, which is why it is infinitely more dangerous than any corporation. Gruber is untouched because this was government work, and the most powerful people in the nation were totally on board with what he did (even if they now conveniently deny knowing the chap, which is laughable in this age of video proof). 

Corrupt government, unlike corrupt business, is almost never accountable. If one or more executives in the private sector had been caught committing such massive and systematic fraud while raking in millions, we know what would happen and how the press would be all over it. Think Enron and Bernie Madoff for starters. 

I guess my question is for those who have supported Obama and Obamacare. What do you think of this? What do you believe about the morality here? Do you believe, as Gruber stated, that the ends justify the means? That lying and scheming and obfuscating are necessary to get to the "good outcome" that will bring about wonderful things?

One of the reasons I write this blog is that I want a record for my children and grandchildren. When the world has gone haywire (and when hasn't it, really?), I want a written account of what I believed and why. This scandal is an injustice and I will use my very small voice to speak against it. I am on the record.

I am very much interested in the reactions of my readers, and especially those on the left. 

Quick Takes, including the jarring picture that went viral

1) She was twenty weeks pregnant with twin girls when her picture was taken outside an abortion clinic last week, just moments before she went in to abort them. She already had daughters and didn't want more:

Wednesday is late term abortion day at Orlando Women’s Center 

Kelly Clinger, the young women who posted the picture and wrote about the reality of late-term abortion in America, got a massive response that she did not expect. Some folks accused her of perpetuating a hoax, others understood that actual babies were being killed and didn't care, but most told her that the picture opened their eyes to the realities of abortion in America:

A picture is worth a million pageviews: the photo that went viral beyond my wildest imagination

Really, there are no words to describe the sorrow that we should feel as a nation when we see this. We allow this.

It's the banality of evil. Lord, have mercy on us.


2) Like so many others, I was distressed when I learned that Cardinal Dolan had invited Obama to the annual Al Smith dinner. I still wish he hadn't. However, the following picture and story, about the Cardinal's poignant 2010 encounter with Helen Gurley Brown (recently deceased) helped remind me of just who the Cardinal is, and where his heart lies.

photo credit: Cardinal Hayes High School

...Ms. Brown tried to walk forward to greet him, but she started tottering. Archbishop Dolan spotted her and jogged up the steps to help. Meanwhile, the school’s marching band burst into the Cardinal Hayes marching song, inspiring the archbishop to take Ms. Brown in his arms and twirl her around. 

The dancing lasted only for a minute or so, Mr. Meenan said, but he will not soon forget the image of the bearlike archbishop squiring Ms. Brown. He wore his black bishop’s garment and a pink cap; she wore a drop-waist dress, black fur and lace-topped stockings. 

“Everybody’s clapping, everybody’s amazed,” he said….

Read it all, here.

The warm compassion and agape love expressed in the Cardinal's actions -- for a woman who was so misguided, so lost, in so many ways an enemy of the Church, a peddler of so much evil during her own life -- speaks straight to my soul. It reminds me of Jesus' breathtaking encounter with the woman at the well (John 4:7-42; check the seventh recommendation, here), and that the Lord's mercy is without limit.

We don't know Ms. Brown's ultimate fate, nor if she repented before her last breath, but there is something so comforting about Cardinal Dolan's tender outreach to a woman who was known as one of the Architects of the Culture of Death…. It gives me hope for my own wretched soul.

Thank you, Cardinal Dolan.


3) Speaking of "enemies of the Church", I know I am not alone in my mix of emotions about Barack Obama, who is the most aggressively anti-Catholic president we've ever had, his policies endangering our charities, our private businesses, our freedoms, and our souls. It's hard to know what to do and what to think, as it's all come about so quickly. We want to fight his policies (and we must!) but we want to follow the Lord's command to love our enemies, as well. If you are looking for guidance in how to reconcile those tensions, please read this:

On Enemies of the Church

It helped me immeasurably.


4) Speaking of the all-important "fighting his policies", my husband and I are eager to see the movie, 2016 -- Obama's America, tonight:



I hope you all would consider seeing it as well, and make it a great opening weekend.


5) Two of the best memes I've seen this week:

I use this to justify my big fat mouth. And, I adore strong women like St. Catherine.

Jesus is the Bridegroom, the Church is His bride. We are the Church. I could drown in this picture. 

6) How's this for a brain twister? All of these guys below are ardently pro-"choice", but there's something basic and objective that they can't seem to reconcile amongst themselves.

First, we have Canadian medical professionals (yes, doctors, who presumably took biology classes!) who put ideology ahead of elementary scientific facts by declaring that babies are not human beings until after birth! Yes, I'm not kidding! How embarrassing! They are men of science and medicine and they are lying about basic biology in order to push abortion rights? Oy, vey, seriously, how are they not humiliated? Where is their integrity? Look for yourselves:

Canadian Medical Association: Babies not human until after birth

And then we have the world's premiere bioethicist Peter Singer who, although cool with infanticide and bestiality, at least seems to remember Biology 101, unlike the Canadian doctors:

‘Just being human doesn’t give you a right to live’: Peter Singer sums up pro-abortion philosophy

Singer still approves the killing of the unborn, of course, but to his credit he doesn't deny the obvious: that the unborn are, objectively and without scientific dispute, human beings.

How do pro-"choicers" reading this reconcile the two contradictory views? And how can anyone with a basic science background not be embarrassed for the Canadian doctors?


7) Without exception, every human being's life is inviolable and precious, these orphans included…

Ivan, sweet Ivan:

Ivan is a bright child, with a favorable prognosis if he gets his surgery in time!

He is a bright-eyed three-year-old boy who is running out of time to get life-saving surgery on his skull. In America, he would have had the surgery long ago and been out of danger. But unless he gets a family soon, his condition will become dire.

Check out how adorable Ivan is in this video (that's him at around 38 seconds, and there's a little longer clip just after the two minute mark):

For my full Orphan Report blog post on Ivan, please go here.

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And then there is sweet Marla, who has been overlooked her whole life, for the crime of having cerebral palsy:

Five years old and soon to be transferred to an adult mental institution. :(

Marla is a loving little girl who needs a family to help her blossom! Please read my full Orphan Report on Marla, here, to learn more about her, including ways to help this precious child of God.

Please, please, spread the word to others. I see it all the time: It only takes one person to see one photo, and just like that a life is saved.

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I am so thrilled to announce that the facebook auction for Andrew (my Achilles' Heel) is on!! His new family has begun the expensive process to get to him, and our own Brenda has put the entire auction together for them! There are over 134 items so far, and it runs for a week; click here to see all the goods!

Here's just a teeny sampling of the treasures you'll find there:

Made to order! You decide the color and number of eggs in the nest!

Personalized pregnancy loss/infant loss/pro-life rosary. The beads are soft pink (dyed stone) with Swarovski pearl accents. Your choice of other designs if you prefer a different theme.

Beautiful, 3-D wooden Noah's Ark puzzle, made in Morocco!

Swarovski Crystal Covenant Cube Rainbow Bracelet

Plus, gift cards, children's clothing, crafts, home decorations, lip balms and lotions -- and a zillion other things! Go look, now!!



Well, that's all for this Quick Takes! I hope you all have a great weekend! I know I will, as my husband and I are going to a concert, courtesy of our children who got us the most awesome anniversary gift (although I think I am more excited than my hubby):

Yes, Air Supply!! Oh c'mon you ladies of a certain age! You know you're jealous!

Thanks to Jen for hosting!

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What happened today

I thought this summed it up nicely:

Analysis by Jay Cost, reprinted from The Weekly Standard

What Did SCOTUS Just Do?

Jay Cost


June 28, 2012 11:31 AM


Was today's Supreme Court Obamacare decision a win for conservatives or a loss? It depends on what you were rooting for.


If you were above all interested in the bill being struck down, it was mostly a loss. On the other hand, if you were more concerned about the qualitative expansion in the power of the government that the bill represented, it was definitely a win.


First, the Roberts Court put real limits on what the government can and cannot do. For starters, it restricted the limits of the Commerce Clause, which does not give the government the power to create activity for the purpose of regulating it. This is a huge victory for those of us who believe that the Constitution is a document which offers a limited grant of power.


Second, the Roberts Court also threw out a portion of the Medicaid expansion. States have the option of withdrawing from the program without risk of losing their funds. This is another major victory for conservatives who cherish our system of dual sovereignty. This was also a big policy win for conservatives; the Medicaid expansion was a major way the Democrats hid the true cost of the bill, by shifting costs to the states, but they no longer can do this.


Politically, Obama will probably get a short-term boost from this, as the media will not be able to read between the lines and will declare him the winner. But the victory will be short-lived. The Democrats were at pains not to call this a tax because it is inherently regressive: the wealthy overwhelmingly have health insurance so have no fear of the mandate. But now that it is legally a tax, Republicans can and will declare that Obama has slapped the single biggest tax on the middle class in history, after promising not to do that.


Conservatives have a shot at getting the best of both worlds: having the Supreme Court use Obamacare as a way to limit federal power while also using the democratic process to overturn the law. I didn't think we could have one without the other, but now maybe we can.


If Obama loses in November, that is…









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These Quick Takes are really quick!

1) And so it begins:

Franciscan University of Steubenville drops student health plan over HHS mandate

2) ‎"Religious liberty is not only about our ability to go to Mass on Sunday or pray the rosary at home. It is about whether we can make our contribution to the common good of all Americans." -- U.S. Bishops


3) “Every evil screams out only one message: 'I am good!' And not only does it scream, but it demands that the people cry out tirelessly in response: 'You are good, you are freedom, you are happiness!'”  — Fr. Alexander Schmemann, former Dean of St. Vladimir’s Seminary


4) "The Uninvited House Guest"

5)

6) Women! You simply must watch this video from the (seemingly not so fictitious) Bureau of Womanhood Conformity:





7) And as my seventh takes seem to be about orphans lately, I will make it a permanent tradition.

About a year and a half ago, Sylvia and her husband adopted a beautiful little girl with Down Syndrome, Gabby, from Eastern Europe. After they returned home, they discovered that Gabby had had a little roommate at the orphanage, Ava, who had also been her crib mate. They showed Gabby a photo of Ava, and she reacted with recognition and sadness. Sylvia and her husband determined at that moment to go back across the ocean and adopt Ava as well, thus reuniting two "sisters", who will soon be sisters for real. If you love this story and if you also love iPads, you can enter their iPad giveaway here, and help to reunite these two angels. No donation is necessary to enter, but it sure is appreciated.

By the way, you guys who have been following and supporting my new "orphan passion" really have no idea how many lives you have changed in the past few months, and how many orphans have found homes directly because of you. I can't thank you enough, and maybe one day I will write a post about the individual stories. It's just that every day there is more good news, so I can't keep up right now.

And although it's not orphan-related, I want to throw out one more PSA from wonderful Kaitlin at More Like Mary, More Like Me. Her friend Colleen Nixon is a Catholic missionary (with her husband) and also a fabulous "pop/jazz/indie/quirky" singer who is working on her new CD, but needs your help to spread the word and get 'er done! Check out her music video here, featuring Kaitlin's gorgeous baby girl, and learn about the great giveaway. Or, go straight to Colleen's kickstart page here. She has only seven days to reach her goal and she is soooo close she can taste it!


Okay, guys, have a fantastic weekend!! And thanks to Jen for hosting!






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Quick Takes: Gay "marriage" plus some good stuff, too!

Let's get right to it, even publishing before midnight (is that allowed??)…

1) I asked a pro-"choice" lady on facebook when she thought that human life begins, and she responded uber-emotionally and repeatedly that she would not allow herself be "intimidated" by me. Well, thank goodness she did not cave to my mob-like tactics.


2) With the "big news" of the week, the wonderful Dr. Gerard Nadal said what a lot of us were thinking:

Thank God, Obama finally endorsed same-sex "marriage"

Truly, it's about time he 'fessed up! My gosh, as if we didn't know to where this man was "evolving" on the subject? Seriously, was anyone confused about where his thoughtful analysis would land him? It makes me laugh, the pretense has been just so ludicrous!

Anyhoo, Dr. Nadal analyzes the sad road we are on, and here's a powerful excerpt:

Part of the pathology of gay/lesbian marriages (and most divorces in heterosexuals) is the belief that a child can do just fine without a mother or a father. At least in divorce the reality of one-parental involvement is a tragic consequence. In gay and lesbian unions it is a principled and celebrated world-view. 

Worse still is the implicit validation of what some in the homosexual community call heterosexuals aloud: breeders. Gay men who donate sperm for IVF and surrogate motherhood merely use women as barnyard livestock. (So do the heterosexuals who pioneered and grew this beastly industry.) 

Breeders. 

Lesbian couples seeking sperm donations for either insemination or IVF do as much with men: Stud animals. 

The entire affair signals the collapse of Western/Christian Civilization. We have lost sight of who we are, what our children require, and have subordinated their needs to our narcissistic and hedonistic obsessions. 

There is nothing sweet and benign about two men determining that they are just as good as a mother. Such belief betrays their hostility toward women at the biological and metaphysical core of womanhood. The same for lesbians with men.

Read the rest, here.


3) What is particularly bizarre about Obama's "evolved" position is that he dared to use Jesus Christ as the basis for his decision. You see, there have been 20 centuries (try to imagine, slowly, 2,000 years of human history) of unbroken Christian moral teaching about the grave sinfulness of homosexual acts. In the last two minutes, historically speaking, a small percentage of Protestant Christianity has, following the trajectory of the sexual revolution, decided to remove Christian teaching and replace it with the heretofore unheard of idea that gay sex is good and holy. (By the way, these are largely the same Christian sects that have also endorsed human abortion.)

I say to Barack Obama: Your wife and children may have informed your brand new beliefs about gay "marriage", but in no way was Christianity your influence -- unless Christian sexual morality has been kidnapped, bound, chloroformed, dumped in a roadside ditch and then replaced by its very opposite.

See, we Christians don't just get to make up Christian doctrine as we go along. Sorry. Revealed religion doesn't work that way.


4) Speaking of "evolving" on the issue of gay "marriage", I know quite a few folks who have "evolved" the other way, including our own Stacy Trasancos, who describes her change of heart:

My evolution against "gay marriage"

Praise God, the Church Christ founded still stands to give us back our dignity when we cannot even find it in ourselves. 

I love Peter Kreeft's words on the subject:

‎"The Church is the best friend of homosexuals, both because she tells them they are made in God's image and have intrinsic dignity and rights and are called to be saints, and because she is the only social force left that insists on moral absolutes. So when they sin against themselves she says NO, just as she does to heterosexuals who sin against themselves sexually, but when others sin against them she says NO also. No one else dares to say NO. She speaks up for everyone, including homosexuals."

If you liked that, you need to read what Dr. Kreeft said just prior! Right here.


5)
Do you want to cleanse yourself from all the bad news out there and refresh your psyche with an easy but profound read, which is also a darned good story? Read Michael Oher's book about his life from abandoned child of a crack addict to hardworking, honorable millionaire.

Michael Oher, if you recall, is the main character in The Blind Side (loved that movie!), and hearing him tell his life story was balm for my soul. It's called I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond, and I've been meaning to tell you about it for months. What a hopeful book, with no annoying blame-shifting or class- and race-war rhetoric.

(Sorry for the bad formatting and the weird comma that won't go in place! What the heck, Amazon Associates? Why can't you go back to the way you used to be? Sigh.)

6) For the best online feel-good story of the week, go here:

I am a survivor: Born into poverty and addiction, but grateful to be alive

The best part was the unexpected reveal near the end! I was so shocked, and completely blown away! You will love this beautiful young girl's story. Especially if you have been following all the stuff I do on my other blog, which leads us to...


7) Attention! You have about 24 hours (or, until midnight Friday) to enter the iPad giveaway to help the Smiths bring Malcolm home! Even my adult kids have entered, donating as a tithe but secretly hoping to walk away with a brand new iPad!! Their odds are good, but I'm asking you to make their odds a little worse. (Sorry, kids.) Go here for details.

And, if you live in the Phoenix area and are somehow NOT planning to attend the "Baking Malcolm Home" event in just one short day (on Saturday!), then you are nuts, and you will regret it for the rest of your life. You cannot believe the lineup of guests! And the baked goods, egads! I cannot wait to see you. Go here for details.

Also, there is a chance for you wonderful people to make a real difference in the life of an orphan with Down Syndrome named Sheridan, by busting him out of the mental institution to which he's been transferred. A loving family wants to commit to him now, but they cannot yet do so. Please, to find out why, click this photo link to my other blog to read the story:

Sheridan, waiting for years now for a family.

I get emails from readers telling me that they love the Bubble. If you love the Bubble, could I ask you to throw that love to a child in need? It would mean the world to me, and today it also could mean Sheridan's very life.

(And there has to be at least one multi-millionaire who reads the Bubble, right? If not, can we find one?!)

Finally, congratulations to one of our own blogger sisters, Meg from True, Good, and Beautiful, who is the process of adopting one of the Reece's Rainbow cuties, Justin! Check out her new adoption blog which will chronicle the journey!




Prayers for Jen this week as she works through something terrible. God bless you, Jen. We love you lots.





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Honor vs. Lies and Distortions (with a fun update)

Before we head into Lent, when my posts will focus more on the spiritual rather than the political and temporal, I want to post Archbishop Chaput's recent column on the HHS mandate. You can find the original, here. 

I think he hits on what I find most disturbing about this whole sad episode between the Obama administration and the Church: The lies and distortions that have accompanied the debate. 

Judging by mainstream media coverage, one would think that the Church suddenly and forcefully came onto the public scene and began a campaign to end "access" to contraception -- when in fact she has done exactly nothing. The only movement (and an aggressive power grabbing movement at that) has come from the Obama administration, which unnecessarily started and now sustains this fight -- a fight that, until Obama picked it, did not exist on anyone's radar screen. 

Obama did not have to do this. He chose to start this. And now his allies on the left and in the press have added insult (lies and distortion) to the initial injury. Lies are hard to fight, but fight we will. 

All emphases below are mine. Take it away, Your Excellency!

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia 

Archbishop Chaput’s weekly column: 

It’s not a ‘compromise,’ and it needs to be rescinded

Creighton Abrams, arguably America’s best general in recent history, was an uncommon man. A biographer said that “he touched those who came to know him in a way they valued and would never forget.” It’s easy to see why. He led by example. He embodied the virtues of courage, honesty, dedication to mission, personal humility and unfailing fidelity to his wife and six children over a marriage of 38 years.

Abrams never degraded his opponents. He never demeaned himself by demeaning others. He lived by the highest ethical standards, and he demanded the same from the people around him. One of his favorite sayings was “Never wrestle with pigs: You get dirty, and the pigs love it.”

Those words came back to me this past week. The trigger was the fierce public debate over the Obama administration’s misleading February 10 “compromise” on a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate. The original HHS mandate, announced on January 20, would have forced nearly all Catholic institutions, organizations and private employers to provide contraception and abortifacients as part of their health coverage.

As many Catholic legal scholars have observed: The February 10 “compromise” does not solve the problem. It continues, in its practical effect, to force faithful Catholic employers to violate their religious beliefs. In short, the HHS mandate is coercive and deeply troubling in its implications for the rights of conscience. Nor is this accidental. The administration, despite the good will it has enjoyed from many Catholics, has taken a path that it knows to be unnecessary and knows to be hostile to Catholic belief.

The contempt dumped on Catholic teaching in our mass media over the past few days of debate tells us quite a lot about our critics. It also underlines the need for fighting respectfully but vigorously for what we believe. When a columnist in a major news daily claims, for example, that “The Catholic Church basically endorses one form of birth control, the rhythm method, which is contraception for stupid people,” we can learn two things: Neither accuracy nor civility matters when it comes to demeaning how faithful Catholics try to live their lives. In the task of pushing birth control, sneering is fully licensed.

Of course, people are free to join or leave the Catholic community. They’re free to criticize Catholic belief in any way they choose. But they’re not free to force Catholic institutions, organizations and individual employers into violating their religious convictions. They’re not free to mislead the public about a flawed and dangerous HHS mandate. And they’re not free to ignore the concerns of Catholic citizens who are rightly angry about the current administration’s indifference to religious freedom and the rights of conscience.

A friend of Creighton Abrams once said that, despite his humility and mastery of self, when it came to matters of principle, he “could inspire aggressiveness in a begonia.” It’s an interesting line. The Christian life does not need aggression. It doesn’t return hatred with more hatred. Living the Gospel depends on virtues like justice, charity and mercy. But it also depends on courage. It does require fortitude. And that means a great many Catholics need to wake up and take a hard look at what’s happening to our country. They may not like what they see. They shouldn’t like what they see. And if they don’t, they need to fight — without apologies — to turn things toward the good.

The current HHS mandate is not a real “compromise.” It’s bad law with very dangerous implications. It needs to be rescinded, and it doesn’t matter how ugly or deceptive our critics choose to be. I ask every Catholic who reads these words and takes his or her faith seriously, to please contact your U.S. senators and representative. Do it today. Press them to rescind this destructive HHS mandate.

I know: We all have so many issues that compete for our daily attention. We’re often tempted to ignore the whole lot.

But this one is urgent. This one really matters.

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*Updated to add something very funny from a cool young priest. The video will make you cheer (thanks, Fr. Leo, for giving us something to smile about!), and it also illustrates that Obama blatantly lied to Catholics during his infamous Notre Dame University speech:

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To lukewarm Catholics: This is your moment. Defend your mother.

You cannot have God for your Father 
if you do not have the Church for your Mother.

-- St. Cyprian, third century Christian martyr

To every lukewarm, confused or dissenting Catholic out there:

I get you, I really do. I was a lapsed and lukewarm Catholic once, too, with one foot out the door. You probably think the Church is wrong on contraception and you want your birth control for free. I understand. I am one of "the 98%" of Catholics who have used contraception at some point in their lives.

But even then, as a tepid, contracepting Catholic, I would have seen something like this HHS mandate as a defining moment.

As it stands, this is your defining moment.

Mother Church -- your mother -- is under attack. You may think she is old and out of touch, even a doddering old fool. You may feel she doesn't understand you. But she is still your mother.

As much as you may want her to change her mind on contraception, she won't. She will never change her moral teachings, no matter how unpopular they are, no matter how many of her own children reject them. She is stubborn that way, when it comes to objective truth. It's part of what makes her your mother, and frankly, it's something to be admired.

The federal government issued its mandate just a few short weeks ago, imposed by a man who apparently thinks he's a king. But your mother, the Church, has her own mandate to follow, one which was given some 2,000 years ago, by a true King. It was a mandate to hold fast to the truth and teach it faithfully, until the end of time. Christ's eternal mandate supersedes and annihilates all temporal ones.

Now, because Mother Church will never give in to the government's attempted violation, there will be painful fallout in the resistance. You are a child of the Church, even if a bit distant from her, and you have a duty to defend her in this battle. Rouse your irrevocably baptized soul and come to her aid. It's sadly true that we sometimes kick around our own family members, but we don't allow outsiders to come in and do the same!

The government has made a breathtaking power play, kicking around your mother in her own home. She has responded with a firm and resounding, Get out of our house!

Get up, and help her shut the door.

For [Catholic] is the peculiar name of this Holy Church, the mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God (for it is written, "As Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it", and all the rest), and is a figure and copy of Jerusalem which is above, which is free, and the mother of us all; which before was barren, but now has many children.

-- St. Cyril of Jerusalem, circa 350

**Update: Obama "shifts" the mandate to insurance companies who are paid by Catholic institutions. Don't be fooled and don't let your guard down. Nothing has changed.




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Just Curious: Access to contraception?

So, King Obama deprives Catholics of religious liberty because the administration is "committed to giving women access to contraceptives".

Now, see, there's a head-scratcher for me.

Do any of you know of any situation where a woman does not have "access to contraceptives" unless the Catholic Church provides it for her?

Truly, I'm just curious.

Because I can't think of a single situation where that is the case.

Seems like something else may be afoot here. Hmmm….





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Time for courage, Catholics! Be kind, not "nice"….(and UPDATE)

Many of you have seen this post before, but in light of recent events (both Obama's outrageous HHS mandate forcing Catholics to violate their consciences, as well as the unholy backlash after Susan G. Komen for the Cure wisely cut ties with Planned Parenthood), it's good for Catholics to revisit the directive to be kind but not "nice". If you've spent any time on facebook lately, I think you know what I'm talking about!

I hope the wisdom of Bishop Thomas Olmsted, Blessed John Paul II, St. Paul, and Jesus Christ Himself will bolster and refresh you!

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Providential encouragement came to me well over a year ago, in the form of a local crisis pregnancy center's newsletter. It contained excerpts from a speech that our beloved Bishop Thomas Olmsted had recently delivered at a pro-life luncheon. Anyone who knows Bishop Olmsted knows that he is a gentle, kind and holy soul. Not loud, bombastic or combative, but joyful, peaceful and caring. I daresay he is one of the "nicest" men you'll ever meet. He entreats us Catholics:

Do not be "nice"; instead, tell the tough truths. At no place in the Sacred Scriptures does it say: Be nice! However, popular portrayals of Christianity would lead us to think that the first and greatest commandment is niceness.

The English word "nice" comes from the Latin word "nescius" --meaning "ignorant, knowing nothing." In English usage of the 13th century, "nice" meant "foolish, stupid, senseless." Today, it means hurting no one's feelings, without regard to what is true or good or right. Garrison Keillor said, You taught me to be nice, so nice that now I am so full of niceness, I have no sense of right and wrong, no outrage, no passion.

St. Paul writes to Timothy (2 Tim 4:2-4), Proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths....

John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae (#58): The acceptance of abortion in the popular mind and even in law itself, is a telling sign of an extremely dangerous crisis of the moral sense, which is becoming more and more incapable of distinguishing between good and evil, even when the fundamental right to life is at stake. Given such a grave situation, we need now more than ever to have the courage to look the truth in the eye and to call things by their proper name, without yielding to convenient compromises or to the temptation of self-deception.

....So what to do? Should we not recall Jesus' charge: Remember, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. He knows what He is doing.

....Love our enemies. Love is not "nice." Love is kind; it is patient; love does not rejoice in what is wrong, but rejoices in the truth.... Love is best illustrated by Jesus on the Cross, where He forgave those who put Him to death, where He died so that we sinners might have forgiveness and new life. Love is not cowardly but it is fair, while relentlessly opposing all threats to the dignity of human life. 

....So, do not be "nice"; be kind and tell the truth. Love your wives, your husbands, your children. Love your enemies. Do not be discouraged.

It was not till later that I realized (duh!) that the word "discourage" has "courage" as its root. We need courage to counteract our dis-courage-ment. And courage just might be the virtue most lacking today among Christians.

A couple of years ago, Danya approached Bishop Olmsted and asked him how we Catholics can best dialogue about the contentious, unpopular and controversial teachings of the Church, especially when we know we will be met with mockery, hostility and personal attacks. This meek and humble man responded that at those times, we must set aside our own fears, anxieties and dread, and we must simply speak the truth.

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In the wake of recent events, the need to speak the truth becomes even more urgent. We Catholics will be misunderstood, mocked and derided for our beliefs, but that shouldn't worry us. As Christ said to us in Matthew 5:11:

Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven….

I say, Bring it.

Courage, friends.

Be kind, but not "nice".

Do not be silent, do not fear, and pray unceasingly.




UPDATE: Looks like Komen has caved to the abortion fury. Now someone tell me how to take back my donation.

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To our Protestant friends: Fight with us!

The lovely and courageous Rebecca, at Shoved to Them, wrote a post that I am compelled to reprint. We need our Protestant brethren to become fellow warriors as we push back against the federal government's attempt to quash our basic religious liberties. Hard to believe it's come to this in our own beloved America, and yet here we are.

A Call to Arms, My Brothers!

Then they came for the Catholics,

and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant.

Then they came for me

and there was no one left to speak out for me.  

-- Martin Niemöller

This past week, the Department of Health and Human Services under the Obama Administration violated the First Amendment's Religion Clause by preventing Catholics in the United States from freely practicing our religion. To a practicing Catholic, our faith is more than the church service we attend on Sunday mornings or the ashes we wear at the beginning of every Lent. Our faith is the governing force by which we live our lives.

With its Contraception/Sterilization Mandate, the Obama Administration has taken direct aim at the Catholic Church through our foundational beliefs in the value of every human life and in the supremacy of God over us, which are the driving forces behind our stance on these controversial issues. The administration's demand that Catholics provide access to medical procedures and pharmaceuticals which we hold to be intrinsically evil, and certainly against the very roots of the faith we profess, is an affront to every American.

This unconstitutional mandate has left American Catholics in the position of choosing between obedience to God and obedience to the State.

How have we arrived at a place where United States citizens are confronting the dilemma of choosing between their faith and being American? This is the country raised on the tales of the Pilgrims' flight from England in order to escape religious persecution. The American colonies were begun with the ideal that all men had a right to practice their faiths according to the actual tenets of those religions and not according the whims and permissions of the government. We were revolutionary in the concept that our inalienable rights were derived from our Creator and not from the largesse of a sovereign or legislature.

President Obama has, through his Department of Health and Human Services, turned his back on almost 400 years of American history. With this one Mandate, he has trampled upon the intentions of our Founders who so fervently believed in the rights of people to worship (or not worship) and to believe (or not believe) as they saw fit that it is the first right enshrined in the Bill of Rights:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof


I have heard many people say "I do not agree with the Catholic Church's stance on contraception." No one is asking for you to do so. It is sufficient enough that we believe it.

Those who would frame this as a debate on reproductive rights are being misled or are attempting to mislead. This attack by the Obama Administration is not about sexual rights. It is about our religious freedom and the very Liberty which every American considers his/her birthright. With this decision, the United States Government has granted itself authority and jurisdiction over every church, synagogue, mosque and cathedral and allowed itself the power to enforce its own secular worldview upon all believers.

It is in light of this that we call upon you, our brother Americans, to stand with us against this unjust and breathtaking power grab. Do not be deceived into thinking that it ends with us or with this ruling. The very Right of Religious Freedom is at stake.

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What can you do to help?  Contact your Senators and Representatives and tell them that government oppression is intolerable [reference the HHS contraceptive mandate and ask them to support the Freedom of Conscience Act]. Call the US Department of Health and Human Services and tell them that their power grab will not succeed. Call the White House and remind them that the United States threw out one tyrant with King George and we won't hesitate to do it again!


Click the Facebook "F" or the Twitter "T" below to spread the word! Thank you and God bless! 

Thank you, Rebecca! It's time for all Christians, all people of faith, and anyone who loves the Constitution to come together at this moment in history.

You can sign a petition directly to the White House, here. Spread the word! Protestants, please alert your pastors about this disheartening move by President Obama.

And for additional inspiration, don't miss Bad Catholic's passionate response to Obama's unconstitutional power grab, here.

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Not quite a Quick Takes

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1) First, I can't thank you all enough for the kind words, support, and especially prayers for my sister and our whole family. Currently, she has a team of doctors working to find out exactly what we are dealing with. I can't say much more because so much is still unknown, but the word "bizarre" doesn't begin to cover the last eight days. Please keep praying.


2) So glad to see that Catholics have been responding to the popular but deeply flawed video, "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus". My personal favorite response, by a rapping priest:

And if you want to go further, check out Fr. Barron's response:

The funny thing in all of this is that the "hate religion" guy subscribes to sola scriptura (the idea that the Bible is a Christian's only authority), but yet he does not grasp the fact that the very New Testament he quotes is a product of the Catholic religion! He would not have the Bible in his hands if the Church had not written, preserved, copied, canonized, protected and preached that Bible for 20 centuries. Ah, the irony.


3) I just saw this, and now I'm fuming:

Obama Admin Decides to Require Religious Institutions to Cover Free Contraception

Seriously, my head is going to explode. Does the Obama Administration think us Catholics fools? Maybe we are if we don't bombard him with emails and phone calls and lawsuits. I want to fight. Here is part of the response from Archbishop Dolan and the U.S. Bishops:

In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences. To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their healthcare is literally unconscionable.It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom. Historically this represents a challenge and a compromise of our religious liberty.

What kind of man did we elect to the presidency of the United States?! Obama must be defeated in November.


4) Turns out I am a homeschooling mom again (schooling only one this time around). So many myths about homeschooling, and this hilarious young man's video about those myths deserves a wide audience! Too funny! I want to shake his mama's hand:

(Gosh, maybe I shouldn't have said I was homeschooling. The Obama administration might soon declare it illegal and come after me. I'm only half joking.)


Have a great weekend!

Archbishop Dolan's warning letter to Obama

Hey, Catholics!

Remember when I warned you that your misguided compassion was going to come back to bite you in the rear? That we're in a battle we can't ignore anymore?

I'm relieved that the big guns have just blazed onto the scene.

Two days ago, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote a strongly-worded letter to President Barack Obama that expressed a "growing sense of urgency about recent actions taken by your Administration that both escalate the threat to marriage and imperil the religious freedom of those who promote and defend marriage."

That's us, guys. He's talking about Catholics losing religious freedom in America. If things continue on the current trajectory, the good archbishop anticipates "a national conflict between Church and State of enormous proportions and to the detriment of both institutions."

A national conflict of enormous proportions.

He's right. Things are bad. The culture war -- the very existence of which some deny -- is here and escalating quickly under Obama's watch. The archbishop's letter and research make that painfully clear.

Bubble readers, please read Archbishop Dolan's entire letter and the attachment.* Read every word carefully. You may feel like you don't have time, but it's only three pages. It won't take you long, and you must be informed. The days are long gone when we can just sit back and let things play out, trusting that all will be well. The Church is under attack now, from the highest levels of our government, and we must be an active Church with an educated laity.

Learn what's happening. Teach your children, your friends, your neighbors. We are all responsible for each other now, as the moral landscape changes and we gear up for the battle (which in my opinion includes defeating Obama in November 2012).

In the words of Blessed John Paul the Great: Do not be afraid!

Just think what 60 million baptized, faithful and informed American Catholics could do. Yeah, I know we've got a long way to go to get everyone faithful and informed, so let's get started!

Go on, read it.


Related (disturbing) link showing the Obama Administration's determination to label Catholic teaching as bigoted and discriminatory:

Obama Administration: The Catholic Church spreads "homophobia" in Poland


*Archbishop Dolan's letter is specific to the topic of gay "marriage" and does not address the other alarming actions taken by the Obama Administration limiting our religious freedoms as Catholics.



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Answering Michelle: I don't think you want all babies aborted

After my last post, Michelle (a friendly young atheist) left a comment which deserves a whole post in response. Her words are in red, and my comments are in black.

To those saying that the Obama administration views pregnancy as a disease: 


Before you go on, let me just say that it's hard not to conclude this. If fertility/pregnancy is not a disease, disorder, illness or pathology, then why are health insurance companies now forced to provide free contraception and morning-after pills to all? What "disease" is being "cured" or "prevented" if not pregnancy? This should elicit a short medical answer, not a long philosophical one like the one you are about to give….


consider this rough analogy. Most of you have probably seen the show Extreme Home Makeover, where families in need are given a fancy new house (and I think sometimes a car as well), one that even the richest families would probably be lucky to have. 


Yes, I used to love that show! "Bus driver, move that bus!" (Screams, excitement, tears!!) Good times watching with the family. :)


It's a feel-good sort of show, and you're always left with the impression that despite all of their problems, their lives are finally looking up and everything is going to be fine.

Yes, that's the illusion that "feel good" TV shows leave us with. We Americans like to "feel good", and it sells. Definitely an hour of escapism (and envy!).

But think about the taxes and the maintenance the house will require that they probably can't afford, and how the money spent on the house could probably have better gone towards addressing whatever problem (medical, financial, whatever) was originally plaguing them.

Yes, exactly! Building folks a big house and and providing lots of material things cannot solve the underlying problems that families in crisis face. Thank goodness there are real people in real life who do provide real help, every single day: Catholic Charities, the Societies of St. Vincent de Paul, crisis pregnancy centers, Catholic hospitals and shelters, etc. Real help, real solutions.


Saying that Obama's insistence on contraception means he necessarily considers pregnancy to always be a disease (and babies to always be a punishment)

Did I say "always"? I don't think I did. There are plenty of babies that Obama does not see as "punishments". And then there are the others. For example: 


Obama thinks these baby girls were worthy of love and life. 
Obama thinks that this this baby girl was not.

He celebrates the "wanted" babies while ardently supporting the legal killing of 53 million other "unwanted" babies. Heck, he even notoriously voted more than once to let born babies die alone and without care should they survive a late-term abortion. (This was no mere academic exercise for him, as he knew from first-hand testimony what was occurring in his own state.)

In the pro-"choice" world, there are plenty of valuable children, worthy of love and life. But there are plenty of children with no value, who are worthy of neither love nor life. 

So, for Obama, I'm guessing that pregnancy is not a disease when it's wanted, and babies are not a punishment when they are wanted.

Wanted = Good
Wanted = Valuable

is the same as saying that I'm heartless for recognizing that getting a big new house is not always the best thing for a family.

Not the same thing at all. Look...

These are not heartless:


"It is not good for this family to get a big new house."
"It is not good for children to be conceived out of wedlock."
"It is not the best thing for this drug-addicted battered woman to raise a child."


But this *just might* be considered heartless:


"Because this is not a good time for this woman to have a child, the child must die."

See, the "not heartless" statements don't imply or necessitate that someone has to die as a solution to the unfortunate situation. But the "heartless" statement does. Big distinction.

Just as big new houses are, under the right circumstances, a wonderful thing, so are babies.

Michelle, are you really comparing houses to babies?

Catholics don't believe that houses have the same moral standing, rights and dignity as human beings. I hope you can see that distinction.

Say a teenage mother's conservative parents would disown her if she gave birth out of wedlock,

Whoa, wait. Why do you make "conservative" parents the heavy? I know plenty of conservative parents, and I have seen how they react when children come to them with news of an unplanned pregnancy: Many tears, but also love and support for child and grandchild. I also know several liberal mothers who coerced or forced abortion on their pregnant daughters. So, why not just say "parents"? Sorry, but that is a pet peeve, as if conservative parents are heartless meanies while liberal parents are kind and loving. 

ruining all her chances of a healthy, normal life thereafter

Seriously? Ruining all her chances of a healthy, normal life, thereafter? Utterly, totally hopeless? How on earth can one possibly know or predict such an outcome? We can't predict that outcome anymore than we can predict someone being hit by a car tomorrow and being paralyzed for life. And even that scenario wouldn't equate to a "ruined" life. But, okay, let's go with your impossible hypothetical:

- is the baby still a wonderful blessing?

Yes.

If the baby's born to a drug addicted mother who can't and won't even provide for the baby's most basic needs?

Yes. Please get the mother help, and if she truly can't care for the child (who already exists!), then it's time to help her with an adoption plan.


If the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother?


Yes. (Ask Becky how she feels about that one, since she's going through it right now.)


I know, it's not a black-and-white moral standpoint, and what constitutes good circumstances for a baby will change from person to person.


Right, but you're not talking about good circumstances for conception, you're talking about killing a baby. I think Nicole C. got right to the heart of it:

I get so tired of hearing the argument surrounding good and bad circumstances to "have a baby", when what we're really arguing is acceptable circumstances to have an abortion. Please remember, when a woman is pregnant, she already HAS A BABY. As Mark Crutcher would say, "The question is, will she have a live baby or a dead one?" 

So, you see, I think you are confusing two different things.

I get it, Catholics don't like that sort of moral ambiguity.

Actually, it's more that Catholics "don't like" the willful killing of innocent human beings. What you call "moral ambiguity", I would call "attempting to justifying an immoral act".

Sometimes, "moral ambiguity" = "moral relativism"

But saying that pregnancy is either always a blessing or always a curse, or a baby is always a gift or always a punishment, is silly at best.

I never once put it in those terms, that liberals think pregnancy is "always a curse" or babies "always a punishment". So, I am not sure where you are getting that? 


However, it's not "silly" to believe that all babies are a blessing. They are. They are all equally valuable, and they are all worthy of love and life. To hold any other position is dangerous -- to say the least.

Please, give us some credit and don't ascribe such simplistic ideas to liberals/pro-choicers/whoever.

I never did ascribe those ideas to you or other pro-"choicers". Like I said, I have no idea where you are getting that. Of course you love and cherish some babies.

If I were to get pregnant at this point in my life, it would undoubtedly be an enormous punishment.

Who would be punishing you? The baby? And what would the punishment be for? I truly don't even understand this statement.

At the same time, though, my cousin recently had a baby and I was excited about the baby the moment I heard my cousin was pregnant.

Because in your mind, the baby had that elusive quality that made him valuable and worthy of love: "Wantedness"

Or was it something else that made the baby worthy of your love? I'm interested.

It's not an "either you love babies or you want them all dead" sort of thing,

Right, and I never said that, so we are good.

and I'm offended every time someone suggests that liberals think babies are worthless drooling monsters that all should have been aborted.

I'm glad that's never been said to you here, then. Has someone elsewhere said these things to you? That you think all babies should be aborted? That's outrageous if so.


I'm on vacation and won't be commenting after this (blame icky Internet Explorer that won't let me post, plus the fact that abortion debates always, always, always turn ugly whenever I get involved).

It's not exclusive to your involvement, Michelle. Abortion debates necessarily include discussion of the actual act of abortion, which by its very nature is horrifically ugly. The stuff of nightmares, really. So yes, abortion debates are never pretty. We are discussing the willful killing of innocent children, some of whom are shredded in the womb, some of whom are dismembered, and some of whom are burned alive with saline, and some of whom are stabbed in the neck and have their brains sucked out while still living. Most of whom are thrown out as garbage, labeled "medical waste". Ugly, indeed. 


But did you think the reality of abortion could be sugarcoated? I realize that's what the "choice" and "women's rights" euphemisms are aiming for: Pleasantness. Our own atheist commenter MaiZeke has said with confidence, "Abortion involves only one person: the woman."  How it eases the mind to believe this, when it's the "non-person" being extracted and eviscerated. It makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and we can sleep well at night, because there is no "person" being killed in an abortion. Just a pregnancy being "terminated".

I hope my points made sense, even if you don't agree. 

Some of them didn't make sense, which is why I wanted to flesh them all out here and give you a chance to respond. Thanks for you willingness to dialogue honestly, and I hope to hear from you after your vacation!


Blessings to you, Michelle! I've always enjoyed our discussions.





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