Odds and ends **UPDATED

The conversation here is still ongoing, but I wanted to address a few things in the meantime.

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This week is designated Coerced Abortion Awareness Week. What abortion advocates won't tell you is that most abortions involve some form of coercion, from subtle pressure all the way to threats and violence. This hardly constitutes a "free choice". Coerced abortion is the ugly, dirty little secret that the abortion industry doesn't want you to think about.

On a personal note, my thoughts and prayers go out to a young woman named Gina whom I met by chance (or Providence) years ago. I intend to post about her tragic story one day, but today I'm just remembering the unbearable pain she suffered in the devastating aftermath of a coerced abortion.

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I love it when I find a Catholic blog that covers all the stuff that is over my head. Especially in the realm of science. Thanks to our wonderful commenter Giuseppe Ambrose, I have found Mary Meets Dolly, A Catholic's Guide to Genetics, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, written by a young scientist named Rebecca Taylor. She makes things clear enough for even me to understand! Be sure to check out her blog!

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I have a major pet peeve with Blogger. I have this little issue with Blogger that is a great opportunity for sanctification: Once a post hits 200 comments, subsequent comments go to a new page. However, this is not always clear to the reader. Even I have gotten fooled into thinking a conversation has ended, when it really just moved on to a new page. So please keep that fact in mind, especially if you do not subscribe to the comments via email (which I strongly suggest, if you don't want to miss a thing).

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One of our regular commenters, Maggie, has a message for Bubble readers, and I think it's worthy of sharing. She says:

In my diocese next fall we are having a Marian Conference Oct 7-8, 2011. It will be held in Green Bay and at the Shrine of our Lady of Good Help (recently approved as worthy of belief by the bishop!). The speakers include Immaculee Ilibagiza, Mother Assumpta of the DMMEs, George Weigel, and others. It would be great to have people from all over the Midwest and the rest of the country come too. 

Now, that is a line-up of Catholic rock stars! Hope some of you can make it and represent the Bubble, ha ha ha!

**UPDATE from reader Fidelio: in case you aren't in the Green Bay area to hear the amazing Immaculee Ilibagiza speak, she will be in Pennsylvania in May:

A Story of Faith, Hope and Forgiveness: Immaculee Ilibagiza, author of the New York Times bestseller,  Left to Tell, will speak at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in State College, PA, on Wednesday, May 4, from 7:30pm to 8:45pm. Immaculee is a living example of faith put into action. Her life was transformed dramatically during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, when she and seven other women spent ninety-one days huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor’s house. Please contact Karen Bord at rjbord@verizon.net or Sue Clement at sueseitzclement@hotmail.com for additional information.

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Every now and then, I'm going to direct you to a worthy Bubble post from the past. Today, that post is:

Dissenting Catholics and the Question of Conscience

We are surrounded by Catholics who justify their rebellion from Church teaching with appeals to "conscience", so you really need to understand this. (The post touches on the issue of Natural Law that we have been discussing in comments recently, though I didn't explicitly use the term). 

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There's a new way to promote and pray the Rosary for you techies out there. I got an email from the developer of the Scriptural Rosary iPhone app, asking if I would be willing to test it out. Since I don't own an iPhone and I don't know an app from a hole in the wall, I couldn't test it, but I have looked it over and it looks great! For those of you with iPhones, you should check it out here and here. (I get no kickbacks, so just pray a Hail Mary for me if you get the app because of this PSA!! :))

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Final thought: I have done a lot of posts which challenge the secular worldview. Increasingly, I have felt called to post about more specifically Christian things, such as the Person of Jesus Himself, and also to dive into the Protestant/Catholic divide. I hope you'll all stick with me, as these topics are as important and compelling as the "culture war" issues we've been talking about. Of course I will continue with those as well.

**Update: I just noticed it's almost Friday here, AND I have seven thoughts on this post.... like SEVEN QUICK TAKES? I didn't plan that. I don't do the Quick Takes Fridays because I am not disciplined enough to do it consistently, and yet look what just happened. Ha!

Question for atheists: Sin

To my atheist readers:

What is your opinion of "sin"? Do you think there is such a thing? If so, what are the criteria?

I see sin all around me, every day.

I also see sin in my own life, all the time.

Do you believe in personal sin?

Thanks. I truly am curious.

The Bubble turns one today!

I can hardly believe that the Bubble is one year old today! I posted my first message on April 3, 2010. It was Holy Saturday.

Now, 223 posts, 9,220 comments and over 170,000 page views later, I am shocked and thrilled at how the Bubble has evolved. Its interactive nature is the very best part, as the comments are often more compelling than the posts!

I cannot thank you all enough for reading and contributing. Your willingness to jump right into a contentious discussion inspires me to keep writing, and I am especially grateful to those commenters who disagree with me yet keep on (respectfully) commenting. We are all enriched by the dialogue.

On this first anniversary, I invite your suggestions, your comments, and your criticisms (remember, I allow anonymous comments). If you want to introduce yourself, I'd love that, too.

Thanks again for making this year so amazing.... I think I may have found something I really like to do!

Just Curious: Snacks!

So many stressful and sad goings on here lately.... Not only in my own life and family, but in at least three of my friends' lives and families. I almost think the planet is off its axis. Thankfully, the promises of Christ are intact and the storms cannot wipe us away.

Please forgive me then, as I turn to something lighter to keep me sane: Snacks! I am just curious about which snacks get you through this crazy life.

I must first introduce you to a snack that I've been eating for years, but that I only recently learned how to pronounce (mostly because I couldn't be bothered looking at the name while I was ripping open the bag)....

Give me my Gardetto's and we will all be fine.

Next, if salty is not the order of the day, I can think of one other snack that will do it every time:

That is correct: Godiva dark chocolate, and Godiva dark chocolate with raspberry filling. Mind you, "Godiva as snack" is not really accurate, as it's a merely a twice or thrice a year indulgence. Usually a birthday or Christmas gift. Unless it's on sale at Macy's.

Your turn. What snacks keep you going?

Jesus

There is no reason for hope in this world -- not one glimmer -- if Jesus Christ did not die and rise.

Answering "L": The Culture War and more

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Why is the Left Ignoring Church Burnings and 'Near Genocide' of Christians?

Many of you are familiar with Lisa Graas and her work, both from her comments here and from my blog roll. She is an amazing lady, and the story of how we met 13 years ago (my first internet "friend"!) is a story in itself. We have quite a history together, and now we both have blogs, ha ha ha. Lisa, a convert to Catholicism and a disabled single mother of four, also writes for David Horowitz's NewsRealBlog. As you know, I don't post on politics too often (although I am a political animal at heart), but I asked Lisa to write this guest post for me because she is practically alone out there writing on this topic. 

Please, please, if anyone on the left can explain why the Left's dislike of Christianity is so strong, and yet their defense of Islamists so vocal (despite Islam's violent hatred toward liberal moral values), I would be so grateful. I have some ideas of why leftists cast their lots with Islam over Christianity, but I would love to hear it from someone here.

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From Lisa Graas....

On the Left, the end justifies the means. Abortion, which many acknowledge is not a good thing, is 'necessary' in order to protect the 'greater good' of 'choice'. Rationing of healthcare, which they also acknowledge is not a good thing, is set forth as a 'solution' to serve the 'greater good' of 'universal coverage'. Even our Catholic compatriots on the Left have become caught up in this erroneous thinking that 'the end justifies the means', having adopted the confused thinking that the 'greater good' is equivalent to the 'common good'. So it is that the vulnerable are trampled underfoot, even with assistance from within the Catholic community.

One of the most powerful leftists in history, Josef Stalin, killed millions to serve the 'good' of the state.*

Millions died as a result of Stalin's famine and purges which came about due to the leftist ethos that 'the end' (in this case, the goal of 'equality') always 'justifies the means'. What Stalin might have believed was the 'common good', in reality was a reflection of 'the greater good' being sought, no matter the means.

Is it this belief -- 'the end justifies the means' -- that accounts for the silence of leftists in America today as the Islamic Egyptian army attacked Christian monasteries? After all, this news would have spoiled their good feelings as they cheered the 'revolution' in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Is it this belief that 'the end justifies the means' that urges the Left to press continually for America to make a hasty withdrawal from Iraq even as the Christian community there faces 'near genocide'? (Have they even heard of Adam of Baghdad?)

I think it is...and the silence continues even now as the Left continues to be actively engaged in defending the 'good name' of Islam while refusing to raise so little as a whimper about the burning of 69 churches in Ethiopia with 10,000 Christians being now displaced as they flee Muslim wrath.

Obama's White House team and the mainstream media have turned a blind eye to the spilling of innocent Christian blood.

What 'crime' did these Christians commit to 'merit' the torching of 69 churches, a Bible school and an orphanage?

The violence erupted after a group of Muslims falsely accused Christians in the area of desecrating the Quran. 

Those on the far left would say, "These attacks were justified because a Christian probably really did desecrate the Qur'an."

Those who are just left of center will probably either look away or resign themselves to calling our mention of it "Islamophobic", which I have come to realize is the 21st century leftist version of 'Der ewige Jude'.

The wise understand that book burning leads to the burning of people, but truly....it takes a hardcore leftist to argue that in our quest to protect books from damage, we must sometimes burn Islamophobic churches and kill Islamophobic Christians.

Those on the Left, tell me where I'm wrong, because I desperately want to be wrong on this.






*To address the problems of hunger and poverty, in 1928 Stalin initiated the first of five "Five-Year Plans" that he would implement during his long reign as the leader of the USSR (the others would cover the periods 1933-37; 1938-42; 1946-50; and 1951-55).  This first Plan nationalized all aspects of Russian industry and commerce, with the goal of quickly industrializing the economy and collectivizing agriculture. Collectivization meant the confiscation of all private land and the organization of agricultural production by state-run "collective farms." The idea that drove this program was Marx's fantasy of social equality and social justice. In practice it meant that 25 million peasant farmers would not be paid any wages for their labor, but would instead produce their agricultural output entirely for the state, which would in turn allow them to keep a modest share for their own survival needs. Stalin's vision entailed the systematic replacement of small, unmechanized farms with large, mechanized alternatives that would theoretically produce food much more efficiently. In practice this meant that a nation which had once been Europe's breadbasket would experience famine and chronic agricultural scarcity for the next sixty years, until the system collapsed.

News and thoughts

I am so thrilled to announce that Mary-Grace Eloise was born to our own dear Karen, from Hope-Pray-Trust on March 21. In Karen's words on that day:

"Today my world stood still and I saw a glimpse of heaven."

Mary-Grace

(I can't make the picture bigger or it gets blurry.)

Born at 6:15pm after almost 72 hours of active labor (she is looking forward to telling us the crazy story!), Mary-Grace came in at 8 lbs., 7 ozs., 21 1/4 inches. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!

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My very own pastor, Fr. John Ehrich, is the Medical Ethics Director for the Diocese of Phoenix, chaplain of the Catholic Medical Association and chaplain of the Catholic Physician's Guild of Phoenix. He wrote an interesting blog post here, following up on the recent scandal at St. Joseph's Hospital here in Phoenix, where an abortion was illicitly performed and defended -- an act which necessitated Bishop Thomas Olmsted to ultimately strip the hospital of its "Catholic" status. 

If you are under the mistaken impression that St. Joseph's has been treated unjustly because of this *one* incident, you can read more about the truth of it here and here. Follow the money.

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Speaking of abortion (which is without a doubt the human rights issue of our time), TheUnchoice.com has released an excellent 30-second ad exposing the lie that abortion is a "free choice". A full 64% of abortions are the result of pressure or coercion. Where are the feminists fighting for these women and girls, who feel they have no "choice"?

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Finally, after this post, I only had one pro-"choice" reader state that she would never again make the false claim that "Pro-lifers love the fetus, but they don't care about people after they are born." Are there any other pro-"choice" folks out there who are willing to concede that that popular line is untrue? I had hoped we could all at least agree on that.

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I hope everyone is having a fruitful Lent! As for me, I think this may be the worst Lenten showing of my life! ACK! Oh well, I still have some time left.... The Lord is kind and merciful!

How about Ordered vs. Disordered?

A few posts back, a reader made a plea for "middle ground" regarding our culture's view of sex. She rejected what she saw as the two "extremes" of 1) sex as recreation with any and all "consenting" partners, i.e., the Planned Parenthood view, and 2) sex as a privilege of marriage only, i.e., the Catholic view.

Initially, it struck me that those aren't actually the two extremes. As I see it, the extremes would be 1) sex as recreation, the Planned Parenthood view (she was right about that extreme), and 2) the puritanical (i.e., prudish) "body is bad, sex is dirty" view. So using the "extremes" vs. "middle ground" lens, the Catholic view would actually be the "middle ground", falling in between these two unhealthy extremes.

But then I realized there was something wrong with framing this (or any moral issue) in terms of "extremes" vs. "middle ground". After all, the commenter herself said that the Catholic view of sex "makes sense" and even seems "wonderful". In fact, far from being extreme, the Catholic view of sex used to be the cultural norm, not so very long ago!

I believe we are using the wrong terminology, because we are looking at morality through the wrong lens.

I suggest a different paradigm entirely: Instead of shooting for some mathematical mean between the "extremes", why not instead speak of what is ordered vs. disordered?

Our minds understand order and our souls crave it, because where there is right order, things flourish, thrive and strengthen. Where there is disorder? Not so much.

Some things are still easy for us to recognize as disordered:

Rape is disordered.
Pedophilia is disordered.
Murder is disordered.
Lying is disordered.
Theft is disordered.
Physical or emotional cruelty of any kind is disordered.

Some things that are fuzzier for us moderns become clearer when we look at outcomes. For example, it's popular to act as if sex with multiple partners is ordered and natural, but reality shows us differently: Sexually transmitted diseases and infections are nature's blunt way of saying that human beings are meant to be monogamous. Also, 50 million dead unborn babies is a (blood-red) neon sign that our use of sexuality (and our mindset about it) is gravely disordered. There are many other such signs, too, if we have eyes to see.

We know innately that the virtues are ordered. Think of patience, justice, prudence, temperance, fortitude, charity, truthfulness, and so on -- all these represent moral order, not "extremes" to be dismissed for a "middle ground". Chastity has always been included in the virtues.

Our human dignity requires that we aim our sights at what is ordered and then strive for that. Will we always hit the mark? Hardly! The virtues are habits, and moral habits must be cultivated over time (sometimes a long time!), with the help of God's grace. The goal should always be to leave disorder behind and head towards order, which will bring refreshment and interior peace to the soul.

All that to say that from now on, instead of talking about "extremes" vs. "middle ground", I'm going to speak in terms of ordered vs. disordered.

Thoughts?

"Pro-lifers love the fetus, but they don't care about people after they're born!"

If you're pro-life, you've heard it a thousand times. Recently on this blog, it came up again:


"it always seems that pro-life means helping babies in the womb, but not out"


It's a painful thing for pro-lifers to hear. There is no truth to it, and yet it's become a pro-abortion mantra, accepted without question. I'm about to expose this sentiment as fallacy, and later ask you to do the same. I want this to be a "reference post" that pro-lifers can bookmark and use as needed. 


When I first thought of writing this post many months ago, I sent off an email to one of my closest pro-life friends, LeeAnne, asking her to list some of the things she does to help women, children and families. Not knowing that I planned to publish it (heh heh heh), she shot me back a quick list. Here is my fleshed-out summary of what this mother of four does for the pro-life cause in her spare time:

• Works with girls and women in crisis/unplanned pregnancies (loving, women-centered sidewalk counseling outside of abortion clinics), and trains others to do the same.
• Works with referrals when people know someone in a crisis pregnancy, offering hope and guidance and/or material and emotional support when the girls are being pressured to have an abortion.
• Works closely with the pregnant moms and alumni at Maggie's Place (see below), teaching parenting classes among other things. (Moms and babies who "graduate" from Maggie's Place are forever part of the Maggie's Place family).
• Gives high school pro-life and chastity talks, and leads curriculum development for life and love topics. Recently co-created a pilot program for teen formation in our diocese.
• As an adoptee herself, gives adoption talks at 1st Way Pregnancy Resource Center (see below), along with an adoptive mother (Danya!) and two "veteran" birth moms, providing women in crisis with life-giving, loving options.
• Organized Theology of the Body classes for teens, which includes formation in human dignity and healthy sexuality. She hosted dozens of lively teens for eight months in her own home.
• Asked to teach in a high school with high pregnancy rates, helping both girls and guys to realize their innate value and how right relationships work, all with an eye toward the creation of healthy families in the future.
• Gets personally involved, because love is an act of the will: LeeAnne befriended one young woman, "Anna", 18 years old, a refugee, all alone, who had been brutally raped and impregnated. When the young woman decided to parent, LeeAnne and another Catholic friend took Anna under their wings. Anna and her beautiful baby girl have been a part of their lives ever since. No one is abandoned and everyone is loved in the pro-life Catholic "bubble".

As a follow-up, LeeAnne reminded me that meeting a woman's immediate needs in the moment of crisis is only one part of the pro-life witness. Pro-lifers work forward from the point of crisis, in the form of future support and the building of relationships. It can take years and many setbacks for women to break old habits and make good choices; pro-lifers stand by these women for the long haul. They also work backward from the point of crisis, teaching/mentoring junior high and high school kids, offering practical and sound formation before they make the poor life choices that often lead to a crisis pregnancy.

So, it's a continuum of care, support and service, not just a moment in time.

Now, I have shown you the pro-life activities of one of my friends, but there are so many others just in my area who do amazing work for no worldly gain.


For example, there is Maggie's Place, an organization started by five young pro-life Catholic women (recent college grads) who wanted to provide a home for pregnant women with nowhere to go. There are now multiple homes established, staffed by women who have cared for hundreds of new mothers and their babies, and supported by the greater community. Here is their mission statement:

Maggie's Place is a community of homes that provide hospitality for pregnant women who are alone or on the streets. We have a two-fold strategy in assisting mothers to grow. First, Maggie's Place provides for the immediate physical and emotional needs of our guests including shelter, food, clothing, and a supportive community. As such, we are a family and a community! In addition, Maggie's Place connects the mothers to the appropriate agencies and resources including prenatal care, health insurance, low-cost housing, and education programs. In doing so, we are supporting the mother in both her short-term and long-term goals!

Our local pro-life community also supports several pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, such as 1st Way Pregnancy Resource Center:

We the people of 1st Way believe that each woman and child is a unique and valuable human being.

The mission of 1st Way is to provide education and assistance to any woman or teen who is pregnant or thinks she may be. This is accomplished through the free, loving, and non-judgmental provision of information, counseling and practical services.

During pregnancy and afterward, we continue to educate and assist these women in whatever way is needed to support their decision to choose a better way of life.  We educate pregnant women about pre-natal care and assist them in finding jobs and planning for their futures by gently helping them objectively and realistically explore their options. 

Life Choices Women's Clinics (the doctor on staff is a friend and fellow mom) and Aid to Women Center


Our pro-life Catholic community runs and supports the local St. Vincent de Paul Society, which cares for so many families, women and children in so many different ways that it would take ten posts to describe it all. I am honored that SVdP's executive director is a close family friend and a member of my parish. Please read about the first-rate Medical and Dental Clinic there, where over 160 doctors and dentists volunteer to treat over 15,000 patients per year. Or the awe-inspiring Charity Dining Rooms, which serve over six million meals annually to needy families and individuals. Or the Family Eviction Prevention program, the Help for the Working Poor program, the Ministry to the Homeless, the Ministry to the Incarcerated, the Transitional Shelter for those over 50 and the physically or mentally disabled, the Youth Mentoring program, and on and on and on....


The pro-life philosophy is at the heart of everything they do. 


I could continue at length describing programs and outreach just around my own pro-life community and Catholic diocese, but I hope this will begin to debunk the myth of "the uncaring pro-lifer who does nothing to help people after they are born".




**Update: Whoops! I forgot to mention that off the top of my head, I can think of at least seventeen children adopted by my pro-life friends and acquaintances, many of them foster children and older children.


**Update #2: I also forgot to mention our local Catholic program called DIGNITY, which helps girls get out and stay out of a life of prostitution (most girls start at the tender age of 13). These exploited and abused young women receive hope and dignity and lifelong friendship from those who have been there. I hope you will read about this program!


Also, we have Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity here in town. Those sweet sisters care for countless children for no earthly reward. 


I'm sure I will think of countless more ways that pro-lifers help people, but I'm going to force myself to leave it at that, and look forward to your additions in the comments section.





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