Scientists:  Atheists Are Not Really Atheists

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According to a study published in the International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, atheists show scientifically measurable responses indicating probable belief in God.

When Finnish investigators measured emotional response with skin conductance measurements, atheists showed the same conflicted response as religious people did, when asked to dare God to do terrible things.

Despite atheists’ verbal claims that they did not find God statements such as “I dare God to make my parents drown” unpleasant,  measurement of their emotional arousal while making those statements were identical to those of religious people, who verbally acknowledged such statements to be highly disturbing.

Previously, it was reported that Richard Dawkins, a globally prominent atheist leader, acknowledges his own uncertainty on the existence of God; Dawkins assigns a probability of 15% to the existence of God. See World’s Most Famous Atheist Not Sure Whether God Exists.

More on the Finnish skin conductance study at Pacific Standard.
Original study at Taylor & Francis Online.

 

 

 

Obama In Catholic Cathedral Pulpit

An interfaith service was held  at Boston’s Catholic Holy Cross Cathedral on April 18, 2013, dedicated to those affected by the terror attack at the Boston Marathon.  President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attended, and President Obama spoke at the gathering.

Pros and Cons

The pros and cons of giving President Obama the pulpit in an American Catholic Cathedral can and will be argued, particularly by Catholics.

The use of a Catholic Church for public prayer at a time when Boston turns to God is a very powerful and appropriate symbol of the universality of the Catholic Church, and of its predominance in America and in the world.  The Catholic Church is the largest religious denomination in Boston, in Massachusetts, in the United States, and until, recently, in the world.

• 45% of Boston is Catholic
• 44% of Massachusettes is Catholic 
• 24% of Americans are Catholic
• Islam just outnumbered Catholics worldwide in 2008

 

However, giving America’s most radically pro-abortion  President who supports the redefinition of marriage and of family, and who has spearheaded the violation of the religious freedom of Catholics in the United States, giving this President the pulpit in a Catholic Cathedral from which he can spread his dubious theology is also a contestable choice.

On President Obama’s violation of the religious freedom of Catholics:

• August 1^st, 2012 – Day of Infamy 
• July 4^th or Obama’s Independence Day Gift to America – a Trojan Horse 
• What’s in a Mandate?
• To My Friends Who Are Democrats

Not surprisingly, prior to the interfaith service, the wisdom of letting President Obama take the pulpit at Holy Cross Cathedral was questioned by many.

Catholics asked themselves whether the Catholic Church’s customary role as mankind’s intermediary with God would be exercised through this arrangement, or whether the Catholic Church and her teachings would be debased by the presence of Barack Obama in the pulpit.  The same Barack Obama, who 6 days later became the first US President to speak at Planned Parenthood, where he ended his speech by invoking God’s blessings on Planned Parenthood.  Planned Parenthood performs 1/3 million abortions per year, and receives over half a billion federal dollars annually towards that effort. Six out of ten Americans oppose federal funding of abortion (3 of 10 approve).  Abortion is a much bigger deal than most think.

The key to what would happen at the interfaith prayer service, whether it would facilitate a beautiful ecumenical lifting of souls to God, or whether it would resemble more a cheap political stunt debasing the Catholic Church, would lie in what each of the two men, Cardinal O’Malley and President Obama, said while standing in the pulpit.

As it turns out, neither man went to any heroic or shocking extremes, and it is not clear to this Catholic whether the use of Boston’s Holy Cross Cathedral for this purpose was appropriate.

Other faiths, in including Islam, were also represented at the prayer service.  Mercifully, the choice of Islam representative was corrected in the nick of time, before an Imam from a Muslim Brotherhood-linked Mosque ended up in the pulpit of Holy Cross Cathedral.

What Did the Cardinal and the President Say from the Pulpit?

The Cardinal:

For text of Cardinal O’Malley’s homily, scroll down below.

 

In his homily, Cardinal O’Malley did somewhat courageously mentioned the culture of death, abortion, the devaluation of human life, and the need for steering clear of revenge.  These subjects reflect Catholic Church teaching, and are relevant and appropriate to the Boston Marathon tragedy.  Cardinal O’Malley’s role as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities made him an ideal spokesman on these issues.

 

Other comments made by the Cardinal must have reflected his more personal views.  Cardial O’Malley voiced his disappointment over insufficient gun control, and made almost friendly, or at least neutral references to the Communist Party and to “community building,” a phrase that has taken on somewhat progressive political connotations in recent years.  The Catholic Church takes no position on gun control or on “community building,” but it does tread cautiously where Communism is concerned:

Paragraph 2425:    The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modern times with “communism” or “socialism.” She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of “capitalism,” individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor.²⁰⁷ Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails social justice, for “there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market.”²⁰⁸ Reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended.

 The President:

The text of President Obama’s address is also provided below; scroll down.

 

Mercifully, President Obama refrained from commenting on hot-button issues, and did nothing shocking like asking God to bless the dismemberment of unborn and accidentally born infants at Planned Parenthood.  He did not push his views directly, as he had done at the recent dedication of the George W. Bush Library, where he had promoted his immigration views.

.The most controversial aspect of President Obama’s speech was his omissions.  The President avoided any mention of jihad or terrorism, and limited his reference to the bombers to calling them “perpetrators of such senseless violence — these small, stunted individuals.”

The President’s speech also reflected the his global world view, including a somewhat personal perspective.

President Obama’s assured Boston that those who carried out the Boston Marathon bombing would face justice. He said that Americans always “come together to celebrate life,” and referred to the source of American strength.  According to the President, our American strength comes from our faith in each other.  President Obama said that Boston is “the perfect state of grace,” and that the political and religious leaders of Boston, as well as the people of Boston, are the source of grace.

The President’s focus on people (instead of God) as the source of faith, of grace and of justice, was disconcerting.  Religious Americans usually consider God to be the source of faith, grace and justice.  Non-religious Americans generally avoid discussing faith and grace altogether, and struggle to agree on what constitutes justice.
So the President’s use of terms like the “state of grace” in a secular context made his intent somewhat obscure.

The President did reference God several times, as the source of our power, love, and self-discipline, as one Who holds close those who died, Who comforts their families, and Who will continue to watch over the United States.

The President seemed to have no understanding of the irony of his comments regarding “celebrating life,” or “visiting death upon innocents” in Boston.  As President, he must know that half of his nation opposes abortion and two thirds of us oppose its federal funding.  So to speak of “celebrating life” and “death of innocents” in the aftermath of the Boston tragedy, while failing to show any compassion for the 1 million annual innocent lives lost to abortion, and failing to comment on the horror stories of the Gosnell abortion clinic trial and scandal, was bound to antagonize much of the President’s audience.

Text of Cardinal O’Malley’s homily:

Jesus said “they will strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter”; that is what happened to His disciples after the Crucifixion, as they scattered in fear, doubt and panic.

This week we are all scattered by the pain and horror of the senseless violence perpetrated on Patriots Day. Last Sunday at the 11:30 Mass here at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Fr. O’Leary led a special blessing for the many runners who participated in the Mass. Some people here were among those injured and those who witnessed the terrible events that unfolded at the finish line of the Marathon, but everyone was profoundly affected by the wanton violence and destruction inflicted upon our community by two young men unknown to all of us.

It is very difficult to understand what was going on in the young men’s minds, what demons were operative, what ideologies or politics or the perversion of their religion. It was amazing to witness, however, how much goodness and generosity were evidenced in our community as a result of the tragic events they perpetrated.

It reminds me of a passage in Dorothy Day’s autobiography where she speaks about experiencing a serious earthquake in California when she was a young girl. Suddenly neighbors that never spoke were helping each other, sharing their food and water, caring for children and the elderly. She was amazed and delighted, but a few weeks later people retreated to their former individualism and indifference.

Dorothy Day spent the rest of her life looking to recapture the spirit of community. That led her to the Communist Party and eventually it led her into the Catholic Church and to found the Catholic Worker Movement, dedicating herself to the care of the homeless, the drug addict

This past week we have experienced a surge in civic awareness and sense of community. It has been inspiring to see the generous and at times heroic responses to the Patriots Day violence. Our challenge is to keep this spirit of community alive going forward. As people of faith, we must commit ourselves to the task of community building.

Jesus teaches us in the Gospel that we must care for each other, especially the most vulnerable; the hungry, the sick, the homeless, the foreigner; all have a special claim on our love. We must be a people of reconciliation, not revenge. The crimes of the two young men must not be the justification for prejudice against Muslims and against immigrants.

The Gospel is the antidote to the “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth” mentality. The parable of the Good Samaritan is the story about helping one’s neighbor when that neighbor was from an enemy tribe, a foreign religion, a hostile group. The Samaritan cuts through centuries of antipathy by seeing in the Jewish man who had been beaten and left for dead not a stranger or an enemy, but a fellow human being who has a claim of his humanity and compassion.

We know so little about the two young men who perpetrated these heinous acts of violence. One said he had no friends in this country, the other said his chief interests were money and his career. People need to be part of a community to lead a fully human life. As believers one of our tasks is to build community, to value people more than money or things, to recognize in each person a child of God, made in the image and likeness of our Creator.

The individualism and alienation of our age has spawned a culture of death. Over a million abortions a year is one indication of how human life has been devalued. Violent entertainment, films and video games have coarsened us and made us more insensitive to the pain and suffering of others. The inability of the Congress to enact laws that control access to automatic weapons is emblematic of the pathology of our violent culture.

When Pope John Paul II visited Madrid in 2003, addressing one million young people, he told them; “Respond to the blind violence and inhuman hatred with the fascinating power of love.” We all know that evil has its fascination and attraction but too often we lose sight of the fact that love and goodness also have the power to attract and that virtue is winsome. Passing on the faith means helping people to lead a good life, a moral life, a just life. Thus part of our task as believers is to help our people become virtuous.

Plato thought that virtue was knowledge. As Chain Ginott, the concentration camp survivor, reminds us, doctors, nurses, scientists and soldiers were part of the Holocaust machinery, showing that knowledge is not virtue, and often science and technology have been put at the service of evil. It is only a culture of life and an ethic of love that can rescue us from the senseless violence that inflicts so much suffering on our society.

Like Christ our Good Shepherd, we who aspire to be Jesus’ disciples and to follow His way of life, we too must work to gather the scattered, to draw people into Christ’s community. It is in His Gospel that we find the answers to the questions of life and the challenging ideals that are part of discipleship; mercy, forgiveness, self sacrifice, service, justice and truth.

John Lennon once said, ‘Everything will be OK in the end. If it’s not OK, it’s not the end.’ Our faith goes beyond that optimism. Love is stronger than death. We are going to live forever in the Resurrection Christ won for us on the Cross. The innocent victims who perished this week; Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, Lu Lingzi, Officer Sean Collier, will live in eternity. Life is not ended, merely changed – that is the message of Easter. As Martin Luther King expressed, ‘Death is a comma, not a period at the end of a sentence.’

Although the culture of death looms large, our Good Shepherd rose from the grave on Easter and His light can expel the darkness and illuminate for us a path that leads to life, to a civilization of solidarity and love. I hope that the events of this past week have taught us how high the stakes are. We must build a civilization of love, or there will be no civilization at all.

 

Text of President Obama’s Address:

 

Hello, Boston! 

Scripture tells us to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.”  Run with endurance the race that is set before us. 

On Monday morning, the sun rose over Boston.  The sunlight glistened off the Statehouse dome.  In the Common and the Public Garden, spring was in bloom.  On this Patriot’s Day, like so many before, fans jumped onto the T to see the Sox at Fenway.  In Hopkinton, runners laced up their shoes and set out on a 26.2-mile test of dedication and grit and the human spirit.  And across this city, hundreds of thousands of Bostonians lined the streets — to hand the runners cups of water and to cheer them on.

It was a beautiful day to be in Boston — a day that explains why a poet once wrote that this town is not just a capital, not just a place.  Boston, he said, “is the perfect state of grace.” 

And then, in an instant, the day’s beauty was shattered.  A celebration became a tragedy.  And so we come together to pray, and mourn, and measure our loss.   But we also come together today to reclaim that state of grace — to reaffirm that the spirit of this city is undaunted, and the spirit of this country shall remain undimmed.

To Governor Patrick; Mayor Menino; Cardinal O’Malley and all the faith leaders who are here; Governors Romney, Swift, Weld and Dukakis; members of Congress; and most of all, the people of Boston and the families who’ve lost a piece of your heart.  We thank you for your leadership.  We thank you for your courage.  We thank you for your grace. 

I’m here today on behalf of the American people with a simple message:  Every one of us has been touched by this attack on your beloved city.  Every one of us stands with you. 

Because, after all, it’s our beloved city, too.  Boston may be your hometown, but we claim it, too.  It’s one of America’s iconic cities.  It’s one of the world’s great cities.  And one of the reasons the world knows Boston so well is that Boston opens its heart to the world.

Over successive generations, you’ve welcomed again and again new arrivals to our shores — immigrants who constantly reinvigorated this city and this commonwealth and our nation.  Every fall, you welcome students from all across America and all across the globe, and every spring you graduate them back into the world — a Boston diaspora that excels in every field of human endeavor.  Year after year, you welcome the greatest talents in the arts and science, research — you welcome them to your concert halls and your hospitals and your laboratories to exchange ideas and insights that draw this world together. 

And every third Monday in April, you welcome people from all around the world to the Hub for friendship and fellowship and healthy competition — a gathering of men and women of every race and every religion, every shape and every size; a multitude represented by all those flags that flew over the finish line.

So whether folks come here to Boston for just a day, or they stay here for years, they leave with a piece of this town tucked firmly into their hearts.  So Boston is your hometown, but we claim it a little bit, too

I know this because there’s a piece of Boston in me.  You welcomed me as a young law student across the river; welcomed Michelle, too.  You welcomed me during a convention when I was still a state senator and very few people could pronounce my name right.

Like you, Michelle and I have walked these streets.  Like you, we know these neighborhoods.  And like you, in this moment of grief, we join you in saying — “Boston, you’re my home.”  For millions of us, what happened on Monday is personal.  It’s personal.

Today our prayers are with the Campbell family of Medford.  They’re here today.  Their daughter, Krystle, was always smiling. Those who knew her said that with her red hair and her freckles and her ever-eager willingness to speak her mind, she was beautiful, sometimes she could be a little noisy, and everybody loved her for it.  She would have turned 30 next month.  As her mother said through her tears, “This doesn’t make any sense.” 

Our prayers are with the Lu family of China, who sent their daughter, Lingzi, to BU so that she could experience all this city has to offer.  She was a 23-year-old student, far from home. And in the heartache of her family and friends on both sides of a great ocean, we’re reminded of the humanity that we all share.

Our prayers are with the Richard family of Dorchester — to Denise and their young daughter, Jane, as they fight to recover. And our hearts are broken for 8-year-old Martin — with his big smile and bright eyes.  His last hours were as perfect as an 8-year-old boy could hope for — with his family, eating ice cream at a sporting event.  And we’re left with two enduring images of this little boy — forever smiling for his beloved Bruins, and forever expressing a wish he made on a blue poster board:  “No more hurting people.  Peace.”  

No more hurting people.  Peace.

Our prayers are with the injured -— so many wounded, some gravely.  From their beds, some are surely watching us gather here today.  And if you are, know this:  As you begin this long journey of recovery, your city is with you.  Your commonwealth is with you.  Your country is with you.  We will all be with you as you learn to stand and walk and, yes, run again.  Of that I have no doubt.  You will run again. You will run again.

Because that’s what the people of Boston are made of.  Your resolve is the greatest rebuke to whoever committed this heinous act.  If they sought to intimidate us, to terrorize us, to shake us from those values that Deval described, the values that make us who we are, as Americans — well, it should be pretty clear by now that they picked the wrong city to do it.  Not here in Boston.  Not here in Boston.

You’ve shown us, Boston, that in the face of evil, Americans will lift up what’s good.  In the face of cruelty, we will choose compassion.  In the face of those who would visit death upon innocents, we will choose to save and to comfort and to heal.  We’ll choose friendship.  We’ll choose love. 

Scripture teaches us, “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”  And that’s the spirit you’ve displayed in recent days. 

When doctors and nurses, police and firefighters and EMTs and Guardsmen run towards explosions to treat the wounded — that’s discipline. 

When exhausted runners, including our troops and veterans — who never expected to see such carnage on the streets back home  — become first responders themselves, tending to the injured — that’s real power. 

When Bostonians carry victims in their arms, deliver water and blankets, line up to give blood, open their homes to total strangers, give them rides back to reunite with their families — that’s love.

That’s the message we send to those who carried this out and anyone who would do harm to our people.  Yes, we will find you.  And, yes, you will face justice.   We will find you. We will hold you accountable.  But more than that; our fidelity to our way of life — to our free and open society — will only grow stronger.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but one of power and love and self-discipline.

Like Bill Iffrig, 78 years old — the runner in the orange tank top who we all saw get knocked down by the blast — we may be momentarily knocked off our feet, but we’ll pick ourselves up. We’ll keep going.  We will finish the race.  In the words of Dick Hoyt, who’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, in 31 Boston Marathons — “We can’t let something like this stop us.”  This doesn’t stop us. 

And that’s what you’ve taught us, Boston.  That’s what you’ve reminded us — to push on.  To persevere.  To not grow weary.  To not get faint.  Even when it hurts.  Even when our heart aches.  We summon the strength that maybe we didn’t even know we had, and we carry on.  We finish the race.  We finish the race.  

And we do that because of who we are.  And we do that because we know that somewhere around the bend a stranger has a cup of water.  Around the bend, somebody is there to boost our spirits.  On that toughest mile, just when we think that we’ve hit a wall, someone will be there to cheer us on and pick us up if we fall.  We know that. 

And that’s what the perpetrators of such senseless violence — these small, stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build, and think somehow that makes them important — that’s what they don’t understand.  Our faith in each other, our love for each other, our love for country, our common creed that cuts across whatever superficial differences there may be — that is our power.  That’s our strength. 

That’s why a bomb can’t beat us.  That’s why we don’t hunker down.  That’s why we don’t cower in fear.  We carry on.  We race. We strive.  We build, and we work, and we love — and we raise our kids to do the same.  And we come together to celebrate life, and to walk our cities, and to cheer for our teams.  When the Sox and Celtics and Patriots or Bruins are champions again — to the chagrin of New York and Chicago fans — the crowds will gather and watch a parade go down Boylston Street. 

And this time next year, on the third Monday in April, the world will return to this great American city to run harder than ever, and to cheer even louder, for the 118th Boston Marathon.  Bet on it.   

Tomorrow, the sun will rise over Boston.  Tomorrow, the sun will rise over this country that we love.  This special place.  This state of grace.

Scripture tells us to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.”  As we do, may God hold close those who’ve been taken from us too soon.  May He comfort their families.  And may He continue to watch over these United States of America.

 

Additional Details on the Interfaith Service

A more detailed description of the Holy Cross Cathedral interfaith service can be found in the National Catholic Register:

 

 

Instilling Virtue in Future World Leaders…

What an Opportunity!

Just last week, my husband and I had a chance to visit our old “stomping grounds” in Princeton, New Jersey, where he was invited to give a lecture.  While there, we chanced across another incredible lecture by a Princeton alumnus, Steve Forbes, entitled Why the Tax and Monetary Sins of the West Now Threaten Civilization.  Just had to share that lecture, and a bit about the incredible people behind it!  (for audio and summary, scroll down below)

In the photo (left to right), I am pictured after the lecture with Steve Forbes, and with Robert P. George.  These are two very remarkable men, who are making great strides toward instilling virtue in our next generation of intellectuals.

Steve Forbes

The speaker, Malcolm Stevenson “Steve” Forbes, is an ardent pro-life supporter, and knows the value of a higher moral standard in society.  He also advocates common-sense fiscal policies which he distills from his study of history (both recent and not-so-recent), as well as from his family’s capacity as financial experts and journalists for over a century.  Steve campaigned for Republican nomination to the presidency twice, in 1996 and in 2000.  His views, more liberal in the first election, shifted toward conservatism, and in 2000 he opposed abortion and supported prayer in public schools.

While on the Board of Trustees of Princeton University, Steve’s alma mater (’70), Steve Forbes issued a statement in 1999, withdrawing his donations from Princeton University due to its hiring of philospher Peter Singer, who advocates infanticide and views personhood as being limited to ‘sentient’ beings.  Singer, despite his exclusion of some disabled people and of infants from personhood, was appointed by Princeton University to a place of honor in an endowed chair of bioethics.  Steve Forbes sent a letter withdrawing financial backing from Princeton, stating that “Peter Singer is part of what the Pope rightly calls the “culture of death.”

Shortly after Singer’s appointment, Steve Forbes left the Princeton Board of Trustees, after 10 years of service.  In 2000, he co-founded the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton, which today offers students high caliber lectures almost weekly, in association with Princeton’s Department of Politics.

 Robert P. George

Steve was introduced by Robert P. George, the Director of the Princeton University James Madison Program.  (More information on the James Madison Program after the lecture summary and audio.)  Professor George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, and has been called America’s “most influential conservative Christian thinker”. . George drafted the Manhattan Declaration, a manifesto signed by Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical leaders that “promised resistance to the point of civil disobedience against any legislation that might implicate their churches or charities in abortion, embryo-destructive research or same-sex marriage.”

This manifesto has been signed by over half a million people, including about 250 prominent US religious leaders from all faiths, and including 55 Roman Catholic Bishops.  For my Madison friends,  Madison’s Bishop Morlino was among the first to sign the Manhattan Declaration.  I have signed it as well.

I could go on about the seemingly endless credentials of these two men, but let’s get to the lecture.  Suffice it to say that I stand in awe of both them, and I pray that efforts like theirs will begin to balance the liberal propaganda offered at most Universities under the guise of education, so that our young people, whose minds and consciences are being formed at Universities, get to hear virtuous alternatives and arguments.

The Lecture

The lecture took place at Princeton University,  in McCosh Hall at 4:30PM, on March 10th, 2013. .Audio: Why the Tax and Monetary Sins of the West Now Threaten Civilization: Steve Forbes at Princeton 3-10-13

Princeton Chapel and McCosh Hall

 

Summary of Steve Forbes’ lecture:

Steve Forbes’ talk, in conjunction with the title, and with the historical analysis he provided, implied that irresponsible policies such as abandoning the gold standard and excessive taxation not only caused the Great Depression, which could have been averted, but may threaten our present civilization, although there is still adequate time for correction.

Introduction by Robert P. George, Director of the Princeton University James Madison Program – Steve Forbes is one of the co-founders of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is widely known as Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of

Forbes Media, which was founded by Steve’s grandfather (Bertie Charles Forbes, born in Scotland, 1880). Forbes is the nation’s leading business magazine with a circulation of over
900,000. Each issue’s “Fact and Comment” editorial is written by Steve, and he is widely recognized as a financial journalist whose economic forecasts have proved most accurate.

Steve has served on a variety of influential commissions, including heading President Reagan’s bi-partisan Board for International Broadcasting. He oversaw Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, which have been acknowledged to have helped President Reagan in his efforts to dismantle the iron curtain.

Steve campaigned twice (1996 and 2000) for the Republican nomination for the presidency.
He currently serves on several Foundations, including the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Steve received the BA degree from Princeton in 1970, and he served as a member of the board of trustees of Princeton University for 10 years.

 

Steve Forbes speaks (summary):

This is a talk about America’s founding and America’s future. The US plays unique role in the world – it has been the guarantor of peace and stability in the world. Recall what happened in the 1930s when there was no such power in the world. The security umbrella provided by the US has prevented world wars from developing since the 1940s.

In the 1970s, a weak US government with weak policies lead to a perceived decline, and world instability grew.
A strengthened government with changes in policy in the 1980s caused democracy to spread world-wide.

The US instituted massive tax cuts, rebuilt its economy and military strength, creativity rose, and the Berlin wall fell.
From the early 1980s to 2007 the world went through an amazing period of growth where never before had so many people enjoyed such economic growth – millions joined the middle class in countries like India, China and Africa.

So what went wrong?
France, Germany, Japan are in recession – massive spending is hurting China.

Crises are seen in North Korea and the Middle East.
Iran’s buildup of nuclear weapons is threatening Israel.
The US has moved military assets to that part of the world to keep oil flowing.
Extremist groups are active, China has massive military buildup, Vietnam is begging the US for help.
All of this is happening because the US is seen as being in decline.
The US’s financial crisis is seen as evidence of a fundamental flaw in free-market capitalism.

Where do we go from here?
The situation we have today is the result of fundamental policy errors in money and taxes, like those of the 1930 and 1970s.
These errors are errors in Monetary Policy and Taxes/Trade – topics that are so boring that the Federal Reserve has no oversight by Congress!
Monetary policy is an intimidating subject.

The Central Bank must supply the right amount of money to prevent stalling or flooding the economic engine.
Our Central Bank has been printing too much money.
They do not understand that money or currency is just a means to facilitate trade.
Distortions occur when the Fed does not understand that wealth is created by you – not by money.

For this to work, money must have a fixed value, like time or length.
If the number of hours in a day does not have a fixed value, how would you know how to pay someone’s hourly rate?
With variable value of money, investment in a more productive future is discouraged, and instead money goes into hard assets to preserve what you have.
In the 1970s oil went from $3 to $40 per barrel.
When inflation was stopped by Reagan, oil went down to $20 where it stayed for 20 years.

You know there are problems when people start talking about investing in gold.
Why would people want to invest in gold?
Faulty government policies create mistrust in the value of currency.
Money is not being invested the way it should in building businesses for the future.
If you don’t know whether your investment will pay back an amount in today’s dollars, or in some lesser amount, you do not take the risk.

If the hour was suddenly made 50 minutes by government policy, how would you decide what to pay the hourly worker? Inflation undermines investments, wages stagnate, and social trust is undermined. This demoralizes society by creating arbitrarily winners and losers.

Windfall gains by some lead to unstable commodities.  Others lose since they cannot get loans to build businesses. Effort and reward are severed, and speculation seems an easier way to get ahead than productive effort. Lenin once noted that “the best way is to undermine the social order is to debauch the currency”! If we do not have stable money, you get protectionism.

So what will happen?
I believe that the dollar will be realigned with G-O-L-D, which guarantees a fixed value of money.
The market should determine the value of money, not Washington.
Gold is the one thing we have that keeps its intrinsic value.
Fixing the mile at 5,280 feet, does not mean that you cannot build more highway.
Similarly, gold just fixes the value of money – it sets the standard.
This worked for 180 years – and gave us a stable value of money.

The other error made by government concerns Taxes and Trade.
Taxes are not just a means to raise revenue for government – taxes are the price you have to pay to take risks on your investments.
Therefore it is easy to see that lowering taxes encourages people to do more.
Raise the price of something, you get less, lower the price you get more – it is just that simple!

For the first time since the 1930s we have countries increasing taxes instead of lowering them in the face of declining economies.
This is in spite of plenty of evidence that raising taxes deepens the decline.
Greece is in a depression – yet it is raising taxes, Italy is stagnant – but it is raising taxes.
Portugal, Spain, France are wondering why people are leaving their countries.
Japan raised its taxes and is going nowhere.

Is there hope? Yes!
In the Baltic states and Sweden, where they have not raised taxes, people are doing well.
In the US, states without income taxes do much better than those that do.
Illinois, California, Connecticut, Maryland are going in the the same direction as Greece.
The good news is that people do eventually learn from their mistakes.

Structural changes are needed so that economies can come back.
Put another way, Lincoln’s Gettysburg address is only 272 words, the Declaration of Independence: 1,300 words, the US Constitution and amendments: 7,200 words, the Bible: 773,000 words, and the US Tax code is 9,000,000 words and running!
Nobody knows what is in it!
But consensus is emerging to revamp the tax code.
This includes cutting taxes and eliminating death taxes (i.e., no taxation without respiration!)
The US population spends $6.5B per year on preparing taxes.
This money can be put to much better use!

Signs of change are being seen.
Once the US starts to get it right, other countries will follow.
The Great Depression was the result of massive government error that started with the US government raising taxes and tariff out of ignorance.
In 1930 they decide to raise taxes on imports.
Other countries retaliated by raising taxes, and this destroyed the global trading system, and led to the depression.
Stable exchange rates and removal of trade barriers are simple measures that history has shown lead to success.

These changes will recreate the momentum we had before 2007, where everyone in the world will have, as Lincoln put it, “a chance to improve their lot in life” again.

 -End of Steve Forbes Talk Summary

 

 

The James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions

The James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions was founded in 2000 by the Department of Politics at Princeton University and “is dedicated to exploring fundamental and enduring questions of political thought and constitutional law.  It promotes greater appreciation of Western tradition of legal and political thought, and supports the application of fundamental principles to modern social problems, particularly as they are manifested in the domain of public law.  By supporting the study of foundational issues, the Program seeks to fulfill its mandate of offering civic education of the highest possible caliber.”

The James Madison Program at Princeton also supports the James Madison Society, which is an international community of scholars whose research contributes to civic education in institutions of higher learning.  Members of the Society share the belief of James Madison that only a well-instructed people can be permanently free.  They also share a commitment to instill within rising generations an appreciation of the common good and the moral foundations of democratic governance. The Society provides a forum through which scholars who have demonstrated a commitment to excellence in constitutional law, political thought, and related fields, can engage in intensive discussions about their research and teaching.

 Expansion Needed!

After listening to Steve’s lecture audio above, or reading the summary of it, it is clear that the James Madison Program should expand its reach to as many universities as possible, so as to instill reasoned values of virtue and common-sense
in our students, the future leaders of our society.

The James Madison Program website offers opportunities for audio and video of previous talks, schedules of future talks, email notification of events, and opportunities to contribute to this crucial program, which specailizes in instilling values in the future leaders of America.

Freedom From Religion Contracting Leprosy and Dissolving in Shame?

or

A Double Standard

Truth about Wisconsin’s Freedom From Religions Foundation (FFRF) published at FindLaw.com!

FindLaw.com has alerted us to an amusing but true perspective on FFRF and it’s agenda.
Click image above to go to FindLaw.com, see original article at American Clarion, or continue below:

A Double Standard in Freedom From Religion Foundation’s Actions

March 3, 2013

By Stewart Longfellow

By now it has become obvious that when a country’s values are under attack constantly, there’s something rotten…and it’s not in Denmark…it emanates from Wisconsin, with a group that seems hell-bent on attacking Christians.

The group, Freedom From Religion Foundation has put its’ crosshairs directly on the city of Rapid City, in an effort to silence a simple prayer before the meeting starts. (Rapid City Council and Mayor pictured at right.) Nothing severe, nothing offensive, but apparently, praying causes these peoples’ ears to bleed, contract leprosy and dissolve in shame.

Ok, embellishing a little there, but in all seriousness, just what is it that causes this group to have a classic hissy-fit over religion’s simple act of talking to God? For one, what is so offensive about the act of praying, when these people are supposed to not believe in prayer and want to deny its use in the world?

More importantly, why does this group practice a double-standard, in not attacking all religions equally?

Take for example Dearborn MI, where the Muslims control things lock, stock and barrel. Do you see these folks walking along the street, telling people who pray publicly five times a day, to not pray in public places? How about the act of wearing religious clothing? How about around the country where Native Americans have religious items like medicine wheels, tobacco usage or imagery, do they harass these people as well, or is it simply an attack on the church and it’s action of speaking with the Creator?

For what it’s worth, it also seems time to take a David vs Goliath approach to these people, who seem to enjoy being the bully of the block…and take the fight back to them.

For one, even a person uneducated in the government, can read basic English. In the First Amendment, it mentions “prohibiting the free exercise thereof” in terms of religion. Nowhere, in the Constitution does it mention the Separation of Church and state, nor does it mention silencing people praying as a right…but it does mention the freedom of speech. Since obviously that means this group is looking to deprive people of their rights, perhaps it’s time to bring legal action, and hit them where it would hurt the most…that’s right, the pocketbooks.

The freedom to practice whatever religion you wish, is a right the founding fathers put in our hands…don’t let a bunch of bullies push us around.

Thanks to American Clarion, thanks to FindLaw.com!

If everyone spoke up like this, radical bullies would get nowhere.
They are right, we need more Davids to step up to Goliath.  Especially when “Goliath” is as tiny as FFRF.

 

 

 

 

 

The Pope App!

 

 

Is Mainstream Media  Botching Reporting on Our Faith and on Morality?

Sick of mainstream media silence/misrepresentation on Vatican/Catholic  news?

Get your Catholic news and perspective from the source, get it live, and get it on your iPhone or iPad.

Then, pass it on.
We will help the media with doing their job.

The Pope App has arrived!

The Pope App has arrived!

The Pope App is free.
It provides live streaming of papal events and video feeds from the Vatican’s webcams. Plus some messages and inspirational quotes from Pope Benedict XVI.

The Pope App is available immediately for iPhones and iPads. An Android version will be available in February.

Leave it to Pope Benedict to find ways to circumvent the silence of the mainstream media!

What’s in a Name?

The name of the App is Pontificium Consilium de Communicationibus Socialibus.
You might not need your Latin dictionary to figure out that’s Pontifical Council for Social Communications

For a message from the Pope on how we should all be using social communications, as he calls for evangelism on social networks, see Social Networks: Portals of Truth and Faith; New Spaces for Evangelization.

For more details on the Pope App, see Canada’s Catholic Register.

Don’t Like the Job Mainstream Media’s is Doing?
We’ll Do It For Them!
Pope Benedict at the Helm, and 1 Billion Catholics Following.

(Not all of us have iPhones and iPads, but those who do, are now called to a new mission!)

 

The Baby

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Reflection for January 2013:
Where would we be without the Baby?

Babies are such an assumed part of life, that few stop to think where we would be without babies.
Yet without babies, civilization would grind to a halt in less than 50 years.
We would all lie around in unstaffed nursing homes, with nobody to take care of us.
Getting rid of babies, even just a portion of them, contributes more to the demise of our civilization than some potential global warming or some imagined asteroid hit.

Babies replenish the human race.
Babies people the planet.
Babies turn into adults, who do the work.
Babies turn into taxpayers, who pay the bills.
Babies have always been around, and there has never been a shortage of them (until now).

God’s Wisdom

God in His wisdom designed the human race as male and female, designed the love between man and woman to be powerful, faithful and fruitful, providing a constant source of babies born out of that love.  God instructed us on how to live out that love in the family, the most basic and most successful method for the perpetuation of the human race.

The success of the family in the continuation of the human race rests in the sacrificial love found only in the family.
The family reflects the same sacrificial love God showed for us on His Cross.
The family reflects Christ’s kind of love, which gives up one’s life for others, as good parents would for the child that they love.

The Importance of the Baby

God, in addition to designing babies into the perpetuation of the human race, chose to come to us himself as a baby.

This says something. On the part of God, it was a very intentional and meaningful choice.

God could have come as a King, a warrior, a wise man, a superman, or even as an alien form of life.  He could have come as a teenager, as a woman, or as someone who is 130 years old.
He could have come as bodiless spirit with super powers (as Himself).

But God chose to come to us as a baby.
God also chose to retain the humility and the lack of worldliness which are characteristic of a baby throughout His life, in order to illustrate to us how we should live, and what is of utmost importance in this life.

We just finished celebrating the Nativity of Christ at Christmas.
In His arrival as a baby, God illustrated to us all the essential elements of a holy and successful family.
One man, one woman, for a lifetime, welcoming children.

Babies in History

God came to earth as a baby.
He survived Herod’s slaughter of baby boys by fleeing to Egypt, guided by his father Joseph, who was guided by God in a dream.
Apparently Herod knew the potential one baby can represent.
Long before that, Pharaoh knew the potential one baby can represent; Pharoah slaughtered all Hebrew babies in an attempt to get rid of Moses.

Today, many have forgotten the importance, the sacredness, and the potential of babies, as well as of all human life.

Today, we contracept and abort away our babies, our  future citizens, out of some misguided and short sighted attempt to avoid inconvenience.

Abortion: Convenience, or Suicidal Act?

Regrettably, in addition to taking away another human being’s right to life, the “convenience” achieved by the elimination of a baby is extremely short lived.  The guilt, the loss and the mourning caused by abortion overwhelms us, and our lives are damaged, not improved.  We deprive ourselves of our own children, and deprive our society of its future citizens.  We also suffer the economic impact of eliminating millions of human beings from future contribution to our nation.

Steve Jobs was almost aborted, but was put up for adoption instead. How fortunate!
President Obama, as the black child of a single mother, would today have faced a 77% probability of abortion. Is he grateful for his gift of life?  Was that gift from God, or was it from his parents, and should parents have the right to dispose of a child?  If disposal before birth is O.K., why not after birth?

One child can change the world, and it is not for us to decide which child lives and which child dies.  When we do that, we try to play God ourselves.

How Many Babies Do We Need?

God used to do a pretty good job of determining how many babies we need.
Now, if want to take over that job, the moral implications of terminating millions of lives aside, it would be wise to figure out how many babies our society needs.

For starters, we need to replace ourselves; an ever-shrinking society cannot maintain its infrastructure or take care of its aged.
It’s obvious that each married couple needs to have 2 children to replace themselves.

Plus another to make up for those who don’t marry?

Catholics used to have a tradition of firstborn sons going into the priesthood, and of encouraging at least one daughter to enter the convent.  The resulting supply of priests and religious who staff the Churches, schools, charitable institutions, orphanages and hospitals, helped families to raise moral and upstanding children, and helped to benefit all of humanity throughout the centuries.  These spiritual servants did not marry, did not have children, and had to be replaced in the society. So married couples should have a third child at least, to allow some of their children to make such saintly and dedicated career choices in life.

Disease, plague and accidents also claim lives. More replacements needed.
Some people are not fertile.  They have to be replaced as well.
Better add child #4 to the family.

So any determination of number of babies needed should account for all of the above factors and needs.  And the number of babies needed from each fertile couple is not going to be, by any calculation zero, nor one or two.  Those of us who do not have at least 4 children, unless we have fertility problems, are not pulling our weight, as far at the perpetuation of the human race is concerned.

And for every married couple with zero children, we need a married couple with 8 children.
May God bless large families and may the rest of us celebrate them and support them!

(BTW, for those looking for an economic motivation to add to moral and loving motivations, large families tend to take care of their elderly themselves, rather than relying on your taxpayer money and on nursing homes to take care of their elderly.  And their elderly are happier and healthier.)

The Job of Raising a Baby

The job of raising a Baby is the most important job in the world.
The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.

Babies raised with sacrificial love, most often found in parental love, can  turn into heroes and saints like Abraham Lincoln and Pope John Paul the Great.
Babies who are neglected or abused can often turn into cruel monsters like Saddam Hussein and Hitler, who were mistreated as children.
Those who rocked the cradles of these babies (or didn’t) are responsible, to some degree, for the deeds of the children.

The raising of a baby is important.  It brings the potential for the greatest joy, the greatest achievement, and the greatest fulfillment in life.
It also requires the greatest sacrifice and work, and brings the potential for the greatest heartache.  The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Mother of Our Lord attest to that.

Ultimately, no matter what choices we make,  paradise will elude us on earth; our lives will contain both hardships and blessings.
Eradicating babies from our lives will not eliminate hardship from our lives; discarding babies will simply eliminate beauty and love from our lives.

Not a Union Job

The raising of a baby is not a 9 to 5 job.
It’s not accomplished in a few years.
You don’t get summers off.
Other people cannot be paid to perform the sacrificial level of service that a loving mother and father routinely provide for their children.
And, with all due respect to teachers, teachers and their unions do not provide all that is needed by a child; they can only complement, at best, the essential love, care, nurture and training that the parents provide.  You will never find an employee who provides the same level of love and sacrifice for a child that a parent can provide. The likelihood that teachers unions, which look out not for the welfare of the child, but for the comfort and benefits of union bosses and of teachers, the likelihood that these unions will substitute adequately for absentee parents or for working parents, is virtually zero.

A recent attempt to close the racial achievement gap in Madison, Wisconsin, with the establishment of a special school, Madison Prep, failed.  The failure was partially due the the fact that union regulations would not permit teachers to provide the sacrificial levels of time and dedication that would be required when attempting to compensate for reduced family and community involvement in the raising of children.
No union, kibbutz, nor Hillary Clinton’s “village” will compensate for the absence of devoted parents in the raising of a child.
Success in the rearing of quality human beings is always tied to love, to time, to adult involvement and to adult-student ratio, as has been proved repeatedly with “Big Brother” and other programs through  which adults invest time and love in children.

The Hardest, Yet the Most Rewarding

Despite the time-intensive hard work and sacrifice involved in child rearing,  when people are asked, in old age, what had given them the most joy in life,  they inevitably answer that a good marriage and their children provide them with the greatest joy and satisfaction, above all other things in life.

Responsibilities in Life

Most would agree that each of us is not born for the sole purpose of existing and being pampered and served by others.
Honestly, where would these people for serving us come from, anyway?  Who in their right mind would volunteer to be our servants when they could demand to be masters themselves?

So, particularly in democratic societies, we accept the fact that we are not born entitled to servants, and most of us have to work.  We have to do our laundry.  We have to shovel the snow, and we have to pay our taxes.

Neglect of work is even addressed in the Bible:

If anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat” – 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

So why would the perpetuation of the human race be considered optional, if all other work is not optional?

Are we entitled to evade the hard work of parenting, then to demand that the children of others look after us sacrificially and lovingly in our old age?
Will paid employees and union workiers show us the same kind of care we would get from our children?
Is not the raising of children a duty and a responsibility?
A duty which, incidentally, also provides the greatest satisfaction and joy in life?
The raising of a family remains the biggest source of love and satisfaction on earth.

Those who choose to discard their children through contraception and abortion are shortsightedly hurting themselves,  as well as hurting the entire society.

The Irony of Our Situation in 2013

The economic situation we are suffering in the United States at the moment, the staggering debt and the shortage of tax income, is due, in part, to the fact that we are starting to feel the shortage of young people and of babies which started in 1973 with the legalization of abortion by Roe v. Wade on January 21, 1973.

Since then, we have eliminated 54 million citizens from age 0 to 40.  And their potential children are missing. There are probably 100 million citizens, aged 0 to 40, missing from the United States right now.  That would be about 1/4 of the nation missing.
Our national deficit, the amount we are missing from taxes, is also about 1/4; 1/4 of the national budget is missing.
Coincidence?
Or lack of foresight, lack of planning, and cumulative effects of lack of baby-appreciation since 1973?

Baby-Appreciation Deficit

Baby-appreciation is at an all-time low in 2013.
Now we have the most pro-abortion President in U.S. history  in office.  Ironically, this is a man who would probably have been aborted himself, if abortion had been legal at the time of his birth.

• He is so pro-abortion that he supports the killing of a baby born accidentally in a botched 9-month term partial-birth abortion.  He voted for that while he was Senator.
• He is so pro-abortion that he supports the abortion of his own grandchildren.
• He is so pro-abortion that he has forced mandates on religious employers, forcing the employers to provide abortifacient drugs to their employees, against their own religious beliefs.  He added this emphasis on abortion after promising his pro-life Democrat colleagues (Stupak and his 11) that ObamaCare would not include abortion.

We now have a President who has forced abortion onto America, against the wishes of 2/3 of the American population, by deception and through lies.

An Ironic Historical Omen?

This first radically pro-abortion President will be re-inaugurated on January 21, 2013.
President Obama’s re-inauguration should have been one day earlier, on January 20, 2013.   But this year January 20th fell on a Sunday, so the date was pushed to Monday, January 21, 2013.
January 21, 2013  is, ironically, the eve of the 40th anniversary of the legalization of abortion in the United States by the Supreme Court Decision Roe v. Wade on January 22, 1973.
Our most radically pro-abortion President will be re-inaugurated on the last day marking 40 years of abortion in  the United States, when the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalized abortion and started the elimination of now 1/4 of the population in the United States.

Christians (80% of us) realize the significance of the number 40 in salvation history:

• The Great Flood – 40 days
• The Exodus – 40 years
• Goliath challenging the Israelites – 40 days
• 40 lashes meted out by the Sanhedrin
• Christ’s fast and prayer in the desert – 40 days
• Resurrection to Ascension – 40 days
• Lent – 40 days

The increased ardor of pro-life prayer and pro-life political activity in recent years, particularly during the time approaching the last November 6, 2012 election, inspired many to believe that the election would displace Barack Obama from the Presidency and that the tide of abortion in the United States would be reversed.
This obviously did not occur.
My faith in God makes me suspect that although we did not guess God’s plan, all the prayers and efforts have not been in vain.  Those who wait and watch patiently will see the hand of God operating quietly in response to our prayers.

A Personal Note

Reflecting on babies in January is a personal pleasure for me, since my two sons were January babies.  They are no longer babies, but still, together with my husband, they are the joy of my life.
The joy and satisfaction of having their freindship does not approach in any way the satisfaction I have enjoyed from any other pursuit, professional or recreational.

Happy Birthday today to one of my January no-longer-babies!
Then Happy Birthday eleven days from now, to the other January no-longer-baby.
What’s my husband’s birthday?  All Saints Day. Really. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Making Sense of the Connecticut Shootings

As we all stuggle to comprehend and to cope with the shooting of all the innocents in Connecticut, including not only the innocent children, but also the innocent adults, the best perspective I have seen came from Madison’s Bishop Robert C. Morlino, in his homily on Gaudete Sunday, December 16, 2012.

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Bishop Morlino’s Homily Audio (click here).

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Text of Bishop Morlino’s Homily:

………………………………………………………..-transcript by Tom Reitz of Reitz Internet

Homily for Gaudete Sunday (12/16/2012)

-Bishop Robert C. Morlino

It seems like forever ago that I saw the movie The Exorcist. And it was forever ago in the sense that it was in the late 70’s, early 80’s – before some of the great young people here were even born.

But there was one line and one scene that stuck with me. And it was not any of the overblown portrayals of the devil’s presence. They did go overboard in that movie in certain instances and attributed to the devil certain things that the devil should not do. Just to make it more sensational. But there was also a lot of wisdom in that movie, I have to say. The scene that I remember so clearly, was when the old man, the saintly old exorcist, Fr. Merrin, arrived at the house where the little girl was possessed by the devil. And the younger priest/psychologist was briefing Fr. Merrin on the situation of the possession. And after much conversation, much study, much reflection, much conversation with the child’s mother, he said to Fr. Merrin: “there are at least three spirits possessing this little girl.” Fr. Merrin hadn’t even laid eyes on this little girl yet, hadn’t talked to anybody, and he said with great serenity: “no, Fr. Damien, there is only one.” There is only one.

It is Gaudete Sunday. The Lord calls us to rejoice. And all morning I’ve been wondering what the priests in Newtown, Connecticut are going to say to the people about “rejoice.” They may even pass over it. But there is no question that on a unique Sunday when we are called to rejoice, a cloud has been cast over these United States. A cloud of tragedy, and sadness, and sorrow – in the extreme. In the extreme. And people are looking for all kinds of solutions or explanations. People are coming forward and asking policemen, they’re asking psychiatrists, they’re asking news commentators, the same question that was asked of St. John the Baptist in this morning’s Gospel: “What should we do?”

And there are all kinds of answers being offered. A lot of legislative solutions. “Let’s make some new laws about guns – that’ll stop it.” “Let’s turn the elementary school into a fortress with armed guards – that’ll stop it.” As if somebody could legislate Satan out of existence. What can we do? There’s only one explanation for this, and the explanation is Satan. And the only one who can expel Satan is Jesus Christ, and the power of Faith. It’s hurtful to see many people now who have pushed and pushed and pushed to expel God from the government schools, now stand around and say “well, how could God allow this?” Maybe if you hadn’t kicked Him out, it wouldn’t have happened.

As Fr. Merrin says, there’s only one – one explanation. Satan himself. Because our country more and more is being delivered over to Satan. It happens in so many ways. But in order to clear the way for Satan, we’ve got to get God out of the way. So out of the government schools, put the nativity scenes out of sight, call the Christmas Tree a holiday bush – do whatever you can. Let’s build a culture that forgets God. And people forget the first sin of all time (after the sin of Adam and Eve): once Adam and Eve pushed God aside and wanted to take his place, the next sin was Cain killing Able. Murder. The moment the human person turns against God, that human person turns against his fellow human beings. It can’t be any other way.

President Obama even said there’s a pattern of this violent killing behavior developing in our country in recent years. That’s true. But the explanation is not a lack of more legislation. It’s not a lack of more psychiatrists and psychologists in the school, to keep an eye on every child because evidently, because of this pattern, the parents fail in this regard. There’s no solution there. The solution is in allowing the true beauty of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in so many beautiful things and in so many
beautiful ways, to calm the spirit of the human being. Beauty: the beauty of the Father, of the Son, of the Spirit.

Why is this happening? Jesus tells us according to St. John that the Holy Spirit wants to convince the world of three things:
1.    The Holy Spirit wants to convince the world about sin, because they refuse to believe in Him.
2.    The Holy Spirit wants to convince the world about justice, because Jesus is returning to the
Father, and the Kingdom of Justice will then be restored.
3.    And the Holy Spirit wants to convince the world about judgment, because the Prince of This
World is condemned.

Who is up to the task of condemning the Prince of This World? Can that be done in legislation? Can we put three thousand psychiatrists on the Prince of This World? The Prince of This World is condemned by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And so, when the question is asked “What should we do?” The answer is “Turn back to God. Turn back to beauty. Turn back to truth. Turn back to what is good.” The problem underlying all of this is relativism. Everybody has his or her own beauty, his or her own goodness, his or her own truth. There is no real beauty, goodness, and truth. That in so many ways is the theme song of our own city here. And God help anybody who gets up and says “There is real beauty, goodness, and truth.” But that’s what we should do, because there’s only one explanation.

Bill Hemmer put it so beautifully at the end of the day on Friday when he said that “these beautiful children were waiting for Santa Claus. They were waiting for Santa’s visit. But instead the devil visited Newtown.” Makes me all the more convinced that his mother, who still thinks that he should be a priest, is right after all.

To say what the answer is, is not to take away the pain. Doesn’t affect that. God will use human love, human understanding, human generosity to heal over many years. Saying that it’s the devil doesn’t necessarily make those who are so deeply grieved feel better. I would never say that. But pointing to the devil as the one cause of this, Satan who is having his way with our World in so many ways, is the answer to the question “What should we do?” We should live out our baptism. We should renounce Satan, and all of his empty show, and all of his phony promises.

Our culture glories in Satan and his empty show, and his phony promises. John the Baptist’s theme during Advent is “repent”. That’s the solution, that’s where it starts. Not with more laws and regulations, not with three thousand new psychiatrists brooding over the public schools. It starts with repentance. And that’s why I’m afraid the solution might not start at all. Because along with God, that approach will be left in the dust, and everything else under heaven will be tried. As though we, by our legislation and our efforts, could cast out the Prince of This World. The Prince of This World is condemned by the Holy Spirit of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

As we peel back all the layers of suffering, sorrow, and shock, for what has happened, as we peel that back, on Gaudete Sunday we can still rejoice. Because while so many have been deprived by our country and our culture of beauty, we have the beauty of the nativity scene.

We have the beauty of the shedding of Christ’s blood out of love. We have the beauty of the glorious resurrection and of Mary’s
glorious assumption into Heaven. We have all of that beauty, and that beauty causes us to celebrate here on Gaudete Sunday and to rejoice way down deep, behind all of those feelings we share with every other decent human being in the United States of America, we peel that back – underneath all of that there is still joy, because we have beauty in which to rejoice, beauty in which to celebrate the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

One concrete note, here at the end: the Holy Father said recently: “What are the symptoms of deep joy and beauty in a person?” What are the symptoms? And he said one of the main symptoms is a sense of humor. Because a deep and abiding joy will express itself that way, humanly. It’s natural. The country and culture in which we live have lost the sense of humor. You joke about certain things, you go to jail – or worse.

Certainly the tragedy of Newtown is no joking matter. But among ourselves, smiles should be common. Laughter should be regular. A sense of humor should be alive and well. We should be happy. Not because we overlook Newtown, or because we’re hardened, so we don’t even allow ourselves to be struck by it. Not because of that, but because when we look to our deepest self, there is nothing other there than the glory and the beauty of the Holy Spirit, who will convince the world that the Spirit of This World has been condemned.

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And if the Holy Spirit doesn’t do that in our lifetime, in the spirit of Advent we wait for something that will be as real as you sitting there this morning. And as we wait for the Prince of This World to be condemned, we do everything we can to give him a bad rap, and to reject his temptations. But even if we don’t see it in our lifetime, we rejoice because the Holy Spirit, not Satan, will have the last word.
And Satan will be condemned by the only final judge of the world – Jesus Christ Our Lord.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Roe v. Wade Turns 40

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Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion,
was issued on January 22, 1973.

This January 22, 2013, will commemorate
the 40th anniversary of that Supreme Court decision.

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To date, 55 million infants have been aborted in the United States, and are missing from our ranks as a nation.
55 million of us were not born, were not baptized, did not graduate, did not marry, did not have children, and did not contribute to the world in all areas, including philosophy, science, art, and religion.
At least one out of 6 Americans is missing.  If these children, who would now be 40, also had children, as many as one quarter of all Americans could be missing by now.

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One person who escaped abortion very narrowly, yet lived to contribute mind-boggling contributions to our society’s present capabilities, was Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple.  What would our world be now, without Steve Jobs?

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President Obama is another example of a person who might have been aborted, if Roe v. Wade had been legal at the time he was born.  As the black child of a single mother,  his chances of being aborted would have been extremely high. 77% of African-American pregnancies are aborted right now, a black child is 5 times as likely to be aborted as a white child.
Numerous potential Presidents may have been aborted in these past forty years.

Abortion is one of the biggest killers of history, and abortion is a much bigger deal than most people think.

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A Striking Coincidence

President Barack Hussein Obama,
the most radically pro-abortion President in United States history,
will be re-inaugurated on January 21, 2013,
the eve of the 40th anniversary,
of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

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The Significance of the number 40 for Christians

The number 40 is a very meaningful number in Judeo Christian history.

• During the Old Testament great flood, rain fell for forty nights and forty days, during which all living beings on earth perished, except those on Noah’s ark.
• Spies explored the land of Israel for forty days (Numbers 13).
• The Old Testament Exodus from Egypt lasted 40 years, with the Jewish people wandering the Sinai desert. This period of years represents the time it takes for a new generation to arise.
• Moses’ life is divided into 40 year segments in the Old Testament.
• Eli, Saul, David, and Solomon, Jewish leaders and kings of the Old Testament, ruled for forty years.
• Goliath challenged the Israelites twice a day for forty days before David defeated him.
• Moses spend three consecutive periods of forty days and forty nights on Mount Sinai.
• 40 lashes is one of the punishments meted out by the Sanhedrin.
• Christ fasted and prayed in the desert for 40 days prior to His Temptation, Ministry, Passion, Death and Resurrection.
• Forty days was the period from the Resurrection of Jesus to His Ascension into Heaven.
• Lent consists of the forty days preceding Easter.

Madison Will Commemorate 40 Years with Prayer

Madison will commemorate the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade on January 12, 2013, by praying the rosary on the steps of the Wisconsin State Capitol. This event is sponsored by Pro-Life Wisconsin, Vigil for Life Madison, and the Diocese of Madison.
Details can be found in the flyer pictured below and the PDF flyer here.

January 12th, 2013
11AM at the State Street Steps of the Wisconsin State Capitol
Madison’s Capitol Square
Put It on Your Calendar
Come and Join Us!

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Madison’s Media Continues to Diss the Catholic Church- Just in Time for Christmas

 

Background

The past week has produced a barrage of media attacks on the Catholic Church in Madison.
Should not be too surprising; it is common for media to attack the Church immediately before Christmas and immediately before Easter.  Happens every year.  Happens nationally.  Happens globally.
Satan seems particularly resentful of these most important celebrations of Christ’s birth and Resurrection, during which the Christians of the world strengthen their commitment to Christ.  Satan becomes particularly active at these times.

While the rest of us are engaging in sacrifice, prayer and charitable works for Advent, trying to make ourselves more worthy to celebrate the miracle of Christ’s birth, the secular media fills that time with attacks on our beliefs.  Must be some guilt worm eating away at their insides. Or something. 😉

I’ve only addressed the worst one of the Madison media attacks this week, the attack by Madison’s  previous ex-Mayor Dave, but the attacks have been numerous, and Dave’s was not the first one.

The attacks started with Doug Erickson and the Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ), folllowed by Dave Cieslewicz’s copycat article at Isthmus.  Dave’s article was the most obvious and vicious attack on the Church, so I addressed that one first in my last blog post.  Chris Rickert’s WSJ article followed.  The WSJ Doug Erickson and Chris Rickert attacks are typically a bit (though not much) more subtle than that of Dave Cieslewicz, and they use less slightly less direct means in attempting to discredit the Catholic Church in Madison. A complete list of articles and links which followed in the Madison media is included below.

The Nuns

The springboard for these attacks on the Church was the fact that Bishop Morlino of Madison directed Madison Catholic parishes not to enlist the services of two aged nuns who were trying to hold “retreats” in which heretical beliefs, contrary to Catholicism, were promoted.  The nuns were teaching “indifferentism,” the belief that all faiths are equal.

What’s Wrong with Indifferentism?

The rejection of indifferentism is not unique to the Catholic Church; most religions reject indifferentism and by definition, most religions believe that their own religion represents the truth more accurately than others do.  If they did not believe this, they would have no reason to stay in their own church. Duh.

Indifferentism poses a logical impossibility, since religions contradict each other in some areas, so they cannot all be true simultaneously.  Indifferentism attacks all religions, not just Catholicism, by implying the invalidation of all contradictory beliefs, essentially dismantling the veracity of all religions at the same time.
It’s the first domino used by militant atheists who try to discredit all religious belief.

A more correct position would be to acknowledge that all religions hold varying degrees of truth, and that some religions err in some areas.  Religious individuals obviously believe that their own religion is the most accurate one and holds the truth.  If they did not believe that, they would switch to a more accurate religion.  So attempts by anyone, media or nuns, to insist that all religions are equally good would be about at logical as insisting that all schools and universities are equally good.  They are not.

And most religions hold enough of the truth to realize that religions should respect each other and should focus on the important truths they hold in common, rather than infighting over the elements over which they disagree.

Atheists Reject Indifferentism

Even atheists reject indifferentism, insisting that their beliefs are more true and more “rational” than those of religious people.
Some even go to the extreme of wanting to ban public espression of Christain beliefs and ridiculing Christian beliefs publicly themselves.

Madison’s media has written numerous sympathetic and positive articles about Madison atheists, without criticising their rejection of indifferentism.
How can Madison’s media be so biased when they represent the Catholic Church?

So WSJ Leaked the Bishop’s Letter

So the  WSJ leaked the content of the Bishop’s letter, which warned Catholic parishes not to enlist the services of the two nuns who taught indifferentism, as well as teaching other heresies.
The letter was leaked to the Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ) by an unnamed person.
-Violation of confidentiality.
Doug Erickson published the details of the Bishop’s directive.
-Violation of charity.
How would you like it if the WSJ published the private details of your reprimand from your boss?  The Bishop’s correction of the two nuns was meant to be private, and nobody, including nuns, want their mistakes and sins laundered in public.

Spin as Usual; It’s Madison

Doug Erickson’s article gave a very sympathetic spin to the two aged nuns, minimizing the heretical nature of their teaching and emphasizing their wonderful and sweet qualities.
This generated the usual WSJ-anonymous-discussion-forum-free-for-all, in which Madison’s Church haters reliably crawl out of the woodwork, spewing hateful vitriol towards Catholicism and Madison’s Bishop, while simultaneously bringing a landslide of web traffic to WSJ’s website to view the circus.  Revenue is always useful, particularly at the expense of the Catholic Church’s reputation.

Catholics Fight Back

This Catholic-Church-attacking phenomenon has become so predictable in Madison, WI, that numerous real Catholics in Madison (as opposed to the two dissident nuns whom WSJ seems to favor), have even developed an alert system to watch for  WSJ attacks on the Church, and numerous faithful Catholics flock to join the WSJ discussion forums in defense of the Church.

In my case, my indignation at this treatment of Catholics in Madison over the years, particularly by the WSJ, the Capital Times, and the Isthmus, inspired me to establish a website three years ago for the sole purpose of defending my Church, my religious beliefs, and my conservative political beliefs which stem from my faith.

Apparently my voice reflects the views of numerous faithful people, since my humble amateur blog, with sparse and sporadic posting, has already received over half a million hits this month, as of  December 14th.

But of course, the faithful Christians/Conservatives whose views I represent are of no interest to Madison’s media.  They are more interested in two dissident nuns.  Madison’s Progressive media’s only interest is the rampant spread of progressive culture in Madison.

List of Madison Articles on the Two-Nun Issue in Less Than One Week

Not satisfied with their initial attempts to mis-portray and embarrass the Bishop of Madison, Madison’s newspapers  continued to publish a series of articles and letters related to the initial article all week.  Granted, some of the letters printed by WSJ were supportive of the Bishop, but often support was quickly followed by insult, as in Chris Rickert’s article published on December 13th.

• Bishop Robert Morlino cracks down on Madison nuns for espousing ‘New Ageism’ and ‘indifferentism’ WSJ, Dec 11
• In the Spirit: More on the nuns banned by the bishop WSJ, Dec 11
• Monsignor James Bartylla: Catholic Church must protect truth of Gospel WSJ, Dec 12  ***
• In the Spirit: As readers react to banned nuns, Bishop Morlino applauded, denounced WSJ, Dec 12
• Citizen Dave: Bishop Morlino is failing Madison Isthmus, WSJ, Dec 12
• Chris Rickert: Bishop just keeping the faith in nun criticism WSJ, Dec 13
• Ted Voth Jr.: Morlino’s narrow view of righteousness gives him much to answer for – Cap Times, Dec 13
• Letters to the editor for Dec. 13, 2012 Cap Times, Dec 13
  
• Soglin blogs on achievement gap; Cieslewicz slams Bishop Morlino  Cap Times, Dec 13
• Lucy Keane: As voices are pushed out, donations will follow WSJ, Dec 14
• Rev. Dr. Jerry L. Folk: Bishop’s actions are like a slap in Jesus’ face WSJ, Dec 14
• Letters to the editor for Dec. 14, 2012  Cap Times, Dec 14
• Kim Tschudy: Sinsinawa Sisters’ standards higher than Morlino’s own WSJ, Dec 14, 2011
• Vincent Kavaloski: Rebuked nuns are defenders of common good, dignity WSJ, Dec 15
• Marcia McCaughey: God gave us minds, expects us to use them WSJ, Dec 15
• Greg Wagner: Catholic faith, alive for 2,000 years, will endure WSJ, Dec 15
• Lee Haas: Catholic faith now about authority, not spirituality WSJ, Dec 15
• Denise Beckfield: Nuns criticized, but not work for School of Americas WSJ, Dec 15

 

The Diocese Offered Information

Of course, the Diocese offered accurate information as soon as the the Bishop’s private letter was leaked, but as usual, Madison’s media paid little heed to that.
Here are the links to the Diocese information:

From the Vicar General Tuesday, December 11, 2012 Msgr. James Bartylla’s article for the Catholic Herald, regarding Wisconsin State Journal story.

Statement to Priests from VG Re: Wisdom’s Well Tuesday, December 11, 2012 Leaked Confidential Communication

Synopsis documents from VG re: Wisdom’s Well Tuesday, December 11, 2012 Leaked Confidential Communication

Also: Monsignor James Bartylla: Catholic Church must protect truth of Gospel WSJ, Dec 12

Back to the Media Attacks

Chris Rickert’s WSJ Article; Pretense of Support Cloaks Deceptive Attack

Nobody could keep up with the barrage of old and false accusations listed above, which is cleverly interspersed with just a few supportive letters, to camouflage the thrust of the attack.
Not going to tackle each one, but Chris Rickert, a WSJ reporter, should know better than to write what he wrote in his Dec 13 article which pretends at first to support the Bishop.
Here’s my online forum response to Chris Rickert’s deceptive attack on the Catholic Church:

Chris Rickert-

You claim to defend the Bishop’s decision, yet you end with a doomsday forecast on the future of the Catholic Church, and a personal pronouncement that “official Catholicism is a regressive and controlling throwback in a modern world.”
That’s not even accurate reporting. It also borders on hate speech.

FYI, Catholicism is growing in Madison (30+ seminarians vs. 4 ten years ago), is growing in the United States, and is growing worldwide.
If you want to distinguish Catholicism into orthodox and heterodox, orthodox Catholicism is also growing. And it’s growing in Madison. Madison should look outside the bubble and face reality. And religion reporters should report on that reality.

Incidentally, creating categories of Catholicism is ridiculous; do we have orthodox and heterodox math?
Heterodox math is wrong math, and heterodox Catholicism is wrong Catholicism.
There is only one kind of Catholicism, and then there are different faiths, which are not Catholicism.

Speaking of orthodox Catholicism, I hear that one of the nation’s top Catholic bloggers, Father Z, is celebrating a Latin Mass in the Diocese of Madison this weekend. I’m sure that event will be packed.
It’s historic, it’s new, it’s Catholic, it’s orthodox, and it’s popular.
Is the WSJ planning to cover that story, and to cover it respectfully, or does that not fit your political agenda?
Or perhaps WSJ religion reporters prefer to sleep in on Sundays?
If you are serious journalists and interested in covering that event, information can certainly be obtained from the Bishop’s Office.

You also call Catholicism an uncompromising faith.
Are you advocating that truth should be compromised?
Or do you have no interest in truth?

The WSJ has not been reporting on religion, it has been dissing religion.
That is not the job of religion reporters.
Got to wonder where WSJ finds its religion reporters and what their qualifications are.

Syte Reitz

 

WSJ, Capital Times and Isthmus Tactics

The tactics used by Madison’s left in attacking the Catholic Church are immoral, dishonorable and repugnant.
They violate the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics.
They resemble deceptive and unChristian standards of behavior like Alinsky Tactics and the  Thirty-Six Strategems, such as:

• When the enemy is too strong to be attacked directly, then attack something he holds dear.
• Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west.
• Create something from nothing.
• Hide a knife behind a smile.
• Defeat the enemy by capturing their chief.
• Sow discord in the enemy’s camp.
• Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon
• Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.

 

Sadly, in Madison, Wisconsin, this is nothing new.

 

 

 

 

How Free Speech Died on Campus…

or

Liberals are Most Authoritarian?

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A young activist (Lukianoff) describes how universities became the most authoritarian institutions in America:

Click image to go to the Wall Street Journal article:

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Excerpts:

The trouble is that students are usually intimidated into submission. The startling majority of students don’t bother. They’re too concerned about their careers, too concerned about their grades, to bother fighting back…

 A 2010 survey by the American Association of Colleges and Universities found that of 24,000 college students, only 35.6% strongly agreed that “it is safe to hold unpopular views on campus.” When the question was asked of 9,000 campus professionals—who are more familiar with the enforcement end of the censorship rules—only 18.8% strongly agreed.

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To see VIDEO interview, click image: