All the news no one wants to print

A picture taken last week of the vacant reserved media seats at the Gosnell trial. It was taken by JD Mullane of the Bucks County Courier.

I wasn’t going to post anything on this subject anymore. I really don’t want to and would rather move forward. But my conscience, and the fact that the media refuses to do its job based upon ideological reasons simply will not allow me to do. Last week I wrote a lot about this and decided not to publish it until I’d had the chance to do some editing. In the end I’ve decided to simply post the links below to articles that cover what I’d point out or say. The vastness of this topic would not be done proper justice by me in a few paragraphs. In fact I think Amy Welborn said it best when she asks “Why didn’t they cover Gosnell?”

Because they didn’t think what he was doing was immoral.

Embarrassing, maybe.  Awkward, certainly.

But immoral or wrong?

Nope.

Can I be any more direct?

No agonized columns necessary.  They basically have no problem with it.

And yet I have to say something.

It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. We’re already heading down the path. None outside of the pro-life community is speaking out about the horrific freakshow that is Kermit Gosnell and the terrible testimony emanating from the trial in Philadelphia. Finally last week Peggy Noonan, Kirsten Powers, and some pro-life congressmen did so. But not the media. Not those in positions of power. Lock-step silence.

Kirsten Powers:

You don’t have to oppose abortion rights to find late-term abortion abhorrent or to find the Gosnell trial eminently newsworthy. This is not about being “pro-choice” or “pro-life.” It’s about basic human rights.

The deafening silence of too much of the media, once a force for justice in America, is a disgrace.

I expect that from them. But where I’m a little shocked is by the silence coming from friends and acquaintances. It is deafening, this silence, and speaks volumes. For many of them spoke out against the war-monger hydra of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld. Many wrote and posted nonstop about Cindy Sheehan, defended Sandra Fluke, and mocked the so-called “Republican War on Women” by posting photos of Romney’s “binders full of women.” Attempts at outrage were made in the name of righteous indignation, and images posted about standing in solidarity with their sisters.

But this? This horror in which women were brutalized and babies are murdered (half of whom statistically we may assume were also girls) evokes nothing?

This is why I wrote what I did last week. I’m wary of you. I don’t trust you. I want to, but I can’t. A lack of the strength, courage or empathy necessary to speak out against an issue just because the issue is one affiliated with the political party to which you belong? We’ve seen that groupthink before. We saw it in Mexico during the 1920s. We saw it in Germany in the 1930s. Cuba, Iran and North Korea today. When push comes to shove and our nation continues to be divided by politicians and a compliant media as it is today, and you are faced with making a moral decision regarding me, my family or others like me?

Welborn again:

And I don’t care how educated you are or how sophisticated you fancy yourself.  If you think shooting a baby in the head is kind of gross, but being paid to snip its spine or suck it out of a uterus for a fee is defensible, moral, not newsworthy or none of your business, your views are not new or radical at all.  First of all, you’re not consistent, and secondly, you’re more old school and reactionary than you think, defending what patricians, high priests and eugenicists have defended forever:

Sacrificing the defenseless so you can stay strong.

Be honest.  For once.

I will at least be honest with you. I won’t trust you when that time comes. History teaches me that to do so would be a mistake on my part.

Redefining the word marriage? Aw yeah-uh! Human rights, baby!

The unborn or, as we’ve learned in Philadelphia, those actual babies born who were supposed to be aborted? Human rights, wait…er um, no.

Rebecca Hamilton correctly described this stance: Abortion is everything. Women – or at least baby women – are nothing.

The Story

The Atlantic: Why Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s Trial Should Be a Front-Page Story

Charged with seven counts of first-degree murder, Gosnell is now standing trial in a Philadelphia courtroom. An NBC affiliate’s coverage includes testimony as grisly as you’d expect. “An unlicensed medical school graduate delivered graphic testimony about the chaos at a Philadelphia clinic where he helped perform late-term abortions,” the channel reports. “Stephen Massof described how he snipped the spinal cords of babies, calling it, ‘literally a beheading. It is separating the brain from the body.’ He testified that at times, when women were given medicine to speed up their deliveries, ‘it would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place.'”

One former employee described hearing a baby screaming after it was delivered during an abortion procedure. “I can’t describe it. It sounded like a little alien,” she testified. Said the Philadelphia Inquirer in its coverage, “Prosecutors have cited the dozens of jars of severed baby feet as an example of Gosnell’s idiosyncratic and illegal practice of providing abortions for cash to poor women pregnant longer than the 24-week cutoff for legal abortions in Pennsylvania.”

Kirsten Powers in USA Today

Infant beheadings. Severed baby feet in jars. A child screaming after it was delivered alive during an abortion procedure. Haven’t heard about these sickening accusations?

Let me state the obvious. This should be front page news. When Rush Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke, there was non-stop media hysteria. The venerable NBC Nightly News’ Brian Williams intoned, ”A firestorm of outrage from women after a crude tirade from Rush Limbaugh,” as he teased a segment on the brouhaha. Yet, accusations of babies having their heads severed — a major human rights story if there ever was one — doesn’t make the cut.

You don’t have to oppose abortion rights to find late-term abortion abhorrent or to find the Gosnell trial eminently newsworthy. This is not about being “pro-choice” or “pro-life.” It’s about basic human rights.

Why were fetus feet in specimen jars?

This is Dr. Mengele medicine, plain and simple. One of Hitler’s most terrifying henchmen, Josef Mengele was given absolute license to push the medical envelope as far as his sadistic imagination could carry him. For those unaware of the barbarism that was unleashed on Jewish prisoners in the name of medical research, it is worth describing at length:

“Mengele used Auschwitz as an opportunity to continue his research on heredity, using inmates for human experimentation. Mengele’s experiments also included attempts to change eye color by injecting chemicals into children’s eyes, various amputations of limbs, and other surgeries such as kidney removal, without anesthesia. . . . At Auschwitz, Mengele did a number of studies on twins. After an experiment was over, the twins were usually killed and their bodies dissected. He supervised an operation by which two Roma children were sewn together to create conjoined twins; the hands of the children became badly infected where the veins had been resected; this also caused gangrene.

Mengele also sought out pregnant women, on whom he would perform vivisections before sending them to the gas chambers.

It sounded like a little alien

Otherwise known as “crying.”

Worker: Baby “Jumped” When I Snipped Her Neck in Abortion

And Lynda Williams, 44, of Wilmington, said Gosnell taught her how to flip the body of the baby over and snip its neck with a pair of scissors to ensure “fetal demise.”

Williams also testified that she followed Gosnell’s orders one time, when Gosnell was away either running, swimming or working at a clinic in Delaware, and took a baby that was delivered in a toilet and snipped its neck.

“It jumped, the arm,” she said, showing the jury by raising her arm.

Williams told investigators she only snipped a neck the one time, “because it gave me the creeps.”

“I only do what I’m told to do,” she told the jury. “What I was told to do was snip their neck.”

“I only did what I was told to do.” Where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, now I remember.

Philadelphia Abortion Clinic ‘Beheaded Live Babies’

Why? Follow the money:

Prosecutors say Gosnell earned more than a million dollars (£1.5m) every year and he charged $3,000 (£1950) for an abortion.

Gosnell intern testifies on teen years at clinic

Kermit Gosnell: job creator, or something.

Ashley Baldwin, a 15-year-old sophomore at University City High School who was thinking of becoming a doctor, got a job at one of the busiest clinics in West Philadelphia.

She was paid, and in no time went from answering phones to doing ultrasounds, administering intravenous medicine, and, ultimately, assisting in abortions performed by her mentor, Kermit Gosnell.

Now 22 and the mother of a 2-year-old son, Baldwin on Thursday told a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury hearing Gosnell’s murder trial of her unusual hands-on medical apprenticeship.

Baldwin also told the jury about seeing at least five aborted babies moving, breathing, and, in one case, “screeching” after late-term procedures at the clinic at 3801 Lancaster Ave.

In Pennsylvania, abortions are legal up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. After that, medical experts say, a fetus is capable of living outside the womb.

“They looked just like regular babies,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin said one baby was so big that Gosnell joked that “this baby is going to walk me home.”

Pennsylvania Family Institute has a timeline and trial updates — which you’ll have trouble finding anywhere else.

The Media Blackout

Mark Steyn: What Dead Kids?

Outrageous Mainstream Media Blackout on Dr. Gosnell’s House of Horrors

The old hard-boiled news statement- “if it bleeds it reads” is simply not the case when the blood is that of the innocent unborn killed in abortion. Even though Kermit Gosnell and his abortion clinic staff are charged with illegal abortion practices– including the killing of children who were already out of the womb–in a kind of “post-womb” abortion method, Miller questions if our nation should really be so shocked by all of this?

“The law already says that we can kill the innocent–such killing is sanctioned,” she [Monica Miller, PhD]said. “All Gosnell did was take this sanction to its logical conclusion since there is no moral distinction between killing the unborn before they are born–and slaying them after they have emerged from the womb.”

WPost reporter explains her personal Gosnell blackout

Inspired by Kirsten Powers’ USA Today column yesterday, I decided to start asking journalists about their personal involvement in the Gosnell cover-up.

I began by asking the AP’s national social issues reporter why he hadn’t been tweeting to AP coverage of the Gosnell trial. I had to ask a few times and then … there it was … finally …. a tweet on the Gosnell trial. Then he told me that the AP was covering the trial (which I knew, as I’ve critiqued it here). I reminded him that I was wondering why he hadn’t been tweeting to coverage of Gosnell. I asked him to correct me if I was wrong about his lack of tweets. He didn’t.

Then I decided, since tmatt has me reading the Washington Post every day, to look at how the paper’s health policy reporter was covering Gosnell. I have critiqued many of her stories on the Susan G. Komen Foundation (she wrote quite a bit about that) and the Sandra Fluke controversy (she wrote quite a bit about that) and the Todd Akin controversy (you know where this is going). In fact, a site search for that reporter — who is named Sarah Kliff — and stories Akin and Fluke and Komen — yields more than 80 hits. Guess how many stories she’s done on this abortionist’s mass murder trial.

Did you guess zero? You’d be right.

When “the Silent Scream” isn’t silent anymore

How do we react to this story?

The normal, healthy reaction is horror. I know seasoned, not-easily-shocked pro-lifers who have lost sleep and been unable to eat after reading the accounts of the kind of “medical care” Dr. Gosnell and his employees dispensed for years at 38th Street and Lancaster Avenue in West Philadelphia. It is possible for those who are pro-life and who fight to end abortion to become desensitized to the reality of the human lives that are snuffed out by abortion. The horrors perpetrated by Gosnell and overlooked by negligent health inspectors throws this reality into stark relief.

Another reaction to this story is to ignore it and hope it will go away. This seems to be the reaction of many in the national media.

Four reasons why media isn’t covering Gosnell mass murder trial

What Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, Richard Speck and Kermit Gosnell have in common: they each committed massive serial murder. What don’t they have in common? Media coverage.

Although Gosnell was charged with eight counts of murder, witnesses have testified he murdered over 100 babies over three decades. If true, this would rank Gosnell as one of the top five known serial killers worldwide of the 20th and 21st Centuries by victim count.

But if you only tune in to broadcast t.v. news, you will have never even heard the name “Gosnell.”

8 Reasons for the Media Blackout on Kermit Gosnell

On Twitter and FaceBook today, #Gosnell is trending. The reason for the social media buzz is the strange silence of the mainstream media regarding one of the most gruesome murder trials in American history.

To put the Kermit Gosnell trial in perspective, consider other famous cases of child-killing. From Susan Smith to Andrea Yates, and most recently the horror of Newtown, we are accustomed to 24/7 news coverage of these types of tragedies.

Not so with Dr. Gosnell.

Here are the reasons why.

“Local Story, Nothing More”: Deleting Gosnell

Wikipedia wants to flush the story down the memory hole. Why?

Covering their backsides at The Washington Post: Is media bias to blame for lack of Gosnell coverage? Or something far more banal?

As escher417 said in their comment at the Post’s website on 4/14: “Isn’t it fascinating how the media, who has ignored this story, is spending more time covering their defense of not covering the Gosnell story then in actually covering the Gosnell story.”

What’s next?

We have a president who as a state senator from Illinois voted several times against the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. Planned Parenthood in Florida recently revealed its willingness to abort a baby born alive. John Holdren, Obama’s Science Czar, believes that parents should be able to abort their baby up to when it is two-years old. In Delaware last week a Planned Parenthood abortion clinic was charged with unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

In his book Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics (published in 1996) Peter Singer insisted that “[The argument that a fetus is not alive] is a resort to a convenient fiction that turns an evidently living being into one that legally is not alive. Instead of accepting such fictions, we should recognise that the fact that a being is human, and alive, does not in itself tell us whether it is wrong to take that being’s life…”

The attempt by many in the pro-choice camp to distance themselves from Singer’s ethics is yet another example of the truth of Lord Macaulay’s remark, “We know through what strange loopholes the human mind contrives to escape, when it wishes to avoid a disagreeable inference from an admitted proposition.”

We can only trust that the Gosnell case will cast a lurid light on that particular inconsistency.

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, where a madman massacred all those children in Newtown, Connecticut, the president gave a heartfelt speech that included this line: “If there is even one step we can take to save another child . . . then surely we have an obligation to try.” Wouldn’t one such step be to ban the nihilist practice of murdering children who’ve survived outside the womb?

Extremes

(This is likely my final post for awhile. I am exploring the possibilities of creating another blog that will be dedicated to the work I have begun on a devotional based upon John’s gospel. It exists on the written page in my journals for now and is a work in progress. If I feel it is passing muster I may pursue that course. Or I’ll continue here, until such time that I am deemed too extreme.

One more thing. There are those who will attempt to write this off as a screed, or a rant. If they feel this way it is perhaps because something I say touches a very raw nerve with them. I was quite calm and matter-of-fact when I wrote this last night. Were I typing with righteous rage or even indignation I’m not sure I would have been able to stay focused.)

*****

“The fact that a chaotic and ill-educated time cannot clearly grasp the truth does not alter the fact that it always will be the truth.” ~ G.K. Chesterton: ‘Illustrated London News,’ 3/23/29.

Truth is not determined by a majority vote. Nor is it determined through a redefining of said truth. I can stand in front of Mt. Everest all day long for the rest of my life shouting “This is not a mountain, it’s an elm tree!” But doing so would not make Mt. Everest an elm tree.

Being Catholic is being countercultural and going against the pop-culture’s flow. Because of this simple fact I suppose it should have come as no surprise to me to learn that my government is on the fast-track to labeling me and my fellow Catholics as extremists. Oh, wait…it’s already happening at the U.S. Department of Defense:

Wow. This is not good. The Department of Defense in a training brief for military reservists reportedly lists “Catholicism” alongside other examples of “religious extremism” such as Al Qaeda and Hamas.

That’s right, your taxpayer money is going towards training reservists to view Catholics as dangerous as terror groups intent on America’s destruction.

The Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS) issued a statement about this.

From the DoD presentation, here’s the slide in question:

As an FYI about the term “Christian Identity”, it is defined a few slides earlier in this document:

Christian Identity: These letters stand for Christian Identity, which holds that white Europeans—not Jews—are the real Biblical “Chosen People,” that the white race is inherently superior, that Blacks and other nonwhite races are soulless “mud peoples” on the same level as animals, and that Jews are descendants of Satan.

Yeah, I…and every Catholic I know…do not fall into that category. Are there sadly some that do? Probably. It’s a big world. I had not heard the term before and wanted to be sure I understood what terms the Southern Poverty Law Center, hardly a friend to persons of faith, was using.

And so I am an extremists, but this man and others like him who seek to squelch the free exchange of ideas is not. He is simply the latest cause célèbre:

The University of Waterloo’s “Vagina Man protest” made news all over North America. A headline from an American blog of considerable reach, “Giant Vagina Man shouts down pro-life speaker at University of Waterloo,” was the rough template for stories everywhere. Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth was the object of this eerie display, which succeeded in disrupting his talk.

[snip]

How did the vagina man — and his accomplice, a woman whose own contribution to the seminar consisted of shouting “c–t” repeatedly and angrily barking slogans at the speaker — come to believe that raucous behaviour, vulgar shouting, disruption and insult amount to either discussion or meaningful protest? Especially within a university. Their behaviour was anti-intellectual, anti-dialogue, anti-exchange and debate.

It is not so much these two that concern me. It is the rash of similarly empty protests that now crowd the university calendars all over North America. How do these connect with any real university’s mission: The assertion of the primacy of intellect, the value of debate, the imperatives of challenging one’s biases, of dissent that does not exclude respect for a contending view.

The answer? There is no connection. But Vagina Man is to be celebrated. If you hold to a truth no longer recognized by the world and is in fact singled out for redefinition? You, sir/madam, are an extremist.

I won’t be posting a photo related to my second example. This man isn’t celebrated, though his profession is. Kermit Gosnell is being ignored because he is an inconvenient face to the realities of his chosen profession. The mask has been ripped once and for all off of this horror and there is no way that those who worship at this altar want the successes of this monster known to the world because of the damage it would do to their cause. While I type the word “successes” with bile in my mouth what else would those who are in favor of what he does define his body of work? It’s time to be honest with one another, shall we?

It doesn’t matter to any of you when the baby dies, or how the baby dies, or where the baby dies, just as long as the baby dies. That is what you’re really all about, and not another breath should be wasted trying to say otherwise. No more soft-peddling with euphemisms and tip-toeing around the truth.

You are all advocates for killing defenseless children. You are not advocates for women’s health care, or women’s equality, or women’s freedom. You are advocates of child murder. If you find that statement harsh, too bad. You have gotten this far only because too many people are too squeamish to call things what they really are. The evil you do has thrived only because people are unwilling to confront you honestly and tear the sympathetic masks off your faces.

Jennifer Hartline has written one of the best articles documenting the failure of America’s leaders and its media to discuss what history will judge to be a failure on their part to inform its citizens about the evils this man has done. (Warning: while I can’t recommend this article highly enough I do want to warn those with squeamish stomachs about a graphic photo of “Baby Boy B” on page one of this two page piece. I have seen the image before as it was part of the original grand jury report released in January 2011.)

But remember kids: Catholics are the extremists.

And so in the interests of clearing the air and ensuring everyone knows just what sort of extremist they are dealing with, I thought I’d list a few of my beliefs as an extreme Catholic. These are pretty radical and if you are still reading may finally be enough for you to walk away from me in disgust. I just figured I’d better get that out there ahead of time.

I hold that the Gospels are true. I believe in the three-legged stool of the Catholic faith: Holy Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium.

I believe that the Apostles’ Creed, the same creed I recite at the beginning of each and every rosary, is the epitome of Christian doctrine. In twelve articles, it contains the truths taught by the Apostles. It has existed essentially since the second century and was first referred to in the fourth century. The earliest text dates from the eighth century.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth;
and in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into Heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
Amen.

I believe in the seven Sacraments as outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace.

I believe that while that while the story of Jesus Christ was made known in the New Testament, I believe that it was foretold in the Old Testament.

I believe in the sanctity and dignity of all life.

I believe in faith and reason.

I believe in science and its advances. Many of history’s greatest scientists were Catholic monks or laypersons.

I believe my greatest failures come from pride, or putting myself above God. This usually happens when I say “So what if I did that? God made me this way.” It happens when the world says:

• “Your Honor, I know I raped 30 women. But God made me that way.”
• “No I’m not going to look for a job. God made me lazy.”
• “You may not like me sleeping with prostitutes and bringing VD into our marital bed, but your problem is with God because he made me this way.”

We wouldn’t accept these types of excuses from ourselves or from our children or loved ones, would we? And yet it’s obvious that we do, and now apply this same lack of standard to almost everything under the sun and use it as a means to force everyone to lower their standards through bullying, ridicule and even economic and legislative threats. As I said at the beginning my attempts to re-name something to fit my own personal desires or because that particular object is broken or suffering from the failings of humanity is not a tactic of reason. For example, at this very moment my Ford Explorer is sitting in my driveway immobile and in need of a $2000 repair. It’s still an automobile no matter how many times I want to call it something else.

I believe I have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I recognize this and am constantly striving to imitate Christ and better myself as a human being. I, better than anyone else, know and recognize my faults and my sins. While I am far from perfect I do not suffer from interminable Catholic guilt, for I know the graces of forgiveness that comes from the Sacrament of Confession. Nor do I make attempts to legislate my sins into law, or force others to not just recognize them but celebrate them.

I believe in the Corporal Works of Mercy. I am not doing them to the extent that I know I am called to do. I am not perfect. I will continue to improve and to grow.

1. Feed the hungry
2. Give drink to the thirsty
3. Clothe the naked
4. Shelter the homeless
5. Visit the sick
6. Visit the imprisoned
7. Bury the dead

I believe in and practice Spiritual Works of Mercy. I am not doing them to the extent that I know I am called to do. I am not perfect. I will continue to improve and to grow.

1. Counsel the doubtful
2. Instruct the ignorant
3. Admonish the sinner
4. Comfort the sorrowful
5. Forgive injuries
6. Bear wrongs patiently
7. Pray for the living and the dead

No government has ever succeeded in performing the first seven. No government would ever allow any one or any thing to perform the second seven except to the extent where the state has become god and defines what doubt, ignorance, sin, sorrow and forgiveness means. The only wrongs we would need to bear are those inflicted upon us by the state for “our own good”. The only prayers prayed are towards our benevolent leaders or those of the past (See also 20th century Soviet Union, the current North Korea and Iran). That is why the Catholic Church has always been a threat to worldly governments and tyrants.

And why I am now considered an extremist by my own government.

My oldest son’s Catholic high school baseball team designed their own undershirts that have the stitches of a baseball in the shape of the cross on a sleeve. Below the image it says “Romans 5:3-5”.

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.

We rejoice in our suffering as it leads to hope. We are a nation that has a distorted view of suffering and seek to avoid any and all kinds through the soft drugs of distraction provided by our government and its media. We lack endurance. We have very little character. We despair due to having little hope.

Being a faithful Catholic is challenging and at times very hard. It is not a giant buffet whereby I pick and choose from among Christianity’s tenets and ignore those I do not like. It’s all or nothing. You have to go “all in.”

It is extremely difficult but just as rewarding.

Yep. I really am an extremist. I’m good with that.

*****

40

Some of my random thoughts on the number 40 today.

How long to sing this song?

While in junior high Live: Under a Blood Red Sky by U2 became one of the first cassette tapes I ever purchased. I picked it up when we stopped at Pickles, a long-gone local music store, during a family trip one weekend to Lincoln, Nebraska. It contained only eight songs and wasn’t very long, under 35 minutes, and I bought it because I loved the song “New Year’s Day” I suppose because I was born on that day, though the song had little to do with that. The band had not yet reached the dizzying heights of superstardom that they’d eventually climb, but you could sense it in these songs.

The one that stood out the most to me even then was the final track on Side Two: “40”. While not long on lyrics I could feel “something” there and obviously the crowd did too as they continued to chant the refrain long after the band had stopped playing. It wasn’t until years later that I learned the song is based upon a portion of the 40th Psalm. The band still closes its concerts almost thirty years later with the same song.

40 – U2
I waited patiently for the Lord
He inclined and heard my cry
He lift me up out of the pit
Out of the mire and clay

I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song

How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
How long…how long…how long…
How long…to sing this song

He set my feet upon a rock
And made my footsteps firm
Many will see
Many will see and hear

I will sing, sing a new song
I will sing, sing a new song

How long to sing this song?
How long to sing this song?
How long…how long…how long…
How long…to sing this song

*****

“A deep abyss”

Psalm 40:1-5

I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD. Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods! Thou hast multiplied, O LORD my God, thy wondrous deeds and thy thoughts toward us; none can compare with thee! Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be numbered.

In his book The Divine Office: Explanation of the Psalms and Canticles by Saint Liguori, he says of Psalm 40:2:

These expressions denote, according to Hebrew text, as Bellarmine remarks, a deep abyss, without light, filled with filthy mud, in which have fallen and flounder confusedly a miserable multitude; such are those that are plunged into the mire of their carnal appetites.

In Verse 2 we see the depth of God’s goodness in that He finds us in the pit and the bog, and we see the height of his goodness as he brings us out and sets our feet upon the rock of Christ. Those feet are faith and hope. He places our feet on a way that is not only solid, but also straight; and thus he guides our steps when we trust in Him.

(Note: I long-ago obtained the 540 page PDF file of Liguori’s somewhere long since forgotten. It was published in 1888. He cites St. Robert Bellarmine’s Commentary on the Book of Psalms, a wonderful book that I purchased last year to assist in my Psalms-related project.)

*****

Christ in the Wilderness. Painted by Ivan Kramskoi (1872)

The Number 40 in Scripture

In Sacred Scripture, the number forty is a sign of penance:

• God made it rain for forty days and forty nights in the days of Noah (Gen 7:4 – by the way they only ate fish on the ark, not meat)
• Moses spent forty days fasting on Mount Sinai with God (Exodus 24:18)
• The People of Israel people wandered forty years traveling to the Promised Land (Numbers 14:33)
• Elijah spent forty days and forty nights walking to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8)
• Jonah prophesied forty days of judgment for Nineveh to repent (Jonah 3:4).
• Jesus fasted for forty days days in the wilderness, and was tempted by the devil (Matthew 4:1-2, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-2)
• Jesus was also in the tomb for about forty hours.

Source: Canterbury Tales blog

*****

A Tragic Anniversary and message to both political parties

40 years ago today the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion. While I could go any number of directions in noting the passing of this sad date I’ve just a few facts from Planned Parenthood themselves for citizens on both sides of the political aisle.

In 2011 Planned Parenthood:

• Performed 333,964 abortions, generating an estimated $150 million in revenue.
• Over the last three years they have eradicated 995,000 pregnancies, or killed 1 baby every 94 seconds.
• Provided 2,300 adoption agency referrals, or 1 adoption for every 145 abortions.
• Received $542.4 million from U.S. taxpayers, or 45.2% of its $1.2 billion total annual budget.
• Performed zero mammograms.

Source: Planned Parenthood 2011-2012 annual report

Take a look at this graph as I want to point out something to Republicans. Note the increase that occurred from 2001-2006. Why do I point that out? Those are the years that we had a supposed “theocracy” in America and Republicans controlled all three branches of government. Remember this the next time a Democrat politician, friend or special interest group tries to scare you or others into voting for a Democrat because Republicans will eliminate funding to PP and overturn Roe v. Wade. But also remember this the next time the Republican National Committee sends you a fund raising letter raising the alarm over a liberal agenda and abortion. Let the RNC and DNC know that babies, their mothers and their fathers are not political footballs to be used once an election cycle.

And for my Democrat friends: “Safe, legal and rare?” Cut the bullshit. PP is a huge money-making machine for your party that allows them to donate campaign funds to like-minded politicians and bully groups like Komen. “Women will die!” was the message yelled from the rooftops, supposedly because losing the tiny sliver of funding from Komen would mean they would have no money for women’s healthcare. This noble “not-for-profit” behemoth would not have “excess revenue over expenses” In other words, a profit.

In 2010-11 the profit reported by PP was a record $155.5 million, while in 2011-12 they reported an excess of $87.4 million. So just what was the 2011 funding amount from Komen that “threatened” women’s healthcare if it had been cut off? $680,000 or .056% of their budget, and 0.78% of their excess revenue over expenses.

“Women will die!” And they do. At least 50% of the abortions performed by PP were girls, future women cut down before having a chance to draw a breath. Planned Parenthood begins the 2011-2012 report by making the absurd claim that “This past year will be remembered as the year Planned Parenthood declared its commitment to making the next generation the healthiest ever.” Unless of course you were among the 333,964 dead. You can’t get sick in the grave I guess.

How long to sing this song?

Graph source.

*****

40 Questions

Michael Spielman posted 40 Questions to Ask on the Anniversary of Roe vs Wade. There are ten each for abortion supporters, abortion opponents, Christians and for church pastors and elders.

Forgiving the Monsters

Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.
~ C.S. Lewis

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
~ Gandhi

I didn’t get to see October Baby when it was released in theaters. My wife did, and she was moved to tears telling me about it afterwards. I was thinking about it the other day as it was just released on DVD/Blu-Ray this past Tuesday.

Today Rebecca Hamilton, my favorite Oklahoma politician, wrote a fantastic article that will sadly fall on many deaf ears. Deaf because they refuse to hear. Blind because they do not want to see. I know this mute blindness because when I was younger I was the same way.

I would guess that a lot of people look at that counselor with disgust and rage. But I feel sorry for her. I hate having to admit this, but the truth is, she could have been me. There was a time when I wasn’t just pro-choice, I was a stinking fanatic about it. I had seen and experienced first hand the violence, degradation and destruction that is misogyny and, like so many young women of my time, I saw abortion as a way out.

But when you go down that path of using one evil to justify another evil you end up committing even greater evils yourself. If you really aren’t a monster who has no conscience or concern for other people, you look for ways to hide what you are doing from yourself. The greatest lies of our times are the lies we tell ourselves to justify doing things that we know are wrong. What makes it work is that the whole culture conspires with us in the doing of it.

The culture, not just of Planned Parenthood, but of our whole American world, says that you can not, you should not, you must not “judge.”

As with most lies that are effective, this one has truth mixed into it. The desire to play God runs strong in all of us. I think that if we had the power to enact our judgements on one another, none of us would go to heaven. We would all condemn one another to hell.

But using the word “judgement” itself as a condemnation is not only idiotic, it’s destructive. The human brain is designed by Our Maker to observe, compare, think and conclude. These conclusions are just another word for “judgement.” When our culture labels this power to discern and decide an evil; when it shears our thinking brains away from us, we become a culture of co-dependence and mental decay.

It’s as if we’ve all suffered a cultural stroke and the words “this is wrong” have been erased from our minds. Instead of saying the plain facts of things, we go into mental gymnastics, trying to “understand” the most hideous behavior. We create fantasy motives for crimes against humanity which are tissues of lies we tell ourselves. These fantasy interpretations of the plain reality in front of us help us silence the thinking, analyzing parts of our brains. They allow us to avoid the social anathema of being labeled “judgmental.” We find ourselves unable to set standards for behavior for anyone, including ourselves.

That is how a basically kind-hearted person can become a monster.

The great irony is that the flip side of this is no better. If we take the untrammeled power to judge others onto ourselves, we unleash the monsters of condemnation, discrimination and, inevitably, killing of innocents. That’s where the gulags, pogroms, lynchings, rapes and murders come from. On the other hand, if we flee from this into a refusal to “judge,” we unleash the monsters of condemnation, discrimination and, inevitably, killing of innocents. That’s where the attacks on Christians, abortions, euthanasia, and starvation of millions for corporate greed come from.

We can whipsaw our human nature from pole to pole; from legalistic judging to fear of judging that becomes another kind of legalistic judging, and we always end up right back where we started from. We are caught forever in the morass and mess of original sin and we cannot think, moralize or fight our way out of it.

Read it all, and watch the video at the start of her post.

The sad truth is that there really is a war on women. But the real one is hidden behind the smokescreen created by the culture of death and its useful idiot politicians, celebrity activists, and the behemoth that devours the girls themselves: Planned Parenthood. They have trivialized the “War On Women” catchphrase and twisted it around on itself so that those of us who are saddened and outraged by what we are doing to generations of our daughters are the evil, judgmental ones.

There are monsters among us. We are the monsters. We who do not speak out strongly enough in condemning this genocide because we do not want to be called judgmental. We are monsters who stick our collective heads in the sands and continue to look the other way, not being able to comprehend for a moment that this wholescale murder is occurring in our cities and funded by we the people. We are monsters who judge those who would oppose our support of this so-called right to choose and stubbornly dig our heels in deeper and cling to the beliefs we were sold by celebrities and politicians we looked up to, because they would never have lied to us right?

Right?

We are the monsters. All of us. While judgment is reserved for God alone, forgiveness is not. It is the place where healing can begin and therefore the most difficult step to take. We need the strength and the courage to look hard into the mirror and to forgive the person we judge with the most merciless malice of all: ourselves. We continue to murder our sons and (selectively) our daughters because we struggle to do one of the hardest things known to man: forgive.

Forgive ourselves for not speaking out enough. Forgive ourselves for being too blind to see the truth of what is going on. Forgive ourselves for stubbornly clinging to an ideology at the expense of so many lives.

Forgive our silence.

Forgive our justifications.

Forgive our lack of courage.

Forgive our monsters. For they are us.

Memorial for Unborn Children
Sculptor: Martin Hudáček

Warriors, all

(Please bear with me. What started out as a few short lines grew a bit longer. I hope you’ll stay with me to the end.)

I read a blog post on the suffering church and the feeling we all get from time to time while considering the formidable battles, both spiritual and physical, that are waging on many fronts all around us. And it can be overwhelming.

St. Michael
Tarnov, Nebraska

As a Catholic there certain means available to help in such times. In the spiritual realm I immediately think of St. Michael. How many times have I prayed the Prayer to St. Michael to help give me strength in those times? Too many to count. And I can stand before you and say that each time I feel strengthened and reassured. In Hebrew, Michael means “who is like God” (mi-who, ke-as or like, El-deity), which is traditionally interpreted as a rhetorical question: “Who is like God?” (which expects an answer in the negative) to imply that no one is like God. In this way, Michael is reinterpreted as a symbol of humility before God.

St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

I took the first photo near Tarnov, Nebraska, just outside of Columbus back in 2002. It’s located on the grounds of St. Michael’s Church, a place listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990. While looking through the photos I took a decade ago I decided I need to write more about it sometime, and return there with a better camera to document the grounds. On his shield are the words “No One Is Like God.”

St. Michael
Grotto of the Redemption

The second photo was taken in 2008 when my family and I were on the way to a vacation in Minnesota. It’s located at the Grotto of the Redemption in northwest Iowa at West Bend. That, too, is quite an experience and I found several photos I’d forgotten that I should document here sometime. Click on either photo in order to enlarge them.

So as not just a Catholic, but as a Christian, I have St. Michael to hold up as a champion and protector during such difficult times. But what about a physical representation?

Those are the saints. Real men and women in history who would tell you they were the greatest sinners, and many of them were, but who heard the voice of God and were led by him to accomplish great things or to inspire by their examples.

From the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read:

429. How does the Church nourish the moral life of a Christian? The Church is the community in which the Christian receives the Word of God, the teachings of the “law of Christ” (Gal 6:2), and the grace of the sacraments. Christians are united to the Eucharistic sacrifice of Christ in such a way that their moral life is an act of spiritual worship; and they learn the example of holiness from the Virgin Mary and the lives of the Saints.

564. How are the saints guides for prayer? The saints are our models of prayer. We also ask them to intercede before the Holy Trinity for us and for the whole world. Their intercession is their most exalted service to God’s plan. In the communion of saints, throughout the history of the Church, there have developed different types of spiritualities that teach us how to live and to practice the way of prayer.

For my purposes today I’m not going to get into a lengthy explanation of the theology about the saints and Catholics. Perhaps another time, but for now I just wanted to point out that in them we see “examples of holiness” (#429) and “models of prayer” (#564). Yes, the saints recognized by the Catholic Church were in fact Catholic and as such are held up as role models to imitate or learn from in practicing our faith as Catholics. But that does not mean that only Catholics are holy men and women of God that are to teach us or inspire us to be better human beings. And here’s the original point of my post.

Over the past two weeks I have read a few stories about such men and women that I wanted to bring to your attention while using a poem I recently came across. I will be placing their photos within the piece itself, and have provided a link to each of their stories at the end of this blog. I hope you’ll read through one or more of them and take from their stories what I have: in the face of incredible odds one person can make a difference. And it is in making that difference, no matter how large or how small, that we can cause a ripple across the waters of humanity that inspires real change.

It is not just as a Catholic that I draw strength and affirmation from the following words, but as a member of the human race. I hope you do, too.

*****

I Am A Warrior

I am a warrior.

I accept that life has challenges, that the road to success and mastery is strewn with the bodies of those who believed it would be easy, and did not prepare. I prepare. Every day I sharpen my mind and heart.

Lou Xiaoying

I know that fear is a constant companion for those who would live an authentic existence, free of comforting illusion. I make fear my friend, allowing it to empower me, to drive me toward my destiny. I put my love in front of me, my fear behind me, and run like hell.

I take responsibility for my actions and emotions, for my destiny. I know that I am the only one who can bring my dreams into reality, and have organized my mind and emotions so that every action is in alignment with my most deeply held values.

Plamen Petkov

I know that action creates emotion, and resolve to take effective action toward my goals every single day, without fail. However small, I will take at least one single step to clarify my mind and heal my heart. I break my long-term goals into bits I can accomplish one step at a time. Always, I remember that the Way is in training–in constant, conscious action.

I have the honesty to know I cannot do it all alone. I commit to facing my death with grace and calm. A warrior is not, as some mistakenly think, merely someone willing to die for what they believe in. That could also be said of a martyr. A warrior is willing to destroy her own ego, day after day, to make room for the best and most authentic essence of her true Heart to emerge.

Aung San Suu Kyi

I have faith in a caring, living universe that sustains me, in God, in something larger and more enduring than my transitory physical existence. I will never be limited by my own flaws and failings: I have more. I have faith.

I confront my challenges and meet them head on if necessary, but never forget to be flexible and creative: I will go over, under, around and through. I’ll try new things. Try old things. Work harder, smarter, faster, better. Try early, try late. Give it everything I have, day after day when others have yielded to fatigue and doubt. And then I will work even harder and longer.

Wang Yonghang

I teach the world by example. Every step, every breath, every word, every action represents me. I behave at all times as if my most honored teachers and beloved friends know my heart and see my actions. I commit at all times to being my very best. I also know that every day opens the door to the next level of action and challenge. Every ending is a new beginning. I commit to sharing what I have learned. I am a link in a chain of striving, caring, struggling human beings stretching back to the dawn of time, and forward to a brighter future.

Here and now, however short that time may be, I vow my heart to be the strongest link in that chain.

Narges Mohammadi

I will commit to nothing less.

I am a warrior.

(Adapted from poem by Steven Barnes)

*****

Allow me to introduce you to a few warriors.

• Lou Xiaoying
• Plamen Petkov
• Aung San Suu Kyi
• Wang Hongyang
• Narges Mohammadi

*****