Wednesday, December 24, 2008
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
We always talk about self-respect. The only reason a person deserves respect from themselves is because they are human. If, therefore, they deserve respect for themselves simply because they are human then it follows that those around them deserve respect at least for the same reason. And on top of deserving respect simply because one is a human being a person may also earn respect due to their age, position, or actions. Problems arise when we do not give to others the respect they are due. For example we should be respectful enough of one another to not curse and tell dirty jokes. Our job as Catholics is to help each other (not meaning just other Catholics but all humanity) to get to Heaven. St. Paul says, in his letter to the Romans, "judge this rather, that you not put a stumbling block or a scandal in your brother's way". Curses and dirty jokes, even if they don't seem to affect you, can lead others to sin. St. Paul has made it clear that our first thought should be for those around us. Christ Himself said "It is impossible that scandals should not come: but woe to him through whom they come. It were better for him, that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize one of these little ones." I didn't say it, Jesus did. The most popular excuse for a sin is that "I'm not hurting anyone". A sin is a sin specifically because it is hurting someone whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually. The greatest sin, as Christ made clear, is that which leads another person to sin, thereby estranging them from God. It is bad enough to pull yourself away from God but to bring another with you at least doubles the crime. I had a group of friends who were obsessed with dirty jokes and after spending alot of time around them I found myself thinking about things that I don't want to think about. Now I've been led to a state of sin which I am having a long hard struggle with simply because my friends did not respect me as a friend and as a human being.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Stop the Planned Parenthood Bailout
Tired of bailouts?
Well they aren’t going away anytime soon. Now the abortion industry wants one!
We all knew that Planned Parenthood was going to have a special seat at the table in the Obama administration. Well it hasn’t taken them long at all to roll out their extreme agenda.
Abortion groups have submitted their 50 page proposal to the Obama-Biden transition team. At the top of the list? More taxpayer dollars for abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood. How much more? Over 1.5 billion dollars more!
The Abortion Bailout Package:
· $1 BILLION dollars in taxpayer funding for International Abortion Groups like UNFPA, an international aid organization connected to coercive abortion as part of China’s coercive one-child policy
· $700 million in taxpayer funding for “Title X” Health Clinics (aka your local Planned Parenthood affiliate)
· Repeal the Hyde Amendment – Vastly expanding federal taxpayer funding for abortions
· Include Abortion coverage in any taxpayer-subsidized national health care program
· Expand taxpayer-funded abortions through the Peace Corps program
It is an outrage for Planned Parenthood to expect you to give your hard earned dollars to fund the destruction of innocent life.
Join citizens across our great country in telling their Senators to keep your tax dollars out of the abortion provid ers. Tell them to Stop the Abortion Bailout!
Sign the Petition today!
Tell your Senator today that Planned Parenthood should not get a bailout.
~Marjorie Dannenfelser
Susan B. Anthony List President
Well they aren’t going away anytime soon. Now the abortion industry wants one!
We all knew that Planned Parenthood was going to have a special seat at the table in the Obama administration. Well it hasn’t taken them long at all to roll out their extreme agenda.
Abortion groups have submitted their 50 page proposal to the Obama-Biden transition team. At the top of the list? More taxpayer dollars for abortion organizations like Planned Parenthood. How much more? Over 1.5 billion dollars more!
The Abortion Bailout Package:
· $1 BILLION dollars in taxpayer funding for International Abortion Groups like UNFPA, an international aid organization connected to coercive abortion as part of China’s coercive one-child policy
· $700 million in taxpayer funding for “Title X” Health Clinics (aka your local Planned Parenthood affiliate)
· Repeal the Hyde Amendment – Vastly expanding federal taxpayer funding for abortions
· Include Abortion coverage in any taxpayer-subsidized national health care program
· Expand taxpayer-funded abortions through the Peace Corps program
It is an outrage for Planned Parenthood to expect you to give your hard earned dollars to fund the destruction of innocent life.
Join citizens across our great country in telling their Senators to keep your tax dollars out of the abortion provid ers. Tell them to Stop the Abortion Bailout!
Sign the Petition today!
Tell your Senator today that Planned Parenthood should not get a bailout.
~Marjorie Dannenfelser
Susan B. Anthony List President
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
China Frees Pregnant Mom After International Outcry
China Frees Pregnant Mom after International Outcry
by Steven W. Mosher
A young mother pregnant with her third child has been freed after narrowly escaping a forced abortion at the hands of Chinese authorities, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA). Arzigul Tursun, who is six-months pregnant, was scheduled to be given a lethal infection today that would have resulted in the death of her unborn child, according to the Uyghur Human Rights Project.
Instead, she was allowed to return home unharmed, at least for now, because the case had attracted international attention and widespread outrage. In an interview with RFA, Tursun said, "I am all right and I am home now." The young mother, who is a member of a Turkish minority called the Uyghurs, was originally slated for an abortion because authorities told her that she had violated China's population control policies by conceiving a third child. China's minorities are generally allowed to have two children before being sterilized.
The last-minute reprieve marked the third time that Tursun had narrowly escaped with her child's life. Twice earlier she had been captured by China's population control cadres and sent to the hospital under guard. Twice she had managed to escape and regain her freedom.
Her husband told RFA that the last time she fled local officials had threatened to confiscate his house, crops and fields if he didn't reveal his wife's whereabouts. China's population control police routinely destroy homes and confiscate property of those who refuse to comply with their orders to abort. The police later tracked Tursun down where she was hiding at the home of a relative and took her into custody.
U.S. Congressmen Chris Smith and Joe Pitts were among those who publicly condemned the actions by the Chinese government and called for Tursun's release. Smith remarked, "Is the Chinese government really going to forcibly abort a third-trimester baby, after the mother's desperate efforts to save her child have become a global news story?"
Conspicuously silent, however, was the U.N. Population Fund, which has been actively supporting China's one-child policy for many years. Despite the continued victimization of many women like Arzigul Tursun, the UNFPA persists in providing support to the Chinese agency in charge of implementing this oppressive birth limitation policy. Even worse, the US taxpayer under President-elect Obama may very soon resume funding the UNFPA without any change in their behavior.
The US government has in the past withheld funding from the U.N. agency because of its complicity in China's coercive population control program. A 2001 PRI investigation in China documented that forced abortions, forced sterilizations, and other abuses were occurring in China with the UNFPA's foreknowledge and implicit consent. As a result, the U.N. agency has lost around $240 million in the years since, with President Bush annually invoking the Kemp-Kasten Amendment that denies funding for any organization supporting or participating in forced abortion or involuntary sterilization programs.
The latest determination from the State Department that UNFPA is ineligible for funding because of Kemp-Kasten was made in June, 2008. Yet, according to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), President-elect Barack Obama intends to funnel millions of dollars to UNFPA despite their cooperation with the Chinese population control program. In fact, during the election campaign President-elect Obama promised to restore federal funding to the UNFPA, and this pledge is also contained in Democratic Party's 2008 platform. The UNFPA denies that its work in China supports coercive population control practices, saying that it is instead "designed to demonstrate that voluntarism and informed choice are key to successful family planning programs," with an aim of reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions. It has also claimed that it has eliminated coercion in certain parts of China.
Tell that to Arzigul Tursun. The UNFPA has been operating in China since 1979(!), and the barbarity of the Chinese population controllers continues apace. As for Arzigul Tursun and her unborn baby, the Chinese government has blinked--for now. But they are by no means safe from reprisals. Even if Tursun is allowed to continue her pregnancy to term, there is still the risk that her baby will be killed by lethal injection at birth, a not uncommon occurrence in China. Moreover, it is virtually certain that she herself will be sterilized at that time.
If Obama restores funding to the UNFPA, his administration will be knowingly funding such tragedies as these with tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. Both the American and the Chinese people deserve better.
Steven W. Mosher is the President of the Population Research Institute and the author of Population Control: Real Costs and Illusory Benefits
by Steven W. Mosher
A young mother pregnant with her third child has been freed after narrowly escaping a forced abortion at the hands of Chinese authorities, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA). Arzigul Tursun, who is six-months pregnant, was scheduled to be given a lethal infection today that would have resulted in the death of her unborn child, according to the Uyghur Human Rights Project.
Instead, she was allowed to return home unharmed, at least for now, because the case had attracted international attention and widespread outrage. In an interview with RFA, Tursun said, "I am all right and I am home now." The young mother, who is a member of a Turkish minority called the Uyghurs, was originally slated for an abortion because authorities told her that she had violated China's population control policies by conceiving a third child. China's minorities are generally allowed to have two children before being sterilized.
The last-minute reprieve marked the third time that Tursun had narrowly escaped with her child's life. Twice earlier she had been captured by China's population control cadres and sent to the hospital under guard. Twice she had managed to escape and regain her freedom.
Her husband told RFA that the last time she fled local officials had threatened to confiscate his house, crops and fields if he didn't reveal his wife's whereabouts. China's population control police routinely destroy homes and confiscate property of those who refuse to comply with their orders to abort. The police later tracked Tursun down where she was hiding at the home of a relative and took her into custody.
U.S. Congressmen Chris Smith and Joe Pitts were among those who publicly condemned the actions by the Chinese government and called for Tursun's release. Smith remarked, "Is the Chinese government really going to forcibly abort a third-trimester baby, after the mother's desperate efforts to save her child have become a global news story?"
Conspicuously silent, however, was the U.N. Population Fund, which has been actively supporting China's one-child policy for many years. Despite the continued victimization of many women like Arzigul Tursun, the UNFPA persists in providing support to the Chinese agency in charge of implementing this oppressive birth limitation policy. Even worse, the US taxpayer under President-elect Obama may very soon resume funding the UNFPA without any change in their behavior.
The US government has in the past withheld funding from the U.N. agency because of its complicity in China's coercive population control program. A 2001 PRI investigation in China documented that forced abortions, forced sterilizations, and other abuses were occurring in China with the UNFPA's foreknowledge and implicit consent. As a result, the U.N. agency has lost around $240 million in the years since, with President Bush annually invoking the Kemp-Kasten Amendment that denies funding for any organization supporting or participating in forced abortion or involuntary sterilization programs.
The latest determination from the State Department that UNFPA is ineligible for funding because of Kemp-Kasten was made in June, 2008. Yet, according to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), President-elect Barack Obama intends to funnel millions of dollars to UNFPA despite their cooperation with the Chinese population control program. In fact, during the election campaign President-elect Obama promised to restore federal funding to the UNFPA, and this pledge is also contained in Democratic Party's 2008 platform. The UNFPA denies that its work in China supports coercive population control practices, saying that it is instead "designed to demonstrate that voluntarism and informed choice are key to successful family planning programs," with an aim of reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions. It has also claimed that it has eliminated coercion in certain parts of China.
Tell that to Arzigul Tursun. The UNFPA has been operating in China since 1979(!), and the barbarity of the Chinese population controllers continues apace. As for Arzigul Tursun and her unborn baby, the Chinese government has blinked--for now. But they are by no means safe from reprisals. Even if Tursun is allowed to continue her pregnancy to term, there is still the risk that her baby will be killed by lethal injection at birth, a not uncommon occurrence in China. Moreover, it is virtually certain that she herself will be sterilized at that time.
If Obama restores funding to the UNFPA, his administration will be knowingly funding such tragedies as these with tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. Both the American and the Chinese people deserve better.
Steven W. Mosher is the President of the Population Research Institute and the author of Population Control: Real Costs and Illusory Benefits
Thursday, November 13, 2008
We Are Made For These Times
Being a bit of a history buff I've often looked into the past and said "I wish I had lived in that time period". It is very tempting, particularly when we are faced with tough decisions, to look back and say "I'm living in the wrong time, I was meant to live in the 1800's," or the Middle Ages, or whenever. But the fact is that God doesn't make mistakes. He put you in this age for a reason. If you were meant to be an abolitionist you would have lived during the Civil War. But you didn't. You're living now. Which means that God wants you to face today's challenges. There is no point looking back. We must look first at the present, we must identify the problems facing our world today and then we must look to the future and decide what we will do about them. You were not called to be a martyr in the Coliseum. But you may be called to go to jail in defense of the unborn. You were not meant to fight for the freedom of slaves. But you are meant to fight for the lives of the unborn, the elderly, and the disabled. God made us for these times; to fight the good fight now. It is easy to look into the past and condemn. It is easy to say "If I had lived then I would have done what was right". But you're not living then. You're living now. And are you doing what is right?
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
"A Call To Prayer - For Life"
"It’s time to face facts. Americans are a people inclined towards action. This has served us well, but there is something else that must be the foundation of our actions if we are to be successful in any spiritual battle. This is the Power of Prayer, and especially, the Power of the Rosary. Our Lady is the Patroness of the United States under the title of the Immaculate Conception, and Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Patroness of the Americas. It is to Our Lady under these titles that we direct our prayers, to ask for her intercession for the triumph of the Culture of Life.
The ultimate goal is a lofty one - 68,000,000 rosaries said for the triumph of the Culture of Life in our country. Why 68,000,000? 68 million is roughly the number of Catholics in our country, and it’s also very close to the number of people who voted for Barack Obama in the recent election. Therefore, there are at least 68 million reasons to do penance. If Catholics would pray and act as they should, the Culture of Death would be put to rout in our country. This battle is primarily spiritual warfare, and it’s time we finally get organized as an army.
The first initiative of Rosaries for Life is going to be the Inauguration Day Rosary Novena. This Novena is going to last for 72 days - it consists of 4 sets of mysteries 9 times for the intentions, followed by 4 sets of mysteries 9 times in thanksgiving = 72 days of praying 5 decades). The novena will begin on November 10th, the feast of St. Leo the Great (as well as the first day of the USCCB meeting) and end on January 20th, Inauguration Day.
There are five specific intentions. You may specifically pray a specific mystery for a specific intention, or simply pray the whole rosary for all of the intentions. If possible, pray the rosary in front of the Blessed Sacrament. The intentions are these:
* For the triumph of the Culture of Life in the United States of America.
* For President-elect Obama, and for all of the leaders of the United States of America, that they will be led personally to Jesus Christ and His truth, and that they will lead our country in a positive direction. Or in other words, as Archbishop Wuerl said, “That our nation’s new leaders be guided in their decisions with wisdom and compassion and at the heart of all of their decisions may there be a deep respect for and commitment to the sanctity and dignity of all human life and support for the most vulnerable among us.”
* For the hearts, minds and SOULS of the American people, that they will be turned back towards Jesus Christ and the “least of His brethren”.
* For a renewal of the virtues of purity and self-control, especially among our youth.
* In reparation for the scourges of abortion, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, euthanasia, cloning, artificial contraception, and all manifestations of the Culture of Death, and especially in reparation for the support and/or complacency that we as American Catholics have shown to these evils.
I Timothy 2:1-2 -First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intecessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men - for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly, and respectful in every way.
Ephesians 6:11-13 - Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."
http://rosariesforlife.wordpress.com
The ultimate goal is a lofty one - 68,000,000 rosaries said for the triumph of the Culture of Life in our country. Why 68,000,000? 68 million is roughly the number of Catholics in our country, and it’s also very close to the number of people who voted for Barack Obama in the recent election. Therefore, there are at least 68 million reasons to do penance. If Catholics would pray and act as they should, the Culture of Death would be put to rout in our country. This battle is primarily spiritual warfare, and it’s time we finally get organized as an army.
The first initiative of Rosaries for Life is going to be the Inauguration Day Rosary Novena. This Novena is going to last for 72 days - it consists of 4 sets of mysteries 9 times for the intentions, followed by 4 sets of mysteries 9 times in thanksgiving = 72 days of praying 5 decades). The novena will begin on November 10th, the feast of St. Leo the Great (as well as the first day of the USCCB meeting) and end on January 20th, Inauguration Day.
There are five specific intentions. You may specifically pray a specific mystery for a specific intention, or simply pray the whole rosary for all of the intentions. If possible, pray the rosary in front of the Blessed Sacrament. The intentions are these:
* For the triumph of the Culture of Life in the United States of America.
* For President-elect Obama, and for all of the leaders of the United States of America, that they will be led personally to Jesus Christ and His truth, and that they will lead our country in a positive direction. Or in other words, as Archbishop Wuerl said, “That our nation’s new leaders be guided in their decisions with wisdom and compassion and at the heart of all of their decisions may there be a deep respect for and commitment to the sanctity and dignity of all human life and support for the most vulnerable among us.”
* For the hearts, minds and SOULS of the American people, that they will be turned back towards Jesus Christ and the “least of His brethren”.
* For a renewal of the virtues of purity and self-control, especially among our youth.
* In reparation for the scourges of abortion, Embryonic Stem Cell Research, euthanasia, cloning, artificial contraception, and all manifestations of the Culture of Death, and especially in reparation for the support and/or complacency that we as American Catholics have shown to these evils.
I Timothy 2:1-2 -First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intecessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men - for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly, and respectful in every way.
Ephesians 6:11-13 - Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."
http://rosariesforlife.wordpress.com
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
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