On Abortion

There is nothing morally ambiguous about abortion. Nothing can justify it. Taking a life is only justified in combat, in self-defense, in defense of innocent life. But abortion is the taking of innocent life. It is the premeditated destruction of a human child. Killing a baby is nothing but murder. There is no justification.

The fight for the lives of the unborn has been going on for far too long. It is now a multigenerational war. Roe v Wade happened over forty years ago. Parents have handed down the struggle to their children. The new millennium inherited the struggle. A new array of recruits have taken the field. In a long war such as this, it is all too easy for combatants to descend from crusader to cynic. We lose sight of what we are fighting for. 

Abortion is not an issue of the left or right. It is a human issue. We should not fight for its end because of our political affiliation but because of our outrage at this moral obscenity. The murderous streak in man has a long history. Just ask Cain and Abel. We have killed each other in very nearly any way possible. There have been monsters disguised as men. Abortion, however, is a monster's dream come true. It is murder disguised with rubber gloves.

The numbers for abortion make a very decisive statement. About 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. Stalin's purges and despotic influence reaped 20 million corpses. The regime of Mao Zedong brought a death toll that was twice that. In the United States alone, 58 million and counting children have been killed by abortion. According to US Abortion Counters, more than 1.3 billion babies have been killed since 1980. That's more than one seventh of the current world population. And that number is only going to get bigger and bigger. Today, a fifth of pregnancies end in premeditated murder.

And abortion is murder. You do not sever the life of a human being and call it a medical procedure or a right for women. Life begins at conception. That is a fact. Attempts to push the beginning of life to a date later than that defy logic. If life begins at sixteen weeks, why doesn't it occur at fifteen weeks instead? That is an idiotic argument formed by people who are either supremely ignorant or murderers.

All you have to do is watch some of the Planned Parenthood videos that have been released in recent weeks to see the dark side of the abortion industry, the industry of death. Abortion is not some clean medical procedure. Killing a baby is far from humane, go figure. The baby's body is crushed in certain ways to ensure that vital organs remain viable and therefore profitable.

It is sickening to hear a crime called a right. It is morally reprehensible to defend what is clearly murder. Perhaps this generation will not see justice. It has taken far longer than forty years for some wrongs to be righted. It is just that few wrongs have ever been this wrong. There will be justice. We might not be able to charge those morally complicit in abortion with murder in the end. Those who knew exactly what they were doing and didn't care might not spend a day in jail. But justice is not of man but of God. And God's justice comes in His own time. 

Never forget what we are fighting for. Never forget who we are fighting for. Every time you see a baby, every time you see the wonder in their eyes, remember. Remember that we are not fighting for a political agenda or personal gain. We are fighting for the children. 

Deus Vult!

A Divorce Society

We have lost our reverence for the sacrament of marriage. You hear this a lot in reference to the legalization of homosexual "unions," which are indeed a terrible mockery of the indissoluble union between man and woman instituted by God. But this is just one of the symptoms of a culture bereft of respect for matrimony, and a rather minor one at that. Proportionately, there are surprisingly few homosexuals. Therefore the effects of gay marriage are relatively limited in scope.

There is one symptom of our culture of death and disunity that dwarfs homosexual "marriage" in both scope and significance: divorce. 

Divorce is so commonplace today, it's almost moral gray noise. We forget that half of modern marriages end in divorce. We forget that whole legal practices have been built upon divorce cases. No one pays any attention to the fact that celebrities have five ex-wives and their current spouse is half their age. Nevertheless the roots of a lot of our problems today lie in divorce. Divorce could well be what kills our culture. 

Indissolubility is one of the essential characteristics of the Sacrament of marriage. God did not intend for the wedding band to be a rubber band, easily stretched and easily broken. Marriage is a union that should be set in gold, not broken for convenience. 

Christ's teachings on this subject are very clear: "What God has joined together, man must not separate.... I say to you, whoever divorces his wife

(unless the marriage is unlawful)
and marries another commits adultery." (Matthew 19:6,9)

It is amazing how easily the words of the Gospel are forgotten by Christians. The teachings of the Church, however, are decisive. Matrimony is a sacrament that should not be changed. 

Apologists for the existence of divorce always fall back to the singular example of an abusive spouse. Clearly, they say, such a case would merit the severance of marital relationships. The Church allows for the physical separation of spouses in extremely grave cases such as abuse. Reconciliation, however, remains the goal in such cases. The nature of the marital bond means that the one spouse must never give up on the other. In extreme cases, there is the process of annulment. Ecclesiastical authorities can declare a marriage to be null and void, as if the bond had never existed in the first place, but this is the exception and not the rule. 

Nowadays, couples become divorced for trivialities. They break the divine bond of matrimony for incompatibility of temper or even economical reasons. There are several attitudes of this culture of death that contribute to a high divorce rate.

The most prevalent erroneous attitude towards marriage is that of temporality. A man and a woman should not become married because they are attracted to one another for beauty is fleeting with age. They should become married because they love one another, not with a carnal love, but with a sacrificial love. Marriage is not a condition forced upon a couple because of the duration of their relationship. It is not the evolution of a dating relationship, but the highest form of love a man can have for a woman and likewise. 

Some like to think that divorce is a victimless phenomenon, that its effect is limited to husband and wife, that since two consenting adults agree to go their separate ways no harm has been done. That is not the truth. Irreparable damage is done to the very core of society: the nuclear family. Children are never the same after a divorce. Regardless of age, they are scarred for the rest of their lives. Suddenly, Mommy and Daddy are no longer living together. The children are deprived of the gift of a father and a mother. Vast numbers of families today are headed by single-moms. 

Binders of studies have been done on the effects of only having a single parent. The single most common denominator for prison inmates is that they were raised by a single parent. A 1996 study showed that 70% of juvenile delinquents were raised by single mothers. Divorce is even more prevalent in minority families. A study by the Progressive Policy issue showed that if you control for the effects of single mothers, the difference between the white and black crime rates disappears. 

The scariest numbers, however, come from a Village Voice cited study. If a child was raised by a single mother, they "are five times more likely to commit suicide, nine times more likely to drop out of high school, 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances, 14 times more likely to commit rape (for the boys), 20 times more likely to end up in prison, and 32 times more likely to run away from home." 

(Note: most of these studies were listed in an article on rightwingnews.com)

Divorce is a viscous cycle. Even if a couple doesn't have a child when they first get divorced, aren't they even more likely to get divorced a second and a third time? And a child from a divorced family, will undoubtedly be far more inclined to have a divorce when they themselves become married. That is the cycle that will dethrone the world as we know it. 

What we need today are more models of the beauty of Holy Matrimony. We need more married couples who embody the spirit of St. Monica. St. Monica is best remembered by her relationship with her son, St. Augustine. Augustine was an avowed heretic for many years. He was an outspoken opponent of the Church during a time of Roman persecution. But through the unceasing prayers of his pious mother, Augustine became a Catholic and went on to become one of the greatest doctors of the Church. Clearly, St. Monica is an example of the value of persistent prayer and the need to pray for one's children. But there is a better reason that she should serve as the model for married couples today.

No marriage is perfect. You cannot expect two human beings to live together and never fight. Nevertheless, it is certainly true that some marriages are much more difficult than others. St. Monica's marriage was one of those. She was married to Patricius, a pagan. Patricius was about as abusive as a spouse can get. He verbally abused the faith that Monica held so dearly to her heart. He was both an alcoholic and a gambler. But St. Monica never gave up on her husband. It is very doubtful that she always liked him, but she never stopped loving him. Just as her persistent prayers saved her son, St. Monica's faith converted her husband on his deathbed.

We need more couples like St. Monica and less like those on Desperate Housewives.

Marriage is a sacred institution created by God. People like to say that Christians did not create marriage and therefore they have no say on the subject. Only half of that is true. Christians did not come up with marriage just as they did not invent the Mass. Both were instituted by God Himself. It is therefore impossible for us to change the essential nature of marriage. All we can do is twist and pervert it. Yes, homosexuality distorts Holy Matrimony. Divorce, however, does so even more.

Deus Volt!

The Darkness of Atheism

Atheists are idiots.

It's that simple. Now, I understand that some atheists may seem to be intelligent in the eyes of the world. They might have doctorates.  Their names might be hallowed in the halls of academia. They might have published New York Times best sellers. That, to the secular eye, constitutes intellect.

But atheists are fundamentally stupid. They are like a well crafted watch that is set to the wrong time. Sure it might keep good time, but it will always be wrong nevertheless because of its internal and essential flaws. Atheists are like a castle built in the sand, to paraphrase Chrisy. Externally, they might appear sturdy and strong. But such an edifice will not stand the test of time as it is built on a poor foundation. 

Atheists have built up their castles, their lives, on a lie. That lie, is that God does not exist. There is no question that can trump that of the existence of God. Nothing is more important. This question is not one that can be answered with a noncommittal answer, though people have certainly tried. This question is the difference between light and darkness, between Truth and a lie. 

Here is the truth: God is alive. This is a truth of the heart, the mind, and the soul. This is the Truth. When I look at an ocean sunset, mist sliding down the mountains, the eyes of a newborn child, I cannot help but know in my heart that God is alive. 

Anyone who says that they do not believe in God is lying to themselves. The existence of God is a self-evident truth. No one is born an atheist. What child does not pray for a pup or a new bike? Atheism is the delusion of pride. When most people say that they don't believe in God, the inevitable explanation is that they believe that they have been personally wronged by God, and therefore He must not exist. Such is folly. Yes, there is suffering in this world. A lot actually. Bad things happen. Loved ones die of cancer, children starve on the streets, natural disasters kill thousands and leave many more without a home. But this reality is not the antithesis of God. God allows us to suffer. Why? The true reason is known only to Providence. But it is through suffering that we become disillusioned with the things of this world. It is through loss that we often turn to God. Adversity tends to weed out the fair weather believers. Gold needs to be tested by fire. 

The problem with atheists is that they believe in the primacy of human reason, even when that "reason" is blinded by emotion and hubris. Since an atheist believes they have concocted some crackpot contradiction to the reality of God, God must not exist. The idiocy of atheism lies in the fact that they somehow think that their minds have to be able to comprehend every single facet of an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God. They forget that His ways are higher than our ways. 

I am not sure that all ants believe in humans. Certainly, not all ants have seen human beings. They might have heard about them from other ants, but a fair number of ants could live their entire lives without setting their ant eyes on a human being. A greater number of ants, while not having seen a true human, will have seen the works of human hands. Perhaps some ants will have the wisdom to infer the existence of some form of higher life through these objects, but I am sure that just as many ants claim that the cities and sidewalks and suburbs have always existed, they exist by pure chance . The ants certainly cannot have an exact idea of the nature of human beings. We a s humans have not deigned to send a messenger to the ants to explain ourselves. Therefore, large numbers of ants likely deny the existence of man. 

This tangent might seem a tad ridiculous. Certainly the human race exists. Just because ants cannot wrap their minuscule intellects around our nature, does not change the reality of our existence. 

This is an analogy to atheism. The arrogance of the ant academia cannot change the truth. The hubris of man cannot change the truth. The existence of God is not predicated upon our believing in Him. 

  

Deus Volt!

You are Greater Than Cecil

A lot of fuss has been made about the death of Cecil the lion, a recently deceased denizen of a Zimbabwe national park who was killed, purportedly illegally, by an American dentist. With the sheer number of different animals in the world, it is surprising that the demise of a single member of the big cat family would cause such an international uproar. Yet such is the case. I would venture a guess that more people in the United States know the name of Cecil the lion than know the name of the current vice president. That is the power of trending on social media.

There is nothing wrong with being angry that an animal was killed illegally. All creatures are created by God and they are due some measure of dignity. There are laws against poaching and for good reason. In acting as stewards of God's earth, it is right and fitting to preserve species from extinction. The most recent papal encyclical by Pope Francis, Laudato Si, examines this stewardship in greater detail and wisdom than can be provided in this short post.

But we need to look at the phenomenon of the death of Cecil the lion for an even bigger reason than as a reminder of our human responsibilities. The reaction itself was dangerous, even terrifying. It was myoptic. Suddenly, the death of one lion became national headlines. The death of a single human would not have been as tragic in the eyes of the media (Not to mention the millions of dead children from abortion.) Protestors flocked to the dental practice of the man who killed Cecil carrying signs that called for his death. The moral equivalency here is out of proportion for more than one reason. It is interesting to note that the same people who have trouble stomaching the death penalty would have no qualms about its application on a man who killed a beast. If you would believe Facebook and Twitter, a murderer is little more than a lightweight felon next to the dentist who hunted Cecil.

Give a man annonymity, and you will get stupidity in return. The arguments on the Internet that would like to immortalize Cecil as some kind of figurehead of animal rights are disturbing. Self-appointed pundits are claiming that the lives of animals are worth more than those of humans. These claims tend to fall into one of two categories. About half say that since animals have not created war and racism, they are obviously morally superior to human beings. The other half uses a twisted sort of mathematics. Apparently, since there are only slightly less than 30,000 lions left in the world (Pandera.org,) lions are more valuable than humans as we number seven billion.

Both of these arguments are disgusting.

This is why the Cecil incident is so eye-opening. In this culture of death, people have become so jaded that they have forgotten their own dignity. They've listened to the lies of Satan for too long and mistaken them for truths. This is the pinnacle of an age that has lost sight of its own value. Pornography reduces us to objects of pleasure. Greed reduces us to our savings account. Now we look at the innocence of beasts and envy them, forgetting that their innocence comes from ignorance.

It is time for the truth.

God created both man and beast. But just because the same hand formed them does not mean that they have to be equal in value. The hands of a sculptor can create both a simple cup and the Pieta. In no eyes are the two equal in beauty or worth. The same is true for us. God did not create the animals in His image. It is in man that the likeness of God can be found.

The Catechism has the perfect answer for our moral dearth of a world:

"The hierarchy of creatures is expressed by the order of the 'six days,' from the less perfect to the more perfect. God loves all his creatures and takes care of each one, even the sparrow. Nevertheless, Jesus said: 'You are of more value than many sparrows,' or again: 'Of how much more value is a man than a sheep!' Man is the summit of the Creator's work,"

Jesus did not die for Cecil the lion. He died for you and me. Humans are inherently superior to animals.

Deus Volt!