The United States Catholic Conference of Bishops is meeting at this very moment (November 14, 2008) and I was just watching some of the Bishops’ comments on EWTN (the world Catholic cable network). Perhaps the immense gravity of this situation has finally woken them up, but they are absolutely expressing straight out the immense danger the Church faces in this country in a way we haven’t seen. It fills me with rage that they haven’t spoken more openly before, but, by God, it seems to finally be sinking in what is facing our Church and believers in general.
Much has been said already about many facets of this awful “Freedom of Choice Act”, but I would like to underline one aspect of this bill that should chill the heart of every believer of any kind in this country. The Bishops have apparently begun to realize one thing: this bill will FORCE Catholic hospitals to provide abortions. ALL conscience clauses will be obliterated, invading the inner sanctum of the freedom to practice religion, trampling the First Amendment. “You must burn infants alive over the course of hours; you must tear and cut them apart while they are still alive”. The draconian choices facing over 600 Catholic hospitals: closing the Obstetrics wing of all of them, or closing all of the hospitals altogether. The alternative is allowing the government to force Catholic physicians to perform these heinous actions which, to their credit, the Bishops seem to be refusing to countenance at all. This amounts to an anti-religious war which will destroy something which is invaluable, not only to Catholics, but to all Americans.
Anti-Catholic bigots must be wondering what the problem is. Religion is the major impediment to progress, after all, etc. etc. I think most fair thinkers, even unbelievers, will conclude, like the non-practicing Benjamin Franklin, that the free exercise of religion is crucial to the political health of the nation. How can anyone think it is good to exclude the services of highly trained, motivated moral professionals and institutions?
What was it that doomed the Kingdom of Judah to seventy years of Exile in Babylon? The prophet Jeremiah identified the straw that broke the camel’s back, the tipping point that changed the possibility of calamity from ‘IF’ to ‘WHEN’. What was it? It was when King Manasseh instituted public, state-sponsored killing of innocent children. They would bring the babies and children outside the gates of Jerusalem to the Valley of Hinnom. There before the eyes of the King and all the leaders, they burned their children alive as an offering to the god Moloch. It was totally legal. Nobody objected. Everyone watched and approved by their silence. (Later known as Gehenna, the garbage dump of Jerusalem, it was a place Jesus used as a symbol of eternal damnation).
Jeremiah pointed out that any society that can do that has passed beyond the point of any possibility of recovery. Prophets always initially give a CONDITIONAL warning; it’s up to us; if we can change, we can avoid the consequences. The problem is that as the downward angle of the ‘slippery slope’ increases more and more, eventually we must get to point where there is a straight 90o angle, where the only possible result left is for gravity to take over and to SPLAT! Poor Jeremiah was forced to be a prophet of doom because the die had already been cast by the time he came along. Despite the desperate reform attempts of King Josiah, it was too little too late.
Up to this point, our nation has made choices that gave some hope we might have some future. We elected people who tried to put some common-sense restrictions, who refused to use tax money or who allowed believers to obey their conscience in some small measure. What’s going to happen now that we have voted to go to the extreme we are threatened with going to? What if our own government basically backs millions of believers against the wall with a moral gun to their heads? What if we, like latter-day Manassehs, publicly and officially force the nation to stand around and watch as we kill the innocent children with tax money and religious institutions? Can a nation that tortures and kills its own helpless and innocent in such a radical way hope to have a future? The first nation to radically legalize abortion, Soviet Russia, permanently damaged their birth rate and they’ve never recovered; their implosion continues. Post-Christian Europe follows them apace as the Muslim wave laps around their necks.
Hearts must change before kingdoms can change. America can bravely lead in a more healthy direction. We cannot stand around like the people in Gehenna. We have got to speak out and pray that certain important hearts will change before it’s too late.
Just to let anyone know, what I was watching on EWTN were excerpts of the Bishops’ Conference on “The World Over”, a news show with Raymond Arroyo. Arroyo has appeared with Laura Ingraham on Fox at times.
mlajoie2
It is sad that so many go to church and so few follow the teachings of the bible. It seems that a few catholics are the only ones who ‘really’ oppose the murder of millions of babies (est over 50 million in the U.S.). That says little about the practice of religion but says a lot about the lack of care about anything but self by the majority of humans. I agree with the catholic leader in S.C., that anyone who voted for Hussein should not receive forgiveness in the church. I think they should actually be shunned by everyone as the hypocrites they are.
The enemy that needs to be fought (according to the left) is the believer. It is now against the grain of the liberal left, to even mention the name of Jesus, unless in swearing. This Christian country has taken a decided lurch towards agnosticism that is frightening. Who is being blamed for our defeat at the polls, why it’s us believers and Sarah Palin, who had the nerve to not abort Trig. The thing that scares me the most, is that some in our own ranks are running away from us. Fear is a funny thing, makes people do and say some very crazy things.
Remember, there were some of us that tried to warn of the outcome of a John McCain nomination, he made profits out of some. He ran away from all that we held dear until it was too late. No! The reason for our defeat was John McCain and the Republican Washington Establishment. We were told we needed a big tent, did any of this happen, did any of the numbers change from prior elections. Ronald Reagan showed us how to win, but we denied the very formula that gave us victory, blame us believers if you must, but remember who it is that brings victory, and who has brought us defeat.
I’ve got a suggestion for the Bishops. ALL the titular Bishops of this country should physically go en masse to Washington at a certain key time and flood the hallways of Congress and fill up the vestibule in the White House. Make a demonstration that the Media will not be able to avoid. If other Ministers and Rabbis and Imams would join them physically all at once, what a statement that would make.
What do you think?
mlajoie2 – I think that’s a Great idea !
Impossible for the media to ignore !
Many Conservative Christians (non-Catholic) prefer to go to a Catholic hospital, purely because of their stand on abortion. The line of thinking is simple; no Christian should willingly give God’s money to support the killing of the unborn. We are long overdue for a resurgence of the Moral Majority.
By the way, the photo is of Archbishop Caput of Denver and the painting is a detail of the Sistine by Michaelangelo of the Prophet Jeremiah.
We are facing an unprecedent challenge when Jan 20 comes. Hussein and the majority Dems will try to push through FOCA. Christians and non-Christians have to band together and fight hard. We can not allow murdering of innocent precious lives.
I agree GOP should never abandon their core positions and compromise.
This is so sad and tragic. We must all fast and pray and pray the Rosary. It is our only hope now.
Those here put their religion out the door when they voted for the pro-choice liberal illuminati.