David Ancell / Wednesday, February 15, 2012 / Comments(0)
A secular reporter was interviewing someone at a World Youth Day who loved Blessed John Paul II. The argument she made with the interviewee was ” . . . but he’s against birth control devices.” Indeed, if you say that you are against contraception, there are plenty of people who will look at you as if you had said that eating whole wheat bread will cause spontaneous combustion.
Contraception has very widespread acceptance in our society. Now, we even have government leaders who are telling us that it is part of the basic healthcare needs of women. Somehow, it’s just so vital that women have “access” to contraception that every employer needs to provide insurance that covers it with no cost.
Does that make it right? There are plenty of people who will tell you that the Church should “get with the times.” Well, who or what are “the times,” and why should we listen to them? I don’t know about you, but I’d rather listen to God. Some people will accuse Catholics like me of blindly following church authority. In doing so, they are really insulting people like me who took the time to study and work hard for what I know. These same people will blindly follow “the times” without really being able to define exactly what it is they are following.
Because people are willing to follow “the times,” it never occurs to them that there might really be something wrong with the use of contraception. They just assume that we Catholics who believe the Church are hopelessly stuck in the past. Most such people have never bothered to read Humanae Vitae. They may not even know it exists. The Theology of the Body may also be unknown to them.
Not only is the Church’s teaching regarding contraception true, it is also a positive good. There are plenty of people out there who have heard the message presented as the good that it is and wondered “Why haven’t I heard this before?” Indeed, this time in which our government wants to trample on us and our religious freedom may well be something that God is using as our penance for our long time failure to spread the message. That failure is a failure on the part of both our clergy and laity.
The new Obama Administration mandate that requires all employers to provide contraceptive coverage at no cost is a great evil. This is true whether it’s the employer or the insurance company who has to provide. After all, where is the insurance company getting its money? The problem with the mandate goes beyond the Church and organizations run by the Church. It means that a Catholic like me can’t start his own business without being told that I have to pay for birth control for everyone. It also means that we will all pay higher premiums.
However, God permits evil to bring about a greater good. During the past few weeks, I’ve seen bishops whom I’ve never known to be great defenders of the Faith come out of the woodwork to speak against this evil. The issue is now getting more attention than I’ve ever seen it get.
Now is the perfect time to educate people, especially Catholics who for some reason don’t know or don’t accept the Church’s teaching. Let’s get out our materials and brush up so we can explain it. This would also be a great time for parishes who haven’t already done so to have a study session on Humanae Vitae, Theology of the Body, or some other resource. The mandate must be fought and ultimately overturned, but please don’t stop there. This is the perfect opportunity to tell the world about the true meaning of human sexuality.
Category: Catholic, Morality, Response
David Ancell / Tuesday, February 07, 2012 / Comments(0)
At really long last, here is another podcast episode.
Yana got me Adobe Audition for Mac for Christmas, so I’m putting it to good use. The sound may be a bit different because I was doing completely new settings on my post-production plug-in. I think my Ozone 3 is due for an upgrade, don’t you?
Anyway, in the span of about 18 minutes, I make a valiant attempt to shed some light on two common misunderstandings of our day. This was prompted by the YouTube video that went viral entitled “Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus.” The first part is about the video and some things that are wrong with it. I end it with what’s right from the video.
Then, I tackle the irresponsible statement often heard, in some form or another, that obeying the law doesn’t matter as long as we love. This is one of those topics that inspired me to name the blog and podcast “It Really Does Matter.” The reason is that, as you may have guessed, it really does matter.
Category: Podcasts
David Ancell / Friday, February 03, 2012 / Comments(0)
I saw a number of people on Facebook who were excited to hear that the Susan G. Komen Foundation had stopped funding Planned Parenthood. As much as I was all ready to send them an e-mail thanking them for doing this, something told me that I should approach with caution. I have a tendency to be pretty slow to react, and it comes in handy at times.
Surely enough, we now have this statement from the Foundation. They decided to “amend their criteria” to support organizations under investigation if the investigation is “political” and is not “conclusive.” So, I guess PP’s willingness to violate mandatory reporting for statutory rape doesn’t constitute a criminal act under Komen’s criteria. It must be just politics driving those investigations.
Under this “revision,” Planned Parenthood keeps its existing grants and may apply for new ones. While writing about how they don’t want their mission “marred by politics,” it is hard for me to interpret their statement as anything but either 1) bowing to political pressure from pro-aborts OR 2) ultimately wanting to maintain their ties with Planned Parenthood. For those who might think Komen hasn’t really reversed their earlier decision, note that Planned Parenthood is declaring victory on their web site.
Perhaps some people reading this wonder why I would be concerned as long as the money granted is being used for mammograms or other screenings. The answer is that money given for breast screenings means that more money from their general fund can then be used for their immoral activities like abortion and contraception. No matter what other services they provide, the fact remains that they are a MAJOR provider of abortions in this country. While breast cancer does kill many women, abortion is a directly intended killing of millions of unborn children.
So, as much as I’d like to support breast cancer research, I cannot and will not do it by supporting an organization that is helping to fund an organization such as Planned Parenthood. The great evil of abortion far outweighs any good that PP could possibly be doing. I will not take any chance on donating money to them.
Category: Catholic, Morality, Response
David Ancell / Wednesday, February 01, 2012 / Comments(0)
I would urge anyone who values freedom of religion in this country, especially Catholics, to please take a moment to sign this petition to the President. We need 25,000 signatures by February 27, 2012 to get an official response. The US Department of Health and Human Services, in an unprecedented attack on religious freedom in the United States, has issued a mandate that all employer health insurance plans provide coverage for contraception and abortifacients.
In short, this means that nearly all Catholic employers, whether they are agencies of the Church or businesses owned by devout Catholics, will be required to pay for people’s mortal sin. At best, the Obama administration is attacking freedom or religion. At worst, the administration wants to stop the Church from providing health care and other social services or even wants to destroy the Church. We cannot stand by and let this happen.
This is not about “the Church getting into people’s bedrooms.” If people employed by the Church choose to use contraception, we aren’t performing bed checks. God himself will do that, and those people will have to answer for having abused the gift by which God gave us to help him in bringing new life into the world. This is simply about not requiring the people of this world who are standing with Christ on this not to have to pay the bill for people to sin.