BLESSED MARGARET POLE - MAY 28 - MARTYRED AT THE CONFLUENCE OF CHURCH AND STATE

 

Blessed Margaret Plantagenet Pole,

Countess of Salisbury

Martyr

14 August 1473 - 28 May 1541

MY COUSIN, BLESSED MARGARET POLE

Blessed Margaret Plantagenet Pole is my 6th cousin, 17 times removed. We share a common ancestor, who is Edward I "Longshanks," King of England, my 24th great grandfather. She was put to death in the Tower of London on the order of Henry VIII because she was Catholic, essentially and because Henry VIII was a brutal, maniacal ruler who did not want to follow the rule of the Pope with regard to his multiple marriages and his moral failings.

Henry had made himself the ruler of The Church in England, breaking off from the Catholic hierarchy and creating a new organization. Anyone who did not express absolute loyalty to him and his new church was in danger of losing their heads. Even the accidents of birth and relationship were enough to convict someone,  absent any other proof whatsoever.  

SHE WAS DEVOTED TO THE WRONG RELIGION

Margaret was given no trial and did not even know that she was going to be executed until an hour beforehand.  It was done so quickly, with so little advance notice, that many people doubted it had happened at all. The executioner was a young man with very little experience and, instead of a clean and swift chop, Margaret was hacked to death with multiple blows of the axe to her head and shoulders.

She was 68 years old - the same age I will be in a few months.

ENGLISH FLEE TO THE NEW CONTINENT

About 100 years later, the English nobility have sent their "second sons" to the new continent to grab land and create wealth from the natural resources. Those who chafed under the tyranny of official state religion escaped here for religious freedom. When the yoke of the British had been thrown off in another few hundred years, the separation of church and state was a primary principle. No more would the citizens suffer under the religious declarations issued from the seat of government.

2022 - A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL BLACKMAILED BY A BISHOP

I did not become Catholic so I could spend time arguing about POLITICS. I was attracted to the faith because of the experience of the mystics, most of whom were monastics of one stripe or another. I was warned by a mother superior of a modern convent that I would not find that mystical life in the parishes, and she was right. 

This obsession with trying to make abortion illegal again has gotten on my ninth nerve. There is a huge movement in the Catholic Church at the moment and they call themselves "Pro-Life" but most of them that I encounter on social media only seem to be interested in one political method that supposedly addresses ONE issue (abortion) but that method never worked in the past. So it is neither logical nor inclusive of the myriad ways in which life needs to be supported from conception until natural death. I have friends who have a more global perspective so I am obviously not talking about everyone in that movement. It is the PUBLIC face of the movement that is the problem.

Anyway, I did not leave the Hindu convent to get furiously involved in political life, but today we are deluged with news items about Nancy Pelosi and how her Bishop has publicly shamed her by denying her communion in light of a position she has taken in her government job, and I find it hypocritical and upsetting on many levels.

I myself am Catholic and I LOVE the faith, but I am not in favor of forcing it on anyone else. It would be a LOT more comfortable if everyone around me was Catholic. That would be super! But you can't make someone behave as if they belong to your faith and believe as you do. It just doesn't work and it isn't what Jesus had in mind when he sent out the evangelists, I am sure of it. Nowhere did he say that Christians should dominate the government and force non-Catholics to adhere to its views. 

Criminalizing abortion did not stop them before, and Pelosi knows this. I remember 1973 when the result of Roe v. Wade was announced. It made NO impression on me or any of my contemporaries because abortions were already widely available. There were people who were relieved that abortions would thereafter be SAFER, since they could be done in a medical setting, but that was the only change that we talked about when we learned that abortion was legal.

In fact, I was pregnant at the time. I was only 18, newly married, and I was glad that I was too far into my pregnancy for my new husband to pressure me to get an abortion because we REALLY could not afford to have a child. We were Scientologists, living in the Sea Organization, and the Scientology hierarchy ended up refusing to pay the hospital bill (after promising that all medical bills would be paid if we joined.)  In fact, I only saw a doctor ONCE while I was in the Sea Org, and they never did pay that bill, as far as I know.

Prior to Roe v. Wade, I could have gotten an abortion but I personally did not want one, and the fact that it was illegal was another tool in my arsenal of defending myself against pressure to abort. I could say they were dangerous, which was true, and illegal, etc. But anyone who wanted an abortion could GET one. They are always available to anyone determined to have one. I just wasn't one of those people.

If the hard right has its way and abortion is criminalized again, I am assuming it will go back into the alley it came from and a lot of women will die, along with their babies, in botched back-alley abortions. So I am wondering what the "pro life" crowd is accomplishing by making it illegal instead of addressing the CAUSES behind the high numbers of abortions in our country.

THE HYPOCRISY OF UNEVEN APPLICATION

I don't see anyone getting publicly shamed and refused communion for supporting capital punishment executions. 

Nor is anyone being denied communion for advocating for the free sale of military style rifles in the wake of all these mass murders that are endemic to the U.S. and unknown elsewhere. 

Some types of contraceptives are considered abortifacient by The Church, but no one is being banned from communion for speaking out in favor of them.

In the Catechism, vasectomies are considered equally as evil as abortion, but there is no one trying to criminalize them and I do not see any bishop publicly naming every man who has ever had one and telling them they are banned from receiving communion until their vasectomy is surgically reversed!

THE PRACTICAL ASPECTS

First of all, Pelosi is not having abortions or encouraging people to have them. She has a job in a secular government that is founded on a first principle of separation of church and state.

She is also aware of the fact that abortions continue at a fair clip regardless of whether or not they are legal. Fewer women die in abortions when they are legal. That seems to be the only difference I can ascertain.

Criminalizing abortion will do little to stem the tide of abortions because abortions are not CAUSED by a law approving them. Most women cite financial reasons for having them. Some people will not be able to afford them, so we will have more poor women with fatherless children on our hands. Is THAT "pro life?"

On the other hand, if the causes of abortion were addressed, you could have an abortuary on every corner and every operating room would be silent and empty.

I DON'T HAVE A DOG IN THIS FIGHT

I am too old to have an abortion myself and I would do my best to discourage anyone I know from having one. But many years ago I realized that there is a very easy way to avoid having to deal with this issue at all, and that is to not have sex with anyone to whom I am not married. 

Now, I have very strong monastic leanings, so I am going to assume that avoiding sex outside of marriage may be harder for some other women to do, given the strength and power of hormones, etc. But STILL.... you have to admit that the choice to have sex IS, at least, the FIRST choice in matters having to do with this topic. So, if you are going to talk about "choice," I think it is disingenuous to ignore the opportunities for choice prior to finding oneself pregnant. There were a few choices made BEFORE the pregnancy that would have derailed getting pregnant to begin with. (Obviously I am not talking about rape, which is a violation of all a woman's choices.)

Even so - I would not legislate sex outside of marriage as a criminal act any more than i would criminalize contraceptives, etc.

The Tower of London

where Lady Margaret Pole lived

the last two years of her life

THE CARROT VERSUS THE STICK

There is a strong faction speaking loudly into the public space that is advocating for shame, force and punishment. This is a negative approach that does not work because it causes a lot of "unintended" consequences. Personally, I think that attracting someone to something POSITIVE is a lot more helpful to society than public shaming, forcing behavior to mimic moral belief systems and punishing people who don't get in line with them.

If we really want to be a society that is pro-life and pro-family, these positive measures would do more to limit abortions than the "shame, force and punishment" method:

1. Government provided maternity and paternity leave for the first year after a child is born.

2. Government provided childcare options through age 12 or 13.

3. A decent "living wage" that allows for the support of children. CEOs are actually taking vacations IN OUTER SPACE because they have more money than they know what to do with, while their employees can't afford proper food, housing and medical care. It is a sacrilege!

4. Universal health insurance for all Americans.

5.  Make the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. The degree to which one benefits by conducting business in the United States is the degree to which one should pay for the privilege.

6. Abolish capital punishment.

7. Outlaw military style assault weapons and enact other laws around ensuring the safety of all citizens against being murdered by guns.

8. Provide education through 4 years of college. An educated population is a healthier, more productive population - which is good for everyone.

I am sure there are more I would agree with, but you will notice that I am in favor of the carrot, rather than the stick. In my experience, force and punishment do NOTHING to convert anyone to a point of view.  

Besides which, I believe we need to stop acting like we hate one another and that we are all in competition with one another for limited resources so that only a small handful can arrive at the top of the survival pyramid. It is toxic and UNTRUE. We are the most wealthy nation in the world and we do not suffer from limited resources. OTHER countries with far less money manage to support their citizens with the benefits I have outlined, above, and there is no reason we cannot do it as well.

OTHER BISHOPS DISAGREE WITH CORDILEONE

Calling out a parishioner publicly and publicly announcing their sin and that you are banning them from receiving communion is hardly a positive pastoral approach! If my bishop doesn't talk to me but instead issues a public shaming, I would not take it well.

Here is a letter from the bishop of Dubuque, Iowa with his thoughts about this topic. You may have to fiddle with your zoom function to read it. Let me know if you have a problem and I will try to get you a copy.

SATAN IS THE FATHER OF ALL LIES, NO MATTER WHAT SIDE YOU ARE ON

It makes me sad to see each side lying about the other. "Pro-choice" people claim that the opposing side "just wants to control women," when the fact is that Catholics and other Christians believe that people must be open to the grace of God and be receptive to life which begins at conception and ends at natural death. 

On the other side, "Pro-life" people claim that "pro-choice" people are "pro-abortion." NO ONE is happy to have an abortion. Pro-choice people believe that a woman must be free to choose what happens to her body and what children she will have. They are not seeing MY point - that the choice was made when they chose to have sex - but I am regularly laughed out of conversations when I posit this solution. It isn't something that even Catholics are willing to take seriously.

Each side lies to make their side sound better and few people are trying to see the point that the other side is actually making. How can any progress be made under these circumstances?

You can fool yourself into thinking you have made progress by forcing people to do what you want with laws and punishments, but it isn't going to work because you have not evangelized.

Or you could fool yourself into thinking that all you have to do is keep abortion legal and then the "problem" is solved.

"The problem" is not that abortions are legal. "The problem" is that people want them or think they need them. A law that criminalizes abortions is not going to fix that. It did not work before. It won't work now.

Instead of continuing this fight into the next few decades, we need to change our approach.

But, like I said, I do not have a dog in this fight. I am going to go back to prayer and meditation, writing and painting, and hope that the movers and shakers in charge of the world will somehow get it right.....and I hope to God I don't have to talk about this topic any more because I am just sick of it.

God bless us all.

Silver "Rose"

WHAT DOES "PRO-LIFE" MEAN?

In the confirmation hearings of very recent memory, the candidates basically took the position that Roe v. Wade was a matter of established law and, as such, it would not be touched. But as soon as they locked down the job, they immediately began working to set Roe aside. We know this because of the draft position paper recently leaked. 

Wild controversy has ensued. There is a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that the leaking of this document may have been meant to distract from something ELSE of even greater import, but I do not know what that may be, at this point, and can't speak to that.  The first thing that aggravated me, of course, is that the candidates LIED during the hearings. They manipulated the process in order to gain power - always a terrible sign. 

Lying bugs me, no matter where I find it. Satan is a murderer and the father of all lies, according to scripture. Wherever we find lies, something evil is present, to one degree or another.

Some people think that the ends justifies the means, but it is strictly against Catholic theology to use lies to gain a "holy" purpose, and probably every other religion as well. This is NOT a good start, but what can we expect from a political party, the GOP, that is always shrieking about the Democrats supposedly "packing" the court when it is they who have done it instead. The cognitive dissonance makes my head hurt.

Anyone familiar with my political perspective, by the way, knows full well that I am not a tribal devotee of any political party. I vote according to my spiritual values, my logic and my common sense, keeping in mind the predominately secular nature of our government that was created by people who had a horror of the theocracies of Europe. I can just as easily criticize democrats, and have done so in the past, but it is the GOP that is filling the air waves with conspiracy theories, lies and insurrection nonsense at the moment and, whatever defects exist in the Democrat talking points, the Republicans are currently FAR worse. Their talking points are just bizarre. 

I mention my lack of tribal affiliation so that my comments about this topic can be absorbed with the understanding that I actually do not have a dog in this fight and my position is not strictly elephant nor jackass.

First, let me say I am "pro-life." What I mean by that will be made clear.

Making abortion illegal is only one method of attempting to support life and avoid death. "Pro-life" is not encompassed by this one method. When I say I am "pro-life" I mean that I am a believer in a consistent, global approach that takes into account all aspects of creating and maintaining a culture that encourages and supports life! Life is wonderful, but not simple. 

Abortions were illegal but routinely available before Roe v. Wade, but they were dangerous and not only killed the baby but sometimes the mother as well. At times, the mother's future fertility was affected. If they are made illegal once more, they will revert to being done in less ideal conditions, as before. The only people who may not be able to have abortions will be girls who are too young to travel to a place where an abortion may be had, and/or women who are too poor to afford it.  

I well remember the years before ROE, and this is the way it was then, and is probably the way it will shake down after ROE is put down. BUT there is one fairly new element in the mix that was not in place before Roe. The "pro life movement" has become hyper organized. They are laser focused on making it illegal and do not appear to be interested in any other method. To them, making abortion illegal IS the sum total of what "pro life" means. When I have engaged in conversation with any of the self-proclaimed "pro life warriors" about other methods, I get attacked and called names. People pile on in a frenzy of fury. It is really quite something. Obviously, not everyone is like this. I have close friends who are convinced that making it illegal is THE thing to do, but they know I am pro-life in my own way and they don't resort to calling me names or harassing me about this topic. They recognize that I disagree about method and not about the goal.

I don't have to be psychic to accurately predict that the FIGHTING will continue, because people who are NOT pro-life and people who frame this issue as one of bodily autonomy are not going to stop fighting against the illegality. The "pro-life" crowd that has wedded itself to ONE failed method of supposedly supporting life will not stop EITHER. The whole thing is pointless. I have watched the controversy swing back and forth over the last 60 years in which I have been aware of it

It is distressing that few people seem prepared or interested in understanding the point of view of the opposite side. And they are pretty nasty about it on social media com boxes, calling one another names and insinuating awful things about the other.  The caustic and sometimes vulgar rudeness is intolerable. Also useless, since no progress can be made without coming to some understanding.

Because I am a convert and because my point of view has developed over the years, I have been on both sides of this debate and I feel I understand and sympathize with both with regard to the discussion about whether or not abortion should be legal. What I do NOT feel is hostility for either "side" because I see the immense suffering that persons on each side are feeling. I wish there was something I could do to help, so that LIFE could actually be supported and everyone could stop fighting about a method which, historically, has limited to no benefit.

People who gravitate toward the "force and punishment" model of government behave as if making abortion illegal is all they need to do to create a "pro life" culture in the U.S. and then they can just kick back and act like the job is done. When I point out that abortions will go on anyway, they typically devolve into angry litanies of resentment-filled rhetoric that makes it clear that they are much more interested in punishment than in the actual results. Yesterday, when I mentioned that women would get abortions ANYWAY but that they would be dangerous and may risk their lives, a pro-life warrior told me that "abortions are not supposed to be safe." This person did not care that the woman might die. He was much more interested in punishment. OBVIOUSLY not a "pro life" point of view.

For those on the right, only the baby inside her matters, while extremists on the left behave as if only the mother's life matters. But I insist that BOTH matter and we must serve the needs of both.

My experience of this topic, personally, has led me to believe that a freewheeling lifestyle of sex outside of marriage is damaging to women, men, families - everyone, really. At some point in my life, my personal approach became one in which I avoid sex outside of marriage. It sounds antiquated to many people, but it worked for me. 

I realize our culture is adamantly opposed to restraining the sex urge, and I am not saying that my method should be forced on anyone, but I rather think that "choice" actually comes long before the woman becomes pregnant. That is how I look at it for myself, personally. It took me a long time to come to this point of view and I understand those who do not share it.

I am a pragmatic person trying to talk into a topic dominated by ideologs. Most of the people who have some investment in this topic seem to be firmly entrenched in one of two positions. Even many "religious" people whose religion demands restraint of the sex urges are adamantly opposed to obeying those precepts about restraint of the sex urge. I WAS one of those people, many years ago. It did not work out well for me. This is why it became OBVIOUS to me that you can't legislate morality and expect everyone to just obey. They are not going to do it.

Just because I think that making abortion illegal is pointless does NOT mean I am pro-abortion or that I am a libertine. Far from it. I am tired of people demanding that I defend positions I have not taken, which is why I am posting THIS hot topic today. Next time someone calls me a "baby killer" I will refer them to this essay.

Instead of trying to force into use a method that never worked, I suggest we try, instead, one of the many other methods of creating a pro-life culture, so that, even if abortion remains legal, hardly anyone would take advantage of it because America could be a resoundingly "pro-life" culture.

We could follow the examples of other, less prosperous nations that manage to give paid maternity and paternity leave to the parents, as well as paid child care and health care to call their citizens. (No, they are not "socialist" countries I am speaking of. Most are democracies and countries that operate on some sort of capitalist system.)

Paying every worker a living wage that is enough to feed, clothe, house, and medicate a family while enabling some savings toward the purchase of homes used to be the American standard. Instead, the wages of the people who do the actual work are suppressed, and the value of what they create is shuttled up the ladder so that the CEOs have become little potentates who actually take vacations in outer space while their workers who created the wealth barely have enough to put food on the table. Compound this situation with a tax structure that has become entirely unfair, protecting the rich and impoverishing everyone else, and we have a recipe for disaster  - not "pro life" by any stretch of the imagination.

If all of this were cured and we actually were doing something toward making our culture a culture of life, we could have an abortuary on every corner and the halls would be empty - or nearly so. The legal status of abortions is NOT what drives them! Women do not have abortions because they are available. They have abortions because they cannot afford to do otherwise.

Once we have done EVERYTHING we can do to create a pro-family culture, beginning with the ways I have mentioned, above, only then should we consider making abortion illegal and only if the other methods have not resulted in a radical downturn in the numbers. At that point, some version of making abortion illegal would have to be considered, and we should start first with some limitations, such as limiting them to the first trimester. BUT I say this only to "cover all the bases" because I actually do not think that abortions will remain high in numbers if and when we create a family friendly environment. There will be some, of course, but it is a better than what is happening now. 

MOST women report that they chose abortion because of financial realities. I am pretty sure we can create a situation in which abortions are rarely necessary. Rape, incest, and the health of the mother are naturally going to be situations which most people would agree would be exceptions. Also, there are medical conditions that actually prohibit the survival of the baby but endanger that of the mother if allowed to go to full term.

In any case, the use of force that impinges on the rights of women over their own bodies has to be our LAST resort - not our first. There are TWO human persons present in a pregnant woman.  We can't ignore either one of them.

Obviously, I think that this issue is a whole heck of a lot more nuanced than most people seem to believe, and that is too bad, because this is one of those issues for which we need to be able to meet one another in a calm, respectful dialog that takes into account the needs of ALL persons. I pray we can find some way to do that.

Bless us all and God save us

FATHER FRANK PAVONE AND HIS OBSESSION

I wish that American Catholics were as enthusiastic and one-pointed about evangelizing the culture with the beautiful faith of Christ as they are about pursuing political remedies for abortion. It looks very much as if one aspect of an enormous and hugely nuanced and modulated faith has been surgically excised and then soaked in a Republican bath, like a piece of lime floating in a gin and tonic - with plenty of ice.

For the sake of the unlikely possibility that America will return to the days when abortion was illegal, the "pro-life" movement is ignoring every other aspect of a truly pro-life philosophy and have put into office cruel and brutal despots who seem to care more about hurting vulnerable people, especially the poor, and in helping the handful of billionaires becoming more rich and powerful than in doing anything else.

Outlawing abortion is one proposed method of supposedly eliminating abortion. Someone, somewhere along the way decided that "pro-life" meant only and exclusively that one was devoted to making abortion illegal. People who advance this devotion to this particular method call themselves "the pro-life movement," but that is a misnomer.

Outlawing abortion is a piece of a fruit which is a piece of a tree, and it is not even the only fruit of that tree. It is one of many fruits produced by the tree. Without the tree, the fruits would not exist, and if you were to produce such a fruit out of thin air, in some magical fashion, it would not make sense if one did not know that there was such a thing as a tree that produced it.

Catholicism is pro-life, but not in this miserably truncated sense of "pro-life" being ONLY the pursuit of a law that outlaws abortion.

In the context of Catholic faith, a "pro-life" orientation encompasses an enormous number of factors. After all, the subject of "life" is not easily reduced, is it?

For instance, the health of people and the life of the planet, in general, are obviously factors in a global and cohesive "pro life" outlook, but these are issues to which the "pro-life leaders" are hostile. Since "pro-life" Trump has been in office, he has ripped away many safety regulations that affect all life on the planet - and not just the ones that directly speak to climate change.  I could write 12 blogs about those measures alone.

Everyone having enough food is another pro-life topic. One in six children in America don't have enough to eat.  Throughout the Bible, we are told that we should feed the hungry and clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, love our neighbor and enemy alike, befriend the alien and visit the prisoners - but the Republican platform does the opposite of all that, while at the same time claiming to be the party of life!

Modern Republicans CUT food stamps and seek to cut more - while children go hungry. In fact, they encourage their minions to look down on the hungry children of poor people, claiming that the poor are just lazy. We are back to the days of Ronald Reagan, who inveighed against "welfare queens" and their families, routinely criticizing women having more children which Republicans claim they are only doing for the purpose of getting a bump in their welfare checks. This is NOT pro-life! None of it! At this point in history, the only people who benefit from Republican governance are the very wealthy white men at the top of the pyramid, which is exactly why Republicans desperately need abortion to remain legal, because the campaign to outlaw it is the only tool they have in their arsenal. It is the only way they can get the poor and middle class to vote against their own best interests.

While I write this, a bill is being introduced to cut medicaid again - something Trump promised NOT to do when he campaigned. The only program available to help poor, disabled seniors who make between $1,000 and $2,000 a month, the Medicaid Waiver program for disabled people, will be one of the first programs cut, if Trump succeeds. Millions of grandmas and grandpas will suffer. Today, as one of those grandmas, I am going without one of my medications because it costs $450.00 a month and there is no substitute. I am praying that I get approved for this program, which is a long, complex process full of red tape which, even if I qualify, will have to be repeated in only a year because there is very little money available for these programs and Americans are obsessed with the idea that there are "millions" of grandmas "gaming the system." It isn't true, but Americans are being encouraged to compete against and vilify one another.

The first thing Trump did, out of the gate, was to ban certain types of people from coming here (Muslims), followed quickly on its heels with a "zero tolerance policy" that was deliberately calculated to discourage refugees from coming over our borders, resulting in thousands of brown children being ripped out of their families and incarcerated in cramped cages in hastily erected detention camps where other children are caring for babies, viruses are endemic and untreated, and children sleep on cement floors behind barbed wire. The government refuses to give flu shots to these kids who are living in cramped, crowded conditions. It reminds me of our treatment of Native Americans, when we gave them pox-infected blankets.

There are some fake memes being circulated that claim that President Obama did this "first," but it is as close to a lie as you can get. Obama did not treat every refugee as a criminal, but where criminals with previous known crimes DID step across our borders, he did incarcerate and eventually deport them. In fact, he was called the "Deporter in Chief." Obviously, the children of the incarcerated alien could not accompany him to jail, so there were a few children who had to be taken care of - but nowhere near the numbers we have now, and not under current unhealthful conditions.

[I would insert a note, here, that it isn't the idea that our borders should be safe and protected to which the more liberal population objects. NO. Everyone wants our borders protected. It is the manner in which it is done that is at issue. Trump is fond of spreading the lie that Democrats want "open borders" and a free-for-all. That claim is just stupid.]

Watch the Jeff Sessions video HERE

Jeff Sessions announced the new policy and plainly said that children would be removed from their families in an effort to deter refugees from coming here, and that, if families do not want their children taken from them, they should stay home - as if all these poor people, fleeing for their lives from gangs and corrupt governments, are sitting in their homes watching television and heeding his words!

Thanks to Trump's "zero tolerance policy," we have had something like 4,000 children in our custody. A judge has ordered them returned, and some have been, but the program was so poorly administered, we do not know where some of the parents are. Many children will never see their families again. This is an horrific "pro-life" cause that needs to be addressed but which the "pro life movement" is either ignoring or defending, saying that it is "the parents' fault" that we stuffed them into cages. Not true.

"Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and be no longer

stiff-necked. For the LORD, your God, is the God of

gods, the LORD of lords, the great God, mighty and

awesome, who has no favorites, accepts no bribes;

who executes justice for the orphan and the widow,

and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him.

So you too must befriend the alien, for you were 

once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt."

Deuteronomy 10

The pursuit of justice so that authoritarian regimes do not go hog wild and start killing the citizenry is another pro-life concern ignored by the self-named "pro-life movement." Even forgiveness and prayer for one's enemies slips into this category, since the escalation of hostilities, if allowed to progress in the heat of the moment, can (and sometimes does) become armed conflict that kills people. Even the restraint of the tongue has a place in this "pro-life" orientation because what one says is very important and can exacerbate a situation to the point where it endangers the lives of people.

"I tell you on the day of judgment, you will have to 

give an account for every careless word you utter." 

Matthew 12:36

"Pro life" Trump's vulgar tongue, his misogynistic, prejudiced taunts are often taken up by his followers and spat out upon everyone in their vicinity - online and in person. Disabled people are not immune to his filth, enduring taunts, jeering and mimicking. Even I have experienced discrimination at the hands of a Trump follower who told me, "I believe in Trump's law. If you don't have two arms cut off or two legs cut off, you aren't disabled." This man, an employee at the Smiths on Constitution and Carlyle in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ridiculed me for not being visibly disabled, told me there are "too many of you" (disabled people) and when I asked him how we disabled people were supposed to do our shopping if we couldn't park in handicap parking, he said to me, "I guess you won't." He was stone cold in his approach, and exceedingly arrogant, treating me as if I was a scam artist he was ferreting out. Trump nation.

Frank Pavone campaigns for Republicans and defends all of the above, in defiance of specific norms and rules against promoting political parties that have long been established by the curia. It makes him a "hero" to his followers, but his superiors have an entirely different perspective.

I could go on for a few pages with examples of different aspects of a pro-life philosophy that are being ignored by the "pro-life movement." Homelessness comes to mind.

"You shall give generously to [your poor brother] and

your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him,

because for this thing the LORD your God will bless

you in all your work and in all your undertakings."

† Deut. 15:10 †

The primary fallacy in the "logic" of the pro-life movement is this: In addition to ignoring all but one pro-life cause, they are completely ignoring the root cause of the one aspect of "life" they care about - the abortion crisis in America. Women do not have abortions because they are legal. They have them because, for some reason, they believe they need one. When abortion was illegal, there were still plenty of abortions being done. They were just being performed under cover of darkness; hidden, dangerous and expensive. Many times, both woman and child were killed. Often, the woman suffered damage to her reproductive organs and could never bear children again. None of that is "pro life."

If no one felt the need for an abortion, there could be an abortuary on every corner and they would all stand empty. There would be no "customers."

Clearly, the fact that abortion is legal is not the cause of abortion.

We could debate, at length, what exactly IS the cause, but that's not the purpose of this blog post. One cannot do the topic proper justice in a blog post. Research, canvassing, facts, studies and statistics that prove the causal relationships are what is required - and none of that is easy or quick or simple.

Evangelization isn't simple either. I am seeing a theme here.

Our elegant, thoughtful, faith-inspired, nuanced, complex, many-layered faith has been turned into a hammer with the hyper-focus, one could even say the obsession, surrounding a proposed political "solution" that isn't likely to be achieved and wouldn't accomplish the stated aim anyway. Why?

It seems fairly obvious to many of us that the Republican Party, in a cynical attempt to grab and keep power, has convinced a segment of the American population that if they vote Republican, then the Republicans will outlaw abortion and everyone can congratulate themselves that they've won a war for Jesus.

By enforcing the ideas that (1) the legal availability of abortion is the cause of abortions; (2) a "pro-life" orientation only pertains to whether or not abortion is illegal; (3) the Republicans are the only party that says it is "pro-life," and (4) you therefore HAVE to vote for them if you are Christian, the Republican Party has latched onto a huge segment of Americans.  If you take apart their faulty logic, which is excruciatingly easy to do, it is clear that their vise-like grip on Christians is based on a pack of self-serving lies. A 2008 article from "America - The Jesuit Review" discusses this in part, HERE in a piece titled "Voting One's Conscience."

Our popes have tried to get us back on track with this topic, discouraging priests and others from aligning themselves with political parties instead of The Church, but the propaganda arm of the GOP is far better than that of The Church, which is suffering a crisis of confidence in the wake of horrific child-abuse and sex scandals. The Republicans are the ones who are telling us that no good "Christian" can vote for anyone other than a Republican and still be in obedience to the faith. That isn't true, of course. Our popes tell us this isn't true, but the prospect of being a "pro-life" crusader for Christ is too tantalizing and, instead of heeding the teachings of The Church, many Catholics look to the Republicans to define their faith and morals for them.

"A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil,

and so unworthy to present himself for holy communion,

if he were to deliberately vote for a candidate precisely

because of the candidate's permissive stand on abortion

and/or euthanasia. When a Catholic does not share a

candidate's stand in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia,

but votes for that candidate for other reasons, it is con-

sidered remote material cooperation, which can be

permitted in the presence of proportionate reasons."

~ Pope Benedict XVI ~

As a result of trading in their faith for a political party, Catholics and Christians of every stripe have begun to treat political figures like demi-gods, giving them the same reverence and awe that they used to slaver onto priests, bishops and popes. Despite the fact that Donald Trump's actions and words are the antithesis of Christian teaching, he is being treated like the savior of the world. Rumors abound, to the effect that he is the leader who will set into motion the great "End Times" that includes the second coming of Christ.

Popes, bishops and priests who try to re-direct the attention of their flock and who point out the flaws in the words and actions of these political leaders are attacked by the "faithful," denigrated and slandered, while the few priests who cater to the so-called "pro-life" movement are turned into superstar "saints" who are, for all intents and purposes, given carte blanche by lay people to behave as they like, and who sometimes buy into the adulation of the masses.

This is what has happened to Frank Pavone, who, since 2011, has been in hot water with his superiors and became more and more an authority unto himself, culminating in an horrific sacrilege of incorporating the body of a dead aborted baby into a sacred mass in which he placed the dead body on the altar in November of 2016 as a political stunt calculated to steer Catholics toward voting for Donald Trump.




[This photograph, from the video, is CENSORED because it shows the corpse of a dead fetus that he had displayed on the altar, in an alarmingly sacrilegious manipulation designed to grip the emotions of Catholics.]

"We have to decide if we will allow this child killing

to continue in America or not. Hillary Clinton and 

the Democratic platform says yes, let the child-killing

continue (and you pay for it); Donald Trump and the

Republican platform says no, the child should be

protected." 

Fr. Frank Pavone

Pavone had been given the baby's body by a pathologist who had been routinely tasked with its disposition. Rather than have the child "disposed of" as medical waste, like an amputated arm or an unwanted cancer, he gave it to Father Pavone for the express purpose of burying the child, but Pavone did not do that. Instead, Pavone began a series of carnival-style mockeries of a sacred mass, even going so far as to live-stream and videotape and post it on Facebook. The photo, above, is a still picture from that video. The 44-minute long video also shows him elevating a poster that displays graphic abortion methods. (This video has been subsequently removed, I believe, from Facebook, though I have no doubt you can find a copy somewhere on the internet. Nothing is really erased from the internet.)

Priests are specifically enjoined from working on behalf of any political party or candidate, but Pavone went rogue, long ago, urged on by the fawning sycophancy of his followers. This is what happens when you isolate and remove one piece of a philosophy. It turns into a fetish.

To this day, it does not appear that the baby's body has been buried. Instead, it is apparent that Pavone is keeping it for possible further use in his propaganda campaigns. That poor baby has no rest, unless you think floating in a chemical solution in a glass jar  in some back room of a church constitutes being put "at rest.'

In response to an onslaught of complaints about the dead baby mass and its video, Pavone's diocese immediately began an investigation and issued a statement saying that "Priests for Life" is not a Catholic organization and not under their control and that the mass using the child and the posting of that video are "against the dignity of human life and is a desecration of the altar."

"The Diocese of Amarillon deeply regrets the offense

and outrage caused by the video for the faithful and

the community at large. The action and presentation

of Father Pavone in this video is not consistent with

the beliefs of the Catholic Church."

~ Bishop Patrick J. Zurek ~

As early as 2011, Pavone had already been recalled to his diocese and suspended from priestly functions outside the diocese to answer for his lack of transparency with regard to the finances of his pro-life organization and his refusal to cooperate with his superiors when asked.

"Whatever set this conflict off, it's unfolding has exposed, 

in my opinion, a deficient attitude from Fr. Pavone in regard 

to the clerical obedience he owes his bishop and even in his 

understanding of the purpose of priesthood."

~ Edward Peters, Canon Lawyer ~

Most recently, I see that his insubordination has grown in leaps and bounds. When asked the name of his current bishop, he refuses to give it but asks, instead, "you mean my slave master?"

I have listed some of my sources, below. If you read the post on Patheos by Mary Pezzulo, there is  good reason to believe that Pavone is in possession of two baby corpses that died in the late 1970s and that he is using them in his traveling horror show.

In the post from Keith Michael Estrada, Also on Patheos, there is a timeline of events that will be helpful in understanding what has happened, over time, with this renegade priest and his minions.

My position, if you haven't figured it out yet is that we should not be sacrificing every other part of our religion for the sake of pursuing the dream of making abortion illegal.  The ghoulish carnival barker in a priest collar who uses the bodies of dead babies to win converts to Trumpian Republicanism misrepresents the faith and shouldn't be followed by the laity under any circumstances. Lauding this misguided man will help to ruin him and the faithful should just stop doing it.

In addition, we need to wake up to the fact that our horrifying "pro life" trade-off in which we have traded our entire religion for the sake of making abortion illegal, has resulted in the installation of a fascist government that is hostile to life, in general, and, if not curtailed soon, may be responsible for the death of all life on our planet. It sounds extreme, but this is where we are. Climate change is altering the planet rapidly while, at the same time, American democracy is falling off the rails, thanks to an insane and brutally dangerous occupant of the Oval Office, who is being supported and encouraged by a Republican Party that has orchestrated a fetishized, cynical propaganda campaign, using a bastardized vision of faith as a tool.

By removing crucial regulations, backing out from the climate accord, denying science, and allowing big donors to pillage the earth, Trump is making the earth an unfit home. Topping this off with more tax cuts for the ultra rich coming down the pike, combined with more cuts to an already inadequate and failing social safety net, the effects will be catastrophic - and very soon.

It isn't just the types of policies that are dangerous, it is Trump's methods, redolent of the abuse of office and brutality most often found in third world banana republics with primitive dictators at the helm. Whoever dares to even utter a word of disapproval is walked out of the government offices under armed guard. Often their relatives are also made to suffer, such as the case of Lt. Col. Vindman, the highly decorated officer who obeyed a congressional subpoena and gave testimony during Trump's impeachment hearing in the House. His twin brother, who had nothing to do with any of this, was walked out with him, in a very public retaliation, calculated to put fear into the hearts of anyone on The Hill who might have thoughts of opening their mouths and speaking Truth or advocating for justice and the rule of law.

Fortunately, some members of the intelligence community, which is being aggressively hollowed out by Trump's retaliations and slander, are fighting back. But when the guy at the top of the pile is calling out their wives BY NAME and thereby threatening her and the children - publicly - it can give you pause.

All of this is right out of the authoritarian playbook. Hitler and others have used these methods. Lies, slander, fear, retaliation, brutality; all of these are common to the dictator.

Frank Pavone is enabling all of it, offering up his Catholic followers in the same way he offered up that dead baby on the altar. All of it is obscene and none of it is endorsed by the Catholic Church. As mentioned before, his supervisors and all the ecclesial authorities above them have tried, and failed to rein him in. His bishop has objected to Pavon's "incorrigible defiance of my legitimate authority as his bishop," but Pavone is emboldened by the adulation of the crowd and has not shown any sign that he has taken to heart the attempts of his superiors to guide him.

It won't matter, even if Pavone could somehow get a law passed, outlawing abortion. We are all going to be dead before long, anyway, if the natural results of the Trump Administrations removal of regulations and sanctions have their natural result. Scientists have said we have about ten years in which to turn this toxic boat around. After that, it goes over the waterfall. Human beings, animals, trees, plants, insects - even the cockroaches. We'll all be dead. Not very pro-lifey, if you ask me.

Silver Rose
Sannyasini Kaliprana
(c) Copyright 2020, All rights reserved.

TIMELINE OF SOURCES, IN ORDER OF PUBLICATION DATE

September 9, 2011
Letter to U.S. cardinals and bishops from Msgr. Harold Waldow, of Amarillo Diocese suspending Pavone from "public ministry outside of the Diocese of Amarillo" (online copy)
LINK HERE

September 13, 2011
Fr. Pavone appeals suspension by his bishop to Rome
Catholic News Agency
by Michelle Bauman
LINK HERE

September 29, 2011
Canon lawyer analyzes issues in Fr. Pavone case
Clerical Whispers
LINK HERE

January 19, 2012:
Amarillo bishop suspends Father Pavone's activities outside the diocese
Archdiocese of Baltimore article
LINK HERE

November 7, 2016
A Catholic priest put an aborted fetus on the altar in an appeal for Donald Trump
The Washington Post - Acts of Faith
by Sarah Pulliam Bailey, reporter
LINK HERE

November 8, 2016
Fr. Frank Pavone uses aborted fetus in message for Election Day
National Catholic Reporter
by Brian Roewe
LINK HERE

Nov 8, 2016
Breaking: Diocese of Amarillo opens investigation into Fr. Pavone's actions; Decries video as "against the dignity of human life and is a desecration of the altar."
Aleteia
LINK HERE

November 9, 2016
Bishop launches probe of priest who posed with fetus on the altar
Religion News Service - Beliefs column
by David Gibson
LINK HERE

November 15, 2016
A scary, confusing timeline: The child (ab/mis)used by Father Frank Pavone
Patheos
Proper Nomenclature by Keith Michael Estrada
LINK HERE

October 16, 2019:
Diocese of Amarillo: Pavone Not a Priest in Good Standing
Patheos
Steel Magnificat; Everything is Grace
by Mary Pezzulo
LINK HERE

COSMIC POO POO

My living room shrine table

Silver Parnell

copyright (c) 2018

I am politically schizophrenic. I fall on the "progressive" side when it comes to protecting the rights of the vulnerable, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and being kind to the prisoner, but I fall into the "conservative" camp when it comes to abortion, euthanasia, and the strength of the family as the crucial pin upon which all the cogs of society are attached.

I am not at home on either side of the progressive/conservative divide, except in regard to specific policies. My fractured political leanings are informed by my very cohesive and deliberate religious orientation. I try, to the best of my ability, to adhere to the commandments of Jesus. Whatever Jesus said was a positive good is what I vote for. It can be a challenge, as should be obvious.

My friends and associates are every color of the rainbow, but one thing has made itself obvious. Both conservatives and progressives have developed x-ray vision when it comes to the thoughts and motivations of other people. Isn't that remarkable? (Sarcasm.)

I read a conservative post this morning in which a conservative claimed that "the Left" hates the Constitution and basically wants to destroy America. All lefties are commies. Every progressive cause is funded by George Soros.  I don't know who he is, but will someone tell me his email address so I can get my check? Seriously. I want my check. If you know this topic well enough to be so sure that he is funding all the progressives, you'll have his email address.

A conversation by mostly left leaning people, on the other hand, claimed that the motivation of conservatives is that conservatives want to stop abortions, for instance, because they want to control women! It is all about the subjugation of women. Excuse me, but I know that to be crap. Just crap. Of course, there ARE personalities in the world who like to control others, but that's a different topic. 

In my experience, conservatives want to outlaw abortion because they want to save babies from being killed. They are coming from a position of love, though claiming love as a motive while excusing cruel governmental policies at the same time puzzles progressives. It seems hypocritical. I don't know the answer to that one because this is a complex issue.

At any rate, each side believes the other has evil motives and intentions. This is ridiculous and it has to stop.

I DO know of a few sociopaths who would be delighted to destroy the world, or just enough of it to ensure that only they and their servants are left. That does happen. (I have one in the family, and she scares the crap out of me.) It isn't that these type of people don't exist, it's just that their numbers are small, thanks be to God.

Devotion to the truth, alone, should dissuade us from imputing evil motives to half the population of America. My personal experience, with both the left and the right, have convinced me that nearly everyone wants the best for America. We disagree on method and particular vision.

So, how did this happen? It is probably due to political messaging. Politicians energize their base by stoking animus against their opponents. They claim evil motives. They throw some lies in there to excite our fear or loathing about the other candidate, and we fall for it.

If you only talk to or listen to people who already share the same ideas about the methods of best running the country as you do, you're just sitting in an echo chamber. It might feel good to have your views echoed back to you all the time, but it isn't good for you. 

So, what do we do? Well, I suspect that the first thing is that everyone who is attached at the hip to a particular politician or party needs to attach themselves to Truth instead. Truth has gotten a terrible beating over the last few years, and I'm not just talking about all the gibberish that comes spilling out of Donald Trump's mouth. Truth is not always readily evident, and we have to invest some energy in digging it out from all the social noise. Don't just listen to one radio station or one personality or one group of people.

There is something uniquely peculiar in the case of Fox News, for instance. Donald Trump watches hours of television every day, and he reacts with twitter rants as a direct result of whoever is talking on Fox at the moment. Sometimes, he even announces policies in response! Before the shutdown, he had agreed to sign a funding bill that had already passed the House and the Senate, but when someone criticized him for it on Fox, he reneged on his agreement. That's why we have a shutdown.

Meanwhile, many of his supporters ALSO watch only Fox News and they don't read newspapers - so there is this echo chamber of ideas bouncing around inside that little bubble. Fox is not just "biased." It barely qualifies as news. It is telling the president of the United States what to think. It is telling his supporters what to think. Fox News is running the country.

The odd thing is that what happens on Fox is not reflected on the rest of the news outlets. Some conservatives say that all the journalists in those outlets can't be trusted because they are "biased" and therefore not truthful. Upon examination, it is obvious that this CAN'T be true. You're talking about millions of people having to be "in on" the conspiracy to report something OTHER than the real news. It's just not feasible. And some of the newscasters that Trump says are "liberal" are actually conservative, but they disapprove of his many questionable activities.

I am not saying you should stop watching Fox. I watch it, selectively, but I can't say I get much factual information from it. Most of it seems to be a cheering section for Donald Trump and the Alt Right. Just remember that "news" consists of who, what, when and where. If the outlet is giving you a lot of "why," it is commentary, not news.

I watch many different newscasters, including Fox, and I read quite a few newspapers daily. You may not have the time for quite as much as that, but you can develop your own version of absorbing information across the spectrum.  One day soon, I will write an article about my research techniques. I DO truth-test just about everything I post on Facebook, for instance. 

In the meantime, I suggest that, instead of pretending to be Madam Zelda with the crystal ball who knows the motives and thoughts of millions of people, take the time to talk to someone in the opposing party - not with the idea of converting them, but just in the interest of information gathering.

Now, this will be difficult, because most of us are so angry now that we often fall back onto griping about the other side. I would suggest asking the person what they want for America. What is their vision? Ask people about their motives. Don't assume. Ask.

I will be so glad when this phase has dissipated and I can take some attention off the topic of politics. If the right wing hadn't crowned Trump with the (false) crown of Christianity, I wouldn't be doing this now. It has put a crimp in my peaceful meditation time, and I look forward to eliminating the distraction, but I just can't stand idly by while Jesus is misrepresented so heinously.

I just encourage all of us to devote ourselves to Truth with reverence and discretion, and behave accordingly.

God bless us all.

Silver Rose

ABORTION

Some people are so preoccupied with the topic of abortion that they talk of little else on social media and elsewhere. Nearly every political and cultural conversation gets hijacked onto this topic, due to the tunnel vision of the abortion-obsessed, and I am tired of continually taking that detour, so I have written this statement of my position on this issue. From now on, every time someone tries to wrestle a conversation from the price of cilantro at my local market to THE HORROR OF ABORTION, I am posting a link to this blog entry and moving on without further comment.

I do not like abortion

I am not in favor of killing babies. I do not "support abortion." Abortion is horrible. DUH.

Nor will I abandon every commandment of Christ in order to vote for people who say or insinuate that they will make abortion illegal. Making abortion illegal was never a successful method of eliminating abortion. When you make it illegal, you only make it less safe. Because abortion has always been available to women and they will resort to it if pushed.

If we really want to eliminate abortion, we could make our country more family friendly and follow the examples of the rest of the industrialized world by making maternity and paternity leave available as well as free child care. Instead, we behave as if each one of us is in competition with every other American. We behave as if we hate one another and must fight each other to the death for limited resources.

We do not have limited resources. It is just that all the resources have been handed over to a tiny number of people while the wages of the workers that create the wealth are suppressed. When asked, women say that they get abortions because of MONEY. They can't afford to raise a child. It is IMPOSSIBLE. Most workers in our country do not receive a living wage.

The right wing uses abortion as a lure to capture voters when their real agenda is to accelerate this enrichment of the wealthy while they torment, starve and further impoverish the poor.

For instance: In the two years Donald Trump has been in office, Planned Parenthood, the biggest abortion provider in the U.S., has been funded by the government something like 9 times. He's seated one truly wretched supreme court judge, whom I firmly believe DID sexually attack Dr. Ford during a party. (In addition to my customary research, I watched all the videos of the hearings.)

The GOP treated Dr. Ford shamefully and, indeed, as I watched the debacle on television, I felt I was witnessing a second rape.

Watching Kavanaugh sputter and riot his way through a decidedly partisan, voluminous defense, his puckery red mouth, wet with the spittle of his outrage, made me want to retch. I vowed never to vote Republican ever again, when everything was said and done. Will Kavanaugh deliver the promised abolition of abortion? He is dishonest enough to renege on his subtle promise in that regard, but he WILL likely save Trump from being thrown into prison for criminal wrongdoing. The whole vile mess makes me sick.

Catholics are not required to vote Republican

The Republican Party, as it is currently constituted, stands for positions that are directly in opposition to everything Jesus advocated. The only quasi-Christian position on their platform is the supposedly "pro-life" position, which actually boils down to a very weak anti-abortion position that only makes it illegal, when illegality has never prevented abortions. It only prevented SAFE abortions.

Anyone that claims that Catholics "have" to vote Republican is lying.

Pope Benedict clarified this during his term as Pope. (See the quote below his picture.)

A catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation

in evil, and so unworthy to present himself for holy

communion, if he were to deliberately vote for a

candidate precisely because of the candidate's

permissive stand on abortion and/or euthanasia.

when a Catholic does not share a candidate's stand

in favor of abortion and/or euthanasia, but votes

for that candidate for other reasons, it is considered

remote material cooperation, which can be permitted

in the presence of proportionate reasons.

~Pope Benedict~

My opinion: Criminalizing abortion does not solve the problem

There is no corroborating research or statistic that supports the idea that making abortion illegal is a working method because, as history has borne out, women get abortions, whether legal or not.

American laws, generally speaking, reflect the will of the majority of the people, in concert with the guiding principles laid down in our Constitution.

Abortion is legal, but it is not mandatory. This isn't china, where parents are only allowed to have a certain number of children and are thereafter forced to abort subsequent children.

If no one wanted an abortion, we could have an abortuary on every street corner and they would be empty, and this fact relates to my central position.

The remedy must address the needs of both mother and child.

Pro-lifers and pro-choicers are equally vehement in their insistence on the rightness of their respective positions. Pro-lifers are advocating for the babies. Pro-choicers advocate for the mothers. It is a furious pitched battle between them, which is why we need a nuanced approach that advocates for BOTH.

How can we do that? Well, first of all, stop obsessing about whether or not abortion is legal. Even when illegal, is it STILL available, and pretending otherwise is just naive and unrealistic.

We must evangelize the culture

As religious people, we need to stop behaving as if we can (or should) try to force other people to obey our moral laws when it comes to sexual behavior.  Sexual immorality and the pregnancies that may result from it are beyond the pale of what Christians can expect to manipulate. We need to remember that Jesus did not force anyone to follow him. He invited them.  We should do the same by working to evangelize the culture to gain the hearts and minds of a majority, which is absolutely within the mandate given us by Jesus.

Thirdly, we have to be realistic about the limitations of the American legal system when it comes to impressing Christian norms on it. The separation of church and state has been a fundamental criterion from the very foundation of our country and, while I agree that the founding fathers probably did not anticipate that many Americans would one day belong to non-Christian religions (or no religion at all), the overriding conception of individual freedoms can't be ignored.

In the arena of abortion, even if the law were to recognize the rights of the unborn child, you cannot divorce the baby from the mother until it is born. The law will never again allow the rights of the unborn baby to circumvent the rights of the mother, regardless of whether or not we believe that an abortion murders a child. That ship has sailed.

If you want to make laws, enact laws that support moms and babies.

It is not logical to stand in the way of legislation that financially supports poor moms and their babies, either through direct money or services such as free day care, and at the same time pretend that we care about the babies that suffer because its parents are poor and we refuse to fund their relief.

Babies need food, shelter, utilities, clothing, transportation and day care. If a young woman does not have the income to give a child those basic things, abortion will be the only way out. Forget adoption. Most women know they couldn't give up their child, once they've given birth, and if they don't have the money to support a child, they don't have the money to get themselves through a pregnancy either.

Women do not "want" to kill their children, either through abortion or, in the alternative, through poverty, illness and disease. They are forced into this decision because financial difficulties are the primary reason women cite for choosing abortion.

Legislation doesn't solve every human issue

People who resent tax dollars being earmarked for the poor are resentful because they are selfish, first of all, but in the case of the American Christian, it is often the mistaken belief that supporting illegitimate babies will 'encourage" young women to have lots of children they can't afford. There is no proof of that and, even if it were true for some, the number would be quite small.

I would remind my fellow Christians readers that if there are a few "extra" babies in the world, it's not a bad thing. Right?

Hear this: There is nothing you can do about anyone else's larcenous heart or grifter tendencies. There will always be a small percentage of people who are like that. You can't do anything about it.

There is also nothing you can do about lazy people. I know a young, healthy woman, only 20 years old, who refuses to get a full time job. She says part time is "enough." When I ask her what she'll do if she has an emergency, she asserts that her mother will have to pay the bill! I wonder if she got her mom's agreement to that? (I know her mother. She has one full time job and one part-time job. I'm guessing she's not happy about any of this.)

In any case, nothing is perfect, and we cannot sacrifice a great good because it can't be perfect. Someone will take advantage of our generosity. Someone will steal. Someone will lie and cheat. We have to do the best we can. Here is what Saint John Chrysostom says about it:

"The poor man has one plea, his want and his standing

in need: do not require anything else from him; but even if 

he is the most wicked of all men and is at a loss for his

necessary sustenance, let us free him from hunger."

~St. John Chrysostom~

Obviously, a baby is entirely innocent and, even if I agreed with you that it is a bad thing to encourage immorality by supporting moms who are having sex outside of marriage, for instance, we would still have to support the babies, right? Part of supporting the babies necessitates supporting the mothers. You can't separate the two.

Don't scream at me.

Now, I can hear people screaming at me already, and I haven't even posted this yet. There are some of you who are singularly focused on the fact that abortion is murder, and you can't SEE anything but that, you can't HEAR anything but that, and you can't TALK about anything but that. Just know that, as long as you refuse to see, hear or discuss anything but the fact that abortion kills a baby, you will be a miserable failure in your attempts to win people over to your way of thinking. You cannot sway people over to your side by hitting them over the head with a hammer. That approach does not work.

Stop spreading superstitious lies about pro-choice advocates and talk to them instead.

I am sick of watching the right and the left fling insults at one another and lie about each other. The right says the left just "wants to kill babies." The left says the right "just wants to control women." They are both off base. Instead of imagining the motives of the other side, it is time to listen. Get on the same page somehow and start using the same language to have the discussion.

At present, the pro-choice people are just as disgusted with you as you are of them, and it isn't because they are, supposedly, evil. it is because the anti-abortion people refuse to see the issues that bother those on the left.

The peculiar quandary in which we find ourselves is that both sides think they are arguing for the greatest good and that the other side is malicious. This is an impossible impasse that we must overcome if we are to make any progress in lessening the numbers of abortions.

Somehow we have to arrive at solutions that respect and dignify every human person. The rights of the mothers and the babies have got to be supported at the same time. At present, the pro-choicers advocate for the rights of the moms while the anti-abortion crowd speaks for the babies. We need a comprehensive approach that supports both.

God save us all

Silver Rose

LIBERAL NEWS MEDIA

"Liberal news media" is a phrase parroted by gullible followers who have been fed this idea by rich white American oligarchs who want to neutralize the fact-reporting arm of society so that they can operate under cover of darkness in order to continue to funnel all the wealth of our country to those same rich Americans, just a few of whom own more than half of the wealth in the U.S.. All it takes to earn the moniker of "liberal news media" is to report on something that reveals the crimes and lies of Donald Trump and others on the far right wing.

Ignoring the availability of nonpartisan fact-checking organizations such as snopes.com and factcheck.org, and the bare-bones reporting of Reuters (which concentrates on who, what, where, when, with no commentary) susceptible followers run around social media trying to discount the facts with the clarion call of "liberal news media!" carrying water for the rich white guys at the top of the socio-economic ladder.

Every despicable politician in history has used this method to sway large groups of people to their side so that they can have more power and more money. It is just that simple. Hitler did it. Stalin did it. It is what the morally bankrupt DO to get ahead.

The most reprehensible aspect of the current iteration of this method is that the religion of our dear Lord Jesus Christ has been hauled into the middle of it. He is being used and abused unmercifully by the party of Trump as a tool to disengage his followers from their common sense and intellects. It is being falsely claimed that Trump's vision for the future is the vision of Jesus Christ and it simply is not.

The big red herring in this odious stew is the topic of abortion. From the beginning of this current campaign of disinformation, which began years ago, the American public, specifically the evangelical wing of the Christian church, has been fed the lie that these politicians are doing the work of God, that they are going to eliminate abortion from the land.

First, they got the Christians whipped up into a white-hot fury in relation to the perceived association of "liberals" with abortion, neatly severing Jesus Christ's concern for the poor, the vulnerable, the refugee, from the public persona of the American Christian.

Whenever I express concern for the poor, the marginalized and the disenfranchised, in concert with the teachings of Jesus, I get someone sailing into the conversation and accusing me of being in favor of ABORTION. This is how effectively the puppet masters at the top of the alt. right heap have dissected the whole of the Christian message into little parts. They have convinced many Christians that the only thing that matters is the topic of abortion because it is ever so much more important to save the lives of innocent little babies than the lives of poor old people, or sick black people, or traumatized refugees. That was the first step.

This is how the most reprehensible man in the history of American politics has been tapped as a big Christian leader. The man isn't Christian AT ALL, not in his actions and certainly not in his beliefs. Nothing of what he believes jives with any part of Christ's message, but a good portion of his supporters believe that he was SENT BY GOD to save the babies.

These people are lying about their intention to make abortion illegal. That is the really sad part of it. Half the Christian world have sold their souls for the chance to make abortion illegal, but, instead, they are enabling another robber baron.

He does give lip service to being opposed to abortion, but since he has been in office, Trump's party has continued to support Planned Parenthood, and his recent addition to the Supreme Court (Kavanaugh) has recently ruled to keep support for that organization in place. Those people do not care about the babies. They care about their pocketbooks and the pocketbooks of their cronies far more than any innocent babies. They are staging their platform on the bodies of those innocent little babies, USING them to forward their careers. It is disgusting.

Trump did not start this campaign that cut the body of Christ into little pieces. He isn't smart enough. But he is the perfect representative for the guys that did. Those men who sit at the top of the heap have far more money than Trump could ever even dream of. In fact, if we ever see Trump's tax returns, I am willing to bet that, gold-plated toilets aside, he was close to being broke when he made the run for president. He needed the money he thought he would get from the notoriety of running for the highest office in the land.

Since coming into office, Trump's companies have raked in millions and millions of dollars as a direct result of his position. He has spent half his time at his luxury resorts, forcing world leaders, the press, and a hefty portion of the administration to follow suit. Millions of dollars have been spent housing and feeding these people at those luxury establishments. No babies have been saved - but Trump and his brood have been fed and housed and are raking in the dough at the same time.

Anyway, the guys at the top started this years ago and are using Trump, just like they are using all the American Christians, in order to grab more money and more power. Trump has gladly instituted permanent big tax breaks for the rich while waving small, temporary tax breaks at the upper middle class, like he is doing them a big favor. Built into those modest tax breaks for the middle class is a BIG balloon payment at the end - when the temporary tax cuts wear out. The middle class will have to pay big taxes in future to make up for a few insipid dollars now. Mistakenly, they will blame it on the Democratic administration that is SURE to come after this mess is finished, because that is when those balloon payments become due. It is calculated to explode while a Democrat is in office. Clever.

Despite the press reporting on all of these shenanigans, 23% of the American public don't believe it because Trump has been blowing the "liberal news media" smoke up their noses and they're all high on Trump's Jesus who hates gays, the poor, the marginalized, women, disabled people, and especially the blacks and the browns.

Normally, I am uninterested in politics, but it is because they are abusing Jesus so badly that I am invested now. When you use God to do something immoral, it makes the sin far worse. I suppose I love God enough to object to Him being maligned in this way, and I hate to see the beauty of Christ's message be destroyed by this bastardized version of Him.

One day, this cycle will have run its course. The American people will rise up and throw these criminals in jail. Trump's attorney has just been convicted of campaign fraud and will spend 3 years in federal prison. Others will soon follow. But I doubt that those who are really responsible will ever even be known. Even now, they are quietly sitting back, counting all the lovely money they managed to squeeze from the economy while everyone else suffered for it. Including the babies.

Silver Rose