Roomin' House Blues

The fall of the human being into distance from God was the fall from what it truly means to be human. We do not sin because we are human, but because we start to become more and more inhuman.   And just as we cannot love God whom we have not seen unless we love our neighbor whom we have seen, the more inhuman we become, the more we hate God, the less we love him.  When we detach ourselves from the value and dignity of human life and become anti-life, disguised as pro-some "choice" , instead of pro-life, we truly disfigure our humanity.  through this our whole culture is becoming inhuman.  And that inhumanity is eating, destroying the human from inside. Two news stories that touch on this have come to my attention in the last few days.  I have chosen to comment on both of them as a temper of our times.  The first story I found on a blog post on Patheos, and it has been confirmed as a real story.  According to the post, under the Netherlan...

I'm not a Sarah Palin fan, but picking on a kid with Down's syndrome because you don't like his grandmother is not what is consider "progressive" and I shall attempt to communication such to the website that did this. I think it is particularly important for progessive pro-lifers to speak out on something like this. I also want to make clear that any political humor I may have leveled against Palin in the past, nor any vociferous disagreements  I expressed with her politics were not meant to in anyway deny her dignity or that of her family members.  I actually admire the positions and work she has done on Down's syndrome .   Pro-Abortion Blog Attacks Sarah Palin's Son: "Retarded," "Somewhat Alive" | LifeNews.com

I am a advocate of Consistent Life, also known as Seamless Garment.  I think this is a very good explaination of this position. 

A recent article by Sr. Helen Prejan, of Dead Man Walking fame. Ride the current

Consistent Life sent me this link in their regular email to me.  It;s a wonderful pro-life story.  These conjoined twins will obviously have a very short life, but the mother is right to give them the time in this world that God gave them.   http://www.aolnews.com/2011/04/02/conjoined-twins-kameron-and-kaydon-hayes-celebrate-first-birthda/

More on Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois, who abolished the death penalty in his state on Ash Wednesday, under the guidance of the idea of a Seamless Garment of Life idea. His reasoning not only stops the death penalty in Illinois, but it puts him in the pro-life Democratic camp. More at the New York Times:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/us/26religion.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=governor%20quinn&st=cse  

One of my favorite e-newsletters has arrived this morning, Consistent Life. As a pro-life progressive I find that this organization reflects the general principles which I believe in. A consistent respect for the sacredness, value and  dignity of human life at al stages and it's protection from all attacks, war, abortion, injustice, "death with dignity" and so on. They informed me that there is a website in Ireland upholding the same principles: Consistent Life Ireland:  http://www.consistentlife.iwarp.com/

Excerpt from an article from Life News.  While Is sometimes disagree with Life News conservative slant, it's publisher, Steven Etelt is a very nice man whom I have been privileged to correspond with numerous times.  He has never held my being a progressive side pro-lifer against me. Bishop Robert Hennessy presided at a special Mass at Our Lady of Czestochowa Church, and Marek Lesniewski-Laas, honorary consul of the Republic of Poland, delivered greetings from the Polish government. But Flynn, who was born in the neighborhood, spoke personally of the Holy Father he got to know so well while serving at the Vatican: I spoke with the pope on numerous occasions and traveled to several countries with him, but his personal kindness to my family will be what I will always be most grateful for. I was with him in Boston long before he became Pope, and was in Rome when he died. .... Ray Flynn is a Democrat who embodies precisely what he admired so much about John Paul II — a...

Democrats for Life, on their Facebook page, called attention to something of merit: ”Early on the morning of Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent’s season of penitence, Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois went through some final, solitary rumination. For much of his political career, he had supported capital punishment, albeit with reservations, even debating it at the dinner table with his mother. Now a legislative bill abolishing it was waiting for his signature, or his veto…And when he signed the bill striking down the death penalty, he cited one influence by name: Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago.”  From the NYT

Another email newsletter I get is Life News.  I often disagree with some of the partisan perspective in it --that is pro-life Democrats, independents and 3rd party progressives are given little favorable coverage, dismissed or ignored, while the Republican Party is seen as the savior of the pro-life cause.  However, as I am a pro-life progressive I ignore some of the news and issues they raise at my own peril.  I keep getting it and if there is news  that I wish to share I will not make the error in logic of considering  the source beyond the question of credibility. Here is an article that I think should prick the conscience of even pro-choice die hards. Firebomb Thrown at Elderly Woman at Pro-Life Prayer Event A homemade incendiary device was thrown at one of the participants of the 40 Days for Life pro-life prayer vigil at an abortion business in Kalispell, Montana on Thursday night. The woman walked on the public sidewalk ne...

In another of those amazing emails I get from dozens of interesting groups Consistent Life, the pro-life, pro peace organization, has this to say:   U.S. Budget Battles: What if the American People Decided?            Much as the punditry likes to claim that the American people want government services without paying the needed taxes for them, a  recent poll  suggests that if the will of the majority rather than well-lobbied politicians decided on the budget, it could be balanced. So many military expenditures – spending on preparation for and actual practice of mass killing – are what the U.S. cannot afford.         It’s been long established in many polls that the American people also don’t want tax money going for abortions. But the life-affirming health care, counseling services, and material assistance for mothers in need are only on the chopping block because of what some pol...

Another group that is in the margins in our society is low income women with children in college.  It's difficult enough for working women to obtain child care.  For women holding down a part time job, with a couple of kids going to community college, it can be a leading cause of either dropping out of college or aborting another child.  If you are both pro-life and pro-justice like me these things are of concern.  Feminists for Life called my attention to an article on this:  http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110323006571/en/Colleges-Child-Care-Student-Parents-Graduate

Consistent Life informed me in their latest newsletter that Bernard Nathanson  died in February.  For the details of his life I will send you to Wikipedia, but here I shall comment.  Dr. Nathanson was one of the founders of National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Rights and he preformed many abortions and fought legal battles that lead to Roe v. Wade  Then he saw  a real time abortion.    He never preformed another abortion and became active with the National Right to Life Committee.  In life we often do thinks without fully understanding what we are doing.  When we reach a moment of epiphany that tells us we have done wrong we either become  become fully complicit or we change. Nathanson changed.  He changed like St. Augustine or St. Francis changed.  All of us in our lives must reach moments of change and convert in order to begin penance and make amends.  "For all hav...

Today, March 8th is International Womens Day, and in honor of that Feminists for Life sent me some links on Pro-Life Woman and related information. 2011 marks the 100 anniversary of the event.  First on Benizhar Bhutto   http://www.feministsforlife.org/taf/articles/Bhutto.pdf And here is something you can download and post:  http://feministsforlife.org/img/cop/ads_PDF/03SBAFanatic.pdf And here is their webpage:  http://feministsforlife.org/ If you want to support Feminists for Life you can buy from them  http://feministsforlife.org/covetable_stuff/index.php If you want to know more about International Womens Day go to  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women's_Day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women's_Day

Consistent Life,  an organization I support, called my attention to a letter to Sarah Palin by Mary Meehan, another Consistent Life supporter.  Mary, like me sees an anti war position as part and parcel of being pro-life, and being pro-life as being consistent with being pro-peace.  She compliments Sarah on being pro-life, pro-family, but takes her to task for supporting the war in Afghanistan, pointing to collateral damage to women, infants and children in the war.  More at:  http://www.meehanreports.com/openletter-palin.html  

Consistent Life, an organization I support because it opposes unjust war and abortion at the same time, in their recent email newsletter to me quotes Fr. Frank Pavone director of Priests for Life: “January 15 is the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and on or around that day we observe a national holiday in his honor. A week later, on January 22, we recall the tragic decision made that day in 1973 by the Supreme Court in  Roe vs. Wade , unleashing a policy of abortion on demand  . . . Both the civil rights movement and the pro-life movement are evidence of this common engagement. Both movements seek to secure equal rights for marginalized human beings, despite their appearances . . . Defending the equal dignity of every human being after birth strengthens our witness to the rights of those in danger before birth, and vice-versa. The witness, in fact, is ultimately one.” 

One of the organizations I support is Consistent Life.  They are a coalition of pro-life groups that see the pro-life question in an entirely different context.  To be pro-life you must be pro-peace,  and in favor of a seamless garment of life as Pope John Paul said.  They courageously oppose the death penalty, torture and support social justice to give quality to life, coupled with opposition to abortion.  It's opposition to violence in all it's forms.  The victims of violence in America are people in the margins, be they a crime victim, someone sitting on death row, or the totally innocent child in the womb. To find out more about Consistent Life go to there website: http://www.consistent-life.org/