Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Kermit Gosnell Verdict

Two days ago, the abortionist Kermit Gosnell was found guilty on three counts of first degree murder and several other lesser charges.  He will spend the rest of his days in  jail, having agreed to not appeal in exchange for the death penalty being taken off the table.  Gosnell severed the spines of three (most likely many more) babies who had survived failed abortion attempts (from him).  The babies were out of the womb, breathing and viable, yet he decided to finish the job anyway.  The sickening, chilling, appalling actions of this person are too graphic to be retold here.  One thing we opponents of abortion should not do is regard this as a victory:  it isn't.

All that has happened is that society actually agrees (for now anyway) that murdering  someone outside of the womb is reprehensible and that justice needs to be served.  This verdict in no way has moved the needle, morally or legally, on whether society deems murder inside the womb as something that needs to be addressed within a legal and/or moral context.  Abortions are still occurring every year, reaching over 1,000,000 every single year.  Every anti-abortion law or notification law is either struck down or held up in the courts pending appeal or review or injunction.  Third trimester abortions are still condoned by pro-abortion groups.  Nothing has changed.

Even NARAL, the bona fide pro-abortion group, even lauded the decision, but with a noticeable caveat.  They say that Kermit Gosnell is what happens when anti-abortionists create laws against abortion or make it less accessible.  You can read their talking points propaganda here.  I can refute the claims of NARAL one by one (here's one: NARAL's argument that opposing abortion drives people to Gosnell is akin to saying that criminalizing rapists and putting them behind bars will amount to more horrible rapes.), but it's interesting that NARAL refuses to consider Kermit Gosnell as one of their own.  They've distanced themselves from him saying that he goes beyond their stated objectives.  Gosnell killed babies only minutes old out of the womb and NARAL sanctions it as long as the baby is inside the womb.  What's a few minutes of time when it comes down to human life when you think about it?  Enough to make Gosnell a monster, an aberration while NARAL is represented as moderate and having common sense.

Still, in this country, abortion is legal for all times, all circumstances.  There may be delays, but the end result is the same.  Even though certain polls over the last few years have indicated that the majority of Americans will allow for abortion for life-saving instances only and a plurality favors outlawing it for all cases, there has been little to change the amount of abortions that happen in this country.  That 1,000,000 mark is as consistent now as it was in 1973.  This will continue to be the case as long as Roe v. Wade, a decision which even some of the most fierce pro-abortionist leftists condemn as bad constitutional law (cf. Michael Kinsley). 

There is nothing to celebrate here.  Yes, we should be grateful that this person can no longer murder babies who survived his abortions.  But as far as a game changer in the whole abortion debate and its legal status in this country, nothing has changed and the so-called "common ground" that pro and anti-abortionists share is still only that killing persons outside of the womb is reprehensible and should be punished.

One more thing on a side note: The proponents of gay marriage tell us that gay marriage should be allowed because of the advances in science with regards to sexuality.  Science should be our guide, not some old religious objection.  Well, science has also opened the door very wide to know that children in the womb feel pain, they respond to stimuli and even smile and laugh.  They have heartbeats, they have fingernails.  But apparently, that science is not to be considered.


Saturday, May 11, 2013

Χριστος Ανεστη

May He who arose from the dead grant all of you eternal life and the Great Mercy.  Belated Pascha.  Χριστος Ανεστη!  Καλω Πασχα!  Here's some music to give you joy...just in case some of it may have been lost since last Sunday.



Sunday, April 28, 2013

Blessed is he who is found watching

The Holiest of weeks is now here and we usher it in with this chant:

Ἰδοὺ ὁ Νυμφίος ἔρχεται ἐν τῷ μέσῳ τῆς νυκτός, καὶ μακάριος ὁ δοῦλος, ὃν εὑρήσει γρηγοροῦντα, ἀνάξιος δὲ πάλιν, ὃν εὑρήσει ῥαθυμοῦντα. Βλέπε οὖν ψυχή μου, μὴ τῷ ὕπνῳ κατενεχθής, ἵνα μῄ τῷ θανάτῳ παραδοθῇς, καὶ τῆς βασιλείας ἔξω κλεισθῇς, ἀλλὰ ἀνάνηψον κράζουσα· Ἅγιος, Ἅγιος, Ἅγιος εἶ ὁ Θεός, δια πρεσβαις των Ασοματων ἐλέησον ἡμᾶς.

Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is that servant whom He shall find watching,
and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not
be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death, and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, Holy, Holy, art Thou, O our God, Through the intercessions of the Bodiless Powers, have mercy on us.

May Christ our God, who is going to His voluntary Passion, bring us with fervent faith and joy to worship His Crucifixion, Death, Burial and Resurrection and bestow upon us eternal life and the Great Mercy.

Friday, April 26, 2013

No boasting...just fact

We can only celebrate the Resurrection of Christ when we keep long vigil and check the passions.  Then and only then does the joy of Resurrection permeate our souls and minds and bodies, indeed, our entire selves.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

The Third Sunday of the Great Fast--Veneration and Adoration of the Life-Giving Cross

And when He had called the people unto Him with His disciples also, He said unto them, "Whosoever desireth to follow after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever desireth to save his life, shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospels, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

 The way of the Christian in this life is the way of the Cross, but that is not the end.  For as we have been baptized into Christ's death, we are baptized into His Resurrection.  The Cross gives death but also life; The Cross condemns and redeems; The Cross reveals our mortality yet promises Eternal Life; The Cross is not simply some "Not guilty" verdict, but the means to refrain from further and recurring evil; The Cross is not just a mirror, but also a window; The Cross crucifies and resurrects; The Cross is a defeat and victory.

Three weeks now into the fast, our hunger and thirst have begun to take their toll.  But in the midst of our physical pangs, the Cross gives us hope.  Christ did not give up on us; in our struggles, we should not give up on Him.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Joke (i.e. Fact) of the Day

This is the punchline from a fictional conversation between a representative of a church who is contacting a news organization to cover a local Roman Catholic Church's ordination of women as priests.

News organization:  "...there’s a name for Roman Catholics who say, ‘I love the Church but it’s going to have to change this and this and this and until they get their heads out of their narthexes and agree with me, I’ll do whatever the hell I feel like doing.’”

Caller:  “What’s that?”

News Organization: “Episcopalians.  But try the National Catholic Reporter.  They love stupid crap like this.”
You can read the whole of this fictional exchange here.  WARNING:  Some nasty language is used.

As funny as that exchange is, it reveals an important question:  Why don't dissenting Catholics just become Episcopalians?  Why do Catholics who dissent from their church's teachings vehemently insist that they must remain Catholic?  If the Church left them, as they say, why not just go become Episcopalian.  There you can have all the heresy you could want:  women priests, women bishops (here in the USA at least), open communion, ordination of gays in "committed relationships," gay weddings, support for abortion on demand, all religions are equal (except for Evangelicals, Catholics and Orthodox), Pelagianism, Sabellianism, baptism in the name of the "Mother, Daughter and Forest Spirit," etc., etc..

The Episcopalian Church welcomes you, goes their motto.  So, dissenting Catholics, just go and leave the rest of the faithful alone?