Wednesday, May 27, 2009

California Constitutional Amendment Upheld

California Supreme Court justices upheld the California Marriage Amendment, known as Prop. 8, yesterday in a 6-1 ruling. The justices said the ruling addressed only the narrow issue of whether the state's constitution was properly amended. Here's what CatholicVote.org had to say:

The California Supreme Court yesterday rejected attempts by homosexual activists to throw out the constitutional amendment passed by 52% of California voters last November.

You may recall that we filed an amicus brief in this important case on behalf of you – and all the members of CatholicVote.org. In our brief, we argued that activists seeking to void the will of the people in California is “utterly inconsistent with the root premise of the constitution… that ‘all political power is inherent in the people ... [that] government is instituted for their protection, security, and benefit, and they have the right to alter or reform it when the public good may require.’”

Less reported is the fact that voters crossed traditional political lines to pass this amendment. For example, 53% of Hispanics supported the amendment and African Americans voted in favor of the amendment by a whopping 70-30% margin!

Unfortunately, the court also preserved thousands of ‘marriages’ between same-sex couples that were performed during the intervening period between yesterday’s decision, and a previous court ruling allowing same-sex marriage in California. These same-sex couples remain married under an illicit decision that has now been trumped by a vote of the people.

All political posturing and rhetoric aside, marriage between a man and woman remains the best environment to raise a child, and the people of every state deserve the right to uphold this time-tested institution.

Sincerely,

Brian Burch
CatholicVote.org


P.S. Our latest ad aired successfully on American Idol last week in six states. We have been deluged with responses from across the country. We pray and hope more than a few seeds have been planted. Of course once planted, these seeds will need to be watered. So yes, don’t worry, we have more coming soon.

Many have asked about the music used in our recent ad. The song “Close My Eyes” is available for download via iTunes for $.99. And if you download it now, a portion of the cost goes directly to CatholicVote.org! Download the song now at iTunes.

AUL on Sotomayor Nomination to US Supreme Court

Americns United for Life writes...

We’ve been working hard in the lead-up to the Supreme Court nomination to prepare . . . and today was the day. As you know, the President nominated Second Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor. We’ve spent the day responding to requests for a response from a pro-life perspective -- running from the Associated Press to the BBC to FOX Radio and more.

The Washington Post gave AUL credit for leading the way in researching Sotomayor’s record and being one of the first pro-life groups to comment on her nomination. We want to keep you informed as this nomination process goes forward, so please stop by AUL.org for more background on Judge Sotomayor.

So what do we think? Frankly, this is a very troubling nomination. In listing his requirements for a Supreme Court pick, President Obama highlighted “empathy” rather than loyalty to Constitutional principles. Now, we see what that means -- a judge who makes it clear she decides cases on feelings, not facts. She is a radical judicial activist who readily admits that she applies her personal political agenda when deciding cases.

In a speech at Duke Law School at 2005, Sotomayor said that her own Court of Appeals -- not the democratically elected legislature -- is “where policy is made.” Taking such “judicial action,” she said in a 2004 speech, is part of the “heroics of judges today; it may dwell in protecting our own turf and ensuring that it is we who interpret the law.”

Sotomayor’s philosophy of radical judicial activism is exactly the thinking that led to the Supreme Court turning into the “National Abortion Control Board,” denying the American people the right to be heard on this critical issue. She will further entrench the Court’s self-appointed role as the sole arbiter of abortion policy. Based on her judicial philosophy, we expect her to elevate unrestricted, unregulated, and taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand to a fundamental constitutional right by reading the sweeping Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) into the Constitution.

Pro-abortion groups are already lining up to endorse Obama’s choice. NARAL praised her “distinguished record of professional accomplishments,” while the National Organization for Women (NOW) said it would “celebrate” the nomination with a “Confirm Her” ad campaign.

That’s why it’s so important we get out the truth about Sotomayor’s radical judicial activism. Our recent polling data shows 69% of the American people believe that “some federal judges have gone too far by doing more than just interpreting the law and instead are making new law.” Mainstream America will not tolerate the choice of a Supreme Court nominee who, instead of following her duty to uphold the Constitution, chooses instead to dictate her own personal political agenda.

We need your help to make sure the next Supreme Court justice rules on facts, not feelings. Will you send a generous gift today? We want to send a loud and clear message that the American people will not tolerate a judge who believes in setting her own policy and “protecting [her] own turf.” But we need your help to keep pounding the message home during the confirmation process. Let’s show our politicians and the American people that a vote to confirm her would be a vote to strip Americans of the ability to choose for themselves how to regulate abortion. Thank you for standing with us!

For Life,

Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D.
President & CEO
Americans United for Life

http://www.aul.org

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Pope Benedict Historic Holy Land Visit

Follow the visit on Vatican.com:

http://www.youtube.com/vatican

Friday, May 8, 2009

IMAGINE THE POTENTIAL

Check out the latest Catholicvote.org video, just unveiled on the national day of prayer:

Catholic Vote

Posted using ShareThis

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Secular Humanism and Popular Culture

Do you remember when, as a child, it first struck you that television ads are largely full of lies? Or certainly that the claims made are founded on little more than thin air? Were you as repulsed by this revelation as I was?

As children, we seek knowledge, we looks for facts. We want to know if something is true or not, and we look to our parents for answers. We set sail on the endless stream of information called media. We are engaged by television and confronted with advertising. We are told “its just a commercial.”

Over the years we have become desensitized to The Big Lie to the point where we celebrate good lies, watching re-runs of the “top ten all-time” Super Bowl Ads. The Mean Joe Green coca-cola ad is ranked number one. I remember watching it the first year it ran. The ending disappointed me. It posed a nice sentiment for football fans, but it left me feeling empty.

I believe the empty feeling I got from television ads resulted from my Christian grounding. I was raised in the Christian faith, and as an altar boy in the Episcopal Church for seven years; I absorbed the Liturgy of the Word and came to love our Lord deeply. Somehow I got it in my heart that true satisfaction in life would only be achieved through Him.

Along with most of my generation, my grounding in faith eroded as I ventured away from home, to college, and into adulthood. I watched our world change quickly in a few short decades. “One Nation Under God” transmogrified into a culture of self, celebrity, and self-celebrity. We allowed our discipline and strength of character to resist temptation to fade into the mist. We were successfully seduced by money, pleasure, power, fame, and the gentrification of infantilism, as the lines between advertising, self-promotion, and reality melted away.

Our culture of convenience and instant gratification has twisted our thinking. We are inclined to think of discipline as manipulation, an easy conclusion to reach because it justifies our distaste for moral authority and our lack of spiritual effort. Fallen away Christians cry “Oh, the guilt it gave me” while they drive their children around town on an endless tour of non-stop entertainment. No one has time for peace, reflection, or worship. We are too busy for discipline.

While we were scurrying around, the prevailing culture endorsed the primacy of the individual, authorized minimal contribution to the whole, and blessed the assertion that pleasure is the ultimate good. The individual has won the right to put out minimal effort for maximum pleasure. Freedom has become the right to do whatever you want. The power of the beautiful yet horrible adolescent temper tantrum has overcome patience and wisdom. It happened oh so fast.

The questions “What’s in it for me?” and “What is the least I can do to get to heaven?” snuck onto the spiritual agenda. Religious affiliation choices are filtered through the field of secular perception, resulting in a world where families shop for “user friendly” churches.

To be honest, I wasn’t overly concerned about all this until I discovered that my life had re-invented itself while I was busy being overwhelmed. My long, strange trip ran out of time.

I rediscovered my Christian grounding buried under a heap of confusion. As a consequence, I am getting headaches from The Big Lie again, and the emptiness of a story that doesn’t show me salvation, or at least redemption, leaves me dissatisfied. My conscience no longer allows me to accept “whatever” as a viable reaction to ugly social trends and the perpetuation of false promises.

Popular culture has evolved to where it is in blatant, direct conflict with Christian philosophy, and Secular Humanism has infected spirituality and the practice of religion on a global basis. The ugly truth is that popular western culture has become a carrier of this virus. Though we are still spiritually vital, the media portrays Christians as knee jerks who threaten the triumph of science and social progress. A large public segment views the Church through secular eyes, unwittingly desiring to cut it off from heaven.

Fortunately, I have learned to let worldly pain wash through me without clotting in my veins, and I want the same for my brothers and sisters. I feel compelled to join the battlefield of right and wrong because I want to get it right and finish strong.

I believe we are created by God, for God. We need to give thanks for the Grace we have been given and for the profound Love of the Holy Trinity--thereby regaining our essential purpose. Secular Humanism has been resisted before. Popular Culture can be changed.

"Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called."

1 Timothy 6:12

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Where Faith and Reason Meet

Introducing the encyclical letter he addressed to the Bishops of the Catholic Church, “Fides Et Ratio,” on the relationship between faith and reason, Pope John Paul II had this to say:

“Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human
spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed
in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to
know himself—so that by knowing and loving God, men and
women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves
(cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2).”

While this statement sums it up beautifully, I will attempt to elaborate below, borrowing heavily from the Supreme Pontiff’s encyclical, which relied in good part on St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae.

God loves us and wants to make himself known to us, and He instilled in us a desire to know him. We are free and intelligent, capable of knowing God, good and evil, truth, and fundamental moral norms. In time and history, basic principals, such as causality, finality, and non-contradiction emerged to help in giving us a deeper understanding of faith and the meaning of life. Thus faith and reason became interdependent.

In the “fullness of time” (Gal 4:4) God sent his Son, the eternal Word who enlightens all people, so that he might dwell among them and tell them the innermost realities about God (cf. Jn 1:1-18). To see Jesus is to see his Father
(Jn 14:9). Christ perfected Revelation by fulfilling it through his whole work of becoming present, manifesting himself with words, deeds, signs, and wonders, his death and glorious Resurrection, and his sending of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, he restored the divine life Adam and Eve refused, and offers the truth about the goal of history.

By his divinity and absolute transcendence, God himself is the credibility of what he reveals. Mankind accepts his divine testimony in freedom, by faith, reasoning upon its profound meaning. Freedom is not a result of reasoning made against God, for God is the very reality that allows our self-realization—

“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”
(Jn 8:32).

The proclamation of the Good News employed reason upon the coming of the Holy Spirit. “The law and the prophets” did not resonate with the pagans, so philosophy was used to create a link between universal reason and pagan religion. Rising to higher levels, reason provided a basis for the concepts of self-realization, transcendence, and the absolute.

Nature, a main concern of pagan religion, became a contributor to divine Revelation. Faith therefore, sought nature and trusted it. Grace builds on
nature and raises it to fulfillment, as faith builds on reason and perfects it.

Wisdom, a gift of the Holy Spirit, presupposes faith and enables judgment according to divine truth. Faith accepts divine truth as it is.

As history progressed, philosophy began to separate from reason, and in some ways, reason itself was abandoned. Modern philosophy has moved well away from Christian Revelation, to a point where philosophy is largely opposed to it, giving way to atheistic humanism and other dialectical structures. Faith has been accused of standing in the way of the development of full rationality. Philosophy has turned away from the contemplation of truth and the meaning of life toward a new form that can be directed by utilitarian ends—pleasure and power.

Scientists, by all rights allies of faith and reason, have taken a path similar to that of philosophy, succumbing to the temptations of assumed quasi-divine power over nature and humanity.

Once divine Revelation was shoved aside, reason swerved off the path to its goal. Faith, without its companion reason, has given way to feeling and experience, losing its status as the saving grace and driving force of human volition. Modern philosophy has become inept in facilitating the communication of the truth of the Gospel.

Atheism, agnosticism, and relativism lead the march toward universal skepticism. Truth has been devalued, and plurality rules the day. Undifferentiated plurality paints an assumption that truth is revealed equally in different philosophies and religions, even when they clearly contradict one another. Truth is reduced to opinion, and humankind waffles, adrift in a sea of “whatever.”

As the bearers of faith, reason, truth, and divine Revelation, it is incumbent upon Christians to protect God’s truth and continue the mission of the church fathers. Pope John Paul II “unstintingly recalled the pressing need for a new evangelization.”

There are many new icebreakers forging ahead through the icebound waters of “whatever.” We need to pull out our thermals and sign on to one of them. Or develop the ways and means to raise a navy, shore up the old ships, pull them out of the dry docks, and set sail. We already have the faith and reason required for victory. Jesus Christ saw to that.

Friday, May 1, 2009

SOUTER ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT

With Supreme Court Justice David Souter announcing his upcoming retirement, the possibility of a Pro-Life appointment to the nation's highest court opens up. It seems likely that President Obama will replace him with a Pro-Choice justice, and so the battle continues...read all about it:

http://www.aul.org/PR_05-01-09

CatholicBlogs.com