Independence Day 2013

America: Land of the free, home of the brave.  Or is it?  Religious freedom is under assault in our country.  Now that the Supremes have cast aside the duly enacted Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 13 States where gay marriage is legal, will surely proceed to take legal action against anyone who speaks against it.  This is already happening in Canada where a bishop, several priests and ministers have all been taken to court for expressing their religious believe that gay marriage violates natural law.  So much for the freedom to express religious belief.  Coming soon to a state near you!

Perhaps the most egregious attack on religious freedom has been underway in the courts for quite some time already, although it never gets reported by the mainstream media.  Sixty lawsuits have been filed by employers seeking relief from the HHS mandate that every employer must provide unlimited, free access to contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs, and surgical sterilization.  Thirty-two of these lawsuits have been brought by for-profit employers, and twenty-eight by church-affiliated schools and social service agencies.  The Obama administration has filed legal briefs asserting that for-profit “secular” employers have no right to an exemption from the HHS mandate.

A number of lower courts have agreed with the Obama administration, subjecting these employers to fines of $100 per employee per day for non-compliance.  The largest employer to have filed such a lawsuit and lost is Hobby Lobby.  However, last week an appeals court overturned the decision and granted Hobby Lobby relief from the fines which, in their case, amount to $1.3 million a day.   In fact, in 21 of 28 cases litigated so far, the courts have determined that employers are indeed entitled to exemptions on the grounds that compliance would force them to decide between violating their moral beliefs or the law.  It’s only a matter of time before one or more of these cases work their way up to the Supreme Court.  In the meanwhile, the Obama administration continues to litigate against employers seeking exemptions.  It seems president Obama was just kidding when at the Notre Dame University commencement several years ago, he promised strong conscience protections under Obamacare, even writing a now all but forgotten executive order to that effect, in order to get the law passed.

Happy Independence Day.  Let’s celebrate what little freedom we have left before it is all replaced with the new sexual ethic in which “anything goes” including babies who are mistakes, and people who disagree with the new morality that uses tax dollars to fund abortions and give marital tax credits to gay spouses.

Paradox: Religious Freedom v. Gay Marriage

This past week we commemorated The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, two solemnities that might seem quaint until we consider them in the light of our need for the love of God and the crisis of faith that plagues our modern and increasingly secular world.  The Sacred Heart of Jesus denotes the entire mystery of God’s immense love for humanity, so powerful that He would become human, suffer with us and for us, in order to reconcile us with God, despite our sinfulness.  The Immaculate heart of Mary epitomizes the purity of human love that is both humble and yet so powerful as to risk everything to accept the will of God, even overcoming the despair of losing a beloved only Son. 

If we accept this notion of being loved unconditionally by God, our creator, then we are compelled to seek the Truth God has set before us, Truth that has been revealed in scripture, in the life of Christ, and in nature itself.  This is one of the basic tenets of Christianity, and it is supposed to be protected by the 1^st Amendment of the US Constitution.  Christian belief in Natural Law undergirds our entire democracy.

This past week, I heard a news blurb about a bill currently being debated in the Ohio legislature.  It seems that our Republican governor and state senators are seeking to strengthen the state’s oversight of abortion clinics, and withdraw State funding of Planned Parenthood.   I’m not sure if this is in response to the horrific findings revealed in the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, an abortionist accused of numerous murders and hundreds of medical licensing violations.  Sadly, this trial has been all but ignored by the press, and it is obvious that the State of Pennsylvania has been remiss in its oversight of abortion clinics.  What amazed me about what I heard on the radio is that the Democrats who oppose this bill described it as, “a war on women, anti-woman’s rights, and anti-family.”   The Republican author of the bill explained that killing unborn children is the ultimate act of child abuse, and that a majority of Ohioans oppose the use of tax dollars to fund the killing of unborn babies.  She also cited the need for better enforcement of medical licensing laws which have been so poorly enforced in abortion clinics, to the detriment of women’s health and safety. 

I was shocked that a law to protect unborn children from abortion, and to protect women from violations of medical licensing requirements, would be referred to as a “war on women” and “anti-family,” when killing babies is about as “anti-family” as it gets.  Furthermore, half the aborted babies are female, and women are put at risk if the clinics are failing to follow medical guidelines,  not to mention the fact that so many young women who are being victimized by sexual aggressors, are taken to these same clinics to terminate unwanted pregnancies.   The paradox is that people who would protect life, seek better care and safety for women, and encourage families, are described as perpetrators of a war on women, and accused of being “anti-family.”

Speaking of paradoxes, the Supreme Court is expected to deliver its ruling on a same-sex marriage case this month.  “Marriage equality” is being promoted as if it the most natural thing in the world for same sex couples to get married.  For over 4000 years, marriage has been held out as the unique institution in which a man and woman come together to have children and form a family.  The family, not the individual, is the basic unit of society, and the only means by which we can naturally reproduce.  Are same sex couples entitled to happiness?  Of course.  Should they be discriminated against for their sexual orientation?  Absolutely not.  But it is impossible for them to procreate naturally, and recent studies emphatically demonstrate that children raised in traditional heterosexual families thrive far better than children of same sex couples.  Therefore, calling homosexual relationships a marriage, (an institution for the procreation of children) is a lie, a paradox.

If the Supreme Court determines that same sex marriage is indeed a “civil right,” then it will be a violation of the 14^th Amendment (the “equal protection clause”) to speak against gay marriage.  In other words, it will no longer be legal to express our religious belief that same sex marriage is a violation of natural law and therefore, just wrong.  When the Supreme Court handed down Roe v. Wade, it cast aside 4000 years of moral teaching, and established that abortion was a good thing that could not be denied or restricted by any State law.  In doing so, they were asserting liberal secularism as the law of the land.  If the Supreme Court determines that gay marriage is a civil right, they will be once again foisting secular liberalism on our society, making it illegal to say otherwise.  Anyone who denies that gay marriage is a good thing will be opposing the United States Government. 

In Canada, where gay marriage is now the law of the land, their Supreme Court has already ruled that biblical speech opposing homosexual behavior is punishable as a “hate crime.”   Here in the US, a florist was recently found guilty of a hate crime for refusing to participate in the planning and set up for a gay wedding, and fined $5000.  School curriculum in states where gay marriage is now legal, emphatically states that homosexuality is a “normal, healthy” (i.e. good) behavior, even going so far as to encourage children to experiment, in order to discover their sexual orientation.  Parents who have objected to such teaching have been refused permission to have their children excused from these classes, and even taken to court for truancy.  New Jersey has a new law on the books called the “Bias intimidation statute” in which a person is guilty of a crime if, “something he says, does, or intends, causes an individual or group to be intimidated because of their race, religion, gender, handicap, sexual orientation or ethnicity.”  In New Jersey, if a homosexual feels intimidated by someone affirming Christianity’s opposition to homosexuality, that person is guilty of the crime of “bias intimidation.”   This is beginning to sound like the anti-blasphemy laws in Muslim countries where any religious belief other than Islam is considered the crime of blasphemy, punishable by imprisonment and even death.  Will we have anti-secular liberalism laws?

The Supreme Court, if it establishes gay marriage as a civil right, will set up a paradox in which the 1^st and 14^th Amendments will be at odds with one another.  They will have to choose between gay marriage and religious freedom.  We cannot have both.  This is a crisis of faith and a denial of the Truth of nature.  Will the court once again cast aside 4000 years of Judeo-Christian belief in Natural Law, or will it resist the temptation to push our country even further down the path of secular liberalism?

Why Are Children so "Adorable?"

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, formerly known as the Feast of Corpus Christi.  It serves as a reminder of our belief in the Real Presence of Jesus.  Not only is He fully present in the Eucharist, we also believe that God is present within each and every person.  From the time we were children, learning basic catechism, we were taught that “our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.”  But as adults, do we really believe or understand this mystery?  The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) refers the presence of the Holy Spirit in each person as “sanctifying grace.”

Sanctifying grace, also called habitual grace, is described as “the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God’s call.” (CCC 2000).  We receive the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Baptism.  It is Jesus Himself who commanded His apostles to baptize, and the Acts of the Apostles is replete with examples of the effects of baptism and reception of the Holy Spirit.  Theologians describe the effects of baptism as sacramental grace:

“Sacramental grace” is the grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ and proper to each sacrament. The Spirit heals and transforms those who receive him by conforming them to the Son of God. The fruit of the sacramental life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in the divine nature by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the Savior.  (CCC 1129)

Our belief that the Holy Spirit dwells within each person is also the reason why we believe in the sanctity of human life, and the inherent dignity of every person.  It is this divine spark that makes us human and elevates us to the status of children of God.  The Holy Spirit dwells within us, without overwhelming our human nature or interfering with our free will.  The Catechism further explains that:  

“God’s free initiative demands man’s free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into the communion of love. God immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy.”  (CCC 2002)

We are free to accept this gift of God’s Presence and allow it to enrich our lives, or we can assert our will and reject the love of God.  As infants we are innocents, filled with the grace of God, not yet capable of sin.  Perhaps the reason we find children so “adorable” is because we inherently perceive the Real Presence of God in their lives.  As we grow older and begin to assert our selfish tendencies, we become less attractive.  And if we develop sinful habits that lead to unhappiness, we even refer to this as becoming “dispirited,” (dis-spirited).

It is the Real Presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives that enlivens us with the love of God, and enables us to love one another.  The Church consists of we the people of God which is referred to as “The Mystical Body of Christ.”  When Catholic’s receive the Eucharist, they are receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, strengthening our bonds of charity and reinforcing our unity as the Mystical Body of Christ.  In a world torn with strife, we need God’s Grace, His Real Presence in our lives, more than ever.