Light and Darkness

This Sunday’s readings again mention light and darkness: “The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a great light has shone.”  (Isaiah 8:26)   And, “The Lord is my Light and my salvation, whom should I fear?” (Psalm 27:1)   Matthew’s gospel (Matt 4:15) cites this quote from Isaiah at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.  The darkness referred to in scripture is associated with turning away from God and living in a culture saturated by sin, to the extent that people can no longer perceive truth.  Sadly, we live in a time when our own culture is blind to many truths, even those revealed plainly in nature.

This past week marked the 41^st year since the passage of Roe v. Wade, in which the Supreme Court struck down the States’ right to regulate the abortion industry.  In doing so, they ushered in a culture of death that has taken the lives of more than 50 million babies, in the name of progress toward women’s rights and privacy.  Despite incontrovertible truth, supported by the latest neonatal science, people deny that a fetus is a human being.  The very same people who support heavy fines and imprisonment for the destruction of fertilized eagle or condor eggs, deny that a fertilized human egg has any value whatsoever.  Those who declare that denying abortion is a “war on women” are blind to the many serious consequences to abortion as well as contraception.  Despite numerous well-documented scientific studies documenting the connection of abortion and birth control to breast cancer, the spread of STDs, depression, and many other ill-effects, this information is suppressed and ignored, to the detriment of women everywhere. 

In perhaps the most egregious example of the real war on women, a coalition of non-profit agencies, assembled and led by Melinda Gates, has disseminated the contraceptive, Depo-Provera, to more than 120 million African women.  This is being done, despite a “black box warning” by the FDA on this injectable hormone-based contraceptive.   In 2004, the FDA mandated that Depo-Provera patients be counseled by health care professionals about the serious side effects of the drug which include: significant and irreversible bone loss; blood clots in the lungs, limbs and eyes; stroke; ectopic pregnancy; and significant weight gain.  Does this sound like a drug you would want your spouse or daughter to be taking?  The FDA also indicated that in no instance should a woman take this drug for more than 2 years (for the same reasons).  Separate studies published in Lancet and Cancer Research documented that use of this drug in Africa directly results in the spread of AIDS, and that it doubles the risk of an aggressive form of breast cancer.  For all these reasons, few if any, white or affluent women in America or Europe take Depo-Provera.  Nevertheless, the Gates Foundation, USAID, the Population Council, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Planned Parenthood, have formed a coalition that funds and disseminates Depo-Provera to African women on a massive scale.  At one point, they even gave it to approximately 9000 African women under the guise of general health care, without telling them what they were receiving, or any of the risks associated with it.  A class action lawsuit contending “non-consensual human experimentation” is currently in the works.   Despite all this, contraception is still widely promoted as “women’s health care,” and anyone who says otherwise is alleged to be waging a “war on women.”

The dictionary defines the term holocaust as, “wholesale or mass destruction, especially of human life.”  If the murder of 50 million American babies isn’t a holocaust, what is it?   Amazingly, our president and his appointees call it “women’s health,” and a basic right.  The Obama administration demands that every employer pay for chemical abortions (plan B) as well as contraception, and have sued the Little Sisters of the Poor for their refusal to sign the “accommodation” in which they are required to allow their health plan administrator to provide this coverage to the employees in their hospices and nursing homes.  It seems the President wants to make an example of the Little Sisters and grind them into submission.  Sounds to me like a “war on women.”

Clearly, our President and his supporters adamantly promote the culture of death in which millions of babies are murdered each year, many at the expense of taxpayers.   They are living in darkness so impenetrable that they cannot see or understand the truth of what they are doing.  Each human life is precious and unique.  Imagine the talent, energy, creativity, and productivity we’ve destroyed as a nation these past 41 years!   The truth they cannot perceive is that every life is an exquisite gift of God’s love, with boundless potential for good.  50 million lives have been destroyed, not to mention millions more chemical abortions, essentially because they were inconvenient, unplanned and/or unwanted.  This is intrinsically evil, and anyone who promotes or condones abortion is guilty of participation in this infanticide.  Politicians who advocate for abortion rights, and those who vote for them, are contributing to the culture of death and the darkness that pervades our nation.  They are blinded by this darkness, but no less culpable for its spread. 

Do not give up on overturning Roe v. Wade.  As dark as things seem to be right now, the Light of Christ will prevail, and we who call ourselves by His name, (Christians) are growing in number and influence.   It is up to us to demand that our leaders face the truth about abortion and about our government’s overt attempt to stifle religious freedom.  Abortion is not the only issue to consider when electing politicians, but it is THE most important issue, and trumps all others.  Christians who overlooked the abortion issue in the last presidential election must realize by now what a horrific mistake they have made.  Failure to respect the ‘right to life’ is an indicator that many other rights will also be violated by government bureaucrats who have no perception or respect for the truth.  The antidote for this veil of darkness is to reveal the truth, and that is only possible because the Light of Christ can and will penetrate and defeat this horrendous evil.  And when He does, “the people who live in darkness (will) have seen a great light.”  “The Lord is my Light and my salvation, whom should I fear?”

Misconceptions about Equality

Sunday’s first reading includes this prophecy about the Messiah: “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”  (Isaiah 49:6)  

Light has always been associated with good and darkness with evil.  Last week we saw the second installment of the Hobbit movie and it contained very clear references to darkness pervading the world.  As we watched the movie, it became increasingly clear that Tolkien’s numerous warnings about the spread of evil are still pertinent in the 21^st century.  At one point, Gandalf states that while everyone was asleep, evil spread throughout middle earth.  Unlike the evil we confronted in the early 20^th century which asserted itself boldly through Communism, Fascism, and Nazism, and resulted in two world wars, the spread of evil is now being accomplished through deception and seduction.  Rather than attempting to destroy the good overtly, evil takes things that are good and perverts them by appealing to humanity’s selfish instincts.   The virtue of love is reduced to lust; justice becomes revenge; mercy becomes an excuse to violate the truth of nature; and truth itself is contorted into untruth.

Words like “equality” sound fair and reasonable, but are used to deny the truth about life, and to promote an agenda that condones and increases inequality.  I’m going to address two mistaken notions:  Income equality and gender equality, starting with income.  Consider this quote from our President last month: "The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American dream, our way of life and what we stand for around the globe."   Sounds good on the surface, but when he and our government attempt to force equality, the result is just the opposite.  Entitlement programs such as welfare, food stamps, and unemployment discourage people from working and earning an income.  The “welfare trap” has been well-known and well-documented for decades.  Once people are receiving the equivalent of $40,000 a year or more in free benefits, why would they give that up to begin a career at wages that are less than half their existing benefits?  The truth is that entitlement programs, as they exist today, promote inequality because they encourage people to have less income and fewer assets.  Welfare moms have an incentive to have more children out of wedlock, in order to increase their benefits.  Entitlement programs will never lift people out of poverty.  The real solution is for people to go to school and stay in school; to get married and stay married; and to work for a living.  Pope Francis, who is on a mission to eradicate poverty, recently commented on the dangers of the welfare state, and said, “Man gains his dignity by earning his bread.”

The idea of equality is a widely misunderstood.  God created the universe and human beings with an abundance of diversity.  In short, we are all different; no two people are the same (except perhaps, identical twins).  Diversity is a good thing; it makes us stronger and better as a society.  Some people are smarter than others, some work harder and everyone has different interests.  Skills, effort, creativity, and the willingness to take risk, vary greatly among people.  Many of the world’s greatest accomplishments came from people who were in the top 2% of IQs.   What if Einstein, Edison, or the scientists who discovered the secrets of molecular biology had only average intelligence?  What if there were no great entrepreneurs to start and run successful businesses?  How would jobs be created?  The idea of income equality discourages job creation and the willingness to invest in business.  During his 17 day, $4 million vacation, President Obama called for “Promise Zones” where business taxes would be reduced and additional tax credits granted for capital investments by businesses, in order to stimulate job growth.   What’s amazing about this is that the president and his advisors are acknowledging for the first time, that lower business taxes will lead to job creation.  If so, why limit it to small geographic zones, when the entire country could benefit from the same tactic?  Conversely, the new mayor of New York has publicly announced his intention to jack up taxes on the wealthy, in order to expand entitlement programs.  The effect is likely to be the same as it was in France when many of the country’s wealthy business owners simply relocated out of the country. 

As for gender equality, God did not create man and woman equal.  Both are equally deserving of respect and dignity, but only women can bear children.  This amazing gift of fertility is something to be cherished and respected, but instead it is treated as an illness to be prevented (contraception) or thwarted (abortion), as if doing so makes women equal to men.  Nature reveals the beauty and depth of God’s love for humanity, in that He made men and women complementary, not only in our biology, but in our hormonal instincts, strengths, and weaknesses.  The attraction and love between a man and woman is not just about sensation and personal satisfaction, it is about passion of mind and soul that brings men and women together as “one flesh,” not merely consumed by desire, but by the power of love that brought everything in the universe into existence, so that together, the man and woman too can create new life.   This is what Pope John Paul II called “nuptial love,” an extraordinary privilege and the greatest miracle in life. 

Sadly, this desire has been perverted and reduced to mere lust which is selfish, and ultimately destructive.  In his great work, Theology of the Body, Blessed John Paul II warned that “the human heart has become a battlefield between love and lust.”  He observed that, “the nuptial meaning of the body… has become suffocated by concupiscence.”   Our nation is rapidly moving towards this suffocation by concupiscence.  We mistakenly think that if two people of the same sex love one another, the merciful thing to do is approve their marriage.  But mercy cannot violate God’s truth as revealed in the very nature of our bodies.  St. Thomas Aquinas warned that, “Mercy without justice is the mother of dissolution.”  The virtue of mercy cannot contradict the virtue of justice which is rooted in Truth.  Our nation is slipping into darkness because mercy without adherence to Truth is no justice at all.   

In his book, Dreams of My Father, President Obama denies the existence of absolute truth, stating that truth is different for each person.  In making this statement, he contradicts the U.S. Constitution which states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights…”   The equality envisioned by our founding fathers is “endowed by their Creator,” not granted by a government that creates inequality when it ignores moral truth in its misguided attempt to redistribute wealth or redefine marriage.   These actions will lead to the dissolution of our country, as they did to past cultures that fell into darkness when they abandoned Truth.   Only the Light of Christ, which is the way, the truth, and the life, can pull us back from the brink of darkness. 

Wise Men and the Link Between Justice and Truth

The Epiphany of the Lord commemorates the visit of the three wise men who traveled from the East to search out the infant Jesus and pay him homage.  These three men, referred to as Magi, were apparently wise enough to avoid King Herod on their return, demonstrating good judgment in the process.  Herod, on the other hand, lied to the Magi, and only wanted to find the Christ child so that he could kill him.  In his obsessive desire to retain power, he called for the murder of hundreds of infant children, in hopes of destroying the newborn king of the Jews.   

A couple things struck me about the scripture readings for this solemnity, the first being Psalm 72 which repeatedly uses the word justice to describe the way God leads His people through His kingship and the kingship of His Son:

“O God, with your judgment endow the king, and with your justice, the king’s son;
He shall govern your people with justice and your afflicted ones with judgment.
Justice shall flower in his days, and profound peace, till the moon be no more.”                                                                                                                     (Psalm 72:1-2,7)

Justice is a term often misunderstood and misused.  The practical application of Justice requires good judgment, and also demands an acute awareness of what is true and what is not.  “Everyone talks about justice, but there can be no justice where there is no truth, and there are times when truth is seldom recognized and often despised.”  This quote is from a Dean Koontz novel I’m reading at the moment (Innocence).  It captures the essence of the problem our country faces because the leaders of our nation refuse to acknowledge the truth of natural law, and in many respects, seem to despise the truths revealed by God through nature, scripture, and His Son, Jesus.   Like Herod, our president has lied repeatedly, about religious freedom, about conscience rights, and about abortion funding, to name but a few.  In the name of social justice, our government ignores the truth of the dignity of human life, while millions of babies are murdered in the womb.  At the same time, religious liberty which is protected in our constitution, is being violated by our Department of Justice , who last week filed a lawsuit against the Little Sisters of the Poor to require them to accept the so-called “religious accommodation” in which their employees would receive abortion-inducing drugs (Plan B and ella), contraception, and sterilization services, paid for by their health administrators. The Sisters operate a national chain of hospices and nursing homes, and face millions of dollars in fines under the Obamacare HHS mandate.  Their health plan is self-funded, so whatever their health plan administrator does, is being done with the Sisters’ money.  

The second thing that caught my ear in Sunday’s scripture was Isaiah’s use of the phrase, “the wealth of nations,” in describing the homage paid to God by those who believe in Him.  This is also the title of Adam Smith’s monumental work, considered to be the beginning of modern economic thought.  In it, Smith described the benefits of free markets, the value of labor, and the means by which supply and demand influence prices.   Smith was very critical of government interference in markets, demonstrating that it causes inefficiency and higher prices.  He published The Wealth of Nations in 1776 and it heavily influenced our founding fathers as they wrote our constitution with the intent of limiting government interference in commerce and State’s rights.  These “wise men” argued for years about how to limit the powers of the federal government and, in the first decade of our fledgling country, passed the bill of rights and laws such as The Northwest Ordinance, which contained the beautiful sentence, “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind, the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”  The Northwest Ordinance, passed in 1779, gave 1/36^th of the land in the Northwest Territories to State, local, and township governments for the purpose of establishing schools, to be managed at the local level.  In contrast, we now have a huge federal bureaucracy that ignores the truth that our country is rapidly going bankrupt, spending trillions of dollars we don’t have, on programs that suppress economic vitality. 

Whereas the Constitution contained a mere 4400 words, the Affordable Care Act contains 363,086 words and has resulted in more than 30,000 pages of new administrative rules and regulations, with about 10,000 new pages to be added each of the next several years.  Add to this the 14,000 pages (15 million words) of new regs from the Dodd-Frank bill, and you can understand why the wealth of our nation is in decline.

The truth about our national debt is that it represents a huge injustice toward our children and grandchildren who will inherit a bankrupt nation.  Our government insists on spending money we don’t have, in order to artificially prop up an economy that is being continually damaged and restrained by mountains of bureaucracy.  As if the vast bureaucracy now associated with banking, healthcare, and the environment weren’t enough, our government now has its sights on reforming education with the stated goal of better preparing young people for the workforce.  The common core, which I’ve written about previously, treats students as cogs in the wheel of our economy, eliminating educational elements that would teach students lessons from classical literature, and replacing it with efficiency in reading technical manuals.  Apparently the educational illuminati think it’s better to teach students to follow orders than to think creatively or understand something about the meaning of life.  I guess they think we need a proletariat rather than people who are creative, ambitious, and well-rounded thinkers.   Don’t they realize that we have moved beyond the industrial age, and that we live in a knowledge-based economy in which creativity and entrepreneurship will determine our success in the global economy?

You would think that the lessons of history would better inform our political thinking.  For example, during the great depression, FDR thought he could turn around the economy by increasing the profit made by big companies.  Consequently, he passed the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) which authorized him to regulate industries in an effort to raise prices.  What he did was empower large corporations to establish oligopolies, driving out smaller corporations and reducing competition.  This is well-known to have slowed the recovery, rather than sped it up.  Not until Ronald Reagan deregulated the phone, energy, and transportation industries, 50 years later, did we see a resurgence of competition, lower prices, and unprecedented job growth for more than a decade.

As we begin a new year, lets pray for leaders with the wisdom to recognize truth, so that “Justice will flower and… profound peace, till the moon be no more.”  (Ps 72:7)