in this issue:
hot button issues: CATHOLIC CRUSADE / MICHIGAN / ROCK FOR LIFE / SIGN THE PETITION
abortion: LOUISIANA / PRO-LIFE CRIME
catholics: SURVEY
churches: POLITICS
congress: SANTORUM/SPECTER
euthanasia: COLORADO / UNITED KINGDOM
parenthood: FACTS
personhood: RIGHT TO LIFE ACT
stem cell research: CONVERSION STORY
zinger: KILL THEM QUICKLY
reflection for prayer: ROADMAP TO HAPPINESS
hot button issues
CATHOLIC CRUSADE: As the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops prepared for its conference in Los Angeles, American Life League published a full-page ad in the West Coast regional edition of USA Today. “This ad asks our fellow Catholics to implore all bishops to instruct priests, deacons and Eucharistic ministers to deny Holy Communion to public figures who publicly reject Church teaching and support the deadly act of abortion,” said American Life League president Judie Brown.
(Reading: “ALL urges Catholic bishops to protect faith,” American Life League news release, 6/14/06; “The Divinity Code,” American Life League, 6/14/06)
MICHIGAN: Michigan pro-lifers face a July 10 deadline for securing enough signatures to add a proposed Prenatal Child Protection Amendment to the November ballot. “Michigan pro-lifers are on the cusp of ensuring the most fundamental step in reversing the deadly impact that legalized abortion has left on our country,” said American Life League president Judie Brown.
COMMENT: The definitive reasons why this is a “must do” project for all Michiganders are enumerated in a legal analysis by the Thomas More Law Center.
(Reading: “Michigan pro-lifers working around the clock,” American Life League news release, 6/15/06; “Grave danger that Michigan will become a pro-abortion state once Roe is overturned,” Thomas More Law Center news release, 5/3/06)
ROCK FOR LIFE: American Life League’s Rock for Life is kicking off its summer concert tour. “The tour will include stops in 15 states,” said Erik Whittington, director of Rock for Life. “This year’s trek will be our most ambitious yet as our crew will travel more than 20,000 miles across the United States, spreading the truth about abortion.”
(Reading: “Rock for Life to travel on pro-life music tour,” American Life League news release, 6/14/06)
SIGN THE PETITION: Stop the flow of your tax dollars to Planned Parenthood! Planned Parenthood received more than $265 million from federal, state and local government sources in its most recently reported fiscal year. Please sign American Life League’s online petition and forward the link to others.
abortion
LOUISIANA: The state has passed a bill described as an abortion ban. However, the measure permits abortion in some cases.
(Reading: SB 33, Louisiana State Legislature, 2006)
PRO-LIFE CRIME: A pro-life activist has been convicted and ordered to serve a month in jail because he mailed pictures of “Baby A,” a preborn child aborted in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, to the hospital’s chief executive. The activist, Edward Atkinson, was also fined 500 pounds in court costs, to be deducted directly from his pension, and given a five-year anti-social behavior order.
(Reading: “In the U.K., aborting a baby is legal, but depicting it is a crime,” The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College, 6/6/06)
catholics
SURVEY: The St. Joseph Foundation reports on a poll taken by the National Catholic Reporter in 2005. An excerpt: Can you be a good Catholic without obeying the church hierarchy’s teaching on birth control? In 1987, 66 percent said yes; in 2005, 75 percent said yes.
COMMENT: Something is wrong with this picture.
(Reading: “Straws in the wind,” Christifidelis, 5/06, p. 5)
churches
POLITICS: What are the rules regarding a pastor speaking about politics from the pulpit? Great information can be found at Free Preach.
congress
SANTORUM/SPECTER: Recently, the Republican National Coalition for Life ran a letter from Sen. Rick Santorumdefending his bill, S.2754. He wrote, “S.2754 maintains the Dickey-Wicker definition of embryo that has been included in the yearly Labor-HHS appropriations bills.” The Dickey-Wicker language, however, may not apply. It states: “No Department of Health and Human Services funds can be used to create a human embryo for research purposes; or for research in which a human embryo is destroyed knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero.” One DHHS attorney, Harriet Rabb, argued that stem cells are not human embryos and therefore the amendment does not apply.
(Reading: “The politics of stem cells,” Nova Science Now, 4/13/05)
euthanasia
COLORADO: Compassion and Choices, the pro-euthanasia national organization, has taken aim on the Mountain State with the assistance of resident Sandy Bush, who is dying of cancer. The group supported a bill “that would protect physicians who prescribe pain medication for the terminally ill from manslaughter charges.” The bill, SB 06-102, was signed into law and goes into effect July 1. Compassion and Choices told lawmakers the bill does not give permission for assisted suicide, but rather is palliative-care legislation.
COMMENT: Palliative care can become death by design.
(Reading: “Exit this way,” Denver Westword, 6/8/06)
UNITED KINGDOM: The headline in a recent report suggests that British doctors do not involve themselves in acts of euthanasia/physician assisted suicide. However the report quotes sociology professor Clive Seale: “We have a very strong ethos of providing excellent palliative care in the UK, reflected in the finding that doctors in the UK are willing to make other kinds of decisions that prioritize the comfort of patients, without striving to preserve life at the cost of suffering. The results suggest that providing the best kind of patient care is a major driver behind medical decision making.”
COMMENT: That sounds a lot like using palliative care to prematurely end someone’s life, and that is euthanasia.
(Reading: “No incidences of physician-assisted suicide in the UK,” RxPG News, 6/1/06)
parenthood
FACTS: The number of single moms living with children under 18 is currently 10 million, up from 3 million in 1970. The “number of different ways to make a baby in the IVF era” is 18.
(Reading: “Maternitty-gritty,” Chicago Tribune, 5/14/06)
personhood
RIGHT TO LIFE ACT: This bill (HR 552) states, “The terms ‘human person’ and ‘human being’ include each and every member of the species homo sapiens at all stages of life, including, but not limited to, the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.” See RightToLifeAct.org for details.
COMMENT: Is your member of Congress a co-sponsor? If not, ask!
stem cell research
CONVERSION STORY: James P. Kelly, who writes for the Seoul Times, recently wrote: “In 2002 I changed my stem cells course because of a horrifying vision — the images of millions of desperate and trusting humans holding plates of hope to an empty sky. The actions of scientists have confirmed my course. While telling the American people that they only want ‘to keep all research options open,’ science and industry convinced the people of California to commit three billion dollars to ES cell research and human cloning.”
(Reading: “Stem cells — a changed personal course,” Seoul Times, 6/13/06)
zinger
KILL THEM QUICKLY: Retired medical ethics professor Len Doyal said doctors should recognize that they are already killing patients when they remove feeding tubes from those whose lives are judged to be no longer worth living. He is quoted as saying that doctors should be able to end the lives of these patients “swiftly, humanely and without guilt.”
COMMENT: Medical “ethics” equals guilt-free murder!
(Reading: “Call for no-consent euthanasia,” The Guardian, 6/8/06)
reflection for prayer
ROADMAP TO HAPPINESS: As the keys to success and happiness, the world often proposes to us one or more of the seven deadly sins. We hear the catchwords: “security,” “revenge,” “laughter,” “popularity,” “getting even,” “sex,” “armed might,” and “comfort.” Jesus, without batting an eyelash, just turned all of these shallow ideals on their head, calling them all a dead-end. He bravely challenged the spirit of the world – accepting the fact that such a move would make him very unpopular with some, and even seal his fate at Calvary. In place of the worldly pleasure route, he offered us a better way, the only way to true blessedness, one that he himself would walk until the day he died for us: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the peacemakers, the pure of heart, the persecuted, the merciful, those that mourn, and those that hunger and thirst for righteousness. There is no doubt, these words ring true in my heart…, but am I prepared to cut the strings that keep me running after the false beatitudes?
(Reading: “The Beatitudes are the attitudes we ought to be,” Regnum Christi, 6/12/06)