By Judie Brown
The title of the theme song for Monk—a television series that aired from 2002 through 2009—seems to be an appropriate title for this column as well. You see, current headlines are anything but civilized. The theme suggests inhumanity toward people of faith, the increasing dismissal of minority babies by acts of killing, and the emergence of laws protecting infanticide. I kid you not! It is a jungle out there!
America has a president who is best described as a faux Catholic who has absolutely no respect for faithful Catholics. If this were not the case, he would have stopped the FBI from examining traditional Catholics before the idea took shape! But the agency went ahead, actually suggesting that these Catholics were an extremist group that presented a threat to the nation. Thankfully Richmond, Virginia’s, bishop Barry Knestout communicated his concerns about the leaked document to members of Congress, saying that the actions were a “threat to religious liberty,” which indeed they are.
The bishop’s statement says, in part, “I was alarmed to read the reports written late last week about the contents of the internal memo created by the Richmond Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I was also surprised to learn of the mention of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP), a religious order, which celebrates the traditional form of the Catholic Mass. FSSP has served with devotion for many years the parishes within our Catholic community and to the faithful of our diocese who appreciate this form of the Catholic Mass in our diocese.”
The FBI subsequently retracted the offensive document, but questions remain about government overreach, not to mention separation of Church and state.
In other news, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education issued a report regarding abortion and black Americans. This report is a stunning examination of the ongoing problem the federal government creates by policies and practices that target people of color. Dr. Day Gardner, one of the African American leaders quoted in this report, commented on the reason she believed infamous abortionist Kermit Gosnell went undetected by investigators and the media for so long, saying, “We think the reason no one acted is because the women in question were poor and of color, because the victims were infants without identities, and because the subject was the political football of abortion.”
Clearly when it comes to politics and the rights of preborn children, not to mention expectant mothers of color, the unspoken racist policies of our government are in full view yet unreported by the media and the intelligentsia of our nation. No wonder so many black babies are killed every year.
And in Minnesota the effort to decriminalize infanticide—also known as late-term abortion—is alive and well. The state’s Democrats are promoting a proposal that would legalize infanticide. HF91, according to pro-life spokespeople, “would even repeal protections for the life of an infant born alive after abortion, moving Minnesota backward from a community of compassion to one of active and callous cruelty.”
This is the ultimate barbarism, and yet such a law is being considered. According to the latest news from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, the proposal has yet to be removed from the legislative agenda.
Dreadful though these various ideas are, there is always hope that moral sanity will be restored before the bloodletting literally drowns our nation in the blood of its own citizens.
Webster defines jungle as “a place of ruthless struggle for survival,” and I would have to agree because preborn children do struggle for their very lives. But today too many of them are losing the battle to survive.
We are called to reverse this savage trend through prayer, action, and education.