Boinkie's Blog: 04/01/2012

First contraception, the next step abortion

Father Z notes that democrats running for Congress in CT are saying that since hospitals "accept" government money they have to obey the government, and do what the government tells them:

There is an interesting story on the site of a newspaper in Connecticut:
Bishops: Don’t Make Catholic Hospitals Perform Abortions [UPDATE]
When asked during a debate Sunday if they would support, as a concept, a federal law requiring Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, some Democratic Senate candidates indicated they would. The bishops object. [Who was it that took heat for calling the Democrat Party "the party of death"? Was it now-Cardinal Burke?]
By Patrick Barnard and David Gurliacci

On Sunday, some Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate said they’d favor the concept of a federal law requiring even Catholic hospitals to perform abortions. Now, the state’s Catholic bishops are objecting....ions?”

Here are some excerpts of the answers:

Susan Bysiewicz: “The federal government has the right to regulate what services are provided, because Catholic institutions, colleges and universities get funding from the federal government, and I believe that those institutions should provide access to reproductive health care.”

Chris Murphy: “They certainly have the ability to decide what services they perform.”
Matthew Oakes: “If they’re gonna take our money—I’m Roman Catholic—then they need to perform the health care issues that women need performed for them.”

William Tong: “Access to an abortion should be open and available. Acess to contraception, the same thing. These are basic liberties enshrined in our Constitution, in our jurisprudence. That’s a fact. [...] I think we need a cooperative approach. We had a bill in the state Legislature to provide emergency contraception. It was called Plan B. [...] Now Plan B is a reality. Emergency contraception is made available to patients at Catholic hospitals. We just need to find a way to make it work.”

Lee Whitnum did not answer the question about whether the federal government must force Catholic institutions to provide abortion or contraceptive services. She said she supported institutions providing them.

so two problems:

One, that the "plan B for rape victims" was not about rape victims, but to prove Catholics hospitals can give out abortion causing pills.

Two:There seems to be a confusion about doctors and hospitals relationship to the government.
What's wrong with this quote?

“If they’re gonna take our money—I’m Roman Catholic—then they need to perform the health care issues that women need performed for them.”

answer: Doctors and hospitals don't "take our money". They treat patients and charge a fee for their service.

So they are being paid for work, not getting a government grant.

Essentially they are saying that if one of your patients pays you with the government's money (which is given to the patient to pay for health care) you have to obey a mindless bureaucrat.

This goes way beyond "freedom of religion".

The Bikers are coming!

from Crown of stars blogspot:

Hundreds of bikers are preparing to gather in Medjugorje next month for a three-day pilgrimage. It is the fourth year that the bikers from as far away as Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Macedonia and nearer to home Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia, have participated in the project organised by the Brontnjo Motorcycle Club.

Kooky nuns

The kooky nuns still living in the 1970's are busy condemning the Vatican for pointing out their heresy, and the mainstream media is busy twisting the story.

But this drives me up the wall...from father Z;

In the meantime, I found this on the site of the LCWR about their upcoming 2012 Assembly to be held in St. Louis.
LCWR Assembly 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012 to Saturday, August 11, 2012
St. Louis, Missouri
Mystery Unfolding: Leading in the Evolutionary Now [?]
Keynote speaker: Barbara Marx Hubbard
Panelists: Tom Fox; [NCR editor] Jennifer Gordan, SCL; and Jamie Manson[NCR columnist]

Moreover, you might want to check out their scheduled keynote speaker this year (my emphases):
Barbara Marx Hubbard has been called “the voice for conscious evolution of our time” by Deepak Chopra and is the subject of Neale Donald Walsch’s new book “The Mother of Invention.” A prolific author, visionary, social innovator, evolutionary thinker and educator, she is co-founder and chairperson of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution. She is the producer and narrator of the award-winning documentary series entitled Humanity Ascending: A New Way through Together and has recently partnered with The Shift Network as a global ambassador for the conscious evolution movement; a shift from evolution by chance towards evolution by choice. Along with Stephen Dinan, she has launched the “Agents of Conscious Evolution” training and is forming a global team to co-produce a global multi-media event entitled, “Birth 2012: Co-Creating a Planetary Shift in Time” on Dec. 22, 2012 (www.birth2012.com) — a historic, turning-point event; awakening the social, spiritual, scientific, and technological potential of humanity.

Yes, they are now into Art Bell territory...

Don't leave home without one

The Hiding Place

podcasts

A mixed bag of Catholic podcasts HERE.

I haven't listened to them, but I am familiar with some of the speakers from my reading or because they've been on TV (usually EWTN).

The Sheen lectures should be good, but Sheen tends to use old fashioned flowery language and emphasize things in a style that is good in talking to a large audience but overblown when listened to.

Dr. Marra is a philosopher, and always puts me to sleep.

However, I'd skip the Michael Davies talks, since his writings are so hateful that they make me want to be an agnostic. Think of him as the Glen Beck of "Traditional Catholicism". Yuck.

On the other hand, Father Basset, who wrote the delightful and very funny book "We Agnostics" should be interesting.

there are also mp3's of chants there, if you like chant (I don't: We learned to sing chant in gradeschool, which is a good way to inoculate people against certain types of music).

headsup the Corner
who recommends the reading of parts of the New Testament in Knox's translation.
My mom used this translation back in the 1950's, and is more literate than a lot of the newer translations.

God, easter and Mythopoia

The classic book "The Cloud of Unknowing" is now at Librivox.

Related book: Underhill's book Mysticism

or try this:

No, I'm not into mysticism much myself. Different people approach God in different ways, something known as far back as

Arnold, Edwin, Sir. "Bhagavad Gita" ·

but St Paul compares it to the various parts of the body which are necessary for God's work to be done on earth.

A good book on the various approaches to God can be found in this classic, by an honest atheist:

James, William. "Varieties of Religious Experience" · (readers)

and for those of us who aren't mystical and just have to use the "little way" to find God in everyday experience, try these:

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a re-enactment of the famous argument between Tolkien and CSLewis.

Actually the conversation was late at night and included several people, but this is the jist of Tolkien's argument.

and a strong defense of the importance of creativity and being an artist in a world that insists everything should be dull and utilitarian...

the poem that expresses this is Mythopoeia...

The Tolkien professor reads the poem and then discusses it (MP3LINK) as a lecture in his Tolkien course...

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FatherStephen , an Orthodox priest, has a good essay on Narnia, Lewis, Barfield and Tolkien HERE.

Both Tolkien and Lewis, specifically as Christians, become the greatest story-tellers of the 20th century.

And this brings me back to the heart of my own thoughts. The mythic character of reality is another way to speak of a one-storey universe. In Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s terms, the world is sacrament – pointing to and participating in something beyond itself.

It is possible to simply speak on the most literal level – to speak of events (such as Christ’s crucifixion) – and relate them to ideas (such as atonement) which inhabit the world of the mind. But such literalism renders the greatest event in the universe into the merest incident of which our later doctrine is the greater reality.

The intuition of Lewis is the same as the intuition and teaching of the fathers. The Cross is both event in history and also the truest event of the Great Myth. Its power is such that it draws other things to itself. It is the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, Isaac on Mt. Moriah, the staff of Moses with the snake, the outstretched arms of Moses at the battle with the Amalekites, the Tree that Moses cast into the bitter water, the Footstool of God. At the Feast of the Holy Cross the Church declares: “Let all the trees of the wood, planted from the beginning of time, rejoice; for their nature hath been sanctified by the stretching of Christ on the Tree” (Magnification of the Feast).

Such analysis is neither "right" or "left", but points to the catholic (small c) imagination that Andrew Greeley often wrote about:

Catholics live in an enchanted world: a world of statues and holy water, stained glass and votive candles, saints and religious medals, rosary beads and holy pictures. But these Catholic paraphernalia are merely hints of a deeper and more pervasive religious sensibility that inclines Catholics to see the Holy lurking in creation. The world of the Catholic is haunted by a sense that the objects, events, and persons of daily life are revelations of Grace .

Being alone

an article about the suicide forest of Japan. the freedom and perils of living alone, from the NYTimes. works great, according to them...(if you believe them).

Adventures in Odyssey

the children's radio program adventures in Odyssey, is on internet archives for free download.

LINK

Life is stronger than death

"Life is stronger than death. Good is stronger than evil. Love is stronger than hate. Truth is stronger than lies," --Benedict XVI

In the midnight Easter service, the church is dark, and then one candle is lit, signifying that Christ has arose from the dead and is alive. The flame is then passed to another candle, and then another, until the entire church is aflame with hundreds of candles, each held by a Christian, signifying that all of us have the light of Christ in our own hearts, and that he lives in us...

a custom in some parts of Luzon is the Salubong: Explained here at GMA:

The ritual recreates the imagined first meeting of Jesus and Mary after the resurrection.

As per tradition, it begins with two separate processions, where images of the Mater Dolorosa and the Resurrected Christ are carried from opposite ends.

“The womenfolk bring the statue of the Blessed Mother, covered in a black veil [called a lambong, a veil of mourning]. The menfolk carry the statue of the Resurrected Christ,” said Ronald Subida, an organizer of the Salubong in Poblacion, Makati.

Eventually, the two processions will meet at a middle point, during which an angel will lift the black veil from the face of the image of the Blessed Mother. The angel is played by a young girl from the community, and is typically suspended mid-air from inside a giant paper flower.

At the precise moment that the veil is lifted, the Hallelujah Chorus is played, and celebration ensues.