SubscribeA Forbidden Sex Life
I came across this article in the NY Times today. Don’t ask me why I continue to frequent their web site. It’s a disease. But this is a balanced, well-presented article on a young Catholic woman who recognizes how to bear the cross she has been given. Certainly the rest of us can bear the inconveniences of the minor crosses in our lives.
A Gay Catholic Voice Against Same-Sex Marriage
As the hundred or so daily readers of eve-tushnet.blogspot.com, and a larger audience for her magazine writing, know by now, Ms. Tushnet can seem a paradox: fervently Catholic, proudly gay, happily celibate. She does not see herself as disordered; she does not struggle to be straight, but she insists that her religion forbids her a sex life.
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Catholic College Coeds…
This helps to prove that many (maybe even most) Catholic colleges are Catholic in name only.
A Senator’s Response
Below is a response from my senator, Jeff Merkley, regarding my request that any health care legislation exclude federal funding for abortion. It’s obviously a form letter and a very political response, and I’m not surprised in the least.
Thank you for contacting me to share your concerns about including comprehensive reproductive health services in health care reform. While we may disagree about this issue, I acknowledge that your views are powerful and deeply felt, and please know that I respect your opinion.
As you may know, I believe access to a full scope of health services, including comprehensive reproductive health care, should be a component of every woman’s basic health care coverage. Reproductive health is a key determinant in a woman’s overall health, involving health concerns such as fertility, pregnancy care, and preventing and addressing unintended pregnancies. Currently, nearly 90 percent of employee-based insurance policies cover reproductive services. It is appropriate to allow this coverage to continue going forwards. I believe reproductive choices should be made between a woman and her doctor, not by government. Therefore, I supported the inclusion of reproductive health services in the health care reform bill, The Affordable Health Choices Act, which was recently approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (HELP), of which I am a member.
Thank you, again, for sharing your thoughts with me. Although I know that not everyone will always agree with me, Oregonians can always expect me to listen to their concerns and to be honest and straightforward with my answers. I hope you will continue to keep me informed about the issues that matter most to you.
All my best,
Jeff Merkley
United States Senate
I thought health care reform was about eliminating all of the suffering about which we hear so much hyperbole. Though my kids can be difficult at times, I’ve never thought of those difficult times as moments of suffering. Somebody should tell these people that the way to avoid “unintended pregnancies” is to avoid unintended sex. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. We already have government funding of abortion through the public support of organizations such as Planned Parenthood. I only pray that this doesn’t get worse before it gets better.
Too PC for Me
Recently, President Obama spoke at Georgetown University, the nation’s oldest “Catholic” university. The folks in charge of meeting his communications needs decided that having the IHS in the backdrop would be too distracting. (IHS is a monogram for the name of Jesus.) Shame on you, Georgetown, for rolling over to this demand. You can read more about this situation here.
Tea Parties
Today, April 15, 2009 — tax day — “tea parties” were held all over the country. While some media outlets came out in support, others came out against, and just a couple reported on the facts without opinion — I stayed home. The demonstrations were done to protest the rapid growth in government that has occurred over the past six months or so, beginning with the Bush administration and continued with vigor by the Obama administration. The protestors believe that the federal government has grown beyond control and is acting beyond the authority granted to it by our Constitution.
I very much sympathize with these folks. I just couldn’t muster the motivation to go to our local tea party. I think part of my aprehension stems from the fact that I was pretty sure that it would end up being a Republican vs. Democrat thing. In my mind, the two parties are both to blame. They are both taking us to the same destination, in the opposite direction from what our founding fathers intended. One party is just taking us there a little faster than the other.
For me, the discontent is not just about money. Frankly, I have enough. I’m certainly not rich, but I’m doing alright. I have everything that I need and most everything that I want. I’m very charitable, and I believe that we have a moral obligation to help those who are unable to help themselves. But that’s where I think the problem is. For too many years, we have been helping those who are perfectly able to help themselves.
This topic is much too complex to cover with one post on a Catholic conversion blog. I will finish by saying that I believe the heart of this problem is that we have too many career politicians who have lost touch with reality. Far too much energy is spent on wooing us for the sake of reelection. We need congressional term limits. Unfortunately, it will never happen during my lifetime.
I regret not going to my local tea party tonight. When my future grandchildren ask me where I was when the people took our country back, I want to be able to say that I was on the front lines, speaking my mind.
Disgusted
Well, folks, I’m back after a little bit of a hiatus. I had to do some serious studying for a professional exam, which I took about a week ago. I won’t get the results for quite some time, but I don’t feel very positive about my performance. I think I could have prepared much better. Oh well, there’s always next time. I can always work harder, or perhaps our new administration can just grant me a passing result our of fairness and a desire to “spread the wealth.”
I’m disgusted tonight. I try not to get too political on this blog because I don’t belong to a political party. I’m a Catholic. I vote for Catholic ideals. These values that direct my voting are values that I thought were shared among many fellow Christians, but it appears that I was wrong. The United States has become a shell of its former self. The words of the former heart of the Democratic party, JFK, have long been forgotten. With his pro-life views and quotes like this, JFK would never receive his party’s nomination today.
We have entered the entitlement generation. Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country is going to do for you. Ask not what you can do for your country, but ask your country to supply you with health insurance, prescription drugs, a job…heck, ask the government to make your mortgage payment for you. They’ll do it! So few Americans want anything to do with learning how to fish. That’s too much to ask. We just want the fish! We are entitled to have everything that our neighbor has, and we are entitled to do or say whatever we please, all without consequences. We are free to be absolute imbeciles. Lest you think I exaggerate, talk to a teenager or two. We are truly becoming a nation of imbeciles.
Abortion and homosexual marriage are perfectly acceptable, while the mere mention of religion in a public forum will bring a resounding harrumph from the “progressive” majority.
I am nauseated by the thought that we have become a nation of cowards and whiners. We are more concerned with our perception in the world than doing what is right. We look to punish the successful in order to more enslave the poor among us. In reality, the vast majority of “poor” in our country live a lifestyle that many in third-world countries could never even dream of. We have forgotten how to be responsible citizens, and we have forgotten what it means to suffer. The mere thought of having to scale back on our gluttonous lifestyles has us jumping head first into the pool of socialism.
What has happened to the values that motivated our founding fathers? Why do we expect so much more from our government than the preservation of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Are we really the same country that defeated Hitler? Are we really the same country that brought forth prosperity in a way that was never before even dreamed of? Are we the same country that has had it’s hand in nearly every major technological innovation over the past hundred years? Are we the same country that has selflessly shared our success and our successful methods with anyone who would listen?
No. We’re not that country anymore. The right to life has been replaced by the right to pornography, the right to liberty has been replaced by excessive government meddling, and the pursuit of happiness has been replaced by the pursuit of pleasure.
Dear Lord, please forgive us for electing so many who support this Culture of Death. Forgive us, for we know not what we do.
A Potential Convert
I read here that President Bush is considering conversion to Catholicism. I don’t know how reliable it is, but I would certainly welcome it just as I would welcome anyone else who felt the desire for true conversion. If you think about it, with the war being the exception (and it’s a big one for many people), President Bush seems fairly Catholic in his political views.
He is very much pro-life. He’s anti-abortion, and against stem cell research and gay marriage. He also has some very compassionate views on immigration, which are much more Catholic than they are Republican. I think that one could make the case that he’s much more Catholic than say…John Kerry.
I normally try to keep politics out of this, but the President Bush story was just too interesting to avoid.
