The Democratic Party’s erosion of our rights

     Elections matter not just in terms of electing a particular person but for the broader party they represent. While Obama is not on the ballot his policies, philosophy and supporters are. The Democratic Party has been a lock step partner with him and I believe it has reached the point that our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness as described in the Declaration of Independence are severely threatened by that Party.  I would recommend two books that expand on this. One is by David Carlin (a lifelong Democrat and former elected state representative in Rhode Island) titled Can a Catholic be a Democrat. The other is The Party of Death by Ramesh Ponnuru. The Democratic Party has evolved in the last 50 years into what I consider the antithesis of what the Declaration proposed. Using the three main rights expressed in the Declaration the following observations can be made.

The right to Life. The Democratic Party is pro-abortion and pro-euthanasia and then lies about it. Obamacare was passed with a promise that no federal funds will be used for abortion, however, funding is provided for Planned Parenthood, community health agencies and for many state insurance plans.  The VA scandal is an example of how Democratic government run healthcare can cost lives. Instead of advocating the dignity of the human person and a culture of life, the Democrats emphasize the priority of human convenience and special interests.

The right to Liberty. The IRS and NSA scandals and the Democratic push for non-secret union ballots all show how the Democrats want to use government power to control those who do not agree with them. The Democratic party has been the party of “political correctness” to the point that failure to go along with their notion of what is “correct” results in government attempts to curtail 1^st amendment rights. The Democratic push for gay marriage and abortion rights have led to those who disagree to be brought to court for “hate speech” including Catholic Bishops for preaching against gay marriage and for some private individuals has meant fines and loss of businesses for acting on their faith.

Religious persecution under Democrats has taken many forms to include the federal HHS mandate actively denying religious rights and forcing fines for non-compliance. The California Democratic administration required all health plans including churches to cover abortion. The administration is suing the Catholic order of the Little Sisters of the Poor for non-compliance to the HHS is another example. The Democratic administration of the City of Houston directly violated 1^st amendment freedoms by issuing subpoenas for church sermons and documents that may be anti-gay. Democratic appointed Department of Defense administrators have labeled Catholics and Pro life advocates as potential terrorists and ordered Catholic chaplains not to preach on the HHS mandate.

Liberty can only be guaranteed if the government is honest with its citizens. Democrats have consistently lied on several issues. Examples are Obamacare (you can keep your doctor) to explanations of Fast and Furious, Benghazi, IRS and NSA scandals to knowing about ISIS and border issues. In turn, the Democratic administration prefers to govern by executive regulation than by following the constitutional process of passing laws through Congress. Why does voter fraud such as the recent situation in Illinois always seem to be by Democrats?

The right to pursue happiness. To pursue happiness requires a government providing adequate security to live our lives. The Democrats support for Defense budget cuts, the failure to defend us as well as persecuted Christians by taking effective military action against ISIS, the Benghazi scandal, the Fast and Furious scandal, the Ebola fiasco, and the failure to defend a strong border indicates a softness and lack of priority on security.  They fail to recognize our enemies for who they are. Examples are calling the Ft. Hood shooting by a radical Muslim “work place violence” and the failure of the Department of Justice to focus on the number one terrorist threat as Muslim radicals all show an unwillingness to do battle with our avowed enemies even though they have declared war on us. The push for diversity and inclusion of gays and women in combat roles further shows they have the wrong priorities that can result in decreased combat readiness.

The pursuit of happiness also requires a government that fosters economic growth and allows all to move up the economic ladder based on merit and effort. The Democrat’s agenda of regulations and taxes are counterproductive and we now see a shrinking middle class. Their educational policies keep students in underperforming schools with unaccountable teachers.

Past blogs have provided many other examples too numerous to mention. The overriding issue for this current election is that the consequences of Democrats maintaining Senate control are too great and they all must be voted out. Even though there may be some good Democrat candidates they will be forced to support the total Democratic platform. While Republicans have many “warts” they are the only alternative that can stop the Democratic Party’s erosion of our rights.

 

Quotes from a Patriotic Rosary

For the last several years the 4^th degree Knights of Columbus sponsor a “Patriotic Rosary” service at our parish. The core principle of the 4^th degree is “patriotism” and we are charged with standing up for God and country. The patriotic rosary is an effort to mobilize a community prayer for our nation and its leaders because as a nation we are in dire straits. We pray for the intercession of our Holy Mother Mary to help us.

As part of the rosary, quotes from founding fathers and early patriots are read that support our need for God’s intervention in our nation. Those quotes are very apropos to the challenges facing us today especially in regard to both the subtle and direct attacks on religious freedom expressed and accepted in our culture. Those early patriots speak for themselves and no comment is required.

“The Great Governor of the Universe has led us too long and too far…to forsake us. By folly and improper conduct… we may now and then get bewildered; but I hope and trust that there is good sense and virtue enough to recover the right path before we shall be entirely lost.” – George Washington,1788

“To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom… which mankind now enjoys. In proportion to the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation, either through unbelief or the corruption of its doctrines, or the neglect of its institutions; in the same proportion will the people of that nation recede from the blessings of genuine freedom, and approximate the miseries of complete despotism. All efforts to destroy the foundation of our holy religion ultimately tend to the subversion also of political freedom and happiness. Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all the blessings which flow from them, may fall with them.”  Jedediah Morse, 1799 (early American educator)

“It may be the will of Heaven that America shall suffer calamities … and distresses yet more dreadful. If this is to be the case, it will have this good effect…: it will inspire us with many virtues, which we have not, and correct many errors, follies and vices which threaten to disturb, dishonor and destroy us. …But I must submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Providence; in which, unfashionable as the faith may be, I firmly believe”. John Adams, 1776

 

 

Pulpit Police coming to your church?

The recent actions by the City of Houston to subpoena sermon records of churches raises the specter of Orwell’s 1984. The purpose of the subpoenas were supposedly to validate signatures obtained for a recall on the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO). For many pastors, HERO was an attempt to push a gay agenda with such stipulations as one that allowed self identified transgender persons to use men’s or women’s rest rooms. However, the subpoenas also demanded that a church produce any comments, writings etc. regarding “homosexuality or gender identity”. In reality it was a blatant attempt to intimidate pastors’ silence to shut down both freedom of speech and religion by so called “pulpit police”.

This effort is reminiscent of the federal government joining a court case against a Catholic Bishop for hate speech for his preaching against gay marriage and the Department of Defense ordering Catholic chaplains to not to read Bishop’s letters against the HHS mandate. These and other examples are reflective of government instituted religious persecution we are now seeing in our country.

I think these situations are part of the fallout from the push for gay marriage. Many say it is no big deal and that it doesn’t affect us regular folks in traditional marriages; however that has not been shown to be the case. The effort and tactics employed by supporters is affecting our freedom of speech and freedom of religion. If you think that nature and God’s law prescribes that a man and women were created separately to come together as one to procreate and provide a secure home for children and dare to state such a belief you are now in danger of being charged with “hate speech” (which has and is occurring in this country – see above examples). If your belief is strong enough that you refuse to participate in offering services for a gay wedding you will be fined and (for some already) may lose your business.

For many of us in past years the issue of homosexuality was one of a live and let live philosophy.  However, there now appears a militant gay agenda for marriage equivalency. It seems to have reached the point that to disagree is so serious a “crime” that it is deemed proper to violate non-supporter’s freedom of speech and religion through government intimidation, edict and police action.

The most basic Right

I write letters to the editor to the Dallas Morning News expressing my thoughts on a regular basis and surprisingly they get published over half the time. I guess they want to provide letters from at least one person that provides a pro-military, conservative, Catholic, and veteran voice while also expressing an anti-Obama opinion!

The last one was on abortion and the right to life and today someone wrote a rebuttal accusing me of being unable to understand women’s rights or the need for abortion because I am a man.  She took offense since the point of my letter was that so called “women’s rights” should not trump the more basic right to life of a human zygote. All this is timely because the annual 40 Days for Life pro life campaign has been in full swing for the last several weeks and today my wife and I went and did our usual Rosary watch outside an abortion clinic. As we were walking on the sidewalk in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic I thought of how distorted the so called women’s rights has become to advocate that killing a human is OK and is a “constitutional right” of a women.

Science has proven that life begins at conception and that the human zygote meets all the biological criteria for life. When the Supreme Court made the infamous Roe v Wade decision in 1973 they based that decision on the assumption that it was not settled science when life began. So the whole basis for the argument that abortion is not killing a human being is based a on a lie just as Obama’s claim that there was no abortion funding in Obamacare was a lie. The Affordable Care Act provides funding for Planned Parenthood (the largest abortion provider nationwide) and over 40 of the state’s insurance partnerships (partially funded through Obamcare) must offer abortion.

The right to life is basic to the expression of all our other liberties (notice which comes first in the Declaration of Independence). You don’t have to be women to understand that – just a human being.

 

Does Obama know the enemy?

Based on last night’s speech it appears that President Obama finally decided to take some action against ISIS or ISIL (whichever term one prefers). However, his definition of the enemy baffles me. He stated  that “ISIL is not “Islamic” and that “No religion condones the killing of innocents”. Where in the world does he get that conclusion? ISIL is establishing a Caliphate (which is Muslim), killing Christians if they don’t convert to Islam and are calling for Islamic Jihad. Sounds and looks pretty Islamic to me.

The notion that Islam does not condone the killing of innocents goes against reality and history. Just read their Koran and review the genocidal history against the Armenians. Ask the Coptic Christians of Egypt, the Christians in Nigeria, the Sudan and the Assyrian and Chaldean Christians in Syria and Iraq. Ask the families of James Foley, Steven Sotloff and the victims of 9/11.

A cardinal principle of winning any conflict or war is “to know thy enemy” Yet, for the last six years Obama refuses to name our terrorist enemies for what they are – Islamists.  Despite evidence that Islamist terrorism is the root cause of some of the deadliest attacks on American soil–including the Boston Marathon bombing, the FBI has not included them on the list of potential domestic terror threats in its most recently published domestic terror assessment (National Threat Assessment for Domestic Extremism- 2014).

What is disturbing is that the exclusion of Islamist terrorists as threats is matched by the inclusion of disgruntled veterans, Catholics and pro life organizations in various FBI, Homeland Security and Army National Guard Reports on domestic extremists (see April 10, 2013 blog “A Comment from an extremist”). Add to this the outrageous assertion by his administration that the killings at Ft. Hood were a case of “workplace violence” and the question must be raised “Why won’t Obama call our enemy who they are”? The spectrum of opinion ranges from him being politically naive; to the fact his father was Muslim and he had attended a Muslim school in Indonesia (which he did) to him being a “closet Muslim”. Whatever the reason, his unwillingness to recognize who and what ideology we are fighting limits our ability to predict, plan and to win a war which has been declared on us.

Christian persecution at home

W hile the genocide of Christians in the Middle East has gotten my attention we must not forget the subtle and increasingly more direct persecution of Christians in this country. There have been direct instances of our government actions persecuting Christians under the Obama administration. We have seen his Department of Justice go after a Minnesota Catholic bishop for “hate speech” by preaching against gay marriage and joining a suit (Hosanna-Tabor) against a church for discrimination in hiring only Christians. The Department of Defense ordered Catholic chaplains to not preach against the HHS mandate in their homilies and described evangelical Protestants and Catholics as potential terrorist organizations in National Guard training courses. While Obama’s HHS mandate gets the most attention for violating religious freedom his recent executive order prohibiting discrimination against gays contains no religious exemption thus setting the stage for a church being in violation of federal law if it refuses to hire someone who does not follow a church’ s beliefs. Now, it appears the IRS has an agenda of investigating churches as to whether they engage in political topics in sermons and homilies.

The IRS has adopted procedures for reviewing, evaluating and determining whether to initiate church investigations to enforce restrictions of political activity by tax exempt religious organizations and churches. Those procedures have not been implemented to date because the House of Representatives is investigating the IRS. However, the Freedom from Religion Foundation is demanding that the IRS immediately implement those procedures and has even brought a suit against the IRS to force them to “spy” on what is being said in a church.

The news media hasn’t been reporting this latest development of the administration’s attempt to violate the 1st amendment freedoms of speech and religion. It appears that the only check on the IRS is Congress. This highlights the importance of this years midterm elections. If we had a Democratic Congress at present the IRS would be investigating our churches. It is time to wake up and recognize what is at stake in the upcoming election.

Onward Christian Soldiers?

As a follow up to the last blog, the calamity that is occurring in the Middle East for Christians, I believe, has reached the level that military intervention is necessary. The Vicar of the only Anglican Church left in Iraq was recently quoted as saying “Our people are disappearing. Are we seeing the end of Christianity? It looks as though the end could be very near.” I know there are some who think we don’t have a “dog in this fight”. However, it is much more than an issue of Iraq dissolving or of it being perceived as just a civil war that Iraqis’ need to deal with. It is about being realistic, it is about honor and it is about saving lives.

The reality is that there is now a new terrorist state (ISIS) that will be a platform for future actions against the west, especially the United States. The vacuum of support we created by leaving Iraq as we did is being filled by Iran and their Russian advisors. Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, Al-Qaida and all the other Muslim terrorists groups are embolden to carry on the “jihad” against the west. Obama’s administration policies in the Middle East set the stage just as Chamberlain’s Great Britain government did prior to WWII. History suggests a similar outcome may well be on the horizon.

At another level, a response is necessary if we are to truly “honor” our Christian duty to defend the faith and the faithful.  As mentioned on my last blog the ISIS genocide of Christians is the just the tip of the iceberg. After the Nazi directed holocaust in WWII the cry heard around the world was “never again”. That cry was used in the 1990’s to mobilize UN, NATO and US efforts to intervene in Bosnia and Kosovo. Where is that cry heard today? Our administration is mute and the latest polls show that well over the majority of Americans say they do not support military action against what is occurring. So, I guess we can call ourselves a Christian nation and believe in Christian brotherhood as long as we don’t have to place ourselves in harm’s way to defend other Christians who are being persecuted and killed for the same faith we confess. Where is our sense of Christian obligation?

Finally is the need to take military actions to save lives. The Catholic Church over the centuries has worked to define the criteria for a “just war”. While there are many differing descriptions most contain the following: 1) there must be a just cause such as defense of the innocent from unjust aggression, 2) there must be a right intention to restore order and justice not seek revenge, 3) the use of force must be a lawful authority such as a nation or international body, 4) there must be a reasonable probability of success, 5) all peaceful means for resolving the conflict are exhausted, 7) the force applied should be proportional to achieving the goal and 7) there should be no targeting of civilian populations. If we were to take targeted military action against ISIS to save Christian lives all those criteria are met. It can be done now and would save lives now. Everyday we wait Christians die or are displaced. All it would take is resolve. Unfortunately that is not a trait demonstrated by our current President or the United Nations.

The frustrating part is that there is only limited action we can take as individuals. We can, however, donate to humanitarian efforts and we can communicate to our political representatives and leaders our concern. There are group petitions that one can sign that encourage taking immediate action which are being forwarded to the United Nations and our own government. (www.catholic.org, www.citizengo.org, www.aletia.org). Finally, we can pray. These may be small efforts but at least, as individuals, we would not silently be sitting by while a Christian genocide is taking place.

 

 

 

The new endangered species: Christians

There is a 21^st century holocaust occurring yet the news media is barely reporting on it and our   government and those of Western Europe do not appear to be paying much attention to it.  Christians are being killed by the thousands and they have been for several years in Muslim countries. The ISIS Jihadists in Iraq recent declaration that Christians must either convert to Islam, pay a huge tax, leave their homes immediately or face death is just the tip of the iceberg.

We have seen the persecution of Christians and Christian communities by the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt, the Syrian rebels, the Sudanese government, and the Iranian Mullahs that include Church bombings, forced removals from homes and towns, incarceration and out and out killings of Christians. The end result is that the Christian communities in the Middle East that have been there since Jesus’ time will be all destroyed and gone in the near future. It is estimated that already between the killings and forced evacuations there has been a 70% reduction in the number of Christians in the Middle East in the last 10 years. Yet, there is little news attention or outrage expressed.

It’s ironic that the so called “Christian” western nations (NATO and the USA) responded to the persecution and killings of Bosnian and Kosovo Muslims. News outlets covered in detail what was going on, the “bully pulpit” was used by our government and others to condemn the aggressors, sanctions were used and military force was applied. Where is a corresponding response to the current Christian persecutions?

Fortunately, many Christian, especially Catholic news websites are covering what can only be called genocide that is occurring on a daily basis. The pleas from Church leaders in the affected areas and eyewitnesses are being published in those outlets. Pope Francis is using his position to call for a response. Various Church charities and refugee agencies are reacting as well as a universal Church wide call to prayer. The question to raise is why aren’t the media and western governments, especially ours, taking notice of what is happening and taking action ?

It is both disgraceful and dishonorable for our country’s leader and our government to not address this new holocaust. The plight of illegal immigrant children gains much more press and calls for government action. While those children deserve attention they are not suffering the systematic persecution that middle eastern Christians are undergoing that is costing thousands of lives.

My relationship with St. John Paul II

With the canonization of John Paul II this weekend I have reflected on what he meant to me. I feel a personal connection to him for many reasons and he has had an impact on my ongoing faith journey. So, I want to share these thoughts. First, I converted to the Catholic faith a couple of years after he became the Pope. The first impression I had of him, especially with his first visit back to his native Poland was this guy has courage. As an Army veteran of the cold war, I sensed a comrade in arms with his strong stance against communism. This was no “namby pamby” guy in a skirt. His model helped me to consider being a Catholic.

My wife and I had the opportunity in 1988 to travel to Poland to conduct some training of Polish physicians. I was overwhelmed by the spirit of the Polish people as the Solidarity movement was getting off the ground. Their reverence for John Paul II was inspiring. The anticipation of freedom was in the air and John Paul II gave them hope. Again, I left with the conclusion that this was quite a guy.

A few years later we were in Rome and attended his weekly Sunday address that he would give in St. Peter’s square. It was only about a 15 minute speech but the response was overwhelming. There were thousands of people with many youth displaying their country’s flags. He recognized each and as he did the cheering was deafening. He was treated as a rock star. His impact on young people was amazing. If he was around when I was a teenager I think I might well have converted to the Catholic faith earlier even though being a student in a Lutheran high school.

In doing background work on a book on a Christian faith based foundation for why we should be physically active I discovered many addresses and speeches that John Paul II made focusing on exercise and sport. He encouraged all to exercise and provided a faith based and doctrinal rationale for why we should be physically fit. John Paul II was a model of physical activity his entire life and I believe helped sustain him during his later pain filled and debilitating years. I felt that we shared a common bond for living a strenuous life. Again, he was a model for me and in his later years an example for how to age.

In preparing another book that dealt with a Catholic ethic for being a steward of the environment. I discovered John Paul II also delivered a number of messages and speeches on the subject of the environment and our role as responsible stewards. As before, they were incorporated into the book. At the same time I was introduced to the St. Malo Retreat Center in Colorado and to the brothers of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae who ran the Center. The Sodalit family includes the Christian Life Movement and an organization called CREATIO. In the last several years I have gotten involved with CREATIO as it provides a variety of faith based environmental stewardship efforts worldwide.

In many respects, John Paul II serves as our spiritual mentor for CREATIO efforts. Besides his strong voice for stewardship of creation, in 1993 John Paul II came to St. Malos to relax and hike as a break from the World Youth Day in Denver. Unfortunately the St. Malos Retreat Center was destroyed in a fire in 2011; however the many memorabilia such as pictures and his walking stick were saved. Before losing St. Malos we reestablished the trail he hiked on as the “John Paul II Trail” and placed meditation stations where he stopped with quotes made by him. At the same time, a special retreat was established called “Following in the Footsteps of John Paul II”. Two outdoor education programs for students were established called the “JPII Adventure Institute” and “Camp Wojtyla”.  Once I had the privilege of leading members of the Polish American community in Denver on the JPII trail and learned that several of them had met him while he was a parish priest. To me, John Paul II was the “ecological Pope”.

Those of us involved with CREATIO continue to provide such programs along with ecological mission trips, retreats and talks on stewardship of both creation and the body (fitness). I truly believe that the connections to John Paul II and his spiritual influence has facilitated and enabled those efforts.  So, I think I have a special relationship to John Paul II. As the late Father Richard Neuhaus noted, we should now call him “John Paul II the Great”. I agree.

The new definition for racist, homophobe and terrorist

I disagree with President Obama on just about everything because I believe he wants (as he has stated himself) to transform America toward a socialist state. Obamcare is just one example. His domestic and foreign policies, abuse of Presidential power and lies all lead me to conclude he is an inept leader and, in my opinion, the worst President we ever had. That’s why I oppose him. In turn, Eric Holder is the worst Attorney General we have had refusing to prosecute what he considers wrong laws (such as some drug laws and the Marriage Act), refusal to prosecute black voter intimidation and his “fast and furious” fiasco. Recent comments by both suggest they think that criticisms of their policies are based on racism. The so called spokesmen for the black community such as Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson parrot such a view. So, according to them I guess I am considered a racist.

I am against gay marriage for several reasons such as it being against God’s will and Church teachings, it goes against cultural and social history and it will undermine the family, the primary unit of a civil society and bastion against government intervention in our lives. The firing of the Mozilla corporation CEO because he supported the California bill against legalizing gay marriage, the criminal charges made against a baker and photographer for refusing to provide their services for a gay marriage underscores the government and cultural trend that if you are against gay marriage it is a “hate crime” and you are a gay hater. So, according to current politically correct opinion and the government I guess I am a homophobe.

As a veteran I think that Obama is undermining our security by his defense cuts and withdrawal of troops from the Middle East. I think he has no sense of military service or respect for us and I think the Veterans Administration doesn’t do all it should do provide for our wounded warriors. According to a 2009 government conference on terrorism, disgruntled veterans are terrorist threats. So, I guess according to the government I am one of those disgruntled veterans and a threat.

I believe in the dignity of the human person, am active in pro-life activities and think that the Obamcare individual mandate violates religious freedom. According to a recent Democratic bill (just defeated) in Colorado which would outlaw any future laws to control abortion (examples being parental notification, mandatory ultra sound, partial birth abortion etc.) the law was needed to protect women’s rights from pro-life radicals. Pro life groups (which I support) such as Priests for Life and National Right to Life were deemed at a 2010 government conference as potential terrorist organizations. In addition, a recent 2013 Army training course highlighted the Catholic Church and Evangelical Christians as potential terrorist groups. So, according to the government I guess I meet all these qualifications for being a terrorist.

My criticisms, like those of others, are being crafted as being intolerant and disrespectful of diversity, dangerous and criminal. To hold such views is on a fast track within the government and unfortunately the media as being defined as “hate speech and “hate crimes”. George Orwell coined the terms “doublethink” and “newspeak” in his classic novel 1984 to describe government propaganda methods that foreshadowed today’s political correctness. It appears that his depictions of government deceit in 1984 are being played out in 2014 and beyond.