NewsMax/CBS–Sarah Palin: A Replacement for Steele?
Published July 9, 2010 | 
…Some GOP Insiders Pushing for Her, Despite Report Embattled RNC Head Is Likely Keep Post, Even after Latest Gaffe…
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Michael Steele, Sarah Palin (AP Photo)
(CBS/ AP) – July 7, 2010 — Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele is in trouble with many in his party after speaking out against the war in Afghanistan. Some are even calling for him to be removed.
And, reports CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Bill Plante, there’s talk in GOP circles that Sarah Palin should replace him.
John McCain’s one-time running mate and former Alaska governor is, as Plante puts it, “the star of the Republican Party. She’s the top endorser, top fundraiser — and now could be the party’s top dog. Some members of the GOP base are calling for her” to take Steele’s place.
He was caught on tape recently failing to tow the party line on the Afghan war, calling it “a war of Obama’s choosing” and adding, “This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”
This isn’t the first time Steele’s been in hot water with members of his own party.
Among other incidents and gaffes, in April, he had to apologize after members of his staff took donors to a sex-themed club in Los Angeles.
Still, says The Associated Press, Steele is likely to stay put. “Even his GOP critics,” says the AP, citing interviews with more than a dozen party operatives, “want to avoid a drawn-out fight over the party’s most prominent African-American just four months before midterm elections.”
And Plante points out that replacing Steele with Palin poses some risks. While a recent Pew poll finds that 40 percent of respondents have a favorable view of Palin, 51 percent don’t — which is why political analysts such as National Journal Hotline Editor Reid Wilson says — don’t hold your breath.
“She has a national platform now,” Wilson observes. “Becoming the RNC chair … would rope her in and keep her in (Washington) D.C., and inside a box that I don’t think she fits in or wants to fit in.”
Republicans, says Plante, have made Steele virtually irrelevant. Donations to the RNC are down and instead, donors are giving their money to groups such as the Republican National Senatorial Committee and the Republican Governors Association.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/07/earlyshow/main6653582.shtml
Buffett Billions Padding “Charitable” Abortion Advocacy
Published July 9, 2010 | By Peter J. Smith, July 8, 2010, LifeSiteNews.com
OMAHA, Nebraska – For the last number of years American billionaire Warren Buffett, 79, has gradually been giving away his estimated $47 billion fortune – and much of it is going to support the work of abortion activists worldwide.
The Bloomberg news agency reports that Buffett’s annual gift this year to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – which supports population control efforts around the globe – was figured at $1.6 billion in Class B stock of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s Omaha-based company. The amount is a 28 percent increase from last year, due to the fact that the value of Buffett’s Berkshire holdings have improved overall while the rest of the economy has tanked. Berkshire’s stock value rose 35 percent on the New York Stock Exchange over the past twelve months, and Berkshire profits rose 61 percent in 2009.
In 2006, Buffett endowed the Gates Foundation with 10 million Berkshire Class B shares, valued at approximately $37 billion dollars. Buffett’s 2010 donation constitutes part of the annual installment plan of 5 percent of pledged stocks to the foundation’s trust fund. The stock gives the Gates Foundation a steady source of income (the pay-out target over the coming decade is $3 billion a year) from which it can fund various other charities – which have included population control groups such as Planned Parenthood and others.
Just last month, the Gates Foundation announced they would be investing $1.5 billion in the cause of maternal health over the next 5 years – with a special emphasis on spreading “family planning” in the third world.
Bloomberg reports that other abortion advocacy groups also received tens of millions for their work promoting abortion at home and abroad through the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, a charity Buffet set up in honor of his first wife, who died in 2005. That foundation distributed more than $2 million to the Abortion Access Project Inc., over $2 million to Catholics for Choice, a group dedicated to undermining the Catholic Church’s teaching on the sanctity of life, and more than $40 million to Ipas, a group that promotes the expansion of legal abortion in Latin and Central America, and in third world countries.
In fact, Ipas was implicated in 2007 as a participant in the alleged cover-up of the rape of a nine-year-old young girl named “Rosita,” by her step-father. Marta Maria Blandon, then Ipas Director for Central America, was accused of helping Francisco Fletes flee Costa Rica with his wife and “Rosita” in 2003, knowing full well that the Fletes was a suspect in the investigation. However, Blandon’s priority and that of her accomplices in the international abortion movement, was using the nine-year old’s pregnancy as a “hard case” by which they could undermine the region’s pro-life laws.
Ipas also intervened in the battle over legalizing abortion in Mexico City with false statistics, claiming that 1527 women had died from complications due to illegal abortions between the years 1990 and 2005. However pro-life advocates pointed out that the health department’s own statistics, as well as those of other agencies, contradicted that number.
Bloomberg reports that Buffett intends to give away 99 percent of his personal fortune before his death. He has pledged 85 percent of his holdings in Berkshire to the Gates Foundation, the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Sherwood Foundation and the NoVo Foundation.
See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:
Gates Foundation Pledges $1.5 Billion for Maternal Health
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10060813.html
Warren Buffett Gives $31 Billion to Gates Foundation
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06062607.html
Buffett, Other Foundations Are Huge Donors to Pro-Abortion Cause
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/aug/03080106.html
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10070810.html
A Message from Gov. Bobby Jindal: “Only a Bureaucrat in Washington, D.C. Would Say Rocks are More Harmful to Our Water than Oil”
Published July 9, 2010 |
Dear Friends -
Recently I flew over Lake Pontchartrain which is now threatened by tar balls and oil after decades of work to restore the lake to healthy levels. For weeks we requested 20 miles of boom to create multiple layers of defense for the Lake along with shallow water skimmers. The recent oil impact on Lake Pontchartrain now brings the total amount of shoreline impacted by oil in Louisiana to over 337 miles.
Even with this mounting crisis and rising miles of shoreline impacted by oil, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rejected a coastal protection measure for Barataria Bay just this past Saturday. This rejection came after a month of meetings, phone calls and compromises to try and win federal approval. We even joined locals to meet with the President on this rock plan around a month ago. We were told that we would get a response in a matter of days. Instead, several weeks later, we got a flat rejection. As I told the Baton Rouge Advocate, only a bureaucrat in Washington, D.C. would say rocks are more harmful to our water than oil. These people need to come to Louisiana. They need to touch the oil, feel the oil, and smell the oil that threatens our way of life here.
Most frustrating of all is that when the federal government denies one of our plans they also fail to offer an alternative. We need the federal government to show a greater sense of urgency and fight this oil like the war that it is. As I also told the New Orleans Times-Picayune, simply saying no is not an answer, no is not a plan, and no is not acceptable.
We need the federal government to recognize that when they reject our defense measures they fundamentally choose for oil to come in our wetlands. That will never be the choice we make. We cannot allow bureaucratic roadblocks to prevent good plans from being implemented.
This week we also took Senator Mary Landrieu and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus – who the President charged with developing a long-term recovery plan for the Gulf Coast – on a flyover of our coast to show the oil impact here as well as the significant coastal erosion problems we have experienced for generations. This year we were on track to have the lowest rate of land loss in 80 years. Now, that progress is threatened by oil impacting our coast and wetlands. We had a very clear message for Secretary Mabus. The time for coastal restoration studies is over. Our fragile coastline cannot afford years of more studies. We need quick action to restore our coast.
Finally, I am constantly amazed by the perseverance of our people in responding to this disaster. They are on the front lines every day – turning fishing boats into defense ships, dragging boom to stop oil – and always coming up with more ideas to protect our land and waters. It is the same spirit of perseverance that strengthened us through Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike; and this same perseverance leaves no doubt in my mind that we will win this war against the oil spill and come back better than ever before. To the people of coastal Louisiana, we will stand with you and work alongside you until every drop of oil is off of our coast and out of our waters and all of our fisheries and our industries are 100 percent restored. Our prayers continue to be with those on the coast and every Louisianian who is impacted by this spill.
Sincerely,
Governor Bobby Jindal
http://click.bsftransmit1.com/ViewInBrowser.aspx?pubids=393|36|46082&digest=FZ9Bu1HsaLLdm8Tji3aJmg
The Solution Came to Me in Front of Jesus
Published July 9, 2010 | By Len Gutmann, Catholic Exchange, July 6, 2010
There’s a beautiful soul I see at daily Mass. He’s a simple guy. I’ll call him “Bob” to hide his identity — which in his humility he’d probably prefer. He is who he is: the salt of the earth… and a beacon of light to the disabled sister he cares for at home. Somewhere in his late 40s, he’s an usher on the weekends and helps out whenever the parish might need him. He’s slotted on Friday mornings for an hour before the Blessed Sacrament at our parish’s adoration chapel. That hour of his ends when the eight o’clock Mass begins.
I arrived shortly before Mass, and soon saw him leave the chapel to head to his pew just as the entrance hymn was starting up. The simplicity he shines out makes people smile. And on this particular summer morning, his red and green sweatshirt with “Christ is the reason for the Season” across the front had already made my day. But he looked troubled this particular Friday. I wondered if something was wrong… a cold, perhaps, or maybe allergies. I made a mental note to include him in my Mass intentions.
During Mass he cherishes his role as the one who moves the table out of the way after the offertory gifts are taken up. He does it with a certain reverence, taking his time to smooth the cloth on the table after he sets it ahead of the front pew — perfectly out of the way for the Communion line. This particular morning, he was taking his time with the table and its covering. I could tell he was carrying a heavy load inside.
On the way back from Communion, he usually has a peculiarly serene smile on his face. He finds such happiness receiving back the gifts that are transformed by the priest on God’s table. But this particular morning, his consumption of Jesus didn’t seem to be strong enough medicine for his troubles.
After Mass, he’ll wander over to tell me the headlines about the pro-life news that he’s 
read on the internet at the library. He wears his soul on his sleeve, usually grinning from ear to ear when he’s heard of positive news in the movement. When it’s bad news that he’s come upon, he frowns and tells it to me in sad, defeated tones.
He never stops telling me how great a job our parish’s small pro-life committee is doing, and apologizes often for his inability to help the cause, except by praying or giving something up — like pop, or his favorite television show. “It’s all right, Bob. God knows you can’t drive,” I tell him — to make him feel better about not being more active. He whispered to me, once, the real reason he can’t help us more: “Whenever I get thinking about abortion too much, it makes me have a bad day.” You see, he can’t bear it when God’s innocent creations are harmed.
On this troubled morning after Mass, he appeared to be holding back tears as he approached me in my pew. “Are you okay, Bob?” I asked as he took a seat in front of me. Still thinking (or hoping) it was just allergies, I was ready to offer him a ride to the drug store.
“Something came to me before Mass… during my adoration hour,” he told me immediately. “Something about the oil spill that is making Jesus sad.”
I know him well enough by now, and sensed that whatever “came to him” wasn’t anything geo-political or apocalyptic. I wasn’t going to hear anything elaborate and scientific, nor anything fanatical. Just the reason he was upset. With Bob, what you see is what you get. And what you hear is probably what comes to him when he’s connecting with his best friend, Jesus.
He loves animals, and the spill has been bothering him lately. He’s seen the pictures of the pelicans and the dead fish, and he wants the oil to stop leaking into the Gulf more than most people do—especially people like myself who can drive and want it to stop before the cost of gasoline begins to skyrocket.
“Tell me, Bob,” I said.
“The oil leak goes on and on and lots of dolphins are going to die,” he said somewhat prophetically. “It’s all because of an abortion, and Jesus is frustrated because of it.” I thought I heard him correctly. He said “an abortion,” and not because of abortion in general. “I wish I could let the world know. It came to me… in front of Jesus,” he added, just so I wouldn’t think he was crazy about what came to him in prayer.
“An abortion?” I said. I was puzzled.
“Uh huh,” he said. “The person who has the smarts to come up with a plan to stop the oil….” Then the reality of what came to him descended on me.
“There should be a smart person in the world who knows how to fix it!” he explained.
“Yes, you’d think someone would have figured it out by now,” I agreed, hoping to steer him away from what I feared Jesus had spoken to his soul.
“There is someone,” he said, “but he’s not down there in the Gulf to help out. He or she has been aborted.”
“Oh, geez, Bob!” I almost gasped. “Jesus told you that?” A long, quiet pause followed while his statement sent a wave of goosebumps up my arms. I truly did not know what to say. Then it dawned on me… this unsophisticated man could very well be right. With all the minds that never got a chance to go to college because of over 50 million legal pregnancy terminations, it’s quite likely that at least one of the “terminated” would have had a brain with the capacity to provide a solution. I looked at the tabernacle and wondered why Bob’s best friend would trouble him with such a thought. I tried quickly to come up with something that would console this gentle guy who holds all living creatures so dear in his heart. Then something came to me.
“Bob, I think the Lord just told me something,” I said, breaking our silence. “We can pray.”
“I’m praying all the time,” he said soberly. “I don’t want any more animals to die.”
“Yeah, but we can pray specifically,” I explained. “If a person with the solution was aborted, then that means he is now with our Lord. And if he’s with our Lord, then he’s a saint, just like all the Saints.”
“You mean pray… like ask for his intercessions?” he said.
“Just like that,” I answered. “He’s not gone completely. He’s somewhere in the world, just with God now. And if he… or she… would have had the solution, then that person still has the solution. We just have to ask God if that person can somehow share it with us here on earth.”
“How can we get the word out for everyone to ask him — or her — to intercede for us?” he asked me.
“I don’t know, buddy,” I said. Then I realized why he was telling me all this. I told him once that a Catholic daily website had published some things I wrote, so he thinks I’m a famous author.
“Maybe I can write something and send it in to that website I told you about, the one ran some of my stuff in the past,” I told him.
“That’s right, I forgot! You’re a famous author. Could you do that, Len?” he begged. He makes me feel so good about a little talent I often forget to share.
“I can try. It’s up to the editors. They decide if something is good enough to put up on their website.”
“I’ll start praying that they take what you write. I don’t have the internet,” he reminded me. “Can you tell me if they do. I’ll buy you coffee after Mass if they do.”
So dear reader, if you’ve followed thus far, could you do me a favor? A possible way to stop the oil leak may have come to a beautiful soul I know. It’s a “fix” which the oil company or the federal government would only laugh at, mainly because — to them — “things” terminated by abortion are not considered persons with brains. But the next time you have a moment in front of the tabernacle, could you ask God: if there is a person – if there is a “victim-of-abortion saint” in heaven — and that person’s mind was meant to give us a solution, can he or she somehow send us the answer?
A man who cares dearly for his sister and his parish and “his” offertory table; who wears his heart on his sleeve and a Christmas sweatshirt to daily Mass in the summer; who will never be fettered by the chains of fame or fortune; who seems to have a sense about what saddens his friend Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament; and who is troubled when innocent animals die –he asked me to write this for him.
Me? I’m just looking forward to getting a peculiarly serene smile back on a face I see every day. And some pleasant conversation over coffee with a beautiful soul.
Hollywood’s Love Affair with Obama
Published July 9, 2010 | …Winfrey did more than testify to the greatness of “The One.” She used her daytime chat show to pitch Obama to the masses, using the same bully pulpit that turned regular books into bestsellers. . . . Celebrities who slobbered over Obama’s presidential campaign owe the nation an apology.
By Christian Toto, Human Events, 07/09/2010
Sen. Barack Obama promised us “Hope and Change” during the 2008 presidential campaign.
A gaggle of celebrities from Tom Hanks to Spike Lee predicted more than that if voters pulled the lever for Obama. They said the senator would “change the world.”
Voters assumed they meant for the better.
But after 16 months of the Obama Administration in action—high unemployment, allies rebuffed, promises shattered, chaos in Afghanistan and mind-numbing deficits—these very same celebrities owe us an apology.
And Oprah Winfrey’s mea culpa should come gift-wrapped and scented with fancy perfume. She used her reservoir of good will to stump for the smooth-talking senator.
It’s surreal to re-read some of the comments made only a short time ago by the glitterati. They sounded loopy back then, but today they’re downright hilarious—if only the stakes weren’t so tragically high.
Obama’s lack of executive experience didn’t cause celebrities concern. A leader who hasn’t gotten the country into a war has “the kind of inexperience I can get used to,” Oscar winner Robert De Niro said.
Actress Alfe Woodard compared the future President to a cool, refreshing drink:
“If you take orange juice and mix it with a little seltzer you get then same effect and it’s good for you. And that’s Obama—he’s good for this country, [voters] just may not know it yet.” She was prescient on one front. Unemployed Americans sure don’t know how good Obama is for their job prospects.
Tom Hanks made a promotional video for Obama‘s campaign, using his rhetorical gifts to pitch a candidate who will bring people together:
“He has the integrity and the inspiration to unify us as did FDR and Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy—and even Ronald Reagan—when they ran for the job,” Hanks said, comments clearly made prior to the Beer Summit and other great moments in Team Obama divisiveness.
Actor Josh Lucas (“Poseidon”) got to know Obama on a very deep level before throwing his support behind him.
“I’ve been around him and shook his hand. He’s a truly scholarly man. I’m very excited that we have this powerful, intelligent, constitutionally brilliant President. I find him very soulful in private,” Lucas said.
One stunning celebrity even offered to do Obama’s bidding so long as it meant he would ascend to the Oval Office.
“I’ll do whatever he says to do,” actress Halle Berry said. “I’ll collect paper cups off the ground to make his pathway clear.”
Wonder if she can take those paper cups to “plug the damn hole?”
Winfrey did more than testify to the greatness of “The One.” She used her daytime chat show to pitch Obama to the masses, using the same bully pulpit that turned regular books into bestsellers.
She even refused to share her couch with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the vice presidential nominee on the Republican ticket, and a woman who could have shattered one of the last glass ceilings left without a scratch.
Few celebrities were as effusive in their praise for the man as director Spike Lee:
“It’s going to be before Obama, ‘B.B.,’ and after Obama—’A.B.’—and some folks need to get used to this,” director Spike Lee said. “It’s not an if … he changes the world. He changes how the world looks at the United States. It’s going to be a new day. Not just a new day, a better day.”
Rising star Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer) posted a Youtube video asking people to vote for Obama and had this to say on the dawn of his inauguration:
“He’s about encouraging people to voice their opinions and get involved and collaborate and not just sit back and let it happen to us,” the young actor said.
Tell that to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, two radio personalities Obama has singled out for “voicing their opinions,” or the Tea Partiers the President’s party dismissed.
The most damning pre-election quote comes from George Clooney. The dashing actor assured us Obama was the right person for the job:
“He possesses the one quality you cannot teach, you cannot learn, which is he is a leader,” Clooney said.
What’s particularly galling about these celebrity quotes—particularly Clooney’s—is that they had little basis in reality.
Theoretically, Obama could have been a great leader, and there’s always the chance he’ll grow in office over the next two years. But he hadn’t shown leadership qualities prior to the election. All that talk of transparency and reaching across the aisle was based on sloganeering, and little else.
Celebrities have every right to speak their minds, and there’s nothing technically wrong with them telling audiences who they prefer in a presidential election—assuming they understand it could alienate people who indirectly pay their salaries.
But they deserve to be reminded of their recent comments—as do voters who may think twice before they consider listening to an actor’s political opinion in 2012.
Mr. Toto is a freelance reporter and film critic for Movies in Toto, the movie community at washingtontimes.com. His work has appeared in People magazine, MovieMaker Magazine, The Denver Post, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and The Washington Times. He provides movie commentary for the nationally syndicated Dennis Miller Show and runs the blog What Would Toto Watch?
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37976
Jeff Crouere: Stay Home, Joe Biden
Published July 9, 2010 | By Jeff Crouere, Human Events, 07/09/2010
Vice President Joe Biden brought his usual mix of foolish bravado and inappropriate humor during a trip last week to the Gulf.
His visit amounted to nothing of substance for the people of Louisiana and required the diversion of resources from vital clean-up efforts.
Biden used his short visit to appear on camera with other politicians and eat seafood. Amazingly, Biden refused to meet with Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser and only gave this local leader 30 seconds of his time. Biden used the visit for politics and public relations, instead of an opportunity to address the mess created by the federal government.
Biden discussed the array of tremendous problems impacting the area from the oil spill, but he provided no solutions or hope of relief. The Vice President refused to acknowledge that this crisis has been exacerbated by the incompetence of the federal government.
For example, there are 1,600 skimmers in the country, yet only a fraction are being deployed in the Gulf. President Obama told Sen. George LeMieux (R.-Fla,) that resources could not be diverted from other areas that might face future problems. Yet, we are at war here, this is an EMERGENCY!! There is no sense of urgency from Obama.
The President continued to abide by the Jones Act which prevents foreign ships from being used in the clean-up effort. This act was designed to promote domestic labor unions, but it is hampering our clean up effort. After Hurricane Katrina, President Bush waived this act to allow foreign countries to offer assistance. In this crisis, over 30 countries offered to send resources. In fact, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France and other countries have ships that can clean-up the oil, but those requests have been denied. Finally last week, the State Department announced that offers of help from 12 nations were accepted, but this is too little, much too late.
While the government thwarts the clean-up by preventing foreign assistance, it also prevents local leaders from taking action. Key parts of a Louisiana dredging project have been stopped by the federal government because of environmental concerns. Yet, if this dredging is not allowed to continue, there may not be a coastal environment to save. In addition, the federal government has stopped a rock dam project near Grand Isle designed to protect valuable fisheries. According to Gov. Bobby Jindal (R.-La.), “We need a greater sense of urgency, especially when it comes to the red tape, permits and bureaucracy,”
Based on 74 days of inaction, there seems to be a complete disregard for the plight of this area. If the administration truly cared about the economic well being of Louisiana, there would not be a six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling.
In a conversation with Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph, President Obama claimed that laid-off workers can collect unemployment benefits. Other administration officials claim that these workers can get a check from the BP escrow fund, but there is confusion about how that fund will be administered and who is eligible. More importantly, the hard-working people of Louisiana do not want to rely on unemployment benefits or BP checks, they want to provide a good living for their families.
Many Louisiana workers will undoubtedly have to leave the area and follow the rigs to foreign countries. Brazil, the home of Petrobras, a state-owned oil company financed by Democrat benefactor George Soros, will benefit handsomely from this moratorium. It is a shame that Brazil will profit at the expense of Americans. In Brazil, the environmental restrictions are less intense and there is no moratorium on deep-water drilling. The country is open for business and is welcoming our departing oil industry.
The utopian views of the Obama Administration are downright dangerous. The horrific problem will be made worse by the cap-and-trade legislation that the President is pushing in the Senate. By making fossil fuels the enemy, the President is making the state of Louisiana the enemy. In this ecological disaster his administration is treating the people of Louisiana so poorly that it will be impossible to forget the insult. He is making President
Bush’s Hurricane Katrina response seem downright Herculean.
Supposedly this is a war, but if we fought WWII this way, we would be speaking German today. The United States was a country that defeated the Axis powers, rebuilt Japan and Europe and saved the world from fascism. Today, we are a nation that is incapable of dealing with an oil spill in the Gulf and is unable to find methods of providing help to citizens in need. It is a sad testament to the decline of the United States of America and the pathetic leadership emanating from the White House today.
If Obama and Biden are going to play politics instead of helping, it is better if they stay away from the Gulf Coast so we will not have to divert resources to provide security and take responders away from critical missions. Let’s hope we see no more trips like Biden’s visit. It was not only a complete waste of time; it was also a perfect example of the administration’s response to this crisis: long on window dressing, short on results.
Mr. Crouere is a native of New Orleans, LA and he is the host of a Louisiana based program, ‘Ringside Politics,’ which airs at 7:30 p.m. Fri. and 10:00 p.m. Sun. on WLAE-TV 32, a PBS station, and 7 till 11 a.m. weekdays on WGSO 990 AM in New Orleans and the Northshore. He is the political analyst for WGNO-TV ABC26. For more information, visit his web site at www.ringsidepolitics.com. E-mail him at jeff@ringsidepolitics.com.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37977
The Cost of Loving God
Published July 9, 2010 | FATHER JOHN A. HARDON, S.J., CATHOLIC EDUCATION RESOURCE CENTER
We are strange creatures. We can be so inconsistent. Take the matter of buying and selling. We know perfectly well that in order to buy anything we must pay for it.
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We know perfectly well that in order to buy anything we must pay for it. The very word “buying” means that we pay whatever an item costs and only then have a right to possess it. In fact, taking something that belongs to someone else without paying is stealing. We may complain about inflation and shop around to get an article of clothing or food or a piece of equipment or furniture at a lower price, but we assume without a second thought that to obtain what someone else has that we need or want, we have to pay whatever the owner asks for what we wish to buy.
Then we turn to the order of spirit and the supernatural world of God and His grace. All of a sudden we seem to change our minds. We know better, of course. But we have to struggle to overcome the peculiar idea that where God is concerned He owes us what we need and that we somehow have a right to what only He can give without bothering to pay for what we want. Inconsistent? It’s contradictory! The phrase goes, “You get nothing for nothing.” How come some people have a different idea about God? They seem to expect Him to give everything for nothing.
There is, we may admit, some basis for our strange attitude. After all, God brought us out of nothing into existence, without our paying anything for the privilege of creation. He might, in fact, have made us any one of the million other creatures, like a rose, or a lily, or a lowly weed. And, even then, had we been grasshoppers who could speak, we should still have told God, “Thank You.” Yet, God made us and made us what we are not only without cost on our part, but even without the possibility of any contribution from us. For the best of reasons, we were not around to offer advanced payment for our future existence. And so on through life. There are so many things we possess and enjoy that God gives us and does not demand so many hours of labor or so much effort in return for what we receive.
God’s goodness, therefore, can be taken for granted. What we get used to we think we have a right to. What we’ve always enjoyed we think we have a claim to. So we can mistakenly assume that because God has given us so much without cost to ourselves – after all, it’s God, you know, God – He just gives and keeps giving, and He will give us not only in time, but He will even give us eternity with no exertion from us.
Faith and reason tell us this is not true. No doubt God is loving, and in fact His name is love. but this same God is also just. He is, let us keep telling ourselves, the Creator and Lord of the Universe. His very outpouring of love, we would expect, must call for some requital from our side. We are not robots or mannequins. We are not irrational vegetables or beasts. We are human beings with a free will, and what pray tell do we have a free will for, if not to use it?
Part of our freedom is the sublime but awful power we have to say “yes.” and can you imagine, to say “no” to God. God wants us to use this power of freedom, and as the Scriptures make so clear, depending on how we use this freedom we shall finally be saved or lost.
Our purpose in this article, however, is more refined. We shall concentrate on only one aspect of God’s expectations of us free human beings, namely, that if we wish to love God as He wants to be loved and thereby merit his fruitful love in return, we must pay the price that this demands.
 The love of God is paid for as Christ paid for the love of His Father with the hard currency of willing sacrifice and the holy cross.
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Even among ourselves we know that the true love of friendship is demanding. Of those we love and who love us we expect much and they expect much of us. When people are in love they ask from one another what they would never think of asking from a stranger. “I hate to ask her. I don’t really know her well enough.”
So true is this that two people who are afraid to ask of each other what they respectively need or want, for fear of seeming to impose well, they may respect one another and have a high regard for one another, but they are not selflessly in love. What holds true in the order of nature is equally and eminently true in the order of grace. It is precisely because God loves us so much that He expects us to love Him in return. And the price of being loved by the Almighty is high, as also is the price of growing in His love. The more precious the commodity, the higher the price; the most precious possession in the world is the love of God. You don’t get this, I don’t say for nothing or cheaply; you pay, and you pay dearly.
Can we be more specific? What does God expect of us who claim that we love Him as recompense for His prior goodness to us and as the wages, so to speak, to merit an increase of His bounty on our behalf? He finally expects these two things:
- That we are willing to give up whatever pleasant things He may want us to surrender.
- That we are willing to take whatever painful things He may want to send us.
Between these two, surrender and suffering, or as I prefer, sacrifice and the cross, lies the whole price range of divine love. Go where you will, seek where you will, consult whom you will. Pray, read, speculate and meditate as much as you will, you will always come back to this fact of the spiritual life and there are no exceptions. The love of God is paid for as Christ paid for the love of His Father with the hard currency of willing sacrifice and the holy cross.
When I was younger, and I thought, smarter, I didn’t talk quite this way. But experience is a good, though costly, teacher.
First, then, sacrifice.
Sacrifice is not quite the same as the cross, although they have much in common. When I endure the cross I am ready to accept whatever unpleasant things God in His love wants me to endure and God can be uncanny in what crosses He can send us. Sometimes we think it takes a divine imagination to conjure up the varieties, large and small, different sizes and shapes, of the cross. On the other hand, when I sacrifice I’m rather giving up pleasant things that I already enjoy. Continue reading
Catholic Education Resource Center: Week’s Quote
Published July 9, 2010 | “If I don’t go into the desert, to meet God, then I have nothing to say when I go into the market-place.”
- Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster
http://www.catholiceducation.org/
LifeSiteNews.com: Headlines, July 9, 2010
Published July 9, 2010 | MORE SENATORS OPPOSE SUPREME COURT NOMINATION OF PRO-ABORTION ELENA KAGAN
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – More senators announced their opposition to pro-abortion Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on Wednesday. The list now includes eight senators who officially oppose Kagan, including Senator John McCain of Arizona who wrote an editorial in USA Today.
DEMOCRAT JOINS REPUBLICANS IN BLASTING OBAMA ON PRO-RATIONING BERWICK
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – Republicans in the Senate are not the only ones upset by President Barack Obama’s recess appointment of pro-rationing activist Donald Berwick to oversee implementation of the new government-run health care program, as pro-abortion Sen. Max Baucus is upset at well.
ACLU CLAIMS CATHOLIC HOSPITALS REFUSING LIFE-SAVING ABORTIONS FOR WOMEN
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – The ACLU is making a claim that Catholic hospitals nationwide refusing abortions for women in very rare instances in which it may somehow be necessary to save their life. But ACLU is coming under fire on its own accord for misrepresenting the situation and trying to force hospitals to do abortions.
RETIRED ARMY OFFICER: OBAMA, DEMOCRATS SHOULDN’T OK ABORTIONS AT MILITARY BASES
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) – A retired army lieutenant colonel has penned a new opinion column saying he doesn’t think President Barack Obama and his pro-abortion allies in Congress should move forward with plans to allow abortions at military base hospitals. Robert Maginnis says Obama has promised not to fund abortions and should make good on it.
UNITED NATIONS CREATES WHAT MAY BECOME BILLION-DOLLAR PRO-ABORTION AGENCY
New York, NY (LifeNews.com/CFAM) – Last Friday the General Assembly voted to consolidate four separate United Nations (UN) bodies dedicated to women’s issues into one new gender equality entity called “UN Women.” The resolution capped a victory for radical feminists who lobbied for years for the new entity and is the latest in an overall push to bring women’s issues even more onto the UN agenda.
Archbishop Carlson: Abortion Supporters are Excommunicated, Should not Receive Communion
Published July 9, 2010 | …Human life is sacred, according to the archbishop, because “from its beginning until its natural end, it involves the creative action of God.”….
By James Tillman, , July 8, 2010, LifeSiteNews.com
ST. LOUIS, Missouri - In a new column, Archbishop Robert Carlson takes to task those who argue that abortion is simply a political issue, pointing out that it is also a serious moral issue. He also makes clear that one cannot be a good Catholic and be “pro-choice.”
“People who are casual about the sin of abortion and who choose to view it as a political issue rather than the serious moral issue that it is are guilty of violating the Fifth Commandment,” he writes.
Human life is sacred, according to the archbishop, because “from its beginning until its natural end, it involves the creative action of God.”
“God alone is the Lord of life,” he states. “No one has the right to end arbitrarily what God has begun, and sustained, through the gift of His love.”
For this reason, he writes, “since the first century, the Church has addressed the moral evil of abortion and the killing of a defenseless baby in the womb.”
“You cannot be ‘pro-choice’ (pro-abortion) and remain a Catholic in good standing,” he says. ”That’s why the Church asks those who maintain this position not to receive holy Communion.
“We are not being mean or judgmental, we are simply acknowledging the fact that such a stance is objectively and seriously sinful and is radically inconsistent with the Christian way of life.”
Quoting the Second Vatican Council’s document Gaudium et Spes, he says that “abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.”
“That’s why formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life.”
“In addition,” writes Archbishop Carlson, “euthanasia or deliberately taking of the life of someone who is sick, dying, disabled or mentally ill is morally unacceptable.”
He concludes by saying that taking “proper care of our health, respecting others and showing respect for the dead are all matters covered by the Fifth Commandment’s demand that we reverence God’s most precious gift — human life.”
The column is part of a series the archbishop has been writing on the Ten Commandments in his “Before the Cross” column.
Carlson is well known for taking a strong stand on life issues. In 2003 then-Bishop Carlson ordered strong abortion advocate Tom Daschle to cease calling himself Catholic. He has also told Catholics to vote according to the “special burden on the conscience” posed by the abortion issue.
See related stories on LifeSiteNews.com:
Michigan Bishop to Voters: Abortion can Only be Outweighed by an Evil Equivalent “in Number and Kind”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/nov/08110302.html
HIGHEST RANKING U.S. DEMOCRAT ORDERED TO STOP CALLING HIMSELF CATHOLIC
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/apr/03041701.html
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jul/10070806.html
Founder’s Quote Daily
Published July 9, 2010 | 
“Religion in a Family is at once its brightest Ornament & its best Security.”
—Samuel Adams, letter to Thomas Wells, 1780
“Posterity — you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.”
–John Quincy Adams
GOSPEL & MEDITATION: Divisions in the Family
Published July 9, 2010 | July 9, 2010
Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Father Edward McIlmail, LC
Matthew 10:16-23
Jesus said to his Apostles: “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves. But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to another. Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”
Introductory Prayer: Lord, you are the one constant in my life. You are my beginning and my end. I love you as my savior. I trust you as my closest companion. I hope in you as the one who will welcome me into eternal joy.
Petition: Grant me, Lord, a deeper union with you as the only one who will never fail me.
1. Trust, But Not Too Much A key paradox of Jesus was that he loved us so much that he underwent the horrors of crucifixion to redeem us and give us a chance at salvation. Yet, he also knows our weaknesses. He knows how fickle the human heart can be. “Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well” (John 2:24-25). Likewise, Christ warns us not to put too much faith in other people. Like us, everyone else has weaknesses. Our faith in them should be relative and realistic. It shouldn´t be on the same level as our faith in Christ. Do I put “too much” faith in others? Do I realize that expecting too much from them leaves me open to needless anguish?
2. Betrayal for Siblings Christ is the rock against which the waves of humanity crash. His demands cut to the heart of each of us, and require a personal response. How each person responds is a mystery. Some will say yes, some will say no. The division within each person can echo in divisions within families. Little wonder that kin can be our fiercest foes. Christ´s own show of steadfastness assures us that he remains more loyal than even family members. Can I accept that following Christ can cause friction with my loved ones? Can I offer up my trials for their salvation?
3. Love Without Sacrifice Christ never promised his followers an easy life. If he had, there would be no shortage of disciples. He knows what really makes us mature in love: sacrifice. Sacrifice purifies us, ennobles us. Love without sacrifice is a fairy tale. To love means to share in another´s pain. “When men and women demand to be autonomous and totally self-sufficient,” said Pope Benedict XVI in a speech February 9, 2008, “they run the risk of being closed in a self-reliance that … reduces them to an oppressive solitude.” Similarly, if we close ourselves to God´s pleasure, we stay stuck in our littleness. Can I accept suffering for Christ as a way to break out of the cocoon of my comfort?
Conversation with Christ: Jesus, it´s not easy being your follower. Opposition can arise on all sides, even from within the family. Help me bear all this well, for love of you. Grant me the serenity to persevere in the faith. I offer my sacrifices for the salvation of those who oppose my following you.
Resolution: I will pray or make a sacrifice for a family member who is away from the faith.
http://www.regnumchristi.org/english/articulos/articulo.phtml?se=363&ca=975&te=735&id=20302
TODAY’S SAINT: 120 MARTYRS OF CHINA
Published July 9, 2010 | CATHOLIC NEWS AGENCY, JULY 09, 2010
- Chi Zhuzi, 18 year old Chinese martyr
On October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized 120 men, women, and children who gave their lives for the faith in China between the years 1648 and 1930. 87 of these martyrs were Chinese and the other 33 foreign missionaries. The majority were killed during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 which fell under the reign of the Ching dynasty (1648-1907).
Religious persecution has a long history in China, especially persecution of Christians. Thousands of Christians have been killed for their faith in China in the last 800 years beginning with the first recorded persecution under the early Yuan dynasty (1281-1367) and another under the late Ming dynasty (1606-1637) two and a half centuries later.
One of the most well-known of the martyrs was a 14 year-old girl named Ann Wang who was killed during the Boxer Rebellion because she refused to apostasize when faced with the threats of her executioners. They cut off her right arm to make her submit but she remained adamant. Just as she was about to be beheaded she declared “The door of heaven is open to all,” and murmured the name of Jesus three times.
Chi Zhuzi, an eighteen-year old boy who had been receiving catechism lessons and was ready to receive the sacrament of Baptism was caught on the road one night and ordered to worship idols in a temple. He refused to do so, revealing his belief in Christ. They threatened to cut him into little pieces if he did not deny his faith and he refused firmly, As they inflicted the slow and excruciating torture on him, he said to them “Every piece of my flesh, every drop of my blood will tell you that I am Christian.”
Other Martyrs celebrated on the same day are the Martyrs of Gorkum:
These nineteen martyrs were hanged by Calvinists on July 9, 1572 at Gorkum, Holland for maintaining their loyalty to the Pope and for their belief in the Real Presence in the Eucharist.
ACLU Presents Inaccurate Image of Catholic Hospitals on Abortion, Say Experts
Washington D.C., (CNA/EWTN News) – A recent letter from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has asked the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to investigate and take action against Catholic hospitals who refuse to provide abortions. However, critics have said that the letter misrepresents the Church’s teaching in its claim that Catholic hospitals are violating their patients’ right to health care.
Analysts of the letter also told CNA, any law or regulation requiring Catholic hospitals to perform abortions would disregard the rights of conscience that the Obama administration has promised to uphold.
The ACLU letter, dated July 1, claims that refusal by religiously affiliated hospitals to provide abortions is a violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act and the Conditions of Participation of Medicare and Medicaid.
The letter states, “Religiously affiliated hospitals across the country inappropriately and unlawfully deny pregnant women emergency medical care.” The ACLU also highlights the recent demotion of Sr. Margaret Mary McBride for facilitating an abortion at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix. The letter claims that although the abortion was performed, disciplinary actions taken against Sr. McBride, as well as the statement of opposition by the diocese, discourages hospital employees from fulfilling their legal duties.
In addition, the ACLU lists several other examples of Catholic hospitals not providing “reproductive services” to women. According to the legal organization, the hospitals’ “refusal to provide timely reproductive health care to pregnant women seriously threatens their health and lives.”
CMS spokeswoman Ellen Griffith confirmed to CNA that the letter was received and is currently being reviewed to decide what action, if any, will be taken.
Experts in bioethics and law have responded to the letter by saying that it both attacks and misrepresents Catholic teaching by depicting it as though it forbids any attempt to save the life of pregnant mothers.
Dr. John Haas, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, explained that while direct abortion is always prohibited by Catholic teaching, the Church permits efforts to treat or cure the mother, even if such efforts may result in the indirect and unintentional death of the unborn child. The principle of double effect holds that because the child’s loss of life is neither direct nor intentional, it is not morally wrong.
“In fact, some of the conditions cited in the letter would have allowed an ‘indirect abortion’ in a Catholic hospital which permits a physician to address a current and serious pathology which might indirectly result in the foreseen but unintended death of the child,” Dr. Haas told CNA.
He referenced the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” of the U.S. bishops. Directive 47 states that “Operations, treatments, and medications that have as their direct purpose the cure of a proportionately serious pathological condition of a pregnant woman are permitted when they cannot be safely postponed until the unborn child is viable, even if they will result in the death of the unborn child.”
Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel for the Thomas More Society, told CNA that requiring Catholic hospitals to facilitate abortions would violate fundamental rights of conscience.
“Catholics should view the ACLU’s letter as heralding nothing less than a new onslaught of attacks against the Church’s core teachings that human life is sacred from conception to natural death, that procured or directly intended destruction of a viable fetus by abortion is never morally permissible, and that those who participate or materially aid in such acts per se put themselves out of communion with the Church,” Brejcha explained.
“ACLU’s advocacy that abortions are sometimes necessary to ‘save a life’ and its contention that reproductive health care may require the killing of unborn human beings should provoke an enlightened, invigorated and sustained response from Catholics and others who believe that every human life is endowed with an inviolable right to life,” he insisted.
“Direct killing of defenseless human beings is evil,” Brejcha maintained. “No law now requires that those who abhor such killing must nonetheless engage in it, and advocacy of such a law in utter disregard for rights of conscientious objection must be repulsed and rejected in the strongest possible terms as both inhumane and unconscionable.”
“President Obama promised in his notorious Commencement speech at Notre Dame in May, 2009, to protect fundamental rights of conscience,” he added. “He and his Administration must be held to honor that pledge. America’s distinguished legacy of Catholic health care must not be sacrificed in deference to the abortion lobby.”
http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=102650