Archives for 2014

7 Quick Takes Friday (set #146)

Friday, August 8, 2014 A.D. Leave a Comment

This week: The latest issue of New Evangelists Monthly is ready and calling you. A question on “discriminating” against homosexuals in marriage. The Chosen program’s clip on happiness (right now). A surprising quote from Richard Dawkins. A reunion makes a young dog so happy he faints. The Bell Telephone picture phone remembered. Hamas has their very own version of Sesame Street (really).

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Issue #20, August 2014, of New Evangelists Monthly is ready for your enjoyment! Scores of faithful Catholic bloggers have contributed their very best pieces from July. This month brought these great topics: dating, Sonoran, following, through children, catching up, CS and GK, ego, freedom, NFP, intimacy, sacraments, convalidation, water and spirit, provider, loved most, marriage, catholic gay, the dead, celibacy, on Dei Verbum, revenge, blanks, teen advice, support, sparkling, real men, calendar, mission, votives, for nursing, poor book, motherhood, hippies?, married clergy, chastity, ordained silence, on holiday, missionary, self(ie|ishness), sign of the cross, Daddy?, lost sheep, sacred liturgy, St. Bonaventure, pregnancy, teaching, passions, Bl. Frassati, persecution, Ginsburg, Obama orders, rejoicing, holy grandparents, doctrine, gay romance, consecration, working mom, Sarah Harkins, your cool, hope, ways to live, Mass tears, loving presence, ask for, veiling, powerful love, Priscilla and Aquila, always there, morality, happiness, St. Mary Magdalene, compliments, mistakes, future spouse, emotional purity, human dignity, outer space, only God, consolations, justification, maternity, weeds and wheat, body image, hearing, looking away, sand and God, grace in motion, 7 women, chemo, astray, premarital, coffee, Seraphim vs. Francis, transfiguration, self-gratification, one Church, annunciation art, vacation Mass, spilled and song for dad.

This monthly “meta-magazine” showcases faithful Catholicism from theology to family life and “everything in between.” Enjoy it now at NewEvangelists.org.

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Ryan Anderson is asked why is it acceptable to discriminate against homosexual by denying them marital benefits such as joint tax returns?

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The choices we make in our pilgramage in this world ultimately bring us into eternal union with God or separation from Him. That is most important but it is not all they do. Choosing God “sooner than later” brings peace and happiness now that absolutely nothing else can. Chris Stefanick talks about true happiness in this clip from the Ascension Press Chosen faith formation course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liIdQ-m8Qtw

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Loud, well known atheist Richard Dawkins reportedly said this in a 2010 interview with the London Times:

There are no Christians, as far as I know, blowing up buildings. I am not aware of any Christian suicide bombers. I am not aware of any major Christian denomination that believe the penalty for apostasy is death. I have mixed feelings about the decline of Christianity, in so far as Christianity might be a bulwark against something worse.

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This is the reunion of a young dog and her owner after 2 years. The dog was so excited, she actually fainted. (WARNING: crying dog may not be suitable for work environments)

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I found this video interesting. Bell Telephone spent $500M in 1964 on the picture phone. It failed big, but came close to building something akin to the Internet.

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Palestinian children learn in school and from their mass media what their duty is relative to Israelis. Here is the Hamas version of Sesame Street:

Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas) program Tomorrow’s Pioneers on neighbors’ rights.

Phone conversation between Nahul the bee and Qais, a boy from Jenin (West Bank).

Nahul the bee, (adult in a giant bee costume): “Listen my friend. Are there Jews where you are?”

Boy (Qais): “No. Not at the moment.”

Nahul: “I heard they come to you every day.”

Boy: “Yes, but not now.”

Nahul: “Listen, friend; do like this with your hands [makes fists], and when they come to you, punch them; make their face red like a tomato.”

Boy: “Allah willing, so that we can liberate Palestine.”

Nahul: “Allah willing.” …

[Nahul talks to TV host, young girl named Rawan]

Nahul: “My friend Qais – anyway, Rawan, I tell him to take a stone, and when the Jews come, to take it and throw it at them.”

Child host (Rawan): “Of course, the Jewish neighbors.”

Nahul: “To smash them.”

Child host: “If his neighbors are Jews or Zionists? Yes.” …

[Child host Rawan talks to Tulin, a girl in the studio.]

Child host Rawan: “Tulin, why do you want to be a police officer? Like who?”

Girl Tulin: “Like my uncle.”

Child host: “Which uncle?”

Girl: “Ahmed.”

Child host: “Is he a policeman?”

[Girl nods]

Child host: “OK, so what does a policeman do?”

Nahul (adult in giant bee costume): “He catches thieves, and people who make trouble.”

Child host: “And shoots Jews. Right?”

Girl: “Yes.”

Child host: “You want to be like him?”

[Girl nods]

Child host: “Allah willing, when you grow up.”

Girl: “So that I can shoot Jews.”

[Nahul the bee cheers]

Child host: “All of them? All of them?”

Girl: “Yes.”

Child host: “Good.”

[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas), May 2, 2014]

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary to address this blogging need. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen for hosting this project!

Filed Under: quick takes

New Evangelists Monthly – August 2014, Issue #20

Saturday, August 2, 2014 A.D. Leave a Comment

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Filed Under: New Evangelists Monthly

Elsewhere: media deception on Hobby Lobby

Friday, August 1, 2014 A.D. Leave a Comment

There has been much press coverage of the Supreme Court Hobby Lobby case. Unfortunately, most of it has been political activism and not journalism. That is not surprising and is to be expected. What is somewhat surprising is how far they will go to deceive the public, twisting the facts, citing highly biased sources and simply outright lying. Not a little… A LOT.

The liberal media (redundant) is very unhappy with this (far too close) decision. They see forcing the public, all of the public, to purchase abortive contraceptives as basic healthcare (for the selfish mother, not so good for the child). Their misrepresentations seem designed to shape public opinion for future legislative and legal challenges.

James Agresti has written a well-researched piece for Crisis Magazine. He presents the facts in a clear, point-by-point manner:

In the buildup to the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision, and even more so in its aftermath, prominent news outlets have been aggressively spreading falsehoods about key aspects of the case. Beyond logical fallacies about who is imposing their will on others, many reports and commentaries also contain statements that are discredited by the scientific facts at the core of this case.

Although journalism standards give commentators “wide latitude” to express their views, this is not a license to mutilate the truth. In the words of New York Times deputy editorial page editor Trish Hall, “the facts in a piece must be supported and validated. You can have any opinion you would like, but you can’t say that a certain battle began on a certain day if it did not.”

Yet, the New York Times and other media outlets have repeatedly broadcast demonstrably false claims about the Hobby Lobby case. Among the most frequent of these are as follows:

Medical science shows that the Obama administration’s “contraception” mandate has nothing to do with abortion.

IUDs don’t terminate human embryos.

Morning-after pills don’t kill human embryos.

As detailed below, all of those claims are deceitful and derived from politicized, unauthoritative sources. In reality, data from highly credible sources shows that:

The Hobby Lobby case concerns the destruction of living, viable human embryos.

IUDs terminate viable human embryos.

Morning-after pills may kill embryos, and claims that they don’t are based upon crass distortions of scientific studies.

What follows is the documentation of these facts, along with the details of how media outlets have flouted basic standards of journalistic integrity in their coverage of this case.

Portraying activists as neutral authorities

The BBC’s journalism standards on “Avoiding Misleading Audiences” state that reporters should provide the “credentials” of their sources so “audiences can judge their status.” More specifically, BBC’s standards on “Impartiality” state that news professionals should not assume their sources are “unbiased” and should “make it clear to the audience when contributors are associated with a particular viewpoint, if it is not apparent from their contribution or from the context in which their contribution is made.”

That standard, which is meant to prevent journalists and commentators from portraying activists as impartial authorities, has been routinely ignored by news outlets in their coverage of the Hobby Lobby case. For example, the above-mentioned NPR and New York Times articles both rely upon claims from the following individuals to support the central narratives of their stories:

Susan F. Wood, an associate professor of health policy at George Washington University and a former assistant commissioner for women’s health at the FDA.

Diana Blithe, a biochemist and contraceptive researcher at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

What these NPR and New York Times articles fail to mention is that both Wood and Blithe are political donors to Barack Obama. More significantly, both are also donors to Emily’s List, a political action committee “dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic women to office.”

Those are not isolated examples. One of the commonly cited authorities in this case is the emergency contraception website operated by Princeton University’s Office of Population Research and people associated with it. Yet, the following information is almost never disclosed: The website was founded by James Trussell, a Princeton professor who is a senior fellow with the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that operates under “guiding principles” that include support for legalized abortion. Moreover, Trussell is “a member of the National Medical Committee of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and a member of the board of directors of NARAL Pro-Choice America and the Society of Family Planning.”

Even so, Time magazine describes Trussell as “a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University who has done extensive research on the subject” of emergency contraception. He is similarly described by MSN, Reuters, and a host of other news organizations. Would these same media outlets describe a board member of the National Right to Life Committee in such a nondescript manner?

Another commonly cited authority in the Hobby Lobby case is the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Although media outlets regularly quote this organization as if were neutral, it has a track record of consistently opposing pro-life legislation and issuing statements that are transparently false. For instance, ACOG has declared “there is no evidence” a fetus can feel pain “until 29 weeks at the earliest” despite copious evidence to the contrary from journals such as Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Pain: Clinical Updates, and PLoS ONE.

Furthermore, ACOG was caught modifying its clinical findings on partial-birth abortion at the behest of a Clinton White House lawyer. Incidentally, this lawyer was Elena Kagan — who President Obama later appointed to the Supreme Court. Again, media coverage is virtually devoid of this information, which has the result of deceiving audiences through the omission of vital context.

Journalistic integrity?

In flagrant disregard for basic standards of honest journalism, media outlets have propagated claims about the Hobby Lobby case that are falsified by credible scientific publications.

Many of these news organizations have written guidelines that call for unconditional integrity. The New York Times, for example, declares that “the journalism we practice daily must be beyond reproach,” and the organization has “an ethical responsibility to correct all its factual errors, large and small.”

Whether or not those are just lofty words will be shown by how the media responds to the facts above.

Read the whole piece: Media Repeatedly Deceives Public in Hobby Lobby Coverage.

Filed Under: elsewhere

Baltimore Catechism: on our 1st and 2nd obligations

Tuesday, July 29, 2014 A.D. 2 Comments

Lesson 35

389	Q.	Which are the chief commandments of the Church?
	A.	The chief commandments of the Church are six:

To hear Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation.
To fast and abstain on the days appointed.
To confess at least once a year.
To receive the Holy Eucharist during the Easter time.
To contribute to the support of our pastors.
Not to marry persons who are not Catholics, or who are related to us within the third degree of kindred, nor privately without witnesses, nor to solemnize marriage at forbidden times.

390	Q.	Is it a mortal sin not to hear Mass on a Sunday or a holy day of obligation?
	A.	It is a mortal sin not to hear Mass on a Sunday or a holy day of obligation, unless we are excused for a serious reason. They also commit a mortal sin, who, having others under their charge, hinder them from hearing Mass, without a sufficient reason.

“Serious reason” – that is, a very good reason, such as sickness, necessity of taking care of the sick, great danger of death, etc. Some persons when they go to the country in the summer believe themselves excused from hearing Mass because the church is a little further from them or the Mass at more inconvenient times than in the city. When they are in the country they are bound by the same obligations as the Catholics who live in that parish the whole year round, and they must go to Mass as these do, even if it is more inconvenient than in the city. Persons who have it in their power to select their own summer resort, should not, without great necessity, select a place where there is no Catholic church, and where they will be deprived of Mass and the Sacraments for several months, and where there is danger of their dying without the Sacraments. Some excuse themselves from going to Mass because they are too tired to rise in the morning. They should be ashamed to give such an excuse. Was our Blessed Lord not tired when He carried His Cross? He was tired, for He fell under it several times. And where was He going? To Calvary, to offer up the bloody sacrifice of the Cross for you. Will you plead fatigue as an excuse when you come to be judged by Him? Others again have a great habit of coming late for Mass. No matter at what hour the Mass may be, they will always be late; and I am afraid these persons will also be too late to enter Heaven. By coming late they show disrespect to Our Lord and distract others; and to avoid doing so, they should, when late, take a place in the rear of the church. When you are very late for one Mass, you should wait for the next – at least, for as much of the next as you did not hear in the first. You should not, however, begrudge a little extra time to God. To hear Mass properly, you should be in your place a few minutes before the priest comes out, and make up your mind what blessing you will ask, or for what intention you desire to hear the Mass.

“Having others under their charge.” Some parents are very careless about their children attending Mass, especially on holy days. Now, they must remember that in such neglect the sin will be theirs as well as the children’s. Again, masters and mistresses do not at times give their workmen and servants sufficient opportunity to hear Mass, above all on holy days. All masters and mistresses must remember that they are bound not only to give their servants an opportunity to hear Mass, but they are bound as far as they conveniently can to see that they embrace the opportunity, just as they should see to their children in such matters. Catholics having in their employ others, such as engineers, drivers, conductors, etc., must make some arrangement between their men by which they will be able to attend Mass on Sundays and holy days. The same holds good for companies and corporations having under their charge a large force of men who are obliged by circumstances to work on Sundays.

*391	Q.	Why were holy days instituted by the Church?
	A.	Holy days were instituted by the Church to recall to our minds the great mysteries of religion and the virtues and rewards of the saints.

For just the same reason that the government has legal holidays. What would the people of this country know or think at the present time about the Declaration of Independence, and all connected with it, if they did not celebrate from childhood every year, on the Fourth of July, the great day on which their forefathers claimed to be free and independent from the nation that was persecuting them? The Fourth of July keeps alive in our memory the struggles of our ancestors of one hundred years or more ago – their great battles, their sufferings and triumph, the blessings they secured for us, and for which we praise them. In like manner, the feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord keeps us in mind of the sad condition in which we were before Our Lord redeemed us, and how He liberated us from the slavery of the devil and secured for us so many wonderful blessings. Again, what would we remember about George Washington if we did not celebrate his birthday? That holiday keeps before our minds the life and actions of that great man and all he did for our benefit. So, too, when we celebrate every year the feast of a saint in the Church, it keeps before our minds his works and all that he did for God and the Church, and makes us anxious to imitate his virtues. On every day in the year the Church honors some mystery of our holy faith or some saint by saying Mass all over the world in honor of the feast, and by obliging the priests and bishops to say the divine office for the same purpose. The feast-day of a saint is generally the day on which he died; because that is considered the day on which he entered into Heaven – the day on which he was born into the new world.

The “divine office” is a collection of prayers, hymns, lessons, and psalms which every priest and bishop must read every day of his life. As it is said each day in honor of some particular mystery or saint, the greater part of it differs for each day. The prayers are to God, asking some grace or blessing in honor of the saint – generally such graces as were granted to the saint. The hymns are in the saint’s honor; the lessons are parts of the Holy Scripture, or an account of the saint’s life; and the psalms are those beautiful poems that King David composed and sang to God. The divine office is the prayer of the universal Church for its children, and if a priest neglects to say it he commits a mortal sin. It takes about an hour to say the whole divine office, but it is not intended to be said all at once. It is so divided that it is said at three times in the day. The part called “Matins” and “Lauds” is said very early in the morning and before Mass. The part called “Little Hours” is said later in the day; and the part called “Vespers” and “Compline” is said in the afternoon. See, therefore, how anxious the Church is for the good of its children, when it makes its bishops, priests, and religious pray daily for all the faithful, and send up in one voice the same prayer to the throne of God.

*392	Q.	How should we keep the holy days of obligation?
	A.	We should keep the holy days of obligation as we should keep the Sunday.

393	Q.	What do you mean by fast-days?
	A.	By fast-days I mean days on which we are allowed but one full meal.

According to the traditional Catholic method of fasting, one may eat “one full meal” each day with meat included, plus two smaller meatless meals, both of which together do not equal the one full meal. No eating between meals is allowed, although drinking beverages such as coffee and tea are allowed and are not considered to break the fast. (Milk, juice, and soft drinks are also considered not to break the fast, although they are in fact foods and mitigate the effects of the fast and work contrary to its intent because they satisfy one’s hunger to some extent, since they have food value.) They, therefore, who follow the above regulations obey the Catholic method of fasting. Today the prescribed days of fast for the whole Church are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday (these are also days of abstinence). However the Church today says that the meaning of the law of fasting during Lent remains, although the extent of the obligation has been changed. In other words, Lent remains as a season of penance in the Church, but how it is to be observed is greatly up to the individual, though no one may think himself excused from all penance whatsoever, and those who are in the fasting age group should still practice the Church’s form of fasting, since fasting is a primary and very efficacious form of penance.

Those who, for sufficient reasons, are excused from the obligation of fasting, are not on that account freed from the law of abstinence, for all who have reached their fourteenth birthday are bound to abstain from flesh-meat on days when it is forbidden – Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent. The following persons are excused from fasting: (1) those who are not yet twenty-one or who have begun their sixtieth year (from their 59th birthday onward); (2) those whose infirmity, condition, or occupation renders it impossible or dangerous for them to fast. If you think you should be excused from fasting or abstaining, state your reasons to your confessor and ask his advice. On a fast-day, therefore, you have to look both to the quantity and the kind of food, while on a day of abstinence – as the Fridays in Lent other than Good Friday – you have to look only to the kind.

394	Q.	What do you mean by days of abstinence?
	A.	By days of abstinence I mean days on which we are forbidden to eat flesh-meat, but are allowed the usual amount of food.

395	Q.	Why does the Church command us to fast and abstain?
	A.	The Church commands us to fast and abstain in order that we may mortify our passions and satisfy for our sins.

“Mortify our passions,” keep our bodies under control, do bodily penance. Remember it is our bodies that generally lead us into sin; if therefore we punish the body by fasting and mortification, we atone for the sin, and thus God wipes out a part of the temporal punishment due to it.

*396	Q.	Why does the Church command us to abstain from flesh-meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent and to abstain from flesh-meat or do some other chosen penance on the other Fridays of the year?
	A.	The Church commands us to abstain, from flesh-meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent and to abstain from flesh-meat or do some other chosen penance on the other Fridays of the year in honor of the day on which Our Saviour died.

Filed Under: Baltimore Catechism

7 Quick Takes Friday (set #145)

Friday, July 25, 2014 A.D. Leave a Comment

This week: Courage has released a wonderful new film: Desire of the Everlasting Hills. Planned Parenthood provides an abortion to a 13 year-old then returns her to her rapist. Despite spending $1 TRILLION per year, the “war on poverty” has failed (but for political advantage, it has morphed into a “war on work”). Matthew Archbold has an interesting observation on the media’s choice of nomenclature. Thailand produces some of the best TV commercials. An “IRS Love Song”: What are the Chances?. World Order produces… you just have to see it.

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Courage has released (free) a truly excellent film on homosexuality and Catholicism: Desire of the Everlasting Hills. Here it is in its entirety:

Anthony Esolen has written a review of the film at Crisis Magazine. Professor Esolen’s piece is outstanding and I highly recommend it. National Catholic Register also has a good review.

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This is nothing new at Planned Parenthood, but I draw your attention to the suit by the mother of a 13 year-old child. The young girl was taken to PP for an abortion by the step-father who had been raping her since she was 6. PP did the abortion and returned the young girl to her rapist where the sexual assaults continued. Of course, they kept mum about the whole thing in defiance of the law. LifeNews has the story.

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In Economic Activity and Social Justice, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:

2427 Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another. Hence work is a duty: “If any one will not work, let him not eat.” Work honors the Creator’s gifts and the talents received from him. It can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work. He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish. Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ.

2428 In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature. The primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary. Work is for man, not man for work.

Everyone should be able to draw from work the means of providing for his life and that of his family, and of serving the human community.

Charity providing only for basic needs does not help the poor beyond the very short term. It removes their independence, which some would argue is often a hidden goal. Welfare reform signed by Bill Clinton in 1996 included work requirements. That is, it sought to effect a “hand-up” and not just a “hand-out.” The current administration has significantly undermined that law. People are now far more dependent on the largess of government. For their own political ends, they have in essence launched a war on work:

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An interesting media observation on nomenclature from Matthew Archbold at Creative Minority Report:

Isn’t it funny that a man who wishes to be called a woman by the media is immediately called a woman but pro-lifers still can’t get the media to call them pro-lifers?

And practicing Catholics who publicly speak about the faith are labeled “controversial” while pro-abortion and pro same-sex marriage Catholics are labeled “devout.”

— 5 —

Thailand has the best commercials. Last September one of my 7QTF notes was on a wonderful advertisement for a Thai telecom company. Here is another Thai commercial for an insurance company:

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I wrote two weeks ago about the unlikely odds of 7 concurrent disk drive failures as the IRS has claimed (1 in 78 billion). I understand they are claiming even more sudden failures of drives sought by investigators. This guy (Remy Munasifi) has taken another, more humorous approach to explaining it – an IRS love song entitled What are the Chances?. (The “chances” are astronomical that this is the obvious criminal conspiracy it appears to be.)

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In my day, way before music videos, acts performed highly choreographed dance in their stage performances to promote their music. One of my favorites was The Temptations.

A modern analog of them might be World Order. Not my cup of tea, but I give them props for their dancing (or whatever it is they do):

They have “music videos” on their YouTube channel, including this one for their Machine Civilization hit:

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was started by Jennifer Fulwiler to address this blogging need, but is guest hosted this week by Carolyn Svellinger at Svellerella. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Jen (and Grace) for hosting this project!

Filed Under: quick takes