Historical Christian

Letter to the Women's Media Center Regarding Tim Tebow Super Bowl Sunday Ad

Emailed today to the three staff members who have their email address on their website, regarding this story.

Dear Women’s Media Center,

One of the principles of feminism is that women’s voices have not been heard enough throughout history, and a goal of feminism is that women’s voices be heard, our stories be told.  And yet I just read a story about how your organization is trying to stop the airing of an ad on Super Bowl Sunday about how a woman chose to give birth rather than succumb to pressure to abort her child, a child that grew up to be football star Tim Tebow.

Frankly, as a life-long feminist, I am tired of a movement that claims to speak for all women, but in truth only speaks for a few and tries to suppress the rest.  If you say you support women, then you have to support all women.  If you want women’s voices to be heard, you need to allow us all to speak – including on Super Bowl Sunday, notorious for sexist ads that use women to sell everything from cars to Pepsi - and take us all seriously.  

Your objection that it is an issue advocacy ad is not a reason, but an excuse.  Were it any other issue, you wouldn’t be going after it.   Your reason is that you want to silence this woman, prevent her story from being told.  You don’t want to hear it – us – because it is prolife and counters your own pro-choice position.

If you were truly feminist, you would be using all the resources of the Women’s Media Center to make sure this woman’s voice is heard, issue advocacy be damned.  If you don’t, then the name of your center, “Women’s Media Center,” is truly ironic and a terrible misnomer.

Sincerely,

Aimee M. Cooper
Former pro-choice feminist
Present prolife feminist

On Babies, Abortion Survival, and a Ghastly Idea

Sometimes our cultural contradictions just come piling on.  Like when I read the news.  Today, three things jumped out at me.

First, a movie trailer about babies.  Wonderful!

Then, a story about a woman who survived a saline abortion when she was just six months old, was adopted, now has a baby of her own, is a child welfare worker and educator about the cross-generational effects of abortion.  God bless her!

And finally, a story about an idea to get rid of carbon-consuming African babies in order for first-world jet-setters to continue their carbon-indulgent lifestyle.  Egad!

Words leave me at this point.  I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

Superstitious Make-Believe: Religion, or Science?

And everyone thought religion was the one that was supposed to be superstitious make-believe, and science was going to save us.  Then along came Climategate.  Turns out science is just as susceptible to human greed, self-deception and irrationality as anything else.  It has become political, warps facts to suit political agendas, so we can't trust it anymore. 

Of course us prolifers already know that, don't we?  Been happening with abortion for decades now.  Never mind the rational, science-based facts of human DNA, beating heart, tiny hands and face, brainwaves, rapid swimming activity, clearly alive - it's NOT a baby.  Right.  Keep telling yourself that nice self-delusion.  But don't call it "science."  It's a self-justifying superstition, make-believe, which enables our selfish lifestyles.  I mean, if abortion were outlawed, we wouldn't be able to sleep around so much now, would we?  Might actually have to take responsibility for our actions.

Meanwhile, real science keeps on proving theology.  But that's the subject of another article.

On Advent and the Afternoon of Christmas Day

Today is the first day of Advent, a time of penitential purple, fasting, stripping-down, detaching, preparing for the coming of the Lord.  Traditionally, the Church speaks of two comings: at Christmas, His Incarnation as the baby Jesus, and the second coming at the end of time, as the King Jesus.

But I think there is a third coming, in between the first and second: His coming into each of us, individually.  And this coming, though it has a beginning, the first moment of conversion, the first moment of faith, or, for a baby, the first moment of baptism, never ceases, is something meant to always grow.  Why?  Because Jesus is God.  And God is infinite, His life an outpouring of divine love that gives rise to the Trinity and pours out to us through Jesus on the Cross - the reason why He came, was born, so He could die for us, pour out the life of God to us - and into us in the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.  Jesus Incarnated in Mary, so He could Incarnate in us, through the Eucharist.

And He is the infinite God, so there is no end to His Incarnation in us.  His presence begins in us, but never ends, should never cease to grow, if we are really giving ourselves and opening up ourselves, surrendering ourselves, to Him.

When I was growing up, my parents went to church, not a Catholic church because we weren't Catholic, but an Episcopalian church from which they eventually resigned, because of the even-then downward spiral of Episcopalianism.  Maybe that is why the faith never "took" with me, why I never had a conversion experience when young: the EC even then was watered down, heartless, soulless, a mere husk of what Christianity is meant to be.

And Christmas for us was focused, not on the creation-altering Incarnation of God in Jesus, the interruption of normal time by the intrusion of the eternity of God in a mere babe, but on presents, material presents.  Things.  Dolls and dollhouses, bicycles, model car kits, modeling clay, all the things which feed a child's immediacy and fantasy.  How our anticipation grew as the pile of presents under the tree grew, how the magicalness of the season flavored everything, the porcelain Christmas angels perched around our living room and the music box playing, the Santa Claus mugs on the table, the scent of pine.

And how we woke up early on Christmas morning, dragged a groggy mom and dad out of bed, and tore into our presents.  Such thrill, such joy, as we shrieked "I got it!  I got it!" when some coveted gift was discovered.

But what I remember most: after the presents were opened, explored, and played with.  After everything was discovered and handled.  After what had seemed like limitless treasures had turned into what was, after all, a very small pile of things whose limits were easily exhausted after the first hour of excitement. Afterward, there came the afternoon: the afternoon of Christmas day.

The afternoon of Christmas day, after the excitement had died down and there were no more presents to open, no more discoveries to be made.  The candies had all been tasted, the wrapping paper all thrown away.  And in its place: emptiness.  Ennui. 

Ennui is exactly the word: a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom.  We had been satiated, and we found that our gifts, so exciting on Christmas morning, were just a small heap of meaningless things on Christmas afternoon - and did not satisfy, but left us bored, empty, irritable, longing for something else, something more.

It was not until a very long time later that I discovered that something more that we longed for, the thing that never wears out, never comes to end, only grows larger and deeper and more satisfying and unending the more you explore it - Him.  And how our culture tries to cheat us of it - Him - with its suppression of public expressions of Christmas, and focus on the season as the Christmas shopping season.  How we cheat and deprive ourselves of what the season actually is: the season of preparation for the coming of our Lord, the infinite God who has no end, as a babe in the commemoration of His birth, and in the anticipation of His second coming - and, for me, increasingly, my readiness for Him to enter me personally, more and more without end, as He does each day that I live and breathe on this earth since the day I came to faith in Him.

Presents are fine.  I love giving gifts to those I love, and love receiving gifts.  But material gifts are not what make us happy, and in the end leave us bored - because we are not made for finite things, but for the infinite, for God, Whom alone is Infinite, Whom alone can make us truly, lastingly, unendingly happy, because we never run out of Him to know, love, explore, imbibe, take in. 

So as much as the "season" shrieks at us with premature light displays and shopping ads and sales, remember: this is not the Christmas season.  This is the season of Advent, of preparation.  And before you are tempted to throw your Christmas tree into the gutter on Christmas afternoon, please know: Only on Christmas Day does the season of Christmas begin.  And when we know Him, it truly is a beginning, of a celebration of company with Him, and His presence growing in us, as we receive Him as a babe and again in the Eucharist, and pray for and await His final coming as King of all creation, prepared for as He enters and Incarnates and grows in us, much as He did in Mary but now in the Eucharist, soul by soul until the end of time and He finally comes in His fullness to fill all of creation for eternity.

Tonight, as I tasted His Body on my tongue and His Blood purpled my lips, I felt His presence enter me again, and grow even more, as it always should from our first moment of faith.  And I knew, as I did not know as a child, but am so grateful to know now, why it is we celebrate Advent, and then the Christmas season.  Christ is coming, has come, will continue to come, until finally He has come in all His fullness, all His humanity and Divinity has come, and filled every single bit of creation, every nook and cranny of our bodies and souls, with Himself, His presence and life and love.  And then creation itself will be renewed, lifted up, into God. 

And He is coming now, and we celebrate year by year by preparing, and then celebrating, the great Gift that God has made, is making, will always make without end or exhaustion or limit or boredom, of Himself to us in and through Jesus, as a babe, in the Eucharist, and as the coming King of all creation.

That is the meaning of Advent, and of Christmas, why we wait, why we prepare, and why, when He has come, we rejoice.  There is no emptiness in Him, no limit or boundary or end, for He is the infinite God, and we will never run out of Him to explore, and taste, and learn about, and experience and express, from our first moment of faith through our daily Eucharist to His second coming and into all eternity.

Maranatha!  Come, Lord Jesus!

PS: This piece was inspired by this piece by Joseph Bottum of First Things, a worthy read.

Obama Calls for Massive Investigation of Global Warming Hoax!

Uh, not.  In the wake of release of massive emails showing massive fraud on the part of pro-warming theory scientists, he decides to rush off to Copenhagen and push for a treaty with massive reductions in emissions that will have massive effects on the global economy.  And it appears the major news media, like the New York Times , the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, the UK's Telegraph  (the UK, where the fraud was perpetuated) - is complicit, because they're completely ignoring the global warming hoax.

I'm not normally into conspiracy theories, but in this case it sure looks like Obama and others must really want that one-world government that a global warming treaty may well lead to. But don't take my word for it.  Just read the evidence, and decide for yourself.

Youth Eucharistic Procession clogs the streets in Kansas City!

Did you ever see a Eucharistic Procession like this? 22,000 high school students in Kansas City, no kidding! Go to the Catholic Key blog for the rest of the pictures.

How to Brainwash a Nation

And we're in the middle of it right now.  This amazing interview was done back in 1985 with a former KGB agent who was trained in subversion techniques. He explains the 4 basic steps to socially engineering entire generations into thinking and behaving the way those in power want them to. It's shocking because our nation has been transformed in the exact same way, following the exact same steps.

 

Here are the four steps:

1. Demoralization (immorality, basically getting everyone used to it, thinking it's normal, and moral people are the bad folks)
2. Destabilization (of the economy, politics, etc.)
3. Crisis (caused by immorality and destabilization, which replaces the old government with a new controlling regime)
4. Normalization (as everyone gets used to the new regime)

If that isn't happening in our nation, I don't know what is.  We're clearly in the destabalization period, immorality having been normalized and now our economy going down the tubes.  And we might be near the crisis point.

I sometimes feel like we are living in the decline of society, and unaware of the tsumani about to hit us.  And here is one form the tsunami is taking: Last year, fully 40% of US children were born out of wedlock, to single mothers. 40% - that's nearly half. The statistics on children raised by single mothers are not good: higher rates of poverty, abuse, and crime, trouble completing school, drug abuse, difficulty become productive adults.  Considering that 50% of marriages already end in divorce and many of those kids also wind up being raised by their mothers alone, how many of our kids in total will be raised by single mothers?  Half?  Or more, realistically?

The single motherhood problem has serious economic implications. Congress and the Obama administration are creating record deficits and new programs to be funded by taxpayer money, while we have an aging population soon to retire and fewer children to support the retirees. AND: if half or more of our kids are being raised by single mothers, their earning power, if statistics are correct, will be much lower than those raised in stable two-parent homes with better economic and educational opportunities. How will this future generation be able to earn enough taxable income to support these programs and pay back the deficit? Is anyone thinking about this?

Help get new movie into theaters: Blood Money

Help get a new independent film, Blood Money, which needs our support to expose the corruption of Planned Parenthood.  In order for the producers to get it into the theaters they need to show that millions of interested people have visited their website. You need only visit the website; there is no need to sign-up as a supporter unless you are compelled to do so.   PLEASE HELP GET THIS IMPORTANT FILM INTO THEATERS BY VISITING THE WEBSITE, then forward this to your family and friends! Americans NEED to see this.

English Traditional Anglicans first to accept Pope's offer!

Good news – the English province of the Traditional Anglican Communion just announced that they have voted unanimously to accept the Pope’s offer of reunion!  The first to do so!  Although a small group within the global TAC, this is very significant as they are in the birthplace of the English Reformation.  Here’s an article about it.  And here is the UK TAC's announcement on their website.

Note: this is not the full Anglican communion in England, but the traditional group that broke away because of all the liberalism going on in the Anglican/Episcopalian communion.

Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards tells Catholics to ask Congress to pay for Abortions

This is totally crossing the line.  I just got this on email, found out more here.  She wants to use pro-abortion "Catholics" to help her with abortion funding, and wants real Catholics who actually believe their religion to butt out.  Maybe we should call her at her New York PP Federation Office and let her know what we think about her intrusion into our religion, tell her to butt out.  It's like asking Jews to disavow the Holocaust, or blacks to decide slavery is okay.  She has totally crossed the line.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Brian Burch - CatholicVoteAction.org
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 1:06 PM


Dear CatholicVoteAction.org Member,

You're not going to be believe this.

Planned Parenthood is asking Catholics to call Congress and demand taxpayer support for abortion.

The billion-dollar organization already receives over $300 million in taxpayer money, and stands to strike it rich if nothing is changed in the current health care legislation.

So this week the nation’s biggest abortion provider sent out an urgent message to counter the growing opposition by Catholics to taxpayer-funded abortion contained in the current health care bills. 

The Catholic Bishops sprung into action late last week, announcing their strong opposition to the current health care legislation because the bills include taxpayer support for abortion and fail to provide a conscience clause for doctors.

The Bishops have asked all Catholics to petition Congress to remove any support for abortion from the health care bill.

So Planned Parenthood is attacking the Catholic Bishops and calling their actions “dangerous.”

Here’s what Planned Parenthood’s President Cecile Richards said in a message this week to her supporters: “If you’re Catholic and you disagree with the bishops, please let your legislators know when you send your message. Your voice as a pro-choice Catholic needs to be heard NOW.”

What?!!

How can you be a Catholic and support abortion, the killing of millions of our brothers and sisters?

The phones are ringing in the halls of Congress. Will activists claiming to be Catholic and pro-abortion be the only ones calling?

TAKE ACTION NOW

In the next 48 hours, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to try and ram through a vote to prevent any amendment from being offered to the current legislation.  The vote on a “closed rule” would slam the door on any effort to offer a pro-life amendment to the healthcare bill.

Catholics, pro-life advocates and all people of faith need to move quickly!

Call 202-224-3121. Tell your Member of Congress to VOTE NO on the “closed rule” for H.R. 3962. Tell them to allow a vote on the Stupak Amendment.

If you do not know your representative, look him or her up here.  With this directory you can lookup your Representative's local office phone number. Representatives pay more attention to calls made to their local office.

A bipartisan group led by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) want to amend the healthcare bill by adding pro-life protections.  This is what the Catholic bishops have asked for, and what an overwhelming majority of Americans want.

Here’s what the Associated Press reported Oct. 23: “Such an amendment would be almost certain to prevail, since it likely would attract the votes of most Republicans as well as some Democrats. So Democratic leaders won’t let Stupak offer it.”

If you have already called or written your Member of Congress, it is urgent that you contact them again right now.

So much is on the line. The Bishops know it. Planned Parenthood and Nancy Pelosi know it.

Send this email to all your friends and family. And call your Representative at 202-224-3121 today!

Sincerely,

Brian Burch, President
CatholicVoteAction.org

 

P.S.  This week Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked if she had the votes to overcome the bipartisan group of represenatives seeking to amend the current legislation to prohibit taxpayer funds from funding abortion.  Speaker Pelosi replied: “It’s too close to call.”

Call your represenative now and tell them to “vote NO on the ‘closed rule’ amendment procedure.”  Tell them you want a vote on the Stupak Amendment to the current legislation.  Call your representative today at 202-224-3121.  It will take less than a minute.
 
NOTE: This message was paid for by CatholicVoteAction.org. We depend entirely on the support of our subscribers.  To support our efforts, please visit us here. As a lobbying organization, contributions to CatholicVoteAction.org are NOT tax-deductible.  

Nancy and the Magician

A magician and Nancy Pelosi were on the same stage in front of a huge crowd. 

The magician said, "Did you know that with just one little wave of my hand I can make EVERY person in the crowd go crazy with joy? This joy will not be a momentary display like those of your political constituents, but will go deep into their hearts, and they will forever speak of this day and rejoice."

Pelosi seriously doubted this, and said, "One little wave of your hand, and all people will rejoice forever? Show me," she said. 

So the magician waved his hand, and Nancy disappeared.  

There is a rare day that I don't wish Nancy, the supposedly Catholic pro-abortion insult to Catholics and betrayal of pro-life women everywhere, would simply go away.  She seriously needs to get voted out and relegated to obscurity.  And that's not even beginning to take the rest of her politics into consideration.

Quote of the Day

From Peggy Noonan:

We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists—they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.

I kind of feel the same way nowadays.

Hypocrisy of "Pro-Woman" Planned Parenthood

A female Planned Parenthood Director sees an ultrasound of abortion, changes her mind and quits - and PP in return issues a restraining order to protect "privacy." Another act of hypocrisy by supposedly pro-women PP. As if we don't have the intelligence to recognize what is in the ultrasounds, and make up our own minds about it by doing the best thing possible: rejecting the bloody, inhumane mess that abortion really is.

When Feminism Betrays Women

A long-time friend of mine, a feminist, highly intelligent, educated in the East, has lived in LA for years, has recently seen the hypocrisy of the feminist movement which claims to speak for "all women."  Below is a correspondence we recently had:

My friend: Sends an email in which she contemptuously refers to Whoopi Goldberg as "The woman who said Polanski didn't "rape rape" the thirteen year old." 

Me:  I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed the hypocrisy and sexism of mainstream feminists for years, from the beginning of my conversion to Christianity.

• Because I think differently than feminist orthodoxy, I’m not intelligent and self-determining, I’m brainwashed.

• Because I’m orthodox in religious belief, I didn’t have a transcendent religious experience worthy of respect, rather I’m just using a crutch.

• Because I have the temerity to point out the many serious health issues for women associated with abortion, I must therefore be anti-woman.

• Because I think that unborn human beings have just as much right to life as I do, I must therefore think women should be chained barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.  Never mind the many powerful and influential women in history who did everything they did, AND had kids.

• Because I think we should exercise our sexuality responsibly, with respect for the new human lives that might emerge from us, I’m repressed.

I am so sick of mainstream feminism.  They claim to speak for all women – but frankly, they are one of the most sexist and discriminatory groups I know of, when it comes to how they actually treat me as a woman.  They certainly don’t speak for me.

Sorry for the rant.  But Whoopi’s disgustingly sexist remark is just one more in a long list of glaring hypocrisies by so-called “feminists” in recent years.

Oh, and now I’m also a terrorist and a racist, because I have different political views than the current administration.  Who’s being a bigot now?

My friend's reply: Yes. I now see the rigidity and cult-like characteristics of feminism since Hillary campaign - because I was shunned for turning away from party to back Palin. 

Good riddance.

Anglicans Can Reunite with Rome!

The Pope has thrown open the doors to traditional Anglicans reuniting with Rome.  A bold stroke.  And with that, the English Reformation, already disintegrating theologically for decades, is finally coming undone and going in reverse: back to Rome.  

This is meaningful for me personally, having been infant baptized in the Episcopalian Church but having learned nothing about the Faith there, and after many years of searching finding home, and truth, in the Catholic Church.

So, my Anglican brothers and sisters on their way to Rome, welcome to the feast!  Welcome home!

A few good initial articles coming out:

UK Damian Thompson's announcement

Rowan Williams' reaction - poor man!

Convert Fr. George Rutler's statement

John Allen's take

And finally, the horse's mouth: the note from the Vatican.

I'm sure there will be more to come!  This can affect Anglicans worldwide, is an opportunity for all Anglicans, not just a particular group.  Fantastic!

UPDATE

Nice comment from National Review Online

Great commentary and hilarious comments from the (non-Catholic) Christian Midwest Conservative Journal.

Statement from the Primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, which initiated the request two years ago to come to Rome.

An editorial statement Rorate Caeli blog.