"How'd ya like to try my s'mores...."

OK, so maybe I'm just an old frustrated prude, but the following piece I found disturbing. It seems that the objectification of women is now encouraged to begin at least by age 10, and that the satisfaction of one's own animal desires trumps any sense of personal responsibility. Unnerving at the very least.

Planned Parenthood tells Girl Scouts to “talk dirty”

The World Association of Girl Scouts and Girl Guides hosted a panel this week where Planned Parenthood was allowed to hand out a brochure encouraging girls to “talk dirty” to their sex partners, to engage in aberrant sex, and claiming there is no right or wrong way to have sex. The no-parents-invited Girl Scout panel was a part of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

The brochure, published by International Planned Parenthood Association and entitled “Healthy, Happy and Hot,” says that young people living with HIV have the “right to sexual pleasure” and “have the right to decide if, when and how to disclose their HIV status.” It goes on to say that laws requiring young people to disclose their HIV status to sexual partners “violate the rights of people living with HIV by forcing them to disclose or face the possibility of criminal charges,” and tells them to complain about any agency that tells them they should not have sex, and to shop around for a place where they feel more respected.

According to the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute:

The Girl Scouts…have been co-moderating a young women’s caucus that included an “Intergenerational Conversation” side event on “universal access” and “reproductive health.” One recent Girl Scout project “aims at securing the right of women, men and adolescents aged between ten and twenty-five, to better reproductive and sexual health.”

(full story here)

A case of impaired vision

As if the United States wasn't crazy enough, Zenit reports this case out of Poland. The lady claimed her pregnancy affected her eyesight, perhaps as in blinding her to the humanity of her child.

Polish Catholic Paper Punished for Abortion View

Loses Appeal in What's Seen as Freedom of Speech Battle

ROME, MARCH 9, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The Catholic weekly published by the Archdiocese of Katovice has lost an appeal and is being obliged to pay compensation and apologize to a woman who has become a symbolic figure for the pro-abortion campaign in Poland.

A statement from the "Gosc Niedzielny" reacted to the Friday decision confirming that "we consider this sentence unjust and limiting of the freedom of speech. Once again 'Gosc Niedzielny' must ask for pardon for words it has never written."

The newspaper said the appeals court decision is a "dangerous precedent" by which courts can interpret the context and general message of newspaper articles.

"This implies not only a serious limitation of the freedom of speech, but also a serious limitation of the right of Catholics to take part in the public debate," it added.

The case regards the situation of Alicja Tysiac, a mother of three who sought to abort her third child on the grounds that the pregnancy affected her eyesight.

In Poland, abortion is illegal except for cases in which the mother's life is in danger, the baby is seriously malformed, or the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest.

Tysiac was unable to get approval to abort her child (who was born in 2000) and took the case to the European Court of Human Rights. The court found in her favor in 2007, obliging the Polish government to pay €25,000 (now about $34,000) in damages.

This led the "Gosc Niedzielny" to lament that "we are living in a world where a mother is granted an award for the fact that she very much wanted to kill her child, but was forbidden to do so."

The editorial also compares abortion to the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps.

Monsignor Jozef Kloch, spokesman of the Polish episcopate, commented on the appeals court ruling, saying: "This verdict makes us see how the pro-abortion lobby intends to stealthily introduce in Poland abortion by request."

Does this make sense to you?

Consider this, Illinois is facing an almost $13 billion budget shortfall next year. The total budget is about $56 billion, but half of that is earmarked for federal programs, dedicated road funds and other things that can't be touched. The state's regular working budget is about $26 billion — which means that, without major new revenue, about half of it would have to be cut to get it in balance.

Against that backdrop Illinois legislators who are part of the pro-abortion lobby are resurrecting the "Reproductive Health and Access Act" (HB6205), which is essentially the same FOCA bill rejected a year ago, in an effort to make sure the state makes funds available to kill the unborn. (OK, so my choice of language may be a bit polemical, but I grow angry at those who sit back and, under the innocent sounding description "choice" try to ingrain the right of one person to choose that another person should die.) At a time when the state's working budget exceeds revenue to fund it by 100%, this bill's sponsors want to not only fund abortions but also in vitro fertilization for those who are on Medicaid.

Even if I were not revolted by the thought that some people are so quick to designate some lives as undeserving of life, when I can't meet half of my existing bills, I would not be in a rush to pay for services that go to fund organizations such as Planned Parenthood which profit from the business of death especially while targeting specific racial and economic groups. But then, that's just me.

Social Justice = Communism??!!

Glen Beck is definitely the guy I turn to for reasoned insight and compassion. Look at the America Magazine take on his pronouncement to "...look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes." (story here)
Whatta guy!

Turning the other cheek is tough...

A lot of people think I'm either too sensitive or paranoid re: attacks on the church today. But just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get me.
In the news today, more than 500 Christians were murdered by the Muslim Fulani ethnic group in Nigeria where the Catholic Church has been under persecution for years. (story here) A few months back I had the opportunity to share some time with a young priest from Nigeria who related several stories that I found hard to understand in this day and age. Persecution is alive and well.
In another story on Saturday I read of the Muslim journalists who apologized after having boasted that they had desecrated the by receiving and spitting out a communion wafer in Malaysia. The apology claims that any insult was unintentional and resulting from ignorance. (story here)
I'm sure the Christian response will be a bit more moderate that might be expected of the Muslim community had the tables been turned.
At least in the United States persecution of the Church tends to be more limited to attempts on the part of politicians and secular society to marginalize Christians or to deny Catholic bishops the right to weigh in on moral issues in the public sphere.

Have you had your "Death Cookie" today?

The Deacon's Bench carries the story of the Baptist church in Tennessee publishing a pamphlet which in addition to describing the pope as the anti-christ, refers to the eucharist as a "death cookie." (link here)
I often wonder how these "Bible Believing" groups manage to skip over so much of the Bible and contort themselves to creatively interpret John 6.

Time sure flies...

Apparently the magnitude 8.8 quake that rocked Chile last week shifted Earth's axis re-distributing the planet's mass and shortening the day by 1.26 microseconds. (story here) Here I thought the days seemed shorter just because I'm older.