Sunday, January 25, 2009

This is just the beginning . . .

Embryonic stem-cell research is now to be funded by the Federal Government, putting tax dollars to work cannibalizing the smallest and most defenseless humans.

In addition on Friday the Associated Press announced:
President Barack Obama will sign an executive order later Friday ending the ban on federal funds for international groups that promote or perform abortion, officials said.

It is a move certain to please liberals and other abortion-rights advocates, and the reversal was expected in the Democrat’s first week as president.

The so-called “Mexico City policy” has been reinstated and then reversed by Republican and Democratic presidents since Repulican President Ronald Reagan established it in 1984. President Bill Clinton then ended the ban, but President George W. Bush re-instituted it in 2001 as one of his first acts in office.
The result is that the number of innocent and defenseless unborn children killed each year will soar.

The day after the inauguration, the White House webpage was refreshed with this pledge from the new administration to turn the "Lesbian-Gay-Bi-sexual-Trans-sexual" agenda into social and legal reality:
Expand Hate Crimes Statutes: In 2004, crimes against LGBT Americans constituted the third-highest category of hate crime reported and made up more than 15 percent of such crimes. President Obama cosponsored legislation that would expand federal jurisdiction to include violent hate crimes perpetrated because of race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or physical disability. As a state senator, President Obama passed tough legislation that made hate crimes and conspiracy to commit them against the law.

Fight Workplace Discrimination: President Obama supports the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and believes that our anti-discrimination employment laws should be expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. While an increasing number of employers have extended benefits to their employees' domestic partners, discrimination based on sexual orientation in the workplace occurs with no federal legal remedy. The President also sponsored legislation in the Illinois State Senate that would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Support Full Civil Unions and Federal Rights for LGBT Couples: President Obama supports full civil unions that give same-sex couples legal rights and privileges equal to those of married couples. Obama also believes we need to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and enact legislation that would ensure that the 1,100+ federal legal rights and benefits currently provided on the basis of marital status are extended to same-sex couples in civil unions and other legally-recognized unions. These rights and benefits include the right to assist a loved one in times of emergency, the right to equal health insurance and other employment benefits, and property rights.

Oppose a Constitutional Ban on Same-Sex Marriage: President Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2006 which would have defined marriage as between a man and a woman and prevented judicial extension of marriage-like rights to same-sex or other unmarried couples.

Repeal Don't Ask-Don't Tell: President Obama agrees with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff John Shalikashvili and other military experts that we need to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The key test for military service should be patriotism, a sense of duty, and a willingness to serve. Discrimination should be prohibited. The U.S. government has spent millions of dollars replacing troops kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. Additionally, more than 300 language experts have been fired under this policy, including more than 50 who are fluent in Arabic. The President will work with military leaders to repeal the current policy and ensure it helps accomplish our national defense goals.

Expand Adoption Rights: President Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. He thinks that a child will benefit from a healthy and loving home, whether the parents are gay or not.
One feels the walls closing in. The price to be paid for holding alternative moral positions will almost surely increase with each passing day. As I've said before, the Tolerance Vigilantes are saddling up, the lawyers accompanying them no doubt reassured by the fact that the new president will be appointing a vast number of new judges, chosen for their commitment to the above mentioned view of the world.

Our children will soon be taught that Christian morality -- which most of their parents still try to instill at home -- is vile and odious.

Congratulations to those Catholics who cheered for (or winked at) the Obama revolution and thereby encouraged their fellow Christians to do likewise.

4 comments:

Kevin said...

Gil,
On the stem cell question; these embryos are created in the pursuit of fertility for infertile couples. I remember being taught by my Jesuit instructors that the artificial insemination which produced multiple embryos as a matter or course was not a moral means of having children: because these embryos were eventually destroyed.
Given the number of children both in the US and around the world, who are not able to find homes it would seem a superiour moral answer to adopt and not produce many children who simply will be destroyed.
Assuming I have that right; Will you for the sake of consistency speak out against artificial insemination of this type? If not then I think the argument misses the point. If the embryos were not created there would be no controversy because we could more easily argue against creating humans to harvest them.

Ad Astra Per Aspera,
Kevin

Kevin said...

Greetings,
These comments are not so much angled at Gil as for whomever wishes to debate this.

On the LGBT things mentioned above.

Consistency/avoiding hypocrisy
Are you willing to argue as vehemently against remarriage after divorce?
That too is a sin, in the same sense as homosexual behaviour would be a sin. Indeed it would seem to be far more prevalent as 50% or so of marriages end in divorce and those couples remarry.

Same-sex legal unions
One driver behind wanting this to be allowed is that hospitals, state laws and insurance do not recognize domestic partners of most any kind as having a legal right to help decide end-of-life issues or in the distribution of assets following a death.
If these were granted there might not be as much of an intellectual rationale for allowing the civil union.

We are discussing civil laws. Civil laws should only prohibit activities which are non-consentual in nature. Statutory Rape assumes that consent cannot be given by someone under a particular age. If two people of the same sex wish to join together for life that is not for the state to interfere.
Our religions may preach whatever they wish. The Roman church preaches vehemently against divorce and remarriage. Catholic kids hear that divorce and remarriage is illegal in this nation and they are taught it is immoral. Life goes on and there is no issue here. The Church does not let remarried couples in the door and that is that.
I think the dire predictions made by Gil are too grave. I don't deny that his fears are real but I do think they are overblown.

I support fully same-sex unions. On my wife's side of the family we have a set of "aunts" who have been together through cancer, a near fatal car accident and such for nearly 30 years now. None of their heterosexual siblings' marriages have lasted half-that time. It would seem from what I've seen there is love and grace between these fine women. I prefer to leave the room for grace and not cast them out.

This is not to suggest that the Roman Catholic Church change its theological teachings. That church won't even let women be priests; I would not expect them to budge. Yet I think the opposition to same sex unions is misplaced. There would seem to be far more important matters needing our concerted help and effort.

[light fuse and get away!] :)

I await your responses.
Ad Astra Per Aspera,
Kevin

Dennis said...

And yet, on the day after Obama approved federal government funding for abortions and embryoninc stem-cells harvesting, this headline appeared in the AP:

"Obama breaks from Bush, avoids divisive stands"

The opening sentence of the article runs as follows:

"Barack Obama opened his presidency by breaking sharply from George W. Bush's unpopular administration, but he mostly avoided divisive partisan and ideological stands."

So, forcing all US citizens and taxpayers to become complicit in the funding of abortions and embryo farming and harvesting is not "divisive," "partisan," or "ideological"?

This kind of interpretive commentary is what passes for
"objective news" and is treated as if it were a simple factual statement according to the AP? And the mainstream media still insist they are not in the tank for Obama?
It's going to be a very long and sad four years (heaven help us if it turns into 8).

Allen Johnson said...

Mr. Bailie,
This may be beating a tired old horse, but beat it I must. I am simply frustrated of the pro-life position mired in the bedroom. I still sense that some of the outrage at abortion is that women can have sex and not reap the consequences, or to state it another way, they should not have illicit sex because there are consequences, and abortion has taken some of that away.

Having said that, I do believe abortion is contrary to the will of God. A society that accepts easy abortion is a society that has lost its grounding and is mired in a culture of death.

But there is more...airborne Mercury contamination into our waters and its fish (at least in the eastern US) means one in six babies have related neurological damage. The "pro-life" Bush administration weakened air quality standards. What about the use of depleted uranium weaponry in the Iraq invasion that has created horribly malformed fetuses? What about "pro-life" John McCain's napalm bombing of Vietnamese villages and the babies and pregnant moms dwelling therein? Rather, during the campaign McCain was celebrated as a war hero!

The prophetic role of the church is to "unveil violence" wherever the true victims are perishing. Obama, you are up to the plate now. Please choose God's gift of life!