Fatherhood under Fire?

This is apparently the month of me writing.

The following is a comment in response to certain public declarations made by our President this past weekend: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/president_obama_wishes_you_a_happy_homosexual_fathers_day/

My comment:
Just want to say, my birthday is in June. Therefore, I'm a little possessive. And.. I don't appreciate the TRUTH being turned upside down and then smeared all over my month. Fatherhood is a gift.. given in the image of our Father in heaven, who is love himself. We should never condemn, for we do not have the right and we are all sinners. However, the LORD has given us truths through his Word and through the tradition of the Church, established by his Son, Jesus Christ, and these truths we can proclaim without fear and with fervence. Therefore, the natural order of sexuality as a full and whole gift of self between a man and a woman, for life, is established by Him, not by man. And thus it is not wrong to support this, proclaim it, and be upset and offended when a public figure of authority mocks this truth and presents a falsehood as something to be honored. That is scandal, and it is unacceptable.


C'mon Christians, we celebrate martyrs who wouldn't acknowledge the King of England's "divorce" and who were subsequently beheaded, but we won't publically speak out when another leader chooses to do a slipshot job of morality and we don't face consequences other than people telling us we're not "pc"? Sheesh! Hate the sin, not the sinner. No one should feel attacked, but the truth should be witnessed to, and if that challenges people to change, that is exactly what it should do. We all have to convert, daily, in different ways. We're on a journey together and we should be helping each other along the road.
 
 
(I would love to expound on this further, there are a million and one things to be said on the beauty of human sexuality, the purpose and dignity of marriage, its establishment in Scripture, etc... but those will have to wait. Feel free to visit links and check it out for yourself.)
These are the audiences of John Paul II on the Theology of the Body, chronologically listed: http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2tbind.htm
 
The above with some edits and available in one volume:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0819874213/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?ie=UTF8&cloe_id=503259bd-bd26-432a-8d3d-1811ed9466c0&attrMsgId=LPWidget-A1&pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0819873942&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0KH5TRVBE4NJG9E9HYWP
 
Another good read by John Paul II: http://www.amazon.com/Love-Responsibility-Pope-John-Paul/dp/0898704456/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b
 
Moving reflection on the love God has for us and marriage's image of this: http://www.amazon.com/Love-That-Satisfies-Christopher-West/dp/1934217131/ref=pd_sim_b_20
 
Cardinal Medina Estevez's reflection on the Church's teaching on marriage and sexuality - verrrry good: http://www.amazon.com/Male-Female-He-Created-Them/dp/0898709431
 
 
 

Some "TMI" References, But Great News

The CDC gives a lot of information in this article.. some of which you may not want to read. If you have either studied such things as STD's, contraception, biology or you have a decent awareness of these issues, then feel free to go through all of it.

Either way, look at the beginning of the article, the first paragraph in bold. There is a statement there that seems to FINALLY be making its way from common sense to the scientific world, and it is the "proof" we need to argue a both natural and moral side of saving sex for marriage to those who will only accept something "official" like the CDC.

http://www.cdc.gov/condomeffectiveness/latex.htm

Chastity Help

These are just a few brief references, but you will be amazed at how many sites are out there with information, support and guidance. If you aren't sure where you are going or what is right, give the truth some time to sink in. There is freedom in living this lifestyle. Practically speaking, you can't have any surprise diseases, infections or a pregnancy that you aren't prepared for. Internally speaking, your self-respect and belief in your own dignity will dramatially increase. Holistically speaking, you will see that these "restrictions" on your behaviors are actually paths to joy and again, freedom, because you are not serving yourself or allowing anything to control you but are making a choice for your own good and the good, love and respect for others.

http://www.omsoul.com/chastity-what-are-you-saying-yes-to.php

http://www.theologyofthebody.net/

http://www.christopherwest.com/

http://www.chastity.com/

http://www.liteenfreedom.org/

Feel free to add others, the more the merrier :)

Being "Active" Catholics

Ok... so I know this is meant to be a blog for faith-fortifying, but I also meant for it to be faith-challenging. So in this situation, I may be crossing the line of the purpose of the blog, but it just needs to be done.

So there was a certain website which is disgusting and vulgar and other synonyms of those words known as "takecaredownthere.com". It was a youth-oriented "informational" site concerning sexual health care. In essence, it was advertised as "funny skits by kids"... these skits involved near-pornographic sexual circumstances not excluding homosexual skits... and all of the actors were approximately 16-18 in age (that is an assessment by looks- I did not research that point). 

I was so horrified not only at the existence of such a site, but by the fact that the everyday American tax dollar was supporting this site! Immediately I felt I must take action, and so I composed an email concerning the issue and sent it to the three Representatives in Congress for New York, who were Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton,  Rep. Carolyn McCarthy and Sen. Charles Schumer. 

I can only highly encourage all of us to not hesitate to take action about important legislation. I know what it is like to be in high school and college and not really take note of what is going on around in the world, especially in the political sphere, because there are so many other issues of interest. Yet, I recently spoke with one of our students at the University concerning the issue of abortion, and while discussing it with her I came to one conclusion that I am very sure of:

I do believe that among the things that we "have done and fail to do" that count as sins against God, we must accept that there is culpability concerning the governing of our nation. We do not live in a communist, tyrannical or despot nation that inhibits the action of the common person.

This is a democratic nation, and that democracy means that those who take ownership of the power to speak will control the laws.

Regardless of how we feel the interpretation of the Constitution should be, we all have a moral, ethical, social and cultural responsibility to demand justice and truth from our nation's government- if for no other reason than we CAN.

If this is that case, than we do share in culpability for the many deaths that take place "legally" every day, especially the innocent and unborn. In such a situation as we find ourselves, with our nation having allowed the deaths of thousands of humans daily for the last 35 years this January 22, we must accept that we need to do what is within our power to stem the genocide. 

It is actually rather easy to send emails or brief letters to our representatives, and a number of them will respond. I am not sure how many of our representative actually receive letters of intelligence on a daily basis - having the gift of education (I believe) creates an even greater responsibility to speak out.

Please encourage one another and make it easy by sending friends links to "quick email" sites, etc... this helps us all to remain active in responsibilities which have been given to us, sought or unsought. 

A good site to sign up for an email list would be www.afa.net. This is the American Family Association, and they create templates of emails to be sent for political action, where all you need to do is enter your zip and your name. 

God bless America.