The Catholic Church and Oppression of Women II

A few days ago, during a political debate of sorts, an acquaintance suggested that the constitution should not be used to determine what is and is not a right.  This person was specifically reffering to the current patient and affordable act which he said was "irrelevant" to whether or not women's "rights" were under oppression by the Catholic Church. I had to pause for a second in order to process the accusation. Let me bring in a metaphor to illustrate my thoughts on this subject. Suppose someone decided to drop you off a cliff. As the culprit holds you 10,000 feet above the ground, you beg him to reconsider because you are afraid and want to live. In return he looks at you blankly and without comprehension. He says to you that it is irrelevant that you are afraid... after all, he is standing safely on the ground (which is arguably a very safe place for him to stand). He continues to try and calm you by informing you that he bought blue suede shoes last week for only $20! You continue waving your hands in the air telling them to stop this madness because honestly, shoes are the last thing on your mind. Finally, he gets irritated and begins to accuse you of ignoring him. So he loosens his grip entirely. The last thing you hear as you plummet 1000 km per hour towards the ground is the voice of the man still yelling, "Don't worry so much; I'll be fine!" The point that I'm trying to make with this metaphor is this: if you are the guy standing on solid ground, it's easy to stay calm. You aren't the one dangling over the cliff or having your rights violated.

Only in a day and age where religious persecution and tyranny are rampant would we not pause and ask whether or not a law that requires the entire population to purchase a product should be examined by the constitution at the law's birth. From a political stand point, the first question that must be asked in order to determine whether or not the Catholic Church can stand by Her principles is whether or not the constitution lets Her. So with this question in mind I am going to dive into this debate by first offering some context.

Catholic Institutions are self insured. When forced to "compromise" Obama promised that religious institutions no longer had to provide contraceptives, but that their insurers will. The problem with this "compromise" is that most Catholic institutions are insured by Catholic insurance agencies. This means that Catholic insurance companies will have to pay for contraceptives. 

With that having been said, I currently work for a company who will have to provide contraceptive services at the expense of my dollar. Yes, Obama's "new" plan essentially did nothing. It's like instead of taking candy from a baby... you pay a bully to do it for you. That way, you aren't actually taking the candy from the baby, someone else is. Clever, clever.

The government knows that the contraceptives (which will promote the act of sex and thus spread of STD's) and abortive pills (which usually increase the likelihood of cancer and hormonal inbalances) can currently be attained from almost anywhere. For an example, the halls of my old university. You want a condom? Go to the bathroom and you can buy one for a quarter. We are not arguing whether or not people should have contraceptives available to them. We are arguing whether it is an essential right guaranteed by the constitution which is why the government wants so desperately for Catholics to be forced to purchase the product. (Despite the direct violation of the constitution)

Obama's new plan allows for religious exemptions. For example, some Muslims and Amish are exempt because they view insurance as a form of gambling, which is forbidden by their religious laws. This further demonstrates the law's personal bias against Catholicism. Furthermore states are allowed to disallow Aids and Cancer treatments in their plans as they see fit. These sound like essential health services to me. Here are more ways that this is unconstitutional as cited by:

http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/upload/02-28-12-Lori-Testimony-for-House-Judiciary-long-form.pdf:

"Gender equality—because the mandate only pertains to preventive services for women, it requires coverage of tubal ligations, but not vasectomies.

Service to all in need—religious organizations lose their exemption under the 4- part test if they primarily serve those outside their faith, giving the organizations a strong incentive to curtail their work for the neediest in society.

Freedom of choice—people and groups that are still forced by government to fund and facilitate sterilization and contraception over their religious objections have  no choice.

Separation of church and state—the mandate has the government both interfering with the internal affairs of religious organizations, and favoring some religious  organizations over others by means of the restrictive 4-part test.

...

Thus, although HHS will brook no dissent regarding whether sterilization and contraception, including abortifacients, must be covered as “preventive services,” HHS is essentially indifferent regarding what is—or is not—mandated as an “essential health benefit.”  As a result, genuinely indispensable items under the important rubrics listed above may well be omitted from coverage, depending on the policy preferences of each state.  By contrast, states have no such discretion with respect to sterilization, contraception, and abortifacients—these must be covered, even over religious objections in many cases.

Taking just one example of “essential health benefits”—prescription drugs—the  state may define this category to require coverage of cancer drugs, AIDS drugs, and other life-saving treatments.  But HHS has no quarrel with a state that decides not to require coverage of drugs like these.  By contrast, HHS requires that state to cover drugs that, according to respected medical studies and the drugs’ manufacturers, may increase women’s risk of suffering from breast cancer, stroke and AIDS."

Here are some articles that address the effectiveness of Obama's plan for ruling the world, (and indeed that is what he is attempting... I am confused at how willingly people followed that ploy):

Philpott, A., Knerr, W., & Maher, D. (2006, December 2). Promoting protection and pleasure: amplifying the effectiveness of barriers against sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy. Lancet. pp. 2028-2031. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69810-3.

This study shows that contraceptives vary in effectiveness. Anywhere from 60%-95% effectiveness for preventing STD's, where 95% is not the mean but instead an outlier... In addition to this the number abortions have doubled in Spain as a result of easy access of contraceptives in their society.

http://www.lifenews.com/2011/01/03/study-abortions-double-in-spain-despite-increased-contrapcetion/

Now someone is bound to say, and indeed they have, that "the study was flawed because our societies are different", to which I say the following: the way a study works is simple. You introduce a variable that is not typically there and you watch the effects after adding that variable. This has been the method for science for quiet some time now, we cannot continually play the "science is not fool proof" card only now that the Catholic Church has entered the boxing ring. It would be like giving all boxers boxing gloves and the Catholic Church a pillow. I think it is time that we call out the contradictions of the media and its stance that science is fool proof when it is convenient, but also fallible when it is also convenient. What happened in Spain is discredited because science is fallible, but contraception is trusted completely because the science is infallible. 

In the situation with Spain, contraceptives were introduced and the abortion rate rose. We need to learn from the mistakes of other nations. The reason I posted this is because a massive wave of liberals have begun attacking the Catholic Church and accusing her of oppressing women. I find the view Ironic because no other institution promotes the dignity of women more than the Catholic Church. Indeed, it is ironic because society oppresses women, not the One, Holy, and Apostolic Catholic Church. 

When Society says that sex should be something that people do freely, the Catholic Church says, "Wait... please, for the dignity of women." We do not want men walking the street talking about how badly they want to go and "bang" another girls. When society says that pornography is a means of entertainment and a right that needs to be provided to the public, it is the Catholic Church that says that society is degrading the value of women and that it needs to stop. When society releases article upon article on the damaging affects of sexualization of women in society to the point where women are discriminated in the work force, are performing worse in school, aren't taken seriously in society, and are payed less in the work force, the Catholic Church is the only one that even suggests that we take a stand. Saying that the Catholic Church causes any of these problems is like saying slim fast causes obesity because people don't like to drink things that make them healthy.  =/

I will end this with a quote by G.K. Chesterton. "Society is becoming a secret society. The modern tyrant is evil because of his elusiveness. He is more nameless than his slave. He is not more of a bully than the tyrants of the past; but he is more of a coward."

The Catholic Church and Oppression Against Women Part I

So I know, it has been awhile since I posted last. I guess. But, I read a blog today that accused the Catholic Church of being patriarchal and that woman were only to be used as children bearing machines. He accused the Catholic Church of oppression against women. I kind of blinked… a lot. There are just so many ways to analyze this, here is one of many blogs on the Catholic Church and Oppression against women.

My first angle comes from the family life. What should happen in a family dynamic if said family has a child?

1.     Have a stay at home dad. (Wow, I literarily shuttered at the thought of that.)

2.     Have a stay at home mom.

3.     Day Care

4.     Leave the child at a zoo with nothing but a lazer gun and hope that wolves truly can raise children. (see Day care)

As a developmental psychology major we talk a lot about what works and what doesn’t in parenting. Let me just say that who ever is going to stay home with the child, in order for it to help the Childs confidence and promote the optimum psychological state of health, the provider must stay at home with the child for at least the first 4 years of its life. This is an undisputed psychological fact. I won’t bore you with the countless reasons why, but lets just say they will be severely emotionally challenged if they don’t. Justifiably so, many highly acclaimed psychologists and teach for America even, believe that the time period where the child develops much of who they are happens before the age of 7.

So we know the early stages of childhood are crucial to a child’s understanding of the world. How do we apply that? Many liberalist will say that women should give birth to children, and then, have the fathers stay at home, or put them in day care, or even more laughable, go to work and just forget about it. Lets explore each of those.

Women are more capable of soothing their children with Oxytocin that is released during breast feeding, breast feeding also reduces the chance of breast cancer by roughy 90%, and children recognize and are naturally comforted from their mothers voice more than any other voice. Scientists think this is because it is the first voice they heard since the mothers voice would have been all they could hear during the 9 months in the mother’s womb. What does that mean for guys? I’ll tell you. It means that you have literarily no means of calming a baby that is crying and soon you will be all too able to identitfy with Arnold Schwartzenager in Kindergarten Cop.

Children who are simply put into day care without a consistent provider to turn to for the first 3 years, come to resent their parents and develop emotionally short of those who had a consistent provider (Consistently at home for 3 years... which is why developmental psychologists say, make maternity leave longer, or there is no point in giving it.)

This is where liberalist say, But but—women will be independent and they… will have super powers and… they will be happier! If by super powers you mean they will report  feeling that they did not understand their roles and had a greater incidence of depression.  Then yes, they will have that. Most women who worked and were mothers for their children reported as not having enough time and not having enough time to be a wife and mother, and this identity conflict caused them to feel depressed.

Now, I am not saying that women should never work in their lives. I think that they should and If a family is struggling and they need the income they should go for it. I have also read that women who worked after their children are in school reported having the highest satisfaction, had children that developed properly, and reported having a 100% likelihood of having superflying skills, X-Ray vision, and super strength. Let's go super moms!

Let me just end with a quote by John Paul II in Mulieribus Dignitatem, "It is commonly thought that women are more capable than men of paying attention to another person, and that motherhood develops this predisposition even more. The man - even with all his sharing in parenthood - always remains "outside" the process of pregnancy and the baby's birth; in many ways he has to learn his own"fatherhood" from the mother." There is so much more that men have to learn from women, including how to love. As Catholics we embrace an egalitarian society, we acknowledge that women are the forefront of civilization and are the archetype of humanity. We acknolwedge that there are some things that women can definitely do better than men vise versa. What you do with that information is up to you.

Faith and the Impossible

We all have had that situation where we come face to face with the impossible. A great deal of us give up in these situations. That makes sense. I mean if you truly believe it is impossible to accomplish something, then you should give up. It is logical. As Yoda said, we only have two choices, "do or do not, there is no try." Either something is impossible or it isn't. So I am going to try and make another analogy, so bear with me. A general rule of thumb is, if it happened to Luke Skywalker during his quest, then it will happen to us in our journey. So here is a way awesome excerpt from Star Wars. 

Luke: You want the impossible.

Yoda: Raises ship from swamp

Luke: I can’t believe it!

Yoda: That is why you fail.

So why aren’t we all lifting, X-Wings left and right? Perhaps we think like Luke, and believe that, "Yoda" is asking us to do "the impossible." Maybe we believe overcoming our sins is impossible... and so we give up. When I went to confession on Saturday my priest told gave me some great advice "let go of the past" and focus on the first reading. For this lent season he suggested that I focus on God and what he desired for my life. I thought this was a strange thing to emphasize but then I turned to the first reading.

“You burdened me with your sins, and wearied me with your crimes. It is I, I, who wipe 
out, for my own sake, your offenses; your sins I remember no more.” (Isaiah 43:18-19)

That's when it hit me, salvation is a progressive act! At times I think that we think that God won't help us if we fall, I know I fall into that kind of thinking alot. But that is not the case. It is actually alot like the gameplay in World of Warcraft. It is alot of work and it takes alot of time, but eventually, you will get to level 80.  And boy when you do, you will look back and laugh at the days when you were level 20. But even then you need to get new armor and face new challenges. 

God knows that we are trying to make it to level 80 and He just wishes that we would ask Him to power level us! If all of this analogy went over your head because you are not a complete nerd and used to dedicate your life to World of Warcraft... then let me just say that, even in our sin, God still reaches out to us... He never stops loving us even and offers His help. He only wants to help us in the most amazing ways. I think this is why my priest told me, to let go of the past. So many times Jesus calls us and says,

"I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home." (Mark 2:11)

Jesus makes His intentions for humanity known throughout all of scriptures. He reassures us that He loves us, and when He healed the paralytics sin and paralysis, He demonstrated that He can and will forgive us of our sins. However, whenever Jesus calls us to repentance He always says to us, rise go out into the world, or rise go home, or in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah leave and do not turn back or you will be turned to a pillar of salt. I don't know about you guys, but I really appreciate my human form-- and would really, really, prefer to not turn into a pillar of salt... even if it was ony in a symbolic way (whatever that entails.)

In the battle against Sin, it is in the moment we look back, that we fall again. We have to confess our sins and then fix our eyes on God. We have to have faith that God is doing, "something new!" in our lives! This makes the best kind of repentance! Isaiah reminds us that our salvation is in the future, not our past!

“Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!”(Isaiah 43:25)

This is the Christian definition of hope and faith. If every time we fell, we looked up towards God and truly had faith and hope in His magnificent working in our lives, our conversion would be so much easier! I might make another post on this subject alone, but by getting rid of our sin God brings our soul to a point where, we can better understand the revelation of His love that He made clear to us with his redemptive acts. 

The supernatural character of the series of objective acts with which it formally identifies revelation, it recognizes an immediate action of God’s Spirit on the mind of man, preparing, fitting, and enabling him to apprehend and interpret aright the revelation made objectively in the redemptive acts. Warfield, B. B. (2008).

If we don't use that time to ponder His redemptive acts, then we will miss out on one of the greatest opportunities to grow closer to God. In order that you realize how much you would miss out on, lets just say that the only equivalent to not focusing on God after a repentance would be, if you created a time machine and went back in time to when Yahoo, Apple, or Google were first established... then after you arrived, you DID NOT purchase their stocks. Yes, it's that ridiculous. 

(SIde Note:Did I already say that the last mass was the best mass ever? I mean when I got out I felt like I just watched the entire Star Wars series for the frist time! I mean do you know just about every quote I used in this post has been from mass?!?!-- Sorry back to my point)

What determines how long our conversion lasts is, do we turn our gaze towards our sins and say to God as Luke said to Yoda, “you want the impossible!” Or do we turn towards God and look towards His redemptive acts on the cross and have faith in God during the impossible battles we face?

I think its time now for, yes, yes it is. That's right, it's time for yet ANOTHER reference to last Sunday's Mass. 

Collect: Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, always pondering spiritual things, we may carry out in both word and deed that which is pleasing to you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

It is by pondering spiritual things, God, Jesus, His unconditional love for us, that we trust in God and thus become Dragon Warriors able to accomplish the impossible. It is then that we overcome our sins! As I write this, I am undergoing one of the largest conversions of my life. A shift in the very way I look at life. I wrote about it briefly in my last blog, but let me just say that God's forgiveness, mercy, and love is almost too much. Before I was worried how I would balance doing what God wanted for my life while still embracing my role as a Christian man in society--Then I heard this reading about 3 or 4 weeks ago:

"An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord’s affairs—how he can please the Lord. 33 But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— 34 and his interests are divided. " (1 Corinthians 7:34)

I began to throw a fit. I wanted an active role in Catholic society where I could contribute someway and forward the grace of God that has bestowed upon me in my own life. But when I read this, I started thinking, "Ok, thanks for stating the obvious and amplifying the feeling that that had been eating away at my soul..." and went into my "kid temper tantrum mode." (This is a mode that I go into when I either I can't understand scriptures or I can't understand God's will for my life) 

Slowly, and very slowly at that, I realized that the passage also had the solution the this paradox. St. Paul did not want us to worry, he instead states explicitly,

"17 Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them...Keeping God’s commands is what counts.20 Each person should remain in the situation they were in when God called them. ( 1 Corinthians 7:34)

That passage helped me change my life. I repeated the words over and over, live as a believer. Live as a believer. Live as a believer. I kinda wanna say it again... live as a believer! Ok. I am done, for now. A believer has faith and trusts in God. A believer keeps God's Commandments and if he falls, he seeks forgiveness and tries again. It is then necessary as believers after we fall, that we make the big leaps of faith like Tobit, Tobia, Abraham, and become followers of Christ like the apostles who left everything behind for Jesus. If we take leaps of faith without a worry in our heart, then we can trust in God with the little things too. Ironically, this is also how we conquer sin. =0 

Perhaps we still have lingering doubts. Perhaps we think that God will not forgive us and will abandon us for our past sins... But this is not the message of last sunday's readings!

Once I said, "O LORD, have pity on me; heal me, though I have sinned against you."But because of my integrity you sustain me and let me stand before you forever. Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from all eternity. Amen. Amen. (Re sponsorial from Psalm 41) 

Jesus takes the time to forget our sins for our integrity---

"You burdened me with your sins, and wearied me with your crimes. It is I, I, who wipe out, for my own sake, your offenses; your sins I remember no more. (Isaiah 43:24-25) 

So, let's take the opportunity of lent to ponder spiritual things. Let's ponder the profound forgiveness Jesus offers us, and ask ourselves, "what does God desire for my life?" Yes repent of your sins, but, don't just lament about the past, embrace what God calls you to now in the present! Have faith that God is working in your life! The new feeling of letting go of your past sins and placing trust and faith in God will completely change your life in unimaginable ways. Who knows you may even come to find that the impossible is entirely all too possible.

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For Citation Purposes:   Warfield, B. B. (2008). The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield, Volume 1: Revelation and Inspiration (6). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.