If You Don't Like History, Rewrite ItAs most people are aware, Nancy Pelosi demonstrated on Sunday that one of her gifts, as Archbishop Chaput of Denver said on Monday, is not expertise in Church History.
Of course, the Speaker of the House couldn't be more incorrect, as several Roman Catholic bishops (most notably Archbishop Chaput, Archbishop Wuerl of Washington, and now Cardinal Egan, among others). One doesn't have to look far within the early Church to find repeated and pointed condemnation of abortion, beginning with the Didache, ca the mid 60's (as in first century).
Chapter 2. The Second Commandment: Grave Sin Forbidden. And the second commandment of the Teaching; You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is born. You shall not covet the things of your neighbor, you shall not swear, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not speak evil, you shall bear no grudge. You shall not be double-minded nor double-tongued, for to be double-tongued is a snare of death. Your speech shall not be false, nor empty, but fulfilled by deed. You shall not be covetous, nor rapacious, nor a hypocrite, nor evil disposed, nor haughty. You shall not take evil counsel against your neighbor. You shall not hate any man; but some you shall reprove, and concerning some you shall pray, and some you shall love more than your own life.
Abortion The Church from the very beginning of existence has sought to protect "the life in the womb" and has considered abortion as a form of murder in its theology and canons. Orthodox Christians are admonished not to encourage women to have abortions, nor to assist in the committing of abortion. Those who perform abortions and those who have sought it are doing an immoral deed, and are called to repentance. For a good read on the Orthodox view, here is an Amicus Curiae brief submitted by the Orthodox Church in the case of Webster v. Planned Parenthood. I only hope (but doubt) that Archbishop Demetrios takes the opportunity to address this during the prayer he offers later today. There is no doubt, by any person rationally looking at the facts, that the Church has always been against abortion, that it views such as murder (okay, Rome may have waffled at times over whether it was merely gravely sinful or murder, but there was never time when it was acceptable). What is more distressing, perhaps, than Speaker Pelosi's comments, were Obama's comments from the interview at Saddleback held by Rick Warren. Obama claims that deciding when a baby is deserving of human rights is above his pay grade. I would actually agree with that. However, once I decide that such decisions are above my pay grade (and they are), wouldn't the only rational approach be to err on the side of the baby? That is, if you are unwilling to look to God and His Church to make the determination. Apparently, Obama disagrees. I am utterly astounded by this. If he applies this ethical standard elsewhere, can you imagine the results? "Yes, go ahead and drop a bomb on that school, since I don't know for a fact that there are children there." I close with the following statement from Cardinal Egan: Anyone who dares to defend that they (unborn babies) may be legitimately killed because another human being "chooses" to do so or for any other equally ridiculous reason should not be providing leadership in a civilized democracy worthy of the name.Yes, I think I'll vote for the dog. Posted: Wednesday - August 27, 2008 at 08:16 AM |
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Total entries in this category: Published On: Mar 11, 2009 11:49 AM |