UMD NEWMAN CATHOLIC CAMPUS MINISTRY: 10/26/08 Take A Stand

Monday, October 27, 2008

10/26/08 Take A Stand

Homily from the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Will we ignore evil because of a potential good or are willing to be honest and call a spade a spade?
Readings from October 26, 2008:

Exodus 22: 20-26

1 Thessalonians 1:5-10

Matthew 22:34-40

6 comments:

Yes We Can! said...: How dare you attempt to link the words associated with a presidential candiate in America today with acts of evil leader from the past. Shame on you for attempting to create division within our faith and division within our campus community. I will never attend a Newman House activity again while under your direction.; November 5, 2008 at 8:27 AM
Anonymous said...: Father,
Did you really mean to compare President-elect Obama to Adolf Hitler in this homily? Was that your intent and point?

Heather; November 10, 2008 at 4:17 PM
Anonymous said...: Wow...I heard you compared Sen. Obama to Hitler. And sure enough...there it is.

I can't imagine what you were thinking. To disagree is one thing, to compare him to the atrocities of Hitler...interesting way to communicate faith, and the Gospel.

I wish you peace,
Craig Kramer
UMD; November 10, 2008 at 9:51 PM
UMD Newman said...: There have been some comments on a homily from a few weeks ago, "Take A Stand". Some people were concerned about an allusion I made between the state of affairs in Nazi Germany and our present situation. I hope that I was clear enough in that allusion.
Before anything else: I believe that a homily is rarely (if ever) the last word on a topic. I believe that the homily is the first word. This means that people will be willing to engage in a dialogue after the homily and consider its merits and faults. I appreciate the people who have indicated their desire to dialogue.
The homily I gave was meant more as an indictment on the choices that we make. Will we ignore evil because of a potential good or are willing to be honest and call a spade a spade?
As I said, while Hitler was responsible for the deaths of millions, he did this while ordinary people looked the other way. President-Elect Obama wants to advance the wholesale slaughter of unborn babies in his presidency (see reason #5). I know that that is a charged statement. Here is an even more charged statement from Professor Robert P. George:

"Barack Obama is the most extreme pro-abortion candidate ever to seek the office of President of the United States. He is the most extreme pro-abortion member of the United States Senate. Indeed, he is the most extreme pro-abortion legislator ever to serve in either house of the United States Congress."

Robert P. George is a professor of jurisprudence at Princeton University. If you are interested in discovering why this man would make such a claim about our President-Elect, I invite you to read his article in full, "Obama's Abortion Extremism".

You can find it at:
http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/abortion/ab0139.htm

In it, George demonstrates that:
1) President-Elect Obama wants to repeal the Hyde Amendment which allows pro-life Americans to avoid paying for abortions with tax dollars.
2) President-Elect Obama has promised that "the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act". FOCA gives a mother the right to kill a fully developed child in her womb up until the final stages of pregnancy. What is more, it would wipe out virtually all Federal and state restrictions on abortion, including parental consent laws and laws which protect health-care workers who choose not to participate in abortions. (Does this sound like freedom of choice?)
3) President-Elect Obama condemned the ban on partial-birth abortion. In case there is any wonder at what partial-birth abortion is: the baby is placed in the breech position (feet to be delivered first). The baby is delivered while only the head of the baby is kept inside the mother. A doctor inserts a scissors into the base of the child's skull, opens the scissors and sucks out the baby's brain, collapsing the skull and killing an innocent child.
For more information, please watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9fCITIyyo4&watch_response
Now, a person might respond and say that President-Elect Obama has his reasons for opposing a ban on partial-birth abortions as protecting the health of the mother. But are we really so confused that we would say, "Suck out this person's brain so that another person might live"?
4)President-Elect Obama is not Pro-Choice. He is Pro-Abortion. He has neither endorsed not offered his support for the Pregnant Women Support Act, which would provide assistance for women in crisis pregnancies. He often stated that no woman makes these choices lightly (very true!), and that he trusts her to make the right choice. But how many women facing abortion are free? Most are scared and feel trapped. Obama would not stand behind legislation that would actually give them help if they chose life. That isn't "choice".
5) Obama has "co-sponsored a bill that would authorize the large-scale industrial production of human embryos for use in biomedical research in which they would be killed." The connection with Hitler and Himmler? They also performed experiments on human beings in which the consequence was often death. What does it say when our leader (and he IS now the leader of my country and I owe him his due respect) de-values life to such a degree?
6)As George put it: "It gets worse yet. In an act of breathtaking injustice which the Obama campaign lied about until critics produced documentary proof of what he had done, as an Illinois state senator Obama opposed legislation to protect children who are born alive, either as a result of an abortionist's unsuccessful effort to kill them in the womb, or by the deliberate delivery of the baby prior to viability. This legislation would not have banned any abortions. Indeed, it included a specific provision ensuring that it did not affect abortion laws. (This is one of the points Obama and his campaign lied about until they were caught.)"

These are just a few reasons why I would compare the principles of Hitler with the principles of our current President-Elect: they seem to refer to some life as "life unworthy of life". Now that President-Elect Obama has been chosen to be our next President, I sincerely hope he recognizes his responsibility to protect all human life. If he doesn't, he will be no better than a Hitler.; November 19, 2008 at 10:33 AM
Anonymous said...: Thank you Father for speaking the truth. Abortion is murder. Abortion of 50 million of our children is genocide. I am reminded of Pope John Paul II's comment. "A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope." I pray that we do have the courage to live our faith and do not ignore the holocaust we have right here.; November 24, 2008 at 5:58 PM
Anonymous said...: Thanks for speaking the truth Father!; November 26, 2008 at 9:26 PM

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Monday, October 27, 2008

10/26/08 Take A Stand

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