Friday, August 29, 2008

Grand-Slam Home Run

According to Richard Viguerie, the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running-mate "unites the Republican Party and energizes its Conservative base. McCain has chosen to balance his ticket with a principled conservative."

The hugely influential Conservative grassroots leader, said, "Governor Palin’s life story is one of sticking to principle. She is living proof that a person can take on the corrupt political establishment--including corrupt leaders in her own party--and achieve great things.”

Viguerie added, “There’s an old expression in politics: Go along to get along. Not this time. The selection of Sarah Palin is one big kick-in-the-pants to the corrupt establishment in both parties.

“Congratulations to John McCain for hearing and responding to conservatives. Conservatives, the base of the party, have been listless. But, now, nearly all will work enthusiastically for the McCain-Palin ticket. In fact, this is the most enthusiastic conservatives have been since the era for Ronald Reagan.”

He added: “This is a grand-slam home run. Conservatives’ feet haven’t touched the ground since this announcement.”

Sarah Palin's Pro-Life Courage

When columnist Nat Hentoff recommended the little known governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, as perhaps the best choice John McCain could make for his running mate, Hentoff did so on the basis of Palin's remarkable story as the mother of a Down Syndrome child. Contrary to the common practice these days, she chose to have her child, keep her child, and love her child. As a result, Hentoff argued that Palin would be "a decided asset: an independent Republican governor, a woman, a defender of life against the creeping culture of death and a fresh face in national politics."

But, more importantly, he argued, because of her own personal courage, family, and story, "Her presence could highlight Obama's extremist abortion views on whether certain lives are worth living--even a child born after a botched abortion."

Almost no one paid attention to Hentoff's Washington Times op-ed piece last spring--or to his seemingly out-of-right-field recommendation. But the pro-life movement will certainly be grateful that John McCain did pay attention and took the recommendation to heart.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Obamacide

Matt Barber nails it. In his Town Hall online column he explains the horrific reality that underlies Barak Obama's radical pro-abortion worldview.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Martin Niemöller's Lament (Remembered on the Occasion of the Democratic National Convention)

In the 30’s, in Germany,
when they came for the Communists,
I didn’t speak up
because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up
because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the trade-unionists,
and I didn’t speak up
because I wasn’t a trade-unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics
and I didn’t speak up
because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,
but by that time
there was no one left
to speak up.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Joe Biden: Pro-Abortion Catholic

“Barack Obama has re-opened a wound among American Catholics by picking a pro-abortion Catholic politician,” according to, Brian Burch president of the Catholic pro-life organization Fidelis.

American Catholic bishops have made clear that Catholic political leaders must defend the dignity of every human person, including the unborn. Sadly, Joe Biden's tenure in the United States Senate has been marked by steadfast support for pro-abortion policies, programs, and organizations. Indeed, during the most recent Democratic primary campaign Biden affirmed again, “I am a long-standing supporter of Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose.”

In 2004, John Kerry's support for abortion sparked a nationwide controversy over whether Catholics who support legal abortion can receive Communion. The debate was re-activated in 2007 when several bishops criticized Rudy Guiliani, also a pro-abortion Catholic.

“Now everywhere Biden campaigns, we'll have this question of whether a pro-abortion Catholic can receive Communion. Senator Biden is an unrepentant supporter of abortion in direct opposition to the Church he claims as his own. Selecting a pro-abortion Catholic is a slap in the face to Catholic voters,” said Burch.

Biden's own bishop, Bishop Michael Saltarelli of Wilmington, Del., has said that the issues pertaining to the sanctity of human life are the “great civil rights issues of this generation.” He has denounced the notion that politicians can “personally oppose” abortion, but refuse to pass laws protecting the unborn.

“No one today would accept this statement from any public servant: ‘I am personally opposed to human slavery and racism but will not impose my personal conviction in the legislative arena.’ Likewise, none of us should accept this statement from any public servant: ‘I am personally opposed to abortion but will not impose my personal conviction in the legislative arena,’” said Bishop Saltarelli. In fact, he has made it clear that pro-abortion Catholic politicians should refrain from full sacramental communion in the church for however long they remain apostate. “The promotion of abortion by any Catholic is a grave and serious matter. Objectively, according to the constant teaching of the Scriptures and the Church, it would be more spiritually beneficial for such a person to refrain from receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. I ask Catholics in this position to have the integrity to respect the Eucharist, Catholic teaching and the Catholic faithful.”

Thus, Burch concluded, “The American bishops have instructed Catholic voters to consider many issues, but have characterized the defense of human life as 'foundational' and have explained that the issue has a special claim on the conscience of the Catholic voter. This means that a political candidate like Biden, because of his strong support for abortion rights, forfeits any claim for support despite his views on other issues like health care and the economy.”

Friday, August 22, 2008

Pro-Life Tenacity

The moral endurance necessary to stand on principle, regardless of the cost, is not a natural inclination for most of us. Our protective instincts incline us to compromise, to hedge, or to fudge. When push comes to shove most of us would rather waffle, wiggle, and waver than risk the wrath and ire of uncompromising conviction. Steadfastness in the face of adversity, opposition, or persecution must be nurtured, developed, and encouraged every step along the way:

1. Establish your convictions on the foundation of clear-eyed vision. Vision is the ability to beyond the constraints of present circumstances to the possibilities of the future. It is the hunger to see was is in terms of what ought to be. It is the passion to live life beyond the limits imposed by the tyranny of the urgent. We live in a pragmatic time of expediency, practicality, and sensibility—as a result, the cause of the visionary is all too often seen as little more than a lost cause. Throughout the ages however, wise men and women have seen vision for what it is: the hope of the future, the mainspring of progress, and the provocation for success. It has always been the basis for genuine persistence and passion. It is not possible to be indifferent and to remain steadfast. As Samuel Johnson said, “Indifference in questions of importance is no amiable quality.” It is also no enduring quality. In order to take a stand, we have to stand for something. In order to hold on, we have to hold on to something tangible, substantive, and palpable.

2. Differentiate true principle from mere preference. A principle upon which we stake everything we are and everything we do cannot simply be a matter of penchant, prejudice, or preference. It can’t simply be a matter of taste or style. It must be rooted in unchanging ideas and unchangeable ideals. It must take the form of an absolute. It must be part and parcel with our sense of calling, of duty, or responsibility, and of destiny. According to Samuel Johnson, “The future is purchased at the price of vision in the present.” Thus, we need to make certain that the things we stand for are really worth standing for—much is at stake.

3. Pick your battles. Not everything is worth fighting for. Not every hill is worth dying on. Not every cause is equally worthy of our involvement. We should not feel compelled to stake our lives, honors, and fortunes on every struggle that comes along. According to the great Civil War strategist, Stonewall Jackson, “Picking where and when to fight is almost more important than picking who to fight.” We need to know that a particular battle is worth waging in the first place—but also, what the most appropriate time and place might be in order to engage in it. We must be wise as serpents as well as innocent as doves. We must be good strategists. Sometimes, of course, our battles pick us. We don’t always have the luxury of scheduling sickness or adversity. But even when the battles come unbidden, we have a whole host of choices. And our ability to persevere in the midst of the raging storm is often dependent on our discernment about what matters most—and when it matters most.

4. Know that you may lose a battle. To lose a battle is not to say that you were necessarily wrong to undertake it in the first place. Sometimes lost causes are precisely the right causes. If we measure principle by pragmatism, then our principles are more than a little hollow. “Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning,” George Eliot once said, “but give me the man who has the pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing. That’s my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than a defeat.” Standing by your principles is actually reward enough in and of itself. If turns of events justify your confidence and confirm your conviction with success, then all the better. But it is far more preferable to take a stand for that which is right even in defeat, than to compromise the things that matter most even if in triumph.

Tenacity is an essential pro-life virtue. Indeed, it is an essential Biblical virtue in the midst of this poor fallen world.

Weighed Not Counted

Men ought always to be weighed, not merely counted.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Disqualified

If determining just when and for whom basic civil rights belong really is above Senator Obama's pay grade, as he himself has now openly and brazenly confessed, then surely he is disqualified from any consideration as the next president of the United States.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

James Talmage Describes the Killer Angel

"Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light!"
 2 Corinthians 11:14

Sin, crawling out of the ditch of poverty and shame, 
has but few temptations. Poets and painters have portrayed Satan as a hideous
creature--with horns and hoofs. If I were a poet, I 
would describe him with . . .

Manners polished to the last perfection;
Hair flowing in graceful ringlets;
Eye glistening with splendor;
Hands soft and diamonded;

Step light and graceful;
Voice mellow as a flute;
Conversation articulate and eloquent; 

Breath perfumed until it would seem that nothing had ever touched his lips, but balm and myrrh.

But I would simultaneously unmask his heart; I would describe its encasement with the scales 
of a monster, filled with . . .

Pride;
Beastliness of lust;
Recklessness;
Hypocrisy;
Death;
Damnation!

But, until unmasked, I would describe him as nothing but 
myrrh, and balm, and ringlet, and diamond, and flute-like 
voice, with pleasant and mirthful conversation.



"So that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are very
 familiar with his evil schemes." 2 Corinthians 2:11

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Obama: Postmodernist

Asked to define "sin," Illinois Senator Barak Obama replied, "Sin is being out of alignment with my values."

Huh? Oh my! Is this hopeless ignorance or brazen arrogance or some malignant amalgamation of the two?

Jonah Goldberg answers brilliantly in his USA Today op-ed today. It is must reading for any Obama-leaning voter.