ALL Pro-Life Today: JFK's 'Speech on Faith' - The conscience: False dichotomy (Part 2)

Thursday, March 14, 2013 JFK's 'Speech on Faith'----The conscience: False dichotomy (part II) By Fr. Gerald Goodrum, S.T.L. Perhaps the most notorious and oft-quoted example of Senator Kennedy's miscomprehension of a well-formed conscience and the proper disposition of a person of faith from his "Ministerial Association Speech" is the following statement: "I believe in a president whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation, [nor] imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office." In stating that it is neither the right of the president nor of the United States to dictate which religion if any to practice, he is correct and in line with the Constitution. However, he sets up once again another false dichotomy and this time between "private" and "public" regarding the most important issue in the universe: namely, one's faith or lack of faith in God. JFK's formulation is part of the contemporary wellspring of the "split-personality complex" manifested when a politician who is Christian professes to be "personally or privately opposed but publicly for" some gravely immoral issue. Religion as merely a private affair means that one's religious faith has no practical sway on one's thoughts, behaviors, or actions. It means that religion does not teach nor does it shape one's character or inform one's decisions. [ Click here to read more. ]

HEADLINES While world watches Rome, Vatican under attack at UN Washington Times While the world remained intent on catching the first whiff of white smoke at the Vatican----signaling the election of a new pope----it's business as usual at the United Nations. Pro-abortion forces at the UN, aided by mainstream media, are busy attacking any group that resists sexual libertinism. This time, it's the Holy See. The UN is accusing the Vatican of obstructing the completion of a final document by the 57th annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), held March 4−15 this year in New York. In reality, the only thing being obstructed is the ever-present onslaught against life and family in the playground for unfettered social engineering known as the UN, which receives one-fifth of its total budget from American taxpayers. Praying Catholic grandma violently attacked at Planned Parenthood while filming botched abortion incident Operation Rescue A 63-year old Catholic grandmother of 12 was violently attacked yesterday outside the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic in Wilmington, Delaware, as she filmed the fourth abortion injury there in less than five weeks. Earlier in the day Rae Stabosz had been praying outside the Planned Parenthood clinic when a woman and her mother came to the clinic. Rae learned that the woman was suffering complications to an abortion she received on March 8. Rae persuaded them to go to St. Francis hospital where it was discovered that aborted baby body parts, including a leg and foot, had been left behind by the abortionist. The woman required additional surgery and was referred to legal counsel. Rae left Planned Parenthood to attend mass, and when she returned to the Planned Parenthood, she was shocked to see that yet another medical emergency was in progress. As she was filming the incident with her cell phone, a young woman came out of the Planned Parenthood clinic and violently attacked Rae, knocking her down and taking away her phone. Pregnant women are not a zoning issue: Temporary restraining order issued Mauck and Baker, LLC Swift protections came to TLC Pregnancy Services and the young women of Elgin [Illinois] in a federal lawsuit against Elgin's zoning restrictions. TLC claims the zoning laws impair young women's access to the free pregnancy information and services offered through the mobile ultrasound facility. [Yesterday], United States District Court Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan agreed after hearing argument from both sides that TLC is likely to succeed on the merits of its case. The details of the Temporary Restraining Order state that the young women of Elgin are likely to suffer irreparable harm if Elgin's zoning restrictions are applied to deny them access to the free services and support TLC's mobile ultrasound facility provides.