About

Mae govannen, mellon nin! ;)
My name's Gene: I write, take pictures, play music, & think about things. DFTBA!
- The world & culture through a Catholic lens.
- I blog as a personal exercise to write more, think clearer, & (most importantly) help me in my desire to grow closer to Christ. I hope you are encouraged & strengthened in your walk, too!
- Patron saints: St Athanasius, St Francis de Sales, St Thomas Aquinas, Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati, GK Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, Flannery O'Connor, CS Lewis, & JRR Tolkien.
Wanna Ask me something? Awesome! Scroll down for an ask link! NOTE: If you're going to use my Ask Box, PLEASE be RESPECTFUL! Think of it as if you're being invited into my home. If you're a jerk to me, you get what you get. Fair Warning!

Looking for something specific?

 
“
In other words, contemporary liberalism offers religious groups a choice. They can try to serve the widest possible population, in which case a liberal administration will set rules that force them to violate their conscience. Or they can serve a narrower one, in which case liberal journalists will sneer at them (and their most generous benefactors) for only caring about their co-religionists. ”
—

Religious Giving and Its Critics - NYTimes.com  Ross Douthat (via ayjay)

Yes. This is exactly the situation the Obama administration has put the Catholic Church, & all Christians, in with the mandate to provide healthcare coverage that includes contraceptives & sterilization to everyone in their employ.

This is how it begins. It’s how it began in pre-Revolution France, & the England of Henry VIII & Elizabeth I, with members of the Church being forced to decide between their faith & their government (which didn’t go well for priests & religious in either case). It’s how the Church was treated in Mexico in the early 20th Century (Blessed Miguel Pro, anyone?). It’s how things began for Christians in Hitler’s Germany (so many examples but we’ll start with Sophie Schall, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, & St Maximillian Kolbe). It’s what’s being done to Christians now in China.

Look … I’m not trying to use scare tactics here. This is not about the politics of fear. This is very real. This is about freedom. It’s just a fact that what seems like a very small thing will lead to much larger things we could never have foreseen. If they take away our freedom of conscience, they’ll take away yours soon enough. It’s just how it works. But, please don’t believe me - look at the historical record.

To quote Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

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

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

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

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

This is just the first step. How far will we allow it to go?

(via restlesshippo)

2012.01.31  10:17am  ∞

Post Notes

  1. moochiethinks reblogged this from restlesshippo and added:
    Yes. This is exactly the situation the Obama administration has put the Catholic Church, & all Christians, in with the...
  2. restlesshippo reblogged this from quaerere-deum
  3. quaerere-deum reblogged this from ayjay
  4. jron reblogged this from ayjay and added:
    OR, they (Christian groups anyway) can follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, and focus on serving “the least among you,”...
  5. ayjay posted this

Links

◄      ►
RSS
a Tumblr theme by Robert Boylan