I’m tired folks. Not because I am a senior citizen or because my back hurts or because I am a cancer survivor. All of that stuff is GOOD. I am tired and worn out from being slapped upside the head because I am Catholic. Yeah–just like all of you here– Catholic. It seems we go along day after day, year after year, and watch and hear our faith denigrated and mocked by a secular world where the slightest hint of a moral boundary professed or defended is ridiculed. God forbid anyone (especially someone who represents our church) attempts to say “NO” to anyone of “modern virtue” who has their own ideas as to what our faith should be.
I am a blue-collar Catholic guy who loves his faith and his church (just like all of you) and that is all there is to it. My three priorities have always been: God, Family, and Country—in that order. But you see, no one ever bothered us about that, right? God bless the framers of the Constitution. Were they SMART. Freedom of Religion–the very first amendment. They knew what kind of lid had to be placed on the pressure cooker of diversity that was to be America. They knew that religion transcended man-made law. It made things either right or wrong. It said yes and no, it gave us a “right thing to do”, it provided a moral compass. Ah, “yes and no”—how archaic to so many in our sophisticated and secular 21st century world. Yet, how beautiful and reassuring to so many others. Such a paradox.
Look, we go to Mass on Sunday and some of us, if possible, might go every day. And then, on occasion, we like to pay a “visit” to our church. It does not matter where the church is located. Anywhere in the world is just fine. They may look different but they are all the same. Jesus is there. For real. We believe that. We know that for a fact. It is a faith thing. We can stop in for five minutes just to say “Hi Jesus” or we can sit for five hours and talk to Him or not talk to Him. He doesn’t care. He’s always happy to visit with us. If anyone has a problem with that—oh well, Freedom of Religion—remember. Faith is that great intangible. Illogical if you have not been given it. Wondrous if you have embraced it.
So, what’s my problem? Well, first of all I thought that we were supposed to live our faith 24/7. I mean, when I leave church, is that it? Haven’t I gone to church to be nourished and reinforced, so when I leave the church and confront the world outside I am prepared to do my best to live up to my beliefs? And now, unprecedented in American history, an administration in power is telling us that when we go OUTSIDE our church we must violate our beliefs under penalty of breaking the law, facing a fine or even imprisonment. They have even suggested that we have declared a “war on women” because we are refusing to give contraception to women. Have THEY LOST THEIR MINDS? President Nixon signed Title X into law in 1970 , 42 years ago, and contraception on demand has been available all over the country ever since.
This first Tuesday of the month blog is supposed to be about ‘writing stuff’. Well, I am writing a little bit different here. I think it is what all of us have to do more of as writers. Write more about our faith that is being held under siege. I am tired of this unrelenting attack on our faith, supposedly being waged under the banner of “virtue”. What a crock. Maybe we should close all the Catholic hospitals and schools, foundling homes, Catholic Charities, the St. Vincent De Paul Society and HIV/AIDS Centers, homes for the deaf and the blind and the homeless. Have they LOST THEIR MINDS? They need to stay out of our faith and we need to, following the example of our bishops, defend it.
LarryPeterson
Larry is a Catholic/Christian author and blogger and posts weekly commentary. His work has appeared in such publications as Zenit from Rome, Aleteia, New Evangelists, Top Catholic Blogs, Big Pulpit, Catholic365.com and others. His first children's picture book, "Slippery Willie's Stupid, Ugly Shoes" was published in 2011. In 2012, his full-length novel, "The Priest and the Peaches" was released. His second novel, "The Demons of Abadon", was released in the spring of 2016. Larry’s latest novel, “Horizon Homeless” was released in ebook format in May of 2017 and the paperback followed on July 27, 2017. Larry belongs to the Catholic Writer’s Guild, The Catholic Writer’s Society, The Knights of Columbus, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He has been an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion for over twenty years bringing communion to the homebound and hospitalized. He lives in Pinellas Park, Florida and his kids and six grandchildren all live within three miles of each other. His first wife died of cancer in 2003. He remarried four years later and became the primary caregiver for his wife, Martha who came down with Non-Hodgins Lymphoma in 2011. The cancer was in remission when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in October of 2014. Sadly and unexpectedly, Martha passed away on March 27, 2017. The writer says, "God has me where he needs me and I try my best to make Him proud. Larry’s blog site is http://www.slipperywillie.blogspot.com You can find more at www.larrypeterson-author.com
Larry, Liz, Jen, Veronica: I so totally agree that this post was well done, not screechy and plenty to contemplate. I am always surprised and saddened when a person claims to be a “lapsed catholic” but follower of Jesus with a “fondness” for Mother Church and responds to “the faithful” with anger and sarcasm. Those things do not go together, are confusing at the least and hypocritical at the most. Almost a total invalidation of their comments that follow. Come into the Church or remain out of the Church but don’t commit the sham of pretending to be middle of the road. As far as “health care” is concerned……pregnancy is not a disease and to couch it as that with the option of destroying life as a “cure” is equally despicable. I don’t know about the interpretation of the “first” amendment but if you stick with the pure text and nothing else it says that the government cannot establish a state religion, nothing more, nothing less nor “imagined” for that matter. It does NOT say religion must be confined to the interior of a building. If you examine the teachings of Jesus, not even so carefully, you find that he practiced religion and teaching about God everywhere but inside of a building. Obama has done a sad thing, we must stand for life, the author of life and the precepts that Jesus brought life everywhere he went and so must we! This is not a matter of pick and choose what works for me, it is literally a matter of life and death in more ways than one. Rome set unwanted babies out and under a tree to die. Where are we in history as a country? Thanks Larry!
Larry,
Thanks for this post and for sharing the link to the Fortnight for Freedom information. I shared it on my art blog (http://goo.gl/bQlY6).
Your post was supposed to be about writing today… and in a sense it was. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press…
Peace and blessings.
Thanks Larry, even though i have never met or seen you, I sense you are a beautiful man. Once again I apologize for my rudeness, and while I myself do not worry so much about what God thinks, I certainly reference my life with Jesus’ teachings and divine that you do the same. Thanks – Lisa
Well Lisa–I am now over my screeching hysterics and I hope we have agreed that we can disagree. I shall leave it at that because I still have time to get to confession. Best wishes and God’s blessings to you always. Larry Peterson
Sorry Jennifer and Larry , but i do get emotional and rude when our Constitution is turned on it’s head. Thank you for the clarifications, although you seem to mix up contraception and sterilization, and at the same time, as a women no less, wade into the murky waters of women’s health care rights with a lot of explanations that frankly confuse me. Maybe I am just stupid but I know this: healthcare is a right not a privilege. Contraception is a basic need for “all” women regardless of faith and with an insignificant amount of exceptions to this premise. The Catholic Church’s medieval notions regarding it are draconian. All health insurers should pay for basic women’s health care rights and it dismays me no end that The Church is aiding and abetting their avoidance of these responsibilities. Lisa
Dear Mr. Peterson. I am sorry that you are tired yet glad that your back pain “is good.” Please take an aspirin while reading this because being chronically slapped in the head can lead to more serious complications. Allow me to tell you that a good Catholic friend sent me this because, although I am a lapsed Catholic, I nevertheless retain a fond nostalgia for Mother Church and some of her teachings, and am a devoted follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Quite frankly, I’m insulted by your injured tone of victimization. Try being a Muslim today and maybe I would slightly agree with you. I don’t understand what you mean by “modern virtue” but it seems a bit of sophistry. I guess 12 years of Catholic school was not enough for me because I came away thinking that Jesus was the persecuted one. Please don’t tell me they have fed some of your congregants to the lions.
I know Catholics despise abortion, which well they should, but your comments here lead me to believe you embrace abortion in your treatment of our Constitution. Let me quote, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” “Freedom of Religion,” is in no way “our” First Amendment. The First Amendment guarantees separation of church and state precisely to prevent the state from interfering in religious matters and conversely, to prevent religions from interfering in policies of the state. You are grievously in error when you claim, regarding our Founders that, “they knew that religion transcended man-made law,” that is simply not true and an insult to our Framers. They modeled our Constitution and Declaration in large part on the writings of John Locke.
When you say, “we go to Mass on Sunday” and “Faith is intangible,” it’s quite beautiful.
Forgive me, but you are damn hysterical when you screech that, “unprecedented in American history,” Obama (who you really mean) “is telling us we must violate our beliefs.” You demonstrate a willingness to massacre truth and reinvigorate your persecution complex. Obama has exempted “Churches” from providing contraception if they so stupidly insist, but has not exempted large religious institutions who exist only by fiat of the American taxpayer dollar. In the case of the Catholic Church, whose majority of workers are none Catholic, and whose Catholic female employees I guarantee you use contraception, Obama thinks their contraceptive needs should be covered. I fear the only way for me to convince you in this is for “you” to have a sex change operation.
When you say, in spite I might point out, (get thee to confession my son) “maybe we should close all the Catholics Hospitals , schools, Foundlings etc.,” you blithely ignore that none of these institutions would exist, as I previously mentioned, without the US taxpayer dollar. Catholic lapses like me, Hindus, Muslims, Janes, Evangelicals, Jews and all the rest, have to pay for these Catholic Institutions, whether we/they like it or not. Just like we have to pay for the Pentagon whether we like it or not. These Catholic institutions are amazing and the country would be at a sore loss without them. What if, Obama stopped funding these institutions to protect the First Amendment….. would you vote for him then?
Sincerely and somewhat in jest, Lisa Torvat, Bronx NY
Lisa,
If the HHS mandate only concerned federally-funded organizations, your argument would be valid.
It does not. It requires every employer, including private businesses, convents, self-insured private employers — everyone, to pay for contraception and sterilization.
Likewise, if the mandate only required that employers provided adequate funding, which would be sufficient to cover these services, but without requiring employers to specifically cover the services by name, there would be no objection from the Catholic Church. This could be done via funding a health care savings account, or simply by mandating a just wage, one of the tenets of Catholic social teaching.
Catholic employers have no desire to babysit their employees and choose their purchases. Rather we wish to pay our employees a fair cash wage, and trust our workers are smart enough and responsible enough to choose how to best spend their funds. (Another Catholic principle: “subsidiarity”.)
Jennifer.
Lisa, now responding to you not as a private Catholic but as the editor of this blog:
1) I assure you, Larry Peterson does not “screech”.
2) Your rudeness is extraordinary.
3) In the interest of free debate, I chose to approve your comment as-written. In the future, please be more civil in how you address others on this blog.
Thank you,
Jennifer.
Please! Can we take a moment to reacquaint ourselves with what the founding fathers meant by separation of Church and State? The founding fathers were not secularists. It was not their intent to forbid religion and purge it from every nook and cranny of our public domain. I don’t know why you seem to think they did. Perhaps they don’t get the difference between secularity and secularism.
Just to be clear, secularity is a matter of fact condition and something very different and distinct from secularism. Secularity is not religious or spiritual in nature. It is not controlled by any particular philosophy nor does it have any particular preference for or against the practice of any religion or philosophy. For this reason secularity is the most important condition for a real separation between Church and State, because it does not seek to persuade. It is simply an understanding that keeps those in government from imposing their will for or against religious matters. It mandates that government should do nothing to exclude religion from public life.
Secularism, on the other hand, is a philosophy; and like all philosophies, it is evangelical in nature. Actually it is akin to atheism. It is the belief that religion along with all its practices and icons should be rejected and excluded from any philosophical or moral system and from all political and civic affairs. It is everywhere at work against God.
As I see it, the “leave your religion inside the building” is how it is in many foreign countries, ESPECIALLY under the rule of Islam. It is how it is in communist countries as well.
Popes in their social encyclicals have condemned both communism and socialism as systems incompatible with living as Catholics. Nothing hidden, the warnings are there.
So, people in this country keep voting for politicians who favor one little bit of socialism or another and bit by bit build what is sliding toward a system in which all Catholics and other Christians must be silenced– as is the logical outcome of replacing Liberty with ANY form of socialism.