Moral Side

Catholic Bishops Fight Back Against Health Care Mandates

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a “call to action to defend religious liberty” and is urging lay individuals to strive to protect the First Freedom of the Bill of Rights.

In a news release on Thursday (April 12, 2012), the USCCB stated that it is calling upon dioceses to pursue a “religious liberty fortnight” from June 21^st through July 4^th, a special period of prayer for religious liberty. The bishops have published a document entitled, “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty,” in which they assert:

We are Catholics. We are Americans. We are proud to be both, grateful for the gift of faith which is ours as Christian disciples, and grateful for the gift of liberty which is ours as American citizens. To be Catholic and American should mean not having to choose one over the other.

We have been staunch defenders of religious liberty in the past. We have a solemn duty to discharge that duty today…for religious liberty is under attack, both at home and abroad.

The document provides some “concrete examples” of how religious liberty is under attack. Among them are:

• The HHS mandate for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs
• State immigration laws which forbid the Church to provide “Christian charity and pastoral care” to undocumented immigrants.
• A 2009 bill put forward by the Judiciary Committee of the Connecticut Legislature that would have forced Catholic parishes to be restructured according to a “congregational model.”
• The University of California Hastings College of Law’s denial of student organization status to the Christian Legal Society.
• The termination of Catholic foster care and adoption services in some cities because the charities refused to place children with same-sex or unmarried couples.

In their document, the bishops quote recently retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who said, in response to the HHS mandate: “I cannot imagine a more direct and frontal attack on freedom of conscience than this ruling today. This decision must be fought against with all the energies the Catholic community can muster.”

To that end, the bishops urge that the fourteen days- or fortnight- from June 21^st- the vigil of the Feasts of St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More- to July 4^th, Independence Day, be declared a “fortnight for freedom.”

by Dr. Susan Berry (article)

Chris Matthews Explains ‘If You’re Really Anti-Gay, You Become a Catholic Now’ Comment

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews made comments recently that will certainly be taken negatively by some people who embrace the Catholic faith.

“If you’re really anti-gay, you become a Catholic now,“ he reportedly proclaimed during the ”Presidential Leadership Panel,” an event focusing upon politics in America.

Following the panel discussion, which also featured Civil War expert Harold Holzer and presidential historian Michael Beschloss, Scott Whitlock of the Media Research Center asked Matthews — an admitted Catholic himself — to clarify his comment about Catholics and homosexuality.

“Earlier tonight, you were talking about Nixon and the Southern Strategy and bigotry and things like that you and you said, quote, ‘If you’re really anti-gay, you become a Catholic now,’” Whitlock said. “I was wondering if you were saying that bigots become Catholic now and if you wanted to expand or apologize for that?”

Matthews responded, doubling down on his comment, while simultaneously attempting to tempter it.  “I think there are people who have chosen to convert to the Catholic faith because they don’t like the liberal positions taken by their sectarian groups,” Matthews explained. “That’s a fact. So, you can write that down. No, you can write that down.”

Whitlock, though, wasn’t done pushing the issue.  “So, you’re saying Catholicism is drawing bigots? Is that what you’re saying?,” he asked.

“I’m saying that some people who are bigoted against gay people have changed religions,” Matthews answered. “Yes. You got it right.” 

Muslims, Atheists Pressure Military to Remove Christian Speaker

By Todd Starnes

The U.S. Military Academy pressured a retired U.S. lieutenant general to withdraw from speaking at a West Point prayer breakfast after Muslims and atheists complained, Fox News & Commentary has learned.

Retired Lt. Gen. William Boykin was scheduled to deliver a speech at West Point on Feb. 8. But late Monday, the military academy released a statement saying he had decided to withdraw from speaking and would be replaced with another speaker.

However, a source close to the controversy told Fox News & Commentary that Boykin was pressured to withdraw.

“It was very clear they wanted General Boykin to withdraw,” said the source who asked not to be identified. “He asked them to rescind the invitation, but they were reluctant to do that so he said he would take them off the hook.”

Theresa Brinkerhoff, a spokesperson for West Point, told Fox News & Commentary that the U.S. Military Academy “did not decide this for him.”

“After a conversation with our chaplain, Lt. Gen. Boykin decided to withdraw,” Brinkerhoff wrote in an email.

Boykin, a former senior military intelligence officer, had been criticized for speeches he made at evangelical Christian churches where he said that American’s enemy is Satan, that God had put President Bush in the White House and that a Muslim Somali warlord was an idol-worshipper.  He later issued a written statement apologizing and said he didn’t mean to insult Islam.

However, Boykin became a target for atheists and Muslim groups. They launched a campaign to force the military to remove the retired lieutenant general from the West Point prayer event.  “Mr. Boykin’s intolerant views do a disservice to our nation’s longstanding traditions of religious freedom and pluralism and could potentially harm our country’s interests and the security of our troops overseas,” Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, wrote in a letter to the superintendent of West Point. “By providing a platform associated with West Point, Mr. Boykin’s hate-filled rhetoric would receive a level of credibility and legitimacy it does not deserve.”

Awad called Boykin an Islamophobe.  “It gives Islamophobes a platform at the nation’s most prestigious military academy,” Awad told the Associated Press. “And I doubt that they would invite a KKK speaker and claim that they want to expose the students to a variety of opinions.”

CAIR joined VoteVets.org and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation in protesting Boykin’s speech.  Mikey Weinstein, the president of Military Religious Freedom Foundation heralded the military’s move as a victory and called Boykin a “vile Islamophobe.”

“We are deeply saddened that it took a public outcry of this magnitude to cause Boykin to pull out from this event, likely under pressure from within the Pentagon,” Weinstein said in a press release. “Our outcry must not stop – all individuals within the command structure responsible for inviting this vile Islamophobe must be held accountable via courts martial.”

Boykin told Fox News & Commentary that he was extremely disappointed in what has happened.

“I came under attack because there are liberal groups, Islamic groups and atheist groups that want to shut me down because I have been very open about my concerns about the encroachment of Sharia – or Islamic law,” he said.

Boykin said he planned on delivering a speech about the importance of prayer in a leader’s life.  “It was an ecumenical presentation,” Boykin said. “It had nothing to do with Islam.”

Boykin would not comment on reports that he was pressured to step aside, only to say that he considered the commandant of West Point to be a “good friend of mine – and a very good man.”

Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, was outraged by the decision.

“This has gone too far,” Perkins told Fox News & Commentary. “This is a troubling trend that we are seeing under this administration.”

Under the Obama Administration both Perkins and Franklin Graham were disinvited from speaking at military prayer services.

“When you talk to military leaders on the base, they don’t like this,” Perkins said. “There seems to be pressure coming from within the administration to sweep Christianity off the face of military bases.”

Boykin said he doesn’t believe the Obama administration has stood with the traditional values of the nation and he said the incident at West Point should serve as a wakeup call to Christians.

“The message is that people of faith and conservative Americans are losing our voice to a very well-organized and very well-funded group of very passionate people – those being the atheists and the Muslims,” Boykin said. “They want to change the nature of our culture – and they are succeeding.”

Perkins pointed to the Obama administration’s policies banning Christian prayers at National Cemetery in Houston and a ban on Bibles at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

“It’s time Americans realized that while these orders may not have been signed by the president, this environment has been created by him and his policies,” Perkins said.

Boykin accused the Obama administration of not standing with people of faith – “certainly not people of the Christian faith or Jewish faith.”

“If there has been support in this administration for faith it has been more skewed towards the Islamic faith than anything else,” Boykin said.

Perkins said the biggest and most troubling concern is how Boykin has been treated.

“The man they have disinvited is a true American hero who has spilled his own blood on foreign soil for this country,” Perkins said. “He has done so much to defend the ideals and the freedom that American stands for. Yet his own freedoms – that he fought to protect for others – have been taken from him.”

Topics for "The Moral Side of the News" Airing Sunday, November 6, 2011

"The Moral Side of the News" is broadcast on WHAS-TV in Louisville, Kentucky at 5:30am on Sunday and on cable Faith-TV at 12:00nn on Sunday. The program is also broadcast on several radio stations in the Louisville area at either 7:00am or 7:30am Sunday, and at 9:30pm Sunday on WHAS Radio 840am.

The program is taped at 1:00pm on Thursdays at the WHAS-TV studios. Persons wishing to view the taping need to contact the Crusade for Children office or one of the panelists.

Here are the topics for this coming Sunday:

Gubernatorial candidates prepare for final debate

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear is scheduled for a rare debate with two well-known Kentucky politicians who want to take his job in the Nov. 8 election.

The 90-minute faceoff, being broadcast statewide on Kentucky Educational Television beginning at 8 p.m. Monday, will give Republican David Williams and independent Gatewood Galbraith a final opportunity to confront Beshear in person.

It will be only the second debate between the three attorneys, and it comes with just more than a week remaining before Election Day.

University of Louisville political scientist Laurie Rhodebeck said the public television debate isn't likely to sway a race in which Williams trails by some 30 percentage points and Galbraith by 50.

"I don't think it will matter because of Beshear's lead and what seems to be the public's entrenched negative view of Williams," Rhodebeck said. "If Williams can make himself likable in 90 minutes that might be helpful."

Williams, the long-time president of the state Senate, is aware of the negative perception people have of him, but he blames it on political opponents who have portrayed him as a bully. Galbraith, a Lexington attorney, is hoping voters will get so turned off by the enmity between Beshear and Williams that they will vote him into office.

WATCH VIDEO: http://www.whas11.com/home/Candidates-for-Ky-Governor-take-stage-for-debate-Monday-night-132975048.html

WATCH VIDEO: http://www.whas11.com/great-day-live/video/Joe-Arnold-dissects-gubernatorial-campaign-ads-131334654.html

Williams criticizes governor for ceremony

SHELBYVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Republican gubernatorial candidate David Williams is criticizing incumbent Gov. Steve Beshear for taking part in a ceremony that marked an Indian company's entry into Kentucky, bringing with it 250 jobs.

Williams told a very small gathering at a Republican rally on Tuesday that the incumbent Democrat should not have participated in the ceremony in Elizabethtown with officials from Flex Films, which is building a $180 million manufacturing plant in the central Kentucky city.

In a news release Friday, the state characterized the event as a blessing ceremony that is traditional in India for new homes, businesses or other facilities.

But Williams told reporters the ceremony featured Hindu priests and prayers and said he would have merely attended, rather than actually participated in, the event.

Williams cited his Christian background. Beshear is the son and grandson of Baptist preachers.

QUESTION: What are your thoughts on the gubernatorial campaign and upcoming election? What are your thoughts on the criticism Gov. Beshear is receiving for participating in the ceremony with Hindu priest?

National Guardsmen struggle to find civilian employment

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11)— With Kentucky's unemployment rate hovering well above nine percent, there's a big push to get residents back to work. This is especially true for National Guardsmen and their families.

Private First Class Robert Mattingly of the Army National Guard is struggling to find a stable job.

“I haven’t been able to find a job until I got a seasonal position,” Mattingly said.

He currently works as a packer for an online shopping company for $9 an hour when he is not active with the Army National Guard. He says he needs a better job to support his future wife and family and that's why he came to a jobs workshop held for members of the

Second Battalion 138th Field Artillery Regiment.

Right now, 22 percent of the Second Battalion is unemployed. Workshop organizers say, if guard members move to other states for employment, it could cause a problem during an emergency crisis in Kentucky.

“If the soldiers have to move out of state to seek employment and they're living in Chattanooga or New Brunswick or Detroit or Orlando, they're not readily available to respond,” Philip Miller of Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve said.

Today's workshop drew service members from new recruits to long time vets like Staff Sgt. Mike Hatfield who has been in the guard for 18 years. He is a fire fighter in Bardstown in the civilian world.

“It’s a small fire department,” said Hatfield. “Until the chief and deputy chief all retire I’m pretty much stuck for the next five ten years at the job I’m at now.”

WATCH STORY: http://www.whas11.com/home/National-Guardsmen-struggle-to-find-civilian-employment-133023543.htmlBoehner.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/11/boehner-gop-blame-senate-democrats-for-stalling-economic-recovery/

QUESTION: What are your thoughts on this? What about the continuous bickering between Republicans and Democrats in Congress?

LMPD chief talks about upcoming departure

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11)— Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Robert White spoke about his decision to leave Louisville after almost 9 years at a press conference on Tuesday. White has taken a new job as the police chief in Denver, Colo.
Chief White says while he doesn't think the work in the metro is done, he is confident in the department he is leaving behind.
White says this new job in Denver was an opportunity he couldn't pass up even though he and his wife love living and working here in Louisville.
“Denver absolutely approached me. I had made a commitment that I was not pursuing any other jobs as a police chief… But they approached me and they approached me relatively aggressively and after conferring with my wife and looking at where we were as a police department, I just thought it would be a good time to move on,” he said.
Chief White says his last day will be sometime in early December. He says before he leaves, he wants to thank the people who have supported him, his family and his police department.
White would not comment on a possible successor or who he would like to see in that position.

WATCH VIDEO: http://www.whas11.com/home/LMPD-chief-talks-about-upcoming-departure-133027368.html

Chief White makes his way to Colorado

Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11)- Louisville's Mayor says the process is already underway to find a new chief of police.

Chief Robert White announced Friday he will be taking a new job in Denver, Colorado.
White has been Chief in Louisville since 2003.

One of his goals then, was the same as it is now in Denver, to improve the relationship between police and the community, it has been strained in Denver.

This weekend he was officially introduced in Colorado. “I first wanted to thank the mayor for having the confidence in selecting me..will not disappoint you,” says White.

Chief White says he's achieved everything he could here, and will always remember his time in Louisville. His last day will be sometime in December.

WATCH VIDEO: http://www.whas11.com/home/Chief-White-makes-his-way-to-Colorado-132911848.html

WATCH VIDEO: http://www.whas11.com/community/Ask-the-Mayor-Police-Chief-Robert-White-leaving-Louisville-133007183.html

QUESTION: What are your thoughts on Chief White leaving LMPD? What characteristics do you think the next police chief should have? And what should his/her priorities be coming into the position?

Illinois Excludes Roman Catholic Agency from Providing Adoption Services and Foster Care over Same-Sex Unions

Illinois ended its contracts with Catholic Charities this summer after passing a law recognizing same-sex civil unions. The state had informed the organization, an arm of the Roman Catholic Church, that its policy of limiting foster and adoptive parents to heterosexual married couples violates the new civil unions law. Three major Illinois dioceses sued the state, arguing that religious adoption agencies have specific protection under the civil unions law, which is titled "The Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act." On August 18, a county judge in Illinois rejected the lawsuit of Catholic Charities.

In recent years Catholic Charities has handled twenty percent of the state's foster care and adoption caseload. Now Catholic Charities will need to find other organizations to provide for the 2,000 foster children in its care.

Canadian Anglican Congregations Have Facilities Confescated for Opposition to Same-Sex Unions

Four Anglican churches in Vancouver lost their buildings when the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear their appeal. Back in November, 2010, a lower court had ruled that their properties - worth $20 million-belong to the Anglican Church of Canada, not to the local congregations. The four churches, one of which is the largest Anglican church in Canada, left the denomination in 2008 over the blessing of same-sex unions. A spokesperson for the four congregations said, "We've always said from the [beginning] that we might have to choose between our faith and our buildings, and we choose our faith."

Christian Pastor in Iran Faces Execution

A house-church pastor in Iran could face execution this fall if he does not recant Christianity for Islam. A lower court had sentenced 33-year-old Youcef Nadarkhani to death for apostasy, but the Supreme Court partially retracted that sentence. Instead, it sent Nadarkhani's case back to a lower court to examine what faith he was raised in. His lawyer has been sentenced to nine years in prison for acting against the Muslim regime. This execution would be Iran's first for apostasy since 1990.

Top Five Issues for 2011

What are the issues facing our communities, nation, and world in 2011.  I have identified five areas that shall be at the forefront in 2011.  The overarching theme for these five issues is the continuing assault on Western culture, values, and democracy.  I welcome your comments.

1. The Assault on the Foundational Values of the American Nation.  The values of the American Nation are threefold:  "Liberty," "E Pluribus Unum," and "In God We Trust."  If these sound familiar, they are printed on our coins.  These values are under assault.  Liberty, or equality of opportunity, is being replaced as a primary value by Equality, or the guaranteed equal outcome.  E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one), is being replaced by political correctness and divisive diversity.  In God We Trust, or faith in God, is being replaced by trust in government and an anything-goes I-can-co-what-I-want approach to morality.  Issues within this general area will be family, abortion, protection of children, education, marriage, drug-abuse, and religion in society.
2. The Conflict with Middle Eastern Fascism and Asian Communism.  Western Democracy has always opposed and been in conflict with systems that enslave and diminish human beings.  Western Democracy has defeated European Imperialism, European Fascism, European Communism, and Middle Eastern Imperialism in the Twentieth Century.  The conflicts for 2011 and for the Twenty-First Century are Middle Eastern Fascism (e.g., Iran), Asian Fascism (North Korea), and Asian Communism (China).
3. Border Security and Related Issues.  Illegal immigration, the smuggling of drugs and human beings across the border, protection against terrorists, cyber-terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and the current administrations lethargic and clumbsy response to these problems are a major area of concern for 2011.  One of the primary tasks of the federal government is protection of its citizens.
4. Economic Strains in the US and Western Europe.  This area includes the collapse of Western European socialism.  In the US there are the continuing conflicts over health care, taxation, national and individual debt, unemployment, and bailouts of large companies and state and local governments.  The uncertainties of the housing and financial markets are adding to the problems.  No longer will we be able to assume (or hope) that governments will be able to take care of every problem.
5. Transformation of the Christian Church.  I list this area of interest not because it is the least.  Indeed, it is the most significant, but will occur over a long period of time.  I list it last because it is something we can see God at work and join Him.  It is the NewReformation.  Mainline denominations (including Roman Catholicism) are collapsing under the weight of their bureaucracies.  Those organizations who focus on survival of the institution instead of continuation of the mission are fading.  Just as the Reformation of the 1500s and 1600s brought new life and new understanding of the Church and was fueled by new technology (the printing press); so too will this New Reformation bring new life and new understanding fueled by the Internet.  Denominational "brand names" will become less important.  The focus will shift from social issues to witnessing.  Organizations and ministry will become decentralized and local.  Mid-sized churches will disappear.  Small fellowships, para-church organizations, and mega-churches with satellites (mini-denominations) will flourish.