Majority of Americans see abortion as morally wrong

-- On the eve of the 37th anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion throughout the United States, a new survey shows a strong majority of Americans believe abortion to be "morally wrong."

"Millennials" (those 18-29) consider abortion to be "morally wrong" even more (58%) than Baby Boomers (those 45-64) (51%). Generation X (those 30-44) are similar to Millennials (60% see abortion as "morally wrong"). More than 6 in 10 of the Greatest Generation (those 65+) feel the same.

The most recent Knights of Columbus – Marist survey – conducted in late December and early January – is the latest in a series of such surveys commissioned by the Knights of Columbus and conducted by Marist Institute for Public Opinion. In October of 2008 and July of 2009, the survey has

been tracking an increasing trend toward the pro-life position – a trend confirmed by Gallup and Pew surveys in mid-2009. K of C – Marist surveys are available online at www.kofc.org/moralcompass.

"Americans of all ages – and younger people in even greater numbers than their parents – see abortion as something morally wrong," said Supreme Knight Carl Anderson. "America has turned a corner and is embracing life – and in doing so is embracing a future they – and all of us – can be proud of."

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Coming Home

A Gay Christian Speaks to Fundamentalists

Jonathan Odell

Last year I got a call from an administrator at a Midwestern seminary with a reputation for its “take no prisoners” conservative theology. He had permission to conduct a series of seminars on hot-button issues like abortion, stem-cell research, and gay marriage. His plan was to bring in a succession of speakers, one to take the pro side of an issue, followed by a second to present the opposing view.

I took a deep breath. I knew what was coming next. “We want you to take the pro side on homosexuality,” he said.

“Yippee,” I thought. “I get to argue for Satan.” So I asked him, “Why me?” Why me indeed... “The administrator pleaded his case. “I want you to come here not only because you’re gay, but because you’re religious. You’ve obviously held on to your spiritual beliefs.”

I didn’t tell him I’d been able to retain my faith by steering clear of the hateful fundamentalists that universities like his turned out. Instead, I lied and told him I’d think about it. “Well, I can’t blame you if you say ‘no,’” he added. “In fact, I might lose my job over asking you. But I think it’s worth it.”

...I decided I would say no to the request, but I couldn’t tell my contact that I was really declining his invitation because I was terrified of being rejected. After all, I was apparently the only homosexual he had come across who actually believed in God, so I had to keep up the image for what to him must be a very select group of gays. So I did what I usually do when I need to make a purely emotional decision appear rational: I turned to Google. I entered the name of the school and the word “homosexuality” into the search engine. My aim was to find a way to blame these fundamentalist Christians for being so hopeless that I wasn’t going to waste my time on them.

The first hit was an anonymous letter, written by one of the seminary’s own students to a gay support group, pleading for help. He wrote about being a Christian, a closeted gay, and suicidal. “From the outside, I appear much like any other student on campus,” he wrote. “I am a Christian, dedicated to my family, my friends, and my academic career. I am also gay. I came close to committing suicide several times, but God had been looking out for me. He had given me one friend on this campus with whom I could be totally honest. I believe that were it not for him, I would not be here today. One day, I hope that we can be seen for who we truly are, as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.”

This student’s poignant testimony of desperation and isolation, his love for a church that rejects him, these brought me back to my own youth. As a boy, I too was desperate for some adult to say, “I know just how you feel. I was afraid, too. But look at me. I survived. So will you.”

Now I couldn’t refuse the invitation without rejecting this young man, and by the same token, rejecting that kid inside me who is still waiting for some adult to stand up for him. I guessed this terrified adult was going to have to do the job for both young men...

When I walked to the podium that night and scanned a room of budding fundamentalist preachers, I discovered the place was only partially filled. Most in the audience were faculty and female students. Hanging in the back was a crowd of young guys who eyed me suspiciously, still deciding whether this talk was for them, and what exactly their attendance might say about their own testosterone levels. I nervously blurted out the first thing that came to my mind: “Hello, I’m the gay guy!” It was meant to be humorous, but the silence was so thorough that I could hear them breathing.

“OK,” I told myself, “don’t be clever. Just tell the truth. If they walk out, they walk out.” I began again. “When I got the invitation to come speak today, it was a no-brainer.” I looked directly at the young men massed in the back of the room: “Not in a million years!” I noticed a few smirks, but at least we shared some common ground. We all would rather be somewhere else.

“I’d like to say I’m happy to be here today,” I continued, “but I’d be starting our relationship with a lie. Right now, you are the folks I grew up with. The folks I fled over thirty years ago and have kept running from: my family, my community, my church. You were my first family, and families know how to wound you the deepest. So today I just need to say I’m not here because I want to convert you, or change you, or sway you, or make you like me. I’m here because whether I like it or not, you are in my life and I need to somehow make peace with that part of my life.”...

Very thought provoking essay on a difficult subject for many Christians. It is definitely worth reading! I particularly liked the author's father statement "I guess both will have to be true". Sometimes congtradictory as it may sound it is the best possible answer!

You can read the entire essay by clicking on "Coming home", at the top of this post, or by going to;
http://commonwealmagazine.org/coming-home

Blessings

Seraph

The day I decided to stop being gay - Times Online

A minor incident in a barber’s shop last week has helped me to realise that I may no longer be gay. Not a fully fledged homo, anyway; perhaps not even a part-timer who helps the team out when it’s busy. It appears I may be going straight.

I was in Tenterden, the Kentish village where I was brought up and to which I have lately returned, working at a nearby aerodrome as a helicopter pilot. I was waiting my turn for a chatty Latvian to apply the hot towels and razor. A handsome young dad entered with a small, fair-haired boy at his side. The man took a seat and hoisted the wide-eyed child proudly on to his knee. The first haircut, I speculated inwardly, as an unfamiliar fatherly glow and feeling of mild envy swept over me. I could not tear my attention away from the mirrored reflections.

From time to time, the dad leant forward as they waited and whispered close to his son’s ear, tenderly kissing his fair head. Touching stuff.But then my eyes lowered and I became transfixed by the sight of the boy’s tiny pink fingers gripping his father’s huge, workman-like fist. And I almost wanted to burst into song.

I think my life changed at that moment...

I absolutely loved this post by a gay airline pilot contemplating fatherhood and the impication of such a desire to his lifestyle.

Life is seldom as simple as we would make it and that applies to the author's depiction of his life and hopes, yet it seems honest and refreshing. He tells his story and, though we are seldom objective when doing so, he comes across as sincere.

I can not help but to smile at his words "I may be going straight" in the same breath as he notices the handsomeness of the young father who brings his son for his first haircut.." . Talk about conflicting desires! But hey, life is complicated and people do evolve! He certainly will not be the first!I for one which him the best!

It is fun reading and the host of reader comments is very interesting.

Blessings

Seraph

The 4th Sorrowful Mystery

The Way of the Cross

How does it feel to be walking towards certain death? Even for the bravest it has to be unsettling! It is the facing of an inexorable and possible painful end, coming face to face with mortality, with the unknown, the sundering of body and spirit, the termination of life as we have known it, a change in the very essence of our humanity. For some death is a plunge into the blackness of non existence, for us through the eyes of faith it is a passage, albeit uncomfortable, from life to life.

The fourth sorrowful mystery invites us to contemplate Jesus carrying his cross, followed by the crowds to the place of the skull, where pain and death awaited. Little is written about his inner struggles that day, though he paused to comfort the grieving women of Jerusalem. His mother and a few loved ones surely followed, in sorrow and disbelief that their beloved and with him the dream of the kingdom of God as they had thought was being destroyed.

Sometimes we forget we too are walking to an end that is certain. This is not a scenario of our own choosing; we do not know the time or the hour. In our distress, we ignore, deny, and distract ourselves from the reality that we too, carrying our cross head to the place of unknown!

May Christ, his mother, angels and saints pray for us that our journey be marked by grace, dignity and peace.

Blessings

seraph

Prayers for All Souls

Father of all, we pray to you for those we love, but see no longer: Grant them your peace; let light perpetual shine upon them; and, in your loving wisdom and almighty power, work in them the good purpose of your perfect will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Almighty God, with whom still live the spirits of those who die in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful are in joy and felicity: We give you heartfelt thanks for the good examples of all your servants, who, having finished their course in faith, now find rest and refreshment. May we, with all who have died in the true faith of your holy Name, have perfect fulfillment and bliss in your eternal and everlasting glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer, 1979

Woman to Lead German Protestants

The Evangelical Church in Germany, the country's main Protestant umbrella body, Wednesday elected a female bishop as its leader. Bishop Margot Kaessmann, 51 is the first woman to lead Germany's 25 million Protestants. She takes over from Wolfgang Huber, 67, who is retiring.

The charismatic Kaessmann, who has been bishop in Hanover for more than 10 years, received 132 out of 142 votes at a meeting of the church in Ulm.

She said after her election that she wanted to work for more social justice and draw more people to the faith with a contemporary church.

Kaessmann made headlines in 2007 when she filed for divorce from her husband of 26 years.

A woman and divorced....Paul is rolling over in his grave!!! Or ...we have truly come a long way in our understanding of grace, ministry and human dignity.

Blessings

Seraph

El Papa y el Padre Alberto...

My Personal Reaction to Vatican Announcement: Reaching Out to Anglicans Who Are Unhappy in Their Church...

Just 5 months ago… When I was received in the Episcopal Church (Anglican Communion) some members of the Catholic media (for example EWTN and ACIPRENSA) highlighted the “great differences” between Episcopalians and Roman Catholics in matters of Theology and doctrine. Others even claimed that I “changed religions” - something which I consider absurd – since we profess the same creed and share the same Apostolic roots and tradition. Now, with this latest Vatican announcement, the Roman Catholic Church is saying that Anglicans who unite to Rome can maintain their “distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony”.

Furthermore, if celibacy is such an important aspect of the Roman Catholic priesthood in the Latin Rite, why does the church accept married priests from other churches, but does not allow its own priests to be married?

I would ask the Vatican: Are we (Episcopalians/Anglicans) heretics and schismatic or are we good guys? Please make up your mind. Does not accepting gays and women in the clergy put you in communion with the Roman Catholic Church?

A lot to reflect on…
Father Albert

Hace solo 5 meses atrás... Cuando yo fui recibido en la Iglesia Episcopal (Comunión Anglicana) algunos de los mismos medios Católicos Romanos (por ejemplo ACI PRENSA y EWTN) resaltaban lo lejos que estábamos de Roma en doctrina y teología. Otros, incluso llegaron a decir que yo había “cambiado de religión” – cosa que considero absurda – ya que profesamos el mismo credo y tenemos las mismas raíces apostólicas. Ahora, con el anuncio del Vaticano, ellos mismo dicen que los Anglicanos que se unan a Roma "mantienen su gran herencia espiritual y litúrgica" y que son bienvenidos. Además, si el celibato es tan importante para los sacerdotes católicos romanos del rito latino, ¿Por qué entonces se aceptan sacerdotes y ministros de otras iglesias con sus esposas y familias, pero el mismo clero católico no tiene opción de casarse?

Yo le preguntaría al Vaticano:Los Anglicanos somos “herejes y cismáticos”… ¿O somos buena gente? Que se pongan de acuerdo. ¿El no aceptar a los homosexuales y a las mujeres en el clero lo pone a uno en comunión automática con la Iglesia Católica Romana?

Esta decisión deja mucho que pensar…

http://www.padrealberto.net/

P. Alberto

Just a few months ago, Archbishop Favalora of the Catholic Archdiocese in Miami chided bishop Frade of the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida for receiving Padre Alberto as an Episcopalian without first consulting with him. Clearly, his superiors in Rome have no qualms at all about inviting scores of Anglican clergy and laity to become Catholics. Respectfully,I wonder how much ecumenical consultation went into that decision?

It also makes me think! Being a celibate priest is not as important as believing that gays and women should be excluded from the clergy? So then what is the celibacy rule fuzz all about?...Let your own priests marry! That is an uncescapable if maybe unintended message in this announcement. Padre Alberto's insightful questions are spot on here.

Blessings

Seraph.

Benedict Opens Arms to Anglicans

The number of married Catholic priests could grow sharply as the result of the Vatican's epochal decision to welcome thousands of disaffected Anglicans and Episcopalians into the Catholic church.

At press conferences in Rome and London on Tuesday, Vatican officials announced that the church would set up a special canonical structure that will ease the conversion of members of the Anglican Communion without them having to give up what the Vatican called "the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony." That means not only a body of prayers and hymns, but also a tradition of married priests and bishops.

"It's a stunning turn of events," says Lawrence Cunningham, theology professor at Notre Dame University. "This decision will allow for many more married clergy in Western churches, and that's going to raise anew the question, 'If they can do it, why can't the priests of Rome?'" says Cunningham.

But the arrangement with the Anglican Communion goes much further. Cardinal William Levada, the Vatican's top doctrinal official, announced in Rome that the church would set up a personal ordinariate -- in essence a diocese defined not by geography, but by function, like the division that serves Catholics in the military -- for converted Anglicans.

The move comes after years of discord within the Anglican Communion, which unites 77 million Anglicans and Episcopalians under the loose authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. The church has been racked by schisms over the ordination of women and its stance toward homosexuality. Some Anglicans believe the Vatican's move will deepen those divisions.

NO comment ...but its kind of funny!

Blessings

Seraph