Archive for the ‘catholic’ Category

What happened to caring about babies?

Posted: November 18, 2023 by navygrade36bureaucrat in abortion
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Democrats have been weaponizing the abortion debate and successfully turned it into a choice of either supporting women’s rights or stripping women of those rights. Having been subjected to the advertising onslaught in Virginia, the idiots that the Republican Party put in charge of campaigning have zero response to this.

Zero.

I saw NO effective counter ads, and the ads I did see were bland, “vote for me because I’m a veteran/good person” style ads. These are fluff and filler ads that don’t sway people.

Since Republican leadership can’t figure this out, I will humbly suggest the following ads that might help reframe the abortion debate:

  1. Play a nice slow song, showing a mother cradling her baby. Now overlay a dark figure of (insert politician here) saying “If the baby is born after an attempted abortion, we’ll place it in a bucket and consult with the mother about what to do next.” Cue to a frame saying “We can all get behind protecting mothers and stop politicians from murdering babies.”
  2. Show a black mother with two kids looking a little frazzled. A white lady in a suit walks up and asks if she needs help. She says yes, and the white lady recommends she abort her children in the future. Cue to a frame showing “40% of abortions are from black women. Let’s stop this racist practice. Make our politicians care about taking care of kids, not killing them.”
  3. In the background show a woman and a man crying in a doctor’s office. Have the speaker voice say “Some couples want babies but just can’t have them. Instead of making adoption easy, politician (insert name) wants to kill off healthy babies.” Add a split screen showing another woman on a operating table crying. “Abortion creates two broken couples. We can all get behind expedited adoption laws to make them both whole again.”

This was just me daydreaming for an hour on actual, useful ads, plus a bit of time using these three scenarios when my pro-abortion friends bring up “women’s health” issues. I dated a young lady that had an abortion before I met her, and even 4 years later, she was still bothered by it.

Republican leaders lose on abortion because they refuse to roll up their sleeves and talk about the evils of abortion. Get off your stupid high horse and fight back. Talk about the genocide abortion is causing in the Black community. Push for expedited adoption rules and break the stranglehold the state bureaucracy has on adoption. Highlight the politicians that are totally cool murdering kids after birth. Yeah, its ugly, but Democrats are doing the same to you, and if you fail, millions of innocent children die, and part of that blood is on your hands.

BTW, the cute picture at the top: that’s the best Bing AI would generate. I tried to show a donkey holding a uterus, or put Planned Parenthood on the clinic, and the AI wouldn’t let me. One more sign that Satan is deeply entrenched in this debate.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, or any other government agency.

Side note: The overwhelming majority of abortions (86%) are by single women, and a large chunk (nearly 40%) were from Black Americans.

Walking Before You Run Christianity , Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Rosalind Picard, Sc.D

Posted: November 13, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine
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Screwtape: Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours— and the more “religious” (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here

C. S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters # VII

At Instapundit there were two different stories of promanent athiests becoming Christian. The first was Ayaan Hirsi Ali who said this:

But we can’t fight off these formidable forces unless we can answer the question: what is it that unites us? The response that “God is dead!” seems insufficient. So, too, does the attempt to find solace in “the rules-based liberal international order”. The only credible answer, I believe, lies in our desire to uphold the legacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

This is the first reason she give noting that all the secular freedoms that are enjoyed by Western Civilization come from Christianity but that’s not enough. She notes the unifying effect of a belief in God in her closing here:

The lesson I learned from my years with the Muslim Brotherhood was the power of a unifying story, embedded in the foundational texts of Islam, to attract, engage and mobilise the Muslim masses. Unless we offer something as meaningful, I fear the erosion of our civilisation will continue. And fortunately, there is no need to look for some new-age concoction of medication and mindfulness. Christianity has it all.

That is why I no longer consider myself a Muslim apostate, but a lapsed atheist. Of course, I still have a great deal to learn about Christianity. I discover a little more at church each Sunday. But I have recognised, in my own long journey through a wilderness of fear and self-doubt, that there is a better way to manage the challenges of existence than either Islam or unbelief had to offer.

The discovering a little more each Sunday is a start and people have to walk before they run but let me point out that as a Christian in general and a Catholic in particular let me unequally state the following:

There is only one reason to be a Christian, not for the history of civilization , not to defend the west, not to oppose radical Islam. None of these reasons are a reason to be a Christian.

The only reason to be a Christian in general and a Catholic in particular is Because it is True

If it is true we are obliged to do our best to combat our fallen human nature to follow Christ. To go to Mass and to spread the good news by deed, word and example.

If it is not true then on Sunday you’re basically going to an elk’s club meeting.

Now there is nothing wrong with an elks club but one should not base their worldview upon it.

As she notes she is learning, I find that the best thing to do is pray for people and let the Holy Spirit do the heavy lifting here. In the end I’m not going to devote my life to one.

Now note the contrast with Professor Picard as an engineer her journey was more about facts and evidence:

Note how she approached this on the evidence. She went from Athiest, to Agnostic, to Theist, to Christian. It’s as if she read Mere Christianity and applied Lewis’ argument.

Now for me it doesn’t matter in the end how someone finds Christ as long as they do so and even for screwtape notes that the primary goal is to get the person moving in the right (in his case the wrong) direction and different people move on that path at different speeds. But the big thing to remember is this: Never think for one moment that God can be used as an means to an end rather than an end itself.

That’s the danger. Remember it and avoid it.

Eight Days of Indulgences and the November Indulgence Calendar as Well

Posted: November 1, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions, Church doctrine
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It’s the first of the month so it’s time for the Indulgence Calendar at DaTechGuy Blog for any and all who wish to pray for and help out the souls in purgatory.

It’s also All Saints Day a holy day of obligation for Catholics as we honor the saints in heaven, the Church Triumphant who have fought and won the good fight that we the church militant are still fighting on earth.

Because it’s All Saints Day it also means that there is a special series of indulgences that we have earn every single day through November 8th either for ourselves or for the Church Suffering (the souls in purgatory).

Beginning today, continuing tomorrow on All Souls Day ( where the church remembers the souls in purgatory) and throughout the octave of this Holy Day of Obligation a Plenary indulgence is available each day for anyone who visits a graveyard and prays for the dead.

These indulgences are available under the normal rules: which are:

  1. Communion the day of the indulgence (covers all indulgences that day)
  2. Prayers for the intentions of the Pope (covers all indulgences that day)
  3. Confession within 20 days before or after the day of the indulgence (covers all indulgences during that period of time)
  4. MUST be in a state of grace at the time of the indulgence (no unconfessed mortal sins)

Also be aware that unless your death is imminent you can only gain one Plenary Indulgence a day so if you earned for say:

  • Visiting the Blessed Sacrament for a half hour or more
  • Reading scripture for a half hour or more
  • Praying a group Rosary

then the indulgence you earn will be only partial.

Finally a plenary indulgence automatically becomes partial if you have any attachment to sin (that’s why they are so hard to get).

So if you’re a Catholic take advantage of these next 8 days, your soul and the souls in purgatory will thank you.

Anyways here is this month’s indulgence Calendars to download if you want.

indulgence-calendar-nov-2023Download

That the full calendar the blank one is next

indulgence-calendar-blank-nov-2023Download

The Perfect Example of How Hell Works, The Jewish Left’s Sudden Encounter With Reality

Posted: October 14, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, culture, Israel, middle east, war
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I was in conversation with my priest this morning after mass and confession and I noted how today’s 1st reading from Joel was almost a blueprint for what is happening and going to happen in Gaza.

As we continued to talk we discussed confession. To get the forgiveness of God paid for by Christ one must be willing to look at oneself in the light of truth. The knowledge that you have sinned and contrition for them is what drives a good Catholic to confession. This is why before absolution one recites an act of contrition like this one.

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.

There are those who are unwilling and incapable of looking at once self in the light of truth. Who are in denial of their sins. This is why Hell is in fact a mercy of God. Demons under compulsion during exorcisms have bluntly admitted they understand the love of God and the decisions they have made but when asked if they would change their choices they’ve replied emphatically NO! Their pride will not allow it.

Thus do people put themselves into hell as the merciful alternative to admitting a reality that they can’t bear to admit. Pride the ultimate sin.

And that brings us to the pains that parts of the left, particularly the Jewish left is now feeling.

You see many of on the right, particularly folks like Pam Geller and Robert Spencer have been talking about the antisemitism of the left in General and the Muslim left in particular for many many years. For their troubles they were called bigots and hate mongers by all the “right” people of the elite left. How DARE they suggest that any people of the left might think this way! Any such statement was “hate” speech and “violence”.

And then came the Hamas attacks and the slaughter and worse of not only of men but of women and children.

That was painful and awful, particularly to those who had argued for the Palestinians (although a lot more painful for some and even fatal for others) but the pain increased when in colleges around the nation and the world groups (particularly groups heavy in the DEI defended hamas and the slaughter of woman and children. As Victor Davis Hanson put it:

In Australia you actually had the spectacle of people publicly shouting “Gas the Jews” while the only person taken into custody was a single Jewish counter protester with an Israeli flag. In America the highest bastions of Education openly supported these murderous bastards.

To some on the left, particularly the Jewish left it was an eye opening moment. A moment of clarity that shows their “allies” for what they actually are and have always been. Ready to decry “microaggressions” of any of opposed them but declaring that loud public support for the mass murder of woman and children is “free speech’ to be protected and/or excused.

To these people comes the great decision. Do they divorce themselves from this barbarians, do they admit that those of us on the right have been telling the truth all along or do they hate us on the right so much that allying with folks who support their own murder is better?

But for all the angst that this decision will bring their situation at least they now see beyond the bubble and are in a position to make a choice.

There are others on the left who still maintain denial, both of the acts of Hamas or that they bear any responsibility for them.

You see for those folks acknowledging any of these things means they must face the possibility of being wrong. They mustn’t see things in the light of truth it is more then they can handle. Much better to live the lie and remain in the bubble.

How these groups will respond to the reality will define them for the rest of their lives. The question: How many will rather suffer the hell of denial than the pain of reality?

Pray for them all.

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