The Declaration of Independence on Liberty

While it's wonderful to shoot fireworks on the Fourth of July, it is better to remember that it is Independence Day, and why we are celebrating our God given Natural Rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. 

An Animated John Adams on Independence

"You will think me transported with enthusiasm; but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure, that it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of light and glory; I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph, although you and I may rue, which I hope we shall not."

 ~ John Adams' letter to  his wife Abigail July 3, 1776

A PC DOD is FUBAR

Last Thursday, President Obama posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military award, to Korean War Army Chaplain Emil Kapaun for his heroic bravery.  It is sad to think so soon afterwards  that we need to consider how the Department of Defense fervently seems to battle the military chaplaincy and traditional religiosity to evangelize for faith in politcal correctness.

Recently, the U.S. Army proffered Equal Opportunity training for Pennsylvania Reserve Troops that included this helpful poster on “extremist groups”.  

The Army presentation stipulates that extremism is a complex phenomenon present in many religions when "some followers that believe that their beliefs, customs and traditions are the only 'right way' and that all others are practicing their faith the 'wrong way,' seeing and believing that their faith/religion superior to all others."

It is fascinating to see how Evangelical Christians, Orthodox Jews, Latter Day Saints (Mormons) and Catholics were lumped in with Al Quaeda (spelled incorrectly in official Army materials), the Ku Klux Klan and Hamas as dangerous extremist groups. And being leery of the spread of Sharia over secular democratic civil lawyer is also defined as a hate group "Islamophobia".

The American Family Association postulates that the Army relied upon propaganda from the Southern Poverty Law Center to label Catholics and Evangelicals as extremist because of this scriptural stances considering  homosexual relations sinful and opposing same-sex so called marriage. 

The danger of the state imposing laws for same sex marriage is that the force of government makes opposing views anathematic, even if it is a tradition that has ordered Western society for thousands of years and is deeply held spiritual beliefs.  There is the fear that non-profits and churches which dissent from the state stampede of same sex marriage may lose their tax exempt status, especially based upon charters for many charity organizations which stipulate following the societal law. 

Since current Commander in Chief President Barack Obama evolved his public position endorsing same sex marriage in May 2012, the Department of Defense has nudged military chaplains to accept and even perform same sex marriages.   Even though the federal government does not recognize same sex marriages, the first gay military wedding was held at  Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey in May 2012, in a state that has yet to approve state blessing of such nuptials.  

Pro homosexual rights types complain that the ceremony was done by clergy that recognize same sex unions and that it was never meant to be public, despite being done in public on government facilities.  Yet somehow this private affair made it on ABC News among other media sources.

In 2010, then Joint Chief of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen was asked about those who hold bibilical views about homosexuality and Mullen responded “Chaplain, if you can’t get in line with this policy, resign your commission.”  Chaplains were promised that the repeal of   “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would change things very little.  But that promise has not been kept, with Chaplains being prohibited from quoting certain scriptural passages or using the name of God while presiding over traditional services. 

According to Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), retired military chaplains report that is considered to be a career ending move for a military chaplain to abstain from officiating  these same sex unions.   That is why Senators Inhofe and James Wicker (R-MS) proposed the Military Religious Freedom Protection Act., which the Obama White House promised to veto while dismissed the conscience clause legislation as being “unnecessary and ill-advised.”

Lest anyone think that the PC DOD is all about hot button societal moral issues, consider the way the Obama Administration has used America’s military to advance his political agenda with little regard to national security. 

The Navy under President Obama has steamed ahead with the “Great Green Fleet” initiative to have a blend of 50% alternative and 50% conventional fuel that costs $26 a gallon or seven times the cost of conventional fuel.  Green energy proponents claim that the price will come down when the alternative energy becomes more popular.  Doesn't the Green Fleet insignia look familiar? Change we can believe in ?   Navy Secretary Ray Mabus plans to have half of the ships in the “Great Green Fleet” by 2020.  Legislative efforts to roll back this green initiative failed during the 2012 Lame Duck Session of Congress by a 62-37 margin. 

Obama Administration Navy Secretary Ray Mabus

As sequestration was being implemented, the Navy warned that it would scuttle repairs on a dozen ships due to the 2.3% cut in the rate of growth of the Federal domestic budget.  In addition, sequestration cuts were attributed for delaying dry dock work on the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in Norfolk.  The Navy is cancelling Blue Angel flyovers for the year.  But more significantly, the Air Force  was grounding 1/3rd of its ordinary flights, leaving some pilots wondering if they would have sufficient training time with their aircraft.

It is frightening to think that as we live in an increasingly dangerous world that a PC DOD is more concerned about making political points that it is about defending our nations interests.  If that is the case then it is not SNAFU but FUBAR.

[This piece originally ran at DCBarroco.US]

Abraham Lincoln on Preparation

 

Fun with Political Platforms

When primary voters elect delegates to a party convention, their major work is to approve a party platform and affirm the candidate with the most votes as the nominee.  But there has not been much of a floor fight since the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City or an open convention since the 1952 Democrat National Convention in Chicago.  So political conventions tend to be big parties for partisans, while a few wonks work in back rooms to develop a party platform to which  no-one pays attention.  So much so, some modern pundits have speculated that 2012 may be the last time there are the grand scale political conventions as they exist today.

But platforms have caused some trouble both for Republicans and Democrats this year.  In Tampa, there were some hard feelings by base Repubicans and some Paulistinians who chaffed at a inside-baseball platform item which allowed the Republican National Party to pick their delegates for primary winners.  This represented a shift away from state parties to the RNC.  Activists fear that elites might choose moderate RNC party favorites rather than conservative Tea Party types if that is what voters elected.  Morton Blackwell, a stalwart of the conservative wing of the Republican Party was incensed by the move.  Paulistians have been looking for their leader, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX 14th), to bolt from the GOP and launch a quixotic last minute Libertarian run, but he has demurred.

On the Democrat side, there was considerable consternation coming from the Republican opposition that the DNC rules committee had dropped any mention of God in the 2012 Democrat Party Platform.  Moreover, the DNC conscientiously dropped the plank  affirming Jerusalem as the Capital of the State of Israel, which was in the 2008 DNC party platform.  This move highlighted President Obama’s wafffling over  what was  the capital of the state of Israel, despite clear Congressionally passed legislation on the question.

To stifle the mounting criticism over the issues, party officials quickly drafted a substitute plank which affirmed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and also inserted God back into the platform.  This was done over an emergency 15 minute meeting on Wednesday afternoon.  DNC Convention Chair L.A. Mayor Antonio Virraigosa (D-LA) offered the measure expecting an easy voice vote approval from the delegates.



Well, not so much.  Maybe the third time was the charm or more likely the sound meter did not matter for a CYA measure from the Democrat intelligentsia.

 But the loud sustained boos from the delegates, particularly the Arab-American coalitions (and presumably the aggressive atheists) will not endear the DNC to these constituencies in the general election campaign.

Usually, party platforms collect dust.  Sometimes the arcane rules changes matter only to party activists, like the National Republicans choosing delegates. The minutia over mentioning God or designating foreign capitals should not have mattered, except in their absence.  So correcting the omissions only drew more attention to the changes.  Moreover, the phony vote on the platform change and ignoring the will of the delegates show how Democrats govern, even in their own house.

So contrary to popular perceptions, platforms do matter.

Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Munich Olympics Massacre

Masked Black September terrorist holding hostages during 1972 Munich Summer Olympics

Forty years ago, the International Olympics movement was stained in blood by terrorism by by one day in September during the second week of the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany.  In the second week of the XX Summer Olympiad, a group of Palestinian terrorists known as Black September killed two Israeli athletes and took nine Olympians hostage.  None of the Israeli hostages returned home alive.




The terrorists demanded that the Israeli government release 234 prisoners. The Palestianian gunmen also demanded that the Federal Republic of Germany release two inmates from their prisons.  To prove their resolve, the Black September terrorists tossed the body of wrestling coach Weinberg out the door (although the coach had been killed during the Palestinian terrorists raid).  

Initially, the games continued during this terrorist hostage situation. Twelve hours after the hostages were taken, Munich Olympic officials suspended the games. Negotiators offered an unlimited amount of money or substituting high ranking Germans but the Palestinian terrorists reply reportedly was "money means nothing to us; our lives mean nothing to us."  

A small squad of German Police tried to slink into the Olympic Village dressed in Olympic sweatsuits and carrying sub-machine guns.  As the redeployed border guards took up positions, the media broadcast the scene, giving the terrorists real time tactical information.  In response, the terrorists threatened to kill two hostages and the police presence disappeared. 

[L] Kehart Schorr [R] Andre Spitzer held hostage

 During the two days of being held hostage, negotiators wanted to have direct contact with the hostages to prove that they were still alive.  Fencing coach Andre Spitzer and shooting coach Kehat Schorr briefly had a dialogue with German officials from the second floor balcony as the Palestinian abductors held guns on them. Spitzer was fluent in German so as he attempted to answer a question, he was clubbed with a butt of an AK-47 machine gun and was pulled away from the window. Shortly afterwards, the German Interior Minister and the Mayor of the Olympic Village briefly spoke with the abducted Olympic athletes.

German officials feigned agreement to demands and convinced the Palestinian terrorists to be evacuated at Fürstenfeldbruck NATO airbase. The German military had planned an ambush on the airplane but decided to abort without informing the whole team. The Black September terrorists broke their word as they took the German helicopter pilot hostage as the shuttled their Israeli hostages in staggered groups. When the two lead terrorists realized that it was a trap, they headed back towards the helicopter.  The snipers failed to fell the Black September leader and just grazed the other terrorist. In the ensuing chaos, five of the eight terrorists were killed, a West German policeman died in the firefight but the terrorists tossed a grenade in the helicopter killing the remaining bound Israelis.

During the five hour Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Summer Olympics, they could not find one minute to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Munich Massacre.   Officially, International Olympic Committee Chief Jaques Rogge stated that a moment of silence  for the Munich Massacre: "[W]as not appropriate".  During the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, the script was rewritten to commemorate the death of a luger the day of the Opening Ceremonies. What was more likely is that the IOC feared a boycott or withdrawal from the games by Arab countries.  The  head of the Palestinian IOC team labeled the Munich Massacre minute of silence campaign as "racism".  

So many of those interested in the Olympics will enthuse about the Olympic ideals and international brotherhood.  The silence of the Olympic movement for not remembering the barbarism which stained the Olympic ideal speaks volumes.

Despite the fecklessness of the IOC and the London Olympics, the dignity of the murdered Israeli Olympians has not been forgotten, nor the barbarism of the terrorists. The silence of the international community shows the true character of the idealism of the Olympics. Moreover, the intolerance displayed by the Palestinian IOC is quite revealing to those who are willing to take off their rose colored glasses.

Requiem for Nellie Gray–Funeral for a Friend of the Pro-Life Movement

Nellie Gray, the founder of the March for Life, died at the age of 88 on August 13. Gray was  given a Requiem Mass at St. Mary, Mother of God Catholic Church in Washington, DC.  Her funeral was a beautifully sung Trinentine High Mass, celebrated by Pastor Alfred Harris, with Boston Archbishop Sean Cardinal O’Malley and Washington Archbishop Donald Cardinal Wuerl in attendance. Gray had been a parishioner at St. Mary’s for sixteen years.

Nellie Gray served in the Women’s Air Corps during World War II. Afterwards, Gray earned her undergraduate degree in business, a Masters degree in Economics and went to night school at Georgetown Law School while working as a career public servant for twenty years at the State Department and the Labor Department.  In fact, Gray argued cases before the Supreme Court.  But she was so outraged by the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade (1973), that she listened to God’s voice and dropped everything to oppose what she discerned was a travesty of justice.  In fact, she retired on a meager government pension and never took monies from March for Life to supplement her pension.

During her eulogy, her colleague from the March for Life attorney Terry Scanlon noted Nellie’s determination once her mind was made up.  Scanlon noted that Gray was the driving force in the anti-abortion movements “Respect for human life–no exceptions.”  Scanlon said that Gray was actively planning the 40th anniversary March for Life when she passed away.

Cardinal O’Malley recalled working with Gray during the early days of the March for Life, when they would exhaustingly paper Capitol Hill offices with materials protesting the virtual Abortion on Demand decision.  O’Malley, who is a Capuchin priest, quipped that today is the first time that he was around Nellie Gray not wearing sandals, which is the order’s customary vestment.

O’Malley opined that it always seemed like the coldest day of winter when the March for Life.  But memorializing January 22 as the day of infamy had great symbolic value and galvanized Pro-Life forces to spread the light for life in the dead of winter.  The first March for Life only had a couple of hundred participants.  Now, the March for Life is an annual event which the Lamestream Media either minimizes or ignores despite the fact of hundreds of thousands of participants, many young people, redress their government for this unjustice to the unborn.

Cardinal O’Malley philosophized that this world seems obsessed with celebrity, yet our real champion is a person like Nellie Gray, who discerned God’s will, abandoned all of her professional pursuits to do what she thought was right and helped build God’s kingdom.

Cardinal Wuerl offered a personal story about Nellie Gray’s outlook on life.  Wuerl was on the dais for the annunal March for Life, on what he too thought was the coldest day of the year.  Gray focused on Wuerl and asked “Where’s your hat?”  What Wuerl took from that interchange was despite the crowds and the circumstances, Gray looked at people as individuals and she was concerned about someone in trouble.  Wuerl extrapolated a probing question “Where’s your voice?” challenging people to recognize the barbarity of killing pre-born children.

When connecting scripture to the question “Where’s your voice?”, Cardinal Wuerl thought of Pentacost where the Spirit of God came down upon the Apostles, which made them bold and they began to speak.  Wuerl marveled at how Gray’s righteous indignation over the Supreme Court overturning abortion laws nationwide made one woman bold and the fruits over her work seem to reconnecting young people to the spirit speaking out for unborn babies.

Preparing the High Altar for Nellie Gray's Requiem, St. Mary Church Washington, DC [photo: BD Matt]

Casket of Nellie Gray lying in repose at St. Mary's Church Washington, DC [photo BD Matt]

St. Mary's Pastor Fr. Alfred Harris celebrating Nellie Gray Requiem Mass, Wash. DC [photo BD Matt]

March for Life V.P. Terry Scanlon offering Nellie Gray Eulogy   [photo: BD Matt]

Boston Archbishop Sean Cardinal O'Malley reminisces on Nellie Gray  [photo: BD Matt]

Washington Archbishop Donald Cardinal Wuerl's reflections on Nellie Gray's importance  [photo: BD Matt]

Celebrant Fr. Albert Harris incenses Nellie Gray's casket   [photo: BD Matt]

Washington Archbishop Donald Cardinal Wuerl offers a final benediction for Nellie Gray  [photo: BD Matt]

Pall bearers for Nellie Gray's casket as Knights of Columbus look on  [photo: BD Matt]

Boston Archbishop Sean Cardinal O'Malley comforting mourners for Nellie Gray   [photo: BD Matt]

Pope Blessed John Paul II, during a pilgrimage to Mexico in 1979, offered a prayer which captured the driving force behind Nellie Gray’s discernment of her mission from God:

Virgin of Gaudalupe, Mother of the Americas, grant to our homes the grace of loving and respecting life in its beginnings.  Loke upon us with compassion: teach us to go continually with Jeus through a great love for all the holy Sacraments.

Thus, with our hearts free from evil and hatred, we will be able to bring to all the true joy and true peace, which comes to us from your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen

In Memoriam of Neil Armstrong (1930-2012)--Man Who Ushered In the Giant Leap for Mankind

Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong Saluting the US Flag, July 21, 1969

Neil Armstrong, the first human who walked on the Moon, died at the age of 82.  Armstrong had recently undergone surgery to relieve blocked coronary arteries.

Purdue University, Armstrong Hall of Engineering

Armstrong was born and raised in West-Central Ohio. Armstrong was so keen on aviation in his youth that he had a pilot’s license before having a driver’s license.  Armstrong was an avid Boy Scout, earning the Eagle Scout distinction which was instrumental throughout his life.  Armstrong studied aerospace at Purdue University,  rather than M.I.T., as he was convinced that is was unnecessary to go all the way to Cambridge for a good education.  Armstrong’s tuition was paid through the Holloway plan, which mandated two years of study followed by three years service in the United States Navy before completing his undergraduate degree.

Armstrong was a US Navy aviator who saw action in the Korean War. During a low bombing run near Wonsan in September 1951, his plane was struck by anti-aircraft fire and subsequently hit a pole, slicing off three feet of the Panther fighter’s wing.  Armstrong was able to navigate back to friendly territory, but needed to eject due to damage to the aileron.  Perhaps it was this example of coolness under pressure that later influenced later colleagues of the need for Armstrong to be on the first lunar landing mission.

 After leaving the Navy active service in 1952, Armstrong completed his undergraduate education and then became a test pilot for a precursor of NASA, first in Cleveland and shortly thereafter at Edwards Air Force Base in California.  When completing a mission to drop a Douglass Skyrocket from a B-29 Superfortress, one of the engines disintegrated while ascending at 30,000 feet.  Armstrong and his co-pilot were able safely land using only one engine. Armstrong later flew the X-15 rocket planes, one of which reached an altitude of 207,000 feet.  Many of Armstrong’s fellow test pilots felt that he was the most technically capable of X-15 test pilots.

Recovery of Gemini 8 Spashdown 1966

In 1958, Neil Armstrong was chosen as one of the Man In Space Soonest program.  In November 1960, Armstrong was tapped to be one of the six pilots for the X-20 Dyn-Soar military space planes. Armstrong was one of two civilian pilots who were named as NASA’s “New Nine” in September, 1962.   Armstrong was the Commanding Pilot on Gemini 8 in March 1966, which was designated to rendez-vous and dock with an unmanned target vehicle.  Armstrong was backup Command Pilot for Gemini 11.

Neil Armstrong was named as the Commander of Apollo 11, which was destined to land on the Moon.  NASA officials wanted Armstrong to be the first man on the Moon as he was not deemed to have a big ego.  This P.R. prudence in choosing Armstrong was demonstrated on Apollo 11's trip to the Moon in July 1969 when Armstrong greeted his fellow Boy Scouts:

"I'd like to say hello to all my fellow Scouts and Scouters at Farragut State Park in Idaho having a National Jamboree there this week; and Apollo 11 would like to send them best wishes".

Houston: "Thank you, Apollo 11. I'm sure that, if they didn't hear that, they'll get the word through the news. Certainly appreciate that.

Armstrong’s level-headedness also served by his piloting.  Armstrong was unflustered by unknown error codes when piloting the Eagle Lunar Landing Vehicle on approach to the Moon landing.  Although Houston Mission Control was worried about potential low fuel issues of the Lunar Lander, Armstrong’s training led him to believe that there was 40 seconds of fuel left for launching from the Moon.

As for the inconic Moon landing, Armstrong had given quite a bit of though to these monumental words.  But in the excitement of moment, it seems that Neil dropped a syllable in uttering the famous “One small step for [a] man–one giant leap for mankind.”




Those words were heard by an audience of 450 million listeners out of a world population of 3.6 billion people.

Leaving the Moon was a little more potentially treacherous than expected. Aside from the worries over low fuel for lunar blast off, the bulky astronaut suits broke the ignition for the ascent engine.  This mechanical malfunction was overcome by using part of the pen to activate the launch sequence mechanism. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were able to rendez-vous with the Columbia and the three Astronauts splashed down in the Western Pacific. The Apollo 11 crew spent 18 days in decontamination, during which time they were greeted by President Richard M. Nixon.

Apollo 11 crew and President Nixon, 1969

Armstrong briefly served as a NASA administrator and then taught Aerospace Engineering at the University of Cincinnati for eight years.  Armstrong received many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the Congressional Gold Medal.

Armstrong did do some corporate endorsements, only for American companies.  Armstrong served as a spokesman for Chrysler in 1979 he deemed the automaker as a strong engineering company with financial difficulties.  Armstrong also served on several boards of directors for corporations.

However, Neil Armstrong was a remarkably private person. Armstrong threatened legal action in 2005 against his barber for selling some of Armstrong’s hair to a collector.  In lieu of returning the purloined hair follicles, the perfidious cosmetologist donated the $3,000 proceeds to a charity of Armstrong’s choice.  Armstrong also became chary about signing autographs as they were selling for large sums of money and there were many forgeries.  Such indiscreet idolization caused Armstrong to stop sending signed letters of congratulations to Eagle Scout recipients, a practice which he had done for years.

Armstrong was a modest man who ushered in mankind’s exploration of other planets. His example off cool confidence, meticulous preparation and remembering his roots should be an example to all of us.

Tampa-fication Thru Tea Party Temperance Not Spend-thriftiness

Democrats claiming credit for Tampa's triumphs 

In anticipation of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Salon Magazine (no conservative rag) published a piece entitled: “Tampa: America’s Hot Mess”, which details how a city which the 1988 bestseller “Megatrends” has degenerated into what is derisively called a “Hot Urban Mess”.

Columnist Will Doig uses the empty 40 acres in Tampa which were slated for the aborted $2.4 Billion Sun Rail project in July 2011 as an example of what he considers the short-sighted parsimonious civic spending in Tampa as a foretaste of what is in store for America if Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) is elected as President.

The article seems to presume that Hillsborough County’s rejection of the ½ cent sales tax increase scotched the light-rail deal and unwisely condemned them to congestion.  Actually, the transit tax was a 1 cent sales tax increase which failed to get 60% of votes in 2010.

The presumption that light rail would be a transportation panacea is questionable on a cost-benefit analysis.  Mass transit works well in several cities with established urban cores, such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington D.C. and Chicago.  But then there is the infamous example of the $200 million Detroit monorail.  Baltimore’s light rail is not touted as a solution to urban congestion.  Presumably, progressives love choo-choo trains because of centralized planning, emulating European examples and employing municipal union employees. Light rail costs lots of money to establish the infrastructure and maintain it.  Perhaps express busses (which could be designed to look like street cars) running in HOV lanes could more efficiently comnbat congestion. But that derails the dream of urban railroads so beloved by progressive politicos.

Doig recounts that when Tampa went on a building spree spurred by real estate and the financial and insurance markets, there were tall glass buildings that were detached from the city itself and did not offer incentives for parks, transit or walkable space.

Perhaps the author is unfamiliar with Joel Garreau’s theory  why businesses were inclined to relocate to an Edge City  in the 1980s instead of urban centers.  The lower cost of office-space, cleaner campuses (without Superfund cleanups) which the companies control, modern infrastructure and municipalities which offered tax incentives for relocating rather than soaking supposed deep pocket companies to “pay their fair share” of taxes and graft.

It is unsurprising that the Salon columnist blames the Tea Party for not submitting to smart growth policies contained in the non-binding United Nations Agenda 21 document (not a treaty).  But without worrying about conspiracies over international Sustainable Development initiatives, the consternation can more easily be explained by the urban, suburban divide.  Democrats love centrality and dense populations, as this requires active government, lots of municipal employees and empowered politicians who bring home the bacon for their constituents.  Suburban sprawl denudes the density which requires the infrastructure and activist progressive politicians.  Of course the urban core of Tampa are Democrats and suburban Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties (St. Petersburg) are conservative strongholds.

Hurricane Isaac may make shuttling the 400 buses slated to transport RNC delegates to the Tampa Bay Times Arena more complicated, but it will be embracing the consequences of Tea Party Temperance on Taxation.  It is the height of hypocrisy for the Democrat Mayor and City Council to claim credit for the Tampa triumph and then backbite the conservative Tea Party types and conservatives

Considering the empty coiffers of many state and local governments due to boondoggles, overstaffing municipal union employees and ridiculously generous pension packages, there may be much more Tampa-fication in America rather than spend thrift states like California and Illinois.

America's New State Religion?

In the wake of the Obama Administration’s HHS Qualified Health Plan Mandate (a.k.a. the Contraception Mandate), mainline churches have to come to terms with a Federal government which narrowly construes the First Amendment Freedom of Religious Expression.

While the Obama Administration exempts parishes from these objectionable regulations, no such leeway is given to religiously affiliated organizations, like Catholic colleges, religious orders, Catholic Insurers etc.  from paying for abortions, sterilizations and abortifacients.  But such groups were given a year’s reprieve from complying. As New York Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan quipped that they were given an extra year to figure out how to violate their consciences.

President Obama claimed a work around which would force a farce that insurers would give away these services so religious organizations would not have to pay.  Of course, this is a ruse as insurers would simply raise their premiums to everyone to cover these free services.  But Obama’s announcement came on the same day that the Federal Register published the original rules unchanged, so the ameliorations were a rhetorical chimera.

This move by the Obama Administration has awakened a sleeping giant.  This summer, the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops promoted the “Fortnight for Freedom”,  a coordinated nation-wide effort of prayer, fasting and educating American Catholics on the importance of preserving Americans’ First Amendment rights to the unfettered exercise of religious beliefs.

Some pastors have picked up this mantle to drive this crucial point home.  On the “Pastor’s Page of St. John the Evangelist of St. Paul (MN), Fr. George Welzbacher published this thought piece on the establishment of a nationwide first state religion–secular humanism.

It would seem that, for the first time in the history of our republic, we are witnessing here in the U.S.A. the establishment of a state religion, a religion so crafted as to delight the heart of a secularist, a religion with clearly defined dogmas, compliance with whose demands is to be enforced with all of the coercive powers at the disposal of the federal     government.  Here are the dogmas of this new faith. 

Dogma #1: A woman has the right, the unrestricted right, to make arrangements for the killing of her unborn child whenever such course of action is convenient.
Dogma #2: The chief purpose served by the institution of marriage is the securing of social recognition for romantic attraction, together with the panoply of benefits accruing to such recognition. The begetting of children, together with such subsequent upbringing as will equip them to contribute responsibly to the society in which they will spend their lives, can be dismissed as of  marginal importance. Thus every man, should this be his bent, has the right to marry another man, just as every woman, should she be so disposed, has the right to marry a woman. To suggest otherwise, to imply, for example, that a man's realigning of his reproductive powers to adapt to another man's digestive tract is in any way abnormal is to be guilty of a hate crime, in exculpation of which no appeal to the rights of conscience shall be allowed,  this being an intolerable crime, properly punishable with fines and/or imprisonment.
Dogma #3: The sovereign pontiff in this new state religion is the people's hero, Barack Hussein, now reigning gloriously in the White House.

Dogma #4: Enemy Number One of the new state religion is, by and large, the Christian faith and, with special intransigence, the Catholic Church. Measures must accordingly be taken to compel the recusant authorities of the Roman Catholic faith to genuflect at the new religion's altar. (Thus the new Health and Human Services mandate).

 All of this represents at least one way of looking at President Obama's arrogant trampling upon the First Amendment, not to mention his repudiation of God's Commandments.

If this is the case, I hope that I’m losing that religion come the first Tuesday in November.