The Abolition of Man (and Woman)

From "The Catholic Key" newspaper, by Benjamin Wiker....
In 1943, C.S. Lewis published his masterful The Abolition of Man, a book that is far more profound than its short length (130 pages) might suggest. Lewis’ central concern is the use of technology to control, manipulate and reconstruct human nature. The book was written in the shadow of the Nazi war machine, one of whose aims was to create a master race through eugenic breeding and the elimination of “unfit” races and individuals.
But Lewis’ warnings were directed at a deeper evil, of which Nazism was only a morbid and significant sign.
“The final stage is come when Man by eugenics, by pre-natal conditioning, and by an education and propaganda based on a perfect applied psychology, has obtained full control over himself,” he wrote. “Human nature will be the last part of Nature to surrender to Man. … The battle will indeed be won. But who, precisely, will have won it?”
This victory will come about through politics, for “the man-moulders of the new age will be armed with the powers of an omnicompetent state and an irresistible scientific technique: We shall get at last a race of conditioners who really can cut out all posterity in what shape they please.”
We are not surprised to find Lewis’ dark prophecies now being fulfilled through the fantasies of genetic manipulation — a small number of scientists funded by a small number of heads of corporations attempting to determine the future shape of the new humanity.
But the real evil is not the manipulation itself. That is, rather, the effect. The real evil is the horrifying change in outlook, the insidious transformation of the substance of the will that occurs when we suddenly regard all natural limits as momentary obstacles that technology can remove. That is what gives the devastating sting to moral relativism today — the notion that human nature is not the inviolable beginning point of our moral reasoning but merely presents us with one more set of obstacles for technology to overcome.
To cite one example: What could be more natural than the distinction between male and female — a distinction that we share with animals and even, in a real sense, with plants? This distinction is the source of marriage as a natural institution, making it the origin of all moral claims about sexuality, the family and marriage itself. It would be hard to imagine “Thou shalt not commit adultery” if there were no such thing as male and female and human beings somehow produced children through means other than their union.
But what if we suddenly looked at human reproduction as a problem subject to technological solutions? What if we began to look at male and female as concepts to be abolished? We’d soon find that the natural distinctions of male and female, and marriage itself (and all its attendant morality), would become obsolete. Marriage would become meaningless as men became superfluous through the advance of reproductive technology; as women became unessential through cloning technology; and as the mass of humanity became dispensable through genetic manipulation, trait selection (and de-selection) and abortion.
Earlier this fall, scientists announced the creation of one offspring by three parents: sperm from the male, an egg from a female and additional DNA material from a third female. This “advance,” now applied to monkeys, will soon enough be available for human beings. What then is the moral meaning of “adultery” once this becomes as acceptable a practice as in vitro fertilization?
The effect of the abolition of male and female will be, and in fact already is, the unraveling of morality. Once the sexual union of a man and a woman becomes just one way to make a human being, then it is not the way to make a human being. Heterosexuality loses its privileged status in defining what way we are to be sexual. The natural gives way to the artificial, and what was once a natural standard defining sexuality becomes a historical artifact and (at best) a quaint option for sexual antiquarians.
Because human beings live in society, and society makes laws, this great transformation by technical power must find its way into law. If children can be had by a number of other means, then laws designed to limit marriage to one male and one female would be like laws designed to limit transportation to horses.
The abolition of man and woman is part of a larger cultural revolution, a fact seen quite clearly in the active drive to make male and female obsolete in the culture, as well. First, there is a kind of relentless spirit of androgyny pushed in our intellectual culture, where manliness is actively discouraged and disparaged and womanliness is taken to be a kind of servitude from which women must be delivered. The goal seems to be to make men more like women and women more like men, so that, by their eventual blending together, they become indistinguishable. The result, of course, is that male and female become morally insignificant distinctions in our minds.
The insignificance feeds the notion that there is really nothing wrong with endless technical manipulating of our sexuality and reproduction.
But there is another related sense of obsolescence because the spirit of androgyny takes flesh in the actual culture and through real social and educational institutions and policies. If the distinct aims of manhood and womanhood, fatherhood and motherhood are removed as the proper and good goal of boys and girls, then what, precisely, do boys and girls aim at? They are each taught to aim at the exact same target: becoming self-supporting, individual moneymakers.
The guiding assumption that a boy becomes a man precisely in becoming a husband and provider for his family has been replaced by an entirely indistinct, androgynous image of a large boy making money by himself, for himself, and for the satisfaction of his own pleasures. The guiding assumption that a girl becomes a woman by becoming a wife and mother has been replaced by the same indistinct, androgynous image of individual moneymaker working by herself, for herself, and for the satisfaction of her own pleasures.
Little wonder, given this image, that when men and women do decide to become a couple, the marriage would have as little moral meaning to them as divorce. Nor are we surprised to find the cultural push for androgynous terms like “partner,” “significant other” and “caregiver” replacing such morally meaty and precise words as husband, wife, father and mother.
Perhaps there is far, far more to those words in Genesis than we imagined. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Here lies the boundary keeping us from all moral chaos. Once it is crossed and then crossed out, all things are “without form and void.”

Human Life International's Statement on the Passing of Senator Edward Kennedy

We must, as a matter of precept, pray for the salvation of heretical Catholics like Senator Edward Kennedy, but we do not have to praise him let alone extol him with the full honors of a public Catholic funeral and all the adulation that attends such an event. There was very little about Ted Kennedy's life that deserves admiration from a spiritual or moral point of view. He was probably the worst example of a Catholic statesman that one can think of. When all is said and done, he has distorted the concept of what it means to be a Catholic in public life more than anyone else in leadership today.

Obviously we don't know the state of Senator Edward Kennedy's soul upon death. We don't pretend to. We are told by the family that he had the opportunity to confess his sins before a priest, and his priest has said publicly he was "at peace" when he died. For that we are grateful. But it is one thing to confess one's sins and for these matters to be kept, rightfully, private. It is another thing entirely for one who so consistently and publicly advocated for the destruction of unborn human beings to depart the stage without a public repudiation of these views, a public confession, as it were.

It is up to God to judge Senator Kennedy's soul. We, as rational persons, must judge his actions, and his actions were not at all in line with one who values and carefully applies Church teaching on weighty matters. Ted Kennedy's positions on a variety of issues have been a grave scandal for decades, and to honor this "catholic" champion of the culture of death with a Catholic funeral is unjust to those who have actually paid the price of fidelity. We now find out that President Obama will eulogize the Senator at his funeral, an indignity which, following on the heels of the Notre Dame fiasco, leaves faithful Catholics feeling sullied, desecrated and dehumanized by men who seem to look for opportunities to slap the Church in the face and do so with impunity simply because they have positions of power.

It is not enough for Kennedy to have been a "great guy behind the scenes" as we have seen him referred to even by his political opponents. It is also not praiseworthy to put a Catholic rhetorical veneer on his leftist politics that did nothing to advance true justice as the Church sees it or to advance the peace of Christ in this world. Every indication of Senator Kennedy's career, every public appearance, every sound bite showed an acerbic, divisive and partisan political hack for whom party politics were much more infallible than Church doctrines. Whatever one's political affiliation, if one is only "Catholic" to the extent that his faith rhymes with his party line, then his Catholicism is a fraud.

As the Scriptures remind us, there is a time for everything under the sun. This, now, is the time for honesty about our Faith and about those who are called to express it in the public forum. If we do not remind ourselves of the necessity of public confession for public sins such as Senator Kennedy was guilty of, then we are negligent in our embrace of the Faith and we are part of the problem. As Pope Benedict has reminded us recently, charity without truth can easily become mere sentimentality, and we must not fall into that error. A Catholic show of charity for the family must not eclipse the truth that is required of all with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Senator Kennedy needs to be sent to the afterlife with a private, family-only funeral and the prayers of the Church for the salvation of his immortal soul. He will not be missed by the unborn who he betrayed time and time again, nor by the rest of us who are laboring to undo the scandalous example of Catholicism that he gave to three generations of Americans.

Sincerely,


Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International

Plane Crash

Family of Irving 'Bud' Feldkamp, Owner of the Nation's Largest PrivatelyOwned Abortion Chain, Dies in Montana Plane CrashMEDIA ADVISORY, Mar. 24 /Christian Newswire/ -- Some of you may have seenthe major news story of the private plane that crashed into a Montanacemetery, killing 7 children and 7 adults.
But what the news sources fail to mention is that the Catholic Holy CrossCemetery owned by Resurrection Cemetery Association in Butte - contains amemorial for local residents to pray the rosary, at the 'Tomb of theUnborn'. This memorial, located a short distance west of the church, waserected as a dedication to all babies who have died because of abortion.
What else is the mainstream news not telling you? The family who died in thecrash near the location of the abortion victim's memorial, is the family ofIrving 'Bud' Feldkamp, owner of the largest for-profit abortion chain in thenation.
Family Planning Associates was purchased four years ago by Irving Moore"Bud" Feldkamp III, owner of Allcare and Hospitality Dental Associates andCEO of Glen Helen Raceway Park in San Bernardino. The 17 California FamilyPlanning clinics perform more abortions in the state than any other abortionprovider - Planned Parenthood included - and they perform abortions throughthe first five months of pregnancy.
Although Feldkamp is not an abortionist, he reaps profits of blood moneyfrom the tens of thousands of babies that are killed through abortionsperformed every year at the clinics he owns. His business in the abortionindustry was what enabled him to afford the private plane that was carryinghis family to their week- long vacation at The Yellowstone Club, amillionaires- only ski resort.
The plane went down on Sunday, killing two of Feldkamp's daughters, twosons-in-law and five grandchildren along with the pilot and four familyfriends. The plane, a single-engine turboprop flown by Bud Summerfield ofHighland, crashed into the Catholic cemetery and burst into flames, only 500ft. from its landing destination. All aboard were killed.
The cause of the crash is a mystery. The pilot, who was a former militaryflier who logged over 2,000 miles, gave no indication to air trafficcontrollers that the aircraft was experiencing difficulty when he asked todivert to an airport in Butte. Witnesses report that the plane suddenlynosedived toward the ground with no apparent signs of a struggle. There wasneither a cockpit voice recorder nor a flight data recorder onboard, and noradar clues into the planes final moments because the Butte airport is notequipped with a radar facility. Some speculate that the crash was due to iceon the wings, but this particular plane model has been tested for icyweather and experts have stated that ice being the cause is unlikely.
In my time working for Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, I helpedorganize and conduct a weekly campaign where youth activists stood outsideof Feldkamp's mini-mansion in Redlands holding fetal development signs andraising community awareness regarding Feldkamp's dealings in child murderfor profit. Every Thursday afternoon we called upon Bud and his wife Pam torepent, seek God's blessing and separate themselves from the practice ofchild killing.
We warned him, for his children's sake, to wash his hands of the innocentblood he assisted in spilling because, as Scripture warns, if "you did nothate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you". (Ezekiel 35:6)
A news source states that Bud Feldkamp visited the site of the crash withhis wife and their two surviving children on Monday. As they stood near thetwisted and charred debris talking with investigators, light snow fell onthe tarps that covered the remains of their children.
I don't want to turn this tragic event into some creepy spiritual 'I toldyou so' moment, but I think of the time spent outside of Feldkamp's - PamFeldkamp laughing at the fetal development signs, Bud Feldkamp trying not tomake eye contact as he got into his car with a small child in tow - and Ithink of the haunting words, 'Think of your children.' I wonder if thosewords were haunting Feldkamp as well as he stood in the snow among theremains of loved ones, just feet from the 'Tomb of the Unborn'?
I only hope and pray that in the face of this tragedy, Feldkamp recognizeshis need for repentance and reformation. I pray that God will use thisunfortunate catastrophe to soften the hearts of Bud and Pam and that theywill draw close to the Lord and wash their hands of the blood of thousandsof innocent children, each as precious and irreplaceable as their own.
"I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Chooselife, then." (Deut. 30:19)
Gingi Edmonds is a freelance pro-life activist, writer and photographerbased out of Hanford, California. Gingi writes a bi-monthly ProLife OpinionColumn and is available for pro-life presentations and speaking engagements.Visit www.gingiedmonds.com for more information

KCYC: Sex is not a dirty word

Last weekend some girls from my youth group went to KCYC (Kansas City Youth Conference).
There were lots of talks, but this was one of my favorites. I took lots of notes and wanted to share them with you all.

He started off his talk by asking everyone the question "what was the first commandment in the Bible?" Some said 'love God' others said 'love your neighbor', but he replied with:
GENESIS 1:28: "Be fruitful and multiply" GOD SAID HAVE SEX! Having sex is not wrong, it is only wrong outside of marriage.
He then showed us a camera. He said "now if my wife gave me this camera, its mine right? So I can do with it whatever I want to, right? So if I throw it on the floor, its ok because its mine...right? It might not work very well in the future when I need it, but its mine, so I can use it how I want. Well in the same way God gave us the gift of sex. But if we use it before marriage, then it won't work the correct way when we need it."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that "sex is meant to be a joy and a pleasure". The Church is not against sex.

In the Bible Jesus calls us His sons and daughters. And if Christ is the King, then we are all princesses. How many times do girls today forget this? We think that we are not good enough, when really, no one else is good enough for us!

The world has two arguments with Chastity:
1. The Church is Old Fashioned.
Yes the Church might be old fashioned, but God invented sex. He could have made 10,000 different ways to create children. He could have said touch foreheads and rub your knees together, but He didn't.
2. There going to do it anyways.
Well no, everyone is not going it! And if more teens knew that not everyone was having sex, the abortion rate would be a lot less!

Chastity doesn't happen over night. When a man has image imprinted on his brain, it can stay there for over 30 years. How many of you want some random guy at the mall, whom you don't know, remembering what you look like for the next 30 years? I didn't think so. God made the brain this way, so that on a couples wedding night, that man would remember it for the rest of his life. That's why old people look so cute together, because she is still the love of his life.
(ok this wasn't from KCYC, it was from my cousin, but I really liked it!)

I will be posting things from the other talks at a later time. Enjoy!

A groundbreaking study of Catholic college students and recent alumni found:
Morality:
60% say abortion should be legal.
60% say premarital sex is not a sin.
57% say same-sex "marriage" should be legal.
39% saw officials or staff encouraging contraceptive use.
31% saw officials or staff encouraging acceptance of homosexual activity.
Men vs. Women:
%50 of college women engage in mremarital sex.
41% of college men engage in premarital sex.
23% of college women are drawn to the sacraments.
40% of college men are drawn to the sacraments.

Source: Center for the Study of Higher Education

The lies they feed you...

Using an undercover camera, Students for Life of America (SFLA) has produced new evidence that infanticide "does happen" at Planned Parenthood abortion clinics. When asked by a pregnant mother if her baby could be born alive at a New Jersey clinic, the nurse responded, "It does happen, but it wouldn't be able to survive on its own so eventually the baby does die." The tape,one in a long line of incriminating videos released to the media, was posted on YouTube to show Planned Parenthood's refusal to comply with the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. Just days later, YouTube removed the post, saying it "violated the web site's terms of use." YouTube may turn blind eye to these injustices, but the U.S. Congress should not. Time after time, the leadership on Capitol Hill has refused to investigate Planned Parenthood, one of the biggest beneficiaries of your taxpayer dollars.Instead of freezing its funds, liberals are seeking ways to increase them!Before you vote for the next class of congressmen, make sure you know where your candidates stand on taxpayer-funded abortion.

Life From Where I Stand

In atheist Sam Harris' book, "Letter to a Christian Nation," he talks about what he calls "Real Morality." He claims that anything that is not a direct result of suffering, and that gives you joy for the present time, is moral. Therefore, Abortion, Adultery, and same-sex marriages, are all moral. I wonder if Sam Harris is married and has kids. Because if so, I wonder how his wife stomachs the fact that her husband thinks sleeping around is OK? And I wonder how he punishes his kids, since putting them in time out causes them suffering; it is therefore immoral.

Why do we strive to do good in the eyes of the good? But yet at the same time, love doing bad in the eyes of the bad? Is this instinct? Is it just human nature? Was it brought about through Adam and Eve's sin? And can we ever get rid of it?

I think we have lost sight of the fact that Jesus said "Seek first the Kingdom". We spend more and more time worrying about the things of this world. And less and less time about getting to heaven.


Do It Anyway
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

-Kent M. Keith

John McCain Ad Responds to Biden Attack on Sarah Palin on Stem Cell Research

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The campaign of presidential candidate John McCain has responded to attacks on his running mate Sarah Palin with a new ad touting his support for stem cell research. Palin came under attack from pro-abortion vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden claiming she doesn't support the science.
Biden questioned Palin's commitment to special needs children by attacking Palin's stance on the issue of embryonic stem cell research, which has never helped a single patient.
"Well guess what folks? If you care about it, why don't you support stem cell research?" Biden asked.
Today, the McCain campaign released its latest radio ad, entitled "Stem Cell" that highlights a McCain administration's support for stem cell research to advance medical discovery and treatment.
The ad will air in key battleground states, the campaign told LifeNews.com Friday.
"John McCain will lead his Congressional allies to improve America's health," the ad says.
"Stem cell research to unlock the mystery of cancer, diabetes, heart disease; stem cell research to help free families from the fear and devastation of illness; stem cell research to help doctors repair spinal cord damage, knee injuries, serious burns; stem cell research to help stroke victims," it explains.
"And, John McCain and his Congressional allies will invest millions more in new NIH medical research to prevent disease," the ad continues. "Medical breakthroughs to help you get better, faster. Change is coming."
After the Biden attacks, the McCain campaign released a statement to LifeNews.com saying his comments were "offensive."
And Marjorie Dannenfelser, the head of the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life women's group, also took strong exception to Biden's "caustic" comments."Biden outrageously implied that Americans who refuse to sacrifice innocent human life in the name of unproven, desperate attempts to cure our nation’s ills through embryo-destructive research somehow don't really care about children," she told LifeNews.com.
"I am a mother of five children, one with a mental disability. The fact that Joe Biden questioned the compassion of parents like me – Governor Sarah Palin, among them – makes me sputter in disbelief," she added.
Related web sites:Listen to the ad - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-2ayFo3BXs

Abortion: Protecting the Womans Rights???

The main argument of abortion is that we are protecting the woman's rights. Her right to decide what is done to her body. We are giving her a chance to speak up for what she believes, and then act on that.

But who decides for the child? The mother? Do you honestly think that if you have that child a choice it would choose death? No, of course not!

Where do the people of our world get off deciding that child's fate? No one ever gave him or her a chance. We are humans, are taking on the role of God.

The parents of a child only give the body. God is the one who gives the soul! If we kill the body, we are murders. If we kill the soul, we are putting our selves about God.

People of this world: stop acting like you know more than God!

Every person is special. God has a plan for every single one of those children. Let them fulfill that plan.

Here are 10 Arguments Against Abortion:

1. Cost of Abortions: The Ministry of Health claimed that the 45 000 women treated in public hospitals for incomplete abortions each year is costing the state R19 million.

2. Backstreet Abortions Increase: Dr Christopher Tietze, an abortion advocate, concedes: "Although one of the major goals of the liberalisation of abortion laws in Scandinavia was to reduce the incidence of illegal abortion, this was not accomplished. Rather as we know from a variety of sources, both criminal and total abortions increased."

3. Parallels between Abortion & Slavery: Slavery in centuries past and abortions in this century were defended and promoted by the same arguments.

4. Indisputable Medical Evidence: The Unborn baby is a Human Being

5. Abortion Aggravates Child Abuse: If children are viewed as expendable before birth, they will be viewed as expendable after birth.

6. Even Legal Abortions are Unsafe: There are many complications that may arise from an abortion. It is not a 'quick fix' at all. The complications include: Ectopic pregnancies, Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (reported in up to 30% of all cases), subsequent infertility and miscarriages, future premature births (often because of a cervix that was damaged during the previous abortion), small-for-dates babies and placenta previa, which is 7-15 times more common among women who have had abortions than among those who have not.

7. Increase in Breast Cancer: "Every study of induced abortions performed before the first live birth is consistent with an initial increase in risk of at least 50 percent," reports Dr Joel Brind.

8. Most South Africans Oppose Abortion: A professional survey done by the MarkData arm of Human Sciences Research Council in September and October 1995 shows that the public were strongly opposed to abortion.

9. The Overpopulation Argument: However, is the world really overpopulated? Can we not feed ourselves? In his book "Exploding Population Myths" Jim Peron conclusively proves that the population is not the problem:"In most of the world, food production is easily outstripping population growth, and on a world-wide basis the problem of overpopulation no longer exists."

10. The Bible Declares the Sanctity of Human Life:

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves...defend the rights of the poor and needy." Proverbs 31:8-9
"For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb....Your eyes say my unformed body." Psalm 139:13-16

(Taken from ChristianAction.org)