This is the passage that is an infallible doctrine of the Catholic Church condemning abortion…

Apologetics
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Thanks be to God, I have not! It is one of my biggest fears though (and I’m a man). I believe the act of rąpe is the worst thing you can do to another human being.

Did this happen to you or is this an argument to justify abortion-upon-request? If the former, man, that breaks my heart. If the latter, then would you be willing to only make abortion-upon-request legal in only these circumstances (which I still believe to be morally wrong)? The reason that I ask is because most who celebrate the right to abort babies are not willing to compromise. Because they know that the number of babies who are aborted are not because of this scenario.

I believe you have shared this tragic story here before. My Wife had to have a D&C after we lost our baby boy late in the pregnancy. This was a tragic loss and what added to her psychological pain of losing our son was when the Wife of my cousin (who shares your political leanings) compared having a D&C to having an abortion.

The Nuns that you hold resentment for had the same view as my Cousin’s Wife (even though they were coming from opposite sides of the issue).

I think what needs to be address is 1) is the baby living at the time of removal and 2) is the woman’s life truly in danger? If the so-called physician is killing the baby before removing him/her, then this is morally wrong. If the physician is not removing the remains of a deceased child, then this may cause harm to the mother (I’m not a Doctor, so I am only going off of logic here). If the woman’s life is not truly in danger, then there is no valid reason to remove an alive baby (in the near future, there may be artificial wombs where the baby could be transferred to safely, but we do not know what impacts this my have on the child’s development and to the mother).

I agree. And I would add, don’t put scientism your religion. Faith and science should never be opposed to one another. Faith tries to understand why God created, while science tries to understand with how God created. What we do/don’t do with this understanding is important. If we make a god of science, then this is disordered. If we convince ourselves that an innocent human being is less than human, this too is disordered. Slave owners viewed human beings as less than human. This is why I question why you keep using the scientific term embryo, rather than baby. Is it to separate your pain of losing a child or is it to make it easier to support the killing of an unborn human being for any reason? I know this is not an easy topic to talk about, but I think we often dance around the issue.

What’s ironic about what you just said, is that I heard the same thing during Covid, but coming form those who are not members of your political religion. Allow me to explain. During Covid we were told to “trust the science,” while those who were saying this believe in scientism. What we later discovered was that those who got Covid and went to the Hospital were administered Remdesivir (nicknamed “RemDEATHisver”) and put on ventilators with bacteria in them, often causing the patient to die and the death was blamed on Covid. These same worshipers of the Church of Dr. Fouci also were excited to inject an experimental pharmaceutical product into their bloodstream. And they demonized anyone who had less blind faith in politician and so-called experts. In addition to this, other experts were being silenced and scientific terms were being banned on social media to prevent individuals from discussing what we were being forced to believe. This is why we ended up with nicknames for all things related to Covid. We were not allowed to talk about it. We simply had to comply. Is this Science?

My Mom was one of these who blindly trusted the Science and she ended up in the hospital with blood clots throughout her entire body after receiving the second “jab” (see, there is one of those work-around words that came into our vernacular after being not allowed to talk about the science). And my Mom was not the only one. My co-worker’s Husband was also in the hospital for the very same thing after receiving the “vaxxine” (days before my Mom). So, I was getting updates from my Sister on my Mom and it was the very same thing I had just heard from my co-worker a few days prior.

My Sister (who is a Vegan, which is a religion in of itself) was on a dating app during Covid. She had one guy who ended the date right then and there when he discovered that my Sister was not vaxxinated. It used to be that the anti-vaccine individuals were mostly Democrat Hippies. It was President Ronald Reagan who passed the act that prevents individuals from being able to hold makers of vaccines accountable if their products do cause unintended consequences. But, not all anti-vaxxers (with the double-x) are anti-vaccine. In fact, most individuals who did not get injected with the experimental messenger-RNA are not anti-vaccine. They just did not blindly trust what was being sold to us. It was President Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed” that made the vaxxine legal to go to the market (bypassing the science phase). It was not science that you were trusting, but politicians and individual who would make a lot of government dollars from this so-called vaxxine. These are the two entities that likely caused the virus in the first place.

If you recall, it was the Democrats who refused to get “Trump’s Vaccine” while he was still in office. And then as soon as Democrats won the election, they changed their tune. Now it was deemed “safe & effective.” It became a religion. Had Trump won re-election in 2020, it would have been the MAGA Cult rolling up their sleeves and still wearing American Flag masks in the grocery store and at amusement parks and it would have been the Democrats #resisting.

You can claim that those who question are dumb, backwards, or ignorant. You can call them names. But, know that you do not know as much as you think you do, nor do I. And to make gods of men is not intelligent. I think we all need to humble ourselves and those who will not, God will, which is why I don’t really fear the powerful. They will lose in the end (if not in this life, the next).

24

Actually, the Bible says that God does not show favoritism. In Jesus’s day, people believed that if you were wealthy it was because you or your parents had pleased God, and if you suffered it was because you or your parents had sinned. Since then, many people have still believed that wealth is a mark of God’s favor. But Jesus taught that faith and good works are the only wealth that last. And He told parables about rich people losing their wealth and going to hell. He even said it’s almost impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God, but added that nothing is impossible for God.

25

Good morning Steve!
I was thinking of you this morning. (I generally get up between 3 and 4 a.m. to do morning prayers, and rosary till about 6).
What you are describing is what the scriptures of India call “karma”. Or, what Jesus refers to as “sewing and reaping”. This is reward and punishment implemented by the will of God in response to our good and evil deeds.

Therefore one is born crippled, ugly, poor, etc. and another is born as “Prince Harry” with servants and every material facility. If our misfortune is because our parents have sinned, this is the understanding that the sins of the previous generation are paid for by the next generation.
And the same would apply to the results of piety…….whether our own or that of our parents, grandparents, etc.
However, I am hesitant to consolidate faith and good works into one vector in determining the course of our eternal journey. On the one hand, according to our dialogue, the wealthy man was either pious or his predecessors were pious. But such a man, Jesus tells us, has a meager chance (as you say) of entering the kingdom of God. (His camel won’t fit through the door). And at the same time, the man on the cross beside dear Jesus was a first class villain. But Jesus told him that he was saved by his faith.
Therefore the results of “works” seem to be restricted to the venue of earthly profit and loss. And faith in God and His son seems to determine our eternal profit and loss.
However, the ancient Vedic literatures state that our everyday duties and occupations can become completely spiritualized if we actually do them in a spirit of devotion to God. This would mean that the man who is, for example, working in a factory would be feeling in his heart as follows:

  1. Actually this is God’s factory, because He is the creator and the actual proprietor of every thing. 2) My real position as a child of God is to engage in every activity with a heartfelt desire to be pleasing to God. 3) Therefore, although it may appear that I am working for the apparent owner of this factory, I am actually engaged in devotional service to God who I love with all of my heart. 4) And, although by material standards, my work in this factory may be judged as well-done, or unsuccessful, I understand that the success and failure of my efforts is actually in God’s hands, and not my own. 5) And although I am laboring with a desire to please God by my work, I know that God needs nothing that I can provide; but He is more interested in the love in my heart than in the results of my labor. 6). And because I am working with a desire to be pleasing to God, therefore He is accepting my labor as devotional activity, and I can feel His loving reciprocation. 7) And when I feel His loving reciprocation, my heart becomes so completely joyful, that I do not feel elation when my work appears to be successful, nor do I feel lamentation when my efforts appear to be a failure by mundane standards. 8) All I ever desire in life is to be engaged in this devotional spirit, because when I work in this way I can feel in my heart that “the kingdom of God is at hand.”
    This is a description of the working man’s faith. Although earning a meager salary, he is very rich. Whereas the wealthy man who is devoid of this devotional demeanor is poverty stricken from a spiritual point of view.
    Another corollary we can extract from these ideas, is that a man may work very hard and still remain in poverty, not because of his present activities, but because of his past, or the behavior of his parents.
    Another point of view, is that if we are very pious, we may become very wealthy; but sometimes if God really loves a soul who wishes with all sincerity to approach him, God may take everything away from him…….as in the case of Job, who was the most pious, and yet made materially destitute by God’s will.
    In conclusion, as per your summary, “Everything is possible for God.”
    Thank you for being a literally “gentle man”.

Peter

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27

One of my pastors when I lived in Virginia said that this world is a saint-making machine.

Eight good, thoughtful comments, Peter.

28

Yes, a saint-making machine. But how does God make saints? Those who are determined to enjoy this world, by enjoying the things of the world, good family, good social position, success in their business or profession, nice house, nice car………they are faced with so many reverses, so many problems, so many frustrations, betrayals, disappointments.
This is all part of God’s saint-making machine. To make us come to the conclusion that our real happiness, our real sense of fulfillment, is to be found not so much in the things of this world, but in our relationship with God.
If we examine the lives of the saints, we see that they have more or less turned their backs on the things of the world. Because they understand where their real fulfillment is to be found.
Similarly, when Jesus was doing austerities in the desert, fasting for 40 days, etc., Satan approached him saying, now you can be rewarded with all the things of this world. And Jesus said, “Get behind me Satan.”
Of course the things of this world are not bad in themselves, as everything can be used in the service of the Lord. It is the self-centered enjoying spirit that gets us into trouble. But if every resource is utilized for giving pleasure to the Lord, in this demeanor of the heart, we can come to the position of ”My cup runneth over.” The lives of the saints are not dry. They know the secret of real enjoyment. They are the best products of God’s saint-making machine.

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