#beardedcatholic

[nerdybeardedcatholic]

Pro-Life or Anti-Abortion

The past few years, there has been a pro-life group that has grown on my college campus and it has grown quite vocal on their stance against abortion. They chalk the side walks of campus with Pro-life messages, have a week of pro-life awareness, and even have weekly meetings. Since I consider myself Pro-life as well, I went to one of their meeting to see what all the hooplah was about. I discover that like many “Pro-Life” groups in America, they are merely an Anti-Abortion group. When asked about other Pro-life issues, all other members would say is that they just want to concentrate on fighting Abortion. That is all well and good but that does not make you pro-life. 

I don’t know how many close friends I have that are hardcore, right-wing, anti-abortion people. But when it comes to capital punishment, war, immigration rights even, they are the furthest thing from Pro-Life. This Country as taken the term pro-life and blown it wayyyyy out of portion and is one of the biggest lies in America today. 

Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg stated in a personal blog of his back in 2013: “I am convinced that many so called Pro-Life groups are not really pro-life but merely anti-abortion. We heard nothing from the heavy hitters in the prolife movement in the last week when Florida last night executed a man on death row for 34 years having been diagnosed as a severe schizophrenic.” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-gehring/bishop-robert-lynch-abortion_b_3745929.html)

Look up the top Pro-life movements online. Prolife.com is a strict anti-abortion group, not pro life. The Pro-life action league is strict anti abortion. The National Right to Life is a little better since they kind of discuss things like medicare, euthanasia, cloning, and health care rationing. But they are still missing many important issues that a Pro-Lifer should be taking action against like capital punishment. Priest for Life is pretty good website that represents a full pro-lifer even though it seems to concentrate more on anti-abortion. They at least seem to cover all the issues though. 

You can get the picture I’m painting by now. If you hate abortion, go and peacefully protest your heart out. But if you plan on wearing the “Pro-Life” badge, I expect you to be FULLY Pro-Life. If you are just an anti-abortion group and are using the term Pro-Life, you are no better than people who claim to be Catholic but only show up to Mass for Christmas and/or Easter. Yes...all you Anti-Abortion fake Pro-Lifers are Chreasters. Peace Love and Blessings.

-The Nerdy Bearded Catholic

[nerdybeardedcatholic]

Jesus Takes the Cake

As most of us know the state of Indiana just passed a law that allows businesses the right to deny service if it conflicts with their religious belief. This has sparked a huge uproar nation wide due to the fact of how now homosexuals can be seen to be discriminated against under the name of someone's religion. Many states are moving to pass similar bills or have passed their own religious freedom bills, most recently Arkansas. Now that we are all caught we must ask ourselves, are these bills truly discriminating towards homosexuals or people who are not of the business's religion? No I know I will not be popular to hold this opinion but this is what I honestly believe. First off, the counter argument of "well Jesus ate and hung out with sinners so we should be ok and accepting everyone's beliefs" is totally missing the point. I heard It so many times on FoxNews, CNN, etc. The truth behind it is Jesus dinned with these people to try to reach them to make them repent for their current sins. He did not stop the stoning of Mary Magdalene just to have continue live a sinful life. Jesus told her to sin no more. Matthew did not stay a tax collector after become a disciple. Jesus wanted to show the possibility of redemption for even the most sinful of people. Now what does this have to do with homosexuality and businesses? Well all of this controversy started when a few businesses (bakery and photo studio) refused to make a wedding cake and take pictures at a homosexual couple's wedding because they believe homosexuality is a sin against God according to their Christian beliefs. Now some states are standing up to defend these businesses as they rightfully should. The fact that many people are losing sight on is that the businesses are refusing to support a homosexual wedding. I can't see any other case where the sexual orientation of a person would be asked when it comes to what type of cake they need. If the couple were looking for a birthday cake, a graduation cake, etc. and were denied than I would agree on their argument against this bill. That is discrimination. But if you try to force someone to put their "label" on something that is as they believe against their faith, they should have a say if they want to take part in it or not. A cooperation will sponsor an athlete who is successful but the minute the athlete screws up and does something against their company mission (which should be the reason not to save face), they pull their endorsements (i.e. Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps). All in all, we just need to be respectful of each other during this tense time. Remember above all else that Jesus loves all of us no matter what sins we have committed. All we have to do is love him back, love each other, and sin no more. Easy enough, right?