There are so many things I could write about today! I think I'm pumped about blogging because I've been reading Fr. Z and his lovely musings on Latin. Very refreshing since I haven't heard anyone talk about "those fun 4th declension nouns" in a long time!
But I digress...
As many people know, I have been substitute teaching at the public middle school here for about five or six weeks now. I work in a classroom for the special education kids and help mostly a group of three girls with a couple other students thrown in here or there all day. It is fun and rewarding and I love the people I work with. I have noticed, however, that come my lunchtime in the teacher's lounge, the talk always somehow digresses to the evil influences these children are facing leading to their downfall in social and educational situations. Believe it or not, I am not even blaming the media first.
*GASP*
But Jen, we all know that the evil media is pointing out these crude behaviors to our kids and teaching them things they shouldn't know and telling them that those behaviors are okay! Do I disagree with that? Not at all. But what bothers me is how they get access to these shows/websites/magazines. Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that shows like "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and "The Real Housewives" and "Glee" are appropriate, nor am I saying that today's music "isn't that bad" or that kids really can find role models in a People magazine. If I met Lady Gaga I would probably have to fight the strong urge to give her a whack upside the head and ask what she's thinking.
So my question is: WHERE ARE THE PARENTS?!?!?!!?!?!?!? These people that I talk to on a daily basis are asking the same thing, and they're not even saying that they're Catholic. I don't ask, it's common sense. Everyone knows I am: it's kind of hard to miss the large Crucifix I wear. To go off on a small tangent, that's one of the things I love about living in a town named after a Catholic priest (as opposed to a town with an Indian name that is about as anti-Catholic, in a passive-aggressive way, as you can get): no one is offended here by my faith! Imagine a world where people don't think that you're ideals are "attacking" them!
Anyway... What is lacking in our society is a strong lack of conviction. We need TRUTH with a capital TRUTH and we need it now and we need to stand up for it. HEY EVERYONE! THERE IS SUCH THING AS TRUTH! I had a discussion with another teacher yesterday and she asked me an interesting question: Does smoking/drinking/doing drugs while a woman is pregnant constitute as child abuse? Could you be arrested? What can be done? She sees kids all the time that are products of such behaviors who suffer terribly from this or that condition. I had to fight the urge to make it a hugely political discussion by saying something to the effect of "well they could just go abort it now, couldn't they so why care about killing it some other way?" and chose to be a little more controlled by saying, "well I suppose they would have to define the fetus as a baby first, instead of just a clump of cells." The dawn emerges and all we can say is "yeah, that's sad."
THIS is why I think it would be awesome if all Catholics could be open to life. By being "pro-life" we are already winning, I assume that enough "pro-choicers" will choose death that they will not be able to sustain their own population. It's funny to me that this idea of having a choice that people are so fervent about is going to lead to its own destruction. Yeah, great idea people. So we need to have babies. But not only that, they need to be raised in the light of TRUTH and grace! We need to form them and teach them and mold them! As we are being molded by Christ through the help of his Holy Spirit and the graces of his Sacraments, we need to then mold our children! THIS is loving. Letting them have access to filth and lies is NOT loving. Teaching bad habits is NOT loving. IT'S KILLING THEM, BODY AND SOUL.
This seems kind of "Catholic cliche" to me, but it is so true and so few understand the love in this encyclical: Humanae Vitae. It is not meant to attack you, or to condemn you, but to help you to see TRUTH! Read it! Love it!
~J
I might be misunderstanding you but being pro-choice is not about being pro-death. In fact very few pro-choicers feel like abortion should be a form of birth control or plan to use it as such. Pro-choice is about a woman's right to choose. Its about someone else not determining what a woman can or cannot do to her body. Most pro-choicers do not want to or choose to abort "their" babies. I must admit I am pro-choice. Not because I think abortion is ethical (or responsible for that matter- people should be aware of the consequences of their actions) but because I don't like the idea that someone else can tell me that I cannot do something to my body. If I were pregnant and pregnancy became life threatening for me I would want the right to choose my life over the life a fetus (or in many cases both my life and the life of the fetus). If I got raped I'd want the right to choose. Past a certain point- abortions are certainly unethical and should be banned.
ReplyDeleteFYI: 10-25% of all pregnancies result in natural miscarriages (defined as the body aborting the fetus before 20 weeks of the pregnancy is reached but usually happens before week 13- that's approximately 3 months).
My fear too is that if abortions are banned that they will happen anyways. The problem being that they will take place in unsanitary places, with untrained doctors, and will ultimately lead to more deaths. Or maybe worse people will try other methods to get rid of the baby- like purposely ingesting something- which may be unsuccessful and lead to worse things...
Unfortunately we cannot control people and their actions. We cannot prevent a father from raping their child. From a future parent from doing any assortment of drugs while pregnant. Or from simple mistakes happening while our reproductive cells divide and combine. What we can do is hope that people make ethical decisions.
Some people should simply not be parents. Parenting is difficult and even the best parents can fail. Unfortunate but true. (No worries though Jen and Douggy (: you'll make great parents I am sure!)
Here's my final bit I promise.
People choose their own path. As a devout Christian it is inevitable that you will seem to be forcing your ideas on non-Christians. The belief system and morals of Christians make you want to do good and help others. You aim to help people not force your faith. To others, who do not understand you or your faith, it will always seem like you are forcing when you are simply trying to educate.
I read your blog. I try to read a diversity of religious and non-religious opinions...conservative and liberal...etc. Its good for me so that I can correctly choose what I believe.
Here's what I have learned. You can educate as much as you want but until the person decides to change their faith/mind/opinion it will not change.
Love you Jen.
Lauren