Asking the Government to Subsidize Our Sins
We live in a time of dense moral fog. I spoke to a group of pastors yesterday about the need to preserve marriage in the state of Washington. Our legislature recently crammed down the throat of the WA electorate a bill that legalizes homosexual marriage.
We, the people, will challenge it in a fall referendum.
Re-define marriage? That’s like re-defining “gravity.” Gravity is what it is. No word games can change its reality. Consequently, no re-definition can alter the fact that only a man and a woman can “join together” in marriage. It’s physically impossible to do otherwise. Marriage was designed by God to discourage immorality and provide nurture and care for children conceived via the union.
If you’d told me thirty years ago that the definition of marriage would be up for grabs in my lifetime, I would have said that you were crazy.
But that’s what we are–twisted, crazy, upside down. Our back-slidden Judeo-Christian culture has perilously lost its moorings–even over something as basic as marriage.
That’s not all. Now we have another crazy idea: we want Uncle Sam to pay for our sexual sin.
Let me introduce you to Sandra Fluke.
You’ve probably heard of her by now–the cute, sassy, “reproductive rights activist” and Georgetown University law student who was paraded before a Congressional Committee last week. She became an instant liberal media sensation by pleading for government paid contraception for those who are “hooking up” in between law classes at Georgetown.
First of all, let’s examine the politics behind Ms. Fluke’s appearance. According to anybody with a brain, it’s obvious that Sandra Fluke’s sob story was engineered by the Obama White House and its secular allies. They desperately needed to take attention away from the mountains of debt, miserable economy and rising gas prices that might cause Barack Obama to become a one-term president.
So somebody got creative. Enter Saul Alinsky Tactics 101: Create a diversion so people are distracted from reality. George Stephanopoulos brings up the nobody-is-talking-about-it subject of contraception for fifteen distracting minutes in a Republican presidential debate; The press lulls Rick Santorum and other candidates into commenting–and viola!–all of a sudden there is a Republican “War on Women” and we must re-elect the president to make sure none of them die (or miss their pills…you get the idea).
Then, a slick pivot was made from creating a campaign issue for the president to changing God-given rights to government-proscribed rights. Of course, this started with Obamacare–which basically turned America on its head by saying that we all have a right to health care–and that the federal government will mandate it for us. That means force it on us whether we like it or not–and by the way–that health care will include free condoms and abortafacients (morning after pills that kill newly conceived babies).
Of course, your religious objections don’t matter. We’re all secularists now (actually, that’s the progressive goal, the changing of the American worldview), so shut up and pay your taxes. For the past couple of months, and until the Obamacare mandate is struck down by the Supreme Court later this year, the Catholic Church and others have been fighting this historic denial of God-given religious freedoms.
Enter Sandra Fluke, the third distraction in this trinity of craziness. Not only did she take attention off the economy, and bury the truth about religious liberty, but she invented a new right of free condoms or pills for all (especially “poor” law students who are struggling). You could hear the orchestra of violins playing in the back of the Congressional chambers.
I’ve added some humor to this column to help you through it, but I’m deadly serious about how mind-numbingly twisted our American set of rights and values have become.
Ms. Fluke–President Obama–the Democratic Party–and the mainstream media–are demanding that we subsidize peoples’ personal sexual sins. Can you believe it? Are we insane?
Yes–a portion of us are morally mad at this point in our history. It is up to the rest of us to expose this cloud of darkness and cast it from the shores of our beloved Republic.
I want to include a significant excerpt from Family Research Council on the Sandra Fluke affair. It was published on March 8, 2012:
“President Obama needed a diversion–and thanks to Sandra Fluke, he got one. Ever since her testimony about the hardships of buying $9 birth control, this Georgetown law student has become the contraception mandate’s standard bearer. After some unfortunate comments from Rush Limbaugh, the debate has shifted away from religious liberty to Ms. Fluke’s hurt feelings. It’s been convenient controversy for the White House, which may have been at its most vulnerable point in the last three years when it decided that the pursuit of sex is more important than the protection of conscience rights. Once backed into a corner by members from both parties, the Left finally found a victim to rally around–and the media has been all too happy to oblige.”
“But these distractions, as helpful as they may have been to the President’s cause, won’t last forever. At its core, this shows the administration’s pattern of trampling on religious freedom in its pursuit of a ‘fundamentally changed’ America. What Sandra Fluke has done, in part, is draw attention back to the dangers of ObamaCare, which threatens not only our physical health but our moral well-being. Essentially, the President is demanding that religious people sacrifice their beliefs to benefit someone else’s libido.”
Through this mandate, he suggests that unlimited sexual license is more important than faith. As Cathy Ruse explained, ‘Ms. Fluke’s crusade for reproductive justice is simply a demand that a Catholic institution pay for drugs that make it possible for her to have sex without getting pregnant… That doesn’t mean she has to have less sex’ Cathy points out, ‘only that she has to take financial responsibility for it herself.'”
“What’s so unreasonable about that? Intimacy, after all, is a choice. And God may have given us the right to make that choice, but He never gave us the right to force others to pay for it. That’s like asking people to ‘pay for [their] neighbor’s taxi rides because he likes to get drunk,’ Dr. Bob Moeller said. Like drinking, overeating, or smoking, promiscuity is an optional lifestyle habit–not a basic human need.”
“What liberals are advocating is essentially a sexual welfare program, where birth control and abortion drugs are the handout. As far as they’re concerned, people are as entitled to intimacy as they are to food and water. Unfortunately, that ideology comes not just at our expense but at society’s. FRC’s own research shows that the more people engage in sexual relations before marriage, the more harm it does to marriage. With each encounter, the risk of divorce–and all of its social consequences–goes up. So asking unmarried students to practice abstinence is not a life-threatening proposition, it’s life-affirming!”
As I contemplate the moral confusion of our era, the words of our wise and most beloved president, who also served during a morally decadent time, come to mind.
Abraham Lincoln, commenting on the evil of slavery, said these truthful words: No man has a right to do wrong. We can add to it in 2012: and have the audacity to ask the government to pay for it.
Let’s clear the moral fog that is confusing and hurting our nation and seek for moral renewal in our nation. That includes praying for people like Sandra Fluke and electing new leaders who will work to promote our God-given rights and responsibilities–not subsidize our sins.
The Real Reason Gas Prices Are Going Higher
Recently Bill O’Reilly and Lou Dobbs ignited a national debate about rising gasoline prices. Dobbs stunned Fox’s “humble correspondent” by stating on the “O’Reilly Factor” that the main reason for expensive gas in the U.S. is excess “supply” being sold to China and India. That made O’Reilly upset and he spent much of the week blaming the “greedy” oil companies for our woes.
Remember this is Fox News–not the mainstream media. Usually liberals blame the oil companies. However, oil prices are an area where Bill O’Reilly leans left–he really believes the oil executives are “hosing the folks.” He’s believed it for years. He may be partly right.
But I don’t think it’s the best answer.
So why are gas prices are so high, and what can we do about it?
First of all, let’s bring the current administration into the equation. When Barack Obama took office in January of 2009, the average price of gas was $1.85 (seems like an eternity ago). Today prices are closer to $3.85 (depending on your region and state taxes)–a 120 percent increase.
In his Saturday, February 25 radio broadcast, the president said there was no easy answer to the problem and blamed Republican complaints as gimmicks: “We know there’s no silver bullet that will bring down gas prices or reduce our dependence on foreign oil overnight,” he said.
The president suggested that the Republicans have only one answer: drill. But earlier in the week he scoffed at that suggestion: “You know that’s not a plan, especially since we’re already drilling. It’s a bumper sticker.” One journalist wryly commented, “Speaking of bumper stickers, remember ‘Yes We Can!’ Mr. President?
Indeed we do.
After filling up the car this weekend–$45 for three-quarters of a tank–I’ve done some research on rising gas prices. Here’s what I’ve found, with a special eye to the bigger picture.
SHORT TERM PROBLEMS
First, let’s look at our immediate predicament. In February 2012, we have record price levels and a threat of four of five dollars a gallon costs hitting us during the summer months.
Why? Here are what most experts say:
1. Gas prices tend to rise every spring in anticipation of increased demand during the summer driving vacation season. As a result, gas prices hit $3.50 a gallon by February 15, two weeks earlier than in 2011.
2. Global demand is raising the price of crude oil— It stands at $109 a barrel. This accounts for 55% of the price of gasoline. Distribution and taxes influence the remaining 45%. Usually, the latter items don’t change much, so that the daily change in gas prices primarily reflects oil price fluctuations. Right now there is growing demand in the developing countries of Asia (India and China) and the former Soviet Union. Their populations are rising out of poverty, and buying cars and heating oil in record amounts.
3. Commodity trading fear – Oil prices are set by commodities traders who buy and sell futures contracts on the commodities exchanges. These are agreements to buy or sell oil at a specific date in the future at a specific price. Commodities traders can create a self-fulfilling prophecy by bidding up oil futures prices. Once this starts, it can create an asset bubble. In April 2011, fears about unrest in Libya and Egypt sent oil prices up to $113 a barrel. In May 2011, as oil prices dropped, gas prices stayed high. Why? Commodities traders were concerned about refinery closures due to the Mississippi River floods. In February 2012, concerns about a potential military action, by either Israel or even the U.S., against Iran caused high oil prices.
4. Lower US consumption – Oil consumption in the United States is down 15% this year (we’re driving less and experiencing a warm winter). Usually this is a good problem that lowers prices, but this year it was so severe that it led to problem number five.
5. Refinery shutdowns and shake-up – This is probably the most unusual and significant short-term reason for higher prices. On February 23, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. had lost 5 percent of its oil refining capacity in the last 3 months. Over the past year, refineries have faced a squeeze. Prices for Brent crude have gone up, but demand for gasoline in the U.S. is at a 15-year low.
That means refineries haven’t been able to pass on the higher prices to their customers. As a result, companies have chosen to shut down some refineries rather than continue to lose money. This month, two large refineries outside Philadelphia shut down: Sunoco’s plant in Marcus Hook, Pa., and a Conoco Phillips plant in nearby Trainer, Pa. Together they accounted for about 20 percent of all gasoline produced in the Northeast.
Bloomberg gives further insight into the refinery problem:
“The U.S. refining industry is being split in two. On one hand are the older refineries, mostly on the East and Gulf Coasts, that are set up to handle only the higher quality Brent “sweet” crude—the stuff that comes from the Middle East and the North Sea. Brent is easier to refine, though it’s gotten considerably more expensive recently. (Certainly another reason for higher gas prices.)”
“Then there are the plants able to refine the heavier, dirtier West Texas Intermediate (WTI)—the stuff that comes from Canadian tar sands, the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico, and the newer outposts in North Dakota, which just passed Ecuador in oil production. These refineries tend to be clustered in the Midwest—places such as Oklahoma, Kansas, and outside Chicago. While the price of Brent crude has closed at over $120 a barrel in recent days, WTI is trading at closer to $106. That simple differential is the reason older refineries that can handle only Brent are hemorrhaging cash and shutting down, while refineries that can handle WTI are flourishing.”
“’The U.S. refining industry is undergoing a huge, regional transformation,’” says Ben Brockwell, a director at Oil Price Information Services. ‘If you look at refinery utilization rates in the Midwest and Great Lakes areas, they’re running at close to 95 percent capacity, and on the East Coast it’s more like 60 percent,’ he says. This is primarily why the cheapest gas prices in the country are found in such states as Colorado, Utah, Montana, and New Mexico, while New York, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C., have some of the highest prices.”
These five seem to be the current culprits. Steve Maley (Tulsa World) writes a good article on ten ways to deal with these problems in the short term. You can read it here.
But there is a much bigger problem we desperately need to solve.
THE BIG PICTURE
First let’s talk about the the destructive power of inflation. In fact, price inflation is such a “normal” and insidious thing that we barely notice it. We’re used to things going up in price. We’ve been told by the powers that be that rising prices are standard fare.
They weren’t normal in America for our first one hundred and fifty years. For a majority of our nation’s history, our currency remained as “sound as a dollar” and prices changed little from decade to decade. Then in 1914 we created the Federal Reserve and on January 5, 1933 we went off the gold standard. For the past eighty years, we have been systematically devaluing our currency.
The greatest decline of the dollar has happened recently. In the past six years, the dollar has decreased in value by 40%. When you hear wind of QE2 (quantitative easing) and other methods that the Federal Reserve uses to manipulate our currency, don’t rush to applaud them.
We are flooding the world with fiat dollars to stave off default and pay for our massive government debt. Remember when a $20 bill seemed like a decent chunk of money? Remember when coins or change were valuable? We hardly keep them or use them anymore.
The inflationary spending of the Fed is practically criminal–and one reason why some Republicans are voting for Ron Paul. He’s one of the few politicians willing to be honest about it.
Think of monetary inflation as a game of Monopoly. When you “empty the bank” to all the players, you have more money to spend on “Park Place” or anything else–so prices go up. Why? Increased cash in everyone’s wallet “bids” up the value of everything–which devalues the currency. In my brief driving career (1969-2012), monetary inflation has increased gas prices from 25 cents to almost four bucks. That’s a 1600% increase.
We live in a scary time for inflation in America. Food price are up 30%, gasoline 120% in three years, and run-away inflation could be in front of us. But there is a primary reason for inflation. It comes down to a nation’s faith and morals.
America used to be a nation of faith–of forward-thinking, God-believing people. Our faith produced morals, i.e. hard work, financial prudence, self-control, and a greater concern for “posterity” than for ourselves.
Then the Baby Boom and subsequent generations came along. We rejected God’s authority and cast off all restraints on morality–including financial prudence and debt. We became a “consumer” society where meeting my needs was more important that saving for our children. We used credit cards and risky mortgages to fund our immoral (non-right) attitude of living beyond our means. And we elected officials who did the same thing on a federal level.
Faith, morality and freedom produce hope. Unbelief, immorality, and bondage to debt create “uncertainty.” The biggest problem contributing to rising gas prices is uncertainty, i.e. unbelief.
The American people need to turn back to God, restore faith, stop their reckless spending and demand that their leaders do the same. Then, we must elect leaders who have the guts to reign in the Fed, stabilize the dollar, shrink the size of government, pay down the debt, get off the backs of business, protect the environment, and drill bay drill!–for the sake of future generations.
Prudent faith and actions can bring real long term hope–including cheaper gas..
Is God Using the Catholic Church to Awaken America?
One of the biggest stories in the U.S. this past week has been the uproar over the Obamacare provisions being handed down by the Department of Health and Human Services. The new mandates force religiously-affiliated organizations to dispense contraceptives against their consciences in violation of long-held religious freedom.
All week national Christian leaders decried the action. On Friday, radio commentator Sean Hannity held a “Crisis Forum” on the issue. The nation’s most watched cable network trumpeted the danger against religious liberty almost every hour. And yesterdy, I attended a private gathering of Washington State leaders to hear a major Republican presidential candidate speak to the issue.
Do you know what these national leaders, Sean Hannity, the cable news network and presidential candidate all have in common?
They are Catholics.
Is God using the Catholic Church to awaken America?
If He is, it would be quite ironic.
The first three spiritual awakenings in America history were led by fervent Protestants whose Bible-based convictions called the nation to repentance, faith and active involvement in the moral issues of their day. During America’s first two hundred years, it was the Protestant side of the Church that promoted strong families, railed against the excesses of alcoholism, and led the charge against the evil of slavery.
There was a reason for this. At the time of the American Revolution, Catholics formed only 1.6% of the population of the thirteen colonies.
But by 1850, Catholics had become the country’s largest single denomination. Between 1860 and 1890, their population in the United States tripled through immigration. By the end of the decade it reached seven million. This influx would eventually bring increased scrutiny for the Catholic Church and a greater cultural presence which led to a growing fear of the Catholic “problem” among America’s Protestants.
In fact, it was quite common in the 18th and early 19th centuries for Catholics to be marginalized in American society as heretics, Papists, and condescendingly described as “anti-Christ.” Some anti-Catholic political movements like the Know Nothings, and organizations like the Orange Institution, American Protective Association, and the Ku Klux Klan, actively persecuted Catholic believers.
In fact, for most of the history of the United States, Catholics were victims of discrimination and persecution. It was not until the presidency of John F. Kennedy in 1960 that Catholics were broadly accepted in the US.
The Philadelphia Nativist Riot, Bloody Monday, the Orange Riots in New York City in 1871 and 1872, and The Ku Klux Klan-ridden South discriminated against Catholics (as they did the Jews and African Americans) for their Irish, Italian, Polish, German, or Spanish ethnicity. Many Protestants in the Midwest and the North labeled Catholics as “anti-American Papists,” “incapable of free thought without the approval of the Pope.”
During the Mexican-American War, Mexicans were portrayed as “backward” because of their “Papist superstition.” In reaction to this attitude, some hundred American Catholics, mostly recent Irish immigrants, fought on the Mexican side. However, the majority of Catholic soldiers (primarily the Irish), along with their chaplains like John McElroy (Jesuit), who later founded Boston College, proved loyal to the American cause.
In 1850, Franklin Pierce, the US Attorney for the District of New Hampshire, presented resolutions for the removal of restrictions on Catholics from holding office in that state, as well as the removal of property qualifications for voting. But these pro-Catholic measures were soundly defeated by the Protestant population.
If you were a Catholic back then, you couldn’t even run for office!
As the 19th century progressed, animosity between Protestants and Catholics began to cool off. Many Protestant Americans came to understand that, despite anti-Catholic rhetoric, Catholics were also people of faith and were on their side of the issues. Another reason was that many Irish-Catholic immigrants fought alongside their Protestant compatriots in the American Civil War.
In the 20th century, and culminating in JFK’s election, Catholic believers moved into the mainstream in American society.
Today, according to a new 2011 study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, the US Catholic population is currently 77.7 million. The United States has the fourth largest Catholic population in the world, after Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines. In fact, in 2011, there are more than four times as many Catholics as Southern Baptists and more than eight times as many as United Methodists.
I understand some of the past suspicion over the Catholic Church. Hundreds of years of European Church corruption and persecution had fueled a Post-Reformation hatred of the Holy See. The church’s focus on rituals, perceived idolatry of the Virgin Mary and other patron saints didn’t sit well with Protestants. In the 20th century, evangelicals insisted that followers of Christ needed to be born again and follow the teachings of the Bible–not a fallible Pope.
But today, the tables have turned. It’s the Protestants who are asleep and the Catholics that are living out their faith.
I noticed the change in the 1980s while living in Washington, D.C. After the infamous Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, my young family attended many of the large pro-life rallies that marched against abortion. I expected to find my fellow evangelicals leading the procession.
Didn’t happen. What we did find was a passionate and powerful Catholic Church that was leading the way. In the early days, the Protestants and evangelicals were AWOL. Today they are more involved, but the Catholic Church is still the champion against abortion in this nation.
And when the brouhaha broke out this week over the Obamacare mandates, it was the Catholic Church that rose to speak for religious liberty. New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan said that he felt betrayed by President Obama and vowed that the Catholic Church would fight the new regulations even if they had to do it “in the streets.”
After President Obama blinked and modified (but didn’t really change) the rules, Archbishop Charles Chaput had even harsher words for the insurance-company-as-middleman approach. “Many Catholics are confused and angry. They should be… The HHS mandate, including its latest variant, is belligerent, unnecessary, and deeply offensive… We cannot afford to be fooled–yet again.”
Protestants and evangelicals are now joining the issue, but it is the Catholics who are really taking up the prophetic mantle. It’s as if the evangelical church–pre-occupied and neutralized by trying to be seeker-sensitive in the modern world–has abandoned its prophetic call and commitment to be salt and light in the culture.
So the Catholics have arisen to awaken the nation and Church.
- The national leaders I mentioned at the beginning are primarily Catholics. Many read a letter in their parishes last week calling the people and nation to fight for freedom of conscience.
- Sean Hannity is a Catholic believer. He hosted a leader’s summit on prime-time television that was primarily manned by Catholic clergy.
- Fox News was founded by Roger Ailes, a Roman Catholic, and many of its commentators including Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and Megan Kelly, are Catholics.
- And Rick Santorum is a rising Catholic Republican presidential contender.
C’mon my Protestant and Evangelical friends! The Catholic Church is putting us to shame while we twiddle our thumbs and tip toe around the great moral issues of our day.
Maybe Penny Young Vance is right: We’re all Catholics Now. Or maybe we better be.
Because God seems to be using the Catholic Church to awaken America.