Monthly Archives: February 2007

Slippery Slope

26 February 2007

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“Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.” (Kahlil Gibran)

We ran across an old friend last night. Gaylon and I had often wondered what ever happened to him. People change so much over the years. I know I have, but I like to think it’s for the better. I’m sure there are some who might not agree!

This guy used to be a great Christian. He really did love God. He played his guitar and sang about God. He was a teacher, a great role model. He made an amazing difference in the lives of so many people. Now, he very clearly states that he no longer is a Christian. Not that he really needed to point that out.

And it made me really sad. I’m not the evangelical type. I don’t run around spouting off Bible verses and trying to convert everyone. I take to heart the advice of St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel at all times – if necessary, use words.” But that doesn’t mean I don’t care very deeply when someone commits apostasy and rejects God.

I care because I care a lot about people. But I also care because I can see myself making the same mistakes. I am so very human, and there have been so many times in my life when I really thought something was a great idea, or that it was at least a sin I was willing to commit. I have far too frequently stood on the steep brink of spiritual disaster and looked longingly over the edge to the jagged temptations far below. A couple of times I have even started to try and make my way down that steep cliff, only to find myself clinging to the proverbial branch and begging God for His mercy and assistance.

I stand in judgment of no one. I know I have it in me to reject God. I’ve done it before. Not completely, more like leaving Him an “away message”. But it is a dangerous, slippery slope. St. Thomas Aquinas noted that a sinner does not see the choice between good and evil, but the choice between two goods. I understand that! So, again, I do not stand in judgment of anyone.

In the catechism class I teach, we were discussing the First Commandment. And it seems pretty cut-and-dried. You know, no false gods. No idols. Seems basic enough, until you cross-reference it. When Jesus was questioned about which commandment was the greatest, he freaked everyone out and didn’t answer with one of the old tried-and-true Top Ten. Instead, he sort of summed them all up in one: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself.” So, there’s the cross-reference. Love. The First Commandment is all about love. Loving God, and because of loving God, loving others. NOT easy!

So in my class, we discussed the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. We talked about what these things meant, and how to get them. They are actually received at Baptism, but we must cultivate them. It’s basically a use-it-or-lose-it thing. If you want to grow in Faith, you must exercise Faith. You must protect your Faith, and not do things that will cause you to lose Faith. I think this is really so important.

Every time I have ever seen anyone turn away from God, it is because they first started dancing with ideas and behaviors that they knew were offensive to God. So, finally, they found a way to be angry with God, because let’s face it: it’s a whole lot easier to offend someone if we’re already angry at them! Then, finally, they determine that either God does not care (because if He did, they’d be in a whole lot of trouble, right?) or that God isn’t real at all. That’s the easiest theology, because if there is not God, then there are no boundaries, and anything goes.

I have been guilty of deciding that God didn’t care about me. Which brings us to the Theological Virtue of Hope. Despair is obviously a sin against Hope. Suicide is the obvious example of this in action. I’ve managed to despair many times without ever contemplating suicide. (Good Catholic upbringing in action there: suicide=mortal sin=one-way ticket straight to hell.) And I have been guilty of wanting God to look away for awhile. But I have never been able to just decide He doesn’t exist. That is incomprehensible to me. I guess that is because, deep down, I really do believe that God is forgiving and loving and merciful. In spite of all the things I’ve done and considered doing, He still loves me. Sort of like the way I still love my children when they’ve done something amazingly foolish, only God doesn’t indulge in the good old-fashioned Polish Guilt Trip.

Which brings me around to Charity, or Love. If God loves me, then I should love Him back. And if he loves everyone else, then I need to love them, too. Which is impossible. Except that love is not a feeling. It’s a decision. And I am eternally grateful that thus far, God has given me the grace necessary to continually love Him, and others. He makes the impossible possible.

And if I love God, then I will want to do things that make Him happy. I mean, I am always looking for ways to make my family and friends happy. I often go to great lengths to make sure I don’t upset any of them! If I know I’ve done something, or made some decision that will incur their disapproval, then I avoid them, until I can ‘fix’ the problem. It is tougher with God, of course, because I can’t avoid Him. But the precept is the same.

But the bottom line is this: God is real, whether we like the idea or not. Sorta like gravity. We don’t have to believe in gravity, but if we jump off a building, we will discover that it is very real, and we will pay the consequences. It’s easy to deceive myself into believing that I am being cheated out of some great pleasure or reward by obeying God, and that He’s not being fair. I love that line in the movie “The Labyrinth” where the girl keeps saying “That’s not fair!” and the Goblin King looks at her and says “You say that so often. I wonder what your basis for comparison is.” What basis indeed!

So, I am sad, but I am also motivated. I really care about my friend who has turned away from God. He is a brilliant and delightful man. It is so easy to get ideas in our heads about the way we believe things are, and then nothing else seems to make sense. We begin to believe that sin is good, and that everything is relative, and therefore okay. I’m familiar with that thought process. And I know that if I don’t cultivate Faith, Hope and Love, I will lose them. They will atrophy and die, and I really don’t want to go there. It is far too slippery a slope.

Not My Daughter!!!!!

12 February 2007

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"That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves." (Thomas Jefferson)

A February 3, 2007 article in the Washington Post reports:

"The National Vaccine Information Center yesterday warned state officials to investigate the safety of a breakthrough cancer vaccine as Texas became the first state to make the vaccine mandatory for school-age girls."

How proud the governor of Texas must be! To be the first to enact a mass poisoning of little girls throughout his state! The commercials for this vaccine show all these women proudly holing up their index finger and proclaiming "One less." "One less"??? One less what? One less little girl who will have a chance of a normal life, a normal birth, a normal baby? The CDC assures us that the adverse effects are not bad enough to warrant them putting any sort of ban on this drug. Well, that’s reassuring – not!

Already cases are being reported of side-effects that range from unconsdciousness to seizures! And they are recommending this for 6th grade girls! Actually, recommending is too gentle a term. They are forcing this on these little girls!

Yes, HPV is a bad thing. But this vaccination, Gardasil, has not been tested long enough, and there is no concrete evidence that it will work, or that it is harmless. How do we know what this will do to their young reproductive organs? How do we know how it will affect their children, or possibly even their grandchildren? The truth is, we do NOT know.

Apparently Merck feels confident that most of these young girls will become sexually active (or, God forbid, are already sexually active) and therefore need to be protected against themselves.

Yes, I know that the potential is there. It’s always there. But it’s a known risk, unlike vaccinations that compromise immune systems. We’ve already seen widespread evidence that vaccinations can cause serious problems, such as autism. (And if you don’t believe it, read the fine print on those little sheets they hand you when you take your child in to be immunized.) But that doesn’t matter to the Big Money Makers at Merck. As long as they can find a way to get their product out there, then they’re happy. For now. What’s next? I shudder to consider.

Enough of my soapboxing. Here is a news bulletin that was posted on Mother Magazine’s Website:

A Shot in the Dark
Sick of the aggressive, targeted marketing onslaught of often inappropriate goods and services aimed at pre-teens? One of the latest “products” directed at young girls might make them sick too—literally. Merck’s new vaccine Gardasil, which the CDC has just recommended for all 11 and 12 year old girls, has not been adequately or appropriately assessed for risks, according to vaccine safety advocates.

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) maintains that Merck’s clinical trials did not prove that the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, touted as preventing cervical cancer and genital warts, is safe to give to pre-adolescents. “There is too little long term safety and efficacy data, especially in young girls, and too little labeling information on contraindications,” said NVIC president Barbara Loe Fisher.

According to NVIC’s June 27 press release, in Gardasil’s clinical trials, the FDA allowed Merck to use a potentially reactive aluminum containing placebo as a control for most participants, rather than a non-reactive saline solution placebo.¹ A reactive placebo can artificially increase the appearance of safety of an experimental drug or vaccine in a clinical trial. Gardasil contains 225 mcg of aluminum and, although aluminum adjuvants have been used in vaccines for decades, they were never tested for safety in clinical trials. Merck and the FDA did not disclose how much aluminum was in the placebo. ²

Animal and human studies have shown that aluminum can cause nerve cell death ³ and that vaccine aluminum adjuvants can allow aluminum to enter the brain,⁴⁵as well as cause inflammation at the injection site leading to chronic joint and muscle pain and fatigue.⁶⁷ Nearly 90 percent of Gardasil recipients and 85 percent of aluminum placebo recipients followed-up for safety reported one or more adverse events within 15 days of vaccination, particularly at the injection site.⁸ Pain and swelling at injection site occurred in approximately 83 percent of Gardasil and 73 percent of aluminum placebo recipients. About 60 percent of those who got Gardasil or the aluminum placebo had systemic adverse events including headache, fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, and myalgia.⁹ ¹⁰Gardasil recipients had more serious adverse events such as headache, gastroenteritis, appendicitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, asthma, bronchospasm and arthritis.

Gardasil is the first childhood vaccine to exclusively target girls. The HPV vaccine is also the first to be credited with preventing cancer, a claim hyped in Merck’s multi-channel marketing campaign “Tell Someone.” In fact, even the types of HPV billed “high risk” rarely actually result in cancer; the immune system generally removes the virus before it causes problems. Also, in the rare instances where it does occur, cervical cancer usually takes five to ten years to develop. Prior to cancer, HPV causes the growth of tell-tale abnormal cells, which can be detected by a Pap smear. Upon detection, the disease can be easily cured by minor surgery to remove the abnormal cells. Therefore, a woman who gets regular Pap smears every one to three years is almost 100% protected from cervical cancer—with no need for an expensive, potentially problematic, under tested vaccine. Cervical cancer accounts for only about one percent of all cancer deaths in US women.

Health and Human Services is expected to approve the CDC recommendation—meaning Gardasil will be routinely administered to all 11 and 12 year old girls. The vaccine has also received CDC approval for sale and marketing to girls and women ages nine to 26. At $120 a pop, the three required doses of Gardasil will earn Merck $360 per consumer. With over 35 million US girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26, recommended administration of Gardasil could mean over 12 billion dollars for the drug company. Merck is currently fighting more than 11,500 lawsuits related to another of their drugs, Vioxx, which is also plagued by controversy surrounding false data on its safety.

Sources:

http://www.gardasil.com/

http://www.merck.com/

http://www.metrokc.gov/health/apu/std/hpv.htm#whatis

http://www.909shot.com/PressReleases/pr62706gardasil.htm

I think that pretty much covers it. I’m not just paranoid. There is serious reason to take issue with this vaccine. Never mind that it can do way more damage than good. Never mind that this vaccine is being manufactured and promoted by a company with a history of lies. How about the fact that yet again, the government has found a way to take more control over our children? Or that they assume that all these little girls will be sexually active, and immoral? What about Parental Rights?

Children of God for Life has an entire website devoted to links on the topic. Gardasil – Get the Facts. I have to agree wholeheartedly. Yes, I know that raising your children to remain pure until marriage is not a guarantee that they will abstain from all sexual activity until the honeymoon. That doesn’t make this vaccine or any mandate thereof, acceptable. Parents must be the ultimate decision-makers for their children’s wellbeing. NOT the state.

Oh, that’s right, I forgot. Hilary Clinton explained to us that "It takes a village to raise a child." Well, I didn’t see any village raising her daughter! And they’re sure as heck not going to touch mine.

The Face of Hunger

8 February 2007

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"It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the lonliness and pain of someone unloved in your own home. Bring love into your home, for this is where our love for each other must start." (Blessed Mother Teresa)

Today, Faith and I went with her little Daughters of St. Anne group up to Asheville to work for a brief time at the Manna Food Bank. Daughters of St. Anne is a group of homeschooled girls, a sub-group of CAFE: Catholic Area Family Educators. This year they are studying the Corportal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. This month it was "Feed the Hungry".

I’m not sure how much these sweet little girls actually got out of the experience, but I have had to really stop and think. Here are some facts about Western North Carolina:

Out of total clients in households served by MANNA FoodBank and documented by Hunger in America 2001:

25% include children under the age of 18
31% have one employed adult in the home
47.5% chose between paying for food and paying for utilities or heating fuel
31.2% chose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage bill
29.8% chose between paying for food and paying for medicine or medical care
33.8% have one household member in poor health
26.2% receive Food Stamp Program benefits, but it’s likely that many more are eligible.
Many of the western counties poverty rate exceeds the state average of 12.6%, with Swain at 20.9% and Graham at 18.3%

This agency is not serving JUST the homeless, they are serving families who work, and have to make the decision of whether they want to feed their children, or pay rent, or buy medicine. This is in the United States of America!! There is something so, so, so wrong with this picture.

Western North Carolina is home to some of the wealthiest retirees in our nation, not to mention the opulent Biltmore Estate. Now, I don’t fault the wealthy for being wealthy. But I think it’s just really difficult for a lot of us, myself included, to understand that wealth just isn’t an option for an awful lot of people. I mean, here I sit at my computer, with my headphones on, listening to music and drinking my filtered water, with my $300 cell phone sitting beside me! Never mind all the other amazing things God has blessed our family with.

No, we don’t have the money to go to the beach every summer or visit Europe or even go to Carowinds just over in Charlotte. But we NEVER go hungry. In fact, I spend most of my time and energy trying to lose weight.

I was raised to believe that anyone and everyone who wants to make money, can. All they need to do is work hard, and they will have all they want or need. Anyone who doesn’t "make it" has only his/herself to blame. In theory, I think that may be true. But I’m not so sure anymore. The older I get, the more I question things, and come up empty.

I know that taking care of the poor was a really big deal to Jesus. He never mentioned anything about them being lazy or unmotivated. He didn’t judge them at all for being poor. In fact, seemed to love them even more because of it. I know that my own personal heroine, Blessed Mother Teresa, thought there was no higher calling or blessing than to serve the poor. How can you question a woman like that?

So, tonight I am looking at my life and my world through some very grateful eyes! I have so many things I could complain about. Everybody does. But there are so many more things to praise God for, and at least for tonight, I’m gonna have to go with that. I know that before I know it I will find some reason to feel sorry for myself (the Israelites didn’t remember that whole Red Sea incident for very long before they started complaining again!). But I hope that I will remember quickly how very blessed I am. How amazingly blessed my family is.

I am ever so grateful that there are agencies out there like the Manna Food Bank. So few people have done so much. Imagine if all of us pitched in? We really would cure world hunger. But right now, I think we really just need to start in our own backyards.

WORKS OF MERCY

The Corporal Works of Mercy are: