Seeking
Almighty God
The Gracious Favor
By Stephen L. Wilmeth
Upon
this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the
Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgement of
mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.
Abraham Lincoln (explaining
Emancipation Proclamation)
Seeking
There are
powerful influences in our way of life that have consequences.
That theme
was a recent discussion point and it had to do with a close friend that has
faced the tumult of making a living on the land. From a secular and liberal
background, his whole perspective has been reshaped by the risk and the life he
has led.
Ranching does
that.
His is a
success story and I am so proud of him and his accomplishments. He did it himself
and that puts him in rarified company. It took courage. To cut loose from the
moorings of safety, though, is the starting point. Never is it easy, but
strength must be sought. In our world that place is archived in the Bible. Seek
and ye shall find.
If it transformed into earthly
endeavors, it is rewritten in our hearts.
The Gracious Favor
The tumult
of our world seems to be accelerating.
Every news
story teeters on some form of catastrophe. More and more of us threaten to turn
off all the noise to squelch the uproar, but that is hard to do. It is with
that backdrop, though, that many Americans hoped a semblance of much needed
spiritual guidance would come out of the recent United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops held in Baltimore (even if Catholicism isn’t our affiliation,
the impact of that body has implications for our entire society).
In
particular, the holocaust of infanticide was highest on the radar. Searching
for something meaningful in a historic perspective Lincoln can again and again
provide logic that ultimately makes us realize the institution of slavery has
simply been transposed into the modern institution of killing babies.
Let us have faith that right
makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare do our duty as we understand
it.
The dehumanizing aspect of erasing
all freedoms by decisions apart from the victim of life itself is the
definition that Webster should have long ago assigned to it. To have and to
hold and to kill upon whim or decision is the ultimate form of slavery. Surely
at least one of those bishops would arise to fight for those lives.
The outcome
was that that band of spiritual impersonators avoided the matter of abortion completely.
They gaveled their sage proceedings to a close, took their dignified leave, and
wandered back into their various archdioceses of comfort and familiarity.
Holy Cow!
The obvious question is only
amplified. What is wrong with the Catholic Church? How can the elimination of
more than 63,000,000 little beating hearts (since Roe V. Wade) be relegated to
silence? Likewise, how can Catholic leadership urge for the continuing funding
of Planned Parenthood?
One answer is the influence of the
Women-Church Convergence (W-CC). Their official position is very clear.
As a matter of faith,
conscience, equality, and dignity, we, the members of W-CC rebuke and condemn
efforts to curtail access to critical healthcare with the current move to
defund Planned Parenthood … The core of the Catholic faith prizes justice and
fairness for all creation. It is therefore not an option to ignore the rights
and voices of women.
There is nothing new there. It has
become standard fare and rote, redundant, and dated. For all the emphasis of
rights and equality by the very sex that should fight the hardest in every
quarter, the plight of the unborn remains silent.
Statements from the various
Archdiocese on the matter are similar. Washington, LA, and New York are silent.
Boston gives lip service suggesting what is happening is shocking. The Bishops
of Colorado called for a day of prayer. The Philadelphia response is
unintelligible. The Chicago response is a rant based upon the Marxist
persuasion of answering the question with a question and going off into circular
mix of debate as to why society isn’t doing something about the homeless,
illegals, job seekers, and facing the facts of global warming.
Only Arlington seems to be asking
how to resist the temptations of a throwaway society, and that response was
embarrassingly timid.
If scripture is the answer in this
debate of abortion, our society is in trouble. For all to be reminded, Matthew
18:10 sets a big stage.
See that you do not despise one
of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the
face of my Father in heaven.
The fact that the church implicitly
supports the practice of fetal infanticide puts ultimate burden on the women
who elect to seek the death of their unborn. The number is now emerging. After
aborting, women have an 80% higher risk of experiencing mental issues,
including suicidal and substance abuse tendencies.
The matter is simple. The church’s conduct
is unacceptable.
Almighty God
For the first time, the admission
of all citizenry for some church affiliation has dropped below 50%.
That doesn’t exempt anybody from
the trend, but the Catholic Church and its role as a world leadership is
pronounced. The church is growing in Asia and Africa, but elsewhere it is
bleeding membership. In the United States it has lost 2,000,000 members since
2017. Excuses are rampant, but the core issues are unavoidable.
The church has long been swept into
the turmoil of trends that create conflict. Clergy abuse, sympathy toward
anti-religious authority, constant indulgence in secular politics, and substantial
investments that directly oppose church doctrine all have consequences. It is
akin to Jesus calling his disciples together to strategize how to moderate His message
not to offend the Pharisees, but, unfortunately, that is exactly what is transpiring.
Trying to be progressive doesn’t work.
Somebody should translate that to
the pope.
Stephen
L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico.
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