Oh good grief. Take a look at this video from RH Reality Check (via the Campus Choices blog)
I just cringed when I watched this. I am embarrassed for Wausau and for Wisconsin. It is true: Wausau has a very strange (to me, anyways), conservative Catholic community. It’s very different than the Church I grew up in.
I never heard the word abortion in church when I was growing up. (I went to the Newman Center at UW-Eau Claire.) Instead, I learned that the point of Catholicism was treat everyone like Jesus would – with love, compassion and without judgment. (See Gospel at Sen. Kennedy’s funeral)
Somehow the Church has to get back to that. I don’t know how but it has to.
I'm Danine Spencer and I am (in no particular order) a writer, blogger, feminist, disability rights advocate, political nerd, techie, dog-lover and Diet Coke addict. Please click on the
Scary thing – When I was maybe 9, 10 years old, my dad and I both wrote letters through our church to our congressman against abortion. My tune quickly changed once I started thinking for myself. Oh, Midwest Catholicism.
Yeah. I felt funny writing about this but I’m embarrassed that it’s Wausau. I’m embarrassed that so many Catholics don’t see the bigger picture of preventing hunger, poverty, illness, human trafficking, violence, war, etc, etc, etc. Yet many of our leading politicians are liberal(ish), pro-choice and oh, yeah, Catholic: Pelosi, Biden, Kerry, the Kennedys, the new surgeon general, etc.
In March, when I was in DC to visit the BFF and went to FMF’s Nat’l Young Women conference, I also went to Melanne Verveer’s nomination hearing for Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues. Sen. Boxer & Sen. Vitter got into it over abortion and Sen. Boxer said, “I’m more concerned about the children that are already here” rather than a bunch of minuscule or even non-existent cells.
That kind of sums it up for me. The Church has got to wake up and realize there are real problems in the world. There’s a reason Mother Teresa is on the fast track to Sainthood. It’s not because she sat in a little room at the Vatican and prayed for imaginary babies. Itt’s because she actually went out and did the work Jesus supposedly did.
Sorry for the religous talk but hey, it’s my blog, I can pontificate if I want to.
Pontificate away!
I agree completely. I saw this on RHRealityCheck.org, but didn’t even watch the video. I was going to, but decided my blood pressure didn’t need it; these people are uinreasonable, and their extremism proves it. How about devoting your time to a food bank or soup kitchen? As you said, let’s take care of the children that are already here.
*sigh*