Posted on 04/02/2002 2:54:17 PM PST by Coleus
Mark Your Calendars!!
Prayer and peaceful picket at MTV
You may remember that last year we were planning a prayer vigil at MTV in early October. The events of September 11 changed those plans. We are still planning to have a large-scale event there probably sometime this fall.
In the meantime, we will be having an afternoon of prayer and picketing outside the studio on Monday, July 29. Times Square, New York City In front of MTV studios.
This will be part of our summer tour and we would love to have anyone that can join us for the afternoon. We will be there from 12:00 noon until 5:00 PM right in front of the TRL studio.
MTV continues to promote and support Planned Parenthood, the leading provider of abortion in America. They also are promoting some of the most decadent behavior in their programming. MTV targets young people, and needs to hear back from young people that we don't want this type of programming and assault on our generation.
Please join us if you can for an afternoon of prayer and peaceful picketing at MTV.
For more info send an e-mail toEvents at Rock For Life.org
events@rockforlife.org and keep checking the web site.
Rock For Life is a division of American Life League, the nation's largest pro-life educational organization, with more than 375,000 supporting families. P.O. Box 1350 / Stafford, VA 22555 / 540-659-4171 / www.all.org
Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics
And I know that the children of Freepers never watch MTV.
Anyway if you are in the NYC area on July 29, come on down, if not keep them in your prayers.
And they do support planned parenthood.
Although he did not state his abortion platform on MTV, he IS pro choice and rather liberal. I do not like the man. The press does and that scares me.
patent
Condom use -- not to mention condom advocacy -- promotes the whole ethic of sex-ertainment, thus setting up the initial condition for abortion, as well as conditioning the young to the larger idea that fellow human beings, born or not, exist for predation and exploitation.
patent
I don't think the abstinence thing doesn't work and Ill tell you why a lot of the girls who went to Catholic school before my public High School were more promiscous then the general female population. Maybe thats an anomaly but...As much as I would like to defend the honor of our Catholic school girls, I have seen enough to believe you about their promiscuity. Some of our Catholic schools are no better then the secular ones.
When I referred to abstinence in schools, it wasn’t just the Catholic ones, but in many cases its promoted in public and other private schools as well. On the other hand there are many Catholic schools that don’t promote it at all. Personally I would never send my kids to one of these schools, they are often rotten all over, academically as well as morally. Fortunately we have a couple good Catholic schools in our area we can send our kids to.
Re abstinece working, when a person practices abstinence it is of course 100% effective at reducing abortion, but promoting abstinence is obviously never going to be 100% effective in getting people to actually practice it.
patent +AMDG
Hmmmmmmm......... Let me rephrase that...........
One gets married and in a committed relationship.
As for your prayer rally, hope you get a decent turnout.
As for MTV, I prefer MTVX or M2....at least they play videos. I wasn't allowed to watch as a child. My paretns were parents see, and they neither expected the government nor the networks to parent for them.
Going to public school is worse, did you ever hear a teacher tell you that engaging in sex before marriage is wrong, that it is shameful for a girl to get pregnant before she is married, homosexuality is bad, etc. NO, we don't hear that in schools anymore and, of course, we NEVER hear that on MTV. It's an anything thta goes attitude so long it's between two consenting people. Well they are wrong.
And I know they don't tell you that condoms are only 70% effective as a barrier method to prevent pregnancy and that viruses can penetrate the latex matrix and one can still get herpes and genital warts. Did they tell you that 30 million adults have herpes?
I can tell you that as the father of two daughters..aged 12 and 13..both quite pretty....that it;s not something I look forward to. Drunk boys in cars and pregnancy or STDs....scary.
Only a national tauma of cataclysmic proportions will put the genie back in the bottle. When the masses are more concerned about survival and spiritual viability and not instant gratification or pleasure for pleasure's sake then we might have a chance. Moral disintegration is an historical low watermark on a once successful civilization's decline into collapse. We're doing a great job of it.
I'm 44 and my wife is 36....and she's 2 months preggers as I type so I've been studying up on this stuff....plus with two daughters approaching the danger zone....I'm keeping head's up. I don't know yer view on abortion ...when I was young like you I was ambivalent but now at middle age with a large family....I am militantly anti-abortion.
Stay safe...and responsible.
I'm a realistic father....I would prefer my daughters preserve their sexual power till older but if they defy me...I would prefer they were on the pill. Abortions will not be well tolerated in my home....my wife feels the same. It's like killing a family member.
I'm opposed to all abortions except tubular pregnancies where the baby is sure to die and not removing it will kill the mother. I do not know what a fetus is. When we go for the first ultrasound next week...it may only be the size of a thumb but it'll have little hands, a brain, developing sexual organs...and most of all...a soul.
I'm not condemning you....you seem like a young perosn interested in the truth and want to be responsible.
One day folks may look back on our "civilization" in horror..the same way we look back at the Nazis... over this issue.
Good Night....ping me in a decade when you've got kids....just kidding...ping me anytime.
It's nighty-nite for me.
Regards
And don't believe all the spin about infertility. Many of these girls are infertile because they had an abortion or had a sexually transmitted disease which caused scar tissue to be formed which blocks the passage of sperm and eggs.
It comes down to the fact whether or not you would want you daughter pregnant or have AIDS, herpes, HPV for life.
I a still looking for the link with the condom info regarding how ineffictive they are in preventing disease and pregnancy, only 70% effective due to improper use and defects.
Here are some facts which, obviously, your health teachers did not convey to you while in high school.
Many in the pro-life movement are reluctant to make a connection between contraception and abortion. They insist that these are two very different acts - that there is all the difference in the world between contraception, which prevents a life from coming to be, and abortion, which takes a life that has already begun.
With some contraceptives, there is not only a link with abortion, there is an identity. Some contraceptives are abortifacients; they work by causing early term abortions. The IUD seems to prevent a fertilized egg - a new little human being - from implanting in the uterine wall. The pill does not always stop ovulation, but sometimes prevents implantation of the growing embryo. And of course, the new RU 486 pill works altogether by aborting a new fetus, a new baby. Although some in the pro-life movement occasionally speak out against the contraceptives that are abortifacients, most generally steer clear of the issue of contraception.
Contraception creates alleged “need” for abortion This seems to me to be a mistake. I think that we will not make good progress in creating a society where all new life can be safe, where we truly display a respect for life, where abortion is a terrible memory rather than a terrible reality, until we see that there are many significant links between contraception and abortion, and that we bravely speak this truth. We need to realize that a society in which contraceptives are widely used is going to have a very difficult time keeping free of abortions since the lifestyles and attitudes that contraception fosters, create an alleged “need” for abortion.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the US Supreme Court decision that confirmed Roe v. Wade [U.S. decision to permit abortions] stated “in some critical respects, abortion is of the same character as the decision to use contraception… for two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail”.
The Supreme Court decision has made completely unnecessary, any efforts to “expose” what is really behind the attachment of the modern age to abortion. As the Supreme Court candidly states, we need abortion so that we can continue our contraceptive lifestyles. It is not because contraceptives are ineffective that a million and a half women a year seek abortions as back-ups to failed contraceptives. The “intimate relationships” facilitated by contraceptives are what make abortions “necessary”. “Intimate” here is a euphemism and a misleading one at that. Here the word “intimate” means “sexual”; it does not mean “loving and close”. Abortion is most often the result of sexual relationships in which there is no room for a baby, the natural consequence of sexual intercourse.
To support the argument that more responsible use of contraceptives would reduce the number of abortions, some note that most abortions are performed for “contraceptive purposes”. That is, few abortions are had because a woman has been a victim of rape or incest or because a pregnancy would endanger her life, or because she expects to have a handicapped or deformed newborn. Rather, most abortions are had because men and women who do not want a baby are having sexual intercourse and facing pregnancies they did not plan for and do not want. Because their contraceptive failed, or because they failed to use a contraceptive, they then resort to abortion as a back up. Many believe that if we could convince men and women to use contraceptives responsibly, we would reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and thus the number of abortions. Thirty years ago this position might have had some plausibility, but not now. We have lived for about thirty years with a culture permeated with contraceptive use and abortion; no longer can we think that greater access to contraception will reduce the number of abortions. Rather, wherever contraception is more readily available, the number of unwanted pregnancies and the number of abortions increase greatly.
Sexual revolution not possible without contraception The connection between contraception and abortion is primarily this: contraception facilitates the kind of relationships and even the kind of attitudes and moral characters that are likely to lead to abortion. The contraceptive mentality treats sexual relationship as a burden. The sexual revolution has no fondness - no room for - the connection between sexual intercourse and babies. The sexual revolution simply was not possibly until fairly reliable contraceptives were available.
Far from being a check to the sexual revolution, contraception is the fuel that facilitated the beginning of the sexual revolution and enables it to continue to rage. In the past, many men and women refrained from illicit sexual unions simply because they were not prepared for the responsibilities of parenthood. But once a fairly reliable contraceptive appeared on the scene, this barrier to sex outside the confines of marriage fell. The connection between sex and love also fell quickly; ever since contraception became widely used, there has been much talk of, acceptance of, and practice of casual sex and recreational sex. The deep meaning that is inherent in sexual intercourse has been lost sight of; the willingness to engage in sexual intercourse with another is no longer a result of a deep commitment to another. It no longer bespeaks a willingness to have a child with another and to have all the consequent entanglements with another that babies bring. Contraception helps reduce one’s sexual partner to just a sexual object since it renders sexual intercourse to be without any real commitments.
“Carelessness” is international
Much of this data suggests that there is something deep in our natures that finds the severing of sexual intercourse from love and commitment and babies to be unsatisfactory. As we have seen, women are careless in their use of contraceptives for a variety of reasons, but one reason for their careless use of contraceptives is precisely their desire to engage in meaningful sexual activity rather than in meaningless sexual activity. They want their sexual acts to be more meaningful than a handshake or a meal shared. They are profoundly uncomfortable with using contraceptives for what they do to their bodies and for what they do to their relationships. Often, they desire to have a more committed relationship with the male with whom they are involved; they get pregnant to test this love and commitment. But since the relationship has not been made permanent, since no vows have been taken, they are profoundly ambivalent about any pregnancy that might occur.
Sexual Promiscuity Increases
By the late sixties and early seventies, the view of the human person as an animal, whose passions should govern, became firmly entrenched in the attitudes of those who were promoting the sexual revolution. One of the greatest agents and promoters of the sexual revolution has been Planned Parenthood. In the sixties and seventies, many of the spokesmen and women for Planned Parenthood unashamedly advocated sex outside of marriage and even promoted promiscuity. Young people were told to abandon the repressive morals of their parents and to engage in free love. They were told that active sexual lives with a number of partners would be psychologically healthy, perfectly normal, and perfectly moral. Now, largely because of the spread of AIDS and the devastation of teenage pregnancy, even Planned Parenthood puts a value on abstinence. Yet they have no confidence that young people can and will abstain from sexual intercourse, so they advocate “safe” sex, “responsible” sex, whereby they mean sexual intercourse wherein a contraceptive is used. Sex educators assume that young people will be engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage. Young people do not need sex education of the Planned Parenthood type; they need to learn that sexual intercourse can be engaged in responsibly and safely only within marriage. Rather than filling young people’s heads with false notions about freedom, and filling their wallets with condoms, we need to help them see the true meaning of human sexuality. We need to help them learn self-control and self-mastery so that they are not enslaved to their sexual passions. They need to learn that sexual intercourse belongs within marriage, and that with the commitment to marriage comes true freedom; the freedom to give of one’s self completely to another, the freedom to meet one’s responsibilities to one’s children.
There are two cornerstones on which education for sexual responsibility should be built - cornerstones that are both corroded by contraceptive sex. One cornerstone is that sexual intercourse is meant to be the expression of a deep love for another individual, a deep love that leads one to want to give of oneself totally to another. Most individuals hope one day to be in a faithful marriage, to be in a marital relationship with someone one loves deeply and by whom one is loved deeply. One of the major components of that deep love is a promise of faithfulness, that one will give oneself sexually only to one’s spouse. Contraception severs connection between sex and babies The other cornerstone for a sex education program should be the refrain that ‘if you are not ready for babies, you are not ready for sexual intercourse, and you are not ready for babies until you are married’. Most people want to be good parents; they want to provide for their children and give them good upbringings. Contraception attempts to sever the connection between sexual intercourse and babies; it makes us feel responsible about our sexuality while enabling us to be irresponsible. Individuals born out of wedlock have a much harder start in life; have a much harder time gaining the discipline and strength they need to be responsible adults. Single mothers have very hard lives as they struggle to meet the needs of their children and their own emotional needs as well. Those who abort their babies are often left with devastating psychological scars. The price of out of wedlock pregnancy is high.
Indeed, even within marriage, contraception is destructive; it reduces the meaning of the sexual act; again it takes out the great commitment that is written into the sexual act, the commitment that is inherent in the openness to have children with one’s beloved.
Those who are unmarried do face a disaster, and abortion seems like a necessity since no permanent commitment has been made between the sexual partners. Those who are married have often planned a life that is not receptive to children and are tempted to abort to sustain the child-free life they have designed. I am not, of course, saying that all those who contracept are likely to abort; I am saying that many more of those who contracept do abort than those who practice natural family planning.
Contraception takes the baby-making element out of sexual intercourse. It makes pregnancy seem like an accident of sexual intercourse rather than the natural consequence that responsible individuals ought to be prepared for. Abortion, then, becomes thinkable as the solution to an unwanted pregnancy. Contraception enables those who are not prepared to care for babies to engage in sexual intercourse; when they become pregnant, they resent the unborn child for intruding itself upon their lives, and they turn to the solution of abortion. It should be no surprise that countries that are permeated by contraceptive sex, fight harder for access to abortion than they do to ensure that all babies can survive both in the womb and out. It is foolish for pro-lifers to think that they can avoid the issues of contraception and sexual irresponsibility and be successful in the fight against abortion. For, as the Supreme Court of the US has stated, abortion is “necessary” for those whose intimate relationships are based upon contraceptive sex.
References:
For verification of the claims here made about Planned Parenthood, see George Grant, Grand Illusions: the Legacy of Planned Parenthood (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth and Hyatt Publishers, Inc., 1988), and Robert Marshall and Charles Donovan, Blessed are the Barren (San Francisco, CA; Ignatius Press, 1991).
Portions of this article are printed as portions of chapters in “Abortion and Moral Character”, in Catholicism and Abortion, ed. By Stephen J. Heaney to be published by the Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research Centre and “Abortion and Moral Character”, in Doing and Being: Introductory Reading in Moral Philosophy, ed by Jordan Graf Haber, to be published by Macmillan.
Permission given for reprinting portions from ‘The Connection between contraception and Abortion’, by Dr. Janet E. smith, published by Homiletic & Pastoral Review, April 1993, distributed by One More Soul. "The Connection between Contraception and Abortion" by Janet E. Smith is available from One More Soul One More Soul
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