We're at war with women

I must have missed it. Somewhere in the last half century, America - more specifically conservative America -  has declared war on women. I know this particular blog will likely not win me many friends but I can't help but say something.

I have friends on both sides of the fabled aisle, referring to how democrats and republicans sit on opposite sides of the house and senate. The cool thing about friends though, is that you can express an opinion to them and while they may not agree with you, most of the time they don't rush to burn you at the stake. After today I might have to resign myself to a few less Christmas cards or Facebook friends.

Speaking of which, I happened across a conservative friend's post on Facebook this morning. The source was a website that democrats would assume is run by bald, fat, white men in bib overalls, drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon while driving around in their pick-up trucks shooting small animals with their over-sized collection of banned assault rifles.

Okay, so I couldn't actually find a picture of any bald, fat, white men in bib overalls, drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon while driving around in their pick-up trucks shooting small animals but I'm guessing some liberals would just assume that these two guys have pick-up trucks and beer and guns in a common location somewhere...

I try to stay away from the wild-eyed Pat Buchanan-loving websites so I went in search of corroborative evidence - since the aforementioned conservative post claimed that our current House Minority Leader had responded in a public interview - and it was her comments that started me down this rabbit hole to begin with.

DISCLAIMER: No rabbits were harmed in the writing of this blog. There were no pick-up trucks, cheap beer or banned weapons used during the production of this free speech.

Where was I? So I found an article on what I assume is a more left-leaning website www.thinkprogress.org. The article was entitled House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Warns The War On Women Isn’t Over, and sure enough, it included many of the same quotes that the darned conservative article had highlighted; only without all the crazy pictures of Nancy Pelosi. Maybe it's just me, but if you're denigrating someone for being a name-calling, ignorant knucklehead, doing it by being a name-calling, ignorant knucklehead kind of takes the shine off, if you know what I mean.

I'm sure Madam Pelosi is a fine, upstanding American, but here's where it gets ugly. This article (see above) is the second time in as many weeks where I've heard (or read) Madam Pelosi state in no uncertain terms that her Catholic faith has no bearing on her position regarding abortion. To cherry pick from the Think Progress interview - and I quote:

1. "House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) blasted the GOP’s continued assault on reproductive rights in an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress on Saturday."
2. "So this is the fight. It’s a fight on family planning, contraception, as well as terminating a pregnancy and without having adequate protections for women in case of rape or incest, life of the mother. It’s so hypocritical."
3. "My faith is about, Christ is my savior, the church is his church, and has nothing to do with Priests for Life…I wouldn't even dignify whatever it is they said. It was a highly emotional statement that they made. If it were more intellectual I might have paid attention to it. He was acting hysterically."

To respond as simply as I can:

1. Using the term reproductive rights in a discussion about a person's right to choose to kill a human baby is - among other things - an oxymoron.
2. No, the fight is about preventing the unnecessary killing of human babies.
3. It is possible to be intellectual about God. But our relationship with Jesus - and by our I mean the collective church - is granted solely by God's grace through our individual faith. However, that individual faith does not allow for us to self-determine what constitutes morality. The only hysterical thing about this is that Madam Pelosi believes she can somehow justify killing babies before God.

At the risk of being sarcastic, good luck with that.

Jesus says in Matthew 25:40, while teaching on things that constitute loving our neighbor as ourselves, "The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me."

Another teaching of Jesus (perhaps more appropriate for Madam Pelosi) begins in Luke 9:46 - "An argument started among them as to which of them might be the greatest. But Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, took a child and stood him by His side, and said to them, “Whoever receives this child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for the one who is least among all of you, this is the one who is great.”"

I'm not a woman, and to many that disqualifies me from speaking out on women's issues. However, I am a follower of Jesus Christ - a sinful, stumbling, try-again-today believer in the death and resurrection of our Savior. And that qualifies me to speak up and chastise Madam Pelosi in this instance.

Madam, this is America; and you are free to voice your opinion and you are free to believe whatever you choose to believe. If the law of the land allows abortion and you agree with that, you certainly have every right to do so. But when you step across the line of faith and profess to stand with Christ you must align yourself with Him. You can't have it both ways.

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I hate to hate haters

It's getting harder and harder to live a life with any belief. It doesn't matter what that belief is;

• Do you believe that marriage should be between one man and one woman? Hater.
• Do you believe that Catholic schools should be able to tailor their participation in sports based on their religious tenets? Hater.
• Do you think the so-called adoption joke in the Avenger's movie was funny? Hater.

I can agree in principle that some number of folks who seek to shut down other people who hold different viewpoints (than them) might be haters. But what about the folks that are trying to shut down conservative Christian heterosexuals, or Catholic schools, or Hollywood script writers? Isn't this a case of having your cake and eating it too?

It took me several minutes of diligent searching on the web to find this article outlining the actual events where President Obama expressed his support of same-gender marriage. That tells me the hundreds of articles, editorials and blogs I found first indicate strong opinions on the matter in our country. What's my opinion? My opinion is that it's impossible to be against something like same-gender marriage without being labeled a hater. If you're against it, it must be because you hate those who believe a same-gender marriage is okay; you're a bigot, against equal rights...maybe you pulled the wings off of live flies as a child.

In this article, I learned that Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic school forfeited the Arizona Charter Athletic Association's 1A state baseball championship game because the other team (Mesa Academy) had a girl starting at second base. The reason Our Lady of Sorrows gave was reported to be a strict parish policy against participating in coed sports. What a bunch of haters! I mean, come on...what do a bunch of musty old parish rules have to do with baseball anyway? Although the article was fair and balanced - and by that I mean it actually reported the events without seeming to cast judgment - the few comments I read at the bottom were illuminating in their hate for the Catholic school's position.

I haven't seen the Avengers movie, although I hear it's pretty good. I suppose a film that makes $200 million on it's opening weekend can't be terrible. This story making the rounds sheds some light on what seems to be a grievous mistake on the part of the film's makers: including in the script a throw-away punchline by Thor when Black Widow remarks that Loki, Thor's adopted brother, has killed 80 people in two days. Thor's response? "He's adopted."

               What do you mean I'm under arrest for hate crimes?

C'mon folks. As Inspector Kemp told us in Young Frankenstein, "A riot is an ugly thing..."

                                                          Undt!

One definition of tolerance is: A fair, objective and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc. differ from one's own.

How much tolerance do people have for other people who believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman? How much tolerance do people have for Catholics who choose not to participate in a coed baseball game because they believe something might happen during the game that might be demeaning to a young lady? How much tolerance do adoption rights groups have for others - who may be totally on board with adoption rights or even be adopted themselves - who laugh at a joke about a mythical character being adopted?

Shouldn't tolerance be a two-way street? There are a lot of things people do that I don't agree with, but I don't hate them for it. Don't you think it's about time that we stop confusing lack of agreement with a behavior, belief, concept or principal with hate?

What do you think?

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