According to a site on Catholic doctrine, “In 1968, Poe Paul VI issued his encyclical Humanae Vita (Latin, Human Life, which reemphasized the Church’s constant teaching that it is always intrinsically wrong to use contraception to prevent new human beings from coming into existence. This includes sterilization, condoms and other barrier methods, spermicides, coitus interruptus (withdrawal method), the Pill, and all other such methods.”
Think about that for a moment. Instead of 7 billion people on a planet that can barely sustain its population, we might have 30 billion people. Or 40 billion. Or more.
This issue has been in the news recently in the U.S. because Obama mandated that all health insurers must offer birth control. House Speaker John Boehner (Republican) called it “an unambiguous attack on religious freedom.” Catholic bishops warned Obama that he would lose the Catholic vote over this. Yet, 98% of women in the U.S. use birth control at some point in their lives and apparently the majority of Catholic women want their health insurers to cover birth control.
Few things push my buttons more quickly than watching a bunch of male politicians pontificating about and mandating what women should do with their bodies. Excuse me, you boys aren’t the ones who get pregnant, carry a baby to term for nine months, go through labor and delivery. Birth control is a choice and a matter of public health.
I remember when the morning after pill was approved by the FDA for use in the U.S. The hysteria and drum beating from the right wing was shocking. It’s murder, they screamed. Murder? Really? The morning after pill is on a par with killing another human being? Yet, this same faction doesn’t hesitate to send young men off to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, then cut veteran’s aid when these same men come home shattered in mind, body, and spirit. They don’t hesitate to cut aid to needy families with young children, to cut the social safety net programs like Medicaid – health care for the poor- and Medicare and Social Security – health care and pensions for the elderly.
As Rob once said, “For a Republican, you’re important only until you’re born. After that, you’re on your own.”
According to the site on Catholic doctrine, “Contraception is wrong because it’s a deliberate violation of the design God built into the human race, often referred to as “natural law.” The natural law purpose of sex is procreation.”
I read politics and finances in that declaration. The Catholic church knows that more children among Catholics means more children who will be raised Catholic and donate to the coffers. How rich is the Vatican? I couldn’t find any definitive answer. It depends on how you Google your question and whether you hit a Catholic site or some other site. We can safely say they are worth zillions – and in the U.S., no church pays taxes. Nice deal, if you can get away with it.
So, please, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and all you other Republican men, just shut up. Enough already. Regardless of your mandates, women will always find a way to make their own choices. We’ve been doing it for millennia and we’ll continue to do so when you boys are in your graves.
OKAY, here goes: For all the folks who take every word in the Holy Bible as LITERAL gospel truth, read in the King james edition, 1 Corinthians Chapter 14, verses 34 and 35.
“LET YOUR WOMEN KEEP SILENCE IN THE CHURCHES: FOR IT IS NOT PERMITTED UNTO THEM TO SPEAK; BUT THEY ARE COMMANDED TO BE UNDER OBEDIENCE, AS ALSO SAITH THE LAW. aND IF THEY WILL LEARN ANY THING, LET THEM ASK THEIR HUSBANDS AT HOME: FOR IT IS A SHAME FOR WOMEN TO SPEAK IN THE CHURCH”.
Really?? LITERALLY ? Folks take this LITERALLY??
It’s tragic that anyone could take this stuff literally. Rick Santorum does, however.
You are most welcome, Mike! My pleasure. Unfortunately, there are folks who present themselves as psychics and who fill up an appointment book with clients like an assembly line, one after the other, and then they follow a “script” that is used consistently. When the clients compare their readings, they find that the “psychic” told each of them exactly the same things!! This is the type of nonsense that we battle and that gives skeptics great fodder. Psychics who ask the clients questions PRIOR to the readings or DURING the reading are also to be avoided. In any event, my sense is that if you need a reading, one will come your way in a timely manner and with a valid psychic! Regarding the subject matter of this post, I have far too much to say to even begin to comment!
Thank you for posting this…………….the attempt by the government to control women’s bodies is appalling and medievil, and I can’t help but think, if this was a racial issue, there would be marching the streets. But patriarchal control of women (actually, the ones that most need birth control and help are usually 15 year old girls who are still children themselves) is so embedded in our world, and “religion” that it’s rarely noticed. How dare government, or the church, tell women (and little girls) in the 21st century that they must become pregnant? And yet where are the social resources, as well as environmental resources, that can provide for all these unplanned, unwanted children? Do they ever think about the rights of the children as well as the mothers to have a decent life and decent future?
This isn’t about the current topic, but my computer was on the blitz FOR–EVVVVVER recently and I couldn’t comment on Mike Perry’s remarks about readings, so shall try again here, off-topic of birth control. Mike, there seems to be several reasons why a person is difficult foir a psychic to “read”. In my decades of psychic sessions for all kinds of people, I’ve had a handful for whom I simply got zilch. Nada. Nothing. In one situation, a longtime client was desperate for her then-BF to get a reading. Very much against his will, he finally agreed to come. I received not a single thing for him, and my session room was filled with his negativity. (This is NOT applicable to you, by any means!) Generally speaking, most of the information that comes from me to folks has its Source on The Other Side, and I’m simply a messenger, or voice, for Them. There are apparently more Sources as well. In any event, I’ve come to understand that, again generally speaking, the person must genuinely desire a “meeting of the minds” with a sensitive. In my own situations, I’ve also discovered that once in a great while, I’m not on the same “wave-length” as the client. It’s as if my psyche has an antenna that travels thru the ether constantly, and will stop on a frequency, much as a radio dial stops on a station or a TV stops on a channel, and whatever is there on that frequency is heard or seen. Sometimes my antenna isn’t able to “connect” with the frequency of the person, and nothing will come. Just silence. It’s frustrating when it happens, for both the client and the psychic, but nonetheless, it happens. AND, there have been a few occasions when the Sources on The Other Side, for reasons of their own, do not wish to speak to the person, and again, nothing comes. None of these are excuses for an inability to do a reading. They are, instead, valid reasons why from time to time a psychic simply is unable to do a reading for a person. I suggest that you’ve not found the sensitive who is able to meld with your specific frequency…..OR, perhaps in your heart of hearts you don’t really WANT a reading even though you may think you do. Our souls guide us, as you know, and perhaps your soul isn’t ready for you to peek into things that go bump in the night for you. When the student is ready, the teacher will come. I’ve learned this old adage applies to folks who want psychic input, too. So don’t give up, but don’t throw your money away, either. Listen to your intuition, and if you truly sense you are being led or guided to a particular psychic, follow your gut. If not, just don’t worry about it and understand that you don’t NEED the input from someone else…..as that other old adage goes, “Don’t worry; be Happy”!!!!!
Thank you so much for taking the time to write this – much appreciated.
I’ve always actually thought that a true psychic won’t always be able to give a reading to everyone on tap. I remember on one occasion I was with friends who all had readings that they were happy with. When it came to my turn she couldn’t get anything and said so – I took this as a sign of her genuineness.
The first time it happened though (a long time ago) it worried me as I thought something might be wrong. ‘Was there something she didn’t want to tell me’, I thought. But this doesn’t concern me today – I’ve learned a little (and I’m mostly happy)!
I agree that the teacher will find us when the time is right. I’ve had help along the way.
Thanks again, you have given me much to ponder (as if I didn’t have enough!)
Mike.
very timely. My cardiologist is attempting, vigorously, to convert me to Catholicism!
Like that will work, right? He sent me a several page attachment on the Catholics and their doctrines, including contraceptiuon and abortion. IT ARRIVED TODAY.
I’ll label that a synchro of the first degree!
A synchro of the first degree for sure, math!
OK. I think it’s working. Will be back to comment. THANKS.
testing to see if this goes thru
It went through!
i know – and then, to have almost simultaneous searches from all over the globe!
odd, very odd.
as an aside, etc – just wanted to share a bit of something interesting – was checking my gww blogsite for visitors and found this little tidbit – in a 12 minute period of time, about 20 minutes ago, from four [4] different countries – denmark, great britain – usa and newfoundland – came searches for these words: baby phoenix rising from the ashes – and then, two hours previously, from france, the same exact word search – weird –
Wow, what’s going on with baby phoenixes??
thanks for tellin’ it like it is, trish!!!
🙂
Looking at the poverty in the world contraception seems essential. I don’t know if this is true, but I read recently that a lot of American aid to poor countries has the proviso that this mustn’t be used for contraception.
I don’t, of course, infer that poorer nations (or people) shouldn’t have children but it must surely be by a controlled choice and not dictated by religions – and the same goes for all countries.
The poverty, the billions, the food supply….all of it. Religion shouldn’t be dictating this kind of thing for any country.
Christianity was my entrance point for all things spiritual and contemplative, but it is still a religion of people living in a semi-organized and stable society under control of Romans. There are parts in the Bible about the necessity for communities to find a fine husband for every unmarried and relatively old woman (regardless of her happiness in such an arrangement). God forcing us to multiply on a limited planet would really be sadistic.
Good word for it! sadistic.
Great post, Trish. Everyone should read it. This business of men telling women what they can do or should do with their bodies drives me up the wall. Thanks so much for posting this.
Hey, Adele. I agree.