Pelosi's Patristics

Raise Your Hand if You're a Bad Catholic

(And before I get hate mail, Hitler was a nominal member of the Roman Catholic Church to his death, although he was a practicing pagan and Occultist.)

Forgive the "political" post, but a politician stepped into our territory. Our fearless Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, claimed on Meet the Press that Christianity has no clear teaching on when life begins, and hence on abortion, and St. Augustine denied life began until the end of the first trimester. Tom Brokaw asked her what she would tell Barack Obama if he asked her when human life has its genesis:

I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time. And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition. And Senator--St. Augustine said at three months. We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose...over the history of the church, this is an issue of controversy.

She went on to say Christianity has believed life began at conception for "like maybe 50 years or something like that." You can see the disgusting display here.

If she has studied this issue "for a long time," she would have known the Church Fathers had an unbroken teaching on this subject for 2,000 years. Yes, it is true that St. Augustine of Hippo made a distinction between a child before its "quickening" (the time it began to move) and afterwards; so, too, did Roman Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas, who is always cited in these arguments. However, none believed abortion before that time was blameless (!). More importantly, there was a long tradition in the Church that corrected these unrepresentative views, going back to the earliest days of Christianity:

The Didache

"The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child" (Didache 2:1–2 [A.D. 70]).

The Letter of Barnabas

"The way of light, then, is as follows. If anyone desires to travel to the appointed place, he must be zealous in his works. The knowledge, therefore, which is given to us for the purpose of walking in this way, is the following...Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born" (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]).

The Apocalypse of Peter

"And near that place I saw another strait place...and there sat women...And over against them many children who were born to them out of due time sat crying. And there came forth from them rays of fire and smote the women in the eyes. And these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion" (The Apocalypse of Peter 25 [A.D. 137]).

Athenagoras

"What man of sound mind, therefore, will affirm, while such is our character, that we are murderers?...[W]hen we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it" (A Plea for the Christians 35 [A.D. 177]).

Tertullian

"In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed" (Apology 9:8 [A.D. 197]).

"Among surgeons’ tools there is a certain instrument, which is formed with a nicely-adjusted flexible frame for opening the uterus first of all and keeping it open; it is further furnished with an annular blade, by means of which the limbs [of the child] within the womb are dissected with anxious but unfaltering care; its last appendage being a blunted or covered hook, wherewith the entire fetus is extracted by a violent delivery.

"There is also [another instrument in the shape of] a copper needle or spike, by which the actual death is managed in this furtive robbery of life: They give it, from its infanticide function, the name of embruosphaktes, [meaning] "the slayer of the infant," which of course was alive...

"[The doctors who performed abortions] all knew well enough that a living being had been conceived, and [they] pitied this most luckless infant state, which had first to be put to death, to escape being tortured alive" (The Soul 25 [A.D. 210]).

"Now we allow that life begins with conception because we contend that the soul also begins from conception; life taking its commencement at the same moment and place that the soul does" (ibid., 27).

"The law of Moses, indeed, punishes with due penalties the man who shall cause abortion [Ex. 21:22–24]" (ibid., 37).

Minucius Felix

"There are some [pagan] women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And these things assuredly come down from the teaching of your [false] gods...To us [Christians] it is not lawful either to see or hear of homicide" (Octavius 30 [A.D. 226]).

Hippolytus

"Women who were reputed to be believers began to take drugs to render themselves sterile, and to bind themselves tightly so as to expel what was being conceived, since they would not, on account of relatives and excess wealth, want to have a child by a slave or by any insignificant person. See, then, into what great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by teaching adultery and murder at the same time!" (Refutation of All Heresies [A.D. 228]).

Council of Ancyra

"Concerning women who commit fornication, and destroy that which they have conceived, or who are employed in making drugs for abortion, a former decree excluded them until the hour of death, and to this some have assented. Nevertheless, being desirous to use somewhat greater lenity, we have ordained that they fulfill ten years [of penance], according to the prescribed degrees" (canon 21 [A.D. 314]).

Basil the Great

"Let her that procures abortion undergo ten years’ penance, whether the embryo were perfectly formed, or not" (First Canonical Letter, canon 2 [A.D. 374]).

"He that kills another with a sword, or hurls an axe at his own wife and kills her, is guilty of willful murder; not he who throws a stone at a dog, and unintentionally kills a man, or who corrects one with a rod, or scourge, in order to reform him, or who kills a man in his own defense, when he only designed to hurt him. But the man, or woman, is a murderer that gives a philtrum, if the man that takes it dies upon it; so are they who take medicines to procure abortion; and so are they who kill on the highway, and rapparees" (ibid., canon 8).

John Chrysostom

"Wherefore I beseech you, flee fornication...Why sow where the ground makes it its care to destroy the fruit?—where there are many efforts at abortion?—where there is murder before the birth? For even the harlot you do not let continue a mere harlot, but make her a murderess also. You see how drunkenness leads to prostitution, prostitution to adultery, adultery to murder; or rather to a something even worse than murder. For I have no name to give it, since it does not take off the thing born, but prevents its being born. Why then do thou abuse the gift of God, and fight with his laws, and follow after what is a curse as if a blessing, and make the chamber of procreation a chamber for murder, and arm the woman that was given for childbearing unto slaughter? For with a view to drawing more money by being agreeable and an object of longing to her lovers, even this she is not backward to do, so heaping upon thy head a great pile of fire. For even if the daring deed be hers, yet the causing of it is thine" (Homilies on Romans 24 [A.D. 391]).

Jerome

"I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the Church, their mother...Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when, as often happens, they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder" (Letters 22:13 [A.D. 396]).

The Apostolic Constitutions

"Thou shalt not use magic. Thou shalt not use witchcraft; for he says, ‘You shall not suffer a witch to live’ [Ex. 22:18]. Thou shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten...[I]f it be slain, [it] shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed" (Apostolic Constitutions 7:3 [A.D. 400]).

We could add the testimony of St. Gregory of Nyssa, who denied the "quickening" theory: "There is no question about that which is bred in the uterus, both growing, and moving from place to place. It remains, therefore, that we must think that the point of commencement of existence is one and the same for body and soul." (On the Soul and the Resurrection [A.D. 379-80].) This last passage goes on quite a long while.

If Aristibule reads this, maybe he can add more specificity, but I know the Irish penitentials penanced the sin of abortion many, many times. If I remember right, at least one canon prescribed 12 years bread-and-water as a result of an abortion, though others varied merely 1-3 years.

The Church has consistently taught life begins at the moment of conception, and abortion is murder. That's why the question of abortion is not really a political issue at all but one of Orthodox doctrine and morality. One Nancy Pelosi failed miserably. I am not convinced she actually believes this assessment, much less that her screwed up theology has anything to do with her position on abortion. But she is complicit in the murder of millions, and has unconscionably used the saints of the Church for cover. The Catholic Epistle of St. James promises a heavy punishment will be forthcoming in eternity.

As I wrote earlier, this is one of the reasons we don't rely on merely one Church Father for an opinion but rely on the whole mind of the Church. In individual writings (including St. Gregory of Nyssa), mistakes sometimes occur. And sometimes, as in this case, those mistakes give people a convenient cover to believe and act as they wanted to all along.

Off-Topic: Abortionist Tiller Takes Communion at ELCA Church

Yes, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) considers the partial birth abortionist "Dr." George Tiller, and his wife, members in good standing. His wife even wrote a devotional for the local church's newsletter at one point.

This website has a picture of the man taking communion.

God have mercy on him and the entire ELCA.

Off-Topic: ABC Says Get Ready for Islam; Bioethics Problems

1. The Archbishop of Canterbury says England's acceptance of fundamentalist Islamic law is "unavoidable."

2. Speaking of politics and religion, the Beatles' favorite guru died. His teachings also formed the basis of a U.S. political party.

3. "Christian" clergy blessed an abortion clinic.

4. Here's a reason to be pro-life from self-interest.

5. Religious people have increasingly turned their eyes to the ethical implications of biological and technological breakthroughs. Here's another:

Sperm cells have been created from a female human embryo in a remarkable breakthrough that suggests it may be possible for lesbian couples to have their own biological children.

Now the world can state men are truly meaningless.

If It's Lent, It Must be Contraception

It's Lent, so naturally, members of the Orthodox Church (particularly in the blogosphere) are discussing the topic of contraception. The Ochlophobist, in particular, has a series of well-balanced and pastorally wise posts on the subject (Pt. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and still going).

Every Lent, there appears to be a divisive discussion of birth control, along with a major media assault on Christianity (the Grave of Christ, the Gospel of Judas, The Da Vinci Code, etc.). Both, as likely as not, stem from the same source. Ergo, I'm begging off the discussion at the moment. But the Ochlophobist is actually worth reading, thus far.

Awakening the Conscience

Death Certificates Proposed for Abortions

Legislation introduced in Tennessee would require death certificates for aborted fetuses...Rep. Stacey Campfield, a Republican, said his bill would provide a way to track how many abortions are performed. He predicted it would pass in the Republican-controlled Senate but would have a hard time making it through the Democratic House.

Currently, the state only records abortions after the baby is 22 weeks old or weighs at least one pound.

This is far from perfect, but at least this would be a step toward recognizing that, during the abortion, something significant had occurred: this despicable action is not the removal of pink tissue but the ending of a human life.

Incidentally, look at that last line; still think it doesn't matter who you vote for?

A Rare Political Post: The Right to Life

Some of my fellow bloggers have said it makes no difference if you vote, let alone for whom. Disappointed with the GOP's (dismal) performance of late, some traditionalists have said there are no real differences between the two political parties. For example, before the 2006 Congressional elections, the Evil Trads at Traditio in Radice wrote that the Republican-controlled Congress had done less to combat abortion than the previous Democrat-controlled one:

Abortion has steadily received less Congressional attention over the last decade, and floor speeches on abortion now remain stable at one percent of the total (down from six percent in the 105th Congress). (Emphasis Mine) Source. Hmmm... a decade... wasn't that right about when the Republicans took over? Yes, yes it was.

Their conclusion: it makes no difference which party gets elected.

One wonders how these prophets of indifference greet the news that the House of Representatives, under Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, has voted to increase taxpayer-funded embryonic stem cell research. This process "requires the killing of human embryos." The measure was the third bill passed by the new Democratic Congress. President Bush vetoed a similar bill last September, and the House could not override his veto, but after the 2006 mideterm elections, its advocates now have a veto-proof majority in the Senate and gained 15 new votes in the House.

The House is not yet veto-proof, and President Bush has promised to veto this bill, as well. But his job will be much harder with the new House, proof that it matters whom you elect.

In the last ten years, the GOP-led Congress has outlawed Partial Birth Abortion (not having to fight off a Democratic president's veto), passed the Born Alive Infants Protection Act (which outlawed the heartbreaking form of abortion in which babies were born premature, then allowed to die), and the Unborn Victims of Violence Act ("Laci and Conner's Law," stating a criminal could be charged with a crime if he killed an unborn baby).

In the ten years before the GOP took over from the Democrat-led Congress, 1984-94, with pro-life Ronald Reagan as president, how many forms of abortion were outlawed or defunded by Congress? There may have been more speeches and bills introduced, but none were passed into law, which is the only point of 1) making speeches or 2) introducing bills.

At the presidential level, this is more true. U.S. taxpayer funding of abortion around the world was stopped by executive order -- the first action of George W. Bush's presidency. This reversed the first action of Bill Clinton's presidency (an executive order allowing funding for abortion worldwide), which in turn undid the first action of Ronald Reagan's presidency (which instituted the original ban in the first place). During, George H.W. Bush's presidency, discussion of abortion was driven off military bases.

Then there is the elephant in the room: the Supreme Court. Were it not for activist judges appointed by members of a certain political bent, abortion would not be federally protected as it is today. The greatest hope of the pro-life movement, short of passing a Constitutional amendment banning abortion (which, at this point, could not pass) is having a future High Court protect the unborn. There are currently a few justices who are assumed willing to do so: Thomas, Scalia, Alito, and (it seems likely) Chief Justice John Roberts. Doing a quick tally, allof them were appointed by presidents of one party. Presidents of that party also appointed people like Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, and O'Connor -- although one of those presidents (Gerald Ford) was outspokenly "pro-choice." So, taking Stevens out, that means one-half to two-thirds of Republican justices remained solid on the issue of life.

Every justice nominated or confirmed by those of, err, another affiliation is on the other side.

At this time, most Americans are conflicted in their beliefs: whopping majorities believe abortion should be outlawed in most cases, limited to certain time periods, only allowed in limited circumstances, and phased out if possible. Most believe life begins at conception. However, they also believe in abortions for "limited" circumstances that negate this affirmation. Until such time as the American public sheds its cognitive dissonance, we must continue to protect those categories of the unborn their consciences have recognized.

Incremental change is unsatisfying and fragile, but it is better than the status quo -- and greatly preferable to moving backwards, which is what the nation has done under new Congressional leadership.

It's nonsense that your vote doesn't matter.

Pro-Life Prayers

A Prayer for Human Life

Father, we praise Thee for the work of Thy hands: For human life, made in Thine image; for the gift of Thy Son, Who redeemed our nature; for the power of the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts; for all Thou dost bestow upon us, we praise Thee, we thank Thee, we bless Thy holy Name. Do Thou protect the life which Thou hast given unto Thy servants: support the aged, guide the young, lift up the failing, and heal the sick. To all people grant Thy truth in its fullness. And may those who are yet unborn all see the light of day and live to give Thee glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Another Prayer for Life

God Our Father, the Giver of life, we entrust the United States of America to Thy loving care. Thou art the rock on which this nation was founded. Thou alone are the true source of our cherished rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Reclaim this land for Thy glory and dwell amongst Thy people.Send Thy Spirit to touch the hearts of our nation's leaders. Open their minds to the great worth of human life and the responsibilities that accompany human freedom. Remind Thy people that true happiness is rooted in seeking and doing Thy will.Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Patroness of our land, may all the leaders, doctors, and mothers of this land reject the culture of death and protect the dignity of the unborn.We ask this through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who with Thee and the Holy Ghost doth ever live and reign, one God, world without end. Amen.

Prayer for the Unborn

Heavenly Father, in Thy love for us, protect against the wickedness of the devil, those helpless little ones to whom Thou hast given the gift of life. Touch with pity the hearts of those women pregnant in our world today who are not thinking of motherhood. Help them to see that the child they carry is made in Thy image - as well as theirs - and is made for eternal life. Dispel their fear and selfishness, and give them hearts to love their babies, to give them birth and all the needed care that a mother can give. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God, world without end. Amen.

Short Prayers for the Unborn

Heavenly Father, we the living request Thy help for the unborn. Amen.

Holy Mary, pray for us sinners, save unborn infants from abortion. Amen.

Lord, we pray for all mankind to have the grace to understand that each and every life has the right-to-life. Amen.

Byzantine Office of Prayer and Supplication for the Victims of Abortion.

Sanctity of Life Sunday Petitions from the Byzantine liturgy.

Pro-Life Meditations on the Rosary.

Anglican Catholic pro-life prayers.

Priests for Life prayer page.

Additional prayers for life (mostly RCC).

Planned Parenthood's Sacrilege, 2.0

First, Planned Parenthood released its blasphemous "Choice on Earth" Christmas cards (again and again). Now the nation's largest abortion provider is desecrating another aspect of our Christian heritage. Behold its newest keychain:

For those not up to speed, that is a part of Michaelangelo's portrait on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, in which God imparts the "breath of life" to the first man and creates him in imago Dei. In this case, God "imparts" condoms to His creation. Undoubtedly, this will be marketed to snickering college-aged feminists to justify their indiscriminate use of same (those who, err, still have a partner who requires one, that is).

Unfortunately, outright sacrilege is actually the least of Planned Parenthood's offenses.... (Get involved.)