Roman Catholic Info

Does life begin at conception or at some later point before birth?
Recently I read the bestseller by Sam Harris - Letter To A Christian Nation. I'm only going to address a point he made that Christians are obsessed with pro-life issues.

His implication is that Christians are overly focused on this point to the detriment of other life issues such as the death penalty, war, poverty, etc.

My first rebuttal is that no secular organization or any other religious organization can match the numerous Christian organizations that provide healthcare, food, shelter, education and a myriad of other services to people throughout the world irrespective of race, creed, religion or color (of skin, hair or eyes). So Christians are perfectly capable of focusing on many issues equally to bring positive changes on all these arenas.
Ok, that settled, I want to move on Mr. Harris' argument that when Christians (predominantly Catholics) say that a human fetus has a soul, they are wrong. He challenges that it's not possible for a single cell zygote to have a soul because if and when it divides into separate embryos that become twins, does the soul of the single cell zygote divide as well?

I doubt Catholic theologians have figured this out yet. So Sam Harris uses a question that has no answer (yet) to dismiss that human embryos don't have a soul.

My argument is that just because we don't know if something exists, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Take for example the existence of viruses. Could we have denied their existence 200 years ago simply because we didn't know they existed?

Now let's see what Scripture says.

Luke 1:36 says that Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant at the time of the Annunciation.  Luke 1:39 says that Mary immediately went to visit Elizabeth. This verse in the Jerusalem Bible reads, "Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah."

Luke 1:44 has Elizabeth exclaiming that her baby leapt in her womb for joy.

Why did St. John the Baptist (or rather St. John the Embryo) leap for joy?

We Catholics are taught that St. John leapt because he recognized the Savior in the womb of Mary. If it was just a clump of cells in Mary's womb then there is no reason for John to jump for joy for.

I believe these verses settle any doubts that Christians may have about when the human embryo gets a soul.

But there are many Protestant and Catholic pastors and bishops who refuse to see this and so are incorrectly pro-choice. I don't claim to be a theologian but the truth is the truth and we have to pray that these shepherds who are in error will have the truth revealed.

If you need further sources that explain the Christian position on being pro-life, check out this list - Life Begins At Conception.

During the graduation ceremony at the University of Notre Dame spring 2009, numerous people who were opposed to President Obama's commencement address protested within the grounds of the University.

Concurrently, there was another group that was pro-Obama who were demonstrating within the grounds of the University.

Father John Jenkins, the president of the university, reported the pro-life group to the police as tresspassing the grounds of the university (but didn't report the pro-Obama group).

Subsequently, hundreds of the pro-life group's members were arrested and 88 were charged with tresspassing and are currently awaiting trial. Among this group is a priest and even some homeless people who had traveled from other states to protest the sacrilege being hurled by Jenkins and Obama at Our Lady.

Fr. Jenkins has been asked to drop the charges but he has done a Pontius Pilate. Please sign the petition at the link below to request Fr. Jenkins drop the charges.

Petition to Notre Dame: Please Drop The Charges.

During the 2008 Presidential campaigning, Carol (my wife) and I were campaigning for John McCain. We tried to convince Carol's aunty and uncle in Washington to vote McCain simply because Obama was very pro-abort. We said that McCain will try to ban abortion eventually if he became President.
Her aunty said that abortion should not be legislated and every woman should decide for herself. She believed that it's sufficient to convince women to be pro-life from the pulpit.

I was livid and I remember mentioning that we legislate that murder is a crime, as well as DUI, so why not abortion?

I'm involved in natural health care business and I noticed that of late there are several legislations (either Federal or State) that have banned trans-fat oils and even smoking cigarettes in certain establishments. There's even talk of banning cigarettes.

I feel incredulous that very few people are coming to the defense of people who choose to eat trans-fat loaded food and smoke cigarettes. Don't these people also have a choice like the women who supposed have the right to terminate their pregnancies?

Seems like a whole load of hyprocisy circulating around.

I believe that if we ban something that will save lives (like tobacco and poisonous foodstuff) then we should also ban abortion and by ban, I mean ban abortion absoutely, without any exclusions.

Barack Obama seems to think in the trillions. His bailout buget plan tops the trillion dollar mark.

I suppose he figured that if he gets the trillion he asks for, all his pork projects that he wants money for will be funded.

Apparently, now the latest group that wants a bailout is the abortion industry. This is amusing because this industry doesn't carry any inventory like automobiles and don't have to promote their business like all other retail and service industries. Their customers don't receive credit terms.

In short here is an industry that has high profit margins, low operating costs, with legislation protecting it and it wants a bailout? What exactly do they want a bailout for? What do they want to be bailed out from?

If you want more details go here - Stop The Abortion Bailout. You can also sign a petition to stop these people's request for a bailout. They need 1.5 bilion in bailout money.