Bishop Doran on...everything.

Bishop Doran is the bishop of Rockford, IL. In his most recent column, he bulldozes American culture and society, and associates most of the problems with one political party.

Many of the issues that confront us are serious, and we know by now that the political parties in our country are at loggerheads as to how to solve them. We know, for instance, that adherents of one political party would place us squarely on the road to suicide as a people.

The seven “sacraments” of their secular culture are abortion, buggery, contraception, divorce, euthanasia, feminism of the radical type, and genetic experimentation and mutilation. These things they unabashedly espouse, profess and promote. Their continuance in public office is a clear and present danger to our survival as a nation.

Since the mid-1940s we have been accustomed to look askance at Germans. They were protagonists of the Second World War and so responsible for fifty million deaths. We say, “How awful,” and yet in our country we have, for the most part, allowed the party of death and the court system it has produced to eliminate, since 1973, upwards of forty million of our fellow citizens without allowing them to see the light of day. They have done their best to make ours a true culture of death. No doubt, we shall soon outstrip the Nazis in doing human beings to death.

Let the arguments begin...

It might be noted that there is a gubernatorial race in Illinois this fall. Democratic governor Rod Blagojevich is a disaster for life (among other things, last year he issued an emergency order that all pharmacists fill all prescriptions, conscience aside) but his Republican opponent, Judy Baar Topinka is also pro-abortion rights, with the moderating hedges of being for parental and spousal consent. Jill Stanek, in the previous link, explains how meaningless that is (the quote I'm pulling is from the comments, not the original post)

In this case, Topinka's position against pba is of no consequence, since there is now a federal ban (in the courts). It's an all talk, no walk, sounds good to moderates position.

Same with parental notification. This law was passed in IL several years ago and is stuck in the IL Supreme Court. There's nothing Topinka could do about it, even if she wanted to.

On pro-life issues Topinka could impact in IL, she has indicated she supports forcing pharmacists to dispense drugs against their conscience and that she also supports embryonic stem cell experimentation.

So, there, in a nutshell, is the problem with continuing to talk about this on the level of parties - yes, the Dems should be held accountable for their platform and total intolerance of any kind of pro-life views on a national level, but to be absolutely honest, the GOP, while it certainly produces more candidates more hospitable to dealing with life issues honestly and forthrightly, and is not formally supportive of abortion rights, probably just wishes the issues - and those who clamor for them - would just go away. The issues will only be clarified, of course, as the fight for the 2008 nomination heats up.

Propping up the damn and holding back the waters - pro-lifers know that this is basically what we're doing on a political level, unfortunately.  Even as public opinion shifts, slowly but steadily towards recognition of the humanity of the unborn, politicians of all stripes run ever more quickly away from the issue.

Oh, and in case you were going to say, "Well, war is a "life" issue, too..." Bishop Doran continues...

What we have to remember is that violence breeds violence. When we tolerate unjust attacks upon the tiniest innocents among us, we habituate ourselves to violence. And so we have allowed these barbaric practices to corrupt our laws, our medical practice, and even our ordinary lives. How accustomed we have become to the immense loss of life in our wars throughout the world! Those who have killed millions under their mother’s hearts cannot be expected to balk at a mere few thousand killed in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Somalia, in Darfur, in Bosnia, in Madrid, in London, in Baghdad, in Beirut, in Washington, in New York. The violence of abortion coarsens the lives of all of us.

Once it was said, “... for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52) So we see the rise in the number of predations among youth, even among the youngest, the rise of domestic violence. We speak of road rage as a common thing. It is true what the theologians have said, that sin darkens the intellect, and weakens the will.

Having sown the wind of abortion we now reap the whirlwind. This appears in every quarter of our culture and on every day. And that just from the first of the “sacraments of death” of our secular human culture.