For unto you this night a child is born

On this most sacred of nights I simply wanted to reflect briefly on the immensity of what tonight means. What does the birth of Christ mean to us?

• It means God so loved us that he sent his only Son into the world to die for our sins. We celebrate tonight the sacrifice Christ gives us. God gave us his Son to give us salvation. This night we celebrate our freedom from sin because of the love God has for us.
• It means God humbled himself and became a man like us. God is All Knowing, All Powerful, Almighty and yet just for us He chose to strip Himself of this to become one of us. He chose to become human to give us an example of how we are called to live. He became man so we can imitate Jesus in our lives. God became man out of love for us so we could follow the example of Christ and share that love with others.
• It means God sent his Son as a new life into the world to give us new and eternal life. It is the new life we receive in the life of Christ that we celebrate tonight. The gift of everlasting life where we will share in God's love for us for all of eternity.

Tonight we celebrate love. We celebrate God's absolute and unconditional love for us. A love so great that unto us on this night a child is born: Christ our Savior. May you have a Joyful and Holy Christmas...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 09:25 | link | comments (1) |
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Christmas: A time for Christ

As we count down to Christmas it is certainly a time of busyness. We are buying those last few presents, wrapping all our gifts, planning the Christmas dinner, shopping for food and trying not to go insane getting these things done. But amid all this hustle and bustle we need to make Christ the center of Christmas.

We live in a secular world that has turned Christmas into a commercial holiday. This is not something new. Our society has been doing this for years. But this year it seems that our society is making a deliberate and concerted effort to ensure that Christmas is not about God, not about Christ, not about faith but about ourself. Our world is trying to make Christmas all about me. A good example of this is the sign placed in the Capitol of the State of Washington. In the Capitol Rotundra is a nativity scene and a Christmas tree. An atheist group petitioned the state to have their 'beliefs' posted as well and were given permission to place a sign next to the nativity. The sign reads as follows: "There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens our hearts and enslaves our minds." When I first read this article and heard this story I was quite upset. However, I saw an interview a few days later on Fox News that not only calmed me down but really made sense about this situation.

Bill Hemmler of Fox News interviewed the Dan Barker, co-president of the group who petitioned for the sign to be placed in the Capitol. But, to balance the interview out, Hemmler also invited Fr. Jonathon Morris, a contributer to Fox News at the Vatican, to respond to Barker. You can read the full interview at http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,461824,00.html if you want to read the disrespectful and venomous comments leveled toward Christians by Barker. But it was a comment made at the end of the interview by Fr. Morris that really struck me. When asked whethere we (Christians) have to accept the fact that Barker and his group are entitled to the freedom of speech Fr. Morris replied, "Yes, you know what, I think so." But then he said something that really made me think. He said:
There's 1 billion people who on December 25 are going to celebrate not the winter solstice but the birth of a man named Jesus of Nazareth. It's a sacred tradition. Let me say — to the people who are watching, let's not get all worried about this. The important thing is that we teach our children what this holiday is all about. And that is the real danger, them not knowing, not these silly groups that think the Constitution says, we have freedom from religion when we really have freedom of religion.

I thought, "Wow! THAT is how we, as Christians, should respond to attacks of our faith." We are called always to defend the faith but the most powerful and effective way to defend our faith it to teach it! Teach it to our children! THEY are the future generation. We may not be able to prevent atheists from spreading their message of a Godless world but we CAN ensure that our children - the future of our world - know the truth about God and Christ. Atheists really have no beliefs to pass on to their children. All they have to teach is that there is no God. There is not much to say after that. We, on the other hand, not only teach that there IS a God but we are also called to teach our children about God, about Christ, about Christianity and about our Catholic faith. That is how we defend our faith: by living it and by passing it on to our children. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 08:42 | link | comments (1) |

What is FOCA?

One of the campaign promises President-Elect Barack Obama made was to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). In a speech to Planned Parenthood he stated, "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act." So what is FOCA? In a few words, FOCA is the most radical piece of legislation the the promotion of abortion since Roe v. Wade. The consequences of this legislation are immense. In essence, FOCA would annihilate every single state law limiting or regulating abortion, including the federal ban on partial birth abortion. The primary statment of this legislation in the 2007 version of the bill stated:

It is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman.

This legislation would codify Roe v. Wade as standard law. This legislaiton will make abortion a fundamental right. The impact on our society would be disasterous. The impact on the Culture or Life would be immense. So what would FOCA do?

• FOCA would make is so no governmental body at any level would be able to limit or regulate abortions for any of the nine months of pregnancy.
• FOCA would erase all informed-consent laws states have enacted that help a woman to understand the risks of abortion.
• FOCA would eliminate any parential notification requirements for their minor children seeking an abortion.
• FOCA ends any regulations on health and safety standards of abortion "clinics".
• FOCA would make null any laws requiring that abortions only be performed by a licensed physician.
• FOCA strikes down any laws that prohibit a particular abortion procedure
• FOCA would force taxpayer money to be used to fund abortions
• FOCA would wipe out any conscience protection laws. Catholic and other pro-life hospitals, doctors, medical students and health-care workers no longer would be able to opt out of participating in abortions.

These are just the most directly destructive provisions of the legislation. The right to have an abortion would be the same as the right to freedom. Abortion would have the same right as the right to health care. A hospital cannot refuse to treat a person who is in need of medical attention. The same would be true for abortion.

President-Elect Obama has promised that this will become law. He so strongly supports this legislation that he places it before any economic, foreign, or domestic policy that needs immediate attention. He has placed the destruction of life first.

What can we do? First and foremost, we must express our opposition to FOCA. Contact your U.S. representatives and U.S. senators by fax, letter, e-mail or phone. You can go to www.VoteSmart.org and enter your zip code to find out who your representatives are and the information on how to contact them. You can go the www.fightfoca.com/ and sign the "Fight FOCA Petition" that will be sent to key members of Congress and President-Elect Obama. Lastly, the U.S. Bishops will be initiating a massive country-wide postcard campaign in January. In 1993, a similar postcard campaign against a previous version of FOCA actually shut down the Congressional mailroom. They received tens of millions of postcards and the impact of this intense opposition was that the bill was soundly defeated.

The Freedom of Choice Act is the most dangerous and destructive piece of legislation ever to the Culture of Life in this country. If passed, there would be no restrictions to murdering innocent unborn children. The Freedom of Choice Act is actually the Freedom to Kill Act. We MUST do everything within our power to oppose this evil legislation. I will continue to blog on FOCA in the coming days and weeks. Please pray on how you can help to defeat this attack on life. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 09:15 | link | comments |
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So now what?

With Barack Obama winning the Presidential election, the pro-life movement faces some new challenges. President-Elect Obama is strongly and unabashedly pro-abortion. He has made this clear throughout his campaign for President. I want to point out some of his quotes and why they are very troubling.

In the 2007 South Carolina Democratic Primary debate, Obama was ask this question: "What is your view on the decision on partial-birth abortion and your reaction to most of the public agreeing with the court's holding?" Part of his response was to say:

I think that most Americans recognize that this is a profoundly difficult issue for the women and families who make these decisions...But the broader issue here is: Do women have the right to make these profoundly difficult decisions? And I trust them to do it.

So does that give me the right to decide when I can shoot someone in self-defense? Can I shoot the person who tries to attack me with a pair of sissors? Can I shoot the thief from half a block away when I see him climbing out of the window with my TV? Can I shoot the person on the subway who I think may steal my wallet? The law say the none of these cases are grounds for self-defense but by analogy Obama's philosophy would make all these justifiable self-defense if I get to choose whether they are or not.

When speaking to Planned Parenthoodin July 2007, Obama made the following statement:
I put Roe at the center of my lesson plan on reproductive freedom when I taught Constitutional Law. Not simply as a case about privacy but as part of the broader struggle for women’s equality.

Women's equality of what? The need for equality infers that a person is prevented from doing something that another person is able to do. For example, equal rights of an African American to the same education as others. A woman's right to vote is another example. What equality is being denied here? What is a man able to do with regards to an abortion that a woman is not able to do? The whole concept of abortion promoting women's equality is absurd.

One of the most disturbing comments President-Elect Obama made during his campaign was in response to a question about when life begins. His response was as follows:

This is something that I have not come to a firm resolution on. I think it's very hard to know what that means, when life begins. Is it when a cell separates? Is it when the soul stirs? So I don't presume to know the answer to that question.

If you do not know when life begins how can you determine at what point is an abortion murder? If you do not know when life begins would it not make sense to error on the side of caution knowing that conception is the absolute starting point of a pregnancy?

The last quote I want to mention is regarding the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). Briefly, FOCA is a extremely radical piece of legislation that would make null ANY abortion restriction legislation that has been passed, both at the federal and state level, since the legalization of Roe v. Wade. His quote was simply: "The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act." This legislation is so broad in eliminating restrictions to abortion that I want to spend the next couple of blogs focusing on this radical and horrendous legislation.

We face many challenges in the coming years to the Culture of Life. We have a responsibility to continue to preach the Gospel of Life and to make our voices heard to our government that abortion is immoral and wrong. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 19:07 | link | comments |
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Advent is a perfect time to defend life

As we are now into Advent, it seems appropriate to continue our discussion on the issue of life. Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The birth of Christ is the ultimate witness to life. Think for a moment where we would be if the Blessed Virgin Mary had chosen to abort her pregnancy? If Christ had not been born we would all be damned. Our souls would be lost.

Let's carry this idea through history. Where would the Church be if Constantine, who legalized Christianity and put an end to the persecution of the Christians, had been murdered in the womb? Where would our country be if George Washington or Thomas Jefferson had been killed? Where would freedom and equal right for African Americans be if Abraham Lincoln had been aborted or if Martin Luther King had been aborted? An abortion not only ends a human life it ends the potential contributions this person would bring to the world. What if this human we abort was the one who would find the cure for cancer? What if this living person we abort could have solved the energy problems of the world?

We do not know what consequences our decisions have in our world. This is why there are many instances in which we need to prayerfully reflect before making a decions. That is why there are situations in which we need to seek the advice and guidance of others before making a choice. And this is why there are certain things we do not have a right to decide period. When someone lives and when someone dies is a decision we do not have the right to make. This is for God alone.

Abortion is first and foremost wrong because it destroys life. Beyond that, however, is the fact that we don't have the knowledge, understanding or the foresight to determine the consequences of our actions. We are called to recognize life as being a gift from God. Our only real decision is to protect life not to destroy it. Until next time...God bless.

posted by: crossman at 09:37 | link | comments |
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