Any way we can more some of the focus onto OTHER social issues?

[aspawloski4th]

I do deal with other issues. It happens to be that abortion is by far and wide the most important and trumps all others. If you don’t believe I deal with other issues just type my name in a search for other posts here, and you will see. At the age of 10, 30 years ago I decided I was going to make that my important issue after seeing the movie " The Silent Screem". My first real act on my decision to be a right to lifer was to silence a Planned Parent Hood manager on a major city radio talk show on a clear channel 50,000 watt radio station. The so called " pro choicers" have had a hard time dealing with me ever since. If every Catholic voted like a Catholic it would be close to a non issue and abortion would be treated like felony murder as is should across our nation. But since most Catholics don’t act Catholic, the rest of us have to pick up the slack.

 

[forrester]

There seems to be an assumption that someone who is ardently pro-life ignores other social issues. I cannot think of anyone in my circle who is actively pro-life that is not also involved in other areas. The CC is strongly opposed to abortion and no organization in the world has done more for the poor and needy. They are not mutually exclusive.

The pro-life movement is only going to grow as public policy moves away from the sentiment of the people.

 

[reggieM]

Every Catholic who prays for the Missions and who participates in almsgiving for the Missions (we have second collections all the time for the Church in Eastern Europe, American Indians, and other outreach) is fulfilling an important social ministry.

I think people forget that building the Church community is also a very necessary task for us. Supporting missionary congregations is a far better thing to do than to give money to a secularist social organization. Supporting vocations to the priesthood or religious life extends your outreach.

If you helped or supported one young man or woman who was then consecrated as a religious for missionary work (our politicians cannot match their social ministry work) – then you’re participation is multiplied. That’s one way to be involved across the world.

Our task is not merely to “improve social conditions” but to advance the mission of the Church in so doing. The grace of God and the Holy Eucharist is the “daily bread” that we ask for from God. Without that, charitable work will be useless and counterproductive for souls.

I have never seen a Catholic parish that does not have a multitude of social minsty works. I’ve never seen one that focused only on pro-life issues.

 

[jc-servant]

No, the knee jerk reaction is to that of the implication that too much time is being spent considering the continuing deaths of millions of innocent lives when according to the thread title, we should focus more energy elsewhere.

No one told you that you MUST focus your attention anywhere. The OP wanted to talk about other good things that comport with Catholic teaching besides abortion and he was attacked and the thread was hijacked with the usual arguments and attacks. It is neither a crime nor a sin to want to discuss something else without always having the topic hijacked to a one-sided abortion debate.

YOU and some others are preaching to the choir and and you don’t seem to realize it. You are setting up a straw man to attack because I am not opposed to each person spending their time and talents on anything that comports with church teaching. I have not attacked how you spend your time, but you certainly took it that way and went into attack mode on me. You proved my point about the tunnel vision and the knee jerk attacks.

Why must you attack those of us who are greatly concerned with innocent lives lost that we get accused of hating and having no concern for disabled children who have been born and the poor and the elderly? Should I be kicking grandma out of my house?

You used the word “hating” not me. I merely pointed out some of the things that get left out when some people (see the earlier posts on this very thread) insist that “a minute” spent on anything besides abortion is a waste and somehow not “pro-life.” I don’t know what your personal concern is for the disabled and elderly, but I certainly can draw a conclusion about the priority given to them by various posters when there are posts along the lines of the one I referenced stating that a minute spent on anything other than abortion is . . .

 

[jc-servant]

There seems to be an assumption that someone who is ardently pro-life ignores other social issues. I cannot think of anyone in my circle who is actively pro-life that is not also involved in other areas. The CC is strongly opposed to abortion and no organization in the world has done more for the poor and needy. They are not mutually exclusive.

The pro-life movement is only going to grow as public policy moves away from the sentiment of the people.

No one must assume it when different posters have made it quite clear that wanting to even discuss other issues is something that they feel the need to categorize as not sufficiently pro-life. I personally work with many people on pro-life issues through my parish who are not restricting themselves to a single issue, but they also don’t attack people who feel called to work on more than the single issue either. Take a look at the responses on the 1st page of this thread alone and then decide if the inference cannot be drawn from the posts going after the OP.

 

[mapleoak]

No one told you that you MUST focus your attention anywhere. The OP wanted to talk about other good things that comport with Catholic teaching besides abortion and he was attacked and the thread was hijacked with the usual arguments and attacks. It is neither a crime nor a sin to want to discuss something else without always having the topic hijacked to a one-sided abortion debate. Of course it is neither a crime nor a sin to want to discuss something else. The way you do that is you start a thread and introduce the topic you want to talk about. For instance, if you want to discuss poverty in India, you start a thread called “How can we address poverty in India”. You don’t say “Any way we can MOVE the focus away from abortion onto OTHER issues such as poverty in India”.

YOU and some others are preaching to the choir and and you don’t seem to realize it. You are setting up a straw man to attack because I am not opposed to each person spending their time and talents on anything that comports with church teaching. I have not attacked how you spend your time, but you certainly took it that way and went into attack mode on me. You proved my point about the tunnel vision and the knee jerk attacks.

I simply pointed out that the primary focus (attack words are: tunnel vision) on my and others part is intentional. The word of God is not exclusive. Again, tunnel vision would mean that because I am focusing so much attention on abortion, I don’t have time to take care of Grandma (the elderly) living in my home. I should kick her out. That is the real attack. You claim it is the other way around. I am waiting to see examples of pro-life folks attacking others for addressing other issues instead of abortion. I can show you lots of examples of people fed up with folks spending lots of time addressing abortion when the “should” be addressing other social ills instead.

 

[puzzleannie]

Since no one will bother to comply with my request NOT to make this thread a conversation about abortion I am sending a request to the mods to simply close the thread. There are already thousands of threads in this section of the fourm about abortion. Sorry folks.

then in that case, it may have been more helpful, on this forum, to introduce a thread on the specific issue you wish to address

 

[magdalene1]

THANK YOU for being brave enough to discuss this. I am greatly dismayed by the apparent hijacking of my faith by certain political viewpoints with the presumption they are both true and honest. Me being who I am, I actually did the legal research on the pro-life issues (I am a retired lawyer) and discovered that most of what I have heard on Catholic media in the election were simply parroting the talking points put out by biased and dishonest “news” outlets. In choosing who to vote for, I did an intense examination of conscience based on the elements of the voters conscience guide which contradicted the opinions expressed by most Catholics. I quickly realized that it is just not possible to engage in an open and honest discussion when people are not open to actual facts, i.e. “Dont confuse me with the facts.” I do not automatically accept something as factually true just because someone reports it as true. I highly recommend that approach.

 

[reggieM]

THANK YOU for being brave enough to discuss this. I am greatly dismayed by the apparent hijacking of my faith by certain political viewpoints with the presumption they are both true and honest. Me being who I am, I actually did the legal research on the pro-life issues (I am a retired lawyer) and discovered that most of what I have heard on Catholic media in the election were simply parroting the talking points put out by biased and dishonest “news” outlets. In choosing who to vote for, I did an intense examination of conscience based on the elements of the voters conscience guide which contradicted the opinions expressed by most Catholics. I quickly realized that it is just not possible to engage in an open and honest discussion when people are not open to actual facts, i.e. “Dont confuse me with the facts.” I do not automatically accept something as factually true just because someone reports it as true. I highly recommend that approach.

I really did not understand what you were trying to say here.

 

[aspawloski4th]

THANK YOU for being brave enough to discuss this. I am greatly dismayed by the apparent hijacking of my faith by certain political viewpoints with the presumption they are both true and honest. Me being who I am, I actually did the legal research on the pro-life issues (I am a retired lawyer) and discovered that most of what I have heard on Catholic media in the election were simply parroting the talking points put out by biased and dishonest “news” outlets. In choosing who to vote for, I did an intense examination of conscience based on the elements of the voters conscience guide which contradicted the opinions expressed by most Catholics. I quickly realized that it is just not possible to engage in an open and honest discussion when people are not open to actual facts, i.e. “Dont confuse me with the facts.” I do not automatically accept something as factually true just because someone reports it as true. I highly recommend that approach.

And what political viewpoint is that? Please be fourthright rather than leave things to the imagination!

 

[Walt_Oliver]

Having wandered far from the original topic, this thread is now closed.