Population control

I was drawn to this issue by an item on Spirit Daily(see link at sidebar) and a reference to Jonathan Porritt. Until earlier this year, Jonathan Porritt had been Chair of the Sustainable Development Committee (SDC), a Government advisory body reporting directly to the Prime Minister on matters of sustainable development. I linked into Mr Porritt's blog and there he refers to a report from the Optimum Population Trust (OPT) proposing future limitations on the number of children per family in the interests of population control and for the betterment of the whole planet. Mr Porritt begins his comments thus " absolutely love the new campaign from the OPT...do your bit for climate change by having fewer children - or no children". Mr Porritt is no linger Chair of the SDC but he is a Patron of the OPT. The item can be read at www.jonathanporritt.com/pages/population

I then went on to the OPT website and looked at a report from July this year. The researcher quotes the 1968 UN Declaration which says "individuals have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and timing of their children." The report contradicts this and denies the right of the individual to take this control. It suggests that reproduction should take more account of wider social, economic, environmental issues and that the public duty aspect of planning a family is greater than the right of the individual. Two quotes iillustrate: " There is no unlimited right to have children....." and " individual right here is said to be balanced by public responsibility". OPT also link increasing population with the inevitability of human conflict.

In its section on population policies OPT states " Every country should act urgently to improve women's rights, including removing barriers to women's control over their own fertility".
It advocates a lot of the familiar policies of the pro-abortion and anti-life agendas: more sex education, free family planning ( they talk about using ordinary commercial outlets to avoid "medical barriers", greater use of media in storylining and reporting to promote the OPT agenda and so on.

Throughout they use the word "volountary" and to be fair they do not, as far as I can see advocate coercive measures. But what if volountary doesn't work? What is their fall back position? Bearing in mind some of the apocalyptic rhetoric in the climate change arena, one could ask: is there sufficient time for volountary measures to work? That being the case, the issue of Plan B is very relevant. There are clearly agendas here that are anathema to pro-lifers and
certainly very much outside Catholic doctrine. But putting aside those issues, there is still a very worrying move towards increased social control and diminution of human rights and personal liberty. But, if you paint the picture black enough and ratchet up the scare tactics, then people might well agree to all sorts of things. Indeed, we have already surrendered much of our privacy and personal liberty. It seems, though, that things have only just begun.

None of the political parties in the UK have definitepolicies on this issue, but OPT and the SDC are clearly influential in devloping political thinking with very good access to politicians and the media. Expect things to change.

The Feast of the Assumption

This is a great feast that celebrates humanity and God's final plan for all the those who do his will. Mary did and as a result salvation came to the world. She was honoured for her faithfulness. I understand this Feast better today because of two excellent homilies by our parish clergy. I know this feast poses a problem for non-Catholics and even for some Catholics and that is sad. But if we realise that God is giving us a message of hope and that His message comes directly out of Scripture and the events of the lives of Mary and Jesus then we can begin to appreciate the wisdom of Pius XII in promulgating this doctrine of our faith.

The Kingdom of God

The world's in a mess, the Church is failing etc. This is a great time to be a Christian. It is a wonderful time to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Forget the doom and gloom of statistics, abandon the woeful planning for "downsizing", do not listen to counsels of despair. Remember: this is the favourable time of the Lord. Is God any less with us? Is Jesus Christ no longer our Risen Lord and Saviour? Are we not the recipients of His wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit?
Do we not recall His words that He would be with us till the end of time? Do we not have faith any more?

This is a wonderful time to be a Christian. We should thank God for being alive at this time in the history of salvation. God is seperating the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats. This is a time of choice: are you for the Lord or against him? To be for him means a whole hearted committment, an act of faith not just belief in teachings and doctrines, not just Sunday observance. We are asked to choose to follow the living Lord. We are being asked to take up our cross each day and sometimes that taking up of the cross will involve loss; loss of things familiar and comforting.

But what is being stripped away is not the reality of God, the truth of His saving power or humanity's need for Him. We are losing non-essentials, things that have served their purpose, things that no longer point to Jesus but have become an end in themselves. We will lose buildings, stuctures, systems, people both clergy and lay. We see the "power" of the Church brought low in worldly terms. Hallelujah! We will become the Church of Christ and not the compromised Church that we have become. "My Kingdom is not of this world".

We cannot build His Kingdom. Only Jesus can do this by the power of the Holy Spirit and the submission of those who truly call him Lord and do His Father's will.

So it is great to be a Christian. The old is passing away. The new is being born.

We are like the Christians at the beginning: persecuted, few in numbers, lacking power and influence in the world; but filled with the mighty power of God's Spirit and becoming a holy nation, a royal priesthood, living by faith. Praise God for what he is doing in out time.

Purification (2)

Then there is the world. It's in an economic mess. There are wars, threats from terrorism, erosion of personal and civil liberties in the name of security, increasing centralisation and globalisation. We have epidemics and threats of epidemics and we have governments willing to pass legislation contrary to God's law of life and to make life increasingly difficult for Christians to practice their faith. And these are democratic states not repressive dictatorships. Militant secularism and militant atheism have more political and cultural clout now than the Church or religion generally. The indifference and hostility of many towards religion and Christianity in particular and the advance of nonsensical New Age beliefs make it difficult to see how the churches can recover lost ground, let alone advance into new territory. The world no longer needs or heeds the Church.

Purification(1)

What is happening in the Church and in the world? Well, Churches are not what they were. Congregations falling, vocations disappearing, an increasingly elderly clergy and laity profile, younger generations indifferent or hostile, divisions within different Christian denominations as well as the historical differences between them. The Christian Church has fallen from its pre-eminent position in society, particularly in the West, to one of marginalisation and increasing secular and legal hostility. In short the Church is no longer an influential member of the establishment, having lost much of its corporate, political and social influence.

Under pressure from secular legislators and the myriad temptations of popular culture, it is fading to become nostalgic memory , rather like the Elves at the end of the Lord of the Rings. Will the Church quietly, metaphorically sail into the West, leaving just memories and the world to the new age of Man? Maybe, if Christians continue to see the Church as it has been, instead of looking to build the Kingdom of God as Jesus intended and commanded.

Vanity ......

By following the link to http://www.lifenews.com/nat2486.html you will be able to read an unpleasant and disturbing article about the lengths that some people will go for the sake of beauty and rejuvenation and the lengths that others will go to cater for them and make money in the process.

One of the "by-products" of an aborted child is thought to be helpful in reversing the physical effects of ageing. There are clinics around the world that now offer a service to women who put vanity and personal appearance so high on their list of values. I say women but I dare say there are more than a few men who might want to look younger.

So abortion isn't enough. There is the dubious use of embryonic material for stem cell research, which at least has , as its objective, health improvement, however dubious the means of achieving this; but then we have the use of embryonic material for pure vanity. In a utilitarian age, it is not surprising that re-cycling can descend to such wicked depths. It seems odd that the re-cycling of body parts of their victims by the Nazis for medical and scientific purposes was rightly condemned, yet we take embryonic material for beauty purposes.
Is there a difference?

Downing Street petition

There is a petition on the Downing Street website opposing any change in the curresnt law on assisted suicide. This is av important opportunity to record opposition and is also part of our ongoing spiritual warfare.
The link is: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/notolegalsuicide