400-408 – Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (frc.org), on the Florida primary, and the decision last week by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebellius that all employers must offer free contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs in their health-care coverage under Obamacare.
413-423 – Tony Perkins
428-438 – Rabbi Aryeh Spero, president of the Caucus for America (caucusforamerica.com), an organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of our historic American culture and civilization, both of which are rooted in the Judeo-Christian ethic and the unique American ethos and perspective.
• Aryeh Spero (WSJ, 1/30/2012) What the Bible Teaches About Capitalism. As the Ten Commandments instruct, envy is corrosive to the individual and to those societies that embrace it. Rabbi Spero has led congregations in Ohio and New York and is president of Caucus for America.
443-452 – Rabbi Aryeh Spero,
458-508 – Wesley J. Smith, is both an attorney and a bioethicist, and Co-Director of the Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism (discovery.org/che). His latest is A Rat is a Pig is a Dog is a Boy: The Human Cost of Animal Rights. We touch on the latest with the "rights of nature" movement and wacko environmentalism, and the other attacks on human exceptionalism – which, of course, is the Big Idea under assault.
• Wesley J. Smith (NRO, 1/30/2012) Free Birth Control vs. Freedom of Religion. The difference between "freedom of religion," and "freedom of worship."
508 – Download a free Daily Devotional from your favorite KKLA teacher, just click "Program Guide" at kkla.com.
512-523 – Wesley J. Smith,
528-539 – Wesley J. Smith,
• James Capretta (NRO, 1/30/2012) We Are All Abortionists Now.
• Blaze (1/30/2012) 'WE WILL NOT COMPLY': CATHOLIC LEADERS DISTRIBUTE LETTER SLAMMING OBAMA ADMIN CONTRACEPTIVE MANDATE.
// While there were some variations in the letter, as it was personalized by each Bishop, here's the text that was sent out by the Bishop of Marquette (Michigan):
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I write to you concerning an alarming and serious matter that negatively impacts the Church in the United States directly, and that strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith. The federal government, which claims to be "of, by, and for the people," has just been dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people — the Catholic population — and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers,
including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees' health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. Almost all health insurers will be forced to include those "services" in the health policies they write. And almost all individuals will be forced to buy that coverage as a part of their policies.
In so ruling, the Obama Administration has cast aside the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, denying to Catholics our Nation's first and most fundamental freedom, that of religious liberty. And as a result, unless the rule is overturned, we Catholics will be compelled to either violate our consciences, or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so). The Obama Administration's sole concession was to give our institutions one year to comply.
We cannot—we will not—comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America's cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture,
only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less.
And therefore, I would ask of you two things. First, as a community of faith we must commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored. Without God, we can do nothing; with God, nothing is impossible. Second, I would also recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience,to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Obama Administration's decision.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
+Alexander K. Sample
Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample
Bishop of Marquette
544-554 – Wesley J. Smith
• Blaze (1/30/2012) 'WE WILL NOT COMPLY': CATHOLIC LEADERS DISTRIBUTE LETTER SLAMMING OBAMA ADMIN CONTRACEPTIVE MANDATE.
[Below are the paragraphs directly following the Bishop's letter in the above story.]
// This is the latest development in the spat between the federal government and the Catholic Church. While contraception is a major problem dividing the two parties, other developments have added to the relational deterioration. Among the developments, the Department of Health and Human Services decided to end funding to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops last year.
Rather than continuing to allocate money to a special program the bishops group oversaw to assist victims of modern-day slavery (i.e. human trafficking), the administration, instead, chose to give the funds to three non-Catholic groups. The bishops conference had refused to refer trafficking victims to receive contraceptives or abortions, so the American Civil Liberties Union sued and HHS decided to provide funds to groups that would refer women for these services.
Then there's gay marriage — another contentious issue. The administration's stance of not defending traditional marriage also contradicts Catholic teaching.
As for the health care regulation — a tenet that abortion-rights groups heralded when it was introduced last summer — there's no telling how the situation will end, as the Church seems adamant about its refusal to comply.
In September, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops called the regulation "an unprecedented attack on religious liberty." In November, The Catholic Advocate PAC launched an attack campaign against the Obama administration as well. To these responses, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said late last year that the Church's "conscience thing" puts woman at risk (yes, she's a Catholic).
In the end, there will be dire results, it seems, should the administration proceed as planned.
558-608 – Wesley J. Smith
608 – Get the inside scoop on contests and giveaways by liking our Facebook page, and tell a friend!
612-623 – Wesley J. Smith
Here's my summary of our time with Wesley – If your intellectual starting blocks are atheism, philosophical naturalism, and macro-evolution, you will eventually arrive at scientism, speciesism, and transhumanism. Once you lose "in the beginning God," and "God created man in his image," you will eventually lose human exceptionalism. A new religion will emerge, a nexus of science, philosophy, and theology, along with choruses of nice sounding moral platitudes about oneness, unity and peace. But the evil in men's hearts will soon morph this utopian drive to deliver a Brave New World into a hall of horrors. Nietsche's will to power will manifest, the Uberman will give way to the Last Man, and the result will be the hell of state-sponsored eugenics.
628-639 – Wesley J. Smith
644-654 – To bring it all together… if the state has the right to force you to pay for things that violate your conscience, and national healthcare will be distributing limited resources, you have the situation where the state will be telling you not only how to live but who should live. If you think it's wrong to take the money for grandpa's heart transplant and give it to a young worker's sex transplant, then too bad. If the state decides it's in it's interest to do so, you're not only going to lose the argument, you're going to pay for it.
• Stephen Moore (WSJ, 1/28/2012) The Most Important Non-Presidential Election of the Decade. Wisconsin's Scott Walker is facing a recall after his labor and spending reforms. If he loses, public unions will flex their muscles nationwide.
• WSJ (1/30/2012) The Solyndra Rule: Another green subsidy favorite goes belly up.
• Peter Wehner (Commentary, 1/30/2012) The Real Reasons Conservatives Oppose Gingrich.
