Election 2016—There May Still be Hope

IT MAKES SENSE TO ME

By Larry Peterson

Pope St. John Paul II said, “A nation that kills its own children is a nation without hope.”

Hillary Clinton’s decades of political experience have allowed her to master the art of parsing the English language to suit the moment. To be fair, she is just one of many skilled politicians who has this uncanny ability to say certain things to please a certain audience and then deny having said those same things to please a different audience. Amazingly, the world seems to excuse it all because, as they say, “That’s politics.”

There is one issue, however, that Mrs. Clinton speaks to where political language is non-existent. That is abortion. Mrs. Clinton is perfectly clear about her position; she not only is in favor of abortion, she believes it is perfectly all right for a woman to have an abortion up to and including the moments right before full term birth. It seems to me that St. JP II’s opinion and Mrs. Clinton’s opinion on the matter are on opposite ends of the Sanctity of Life spectrum.

Secularism’s success is contingent on eliminating God our Creator from the life equation. God has rules; God’s rules say “NO”. A society filled with, foremost, a sense of self-indulgence, cannot have that. This secular society believes that every person should be able to do what they want—“Hey, I’m not bothering you, am I?” 

Secularism’s mantra of self-gratification has been the catalyst that has driven people the world over to reject the sanctity of life, fomenting many folks to embrace the false notion that each of us can decide who lives or dies. Why are there so many people determined to bring St. John Paul II’s words to fruition?  I think the answer is simple enough; “I” and “me” have replaced “you” and “them”. However, I do believe there is still hope.

There are many people who proclaim their catholicity and intend to vote for the Party of Non-Life (those who approve of abortion and euthanasia—Euthanasia is legal in five states, parts of New Mexico and is up for referendum in Colorado ). How folks can be part of a religion and reject what it basically stands for is beyond my understanding. I leave their spirituality up to them. Bottom line—that still leaves a goodly percentage of Catholic/Chrsitians that still embrace the sanctity of God’s individual creations, whatever their age may be including the pre-born.
Psalm 139:13-16 speaks to each one of us as God’s individual creations. “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

Pope St. John Paul II and Child  APPhoto

The unexpected candidate for the presidency, Mr. Donald Trump, has proven to be an enigma to the election process. Honestly, I never knew anything about this man except that he was a very wealthy and successful international builder and entrepreneur. He also hosted a #1 rated TV show called the “Apprentice” which was on for 12 years (I actually never watched it). I had never heard anything “bad” about him and I never had an opinion of him one way or another. Then he ran for President of the United States. 
According to all the political elite and main stream media and many in his own party he is almost akin to a new “Hitler”. He is “evil” personified. Yet,  through that all, he stands before the world and says he will defend life and is pro-life and promises to appoint Supreme Court Justices that will be pro-life. That seems to me to be quite “UnHitlerish”.

As a Catholic man who believes in the Sanctity of Life and honors the fact that his Church defends life I must cast a vote for the person that will also defend that life and also has the power to do something about it. I do not care if that person is obnoxious. I do not care about what they did 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. The color of their hair matters not and if they happen to be the lousiest politician who ever lived, so be it. I, and millions like me, are sickened by the callous disregard for human life especially when this callousness is being disguised as compassionate. It is NOT compassionate. It is bloody, it is destructive and it is fatal.

If we truly believe that we are all God’s individual creations and that Jesus died for all of us, including the elderly and the pre-born, then we have our moral duty before us. Finally, from page seven (7) of the old St. Joseph First Communion Catechism,1963: “God made me out of nothing. He made me because He loves me. —–I belong to God because He made me.”

                                      ©Copyright Larry Peterson 2016


“Abortion in Good Faith” and “Abortion Care”: These Phrases Are Nonsense

IT MAKES SENSE TO ME

By Larry Peterson

I usually walk 45 minutes to an hour before dawn. A black sky, splattered endlessly with twinkling stars (sometimes accented by a full moon) allows a person to witness the handiwork of God’s creation up close and personal. It is (for me anyway) a magnificent and humbling sight. Perfection just does not happen. You know God is. The proof is right above you.

I get home and it is 5:40 and still black outside. I clean up, pour some coffee and open the newspaper. This is “my” time. I am seizing the moment. Today, staring at me is a full page, color ad from an organization called “Catholic for Choice”. The site is called, “Abortion in Good Faith”. The site wants you to “take the pledge”.  I breathe in, sip the coffee, and read on. The banner proclaims;

Public Funding for abortion is a Catholic social justice value.

Equal access to comprehensive healthcare, including reproductive health services, is a moral imperative.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The funny thing was, I was not appalled or even angry. Instead, I found myself actually shocked and scared. I was shocked at the seemingly Catholic nature of this ad and because I knew it was not. I was scared because it was so well done. Never doubt for a moment that the devil is the master of deceit and deception. He had prompted some fine work with this ad. It appeared to be, more or less, “Catholic”.

Pope Francis has said, “The right to life is the first among human rights. To abort a child is to kill 
someone who cannot defend himself.”

This tiny baby has a Right to Life

St. John Paul II said, “The cemetery of the victims of human cruelty in our century is extended to include yet another vast cemetery, that of the unborn.”


The preceding two quotes are from two Popes, one a canonized saint. They both were chosen to occupy the Chair of Peter and were entrusted with the Keys to the Kingdom. Their words express the teaching of Holy Mother Church, the Bride of Christ. We cannot claim to be Catholics and reject or ignore the teaching of the Church. We cannot be “cafeteria catholics”, picking and choosing what suits us. It is not about us. It is about following Christ and His teachings.

The Right to Life is our most basic and fundamental right as children of God and human beings. The miracles of science have shown us that a child is functioning in the womb at six weeks of development (I hate the word gestation). Usually, at that point, most women are just acknowledging what could be happening inside their womb. That is when testing begins.

Now is when the smooth pitch for “Abortion in Good Faith” kicks in. Here is the pledge:

The harsh restrictions on public funding for abortion mean that lower-income women don’t have access to abortion when they need it. Women who are dependent on Medicaid, employees of the federal and state governments, military members, and millions of others who are dependent on public funding simply don’t get the same kind of care as women with money. That is not Catholic.
Our campaign tells the stories of Catholics across the country who want meaningful, accessible reproductive healthcare choices for everyone, no matter how much money they have, where they live or what they believe.
We believe that everyone deserves access to abortion.
Join us. Sign the Pledge

Pledge Now
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A young man named, John, who describes himself as a student community organizer and a Catholic says, “Denying someone abortion care, or any healthcare, simply because they cannot afford the procedure is an assault on their God-given dignity.” He never mentions that Planned Parenthood receives more than a half-BILLION dollars a year in taxpayer money and is the biggest abortion provider in the country.

“Abortion in Good faith”, “Abortion care”, “and an assault on our God- given dignity” are terms and phrases that do not even make any sense. Whatever is “abortion care”?  Emergency health care to save a life of a woman after a botched abortion would be “abortion care”. The sentence suggesting that denying someone an abortion is an “assault on their God-given dignity” is so far-fetched it rejects simple common sense.

Catholics who follow the tenets of their faith and all those who respect life are under serious attack in today’s secular driven environment. For some inexplicable reason many in today’s world have gone “meistic” (my word).  Self-gratification dominates the landscape. Self-sacrifice and saying no to one’s impulses and desires is mocked. We have heard the anti-Gods sing the song of, “Don’t worry-be happy, God loves you, wants you to enjoy yourself and would never punish you.”

God certainly does love us all and He wants us to enjoy eternity with Him in His home. But to get to His home there are rules to follow and consequences for not doing so. The “Abortion in Good Faith” ad is dangerous because so many Catholics are faith-deprived. They are easy prey to this genteel persuasion. They have lost the fortifications of a faith filled existence.

In today’s politically correct environment talking about our faith and Jesus and His church is not an easy thing to do.  But those of us who do believe and follow the guidance of Christ’s church have to somehow reach outside the doors of the church and grab some of those just looking in.

If all else fails maybe we could just get them to look up at a black, starlit sky. The proof is in the perfection right above them. Going back to basics may be a start.

                                      Copyright ©Larry Peterson 2016 All Rights Reserved


The Catholic Church—Saying “NO” to a World Screaming “YES”

IT MAKES SENSE TO ME

By Larry Peterson

How did the precepts of ethics and morality, based on the Ten Commandments and the “Golden Rule”, become a pariah to so many? How did these principles ever become inverted?  Why have they seemingly been tossed by many into the dumpster of the outdated and irrelevant?
There is one critical aspect that drives this onslaught and I think we do not pay close enough attention to it. Those that are flailing away at our religious heritage and freedoms are not committing these attacks on their own. They have a brilliant, diabolical, hate-consumed leader inspiring them onward.
Their leader’s name is Satan and he is the Master of deceit and deception. Satan’s biggest and most hated enemy after Jesus Christ is the church that Jesus founded, the Catholic Church. Satan’s hatred for the true Church of Christ is unimaginable. That is because it still spits in his evil eye and says NO!


Over the centuries it has withstood his evil onslaughts even when they came from within. It also rejects today’s “liberation theology”, the perverse philosophy that suggests “Jesus wants you to be happy so just enjoy yourself.” The fact is, Jesus wants us to be happy with him in heaven. This is the testing grounds where we can earn the “right’ to join Him there—not decidewhat that “right” is.
 The Church has teachings that have been in place for two thousand years. But secularists maintain that the Church has “nerve and audacity” to use the words, SIN and MORALITY.  In today’s self-indulged, secular world it seems anyone who might suggest that a particular behavior is “immoral” or “sinful” is branded and vilified as intolerant, hateful, racist and even uncaring.
 How pompous and pride filled this is. Only the new age secularists would have the audacity to suggest that their inverted “virtue” is GOOD and the concept of self-denial is SINFUL.
My favorite comic book character was, Superman. Occasionally, Superman would get stuck in an alternative universe called “Bizarro World”. It was a place where everything was backwards. Up was down, hello meant good-bye and yes meant no. Even the planet, Htrae, (Earth backwards), was shaped like a cube. It is the same with the folly of inverted secular virtue. I call this world “Secularro”.
On Secularro killing is “Good” and if you stand against it you are bad. For instance, take abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and partial-birth abortion. The church says NO! On Secularro the Church is now bad. Fornication and people “hooking up” for one-night stands is heralded as “Good”. The church says NO!  On Secularro the church is told to mind its own business. Divorced and remarried Catholics want to receive the Holy Eucharist. The church, as it always has done, says NO!
On Secularro, the church is deemed intolerant and insensitive and is out of touch with the modern world and needs to get into the 21st century. Homosexuals demand to be married in the Church. The Church says NO!  Marriage is between a man and a woman ONLY. Satan screams from his evil world to his followers, Say “YES! YES! YES!” Holy Mother Church says “NO!” In the alternative universe, the Catholic Church is evil.
On Secularro the inverted unwittingly listen to Satan’s message and pound on the dogmatic doors of the Catholic Church demanding that they be opened to personal wants and desires. Unlike Bizarro World where things are just ‘crazy’ on Secularro, things are mean and vindictive. Secularro is ruled by hate. Satan is Hate.
There are other Christian denominations that have succumbed to outside pressures and reworked their “teachings” to accommodate the demands from Secularro. They have been praised as “progressive” and “in touch” with the needs of the citizens of Secularro. The reality is, they have failed their followers. But the Catholic Church has not caved into the demands and pressures and it never will. Therefore, Satan hates all things Catholic and always will.
The Catholic Church still teaches that there are Seven Deadly Sins. They are pride, greed,  lust, anger, gluttony, envy and sloth aka laziness. Note the key word in describing these sins is the word “deadly”. The Church teaches that these sins can destroy the soul of anyone who might indulge these human appetites. The church also offers forgiveness for falling prey to these sins. This forgiveness is available 24/7.
On Secularro, the church is mocked and laughed at for suggesting these actions offend God. These acts are acceptable because an individual committing one of these sins is just being human and God made us that way and wants us to be “happy”. So–sin away. Just remember, if you subscribe to that concept the victory in the fight for your soul goes to Satan.
It is time to start looking hard at the Bible. And we might start by going to St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. Chapter 6: 16-17.
In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield,
To quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit,
which is the word of God.

                                 
                                        ©Larry Peterson 2016 All Rights Reserved

Massacring Children; 2000 Years and Counting

IT MAKES SENSE TO ME

By Larry Peterson

Since I find myself still filled with the wondrous spirit of the Christmas season I have decided that this will be my final blog post for 2015. I am simply doing everything I can to keep that upbeat feeling a bit longer. I don’t care. I like it and I want to feel it and enjoy it a few more days. But right now I am going to smash that spirit with a right uppercut that will stagger it for sure. I am counting on my shaking it off and getting on with the true spirit of the season, feeling the peace and love that exploded all over.

Here is how it is (I am just speaking for me). We have the great celebration of the Birth of Christ and the next day we honor the very first martyr, St. Stephen, stoned to death for teaching about Jesus. Two days after that, on December 28th, we honor the Holy Innocents. In case you are unfamiliar with who the Holy Innocents are they are the baby boys massacred by King Herod in his quest to kill the Christ child. Herod, a seedy man insecure in his own pathetic skin, was afraid of toddlers. What a ‘man’. Anyway, those remembrances can short-circuit that whole peace and love thing going on.

The gospel reading for the Mass of the day  is about when Herod, in a fit of rage, ordered the slaughter of all baby boys, two and under, in Bethlehem and surrounding areas. He did this because he feared the Messiah, whose birth had been told to him by the visiting Magi. The gospel for the Mass ends this way:

The Gospel of Matthew 2: 17-18 reads;
Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet: (31: 15)
 A Voice was heard in Ramah,
sobbing and loud lamentation;
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she would not be consoled,
Since they were no more.

“Little Christy” pinterest.com

People have been massacring children for thousands of years. Last year I posted this picture of a child I named “Little Christy”. It is probably…no, it is, the most heinous, disgusting photo I have ever seen.  This Innocent was killed because she was a Christian. Her mom was murdered first and then, satanic fueled  terrorists, whose souls have been blackened by an unimaginable demonic presence in each and every one of them, staged this propaganda photo to strike fear into the people in Iraq and Syria and everywhere else they could do so. A picture says a thousand words and this one says it all. King Herod on one end of the spectrum of two thousand years and Little Christy on the other end with ISIS wielding not only knives and swords but also automatic weapons. How “brave” these killers are.

The photo below is from the Holocaust in Germany. sometime in 1943. This is a photograph of truth. This is what people do to people. And the most innocent of all, the children, are included.

History is filled with the destruction of people by other people. Here are links just to those genocides from the 20th century. This link will take you to all listed below:

Let us not forget the unborn, those in the womb, those unseen  who quietly call out to us all to please help them. Humankind has slaughtered over 50 million of these little people and the numbers are continuing to escalate. 
Finally, euthanasia is becoming an accepted means for people to end their lives “on their own terms”. In the United States, Oregon, Washington State, Vermont and Montana and “parts” of New Mexico have Euthanasia laws on the books. These laws are referred to as “Death with Dignity” laws. But the nation of Belgium, an upscale European nation of 7 million (two-thirds catholic) approved euthanasia for children.  Why not–lets let the little ones decide for themselves whether or not they like living. That’s “full circle” for you; from being murdered to being able to murder yourself—at any age
So now, as we approach the year 2016, children are being tortured, enslaved, and murdered…all over the world. ISIS has beheaded, crucified, drowned and burned countless children because they are considered “infidels”. Amazingly, there are some here in the United States, a supposedly highly civilized nation, who believe that Americans who have a different political viewpoint than they do, are more of an enemy to humanity than these monsters we speak of and hear of every day. 
The bottom line to all of this is; there is a war between Good and Evil. Satan exists and is having his way. He can never win the war but the damage he will have done before he and his followers are vanquished is hard to predict. And the children of today are still being turned into HOLY INNOCENTS  more than two millennia later. The Western world must wake up. The secularist worldview is wreaking havoc on society as God is continually taken out of our lives by the self-absorbed “meists” of today. We owe something to mankind and especially to the innocent children who, for the most part, just want to be lov
ed.
I’m done. I will now try to recapture a bit of the Christmas spirit that I have temporarily tossed aside. I am sure I will find some left somewhere. There are many millions of us who embrace GOD and LOVE and we can take solace in the fact that  GOD is LOVE. I know HE has our backs. Happy New Year to everyone.
                                               ©Larry Peterson 2015 All Rights Reserved

The Birthday Parties that Never Were

IT MAKES SENSE TO ME

By Larry Peterson

September 6, 1978, our daughter, Theresa Mary, was born and died. Once again I am posting about our fourth child and how she touched our lives. If she had lived this would have been her 37th birthday. She might have had children like her older sister, Mary Dymphna. Maybe Mary and her little sister would have been best friends and confidants. Their kids would have been cousins. We probably would have all gotten together and had a party with cake and ice-cream and sang “Happy Birthday” like we and all of you do on these occasions. However, like so many other families, we have those empty days of birthday parties that never were.

I am writing about this again because of the incredible disregard for life that now exists in our society. Planned Parenthood, marketed and promoted as the bastion of women’s health in America, performs more abortions than any other organization in the country. It receives over one-half billion dollars a year in government funding and recently it has come to light that it is nothing more than a “chop-shop” for human body parts. Theresa Mary was in her sixth month of development and could have fit their criteria for body parts perfectly.

At the beginning of Loretta’s sixth month of pregnancy she unexpectedly went into labor. Bleeding profusely she was rushed by ambulance to the hospital and our fourth child, a daughter, was born. She also lived and died very quickly, within minutes.  I had called ahead to Holy Trinity Catholic Church and a priest, Father Murray, was waiting for our arrival. Our baby was baptized and buried with my parents. She was our child, she was real and was a gift from God.

Theresa was not simply a “fetus”.  She was not “products of conception”. She was not an “annoyance”, or an extra pair of shoes to worry about or another potentially “sleepless night”. She did not mean  less money in the bank.  No, Theresa Mary was worth far more than any of that multiplied a thousand times over.  Nothing can change the fact that she did exist. In God’s world there is no “time” as we know it. HE lives in the “Eternal Now”.  Theresa Mary now lives there with HIM. (I like to think she is close friends with her namesake, St. Therese)

So, as I contemplate what might have been in my own family’s life, I wonder what might have been in millions upon millions of other families. How many millions of birthday parties have never been celebrated? How many doctors, scientists, priests, nuns, teachers, baseball players, carpenters and astronauts, surgeons, auto-mechanics, hair-dressers, waitresses,  pharmacists and even trash collectors and hot dog vendors never made it past life in the womb? How many  living children in-vitro, with their own DNA and their own legs, arms, hands and feet, kidneys and livers and hearts and lungs, have been destroyed out of convenience or maybe just for those body parts?  Roe v Wade has been protecting this heinous behavior since 1973. Whatever have we wrought?

So I say “Happy Birthday” to Theresa Mary. You lived and died and the world will always know it You were NOT a “product of conception” or a piece of “tissue”. You were a living person. So many more like you were never given that recognition. It is a sad, sad, thing.

                     ©2015 Larry Peterson All Rights Reserved


The World; Yesterday and Today–The Bible Covers It All

IT MAKES SENSE TO ME
By Larry Peterson
As a cradle Catholic who went to twelve years of Catholic school “waaaaay” back in the ’50s and ’60s, I can say without hesitation that my education in the Bible and about the Bible and of the Bible was almost non-existent. The Catechism with its nays & yays and right & wrong dominated the conversation. However, over the past ten years or so I have come to honor and respect the Bible. It took me all those decades to realize how profound and so magnificently in our faces with truths this book, written so long ago, is. The seven Wisdom books alone are worth more than all the jewels on Pharaoh’s crown.
Back to the ‘truths’ I mentioned. The other day, August 26, the gospel reading was from Matthew 23: 27-32. I believe this gospel actually references today’s world and the egotistical and self-centered mindset that so many people have embraced. Countless people have stomped on the goodness within God’s creation by choosing to grasp onto  the secular banner of “meism.” The Bible has their number–literally. It had it then and it has it now.
For me, as a writer, the Bible also has the best writing prompts…especially if you are having trouble getting the words to flow from your brain to the screen or paper. The Gospel reading from August 26 is a prime example of how my brain can get ‘jump-started’. This jolt came from  Matthew 23: 27-32. (I’m just using 27 -28.) Here it is:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.”
There are actually seven “Woe to you” paragraphs in Chapter 23. I quoted number six  because it was part of the Gospel reading for the day. Anyway, the first thing that came to mind was Planned Parenthood. Think about it: “beautiful on the outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth. Even so, on the outside you appear righteous, but inside you are filled with hypocrisy and evildoing.” I immediately thought of the people destroying the lives of babies and joking about it. I thought of all those defending  this organization and insist that those who would  vilify it are taking away women’s health protections. There are many in high places that certainly appear beautiful on the outside and, since I do not get to look inside, I can only imagine. I do know this: abortion is the Holocaust of the last four decades.
In America, marriage between a man and a woman is being denigrated by the beautiful, sophisticated, upscale and highly civilized secular community. Same-sex “marriage” is hailed as a right and the enhancement of freedom. Rejecting one’s God-given sex and deciding to change to the opposite sex is hailed as heroic and courageous. Legalizing euthanasia has taken root in Europe and in America. In Belgium they now permit childhood euthanasia. I could go on and on but you all know what has and is happening. And many of those who proclaim Catholicism as their faith  approve of these practices.
I am amazed that it has taken me so long to realize the magnificence and page-to-page wisdom the Bible holds. So much of Scripture defines the present. It describes us and our world. It tells us how and where are journey began, where it has taken us, and where we are going. It is a great gift and I shall never ignore it again. It is also the one and only book I will reference when seeking out writing prompts. The Bible has it all. If you have not tried you should check it out. It is a GREAT READ.
©2015 Larry Peterson-All RightsReserved


The Little Heart Kept Beating—Beating, Beating, Beating: Then it Stopped

IT MAKES SENSE TO ME

By Larry Peterson

(As the parent of a daughter who was stillborn on September 6, 1978, I am fully cognizant of the LIFE that was lost to us and her siblings. My wife (who passed away from cancer in 2003) almost died that day in a valiant attempt to get to a Catholic hospital so the baby might be baptized. That is a story for another time but, as a man, I understand the insanity of treating tiny people in-utero as nothing more than “products of conception”. Trust me–they are not. They are people, just like us–only a lot smaller.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The reports about Planned Parenthood’s calculating, impersonal and clinically callous disposal and sale of aborted baby parts is so hard for me to fathom. Many folks feel as I do, that these actions are simply heinous. Now, with the latest revelations of Planned Parenthood’s actually selling the complete cadavers of aborted babies for profit, we may have equaled the Nazis in an unparalleled cold-hardheartedness. In fact, since these tiny people have no-one to save them once they enter the sanitized and legalized death camps spread all across America, maybe we have become the most heartless and ruthless generation of all time.

What is so astonishing is that so many folks do not see anything wrong with participating in a holocaust that has claimed more than fifty million lives. Many of these people seem to be no different than me. They work,  pay their bills, mow their lawns, and celebrate Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. Yes, and they go to church and pray too.

There are many notables among them including a sitting president, the leading Democratic presidential contender and many more “upstanding”  people such as the former Speaker of the House, and the former Senate Majority leader. There are  academicians, professional people, doctors, lawyers, even clergy and many others. The proof and fact of LIFE in-utero is all around them yet they deny it. I do not understand.

They may look like me and walk like me and laugh like me and like pizza like me but none of them are like me. For I am sickened by the actions that they condone. Yet they consider these same actions as a “constitutional right”.  Maybe they need to listen to a non-American, Stojan Adasevic, a Serbian  abortionist responsible for over 48,000 abortions and  the ‘regular’ work day that changed his life forever. These are a few of his words (the rest are in the video trailer, The First Hour, and the following link .)

“As I pull out the mess, thinking it will be bone fragments I lay it on the cloth, I
look, and I see a human heart, contracting and expanding and beating, beating, beating.
I thought I would go mad. I can see the heartbeat is slowing, ever more slowly, and 
more slowly still, until it finally stops completely. Nobody could have seen what I
had seen with my very own eyes, and be more convinced than I was—
I had killed a human being.

Stojan Adasevic became the first abortionist in communist Yugoslavia to refuse to do abortions. His salary was cut, his daughter fired from her job and his son refused admission to the university. Most of us never had to destroy a child, no less 48,000 or more, before realizing we were murdering children. But in the war being waged by Satan, the master of lies and deception, sometimes his influence is so great and the deception so pronounced it takes many years of flowing graces from God before that door is cracked open and the light begins to enter. In Stojan’s case the  light was brought to him personally by St. Thomas Aquinas. Click on Stojan’s name and read his story. 
Some information for this story was from LifeSiteNews (Abortion; August 5,2015 by Sarah Terzo)and I thank them for giving me permission to reference it. 

                                    ©2015 Larry Peterson All Rights Reserved


Baby Turtles vs Baby People –"and the Winner is"?

IT MAKES SENSE TO ME

By Larry Peterson

We have in place in this country a law called the Endangered Species Act. Under this act wildlife considered “endangered” are protected by law from being killed, or maimed or harmed in anyway. There are many good points to this law as some of our most revered wildlife, like the Bald Eagle, have been saved from possible extinction. But, what about the “Baby People”? Don’t they count?

 In Florida,  sand as white as snow curls up the Gulf Coast from Naples north to the panhandle area with some of the most beautiful beaches on the planet. People come from all over the world to visit these beaches and bask in the brilliant Florida sun and fish and swim in the calm and clear Gulf waters. But there is one thing these folks and all folks had better not do while visiting  these beaches. If they do not want to wind up in jail they had better not mess around with the sea turtles. They are on the Endangered Species List and they nest on the beaches.

A loggerhead sea turtle in an aquarium tank swims overhead.  The underside is visible.
Loggerhead Turtle–PROTECTED by the USA

The Loggerhead Sea Turtle is one of these protected turtles. It can be found (like baby people) all over the world. However, its primary habitat is the Florida coast north to Virginia. It is estimated that these turtles build 67,000 nests a year along the beaches. The female lays her eggs in the sand and buries them. After two months they hatch, crawl to the sea and begin their lives. Of all the hatch-lings maybe 8000 baby turtles survive.  They will live close to 60 years.

It is illegal to harm, harass, or kill any sea turtles, their eggs, or hatchlings. It is also illegal to import, sell, or transport turtles or their products. It is perfectly legal to kill baby people who have not been born. In the United States, since Roe vs Wade was passed in 1973, 55,000,000 abortions have been performed. Fifty five million baby people have been vanquished from existence, many of them burned alive via the Saline Abortion method. That extrapolates out to 1,309,524 baby people a year killed in America.

In 2014 there were 3.93 million births in the United States. That means that approximately one out of every four pregnancies in our country results in a life extinguished. Sea turtles  are given every chance to survive with the government going so far as to put people in prison who might interfere with their survival. On the other hand,  baby people are welcomed into legalized and sweetly painted extermination camps and, unmercifully and without fanfare or emotion, eradicated.

Whatever are we doing? We civilized people have allowed a portion of our past to be destroyed. We are allowing our present to be vilified by what can only be called a great lie fabricated as the virtue of “helping” women. We have short circuited the future of our children and grandchildren by taking away from them the possibility of another Rembrandt, or a Mozart or a Jonas Salk, or a Martin Luther King Jr., or even an Abraham Lincoln living among them.

There is a world wide abortion counter that ticks off the abortions around the world as they happen. Look for yourself. More than one life a second is being aborted. Genocide of the innocent, living in and out of the womb, is rampant on planet Earth. Whatever have we wrought?
                                                           
                                                    Copyright 2015 Larry Peterson
                                             


Little Sisters Under Attack AGAIN; National Organization for Women Declares Them "DIRTY"

                                           

by Larry Peterson

The vitriol, screeching and lying about the results of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case continue unabated from those who want EVERYTHING their way.  The National Organization for Women has decided to include in their nonsensical lying attacks a very “mean and nasty” bunch of women,  The Little Sisters of the Poor.

Yes, my friends, the Little Sisters of the Poor, that order of nuns founded in the 19th century and dedicated to helping the sick and elderly, an order that asks for nothing in return, including payment for services, has been declared DIRTY  by  NOW.   Encapsulated in their own self-serving and ‘meistic’ world, the leaders of NOW, in a hair-brained and outlandish decision,  created and published a  hit list  of 100 of their enemies. The “creme de la creme” of the women’s movement, an organization claiming membership in the hundreds of thousands, has placed The Little Sisters on their DIRTY 100 list.  (Take a look at that list)

What qualifies a person or organization to receive such an “honor”? All you have to do is seek  relief  from the contraception demands included under the Affordable Care Act aka, Obamacare.  If you do  it means that you “hate” women.  You hate their freedom, their sexuality including their ovaries and uteri.  Yup–The Little Sisters of the Poor made the grade.  NOW considers them nothing but compassionate lovers of the sick, elderly and infirm who embrace the virtue of personal poverty.  That does not prevent the Sisters from being classified “Dirty”.  Why?  Because they are against abortifacient drugs.  That’s right, this has nothing to do with contraception.  Abortifacient drugs destroy a fetus AFTER conception.  Therefore, they cause an abortion.  Since the Little Sisters of the Poor are pro-life and oppose abortion, NOW says they are “DIRTY”.  Nothing else matters.

Hobby Lobby still covers the 16 contraception drugs as set forth in Obamacare. They do NOT have to pay for the four abortifacient drugs prescribed. These drugs destroy a fetus after conception. That is NOT contraception. That is abortion.  End of story.  Promoting the narrative that the SCOTUS has taken away a woman’s right to contraception is hogwash.  This is a lie being pushed to promote this fake “war on women”. If there is a war being waged inside the United States of America it is a war on the millions of unborn who have been vanquished under the ridiculous guise of a made-up, politically expedient freedom to abort which is clouded in a pretend virtue that does not exist.  Give me a break.

How utterly preposterous and ridiculous this is.  NOW was founded back in 1966. The objective was equality for women. It was a noble motive and women needed an organization so they could join together to gain equality in the work place, equal pay and protection from sexual abuse.  There was a double standard in wages, hiring practices, college admissions, and in Social Security payments.  All of those goals have been achieved.  There are more women in colleges than men,  women equal men in the work place, there are countless numbers of women doctors, lawyers, accounting professionals etc.  There are even  professional women boxers and wrestlers.

Today, NOW, supported by a very friendly administration,  panders to an ideology that  has negated the purpose of what the National Organization of Women originally stood for.  They are only for women who agree with their philosophy. Women who do not are attacked and vilified.  NOW has outlived its effectiveness and the purpose for which it was originally founded.


Evangelii Guadiam is about Dignity for ALL Men & Women; It Cares NOT for Politics

by Larry Peterson

When Pope Francis released his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, he also  inadvertently released  a swarm of pseudo experts on Catholicism and the Papacy. Why even Rush Limbaugh, who acknowledged his own non-catholicity, has decided that the Pope  is nothing but a “pure Marxist”. Those on the left have assumed that the Catholic Church’s teachings on abortion,  contraception, women priests, and homosexual behavior and other issues are about to be changed. These folks, left & right,  are living in their own personal world of ‘relatavism’. Caught up in the secular world of ‘meism’ they cannot grasp for one tiny moment that the primary purpose of the Catholic Church is the salvation of souls. First and foremost, the Church is here to guide ALL of us to an eternal life with God, our Creator. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,  founded the Church and appointed its first leader, the apostle Peter who was the first Pope. Pope Francis is #266. Their mission, which they graciously accepted, has always been the same, to lead the flock to Salvation. Nothing has changed.

Okay now, listen up all you clever pundits who have allowed yourselves to become  unknowing prisoners of the secular Age of Relatavism. Pope Francis has done no different than Pope Leo XIII who gave the world Rerum Novarum in 1891 and Pope Pius XI who gave us Quadragesimo Anno in 1931. These documents were papal encyclicals and they dealt with capitalism, socialism, labor, fair wages, working conditions etc. (Please feel free to see for yourself. Just ‘google’). We need to remember that Catholic social doctrine deals with the DIGNITY of man/woman because they are made in the image and likeness of God.  Poor and rich alike have responsibility to each other because they are all part of the human equation. There is nothing evil in being rich. There is nothing wrong with workers wanting a better wage and improved conditions. Evil enters when the deadly sin of greed is embraced by people when  they begin thinking of themselves first instead of God. Consequently they want more for themselves at the expense of others. Employers and employees have a responsibility to each other to be fair and just at all times. As Leo XIII addressed the social order so did Pius XI wherein he wrote about the dangers of “unrestrained capitalism” and “totalitarian communism”. John Paul II addressed the dignity of man in Centesimus Annus in1991 and  Benedict XVI followed with  Caritas in Veritate in 2009. Pope Francis has connected the dots with the Popes over the last 112 years. The dignity of all people from the lowest to the most exalted is considered. The Pope(s) wants all people to understand that justice must come from all of us not just from some of us.

The Catholic Church is primarily a ship navigating the turbulent and often times violent waters of pride and envy and greed. As the church forges through these deadly waters the ship’s captain, (Pope), his officers, (bishops) and  crew (priests and religious)  are supposed to work together to  keep the ship safe and on a true course to Salvation . They are responsible for the millions of souls that are their passengers. They are supposed to be teaching them how to remain safe and secure as they travel along and how to be ready to confront any and all emergencies. Many times an experienced crew member ignore’s his/her training. Often times untrained passengers do not listen. Sadly, they are lost. Pride, greed, envy, lust, anger, gluttony and even sloth combine to stretch their tentacles over the ship’s railings and grab the indifferent pulling them over the side and down into the blackness. And to think, all they had to do was listen. In the meantime the ship’s captain MUST stay the course even though at times he must adapt to changes in the weather. There is one thing he will not do, change the primary mission. No matter what, he will always move forward and never retreat from the goal of reaching the shores of Salvation.

I think we must remember that the Catholic Church is here to guide us to a reward greater than we can ever imagine. It is not here to make everyone feel good about indulging in their own “feel good” world. Just as a parent must say ‘no” to their children the Church must say “NO” to ideas, behaviors and personal whims that violate the commandments. In today’s world many people do not like being told NO. There seems to be an idea that if  “I’m not bothering you I can do what I want.” Well, “NO”–none of us have that luxury. Pope Francis has embraced the people, the common people. It is a beautiful thing and God has done all of us a great favor in giving this man to the world. But make no mistake, he is the captain of the great ship and he is trying his best to guide it to “Salvation”. That will always be his primary goal and the ship’s ultimate destination.