The War by the "Worldly" is Secular Abuse Against the Very Heart of Christianity

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by Larry Peterson

It was a brutally cold winter night in 1839 when Jeanne Jugan brought  the sick, blind, homeless woman into her home.  All she wanted to do was help the poor woman.  She had no agenda.  She wanted nothing.  She simply wanted to do what God’s graces had asked her to do, “Love her neighbor”.   Jeanne never planned to have people begin to follow her example.  She never dreamed that she would become the founder of an organization  called the Little Sisters of the Poor.  Jeanne Jugan could not in her wildest dreams foresee the order she had founded serving the elderly poor in 31 countries around the world.  She must have had tears of joy streaming down her saintly face when Pope Benedict XVI canonized her in 2009.
Today she,  and many others with her in the heavenly realm, must be so ashamed and saddened by the members of the secular world who, disguised in a mask of counterfeit virtue, are determined to lay waste to  Christianity.  Make no mistake, we Catholic/Christians are at war;  and the Worldly, including many who claim to be with us, are waging this war against us.  Their primary weapon is the Affordable Care Act aka “Obamacare”.  Where does this weapon of mass secularity have its sights trained?  Where else but on  St. Jeanne Jugan’s order, The Little Sisters of the Poor.  Are you kidding me?  The government of the United States of America, under the control of the Worldly, is after  The Little Sisters.  The order must be considered an easy target because, after granting exemptions to other groups, the Worldly refused to grant an exemption to The Little Sisters of the Poor.  Supreme Court Justice  Sonia Sotomayor, an appointee of the Worldly in power, granted the Little Sisters a temporary injunction against the mandate.  Undeterred in their mission of spreading their all-knowing  secularity, the Worldy immediately responded and asked the court to drop the appeal.  Now we wait.  We wait to see if the First Amendment of the Constitution is to be upheld.
 As a  writer and a Catholic I have unexpectedly found myself blogging more and more about subjects that pertain to things “Catholic”.  I never began writing with that in mind. My novel, “The Priest and the Peaches”,  deals with a Catholic family and a priest but it is not considered religious.  Rather, it is classified as ‘historical fiction’.  My children’s book  is not religious either.  I had  been working on the sequel to TP & TP but I have had that on hold for almost six months as I blog about things and people that pertain to my faith.  I do this because my faith is under attack.  I never thought I would live to see the day when the power of  our government would be used by those we have empowered to demand we violate our religious principles?   Our faith does not just take place INSIDE a church.  It takes place within our very hearts and minds. We are supposed to LIVE our faith and, though many of us often fail, it is our CHOICE to fail.  It is no one’s business.  The government of the United States of America does not have the right to enter into our “hearts and minds” and tell us what to believe the same as it does not belong inside our churches.
We, as a church, a faith community, and as individuals who are part of it and believe in it are being abused and are under attack. The Little Sisters of the Poor and communities like them need our voices to ring out.  So do the almost 10 million folks who are able to turn to almost 1400  charitable organizations run by the Catholic church every year. So do the people, mostly volunteers, who staff  the 600,000 plus soup kitchens feeding folks everyday and distribute food from the two million food banks and pantries. If you factor in all the other religious and charitable organizations in the United States there is a veritable population of “goodness and kindness and giving” spread across this entire nation. Most are folks  who ask nothing in return  for sharing their time,  their hearts and their love with those less fortunate. It seems to me that the Worldly need to start minding their own damn business. 

                                              copyright © 2014  Larry Peterson

"Little Sisters Threatened by Big Brother"

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The Little Sisters of the Poor is a catholic, religious organization founded in France in the first half of the 19th century. A woman by the name of Jeanne Jugan (now Saint Jeanne Jugan) felt the need to help care for the many poverty stricken elderly who seemingly were everywhere in France. She began her ministry by inviting an elderly woman into her home to care for her. One woman caring  for another and so began the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Let us fast forward about 160 years or so. The Little Sisters of the Poor serve people in 31 countries. They have grown from one woman helping one woman to one of the most successful religious organizations in the world. One country they serve is the good old U.S of A. They have about 30 homes here and care for 2500 elderly in the U.S. Enter Obamacare and the HHS Mandate.

There are certain penalties that accompany the Mandate. For example, if an organization were to stop offering health insurance rather than comply with the Mandate that organization, ie: The Little Sisters of the Poor, would be forced to pay a $2000.00 penalty per employee. If they chose to offer insurance without contraception, aborta-facient drugs or sterilization availability, they would be penalized $100.00 per day per employee. If there were 50 employees that would come to about $2,000,000.00 a year.

The Little Sisters of the Poor do one thing. They care for the elderly. They offer them homes where they are welcomed and lovingly cared for. These folks are treated with respect, dignity and love. The good Sisters do not want money. They do not need a fancy car or a big house to live in. They do not need  a flat-screen TV or contemporary clothing. All they want to do is serve other people. Half of all operating costs come from donations, the other half from Medicaid. The penalties for non-compliance with the Mandate would virtually wipe out their ability to continue this work.

The Department of Health and Human Services exemption criteria is so narrowly defined that hardly anyone will qualify. A religious employer will only be exempted if they hire & serve only people of their own faith. Catholic Charities and  Catholic hospitals serve all folks. So do other religious organizations. The penalties will force them to go out of business.  This is so crazy and I would ask, what do the elderly need birth control for anyway?

A "Julia" alternative—meet "Joanie"

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President Obama’s campaign web-site has given us the Obama Woman, a gal named “Julia” who we follow in cartoon form from age three through age 67+ . Julia’s life, from the formative years and onward, has been  guided, nurtured  and embraced by and through government programs such as: Head Start, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Obamacare, Pell Grants for education etc. There is never a mention of Julia having parents or siblings or any family at all (they had to be in the mix somewhere but I guess their impact on Julia’s life was minimal). Finally,  as Julia’s wonderful, carefree and orchestrated life winds down, she finds happiness in her senior years as a volunteer in a “community garden”. May I present the JULIA alternative–JOANIE.

Joanie Peach is 17. She did have parents but they died. Her mother, when Joanie was 13, and her dad when she was 17. She has an older brother, Teddy, 18, and three younger brothers aged 14, 10 and 6. They are orphans. Yup–Joanie has had multiple roles in her young life: daughter, sister, replacement mom, high school student, cook, house-keeper, household budget manager, grocery shopper, meal planner, and, of course, nurse in charge of all the cuts, bumps and bruises that little boys seem to attract. I have to be fair–this did take place “way, way”, back in the mid 1960’s. That was a time when the all embraceable and benevolent government was just beginning to get into the “nanny busines”. Consequently, folks (for the most part)counted on their family, friends and church to help them through difficult life challenges.

Joanie Peach and the parentless journey of her and her brothers begins in the YA novel, “The Priest and the Peaches”, the first book in a fictionalized (like Obama’s, Julia) series that will follow the life of these kids.  Joanie and Julia are quite different. Why not spend a few bucks (it is an ebook) to see HOW different and how the faith, strength and love of God and  family can be the foundation that binds and lifts folks together no matter what life may throw their way.