Legal and right are not the same thing...

You would think - after the unedifying sight of MPs justifying their snout-in-trough behaviour by saying it wasn't against the rules - that people would understand that legal and right are not the same thing.

I was arguing against proposed legalisation of gay marriage and asking why, if marriage could be re- defined to mean two people of the same sex shacking up, it could not also include incest, bigamy etc. One response is that homosexuality is legal, whereas the others were illegal and therefore wrong.

So, one more time: any action may be
Legal and right - such as helping an old person across a road
Legal and wrong - such as abortion
Illegal and right - such as following your informed conscience (eg as the owner of a BnB in the UK)
Illegal and wrong - such as setting fire to a shop or looting it.

Legality tells us little about right and wrong: it offers some clues, which may be more or less accurate depending on the civilisation of the society in which we live. But to argue something is right because it is allowed, tolerated or even encouraged by the State is ludicrous.

Great News for Nurses (and the unborn)

Neil Addison, a Liverpool barrister, reports on his Religion Law Blog that he has 'recently successfully represented two Roman Catholic Nurses who were told that they could not refuse to work at a weekly Abortion Clinic run by their Hospital.'

Go on over and read the whole piece which is both fascinating and inspiring.

H/t to Echurch blog and @Blondpidge whose tweet alerted me to the article.

A bit confused...

Today is St Clare's day. Or at least it was. I understand that yesterday is now St Clare's day.

Monday is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. Or is it? In our parish bulletin, Sunday is listed as the Feast of the Assumption. I understand the obligation to attend Mass has been moved to the Sunday as the Feast falls on a Monday - does that make Sunday the Feast (this year) and then the 15th the Feast again next?

I do not think the constant changing of everything pertaining to the practice of our Faith is conducive to a strong Catholic identity.

As St Paul said: Hold fast to that which is good...

The bastards are rioting

I thought a bit about the headline for this post. Should it be "The black bastards are rioting?" I decided not. Although the riots in London and elsewhere started with young black men, following the shooting by a police officer of a young black man, (from a police unit dedicated to addressing armed crime by young black men with guns) I do not think race or skin colour are key issues in these riots.

I considered "The poor bastards are rioting" but again rejected it. Given that the riots seem to be coordinated by Blackberry messaging, and other social media, implying smartphone and computer ownership, I think that would be misleading, and insulting to the genuinely poor.

But I stick with bastards. Certainly in Tottenham, where it is reported that 80% of families have no father living with them, I think bastardy is a real issue.

Of course it is not a very acceptable word, and we should not be prejudiced about an individual because of his or her parents' behaviour. Nevertheless, at a societal level, high numbers of children raised without fathers, in a culture where men can have women as they want, dump them as they want, and assume no responsibility for their progeny... well perhaps that helps us to understand some of what we have been witnessing.

The poverty is there, of course, but it is a poverty of understanding and of aspiration. These youths are not seeking social change, justice, equality or any other noble aspiration that might, at some level, raise these riots to a degree of worthiness. No, they are seeking the kicks of arson, the thrills of getting their own back on the police, and the free loot they can take from the shops they are targetting.

But the primary responsibility, it seems to me, lies with the absent fathers, and with a society that has allowed (and indeed encouraged) this culture to develop, whereby there is no stigma attached to the fathers of bastards, and no serious attempt made to address the consequent subculture of feckless young men intent only on their own gratification.

As I had cause to remark recently, we have sown the wind and are reaping the whirlwind - and the worst is yet to come.

So pray for them all - and for us all, who have failed them so badly...

UPDATE

I just saw these: Guido Fawkes has blogged on the same theme, and Fr Finigan's comments are worth reading, as always, and touch on this too.

All in a day's work

As I got to my office, on the 42nd floor at Canary Wharf, I noticed the window was open. Slightly surprised, I looked out. There was a young chap stood on the narrow ledge.

"I can't take it any more!" he said. "My savings have been wiped out, my girlfriend has left me, my mum's dying of cancer and the police are after me for dealing."

"So what do you want to do?" I asked.

"I want to end it all - but I don't dare jump."

So I gave him a helping hand - having checked there was nobody below whom he might hurt - and closed the window, happy to have put an end to all that human suffering.

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Actually, that's not true. Apart from anything else, I don't work in Canary Wharf (but then you knew I was mendacious if you've troubled to read my profile)... But if your response was that I should have tried to find other ways to help, you could be right.

But that is what, in effect, Brook, bpas and the others do. They seek out women in a state of distress, normally for complex reasons, and offer them a single way out, which certainly does not resolve all their problems (and incidentally involves the taking of a human life) - moreover they charge a fee for it, either to the woman or the tax-payer. And doubtless, many of them truly believe they are helping. And of course, they campaign...

But the mere fact that at a moment in time someone thinks that he wants to commit suicide, or that she wants an abortion, does not mean that the humane response is to agree that is the best solution and facilitate it.

We know in the case of suicidal people that more often than not they change their mind with time and support. But the abortion industry does not want women to take time. There are medical reasons for that - but also psychological ones... and business ones.

Decisions taken under the duress of stress and others' influence, and without due reflection and support are often those which haunt us...

Lots of prayers required just now as the abortion providers step up their campaign against the pro-life camp.

Lifting the curtain

While I have been querying Life's NDC policy quite strongly, I would hate it to be thought that I am not on their side.

So I have been having a look behind the scenes at Education for Choice, the people complaining about their counselling. Strangely, their Website is shy of identifying them. There is a page labeled 'Who we are' but it gives no names of any directors, trustees or staff.

However, their Website does make their biased position very clear. They proclaim:

We call for all young people to get accurate information and good quality education about abortion, and impartial support with pregnancy decision-making whoever they are, whoever they ask and wherever they go:

• Abortion is free on the NHS
• 90% of abortions take place in the first 12 weeks
• About half of pregnant teens choose to end their pregnancies
• If you have an abortion, you can still have children in the future
• Women under the age of 16 can have a confidential abortion
• Everyone has the right to confidential health services
• Abortion is safe in the UK (in fact it's safer than pregnancy and childbirth)
• There is no link between abortion and breast cancer
• 1 in 3 women will have an abortion in her lifetime
• Although the pregnancy decision is the woman's young men have feelings and can also access support
• The legal time limit for abortion in the UK is 24 weeks
• If you have an abortion you can still have children in the future.

Now it may just be me, but it seems that they have a view on the kind of choice they think a pregnant young woman or girl should be making.

Then on their Help page there are links to (you guessed it) Brook, fpa, Marie Stopes, bpas and the British Association of Adopting and Fostering. I make that a ratio of 4:1:0 in favour of abortion:adoption:keeping the baby.

And we are supposed to believe that they are the right people to make any kind of objective evaluation of Life's counselling services?

Doubtless there will be a huge hue and cry, led by the Guardian on behalf of Brook and the others to vilify Life. But so far there has been not even been any evidence produced that these mystery shopping visits took place. The Guardian should perhaps look to that first.

Make no mistake, the gloves are off, and it is the pro-choice (or more accurately pro-abortion) lobby's fury that Life have a seat at the policy table that sits behind this attempt to discredit them.

Regular readers will know that I am not an uncritical friend of Life - and indeed if the 'mystery shopping' took place as described there are certainly organisational issues that need to be addressed - but this attempt to demonise and then sideline them should be firmly resisted.

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UPDATE

I have just found that EFC have 5 promotional videos on Youtube that also shed light on their approach to impartial information giving and education... Search on Educationforlife

More on NDC and Life

Blondpidge pointed me at an interesting article in the Guardian. Pro-choice advocates did some 'mystery shopping' at Life and other Crisis Pregnancy Centres and did not like what they found.

From this it is quite clear that there is no neutral position available on abortion. Amongst the complaints were that counsellors talked about "the child".

The alternative is of course to use some other terminology, or avoid talking about the child at all.

But to do that is not neutral: it is actively denying humanity to the weakest of the weak at precisely the moment they need their humanity affirmed.

If that is the price Life and others pay to have their BACP membership, I think it is too high a price.