Jesus Christ through our Church has long exhorted us to maximal participation in public life (CCC, 1915). Indeed, we share the call to claim the world for Jesus Christ. We are called to build the Kingdom. This takes place in the social/political arena. Accordingly, it is incumbent upon us to "speak the language." I am appealing below to commonly accepted principles of "good" and "correct" to address some serious flaws of progressive-liberal thinking. Let's have the conversation.
1) If contraception is a "personal" and "private" matter, why should the government (the rest of us) be expected to pay for it? How is such expectation not discrimination? Deprivation of my liberty? Even to the point of compelling religious orders and organizations to go against their strong beliefs and provide contraception?
2) If impulses are beyond one's control, such that government (the rest of us) should pick up the tab, why discriminate against all the other impulses? Why shouldn't government (the rest of us) also pay off my credit card? Or replace my cell phone I chucked at the wall?
Either we can control ourselves or we can not. And if we can, are we not personally responsible and accountable?
3) Across the board, shouldn't one's life interest surpass another's liberty interest? Whether having to stop at a stop sign, or be subject to building code requirements, or innumerable laws governing treatment of one's body, is this not the basis of every law?
Brain waves are detected as early as 18 days after conception. (GO- note scholarly references at bottom) Often before a mother even knows she's pregnant. Where is the logic and humanity of abortion that has resulted in over 60 million lives killed and their mothers, wounded? (GO) If the "protection of human life and not it's destruction" is not "the first and only legitimate object of good government" (Jefferson), what is?
4) Why is it that virtually every leading liberal was in favor of much greater border security (basis for the border wall) prior to Trump? Which of us do not vet areas entrusted to us? Do progressive-liberals not have security for their homes? Places of work? (GO)
Are we not living in more dangerous times than ever before, with enemies bent on doing harm? Has this not already been evidenced among illegal immigrants?
There's a fuller Catholic view on the border wall you won't find among mainstream media and, unfortunately, selectively ignored by many Catholic sources. (GO)
Scholarly studies establish that a border wall will pay for itself. (GO)
5) Beyond real needs of those who really fall through the cracks, for which the local community can not provide, which entitlements should the government (us) provide for? And how are these suppose to be paid for? And by whom? And is it sustainable?
There's a fuller Catholic view on the border wall you won't find among mainstream media and, unfortunately, selectively ignored by many Catholic sources. (GO)
Scholarly studies establish that a border wall will pay for itself. (GO)
5) Beyond real needs of those who really fall through the cracks, for which the local community can not provide, which entitlements should the government (us) provide for? And how are these suppose to be paid for? And by whom? And is it sustainable?
And if you believe in these so much, do you voluntarily contribute and devote greater energy to advocating for the same versus demands from political systems?
Let's please dispel one of the biggest, grossest political narratives with the truth: There's no difference between liberals and conservatives in caring for those most in need, only in how best to do it. Nowhere in scripture will you find Jesus forcing people to give. He appeals to hearts. Systems can not love, only people can. If you believe in these so much, do you voluntarily contribute and devote greater energy to advocating for the same versus demands from political systems?
Here are some implications:
(a) NYC Mayor De Blasio and others have stated that wealth is in the wrong hands. He and these others have substantially benefitted from our American system. What keeps him and them from voluntarily dolling out their millions?
(b) In the realm of giving, conservatives dramatically surpass their liberal counterparts. (GO)
(c) What socialist example can you give, anytime, anywhere, surpassing the net benefit of those who live in America? Does America aspire to be like Venezuela? (GO)
Here are some implications:
(a) NYC Mayor De Blasio and others have stated that wealth is in the wrong hands. He and these others have substantially benefitted from our American system. What keeps him and them from voluntarily dolling out their millions?
(b) In the realm of giving, conservatives dramatically surpass their liberal counterparts. (GO)
(c) What socialist example can you give, anytime, anywhere, surpassing the net benefit of those who live in America? Does America aspire to be like Venezuela? (GO)
6) If you're truly about the advancement of minorities (as we all ought to be), why don't you advocate accordingly, based on objective measures such as jobs and the economy? Across the board, minorities are doing better under Trump. (GO)
7) If your rising star, Ocasio-Cortez (the bourgeois girl from the Bronx masquerading as a proletariat) succeeded in a 70% tax on the wealthy, how will it not result in "smother[ing] investment and innovation, leaving America poorer"? (GO)
“Wealth creation plays a far bigger role than philanthropy or government transfer programs in improving our standard of living, something that those forever trying to ‘stick it to the rich’ either don’t understand or choose to ignore out of political expedience.” (GO)
“Wealth creation plays a far bigger role than philanthropy or government transfer programs in improving our standard of living, something that those forever trying to ‘stick it to the rich’ either don’t understand or choose to ignore out of political expedience.” (GO)
8) If America is not exceptional, if it is so bad, why are people streaming here?
9) What do the ten most dangerous cities in America have in common? They're run by Democrats. How do you not recognize the decisive difference between policies based on entitlement and those predicated of empowerment? Those that give a hand-out, and those that offer a hand-up? (GO)
10) Based upon respective treatment of visiting speakers in higher education (liberals denying conservative speakers), and the reaction of students (liberals rioting), and general dispositions of politicians, mainstream media and Hollywood towards their political counterparts (liberals not attending the inauguration, calling for people not to be civil, to harass public officials they disagree with), how do you not see that the greatest intolerance and violence are perpetrated by those waving the flags of "tolerance" and "peace"? (GO -rare admission from a prominent liberal)
11) If traditional marriage and family life, the Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation, are the greatest predictors of a successful community... including economics, education, and health, why do you oppose their promotion? (GO)
12) No one is suggesting two consenting adults can't legally choose to do what they want behind closed doors, but if the standard for legal benefits deriving from one's conception of "marriage" is what anyone wants, what have you to say about anyone else's conception... multiple spouses (polyamory), marriage to animals, or inanimate objects? How does questioning these not make you hateful, intolerant, discriminatory and the like?
13) If you dismiss gender on the basis of anatomy and physiology, if sexuality has nothing to do with body parts belonging in certain places and functioning in certain ways, and not in others, on what basis could you dispute a (misguided) surgeon putting a heart where, for instance, a colon belongs and regarding it as "health"? By your own standard, how are you not being hateful, intolerant, discriminatory and the like?
No argument surpasses the one the body has already made: Same-sex bodies do not fit together, nor can they ever accomplish what they are undeniably designed to accomplish. If a child was trying to force two, same-shaped puzzle pieces together, we would all regard it as "reason" to correct him, to help him put it together. We would regard the opposite as "incorrect." Homosexual activity is inherently incorrect and unnatural.
Love is not marked by blind toleration of what is incorrect. It is marked by self-sacrifice for the objective good of the other.
Love is not marked by blind toleration of what is incorrect. It is marked by self-sacrifice for the objective good of the other.
14) Proportionately, why are those educated in public schools, reinforced by a socialized system of unionized teachers, perpetuating progressive-liberal ideologies, so undeniably, abysmally failed compared to private sector/home school education? (on public schools, GO, relative to homeschools GO)
15) How do you not recognize that it is impossible not to judge, to make a moral evaluation of reason? (CCC, 1778) To disagree is to prove my point. It would require that you judge me as wrong. It is in this core that progressive-liberal thinking is intrinsically wrong, assailing the very premise they require: Conviction in an objective, universal truth. What matters is to judge correctly.
In these, and all other considerations that mark our journey from where we are to where God calls us to be, our unsurpassed nature as sons and daughters of God in Jesus Christ, may we humbly avail to His Revelation and grace through the Church. May we recognize and humbly surrender lesser things for greater. May we more fully become what we are.
In these, and all other considerations that mark our journey from where we are to where God calls us to be, our unsurpassed nature as sons and daughters of God in Jesus Christ, may we humbly avail to His Revelation and grace through the Church. May we recognize and humbly surrender lesser things for greater. May we more fully become what we are.
