Woe To Those Who Call Evil Good
Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas gave a beautiful and inspirational keynote address at the Gospel of Life Conference in Denver earlier this Fall. Stating that he'd rather be a disciple of Jesus Christ than of Pontius Pilate, Archbishop Naumann addressed the life issues squarely in Woe to Those Who Call Evil Good. Here is an excerpt from that talk, but I recommend you read it in its entirety - it is truth and he was unquestionably inspired by the Holy Spirit when he gave this talk.
Mother Teresa, who dedicated her life to serving the poorest of the poor, said on more than one occasion that the greatest poverty in the world was not on the streets of Calcutta but here in the United States and Western Europe. She would say: “What a terrible poverty that says: I cannot feed one more child. I cannot clothe one more child. I cannot shelter one more child. I cannot care for one more child. I cannot love one more child.”
This is the great poverty that has enveloped our nation these past thirty-five years—a poverty that amid unprecedented prosperity and wealth places strict limits on our capacity to love.
One of the themes that John Paul II wove through his encyclical The Gospel of Life could be described as the crisis of truth. John Paul believed that objective truth was accessible to everyone through the light of reason. In this, he stood in opposition to many in Western society who question the existence of truth.
For many in our culture today, tolerance and diversity have become the new absolutes. Certainly, there is much good in such values. Tolerance is an important and helpful civic virtue in a democratic society. And it is consistent with Christian teaching.
In fact, as Christians, we are called to do much more than tolerate others who may be different from us in a whole host of ways. We are called to reverence every other human being as one made in the image of God and one the Son of God deemed of such worth that he gave his life on Calvary. This does not mean, however, that every action is to be approved, much less respected. There are some actions and activities that are against the innate dignity of the human person and that infringe on the rights and dignity of others.
The point, here, is that the ideological underpinnings for pro-choice rhetoric derive from the relativism against which the pope complained. It is the crisis of truth that allows otherwise intelligent individuals to posit that they are personally opposed to abortion but they support the right of others to choose an abortion.
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Mother Teresa, who dedicated her life to serving the poorest of the poor, said on more than one occasion that the greatest poverty in the world was not on the streets of Calcutta but here in the United States and Western Europe. She would say: “What a terrible poverty that says: I cannot feed one more child. I cannot clothe one more child. I cannot shelter one more child. I cannot care for one more child. I cannot love one more child.”
This is the great poverty that has enveloped our nation these past thirty-five years—a poverty that amid unprecedented prosperity and wealth places strict limits on our capacity to love.
One of the themes that John Paul II wove through his encyclical The Gospel of Life could be described as the crisis of truth. John Paul believed that objective truth was accessible to everyone through the light of reason. In this, he stood in opposition to many in Western society who question the existence of truth.
For many in our culture today, tolerance and diversity have become the new absolutes. Certainly, there is much good in such values. Tolerance is an important and helpful civic virtue in a democratic society. And it is consistent with Christian teaching.
In fact, as Christians, we are called to do much more than tolerate others who may be different from us in a whole host of ways. We are called to reverence every other human being as one made in the image of God and one the Son of God deemed of such worth that he gave his life on Calvary. This does not mean, however, that every action is to be approved, much less respected. There are some actions and activities that are against the innate dignity of the human person and that infringe on the rights and dignity of others.
The point, here, is that the ideological underpinnings for pro-choice rhetoric derive from the relativism against which the pope complained. It is the crisis of truth that allows otherwise intelligent individuals to posit that they are personally opposed to abortion but they support the right of others to choose an abortion.
MORE
It gets me how many people think it is ok to be neutral, but actually they are just being like Pontius Pilate. If they just washed their hands in public, they could be exactly like him.
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