Bishops must guide their faithful to use their vote to oppose efforts to legalize abortion and euthanasia, Pope Benedict XVI told bishops from Brazil. "Dear brother bishops, to defend life we must not fear hostility or unpopularity, and we must refuse any compromise or ambiguity which might conform us to the world's way of thinking," the pope said October 28 during a meeting with bishops from northeast Brazil. The bishops were making their "ad limina" visits to report on the status of their dioceses. Pope Benedict did not mention the fact that Brazilians were to vote October 31 in a presidential election, but said he wanted to discuss with the bishops their obligation to give their faithful the information and moral guidance they need to ensure their political decisions contribute to the true good of humanity. Both of Brazil's presidential candidates, Dilma Rousseff and Jose Serra, have said they oppose lifting restrictions on abortion, but Brazil's anti-abortion laws still have been a recurrent theme in the campaign. Pope Benedict told the Brazilian bishops that while direct involvement in politics is the responsibility of the laity, "when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls requires it, pastors have a serious duty to make moral judgments even in political matters." Certain actions and political policies, such as abortion and euthanasia, are "intrinsically evil and incompatible with human dignity" and cannot be justified for any reason, the pope said. While some may claim they support abortion or euthanasia to defend the weak and the poor, "who is more helpless than an unborn child or a patient in a vegetative or terminal state?" he said. "When political positions openly or covertly include plans to decriminalize abortion and euthanasia, the democratic ideal -- which is truly democratic only when it acknowledges and safeguards the dignity of every human person -- is betrayed at its foundations," Pope Benedict told the bishops. Bishops and priests have an obligation to help Catholic laity live in a way that that is faithful to the Gospel in every aspect of their lives, including their political choices, he said. "This also means that in certain cases, pastors should remind all citizens of their right and duty to use their vote to promote the common good," the pope said. This looks like some sound advice for the folks in the U.S. who call themselves Catholic as well.

A 31-year-old Michigan nursing student is experiencing her own personal housing crisis after she posted an ad on a church bulletin board looking for a "Christian roommate." After seeing the notice, someone in the community filed an official complaint with the Fair Housing Center of West Michigan, alleging that the ad "expresses an illegal preference for a Christian roommate, thus excluding people of other faiths." Rather than dismiss the complaint as ridiculous on its face, the agency flew into action. "It's a violation to make, print, or publish a discriminatory statement," Fair Housing's executive director said. Representatives from the National Fair Housing Institute say it is illegal to advertise for a Christian roommate or indicate any type of religious preference. But, as the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) points out, there's nothing discriminatory about it. This woman "is not a landlord. She does not own a management company. She does not run an apartment complex," said ADF attorney Joel Oster, who is representing the woman free of charge. "She is a single person seeking to have a roommate live with her in her house. She is not prohibited by either federal law or state law from seeking a Christian roommate..." The group's lawyers argue the woman has right to look for a Christian roommate, and that right is protected under the U.S. Constitution. Regardless, Nancy Haynes, head of the Fair Housing Center, is doing all she can to give the complaint some teeth. She's already threatened hundreds of dollars in fines and "fair housing training." Although her agency will probably lose the case, the Left is still succeeding in advancing its campaign of intimidation against Christians. We can't let this happen. It's time to stand our ground and not give one single inch to those who want to push Christianity, its teachings, and its followers into the closet. Are you kidding me? Is this really happening in America?

Pope Benedict XVI in his brilliant book Jesus of Nazareth tells us that God is on the way to you. In this day of false gods and lack of faith, many people have decided that they do not need God or do not believe that God exists. Pope Benedict tells us, "...we have developed a concept of reality that excludes reality's translucence to God. The only thing that counts as real is what can be experimentally proven. God cannot be constrained into experimentation." This set off the brightest light bulb moment for me. I have been struggling with reading the Old Testament. It was my reason self that had taken over as I read. But we understand that there is faith and reason and they are separate. Trying to constrain God in a petri dish would be like trying to grab an alligator by his mouth. You will get a nub back. The same is true about God. You will blind yourself to the reality that God is bigger than that and is incomprehensible to us. His mystery lies in His majesty. So you have to ask yourself, as I have done, is my faith big enough for God? Can I become the person that He wants me to be? Am I able to become child-like in order to deepen my relationship with God? It is certainly about listening to your heart in this case. And perhaps being still enough to hear what God is telling you.

Reading the Old Testament always causes me to pause. God and Israel have a really rocky relationship. No matter what God does and how much He gives to them, Israel still does not fully trust Him. The other thing that creates problems for me is placing the story in the right context. What else is going on? What was the norm of the day? I was reading the story of Pharaoh and Moses in Exodus and as soon as I started reading about the plagues, the movie about the Ten Commandments popped into my head. How many times have I seen that movie? The images flood over you and even as you are reading the Bible, the scenes from the movie play out. I found myself saying "but where is this or that" referring to things that occurred in the movie but are not necessarily written in the Bible. Anyway, it also caused me to focus my attention on the plagues that God used to convince Pharaoh to release Israel. By digging deeper, I have come to understand that each of the plagues was designed to illustrate that God was showing his dominion over all of the "false" gods that Egypt worshiped at the time. Hapi was the god of the Nile. Without Hapi, Egypt would have died, and so he was sometimes revered even above Ra, the sun god. By turning the Nile red and rendering it useless, God is essentially cutting out all commerce and the livelihood of the Egyptians. Each of the plagues is tied to a god that relates to the action that God our Father takes to convince Pharaoh. As we know, the plague of the first-born is what finally breaks the hardness of Pharaoh's heart. This action, of course, alludes to the coming crucifixion of Jesus Christ, who is God's first born. Sometimes just reading the Bible is enough. Sometimes you really need to dig a little deeper to understand why the story is written. God is complex but our responsibilities are not. He merely wants us to trust Him in all matters.

There was an interesting article in the USA Today recently that talked about society's current obsession with fear. It seems, since September 11 or maybe because of it, we have grown increasingly more anxious about such threats as terrorism attacks, health pandemics, and environmental disasters (like the recent oil spill). The author of a new book Be Very Afraid makes the argument that "our method of coping is to make an idol out of any activity, agency or technology that will promise us security." Robert Wuthnow wrote the book and is a sociologist. Columnist Henry Brinton notes that "we worship the god of security." It has become a false idol for us because of the feeling of constant threats. Brinton says, "One of the goals of religious faith is to fashion a life that is not consumed by fear of death. This can be done by looking for eternal value in each day on earth, eternal salvation in heaven, or some combination of the two. But these approaches are difficult to sustain in our advanced liberal society." It reminds of the stories in the Old Testament that I have been reading lately as part of a Bible study group. The message in the Pentateuch is that the people of Israel failed to trust God. Over and over again, God tests his people to determine if they have learned to place their trust in their Father yet they disappoint Him numerous times. When Moses and Aaron lead Israel out of Egypt into the desert, they begin to grumble that they are thirsty. God provides Israel with water and admonishes them saying, "If you really listen to the voice of the Lord, your God, he told them, and do what is right in His eyes: if you heed His commandments and keep all His precepts, I will not afflict you with any of the diseases with which I afflicted the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer." (Exodus 15:26). God proves his reliance innumerable times but the people still doubt. We are perpetuating the same circle of doubt when we fear the world. Our faith in the Lord should overwhelm any fear we have about worldly threats. Does that mean that we should not be careful or smart? Of course not but we should not fear what we cannot control. The Lord is our protector in all matters. Can we not learn from our history? Are we going to make the same mistakes that they did? As Christians we are called to be difference makers in the world. We are called to lead all people to Jesus Christ. Are we going to let our fear conquer us? I challenge you to assume the mantel of Moses and lead God's people to his word and salvation.

Pope Benedict XVI denounced "terrorist ideologies" that spur violence in God's name as he opened a meeting Monday of bishops from around the Middle East.Pope Benedict said such ideologies were based on false gods and should be "unmasked." The pontiff made the off-the-cuff remarks at the opening working session of the meeting, or synod, which was called to address problems the minority Catholic Church faces in the largely Muslim region. In his remarks to the synod participants, Pope Benedict lamented the forces at play in the world that "enslave" men and threaten the world, citing drugs as well as "terrorist ideologies. The make violence apparently in the name of God, but it's not God: These are false divinities that must be unmasked. They are not God." Is war ever the right answer? Didn't Jesus Christ come to replace the hate and violence with peace and love? Doing something that we know is wrong and saying it is in the name of God does not make it right. Let's pray for an end to hate, violence and war in this world.

Last month, as the abortion industry celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the FDA approval of RU-486, we learned the grim news that two more women have died from complications related to the abortion drug. Since its approval in 2000, 12 women (and approximately a million babies) have died as a result of RU-486's growth in the U.S. Ella, which is almost a chemical twin of RU-486, was approved by the FDA on August 13th. According to the CDC, both women died from complications with c. sordelli, the bacteria linked to a number of RU-486 casualties from 2000-2006. Many are claiming that the FDA's approval process for RU-486 was significantly flawed. Since then, more than 1,300 women have reported adverse effects from using the drug--including 336 hospitalizations, 172 blood transfusions, and now 12 deaths. RU-486 continues to sit unopposed on pharmacy shelves, while women pay a severe price. Other drugs with less extreme effects have been pulled from the market--but the FDA seems intent on pushing a reckless abortion agenda. What's worse is the approval of ella as an "emergency contraceptive," despite the fact that it shares an almost identical chemical makeup with RU-486. Considering the similarities, there's reason to believe that the side effects will be just as dangerous. Continue to pray for an end to abortion the world over but especially in the U.S. where this radical agenda seems to be marching forward while we as Christians stand by. God will prevail and his warriors must be willing to stand against this evil.

The recent suicide of a Rutger's student who was "outed" by his roommates, pushed me to look more closely at what our Church teaches about homosexuality. The Catechism says in 2357, "Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.' They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved. The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition." The call to treat all people with respect, compassion, and sensitivity is what struck me the most. It ties back to the issue of bullying which I wrote about in the last blog. Why is our society so obsessed with everyone being the same? What is wrong with being different? The folks that are a little different are usually the most interesting people. They are usually the folks you want to hang around with at a social gathering. Our society as a whole has become so uncivil. I am not sure that it is worse than it was ten or twenty years ago but I am convinced that technology has allowed it to reach new heights. People are able to anonymously sabotage other people's lives using the Internet in venues just like this. It very much resembles the story of the Noah's time in the original testament of the Bible. God has to be so exasperated with us as a people. I pray that He inspires leadership to step forward and address this problem specifically. I am committed to doing my part. What are you going to do?