Ladies and Gentlemen take my advice...

As you can probably tell I have spent my own fair amount of time on the internet (inter tubes).  You can read and “learn” all sorts of information on the internet.  Last week I read an article that was being passed around called “15 things happy people do” or something to that nature.  It’s really not important.

One of the things this article mentioned is that happy people look at challenges that they are faced with as opportunities.  That must have been riding around in the back of my head because it led to an interesting thought in the shower this morning.  (The shower is where I do my best thinking for the record.)  

This is a combination of a few thoughts that I have been reflecting on for a while so bear with me for a moment. 

1^st Challenge:  President Obama’s HHS Mandate requiring some Catholic institutions to pay for contraceptive coverage  which would be a violation of Church teaching.

2^nd Challenge: Abortion the destruction of innocent life in the womb. 

3^rd Challenge:  Getting the “Aaron Morey” song out of your head.

Abortion has been a challenge in our society for quite a long while and the HHS mandate has been all the rage in Catholic Circles lately.  Well if anyone thinks that these issues are not connected they are fooling themselves.

Our own Supreme Court pointed out the connection in Planned Parenthood v. Casey which essentially reaffirmed Roe v. Wade.  Without getting into a full legal discussion the court essentially said, “"In some critical respects abortion is of the same character as the decision to use contraception. ... For two decades of economic and social developments, people have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail."

Blessed John Paul II even talked about that societies where the Church’s teaching on contraception are rejected, you will see more abortions.
 
So essentially where there are contraceptives there will be abortion.  

I remember learning this when I first got involved in the Pro-Life Movement and feeling really discouraged.  To me as a 19 year old fighting against abortion was one thing.  That is the killing of children.  Surely our society will one day equate that with slavery and the evil it truly is.  But fighting against contraceptives in the 21^st century?  That would be a little bit harder.  Contraceptives are so ingrained into our culture as just part of what it means to have a sexual relationship.  Even good Catholics use contraceptives because they haven’t been shown the truth.  

So I didn’t give up but I got discouraged.  But then President Obama went and did the Catholic Church a giant favor.  By mandating Catholic institutions to pay for contraceptives (something that is totally against Catholic teaching) he has allowed the conversation about the evils of contraception to take place in an educated fashion.  

This right now is THE MOMENT.  For the first time in my life we as a Church have to opportunity to reengage with the modern world about why we believe contraception is wrong. 

Our Bishops are busy fighting against the mandate on the grounds of violating religious freedom.  This is important fight and we should support them in this as well.  In the meantime I believe the rest of us in the Church (married Catholics especially) should be using this time to re-present the teaching of Humane Vitae in a way that the modern world can truly understand. I believe that the way to do this is to start advocating for greater Natural Family Planning education (NFP).  

NFP is a joke in the eyes of the world because so many people are misinformed that it is simply the rhythm method.  Also it does require some abstinence which in our society is equally foolish. 

BUT our society LOVES anything natural.  We are afraid to eat at KFC because the chicken might have been grown with weird hormones.  Okay but you are willing to inject even scarier hormones into your body just so you can have sex with no consequences whenever you want?  

I don’t want to even discuss how there is no such thing as sex with no consequences.  Childbearing aside, even movies such as No strings Attached point out that even the most casual sexual relationship will have emotional consequences.  But that isn’t why you called. 

We need to re-present the Church’s teaching on contraception and sex.  We need to show the world that we who are following the Church’s teaching are HAPPIER and HEALTHIER.  If we do this effectively I truly believe we will have a conversion of hearts.  Between the dangerous side effects of hormonal contraceptives etc and the true happiness couple can find by practicing NFP I think the odds are in our favor.  We just have to get out there and DO IT.  We can’t rely on the Bishops because they are busy.  Also they aren’t married.  So while we still respect their teaching, it is going to mean a whole lot more coming from couples who are practicing what they preach.  

We also need couples who are not the parents of 8 children out there promoting NFP.  No offense because I love big families and see the blessing and happiness that they receive.  But if you are trying to convert someone that NFP works, you are not going to convince them by showing pictures of your 18 kids at the roller rink!  

It is really easy to point out all that is wrong with the world, wrong with each other, wrong with everyone but us.  We are a society of critics.  The real challenge is finding solutions.  I think this hypothesis is an attempt at a beginning of solutions.  Well maybe by the grace of the Holy Spirit this can help lead us to some greater solutions.  

I don’t claim to be the one who is going to fix things but I am going to need help.  This is the definition of the New Evangelization.  So instead of sitting around and complaining that President Obama is going to persecute the Catholic Church let’s call his bluff. 

One idea I had this morning was for Catholic Institutions to say, “Okay we’ll pay for contraceptives, BUT before we do any of our employees who wish to receive said services will have to go through an NFP class.”  That class will include all the negative side effects of Artificial Contraception.  It will then present people with the beauty of NFP.  

Now obviously there is a lot of problems with that solution.  First it will cost money on its own.  Second it could still lead to Catholic Institutions paying for artificial contraception.  But it’s time to start thinking outside of the box.  This is our moment people.  We need to figure out how to make this challenge from our government another Pentecost moment.  Come Holy Spirit!  

Ladies and gentlemen take my advice, if you have the Aaron Morey song stuck in your head, just sit back and enjoy it.  The White House will soon mandate that you have to pay Itunes  55 cents for every song you get stuck in your head.