Tag: Christianity

St. Pelagia was born Margarita, the daughter of pagan parents. Her beauty is said to have caught the attention of the son of Emperor Diocletian, but Pelagia had no desire to marry. 

One day, Pelagia attended a Mass said by the bishop. She was so inspired by his sermon that she sought his counsel by writing to him on wax tablets. He asked her to come in person for advice. 

Through the inspiration of the bishop, Pelagia was baptized. The emperor’s son turned against her, and so did her mother. They reported her to the emperor, hoping that Pelagia would abandon her faith under torture. Diocletian interviewed her, but Pelagia refused to renounce God. 

Pelagia gave away all her possession, set her slaves free, and ran away from home to live as a hermit in the mountains. She was called “the beardless hermit,” and went by the name Pelagius. 

After a few years, Pelagia died, apparently as a result of extreme asceticism, which had emaciated her so that she could no longer be recognized.

Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 / Ps. 98:1-4 / 1 Jn. 4:7-10 / Jn. 15:9-17

God is love, and he revealed that love in sending his only Son to be a sacrificial offering for our sins.

In these words from today’s Epistle, we should hear an echo of the story of Abraham’s offering of Isaac at the dawn of salvation history. Because Abraham obeyed God’s command and did not withhold his only beloved Son, God promised that Abraham’s descendants, the children of Israel, would be the source of blessing for all nations (see Genesis 22:16-18).

We see that promise coming to fulfillment in today’s First Reading. God pours out his Spirit upon the Gentiles, the non-Israelites, as they listen to the word of Peter’s preaching. Notice they receive the same gifts received by the devout Jews who heard Peter’s preaching at Pentecost — the Spirit comes to rest upon them and they speak in tongues, glorifying God (see Acts 2:5-11).

In his love today, God reveals that his salvation embraces the house of Israel and peoples of all nations. Not by circumcision or blood relation to Abraham, but by faith in the word of Christ, sealed in the sacrament of baptism, peoples are to be made children of Abraham, heirs to God’s covenants of promise (see Galatians 3:7-9; Ephesians 2:12).

This is the wondrous work of God that we sing of in today’s Psalm. It is the work of the Church, the good fruit that Jesus chooses and appoints his apostles for in today’s Gospel.

As Peter raises up Cornelius today, the Church continues to lift all eyes to Christ, the only one in whose name they can find salvation.

In the Church, each of us has been begotten by the love of God. But the Scriptures today reveal that this divine gift brings with it a command and a duty.

We are to love one another as we have been loved. We are to lay down our lives in giving ourselves to others — that they, too, might find friendship with Christ, and new life through him.

Svyatogorsk, Donetsk Province, Ukraine, April 25, 2024

Photo: news.church.ua     

Another hierarch and abbot of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church is in the state Security Service’s crosshairs.

The abbot of the Kiev Caves Lavra, His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod, has already spent 30th anniversary of persecuted abbot of Kiev Caves LavraThe abbot marked the occasion with a Divine Liturgy in the house church where he celebrates the services while the state continues its persecution campaign against him.

“>more than a year under house arrest and in a detention center, and now the abbot of the Svyatogorsk Lavra, His Eminence Metropolitan Arseny of Svyatgorsk has also been detained.

Security Service (SBU) employees blocked and searched the monastery yesterday morning. A source told the Union of Orthodox Journalists that His Eminence was taken to Slavyansk for interrogation, to then be transported to Dnieper for court.

The SBU later issued a statement claiming Met. Arseny had somehow secretly revealed the position of Ukrainian soldiers to Russians while celebrating the Divine Liturgy, a video of which was later published online. He is also accused of “expressing pro-Kremlin narratives about the war in Ukraine even before the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.”

His Eminence faces up to 8 years in prison.

This morning, sentenced the Metropolitan to 60 days of detention without the right to post bail.

The Svyatogorsk Lavra has been housing and feeding hundreds of refugees for a decade now. Unfortunately, Bodies of refugees found under rubble at Ukraine’s much-suffering Svyatogorsk LavraTheir bodies were sent to the nearby city of Kramatorsk for a forensic medical examination.

“>the Lavra and its sketes have repeatedly come under attack during the war since February 2022, suffering considerable damage.

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Today the Church celebrates the feast of Sts. Philip and James the Less, both apostles of Jesus.

St. Philip was born in Bethsaida, in Galilee. He was a member of Jesus’ 12 apostles, and immediately after Jesus called him, Philip began to convert others, telling his friend Nathaniel that Jesus was the one whom the prophets and Moses had foretold.

St. James the Less is called “Less” because he was younger than the other apostle of the same name, St. James the Great. James the Less was related in some way to Jesus, and after Jesus’ Ascension, he became the head of the Church in Jerusalem. St. James was martyred in the year 62.

A measure to repeal Arizona’s near-total ban on abortions passed in the state’s Republican-controlled Senate May 1, after the measure narrowly cleared the Arizona House the previous week. The bill is expected to be signed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.

Arizona’s Republican-controlled House voted April 24 to repeal the state’s 1864 law banning abortion recently upheld by that state’s Supreme Court.

The Arizona Supreme Court ruled April 9 that the Civil War-era near-total abortion ban is enforceable following the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and related abortion precedents with the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, in the absence of a legal mechanism blocking its enforcement. Not only is that law enforceable, that court found, but it rendered moot the state’s 15-week abortion ban that went into effect after Dobbs.

But the GOP-led Legislature in Arizona ultimately moved to repeal the Civil War-era ban after pushback, including from former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Following the state Senate’s vote, SBA Pro-Life America recirculated a statement issued by its president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, following the state House’s vote: “We mourn for the loss of the children who would have been protected, and the mothers who would have received life-affirming help to address their holistic needs, under Arizona’s strongest pro-life law.”

Victoria López, director of program and strategy for the ACLU of Arizona, said in a May 1 statement, “We are relieved that lawmakers have finally repealed this inhumane abortion ban — something extremist politicians refused to do for far too long.

“Unfortunately, cruel abortion bans like the law from 1864 have been at the center of political stunts for years, causing lasting harm to people who need abortions and their providers,” López said. “Without further court intervention, Arizonans may still lose access to abortion care for months despite this eleventh-hour repeal. Politicians should never have this much power over our bodies and healthcare decisions. Voters need and deserve to take their power back with the Arizona Abortion Access Act this November.”

Republicans controlling the Arizona Legislature previously blocked repeal efforts after the state Supreme Court’s ruling. But Trump said during a campaign stop that the Arizona abortion ban “needs to be straightened out.”

“I’m sure that the governor and everybody else will bring it back into reason and that will be taken care of,” he said.

Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake — who described abortion as “execution” during her failed 2022 gubernatorial run — likewise took Trump’s position and expressed her opposition to the ban.

Of those two Arizona abortion laws, the 1864 law would have prohibited most abortions in the state. According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 2020, 93.1% of abortions were performed at less than 13 weeks gestation, meaning Arizona’s remaining 15-week ban would have a very limited impact on the occurrence of legal abortion.

However, Arizona may have the issue of abortion on its ballot in November, which could undo abortion restrictions in the state, something Dannenfelser pointed to in her statement.

“After months of confusion, the people of Arizona will soon have clarity on the state’s abortion laws: a 15-week protection for the unborn who can feel excruciating pain, with exceptions for life of the mother, rape, and incest,” Dannenfelser said, in contrast to abortion activists who she said had a goal “to repeal Arizona’s 15-week abortion law and replace it with a constitutional amendment that would allow unlimited painful late-term abortions in the fifth, sixth, seventh month of pregnancy and beyond.”

Dannenfelser said Lake “and all GOP candidates and elected officials must bring clarity to Arizona voters by campaigning vigorously in support of Arizona’s 15-week protection with exceptions and in opposition to the extreme no-limits abortion amendment.”

In a joint statement regarding the April 9 court ruling, the bishops of the Arizona Catholic Conference voiced their opposition to the upcoming ballot measure.

“This initiative, among other things, would likely remove most safeguards for girls and women that are currently in place at abortion clinics, permit a minor to obtain an abortion without parental involvement or permission, and allow for painful late-term abortions of viable preborn children,” the bishops stated. “We do not believe that this extreme initiative is what Arizona wants or needs, and we continue to pray that it does not succeed.”

In an incident that highlights the grim reality of South Africa’s deteriorating security crises, another priest has fallen victim to violence.

Father Paul Tatu Mothobi, former Media and Communications Officer of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), was found dead on April 27.

According to Father Jeremia Thami Mkhwanazi – the Provincial Secretary of the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata (CSS/ Stigmatines) to which Mothobi belonged – his body was found in his car with bullet wounds along the road that runs from Cape Town through Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Polokwane to Beit Bridge, a border town with Zimbabwe.

The priest, who comes from Lesotho’s Catholic Archdiocese of Maseru, was studying for his Doctorate in Communication at the University of Johannesburg when he met his death.

“I worked closely with Father Tatu when he served the Church as the communication officer for SACBC,” said Father Stan Muyebe, Director at the Justice and Peace Commission for Catholic Bishops Conference of Southern Africa.

“The two agencies, the communication office and SACBC Justice and Peace Commission, worked closely together. I remember him as a jovial and humble person, deeply committed to Christ and the mission of the Church, interested in continued learning and studies, and always seeking ways through which multimedia can be brought to the service of evangelization in Southern Africa,” he told Crux.

Johan Viljoen, the Director of the Denis Hurley Peace Institute (DHPI) of the Southern Africa Bishops’ Conference, said he was “deeply shocked by the killing of Father Paul.”

“I worked with him for three years while he was SACBC communication officer and I was DHPI director. He was a gentle, kind soul with a strong love for humanity. I am still trying to process this news,” he said.

“Nobody is safe in South Africa and the government is doing nothing to improve the situation. They have lost touch with the people they claim to represent, thinking only of how to enrich themselves. The police are not the solution. They are part of the problem. Ask any foreigner – they will tell you how they are assaulted and robbed by police almost daily,” Viljoen told Crux.

Catholic Bishops of Southern Africa have in a collective statement issued April 29 expressed shock at the killing of the priest and offered condolences to his family.

“Father Tatu worked for several years as the SACBC media and communications officer with dedication; we are saddened by his tragic death. We extend our condolences to the Stigmatine congregation, to which he belonged and his family,” the bishops said in their April 29 statement signed by the President of the Bishops’ Conference of Southern Africa, Bishop Sithembele Sipuka.

The SACBC bishops come from South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland. They said that Tatu’s killing was not an isolated incident, but rather “a distressing example of the deteriorating state of security and morality in South Africa.”

On March 13, a priest of from Zambia, Father William Banda of the St. Patrick’s Society for Foreign Missions (Kiltegan Fathers), was shot dead as he prepared to celebrate Holy Mass at Tzaneen Cathedral.

A well-dressed man reportedly walked into the sacristy and shot the priest at the back of his head.

A day earlier, three Egyptian Coptic monks – Father Takla Moussa, Father Minah ava Marcus and Father Youstos ava Marcus – were “brutally murdered” inside a monastery in South Africa, according to a statement by the South African Archdiocese of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

“The murder of these priests occurs amid growing concerns about the increasing disregard for the value of life, where people are wantonly killed.” the SACBC bishops said in their April 29 statement.

Mothobi was born in 1979 in Teyateyaneng, a town in Lesotho’s district of Berea. He joined the Stigmatines in 1998 and pursued his studies at St. Francis House of Studies in Pretoria from 1999 to 2000. Later, he moved to Botswana for his novitiate.

Ordained priest in 2008, the Stigmatines commissioned him to Tanzania as a missionary. While in the East African nation, he pursued media and communication studies at Mwanza-based St. Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT).

“On behalf of the Bishops, I appeal to all people responsible for these murders to refrain from thinking that they can do what they like with people’s lives. Life belongs to God, and no one has a right to take it as one pleases,” Sipuka said in the April 29 statement.

The SACBC bishops decried the silence of the South African authorities, and noted that there was “a growing impression among South Africans that criminals are freely murdering the citizens with no fear of consequences.”

“A deliberate termination of the life of one person affects not only the person killed but a whole network of relationships of that person,” the statement said.

They called on regional governments to put in place “immediate and effective measures to ensure the security of law-abiding citizens who work hard to support their families and for our Catholic priests who spend their lives serving the people of this country.”

Noting that the murder of citizens had become “a pandemic”, the bishops pledged that the Church was ready to collaborate with the state in stemming the tide of murders in South Africa.

    

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

On Holy and Great ThursdayOn this day, Holy and Great Thursday, according to the order which our Holy Fathers inherited from the Holy Apostles, and the Holy Gospels, we celebrate four events: the Holy Washing of the Disciples’ feet, the Mystical Supper (the institution of the Holy Mystery of the Eucharist, which we celebrate to this day), the Lord’s Agony in the Garden, and His Betrayal.

“>Holy Thursday, we remember the Holy and Great Thursday. The Last Supper and the Prayer about the CupBrothers and sisters, let us penetrate into the mysteries of love revealed by Christ at this Supper.”>Last Supper and partake of the Body and Blood of Christ, becoming partakers of the Divine nature by grace. For us, the Eucharist, the Liturgy, is the central event in the history of the Church. Thus the Church grew, people gathered, offered up prayers and partook of the Body and Blood of Christ, fulfilling the commandment and the testament that the Savior gave us when He said: Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you (Jn. 6:53). For us, the Body and Blood of the Son of Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, are the Source of life, without which the life of every Christian is incomplete.

On Holy Thursday, many people who have not received Communion for a long time go to church, and many come who have never taken Communion in their lives. And it is gratifying that at least on this day the Lord inspires these Christians to participate in the saving sacrament. People often complain about hardships in their lives, and whole nations complain about adversities that befall them. They say: “We’re not bad people, but why is it like this? Why are we always beset with misfortunes?” And during a conversation with such people, it suddenly turns out that they take Holy Communion lightly and carelessly. They are able participate in this sacrament, but they don’t do it. And the temptations that occur to these people are actually the Lord’s visitations. He does His best to make them return to Him, sober up, and begin to approach the Holy Chalice with His Body and Blood more often and with purity of heart and soul. We must always remember this.

When something happens to us, whether joy or sorrow, the first thing we should do is thank the Lord in order to be united with Him and become partakers. What happens at the moment when we take Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ? We become partakers of the Divine nature by grace and unite with Him. Christ wanted us always to be with Him so that we would not move away from the Godhead. And when this takes place, our whole lives are filled with the will and grace of God. Even our everyday life with its day-to-day routine and activities changes.

Someone who deprives himself of the On Holy Communion
Of The Body And Blood Of The SaviorWe should remember that in accepting into ourselves God’s Body and Blood, we assume great responsibility for our personal future.

“>Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ can be compared to someone who is at hospital. He lost a lot of blood (for example, he had an injury, an operation, or an accident), and he may die from blood loss. Then the doctors resort to blood or plasma transfusion to help him, putting him on a drip. But if for some reason the patient rips out his drip or if the tube is blocked, he will most likely die. Likewise, the soul of any human being individually, or of a whole Church, or of a whole nation, dies because it does not unite with our Lord the Savior, with the Creator, in the sacrament of Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ.

That is why we are eyewitnesses of the death and extinction of whole Christian nations. There is a “cause-and-effect relationship” here: churches are no longer needed… How many of them we are unable to restore and fill! Why is this happening? Because people don’t understand. And if you look at statistics and sociology, you will find that we are dying out, and other Christian nations are dying out as well. And how many people do not understand the meaning of Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ at all, even among those who were Baptized, who call themselves Christians and will greet each other on Pascha! There are a huge number of people who do not have the slightest idea what it is or why it is important. Hence such a spiritual and moral decline; and as a result, physical degeneration. There is no longer such power, such strength as before, because there is no grace, because the people of God disregard the words of their Savior, the words of Christ. Of course, it is very sad, but the most important thing for us is to start with ourselves.

    

Unfortunately, very many people who have been in the Church for a long time, who came to Christ at a young age, do not take Communion for three or four years running. Of course, it should not be like this—otherwise we simply become ungrateful to God. What is Communion? What is the Eucharist? The Greek word “eucharistia” means “thanksgiving”. The highest form of gratitude to God is the participation in the sacrament of Communion of the Body and blood of Christ. And this is a life worthy of this sacrament. This is a life worthy of Christ’s suffering, worthy of His Resurrection, and worthy of His sacrifice for us.

People who refuse to take Communion are simply ungrateful. Therefore, today, on Holy and Great Thursday, we Christians should keep in mind that we must be grateful to God, that the Lord did not become man, come into the world, and suffer so that we would disregard the words of our Savior.

Of Thy Mystical Supper, O Son of God, receive me today as a communicant; for I will not speak of the Mystery to Thine enemies; nor will I give Thee a kiss, as did Judas, but like the thief do I confess Thee: Remember me, O Lord, in Thy kingdom.

Amen.

I love camels. I love scarab beetles. I love thrilling heroics and stunning vistas. I love when sand and khaki match. I love the insides of tombs. I love art deco hotel bars in Cairo. I love when there are sword fights and gunfights in the same film. I love Kevin J. O’Connor. I love men with pasts and women with gumption. I love evil books. I love seeing white people in places the sun doesn’t want them.

I love the movies. I love “The Mummy.”  

I could go like this all day, and probably would if I didn’t sense my editor expected an argument by now. I’m referring, of course, to the 1999 film starring Brendan Fraser, not the 1932 Boris Karloff feature nor the 2017 war crime starring Tom Cruise. (I saw the latter while on a flight to London and still attempted to walk out halfway through.)

It seems I’m not alone in my affection, as the studio has put “The Mummy” back into theaters this week (and in some places, the next) for its 25th anniversary. But I have seen evidence of its cultural staying power before. I once bought, for more money than I care to admit, a bumper sticker that says, “Honk if you’d rather be watching the 1999 cinematic masterpiece ‘The Mummy’ starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.” This was a mistake, for now every car ride involves a flock of honks. I mistake the pleasant ones for being mad at me, and assume I’ve made a chorus of new friends when I’ve really just crossed the double yellow.  

The titular Mummy is the high priest Imhotep, cursed and buried alive for his love affair with the pharaoh’s mistress. His vow of vengeance gets an opportunity 3,000 years later in 1926. Archaeologist siblings Evie (Rachel Weisz) and Johnathan Carnahan (John Hannah) hire former French Foreign Legion member Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) to guide them to Hamunaptra, the lost city of the dead, hoping for a discovery that will put both it and them on the map. They race to beat rival American treasure hunters, but of course both parties find much more than they bargained for.

None of this is very novel; the cruel could call it derivative and the honest can only shrug. Yet “The Mummy’s” greatness is despite, or more accurately because of, that familiarity. Literary icon Umberto Eco once praised “Casablanca” on similar terms: “Two clichés are laughable. A hundred clichés are affecting, because we become obscurely aware that the clichés are all talking to each other and having a get-together.”

“Indiana Jones” was created in homage to the adventure serials of the past, but was too accomplished to do anything but stand apart. In contrast, “The Mummy” doesn’t rise above its genre and in doing so proves the better summation. It doesn’t want to do anything but play in the sandbox filled over the generations, and has no wounded pride in being built from repurposed marble pillaged from the aqueduct. This lack of vanity is what sculpts it into a platonic ideal. In other words, if you’re going to tomb raid, tomb raid from the best.

What does separate it from the pack, and spins the engine of its staying power, is its lead performances. I once attended a screening of “The Mummy” at local repertory theater New Beverly Cinema, which played to a packed, rabid, and decidedly millennial house. When Fraser and Weisz’s names appeared during the end credits, the audience rose for an unchoreographed standing ovation. It felt like a nonreligious version of Pentecost.

This is Fraser’s most iconic character, or at least his most beloved. He certainly doesn’t win his Oscar for “The Whale” 25 years later without the goodwill this performance built up. Like many actors, it took his fanbase growing up and inheriting the levers of power for him to finally receive the official recognition he deserved. Some would call it democracy manifest.

The role is the perfect marriage of his talents, allowing him to smolder and stumble in equal measure. Fraser’s greatest skill as an actor is his physicality, the way he inhabits a frame rather than just existing within. Sartre argued that existence precedes essence, but Fraser proves here that they arrived at the party at the exact same time.

His fleshiness is the character, something grounded and carnal and real to contrast his supernatural foes. When the movie turns into a CGI extravaganza in the second half, he is our tactile tether to reality. As CGI has since seized control of the first half of movies as well, we miss such presence dearly. I wouldn’t trust Timothée Chalamet to lift a box, let alone ride a sandworm. Fraser could ride a sandworm.  

Weisz also has great physicality, but in ways I’m not going to elaborate on here. Her Evie is the perfect counterpart, the brains to his brawn and the dreamer to his cynic. But what I love most is how she complements him almost accidentally: she is made for Rick, though not written for him. She is her own woman with her own talents and flaws, her frustrated academic career held back by a combination of sexism and self-inflicted snafus. She and Rick circle each other as equals, more in failure than anything else.

Her finest moment comes in a drunken speech around the campfire where she declares with dogged pride that she is a librarian. She is not diminished in her diminished circumstances, proud of the work regardless of recognition. You sense she would feel the same self-esteem in whatever job she held, by the residual virtue of it snagging her. Rick falls in love with her in that moment, and we follow suit.

As the two most attractive people in the movie, they are bound by the laws of physics and the laws of cinema to come together eventually. But a quarter century on, audiences still stand to clap at them because they manage to make the inevitable feel unanticipated. That is the essence of true love, to look back in delight and see you never had a choice.

Some of us love grave robbers, others love librarians. I love “The Mummy.” 

TikTok recently deleted several videos outlining the harms of hormonal contraceptives, claiming that they portray “inaccurate, misleading, or false content that may cause significant harm to individuals or society.” The “false content” they censored pointed out that hormonal contraceptives can lead to weight gain, depression, anxiety, and infertility, as well as induce abortion.

A recent Washington Post article also dismissed these claims, arguing that advocates against hormonal birth control are either misled or are participating in a conservative ploy to control women’s rights.

TikTok’s move and The Washington Post’s defense indicate a growing nervousness among advocates of the pill. In recent months, there have been indicators that a new generation of women is rejecting the pill, not primarily on moral grounds, but on grounds of health. Even left-leaning feminist scholars have started to ask questions about how the pill has changed our views of what it means to be female, the value of motherhood, and what kinds of health outcomes we are willing to sacrifice for consequence-free sex.

In the battle for “reproductive freedom” and the “right” to kill our children, many are willing to turn a blind eye to the documented harms of hormonal contraceptives. But they are real, and a new generation is taking notice.

The first birth control pills were pushed by Margaret Sanger in an effort to eliminate people who were poor, had mental illnesses or were living with disabilities. The first contraceptives were tested on women in Puerto Rico whose poverty and lack of education made them “unfit.” Their complaints about the side effects — including nausea, depression, and blood clots — were dismissed as unreliable. Three women died during the trials; no autopsies were performed.

The harmful side effects of hormonal contraceptives have only increased over time. In the past few years, there have been several stories of women who developed and died from blood clots linked to their use. Among the deceased are a 16-year-old girl who was taking pills to alleviate painful periods, a 17-year-old ballerina, a 20-year-old college student, and a 24-year-old makeup artist.

A recent review conducted by researchers with the Catholic Medical Association found that “…using HC increases a woman’s risk of being diagnosed with VTE (venous thromboembolism) by three to nine times. For women under 30, the risk is increased 13-fold during the first year of use, when the risk for clot formation is highest.” The study also found that “…the risk of fatal VTE was increased in women aged fifteen to twenty-four by 18.8-fold.” The review concluded with the following: approximately 300-400 healthy young women die in the United States every year from hormonal contraceptives.

Another study conducted on women between 15-33 found that hormonal contraceptives were “positively associated with a first suicide attempt, as compared with never-users,” and the highest relative risks were experienced by adolescents. This increased risk may be due to the link between hormonal contraceptives and depression, as well as other issues, such as anxiety, related to abnormal fluctuation in users.

In natural menstrual cycles, the fluctuations of estrogen and progesterone help to maintain healthy emotional regulation. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is responsible for decision-making, emotional regulation, and memory, works together with the parts of the brain that process fear. Synthetic hormones alter that process.

The thickness of the vmPFC tissue correlates with one’s ability to handle generalized fear, mental and emotional resilience, and the ability to stay calm. In one study, women using hormonal contraceptives were found to have thinner vmPFCs, increasing their susceptibility to chronic anxiety and greater overall fearfulness.

If blood clot and suicide risks weren’t alarming enough, hormonal contraceptives are also linked to infertility. Studies have shown that taking oral contraceptives for more than two years before pregnancy can increase the risk of miscarriage, especially for women who are 30-34 years old. This might be due to the fact that oral contraceptives cause endometrial atrophy, or the thinning of the lining of the uterus, when taken for long periods of time. Research indicates that this atrophy can “modify some local factors in the endometrium and increase the risk of miscarriage.”

In addition, long-term use can result in decreased cervical fluid, which is necessary for conception. Hormonal contraceptives can actually prematurely age the cervix by decreasing the cervical crypts and prematurely age the ovaries, leading to a decrease in ovarian reserve.

Finally, while The Washington Post claimed that hormonal contraception does not cause abortions (their argument being that the term “abortion” applies only to embryos that have implanted), contraceptive pills can stop embryos from implanting in the uterus in the first place. One can make a clinical distinction between these two scenarios, but if the science of embryonic life tells us that it begins at fertilization, the end results are the same.

Even a cursory glance at the facts vindicates those advocating against hormonal birth control. They are neither misguided nor fearful, and they should definitely not be censored.

For thousands of years, doctors and physicians have taken an oath to “do no harm.” It’s high time for us to do away with hormonal contraceptives so that we can have a more serious and robust discussion about how to regulate birth in a way that’s best for women.

For 15 years, I taught a course entitled “The Theology of God.” The students in that course were predominantly seminarians preparing for ministry, along with a number of lay students who were preparing to serve as ministers in various capacities in their churches.

I would always teach what the curriculum called for: the key biblical revelations about the nature of God and God’s actions in history, some salient perspectives from the patristics on God’s nature and actions, the historical development of the dogmatic definitions about God, plus some speculative notions on the Trinity, ranging from St. Augustine to Karl Rahner to Catherine Lacugna. But my overriding emphasis, like a leitmotif, was always this. I would tell the students: Whatever else you do in your pastoral practice and preaching, try not to make God look stupid!

Nothing is as important in our teaching, preaching, and pastoral activities as is the notion we convey of the God who underwrites it all. Every homily we preach, every catechetical or sacramental teaching we give, and every pastoral practice we engage in reflects the God who undergirds it. If our teaching is narrow and petty, we make God look narrow and petty. If our pastoral practice lacks understanding and compassion, we make God lack understanding and compassion. If we are legalistic, we make God legalistic. If we are tribal, nationalistic, or racist, we make God tribal, nationalistic, and racist. If we do things that befuddle common sense, we make God the enemy of common sense. Crassly stated, when we do stupid things in our ministry, we make God look stupid. 

In all of our preaching, teaching, and pastoral practice we need to work at rescuing God from arbitrariness, narrowness, legalism, rigidity, racism, tribalism, nationalism, and everything that’s narrow, legalistic, and petty that, through us, gets associated with God. Anything we do in the name of God reflects God.

It’s no accident that atheism, anti-clericalism, and most of the negativity leveled against the Church and religion today can always point to some bad theology or Church practice on which to base itself. Atheism is always a parasite, feeding off bad religion. So too is most of the negativity toward the churches which is prevalent today. Anti-church attitudes feed on bad religion and thus we who preach, teach, and minister in the name of God need to scrutinize ourselves in the light of those criticisms.

As well, we need the honesty to admit that we have seriously hurt many persons by the rigidity of some of our pastoral practices that do not reflect a God of understanding, compassion, and intelligence, but instead suggest that God is arbitrary, legalistic, and not very intelligent.

I say this in sympathy. It’s not easy to reflect God adequately, but we must try, try to reflect better the God that Jesus incarnated. What are the marks of that God?

First, that God has no favorites. No one person, race, gender, or nation is more favored than others by that God. All are privileged. That God is also clear that it’s not only those who profess God and religion explicitly who are persons of faith, but also those, irrespective of their explicit faith or church practice, who do the will of God on earth.

Next, that God is scandalously understanding and compassionate, especially toward the weak and toward sinners. That God is willing to sit down with sinners without first asking them to clean up their lives. Moreover, that God asks us to be compassionate in the same way to both sinners and saints and to love them both equally. That God does not have preferential love for the virtuous.

In addition, that God is critical of those who, whatever their sincerity, try to block access to him. That God is never defensive, but surrenders himself to death rather than defend himself, never meets hatred with hatred, and dies loving and forgiving those who are killing him.

Finally, and centrally, that God is first of all good news for the poor. Any preaching in God’s name that isn’t good news for the poor is not the gospel.

Those are the attributes of the God who Jesus incarnated, and we need to keep that God in mind in all of our preaching, teaching, and pastoral practices, even as we are sensitive to proper boundaries and the demands of orthodox teaching.  

Complex pastoral questions will always be with us and this is not suggesting that these issues be resolved simplistically. The truth sets us free, and the demands of discipleship are, by Jesus’ own admission, harsh. However, with that being admitted, the compassion, mercy, and intelligence of God need always still to be reflected in every pastoral action we do. Otherwise, God looks arbitrary, tribal, cruel, and antithetical to love.

Christianity, as Marilynne Robinson says, is too great a narrative to be underwritten by any lesser tale and that should forbid especially its being subordinated to narrowness, legalism, lack of compassion, and lack of common sense.