So, here I am and having a ball. I love Mr. O's family and am happy to be here. What I'm not happy about are the pregnancy symptoms that are popping up, the ones I foolishly thought I had avoided. Humongous flipper feet, heartburn, and nasty breakouts, oh my! To be honest, I am starting to be over being pregnant, which makes me sad - I always wanted to one of those starry-eyed women that just loves being pregnant, the earthmother type that quietly smiles to herself while rubbing her taut belly. Turns out I'm just the normal selfish, I-want-a-waist-again kind that is also fairly freaked out about caring for another human. Who nominated me for this job!?
I usually don't have to pay attention to politics, but unfortunately, Catholics keep getting dumber and that makes me angry. The latest to really get my goat was written by Joan Chittister (I know, why should I even care?) but published on a blog that is a favorite of the ever-hilarious Callah Alexander. Did you follow that? It's a quote by a woman posted on a blog that is a favorite of one of my favorite bloggers...in other words, "seriously, Martha, we need to find more important things to be angry about." Buuut don't take away my righteous indignation! Here's the quote:
"I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking. If all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed and why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is."
There are so many things that are wrong with this quote. First of all, guess what, Sister? When I say "I don't want you to kill your unborn baby," that means I'm pro-life. I am against murder. Bang! Pro-life. I don't have to volunteer to babysit your kid, feed your kid, house or educate your kid, in order to say I don't want your child to die. That's idiotic in the extreme. Just because I think murder is wrong, doesn't mean I have to do anything but pass a law and pay my prosecutor to make it so. Nice try at guilt tripping me, but I don't have to do ANYTHING ELSE to be pro-life except believe that killing people (unborn children included!) is wrong and work towards making that illegal. Period.
Secondly, I'm not pro-life because I think tax payer money shouldn't take care of children? Go back to school and get an economics degree, or read a book that isn't by someone who lives in fairy-tale land. I don't want there to be starving children. It's why I tithe to organizations that feed children; it's why I volunteer at places that feed starving children; it's why I am against the Blaine Amendment in Florida that prevents state money from supporting faith-based groups that help the poor. The federal government is horrible at managing money (please someone, try to argue otherwise - I want to know if you're as good at lying as our President is!) and they can't really afford to do this right now. Do you mean state money? Okay, lets talk about that. But I hope you're talking about states that manage their money well - like Massachusetts, where Mitt Romney turned their budget around and made good decisions for the poor, or Florida, where we have a requirement to balance the budget every year (unlike the Fed, that apparently doesn't even NEED a budget!). Because states can't just throw money away either and be expected to just be endless piggy banks.
You, Sister. You are the people who used to take care of the poor and vulnerable and childless. My job was to take care of my home and my children, and any families in my community that I could - and your job was to do it in a more radical way. That was religious life used to be. Remember that? Poverty, chastity, obedience. Those are your vows.
You don't get to define the pro-life movement, Sister. Go get your own movement. Wait! You have one. It's called being a liberal shill. Enjoy that!
I'm done now. But seriously, I hope Catholics aren't listening to this crap. We are smarter than this. If we aren't, then we need to be.
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