Prior to President Obama’s statements regarding the controversial Ground Zero mosque, Pew Forum conducted a survey asking Americans what the President’s religion is. “Do you happen to know what Barack Obama’s religion is? Is he Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, or something else?” the question read.

Thirty four percent answered Christian, a number that is down fourteen percent from March 2009. Eighteen percent answered the president is Muslim, a number up 7 percent from March 2009. And a startling forty three percent answered that they do not know the president’s religion, up nine percent from March 2009.

Pew offers interesting analysis of these numbers, that is worth your time.

But what I find more interesting, as do many other media and political pundits, is the fact there is so much confusion about the President’s faith.

“I haven’t seen any example, and I’ve been following polling of presidents for a long time now, of where we’ve seen increased confusion about religiosity the longer they’re in office,” says John Green. University of Akron politics professor and Senior Fellow with the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life

Precisely. We’ve had more than two years, including campaign time, to get to know the President. We should know his religious affiliation by now.

And it matters to Americans, whose religious beliefs sway their political decisions.  It goes without saying that religious beliefs and practice have an influence on a person’s actions. The President has expressed Christian belief, and sporadically has attended Christian church services. But the confusion among citizens indicates that perhaps the President has not been consistent enough in expressing his beliefs, whatever they may be.

My question is, why?

I could watch this all day.

Well, someone did even better. They asked Speaker Pelosi when she thought the Word became Flesh.

Thomas Peters at CatholicVoteAction has the story.

God Bless the young reporters at CNS News. They are getting into a good habit of asking intensely awkward, revealing questions to public officials. Jill Stanek blogs todayabout Jane McGrath, who posed this question to Nancy Pelosi on July 29th:

You said at a recent Catholic Community Conference [video] that your favorite word was ‘The Word, as in the word made flesh,’ and that we need to quote, ‘give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the Word.’

So, when was the Word made flesh? Was it at the Annunciation, when Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Sprit, as the Creed says, or was it at the Nativity when he was born of the Virgin Mary? And when did the Word get the right to life?”

Head to CatholicVoteAction for the audio response.

There has been no greater pro-life voice than the Catholic Church.

From Pope Paul VI’s Humanae Vitae to John Paul the Great’s Theology of the Body and Evangelium Vitae, to all the grassroot initiatives and organizations rooted in Catholic teaching and tradition, to the countless bishops, priests, and lay men and women who have spoken for the pro-life movement, collectively Catholics can be proud of their Church for the advocacy we’ve taken part in.

But the Catholic Church does not give up in this advocacy and is constantly assessing the culture and engaging themselves in it. Which is why I want to bring attention to this announcement.

The new president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, announced that his dicastery is preparing a document on the effects of abortion on women, often called post-abortion syndrome. The document will focus on the study of the “habit of abortion” and is expected to be published next year.

Everyday, in America alone, 4,000 lives are lost to a legal procedure. And everyday, 4,000 women in America, whether they realize it or not, are profoundly emotionally, spiritually, and physically wounded by this legal procedure. Help is being offered to these women by great organizations such as SilentNoMore, Rachel’s Vineyard, and Project Rachel, but more must be done. Not just for America, but for the world.

“It is true that abortion, in addition to killing an innocent person, profoundly affects the conscience of the woman who undergoes it.  It is a question, then, that cannot be ignored, especially from a pastoral point of view,” [The archbishop] added.

Given that the Church is concerned with the protection of the body and soul of a person, but particularly the soul, the effect abortion has on the soul is of great importance to the Church. So they’ll be using this document to explore another issue involved in abortion, one they say the scientific community as well as the greater public do not give much attention to.

“and that is the grave phenomenon of the habit of abortion.”

The problem, he said, “was made manifest in all of its gravity when 20 years ago, after the devastating earthquake in Armenia (1989), a team of doctors from the Sacred Heart Catholic University traveled to the region to provide medical assistance and discovered that many women had undergone as many as 20 abortions or more.  For them, having an abortion had become something like having a cup of coffee. Thus they talked about the dramatic phenomenon of completely erasing any moral sensitivity to the issue of abortion.”

Sounds hard to believe, doesn’t it?

But take a look around the culture. Look at how desensitized we are to sex and pornography in the culture.

Which is why we must be more vigilant than ever, defending life and helping woman. This document may not come out until next year, but women, children, and men need us today, which is probably why the announcement of the coming of this document. Let us pray for this document, and in anticipation for it act on it’s call for mercy and healing.

The controversial “Arizona Immigration Law” has forced the issue with legislators and the media. The Catholic bishops, who have called for immigration reform for years, are among the voices discussing it, too.

Cardinal George lays out some foundational comments:

In the current debate about reforming the immigration laws, the U.S. bishops have made it clear that they are not in favor of illegal immigration. No one has a “right” to come into someone else’s country illegally. We are faced, however, with a situation caused by our own government’s not effectively protecting our country’s borders over many years.

Illegal immigrants come for many different reasons–work, safety, and security, or to reunite with family. But whatever the reason, Cardinal George emphasizes that illegal immigration is dangerous for both the immigrant and the country they’re entering. However, he rightly holds U.S. government accountable for putting off the immigration reform for as long as they have. The Arizona Immigration Law in many ways is politically a pressure pointer for the government to act. Hopefully, they will.

There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in our borders (maybe even more). Mass deportation is insensitive and impractical. So the bishops’ call for a respect for the human person in this reform, and with that a respect for families.

“As bishops in [Arizona and New Mexico dioceses], we know that in practically every parish there are families that have been living with the fear and anxiety generated by SB 1070 that they might be torn apart,” the prelates stated. “The situation of these families might be that one parent is a citizen and that the other is not in our country legally. Or, the situation might be that some children in the family are citizens and that a brother or sister is not here legally.

“Our hearts go out to these families. We know them to be good people who work hard and who contribute to the economy and to the quality of life of their communities.”

Signatories of the letter, Bishop Olmsted and Auxiliary Bishop Neveres both of Phoenix,  Bishop Wall of Wallup, New Mexico, and Bishop Kincanas of Tucson, along with Cardinal George, all call for a process for those who are here illegally to go through to apply for legal status-emphasizing this is not amnesty.

“This process must have proportionate consequences for the act of illegal entry, consequences that would include fines, learning English, and going to the ‘back of the line’ to seek citizenship.

A helpful common ground approach to a very difficult issue. We’re a nation of immigrants, and immigrants today contribute immensely to our nation and culture. So let’s hope our legislatures get this important reform right.

Forever 21's Love 21 Maternity line

Popular teen fashion store Forever 21 launched a new line this month. A maternity line.

In a society where fashion and trends define cool, a marketing move like this is suspicious. Which is why Gloss Fashion blog dug a little deeper. What they discovered is that three of the five states featuring this line are among the fifteen states with the highest pregnancies rates. Curious, for sure.

Forever 21 denies that teen pregnancy rates have anything to do with the states they’re launching their maternity line in. They also deny that that the line is targeting teens. But when your biggest market is teens, that claim is a bit unbelievable.

Whether they meant to or not (and if we’re being honest they at least thought of the backlash), Forever 21’s maternity line  appears to be an attempt to normalize teen sex and pregnancy. Definitely not a trend we want followed.

The landlord of the Rockford abortion mill attempted to silence pro-life activism with the sound of a chainsaw. Yes, you read that right, a chainsaw. Stephenson County Right to Life has the story.

The Rockford abortion mill, that has for weeks been blaring a radio in an attempt to silence pro-lifers who offer help to mothers in need as they cross the parking-lot of the Northern Illinois Women’s Center, received a very big surprise Friday morning.

A little after 7:00am WNTA, the radio station the clinic plays over its amplified public address sound system , that can be heard blocks away, opened up its phone lines to callers.  The first caller they took, live on the air, was a pro-lifer who was standing at the driveway of the Rockford abortion mill that is nationally known for its signs mocking God and celebrating the number of children they have killed.

The local pro-life activist was able to clearly explain, on-air, to D.J. Doug McDuff that the Rockford abortion mill is using WNTA in an attempt to silence offers of help to mothers in need at the abortion mill.

As the caller was talking, a worker at the abortion mill was walking from her car inside. She was stunned by the shouts of DJ Doug McGruff, who took the opportunity to support the pro-lifers, “God bless, pro-lifers!” he chanted.

Appearing completely shocked, the abortion mill nurse who heard this began waving her arms around her head like she couldn’t believe what was being broadcast over the abortion mill public address system.  The look of almost terror and confusion on her face was priceless as she scrambled into the mill.

The caller was then able to explain how their work listens to women, offers real compassionate help, and saves lives. All of this happened before the landlord came outside to stop the radio broadcast. But instead of turning the station, or turning the radio down,

He stood by his loud speakers all morning with a chainsaw running just in case another pro-lifer spoke about the love and help that is offered to any mother in need.

As if most women aren’t already scared enough walking into an abortion clinic, can you imagine walking in while hearing the sound of a chainsaw in the background? Stephenson County Right to Life reports that one woman left the clinic that day with her baby alive and well. Victory for life! And perhaps the most bizarre defense I’ve ever heard from the pro-abortion side.

You can see the video of the landlord with the chainsaw here:

HT: CreativeMinorityReport

Thrown out ballot from 2008 Minnesota Senate recount. Judge's ruling "We don't know that there isn't a person named Lizard People." The ballot for Franken was considered an overvote.

There were moments of laughter for Minnesotans during the painfully long recount of the 2008 Senatorial election, such as the one illustrated on the left–the infamous vote for ‘Lizard People.’

But since taking office, former funny man, Senator Al Franken hasn’t cracked many jokes .  A new discovery of the 2008 Minnesota election has turned a few heads though and the latest storyline is not so funny.

The six-month election recount that turned former “Saturday Night Live” comedian Al Franken into a U.S. senator may have been decided by convicted felons who voted illegally in Minnesota’s Twin Cities.

Minnesota Majority, a conservative watch group conducted the study, revealing that 341 convicted felons voted illegally in the 2008 election. Senator Franken won the vote by 312 votes.

“We aren’t trying to change the result of the last election. That legally can’t be done,” said Dan McGrath, Minnesota Majority’s executive director. “We are just trying to make sure the integrity of the next election isn’t compromised.”

And so their report details the several attempts they’ve made to meet with election officials and the attorney general. Their communication with election officials as been vaguely responded to or ignored, which raises Minnesota Majority’s concern that voting laws will not be re-examined and enforced. But the county attorney assured FoxNews reporter, Ed Barnes, that they were taking the charges exposed by the report ’seriously’, commending Minnesota Majority for their good review.

Currently, Ramsey County is investigating names on the list, verifying they weren’t let off on early probation and thus allowed to vote. Let’s hope they get this number right. Political charades like this are getting old and not so funny!

Peggy Noonan takes a  moment in the Wall Street Journal to reflect on history, and a little known piece of history in the beloved Declaration of Independence.

The tenderest words in American political history were cut from the document they were to have graced.

It was July 1, 2 ,3 and 4, 1776, in the State House in Philadelphia. America was being born. The Continental Congress was reviewing and editing the language of the proposed Declaration of Independence and Thomas Jefferson, its primary author, was suffering the death of a thousand cuts.

The beginning of the Declaration had a calm stateliness that signaled, subtly, that something huge is happening:

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separate.”

Such a modest tone for a not so modest revolution, says Noonan.

We began with respect. America always gets in trouble when we forget that.

Catches your breath a little. Respect, something that is lacking so much in the political arena and it’s in many ways getting us in trouble. Which is why the next paragraph of the Declaration of Independence is so compelling and etched in the mind of so many Americans.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

We weren’t living this perfectly when these words were penned. We’re still working through them. But they are there, for all of us to remember. We can point to them when government does not run as it should, reminding them what we’re founded on. We can similarly point to them when good decisions are made in government, praising leaders for upholding the intent of the founders.

But there was one intent of the founders that did not make it into the Declaration that Thomas Jefferson always regretted. And according to Peggy Noonan, America should regret too.

Jefferson had, in his bill of particulars against the king, taken a moment to incriminate the English people themselves—”our British brethren”—for allowing their king and Parliament to send over to America not only “soldiers of our own blood” but “foreign Mercenaries to invade and destroy us.” This, he said, was at the heart of the tragedy of separation. “These facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us renounce forever” our old friends and brothers. “We must endeavor to forget our former love for them.”

Well. Talk of love was a little much for the delegates. Love was not on their mind. The entire section was removed.

And so were the words that came next. But they should not have been, for they are the tenderest words.

Poignantly, with a plaintive sound, Jefferson addresses and gives voice to the human pain of parting: “We might have been a free and great people together.”

“To write is to think and to write well is to think well,” Thomas McCullough once said. In this section, Jefferson was recalling the old friendships and relationships that were being cut by this ‘modest’ revolution.

Seventeen seventy-six was the beginning of a dream. But it was the end of one too. “We might have been a free and great people together.”

But tensions and irreconcilable differences prevented that dream from becoming a reality. The American Revolution was bloody, it was brutal and grueling. But the toll it took on the hearts of these men and women, who believed so strongly in the freedoms they saw to be self evident, was greater.

America and Britain do hold a special bond. We have in sense have lived great and free together, while separated by the ocean we call a pond.

But today, our own united nation stands very divided in the political arena. And while we’re not at the bloody point we were at with our British brothers, we need to remember their example. We need to lead all dialogue with respect, recognize self evident liberties, and aim to a be a great and free people together. This Fourth of July, let’s unite under that promise. Then maybe we’ll see that all people gain the respect and dignity that they deserve.