Morning Reflection

Beginning this year, I have been trying to pray more, so I have been attempting the liturgy of the hours in the morning and evening. Success has been minimal, but I'm just gonna keep going on this. This morning while praying the office, I was struck by a phrase in the second psalmody, a canticle from Isaiah:

On Zion sinners are in dread,
trembling grips the impious;
"Who of us can live with the consuming fire?
Who of us can live with the everlasting flames?"

He who practices virtue and speaks honestly,
who spurns what is gained by oppression,
brushing his hands
free of contact with a bribe,
stopping his ears lest he hear of bloodshed,
closing his eyes lest he look on evil.

What captured my attention was the description of the one who practices virtue. Though the virtuous person is above evil, he does not allow himself to be exposed to it. This flies in the face of the opinion many Christians and Catholics alike hold: "I can watch immoral stuff in movies cause it doesn't affect me. I would never do that. I'm tough, I can take it." The difference between a wise man and a foolish one may be said to be determined by one thing only. That is, that the one knows his weakness and avoids it. The other denies his weakness and thinks he will become strong by exposing himself to as many evils/dangers as possible.

I'm thinking that this would be hard to live. Personally, I love murder mysteries. Closing my eyes against evil is definitely something to work on, because my curiosity may be my downfall in that. Greater vigilance is needed in the Church and in personal life.

Link for the original story http://noroomforcontraception.com/cblog/index.php?/archives/78-New-Study-Abstinence-Works.html

New Study: Abstinence Works

Shortly after the publication of Douglas Kirby's Emerging Answers 2007, a study which found that abstinence programs were not effective, and after Virginia Governor Tim Kaine rejected federal funding for abstinence until marriage programs, a new study to be published in 2008 shows that a Virginia based program has been effective in delaying sexual activity.

Of course, you know which study made the headlines...

Interestingly enough, Dr. Stan Weed, the author of this new study, is on the Effective Programs And Research Task Force, which reviewed Emerging Answers in early 2007.

Being on this task force should give Dr. Weed an equal standing and equal credibility in the media. After all, if he wasn't a credible researcher, he wouldn't be on the task force along with Dr. John Santelli, who is the Department Chair of the Population and Family Health department at Columbia University, would he?

When Douglas Kirby or Dr. John Santelli publish studies supporting comprehensive sexuality education programs, headlines across the nation echo, and quite often misrepresent, the conclusions of their work.

For example, the Associated Press' recent headline describing Emerging Answers reads 'Report: Abstinence not curbing teen sex' - yet this headline is misleading.

This AP headline, as well as others, has caused me to suspect that reporters don't actually read the studies, and if they did, they don't actually understand the issue well enough. Consider that in Emerging A nswers, Kirby acknowledges that abstinence increased from 1995 to 2005. (Page 28, paragraph 3) Had the reporter read this paragraph, they wouldn't have been able to honestly pen such a misleading headline.

Interestingly enough, I wasn't able to find an AP story about Dr. Weed's study. And this isn't the first time the media has ignored studies supporting abstinence until marriage programs.

It seems that a double standard exists - if a study supports contraception and comprehensive sexuality education, it is considered newsworthy, but if a study supports abstinence, it is not.

Dr. Weed's study, An Abstinence Program's Impact on Cognitive Mediators and Sexual Initiation, will be pub lished in the Jan/Feb issue of American Journal of Health Behavior. You can read more about it here: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/88807.php

In closing, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine rejected Title V funding since he wanted to fund programs that are evidence based. Now that there is evidence that Virginia's program is effective, Gov. Kaine should accept the funding.

PS:

What can be done about the media blackout of studies supporting abstinence programs? Well, here are some ideas..

1. Bring these studies to the attention of reporters who you have spoken with in the past
2. Announce this study on your blog or website in a prominent location
3. Email news about the study to your mailing list
4. Send out press releases discussing the study
5. Email news about Dr. Weed's study to your friends.

"University vs. Culture" : i.e. "The Bubble"

For all the years I have been at my Catholic school, I have heard numerous complaints about it. The school plays mommy to us, or the school is too liberal, or music ministry does this wrong or that wrong. It is honestly a little too much, and hard to remain rational and level headed, so I just want to make a few points.

1. If you are at this school, I had better be here because it is the "best" in some way that is important to you. Either the academics are some of the best in your specific feild, the teachers are the best at what they do, the financial aspect is the best (and this is for very few of us indeed), you want to have access to some of the best Catholic Theology in the nation. At least one of these should be on your list. Why are you at the school if you don't think you are getting the best education you can get with your money?

2. If you didn't want work, you should have gotten a GED and become a bum like the rest of the kids back home. We all complain so much about how demanding our professors are, some more than others. Grant it, some of those professors deserve such censure, but most of them are giving you the tools to become the best person you can be. They know that experience is the best teacher. That's why you have to do so many presentations and papers: they will teach you to give better and better presentations and papers. No newspaper or publishing company is going to hire a stupid kid who doesn't get A's on his papers because they are no dummy.

3. The university is Catholic and promotes Catholic values. If you didn't want Catholic values, you should have gone to a cheeper state school. You're darn right MTV is blocked from our campus TVs, and it is good thing too. I've heard the argument that "we are so sheltered! How are we supposed to live in the world if we don't know what is out there? We need to be able to see what is really going on in our cluture." You want to know what is going on in our culture?! You don't know yet? Look in the trashcans behind an abortion mill (if you can get to em) and get a good hard look at all those fetal body parts. Go downtown in any large
American city after dark and feast your eyes on the pimpers and street walkers: that is what is going on in our cluture. Watch the evening news and see how many people got shot; do an internet search and find out how many children are raped by their classmates and teachers every year. Research gang activity in your area, and you will wish you never knew about it. You want to experience "the outside world", go to almost any public school in the country and you will get a taste of everything. Honestly, you don't have to experience it first hand to know that sin is out there. Is that the culture you want to be a part of, to immerse yourself in? Watching MTV and seeking evil out so you "can find out what it is like" is letting down your guard, opening you up to penetration by the "enemy," whatever the enemy is. What is the enemy? Most students don't even realize it, but it comes in three forms: the world, the flesh, the devil. The world is a vector from whence evil infiltrates our lives. We are supposed to be in the world and not of the world, yes, but we must have an inside. The world should be "out there," and our homes, our families and Church, should be "in here." Don't beleive me? Take a look at any family that watched MTV all the time, who's parents never required them to go to Church and let them make up their own mind: the kids are now in jail for drug posession or living off of welfare with one of the mothers of his three kids. This is a Catholic University, and I think the students should praise the University for attempting to upholding Catholic values. Bubble my eye. This is no bubble unless you make it so yourself. This school has a dark side, and most of you have never seen it and will never see it.

4. Jazz/Rock/R&B do not belong in the Mass. Period. YOu don't beleive me, read the Vatican documents yourself.

5. Stop judging him/her! If God had wanted you to judge people, he would have made you a god, but that is impossible so get over it.

In short, why don't you just try internalizing your Catholic faith, making it your own, and having the self-presence to actually know who you are and have at least a faint idea that you are headed in the right direction. What is the right direction? "heaven, man, heaven."