Mozilla bows to political pressure, abandons "inclusiveness"

Today I will uninstall Firefox from my machines, and will remove my longstanding Firefox endorsement from the multi-user corporate web application that I developed and manage at my place of employment.  I do so regretfully, but can not in good conscience continue to support Mozilla after the embarrassing departure of its CEO, Brendan Eich.

I understand Mozilla's position -and Eich's stated position- that he resigned voluntarily, but the reality seems to be that he was pressured to do so because of his personal beliefs, and because Mozilla did not openly and firmly support his freedom to have and exercise his political beliefs.  I am not aware that he personally espoused beliefs that were themselves illegal, or that he promoted unlawful behavior.  Rather, he exercised his First Amendment rights to support a political cause that is shared by many if not most Americans.  Whether I agree with those beliefs is irrelevant.

If Mozilla's affirmation of "inclusiveness" does not protect the rights of all its employees to hold and express their personal beliefs, or if it applies only selectively to those beliefs acceptable under some politically correct new orthodoxy, then the policy is neither "inclusive", constitutional, nor American.

Which beliefs will be unacceptable next year?  Mozilla has clearly sent the message that "inclusiveness" really does not imply a generous tolerance toward the views of others, and that all its employees can expect no better treatment that CEO Eich received.

The claims that Brendan Eich resigned voluntarily ring hollow.  I am disappointed with Mozilla, and will miss using Firefox.  But when You threw Mr. Eich overboard I went with him.

Cardinal George, the HHS Mandate, and religious freedom

Cardinal George explains in under five minutes why the HHS Mandate violates the religious freedom of Catholics, and why it was intended to do so.

Stand Up for Religious Freedom!

My family and I attended this rally in Chicago's Federal Plaza, and it was inspiring and tons of fun!  Well worth the hours taken off of work to be there!




...and more pix!...

Archbishop Nienstedt calls Obama ‘anti-Catholic,’ vows to pull support from Notre Dame

Archbishop Nienstedt calls Obama ‘anti-Catholic,’ vows to pull support from Notre Dame - Minnesota Independent

Bishops respond to Notre Dame

The bishops and laity have a right and a duty to speak clearly on matters of morals. The fact that the Church is populated only with sinners doesn't change that duty.

If You believe the obvious -that elective abortion is the deliberate killing of innocent human life- then it's not enough simply to refrain from having an abortion. Any decent person who believes this self-evident truth will see clearly that a just society can not passively permit people to kill their children as if they were doing no more than pulling weeds from their lawn.

Elective abortion violates the most basic human right -the right to life- and those who defend the practice are guilty of defending an evil more egregious than human slavery.

Defenders of slavery in the U.S. in the 1800's often used the same logic and arguments used by defenders of abortion today. In both cases they're on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the truth.

Bishop Nienstedt, thanks for having the guts to speak the truth!

The Dawkins Delusion: "90% safe is better than 100% safe"

"The Dawkins Delusion: Benedict XVI is 'stupid, ignorant or dim'", Gerald Warner - Telegraph

What the Pope actually said about condoms on March 18, 2009:

"I would say that this problem of AIDS cannot be overcome with advertising slogans. If the soul is lacking, if Africans do not help one another, the scourge cannot be resolved by distributing condoms; quite the contrary, we risk worsening the problem. The solution can only come through a twofold commitment: firstly, the humanization of sexuality, in other words a spiritual and human renewal bringing a new way of behaving towards one another; and secondly, true friendship, above all with those who are suffering, a readiness - even through personal sacrifice - to be present with those who suffer. And these are the factors that help and bring visible progress." -Catholic News Agency

Like many others who have attacked the Pope over these remarks, Richard Dawkins apparently thinks it a bad thing to criticize the distribution of condoms in the fight against AIDS. After all, condoms often block transmission of the HIV, which causes AIDS. Dawkins claims that "the Pope is either stupid, ignorant or just dim".

But condoms, according to the United Nations, have only a 90% protection rate against HIV transmission. On the other hand, marital fidelity and abstinence from premarital sex has an essentially 100% success rate at preventing HIV transmission.

The Pope's critics may not wish to acknowledge that objective data demonstrates promiscuous condom users are at a much higher risk of HIV infection and AIDS than individuals who reserve sex to marriage. Their loud, indignant objections are not based on science, but upon other interests that influence their judgment.

Consequently Dawkins can't fathom how a 100% effective plan is better at stopping AIDS (and ennobling individuals) than the destructive and dehumanizing gamble of rubberized, promiscuous sex.

The State versus individual conscience: pressuring pharmacists to disregard ethical limits

Illinois can't force dispensing 'morning-after' pill - chicagotribune.com

Freedom2Care

Should the state really have power to force You to do things that violate Your conscience? The military accommodates -not punishes- soldiers who refuse to kill as "conscientious objectors". Should this principle not apply to the professions as well, so that individuals are not pressured to do what they believe is evil?

Imagine Yourself a doctor... Suppose Your hospital directs You to euthanize -kill- a patient, and You, having vowed as a doctor to heal and never to kill, know that euthanasia violates Your deepest convictions of conscience. Do You really want the state to pressure You to do what You believe is wrong, even murderous?

Practicing a profession does not and should not mean that You blindly subordinate Your conscience to every government dictate.

What if the state were to mandate that grade school teachers must regularly display pornographic movies to their students? Would You, as a teacher, consent to this? What individual, upon entering a profession, agrees to abandon personal ethics and refuses to exercise discerning judgment when pressured by colleagues, employers, and bureaucrats to do what is controversial or blatantly immoral? No, a person of good will and integrity does not consent to carry out actions that he believes are fundamentally wrong, and no just government attempts to force individuals to do so.

A nation that tries to compel its citizens to do evil is a nation with a dark, inhuman future.

People who want the state to have such coercive power have been seduced by statism and fascism, despotic forces making a renewed and frightening assault upon the United States. These forces and their supporters must be firmly opposed.

Francis Cardinal George urges opposition to Illinois "Reproductive Health and Access Act"

Office of the Archbishop
Post Office Box 1979 Phone: (312) 534-8230
Chicago, Illinois 60690-1979 Fax: (312) 534-6379


Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

In the midst of Lent, with its drama of sin and grace, of evil and good, I write about a threat to our freedom to practice our religion in our State.

Before the Illinois General Assembly there is a proposal (HB 2354, the “Reproductive Health and Access Act”) that would remove the right to conscientious objection to abortion and related procedures for all health care workers. Thirty years ago, we were told that abortion is a rare but necessary tragedy and that abortion providers should not be legally punished. Today we are being told that abortion is a human right and that those who qualify it in any manner or who will not provide it should be legally punished.

This proposed law will drive Catholic doctors and nurses from health care and will make it impossible for Catholic hospitals to continue to be places where life is always respected, where no one is deliberately killed. In our country, we recognize conscientious objection to war, even though defending one’s country is a noble and moral act. We recognize the conscientious objection of those doctors who will not cooperate in administering the death penalty, even for terrible crimes. Why do some Illinois legislators want to take away conscientious objection to abortion?

The enemies of human life and religious freedom in Illinois are well funded. Pressure on legislators is great and is increasing. I ask you to contact your Representative this week to express your dismay that the Illinois legislature, elected democratically, would debate a bill that removes freedom of conscientious decision-making for health care workers as a condition of their employment. If, as we are told, the State should not come between a doctor and a mother, then surely all can agree that the State should not come between a health care worker and God.

We have, unfortunately, had to get used to the fact that our laws no longer protect unborn human life; now we are to get used to the fact that our laws will no longer protect conscience. In 1844, Abraham Lincoln broke with his own party, the often anti-Catholic Whigs, and proposed: “Resolved, that the guarantee of the rights of conscience, as found in our Constitution, is most sacred and inviolable, and one that belongs no less to the Catholic, than to the Protestant; and that all attempts to abridge or interfere with these rights, either of Catholic or Protestant, directly or indirectly, have our decided disapprobation, and shall ever have our most effective opposition.” Illinois HB 2354 betrays the legacy of Lincoln in his home State.

This proposed law will rend the already fragile garment of our civic unity and further alienate many from our government. Catholics and all people of good will should work to ensure its defeat. I also ask you to thank those legislators who are courageously opposing HB 2354 and to pray for those who are supporting it. To contact your legislator, please go to www.ilga.gov, or call 312-368-1066. Thank you and God bless you.

Francis Cardinal George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago

Oppose the Illinois State "Freedom of Choice Act"

Catholic Conference of Illinois ACTION ALERT

Illinois House Bill HB 2354 seeks to:

• make abortion a fundamental right, preventing any common-sense regulation such as parental notification;
  
• expand public funding of abortion through Medicaid during a time when the state cannot meet its current fiscal obligations;
  
• invalidate the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act protecting health care professionals and employers; and,
  
• mandate comprehensive sex education for all children in public schools.
  

Making the killing of one's unborn child a "fundamental right" is a radical attack on the truly fundamental rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, rights that belong to "all men", as affirmed in the Declaration of Independence.

Today, living, unborn children lack legal protection of these rights, much as Native Americans and negro slaves in this country 150 years ago did not enjoy a legal recognition of their human rights on par with white citizens.

Should the state of Illinois not only ignore, but march against the best currents of history, by enshrining as a "fundamental right" a legal right to kill one's offspring? And should the state go further still, denying medical professionals the right of conscience, the right to refuse to perform abortions or other procedures that believe immoral, and imposing harsh penalties on those unwilling to carry out such acts? The result will be to make even late term, partial birth abortion, a "fundamental right", and to compel those who reject the practice for profound personal reasons to carry it out.

These are powerful reasons to stop the State "Freedom of Choice Act", reasons strong enough to call for our prompt action...

Please, contact Your Illinois legislators and urge them to vote NO to HB 2354.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
-Edmund Burke

Bishops upbraid Biden for his false and cowardly abortion statements

Bishops criticize Biden's abortion statements -My Way News

Recently some of our Catholic bishops have been speaking out more and more clearly, forcefully, and publicly in defense of human life. Well done! Keep it up! And let's keep praying that politicians who call themselves Catholic have the integrity to be guided by their sincere beliefs.