I think Focus on the Family totally pwnd* Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and abortion supporters with their ad that never even mentions abortion or a choice to chose life. While some pro-lifers will be dismayed that the commercial seemed to not address the topic directly other than pointing to a URL with the full story, it still gets the point across. All the free publicity ahead of time made it so that the majority of the people will know what the ad is referring to so all the outcry only helped the pro-life side. These groups seem even sillier to objecting to the ad now then they were at first. I don't know if Focus on the Family planned to punk abortion groups in this matter - if they did brilliant.

*pwned A term developed from gaming for "totally owning" somebody, the pwn in the spelling is a common misspelling of "own" when fingers are misplaced on the keyboard.

Pro-abortion groups pre-reaction to to the ad was stupid enough, but the AP takes this stupidity to another level.

And a commercial by conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, perhaps the most anticipated ad of the night, hinted at a serious subject although it took a humorous tone too. Heisman winner Tim Tebow and his mother talk about her difficult pregnancy with him and how she was advised to end the pregnancy--implying an antiabortion message--but ended with Tebow tackling his mom and saying the family must be "tough.

Good thing that reporters have editors to fact check things - oh wait they totally got wrong both ads that appeared.

Comments on my site are down for a while. The cgi script used to implement commenting for Movable Type has been hit so constantly by spammers that my hosting provider has asked me to disable it because it was too much of a load for their servers.

As a consequence I will be moving my blog to hosting provided by CyberCatholics in the future. Plus I will probably be transferring over to using WordPress instead. So bear with me in the meantime concerning commenting and other site maintenance. In the meantime you can always comment via the Curt Jester Fan Page on Facebook or yak at me via Twitter.

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Being both a Catholic pundit and living in Gator country by contract I am required to comment on the Im Tebow Superbowl ad. A lot of pixels and ink have already been spilled over this so I will spill some more.

Those who support legal abortion often chaff at being called pro-abortion - the much prefer pro-choice. No doubt they believe this is the case, but in reality there are few if any who see abortion and not having an abortion both a morally neutral acts of exactly the same weight. After all what was the last time you saw a Planned Parenthood Maternity Ward or a NARAL Home for Unwed Mothers.

The fuss over the Tim Tebow ad really proves this. The ad presents one side of choice so what is the big deal to them? A mother talking about the decision to choose life is not exactly controversial since all of our mothers did exactly the same thing.

The obvious reason they hate they so much is that it shows the reality of "choice" the existence or the snuffing out of a human being. Over the years more and more people whose mothers considered abortion and decided against it have been talking about this fact. They are survivors of a "choice". There is also the case of abortion survivor Gianna Jessen who lived despite the attempt to abort her. The pro-abortion side is upset that they can't run similar ads. In fact they have been able to find zero aborted babies willing to film a Superbowl or any other ad for them. They can't even find people who want to take their mothers to task for having them. Those that each day regret their mothers did not abort them.

Tim Tebow does not represent a tissue mass or any other ecumenism euphemism for a child in the womb, but the normal consequence of not stopping life while in the womb. A Heisman Trophy winner is present because he mother choose life over the doctor's suggestion. Though Joy Behar said he could just as easily have become a "racist." Great idea Joy Behar - we should kill all children to prevent such an occurrence. Seeing Tim Tebow and hearing this story can remind us of the 50 Million individual persons who did not survive their mother's choice.

The abortion industry and abortion supporters have always been about minimizing or hiding reality. Women are told across the world falsehoods about the stages of the child in their womb. Terms are used to describe this that have no bearing on the reality. Over and over Ultrasound has been called a weapon because it helps to visualize reality. Laws requiring that women be properly informed about the life in the womb and presented with factual medical and scientific information about this are blocked time and again by the pro-abortion crowd.

A mother choosing life is polarizing and divisive. What a sick culture we live in.

A rather odd fact is that Planned Parenthood is responding to this ad by having two men, an ex-footbal player and a Gold Medalist, talking about women's rights being respected. Now could you imagine the outcry of a pro-life ad involving two men talking against abortion? The pro-abortion crowd would go crazy criticizing it for being so out of touch and not being able to speak for women.

Though I guess Planned Parenthood could get lots of men who favor abortion to do commercials for them. They could speak how abortion saved them from being trapped in a relationship. How abortion enabled them to maintain their lifestyle of treating women as objects and to keep pretending their was not natural consequence of sex. Predatory males certainly love legal abortion. In the meantime pro-abortion supporters want to remain to keep their head in the sand and to deny that a women's choice determines if a person will continue to live or not. Tim Tebow should just go away and not remind them of the consequence of "choice".

For us who are pro-life it reminds us to pray for those mothers in difficult situations that are considering abortion as a solution and to help them in every possible way that we can.

Pope Benedict XVI has again shown just how necessary and effective it can be to speak out in the face of unjust legislation against the Church.

The British government today backed down from pursuing parts of its Equality Bill, legislation which would have removed the Church's right to refuse employing certain lay staff including, for instance, the right of a Catholic school to employ a Catholic as a head teacher. The government's decision came after a furore in Britain following the Holy Father's remarks to the bishops of England and Wales over such legislation.

According to The Times newspaper: "Ministers were astonished on Monday when the Pope said that the Bill violated "natural justice" and urged bishops to fight it. But that attack, along with the strength of opposition in the Lords and the limited time left to get Bills passed before the election, has sapped the Government's enthusiasm to continue the fight."

The Times also reports that although Harriet Harman, the minister responsible for the legislation, made no mention of the Pope's visit to Britain this year, "it is understood that the Government did not want the dispute to overshadow preparations."

On Monday, the Pope told the bishops that the Bill and other types of similar legislation would "impose unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs. In some respects it actually violates the natural law upon which the equality of all human beings is grounded and by which it is guaranteed." The Pope added: "I urge you as Pastors to ensure that the Church's moral teaching be always presented in its entirety and convincingly defended." [reference]

More details on the CCHD scandal from Deal Hudson.

CCC's executive director, Deepak Bhargava, states that they are fighting for "lifting restrictions on women's access to health services." (Bhargava was also a featured speaker hosted by the USCCB at a three-day conference

CCC joined the "Stop Stupak" coalition through its "Campaign for Community Change" arm, explaining, "Of course, no issue is more critical to women's economic opportunity than the ability to choose when and under what personal circumstances to raise children.

CCC is a member of the National Coalition for Immigrant Women's Rights (NCIWR). NCIWR requires all members to sign an agreement supporting, among other things, "Reproductive health care coverage financed through public funds provided to all immigrant women regardless of legal and economic status," as well as "equitable access to confidential and non-coercive family planning services and contraceptive equity."

Sean Thomas-Brietfield, Director of CCC's Taproots Project, wrote an article promoting consensual "polyamory," or "relationships where there is no expectation of fidelity."

CCC developed leaders for same-sex marriage advocacy and homosexual activists through its Generation Change program. In 2008, CCC received a $50,000 grant for leadership training from one of the chief funders of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) causes, the Gill Foundation.

Ralph McCloud, the current Director of the CCHD, participated in a December 2008 event cosponsored by CCC and the Gamaliel Foundation "Realizing the Promise Forum," celebrating the election of Barack Obama. McCloud is reported to have proclaimed, "Very soon we will see a New Jerusalem." The conference video suggests the CCC is engaged in "partisan political activity" in violation of the CCHD grant guidelines.

This is the second round of incriminating evidence presented by ALL and BVM about the CCC. Three months ago, they issued a press release and supporting researchregarding 31 CCHD grantees with a relationship to CCC -- all of which was ignored by the USCCB.

As ALL's Michael Hichborn points out, these reports have "revealed no less than fifty organizations (one fifth of all CCHD grantees from 2009) that are, in some capacity, engaged in pro-abortion or pro-homosexual causes (www.all.org/cchd). The sad thing, however, is that these recent revelations manifest a pattern of cooperation stretching back for decades."

John Carr's excuse about what is going on at CCC sound more and more like "I am shocked that gambling is going on here."

In a related story Bishop Hubbard of Albany and head of the Office of International Justice and Peace at the USCCB has authorized Catholic Charities in his diocese to distribute needles to drug users. When I first saw the story this weekend the excuse reminded me of the condom argument - they are going to do it anyway so let us make it safe. No word yet if Catholic Charities will be issuing cars with large bumpers to protect drunk drivers. I can't see how this is allowable considering Catholic moral teaching and Canonist Ed Peters is of the same opinion and has a good post on the subject.

In other crappy news. Raymond Arroyo on EWTN's The World Over had torture apologist Marc Thiessen on to explain why torture is not torture. I was tortured by his logic when I first heard the program. I had wondered why Raymond Arroyo hadn't corrected and taught his friend Laura Ingraham about the Catholic teaching on torture - now I know - he doesn't seem to know it either. Defining waterboarding as not torture is just like saying the fetus is not a human person.

Remember when Bishop Roger P. Morin of Biloxi, Miss called numerous concerns about CCHD "outrageous claims" and he said CCHD does "not ever grant funds to any group that is specifically involved in any activity contrary to church teaching" and furthermore, it has "zero tolerance" for groups that receive funds and then become involved in "any activity contrary to the church's social or moral teaching."

Well guess what? Outside groups continue to do the work that the USCCB should have done in the first place in looking at groups that receive money from CCHD. It continues to be obvious that those involved in CCHD at the USCCB have not done their due diligence in making sure groups receiving money were not problematic. It took me very little research to find groups that were still receiving money from the USCCB involved in providing contraception. The websites of CCHD supported organizations are not exactly secret.

Rob Gaspar at Bellarmine Veritas Ministry has dug more deeply into the CCHD relationship to the Center for Community Change (CCC).

In "Sleeping with the Enemy," Michael Hichborn at the American Life League has also uncovered more disturbing facts about CCC. Hichborn also chronicles the personal involvement of the USCCB's John Carr, Executive Director of Justice, Peace, and Human Development. Carr oversees the CCHD.

OSV has a response:

In response to my questions, Mercy Sister Mary Ann Walsh, director of the U.S. bishops' media relations office has:

1. CONFIRMED the American Life League's assertion that the bishop's Catholic Campaign for Human Development gave $150,000 to CCC in 2001. But it CLARIFIED that during the time he served on the CCC board, his office at the bishops' conference did not then have jurisdiction over CCHD (contrary to American Life League's claim about conflict of interest). And it says CCC has not received any funding since.

2. CLARIFIED that Carr left the CCC board in 2005 (American Life League said 2006). It said his previous work for CCC was "a few months" after leaving the Carter administration, which ended in 1981. He was part of a group trying to work with block grants. "He then went to work for the Archdiocese of Washington as Cardinal Hickey's secretary for social concerns."

3. NOTED that the pro-abortion and pro-gay-rights "activities highlighted in ALL e-mail campaign took place long after" Carr left the CCC board.

So it looks like the conflict of interest charges are false. But much more important is that enter for Community Change is still being promoted on the USCCB site and CCC partners are still receiving money. There can be little doubt that these groups supported providing abortion in the health care plan and there is also a lot of support for the radical LGBT agenda.

It is sad that so-called social justice groups serve one small aspect of social justice while promoting intrinsic evils in the guise of social justice. That people working at the USCCB have supported these groups is much worse. This is formal material cooperation with evil. The issue about Carr is just a side-line and not what is really important in this story.