But what if...?

When in debate about the morality of homosexuality, one of the most common things that is meant to silence opposition  is the question "What if your son/daughter/etc was gay?"  Naturally, for many of us this would in fact be a difficult and shocking situation, and certainly one worth considering.  However, it isn't nearly as difficult to deal with as many people think.
What would we do if one of our loved ones were an alcoholic?  Would we shun them, keeping them out of our lives because of this fault, this burden that they bear?  Most likely not.  We would love them, pray for them, help them find their way out of their sin and at least get to the point where they can manage the struggle.  Homosexuality can be treated in much the same way.  We continue to love those who suffer from Same Sex Attraction and to pray for them.  Where possible, we can help them with their struggle.
Naturally, this will not satisfy those who see nothing wrong with homosexuality.  But it does serve to illustrate that we are in fact thoughtful people who are not capable of loving those who disagree with us, that we can in fact hate the sin and love the sinner.

An Ecumenical Conference

People who attended or have looked into the previous culture of life conference might notice one or two differences.  One is that the first speaker is a Protestant and another is that the venue is at a Christian Reformed Church.  This is in contrast to the previous conference which featured all Catholic speakers at a Catholic venue.

The truth is that we always wanted to be ecumenical and yet not compromise our Catholic teaching.  There are numerous areas where this is not easy.  However, the major culture issues that have plagued our nation for several decades now provide an area where Catholics and Protestants of many kinds can find common ground against the militant secularism that surrounds us and with the push for homosexual marriage and the HHS contraception mandate threatens some of our most cherished liberties.  As such it is important for all Christians to offer a response to these challenges.  And it is our firm belief that that response should not only be negative in the sense of stating our opposition and some reasons for that opposition.  Rather our response should also be positive, reminding our culture of the beauty of Christian marriage and family life lived in its fulness as Christ intended and the positive effect it has on the wider society.

With all of this mind, we invite all Christians and non-Christians who wish to understand the Christian teaching on marriage and family for fully to come North St. Christian Reformed Church in Zeeland this November 2.  There we will get beyond the slogans and sound-bites and into the real roots of Christian teaching on marriage and family, the cornerstones of civilization.

What is the Purpose of this Conference?

As things finally are falling into place for the next Culture of Life Conference, I thought it might be a good idea to think about just why we've spent so much time and effort trying to get this together.

Seeing a conference on Marriage and Family in the present climate, one may well be forgiven for thinking that the primary purpose is political, attempt to energize the faithful to go out an influence elections.  Or perhaps it is an attempt to circle the wagons, a last attempt to hang onto outmoded teachings before the force of law and external societal pressures force an inevitable retreat.
As anyone reading this post might well imagine though, this is far from the whole picture.  Certainly, we hope that there is a political consequence of this conference and certainly there is a great need to protect Christian teaching on matters of marriage and family due to the nature of the culture right now.  But this is only part of it.
This conference is actually the second in a series of conferences meant to look at the most controversial topics of our day from a perspective rooted less in the present controversies and more in the roots of doctrine as taught by the Catholic Church and some of the more conservative and orthodox Protestant denominations.  The goal is to reach beyond the sound bites and get to heart of the matter.  What do we really believe as Christians and why?  Where does this teaching come from?  How has it developed over the centuries?  What has been the effect on society?  These are the questions we hope to touch upon, if not fully answer with this conference.  At the end of it we hope that you come away better informed about how great the teachings of our faith are and how when lived out fully they help to build a just a peaceful society, how they truly are the foundations of a Culture of Life.

Culture of Life Conference - More Details

Here some of the basic details of the upcoming conference.  First off the where and when.

The conference will be held in the Ballroom of the Wege Center at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI.

The date is Saturday, April 20 and the doors open at 8 AM with the conference beginning at 9AM and going until 2PM.  In addition to lunch there will of course be basic refreshments available.

Now of course, you will want to know the speakers and the topics they'll be speaking on.  And in order, we have:

• President of the American Family Association, Gary Glenn - The Modern Attack Against Marriage and Family   
• Father Vincent O'Malley of St. Lazare's Retreat Center - Christ's Teaching on Family and How it  Built Western Civilization
• Dr. Dennis Marshall of Aquinas College - The Church's Teaching on Marriage and Family Since Vatican II   
• Mark Shea - The Family as an Image of the Trinity

 And there you have it.  Don't forget to click on the registration link to the right to sign up before April 10th to secure your spot! 

Go Bishops!

As many of you probably already know, the Bishops are fighting the contraception mandate that recently came out of the dungeons of Health and Human Services.  Between this, the loss of funding for a successful anti-human trafficking program and other things such as the attack on the Defense of Marriage Act, it really does seem like the present administration is gunning if not for the Church in particular, then certainly for traditional Christianity in general.  And the Bishops aren't taking it lying down.  This really makes me happy as it is yet more evidence that Bishops really have been developing a spine over the last few years.  Interestingly, this "re-spinification" seems to coincide to some degree with the breaking of the sex abuse scandal.  It's as though there were a collective realization that being nice and accommodating just wasn't working and that they should return to being forthright and honest with themselves and others about some of the Church's more unpopular teachings.  Whatever the case, I'm happy to see the Bishops standing up and fighting the trend of secularization.  

Interesting...

Apparently there is a small skeptics group that meets in Holland, calling itself Skeptics in the Pub.  From the article, it seems that most of the attendees are young people who had some simple questions about certain things and never got good answers from their parents and pastors.  From there, they likely drifted away until they just didn't see the point anymore.  Not that that would describe all of the young skeptics but I'd dare say it would work for more than a couple. 
Whatever the case, they represent a significant group of people that the Church should actively be engaging. 

Chastity Force

This past weekend I went to a Chastity Force conference at my parish.  It's made up of a team of mostly young people teaching the value of the human body in ways appropriate to various age groups.  My two oldest kids went as well and really seemed to enjoy themselves.  Their big project was to draw a house and then the presenters went from the uniqueness of the houses to the uniqueness of each one of them.  For the adults, there were a couple of good talks which focused n the necessity of interior conversion and conviction and of passing those things on to our kids.
There was also a brief concert featuring Amanda Vernon who has sung around the world, including World Youth Day.  Her voice is nothing short of amazing, to say nothing of her versatility demonstrated by the number of different genres she performed in/ All in all, it was a good time with an impressive group of people teaching a message that our society really needs to hear.  If you hear about Chastity Force coming to a parish near you, I highly recommends that you go.

So, now what?

So. ..Now What?

One of the things that had started to eat at me a bit during the run-up to the conference
is that there is still so much work to be done at my own parish. This made me question
the validity of staging a large event. Should I be working on such a thing when my own
house isn’t really in order? And so on.
This of course brings us to the nature of the “Big Event” and how such things do or do
not influence the culture around us. The first and most obvious thing to note is that
they tend to preach to the choir. Most of the people at these things already get it and
while they may learn some interesting things here and there but not much in the way of
principles or concepts. Conferences, marches and other events also serve to excite the
participants, but that excitement does eventually wear off. What happens then?
The key thing is, don’t wait. That is, don’t wait for the next event, conference, march,
fundraiser, retreat, etc. What I would love to see is people taking whatever inspiration
they may have gained from the Culture of Life Conference and use in their parishes.
Collaborate with some others in your parish or Knights of Columbus council and get
a speaker in to discuss whatever may be most needed where you are. Or maybe not
a speaker, why not a prayer group, adoration, first Saturday devotions, evangelizing
the community around you, etc. Or plug into one of the great apostolates already out
there like 40 Days for Life, Project Rachel, Help Pregnancy Crisis Aid, Holy Family
Radio or any of the dozens of others that are out there but I don’t know about. Use your
imagination and your talents, even talents you don’t think you have. You’d be surprised
what you can accomplish with a little help.
So, once you plan it your event, email us, let us know so we can promote the good things
going on in the Grand Rapids Diocese. Just knowing that there a number of good things
happening will encourage many people, even those who are never able to attend the
events.
Now, don’t take this to mean that we aren’t going to be doing the Second Annual
Culture of Life Conference: The Family in the Modern World come spring of 2013. We
certainly are. We just want don’t want things to stop with the conference. So, get out
there and start building and renewing the Culture of Life in the Grand Rapids Diocese!

Our Speakers

Today, we have Dr. Dennis Marshall.  Unfortunately, the Aquinas College website has even less about him than we were able to post on Dr. Pestana.  Therefore, I'll simply tell you what little I know.  Dr. Marshall is a professor of theology, and holds a PhD from Duquesne University.  He is generally known as a very articulate and philosophical inclined person, making him an excellent addition to our conference.  He is also a supporter of the Knights of Columbus, a member of Aquinas' Catholic Studies Department and an adviser for Aquinas' pro-life club. 

HELP Pregnancy Center

HELP Pregnancy Crisis Aid is a Grand Rapids based Catholic crisis pregnancy center.  I've heard some good things about them and hope to collaborate with them on some work in the future.  In the meantime, they also have a big event coming up featuring EWTN's Barbara McGuigan.   Here's the link so you can check them out yourself:  http://helpgrandrapids.wordpress.com/

Welcome!

This is the official blog for the 1st Annual Culture of Life Conference in Grand Rapids, MI.  The theme for this year is "The Dignity and Value of Human Life."  The purpose of the conference is to present the teaching of the Catholic Church on the hot-button issues of the day; those having to do with life.
This blog will provide a minimum of weekly updates on the conference as well as provide news and commentary on abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, contraception, etc on an ongoing basis.  We'll also provide occasional essays on other issues related to the development of culture, mostly in the Western world.
So, stay tuned, we've got a lot in store.